Well, good morning.
I would like you to turn to some familiar verses. First of all, the book of Romans. I think you all know by now that this has been the theme verse we have been using on this theme of being fully persuaded: Romans 4:21.
Speaking of Abraham, this is what Paul the apostle wrote of Abraham:
And being fully persuaded, that what He had promised, He was able also to perform.
Now, that is God, not Abraham. What He has promised, He—meaning God again—is able also to do. Okay? I think that is a verse by now you are familiar with.
Now I am going to read some different versions, just to confuse you. Not John; he will not be confused. He is wagging.
Yeah, I often read different versions. I know you think I have a bias, and you are probably right, but I do read a number of different versions.
Hebrews 11:1, the Revised Standard Version, 1901. Now, I think Lance used the 1901.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Now also, Hebrews 11:1, the King James Version, which I am very fond of, says:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Today, the burden is the evidence of being fully persuaded. So that word evidence is quite important.
I would like to read in Hebrews. There is one word that has stood out to me in my study of this chapter: testimony.
Hebrews 11:2 is speaking of those elders of the Old Testament who were heroes of the faith:
For by it the elders obtained a good report.
It is a very important phrase: obtained testimony.
Verse 4, speaking of Abel:
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained testimony that he was righteous, God bearing testimony to his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
The next verse, verse 5:
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.
And then, if you will look at the conclusion of that famous chapter, verses 39 and 40:
And these all, having obtained testimony through faith, received not the promise:
God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
Now, my version, Darby, says “witness,” but the actual word is the same word: testimony.
I would like to read from the King James Version in the middle of this chapter, Hebrews 11:13-16. Listen to this carefully, because the whole message is embedded in these three verses:
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, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.
And let us have a word of prayer.
Lord, we are so thankful for Your word. We cannot live without Your word. And we tell You, every time we come, that we are utterly dependent on You.
We tremble. We tremble at Your word. We wait on You for Your word. We look to You for Your work.
We remember what Peter said on that day when so many were offended, turned away, and never walked with You again. He said:
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
Lord, we call upon the Holy Spirit to pay us a very special visitation this morning, that Your words would not be lost, that Your words would be heard, and that we would be moved by the Spirit of Your words and captured forever.
This simple prayer we ask together in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I think you know that the burden that has been deeply upon my heart is this burden of being fully persuaded. I think it is a phenomenal phrase.
I remember when the Holy Spirit made it alive to me early this year. As many times as I had read the book of Romans, it had never occurred to me. It was not implanted in my heart in the way James speaks of the word of God.
One day—and, by the way, Stephen, if you know Brother Kong, I went to him one time to ask about the study of the Word and how to study the Word. He said, “Well, read the Word.” That is good advice.
He said, “Choose a book.” So I chose the book of Romans. Then he said, “Read the book fifty times.” Okay? That was his advice, first of all.
Well, he was a lot more lenient than Watchman Nee was, who told those sisters to read the book a hundred times. I believe I have read the book many, many more times than fifty, and never had it stuck with me like it did at the beginning of the year, when the Holy Spirit seemed to whisper to me this phrase: being fully persuaded.
Paul reveals it. In fact, this is the secret of Abraham, the father of faith: being fully persuaded that what He has promised, He is able also to do.
It was so impressed upon the spirit of the apostle Paul, as he wrote his majestic masterpiece of the book of Romans on the gospel, that he went on to say, just two verses later, that this was not written for Abraham’s sake only, but for our sake also.
Then, in Romans 14:5, he said:
Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
I believe that shows you the importance of this phrase.
He went on to say, by the way, concerning Timothy, his beloved son in the faith, that Timothy had been fully persuaded from his youth. He knew this great secret. He saw it. And it is not just to be Abraham’s secret or Timothy’s secret, but it is to be our secret.
You remember that the apostle Paul used that phrase—no one else seems to use it as Paul did—again and again: “I am persuaded. I am persuaded.”
