It's good to be with you once again. I missed last year, and the circumstances and reasons for that still remain. However, my wife encouraged me to come along this time. Lord willing, she will be with us next year, and the Lord tarries, and the Lord wills. However, I've not been lazy since that time, because since that time I have got married, joined another church, and become part of a ministry team in that church. So we're still busy in the work of the Lord. I thank the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony again for another invitation and it's good to be with you. I said it before, I genuinely enjoy gathering with you here and feel very much with you in thought and in convictions and in spirit and when it comes to that time of the month when you gather together, I remember you also at that time. Now, today's subject, the faith of the Old Testament saints. And my purpose today is to show you the faith of the Old Testament saints. Because some people try, especially young pastors nowadays, they try to degrade the faith of the Old Testament saints compared to our faith. I want to show you that that is not in fact what the scriptures bring to us and hopefully we will find together things that will be a blessing to us and maybe challenge you for further study yourself, certainly challenge me. Now, today I'm doing things slightly different. I'm going to be reading most of the paper today. So you might want to listen rather than refer to the scriptures, because I have the scriptures in my paper here, so I will be reading them, finishing before you ever get to the passage. There is one or two passages that we will turn to, and we will read those. if you will bear with me there, I will quote full text and if I don't then I will refer to the text and you can look at that again afterwards. I have an introduction and a conclusion and sandwiched in between eight sections. And I'll tell you as we go through these sections so you'll know where we are as we go through our studies. Now, each of us here, I'm sure, have a means of recording our past. A photograph album, a book with pictures in it, or, to be more up-to-date today, some digital system hard drive, a memory stick, a USB stick, but we have means of recording pictures. And some of the pictures that we take are very formal. We get the family lined up, we get the right people in the right place, the height's right, and we try to take a picture in a very formalized manner. Some of the pictures we take are very candid. take them very quick, especially nowadays that we have mobile phones. We're taking pictures of everything and anything. Some people take pictures of the food that they're about to eat in restaurants just because of the presentation of them. Everyone to their own. Some photographs that we have in our album, we can see they've been taken unexpectedly. So-and-so hasn't realized that we've taken the picture. Some of our pictures are very forced and you can see those children gritting those teeth and making a forced grin. Occasionally when you go through your album you see a picture and you think That's a very natural picture. Something's happened, either the light or the mood or the situation and the picture. We like it so much that we want a copy of it. We maybe want to put it into an album, not an album, a frame. So we can see it more often because we like it. Sometimes there are pictures that we take of individuals. Sometimes there are group pictures. This is indeed a description of Hebrews chapter 11. These are pictures, some of them very brief. A line in the passage, a verse in the passage, or a couple of verses, or in the case of Abraham, a number of verses. But they are all pictures of faith. Because our face is a multi-faceted face. You know what I mean by faceted? Like a diamond cut into many different shapes. Many facets, but it's the one diamond. And we have this precious face in these earthen vessels that we inhabit. But there are different manifestations of that. I thank Mr. Toms for warning you all of the enormity of the task. In 1984 and 85, I spent several months in this one chapter looking at these different individuals and the aspects of faith which was uppermost in their lives. And in fact, it wasn't because I was preaching, but some of your own countrymen looking for summer work, I think they were mostly students, looking for work, came up to our luscious Strathmore Valley to gather in the summer fruits that grow 30 miles that take up the east end of Scotland. And I remember a number of them were believers from the north of England and they came along to to worship with us and that was the time I was going through this. So that's the introduction. The second thing we want to look at this morning, this afternoon, is we have in verse 1, if you look at verse 1 there, a definition of faith. Now before we look at that, because the definition that's in verse 1 there is a subjective definition. But let us consider first the objective definition of faith, which is found in the Word of God. Because faith, as we know, is the gift of our triune God. The Father elects His people from before the foundation of the world. The Son dies as a substitute for our sins in a period in time. God the Holy Spirit comes and communicates that faith to the hearts of those whom the Father has chosen. And we find in chapter 10, verse 38, it tells us there, now the just shall live by faith. It's the just that live by faith, the righteous who live by faith. Now that is faith defined objectively. Now, faith defined subjectively now. And it tells us in our passage in verse one that faith is the substance of things hoped for. Let me give you a better word for the word substance. From