Hebrews 11 and the first verse. Now faith, this isn't my opinion,
this isn't my theology you might say, this is what God says. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not I come to this
verse because of a sign that I saw recently while I was traveling. It was on a church sign. Those church signs tell a lot
about what people actually believe. But this really struck me because
this is what it said, into the unknown. Have faith
in God. Venture out into the unknown. Have faith in God. What a clear confession that
sign is to what they really believe. And what they think that faith
is. A kind of venturing out into
the unknown. No. But while it struck me like
it did, the thought came almost immediately to me, that's really
about what most all people believe. They talk about blind faith. They say all you need to do is
just believe. They say that it is not important
what you believe, but just the fact that you believe. And any God or any doctrine or
anything is all right if you believe it. But what we find
in the Bible is quite different. Now, if somebody has this for
their standard or that for their standard, I don't even bother
to try to reason with them. Because if you notice Paul and
others, it is said of them that those that they reasoned with,
they reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. In other words,
if there's not a standard by which we measure things, if there's
not a bar that we measure things by, What's the use of even discussing
a matter, reasoning about a matter? I know this for sure, if I didn't
know it on the basis of anything else in this book, but this verse. Faith does have to do with the
unseen. There's no doubt about it. That
which is seen is not faith. Faith does have to do with the
unseen, but not the unknown. Do you understand that? It doesn't
have to deal with the unknown. Now there are quite a number
of people who have a certain kind of faith, but it's not This
biblical thing. The Apostle James said this,
and I'll paraphrase it. He said, you say you believe
that there is one God. He said, you do well. That's
true. But the devils believe the same
thing and they tremble at the thought of that. They're all
going to perish. So that person who seeks to justify
themselves by simply saying, well, I believe there's a God,
I believe in God, I believe there's one God, that kind of faith is
nothing more than the faith of devils, not that faith which
saves. You see, this verse tells us
that God-given faith has to do with substance and evidence. Someone says, if it's by faith,
then it can't really be real. But I'm going to tell you this,
the things that are by faith, are the only things in the light
of eternity that will prove to be real, that will prove to be
of any benefit to your soul, that will prove to be of any
value or worth or of any eternal consequence. You can reach out
and hold a piece of gold in your hand. But in the light of eternity,
it will buy you nothing. It will be like everything else
in this world. God says He will burn and purge
and consume with fire. That which is supposed to be
the hedge against every problem that might come in our world,
that has brought it from a value of like a couple of hundred dollars
an ounce to sixteen hundred dollars an ounce, that will be consumed. I like what one writer said,
or one commentator said. He said, before you get all carried
away with how much gold you can gather up and stack up, You ought
to stop and think that if things really get bad, you'd have to
give it all for a loaf of bread. That's right. So here are all
these things that in the minds of men and women who think they're
logical and practical and all these things, here is the thing
that is truly real and faith that is truly real has substance
and evidence They have no interest in it. It has to do not with
hearsay, or not with feeling, or not with emotion. Faith has
to do with substance and with evidence. This faith that the
apostle is talking about here, this faith looks to an objective
declaration of God which is inwardly revealed to the sinner whose
heart the Spirit of God has convinced that it is the truth. The Bible
calls the gospel of Christ glad tidings or good news. In other words, this objective
revelation or declaration will come to His people, will come
to these sinners, and it will be, when it comes, news to them. Saul of Tarsus had heard probably
every kind of doctrine, every theology, studied at the feet
of Gamaliel, the great teacher of his time. He'd heard all the
sciences, the philosophies, all these things. And God gives him
to us as an illustration. And he embraced them. He lived
accordingly to them. He was not a man who believed
one thing and did another thing. He was zealous in what he did. But he was lost. Religious, but
lost. Learned, but lost. Degreed, but
lost. And when the gospel of Jesus
Christ came to him in the power of the Spirit of God, though
he knew all these things about God, it was news to him. My friend, that's the way it
is. I don't care how much we are raised in religion, I don't
care how much we think we know about the Bible, how many verses
we can quote, and just amaze people at what we know about
the Scripture. When God brings the Gospel to
us and gives us faith to believe the truth, it scares us to death. That's right. As a matter of
fact, Paul, in responding to those who now charge him with
error and going off the deep end and going absolutely nuts
and crazy, he says to them, after the way which you call heresy. Here were all the religious leaders
of his day. And they said that what he now
believed and preached, they said, well, that's absolute heresy. Have any of the chief priests
or any of the rulers, have they believed such a thing? Did you
know they said the same thing about what Christ preached? They
called it heresy. They called it false doctrine. They called him a false prophet. They called it error. But he
said, after the way which you call heresy, so worship I, the
God of our fathers, and he was talking about such as Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, the God of our fathers, believing all that is
written in the Scriptures. You see, the Gospel, is not just
simply somebody being sent out to say something or to tell people
to do something. The gospel is this news, this
outward objective revelation of that which God says. It is the truth of God. You ought to always remember
this. There is a big difference in some true things about God. The devils believe some true
things about God. These true things are not the
truth, because the truth is a body of revelation. It is the doctrine
of Jesus Christ. You remember what Isaiah says. In Isaiah 53, he says, Who hath
believed our report? If you look in the Hebrew there,
that word report has to do with doctrine. Who hath believed our
doctrine? Who hath believed this report
from God that He sends out His prophets, His preachers? Who
hath believed this report from God about God and about how He
saves sinners? He says, and to whom is the arm
of the Lord revealed? Not everybody will believe it.
