Now in Hebrews 10, we saw that
the Spirit of God there warns us and encourages us and instructs
us about true faith. And it's that faith by which
chosen, redeemed sinners are given and joined with Christ
and all the blessedness that He is to our souls. Now in chapter
11, We want to pick up here and we're going to see how the Holy
Spirit records through the writer a word on the nature of faith,
the works of faith, and the response of faith to the Word of God.
The nature of faith. the works of faith, and the response
of faith to the Word of God. The title this morning is, The
Substance of Things Hoped For. The Substance of Things Hoped
For. We'll begin reading in Hebrews
11, verse 1. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it
the elders obtained a good report, Through faith, we understand
that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things
which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By
faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying
of his gifts. And by faith, he being dead,
yet speaketh, his sacrifice yet speaks. By faith Enoch was translated
that he should not see death and was not found because God
had translated him For before his translation he had this testimony
that he pleased God But without faith it is impossible to please
him For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that
he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Now, the
first thing I want you to see this morning is here in the first
verse, the Apostle Paul tells us that faith is the substance
of things hoped for. What are some things that believers
hope for? What are some things we hope
for? We hope for eternal salvation. We hope to be delivered from
sin and from a sinful world. We hope to continue trusting
Christ alone. We hope to be brought safely
into God's presence and enjoy fellowship with God forever.
These are some things the believer hopes for. And we're told here
that faith is the substance of the things hoped for. That doesn't
mean that faith is the cause of God being gracious to us,
but rather faith is the result of God's grace. And through faith,
we see those things and we hope for those things. It's substance.
Those things are real to us, like we saw last time, enduring
substance. And then we're told here that
faith is the substance of things hoped for. That word substance
means assurance or certainty. It's substance. This table right
here is substance. It's solid. You know it's here. That's what these things that
the believer hopes for are just that real. More real than that.
They're lasting. They're eternal. They won't fade
away. When the Scripture says, John said in John 6, 47, he said,
I say unto you, he that believeth on me, this is the Lord speaking,
he that believeth on me, hath That means he's the possessor.
He has eternal life. Possesses it. And it's substance. It'll never fade away. Now look
here with me at the first verse there. And it says also, secondly
I want you to see here, it says faith is the evidence of things
not seen. Do you know what the word evidence
means? Evidence. If a crime's committed,
you know, they bring forth evidence. to be witnesses of the things. Evidence is proof. Evidence verifies
that those things which aren't seen are real in the heart of
the believer. The faith God gives doesn't put
our name in the Lamb's Book of Life. But what it does is, is
through faith, when God gives faith, He verifies to us, proves
to us that He wrote our book in the Lamb's Book of Life when
He chose us and put us in Christ. And we behold that as being real. It's an enduring, evident thing. We can't see it, but we know
it's so. Let me give you a few things that are not seen, but
they are real, lasting things. We have things that were done
in eternity in the counsel and covenant and purpose of God,
when He chose to save a people for Himself, and He put them
in Christ Jesus, and He purposed everything that comes to pass.
He predestinated all things. And then we have things done
in time. The Incarnation, when the Lord Jesus Christ was born
of a woman, there were some people who saw Him with their own eyes. But proof that we have to have
faith given to us to really see Him is the fact that they saw
Him and didn't believe on Him. They saw Him and didn't believe
Him whatsoever. But we didn't see His death. We didn't see Him. We didn't
see His death. We didn't see His resurrection.
But when God gives us this faith, it's evidence to us. And we believe
these things are so. We have things that are being
done for us right now. Our Lord is seated at God's right
hand and He's making intercession on behalf of believers. Right
now, the Lord's all those things that God purposed back there
in eternity, He's bringing them all to pass right now in His
good providence. He's bringing everything that
comes to pass. We can't see it. We see the results
of it, but we don't see what He's doing. We don't see how
He's moving the hearts of people, exactly what He's doing. We can't
see the work of the Spirit. The Lord told Nicodemus it's
like the wind. You can see the effects of it.