When he concluded that great testimony before King Agrippa, Agrippa was so moved by his testimony that he said:
Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
Paul said, in Acts 26, “I would that not just almost, but altogether, every man that hears my voice would be as I am, except these bonds.”
So his burden, I think we see clearly, is that every one of us would be a people fully persuaded.
We talked about the basis of being fully persuaded. What do you base it on? Can you base it upon your own faith? Do you think Abraham did that? Can you base it upon your own self? What an unsure foundation that is.
There are three phrases that are clear in the Word of God. They pertain specifically to Abraham and Sarah concerning the promised son.
You can base being fully persuaded on the fact that He has promised. You can also base it upon that second phrase in Romans 4:21: He is able.
You are not able. The moment you begin to think you are able, you will fall. But when you discover that repeated phrase in the Word of God—that God is able—you discover the secret foundation of being fully persuaded.
Finally, it says of Sarah in Hebrews 11:11 that she knew something. It was a great secret. Her basis was that He who promised is faithful. How tremendous that is.
Without those three words, He is faithful, we could not live the Christian life. It is the whole secret.
Then we looked last time at the assurance of being fully persuaded. Being fully persuaded means being completely assured. I believe the Bible, above everything else, is a book of unparalleled assurance.
When you read the Bible, you must be touched with certain things. I am deeply moved at the assurance that God gives us again and again in His Word.
We looked at several negative phrases that reveal an overwhelming positive assurance:
I tell you, brothers and sisters, these past six months this has become more and more alive to me. With us, we could say everything is impossible. The Lord said it to the rich young ruler:
With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
And if that were not enough, there is that wonderful phrase, that great biblical assurance: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
When you come to the New Testament, the one time that phrase is used is by the anonymous, anointed writer of Hebrews. As he was closing out his thoughts in Hebrews 13, he said:
I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Now that is assurance. That is overwhelming assurance.
Today is the final message. I have already told you: it is the evidence of being fully persuaded.
My fear is this: having spoken these few times, this may just become a catchy phrase. I think we can do that. It can become just words. To put it another way, it can become doctrine. It can become what we have in the Bible.
But, brothers and sisters, I think in the absolute, this is to become our experience. It is to be your secret. It is to be my secret. It is to be every believer’s secret.
And if we have this secret, there will be evidence. You will see it. You will see it in the people.
Let me put it this way. I think this is the simplest way to explain Hebrews 11. It is not an exposition of doctrine. Far from it. It is an illustration of people who were fully persuaded, and whose lives had an impact.
That is what Hebrews 11 is. It is not a doctrinal message. It is basically the Holy Spirit saying, “Look at this life. Look at that life. Look at Abraham. Look at Noah. Look at these ones. What was different about them?”
They were fully persuaded, and they experienced it in their lifetime.
Another thing about Hebrews 11, in case you have not noticed, is that it speaks of very great difficulties. Many of us go through great difficulties, but in the middle of those great—and greatest—difficulties, those who know this secret as their own experience will overcome and be a testimony to the living God.
That is what Hebrews 11 is. Do not ever think it is merely doctrinal.
If you are fully persuaded, there will be evidence in your life. You remember that we read Hebrews 11:1 from the King James Version:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Faith is not merely an ideal. It is not merely an idea, a feeling, or an emotion. It is evidence expressed in the lives of people who have been arrested by it.
That is the difference between being fully persuaded and having a doctrine. This assurance—faith is the assurance—and this evidence—faith is the evidence of things not seen—come together to produce living testimony.
That is why I read that word over and over: testimony. In the end, something was expressed in their experience. It was a living, full testimony that made an impact, and to this day it makes an impact.
I was reading something that helped me from Matthew Henry. Speaking of Hebrews 11:1, he said, “Here we have a definition, or description.” Now, I happen to think it is not a definition of faith. Faith is the hardest thing to define. I think it is a description of faith.
He called it “the grace of faith.” I like that. Faith is grace.
