By Faith

[00:00:01] Our heavenly Father, we pray to you as the one true God. We thank you for the light that you have shed in our hearts and have brought into this world. [00:00:13] You are light, and in you there is no darkness at all. By your light we can see and have understanding. [00:00:22] We can gain wisdom and love. [00:00:27] Lord, by your light you allow us to see ourselves as we truly are. You allow us to see our sins, and you allow us to see the great promises that you have made, your wondrous works, and the goodness that has been made manifest in your son. [00:00:47] We ask now that by your spirit we would come to an understanding of your word, that by it we may grow and live and rejoice. [00:01:02] Bless the reading and preaching of your word. This evening we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. [00:01:12] Remain standing if you're able. And let's turn our attention to Hebrews chapter eleven to another Old Testament book. [00:01:43] I wanted to spend some time reviewing Hebrews eleven and the first part of verse twelve, in which we have many reminders about the wondrous works of God from the Old Testament. And we'll consider over the next few weeks these various people that the Lord introduces to us and what he does in their lives. [00:02:07] I've been waiting to preach Hebrews until a friend and mentor of mine finishes his commentary. But it looks like it's going to be several more years, so I figured we'll go ahead and jump in a little bit. I hope this is a blessing to you. [00:02:25] Let's hear God's word. I'm going to be focusing on verses one through three this evening. [00:02:30] Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen for by it. The people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. [00:02:52] You may be seated you it so the author to Hebrews begins by describing faith. [00:03:19] And that's a really good place to begin because there's a lot of confusion in our culture, in my opinion, about what faith is in general, and specifically with regard to faith in Christ. [00:03:36] Sometimes faith seems to be just this very vague idea of positive feelings. You just need to be optimistic, right? Doesn't matter what the circumstances are, it doesn't matter what's actually going on the reality ground. Just have faith. I think means to some people, just be cheerful, be optimistic, be hopeful. It's not in anything particular. [00:04:04] It's not a faith that's grounded in any particular reason. [00:04:09] It's just an attitude we might say, a general approach to life. And while that might be commendable in some ways, that's not really what faith is. [00:04:21] Faith. Another problem that we see with faith sometimes as the way we think about it, sometimes faith is put as an opposite of something like science or reason. And as we'll see, this is a really bad way to think about faith. [00:04:38] Faith is faith and science. It's a bad definition, and it's a bad of faith, and it's a bad definition of science. [00:04:44] Faith is not a sort of guessing and sort of just hoping for things in a kind of random way where science has not yet given us information or antiscience in some ways. But these two things, as we'll see, work together. [00:05:05] So what does the author to Hebrews begin with? How does he define faith? [00:05:13] It's not a comprehensive definition. It doesn't say everything you could say about faith. There are other passages and scriptures which would fill out and give more. But here he focuses on a couple aspects. He says, faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. [00:05:34] It points to hoping in something that is not yet possessed, having confidence in something that does not yet belong to us or that we do not yet see. [00:05:50] It's having confidence and hope in something that you cannot see and cannot perhaps future. And as he gives us an example as well, in the past, now, this idea is, of course, very close to hope. He connects it, right. He says, faith is the conviction or the assurance of things hoped for. [00:06:16] Now, borrowing from somewhere that I can't remember, I've been using this definition of hope as faith on tiptoes. Right? It's something that believes something and then looks forward, right? This sort of expectant thing in things to come. [00:06:34] Faith in this way often has a future orientation. But it's not only that. It can also look back to the past. [00:06:43] Faith trusts in what is promised and then looks for those things that are promised or believes in those things that are unseen. [00:06:55] The example in the past that the author gives is in verse three, the creation of the world. [00:07:01] This is an example of looking backwards. He says, by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of the things that are visible. [00:07:16] The beginning of the world is an interesting example when it comes to faith, because you can't test it fully, and certainly you weren't there to see it. [00:07:29] And even if you were