The Great Faith Chapter

Hebrews chapter 11 verses 1 to 3 is where we are today, the great faith chapter. And you're going to come away after the next several weeks understanding whether or not you are able to take God at his word. Because that's what faith is truly all about. It's taking God at face value as to what he says is absolutely true. So much so that you don't even question it, because God said it. So important. In Hebrews, we've been looking at the sufficiency and supremacy of the Messiah. Hebrews 11 tells us about the supremacy and the sufficiency of the message of the Messiah.

If the incarnate word is sufficient and supreme, then the inspired word is also sufficient and supreme. Hebrews 10 ends with, the just shall live by faith. Verse number 38. That's from the book of Habakkuk, the second chapter.

It's recorded three times in the New Testament. Once in Romans, once in Galatians, and then here in Hebrews chapter 10. That's because the just surely do live by faith. The righteous live a life of trusting obedience. For that's what faith is. Faith is trusting God for what he said. So much so that I obey now all that he says. Faith simply is taking God at his word, trusting him for what he said, and now living out what he says. That's what faith really is. Hebrews 11 is that great faith chapter that explains to us how people actually did that.

And God is so good to give us an entire chapter to unveil for us what it is to live by faith, to walk by faith and not walk by sight. It should govern every aspect of our lives, for we are children of the faith. And so in reading Hebrews chapter 11, we're going to come to grips with what it means to live a life of faith every single day. So let me set it in your minds.

Hebrews chapter 11 verse number 1 says, Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, for by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. Now those three verses are going to be amplified all throughout the rest of chapter 11. And every character is going to scream a life of faith. It doesn't mean they live perfect lives because they surely didn't live perfect lives.

But the lives that characterize them was the life of faith, of trusting obedience, believing what God has said and behaving accordingly as God has said. Now we must understand that faith is not some wishful hope that I might have, some premonition that something is going to happen. We are not wishing for things to take place. We're not wishing for Jesus to come back. We're not wishing that my salvation is secure. We know and believe that Jesus is coming and we know and believe that my salvation is secure.

Based on what? Everything that God has said in his word. The Bible speaks of faith as a belief that the word of God is true so much that it affects everything in my life. In order that I might live accordingly. We trust in the divine word of God. We actually believe that what God says is true.

We believe in the reality and the reliability of God's word. We believe in the sufficiency and the supremacy of God's word. We believe in the efficiency and efficacy of God's word. We believe in the authority and authenticity of the word of God because we believe in the infallibility and inerrancy of the word of God. All that is what we base our lives on. God's word is absolutely true. Because it is I can believe everything he says. Listen in today's culture. There's this phrase called my truth or your truth.

Thank you for speaking your truth. Well, that's what his truth is. All that's wrong. I don't have a truth. You don't have a truth. There's only one truth. It's called the truth. It's called God's truth. It's the only truth that matters. Your truth doesn't matter. My truth doesn't matter. In fact, my truth and your truth is non-existent. Only thing that's true is God's truth. It is the truth. It's what we base everything on. The authority of God's Holy Word. So when you hear someone say, thank you for speaking your truth.

What does that mean? That is so self-centered, so selfish as if you can come up with some kind of truth. You don't. All truth is rooted in the reliability and the reality of the Holy Word of God. Remember Psalm 19? Just to set this in your mind. The precepts of the Lord are right. They rejoice the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure. It's clear. It's clean. It enlightens the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether.

What a great statement. Every time God passes judgment, it's true. It's righteous altogether. When God judges man, it's true. It's never an error. He's never wrong. I know that in our own minds, we have problems with the doctrine of election and the doctrine of man's volition. And we can't rationalize in our mind why God would choose some for glory and not choose others. But the judgment of God is true, no matter what you think. No matter what you believe. It's absolutely true. I have to take God as word.

You've heard me say this before and I'll say it again. We've heard the phrase, God said it. I believe it. That settles it. No, that's wrong. God said it. That settles it. No matter what I believe about it. If God said it, that settles it. Whether I believe it's irrelevant. Because God said it. It's true. That settles all arguments. If God said it, there is no argument. But see, we want to argue with what God says.

