Welcome to our program. Now today
I'm going to be preaching from Hebrews chapter 11. This chapter
is normally called the Hall of Faith because it is a listing
of Old Testament believers, many of them famous, who were examples
of saving faith. I've entitled this message today,
The Nature of Faith. I've been talking about that
quite a bit here through the book of Hebrews. Saving faith,
faith of Scripture, the faith that is the gift of God, faith
always has an object. And the value of faith, that
grace of the Spirit, which is the gift of God, is always measured
and determined by its object. For example, somebody says, well,
I believe, but how much do you have to believe? We see the question
of saving faith is not how much faith you have, it is in whom
is your faith. In whom do you believe? Somebody
said, well, do I believe enough? Well, enough for what? If we're
saying, well, do I believe enough in order for faith itself to
be my ground of salvation? The answer is no. Faith itself
is not the ground of salvation. You see, faith looks to Christ,
who alone is our ground of salvation. I've quoted that hymn quite a
bit. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. On Christ the solid rock I stand.
You see, Christ is the rock of the church. It's not our faith.
It's Christ. And our faith is in him if we
believe the gospel. So faith and its object can never
be separated. And in fact, you can pretty much
read the scripture that way. We look back in Hebrews 10 and
verse 38, it says, now that the just shall live by faith. That
means those who are justified by the grace of God, saved by
his grace, and I said it last week, washed in his blood, clothed
in his righteousness, they live eternally by looking to Christ. Christ saves them, Christ keeps
them and preserves them, and Christ will bring them to glory.
Now here in Hebrews chapter 11, he begins this hall of faith
with a definition of faith. And he says in verse 1, Now faith
is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things
not seen. Now that word substance, faith
is the substance. That means the ground or the
confidence, the foundation. Faith is the ground or the confidence
of things hoped for. And then that word evidence is
just what it means. It's evidence. Faith is the evidence
of things not seen. In other words, we who know Christ,
we believe in things that we haven't actually seen yet. We
walk not by sight, the scripture says, but by faith. One day we
will see some of these things. John wrote that in 1 John chapter
3 verse 1, Beloved, it doth not yet appear what we shall be,
or in 1 John chapter 3, but we shall see Christ, we will see
him as he is. And so we walk by faith, not
by sight. But this faith here has to do
with Christ, his person, who he is, what he accomplished,
why he did it, and where he is now. Who is he? He's the God-man
mediator. He's the Son of God incarnate.
He's the second person of the Trinity. He's the mediator surety,
the prophet, the priest, the king. He's the redeemer. He's
the savior of sinners. He's Emmanuel, God with us. He's
the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He's the seed of woman, the seed
of Abraham. He's the tabernacle in the wilderness.
He's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and
he's the Passover lamb. He's the rock from which Moses
got water when he struck the rock. All of those types and
pictures of the Old Testament, pictured and typified the person
and work, the finished work of Christ. So here's what he's saying. Faith, Christ, is the ground
and confidence of things hoped for. What is it we hope for? We who seek salvation, we who
know Christ, our hope is final glory in heaven through Christ. Now listen to me, and this is
very important. Our hope is not simply final
glory in heaven, not just to get to heaven, but our hope is
final glory in heaven through Christ. And He is the ground
or the confidence of what I hope for. I hope to go to heaven. Well, what ground or confidence
do I have for that hope? Christ. He already washed away
all my sins. On the cross of Calvary, 2,000
years ago, my sins were charged to Him. And He paid my debt in
full. He satisfied God's law and justice
for my sins. In order to enter heaven, I need
a righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and
justice. Christ worked it out 2,000 years ago on the cross
and imputed it to me. You see, in Christ, I have everything
I need in order to be saved, kept, preserved, and to go to
heaven. In Him, He's my all in all. The Bible says, in Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete
in Him. So I'm to see my complete salvation
in Christ. And so Christ is the substance
of my hope. He's the ground or the confidence
of what I hope for. And so I look to Him. My faith
is in Him. I believe in Him. And listen
to me. When Christ satisfied law and justice, when He paid
my debt, He died. He was buried. He arose again
the third day. You see, He arose again for my
justification. And then he ascended unto the
Father, and seated at the right hand of the Father above, making