there, you certainly couldn't be testing nothingness, right? You can't apply yourself and measure the nothingness out of which the Lord made the heavens and the earth, indeed, the only one that was present as we can even begin to understand it. And our language is stretching at these points, right? [00:07:54] Is God himself. [00:07:57] There was no way to know how these things came to be, how the world was created out of nothing, except to be God and to hear his word. [00:08:11] Notice how this is connected to understanding. He says, by faith we understand. [00:08:19] By faith we understand. These things are not opposed to one another, as though reason and understanding were in one category and faith were in another. They are linked and connected. [00:08:32] When we consider, for example, the beginning of the world, we realize that we have to believe something about something we cannot see, something that we were not there for. [00:08:48] When someone rejects that claim that God created the world out of nothing, are they rejecting that claim based on things that they see, based on tests and procedures that are done? No. Right. It's a rejection based on assumption that something like that cannot be. It's a rejection based on an article of faith, we might say. So either way, you start. You start with faith. You start with believing and trusting that something that you cannot see, that you cannot test empirically or with the certain kind of physical proofs anyway. [00:09:32] This is important when we think not only about the nature of faith, but thinking about the nature of everything and understanding everything. [00:09:41] Our existence, from the very beginning of the world to the very end, is dependent on things that we believe and things that we can't see. [00:09:50] There's all kinds of interesting examples of this. [00:09:54] Many of us have faith that our parents are our parents and that their parents were their parents, and that their parents were their parents. [00:10:05] How far back do you go before you start having doubts? [00:10:12] Right? At what point do you start questioning what is true? And even with birth certificates and the testimony of things, you simply were not there to see, to experience. [00:10:26] There are things that we test and we trust all over in this life, in our life. Things that we can't see, we don't know, and we trust them nevertheless. Not because we're just jumping with blindness without reason, but for good reasons. And one good reason is that God tells us what he has done. [00:10:48] He tells us what he is doing and what he has promised to do. [00:10:54] One commentator wrote a faith is the act of commitment on the part of the believer, whereas hope is the state of mind that he possesses. I think that's a helpful distinction. Faith is the act of commitment on the part of the believer, whereas hope is the state of mind that he possesses. We say, I believe that my car will start this morning. And then I turn the ignition in the hope and confidence that it will start. Now, I might be proven wrong, right? But nevertheless, this is what we see with faith and hope. [00:11:35] What this begins to point to in a direction is that is, it calls us to examine our assumptions and realize that faith is not this sort of blind optimism. But faith is faith in something. And we all have faith in some things, lots of somethings. And so there's this question for us is, what are we putting our faith in? What are we trusting in? And is it worthy of our faith? Is it worthy of acting on and hoping in when it comes to the creation of the world? [00:12:11] I'm sorry. The author here, as he writes, is calling us not only to examine faith in general, but I think he's also calling to mind what he brings up in the beginning of the book. [00:12:25] He's reminding us that it is through Christ that the creation of the world began. [00:12:32] It is through Christ that all things came to be. [00:12:39] Listen to Hebrews one long ago at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and upholds the universe by the word of his power. [00:13:04] I think in calling to mind our creation of the world, he's not simply pointing us to consider the nature of faith, but he's also reminding us that, as he says, that the universe was created by the word of God, and through the son of God, he's calling us to look at the beginning of our existence and everything that we have, both past and future, in light of him. [00:13:33] Augustine says, as an application point for this, do not be ungrateful to the one who made you able to see. [00:13:43] He has in mind people who want to say, well, I only believe what I can see. I only believe what I can put my eyes on. He says, do not be ungrateful to the one who made you able to see. God gave you eyes in your head and reasons in your heart. [00:14:01] We are to use both. We're to use all the faculties and tools that God has given us to see, to understand, to gain wisdom, and to apply ourselves to