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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

Looking Unto Jesus

Father in heaven, thank you so much for seeing all of us safely through another week.

And Lord, as we're about to start our time together, we ask for your presence.

And we pray, oh Lord, that you would bless us, that you would illumine our minds, help us to understand the words that we're about to look at, that you would speak so clearly and directly to each and every 1 of our hearts this evening, O Lord, that truly we might be able to see Jesus amongst us today.

Thank you, O Lord, for we pray in Jesus' name.

I have the Bible texts for you on screen.

I've checked them before, so I'm pretty sure they're working.

But our text is found in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 39.

And we're gonna be reading a few verses obviously, but this is towards the end of chapter 11 of Hebrews.

The Bible says this, and these all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise.

Who are all these people that it's referring to?

It's Abel, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, Samuel, all these people that we've been studying for for these past few months.

It said all these people they obtained a good report through faith.

They all lived by faith and it says yet they did not receive the promise.

Look, it was faith that strengthened them.

It was faith that made them righteous and brought salvation to them.

It was faith that wrought in them and worked through them to do a good work and a mighty work for God.

But yet the Bible says they received not the promise.

Even though they obtained a good report by faith, they didn't receive the promise.

They believed the promise, but they didn't receive it.

Look, Abraham received the promise of a son but this is not the promise that God is referring to here in Hebrews 11 and verse 39.

They all received a good report through faith But they didn't receive this promise.

What was this promise that they did not receive?

Hebrews 11 13 to 16 look at this These all died in faith Not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country, and truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out from they might have had opportunity to have returned but now they desire a better country that is unheavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared for them a what?

Do you see there at the very beginning of verse 13?

They died in faith, they didn't receive the promise but they saw it afar off.

What was that thing that they saw a far off?

So even today Abel, Noah, Moses is in heaven, Abraham, David, all these great men that we find in the Old Testament and the great woman Rahab as well, and Deborah and the different people that we've studied throughout Hebrews 11, they received the promise, they heard about the promise, but they never received it.

They believed it They looked forward to heavenly Canaan, but they never got it In Revelation chapter 21 and verse 3, this is that place where God is not ashamed to be called their God.

And I heard a voice, great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God.

God can only truly be our God when sin is finally done away with.

At the end of time, Jesus Christ comes to claim us at his second coming and brings us up to heaven then this promise will finally be realized.

So the patriarchs in the old testament They received it in terms of having heard it and Jesus giving it to them face to face and through the spoken word and even the written word.

But it will not be realized until the second coming.

And that's the promise that Hebrews 11 is talking about, that everybody is looking forward to that they see it afar off, but yet they're not able to tangibly bring it to them and make it theirs in total fulfillment.

So it continues in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 40.

God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect.

God having provided something better for us that they without us, who is that?

Paul and those in the future even up to our time should not be made perfect without us.

There's a group of people in the Old Testament who is waiting for the fulfillment of that promise but yet it says God provided something better for us.

We'll look at it in a minute but you see you got to catch the essence of this verse.

Abraham, Noah, Abel, Jephthah, Gideon, Samuel, David, all these great men in the Old Testament and all these great women in the Old Testament, they died not having received the promise and they're waiting for you and me this evening.

They're looking for something to be fulfilled that would be fulfilled hopefully in our time but they were hoping would be fulfilled in their time back when they were living.

But God provided something better for us that they without us could not be made perfect.

Hebrews 12 verse 1 Wherefore, seeing we also, are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

Who are those witnesses that are compassing us about?

It's all those that we've been studying in Hebrews chapter 11.

They're waiting for us to do something that they without us cannot be made perfect.

You see, they're waiting for us, according to Hebrews 12 verse 1, they're waiting for us to lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us.

And they're waiting for us to run this race with patience or endurance.

Friends, how are we to run this race though?

We gotta lay aside every weight, we gotta lay aside every sin.

Noah, Abraham, all these great men and women in the Old Testament, this evening, are dead and buried in the grave and they're waiting for us to run this race.

They're waiting for us to lay aside our sins, to deny ourselves just like they denied themselves, to learn to truly live by faith.

You see, as we're studying Hebrews 11 this evening, the conclusion of it really brings it all the way down to our time.

It's the same way they would have run it, but we have a more tangible evidence.

In Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2, how do we run this race?

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who For the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." We got to run this race by looking unto Jesus, by keeping our eyes fixed on Christ.

This is the thing that was given to us that was something better.

Back in Hebrews chapter 11 at the end it said there God having provided something better for us that they without us could not be made perfect what was that it was Jesus Christ you see in the old testament all these people Abel, Moses, Abraham all these great men and women of faith, they did not have Jesus literally having come down to earth already as a man, as their Savior, dying on their cross and resurrecting and going back to heaven they didn't have any of that they just had words they just had promises they just had spoken words from an angel yes sure maybe from the written scripture that was already given to them at that time but that's all they had to rely on.

All these people died and Jesus had not even come for the first time.

Today we are waiting for his second coming.

Today we are looking back 2, 000 years and we have evidence, we have clarity that there was a man, that his name was Jesus, that he truly was a son of God, that he came and died for our sins, he conquered the grave, he conquered the devil and he's coming again 1 day for all of us we have the benefit of what hindsight to be able to look back into the past and see what the people in the Old Testament were looking forward to do you see that God provided something better for us why We've seen it with our own eyes.

The event has already happened in terms of confirming the promise that God would promise heavenly Canaan 1 day.

It would not be promised until Jesus would rise as a conqueror because if he didn't the devil would have won.

So the whole story has been written out already.

It's not something that we just have to hope for.

These things will become true clearly and truly 1 day at the second coming.

You see friends there's 1 really important lesson that we have to learn at this point.

When we study about the people in the Old Testament, when we look back and look at how they lived and How great their faith was, you've got to remember.

The promises that were given to them were not assured.

But today, our faith can be much stronger because Jesus has already come.

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Looking Unto Jesus

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