Lesson 23 The Witness of Faith

                                   The Witness of Faith

                                        Abel - Enoch - Noah

                                            Hebrews 11:1-7

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders received witness.” ... “Without faith it is impossible to please God; for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of those that diligently seek Him” (Heb.11:1-2, 6).

The faith is that which God has shown of Himself, that He might be made known, that man might believe that He is, and that He is the Rewarder of those who seek Him. Adam and Eve were the first ones shown what can be known of God.

Both Adam and Eve believed what God had made known, and each one was rewarded with eternal life. Each one, when presented with the hope of eternal life, received the One in whom is the redemption (see Gen.3:20-21; Rom.3:22-26). Each one offered eternal life in the Anointed Son of the Eternal Covenant, who was coming to die in their stead (see Heb.2:9-10; 1 Tim.2:3-6). Each one was accepted in the One coming to be man’s Substitute, the Lamb of God, who was slain before the foundation of the world (1 Pet.1:17-20; Rev.13:8; Heb.4:3).

Faith puts us immediately in touch with the spiritual realities. Faith has the power to make things hoped for so real we act as though they already are. Faith is the only way to please God. Pleasing God is the only way to live.

In his letter to the Hebrew believers in the assembly, the writer is encouraging them in their need of patience [endurance]. In a little while Jesus will come and establish the Kingdom (Heb.10:36-37). When Christ returns to earth a second time, apart from sin, unto salvation, it will be the salvation of His people, Israel (Heb.9:28; see Rom.11:26-27).

Israel rejected her Messiah and delivered Him up to be crucified (see Ac.2:22-40; 3:12-4:12). It was necessary for Jehovah to leave Israel in her sin as yet an unregenerate nation. The eternal inheritance promised to Abraham and to his seed must await the time of the resurrection and the regeneration of the nation Israel (see Is.66:7-9; Ezek.37:11-28; Mt.19:27-28).

Everything is timed. He appeared the first time upon earth in the fullness of time. God sent His Son, become of a woman, become under the Law (Gal.4:4). The first time Jesus came to put away sin once for all and to overcome death with eternal life (Rom.6:9-10; Heb.10:10-12). In The Resurrection of Life it would be seen that Christ has conquered death of the physical body of human flesh.

At His first coming, when He had by Himself purged our sins, Jesus ascended back to His Father in heaven and sat down on His right hand (Heb.1:2-3). Jesus, as the Son of Man, was received back into heaven, crowned with glory and honor (Heb.2:9; Phil.2:5-11; 1 Pet.3:22). He is just waiting until it is time to destroy all of His enemies and to set up His Kingdom (Ps.110:1; Is.66; Dan.7:13-27; Rev.11:15-18). His people will receive Him in the day of His power (Ps.110:3).

Jesus was always coming down to earth twice. It was a part of God’s Covenant plan. As the first coming was timed in the Covenant plan, so the second coming has a timing (Dan.2:44; 7:1-27; 9:24-27; 12:8-13; Mt.24:3-31).

In any age, the just, the righteous, shall live through faith. The literal Greek is “shall live out of faith” (Hab.2:4; Rom.1:17; Heb.10:38a).

Three great words in one short sentence:

The just -    those having been justified, made righteous and acquitted of all charges of sin and guilt.

shall live - in the Anointed Son of God’s Covenant, the hope of eternal life, the hope of glory. Those whom He justified, God also glorified.

  out of faith -   The righteousness of God is through faith in the Anointed Son of God’s Covenant.

The eternal God had a plan in mind, a plan which only He could bring to fruition. God Himself would work it out in time and history. The plan would be worked out in stages, called “ages.” The Hebrews, to whom the letter was written, were living after the first coming of the Anointed Son of God’s Covenant. It was the last days. God had spoken in Son (Heb.1:2). The last days end in judgment and the Hebrews were being warned. At His second coming Jesus will make a short work of His enemies in judgment. There will be the regeneration of the heavens and the earth, that His Kingdom of righteousness may be established a Kingdom of righteousness and peace (see Is.65:17-66:6). God has had His say in the age of the last days before the judgment on His enemies.