intercession for me, and for all who are in him. He is our
advocate. And the fact that he's there
means it will be there, all who know him. So faith is the substance
of things hoped for. Christ is. And then next, the
evidence of things not seen. How do I know that these things
that I don't see with the physical eye are a reality? because Christ
came in history, and he obeyed the law perfectly. He went to
the cross of Calvary. He suffered, bled, and died for
my sins. He was buried. He arose again
the third day and ascended unto the Father. There were eyewitnesses
to that historical fact. And he seated in the heavenlies,
and he sent his Spirit into the hearts of his people to give
them the new birth. And the Spirit is the earnest
of their inheritance. The Spirit is the down payment,
in other words, of the inheritance that we'll receive. And the Spirit
point centers to Christ. So that Christ is the evidence
of things that we don't see with the physical eye. We walk by
faith and not by sight. I know that God is for me because
I'm in Christ. The Bible says, who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. And who can condemn us? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather, is risen again and is seated
at the right hand of the Father above the throne of God. Now, verse 2 of Hebrews 11 says
this. Now, there's the definition of
faith. Faith is the substance and the
evidence, you see, Christ is. And it says in verse 2, for by
it, by faith, or by looking to Christ, the elders obtained a
good report. Now what is this good report?
That is a good report to God. A good report from God. Now,
if you look back in the Old Testament, and many of the ones that are
listed here in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11, You'll see all
kinds of things written about these men. It's going to talk
about Abel, Enoch. It's going to talk about Noah
and Abraham. It's going to talk about David
and others, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and others.
And if you'll read the Old Testament history on these men, you'll
find out that they had what we, from the human point of view,
they had good points, but then they had bad points too. They
had flaws. They were not perfect men. They were men of strong character
and then men of weak character. They had moments of strength,
moments of weakness. But here's the bottom line on
the whole thing. Every one of them were sinners
saved by the grace of God. There's not one of them, Abel,
Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, there's
not one of them who could attain salvation or maintain it by their
good report, by their good works, by their reputation, by their
perseverance. They were sinners, sinners saved
by the grace of God. They were saved just like sinners
today are saved. If you're saved, it's based on
the blood and righteousness of Christ. It's by the grace of
God. The Bible speaks of Abraham as
the example of how God justifies who? Those who deserve it? No. God justifies the ungodly. You see, Abraham, just like me
and you by nature, he's an ungodly man. And God chose him and redeemed
him by the blood of Christ, which Abraham looked to by promise
in the future. So by it, by faith, by looking
to Christ, The elders obtained a good report. Their good report
was not their accomplishment or their works or their reputation. Their good report was that they
were sinners saved by the grace of God in Christ. They were mercy
beggars in Christ. That's their good report. They
were men of faith. They looked not to themselves
for salvation, not to each other, but they looked to Christ who
was promised by God in the Old Testament. and pictured in Tempathi. So how, listen to me, in order
to get to heaven you must have a good report. And that report
must be on the law books of God's books, your sins must be wiped
clean. That's the only way, and you
must have in place of that a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law and justice. Now how are you going to obtain
that? You say, well, preacher, I'm going to work hard to do
it. won't be good enough. You say, I'm going to do my best
to keep the Ten Commandments. You'll fall short. Well, I'm
going to just muster up how much faith I can have. You won't have
enough faith. What are you going to do to obtain
a good report? I'll tell you what you do. Look to Christ.
Rest in Him. Submit to His blood and His righteousness
as that which alone saves you and entitles you to glory. And
that's what he means. By faith, by looking to Christ,
the elders obtained a good report. Now look at verse 3. He says,
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. Now that verse there is very
interesting. First of all, it kills the doctrine of evolution,
the teaching of evolution. Here's what he's saying. By faith,
we understand that God made the worlds. God created the world. In beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth. God is the creator, and the Bible
tells us that it's through faith we understand that. We understand
it because God tells it, and we understand it through Christ.
