HEBREWS 11:4-7 

The doctrine being set forth here and throughout Scripture is Jesus Christ’s Return when the rapture and first resurrection shall take place. It is this time when He will judge His people and the World. Now we are needing to set ourselves against the false doctrines that have invaded the Christian community; that a believer goes gloriously to heaven at death. This false doctrine diminishes the need for resurrection or rapture, and therefore the importance of Christ’s Return when these are to take place.   

FAITH IS THE DIFFERENTIATING FACTOR BETWEEN ABEL AND CAIN. 

Hebrews 11:4 “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain…” Abel was the first example of the God–liked kind of faith. He was the man of faith; Cain was the man of ‘unbelief”. (BOTH MEN BELIEVED IN GOD. BOTH MEN HAD A DEGREE OF REVERENCE FOR GOD. But unbelief is not just not believing something; but the persistence in stubborn resistance after having been shown ample reason to believe.) Cain refused to deal with the result of sin as God had prescribed, that is with his sinful nature in light of God’s Holiness. Cain resisted the idea that Abel embraced; that of humble awareness of the sinful fallen nature and the need for propitiation by blood of an acceptable animal for acceptance. (Before the Fall, Cain’s offering would have been acceptable but after the Fall, a bloody sacrifice was required.) Cain refused to see himself in the light of God’s requirement and followed his own religious way of worship. Even with further hardening of heart after God’s gracious correction and warning, unto murder. (See Genesis 4:7 where God warns Cain about sin crouching at his door.) This example of Cain and Abel, (these two being representative of “believers” in God) has a practical application today and was typically the state of Paul’s day; in that Paul echoed the Old Testament prophetic word found in Psalm 40:6, Isaiah 1:11, Jeremiah 6:20, and Amos 5:21–22. These verses had declared that… “In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.” [Hebrews 10:6] That was the exhortation to religious Jews; that God was now accepting the offering of the instructed younger one, with the rejection of the older’s; and that being, as in the type, after much instruction and forbearance. (See Acts 18:6 where Paul, after many years of going to the Jew first, then extended the gospel to the Gentiles.) The result was the same as Cain’s resistance to God’s manifest Blood offering, in the refusal of following, even with the strongest of evidence that it was now the means by which God would forgive and accept, was met with the violent persecution by the elder brother.  

Israel then answers to Cain in the slaying of Jesus Christ, a far more righteous One. It is Israel who is shut out and, “went out from the presence of the Lord…” It is Israel who then lost the status and rights of the first-born (Matthew 21:43), who as the anti-type is the cursed from the earth; the marked fugitive and vagabond in the Earth. (Genesis 4:11–12) But let no nation or individual make the fatal mistake and do them harm, for they yet have the “mark” of the Lord upon them as His seed. This, all nations know well. (Matthew 23:23-39) God judges His people; but woe unto those He uses. (Matthew 25:31-46) 

By which he (Abel) obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: And by it he being dead yet speaketh.” (See also Genesis 4:4…“And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering…” both offerer and offering) 

The Lord had respect unto Abel (). Most likely this means He consumed it instantly with fire; and he was justified by his blood offering; as we also are justified by the Blood offering and thereby have access into His presence unto sanctification. (Romans 5:9, Hebrews 4:14-16)  

Tampering with the text of Scripture alters THE PROMISE of God…either by giving a false basis for faith and hope or by destroying where true faith should be (His Word as the credible source) and thereby eliminating a legitimate sanctifying hope. (ie 2nd Timothy 2:17–18) Jewish tampering with the Old Testament text (as a means to refute Jesus as the Messiah, and His offering of Himself as the acceptable Blood offering) is a well known fact and documented. But the tampering of the Word is still the course of today, taken up by our brethren in Christianity who persist in resisting God’s Word in its entirety; that of the justifying by the Blood of Christ and then the Holy Commandments unto a righteousness of works unto reward. They, in unbelief insist that the one–time application of the Blood of justification covers the entire career of acceptable worship of God. They have shunned the warnings for the daily faithful need of selfless sacrifices, and have met them with the frothy contempt of presumptuous self–serving faith. “Cain was of the evil one”. (1st John 3:12) He had faith in the evil one’s argument. (John 8:44) 

But God shall finally bear witness: the justified by living faith shall order their lives to please Me…but if any man draw back, (by deriving their ideas and faith from the evil one) my soul shall have no pleasure in him. (Hebrews 10:38) Abel was killed because of his righteous living in faith and hope of God’s future promise of the Messiah (Genesis 3:15), to which he yet speaks. If we are slain, we are an offering up to God, for the testimony of Christ’s Blood, and so we follow in the pleasing faithful steps of Abel. “…he being dead but yet speaketh” to all Christ’s followers. Paul is telling the Hebrews that death is gain which is a New Testament principle that sets itself in opposition to the Law, for under the Law of Moses the accepted righteous are promised life on the earth, while Christians are promised rewards in the afterlife for death to self.  

Yet having his own righteous blood shed, Abel will cry out for vengeance from under the altar of sacrifice upon the earth; that is to say from Hades the intermediate place of the dead, when the dispensation of Grace and Mercy has run its course, (Revelation 6:9-11) to be fearfully manifest in the Day of the Lord. (Revelation 19:11-21) 

HEBREWS VERSE 5 & 6 “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. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek (to please) him.” 

Genesis’ testimony is “And Enoch walked with (in the Septuagint it reads: pleased) God: and he was not; for God took him.” He has never died. (He was taken away to prolong his life, as he was chosen to return millenniums later along with Elijah who also was taken and has never suffered death. They are the two prophets of God chosen to die together as His end time Two Great Witnesses of Revelation 11). The Word here to Christians, then and now, is that faith in God’s Words of promise followed by diligently seeking to please God, had the future hope of translation reward. “Behold, I shew you a mystery (comprehended in Enoch and Elijah’s translations); We shall not all sleep (die), but we (who have pleased Him like Enoch) shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.”  

Speaking of this Enoch–like translation, the Lord said, “…one shall be taken, and one left…of two in one bed, one shall be taken and one left…” Not all Christians will be watching and pleasing God. Christ alluded to our dark times when after speaking about His 2nd Coming, He said. “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find (this diligently seeking kind of) faith on the earth? Scripture says only those that are diligently seeking to please Him will be rewarded in being caught up. (Read Matthew 24:40–41, Luke 17:34-36, with Revelation 12:5, 14:3-5) Enoch was rewarded in the end–time calling and 5000 years of prolonged life, in that his faith in God… pleased God. 

God loves all the His justified children, but He makes a great distinction between those who are merely saved and those who diligently seek to please Him. Most Christians are carelessly indifferent and do not diligently seek to please God. As their faith is very little to none. That is, they do not fear God nor do they think He is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek to please Him by righteous works.   

Why? Because they are satisfied that Christ pleased Him for them. (They say to themselves, ‘God’s not to going to punish me because Christ absorbed my punishment for me.) They mistakenly think that merely believing in Jesus Christ is living faith in God, with expectation of reward based solely upon Christ’s merit and/or the answer to any disapproval that God might have with them personally. This is their mis–led and disqualifying testimony. The Truth of reward is found in Enoch’s testimony, in that he pleased God before his translation. This truth may be found in many other places in Scripture. We must believe that God is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek to please Him. After our receiving of Christ’s Work of justifying redemption for us unto God; now our own works of faith come into view. Note this is the essential element in pleasing God. And then these without that “faith” in Him as Rewarder will stand outside the rapture, outside the first-resurrection and outside the Bride to rule with Christ. 

HEBREWS 11 VERSE 7 “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with* fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” 

Genesis 6:8 “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” 

Genesis 6:22 “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.” 

Genesis 7:1 “And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.” 

Enoch was caught away. He was saved from the destruction judgment… (“Because thou keptest the word of my patience, I also will keep thee out (it is from the period of time itself that the faithful are to be kept, not just from its perils) of the hour of the temptation that is about to come upon the whole habitable earth, to try the dwellers on the earth.” [Revelation 3:10] See also… “Watch therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” [Luke 21:36] Be warned of the strong delusion God is sending upon the earth that those who refuse the truth will believe a condemning lie and miss being saved out from the destruction. 2nd Thessalonians 2:11) 

Noah was kept through the judgment destruction on the ungodly while on the earth. Noah was warned; and was moved to action… “thus did Noah all that God had commanded”. Christians, and the World by them, are warned (at least we should be warning them) of God’s righteous Apocalypse coming with Christ’s returning presence. And as these are the days of Noah again (Matthew 24:37-39, Luke 17:26–27); the Words and fear of God fall on deaf ears. Like Lot’s in-laws; scoffing at the idea. (Genesis 19:14) 

These two; Enoch and Noah, then are representative of the two Gospel groups: 1) The Enoch-like company are those who by faith live a life commensurate with condemning the World, who embrace the Words of promise and threat of God and live seeking to please Him. They know God is the Rewarder of those who do so and they gratefully live in loving obedience to Jesus’ commandments. Being the first-fruits, they shall then be found watchful and seeking to please Him, and worthy of the reward of faithful service, that is the promise of being caught up unto the heavens before the Wrath of God sets in with the Great Hour of Temptation. Though it is scoffed at, here the truth of reward for works shall surely manifest. 2) The Noah-like company will find out that God is not only the Rewarder of those who seek to please Him but the Avenger of those who do wickedly. ‘Peace and safety’ will permeate the religious mind; a false sense of security will flood into the sleepy Laodicean Christian. “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” (1st Thessalonians 5:3) It’s similar to how it was in Jeremiah’s day again, this time as it relates to false Christian teachers of peace and safety. (See Jeremiah 5:12–13…“They have belied the Lord, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.” Just as these of the seed of Abraham thought that nothing would happen to them before the sieging of Jerusalem, likewise lukewarm Christians believe the modern day prophets who speak the peace and safety message that nothing will happen to them because they are in Christ. Not only will they not be raptured, but sudden destruction shall come upon them. For if you live like the wordly, you will be judged with the Worldly.) 