God’s last word to man was: His Son, the Word, who is God, who was in the beginning with God, the Son in whom is eternal life and the Life that is the Light of men (Heb.1:2; Jn.1:1-4). The Seed of the woman coming as promised (Gen.3:15). From the beginning God, in former ages, spoke through His prophets, the first two being Adam and Eve (Heb.1:1; Ac.3:18, 21). The true prophets of God’s nation Israel spoke for their God. They spoke the words of their God, Jehovah. They made known what God had to say (see Is.45:11-46:11; 48:3-17; Jer.7:25; 25:4-5; 26:5; 29:19; 35:15; Amos 3:7; Lk.1:70; 1 Pet.1:10-12; 2 Pet.1:19-21).

God sent His Son to His people, the sons of Israel, the twelve tribes who made up the nation. Jesus came to His own people, His kindred. Jesus was a son of David, a son of Abraham, but His own did not receive Him (Mt.1:1; Jn.1:11). Here was the Son of God, sent as the Son of Man exactly as He had been pictured in the Law, sent as prophesied by God’s spokesmen, the prophets of old (see Lk.24:25-27, 44-48; Ac.3:13-24; Rom.3:21-22). The Father’s own witness to Jesus was, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him” (Mt. 17:5). Yet His own people would not receive Him.

Here was the promised Prophet, like unto Moses. God spoke through His prophet Moses, “I will raise up unto them [the people] a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto you, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall not hearken unto My words which He shall speak in My name, I will require it of him” (Deut.18:18-19).

It is written, “But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like unto Moses, whom Jehovah knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders which Jehovah sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, and by all that mighty hand, and all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel” (Deut.34:10-12). Nor would there be such a prophet until Jesus, the  Anointed Covenant Son, came (see Jn.1:19-23; 7:40; Ac.3:22-26). The Jews of Jesus’ day had this teaching of the Pentateuch. When the Jews sent a delegation of priests and Levites from Jerusalem to John the Baptist to ask, “Who are you?”, they asked him, “Are you that Prophet?”, proving that they were looking for the Prophet like unto Moses (Jn.1:15-22).

Jesus was a Prophet raised up from among His own brethren, a Prophet like unto Moses, to be the Redeemer-Deliverer of His people (see Mt.1:1-23). Jesus’ own testimony was, “I have not spoken of Myself: but the Father, who sent Me, He gave Me commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life; whatever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak” (Jn.12:49-50; see Is.50:4).

The writer to the book of Hebrews does not give a definition of faith, but rather more of a description of faith. God has made promises to mankind based upon a Covenant made with Himself (Tit.1:2; 2 Tim.1:9-10; Heb.13:20). The things promised were unseen and yet future in the beginning (Heb.11:1-3, 39). “The Heavenly Revelation of the coming Son of the Eternal Covenant” was declared in the stellar heavens for all to see and hear (Gen.1:14-19; Job 9:6-9; 38:31-33; Ps.19:1-6; 97:6; 147:4; Is.40:26). “The Heavenly Revelation” was taught to Adam and Eve personally and from them to their children. The righteousness of God through faith in the Anointed Son of the Eternal Covenant is made known from faith to faith (Rom.1:17).

God promised the hope of eternal life in the Son. In the former ages, Jehovah had shown through “types” and “figures of the true” how He was going to carry out His plan. In this way, it could be seen to the understanding through faith. With the eyes of the understanding opened, the shadow types and promises had substance. Through the shadow types, the promises had Substance in the Anointed Covenant Son who was seen in “figures of the true” (see Heb.9:1-26; 8:1-6; Jn.1:14-18, 45; 5:39-40).

The Substance is only seen to faith. One must be willing to take God at His word. Through believing the One who sent Jesus, the spiritual realities are made real to the understanding. Faith puts us in immediate touch with the unseen. With the eyes of the understanding having been enlightened, we see with understanding, we comprehend what God is making known of Himself (1 Cor.2:9-14; Eph.1:17-20). The hidden mysteries are revealed in the word pictures.

“Through faith we understand that the ages were framed [or fashioned, or prepared] by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb.11:3). The “word” of God here is not the Greek word logos, with reference to Jesus as the Word, as God (Jn.1:1-4, 14-18). The Greek word is rhema, “a saying,” or “words spoken.”  Through God sending prophets to speak for Him and through the record of the written words we understand the ages were planned by God.

The writer wrote “we,” including himself with those of the assembly having had the eyes of their understanding enlightened to see that the ages were arranged by God speaking. The work of the redemption of God’s creation of mankind was a very carefully laid out plan. As already stated, the work was to be carried out in stages called “ages.”

