Last time we began the final section of the book of Hebrews, which is an exhortational section. And we're able to see the initial part of that where he was giving us the call to, if I can get this PowerPoint to go. That's fine. Let's see if we can just restart it and try that way. Sorry y'all. So again, like I said, we started this exhortational section last week. And we saw that he called us to have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus. This is a thing that he has already mentioned several times through the doctrinal section of this letter. And we can do that because we have a great high priest over the house. And then the exhortation that he gave us there is to draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, to hold fast to the unwavering confession of our hope, and to give careful attention to one another for the purpose of stimulating one another to good deeds and love. He gave us, in other words, a call to personal devotion, a call to consistency, perseverance, and endurance, and a call to have a focus on obligations within the household of God. Having given us that exhortation, He then went into what happens when we don't do that to which he is exhorting us. And he went into the fourth of the great four embedded warnings. Now he's given more warnings than four in this sermon up to this point, but there are four deep, did you get it? Four deep warnings that he gives us. And this is the fourth of that. It follows those three exhortations. It shows what happens when we don't draw near, when we don't hold fast, and when we don't encourage one another. So what he tells us is that if we willfully do not keep on sinning, or he calls us not to willfully keep on sinning, because if we do, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, then there no longer remains a sacrifice for us. Now, if you remember back at the warning of chapter six, it was a very similar thing. If once we're enlightened, we do not, or actually what he says is we go away, then there's no further repentance for us. Here he says there's no longer a sacrifice for sins. And all that remains is a terrifying expectation of judgment, that is the fury of fire which will consume the adversaries. Now many think that this warning is a stronger warning than even the one in chapter 6 which seems to be the one that everybody kind of holds on to from Hebrews. I will point out that this same idea of the fury of fire is there in chapter 6 but it's there in a different way. Do you remember how when he gave the warning he followed it with a little parable? of land that produced both good fruit and weeds. And what happened to the weeds? This was a question. What happened to the weeds? They were burned with fire. Yeah, so we see the same picture there that we do here, just spoken more directly here, perhaps. And then just as in chapter six, He reassures his readers. Let's look at verses 32 following in chapter 10. But remember the former days when after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you yourselves had a better possession and a lasting one." Here, the author of Hebrews reassures his readers, in chapter six, he said something very similarly. He said that some had, or that they had, he reminded them of their work and their love, which they had shown toward God and toward one another. but here he actually describes what that looked like. He says, for example, some of you in your love which you've shown toward God and others have directly suffered by being made public spectacles by taking reproaches and tribulations for your faith. He says, others of you, illustrating that third exhortation to encourage one another, others of you, he says, were partakers with those who were suffering by showing them sympathy. Specifically, or particularly, he mentions sympathy toward the prisoners, those who had been put in prison. Though they themselves weren't in prison, they showed sympathy toward them. Now, if you remember, our Lord, told the goats that they were going to go away, but the sheep, when I was in prison, you visited me. And then he explained, because when you visited one of the least of these, you did it to me. And so we see the same thing here being displayed by the readers of, or listeners to the sermon, as he points out that in former days, this is the way you acted. Now that being in, uh that then implying that there was probably some issues now within these readers or hearers that they weren't doing as they had before which is what we've seen throughout this whole letter that he's calling them to endure to persevere because it looks like some of them may be holding back from that, drawing away from that, drifting away from that. Terms that he's used over and over again. This idea that they remember the former days also points to the fact that they have been believers for some time. A similar thing he talked about back in the sixth chapter when he talked about how by this time you ought to be teachers. So these readers are people that aren't new in the church, aren't new to faith, but have not only known it, but lived it in the past. Then in verses 35 following, he resumes the exhortation that he departed from to give this warning. And I'll read through verse 39 through the end of the chapter. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul." Another reassurance to them. So resuming the exhortation, he first tells them, don't throw away your confidence. Now, go back to verse, 19, since we have confidence, what is a confidence? To enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus. So this confidence they are not to throw away is the confidence to enter into the presence of God. He says that this confidence is a great reward. Now, what he's pointing out here, and let me tell you this as an illustration again of the author of Hebrews, which I could do now that we have more time, This word reward is the only time it occurs in the Bible, in the Greek Bible. In fact, it never occurs in any Greek literature before Hebrews. So it's one of those words that our author probably coined in order to make a point that he wanted to make. So it is one of those neat things to see, again, the craft of this author as he's writing this. He's not saying here that by maintaining confidence we will receive the reward. In other words, we earned a reward by being confident. That's not what he's saying because then what would be a reward? If you earn something, what is it? It's a wage, yeah. So what he's saying here is that if you keep this confidence, this confidence to enter into the presence of God, retaining that allows us then to endure, to persevere in the midst of everything else that's going along here until we do receive the reward. Now there is, as in most of the things of our salvation, both the present and the future involved in this. The fact that we can have confidence to enter is itself a reward. But the fact that if we hold this confidence and we endure and we do actually enter, when we go to be with him, then that reward is the fullness of that reward. So there's a sort of, again, an already not yet aspect of what he is teaching here. He also goes on to exhort them to endurance in doing the will of God. Now, endurance is a practical expression of this confidence that we are to have, confidence that God will keep His promise. What promises? Well, here the promise that by the blood of Jesus we may enter into His presence because our consciences have been perfected. And remember that word perfected means to be made where we could enter into His presence. And we know that He's going to keep His promise, as it said back in verse 23, because He who promised is faithful. So, as he resumes this exhortation, we ought to probably see that the central practical theme or theme of application of Hebrew. Now, when we began this, we chose as the theme of the whole thing, the superiority of Jesus Christ, which I think is the supreme of the whole thing. But if we're choosing a practical theme or theme for application for the readers then and us now, it is you have need for endurance. If you live as that stranger and alien in this world, which Scott this morning described pretty well in his sermon, but if you live here in the midst of this, what you have need for is endurance. you have need for endurance. One commentator said that every warning and every promise has been crafted to encourage endurance and to forestall discouragement. That's what he's been doing over and over and over again as we've worked through Hebrews. He then goes into a quote from Habakkuk. He begins it with the quote that, he, yet in a little while, he who is coming will come. Now the future tense here that is used, it's actually not a future tense in Hebrew, but it is a future tense in Greek. The future tense implies almost a future tense, imperative connotation. He will come. All right. It's not just he will come. No. He will come. The one who is coming will come. He introduces it with an allusion from Isaiah. Again, our author is is just steeped in the Old Testament. And he brings concepts together from the Old Testament to make the point that he wants to make. And that point, first of all, is to point out the fact that we always must live with that perspective of imminence of the coming. yet in a little while." And if we look at the way he wrote this, yet in a little while, he actually quoted Isaiah in the Septuagint. And if we were to translate it very crudely and directly, it would be, a little while, how much, how much? So I don't know a better way of saying that in English other than if we're speaking it we can say in a little while a little little while or an extremely little while but it's not just a little while it's an extremely little while he's talking about it is always imminent. One illustration that I always go back to when I'm thinking about this is it's as if we are walking you can think of a fence line and you're walking parallel with that fence line uh this way and if if it ever uh you turned toward the fence you're past it well that's the way it is we're walking along that fence line and his coming the new heavens and earth are just as imminent as if we were just to turn And there it is. So we must always live in the little while, how great, how great a little while as we approach it. Then he quotes from Habakkuk. and speaks of the coming one. Now, in the Greek, this is a substantive participle. Now, what I mean, a participle, as you know, is sort of a verbal adverb, where you take a verb and you ing it, coming. But here, you put the direct object, excuse me, the definite article in front of it, and it makes the coming one, or he who comes. And so you're speaking now in ways that the old covenant speaks of the Messiah. The Messiah is always and ever the coming one. Well, he has come, but we still know him as the coming one because he's coming again, as the author of Hebrews has already told us. So the Messianic connotation must not be missed when we see him quoting here, he who is coming, the one who is coming will come and will not delay. So he goes on and tells us that there's two options for everyone in terms of this coming one who will come very shortly and that is the righteous will live by faith and it's this idea of the righteousness by faith theme that he's going to illustrate throughout the whole chapter 11. But secondly, the second option in this context is those who shrink back. Now this idea of shrinking back is the same idea he has hit over and over and over again. In the second chapter when he talked about, you know, you hear this word spoken by God through a son, a son who is superior to the angels, and you drift away In the third chapter, talking about the wilderness generation, they who would fall away. And then he calls us not to fall away and miss the rest. In chapter six, he talked about those who had been enlightened and fall away. Here in chapter 10, he's talked about those who have come