May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in His Holy Word.
Let us turn to the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews chapter 11
and we'll read the first verse. Hebrews chapter 11 and we'll
read verse 1. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for. the evidence of things not seen. How important it is for all of
us that we are blessed with the favour of living faith Faith
in God. Faith to believe what he has
said and done is true. And we're told about that in
the sixth verse of this chapter, where the apostle says, but without
faith. So if we don't possess 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 we are favoured to have a
very clear direction with regard to the blessing of faith and
to recognise how necessary and how needful it is. And it's easy
to pass these things off and say, well, I'm not sure whether
I possess faith. Well, we should be very concerned
if we don't possess living faith. And so the apostle tells us here,
in very clear words, that without faith, if we don't possess faith,
it is not possible to please God. For he that cometh to God
must believe that he is. So quite clearly without faith
we do not believe. We cannot believe. And yet how
necessary it is that we do believe. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is. and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. Again, we live in a day of casual
worship, casual religion, casual prayers, and yet here we have
this word diligently. And that means what it says.
Therefore, when we come in prayer, it's not a question of just repeating
some few words and thinking that we've justified ourselves. No, it's far more relevant and
far more important than that, that we are diligent in our prayers,
diligent as we come to our God to seek him. Well, it's good,
isn't it, if we do examine ourselves to see whether that is so. And
I suppose, if we're honest, how often we fail in this matter,
how often we are not diligent, how often we can say words and
attempt to pray and use familiar phrases. What a sad and solemn
thing it is. And that's perhaps why we don't
receive answers to our prayers but here we have a statement
telling us how necessary it is that we receive God-given faith
to believe that if we come to God in prayer he will hear and
he will reward us not because of anything worthy in ourselves,
but because we come through that great and glorious intercessor,
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that directs us immediately
to the necessity of realising that we have a Saviour, one who
does come and does present our prayers to our Father, as we
come in prayer. What a mercy then if we have
faith to believe this great and glorious truth. And so the apostle
commences this chapter by saying, faith is the subsidence, or we
could say the ground or confidence, that's what the margin gives
us, an alternative rendering. Faith is the ground or confidence
of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. And then
the Apostle just elucidates this a little for us. And he tells
us, for by it, by this faith, the elders obtained a good report. Through this faith, we understand
that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. That means everything
was created. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the Word of God. And again, there's
a tremendous consideration, isn't it? Do we truly believe that
as the Word of God tells us in Genesis, the world was created
in six normal days, days of day and night, night and day. The Lord created all things in
those six days. Well, again, does God give us
faith to believe it? Many people don't believe it. Many people think it's optional. They can come to their own conclusion. What does that mean? They don't
possess living faith. They don't possess saving faith. They lean to their own understanding.
What a mercy for us today if by the grace of God we do believe. It's so important, is it not,
that as we read in that sixth verse, he that cometh to God
must believe that he is. And that refers to everything. We come to God in prayer. We
must believe. If we don't believe, we're not
coming in faith. And as such, our prayers do not
enter into the holy place, and they're not acceptable. Well,
here the Apostle tells us, 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. There was nothing. God created all things from nothing. That's why to the natural mind,
the natural understanding, It's something which is impossible. It could not happen. Well, God
says it did happen. And what a mercy if we have faith
to believe it did happen. And therefore, to understand
the truth of God's Word. You see, God's Word is true right
from the beginning of Genesis right to the end of Revelation.
There's nothing fictitious in the Word of God. There's nothing
which has just been dreamt up. Everything is true. We only have
to read in Peter's epistle how the holy men of God were moved
by the Spirit to write as they were instructed. They wrote the
truth of God. Never, never doubt the Word of
God. And in order to come to that
position, God blesses his church with living faith, to believe. Well then, here's this grand
statement, the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things
which are seen were not made of things which do appear. And
then he says, by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent
sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness, and he was
righteous. God testifying of his gifts,
and by it he being dead yet speaketh. Another evidence of faith given
right back in those early days in the history of the world.