The plan began before the eternal ages. Elohim  said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness” (Gen.1:26a). God the Son would become the Servant of the Father and take the likeness of man to become man’s Substitute in death, that man could be raised up out from the dead to live forever (Phil.2:5-8; Rom.8:3; Heb.2:5-17).

In the Son, the Father would have a willing Servant, one perfectly obedient Son, a Son whom He could accept (Jn.5:19-21,30; 6:38; 7:16; 8:28-29). Whosoever believed into the Son could be accepted with the Son (Jn.3:16; 6:39-40; Eph.1:6). The one united to the Anointed Covenant Son through faith would have his sins put on the Son. The Son became sin for mankind, that whosoever will would become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor.5:21). United with Him in His death and His burial, one will also be of resurrection. His death is our death and we are raised up in His likeness, conformed to the image of God’s Son in a forever living body in the image of God (Rom.6:3-10; 8:29; Phil.3:21).

In each age, God spoke these truths through His true prophets (Ac.3:18-24; Lk.1:67-70; 1 Pet.1:9-12; 2 Pet.1:20-21). Through faith the eyes of the understanding are enlightened to see what is being said. The reason is instructed by the witness of the Holy Spirit. Faith is not irrational. Faith is not illogical. Faith is not unreasonable. In fact, faith is an intelligent grasp of the facts.

Faith furnishes the necessary starting point for a coherent understanding of that which can be seen by faith alone. Faith hears the words of the Anointed Covenant Son and is persuaded of the truth and the wisdom and power of God being shared in what God has to say. Hearing the words of the Anointed Covenant Son and with the eyes of the understanding having been enlightened, one sees the righteousness of God being offered for putting one’s faith in the blood of the Anointed Covenant Son. Being justified through faith, and having become righteous in the Anointed Covenant Son, and taught of the Spirit, living righteous becomes as natural and as necessary to the well-being of own’s soul as breathing is to the well-being of own’s body.

Man’s wisdom cannot correct one. Man’s wisdom cannot tell me what is good for me. Man’s wisdom cannot tell what is wrong with humanity. It cannot tell us why we act the way we do. And what is an even greater mystery is why our children act the way they do, even from birth. Man has come up with his answers, but society is yet in chaos and the chaos is growing.

God’s wisdom tells us these things. Man’s wisdom does not tell us why God allows evil. God’s word tells us. Man’s wisdom does not tell us how history will play out, but God’s word does. Through God’s word one’s intellect is instructed.

What our physical eyes and ears and all of our physical senses press in upon us from the world around us is made real to us. What we can see and hear and taste and touch and smell seems real. But it is all changing. It is all passing. We have to take in what the Holy Spirit is pressing in on us through the word of God, to put us in touch with the spiritual realities to see with our understanding, to hear the voice of the Spirit witnessing to the truth, to taste and see that Jehovah is good and to savor the sweetness of His Presence (Ps.34:8; see Heb.3:7-8; Rev.2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). When one takes hold of the spiritual realities, they take hold of you.

The spiritual realities are eternal. As can be seen in Ecclesiastes 3:14, everything that God does is eternal, forever. Nothing can be added to it by man and nothing can be taken away from it. All is done by God and for God and through God. Yet it is done through God speaking and a man who believes God doing as God says.

The eternal God is the first Person whom you meet in Scripture. Before time began, there He was. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen.1:1). God is the Origin of everything brought into being. “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made” (Jn.1:3). God is the Source of all things He made.

Paul wrote to the Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek [Gentile]. For in it is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live out of faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has shown it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Rom.1:16-20).

The invisible things are clearly seen. How?  They are understood by the things made. The things made are “types,” figures of the unseen spiritual realities (see Rom.5:14b; Heb.8:5; 9:9, 24; 1 Pet.3:21). The unseen spiritual realities can be understood in the way they are shown, through the things made to picture the reality. What is seen in understanding the spiritual reality is God’s eternal power and Godhead.

With understanding, one is taken into the unseen eternal realm. With understanding, one sees the eternal plan of the Godhead. One sees that it takes all three persons of the Godhead to carry out the plan. One sees that there is one God in three persons (see Is.48:16; Mt.3:16-17; Jn.14:16-26; 15:26; Col.1:19; 2:9). There is One Essence, Deity, but there is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. All three One Essence, one mind. All Three in One are Love and Light and Life. All of one will. All one - no division - no separation of thought, desire or will.