We want to debate with God. We want to quarrel with God. Remember what Isaiah 45 9 says? Cursed is the man who quarrels with me. If you want to quarrel with God, you're a cursed man. God's going to judge you and his judgments are true. They are righteous all together because he never makes a mistake. He's a holy, pure, righteous God. He never makes a bad judgment. Nor does he ever make an unrighteous judgment. It's always true. So the psalmist would go on to say in Psalm 119 verse number 142. Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness and your law is truth.

Verse 151. You are near, O Lord, and all your commandments are truth. 160. The sum of your word is truth and every one of your righteous ordinances is everlasting. The sum of all that you say is absolute truth. Your law is perfect. So Roman, so Paul would say in Romans 7 verse number 12, the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Everything about the commandment is holy. Everything about the commandment is righteous. Everything about the commandment is absolutely good. When Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate, Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world.

If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm. And therefore Pilate said to him, so you are a king. And Jesus answered, you say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born and for this I have come into the world to testify to the truth. For this I have been born, speaks of his humanity. For this I came into the world, which speaks of his eternality, his pre-existence. In other words, for this I was born, we know about Christmas.

For this I came into the world, I existed before I was born, speaks of his eternality. And I came for one reason, to testify to the truth. The truth about what? The truth about God. The truth about man. The truth about sin. The truth about righteousness, holiness, mercy, grace. The truth about judgment. God says, I came to testify to one thing, and that is the absolute truth.

So when he came, he fulfilled every prophecy, because all the prophecies in the old testament were true about his coming. I've come to fulfill all truth. He would go on to say, and everyone who is of that truth, hears my voice. And Pilate said, what is truth? That question has been asked for centuries, and always will be asked. When you doubt the authority of God's holy word, what is truth? Christ told them, I'm truth. We know that Jesus is the truth. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

We know that our God is the God of truth, right? We understand that. All throughout the old testament, God is referred to as the God of truth. In fact, in Psalm 86, it says that he is abundant in truth. Not only is he the God of truth, he is overly abundant in all there is when it pertains to truth, because that's all he is, is true. There's nothing in error about him. We know that the spirit of God is true, 1 John 5, 6. So, the son is true, the father is true, the spirit is true. We've seen where the word of God is true.

Everything is true. So therefore, Paul would say, or Jude would say, we are to contend earnestly for the faith, or for the truth that was once for all delivered to the saints. We are truth fighters. We are truth contenders. We contend for one thing, truth. We live in truth. We speak truth. We believe truth. What marks the Christian is that he believes in the God of truth. So much so, he lives in the realm of truth. Why? Because faith is believing in what God said is absolutely true. So much so, it affects the way I live my life.

Because I am convicted by the truth of God's holy word. So important. Paul would say these words in 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse number 20. Oh Timothy, guard, protect, watch over. That was a bit, which has been entrusted to you. Avoiding worldly and empty chatter, and opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed. And they have gone away from the faith, or from the truth. He would say in verse number 13 of 2 Timothy, retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you. Paul tells Timothy, you need to guard, protect, do all you can to watch over the truth that you've been given. Because it's the only thing that matters. Everything about what we believe is based on the authority, the inerrancy, the infallibility, the reliability, the sufficiency, the supremacy, the veracity of God's holy word. Everything is. And in Hebrews 11, you got all these people who believed what God said.

God said it, that settled it. They followed. Because that's what faith truly is. It's believing in what God has already said. You know what the sad thing is? Is that we trust politicians more than we trust the Lord. We trust social media more than we trust the Lord. We trust the news media. We trust educators. We trust scientists. We trust our horoscope more than we trust in the true and living God. That's a sad indictment upon people today, even in the church. We tend to believe things that really aren't true, but we believe them because they go along with what I think or what I feel.