the original language, it's confidence. Think of that. Faith is the confidence of things hoped for. Isn't that a marvellous and clearer, more explicit definition? Faith is our confidence referring to something certain. Cast away thoughts of blind faith when people use that. It's not. We have a confidence in something which is certain. Faith is our hope and this Faith and this hope is both a present and a future. We hope now because our hope is based and built upon things not as yet revealed. And that is what is yet to come. So it's a present and a future faith that we have. Faith is the evidence, the evidence It is the present evidence of that which is yet future. So our faith that we have is an evidence now of that which we do not see, we do not touch, it's not tangible. we have that confidence and evidence now within our hearts. God the Holy Spirit testifies with our heart that these things that we see and read in the Word of God are in fact true and truth. Faith are the things hoped for, hoped for, which tells us this is the future And this faith, we find, is an active faith, as we read in verse 39. But we are not of them that draw back. So our faith is an active faith. It's a going forward faith. It's an onward faith. It's something that we do as we find in 1 Peter, build upon that faith. It's an ongoing faith. And that is our subjective aspect of faith. Also here, it's worthwhile mentioning that there is an absence of faith. If you look at verse six, it tells us there, but without faith, it is impossible, absolutely impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So without this faith, we cannot in any way please God. But somebody asks you, what about that good man? What about that nice woman? What about the good things that they do? Ah, they're only good in human terms. There is an absence of faith. As many of you know, I love reading the Puritans. And the Puritans would say, in response to the question, well, what are good works? Well, the first good work they would say, seeking God. Seeking God. That is the first of the good works. And so when we speak to people and they say, but what about good Mr. So-and-so or good Mrs. So-and-so? Well, we have to say, are they good in the biblical sense? Have they found the Lord? Are they seeking the Lord actively, presently, continuously? So, without faith it's impossible to please God. So, as we've seen, faith is based upon truth rather than visual evidence. Faith is rewarded both now, but more so in glory. when that hope ceases. There's no more need for hope when the faith and the hope that we've had becomes actual, visual, experiential in a completely different age and world. So that's the definition of faith. Thirdly, and I'm only going to choose out one or two here. Some examples of the aspects of the Old Testament saints' faith. I'm just being selective here. I've got 24 items here, but I'm only going to pick out one or two. Let's look first of all at Abel. By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. I'm sure you know that there is the aspect of progressive revelation from Genesis onwards. The 1,600 years from, 1,700 years from Moses till the apostles died was a progressive revelation. All the truth was not revealed at the beginning or to any specific person, for example, even Abraham or Moses or Isaiah. It has been progressive. I chose Abel there because his, I call the offering of faith, and his offering was built upon a foundation. When Adam and Eve had sinned, and they were hiding in the bush, and they were ashamed, then the Lord clothed them with what? with skins. Skins had to have been taken from an animal. There had to be death for covering, death for righteousness, death for substitution. That is why Abel's offering is accepted and Cain is not. Because Abel realised that the Lord was teaching the truth. He possibly received this from his parents. He obviously had to initially, and then it was placed upon his heart and that was why he did this. Cain was more, well, Well, going back to Strathmore again, the farmer who produces those fruits might say, well, I planted the best of plants, I chose the best of grounds, I used the best of fertilizers, and so on. And Cain could quite easily have said the same. Look what I have done. Where is Abel comes, he is saying, here Lord, this is what you have done, this is what you have taught me, and this is what I offer. The offering of faith. All of these people that are mentioned here all deserve a message on their own, and we can bring them down to other aspects of people who are not mentioned by name, But I think we find Isaiah in there. We find definitely how the Lord deals with individuals, how God deals with groups. Mr. Toms shared a little earlier of a husband and wife team and faith shared together. There's faith there by large groups. by fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, and so on. Let me look at one more. In verse 23, Moses' aspect of faith, I've called here the boldness of faith. By faith, Moses, when he was born, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. There has to be a certain boldness there, a certain fortitude of an individual who takes this stand. And he, as we know, is not doing this as a young man. He's doing this as an older man who has not the faith of these gods of Egypt. I've been down the Nile and I've seen these idols, these temples, these effigies on walls and they have a god with small g for practically anything and everything. Moses rejected all of these and his faith was based solely upon the God of heaven. Now remember he has not been at the burning bush at this time. So there is no revelation of Yahweh, the I am that I am, the ever living, all seeing one. But