Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Hebrews chapter 11 and verse
6. But without faith it is impossible
to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is
and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11 and verse 6, coming
to God, faith, faith is vital, really our subject tonight is
faith, that is what is upon my spirit. Now in this chapter,
for the most part we have illustrations, examples of how faith wrought
in the hearts and lives of the individuals, how it's actually
evidenced in their lives. Sometimes it's an individual,
sometimes it is a whole assembly, like we bring the walls of Jericho
down. But there are several portions
in this passage that deal with faith as it applies to all the
people of God. The other instances, well, only
Noah built an ark, only Abraham was brought out of Ur of Chaldeas,
and only Abraham offered up his son Isaac. But all of God's children,
they all have faith, and it is all evidenced in ways that are
set before us in several parts of this chapter. The first three
verses, they tell us what faith is, the first verse. Faith is
the substance or ground or confidence, it says, in the margin of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So we have an illustration
of what actually faith is. In one way, it is a trust in
what the Lord has said and what the Lord is doing and obeying. I was going to say blindly, but
not. It is believingly trusting in
the word of God. We are told that it is through
faith that the elders obtained a good report. Here in this chapter
it gives the illustration of the good report that the elders,
those who have gone before, that they had. And then we are told
in verse 3 of that one great work of faith that we understand
that the worlds were framed by the word of God. is no wonder
that men look upon creation and cannot believe, do not believe
that this is God's handiwork. It needs faith to really believe
that and to receive that, and we are told that here. It is
through faith that we understand, and it is based, of course, on
the Word of God. In the beginning of the Word
of God we are told how God created the world. In faith it receives
that, it believes that, as fact, as what God has done. And so
those things which are seen, that which we see in creation,
were not made of things which do appear. Those of us who have
been in design engineering or making things, we always are
using something that does appear. Things that already are created,
but the world was made out of things that do not appear. They did not exist beforehand. God made them out of nothing,
formed them out of nothing, and it is faith that believes that. Then we have, going later on
in the chapter, the verses from 13 through to 16, and this sums
up the faith of all those in this
chapter. These all died in faith. They didn't yet see the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the promises, but they saw
them afar off. They saw like Abraham did. Our Lord said, Abraham saw my
day and rejoiced at it. And we're told here that one
aspect of faith is to be persuaded of those promises and embrace
them. Embrace them as a hope in the
promise. And I hope it is with us. We
do see the promises in the word of God, promises of the grace
of God, the blessing of God. And from time to time, we see
such a promise and we embrace it. We hold on to it. It's precious
to us. And we trust that promise and
make it our plea and pray that the Lord would bless it to us
and make that promise over to us those are precious times when
perhaps unexpectedly we come across such a promise in the
word of God and we lay hold upon it sometimes we can have a promise
like they that seek shall find and we lay hold upon that ask
and it shall be given you seek and you shall find knock and
it shall be opened unto you it's a promise and we lay hold upon
that and then we think of the way that we are saved by grace
you say through faith that not of yourselves it is the gift
of God and there's the manner and way of saving and to embrace
that make it our prayer that the Lord would graciously save
us and grant us that saving faith and there are many many promises
in the word of God very often They are to characters. They are to the people of God.
