Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks even though he is dead. By faith Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death. He could not be found because God had taken him away. For before he was taken he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. May God edit his blessing for the reading of his Word. Would you be seated please? The soul is measured by its flights, some low and others high. The heart is known by its delights and pleasures never lie. The author of those words are anonymous to me. I am not aware of when they were written or of what occasion they are writing. But what they revealed to us about the human heart is profoundly poignant for us. Listen to the last two lines once again. The heart is known by its delights and pleasures never lie. The poet whoever he or she may be provides us with a way of assessing the beauty of something that is otherwise invisible. The character of the human heart says the poet can be unmistakably known by that which brings it pleasure. The heart is known by its delights and pleasures never lie. How about you this morning? What is it that brings you pleasure? If it is true that your heart can be known by that which brings it delight, allow me to ask you what is the source of ultimate pleasure in your life? Is it succeeding at work? Is it recreational activities? Is it your children? Is it your boyfriend? Your spouse? Is it making money? Perhaps for some of you it is the experience of sexual conquest. The heart is known by its delights and pleasures never lie. Three hundred years ago an old Puritan by the name of Henry Scogal said the very same thing in a slightly different way. The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love. A contemporary of ours, John Piper says, to know a soul's proportions, you need to know its passions. What do your passions reveal about the character of your heart? I mean beloved, if it is true that pleasures never lie and that the excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love, what does the ultimate source of your pleasure say about your soul this morning? A Christian is a person who finds his or her ultimate pleasure in pleasing God. I consider this to be axiomatic. I consider this to be a universal truth. A Christian is a person who finds his or her ultimate pleasure in pleasing God. Now beloved, I want to be very careful at this point. I'm not suggesting in any way that the Christian life then should be defined as a kind of asceticism, a kind of radical self-denial and even self-punishment whereby we systematically weed out of our lives. Anything that in any way brings us delight or satisfaction apart from God in his word. That is not the Bible's vision of the Christian life. We've been created in the image of God, the God who himself experiences pleasure according to his word. Christians ought to derive pleasure from their employment. Christians ought to derive pleasure from their recreations. Christians ought to experience pleasure in the beauty of nature and in good human friendships and in the precious gifts of their children. Once you see beloved for the Christian person, pleasure is found in these things precisely because ultimate pleasure is found in the one who is the author of all of them. I can find pleasure in my work because before the fall of humanity ever occurred, God ordained work as an essential component of human experience. I find pleasure when the mist of the Pacific Ocean blows on my face because it was the genius of God who created the great bodies of water to begin with. I find pleasure in my children when I remind myself that it was God who fashioned them in the womb of their mother. These kinds of pleasures are not to be despised to the contrary, beloved. The pleasure we derive from them is heightened to an even greater degree when we recognize them for what they are. Not insin themselves, you see, here is the idolatry of our age. Not insin themselves, but signposts that our vision would be elevated heavenward. You see, this is the very thing that distinguishes the pleasures of the non-Christian from the pleasures of the Christian. The Christian has come to acknowledge all of these kinds of things as secondary pleasures. Gracious gifts from a glorious giver who has not only designed us to experience pleasure, but he himself continues to heap into our lives all of those things which accomplished this very design, and thus you see for the Christian. For the person who by grace has been awakened to God in his kind of life, the greatest pleasure of all comes by way of response to those pleasures. It comes in pleasing him. At the end of the day, beloved, this is what authentic Christianity is. A constraining sense of bringing God pleasure, not because our eternal destiny hangs in the balance, and not merely out of sense of duty or obligation, or even out of gratitude, but because now as a consequence of being born again, it is the one thing that more than anything else in our lives pleases us. I can tell you, beloved, without any kind of hesitation whatsoever this morning, that for all of my fallen, so a good deal of which is undoubtedly evident to you, that more than anything else in my life, it is my desire to