You can see the leaf blowing on the tree, but you can't see
the wind that went through it and caused it to happen. And
then there's things that's going to happen in the future. They're
going to be a resurrection. Those that Christ redeemed and
bought with His blood, they're going to be raised from the dead.
They're going to come out of the grave. And those that are
alive when He returns, they're going to be translated up with
Him as we'll see here in a moment, Enoch was. There'll be a judgment
and then there'll be eternal glory forever and ever and ever. And those things are things that
we can't see right now, but by faith, it's evident to us that
it exists. And they're all unseen things.
I want to give you an illustration. I don't usually do stuff like
this, but do you see this? This is Emma's. This is a Webkinz,
I believe. It's a stuffed pink poodle, for
those listening. But you see this, don't you?
You see it? You know it's here, don't you?
This is evidence to you, all the evidence you need to believe
that I'm holding a stuffed pink poodle. You've got all the evidence
you need, don't you? Now let me ask you something. You don't see it now, but you
still see it, don't you? You still know you have the evidence,
so you know that pink poodle exists. You know what it looks
like. You could describe it to me if
I ask you to describe it to me. God works in the reverse of that. He gives us faith, showing us
that the power is His and not ours. He gives faith to the believer.
And in His Word, He opens our eyes to behold everything that
this Word says about Him. And we begin to see that He is
real. And that all these promises are
real. And that what Christ accomplished is real. And it's just as real
to the believer. It's me holding this right up
in front of your face and you looking at it. It's just as real
because that's how God operates. It's faith. Faith is the evidence
of things that are not seen. Although we can't see them, we
can look in this word and by faith we see them. We see them.
Okay, now look here at verse 2. It says, For by faith the
elders obtained a good report. And this is how everybody who's
ever been saved, the elders here are Abel and Job and Enoch and
Noah. All the folks we're going to
read about as we go through chapter 11. But they walk by faith just
like we do. Same way. The only difference
between their faith and ours is we have the whole revelation
of God. We have all the written word here for us. And so that's
why you don't have God speaking in the different manners in which
He spoke in the past. He's got it all right here for
us. And when He gives us life and gives us faith, all the evidence
we need is right here in His written Word. But they waited
for something that they didn't see come to pass. They hadn't
seen Christ come, but they heard about Him. They saw Him in the
ceremonies, and God revealed Him in them, so that like Abraham,
they saw His day, and they waited for it. Now He's come and raised
and seated at God's right hand, and we're looking for Him to
come again, just like they were looking for Him to come the first
time. You know, everything in our day,
happens real quick. We had internet, now we got high
speed internet. We had mail, now we got email. Everything's fast and it causes
us to want things to happen instantaneously. But by faith, we wait. And we're
not covetous. We're content with such things
as we have because the Lord said, I'll never leave you. I'll never
forsake you. And so we can say the Lord's
my helper. I'm not afraid of what man will do to me because
these things are real. I know my God is real. So here's
the third thing I want you to see. Through true faith, true
saving faith, the believer is given an understanding in things
pertaining to God. We see them, but He gives us
an understanding of what they mean. Now let's look here, Hebrews
11, verse 3. Through faith, we understand
that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things
which are seen were not made of things which do appear. You
know, scientists have been studying for generations and generations,
trying to understand how the world was created. But the man
who God gives faith, the woman, the boy, girl who God gives faith,
knows exactly how the world was created. The visible creation
was formed from nothing. It was formed from absolutely
nothing. And God spoke all things into existence. We've made some...
