open your eyes to what is real

8/19/2019 Open Your Eyes to What is Real

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“Open Your Eyes to What Is Real”

(Hebrews 11:1-16)

I. Introduction.A. Orientation.

Last week,

We were thinking about some of the things

We might use to motivate ourselves

To share the Gospel with others.

It’s one thing to know we need to do it,

And how to do it,

But it’s another actually to do it.

Usually, the only thing standing

Between what we should do

And what we actually do is motive/desire.

If we don’t want to do something, we won’t.

If we want to do one thing more than another,

We’ll do that instead.

But if we really want to do something,

It’s difficult to stop ourselves.

So what are some of the things the Lord has given us

To motivate us to evangelize?

We saw there are at least seven:


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This is why He made us and redeemed us –

This is the main reason we exist.

This is why we’re here.

This is the task He has given us –

It is our duty,

What we are to do in this world for His glory,

Something that is only for this world,

Before we rest from it forever.

Along these lines,

This is our only opportunity.

If this is what He wants us to do,

And we don’t do it,

There is also the matter of discipline –

But remember,

It will always be in love,

And for our good.

The Lord promised He would be with us

And give us success –

He is the Good Shepherd

Who goes before His sheep

To the end of our lives here.


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He has promised the blessing

Of greater and more immediate answer to prayer

If we’re willing to give ourselves to this work –

He will help us more, if we will yield more.

He has promised greater rewards in heaven,

Where no one can ever take them away from us.

When we consider how great the love is

Which He has shown us

In sending His Son to give His life for us,

To save us from hell,

When we were still His enemies,

How can we not be moved to do what He wants us to do?

And when we consider what will happen to those around us –

Our family, our friends, our neighbors –

If they should die in their sins –

How they will suffer forever in pain and anguish,

When they might be spared through the Gospel –

Again, how can we not tell them?

B. Preview.

Tonight, let’s consider something else we need

If any of these motives are to do us any good: faith.


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We need to believe these things are true.

We need the conviction, the certainty that they are.

To the degree we have it – we will be motivated.

To the degree that we don’t –

To that degree our desire to do this work

Will be weakened.

II. Sermon.

A. This is what faith is all about –

This is why God gave it to us:

So that we could see,

So that it would strengthen our conviction,

Increase our desire,

And move us forward.

The author to the Hebrews writes,

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”

(11:1).

We may tend to think

That living for God was easy

For those who lived during Biblical times.

They seemed to live

In full view of the reality –

For them, it appears as though seeing was believing.

Sometimes that was true.


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When God appeared to Adam and Eve

They didn’t have to struggle with whether or not He existed.

When Jesus revealed Himself to His apostles,

When they saw His miracles,

They seemed to have no room for doubt.

On the other hand,

There were many cases

Where seeing wasn’t enough.

Cain talked with God,

As Adam and Eve,

But he hated Him and killed his brother.

Judas was included with the twelve –

He saw and experienced the same things as the rest of them –

And yet he betrayed Jesus.

Many of the religious leaders of Israel saw His miracles

But viewed them as nothing more

Than obstacles to overcome

So they could put Him to death.

This is to say,

That seeing isn’t always believing –

Even if we could live

With all these things in front of our eyes,


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It wouldn’t be enough.

We need something more.

Think about the many who didn’t see

And yet believed.

God warned Noah about something

He had never seen and wouldn’t see

For about another 100 years.

Even though he didn’t see it,

He believed God,

Built the ark,

And saved himself and his family.

God promised Abraham

That He would give him and his children

The land of Canaan,

And on the basis of that promise,

He left his relatives and his home

And went out to receive that land,

Even though he had no idea where he was going.

God promised Abraham

That He would multiply his children

As the stars in the heavens,


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And as the sand on the seashore,

When he had no children,

And Sarah was barren.

And even though he had to wait

Until he was 100 years old,

And Sarah was 90,

He never doubted

That God would do what He said.

After Isaac was born,

God told Abraham to offer him as a burnt offering

On a mountain in the land of Moriah.

And Abraham was willing to do this –

He bound Isaac and laid him on the wood.

He raised his knife and would have killed him,

If the Lord had not stopped him.

He knew Isaac was the answer to his prayers,

And the fulfillment of God’s promise.

He knew that God was intending

To fulfill His promise

Of giving him many children through Isaac.