God gave able faith. Cain did not receive that living
faith. Cain did that which seemed right
in his eyes. and it was not acceptable to
God. So what a blessing it is for
us tonight if we do truly believe the truth of God's Word. In so
doing, God gives us that faith to believe. Well, it's a great
question, isn't it? For every one of us. We live
in a world, don't we? A world which doubts the truth
of God's Word. A world, for the most part, that
hates the truth of God. And they hate the truth of God
because it sets before us that great and glorious plan of salvation. And mankind doesn't like to fall
under condemnation. Man doesn't like to recognize
they're a sinner in need of a salvation which they can't produce. But
what a blessing it is if the Holy Spirit convinces us of our
need of a Saviour and then gives us faith to believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know, the Apostle Paul tells
us that great and glorious truth when he wrote to the Ephesians
and in the second chapter he tells us this, For by grace are
ye saved, through faith. And that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. That means that you and I can
never merit our salvation. We can never come and chalk up
good things that we've done and think that they give us a good
standing in the things of God. It is purely through God's grace. It's purely through his unmerited
favour that we come to this position. For by grace are ye saved through
faith. And that means God gives us faith
to believe in the great work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've sung together in that second
hymn about the work of the Saviour and the blessing of the cross. Well, what a mercy! As you and
I may have read and heard of the cross of Christ on many occasions,
and yet it may have meant nothing to us. If you read in Lamentations,
is it nothing to you or you that pass by? The great, great important
thing is to be given saving grace to believe on what the Lord Jesus
Christ did was essential to save our soul, essential to redeem
us essential to free us from the wrath to come. And so, my
friends, as we think of that, let us never reject coming to
Calvary. Never let us reject the blessing
that a view of Christ on the cross at Calvary is, because
there he suffered for his church, And what a wonderful blessing
if God gives us faith to believe that Lord Jesus Christ died upon
the cross at Calvary to redeem our souls. It's not something
which is irrelevant. It's not something which has
no significance. It was the ordained way of Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit to save his church. There was no other
good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock
the gate of heaven to let us in. What a Saviour we have. What do we think of Christ? What faith have we received to
believe that the Lord Jesus Christ did come and did die to free
us from that condemnation which says, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die, we shall perish in our sins without the wonderful
evidence that Christ has died to save us. And in dying, you
know, what happened? In dying, the Lord Jesus Christ
shed his precious blood. It's a lovely theme, it's a glorious
theme, and I believe of the true church of God, never weary of
thinking about the wonder of it. And that's why the apostle
Peter, in his first epistle in the first chapter, he comes down
and he says, for as much as ye know, and that's a great statement. I wonder whether we do know.
I hope we do. For as much as ye know, ye were
not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold. Silver and gold, we cannot pay
for our redemption. We don't have the right currency. It will never take away our sin.
For as much as ye know, ye were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received
by tradition from your fathers." We have to be very careful. We
don't just receive by tradition the words from our fathers. That
won't save us. But this will. but with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot. See that is so relevant. And
it's good if God gives us faith to believe in the relevance of
the detail that we have here. And this should really take us
back, and I hope it does, take us back to that time in the life
of the history of Israel when God instructed Moses to introduce
the Passover, how significant that was. Again, if you just
stand aside and just read it in a casual way, well, it was
just a lamb that was taken and a lamb that was killed and the
blood taken and put upon the doorpost and lintels And because
of that there was safety. So there was. But the great blessing
is this. It had a wonderful picture of
that to the Church of God directed them to none other than the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Those Israelites were safe under
the blood. Today, the Church of God is safe
and only safe as you and I are under the precious
blood of Christ. Now what a mercy if God gives
us then faith to believe. Faith to believe this great and
glorious truth which the Apostle is able to write here and he
tells us this who verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. How humbling to think that you
and I live in a gospel day when these things are revealed through
his word to encourage us that we may truly be blessed with
faith to believe. And so the apostle goes on confirming
really what Peter said and Paul said, who by him do believe in
God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that
your faith and hope might be in God. Well, this evening, have
we faith in the blessed and glorious finished work of the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ? You see, every true believer,
every true child of God comes to this God-given position of
believing by faith that which Jesus did satisfies the demands
of the holy law of God and frees us from that condemnation which
says the soul that sinneth it shall die. What a mercy then
to have this blessing and the apostle goes on in this first
chapter of Peter and says, seeing ye have purified your souls,
that means purified us from all sin, in obeying the truth through
the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that ye
love one another with a pure heart, fervently. Again, it's
a wonderful evidence of the work of God the souls of the Church
of God, a wonderful evidence of God-given faith to believe
that you and I are privileged to love the brethren. Love the brethren, love the brethren,
see that you love one another, with a pure heart, fervently. That means what it says. It doesn't
mean that you and I can love the Church of God just as you
might think, arm's length. We love them fervently. They're
our brothers and sisters in Christ. And you might think, well, why
is that relevant? Well, by God's grace and through that faith,
we shall be together in glory. If we're together in glory, we
won't be amongst those that we hate, we won't be those that
we've kept at arm's length, we'll be with those who we love for
Christ's sake. And so we see here, as God gives
us faith to believe, there's a lot of working out, there's
a lot of evidence that we are amongst those who do truly believe. And again, as I said, see that
you love one another with a pure heart, fervently being born again. Follows on what we spoke about
this morning, being born again, not a corruptible seed, but an
incorruptible seed. by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. Well, the Word of God, my friends,
that's what we're reading tonight. The truth of God, the Word of
God, how relevant it is and how important that you and I have
faith to believe the Word of God is true, all of it. You shouldn't pick and choose
and think, well, that's a nice verse. I think I'll go along
with that and then others will. I don't think I agree with that.
