You know, we're going to stay
right there in Hebrews 11. We're so blessed of God that
he has defeated totally our spiritual enemies, defeated our sin, defeated
Satan, the curse of the law. He was made a curse for us. And
we have such a treasure in the gospel. The gospel message is
beyond compare. I mean, it's beyond value. The
good news of how God saves sinners by his grace through Christ.
But we're told in that passage that's mentioned in 2 Corinthians
4 that we have this treasure in earthen vessels. And you're
looking at an earthen vessel. That's a broken pot. And I prayed that the Lord would
defeat two more enemies of mine. First one's pine pollen. And the second one's arthritis.
And normally I can pretty much stand and preach without problem
but sometimes I just can't do it. I have been to the doctor
and we've got some promising things that hopefully will happen
within the next week to relieve my arthritis pain. But I tell
you, of course, most of y'all know that as we grow older we
learn firsthand just how earthen these vessels are, don't we?
But the Lord has his Purpose for it, and I know it sure humbles
me. I'm not in my prime anymore,
but we'll make it. But the main thing is that I've
learned that the value of being comfortable as I preach the gospel. And I shouldn't complain, at
least I'm not like Steven. Y'all not out there throwing
rocks at me. That's one good thing. But it really does help. So bear with me as I sit. Hopefully in a week or so I'll
have this problem taken care of and I'll be able to stand
up here and preach with enthusiasm. Hope I can do it even sitting
down. I do that on TV. I sit down and it seems to work
for me. But what I want to do, I want
to talk about God-given faith. And I've been talking about faith
for the last two or three weeks because it's such an important
subject. It says there in verse six, which
is my main text of Hebrews 11, without faith, it is impossible
to please God. Impossible. And back here in
verse one, let me just make some comments as I go down through
here, getting to verse six, and then I'll just draw it to a conclusion
today. And I'll probably be talking
about faith quite a bit more because it is such an important,
it's necessary. Faith is a necessary grace given
by the Spirit of God that spiritually connects us with Christ. Now
that's what faith is. Now, if we are true believers,
you understand that we have been eternally connected with Christ
by the sovereign will of God, His electing
grace, His adopting grace, His justifying grace, His redeeming
grace, all of those blessings, we've been connected with Christ
all along. But when we're born into this
world, we're born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins,
alienated from God in our minds by wicked works, the Bible says.
Always in Christ legally, electively, adopting, always in Christ before
the foundation of the world in the eyes of God, justified, That
means forgiven of all of our sins by His blood. That means
justified, counted righteous in Christ by His righteousness
imputed. But we're born into this world
in a state of spiritual death, a state of unbelief, a state
of being unregenerate. That's why the Lord said you
must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of God. You cannot
enter the kingdom of heaven. And so having been born in that
state, we're born in unbelief. And one of the things I'm trying
to make clear in these messages is that if we have faith, it
is a gift of God. It doesn't come natural. It's
not the product or the result of your decision or your free
will, and it's certainly not the product of a man persuading
you. Now we do, you know, Paul said,
I do persuade, and that's what I do when I preach the gospel.
But it's God alone who can give the gift of faith. And here,
look at Hebrews 11, verse one. This is one we know well. I've
preached on this many times. Faith is the substance. Now,
that word substance, you might have a concordance in your Bible,
and it makes a ground or confidence. Faith is the ground or the confidence
of things hoped for. Now one thing that tells me right
away that this faith that he's talking about is not simply what
we call believing. Because my believing something
is not the ground or the confidence of the reality of it. How do
you know that preacher? Well, you can believe a lot of
things that are wrong. and you're believing them doesn't
make it right. Are you with me? Just because
you believe something does not make it true. And if you think
it is, you're a product of wishful thinking. You know, preachers
today and people today, even in so-called Christian churches,
which are false Christian churches, they talk about, well, if you
believe it hard enough, then it'll come true. Well, that's
not biblical. Preachers, these false faith
healers, they say they can heal you if you have enough faith.
And if they fail to heal you, they'll say, well, you just didn't
have enough faith. That's not biblical at all. Faith here is the ground or the
confidence of things hoped for. Now, what do we hope for? We
hope for spiritual glory, eternal life. That's what we're hoping
for, salvation. And hope in the Bible is not
wishful thinking either. It's a certain expectation. I
expect, I expect, I fully expect that when I die, I'll be with
the Lord. Is that what you expect? Now,
here's the problem. Do I have any proper ground for
that kind of expectation? Yes, I do. It's called faith.