With the understanding of the things made one sees the eternal power of God to carry out what He had in His plan. God did not begin to build, He did not lay the foundations of the earth without being able to bring regeneration to the heavens and the earth. He did not go to war with His enemies without being able to destroy them and set up His Kingdom of peace and righteousness (see Lk.14:28-32).

In the first chapter in the book of Romans we learn that the things made give us understanding of the invisible realities. The visible is showing forth God to make Him known. In the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews we are told that the things which are seen are not made of things appearing; that is, the things not seen to the senses, but to the understanding in the very spirit of one’s being.

What are the things seen in the spirit with understanding made of?  Faith. God has faith in Himself and in His plan of having sons of God in His image. We understand God’s planning the ages through what He works through faith, through men who will believe Him to see, men who heard the promises of the unseen future things and believed the Promiser (see Heb.11:8-40; Rom.4:13-24). They saw the visible types and they believed that He is and that if they came to Him, He would reward them with the promises, the promise of righteousness and the promise of eternal life. The things done in the Eternal Covenant and promised to faith were brought into being and seen as done through men of faith who chose to believe in God’s doing - age after age.

Faith sees and faith acts. In God’s word we see God’s faithfulness to Himself as we see the things God worked out through men of faith. We see the faithfulness of God, who has shown Himself faithful to the ones believing Him and entrusting themselves to Him. We see faith at work and God accomplishing His plans down through the ages to have sons of God, conformed to the image of His begotten Son, the image of God, that He might be the Firstborn of many brethren (Rom.8:29; Heb.2:9-17).

Through faith the men of old received witness to having lived out of faith in receiving the eternal life in the Son (Heb.11:1-2). The writer of the book of Hebrews lists men of old who, in different ages, lived out of faith. Men who came to God believing that He is, and God rewarded their faith with righteousness and eternal life. The writer chose three men who lived in the Antediluvian Age, before the Flood with its waters of judgment. The writer did not begin with Adam or with Eve, the ones to whom Jehovah Elohim had manifested Himself in a pre-incarnate appearance and who spoke to them personally (Gen.1:27-3:24).

Instead, for the beginning, the writer chose to speak of the first set of twins conceived and birthed by Eve. He chose men to whom God is invisible and must be made known through the things made and through the word of God taught by someone who can reveal the hidden things of the types, men who must take God at His word, and believe what He has said. “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 speaks” (Heb.11:4).

Abel had not seen the Anointed Covenant Son. Yet, when he heard the words of the Anointed Covenant Son taught by his parents, he believed that the unseen God is and he believed that God would reward him with righteousness and eternal life if he came to the unseen God through His unseen Anointed Covenant Son. Abel heard the voice of the Spirit in the words spoken by his parents and his understanding was enlightened to see what he could not see with his physical eyes. Abel put his faith in the blood of the coming Anointed Covenant Son to cleanse from all unrighteousness and he brought the offering which spoke of the Propitiation set forth by God (Rom.3:22-26; 1 Jn.2:1-2; 4:9-10). “And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering” (Gen.4:4).

In type, as he had been instructed, Abel offered to God the excellent Sacrifice of the One coming to die in his stead (Heb.2:9-10; Col.1:20-22; 1 Pet.1:17-21). Abel asked to be accepted in the coming Anointed Covenant Son. It was not just the firstlings of his flock and the fat that Abel offered. The sacrificial offerings, Abel’s gifts,  spoke of the One in whom Abel had put his faith to receive eternal life and to again be clothed with skin after his earthly body had returned to dust (see 2 Cor.5:1-4). And it was seen that God accepted Abel with his offering. Thus God witnessed that Abel was righteous.

We see the true worship of God in spirit and truth in Abel (see Jn.4:24). What made these things seen?  The word of God. There is the evidence of the power of God through the gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son, the power of God unto salvation, through the words of the Anointed Covenant Son to the one believing. Abel understood that the new body would be raised up out from the dead body. Abel lived out of faith. Abel will be raised up in the last day, the day of the resurrection of the righteous, The Resurrection of Life (Lk.14:14; 20:34-38; Jn.5:25-29; 6:39-40; 11:23-24; Ac.24:15; Rev.20:6).

In Cain, we see that the gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son has no effect in the life of one who refuses to come to God through the blood of the Anointed Covenant Son. “And in process of time [at the end of days, a set time] it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto Jehovah” ... “Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering He did not have respect. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. And Jehovah said unto Cain, ‘Why, or, for what reason are you angry?  And why is your countenance fallen?  If you do well, shall you not be accepted?’” (Gen.4:3-7a).