And all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. They all come through the Lord
Jesus Christ. So there's one aspect of faith. God's children, they see promises
in the Word, and they lay hold upon them. They're not blessed
immediately, but they see the promise, and they look forward
to a time of blessing. They hold on that. But then there's
another side as well. They confess that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth. When the Lord prepares a people
for heaven, then he will put a thorn in the nest here. This is not your rest, it is
polluted. When God would bring Jacob from
Laban's house and go back to his father again, He doesn't
just give him a word to go back, and he had also the promise when
he went out, but he also sees that Laban is not towards him
as he was before. God sees that there's a thorn
in the nest. And the Lord uses tribulation
and troubles and afflictions and troubles with men here below
to not drive us to despair like so many solemnly young people
despair because of the things they see and experience on earth
and take their own life, but God uses it so that we see rather
that city above, heaven above, and that we confess that we are
strangers and pilgrims on the earth, that we are sojourners
here, we don't really fit here, there's not our rest. That's
another effect of faith. that all of God's children will
know that. They won't live for time or live
for this world. And we are told in verse 14 that
those that are saying such things and that so then clearly declared,
that they do declare plainly that they seek a country. And
then we are reminded that whatever God does with his children, the
world is always theirs. However much He might separate
us and draw us away from things, deliver us from temptations,
those temptations are always there. We can always go back. We read of those in the Word,
like Demas that went back, walked no more with the Apostle, and
there are many others that also make a start, but those things
are still always there. And the work of God, it not only
begins, but it continues in preventing that soul from going where the
old nature still would like to go and still would go along with. And so if they had been mindful
of this world, that country from which they came out, they might
have had opportunity to have return. The opportunities are
all there. that now they desire a better
country, that is, a heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city."
There's a beautiful four verses there that really give those
clear evidences of faith, a work of grace, and a prepared people
for a prepared place. And I hope it is that. spirit
of bear witness that some of these things here stay true. They answer to what you are walking
through, what you feel, how you view the promises, how you view
this world, how you view a hope beyond the world. And you see
this is an evidence of faith. But then we have the words of
our text. But without faith, it is impossible
to please him For he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So our text speaks of vital as
a vital thing in coming to God. And when we think of the whole
plan of salvation, it is bringing a people that were banished from
God the people that were alienated from God by wicked works under
the sentence of death. The whole gospel is a gospel
of reconciliation. It reconciles Jew and Gentile
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It brings a people that were
not a people to be a people. It brings an enemy like Saul
of Tarsus to be a friend of God like Paul. it brings one that
was far off brought nigh by the blood of Christ, like is stated
for the Ephesians. And we must remember that that
is the ultimate aim of God, to bring a people at last to be
with Him in heaven. And so the work of faith here
below is to bring a people to God and to walk together have
communion, have fellowship together. And it's set before us here that
faith is vital in that. And so I want to look at this
matter and what has been so much on my spirit. And those of us
who have been given faith, sometimes the Lord can give a little picture
Maybe make us to feel as if, before we were called by grace,
and what it would be if faith was taken away, what it would
be if we did not have faith. No, the Jews in the Old Testament,
when they had the sacrifices, if you had not got faith to look
past that sacrifice to what it was pointing to, the Lord Jesus
Christ, His sufferings at Calvary and redemption through Him, you
think, what a waste. What a senseless slaying of animals
again and again, thousands of them, bloodshedding. Why all of this? Why all of this
ritual? Why all this careful observing
of these laws? There were those that did it
just as a ritual without seeing anything beyond Him. We have
it in our day, we have the Lord's Supper. We could observe that,
and all we're seeing is bread and wine, all we're seeing is
the ordinance, and not looking past it, not seeing that this
is my body set forth in this way, or this is the blood that
was shed for you. And it is faith that looks past
the sign past the emblems and sees what it is pointing to,
and sees it as a very real, clear reality. And so, all by nature,
we are told all men have not faith, and all by nature are
alienated from God, do not have faith, and yet we need it. We need to have it given. So I want to look at three points. Firstly, the impossibility of
doing anything pleasing to God without faith. Our text says,
but without faith it is impossible to please Him. And then secondly,
coming to God. Our text says, for he that cometh
to God may be of those that come to God is vital if we are to