to the knowledge and remember that knowledge was the epinosis, not just gnosis, the deep knowledge. You come to that kind of knowledge and you continue to willfully sin. All of those things are the same idea here as those who shrink back. So the righteous live by faith, but those who do these other things that he has been painting the whole time through this sermon, they will find no pleasure with God, but only judgment and destruction. Now, two things I want you to see here. As he always has done, the author of Hebrews is tickling us again with something that he's gonna go on and develop fully. First, the by faith, righteous shall live by faith, and that's the whole chapter 11. And then the pleasure of God, because the idea of pleasing God also permeates chapter 11. So he's gonna take these things that he is introducing here in this quote from a backup, and he's gonna develop them fully in chapter 11 as we go through there. So he completes this resumed exhortation with another encouragement. We ourselves are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but we ourselves are those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. Now why do I say we ourselves? None of your translations say that, but I say that because of the way he writes. He actually writes the first person plural pronoun. Now, in the Greek, you don't have to write the pronoun for the verb. So that the verb that he uses here, those who shrink back, no, are, it's a verb to be, it has built within the verb itself, the first person plural. It's the form of the verb, first person plural. So if you write the pronoun with that verb, you're giving emphasis to that pronoun. Now, again, if I was preaching the sermon, or if the author of Hebrews was preaching the sermon, he wouldn't have to say we ourselves, he would just say, we are not of those who shrink back. But if we're reading this, if we want to hear what he's saying or see what he's saying, we have to imply that some way. We can put we, italics bold if we wanted to, or we ourselves, are not of those who shrink back to destruction. The author of Hebrews over and over and over again, though he gives the exhortation in terms that they can't miss it, He also encourages them with the idea that He doesn't consider them, at least all of them, to be among those who are going to shrink back. But they have faith to the preserving of the soul. If you want to say, okay, what does chapter 11 of Hebrews tell us about the Old Testament people that are mentioned there? They had faith to the preserving of the soul. And we will see that over and over again as we go through chapter 11. So this Habakkuk quote and his then commentary on it lead right into chapter 11. So before we start that, do we have any comments or questions about this section of chapter 10? Steve, those who shrink back, were they never believers in the first place? What are they shrinking back from, though, if they were never believers in the first place? All right, back to chapter, I mean verse 26, they go on willfully sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth. Okay, and again, that knowledge there is a deep knowledge. So they come to a place where they know good and well the gospel, they know good and well what it says, and yet still they willfully sin. They shrink away from it. They have chosen not to accept the gospel, and so they shrink away from it. So, anything else? Well, I hope it wasn't shrinking back. I hope it was just sort of circling back and circling the wagons and doing that. But anyway, yeah, I'm just glad that we could do it and we can present. Now, because also I have an extra Sunday, we can start having some fun again, like we did the first session or two, okay? So here we go. All right, tell me three important people that you would call people of faith from Genesis up until the time of Abraham, not including Abraham. All right, close your Bibles. All right, close your Bibles. All right, Seth. Noah. Enoch. Job, possibly, that time. Sarah. Nope, she's at time of Abraham, so you've got to go earlier than that. You can answer her the next question, maybe. All right, all right. I want you just to remember those names that were thrown out because if I asked the author of Hebrews, he chooses some of those. There was one that wasn't chosen. All right. Name two important women mentioned in the Bible from creation to the conquest of Canaan. Ruth, Sarah. Ruth is judge's time. Can we count Rahab? You can count her if you want to. If you consider her. All right. Rahab. Rahab and Sarah. Who else? I know there's only two, but okay. Rebecca? Eve? Eve? All right. All right. Next. No, no, no. I'm just saying, okay. Now, if you were going to name just one of Jacob's 12 sons, which one would you name? Wait a minute, say that again. Judah. Joseph. Those only two? Okay. And two important people from the time of the Exodus until the time of the conquest of Canaan. Joshua. And what was that? Caleb. Caleb, all right. Good. Now, let's see what the author of Hebrews does, okay? Moses didn't make the cut. Moses didn't make the cut, no. Neither did Aaron. I mean, that's all right. Let's read the first three verses of chapter 11. Now faith is the assurance of the thing, excuse me, things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds or the ages were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which were visible. These are introductory comments that the author makes into his Hall of Fame of Faith, or Hall of Faith, and it's as if he is bringing his readers along from where he has tickled them with this idea of faith and the pleasing of God, the idea of faith for the preserving of the soul, and he's gonna give them illustrations of what this means, but he wants them to understand the concept of faith as he does this. Now many people call this a definition of faith. John Calvin would disagree with him. He thinks that greatly mistaken are they who think that exact definition of faith is given here. For the