Doesn't mean they're true. God's word is absolute truth and we should follow it. That's why in Luke 18, the Lord said, when the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on the earth? Will he find people who truly believe what he says and act accordingly? That's what Hebrews 11 is all about. So let me give you three words about faith in Hebrews 11, one to three.

We're going to look at the essence of faith, then the evidence of faith, and then the example of faith.

We're going to look at the essence of faith because faith is a confidence and faith is a conviction. We're going to look at the evidence of faith by looking at the characters and their commendation.

And then we're going to look at the example of faith by looking at creation and its cause. Very simple outline, three verses that will set the tone for the rest of Hebrews chapter 11. So if you weren't here last week, we talked about faith's inauguration and faith's expedition and faith's manifestation and etc, etc. You need to go back and listen to that because it sets a tone for this week and this week sets a tone for next week. All this builds one upon the other as we begin to go through the people who lived trusting in what God said and obeying all that God said.

And they did so because what God said is absolute truth. We need to understand that. Truth is is everything for us. So let's look at the the essence of faith.

Now we've heard this verse before that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen or the conviction of things not seen, right? It's really not a definition of faith. It's a description of faith. It describes for us what faith looks like and what faith does. The definition of faith is simply trusting obedience. I believe what God has already said. Now I behave in light of what God has already said. That's trusting obedience. Just two simple words that will help you understand what faith is.

But in Hebrews 11 verse number one, this is the description of faith. It describes for us what faith is really like. Faith is an assurance. Faith is confidence. This is the inner aspect of faith. Faith is also a conviction. That's the outer aspect of faith. So what happens on the inside? Manifests itself on the outside. Very simple to understand. So when the writer says of Hebrews that faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Remember, faith is a conviction about God's precepts and hope is the anticipation of God's promises.

And so you live in light of those promises based on what the precepts God has already given. Faith and hope. But assurance, faith is the assurance of things that are hoped for. Faith is living in light of what we know is going to happen. When we talk about hope in scripture, we're talking about a belief in what God has promised. So much so that I hold on to it because it's absolutely true. Everybody in Hebrews 11 lived in light of that hope. Although they were never able to see that hope come to true fruition in their lives.

But that's exactly how they lived every single day. Because they trusted in the promises of God. True faith has certainty. True faith is not based on chance. Wishful thinking. It's based on the God who said it. In the Old Testament, the people believed that what God promised was true. They believed it. In fact, 1400 years before the Messiah, Moses made decisions based on that Messiah. Hebrews 11 26 says that Moses considered the reproach of Christ, the reproach of the Messiah, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.

For he was looking to the reward. Now that's how Moses lived his life. 1400 years before the Messiah ever came. So what did Moses know about the Messiah? That caused him to live trusting and obeying what God said was going to happen was truly going to happen. That's what faith is all about. Faith is not hoping things are going to happen. I don't have faith that it's going to rain tomorrow because it might or might not rain tomorrow. God never said it's going to rain tomorrow. So I can't have faith in something that God never said.

I can wish for something that God never said, but I can't have faith in what's something God never said. I can only have faith in what God has already said. And so the Old Testament people, they believed in what God had told them. So a man like Moses could live in light of his coming. A man like Daniel. We're studying him on Wednesday night. What did he know about the Messiah? Well, evidently he knew a lot. Because God revealed things to him which allowed him to teach the Magi for some 70 years. So they could teach their children and teach their children about the Messiah.

That's why when the Magi showed up at Christmas time, well not our Christmas time, but in Bethlehem, right? Where is he who was born king of the Jews? The Gentiles knew about a coming king of the Jews, but the Jews didn't know about the arrival of their own king. Because the Gentiles believed what God said about the coming Messiah. And they passed it down to their children. So 700 years later, these Magi would ride into Jerusalem looking for this king because he followed what? The star. The star of Numbers 24 17.

Well, who told them about the star? Who told these astrologers about this certain star that would have a scepter in his hand? Daniel did. Because Daniel lived by conviction. Daniel lived in confidence. Daniel lived with faith. And assurance of things hoped for. That's how the man lived his life. The word assurance, hupostasis is a great word. It's a word that means foundation. Some of you have the King James Version which says faith is the substance of things hoped for. New American Standard says faith is the assurance of things hoped for.