but those to whom He reveals it. And that's what Paul said
happened to him. He said, when it pleased God
to reveal His Son in me. He said, I didn't go checking
around to see if this one or that one or even any of the other
apostles, whether they believed this. In other words, it's the
revelation of God. And the Spirit of God came to
this man and gave him faith to believe that which is written
by God, and so convinced him of that being the truth of God,
it didn't matter if anybody else believed it or not. That's right.
because it's the testimony of God. The psalmist says, the law,
which he's talking here about the Word or the Gospel of God,
he says, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul,
the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. That's all we are, we're simple.
We refer to some as being simple-minded, but when it comes to spiritual
things, every one of us is simple-minded. And there's only one thing that
can make us wise, and only that by God Himself. He says, the
law of the Lord, and that's exactly what Paul said to Timothy. He
said, from a child you've known the Holy Scriptures which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation. We're to know something. A person
who receives the Gospel, They find themselves among that people
that are described by the prophet and also again by the apostle
as those who, God says, they will all be taught of God. And every one of them, having
learned of the Father, Christ says in John 6, He says, every
one of them, they'll all be taught of God, and everyone that hath
learned of the Father comes to Me. They won't come to the church
as such. They won't come to a religious
position or a religious theological doctrine. By this news, by this
truth, God brings them to Christ. What does that mean, to come
to Christ? It means to believe on Christ.
Not to believe that He exists merely, but to believe on Him
for everything, to trust Him. Listen, Isaiah 8, he says this,
"...to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to
this word, It is because there is no light in them. And one
way that blind sinners justify their unbelief is this. They
say, well, this one says that, and this one teaches that, and
this one believes that. You really cannot ever know what's
right and what's true and all these things. There's just no
way, so I'm not messing with any of it. That's not true. And
you can use that kind of logic and find yourself in the midst
of that judgment that God has spoken about and says will absolutely
come to those outside of Christ. Here's the standard. If they
speak not according to this Word, it's because there's no light
in them. It's like the Pharisees. They had some things to say.
But they spoke not. according to this Word which
had always said, in picture and type and shadow every way possible,
that salvation is of the Lord in its entirety. It's in that
one that God promised would come and suffer and die. And it's
all of grace. You can't do anything. to please
God, and neither can I." How can holiness accept such wretched
sinfulness? Paul writes to Timothy, he says,
"...be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord."
Now what did he have to say? He said that because he was in
prison himself for preaching it. It wasn't a message that
would win friends and influence people. It was the gospel of
God. It had as a part of it the offensiveness
of the cross, of salvation only through this crucified one. And he knew that this young Timothy
preacher, he's going to come under pressure. He said, don't
be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. You say, he was a prisoner of
the Roman government, or he was a prisoner of this one. No, Paul
knew the first cause of it was God Himself, that it was God
who had brought him there. And he said, I endure all these
things for the elect's sake. Somebody in these prisons And
somebody of these that would read the letters he wrote from
these prisons, they were the people of God who had to receive
this testimony of God. He said, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of
the gospel according to the power of God. You see, faith is always
based on truth. Isn't that what our Lord said?