It is generally set forth that Jesus is the Ark. But more specifically, Noah may be seen as a type for Jesus Christ, in that it was Noah’s personal righteousness that set him apart unto God. (Genesis 18:25) It was the then Noah’s building of the Ark that is representative of the Redemptive Work of Christ. Noah’s house/family were saved from death solely based upon the righteousness of Noah. “…Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me…” His family did not have any works of their own, save the faith they exhibited in him by joining him in the Ark. Being “saved” while on the earth during the Great Hour of Temptation (that same time to the Jew being Jacob’s trouble) equates to being in the Ark. That is, spiritually speaking, as the “house” of Noah was saved from physical death, so these, being in the Ark, are saved from eternal death. But having been found in the World, dwelling like one of the World; having no righteousness of their own, they cannot now escape the judgment of “…the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the World, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (they will not be translated out). Symbolized as the other of the two left in the field, the other left at the mill, the other left in the bed. This person is like Lot, who unlike Abraham, chose to live among the worldly; being justified but unsanctified, with judgment imminent, fleeing for his life, dwelling in caves, he must now endure with threat of life. Christ warns in these end days of Noah to remember Lot’s wife who thought to save her life and lost it. (Genesis 19, Luke 17:26-36) 

The first-fruits having been caught away, the sleepy-headed Christian who didn’t come out of the world now must repent and be faithful. Their lives shall be surely threatened, and having been careless and foolish, they must now in patience and endurance seek to please God even unto death and be found ripened for the Harvest (Revelation 14:12–13). They will have then been caught up in the heavens along with all the faithful dead resurrected in the first resurrection unto the spiritual Ark where the days of the waters abatement represent the Millennial Age…. “And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the Hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.” [Genesis 8:3] Then the Ark opens where only the clean could have entered, and then will we emerge unto a new earth and a new heavens, the unclean having all been all offered up as a sin offering; now burn forever. (Isaiah 66:24, Revelation 20:14–15) There is no law of penalty… “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.And now abideth (these be eternal) faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” [1st Corinthians 13:10-13] 

*God–pleasing Faith is not fearlessness. The fear of God’s threats are as much a part of our faith as our love of His promises. We need to own that God is love, but He is also a consuming fire. Many ministers today have made a stand indiscriminately against “fear” as being a “spirit” of the enemy that steals away our faith in God, and that generally by rejecting the place of fear in true faith or in overemphasizing God’s love to the expense of His Severity. This surgery on the heart weakens true faith by the removal of half its strength.    

2nd Timothy 1:7… “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear (deilia); but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” In context, not being ashamed and timid to spread the Gospel is Paul’s encouragement to a young Timothy. The Greek word used for fear here is 1167. δειλία deilía; gen. deilías, fem. noun from deilós (G1169), fearful, timid. Cowardice, timidity, reticence, fearfulness (2nd Timothy 1:7, “a spirit of timidity” [a.t.], i.e., a fearful spirit; Sept.: Ps. 54:5).Syn.: Deilía is always in a bad sense as contrasted with phóbos (G5401), fear. Phóbos lies in between deilía, cowardice, and eulábeia (G2124), religious reverence. 

“Let us therefore fear (phobeo), lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” [Hebrews 4:1] 

“So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear (phobos) what man shall do unto me.” [Hebrews 13:6] 

“And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:” (phobos) [1st Peter 1:17] 

“Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear (eulabeia):For — our God is a consuming fire.” [Hebrews 12:28-29] 

“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with* fear (eulabeia), prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” [Hebrews 11:7] 

Hebrews 5:7 shows the fear and apprehension that Christ felt in His unprecedented circumstances before His atonement….“Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up — prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared” (eulabeia). (This likely means He had the inward emotion or sentiment of fear…. “…that mingled fear and love which, combined, constitute the piety of man towards God. The Old Testament places its emphasis on the fear, the New Testament on the love, though there was love in the fear of God’s saint then, as there must be fear in their love now.” (W.E. Vine dictionary of New Testament words) He feared, He prayed, and he was heard, and was delivered from this overwhelming but godly feeling of fear; As His Words and actions following testify.