God’s command to offer him was against everything

He had promised Abraham,


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But Abraham was still willing to carry it out

Because he knew God was faithful.

There were those in Scripture

Who seem never to have heard the Lord’s voice audibly,

And yet, because they had heard it in His Word,

And knew what He wanted,

Were willing to pay the ultimate price to obey Him.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego

Were threatened with being burned alive

If they didn’t bow down and worship Nebuchadnezzar’s statue;

They refused to obey the King

Even though they didn’t have

A specific promise from God

That He would save them from that furnace.

But He did deliver them

Because they honored Him.

Why did the early Christians

Choose to be eaten alive by lions

Rather than offer a pinch of incense to Caesar and call him Lord?

Why was Luther willing to face

The church and government authorities of his day

At the risk of his life?


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What moved Calvin, Whitefield, Wesley,

Edwards, Spurgeon, Ryle and many others

To make the sacrifices they did to serve the Lord,

When they could have had a comfortable living

And made a name for themselves in this world?

It’s because they had a stronger faith.

They could see what was ahead more clearly –

The glory they would receive from God in heaven –

And because that’s what they wanted.

They felt the call of God on their lives more keenly,

And had the assurance that Christ was with them more powerfully.

They could see heaven and hell opened before them –

And they wanted to bring as many as they could to God,

And spare as many as they could from falling into the pit.

Faith is what kept them from being crippled by this world,

And moved them to push forward to what was ahead.

Thomas Manton summarizes this point in his sermon series on Hebrews 11,

“We should have such a faith to substantiate our hopes and to check sensuality, forwe find the corrupt heart of man is all for present satisfaction. Though the

pleasures of sin be short and inconsiderable, yet, because they are near at hand,

they have more influence than the joys of heaven, which are future and absent .We wonder at the folly of Esau to sell his birthright for a morsel of meat, (Heb.

12:16). When lust is up and eager for fulfilment, all considerations of eternal

glory and blessedness are laid aside to give it satisfaction.


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A little pleasure, a little gain, a little happiness in the world will make men part

with all that is honest and sacred. A man would wonder at their folly, but thegreat reason is, they live by sense: Demas, in love with this present world, hasdeserted me (2 Tim. 4:10). Here lies the bait, these things are present; we can

taste the delights of the world, and feel the pleasures of the flesh; but the

happiness of the world to come is a thing unseen and unknown. Let us eat anddrink, for tomorrow we die (1 Cor. 15:32).

This is the language of every carnal heart. Present advantages and vanities, though

they are small and but trifles, have more power to pervert us than good things at

a distance, and the promises of God, even, to allure and draw in our hearts toGod. Here lies the root and strength of all temptations; the inconveniences of

strictness in religion are present, and they may have present distaste and present

trouble to the flesh, and our rewards are yet future.

So, how can we check this living by sense that is so natural to us? Why, faith,

substantiating our hopes provides a remedy. Faith

makes things to become asreal as if they were already enjoyed. Where faith is alive and strong, and is theconviction of things not seen, it baffles and defeats all temptations.”

Edwards said this is the reason unbelievers

Aren’t as alarmed as they should be about hell:

To them it seems a long way off,

And so doesn’t appear as threatening,

While the things that tempt them are near.

The same can be true with us:

Heaven seems a long way off,

And so doesn’t move us to pursue it as we should.

Hell seems a long way off for the unbeliever

And so doesn’t move us to reach out to them as we should.

We need a faith that brings these things near,

That shows us how things really are,

And how short a time it will be


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Before our time to do anything about it is over.

So how can we strengthen our faith?

This is what I want us to consider next time.

But so that we’re not left entirely without help,

Let me just preview a couple of things:

God’s Spirit is the Author of faith –

He creates it,

And He strengthens it.

He is the One who takes what God has said

And shows us just how real these things are.

And so whatever we can do

To strengthen His work in our souls

Will at the same time strengthen our faith

And our ability to see as near

What now seems far away.

Two things we can do

To strengthen His influence

Is to read the Word –

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ” *Rom. 10:17) –

And to pray.

The more we do these things,

The stronger our faith will be.


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So let’s recommit ourselves

To seek the Lord in this way

And day by day grow in faith

So that the things He tells us are real

Will really influence our lives as they should. Amen.

http://www.gcmodesto.org

open your eyes to what is real

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