Restoration Church Toowoomba Sermon Podcast

If you are to draw near to God you need to do two things: believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. No one and nothing can better his rewards.

Hebrews 11 is a classic chapter on faith. It documents the faith of many giants in the biblical story and the deeds that their faith inspired. Their faith was not blind but warranted in the light of how God had proven himself trustworthy.

Warning and encouragement are two mechanisms that God employs to help his people persevere. In this section the author of Hebrews encourages his readers to persevere because they have a real and certain hope that God will reward their faithfulness to Him.

The writer of Hebrews quickly transitions from imploring his readers to draw near, to warning them about the consequences of not drawing near. There are two different ways to fear God. One way is marked by self-preservation and is evidenced by a fear of God punishing them. The other way of fearing God is to revere, respect and venerate Him.  

The writer of Hebrews argues that God has done everything that was needed to allow us to draw near to God, and on the strength of this goes on to command us to draw near to Him. It is a gracious command and one which we would do well to heed.

Sin is humanity's biggest problem. It traps people, limits God's options and causes people to give up. Jesus dealt decisively with sin once and for all by dying on the cross so that none of this need be true any longer. God's remedy for our predicament is extremely impressive ... to say the least.