apostle does not speak here of the whole of what faith is, but selects that part of it which was suitable to his purpose. So when we see this definition or explanation or illustration of faith, what is it that he says about it? First, he talks about it being the hupostasis. That is in the New American Standard, the assurance of things hoped for. Now this term we've seen twice before in our letter, We saw it in the first chapter where the son is described as the hupostasis of God, the very essence or substance of God. We've also seen it in chapter three, where we were told, and this is in approaching the wilderness generation, their lack of faith, we were told that we can become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the assurance or the confidence until the end. In the first case, it was an objective understanding. It is the stuff or the substance or the essence. And the second is a subjective confidence that we have or boldness that we have or assurance that we have. the question becomes here is this an objective sense or is this a subjective sense if faith is the assurance of things hoped for it is a subjective sense if it is the substance of things which some of our translations have then it is the objective sense that we have here so subjectively um um excuse me objectively things that have no apparent existence as yet they have no apparent existence as yet they are not seen they can be seen as real and substantial by faith that's the objective understanding of this faith is the reality of things hoped for you might want to say Subjectively, as in the third chapter, faith can be the assurance that strengthens hope, that we are sure of that. So subjectively can be that. Now, which one is it he's using here? And the answer is, yes, take your pick. I mean, both things are true about it. Now, the same thing is true about the second term here, elinkos. Elinkos subjectively can mean the assurance or the conviction of things that are not seen or it can be the objective sense, the proof, the evidence of things that are not seen. Now some things are not seen because they are in the spiritual realm. Some things, as we go through this chapter, are not seen because they are in the future So faith is either the proof or the conviction that those kind of things are real. They are seen even though they're not seen. Faith bestows on objects of hope a present reality one commentator said and so I think it's important that what we see here is not so much a definition of faith but a summary of what it does and he will go on and give us a little bit of the summary of what it does when he talks about uh the um for by it the men of old gained approval literally for by it the elders gained approval now these men of older elders are the same as the fathers back in the prologue you know in former times in various ways god having spoken through the fathers those same people are these he's referring to now as the men who gained approval by this kind of faith Now, what is it the author of Hebrews is going to tell us about faith in chapter 11? Well, he'll tell us, first of all, that faith involves confident action. Secondly, that this action is action is taken in response to the unseen God, things not seen, and his promises for the future, things not seen. This faith will involve God's working, sometimes miraculously, in the lives of ordinary people, And faith works in a variety of situations and has a variety of outcomes and is always rewarded by God. Now there's chapter 11. So if we didn't have this extra Sunday, we'd close our books and go home because we finished chapter 11. But that's what he's going to tell us now as we go through this hall of faith. Um, By this faith, he tells us in verse three, that we understand that the worlds or ages were prepared by the Word of God. Now, the word he uses here for prepared is not the word create. It could be understood as organized, brought together, lined up, that kind of thing, but it's not the word for create. And it goes along, I think, better with the idea of the ages were prepared because it involves not just the idea of creation, which has to be included in that, but also the idea of his providence. And if you remember back in the prologue, the son was described as one through whom creation came and who was working out. the ages. Uh, and so we see that same idea here in, in his, um, his preparing the, the ages. And we understand that. And he does so by the word of God. Now I can't read that without hearing Genesis one and God said, nor can I read it without going to the end of the Bible and the man on the white horse or the one like a man on the white horse who has what coming out of his mouth, the sword coming out of his mouth, which is his word. It is the word of God that accomplishes what he wants to do. And this idea of by faith, which he introduces here for the first time, this phrase by faith occurs 21 times in this chapter. So he begins, and here's the three people he chooses from the period before Abraham, Abel, Enoch, and Noah. I think we named Enoch and Noah, not Abel. He begins with Abel. Let me read verses four through seven. By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death, and he was not found because God took him up. For he obtained a witness that before his being taken up, he was pleasing to God." There's that idea. and without faith it is impossible to please him for he who comes to god must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him by faith noah being warned by god about things not yet seen in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith Well, Enoch, excuse me, Abel we're told, offered an offering that was acceptable because he offered, and because of that, he would seem to be as righteous. Now, what is it about Abel's sacrifice that lets us know, or why was it acceptable and Cain's was not, I guess is the question. And people throughout the ages have said different things. Well, he gave the animal sacrifice, the