He said, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free. And the reason why here all these
people in this world, in all these religions, bound tight
in a legal bondage, the reason why they don't have any peace,
they don't have any liberty, they don't have any comfort,
they don't have any hope, is because they don't know the truth.
They don't know the truth. If they did, they'd be free. They would be free in the biblical
sense. Turn over to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10, which is maybe
one of the most quoted portions in all of the Word of God. Romans
chapter 10. The verse that is so often repeated,
which by the way, does not stand by itself, but is a part of this
whole context, and chapter, and book, and Bible. But look at
what it says in verse 13. For whosoever. Somebody said, that's what I
believe. I believe in the whosoever gospel. You won't ever find that
word by itself. I was not a star student. I have no credentials, but I
do remember that dear lady who tried to teach me something about
English grammar way back maybe in the third or fourth grade,
and when she talked about a pronoun, she said it cannot stand by itself,
it has to have something that identifies it. Do we find that
here? Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord. That's what it is. It's always
identified. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord. But he's not talking there about
merely calling with your voice. Because Christ said that there'd
be many who would say to Him, Lord, Lord. He said they'll perish. What is it to call upon the name
of the Lord? Well, you just go back in the
Old Testament, look up that phrase. And you'll find that Abraham
and David and others, they called upon the name of the Lord. What
did they do? Abraham, it says, he built an
altar, raised it up on stones, and he slew a lamb, and he shed
blood, and there He called upon the name of the Lord. He worshipped
God. He approached God. He sought
blessing from God on the basis of that One that these things
pictured and typified, that One Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Alright? For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Flat, period,
that's it. But now listen to it. How then
shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? I'll
never forget Brother Mahan saying, you can't call on one that you
don't believe in or believe on any more than you can come back
from where you've never been. How can a person call on Him,
trust in one, rest or find comfort in one in whom They have not
believed. But he says this, And how shall
they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? Well, I've been
hearing about Jesus all my life. Well, why then, when the Scriptures
are opened and read, and the true Christ is really preached,
Why does he come as such a surprise to people? One verse of Scripture,
I suppose, that would identify as clearly and as distinctly
the Son of God, the true Christ, this Jesus that Paul preached,
is in Matthew 1.21, when the angel said, Thou shalt call His
name Jesus, for, because, He shall save His people from their
sin. You see anything there about
an offer? You see anything there about
a possibility? You see anything there about
Him merely making something available? The name Jesus is like Jehoshua
or Jehovah the Savior. And He is called by this name
because He, not them, shall, not maybe, save, as He says,
to the uttermost, His people. Do you know He had a people? He calls them My sheep. He calls
them My brethren. He has a people that He describes
as being out of every kindred, tribe, nation, and tongue. He had a people such as these
Jews. He had a people such as Cornelius, who was a Gentile. He has a people out of every...
Not every person is His people in this sense. He has a people
from among men, out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue. He
said, How shall they believe in whom they have not heard?
You've never heard the Gospel. It doesn't really matter what
you think you know about Jesus. He's the revealer of Himself.
God declares in the true Gospel who and how He is. And He is
shown in Scripture as the One who saves altogether His people
from all their sins. He doesn't help them save themselves.