He said it is the firm persuasion—he knew it meant being fully persuaded—an expectation that God will perform all that He has promised to us in Christ. Is that not good news?
And this persuasion, he went on to say, is so strong that it gives the soul a kind of possession. In other words, we can lay hold of this. It can become part of our experience.
The whole Old Testament record, when they were going into the land, was that they were to possess their possession. That is what every believer’s experience is to be about: possessing our possession, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is a kind of possession for the soul. That is experience. It gives present fruition of those things. It gives substance to them in the soul. That is experience. That is what we need.
We do not need more doctrine. In one way, I hate to say it, we do not need more teaching—but teaching is important. I will never belittle teaching.
Every time I remember something Brother Nee said that was so true, I discover it for myself. Every time you come to a passage—even Psalm 23, which has been spoken on a gazillion times and perhaps thousands of times to us—it is living again.
That is the Word of God. Every time, it is alive again. The Word has power and life in it. I believe we can possess our possession in Christ Jesus by this.
Today we want to focus primarily on one verse. Well, primarily one verse. You know me better than that, so I will not exaggerate too much.
That verse is Hebrews 11:13. Here is the evidence of those who were fully persuaded:
These are the evidences of being fully persuaded. This is what these heroes of faith had, and this is what we are to have in order to be fully persuaded.
First of all, let us look at their vision, their purpose: “having seen them afar off.”
Brothers and sisters, I am going to say this, and I am going to be dogmatic about it: there is nothing more important in the Christian life, or in your spiritual walk, than what you see.
If you do not see something in the Spirit that captures you and changes the course of your life, as these people did, you will never be fully persuaded. But they saw it afar off.
They saw something, and that something changed their life and captured their life.
This is the first evidence of being fully persuaded: it is vision. Now, I know some people struggle with that word. They think we overuse it. If you would like to use another word, that is fine by me.
But the fact of the matter is, if you do not see something, you will never be one of those who has living testimony and is fully persuaded.
What they saw changed their whole life: the course of their life, the direction of their life, the emphasis of their life, and the purpose of their life. What they saw was the most important thing to them.
I remember years ago, the first time I heard Proverbs 29:18. When I heard it, it was like the Holy Spirit breathed into those words:
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
It was alive to me. I knew that was the issue.
From that day, I always prayed, “Lord, give me vision, that I may see things that are unseeable by the natural eyes, unknowable by the human heart, and unfeelable by my own senses. Give me that vision.”
Without vision, the people perish. My version says, “Without vision, they cast off restraint.” Other versions say, “The people run wild.” I think that is kind of graphic. They run all over the place, doing their own thing, thinking they are serving God very often, but running wild in their own imagination.
Another version says that people are uncontrolled. You know, vision controls you. When you see something, as these people saw something, it arrests you. You are no longer out of control. You are no longer living for yourself, for the world, merely for your career, or merely for your family. You are living for a greater and higher purpose.
Another version says, “People quickly wander astray.” I think that is true. If we do not really see something that holds us, we will disintegrate. We will go our own way, do our own thing, and live our own life.
But thank God for the day that true vision comes into the heart, as it came into the heart of these heroes of the faith. They were forever changed.
I have told you before—without telling you who deserves the credit—that one phrase was prayed in a meeting here years ago: “Lord, thank You for interrupting my life.”
That is the Christian life. That is vision.
What happened here was that these people were just like you and me, living their own life, doing their own thing, and going their own way. Then something came in—something from God Himself. Their eyes began to be opened, and they saw things from afar off that they had never seen before. They were changed and captured forever.
To me, that is the heart of this.
We just had a family conference, and it was all about seeing the purpose of God. It was all about serving the purpose of God in our generation.
We felt very impressed before the Lord, in the months ahead as we planned, that we needed to return to being a people who really see something. And what we see must have such a tremendous impact upon our life that it changes us forever and captures us forever.
I love hymn 385, “Hast Thou Heard Him, Seen Him, Known Him?” It is one of my favorite hymns.