sacrifice of blood, and that's the real kind of sacrifice to give. But God himself in the Mosaic Covenant set up cereal sacrifices or grain sacrifices. So we know that those kind of sacrifices are okay. So it's not it's not probably the substance of the sacrifice that's involved here. I think we get the Intention of this when we hear God coming to Cain When Cain gets angry because the sacrifice wasn't accepted and he says to Cain if you do well Will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it. So it's the doing well aspect of the sacrifice that we need to focus on. Just as God didn't take pleasure in the sacrifice of bulls and goats, what he took pleasure in was the sacrifice of the obedience of his son. And he takes sacrifice in the obedience of his sons, little s sons now, So it is that the sacrifice that comes from the heart that he's interested in and Abel's sacrifice was because he was righteous and it came from a righteous heart. Cain's did not as we know as the story goes on. So not the substance of the sacrifice, but the character of the one making the sacrifice is what makes it acceptable. The outward expression must be an expression of the inward righteousness for it to be accepted. And it's an example of Habakkuk. The righteous shall live by faith. The righteous shall sacrifice by faith in this. so it says here now that through um through faith though he's dead he still speaks people have taken this in a couple of different ways one is taking it from uh genesis again genesis four where god says the blood of of your brother cries out to me." And they see this as a statement that his faith is still speaking in terms of crying out for vengeance as the righteous martyrs do in Revelation. How long, O Lord? The problem is it's not his blood that still speaks, it's his faith that still speaks. Okay? And if it's his faith that still speaks, it is the seeing the righteousness of his act or seeing his righteousness and his faithfulness that speaks to us. How does it speak to us? Well, how about it speaks to us in Hebrews 11 verse, what verse is that? Five, four, okay. It's speaking to us today as we think about this. Second one he names is Enoch. Now Enoch walked with God and was no more. The key thing about Enoch was his pleasing God. And God took him up. is these first two that he presents here, I think are an important way that he sets up what we will see throughout the chapter. And that is that Abel, though faithful, suffered and died. Enoch, faithful and pleasing God, didn't suffer and die. And that's true throughout this chapter. We will see at the very end of it, a summary of those who were victors and those who were victims. in some very graphic language there. But these first two point out that this is the truth of the people of God throughout the ages. And is that fair? Well, let me tell you something. God ain't fair. He is just, but he ain't fair. Because if he was fair, I would be just as pretty as Anna Grace. In fact, to be really fair, I would have to look exactly like Anna Grace. And we couldn't be male and female. That wouldn't be fair. I mean, we don't want God to be fair. He is just, but he's not fair. And we may not see it as fair that Abel had his experience and Enoch had his experience. I wouldn't say that Enoch was more faithful than Abel. I don't know that. Not my thing to know. But in any event, we see illustrated the experiences of the faithful people of God throughout history in Abel and Enoch. And then the third one he mentions here in the antediluvian section is Noah. And the thing that's interesting about Noah is that He shows us the conviction of things not seen. All right. How many years was it before God told him to build an ark and the flood came? yeah so that's the conviction of things not saying all right and and the reproach and that and the mocking and all that he would have gone through that's the conviction of things not saying so it's that future orientation of faith that is illustrated for us in Noah as we begin chapter 11 all right he goes on then to the patriarchal period let me read verses 8 through 12 Somebody want to read that so I don't have to read it all. Somebody read A through 12 for us. I think Anna Grace should read it. I'll read it. All right, Anna Grace. Read it, Anna Grace. By faith, Abram obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land. Living in tents with Isaac and Jacob bears with him the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God. By faith, Sarah herself perceived power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. Alright, good. So in this patriarchal period we start of course with Abraham. who is perhaps the supreme example of faith maybe in the Old Testament, but at least in this part of the Old Testament. He demonstrated his faith first of all by obedience, by leaving his home. He left his home in order to go to a place he knew not, And notice that when he, author of Hebrews first writes this, he says, he obeyed by going out to a place, not to a land. You know, we often think of him going to the promised land, but, and he, he will use that, and, and follow up to this where he talks about, he, by faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, but when he calls him in, in Ur of the Chaldees, to go somewhere, he calls him to go to a place. Now, that is less descript than land. And perhaps it's one of those tickles of the author of Hebrews, who is tickling us with the fact that yes, though he's going to a land of promise, what he's really going to is what? Okay, and the place is? Verse 10, verse 10. The city the city whose foundations with foundations whose architect and builders God so when he's going out We need to understand that he's not just calling him to Canaan He's calling him to the city of God, which he's gonna call something else in later chapters here, the heavenly Jerusalem at one point. So he's calling him to that. And when we see him say, he obeyed by going out to