be saved, that that does describe us. And then lastly, there's
two fruits of faith that are requisite in coming to God, and
those two things are set before us in our text. Firstly, believing
that He is, and secondly that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. And so firstly the impossibility
of doing anything pleasing to God without faith. This is the inspired word of
God and this is God telling us that it is impossible. There's
no use for us to say, well, we don't agree with this, we think
that we can do something without faith. And there's many that
are pinning their hopes upon eternal bliss, happiness, and
they're looking to their works, they're looking to what they're
doing, as if that is pleasing to God. But if it be not mixed
with faith, then it is not pleasing to God at all. It is taking our
own sinful, stained works and putting them as a substitute
for the work of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Whatever
we do with the thought that we are earning our way to heaven,
that we are meriting it, that what is being done is to be looked
upon and it will benefit us, you might say, well, what about
the last part of our text? Doesn't it say that he is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek him? Yes, he is. But he's not a rewarder of them
that are seeking salvation through their own works and virtually
saying we do not need Christ's sacrifice. We do not need the
gifts that come to us through his precious blood. We do not
need what he is the author and finisher of, that is faith. We can do without it. The word is very clear that we
need that faith and we're told where it comes from. We're told
in Hebrews 12 that the Lord is the author and finisher of it. That is, that he gives it at
the new birth, that it's finished at death, when death it changed
from faith to sight. Also we're told that the means
by which it comes, in Romans 10, faith cometh by hearing and
hearing by the word of the Lord. But we're also told that the
word did not profit them, being not mixed with faith in them
that heard it. So it's almost, you might say,
a circular thing. You need faith to profit from
the word, and you need the word to have faith. But you find with
all what the Lord does, it is in that, you might say, a circular
way. If you think of a baby being
formed in the womb, what they would think with evolution, where
you can have some parts developing at different times, and it'd
be able to sustain life, it can't possibly be so. What the Lord
does is to form that baby and forms it as complete and in time
it is born and is one living baby. And so what the Lord does,
each is dependent on each other. We read that the Lord gives prayer,
but then he will be inquired of by the house of Israel to
do it for them. And so every blessing that the
Lord gives, He gives grace for grace. He gives the blessing,
then He uses that blessing for further blessing and for further
help. And it is an utter dependence
upon the Lord, not a dependence upon ourselves. He which hath
begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. Now, why is it so emphatically
stated, without faith it is impossible to please Him? There are several
reasons. One is to stop us from thinking
that we can, with our works, please God. The second is that
when our works, our ways, do please God, Remember, with the
letters to the churches in the Revelation, there were a couple
of churches there that the Lord commended. He says, each one
of them, I know your works. And there was a couple of churches
there that he had nothing to say evil of. The Lord does have
respect to the work of his own hands. He sees the fruit of his
own work and is pleased with that. And so when that is so,
when we gain the favour and blessing of the Lord, then we know that
that faith is given by God. It comes from God. And we can
be sure it will not then result in pride or result in robbing
the Lord of His glory. We read in the letters of Paul
to the Corinthians that no flesh might glory in His presence. And what is it? that He has hidden
these things from the wise and prudent, revealed them unto babes. He has kept it back from men
as they can't learn the things of God in the way that we learn
engineering or electronics or something like that. Men can
have wonderful wisdom in those things. But when it comes to
spiritual things, and God's Word is a spiritual book. The natural
man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned." And it needs then
faith to be able to discern it and to walk according to it. In the next book from Hebrews,
we have James. And James, he sets forth basically
what is in Hebrews 11. the practical outworking of faith
and he says in chapter 2 verse 14 what doth it profit my brethren
though a man say he have hath faith and have not works can
faith save him if a brother or sister be naked and destitute
of daily food one of you say unto them depart in peace be
warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things
which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so
faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone. He sums
it up like this. Yea, a man may say thou hast
faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy
works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. And so when we read that it is
impossible to please him without faith, it is impossible to please
him. Those works that we might do,
whatever it is, it is not faith that cannot please the Lord. But where faith is at its root,
those works are well pleasing in the sight of the Lord. So
may we be clear of our state by nature, we be clear also of
the spring of works that are pleasing unto God. And we would confine that especially