Hast thou heard Him, seen Him, known Him?
Is not thine a captured heart?
I think, if you want to describe what happened to these people in Hebrews 11—what motivated them and what changed them—it would have to be that they saw something so tremendous, afar off as it were, but it captured them forever.
Seeing is the most important thing I can talk to you about today. If you have not seen, you will never go far into the Christian life, and you will never experience the Christian life in fullness. It is altogether based on what you see.
I think of Job 42:5. You remember what Job said at the end of his calamities:
I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee.
How tremendous. That was the breakthrough for Job, and that is the breakthrough for us.
Or I think of Isaiah 6:5. You remember when the king died and Isaiah was despondent. You remember the condition of the people. Then revelation came to him, and he realized that he was a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips.
But then he said something altogether terrific:
Mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
If that would just happen to us—just happen to us in such a way that we would be arrested—our individual Christian life and our corporate life together as the church would be so significantly changed that, in the end, we would be a living testimony of who He is.
I remember at VCU—VCU is my largest client, by the way. Jerry knows that. If it were not for VCU, my company would be quite different, I will tell you.
VCU understood the importance of vision. They had a group compose a master plan, and for years it was the guiding hand.
It was called VCU 2020: A Vision of Excellence. With that vision, they guided that university, which used to be just a commuter school, and transformed it in the public sphere into an outstanding university.
Vision did that. Vision 2020 did that.
I still have it on my shelf in the office, and I have benefited from Vision 2020, believe me. But that vision kept them. It held them. When they were unsure where the funds would come from, or unsure what step they would take next, they would always go back to that vision. That was the basis.
That vision of excellence guided them to their goal. That is the importance of vision.
Have you seen the master plan? Have you?
I think, as believers, we see a lot of things, and sometimes we see things in bits and parts. I remember Brother Fromke speaking about an elephant. I thought he said an elephant in a closet. It would have to be a big closet.
One person grabs that skinny old tail and says, “An elephant is like a snake.” Someone else rubs that big belly and says, “The elephant is like a whale.” Another grabs that floppy old ear and thinks, “This is what the elephant is.”
We see in bits and parts. We need to see the whole thing.
That was the difference in Hebrews 11. They saw from afar off the master plan. Do you get it? I do not want to repeat myself too much. I know people say, “You repeat yourself too much.” But I will make the point.
They saw the master plan.
Have you seen the master plan, as we spoke of this summer, in Ephesians 1:9-10? God’s great purpose is to sum up everything in Christ. That is the whole of it.
Every little part—the ear, the tail, the big body, the stubby little fat legs, the long trunk—every part of it is caught up with that single thing in God’s economy. That is the master plan.
And even more beautifully, when you look at Ephesians 3:10, you discover that we are part of the master plan. The eternal purpose of God is to be expressed in the church.
What does the church express? The all-various wisdom of God—not part of it.
People think the church is a little bit of Christ expressed here, a little bit of Christ expressed there, and a little bit of Christ expressed over the ocean somewhere else. But the intention, the master plan, the vision of excellence, is that in the end the all-various wisdom of Christ will be expressed through the church.
What a tremendous thing.
You see what affected these people. They saw something, and it changed them and captured them forever.
Another remarkable thing is that Hebrews 11:13 begins by saying, “not having received the promises.” Brothers and sisters, we see far more than they saw. We have experienced far more in the New Testament economy than they could even imagine.
Yet these people, who saw from afar, were so captured by what they saw that it changed them forever. They became a living testimony of those who are fully persuaded.
G. H. Lang said that faith is long-sighted. I like the way he put that. It is far-sighted.
Most of us as Christians have near-sighted faith. What we see close up—our circumstances, our families, our jobs, our loves, our hates, whatever you want to say—dominates us. We see and live only in the present.
But the difference is that these were far-sighted people. They did not have the promises, yet they lived in the good of that vision. I think that is uncanny and tremendous.