Mankind has made some really nice things. We've made some
really impressive things in this world. But we've never made something
from nothing. Never. Scripture tells us, you know
how we believe it? You know why we believe it? Because
we'll read a Scripture like John chapter 1 and verse 1, and it
says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. And by faith,
because God's given us faith and given us a heart to believe
Him, We believe Him. We believe that everything that
was made was made by Him and for Him and created out of nothing. If we didn't have faith to believe
it, we'd spend our whole life and devote our whole life to
studying space and rocks and different things to try to figure
out how it was made. We know how it was made. That came to
us through faith. That's how we know. And we believe
it because we've received the Spirit of God. We've been made
to know these things by the Spirit of Revelation. You know, you
can read it. You can read it. And you can
get an understanding or a grasp of it. But you can't believe,
you can't really understand what I'm talking about till you experience
it. Till God works a work of grace
in your heart through the Holy Spirit. But when He gives you
a spiritual understanding, It's as real as if me holding up that
stuffed animal. It's just that real. More real. Well, fourthly, Here's the fourth
thing I want you to see. Through this faith, God witnesses
to us, within us, through the Holy Spirit, that we're righteous
before God by the atonement which Christ the Lamb made when he
shed his own blood. And by faith, we obtain a good
report. We have it verified in our hearts
that as God has said we're righteous, we're just that righteous. Look
here with me, verse 4. By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being
dead yet speaketh. Abel and Cain, they're brothers. You can read about them in Genesis
4, 1 through 5. You've read the story, I'm sure. But Cain, These two are an example
of the only two beliefs that have ever existed in the world,
ever. It's the only two beliefs that
have ever existed in the world, ever. Period. The first religion
is salvation by grace through Christ Jesus the Lord, through
faith in Him. Abel kept sheep. He raised sheep. He was a keeper of sheep. And he went to approach God. And he knew, because he's a sinner,
by faith he knew, because he was a sinner and because he was
unrighteous before God, if he's going to approach God, he has
to approach God witnessing, testifying, confessing that he must have
someone die in his place. And the one that dies in his
place has got to be absolutely perfect. So he went out there
to his lot, his pasture, where his sheep were, to the sheepfold. He picked out the first sling
of the flock, a little spotless snow-white lamb. It didn't have
a blemish in it. And he took that lamb And that
lamb pictured Christ Jesus, the Son of God. And he took that
lamb, and he killed that lamb, and poured his blood out before
the Lord, signifying that he has to come in a substitute.
And you might think, well, that's sad to kill a little poor innocent
lamb like that. That's what we've got to understand,
is that God gave His own Son He gave His spotless, perfect
Son, and His Son laid down His own life and died in the room
instead of sinners, just like you and me. Now, Cain is the
opposite. Here's the second belief. Cain
came in the works of his own hands. Cain was a farmer. He
was a farmer. And he probably picked out the
best spot of land he could find. And he tilled that soil up so
he could plant it, fertilized it, got it prepared to harvest,
to plant the crop. He planted it, tended it, worked
at it very diligently. And he kept fertilizing it. He kept watching it grow. And we waited and waited and
waited. And when the time came, he went out there and he gathered
up best, prettiest fruits from out of his garden. And he took
those and approached God with those. And God rejected him. You know why? Because everything
that Cain did in trying to approach God, he came to God with the
works of his own hand. He came to God with that which
he had worked to obtain. And God said, I won't have it.
There was nothing about Abel that by birth made him righteous.
They were both the same. By birth they were both sinners.
And it wasn't even his faith that made him righteous. But Christ, that One that was
typified in the Lamb, that's the righteousness. 1 Peter 1.11,
I believe, says we're given, we obtain like precious faith
through the righteousness of God and His Son, Christ Jesus. That's how we get, faith is given
to us because God's righteous and He gives it to us and He
makes us righteous. And then it says, and he being
dead, this sacrifice yet speaketh. He's dead, but his faith is an
example of it, still speaks loud and clear. And in these two fellows,
Cain and Abel, in Cain we see works. We see trying to come
to God other than in Christ alone, believing on him alone. But by
faith, Abel came with a lamb. He came trusting Christ. When
you turn on your faucet, on your water faucet, what do you do? You get water, don't you? You
receive water. You didn't have to make the faucet. You didn't have to go dig a well
to try to hunt water. You didn't have to use some means
to get that water to come to you. Your dad installed that
faucet Or some carpenter, some plumber did, installed that faucet. You just simply turn on the faucet
and receive the water from it. That's sort of how we receive
this witness that I'm talking about. We receive the witness
of God the Holy Spirit through faith that we're completely,
fully righteous before God and accepted in the blood of Christ.