there is a holy boldness here that is brought out to us from the biblical writer. whether he be Paul or not, there is an emphasis, a focus upon what Moses did here. And notice, and this is mentioned 16 times in the passage, by faith, by faith he did it. So, but we can see there are many others there that are mentioned. Gideon, Samson, Barak, Jephthah, David. Men and women. Some names aren't mentioned in verse 34. It mentions those that endured fire. And that would be Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Yes, I think we'll move on from there. Number four, some elements of the faith of the Old Testament saints. Let's see what these people believed in. Verse three, we find there is a belief in a creator, which in necessity means a belief in creation. And it's a special creation. because it's a creation out of nothing. If you go to the British Museum, you will find the tablets there from Ur of the Chaldees, from Nineveh, the Enuma Elish, and the Gilgamesh Epic, and others that speak about creation. However, it's creation out of something. Ur, God, out of nothing, made all that is out of nothing. So that's something that these Old Testament saints believed in. We've already seen in verse four, and that's why I selected that, the need for atonement and sacrifice and substitution. So we see that very clearly in that verse. And that is what Abel brings out. He brings out that aspect, the offering of faith is a humble acknowledging of I need the death of another. I'm just being selective here. In verse 13, we find there that faith is a persuasion of God's word, and it's an embracing of that word. Some people can feel persuaded that the Bible is God's word. I think I would be right in saying that in the 19th century, the Victorians were very much of that attitude. They were persuaded that the Bible was the word of God. Whatever they meant by that, I'm not sure, but that's what they believed. However, in verse 13, we find that true faith is an embracing. It's a taking hold of that truth and making it one's own. It's a real living faith. Some of you will know that Habakkuk's name means embracing or wrestling, and that's what we as the people of God have to do. And if we embrace the word, then we have to confess the word, also in verse 13, before men and before the watching world. Now, what else can we bring out here? In verse 7, we find a belief in predictive prophecy. In fact, we might just read that verse 7a. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not as yet seen, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Here's a belief in predictive prophecy here. which didn't manifest itself for many, many, many decades. And yet he was a man who held on to that truth, what did I call Noah? The obedience of faith. Because he was obedient to the word that was given to him from God, embraced it, and he had this belief that although There was not a manifestation at this time that there would be, by and by, a manifestation. And there was, which we know. I'm just being selective here. Verses 11 through 12 is a belief in the promises of God. We are brought here to Sarah because I think sometimes Sarah gets a bad press, sometimes by some people, by some preachers, by some believers, because of her initial reactions recorded for us in Genesis. The inspired writer tells us in verse 11, through faith, also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised. Isn't that wonderful? She judged him faithful who had promised. And that's really what we should see. How many more promises do we have than what Sarah had? I think it's Herbert Lockyer. He has counted that there are over 3,000 promises in the Bible which you, as believers, can embrace and take to yourself. However, there is a condition to them. You've got to fulfil the condition. Fulfil the condition and the promise can be yours. Right, I think we'll move on from there. Yes, so now... One thing that I didn't mention at the start, which I should have done, is that recently I have, along with a number of others throughout the length and breadth of the land, actively studying the, I'll give you the acronym first, 2LCF, which is the Second London Confession of Faith. not of 1689, that was when the Baptists endorsed it, but of 1677. And so when I was preparing for this message, and also the one this evening, I have now, for the rest of this message, lent very heavily upon the Baptist confession of faith. Now, if you haven't taken the opportunity, add it to your devotional time in the morning. Just maybe one of the paragraphs, one of the sections per day. There are a number of tools that have now come out, little booklets, that help to understand the confession of faith, and I found them personally a blessing and in many ways a revelation to know how the confession is made up of very concise language, considered language, and not by an individual, but by a group of men who were convinced of these truths. And of course the Baptist Confession of Faith has the details concerning our specific distinctives of baptism and church government in that. So now with that in mind, we're going to leave temporarily chapter 11 and look at what this is concerning the faith of the Old Testament saints. Now, first of all, I would turn you to another chapter of Hebrews, and we're going to read an extended bit, just a few verses, in chapter 9 and in verse 11. But Christ, being come and high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifyeth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, Purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And maybe verse 15 also. And for this cause, he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Did you pick up the significance there of