In other words, by looking to Christ, we also understand the
reality of creation. The Bible says, in John chapter
1, in beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God, and in the beginning all things were created
by God, and without this Word, without Christ, there was nothing
that was created that was created. In other words, Christ is the
Creator. He has the preeminence in all things. And it's by looking
to Him that I understand that God created this world for a
purpose, for His own glory. in the salvation of sinners through
Christ. And I understand that when I
look at the physical universe, that I don't conclude that this
part of the physical universe evolved out of this. It was created
by God. What we see when we look at the
mountains, when we look at the stars, when we look at ourselves,
the human body. David said, I'm fearfully and
wonderfully made. You think about the greatness and the miracles
of the human body. and life itself. What should
we conclude from that? That it evolved here over millions
of years of evolution? No. That God created it. There's
a prime mover. There's a wisdom behind all this,
an intelligence, not just some mystical intent, but God Himself. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. He created the world. And we
know that, and the reality of it, and the glory of it, by looking
to Christ. Now he goes on and he begins
to list some of these Old Testament saints and it's interesting because
the first one he mentions is Abel. Now you know the story
of Cain and Abel over in Genesis chapter 4. The Bible teaches
that this world was created by God and it was created in good
and that God created man and he made woman out of man And
they were good, they were put in the Garden of Eden, they were
given dominion over the world, and then Satan came into the
Garden, and he tempted, he deceived Eve, and he tempted Adam, and
Adam fell in Satan. He took sides with Satan against
God. And when Adam fell as the representative
of the whole human race, we fell, the Scripture says, Romans 5.12,
for as in Adam, For by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin. So that death passed upon all
men for that all sin in Adam. For as by one man, you see, and
Adam fell and brought the human race under condemnation. Well,
God immediately, immediately after that when he was pronouncing
the curse upon Satan, he made mention of the seed of woman
who is Christ. and his purpose to redeem his
people out of Adam's fallen race through the blood of a substitute.
You remember Adam and Eve, they took fig leaf aprons and they
sewed them together and made clothes for themselves, trying
to hide their nakedness. They were exposed to the wrath
of God. They were under the curse. They were condemned. And those
fig leaf aprons are symbolic of man's efforts to cover himself
and hide himself and save himself. And it wouldn't work. So God
came down in the person of the Son of God, Christ, a pre-incarnate
appearance of Christ. And you remember what he did
in Genesis chapter 3? He slew animals. He shed blood
and made them coats of skin. And I believe right then and
there he was establishing the sacrificial system, showing that
the only way a sinner, a condemned sinner, can have communion with
God is to be redeemed by the blood of the Son of God. That
animal typified Christ. His blood shed for the sins of
his people, and the coats of skin typified his righteousness
which covers them. That's justification. Now that
sacrificial system was instituted right then and there, and Adam
taught it to both boys, Cain and Abel. But you know what?
Cain rejected it. Cain rejected it, and he chose
his own way. He rejected the gospel of the
blood of the Lamb, the grace of God, salvation by the blood,
and the righteousness of Christ, whom the Lamb typified. And he,
Cain was a farmer. He worked in the field, he worked
hard, and he brought his crop, that which he worked for so hard,
the best that he had, he brought his crop to God and offered it
to God. But you see, the best works of
the best of men will not remove sin. The best works of the best
of men will not make us righteous before God. It takes the blood
of the Lamb. And that Lamb is Christ. And
that's what he's talking about here in Hebrews 11 and verse
4. Look here. He says, By faith
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
You see the difference here is their sacrifice. And by which
Abel obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying
of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. Here's Cain
and Abel, and as I said, Cain bringing the works of his hands,
the works of the field. But now Abel brought that which
God had provided, the blood of a lamb, and he offered a more
excellent sacrifice than Cain. Why was it more excellent than
Cain's? Because in Cain's sacrifice there was no blood. Sin demands
death. Without the shedding of blood,
the book of Hebrews tells us, There is no remission, no forgiveness,
no pardon of sin. There must be blood. Law and
justice has to be satisfied. God must be just when he justifies
the ungodly. He must be holy and righteous
and truthful. He must be a righteous judge
as well as a loving, merciful father. How can he be both? Not based on the works of my
hands. But he can only be both based on the blood of Christ.