to the context here, which is setting forth two things which
later we will look at. Secondly though, I want to consider
coming to God. He that cometh to God. God is not able to be seen he
is invisible there's no place that we might say well God is
at Jerusalem or he is some other place we are not on the time
of Christ where he might say we can come to the Lord Jesus
Christ he gives the Beautiful invitation, come unto me, all
ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Ye shall find rest
unto your souls. We cannot literally come to Him
on earth, but we can still answer that invitation in coming to
God in the way He has appointed for us to come. and that is predominantly
by prayer. When the Apostle Paul was converted,
and of course it was the time our Lord had ascended up into
heaven, and the Lord appeared to him on the Damascus road,
that one thing that was said to Ananias was, Behold, he prayeth. It could be put in another way,
Behold, he cometh to God. Before he'd been a Pharisee,
the Pharisees in his own words, and he came to God in the way
like the Pharisee did in the temple. They told all the good
things that he was doing. But the Lord said that that was
not acceptable to him. It was the publican, God be merciful
to me a sinner, that went home to his house justified rather
than the other. And so coming to God, is coming
in the paths that He has appointed. And it is faith that views it
and says, what is it that God has set before us in the Word
as the proper right way of coming to God? Coming to Him who we
cannot see, coming to God in this way. Must believe that He
is. that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him. I first want to think of this
coming to God, cometh to God. Our Lord spoke much on prayer,
much on closet prayer, entering into the closet where man is
not seen, making sure that it is not just done as a public
show, standing at the corners of the streets, is not done as
making announcements to men. Sometimes we can fail like that
in prayer, public prayer, and the prayer ends up just a means
of making announcements to the congregation or telling off people. It can be abused in a lot of
ways. But certainly in a personal way,
when we come before God in secret, our Lord says that he that seeth
in secret shall reward thee openly. It is the secret prayer that
is the way of telling the reality of our faith, of our religion. We spoke at East Beckham this
afternoon of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Psalm 121, the first part
where that psalm is interpreted as speaking of our Lord as His
manhood. And I lift up mine eyes to the
hills, Our Lord spent many nights in prayer with his Father. That
is how he was sustained. As a man, strengthened, he needed
that path of prayer. We were sung of it, the path
of prayer, thy self hath trod. Lord, teach us how to pray. And then goes on, which was our
text, that my help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and
earth. and that help is given through
prayer. But it was the way that our Lord,
while on earth, came to his Heavenly Father. He came in secret prayer. After he'd worked the miracles
of loaves and fishes, he sent the people away, he sent his
disciples away into the sea, and he went up into the mountain
and spent that time with his Father in prayer. example to
us. Some of the Lord's people in
the past, especially when they've been in big families or sharing
bedrooms, very hard to get a time alone. Used to go out into the
hedgerows or into the woods or someplace into a shed or wherever
it was or perhaps use the time when they're in their car and
on their own to come before the Lord where No I sees. This is not pride. This is not
hypocrisy. This is the need of that soul
coming unto God. Another way that we come to God
is in the assemblies of his people. The Lord has said that where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst. And that does not just apply
to a church disciplinary situation that is the context that is stated
as a fact where two or three are gathered together in my name
there am i in the midst and we know that unto him shall the
gathering of the people be and so in this epistle as well to
hebrews we're exhorted forsake not the assembling of yourselves
together as the manner of some is, so much the more as you see
the day approaching. We think of when our Lord rose
from the dead and the disciples met together. Thomas was not
with them, and he missed out when the Lord first came on that
first occasion. He had to wait another week.
And it's good for us then to think when we come to the house
of God, we are coming to God. It's a place where his honour
dwells, where He's promised to bless the Word. And so in that
sense, we are coming to God. Another way is in the ordinances
of His house. We've mentioned the Lord's Supper.
There's baptism as well. They are what God has given to
us. And when we come to those ordinances,
observing those ordinances, we are coming to Him. We're coming
to Him in the way that he has appointed. When we think of how
the Lord immediately chastened David for putting the ark upon
a cart instead of on the shoulders of the Levites, the Lord is very
particular of how we come to God, how God is set forth before
us. And so when we come to God, faith
will say, this is how we come. This is how we may come in assurance. This is the appointed way that
God hath set before us. We come to God in his word. We read our Lord is the written,
the incarnate word. In the beginning was the word,
the word was with God. When we come to his word, we
are coming to God. We're coming to his word. Faith
cometh by hearing. hearing by the word of the Lord.