truth of all kind. [00:14:15] Well, what the author is going to go on and do in the coming verses is he is going to show us how faith in God in particular and in his promises is a really good move. [00:14:29] It's valuable, it's important, and it's essential for life. [00:14:38] We're not going to go through everyone tonight. That's in the coming weeks. But he introduces the idea in verse two, where he says, for by it that is faith. The people of old received their commendation. [00:14:52] The people of old. Here could be translated the elders, the presbuteroy. But he's not just talking about the elders of the church. He's talking about the fathers, and we can say the mothers, the elders here, though in the Masculine refers, we see, to both men and to women, the people of faith. The people of old include Sarah in Hebrews eleven, and Moses's mother. And in verse 35, the women who received back the dead. [00:15:26] I mentioned this to point out that faith is something that is for everyone. [00:15:33] It's not for a select group of people. It applies to both men and women, to those pre Abraham and post Abraham, pre Moses and post Moses, Old Testament and New Testament. And in verse three, and then later on in the chapter, he uses this word, we by faith, we something by faith. For example, in three by faith, we understand that the universe was created. So he has in mind not just the people of the past, but his audience who's hearing that word right now, which by the providence of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, includes you as well. [00:16:13] Faith is not just for a select few. Faith is not something that is just for one group of people or another, or one age or another. But as the scriptures say, the righteous live by faith, the righteous all over the world, the righteous throughout all of time. [00:16:32] And what the author is going to do here is he is going to give us lots and lots of encouragement by pointing us to those who have come before us, the cloud of witnesses. He will say that faith connects us to these people from the past through Christ. It's not something that belongs to only one group or one time. Which leads to an application that we have in the verse just before chapter eleven, where he says, but we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed. This is chapter ten, verse 39. We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. [00:17:17] Life is difficult, and that is one of the themes that is going to come out in Hebrews. Chapter eleven. We have accounts of people being murdered, sawn in two, wandering the land, not having a home, shedding blood, all kinds of things. [00:17:34] He will recognize and point out the very real difficulties that we face in this life. But he's going to call us. He is calling us. The Lord is calling us to have faith to not shrink back and not be destroyed, even though our very lives would be taken. Faith preserves our souls and brings an end that is greater than just the life that we have in this world. [00:18:07] So, as he addresses the people of old in verse two, he then takes us to the commendation of faith, or the reward of faith. A commendation. What a formal, wonderful word. Honoring a word. [00:18:24] But notice from whom this commendation is from. [00:18:28] Ultimately, it's from God himself. [00:18:32] This word is based on the word that means to witness or testify like a person does in court or like a martyr does in his suffering. It's testifying and bearing witness, confirming the truth. [00:18:47] This commendation seems here to be divine because look at verse four, we read that by faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous. [00:19:03] And then again in verse 39, this word is used again, chapter eleven, he says, in all these, he ends this way. So it begins and then ends this way. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. [00:19:26] We'll talk more about that verse later. But here, just notice that there is a commendation that comes from God because of our faith. [00:19:36] There is a favor that comes from God, a bearing witness that the faith was right and it was good. [00:19:49] Cyril of Jerusalem, one of the church fathers, points to various examples of people exercising faith in various life and receiving rewards as a result of it. [00:20:02] He points to marriage as an interesting example. He says, two people get married, and on the basis of faith in that contract, he says, strangers come together and live their lives together. [00:20:14] It's an interesting example. [00:20:17] Another example of faith he gives is farmers. Right? A great example. Farmers doing hard, hard work day in and day out, believing that the work is worthwhile, that there will be a reward. [00:20:34] The last image he gives, which is probably my favorite of the three, he talks about seafaring men trusting the thinnest plank, being willing to exchange the most solid thing of the land for the sea. [00:20:50] Right. Why would someone do such