And that's not just because I believe it. I do believe it now. And
you have to believe it. But my believing it doesn't make
it sound or confident or right. But faith does. That's what he
says here. Now look at it again. Now faith
is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things
not seen. Now that word evidence can mean
assurance. It's the assurance. It gives
us assurance about things we can't see. All right, you know,
the Apostle John said, it does not yet appear what we shall
be. I have not seen what I'm going
to be in eternal glory. You haven't seen that either.
Now, I know these guys talk about, well, they die and go to heaven
and then come back. They haven't. I'm confidently
telling you they haven't gone to heaven and come back. I know
one man who went to heaven and came back. His name was the Apostle
Paul and you know what he said? He said, I don't have words to
express it. I can't tell you about it. These
guys go to heaven and come back and they write books and make
movies about it. Paul said, I can't do that. And he was an apostle. We haven't seen it yet. but there
is an assurance of things we don't see. Now what is that assurance? We believe it? No, that doesn't
make it true. It is true, but my believing
it doesn't make it true. Am I making sense here? That's
what I wanna say. Faith does. So what do we know? Faith itself here is not our
believing Now confidence and hope is our believing. I have
confidence in this. I hope this. That means I believe
something to be true. But our believing is not our
assurance. Faith is. And so there's a difference between
faith and our belief. Now here's what I'm saying. Now
listen to this. Here's what faith is. Faith is the revelation of
God revealed in his promise to save sinners who cannot save
themselves, we cannot save ourselves, and it's by His grace in and
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's what faith is. In
other words, to put it to you simply, faith is God's promise. Now what has God promised? He's
promised to save His people, to preserve His people, to bring
them to glory, full salvation, all based on one person who did
one work as the surety, the substitute, and the Redeemer of His people,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that work that Christ accomplished,
that right there is the ground of my assurance. That's what
makes my believing to be true. I believe in Him. It's not just
believing, it's in whom we believe. You cannot separate biblical
faith from the object of faith. I can tell you that I believe
the earth is flat, but it's not. I know people who make that their
theology. I know a guy who got kicked out
of a church because he preached and the earth was flat, and he
really believes it, but it's not true. You see what I'm saying? And his believing it didn't make
it true. And it's the same way with us. I believe this, but
my believing doesn't make it true. But what does? The testimony of God. Faith believes
what God says. That's our foundation. How firm
a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith
in his excellent word. And the things that I haven't
seen, but I just hear of them, not from people, but from God.
This is what God says. The greatest foundation for your
faith is this, thus saith the Lord. And if I can't say thus saith
the Lord and back it up with his word in the Bible, it's just
wishful thinking. Faith is the body of truth that
is founded on God's word. Faith is our doctrine. You say
I believe, well what do you believe? Whom do you believe? Believing
now is the conviction that the Spirit brings us to by God's
Word. The Holy Spirit brings us to
be convinced of something because God says it. Now that's what
believing is. The Bible says in John 16 that
the Spirit will convict or convince God's people of sin because they
believe not on Christ. In other words, I believe what
God says about me. about my sin. And what does God
say about me? It says, by nature or by our
works, there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that
seeketh after God, no, not one. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. There's none that understandeth, no, not one. That's
what the Bible says about us. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. What does that mean? We've all
missed the mark. You say, well, I'm closer to it than, oh, so-and-so
over here. Doesn't matter. You've missed
it. And to miss it is death. The Bible says that we were born
dead in trespasses and sin, totally depraved. What does that mean?
We have no spiritual life, no spiritual desires, no spiritual
knowledge. That's what it means. It means
this, that if left to ourselves, we will not choose God. We will
not choose his way of salvation. We will not choose Christ. It
says this, that we don't have a free will. Our will is in bondage
to sin. We can choose what we're gonna
have for dinner today, but we will not choose Christ. Not the
true Christ, as he's identified and distinguished in this book.
Look over at verse two. For by it, the elders obtained
a good report. Now that good report, I believe
that what it means is a good testimony. Some say a good reputation. But it's a good testimony. Now
what's good about this testimony? Again, thus saith the Lord. That's the good thing about our
testimony. It's not good because we're good.
We're sinners saved by grace if we're saved. It's good because
God said it. I can turn in this book and show
you where God said these things about salvation, how God can
be just and justify the ungodly. Based on what? One ground, the
imputed righteousness of Christ. I can show you that in this book.