Both are true. Because the assurance we have, it's translated assurance in Hebrews chapter 3 verse number 4. But in Hebrews chapter 1 verse number 3, it's translated exact representation. Because the son is the exact representation of the father. In other words, the son is of the same substance as the father. The son is as foundational as the father is. Faith is the foundation of things hoped for. It's the assurance. It is the substance of things hoped for. It is an absolute confidence. It is an absolute certainty.

Faith is based on certainty. Because it's based on truth. God is true. So whatever God says is absolute truth.

So when a man comes to saving faith, he comes to saving faith based on the fact that he believes that what God said is absolutely true. And therefore he follows exactly what God says.

Hebrews 11 verse number 13 says this, all these died in faith. In other words, they died believing in the assurance of things hoped for. For it says, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance. Well, how did they see them? How do they see the Messiah? How do they see the kingdom of God? You don't see it with a physical eye. You see it with a spiritual eye. But because they believed in what God said, they could see the end. And therefore it kept them going.

It kept them persevering. It kept them keeping on. It kept them steadfast. Because they could see with a spiritual eye. Faith is the substance, the assurance, the confidence, the foundation of that which we hope in. And our hope is based on the God of hope who grants us that hope to believe. So faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It's a confidence. But it's a conviction of things not seen. In other words, there's this outer conviction that happens because of an inward confidence that I have.

That's what faith or how faith is described. There is a truth that I believe in. And that truth that I believe in is what God has already said. Noah becomes a classic example, right? Noah was told that he had to build an ark in the middle of a desert with no trees, no water. It's never rained. So he's never seen rain, right? But God says it's going to rain.

He's never seen a boat. But he has to build a boat. And he has to build it in a place where there are no trees. That's why it takes him 120 years. It's a long time. So for 120 years, he endures what? Scourging, mocking, being made fun of for 120 years. People ridiculed him. But he never stopped. Why? Because he believed in what God said. What God said is true. You can imagine after 60 or 70 years, his sons are saying, you know, Dad, seriously? Do we have to keep doing this thing? I mean, it's just taking forever.

And after all, Dad, the ridicule, the mocking. Do we have to endure this every single day? Let's just forget about the boat thing. Let's forget about the long track in which it takes us to get all the lumber here. Why do we have to do this? Dad, it's never rained. Dad, what is rain? But his father had to be such that he could encourage his sons to believe that what God said is absolutely true. And because it's true, we're going to obey it. Faith is assurance of things hoped for. The conviction of things not seen.

There was a conviction that Noah had based on something he had never seen. He had never seen a boat. He had never seen rain. But God said build a boat because it's going to rain. And that's exactly what he did. And he became a preacher of righteousness for 120 years. His life was committed to that which his heart and mind believed. And his heart and mind believed it because God said it. Moses saw him who was invisible. How do you see the invisible God? Well, you can't see him with a physical eye because he dwells in unapproachable light, right?

And because he dwells in unapproachable light, you'd be consumed by him if you were able to see him in all of his glory. But you can see him with a spiritual eye. Blessed are the pure in heart for they alone shall see God. The unsaved man doesn't get it, doesn't understand it. Everything is foolishness to him. Now note that every one of us to some degree has what we call natural faith. You came to church today. When you got up this morning, you turned the faucet on because you believed that water would come from the faucet.

When you left your house, you either turn the key or push the button, depending on what make and model your car is, believing that once you push the button or turn the key the car would start. You had faith believing and the car would start. That's called natural faith. You drove to church, you came here, you sat on a pew believing that that pew would hold you. Right? That's called faith, natural faith. You're going to leave today, you're going to go to lunch, and they're going to serve you food and by faith, natural faith, you believe the food is not contaminated, it's not poisonous, you can eat it and still live.