That's what man does today. That's what's evident, is it
not, in our nation and in the world. Men will not believe the
word of God. What a mercy then if God gives
you and me faith to believe the great truth that it contains.
And so as the Apostle says, by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. And then he says, the final words
in this first chapter, for all flesh is as grass. All the glory
of man and all the glory of man as a flower of grass. The grass
withereth. And the flower thereof falleth
away. I'm sure we see that. I'm sure we observe it. Especially
in the last summer, so much of the grass indeed withered. And the flowers thereof falleth
away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. This is indeed The word which
is preached. This is the word that we have. This is the word that is contained
for us in this 11th chapter to the Hebrews. Now, faith is the
substance or the ground or confidence. Faith is the confidence. You see, we do want to have a
confidence in the word of God. We do want to believe that what
God has said is true. And remember, without faith,
it is impossible to please God. You know the Apostle Paul in
an earlier chapter in Romans, we have some important words
that the Apostle speaks to us in the 10th chapter of Romans. And it's good to realise here
that the Apostle tells us, so then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God. Now the Apostle in this 10th
chapter gives us some good instruction and he tells us and we won't
go through it all but the 10th verse tells us for with the heart
that means our inner man man believeth unto righteousness
it's not just in our head true believing filters down to our
heart our soul our very innermost being so that we do truly believe
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Again this is
a great truth which many people today ignore. And yet you see
it is with our mouth that we confess before men what God has
done in redeeming our souls and granting us this great blessing
of salvation. It isn't something which is a
secret, which we don't speak about. With a mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Sometimes people are
ashamed. Perhaps we've been ashamed. Ashamed
to testify that God has given us faith to believe. What a mercy, then, if God comes
and directs us and encourages us. Whoso believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. You see, when the Holy Spirit
gives us that blessed gift of believing, it's in our soul,
it's in our heart. We praise God for it. that we
do possess that heart to believe. The Apostle says, for there is
no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord
over all is rich unto all that call upon him. Well, tonight,
if you and I receive faith to call upon the name of the Lord,
to pray unto him, The same Lord over all is rich
unto all that call upon him. We have a great God, my friends.
Never underestimate the greatness of our God. And then he comes
and says, for whosoever Whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. Surely that is a wonderful encouragement,
if you and I have come by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, and
called upon his name, that he will have mercy upon us, that
he will save us. The answer here is, we shall. be saved? How then shall they
call on Him in whom they have not believed? That means there's
no point in calling upon God, no point in praying to God unless
we do believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, unless we have received
faith to believe. And how shall they believe on
Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher. So the Word of God tells us,
it's through the furnishers of preaching. Never despise the
preaching of the gospel. Never despise those who are called
to preach. 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 it is a gospel of
peace to a true believer. It's good news from a far country.