That's a good testimony. Now, if I say, well, it's true
just because I had a dream last night, that's a bad testimony.
Or if it's good because back when I was a young boy or young
girl, I accepted Jesus as my personal savior. That's not biblical. That's not a good testimony.
That's not a good report. Or I just feel it. People walk
out of religious services all the time and say, well, we just
felt the spirit. That's not a good testimony. Listen, evil spirits can make
you feel good. Do you know that? They can make you feel oh so
good. That's right. But do you know
what the Spirit of God does? He makes us feel good about Christ. He leads us to Christ. And he
won't take us down any other road or lead us to any other
person or any other work. It's Christ alone. And I'm telling
you, if Christ is preached in the glory of his person, The
beauty and power of his finished work, the spirit is present.
And you may not feel so good. You may have arthritis like me. Doesn't matter. But that's a
good report. Thus saith the Lord. And then
look at verse three. 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's why
we don't believe in evolution. The things that appear now were
not created by things of the past. They were created by God.
I know things change, don't get me wrong. But the theory of evolution,
it's just hogwash. God created this world, friend.
He's the prime mover. He's the prime intelligence behind
it all. But look what it says in verse
three. Through faith we what? We understand. Faith is built
upon an understanding that God gives his people. A lot of people indicate it this
way. They say, well, you just believe it whether you understand
it or not. And then later on, you might
understand. That's not biblical. Now don't get me wrong, there
are things about God that just go beyond our minds. We've talked
about it. You think about God is immutable. That means he doesn't change.
I don't understand all about that. But I know it's true, I
understand it to be true because God said it. He said, I am the
Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob, you sinners
saved by grace through Christ are not consumed. God said it. And there is a point in which
my mind just only goes so far with the infinite nature and
character of God. His thoughts and ways are so
high above us. But listen to this scripture
here. This is 1 John 5, 20. I'll just read it to you. It says, and we know that the
Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may
know him that is true. And we are in him that is true.
Even in his son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal
life. You see, this understanding,
which is faith here, which faith is built upon, is an understanding
that God gives us about what he wants us to know. That's right. You know what a believer knows?
Whatever God wants that believer to know. Somebody said, you think
you know everything. Well, I know everything God wants
me to know. How about that? Bible says in 1 John 2, you who
have the unction of Christ, the Spirit of God, you know all things.
He's not saying I know everything about everything. He's simply
saying I know all things concerning salvation. How God saves sinners. Do you know how God saves sinners?
You know how he does it? It's by grace all conditioned
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's not, it's not by what
I do or what I decide. Romans 9, is not of him that
runneth, nor of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy.
That's what it's about. Romans 3 tells us that we, by
nature, have no understanding. What's he talking about? Does
that mean we don't understand calculus? I don't understand
calculus, but I bet somebody in this congregation might understand
it. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about salvation. He's talking about the ways of
God in Christ. Christ said, this is life eternal.
They might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. The Lord told his disciples when
they asked him, why do you speak in parables? He said, well, it's
a judgment upon those who refuse to believe. And that's us by
nature. Jeremiah said, let him the glory
of glory in this, that he knoweth God and understands. That's the
understanding that God gives. And then look at verses four
and five. He mentions, this is, as Robert said, this is the hall
of faith. And he mentions individuals in
the Old Testament who were given the gift of faith. And here he
mentions Abel and he mentions Enoch. Verse four, by faith,
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
Now both Cain and Abel were believers. Did you hear me? Say, what do
you mean, preacher? Cain believed a lie. Abel believed the truth. Now
why did Cain believe a lie and Abel believe the truth? Well,
it's because Abel made the right decision. No, that's not what
God's word says. It's because Abel was a better
guy than Cain. No, I'll tell you why Abel believed
and Cain didn't, because God chose Abel and gave him to Christ. And Christ died for his sins
and gave him the gift of faith. And God rejected Cain from the
very beginning. You say, oh, I don't like that.
Take it up with God. That's what you have to do. But
a more excellent sacrifice. Abel believed the truth. He believed
in Christ. He believed what God promised.
from the very beginning to send the Messiah to do for Abel what
Abel couldn't do for himself. And that is to put away his sins
and establish a perfect righteousness whereby God could be just and
justify the ungodly. And listen to what it says here.