verse 15? The First Testament, or the First Covenant. In verse 15, the atonement is spoken of in relation to the First Testament. That's very clear there. Now, here's where I quote from the Baptist Confession of Faith. It says, although the price of redemption was actually paid by Christ, it was not paid by Christ until after his incarnation, yet the virtue and efficacy, that is the certain result of it, and the benefit arising from the payment were communicated to the elect in all ages. Not just New Testament Christians, New Covenant Christians, but the First Covenant, the First Testament, were communicated to the elect in all ages from the beginning of the world through promises, types, sacrifices, in which our Lord Jesus Christ was revealed and signified a picture expressed as the seed which should bruise the serpent's head. Do we see that? This is what our Protestant Baptist forefathers with far greater grasp of the scriptures than I think, than we have certainly, than I have, came to these settled convictions. And they could see that the Old Testament saints had the blessings, the benefits that we have. We, in retrospect, look back. They, in prospect, look forward. We have, obviously, the full and final revelation of God to us in the scriptures. Nothing else will be added. This is the final authority, regardless of what some renewalists will tell us. So these benefits and these blessings are by all believers in both Testaments. 1 Corinthians 10, 4. And did all drink the same spiritual drink? For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. God's care providentially of his people. through Christ. Also in Hebrews 4 verse 2, for unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. The truth is given and also the regret is that it didn't profit them. But that doesn't detract from the fact that the gospel was preached to them also. Okay, in a slightly different manner, slightly different way, because they were prospective believers, not retrospective as we are. And Peter, also the apostle, gives us the same in a slightly different way. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. The prophets prophesied of these things. It's one of the blessings of going back into the Old Testament. We find there much of Christ there, without being too fanciful. Some people are a bit too fanciful when they go back into the Old Testament, especially when you see these books on typology, and they find a type almost everywhere and anywhere. And sometimes if I was to level some criticisms at my Puritan brothers, I would say maybe that's where they go. But, you know, it's like everything else, isn't it? With every group there, they don't have all the truth. I mean, with the Puritans I have, it's a love-hate relationship. Sometimes you love what they say, sometimes you think, hmm. And it's the same with all groups because none of us, none of us will have the full extent of truth in this life. That is what is reserved in our faith for that which is yet to come. Right, now let's move on. So Peter was saying that they realized that Christ was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. We find that in the book of Revelation. Chapter 13, verse 8, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, that is the beast, whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If you want a great study for yourselves, and Mr. Toms will know this because I've brought it to his church a number of times in the past, a study of what God was doing before the foundation of the world is a very rich And it's not, as some people might think, a guessing game. Because the scriptures give us seven places in which we find wonderful things happening before the foundation of the world. And one of them, as we mentioned earlier, the Father, in his electing love, brings in here the Book of Life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. So there's wonderful blessings there. Now we're still in this section of the Old Testament saints and the atonement. So we see that they are inseparably connected to the atonement. Because there's that scripture, is there not, in chapter 13, verse 8, which will be mentioned probably later in this year from this platform. for he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That's what we must always emphasize to people. So it is the same atonement, it is the one substitute, Jesus Christ. So this is, I hope we can grasp this and hold this, that in the Old Testament period that there was a trust in a sacrifice that would come. For them, it was in the animals. And we know that, as we read, that in chapter nine, that there was no efficacy in those things, no efficacy whatsoever. It was an obedience, that's what it was. Now, let's speak, and this is an interesting section here, and maybe my biggest section, Liberty and the Old Testament Saints. This is number six, so we're getting through there. We're three quarters of the way there. Again, our Baptist confession is very full and clear in its statements on this subject. The liberty which Christ has purchased for believers under the gospel lies in their freedoms from many adverse things. Now some people, when he mentions Christian freedom, If you were to mention to some of our fundamentalist friends in the States, well, they would say, well, that liberty is, well, we're not allowed to do this, go to the cinema, we're not allowed to go to the dance floor, we're not allowed to gamble, we're not allowed to do this. These things may well be wrong, yes. But that's not what is meant by Christian liberty. Christian liberty is found in a number of freedoms. And the first one of these freedoms is the freedom from the guilt of sin. That's one of the freedoms which we