be pleasing to this God who has saved me. And I'm absolutely convinced that there are a great number of you here this morning who share that very same passion, don't you? What is true, however, is that there are some of you here this morning who don't feel this way at all. There are some of you this morning who could look me square in the eye where you to be honest and you would say, I don't feel this way in the least. These are not my passions. My ultimate pleasure is not found in pleasing God, and where that the case, I'm afraid I would have to say right back at you, that doesn't surprise me in any way, because you see, beloved, this kind of passion that I'm talking about is not something that any person feels by nature. In fact, it is radically contradictory to the natural disposition of a human being. I can tell you, it was the farthest thing for many desire of mine for the first 21 years of my life. The kind of desire that I'm talking about is not something that can be generated by human willpower, it is a desire that is brought into existence by the intervening grace of God. A power so transforming upon the human heart that the once defiant rebel becomes a willing servant. Christians, you see, are people who find their pleasure in pleasing God, but all of that then leads us to the obvious question. It begs the practical question, how do we do this? How do we please God? Are we left to our own religious imaginations at this particular point? Our own religious feelings, our own religious inclinations? How is it that a fallen son or daughter of Adam can be a source of pleasure to the all-sufficient, fully satisfied, thricefully God? Oh, beloved, we've not got time to answer that question in its fullness in one Sunday, certainly not in any kind of comprehensive way, because the Bible comes at this thing from any multiplicity advantage points. However, what we can know for sure this morning is that there is one answer that is foundational to all others. One rudimentary answer in relationship to which all of the other answers are but the practical outworkings. It's the very thing that is before us in Hebrews chapter 11. What brings pleasure to our God is the life of faith. As we have discovered a life that is governed, shaped, molded, fashioned by the promises of God. A life in which decisions are made and choices are chosen on the basis of the Word of God. This is the kind of life you see, my friends, that brings pleasure to our God because we throw ourselves completely upon God in the integrity of His Word. And of all the illustrations that are provided for us in this chapter, the clearest statement about how this kind of life pleases God is made in reference to a little known man by the name of Inak. Inak, my guess is, most of you like me have never given much attention to Inak. When people are asked to think about the great men and women of Old Testament history, his is a name that rarely, if ever, gets mentioned. What do we know about this guy? What do we know about Inak? Well perhaps you're mindful of his amazing age. He belonged to a company of people, theologians have referred to as anti-deluvians, those early members of the human race who prior to the time of the flood lived incredibly long lives. In the case of Inak, it amounted to 365 years. I don't know about you, but just hearing that makes me tired. I don't want to live 365 years. And of course, compared to his son, that was a drop in the bucket. He lived to the ripe old age of 969. Methuselah, even his name, sounds weary some. Perhaps you're aware of the ministry that God gave to this man, Inak. If you're a Bible reader, you've come across this in the book of Jude. It was a very difficult ministry indeed, as we will see in a few moments. A ministry I might add that in its day was extremely unpopular. But of course, what is most well known about Inak, if anybody knows anything about Inak, is the unusual end of his earthly existence. And it is to that event that the writer of Hebrews now draws our attention and shows us how it serves to reveal Inak as a man who pleased God. Now, for this morning, beloved, I simply want us to ask two very basic questions. One, how did Inak please God, two? How can we please God? What can we learn from this? First, how did Inak please God? Well, if you have read through the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 5 in particular, you will notice that the author gives but 51 words to describe this man. So for the sake of summarizing, let me just read those 51 words to you and see if you can find in the McClu as to how it was he pleased God. Let me read it. Genesis 5, 21 to 24. When Inak had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah, and after he became the father of Methuselah, Inak walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. All together, Inak lived 365 years, Inak walked with God. Then he was no more because God took him away. He was no more. God took him. Now just in case you might be tempted to think that the writer is using euthamistic language to refer to Inak's death, just kind of a literary device of speaking about the end of his life, I would remind you that the context of Genesis 5 will not allow such a thing. He beloved