As was Abel, Cain was born in the dark concerning the spiritual realities. The natural man is born with darkened understanding, blind to spiritual realities (see 1 Cor.2:14; 2 Cor.4:4). The blind man does not see things in the wrong light. The blind man does not see at all. He is in the dark. It is not that Cain saw the sacrifices in the wrong light. Cain did not see with understanding the sacrifice of the animal offered as a figure of the coming Son of the Covenant, whose blood cleansed from all unrighteousness.

Cain rejected the gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son preached by his parents (see 1 Jn.3:12; Jude 10-11). He could not see his need of salvation offered in the gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son. He would not. Cain had faith in his own person. A blind man cannot see at all, but he has his imagination. Not seeing, he can imagine.

God witnessed to Abel becoming righteous by receiving Abel with his gifts (Heb.11:4). Abel’s gifts were the evidence of his faith. Abel, believing the words concerning the Anointed Covenant Son, brought God the proper gifts. Abel’s gifts of sacrifice showed his faith in the blood of the coming Anointed Covenant Son as his only hope of eternal life. The Anointed Covenant Son would come and take the consignment of the death of the earthly body of human flesh to return to the dust of the ground passed upon becoming lifeless (Gen.3:19). Death passed through to all  men (see Rom.4:25-5:14; Col.2:14; 1 Pet.3:18). The shed blood was the evidence of the death required in the transgression. Abel accepted the Substitute provided by God. When his parents shared this truth with Abel, it was good news to Abel. The Anointed Covenant Son would become sin for him, that he might become the righteousness of God through faith in the coming Anointed Covenant Son (see 2 Cor.5:19-21). That was good news to Abel. Abel united himself to the coming Anointed Son of the Covenant in His death, burial and resurrection (see Rom.3:22-26).

The writer makes the point that we see Abel, though long dead, yet speaking. God is still using Abel as the evidence that the just shall live out of faith. All down through the ages here is Abel witnessing to the worship of faith in spirit and in truth (Jn.4:24).

God had Moses record His witness to the faith of Abel. In the record of “The Book of the Law,” in the account in Genesis, God witnessed to Abel’s faith and to the reward of that faith with righteousness and life. And the record is still a witness to the worship of Abel. Abel is still telling of the true worship of God through faith in God’s only begotten Son, the Anointed Son of God’s Eternal Covenant.

And we see that righteousness is from faith to faith (Rom.1:17). Abel, hearing the words of the Anointed Covenant Son from his righteous parents, heard the voice of the Spirit, to see in the spirit of his being with his understanding the reality of the invisible things clearly to be seen in the “types” and “figures of the true.” And Abel believed to experience the power of God in the gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son unto salvation. Having become righteous through faith in the blood of the Anointed Covenant Son, Abel could see the things planned by Jehovah Elohim to be carried out down through the ages to come, things not appearing to the senses. Things seen only to faith. One believes to see. Seeing, Abel became a prophet of righteousness. Abel could make God known through the things he could see in his understanding.

Faith enables God to use His power of salvation on our behalf, His power to make us safe from the condemnation to come, to heal us from sin-sickness. His power to justify us, to make us righteous and acquit us from all charges of sin and guilt (Col.2:11-15). His power to glorify those whom He has justified. And His power to instruct us in righteousness and teach us the deep things of God, that we might live righteous and pleasing to Him (1 Cor.2:9-16).

The next antediluvian saint chosen for a witness by the writer to the Hebrews was Enoch. Enoch was seven generations from Adam (Jude 14). Adam, the first generation, Enoch, the seventh. In Scripture, “seven” is the number of “completion.” Enoch was born in the godly line of the preachers of The Way of God to do righteousness and justice (Gen.5). The preachers were descendants of Adam’s son, Seth, “the appointed” (Gen.4:25-26).

“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Heb.11:5). The King James uses the word “translated” for the Greek metatithemi. The Greek has the meaning of “denoting a change of place or of condition. To put in another place, or condition; hence, to translate, transport, transfer.”

The writer was using the Septuagint version of Scripture for his Old Testament reference. Around 250 b.c. the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek by seventy Hebrew scholars; hence, the name Septuagint [“70"]. Rather than reading “Enoch walked with God” as the Hebrew has it, the Septuagint reads “Enoch was well-pleasing to God” (Gen.5:22, 24).