have. Freedom from the guilt of sin. Isn't that wonderful? If you could take that message and be able to proclaim it to all those people who are damaged in their minds and living in homes and living without hope and discouraged and suicidal and you take this message that there is a freedom from guilt, that would be wonderful. Galatians 3 verse 13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on the tree. He has borne the guilt of the curse for us. Now I know it in experience that there can be times when I come from a country where there is a certain segment of it with very reformed leanings in it and they are very doer. Do we know what doer means? Very unhappy because of the guilt of sin which they have not fully embraced or understood or experienced. So that's the first freedom. Now remember, I'm speaking about the faith of the Old Testament saints also, so remember what we're saying here in relationship to them. The second freedom that we have is from the condemning wrath of God and deliverance from this present evil world. And that is found in Galatians 1 verse 4, who gave himself for us that he might deliver us from the present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. And you know other texts you can take there. We've been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. And so we have this freedom from the wrath of God. Isn't that what the conscience needs? Isn't that what we should be preaching more of? That there is this great freedom. This is the second of these freedoms which we enjoy now. We enjoy this now. The third freedom is the freedom from bondage to Satan. As I mentioned, we've been translated from his kingdom into the kingdom of light. So we find this in Acts 26 verse 18, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Freedom from Satan also. from his great power and influence. Now, I've mentioned before, and I always like to mention this, because many people think that Satan is an equal and opposite power from God. And when we hear that sometimes, even amongst Christians, he is a created being, as we are created beings. He is a created being. In that sense, he is extremely, extremely limited. He is not omnipresent. So he cannot be, oh, Satan made me do this. I hear this in China. Satan made me do this. I hear this in the United States. No. He can only be in one place. at any one time, I know. And I admit that he has demons working for him. But he is limited. But it's his influence that he has, and we find this in the world all around us. We don't have to go very far. In fact, we might not even need to leave this room to find his influence. A fourth freedom, freedom from the dominion of sin. Romans 8 verse 3, for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. So we have freedom from the dominion of sin. That's really one of the purposes of the book of 1 John, is this freedom from sin. that we have this. Now, we're not like the cultists that say that we can have freedom from sin whereby we can be perfect. I remember reading a little bit of the life of Hudson Taylor and he for a short time fell into this deception He was part of what we call the holiness movement, you know, with Wesley and such. And his diary, Hudson Taylor's diary, you can read it for yourself, I'm not making this up. And he says, oh, this was a day, great day, a day free from sin. And he gets this impression there that, you know, well, if I was free from sin, then I'm perfect. There's no perfection. There's this side of glory. But there is freedom from the dominion of it. The dominion of it. The power of it. And that's what we have. And that's the liberty, one of the liberties that we have. A fifth liberty. Freedom from the harm of afflictions. Now this will be more important when we come to this evening's message. because this evening we will be dealing with the whole subject of fatherly chastisement. However, I just mentioned that now. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are recalled according to his purpose. Some Christians say we know that all good providences, I'll just wait for a minute, Some Christians believe that it's all good providences that work together for them that love the Lord. That's not what the scripture says. It's good providences and bad providences. Maybe bad's not the best word. Adverse providences, adverse. Because everything is given from the providence of our Lord. Everything, absolutely everything. Another thought, I was going to go there. So, all these are in, all these providential experiences are for them There is a purpose for all these things. Who was it now? Yes, yes. F.W. Krumacher, if any of you have been reading his book, Elijah the Tishbite, he's a German reformed theologian of the 19th century. He said, we should maybe not look too closely at our providential circumstances. You know how we always wonder, why is this happening to me? Oh woe is me, what have I done? Maybe we shouldn't investigate them too much. These things will be revealed and on, and maybe later, to the full reason and purpose for those circumstances, for that providence, for this situation. Number six, freedom from the fear and the sting of death. from the victory of the grave. And that's an extended portion of 1 Corinthians 15, 54 through 57. But I'll just read verse 55. So we have freedom from the sting of death. Isn't that wonderful? Wonderful for maybe some of us that are getting a little bit older and in what Mr. Sapphire calls the evening, the evening of our life. And isn't that wonderful to know that we are freed The seventh and last freedom, freedom from everlasting damnation. That's found in 1 Thessalonians 1 10. And to wait for his son from heaven who has raised him from the dead, even Jesus