He doesn't give them a formula to follow. You see, it wouldn't
be good news then. A holy God could give us any
command to do, and it would not be the basis for good news to
us, because we can't do it. Everything we do, every thought
we have, is polluted with sin. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. They have not all obeyed the
gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord who hath
believed our report. So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. Not by a verse taken out of its
context over here, not by, as it's so delighted in in our day,
a phrase out of a verse, but the whole of Scripture. The whole
of Scripture. An old preacher by the name of
Hawker said, it's called by the Holy Spirit a substance, this
faith is. Meaning that the object the soul
rests on, being substantially formed in the mind, and which
so realizes that object of view as for the mind to become as
perfectly assured of its existence and reality as though it saw
it. And that's why Peter says of
Christ, Whom having not seen, ye love. In whom though now ye
see him not, yet believing. You rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. Full of glory. You see, to have
faith is to believe God. Everybody says, well, we believe
God. We're not going to believe what
that preacher says. We believe God. How can you believe God
when you don't know what He says? And whatever a man says to you
that he says, You don't really believe God until you look in
this book for yourself and you know that it is God who has said
it, and on that basis you believe. I'll point it to you. I'll encourage
you to read it. I always want you to follow me
in this book. I never want you to believe anything
that you do not find to be true in this book. being offensive or defensive,
rather, when you ask me something, rather than fearful that you'll
find me in fault or something like that, I want you to look. This is not the truth. If it's
not what God says, if it's not what His Word teaches, don't
believe it. You see, to have faith is to
believe God, is to trust His faithfulness and His ability
so as to find comfort in His Words. One of the most wonderful
pictures of faith is when Paul was caught out there in that
bad storm, and all those sailors and everything, they were in
a real bad, fearful way. And here's Paul, he's sitting
there really quiet. And he finally says to them, he says, Sirs,
be of good cheer, for I believe God. Is that right? You just believe God? No, that's
not what he said. For I believe God that it shall
be even as it was told me." That's what I believe. I believe God
that it will be just exactly as He has said in this. I believe
it concerning my family. I believe it concerning all my
friends. I believe it concerning every
person in this country and world. I believe, God, that it shall
be as He has." And sometimes men say things like this. They
say, salvation, God's done it all, but salvation is conditioned
on faith. And yet when they do that, they
make faith to be a work of man. It's that old, God will if you
will. No, God has and you shall. You see, salvation isn't conditioned
at all. It's the free gift of God to
a people in Christ. And even this faith is a gift. Did you see that in Ephesians
2 when we read? For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. You did not come up with it. You didn't produce it. that not
of yourself, it is the gift of God. You see, faith does not
make men perfect, it brings them to trust the perfect One. All you have to do is read all
these people who are named here in Hebrews 11. Was Noah perfect? No. Planted
a vineyard, went out and got drunk. Abraham, the example,
supposedly, called the father of all who truly believe perfect? Not himself. Lied about his wife. You go right down the list. Isaac? No. Moses? No. Jacob? Surely no. Samson? No. They received the good news
that all righteousness, all perfection, all salvation is in one outside
of themselves. The Lord Jesus Christ. Some even
would mock the use of a term like saving knowledge. But they would embrace the term
saving faith. When we know in reality from
this book that Christ is the Savior Himself, but there is
no salvation in Him without a knowledge of Him and faith in Him. Isn't
that what Paul said? You can't believe on one you
don't know anything about. You see, God said, My people
are destroyed for lack of knowledge. He says, Because thou hast rejected
knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest
to me, seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also
forget thy children. destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Oh, we went to the service. Had the best service in the world.
We sang about a dozen songs. We got so happy that the preacher
couldn't even preach. Wow. While people were dying
in ignorance. Oh, we had a big play and people got up and masqueraded
in idolatry as Jesus and others. They died without knowledge.
We had a seminar on how to have a good family life. They don't
know anything about Christ. They don't know anything about
the living God. You see, all God says, He says, will be brought
to the knowledge of the truth. And God does not use lies. He does not use half-truths. He does not use myths. He does
not use funny stories. He does not use cleverly designed
schemes of theology. Peter says, "...for we have not
followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses
of His majesty." He doesn't save His people by the preaching and
teaching of law. Paul said to those of those peoples
of whom he was a very intricate part himself, naturally. He said, I bear record of them
that they have a zeal of God. They're sincere, they have this
zeal of God. But it's not according to knowledge. You see that? It's not, he says,
according to knowledge. As a matter of fact, of what
goes on in the name of zeal for God is not according to none. Well, preacher, you think you
know everything, don't you? No, I don't. But I know the Gospel.
I'm not out here on a fool's errand. I'm not found in all
the pastoral circles out here trying to trade compliments with
men who don't know God and don't preach His Gospel. I'm not looking
to climb somebody's ladder. I'm going to die without anybody's
retirement. The only reason I know it is
because God taught it to me. It came to me when I was a preacher
as news. This is news to me. God is not
who I thought He was. He does not save sinners the
way I thought He did. And Christ did not do what I
thought He did. He did what He said He did. He is who He says that He is. And Christ, Paul says, I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God, but it's not according
to knowledge. Well, how do you know that, Paul?