It is in these ways, he that cometh to God. Now at last, we
shall, all of the people of God, come to God in heaven. Now coming to God is by faith
here. But then when we die, the soul
immediately returns to God that gave it. At the last day, person
is resurrected again, the body is joined with the soul and brought
to be with God and to be with Him forever. This is an aspect
of faith, an aspect of our religion. Whatever might be said of it,
this major feature of it is poor sinners coming to God. You know the psalmist, He speaks
much of it, especially when he is in a low place and seeking
the Lord. When shall I come and appear
before God? The desire is after God all the
time. Psalm 42, as the heart panteth
after the water brook, so my soul panteth. So panteth my soul
after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for
the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? That is the design of a quickened
soul. And that is a thing coming to
God that we cannot do without faith. Time to look then at those
two things. the two fruits of faith that
are also requisite in coming to God. The first one is this,
that he must believe that he is, that God is. Years ago, after we finished
one of our services here on a Thursday evening, coming out to see young
people passing the door, I think the gate of the chapel, and one
of them said to me, you don't believe in God, do you? I said,
I certainly do. And she said, why, you can't
see him. I pointed to the mobile phone in her hand. I said, you
can't see the signal to that. It's there either, but you believe
that it's there, don't you? And with that, they came in.
We had them in, those young people, seven of them or so, for about
an hour after the service. and speaking to them the things
of God. But man by nature does not believe
or does not want to believe that there is a God. The thought that
there is a God, immediately there's the thought, well, he must have
a will. There must be something connected
with believing in this God. And that is what is pointed to
here. Must believe that He is, not
just a God, but the true and living God, a triune God of Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost. That God that is set before us
in the Lord Jesus Christ, manifest in the flesh, and of what the
Apostle John was very clear how we should be very careful In
John 2, for many deceivers are entered into the world, he confessed
not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver
and an antichrist. When our Lord was on earth, this
was the thing that the Jews rose up against, that thou being a
man, make us thyself God. So the vital effect of faith
and We read of those, they went back, they walked no more with
the Lord. They said, why, this is Jesus, the son of Joseph,
the carpenter's son. And they couldn't believe that
he was God. But the action of faith must
believe that he is, that he does exist, that he has made the heavens
and the earth, that he does regard the inhabitants of the earth
that He does sustain all things, that He hears, He sees, He knows,
He has given His word, His will, His counsel, His sovereignty,
all of these things are bound up with this belief that He is. His very being and existence,
the fear of the law, the beginning of wisdom, and faith that makes
an invisible God as real and sure as if He was visible to
us, a God that is feared and known. Now the Lord says that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Thy beloved Son
whom Thou hast sent. It is the work of God, this is
the work of God, that ye believe in Him, whom God has sent." Our
Lord was very clear in making that statement when they said
that, show us the work of God, or what shall we do, that we
might work the works of God. This is the work of God, that
ye believe, that ye believe in Him. And so this is a requisite,
but it is also that which points to the reality of our faith. How real is God to us? By the fear of the Lord men depart
from evil, because they realise, like Hagar did, Thou God, seest
me. They have a sense of His presence,
His reality, and the fear of the Lord is given. May the Lord
grant us this witness, this token, that we do believe that He is. And it may be there's a time
that the Lord gave a change in that, that once we didn't, we
weren't mindful at all, but now we do. Must believe that He is. And then secondly, there's another
requisite and also an evidence as well, that He is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek Him. If we're diligent in something,
it is to perform a task or something with effort, persistence, with
real attention, dedication. It is not half-hearted. It's
not just a careless seeking. It is diligently seeking. So it's not only coming to God.
It is how we come. that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him." What use would it be if we thought,
well, we'll come before the Lord in prayer. We're not sure there's
any prophet. The children of Israel are like
this. What prophet is it? That we have mourned before him,
that we have come before him, that we have sought his face.
