…people in this category.  “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well [you’re right up with the demons]: the devils also believe and tremble.”  See, it’s not just a matter of believing in a god.  You must believe God.  “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?  Was not Abraham our father justified by works…” A different occasion.  Romans 4 refers to Genesis 15.  James 2 refers to Genesis 22.  A different occasion, a different requirement which required action.  He was justified by works when he offered his son upon the altar.  And that was a tough one to do wasn’t it?  He said, “Take your only son, the son that you love, and you go to a mountain that I will tell you of and there you sacrifice him for an offering.”  And we’ll see a little later on, why did he do it?  And every stinking rotten movie I’ve ever seen which shows that scene, especially the one with George C. Scott, was the most miserable thing that there ever was.  He went out and pounded his fist on a rock.  “Oh God, why did you ask me to do this”, and all this.  No, he quietly got up and said, “We’re going.”  And he took his son and he took the coals, and they went three days journey.  When they got there he told the two lads, he said, “Stay here, we’re going to go yonder and worship.”  So he loaded the one on Isaac, and as Isaac was following his father up the hill, Isaac said, “Father?”  He said, “What is it son?”  He said, “I see the wood and I see the coals.  Where is the lamb?” And he said, “God will provide, my son.”  So he got up there and made the altar and put the wood on the altar.  He bound his son, laid his son on the altar and reached down to get the knife.  Then the angel of the Lord called out and said to him, “Abraham.”  He said, “Here I am.”  Yes indeed.  He said, “Lay not your hand on the lad.”  So he turned around and lo and behold there was a ram caught in the thicket.  Now you know when they were climbing up that mountain and Abraham was looking everywhere, you know, where’s the sacrifice.  But he was willing to offer Isaac because he believed God, that since he received him from a dead body, his own, that He was also able to resurrect his son from the dead if he were required to go through it.

Now none of us have been asked that kind of task.  And I’m very thankful.  But that demonstrates how there is work to be done when the command is to do something.  Your faith is demonstrated by what you do.  Now you can carry that out in everything.  You can take any commandment of God that you desire and you can look at it and ask yourself, “What does God require me to do?”  It might be a good study for you.

His faith was made perfect, see.  Profound isn’t it?  Simple but profound.  “And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God” (vs. 23).  So here James does something very unusual.  He takes the first instance and carries that on through to show that he believed God that he was going to have the son.  He finally had the son.  Carried it right on through to the sacrifice of his son, and when he acted upon that his faith was made perfect.

Now what was the result of that?  Let’s go back to Genesis 22 and read it.  What was the result of that?  A very profound thing.  Genesis 22:15, “And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time.”  I want you to understand how profound this is.  First of all we need to understand, #1 - God cannot and will not lie.    So what ever He says is truth and is so.  Only men need to swear because we’re liars at heart.  So for God to swear is a very profound thing.  It gives an absolute unconditional guarantee that what God has promised is going to take place because of what Abraham did, irrespective of what his offspring would do.  So that’s why God still dealt with Israel, though Israel was always playing the harlot, though Israel always left God, because of the promise to Abraham right here.

“And said, By Myself have I sworn…” Now He can’t swear on the Bible because He’s greater than the Bible, and there’s none greater than God.  So when He swears by Himself what is He doing?  He is saying, “By My very existence this is going to be done.”  That’s something.  “By Myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, tine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven…” That’s the spiritual children which would come through Abraham, and that’s you.  And all of those that have the Spirit of God, you are the result of this oath and promise.  That’s why we sit here.  Isn’t that an amazing thing?  “…And as the sand which upon the sea shore [and all the multitude of the physical children of Israel, that’s what that applies to]; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed…”  #1- Christ, #2- Israel, #3- the Church.  They’re all three: Christ, Israel, the Church.  “…Shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice” (Gen. 22:15-18).  So you see there is faith with obedience and action to demonstrate and perfect that faith.

Now let’s come back to Hebrews 11.  And this is what’s so important for us today.  Brethren, if there’s any generation that is a faithless, Godless, God rejecting, Christ rejecting, absolutely just Satanic generation it’s the one that’s being formed right now.  You know how bad it is?  Children have their own pornographic websites where children are involved.  Now I mean children - 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, in sex acts using video cameras at home to put it into the computer to have their own pornographic website.  And I tell you what, when you start debasing the morals of children, and they start debasing themselves…  Now it all lays at Satan’s doorstep but I’ll hang a good number of that on Wilhelm Klinton because he can’t figure out what “is” is.  And all the kids have picked up on it, see.  One thing about kids, they will exploit every hypocrisy in your behavior and cast it up in your face, not knowing that later when they are adults they will have their own hypocrisy and maybe their own kids will cast it up in their face.