He said, because they're still going about trying to establish
their own righteousness. They're trying to still do something
that God will accept. Or they're trying to be somebody
that God will have something to do with. No! Righteousness
is the gift of God. It's the gift of God in Christ. If He had to give it to us as
a gift, that surely means we never could earn it or merit
it. Christ came to give knowledge to His people. And the preaching
of the Gospel, this Word of Truth, is the means by which God teaches
His people and gives them the good news of their salvation.
Now I want you to look at a couple of verses in Luke 1. Luke chapter
1. I read this again this morning.
I thought, this is the most wonderful thought. Luke chapter 1 and verse
76. This is what is said here by
the Spirit of God. It says, And thou child, this
was a witness concerning that babe yet in the womb, And thou,
child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest." As a matter
of fact, the reference here actually is to that prophet that Moses
talked about, that he called that prophet. And he said, you
better hear that prophet. What is a prophet? A prophet
is one who speaks for God. The mouthpiece of God to men
in this world. And Christ, one of His offices
is prophet. He's prophet, priest, and king,
but He's prophet. In other words, everything that
God has to say to a sinner, He says in Christ. He says, God
hath in these last days, this book we're looking at, Hebrews
1, God hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. Not going to be another prophet.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest, for
thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way,
to give knowledge of salvation." unto His people by the remission
of their sin." What a verse. To give knowledge of their salvation. That's why it says, He has saved
us and called us. It doesn't say He calls us and
if we answer right, He'll save us. No, it says, He has saved
us and called us. To give knowledge of salvation. To who? Unto His people. to give
knowledge to His people of their having been saved by Him by the
remission of their sins, by the putting away of their sins, by
Christ paying that debt and penalty for them on the cross. He is
going to bring them to know something. I love the book of 1 John, that
first epistle of 1 John. Because John writes to believers
and he says things like this, and we know, and we know. People
say, well, you can't really know it. John said, we know. And we
know that we've passed from death unto life because we love the
brethren. We know. He writes to believers there
who he describes as little children born of God. We know. We know. Paul says to the Thessalonians,
he says, but we're bound to give thanks always to God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation. through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. As a matter of fact, Paul says
concerning this preaching of the gospel and this bearing witness
to the truth of the gospel, he says, for the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds. That's the picture of us in our
ignorance, in our religious tradition, in our blindness, in our false
profession, in our self-righteousness, like a stronghold that resists
this knowledge, resists this truth, and therefore resists
this God. He says, casting down imaginations,
and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ. You see, by faith, by God-given
faith, we believe God's promises. We believe them to be ours, to
us, in Christ. We believe what God says about
Himself. We believe what He says about
us. We say, well, I'm really not
such a bad person. You don't believe what God says
about you. He says all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. We believe what He says about Christ and how He saves
sinners as a just God. He's a just God and a Savior
to everyone that believes. And John tells us, he tells us,
that the reason we know these things is because we've been
taught of God. And he says this in that last
chapter of 1 John, that fifth chapter, verse 20, he says, and
we know. And we know that the Son of God
is come and has given us an understanding. He's taught us some things. He's
enabled us to understand some things. Given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is And we are in Him that is true,
even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. When Peter writes in 1 Peter
3, 2 Peter 3, he says, but grow, grow. but grow in grace and in knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is substance and everything. And when the final scenes of
time are brought to an end, and that great bringing a fire to
consume the earth. And that's all accomplished.
Only substance and evidence will be left. And that is that which
God has declared in His gospel concerning His people and most
especially His Son, the Lord Jesus. Faith is the gift of God.
He says not all men have faith. My prayer is that He would give
us faith. And if He's given us faith, that He would increase
our faith. When He does, He will increase
our knowledge of Him. It says the servant of God must
do what He does in meekness, but he must be apt to teach.
Check me out. If I don't speak according to
this Word, I'm not talking about what somebody said about this
Word. I'm not talking about what some commentary, some old preacher,
I'm not talking about. If I don't speak according to
this Word, there's no light in me. And I'd be just the blind
leading the blind. both walking and dark. True knowledge,
true faith, has to do with Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Look
to Him. Believe what this book says about
Him. Father, we pray in this hour that You would, by Your
mighty Spirit, come to us in that great power of grace, revealing
to us, teaching us, bringing us to the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because this is eternal life.
It is to know Him that is true. We pray and ask it all in Him.
Amen.