God gave testimony to Abel being righteous and He gave testimony to Enoch as being well-pleasing to Him. Each one was witnessed to as a man who lived out of faith. Faith is what pleases God (Heb.11:6). In their age, both Abel and Enoch were well-pleasing to God. Out of faith each one became the righteousness of God through faith in the Anointed Son of the Covenant, who became sin for them. The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world (Rev.13:8). The coming Anointed Covenant Son Himself was the object of both Abel’s and Enoch’s faith. The Anointed Covenant Son Himself having become righteousness to each one, the Anointed Covenant Son Himself was the assurance of the hoped for promises of the gospel being fulfilled to Abel and to Enoch (see Rom.8:14-30; 1 Cor.1:30). The Anointed Covenant Son was their only hope of the body of eternal flesh and bone being raised up out from the dead mortal body in The Resurrection of Life (see Jn.5:21-29; 11:25-27; Rev.20:6).

The key phrase in Genesis 5, where the preachers of righteousness are listed, is “and he died.”  But in Genesis 5:24 we read, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him.” The Septuagint version reads, “And he was not found, for God translated him.” Though it is not used in most Bible versions, the Greek text has the definite article “the” before God - the God. That is the God, the Elohim, who had made Himself known to faith. We are not told why God removed Enoch from the earth, but the writer to the Hebrews tells us that Enoch had this testimony of God that Enoch was well-pleasing. God was pleased to have Enoch with Him.

Abel is a witness to the worship of faith in spirit and in truth. Enoch is a witness to the walk of faith in fellowship with the Father and with the Son. Enoch walked worthy of his high calling as a son of God. His Father God took Enoch up from the earth. He removed Enoch from the field of the world. We are not given any details.

It is here in the letter written to the Hebrews that the writer has a word to say about pleasing God. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb.11:6).

Obviously the writer is speaking of the God of the Scriptures, the God of men of faith, the God who had shown what could be known of Himself that man might be without excuse for not believing Him. This is the God to whom each one must come believing that He is, and believing that He is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Each one named by the writer as having come unto God believing that He is. Though they had not seen Him with physical eyes, they had heard His promises, and through having the eyes of their understanding enlightened, they saw Him afar off and put their faith in His blood, to be rewarded with righteousness and eternal life (see also Heb.11:13-16). The assured hope of glory in a forever living body was theirs. Whom God has justified, those He also glorified with a body to be raised up out from the dead body (Rom.8:30b).

The Anointed Covenant Son was coming, the Seed-Grain for a forever living body (Jn.12:23-24; see Jn.11:25-27). Then He would come a second time to redeem the bodies sealed with the spirit of eternal life. It was all there to be seen in “the figures of the true” (see Heb.9:23-28; Rom.5:14). God making Himself known through the pictures in the figures. First, all was recorded in and declared by the heavens in “The Heavenly Revelation of the Son of the Eternal Covenant.” With God’s nation Israel, the Ceremonial Law was given and practiced as the worship of God’s own people. And it was all recorded for God’s people, the sons of Israel, who kept the record down through the ages. Each one of these men of old had the witness of God written in “The Book of the Law” or in the record continued by the Hebrew writers of the history and Psalms and poetry and by the prophets of Israel (see 1 Pet.1:3-12; 2 Pet.1:19-21; Lk.1:70; Ac.3:21; Rom.3:21).

The God who accepted the gifts of Abel and declared him righteous, who was well-pleased with Abel in his worship and with Enoch in his walk, is [He has being], and He is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Whether one is martyred for the sake of righteousness or one is removed from the earth by God Himself, the reward is righteousness in the Anointed Covenant Son and eternal life, a forever living body in the image of the heavenly, conformed to the image of the Son of God’s Love. One is birthed a son of God in a forever living body.

But without faith, there is no reward. God is not pleased with those who draw back, as seen in the Greek, which is a picture language. In Hebrews 10 the writer pictures drawing back as a sailor deliberately taking in sail when he should be putting out every stitch of canvas to catch the breeze and move forward. And as a result of striking sail, he is becalmed and does not reach the harbor of safety - the Kingdom of sons of God (see Heb.10:38-39).

For those who have taken in the full knowledge of the witness to the Anointed Covenant Son, the Christ, and, hearing the words of the Anointed Covenant Son, refused to believe the One who sent Him, there remains no more sacrifice for sin (Heb.10:26; see Jn.5:23-24). Having drawn back when they should have put out full faith to catch all that the wind of the Spirit was carrying them to. When He would have enlightened the eyes of their understanding as to who God is, they becalmed themselves in the flesh to their own destruction. They will receive a just recompense (see Heb.10:20-31).