Christ, which has delivered us from the wrath to come. So we are free. And in an eschatological sense, that is something that we have no fear of because we have been given freedom from that. Now, why have we said all this? We've said all this because all those freedoms which I've just mentioned were also experienced in substance by the true believers under the Old Testament law. Now this is the one place I will take you to, because you may wonder, where does he get this? In the book of Galatians. It is found in chapter 3, verses 9 through 14. So then, they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. It is evident, for the just shall live by faith. We saw that earlier in Hebrews. And the law is not of faith. but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessings of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Notice the emphasis there is that the Old Testament saints had this, and it is now experienced by the Gentiles, and we are those Gentiles. Now, I notice time is moving on. Yes, we'll move on. Section 7. Yes, yes, we'll leave it. The Holy Spirit, we must remember, he was active in the Old Testament. He just did not make his first appearance, as some renewalists would say, in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost. We find that he was both active and present throughout the whole of the Old Testament era. from Genesis 1 verse 2. We can't get much closer to the beginning than that. Job 33 verse 4 emphasizes that Genesis passage. And the provision of leaders, the book of Judges, sometimes the most misunderstood book, even by Christians. shows there that the Lord, by his Spirit, raised up individuals. Judges 3.10, 6.34, 11.29, 13.25. And we find also in the book of Judges, God the Holy Spirit giving blessings and power to individuals. For us, in this examination of the faith of the Old Testament saints, we can say he was with Joseph, Genesis 41, 38. With Moses, Numbers 11, 16 through 17. With Joshua, Deuteronomy 34, 9. With David, 1 Samuel 16, 13. And who can forget David's prayer in Psalm 51? Who can forget that? Of course, he prayed something that is not applicable to us in the New Testament. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. He inspired the prophets, Nehemiah 9 verse 30, Ezekiel 11 and verse 5, Micah 3 verse 7. So God the Holy Spirit was active in the Old Testament in a mighty and a powerful way. in so many different ways, with so many different individuals. However, it has to be remembered that He had not come in all of His fullness. The Prophets predicted a time when He, the Spirit, would make Himself known in a greater way. Ezekiel predicted this in chapter 36, and of course you know the chapter in the book of Joel in chapter 2, 28. Isaiah predicts that this would happen after Messiah came, chapter 11, verse 1. And that our Lord Jesus would have the Spirit above measure. So, the First Testament believers experienced the work of God, the Holy Spirit, both in their lives and through their lives, witnessing, testifying, helping, giving boldness, encouraging, giving guidance and refreshing. Of course, we know the big difference is that with New Covenant believers ourselves, And we have the permanent dwelling of God, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the triunity as the inhabitant of our hearts. So the same witness who testifies to us, testify to them. The same one who helps us, help them. We have, in the New Testament, the greater degree because we have the indwelling. Section 8. Justification of the Old Testament believers. Now this is an interesting one because we think justification by faith is a New Testament truth. But the justification of believers during the Old Testament period was in all respects exactly the same as the New Testament in Galatians 3.9. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. That is the Old or First Testament and us, the New Testament. In Romans 4.22 we read, and therefore it was imputed to him, Abraham, for righteousness. Now it is not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification. I make no more comment there. So that's what we have. So we've almost come now full circle because we're coming back to the book of Hebrews and to chapter 11. And because it is the SGAT, I want to bring out some of the eschatological passages here. And I have seven. And I've entitled the section nine of Things Not Yet Seen, taken obviously from Hebrews 11 and verse one. In verse five, the translation of Enoch. reminds us of a day when there will be a mighty translation of a living generation. It's marvellous, isn't it? Enoch, and to some aspects also Elisha, reminds us that there will be a time when the Lord will appear a second time. That's why I'm not worried or concerned about, and you possibly have experienced this down here in London, about these protestors, about our environment. Now, I'm interested in environment and the natural world, but the world is not going to end in that way whatsoever. And that's why I don't know how, maybe some of the older people would remember, slightly before my time and certainly before I was converted, about the missile crisis in the 1960s and the nuclear proliferation. Fears, and everyone seems to be afraid. And we have this young, I don't know, she's 16 year old now, being this great mouthpiece for climate change. I find it difficult to worry about that, to be concerned about it. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back to an earth that's still here. An earth that's not been destroyed by one thing or another. Okay, there might still be, there might still be local inundations of water. That is still allowable because the Lord promised that he would never again cover the world with water. But that doesn't preclude the natural disasters that we find around the world. But isn't that wonderful? When the Lord comes back again, there will be that meeting of the church for the first time. The whole church. Old Testament saints, New Testament saints, all with the same faith, together. Those who have died, and the soul has gone to be with the Lord, and those who are still living, the Enochites, who will be raised, changed, in the twinkling of an eye, which the Greek tells us is faster than a blink. So fast. The second aspect of things not yet seen. Abraham, verse 10, was a stranger and a pilgrim, one of the heavenly on earth as a colony of heaven. You've maybe heard that before, that we as Christians and the Christian church, we are but a colony here because this is not our home. This is not our rooted place. That's why we shouldn't be too attached to this world, because this is a temporary place, and we have a temporary, albeit short life also. So we're just a colony here, a witness of his love and mercy towards sinners. Abraham looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He looks for a city, we look for a city. Number three, all will then receive the promises mentioned in verse 13 and in verse 39. Those two verses should go together. They didn't receive the promise. They will receive the promises then. We shall receive the promises also. We shall receive the promises together. That is God's promise to us. Number four, we will all then find that country. Now a city's been mentioned, now that city is in a country, verse 14, which is a better country. and a heavenly country. So we know it's not things in this world through natural progression. Some of you might know that book by Lorraine Bettner. He was a reformed theologian from Westminster Theological Seminary. His book, The Millennium, speaks about all the great progress of political advance, medical advance, technological advance, all this, that the world will be made better, the millennium will be brought in by us. By us! No. We believe that the millennium will be brought in. when our Lord Jesus Christ comes back to this earth and then he will inaugurate, he will inaugurate the new kingdom, the external kingdom for that glorious 1000 years when his rule and his reign will be supreme and there will be none of this worrying about nuclear proliferation or climate change or whatever else may come in the next few years in our world. We look, we will find that better country. Number five, we will all enter into that prepared city. So we've seen it introduced there in verse 16, it mentions that we will enter into that prepared city. Now that's very interesting because when you look at it in the book of Revelation, it gives the details there of those who will be allowed into that city. I'll not expand on that further, time is going. But number six, as the bride of Christ, we will experience the better resurrection. And that is at the same time as the Enoch experience. The resurrection there, when we shall all experience the resurrection. The resurrection of the just, only of the just. The Lord is coming back for his sheep, for his friends, for his church, for his bride. And lastly, number seven, which I've hinted at already, in verse 40 of Hebrews 11, the United Church of all ages will be together for the first time. And it will be at the same time. because they will not experience it before us, we will not experience it before them, the dead will not experience it before the living of the Enoch age, all will experience at the same time. Conclusion. We should have heroes and heroines of faith. I've got my heroes. Most dead, mostly dead heroes. There's not many living heroes now that we can turn to. But we should have our heroes. Why? In Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 7, it tells us there Excuse me a minute while I find this spot. Hebrews 13 verse 7. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Also verse 17. Speaking of the same people, obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they might do so with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. And again the same group, verse 24, salute all them that have the rule over you and all the saints. the spiritual leadership of the church. It says, whose faith follow, considering their conversation, their conduct, their manner, character of life. But if you notice in verse 12, Sorry, verse 1 of chapter 12, and that's where we will take it up tonight in the next section. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Chapter 12 looks back into chapter 11 and says, look, here are these heroes and heroines of the faith. Here are these people that have gone before us, going through some of the same experiences that we have had, and maybe greater experiences than we will have, or greater difficulties. We should have these heroes. I think of... I've mentioned it before, great heroes of mine, Robert Murray McShane is one, Jonathan Edwards, great heroes of the faith, people that I have gained much from by reading and their example and their exhortations and their encouragements. You will have your heroes and heroines also, there are. Robert Muffet, the missionary, and William Carey. These are all great heroes. We should be telling people about these. We're living in a generation now when some Christians think the church began in 1950s, and they don't know the great legacy that we have of great Christians who have done great things, attempted great things for the Lord. As I mentioned earlier, How did these people do this? By faith. By faith. By faith. We are surrounded with this abundance. We should lay aside every weight and every sin and run the race and be patient.