a thing? This is very hard for me to understand as a desert dweller, to exchange the solidity of the land for the sea. But they do it right, just like the farmers do it in exchange for the reward that comes from the work that they do. [00:21:13] The Lord here is encouraging us. In a similar vein, he says, when you put your faith in me, there is faith that is coupled with understanding, and faith that preserves, and faith that gives you strength to push on and not shrink back and faith that ultimately leads not to your destruction, not to failure, not to meaningless and vanity, but leads to good things and good rewards. [00:21:45] The reward of faith is received partly in this life, understanding, hope, commendation from the Lord, but it's also received in the future as well. [00:21:59] So in all of this, we can see, as the author begins to introduce this and begins to introduce various people to us, how important this is and how encouraging it can be to study and meditate and ponder on the works of old, like we read in the psalms. And so I'm looking forward to doing this with you and considering the faith of various people and the way that God was at work in that. [00:22:25] Before we conclude, let's consider just a few obstacles. [00:22:30] Obstacles to faith. [00:22:33] One is, of course, doubt. [00:22:37] It is the obstacle to faith. It is antifaith doubt. Or we could say unbelief in the truth. [00:22:45] This is important to point out, because when we get kind of confused about definitions concerning faith, we can also get confused about doubt. While it's certainly honorable and a good thing to be honest about how we're feeling, about honest about how we're thinking, and to recognize those areas of doubt, it's not a commendable thing to not be sure of what is true, to not have knowledge about things that should be known. [00:23:19] And this is important because some people pursue doubt as if it was a virtue. [00:23:27] Some people pursue doubt as though that was the place to be, as though uncertainty and vacillation and never landing and never coming to a knowledge of the truth was somehow a good thing. [00:23:40] It's not. [00:23:42] It doesn't mean we shouldn't be honest. It doesn't mean we all have doubts and can work through those. [00:23:51] But doubt is not a virtue in itself, and it certainly is opposed to faith. [00:23:57] Faith is the goal. The Lord says that even the smallest amount of faith can do great, great things. [00:24:05] And so doubt is ultimately not an obstacle to true faith. [00:24:11] True faith is stronger than doubt, we might say, but it's important to have these things in our mind and to see it as an obstacle. It is the opposite of it. [00:24:22] And so what should we do with our doubt? [00:24:25] We pursue the truth. We pursue and try to seek a confirmation of the things that are true. We consider reasons, and we listen to the word of God. [00:24:36] What does that look like? Well, it means asking good questions. [00:24:42] It means testing. It means poking and prodding your assumptions. In the case of following Jesus, I would recommend listening and following him, see where he leads. Where does he go? [00:24:57] A lot of times I've noticed in pastoral experience, the way a lot of people deal with doubt is by doing nothing. [00:25:07] They just remain in this space of uncertainty and unknowing, and they just let themselves be in this place of, well, you can't know, and I don't know, and that's it. When God's given them a full Bible, full of information and people all around us to help and to guide, as you face doubts, I would encourage you to learn to read, to listen, to ask questions, and to seek the Lord. [00:25:35] You might consider Nicodemus as an example, who had questions, and he came to Jesus, and he's like, I don't know this and that. And then later we see him following the Lord. We see this with all kinds of examples in scripture. People and crowds following Jesus events, some of them eventually going away and not heeding his word, but others coming to true faith and to life in him. [00:26:05] In those that don't follow. We can see another obstacle to faith, and that's pride in oneself. [00:26:12] We assume that we know the best. We assume that we can know better than God. We assume that. [00:26:23] We assume that our speculations are better than his word. [00:26:29] This is an obstacle to faith. I would ask you, if you find yourself in this position of putting more trust in your speculations than in him, why? [00:26:43] And to be honest about that, why trust yourself and your ideas more than God and his word? [00:26:54] That is a simple question, but a difficult one. I think answering it may lead you to even more questions, which we won't go down the full rabbit trail right now. But these are things that certainly I and other christians are happy to think through with you. But it's an important question to ask, because a lot of times we don't. We just assume, well, of course I know better