And that's what Abel's blood animal sacrifice typified, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Abel, by bringing the blood of
the animal, he was looking to Christ. Abel didn't know that
the blood of an animal couldn't remove sin, but that blood typified
and symbolized a greater one to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why John the Baptist,
When he came into the world in his public ministry, and Christ
came into the world, he said, Behold, the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sins of the world. You see there, Christ is our
Lamb. The reason we don't sacrifice
animals today is that system's over. Christ has come. He's already shed his blood,
and there's no need for the types. But now, back in Abel's time,
they were needed. And they pointed sinners to Christ.
So it says, by faith, by looking to Christ, Abel offered to God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Cain didn't look to Christ. He didn't look by faith. He rejected
Christ, but Abel did. And in Christ, now look at this,
it is by Christ, by which he obtained witness that he was
righteous. Abel's righteousness was in Christ. Wasn't it Abel
himself? Abel had no works. Listen, if
Abel was righteous in himself, he wouldn't have needed to bring
the blood of sacrifice. Do you realize that? If you can
be made righteous in yourself by your works and your efforts
to keep the law, you don't need Christ. You don't need the grace
of God. You're okay. But Abel was a sinner,
and he needed a sacrifice, just like me. And he brought the blood
of the Lamb. And God testifying of his gifts. When God received Abel's sacrifice,
God made a testimony there of what he had given Abel, his gifts. This is the gift of God. The
Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith. That not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And
he says, and by it, By this sacrifice, Abel, though he's dead, he speaks. We look back on it, and Abel's
still preaching today, because the same gospel of God's grace
is being preached. Now, the next one he uses is
Enoch. Now, we don't know a whole lot about Enoch in the Old Testament. It's shown here in Genesis chapter
5 about Enoch, that he walked this earth, he didn't live very
long, and God took him. And it says, 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 Enoch
was an unusual situation. It says, by faith Enoch was translated. That word translated means that
he didn't suffer the pain of physical death like most of us
do, but he was just translated, he was changed by God, he was
taken by God. And back then God did that to
Enoch and it says by faith Enoch. That is by looking to Christ
again. Enoch had faith in Christ and
here was Enoch's testimony that he pleased God. But look at verse
6. Now here's the key. How did Enoch
please God? Well he says, but without faith
it is impossible to please him. Now that means this, it means
without looking to Christ and resting in Him and trusting Him,
it is absolutely impossible to please God. Listen, you want
to please God, well you can do your best to work, you can go
to church, you can give your time, you can get baptized, you
can do all kinds of work, but you cannot please God without
looking to Christ. The Lord said that. God said
that. He said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. My friend, without
faith, without looking to Christ and resting in Him, it's impossible
to please God. And He goes on. He says, For
he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek him. First of all, if you
come to God, you must believe that God is. Now, that means
more than simply saying God exists. There's a lot of people who believe
there is a God. The Bible says the demons in
hell, the devils in hell, believe there is a God and tremble. It
means if you come to God and receive salvation, you must believe
that He is as He reveals Himself, as He says He is, not as you
think Him to be. Well, how can you know that?
How can you come to God as He reveals Himself? He reveals Himself
through Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily." Christ said it. He said, No man knoweth
the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will
reveal him. Philip told him one time, asked him one time, he
said, Show us the Father. And he said, If you've seen me,
you've seen the Father. If you want to come to God as
He is in Himself, come to Christ. And then you must believe that
he is a rewarder of them that diligently