Inak's name appears in a genealogical record which begins with the name of Adam. And after the name of each man and the mention of the length of his life, we read these words over and over and over and over again. And then he died. And then he died. Adam lived and then he died. Seth lived and then he died so forth. He came to the name of Inak and immediately we are struck with this radical difference. Then he was no more because God took him. Now listen to how the writer of Hebrews replaced this event and interprets it for us, verse 5. Inak was taken from this life with the result that he did not experience death. He could not be found because God had taken him away. Because the idea behind this word to find he could not be found, could not be the idea of coming up empty after an exhaustive and thorough going search. Now I don't know if you recall. I don't know if another illustration very much like this has been brought to your thinking but a very similar thing happened in the life of another prophet of God, didn't it? His name was Elijah. He didn't experience death either. He was suddenly taken to heaven in a chariot of fire. Second Kings 2 tells us that for three days people looked all over the place for Elijah and they couldn't find him. You see it's the very same idea here. They looked for him if they couldn't find him. And I would help you understand a little bit reading between the lives. Inak undoubtedly was a very well-known man. To be sure he was not well-loved for the simple reason that he exercised a public and prophetic ministry during an age so wicked God eventually destroyed it with the flood. We always think we live during the worst times. The Bible will not allow this beloved. But you see in a very real sense it was the people's dislike of Inak that made him such a well-known person. Suddenly he's gone. No more preaching, no more talk of this coming judgment, finally were rid of this nagging prophet. Where did he go? Somebody finally rise up and put an end to it. Somebody do us all a favor and silence him where then was his body? Well the text makes clear, beloved, there was no body to be found because he had been exempted from the experience of death. And who's doing was this? The writer tells us God had taken him away. Literally the word means to remove from one place to another, to transfer, to translate, from one round to another. Now how did God do this? We don't know. Was it a great cherry to fire? As in the case with Elijah, maybe Inak was just walking along and he was gone. However it happened, it was something of a prototype of what will happen on the great and final day. When those who were alive at the coming of Jesus Christ will in a flash and the twinkling of an eye be changed so that which is perishable will put on immortality. There will be no experience of death in the case of those people who were alive at the return of Christ, those Christians who were alive at the return of Jesus Christ. This was the experience of Inak you see in some sense. But of course all of this forces us to ask the obvious question, why did God do this for Inak? Well notice that the last half of verse 5 gives us something of an explanation. We know that because it begins with the word 4, wow women and LTD men, 4, before he was taken he was commended as one who pleased God. Actually friends it means that he was well pleasing to God. It's a very strong word. It is without doubt the highest compliment that could ever be paid to a human being. Didn't you agree? The greatest eulogy that could ever be given to a human being, he brought pleasure to God. She pleased God. But how did Inak please God? Well notice that familiar phrase that begins verse 5. It's all through this chapter, acting on the basis of faith, or by faith, again it's a date of a man. Acting on the basis of faith, Inak was taken from this life. Now friends this does not mean, be very careful here, that Inak had the faith to be translated into heaven and so he was as though there was some kind of inherent power in his faith. Now the idea is God was well pleased with Inak to such an extent that he rewarded him with being exempted from the experience that is common to every son or daughter of Adam. He pleased God. How? His life was wholly shaped by his faith in God. And to help you understand this a bit more thoroughly, we're reminded of those 51 verses that are hanging back there in Genesis chapter 5, words that describe Inak which twice say about him, Inak walked with God. No notice that he does not say Inak walked after God, or Inak walked before God. Those are two very common Hebrew phrases that refer to the life of openness and obedience before the all seeing eye of God, what is used with regard to Inak is highly unusual. He walked with God. It is unusual phrase beloved that speaks of supernatural communion with the living God it speaks of intimate, close, intercourse, intimate, fellowship. This is what God had enjoyed with Adam and Eve prior to the fall wasn't it? And I might add beloved this is what God still seeks from us. This is what authentic religion is, walking with God. What does the prophet Micah tell us we sing it? He has shown you, O man, what is good? And what does the Lord require