I am far-sighted naturally, you understand. I can take my glasses off—and I will probably knock the microphone off—and I can still see every one of you. But if I leave these glasses off, I cannot read this Bible at all. I cannot see anything that is near.
Now, that does not mean I am spiritual. I am telling you what I am naturally. But the difference in true vision is that it is far-sighted. And that far-sighted vision takes them all the way.
Are we that people, who are far-sighted? Are we that people of vision? Are we that people with this glorious sixth sense?
I believe it is what God is looking for.
There is another point about these ones. What was their reason? The reason is simply that they were persuaded. That is the other part: “and were persuaded of them.”
They were totally persuaded. This was the very reason. This was the evidence in these saints’ lives.
Pink said this, and I thought it was marvelous: the word persuaded means assured confidence. Above everything else, that word persuaded tells us what these people were.
You will notice that Hebrews 11:13 immediately follows Abraham and Sarah’s testimony. Immediately, at the conclusion of Abraham and Sarah’s testimony, it says, “and were persuaded of them.”
That is the difference. What a reason.
Like Timothy, like Paul, like Abraham, and like Sarah, God is looking for every man and woman to be fully persuaded. And if you are, this is the real evidence. It will show. It will be a testimony. That secret will be clear.
I think of 2 Corinthians 5:14-15:
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that One died for all, therefore all died;
and He died for all, that they which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again.
Here is the reason: they were constrained by the love of God. Have you been constrained by the love of God? Has the love of God so overwhelmed you that you can make no other choice?
That is what He is after. I believe that is what He is after.
There is a difference between being constrained and being compelled. If you look up compelled in your dictionary, you will see that it often speaks of force and coercion.
But if you are constrained, there is a force that has taken hold of you and leads you to that determined end.
Brothers and sisters, we have been constrained by the love of God, and these heroes of faith were constrained by the love of God. They were no longer the captain of their own ship. They no longer lived for themselves, but they lived for Him.
They no longer sought their own way in everything. Self was no longer the center, but Christ became the ultimate center. How different.
I cannot tell my illustration, or I will get thrown out of the room, about the center of the universe. But I saw an advertisement on television the other day. I do not know whether I was watching golf or what, but they said, “We are going to make you the center of the universe.”
I thought, how extraordinary. You will never be the center of the universe. In your own mind, you might be the center of the universe.
But if you are one of these people, you will discover that the center of the universe is Christ. You are constrained by the love of Christ, arrested by the love of Christ, and captured by the love of Christ. You cannot do anything else but give yourself to the One who died and gave Himself for you. Now you live for Him.
That is a change in center, brothers and sisters.
I think of Peter. You remember all that Peter went through. I love the story of Peter. Peter is so like every one of us. People are way too hard on Peter. If you think Peter had too many problems, you need to look in the mirror. I will be surprised if you do not say, “There is Peter.”
The Lord would not let him go. I am so thankful.
Before that little maid, Peter denied the Lord. Yet he had said, “Lord, although everyone would leave You, I will never forsake You. I will never deny You.”
And the Lord said, “Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice.” You remember.
But I am so grateful it is not the end of the story. After His resurrection, He said, “Go and tell the disciples—and Peter.”
Then, that day on the shore—what a breakfast it was. Can you imagine the Lord preparing breakfast for you on the shore of Galilee?
They had been out in that boat after a night of frustration, without a single catch. Then John said, “It is the Lord.” And Peter dove in and swam to the Lord.
There was something, with all of his flaws: he was captured. Oh, I wish I were more like Peter. I wish I were fully captured.
Then the Lord confronted him with the threefold question: “Lovest thou Me more than these?” You remember the end of John 21. He said, “Peter, when you were young, you went the way you would go. But when you become old, you shall stretch forth your hands, and another will lead you in the way you would not go.”
Brothers and sisters, that is the reason. He was caught. He was persuaded. I think at this moment Peter was more persuaded than ever in all those three and a half years. And that kept him to the end.