What a wonderful favour it is. And they bring glad tidings of
good things. The glad tidings of forgiveness. The glad tidings the blessed
saviour shed his precious blood to save them. The glad tidings
that Christ has gone to repair a place for them. The good tidings
that he'll come again and receive them unto himself. The good tidings
that by the grace of God, we shall be with him in glory forever. 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
and good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For as thou saidst, Lord, who
hath believed our report? Well, tonight, you see, you and
I stand one side of the line. We're either those who believe
or those who do not believe. Those who are given faith to
believe and are saved. Those who do not possess living
faith and are lost. What a mercy then if God gives
us faith to believe. So then he says then, as I already
said, so faith cometh by hearing and hearing by The word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes. Very that sound went into
all the earth and their words into the ends of the earth. But
I say, did not Israel know? First, Moses said, I will provoke
you to jealousy by them on no people and by a foolish nation. I will avenge you. But Esaias
is very bold and says, I was found of them that sought me
not. Perhaps that's true. Perhaps the Lord found you. You hadn't sought him, and yet he found you. and then says the Apostle, I
was made manifest unto them that asked not for me. What mercy,
what favour, what blessing, what cause to praise Almighty
God. And then he says, but to Israel,
he says, that's the church of God, those who were of the Jewish
people, those who were brought up to know the things of God
and yet did not know them. All day long, I have stretched
forth my hands unto a disobedient and gay and sane people. My friends,
we don't want to be left, do we? We don't want to be forsaken. We want to know that we have
a God who has given us living faith to believe the glorious
truth of God and to rejoice therefore in what He has done. What a mercy
then! Faith is The substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Well, that's a grand
and glorious statement. But the great question is whether
you and I have indeed received faith to believe the gospel. My friends, I cannot give you
faith, but God can and God does. And there is no doubt that all
of us must receive faith to believe before we die. Otherwise, we
shall spend eternity in utter misery. It's a very terrible
consideration, a very terrible thought. And so may we plead
that the Lord may not pass us by. Yes, how easy it is to just
forget the things of God and think, well, I'll give that some
consideration perhaps when I'm a bit older, but really not now. In the Corinthians, the apostle
wrote to, and as we come towards the end of the fourth chapter,
he tells us this, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus
shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. Well, what a mercy if God raises
us up from that pit of destruction, that dead state which we were
spiritually born into and given us the great and glorious life
of God. For all things, says the Apostle,
are for your sakes. That the abundant grace, the
abundant grace, God does give abundant grace. might through
the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God, for which
cause we faint not. But though our outward man perish,
yes, we grow old, our nature perishes, we have the evidence
of it, don't we? So recently with so many of our
friends being taken from this earth, Outward man perishing, yet the
inward man, our spiritual man, our spiritual life is renewed
day by day. That doesn't die. Why doesn't
it die? Because it's eternal. It's the
life of God within us, that which God has given us. given us faith
to believe and therefore we possess that which will never die that
new life, that new nature and then he says, for our light affliction
which is but for a moment there are afflictions which we are
called upon to bear naturally but the Apostle draws the analogy
of something which is very light and he references to affliction,
which is but for a moment, and then he says, that works for
us, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. So we have on this scales, if
you like, on the one side, a light affliction, and on the other
side, an eternal weight of glory. and you see the Lord sometimes
uses these light afflictions to set our hearts and affections
upon things above and so he concludes this fourth chapter with this
while we look not at the things which are seen yes, we can look
all around us And we can perhaps cry out, how hard's my lot? Well,
while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen. How? With the eye of faith. The things which we do not see
with our natural eye, but with the eye of faith, we look forward
to that eternal inheritance, which is incorruptible and undefiled
and which is reserved in heaven for those who are kept by the
power of God through grace ready to be revealed in the last time
and so he says well we look not at the things which are seen
but and the things which are not seen for the things which
are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are
eternal well what a blessing for us tonight to have this good
foundation. And what is this good foundation?
Well, we've described it. It's a foundation which we hope
for. Faith is a substance of things
hoped for. And we have a good hope today
that one day, by the grace of God and for the faith given us
to believe, we shall be found in glory with Christ forever. Forever. It's good sometimes
just to ponder that and to think that, as we know, some of our
brethren, our brothers and sisters have been taken recently to be
forever with the Lord. And in glory, of course, there's
no night. There's no day. It's forever
light. And Christ is all the light. And Christ is all the glory in
Emmanuel's land. No more sin, no more sorrow,
no more regrets. but everlasting happiness and
joy. Well, as the Lord graciously
said, I go to repair a place for you. And if I go to repair
a place for you, those who receive living faith, I will come again
and receive you. Unto myself, again how humbling
that is, that where I am, there ye may be also, not for a day,
not for a year, but eternally.