of you to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God? This beloved is how Inak pleased God. He sought sacred communion, intimate fellowship with God for 300 years. And that's not all there was to this story, to that culture who in just seven generations had become so unrighteous and so profoundly God hating, God gave His friend Inak a very difficult assignment. He was to preach to His generation about the coming judgment of God. This is His sermon recorded for us in the book of Jude. See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of His holy ones to judge everyone and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. Now, beloved, that was Inak's sermon, 300 years. God is coming to settle the score, God is coming to judge ungodly people, and you are in His crosshairs. Needless to say, Inak was never a much sought after conference speaker, beloved, there is nothing that indicates to us anywhere in the word of God that His ministry was ever received. And yet so confident was He of the word of God, the word that God had revealed to Him that for 300 years He declared it despite universal opposition. This you see is how He pleased God. He acted, shaped His life on the basis of faith, walking with God in intimate fellowship in communion and speaking the hard word from God without compromise in a time of exceeding darkness. Inak pleased God, and the result, God rewarded Him. You see, beloved, there are two states in which the people of God can live. They can live in a state of intimate fellowship with God here in this world, and it is a wonderful thing, not to be despised. Despite all of the unholy undertoes of sin and the world system and the devil himself, people can experience great bliss and great joy in this life by virtue of knowing God and being known by Him of having relationship with Him. Everything else in this life, beloved, including all of the difficulties and all of the trials and all of the hostilities, pales into comparative insignificance when we give consideration to the reality of having God as our God. And then you see, for people such as these, there is reward that follows. A place where intimate fellowship with God can be experienced with no caveats whatsoever, completely away from all of the effects of sin. People uncompromised bliss and joy in the immediate presence of God forever. Now this beloved is where God wanted Inak to be. Inak pleased God. His ultimate pleasure was in pleasing God. Everything about His life was determined by faith in God and His Word, and so God took Him. How do we please God? How do we please God? How can we please God? How can this particular ascription in verse 5 be made true of us that He was commended as one who pleased God? Well, you'll notice now, beloved, that the writer leaves the historical behind and now begins to speak to us. And the way he goes about this is very telling. Sometimes the most profound way that you can say something so that it leaves an indelible impression on the minds of people is to state it strongly but negatively. And that's exactly what he does right here, verse 6, and continuing his discussion. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Oh, my friends, that people would simply take God at His Word. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. Will you listen to this? God will never be pleased with us, in the sense of being rightly related to us as our God, if all of our attempts to win His pleasure are made by making moral improvements, by becoming more religiously active, by somehow by our own strength, keeping more of the Ten Commandments than we break. I appeal to you this morning, brothers and sisters, all of the masses and all of the motions and all of the money and all of the candles will never make us pleasing in God's sight. There is one thing that renders a fallen human being, pleasurable to the sight of God and that is faith. The Apostle Paul says it like this in Romans 14, everything that does not come from faith is sin. And notice how absolute he is. He's just as absolute as the writer of Hebrews. He says everything that does not come from faith is sin. Apart from faith, it is impossible to please God. He does not suggest that it is merely difficult to please God, or that it is highly unlikely that apart from faith, a person can please God. Here beloved the writer of Hebrews shuts the door forever on the possibility of meriting the pleasure of God by human effort. Impossible means it can't be done. Let me say it to you even more simply. You can never be good enough to please God. You can never be religious enough to please God. You can't ever give enough money to please God. You can't ever make enough sacrifices to please God. There is one thing that brings you into a pleasing relationship with the living God by friends and that is faith, faith on the contrary, however, to repudiate faith, to deny faith is the sever the only lifeline that can link you to God. You say, well, art, can we still be a bit more concrete here? What kind of faith is it that pleases God? I mean, everybody believes in somebody or something, the Bible even tells us that the demons possess a kind of faith. What kind of faith is it that pleases God? The writer