When one’s ears have heard the words of the Anointed Covenant Son, and the eyes of the understanding have been enlightened to the truth of what can be known of God, that which has been shown of God, the heart should have been convinced by the evidence that God is, and one should have come to Him to lay hold of all that He has promised, and to be rewarded with righteousness and eternal life.

They that are in the flesh cannot please God. They cannot. For the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to God, neither indeed can be. They that are after the flesh are minding the things of the flesh. To be fleshly minded is death (see Rom.8:5-13).

Sin essentially is lawlessness (1 Jn.3:4). Sin is not ignorance of God’s Law. Sin is a revolt against God having the say. Sin is self-will. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. God made an exodus out of the flesh for all mankind (Rom.4:25-5:11; Tit.2:11; 1 Jn.2:1-2). Man is responsible to take the exodus (see Jn.3:14-21). Come to God, believing that He is, be rewarded with righteousness and eternal life.

There are two ways to walk through life in this world, but only one is pleasing to God (Rom.6:4; 8:1-13; 12:1-2; 2 Cor.5:7; Gal.5:16-25; 1 Jn.1:5-10). The other way is to walk in darkness. That is what men call “by sight”; that is, everything based on what you can see and understand through the senses. Everything is based on judging according to the flesh. You show it to me and I will believe it, man says.

Walk in light, believe to see, believe that God is, and  become the righteousness of God through faith in God’s Anointed Covenant Son and have the Holy Spirit come to live in your earthy tent with you and guide you and lead you in all the truth as He glorifies Christ, and keep walking in the light to see the spiritual realities (Tit.3:5; Eph.5:8-17). In this way, men are witnessed to in this world either as having lived in the flesh by sight, minding the things of the flesh, or as having lived out of faith, rewarded with righteousness and a forever living body, to be conformed to the image of God’s Son (Rom.8:29).

The worship of faith is in spirit and truth.

The walk of faith is in fellowship with the Father and with the Son.

The work of faith is in loving obedience to the will of God.

Such faith as Abel’s and Enoch’s exerts its influence over others who follow them in faith to believe in the righteousness provided man in the Anointed Covenant Son and to live out of faith. In this way, the Good News was passed down to Noah, who becomes the third antediluvian witness of the writer.

In Noah, we see the faith that works through Love. Faith takes instruction from God and goes to work in obedience to the word of God. In Noah, we see how God could continue to carry out His plan of redemption to His end, though all mankind should turn against Him.

The Genesis record tells us that “Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah” (Gen.6:8). When Jehovah looked at Noah, He saw a man of His grace saved through faith. “Noah was a just [righteous] man and perfect [complete] in his generations, and Noah walked with God” (Gen.6:9).

Wherever you find grace, you will find someone who has faith. “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the Gift of God” (Eph.2:8). Grace is the great favor that God has done us in the Anointed Covenant Son Jesus. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life,” a forever living body (Jn.3:16; 1 Cor.15:44). The believer’s whole life from start to finish is a miracle of God’s grace - His undeserved favor done in love.

Where you find faith, you will find a justified man become righteous. “Being justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Anointed Covenant Son” (Rom.5:1). Wherever you find a justified man, you will find a perfect [complete] man, a man who lived out of faith to have a forever living body in the resurrection. Noah was such a man. Noah lived in the generation before the Flood and He also lived in the generation after the Flood.

The point of the writer concerning Noah being, to show the work of faith: “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear [a reverential awe], 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” (Heb.11:7).

The preachers in Noah’s family were prophesying of a coming judgment. It was not yet seen; it had not yet come, but when it became necessary to prepare an ark of safety, Noah was warned of God to begin building the ark. God can warn anyone who believes Him and reveres Him and walks with Him (see Amos 3:7; Dan.9:20-12:13).

Noah had faith and a godly reverence. Faith believes God to be in charge of history. Faith believes that God Himself has planned the ages, believes what God says to be so and acts accordingly. Faith worships and walks and works according to the truth on the basis of God’s word. Faith desires to be right with God and, in fellowship, listens to what God has to say. Faith believes that God cannot lie and one gives the whole heart and soul to do what God wills.

“Noah prepared an ark to the saving of his household.” Noah made his household safe from the condemnation of the judgment of the waters in the way in which he was instructed by God. The ark was the only place of safety. The waters that covered the earth lifted the ark with the eight souls above the earth, above all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven (Gen.7:11-20).