a place, we need to understand that this is more than just that earthly land of Canaan that he's going to, because he was looking for, as he lived as an alien, that land that was given to him as a promise, which he never received. He was looking forward to the place that was beyond that, and that is the place that was built by God. Notice also that he is given as an example of faith, and I'm just using these bullet points to the times which says by faith, by faith, by faith. By faith, he lived as an alien. Now, he was sent to this land that was supposed to be given to him, but he always and ever lived only as an alien in that land. Now, he did become owner of a part of it, if you remember. And what part was that? The area plot. That's right. That's it. So he lived as an alien in this land of promise, and he never, ever, no, not ever gave up his faith of what God had called him to do. And he could, again, because that faith was in more than just an earthly land. It was a city that was built by God, planned and built by God. Now, the next part of this is a very interesting part, and that is Sarah. By faith, even Sarah. Now, when you read those words, do you have any problem with it? By faith, even Sarah. She laughed. She didn't act like a person of faith, did she? Now, this is the first time, not the last time, that the author of Hebrews is going to show us that faith doesn't mean or that someone can be seen as a person of faith who is redeemed from the lack of faith. Yes, she laughed, but then she heard the promise that a year from now, you're going to have a son. Actually to Abraham, she's going to have a son. You're going to have a son. You're going to name him. Isaac, which means? Laughter, yeah. So now she hears this promise from God through the angels and I surmise that that's what brings her to faith. Not only is he promising me this, He's told me the name of this child, so now she can come to faith. The next interesting part of this is that she herself received ability to conceive. How did you read that part? Even when she was past the age. Just before that. Okay. By date Sarah herself received power to conceive. Okay, received power to conceive. Anybody have anything different from those types of things? Ability. The ability to see. Strength. She was barren. All right. Here's the thing is what the author of Hebrews writes is that she received the ability for the deposition of seed. Now that is a technical phrase that describes Abraham's part, not her part. Okay. And because of that, some people want to say, all right, how do we then understand what the author of Hebrews is saying? Some will go to extremes and say that, well, not to extremes. Some will go to the place of saying, well, the only way that Sarah can be seen as depositing seed is this understanding seed in the terms of posterity. All right, she deposits a posterity and seed can be used to talk about posterity. I don't think that's what all our people's means here though, but, but it's, you know, that's one thing. The other is that again, it goes back to the Greek, which is, it's a fun thing. If you take the, um, the, the, uh, the idea here of, um, the deposition of seed, which should occur in the accusative case, you can put a little thing on it called a Yoda subscript to make it a dative case. And the oldest subscript was often left off in the time of Hebrews being written. the author of Hebrew writing, then it would become not that she received the ability to conceive, but that it would read something like, by faith he, i.e. Abraham, also together with Sarah, received power to begin a child or to whatever. To me, I think you just take it like he wrote it. Even Sarah received the ability for the deposition of seed. If I were to tell you, I went out in my backyard and I prepared my garden for the deposition of seed. And now my garden has the ability for the deposition of seed. Would you have any problem with that? You know exactly what I'm saying, right? It's ready for me to deposit the seed. So if Sarah is prepared or given the ability for the deposition of the seed, who's doing the depositing? Abraham. And it's not Abraham that needs this ability. He had the ability, we presume, because after Sarah was gone, he still did it. Yeah. But anyway, I don't know why everybody makes it so hard. But believe it or not, and I have to tell you this because, just because, I never read that in a commentary. And I'm reading nine commentaries, okay? And none of them get the idea that she was given the ability for the deposition by Abraham of the seed. But anyway, that's what makes sense to me, and I'm gonna stick to it. At least for now. Finally, we will conclude right here with this last phrase of how this one man then was, by faith, given the ability to produce the innumerable, the other aspect of the promise. Now, see there, I only got through 12 verses of the chapter. Aren't you happy? Before you teach next week, you have a list of all these heroes. I have a special challenge for you to tell me about Jephthah. Okay. Okay. Well, go to judges. He doesn't seem, well I've already read the story. Oh, okay. I'm trying to see, it's time to get on the list. Oh, okay. These other guys I can understand. Okay, alright. Well, and that's, that is why I asked those questions to begin with. You know, who would you pick? Why would all the Hebrews pick him? Well, he did show faith. Oh, yeah. I mean, he did show faith. He was, he was stupid. um um yeah but you do show faith and that's that's why anyway let's let's let's let's pray i look forward to you well we probably won't unpack jeff but just use him as an example but anyway all right let's pray father we delight again in the ability to open your word and to feed upon it and my prayer is that you will use it now to prepare us to go out into this dark world where we live as strangers and aliens and give the line of the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. This is my prayer in his name. Amen.