tells us two things. First of all, it's a faith that is placed in the right God. It is a faith that is placed in the right God. Let me explain to you what this is saying, beloved. Verse 6, and without faith, it is impossible to please God and the next word ought to be translated either indeed or to be sure anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists. But literally this says, anyone who comes to Him must believe that He is. He exists, to my way of thinking, misses the idea altogether. You see, beloved, the author is not simply suggesting that what pleases God is recognition of the existence of a deity, that somehow that is satisfactory to God. There are millions of people alive on this planet even now who will readily acknowledge that there is a God who exists. It's the difference between what we talked about a couple of weeks ago, the difference between believing in God and believing God. It's not merely the existence of God that is pleasurable to God. Christianity, beloved, will not allow for idolatry, for example. The God who is the product of a person's own religious imagination. But the object of Christian faith is far more narrow and focused than that. And the author says, anyone coming to Him must believe that He is. Does that by chance remind you of one of the names by which God revealed Himself in the Old Testament Scriptures? Remember now that the writer of Hebrews is addressing Jews. That is the most personal name for God in the Old Testament Scriptures. It is His covenant name, His name, specifically given to His covenant people. Moses, I want you to take my people out of Egypt. All right, I'll do it, but who do I tell them sent me? God says, tell them, I am sent here. The overtones here, anyone who comes to me must believe that He is. I don't take this to be an accident, beloved. He is echoes of, I am. This is the object of the Christian's faith. This God who has revealed Himself in the Old Testament Scriptures as, I am. Moreover, to fill this out a bit more comprehensively for you, what is the name that Jesus uses to speak of Himself in the Gospel of John? That name which, when used by Him, aroused the Pharisees to kill Him before Abraham was born. What kind of faith please is God? A faith that affirms God's revelation of Himself, a faith beloved that rests on the God of the Bible, the covenant God of the people of Israel, the God who has revealed Himself most fully in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. This is why you see we must never drive a wedge between God and Jesus as though they were two radically different beings. The God of the Bible is the God who has revealed Himself most fully in the face of His Son, Jesus Christ. If you have faith this morning in the God of the Jehovah Witnesses, the modern counterpart of ancient Aryanism, then your faith is not pleasing to God. If you have faith in the God of the Latter-day Saints, the modern counterpart to Greek mythology, then your faith is not pleasing to God. If you have faith in a God who can be pleased by your own religious counterparts, the modern counterpart to the faith of ancient Cain, then your faith is not pleasing to God. The faith that pleases God beloved is not faith in whatever divinity happens to best strike my religious fancy. It is faith in the God who has been explained most fully in the beauty of His Son, Jesus Christ. Is he the object of your faith this morning, apart from that kind of faith, in that person, your hope of pleasing God is gone. If faith that pleases God is a faith that is placed in the right God, anybody who comes to Him must acknowledge that He is, secondly, a faith that pleases God is a faith that pursues the rewarding God. It is not merely a faith that is placed in the right God, it is a faith that pursues the rewarding God. Watch what He says, without faith that is impossible to please God, indeed, anyone who comes to Him must believe that He is, and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Dear friends, God wants us to believe that the benefits of knowing Him infinitely out way anything else that might seek to keep us from Me. He wants us to believe that knowing Him will benefit us. We need to believe that He will save us, that He can make us happy, that He can satisfy our deepest needs, that in Him will be found our greatest satisfaction, that He is a rewarder You ever think about God in those kinds of terms, beloved? It begins to display something of the magnanimity of God. He is a rewarder, a paymaster of those who seek Him. One author says it like this, it may have been coined by the writer to evoke the image of a paymaster who distributes the exact wage. The wage is the share of those who ardently seek none other than God Himself. The description serves to characterize Enic and others as person who relied persons who relied firmly on God and found in Him the source of their deepest satisfaction. And friends, after all, what is the reward that God gives as a result of seeking after Him? It looks like a rigged game of hide and seek, He lets you find Him. What did David say to his son, Solomon? If you seek Him, He will be found by you. God says it this way in Jeremiah, you will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart, I