There is a third thing in these phrases in Hebrews 11:13:
And embraced them.
I think that is very important. You ought to pay attention to that phrase: “and embraced them.” It speaks of their heart. It speaks of their passion.
Here is the experience of those who are fully persuaded. They did not just see something. They were not merely persuaded of something. They embraced what they saw.
That is the difference. That is the secret. They embraced it.
This is a heart word. This is a word of passion. Oh, that we would have more passionate people in the church.
I hate the fact that the world has stolen that word passion and made it a dirty word. It is not a dirty word at all.
This was the secret: they embraced them.
Can you see it? Can you sense it in your spirit? Have you embraced what you have seen? Have you embraced what you have been persuaded of?
This is a secret. I believe it is what made the difference.
One said:
Faith not only discerns the value of spiritual things, is fully persuaded of their reliability, but also loves them.
That is the progression.
You remember Peter said in his first epistle, “whom having not seen, ye love.” Oh, would to God that we would be a people of passion, a people of deep passion for the Lord.
I think that is what David was. Above everything else, David in the wilderness, as that young shepherd boy, discovered this great secret that these heroes of faith discovered. That great secret was a passion for God Himself and a passion for God’s house.
You remember Psalm 27:4, one of my favorite verses:
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.
That is passion.
Brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you to be a people of great passion. I want to encourage you to be a people who are all in.
If you are all in, you will never regret it for the Lord. If you are not all in, you will regret it.
I am not saying you lose your salvation. I do not believe you can. I think it is impossible. Too great a price was paid for it.
But I believe the essential element of Hebrews 11 is a people who are all in.
I remember at the conference, just this conference, I went to an elderly brother. Every one of you knows him. I will not tell you who he is. It was not Stephen, by the way. I will make the pool a little smaller. That is the best you are getting out of me.
I had lunch with this brother and said, “Brother, there is something I have wanted to tell you for years about the evidence that is in your life.”
He said, “What is that?” I think he was a little taken aback.
I said, “Brother, you are all in.”
To my surprise, he said, “I agree.” Now, he was not being proud. He said he got that from his parents and from many of the brothers and sisters he knows, whom we know, who have shared with us the deep things of God.
The impact, like the impact upon these heroes of faith, was that they were all in—one hundred percent.
Will you ask the Lord? Will you ask the Lord to make you all in?
I believe that is the testimony He is looking for in the end.
“And they embraced them.”
I remember Psalm 73:25. What an impact that had on me years ago. You all know this Psalm of Asaph:
Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.
What a word that is. I believe, if there is a word that describes these ones in Hebrews 11, it is that word: “Whom have I in heaven besides Thee? And there is none I desire beside Thee.”
That is what we should be: a people of heart, a people of passion, a people who embrace what we see. That is the key.
Now the last thing. Let me finish with a few thoughts.
The last thing about these ones in Hebrews 11 is their testimony. A lot of you, if I asked what the important word in Hebrews 11 is, would say, “Faith,” right? And I would agree with you. It seems to be the most important word.
But it is not the end. It is faith that produces testimony—living testimony.
That word testimony is what set these people apart. It was not merely their words, by the way. We think of testimony as once a month when we stand up here with the fear of that eight-minute card before us.
This was a life of testimony.
If you read Hebrews 11:2, it is the beginning—and, if I can twist those words, the conclusion—of all the ones presented in this entire chapter. It says:
By faith these obtained testimony.
Notice the words. The Holy Spirit is very careful: obtained testimony.
Brothers and sisters, that is a work of the Holy Spirit. It is done over time. It is not instantaneous. But as we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our life, the end of our life—whether it is the individual Christian life or the corporate Christian life—is that we obtain a living testimony.
It says this several times, as we already read: in verse 2, in verse 4, and in verse 5. They had a testimony. That was God’s witness of them.