You might even get a drink of water by the drinking fountain out here after you leave. And when you get a drink of water, by faith, you believe the water is pure, it's not going to poison you, you're not going to die. Right? You might even get on a plane tomorrow. And natural faith says that plane is going to get me from where I am here in Los Angeles to where I need to be that day. You take it by faith, it's going to fly there. Right? That's natural faith. When you open a can of beans, there's a natural faith that what's in there is a can of beans and they're all good for you.

Right? But that's not supernatural faith. Natural faith happens because of a natural birth. Supernatural faith happens because of a supernatural birth. You're born again. And when you're born again, you're born again supernaturally. That's why the new birth is a new creation. It's a supernatural kind of birth. It's not a natural kind of birth. And that's why the natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God. They can't. They don't get it. They don't understand it. They don't see it.

But we don't expect them to. Because they can't see the invisible. But we can. Because we see it with a spiritual eye. We see it based on what God has already said. So to understand the essence of faith, you understand that faith is a confidence and faith is a conviction. It's assurance of things hoped for. It's the foundation. The substance of things hoped for and it is the conviction of things not seen. Now comes the example of faith. Look what it says. Verse number two.

It says, For by it, that is that kind of faith, the men of old gained approval. The men of old. Who were they? The characters we're going to read about. They gained approval. They didn't earn something. They gained approval. God was pleased with them. Remember, faith is a gift. No man musters up belief. Faith is a gift. Belief is a gift. Grace is a gift. Repentance is a gift. Everything about salvation is a gift. I talked about this last week. All faith commences with the Christ. It all begins with Him.

Because it does, there's a supernatural belief in the things that God has said. I trust what God says.

And so these characters truly believed. And the remarkable thing about them is that they're all different. They're not the same. We'll begin with Abel. Abel was a shepherd. How about Abraham? The father of our faith. How about his wife Sarah? She lived in doubt for mainly her entire life. But yet she had faith and believed in the living God. How about Joshua? He was a soldier. How about Rahab? She was a converted prostitute. How about Gideon? He was the least of the lowliest family in Israel. But he had faith.

How about David? He was the king of Israel. How about the parents of Moses? Most of us don't even know their names, right? Let alone how can they be in the hall of faith if we don't even know their names? We gotta go all the way back to the Old Testament just to know who their names are. They're just called the parents of Moses in Hebrews 11. But they had faith amidst slavery. They believed in God amidst the king's edict to kill all the children. They believed in God. They had faith. They had a conviction.

They had a confidence. These are the characters. And so as you read on, you read about obscure people that we don't even know their names, but they're in the hall of faith. But all of them believe the same thing. They believe what God said. They took God at His word. Do you take God at His word? Do you trust what He says is true? That's what the people of faith did. And they were commended for that. They were commended. In fact, Hebrews 11.38 says the world was not even worthy of these people. You know, in other words, these people are so heavenly minded they were no earthly good.

That's the way we need to be. So heavenly minded we are no earthly good. They were commended by God. The world wasn't even worthy to have them. But the world had them because they were a testimony to saving faith. They were a testimony to the grace of God. They were a testimony to the holiness of God. And God used them in a remarkable way. They were men and women of faith. And God commends them. That's why Hebrews 11.6, without faith, it's impossible to please God. Unless you believe what God says and behave accordingly, you'll never please God.

And every one of us seeks to please God. Paul said, this is my ambition, 2 Corinthians 5.9. I make it my ambition to please Him. Please the invisible God. That should be our chief ambition in life, to please Him. Well, without faith, it's impossible to please Him. Unless you believe who He is, what He's come to do, He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He rewards them. They are commended by Him. There is no higher commendation in all the world than to be commended by the living and true God.

The unfortunate thing is that we want to be commended by people around us. We want to be commended at work. We want to be commended at church. We want to be commended wherever we're going. We want to be recognized. It should be enough for us that God recognizes us and God commends us. Why can't we just rest in that? Why can't we just enjoy that? Because there's always something else we are seeking outside of what God has to offer. We need to rest in what God gives us and God grants us because of His wonderful giftedness toward those of us who believe.