will be found by you. God Himself, beloved, is the reward of this seeking. I am your shield, God says to Abraham, you are very great reward. Is He beloved? How this works is something like this. God by His grace begins to stir in the heart of a sinner and such a person in turn begins to seek for God, wanting God more than anything else. And in the case of such a person, His desire will never be disappointed. He will never be turned away. He will find God, you see, this is the reward of faith. This is how a person, beloved, comes to experience God's gift of salvation. They are brought to an awareness of their sin and their guilt, and then someone begins to tell them about this God who loves sinners. That's what happened to me when I was nearly 21 years old. Somebody told me that there was this God who was the friend of sinners, and by all means I knew that's who I was. As a result of some painful circumstances in my life, God had placed His mirror of conviction against my soul, and it was plainly evident to me that I was guilty. How wonderful than it was to hear that there is this God who receives sinners, who welcome sinners, who extends His hands to sinners, who is populating heaven with sinners. He so showed me my sin that He made me seek in. What did I find in the seeking? I found Him, and in finding Him I found forgiveness of my sins in the gift of eternal life. Have you sought Him out? Have you been on this quest? Jesus Himself says, whoever comes to me, I will never drive away, dear children. If you seek Jesus Christ with all your heart, you will find Him. This is why we do not need to say to children as though such a thing could work. Honey, repeat this prayer after me. We simply say to our children, if you want Jesus Christ, seek Him. If you want eternal life, seek Him. If you want to be freed from your sins, seek Him, and He will be found by you. So that when you are twenty years old, you don't have to say, I think I am saved because I parroted a prayer from my parent. Remember the day when He let me find Him. I say this to you who are not Christians this morning, seek this God who saves. Seek this God who rewards those who seek Him. Seek this God who allows Himself to be found, you will not be disappointed. And to those of you who are Christians, does this diligent seeking end at the moment of salvation? No. And you know why? Because there's more reward to be found. That's what happened to Enic. He had been seeking God 300 years. And I imagine that there were days when He was overwhelmed by the reward of God's presence of Himself. And at the end of His life, God took Him. He was rewarded. He got more of God. And beloved such as the case with none other than Jesus Christ Himself, the God-man, He was the beloved Son who pleased the Father. He walked with God as no person had ever walked with God. He lived by faith as no person had ever lived by faith. And the result, reward, resurrection, seated at the right hand of His Father. Now beloved, I grant you this morning, we have no promise that our faith will inaugurate immediate translation to heaven as was the case with Enic. But what we do know without question is this. Our communion with God is restored. Deliverance from death is sure. More of God. Greater reward for those who diligently seek Him. You want to know how to please God. You live by faith. And what kind of faith is it that pleases God, a faith that is placed in the right God, and a faith that aggressively pursues the rewarding God? We used to sing a silly little song when we were kids, but I just couldn't get it out of my mind this week. I want more of Jesus, more and more and more, remember that? I want more of Jesus than I ever had before. That's the idea. Is it your pleasure this morning to please Him? The soul is measured by its flights, some low and others high. The heart is known by its delights and pleasures never lie. Would you bow your heads with me, please? Our Father in heaven, we give you thanks this morning for your wonderful word. We give you thanks this morning that you have made yourself known to us in Jesus Christ. Thank you that we've not had to create our own image of God. We've had to fashion in our own minds eye what God must be like. You have revealed yourself to us. You are the God of the Bible. You are the God I am. You are the God who has explained Himself in your Son, Jesus Christ. And we are thankful that for those who seek you diligently, earnestly, they will find you. They will find you. They will find you to be a rewarding God. Oh Father, there are people here this morning who don't know any of what I've been talking about. They've not experienced this reward. They've not experienced this God of grace and blessing. Oh, I pray that today, today, as they sit in their seat even at this very moment, they would say to themselves, I will seek this God. I will seek this God until I find Him. No, Lord, in God, I pray that as you have done in the lives of so many of us, you would allow such a person, a boy, a girl, an adult this morning to find you, let them find you, Lord. In fact, their hearts so that they begin this seeking and may they come to taste this glorious reward. We love you. Amen. Amen. Amen.