Then, when you come to the end of the chapter, in Hebrews 11:39-40, this is the way it concludes:
And these all, having obtained testimony through faith, received not the promise:
God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
I think, brothers and sisters, we see something of a testimony in these ones. It says of them, in that last phrase, that they confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
That was their profession. That was their testimony.
Let us look at it in total.
They saw something that changed their life. What you see is most important.
They were fully persuaded by what they saw.
They embraced it with a passion.
They testified by their own life that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
This is what happens to a people who are fully persuaded.
Do we have this kind of testimony? Will God say of us, as a people together—or of you as an individual—“It is My witness that you have obtained testimony”?
In the end, what God is looking for is a living testimony in His people.
That is why this phrase is so pregnant with meaning in Hebrews 11: they obtained testimony.
And you remember, in the last book chronologically in our Bible, Revelation, there is an all-important phrase: the testimony of Jesus.
In the end, I believe that is what God is after. That is what He found in these in Hebrews 11. That is what He is after in us as a people.
John said in Revelation 1:9:
I John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
That was the explanation of his whole life.
In Revelation 6, it speaks of the martyrs who were slain and were under the altar. It says of them that they were slain for the testimony of Jesus.
In Revelation 12:17, the dragon makes war with the remnant of the woman’s seed, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.
Do you think this phrase, obtained testimony, is important? It is vitally important.
That is what the church is to be in the end: a people of testimony.
You remember Revelation 19:10, when John was so overwhelmed that he fell before the angel, and the angel said, “See thou do it not.” Why? “I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus.”
Do we have the testimony of Jesus? Have we obtained the testimony of Jesus?
This is the evidence of being fully persuaded. This is the end.
It is such a living expression, resident in your life, that people touch it when they are in your presence. You may not say something, but they sense something different about you.
Such is it for an assembly. When people come into your midst—even into the chaos of Corinth—the testimony is that unbelievers will declare, “God is among you indeed.”
That is testimony.
May the Lord find, in the end, enough people who have obtained testimony: a people whose whole life is the testimony of Jesus. If He does that, His purpose is accomplished.
They had seen them afar off, were persuaded of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims. And in the end, they obtained testimony.
I want to read you a verse to close. I was not thinking of this, but I think I am thinking of it now.
Go to Malachi. I think all of you know that is the last book in the Old Testament. Pardon me.
Malachi 3. This is the people who obtain testimony. Verse 16 and the first part of verse 17:
Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another:
And the Lord hearkened, and heard it,
And a book of remembrance was written before Him
For them that feared the Lord,
And that thought upon His name.
And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts,
Even Mine own possession, in the day that I make.
You know what that is? That is fellowship. That is being together in the spirit of fellowship.
And the Lord observed. Is that not beautiful? He sees a people like that. He observed it. He heard it. Not only did He hear it, but He wrote a book of remembrance about them.
They are people who obtained testimony. That is what He is looking for. That is what it means to be fully persuaded. That is what the evidence is.
And this beautiful phrase in the first part of verse 17:
They shall be unto Me a peculiar treasure.
Can you imagine? Can you imagine? God Himself owns the testimony of this kind of people. They will be unto Him a peculiar treasure.
His treasure. His treasure.
That is what Hebrews 11 is about. It is the evidence of being fully persuaded. It is not doctrine. It is not teaching. It has far more to do with what you see in the heart than anything else.
But it is, in fact, in the end, what God saw in these and what He is looking for in us.
Shall we pray?
Lord, we just turn back to You at this moment, again in the same utter dependence, and pray that if something was spoken from You, You would seal it to our heart.
Just as You did with these here, would You capture us? Lord, we want to tell You today, while our heart is warm before You, that we want to be all in.
We want to be a people who embrace what we see and have a passion for what we see. We want to be a people, in the end, whom You are looking for: people of testimony, to bear the testimony of Jesus; who, like that angel said, have the testimony of Jesus.
Work in us the things we cannot do. Open our eyes to the things we cannot see, and cause us to be those who run after You all the days of our life.
In Jesus’ name, amen.