Now back to Hebrews 11.  “Now faith is the substance [hupostasis, the substance from God through His Spirit] of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  For by it the elders obtained a good report.  Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb. 11:1-3).  And that is an absolute scientific description of matter.  To this day they still don’t know what matter is.  Yet we walk all around it, don’t we, and we are part of it.  Isn’t that amazing?

“By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain…” That means he did it God’s way.  Now Cain probably had a fantastic offering that he worked for, that he developed.  Not according to the will of God.  And when he brought that before God, since it was not according to God’s will, God had no respect to it.  And I kind of liken his offering to, if you’ve seen any of these documentaries on Hinduism, which has degenerated into feeding monkeys and rats, you know.  That he brought some kind of offering to God that may have been very expensive, but he didn’t have enough faith to do what God said.  So it wasn’t accepted.

Now notice, “…by which he [Abel] obtained witness that he was righteous…” (vs. 4).  Righteousness is what?  All Thy commandments are righteousness.  If you are righteous you are obedient.  If you’re obedient you are faithful.  So what we need to do, which I am going to do in my teachings from now on…  I’m not going to back away from any of these doctrines of the world that are so called Christian.  They are faithless, man made, concocted doctrines which have nothing to do with God.  God’s word is truth.  If you don’t obey God’s word you don’t have faith.  Obedience is not a matter of trying to work out salvation.  True obedience from the heart is an expression of your faith, whether it be Sabbath keeping, or holy day keeping, or loving one another, loving God.  Whether it be tithes and offerings.  Whether it be your dress.  Whether it be your apparel.  Whether it be your hair.  Whether it be whatever, you see.   All of that is a matter of faith because God has said so and you believe God.

Now let’s continue on.  “By faith Enoch was translated [that is transferred] that he should not see death…”  Because they were trying to seek him to kill him.  So God just moved him conveniently to another place.  It says in verse 13, these all died.  So Enoch died, he’s buried.  “…And was not found, because God has [transferred] translated him: for before his [transfer] translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (vs. 5).  Now let’s talk about pleasing God.  Can you please God?  Is it possible to please God?  Yes, it is.  And that’s also a key to answered prayer, isn’t it?

Now hold your place here, let’s look at a couple of scriptures.  1 John 5.  What is one of the pleasant things that God says is pleasing to Him?  “How pleasant it is that brethren dwell together in peace.”  Yeah, may we have peace.  We’ve had enough hassles.  Now here in 1 John 5:14, “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us.  And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).

Now let’s come over here to 1 John 3:21.  “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not…” Now there are times when you go to God, when you sin a big blooper.  And we all do.  We all do, don’t we?  You feel ashamed.  You don’t want to go pray to God, do you?  That’s the time to go pray.  Exactly.  That’s the time to go to God and say, “Oh God…”, right then, “…forgive me.  I sinned.  I know I sinned…” Whatever.  You explain it to Him.  Because you see, if you don’t repent then you lose confidence, don’t you, because shame breeds lack of confidence, see.  So here in 1 John 3 it says if our heart condemn us not, see, “…then we have confidence toward God.  And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3: 21-22).  Do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

Now how can we do more things that are pleasing in God’s sight?  By work, by power?  No.  By Christ in us.  Christ said…what did He say?  “I always do the things that are pleasing to the Father.”  He loved Him, prayed to Him, kept His commandments.  And of course the great mission of Christ was something, you see.

Now let’s come back here to Hebrews 11.  So Enoch pleased God.  You know the world would like to have it that you can never please God, but that’s not true.  Humble heart, contrite spirit, trembling at the word of God.  Loving God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your being, that’s pleasing to God.  He looks down here on the earth, He knows those who has His Spirit.  He knows those who are His children.  And that’s all of us brethren.  He sees us gathered together on the Sabbath day to study His word, that He fellowships with us and we with Him.  That’s pleasing.  How many people are out there doing their own thing today, disregarding even if they know anything about the Sabbath or even care about God, going about doing what they’re doing?  So we can please God.