And so you have the essence of faith, a confidence, a conviction. You have the evidence of faith, these characters, their commendation. And now you have the example of faith. The example of faith is creation and its cause. For the writer says these words very simply. By faith we understand. We trust what God says.

We believe that what He says is true. So by faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. Wow. Now the Jews believed that God was creator of the world. They believed that. They believed in Genesis 1. They understood that and that God created what He did out of nothing called ex nihilo. The world was created out of nothing by a simple word of the living God. Listen to Psalm 33. Over in Psalm 33 the Bible makes it very clear.

By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made. By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made. And by the breath of His mouth all their hosts. So everything about the heavens, everything about the earth was created by just a simple mere word of God. I can just read Genesis 1. God said and it happened. God said it happened. Exactly as God said. Why? Because God spoke the world into existence. It goes on to say He gathers the waters of the of the sea together as a as a heap. He lays up the deeps in storehouses.

That all the earth feared the Lord that all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke and it was done. He commanded it stood fast. Then over in Psalm 145 or 148 verse number 5 it says this in verse number 1. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise Him in the heights. Praise Him all His angels, all His hosts, sun and moon, all stars of light. Highest heavens praise Him and the waters that are above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord for He commanded and they were created.

Wow! God said a word and the heavens were created. God says a word. He upholds all things. He was one by the word of His power. God holds everything together just by His breath. Just by speaking a word. God does that. And so when you look at the example of faith the example of faith is in creation.

What we see we believe came into existence how? By God who spoke it into existence. That was the cause. Now the unbelieving world doesn't understand that. They simply believe in the absolute impossible. They believe that nobody times nothing equals everything. That's ridiculous. Nobody times nothing equals everything. Well, that's not true because God created everything and we know they believe that because Romans 1 tells us that. Every scientist, every philosopher, every debater who's ever existed believes in a creator.

They suppress that truth, Romans 1. They bear down. Why? Because they don't want to be held accountable to a higher authority. They don't want to be held accountable for their morality. And the reason they suppress the truth they know the truth. They just suppress it because the law of God's been written on their hearts already. Romans 1. It's all right there. And yet they want to suppress all that. One man said it this way. You may say that scientists know how the universe began but scientists do not know how the universe began.

Scientists can only observe and tell what is going on not why. Science simply discovers laws that already exist but unfortunately science tries to do what it can't do. Observe things before they existed. Science cannot do that. Science can say that is a rock or that is a chemical but it cannot say where that rock or chemical came from or why it came. It only knows what it observes. Science has no access to the why of anything. There's nothing wrong with good observable science but it cannot explain how the universe began.

Philosophers and scientists can't discover what we as Christians can because by faith we know that God made the worlds. He did. We know that because God said so. If God's word is true and God said all things came into being by His command we believe that. The natural man doesn't get that. We'll never understand that. You know what the great thing is? I don't have to convince the natural man of that. My job is not to convince him of that. I don't have to debate the scientist. I don't have to debate the philosopher.

Why? Because I already know the truth. I know the truth. They've suppressed the truth. They've pushed the truth down and they'll push it down more and more simply because they don't want to be accountable to that truth and God holds them accountable. Remember, all God's judgments are true. He would judge them all in truth because He's the God of truth. It was J. Oswald Sanders who said these words Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen. That's what faith does.

It is that absolute ironclad assurance that what I believe is going to happen based on the promises of God is going to take place. It is a conviction that even though I don't see it, I believe it simply because God said it. That's what makes the Christian so unique. That's why the people in Hebrews 11, they were all commended by God because without faith it's impossible to please Him because people of faith take God at His word. The question for us is, will we take God at His word? Let's pray. Father, thank You for today.

What a beautiful day it is to study Your Word. Thank You for the truth of the Scriptures. May we walk by faith, not by sight. May we as the just, the righteous live by faith every single day trusting in what You've already said and following You every single day. In Jesus' name, Amen.