Let me get you to look with me over at Romans 8.16. We're told here, the Spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
That's what this witness is all about. And we're told, that the
Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. Look back there now at Hebrews
9 and look at verse 12. When the Lord witnesses this
to us, we're looking here at how it said that He received a witness that
He was righteous. This witness is not just a witness
of folks beholding what Abel did and saying, well, he's righteous.
I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about something happened
in Abel's heart. There was something done in Abel's
heart that was the Spirit of God bearing witness with his
spirit that he indeed is a child of God. That's the witness that
I'm worried about. I'm not as concerned about the
witness of what other fellows think. See if they see what I
see they won't think much of me. I want to know about this
witness. I don't know about this witness
First 912 remember we saw this it's not by the blood of goats
and calves The ceremonies are done. It's by His own blood. He entered in once into the holy
place having obtained eternal redemption for us. He bought
us. He paid the price and there was
a possession that belongs to Him and that possessions His
people. Now, if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes
of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify to the purifying of
the flesh, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God? This is
that witness that we have through faith. We receive it through
faith just like you receive that water through a water faucet.
And this witness is the Spirit of God bearing witness in our
hearts that we are righteous with God. And it purges our conscience
now. We're not trying to go out and
do things because we want to be accepted of God. We're accepted
of God. Now we go out and what we do,
we do because we have the privilege of being the sons and daughters
of God and we love Him and we don't want to turn from Him ever
again. But that witness, that's what
we got to have. And that witness comes when He
gives us faith. It's through faith that that
witness comes into our heart, bears witness with our spirit.
Now, let me ask you this question. What gives you more peace, you
children? Let me ask you. What gives you
more peace? Do you have more peace when you
know that you've disobeyed your father? And you lay in there
in bed at night and you know that he's not very satisfied
with you. He doesn't look at you very well
because you've offended him. And you know you've offended
him. Does that give you peace? Can you just go to bed at night
like that and sleep soundly? Or do you find yourself sleep
better at night when you've enjoyed a good day with your father and
he's He's told you how much He loved you. He's held you. He's
encouraged you. He's spent the whole day with
you. You go to bed that night and just rest. Peace. Well, that's the fifth point
here. This witness which God gives
us in our hearts through faith. When He tells us that in Christ,
God our Father is pleased with us. He's pleased with us. Isn't that something? the thrice
holy God, all I see in me is a sinner, and I read that God's
pleased with me? He's pleased with me? Look here
at verse 5. By faith Enoch was translated
that he should not see death, and was not found, because God
had translated him, for before his translation he had this testimony
that he pleased God. Now listen to this now. Hang
on to what I'm about to tell you. God didn't have to wait
for Enoch to die to bring Enoch into his presence. He didn't
have to wait for Enoch to die to bring him to heaven. He merely
changed Enoch from being immortal like we are to being immortal
like him. And Enoch was carried up to heaven
by God forever. That's what it means before his
translation. This is why that the Lord did
this before his translation He had this testimony Enoch had
this testimony that he pleased God Now here's the point. I want
you to get from that by faith By trusting God alone trusting
Christ alone Is all our righteousness all our salvation? Proof that
proof to me and you brethren that right now is Through faith,
God will receive us into His presence at anytime. Anytime. Anytime. We can go to Him in
prayer, and if He pleases to bring us to Him right now, He
could make Eric disappear right here if He wanted to, and bring
him right up into glory. Translate. Body, soul, and spirit. I'm not talking about just his
soul and his spirit. They went out looking for Enoch
and couldn't find him. Enoch was gone. Body, soul, and
spirit. You see, when he resurrects our
bodies out of the grave, he's going to make it a brand new
body. So what's from stopping him to just make a new body and
raise it up? A perfect body. Just like he's
made us perfect in spirit and righteousness. that faith receives
this testimony from God, that God says that just like I'm pleased
with my son, our Lord Jesus Christ, He says, I'm pleased with you.