than God does. [00:27:22] Why? [00:27:24] What's your reason? What's the grounding for that? If we're aiming to be reasonable, let's be reasonable. Give me your reasons. Let's test them and see where they lead. [00:27:37] Ultimately. Pride in self. I can tell you the end of the story. Pride in self does not lead us anywhere. Good. [00:27:44] Pride in our own abilities, pride in our speculations lead us further into sin and further away from God, rather than closer. [00:27:56] Finally, I'll say, as an obstacle to faith, we have ignorance. [00:28:01] Faith is based on knowledge. We put our faith in the one who has come and the one who suffered and died and has risen from the dead. We put our faith in Jesus. [00:28:13] Paul says, without the resurrection of the dead or the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, without this objective thing that happened in history, our faith would be vain, pointless, a waste of time. And we of all the people in the world were most to be pitied. [00:28:30] Our faith is not a blind leap in the dark. Our faith is based on something that happened. [00:28:37] That's what John testifies to. He says, we saw him, we touched him, we were there, and now I'm telling you about it. I want you to know about it. [00:28:49] And so ignorance is an important part of this. And my encouragement to you is if you find your faith to be weak, strengthen it with knowledge. [00:29:00] Read the word, read the gospels, learn about who Jesus is, about what he did, about what he is promising to do. [00:29:12] Listen to him, learn about him. Don't stay in a place of ignorance and darkness just because that's however you happen to be, but instead pursue knowledge, seek it out and trust the Lord ultimately. [00:29:31] And I'll conclude with this, ultimately, the question about faith will come down to two things. [00:29:39] Are we going to depend on our works and our abilities to get us the things that we want and need, freedom from our sins, forgiveness of our sins, eternal life, heaven, fellowship with God. [00:29:57] Will that get us to that point or not? [00:30:02] Well, the scriptures testify over and over again, so clearly, as I think our own lives do, that they do not. [00:30:10] Faith in ourselves, in our own abilities to get the things that we want to get the things that we need will always fall short. But the scriptures are pointing us, the Lord is pointing us in another direction. [00:30:23] Not dependence on ourselves, faith in ourselves, but faith in him. And what we will see through all of the examples that are given throughout hebrews eleven is that that hope in God that will not put us to shame. [00:30:42] Dependence on our own works will fail us, but dependence on God and in his works will bless us. [00:30:50] And it's my prayer that as we go and as we continue through this passage, God will be at work in all of our hearts, removing these obstacles to faith, ignorance, doubt and pride, and others as well. [00:31:05] Let's pray now and ask that the Lord would bless us, would grow us in our understanding and our confidence in him, our heavenly Father. And we call on you this evening and we ask for wisdom, for understanding, for faith. [00:31:22] Faith itself is of course, a gift given from you. It's not something that we can have and conjure up in ourselves. [00:31:29] Because of our pride, our doubt and our ignorance, we are not able to search inside of ourselves and find the great truths that you reveal. But, oh Lord, that does not mean that they aren't revealed plainly. You have preached the good news about our salvation, the good news about Jesus throughout the world, and certainly even here tonight and this day. [00:31:55] We ask, Lord, that you would help us to know him better and to trust him more. [00:32:01] We confess our doubts. We confess our pride. We confess our ignorance. And we ask, Lord, that as you spur us on to faith, that you would be at work overcoming these things, that you would shed your light in our lives, in our hearts, that we might more clearly know you and trust you. [00:32:27] We also, Lord, we thank you for the examples of the effectiveness of faith that you have given to us throughout history and for your recording them here in this chapter, in the coming weeks, months. We ask that you would encourage us by these things and that you would help us to be people who, like those who came before us, do not shrink back, but instead have confidence and boldness in the promises of Christ toward us. [00:33:01] Lord, we do put our confidence in him. We reaffirm that it is in him that through him that the world was made, through him that the world is sustained, and through him that the resurrection will happen, and the new heavens and the new earth, and all that is coming. [00:33:18] Lord, we ask that you would help us. [00:33:21] Help us to lay aside every weight of sin, or every weight and every sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, we pray this in his name. Amen.