Now verse 6, very profound verse.  “But without faith it is impossible to please Him [because] for [the one who] he that cometh to God must believe that He is [that He exists], and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”  Now that’s what our job has to be brethren, to diligently seek God.  Now I know when you’re down and you may have troubles and difficulties and things like that that will come along.  Somehow you don’t feel like being diligent and you let a lot of little things crowd in.  And I know what that’s like.  I’ve done that, see.  And you’ve done that.  And do you remember how miserable you felt.  Yes, you do.  I know I do, I don’t know about you.  So when you finally come to yourself and come to your senses go to God and repent and ask God to forgive you and uplift you, strengthen you.  He’ll do that.  He knows we have our ups and our downs and things like that.  He knows our frame.  Look, when we come before God we are just, there we are.  He knows, see.  That’s why it’s important, that in spite of everything, and in spite of your sins, and in spite of the difficulties you go through, and whatever trial you have, know that God loves you.  Know that God wants you to have faith in Him in all circumstances.  All circumstances.

Now let’s look at just a few other scriptures here.  Let’s come to Galatians 5.  This is what God wants us to do.  Here’s what we need to focus on, verse 22.  “But the fruit of the Spirit is love…” First and foremost thing.  If things are going wrong in your life ask God for the love to get it straightened out.  If you’re having trouble in your marriage ask God to help you to see your own vanity and selfishness and lack of love, because nearly every difficulty in a marriage springs from self-serving.  We can all speak from experience, ok?  Every single one of us because we are all selfish in vanity with our human nature.  Isn’t that right?  Yes.  Let it be love.  Let that be love first everything.  And that has to be because everything else springs from that.  That’s what God has done in calling us.  Because God is love He has called us.  Because He is love He sent His Son.  Because He is love He loves us.  And because we need the kind of love that comes from Him He gives us His Spirit so we can do so.  Isn’t that an amazing thing?  That’s a truly an amazing thing, isn’t it?  Yes.  Love.

Then it brings the joy, see.  It doesn’t bring the joy until you have the love.  And you also get joy after there has been some correction because it brings the peaceable fruits of righteousness, and then peace.  That’s how you have peace of mind.  Peace with each other.  Peace with husband and wife.  Peace with your neighbor.  Now some neighbors are cantankerous and carnal.  You can never have peace with them.  But still love them.  You can love them at a distance.  {Laughter}  And like the Rabbi said to the young man who said, “Is there a blessing for the Tzar?”  He stroked his beard and thought on it and he said, “Yes.  May the Lord bless him and keep him far from us.”  {Laughter}  So in the case of your enemies and things like that, you pray for them that God will keep them far from you.  Those who are enemies, pray that they may even be converted.  Somebody must have been praying for Saul, don’t you think?

Longsuffering - now that’s a spiritual gift that you can endure whatever the trial is.  You suffer long.  And be longsuffering with each other.  Be forbearing with each other.  Give things some space and time and some distance.  Because there’s a problem don’t come crashing in.  You know like I’ve said before, if there’s a fly on the wall don’t use a 105-Howitzer to kill it.  {Laughter}  You destroy the house.  Sure enough the fly is gone but so it the house, see.  So don’t react too quickly.  Give it some space.  I’ve had to learn that.  In many cases the hard way.  Longsuffering.

Gentleness - now for some of us that comes real hard.  Gentleness, goodness, and faith.  Then that brings meekness.  You see, once you know that all of these things come from God then there is meekness, then there’s humility.  There doesn’t need to be exalting over anybody.  What is that going to accomplish?  Vanity breeds vanity, see.  Love breeds love.  Humility breeds humility.  That doesn’t mean you don’t have backbone.  That doesn’t mean you don’t stand for the truth.  No.  But you’re not braggadocio with your self.  Meekness, and temperance.  The reason he put temperance there that’s because it’s self-control.  And self-control is the hardest and last one, isn’t it?  What does it say?  James said if any man is perfect and able to bridle his tongue, he is able to bridle the whole body, because we all offend with our tongue.  See, because out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing.  See, no self-control.  And he says, brethren, these things ought not be so.  So if we have this kind of faith and look to God and ask for His faith and strive to do the things that are pleasing in His sight, though we fall short, God will add to us, God will bless us, God will strengthen us, and we can look forward to being in the Kingdom of God though we don’t yet see it.

Well, brethren, thank you for coming.  I’m happy to come out and see you here.