6-25-2023 Sunday Sermon Message



Meditations of the Week: Psalm 91:1-16



Text: Hebrews 12:1-2



Word title: Let us run looking forward to the day of the rapture!



           The writer of Hebrews testifies about a cloud of people of faith who lived before the appearance of Jesus Christ. They were all who fully believed in the things they hoped for. Also, through their faith, although invisible to people’s eyes,  it was evidence that the things they hoped for clearly exist.



          We need to know that many people of faith like this have been resurrected and have already ascended to heaven to surround us and encourage us by cheering us about how faith has been fulfilled. Today, as we hear their voices through the Word, we must test and confirm whether our lives are denying ourselves, fighting and winning against sin in a life of believing in Jesus Christ, taking up our cross, and following Him by faith.



       Abel offered with faith that a lamb had to be offered as a sacrifice for his sins in order for him to be righteous. Although his body died, God accepted Abel and his offering. But Cain, who gave his own righteousness to God, his offering was not accepted. God accepted Abel’s faith and counted him righteous.



        Enoch was shown as a type of Christians living a holy life that pleases God in the end times who will not face death, who watches for the day of Christ, the day of rapture, when the Lord Jesus Christ will appear to reward them at the Judgment Seat of Christ.



      Noah became a man of faith who saved himself and his family by preparing an ark for 120 years, believing in the warning that God would judge the world with a flood, even though it had never rained from heaven at that time. His faith is a warning message to Christians living in today’s harsh end times, and it is a foreshadowing of the faith that saved his family. The Holy Spirit gave testimony through the apostle Paul:



And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31 KJV)



         Apostle Peter testified of Noah as a preacher of righteousness:



And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; (2 Peter 2:5 KJV)



     The Word testifies about Abraham’s faith.



First, when he was called by God to leave for the land he was to inherit, he obeyed and left without knowing where to go (Hebrews 11:8).



Second, he waited for the city as long as there was a foundation. (Hebrews 11:10).



He believed in Jesus Christ, who was coming as his descendant, and foresaw the New Jerusalem, where the bride of Christ would live, and showed evidence that there is an invisible city. His faith was the evidence of the unseen.



Third, by faith Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when he was tested. He offered his promised only begotten Son.



He believed God could raise Isaac from the dead.



Because of this, God, who is the resurrection and the life, appeared as a man and personally spoke about the faith that those who believe in Him should have:



Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead,