As you may have noticed in the
prayer there, we are going to be looking again at faith this
morning. And that's because that's where we're at in the book of
Hebrews. Like to turn to Hebrews 11. I'm excited to get to Hebrews
11. I've been waiting to get to Hebrews
11. I'm excited about Hebrews 11. We're there. No, there's plenty of what God has
shown us in Hebrews chapter 1 through 10. But he comes to chapter 11
and Paul, writing to the Hebrews, now remember, the entire book
of Hebrews is this, to show us that the Old Testament ways,
there is something better. All those old sacrifices, all
those old things that people put their faith in, there's something
better. And that's faith in Christ. We've
seen Christ has walked this earth. What he is purposed to do, what
he purposed before the world began, has happened. And that's
when he walked this earth 2,000 years ago. To shed his blood,
to lay down his life, to pay the ransom price for each and
every one of us. This morning, we look here at
chapter 11, verse 1. And we'll just go ahead and read
that. Now faith. is the substance. That means
assurance. It's something we can grasp a
hold of with our minds. It's the substance of things
hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. And I want every child of God,
I want every true believer to know and enjoy the full assurance
of a saving interest in Christ. I know what it's like to go through
this world and feel the waves of this wickedness in this flesh
that we walk in. I know what that's like. I, too,
experience the same thing as you. And I, too, like the apostles,
when the Lord tells us that someone that one of his own is going
to turn against him and betray him. I too ask, Lord, is it I? Am I one? And examining ourselves to see
with what? If we're in the faith, in the
belief, in the belief of what? In the belief that Jesus Christ
is God Almighty. You know, no matter what happens
in this flesh to me so far, I have never once turned away and said,
I don't believe in God anymore. We just looked at how those who
do can't turn back in Hebrews chapter 10. Remember that? Remember back in Hebrews chapter
10, those who've known, who have heard the grace of God, how can
they be gracious to Him again? The Lord was gracious. When He's
gracious, folks, there's no need to come back and be gracious
again. A dear brother came in a point of his life when he was
under great stress with things of this world. I mean, great
stress, so much so that it hounded him. It made him feel as though
the Lord wasn't hearing him. And when I pointed out to him,
I said, but brother, you still know who he is, don't you? Oh
yeah, yeah, I still know the gospel and believe it. I still
know it. He never forgot who Christ is. He never left the glory of the
Son of God. Was life pounding down on him? Absolutely. But his faith held
strong, even though it seemed as weak as it must have seemed. It's not our faith, but who our
faith is in. And who our faith is in is the
greatest of all that is. Isn't that what we're talking
about here this morning? Isn't that what we're talking
about when we come together every time? We're talking about He
who is greater than everything. I must decrease that He should
increase. I don't want to tell you about
my faith is mine. I want to tell you who my faith
is in, who I believe. I want every child of God to
have assurance of their interest in Christ. And I want all who
are gods to have an assurance based upon evidence Evidence
that arises from the Word of God. That's important. Because folks, we can't take
any confidence in what we have in this flesh. Especially our
feelings. Especially what we think is smart.
God's ways are not our ways. Lord, let you, let Him be our
wisdom. Where can such evidence be found?
Where can we see such evidence, John? Right here in our text. Now, faith is the substance of
things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. That's where we can find evidence
in God's words. Now, it's faith alone. The only
evidence I have of my salvation in faith is faith in Christ. It's in believing Him. It's in
knowing who He is, knowing what He's done, and knowing where
He is right now. It's faith in Him and Him alone.
I'm not saying that my faith is salvation. It's only the evidence
of my salvation. All other evidence, all other
confidence, all other assurance is altogether to be disregarded. It's done. That's what Paul said.
All those old things that Paul used to know. All those things
that he had his confidence in. He was one of the Pharisees.
One of the Pharisees of the Pharisees. He knew all the scriptures. He
knew everything about the Old Testament. that he knew nothing
about the grace of God. He had no interest in the grace
of God through the Son of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
else he had, all that knowledge that he had, he counted it but
done. And so do I when it comes to evidence. When Satan accuses
me, when my own heart condemns me, when my sin torments me,
when I examine myself, and I do constantly, don't you? I find
comfort and peace and assurance in only one thing, and that's
in Christ, and I believe Him. I have no evidence of a clear
title to heaven. None of us do. Until the day
the Lord takes us out of this world, we will question whether
that title is ours. But we know that Christ came
to save sinners, of which I am chief, don't we? And we know
that when he says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to
me, we know that's true. And all that the Father giveth
him shall come to him, don't we? So if I am his, I will come
to him. Faith is the evidence. And it
is enough. God says so in his very word. And my conscience is saying it
is enough as well. It's a gift of God. This faith
in Christ we know is a gift of God. We read that often in Ephesians
2 verse 8, but there are other verses that address this very
fact. Let me read some for you. Philippians
1 verse 29. For unto you it is given in the
behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him. So you see where
that belief we get is given unto you. It's not something that
you just figure out on your own. It's not something that you just
got smarter one day and said, I'm going to put all those other
things I used to know behind me, and I'm going to believe
God. No. We know that the gift, that faith, any faith, any gift,
or any faith, any belief that we have in Christ is a gift of
His, from Him. That's what that's telling us
here. For unto you it is given. in behalf of Christ, not only
to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake. In Colossians
2, 12, buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with
Him through the faith of the operation of God. What is our faith? It's an operation
of God the Holy Spirit, who has raised Him from the dead. It
is given to us. brought in us, it is sustained
in us by His grace, by His gracious operations. Faith in God is an
unnatural thing to men and women. We cannot just sum up faith on
our own. No man can believe on Christ
unless God gives him the faith. We're responsible to believe,
yes, but we cannot. Unless God the Holy Spirit gives
us faith, we will go to hell clinging to our own works of
righteousness. If we would have faith, we must
seek it from the God of all grace, crying out as we bow before His
throne, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Let us cry
out like Peter did when he said, Lord, bid me to come unto you
in Matthew 14. Remember Peter saw the Lord standing
out on the sea and Peter cried unto him, Lord let me come unto
you. Let me come unto you. And the Lord bid him to come
and he did. Now God has an appointed means
for his people to receive the gift of faith. You're not going
to get it by going out and sitting underneath some tree somewhere
and thinking to yourself that you're worshiping God by being
out in nature. You're not going to get it by
going into a building somewhere where they say they worship God
and people gather together in their own free will and bring
themselves to Christ. You're not going to get true
God-given faith that way. No, God gives us a direction
on how to get it. How to receive this faith is
by the preaching of the gospel. And God has appointed that to
be the means of His grace in giving us that gift. Chosen,
redeemed sinners are born of God and granted faith in Christ. Faith in Christ is born in the
hearts of God's elect only by the preaching of the gospel.
Look over, if you would, mark your place in Hebrews and look
over at Romans. Turn back to the left here to
Romans, if you would. Chapter 1. Let's look at a couple
of verses there. Romans chapter 1. We're talking
about how do we gain this faith, that the Bible is talking about.
How do we acquire? How does God give us the gift
of this faith? Here in Romans 1, beginning at
verse 16, we read these words, for I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. This is, for it is the power
of God unto salvation. What is it? It's the gospel of
Christ, who is the power unto salvation to everyone that, what,
believeth. to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. Now look at verse 17. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just
shall live by faith. Let's look at another if you
would. Turn over Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10 verse 17. So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. Do you see the importance of
us gathering together? Remember back in chapter 9 back
in our text of Hebrews Chapter 11 there remember where it said
there Chapter 10, I'm sorry Let us hold fast to the profession
of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised
and let us consider one another to provoke and to love and to
good works not Forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is folks. I need the gospel to you and
Oh, I'm probably saying yes, but I got to share with them.
She was so upset with herself because she thought she was just
going to close her eyes for a moment. And I understand this. We close
our eyes for just a moment. Next thing you know, we wake
up an hour later. Well, that's what happened to her last Sunday.
She wasn't sick or anything. And she was so upset because
she was looking forward to being here for Bible study. She said,
I need to hear. That's God's people right there.
We need to hear the gospel, the very thing that strengthens our
faith, the very thing that gets us through those days when the
waves are crashing over our head of this world, when the waves
of this flesh are more than we can take. Faith cometh by hearing,
hearing by the word. Faith without knowledge is impossible. Isn't that what we read in the
Word of God where it says, whosoever believeth shall have everlasting
life? But how are you going to believe
if you've never heard? And how are you going to hear
unless a preacher has sent? Faith without knowledge is impossible,
and faith based upon false knowledge is false faith, isn't it? A lot
of people have faith in some religion, don't they? Folks,
there's some very devout Catholics. There's a man who sits on a throne
over there in Rome, in a place called the Vatican, who's very,
very devout. He's very, very religious. Israel
was very, very religious when the Lord Jesus walked this earth,
and he called them all hypocrites. False knowledge is false faith. True faith is faith that is based
upon and born on the knowledge of the gospel. No one can or
will trust Christ until they see their need of a substitute. till they see how God can be
just and yet justify the ungodly through the merits of His Son,
and see that salvation is by grace alone through Christ alone. So let's consider this evidence
of grace for just a moment. Faith in Christ is the evidence
and the assurance of eternal salvation. It says, now faith
is the substance, that's the assurance, of things hoped for,
And the evidence, I'm sorry, I put the word and in there and
I should not have done that, I apologize. The evidence of things not seen. Now faith is not the cause of
grace, it's not the cause of salvation, and it's not the cause
of an interest in Christ, but faith is the evidence of those
things. The word here is telling us faith
is the substance of things hoped for. The word substance means
the essence or the assurance or the certainty of things that
are hoped for. Faith possesses beforehand what
God has promised to give. Isn't that what we stand on? What is it we see? We see standing
on the promises of God. How can we stand on the promises
of God? Because they're a rock. All of
the promises of God are in His Son, the Lord Jesus, and He's
solid as a rock. Faith possesses before Him what
God has promised to give. Listen to these words of John
chapter 6, verse 47. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me, he who has possession of faith and believeth
on me, hath everlasting life. See how our faith in Him, not
faith in what we are, not faith in what is in this body, but
faith in Him. See how our faith is the evidence? That's what we stand on. We stand
on Him. We stand on His promises. Because
we believe them. We believe them to be true and
sure. Did not God Did not the Lord
God promise to preserve and to keep all who believe in His grace?
Faith possesses that blessed security and grace. Did not our
God promise us a resurrection in glory? Every believer has
been raised from spiritual death into spiritual life in the new
birth. This is the first resurrection
that is spoken of in Revelation 26, and the first resurrection
is God's own pledge of the second. If we've been resurrected on
the first, the second one is sure to come as well. It says
that faith is the evidence of things not seen. The word evidence
means proof. It means faith is the proof or
verification of things that are not seen. By faith in Christ,
I read my name in the book of life because I believe who he
is, because I believe what he's done, because I believe where
he is now. I believe that my name was written
in that book that he speaks of in the beginning of all creation.
I can grab a hold of that. Not my belief, but I can grab
ahold that there's names in a book. And because he's given me this
gift of faith, I think and I believe my name is there as well. Faith
verifies things past, those things that are done by God from us
eternity past. We read our names in that book
of life, in the registry of heaven, only by faith in Christ, and
we know that our election is only by faith. Faith verifies
things that are done in time, but now unseen. We know that the world were framed
by the Word of God, don't we? Is there any question in your
mind? Is there any doubt that the Word of God, when He says,
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the world was made by Him, is there any doubt who that's talking
about? Is there any doubt who did it? Or maybe there was a
little bit of the bang, the big bang theory involved in it too. No! Christ thought and it was
so. And I say that with authority
because I want you to know I believe that. Do you? Only when a sinner is granted
faith in Christ is redemption, righteousness, justification,
and forgiveness verified to his own heart and conscience. Are
you forgiven? I am in Christ. I'm not forgiven
in my faith, but I believe that I'm forgiven in him. These things were accomplished
by my Savior alone. Faith verifies that they are
ours when God the Holy Spirit applies His blood to our hearts
and speaks peace to our souls by giving us faith in His Son. Turn back to chapter 9 of Hebrews
for a moment. Let's look at a couple of verses
over in Hebrews 9. Oh, what assurance we have in
our belief of Him Verse 11 of chapter 9 Hebrews chapter 9 but
Christ Being come a high priest of good things to come by a greater
and more perfect Tabernacle not made with the hands that is to
say not of this building neither by the blood of goats and calves
but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls
and goats and ashes and a heifer sprinkling of the unclean sanctified
the puring of the flesh, how much more, how much more shall
the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge. You know what that word means? That means washed out, rinsed
out. You know, when I think of purge,
I think of, well, the first thing that comes
to my mind is a barbecue, cleaning my barbecue up, purging it out
of yesterday's cooking. Cleaning out the old, what's
left over of the meats. You've barbecued, you know what
I'm talking about. Splatters all over the inside.
Folks, when Christ does it, it is sparkling clean as it is new. Never been cooked in before. I'll never get it that clean. It's purged our conscience from
dead works to serve the living God. Faith verifies present things
that are unseen. And I'll close with this. I know
that I am born of God because I trust my Savior. You can read
about that in Mark 16 verse 16 if you'd like in your own time.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth
not shall be damned. I know that God's providence
accomplishes good for me. Because I have been called by
His Spirit and granted faith in His Son. Listen to these words
from Psalms 57 verse 2. I will cry unto God Most High,
unto God that performeth all things for me. Isn't that good? Isn't that good? And we know
what Romans 8 28 says all the way through verse 32. I know that Christ makes intercession
for me in heaven because I come to God by faith in Him. Look
back at Hebrews chapter 7, just a few pages to the left. Go back
to Hebrews 7 for just a moment. We're going to look at two other
scriptures other than this. In Hebrews 7 verse 25, we read
these words, Wherefore He is able. Also, to save them to the
uttermost, that come unto God by Him, seeing ye ever liveth,
to maketh intercession for them. Look now if you would over 1
John, right there before the book of Revelation, 1 John chapter 1. In 1 John chapter
1 verse 9 we read these words, If we confess our sins, he is
faithful. and just to forgive us of our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. One more, if
you would, over at 1 John 2, verse 2, and he is the propitiation
for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of
the whole world. Faith verifies future things
that are now unseen. It says, for if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring them. Isn't that what we read in all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me? Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And eternal life with all the
blessings of grace and glory included is yours in Him, because
of Him, and by Him. Look at one more there, 1 John,
if you're still there. Look over at chapter 5. 1 John
chapter 5. Look at verse 1. Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ, He is born of God. Some of you were
here on Friday night. Do you remember what we mentioned
on Friday night? I don't have the exact verse with me here,
but it just came to my mind. We could not call Him Lord in
our hearts if it wasn't for the Holy Spirit doing a work in our
heart. Remember that verse? Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, is born of God, and everyone that loveth him,
that loveth him also, that is begotten of him. Look at one
more if you would, over verse 5 through 13. Who is he that
overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is
the Son of God. This is He that came by water
and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water
and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth
witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. And there are three that beareth
witness in the earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and
these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of
men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God,
which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the
Son of God hath the witness in himself, that he that believeth
not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record. that
God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his
Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things
have I written, writes John, Unto you that believe on the
name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal
life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. Amen.