Asaph struggled in Psalm 73. with seeing the prosperity of
the wicked, and with God's people in trial and difficulty, what
profit was it, he thought, to serve God, until he went into
the sanctuary, and then he understood there the end. And we find several
places in the Word that are exactly the same. God's people are struggling
because they're seeing the wicked prospering. But to believe by
faith, that when we diligently seek Him, there is a reward not
on this life, although the blessings are in this life many times,
but it is that which is beyond the grave. Paul says, if in this
life only we have hope in Christ, we've all been most miserable. And we think of Ruth's reward. Ruth, she left her gods, her
country, she claimed to Naomi, and as she diligently sought
her and sought to provide for them in her seeking, her gleaning,
how blessed she was at last, joined with Boaz, blessed with
a seed, and that seed leading to Christ as well. He is the
rewarder of them that diligently seek him. God does bless His
people. He doesn't say, seek ye my face. Pray and pray and seek, but I'm
never going to answer you. I'm never going to bless you
with faith. I'm never going to bless you with assurance. I'm
never going to bless you with a hope beyond the grave. He had
not said to the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain. He hasn't. There's every encouragement to
diligently seek Him. I saw it so vividly. example
in my own dear mother. You know, she had spent all her
life regularly attending the means of grace and bringing us
children up in the things of God. But there was that which
she lacked and she knew she had when she was dying of cancer
and she lost her sight at the last weeks. And she used to cry
out, open the ark and take me in. an almost incessant prayer. And I used to creep along the
corridor in the night and used to write down, try and write
down, some of her prayers and some of her cries. And if ever
I saw one that was diligently seeking the Lord so earnestly,
now she wasn't doing it thinking others were listening. She was
blind, it was night, it was dark, but she was crying out an urgent
case. The Lord did meet with her, did
bless her. Then she spoke of the blessing
and how lovely the Lord was. And all of that crying and all
of that urgency was all gone. She had peace and quietness.
And I witnessed that. At the time, I must confess,
I didn't have the courage. I so wanted her to be saved,
I couldn't recognize it and see it. She said, all the world would
love him. I said, they wouldn't, Mum. Well,
no, they wouldn't. They don't, naturally. But if
they saw what she saw, and if they had the blessing what she
had, they would have. And you know it is through this
chapter that the Lord was able to show me. They that say such
things declare plainly that they seek a country. And I heard,
and I went back to my remembrance, all the things I heard her say.
They that say such things, and the sermon of Frank Austen, he
went through those things. And that so changed everything,
how I looked at it. And we need the Lord. Sometimes
we can have concerning ourselves and others the evidence all before
us, but we cannot see it. It's just hidden from us. And
the Lord uses a simple thing to draw it back. And suddenly
we can see the Lord's work. We can see what He's done for
us. We can see what He's done for
others. And it's the Lord that reveals it. You think of those
two on the way to Emmaus. Why couldn't they see Him? Why
couldn't they understand that this was Jesus with them? They
couldn't. Their eyes were holding. But there came a time when their
eyes then were open. And then they could see Him.
So dear friends, there's a real encouragement for us. to diligently
seek the Lord, to put a stop to Satan's temptation, saying
that's just vanity. There's no use. It's empty. You've prayed and cried for years.
You've sought the Lord, but you haven't found him. No, keep praying,
keep seeking, keeping knocking, waiting his appointed time, pleading
his promise, embracing such promises as this. And this is the work
of faith that keeps one coming, that keeps one asking, that believes
that He is, and that those things that they seek, they are real
things, they are eternal things, they are things that matter for
their soul for eternity. So may we have those fruits,
those fruits that not only are necessary in coming to God, but
they also are evidence of faith itself. is not faith we manufacture ourselves. It doesn't come from ourselves.
It is given by God, and it leads to God. Without faith, it is impossible
to please Him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him. And that faith will centre in
the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, that which he did at Calvary,
that which he did in rising from the dead and ascending into heaven,
and that faith where it views him and sees him will lead us
also to want to observe the Lord's Supper in showing forth what
their faith hangs upon and what is the hope of that song. That
ordinance will be precious and attractive to those that have
their eyes open to see the Lord in their place, suffering in
their place. May the Lord add his blessing
and grant us this faith. Amen.