The point is not that Noah and his family escaped death by drowning. The real point is that Noah and his family were the only people to come through the judgment of God, a judgment upon all flesh that had corrupted its way upon earth (Gen.6:12-13; 1 Pet.3:18-20).

In preparing an ark to make his family safe, Noah showed the whole world to be condemned by God. The whole world of mankind in the flesh had been judged guilty and condemned to destruction by God. Man in the flesh a condemned creation; not suitable for use in the purpose intended by God that man should be in His image (Jn.3:3-8; 1 Cor.15:50-57).

The same waters that saved Noah and his family by lifting them up off the earth drowned the world in which they had lived upon earth. In the ark, Noah and his family made their escape from that condemned world. They made their exodus from a defiled creation under Divine judgment condemned to destruction. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom.1:18).

Noah and his family came through the waters of Divine judgment to a whole new beginning upon a cleansed earth. God’s earth had been washed clean of corruption. The world in which they had once lived was gone, destroyed by the judgment. The Flood of waters of the Divine judgment was God’s way of cleansing His earth from a corrupt and violent world.

The Flood was a righteous judgment, the work of a holy and just God upon sinners who stubbornly refused to repent, who refused to change their minds to agree with God in His way to do righteousness and justice in His Anointed Covenant Son. Unrighteous men were destroying themselves. The Flood was an act of severe mercy and love to rid God’s earth of unspeakable wickedness and to save the household of His Son. The salvation was accomplished through the obedience of one righteous man, Noah. Noah’s sons and their wives were saved to repopulate the earth, that in their progeny God might have sons of God in His image, after His likeness, and that He might have a family through whom His coming Anointed Son could be birthed.

Noah became heir to the righteousness which is according to faith. Noah was the last prophet of the antediluvian saints. Noah alone had the light of the knowledge of the glory of God as seen in the face of the Son of the Covenant, as revealed in “The Heavenly Revelation.” The gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son, the power of God unto salvation, was the family heritage to be treasured. The gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son was taught in the Law of the Offerings. The hope of eternal life was seen in “the figures of the true,” the shadow picture of the Substance.

The heir comes into possession of the inheritance on the death of the testator (see Heb.9:15-17). Noah’s father Lamech died five years before the Flood (Gen.5:28-32; 7:11). When Noah’s grandfather Methuselah died, the Flood was sent. Noah was then the sole possessor of the treasure of the knowledge of the glory of God as seen in the face of the Anointed Covenant Son. He held the treasure in his earthen vessel, his body of flesh (2 Cor.4:6-7). It is most likely that Noah also carried written records on the ark. That was long before Moses’ time, and Moses had the record of the antediluvian saints.

Noah, as the steward of the treasure, was entrusted to dispense out of the Master’s treasure. Noah heard the gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son from the faithful witness of those in his family who had believed that God is and that He rewards those who come to Him believing that He is with righteousness and eternal life. Noah took the treasure on board the ark with him to be preserved. The words concerning the Anointed Covenant Son must be watched over carefully and preserved.

There is only One Way to be made alive unto God. The righteous shall live - receive eternal life for the body out of faith in God’s Anointed Son, Christ Jesus. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God seen in the face of the Anointed Son is shared from faith to faith. The righteousness of God is seen in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is shared through the preaching of the gospel of the Anointed Son [Christ].

Mankind must hear and see to believe. The light of the knowledge of God is shined into the heart of one in the flesh of the earthen vessel. That one takes the knowledge into his mind, but the light of the knowledge of the glory must penetrate to the very spirit of one’s being. One must not shut the light out. One can only see in the light the reality of the God who is offering eternal life for the body through righteousness. The righteousness and the eternal life are in the begotten Son of God and freely offered as a gift to be freely received as a gift (Rom.5:12-21). The outshining of the glory is seen in the enlightenment to the knowledge of God’s Way of righteousness and eternal life.

Those of us who have received this treasure and hold it in our earthen vessels must let the light shine that others may see the power of God to make His creation of mankind safe from perishing. They will be drawn to the light and open their hearts to the light of the knowledge of God to let the light in and obey the truth to be born from above of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us (2 Cor.4:3-7). We are merely light-givers (see Phil.2:12-16). Down through all the ages the gospel of God’s Anointed Son is the power of salvation to whosoever believes God is.

This concludes our lesson.