Pleased with you. Not offended. Pleased with you.
Well, can I do anything to fall out of His favor? Nothing. There's
nothing you did to get in His favor. There's nothing we did
to make Him look on us and say, I'm well pleased with you. He
looked on his son and said, I'm well pleased with him. And when
he comes and gives life and faith to those that he put in his son,
who his son redeemed and bought with his own blood, God says,
I'm pleased with you. That's the message. That's what
we hear. This is the law of love. This is the love that God sheds
abroad in our hearts, brethren. These are the things that aren't
seen. These are the evidences. This is the substance, is to
know that God's pleased with us and how it happened in the
Lamb. Now here, I want you to look
at verse 6, and I'm going to show you the last lesson I want
you to see in this text today. True saving faith is believing
God. Now, we've said all this about
faith. Now, what is it? What is faith?
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. Without faith, it's impossible
to please Him. After all the witness that God
has given us in His written Word, after the men that have suffered
and died that God used to record His Word, after everything that
His Son did in laying down His life on the cross, for us not
to believe Him is to say, we think He's a liar. We think He's
a liar. Are you pleased with folks that
call you a liar? Are you happy with them? If one
of your schoolmates walks up to you and says, I heard that
you said such and such yesterday, and I believe that you said it.
You're a liar. You don't like me. You told me
you like me. You're a liar. You wouldn't be very pleased
with them. If you were innocent, it was just like you'd said it
was to them. They're your friend. And they
came up and said, no, you're a liar. You wouldn't like them.
That's exactly what it is. Every minute we go through this
life not trusting God, not fully believing on His Son, we're saying,
I don't believe you. I think you're a liar. I do not
believe you. What is faith? Look here with
me. We'll end right here. Faith is coming to God. That's
what it is. He that cometh to God. That's
what faith is. It's coming to God. Faith is believing that God is. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is. Not only that there is a God,
the scriptures tell us that the devils believe that and tremble.
It's not just believing there is a God, but that God is who
He says He is. That's just exactly as He says
He is in His Word. That's what faith is. Believe in He is. Somebody said,
oh, and look here, faith is coming to God believing that He is and
believing that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him. Somebody said this, faith is
not believing that God can do anything. That's not faith. Faith is believing that God will
do everything He says in His Word He will do. Faith's always
connected with the Word of God. Faith's believing that God's
going to do everything He says He's going to do for you. Well, let me give you an application
to think about. You believers, you'll rejoice
in this. And I pray that you children,
by God's grace, will be able to rejoice in this as well. If
you believe God, it's because This is amazing. Two words are
just absolutely amazing. If you believe God, God is for
you. God's for you. Romans 8.31 If
God be for us, who can be against us? Believer, you know this,
God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for you. We won't ever get that, this
side of glory. Just how amazing that thought
is. He gave His Son for you. And all things are from God's
hand freely for you. And God sent His Son. And His
Son obtained justification for you. And He makes intercession right
now at God's right hand for you. You're more than conquerors through
Him because the love of Christ is a specific love, specifically
for you. You know, I can't even understand
it because I love my wife. And I love her so imperfectly. But my love is for her. And yet God is so... He's so beyond our comprehension
that He loves you no less than He loves you. No less. Go home tonight and read Romans
8, 31 through 39, and believe God. Believe Him. What do I have
to do? Believe Him. That's what He said. What about baptism? If you believe
Him, you'll go to your mama, your daddy, and say, I believe
Him. What's this about baptism? I
want to tell the world I believe Him. Go and read first those. Seek
to know Him. Seek to believe Him. And ask
Him, Lord, help me believe. I want to see You. I want to
know You. I want to understand. I want this evidence. I want
this substance. Lord, help me believe. Give me a heart to believe You. And for those that know Him,
Go home tonight with a thankful heart. You can say, Lord, I believe
you. Help thou my unbelief. Help me. I believe you, Lord. By your
grace, I believe you. Just help my unbelief. All right.