Look at verse four now. By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he, Abel, obtained
what? Witness that he was righteous. God testifying of his what? His
gifts. And by it, he being dead, yet
speaketh. Abel's believing just gave witness that he was righteous
by the grace of God through Christ. Abel's believing didn't make
him righteous. Abel's believing was not his
righteousness, but it did give him witness. It was a witness
that he was righteous. What does the Bible say about
those who believe the truth, the gospel, believe in Christ?
It says in Romans 10 and verse four, for Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness. Now that's our faith. To everyone
that believeth. That's where God brings us to
by the gift of understanding. The gift brings us to believe
in Christ. Well, look at verse five, by
faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, 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, what does the Bible say
about pleasing God? In the flesh, no one can please
God. How are we gonna please God?
We're sinners. Everything we do falls short. How are we gonna
please God? Well, God said it at the baptism of his son, this
is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. Only through Christ. You pray
a prayer. How many of you have ever prayed
a perfect prayer? Don't raise your hand. If you do, I'll get
you. We don't pray perfect prayers,
do we? I've prayed before and gone to sleep right in the middle.
You ever done that? Or a mind wanders? How does God accept such a prayer?
Well, read in Hebrews 4, 14 through 16, because we have a great high
priest who has passed through into the heaven. That's Christ,
washed in the blood of Christ, accepted in the beloved, see? So look at verse six, but without
faith. I think we could say it just
like this, without Christ. What is faith here? It's God's
promise to save us, to accept us, to bless us in Christ. And without that, it's impossible
to please Him. Without His blood to wash away
my sins. without his righteousness to
justify me, his righteousness imputed to me. It's impossible
to please God. And look what he says, for he
that cometh to God must believe that he is. Now that believing
that he is, is more than just believing that there is a God.
or that there is one God. You know, in James 2, verse 19,
listen to this. Thou believest that there's one
God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. Satan believes that there is
a God. He knows more about the true
God than most people who call themselves Christian today. Satan had to ask God for permission
to touch Job. Most people today believe that
God has to ask their permission to come into their lives. Not so. So when it says, he that
cometh to God must believe that he is, he's not just simply saying
you must believe that God exists. Oh, you must believe that now.
But here's the import of this in light of faith. He that cometh
to God must believe that God is who he says he is. What does God say of himself? What does he reveal of himself?
How does he distinguish himself? How does he set himself apart
from all idols? That's what we must believe. God is the God of sovereign electing
grace, the Bible tells us. He says, I'll have mercy on whom
I will, and I'll be gracious to whom I will. Do you believe
in that God? I do. You know why? Because that's
what God says of himself. People say, well, I just want
to glorify God. Well, Moses said, show me your glory. God said,
I'll be merciful to whom I will. I'll save who I want to save.
That's what God's saying there. People don't like that? Well,
you don't like the God of this book. Because that's who he is. That's what he says of himself. That's not Calvinism or Arminianism. That has nothing to do with it.
This is how God reveals himself. He's the God who justifies the
ungodly. Look over Romans four just a
moment. And the reason I want you to look there, he says there,
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
God rewards those who seek him. But now you know what people
do with this rewards thing, don't you? God will give you this if
you'll do that. That's not what he's saying at
all. First of all, if any person seeks God, it's because God has
already sought them and brought them to seeking. Because by nature,
you won't seek him. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. That's
what the Bible says about us in our natural state. No man
can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him,
John 6, 44. It's what the Bible says about me and about you by
nature, dead in trespasses and sin. But he does reward those
who seek him. But the reward is not what God
owes you for doing your part, it's not of debt. Look at verse
four. Well, look at verse three, talking
about Abraham believed God. What saith the scripture? Now
there's the foundation right there. What he's talking about
is how Abraham was justified before God, how he was forgiven,
how he was accepted and declared righteous. What saith the scripture? You're going the right direction
there, see? Because faith is the substance of things hoped
for and the evidence of things not seen. So he says, Abraham
believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now
most people look at that and say, well see there, Abraham
believed and then God imputed righteousness to him. That's
not what it's saying at all. How do you know that? What sayeth
the scripture? Abraham believed God. What did
God promise Abraham? Salvation by the righteousness
of one to come, the Lord Jesus Christ, and so it What is the
it there? It's not his believing. It's
what God promised him through Christ. It's what Christ would
accomplish. And he says, it was counted to
him, imputed to him for righteousness. Look at verse four. Now to him
that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
Now if it's something you had to work for, or me to condition
for, then don't call it grace. It's debt. You understand that? Verse five, but to him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness. Now, what was Abraham's faith?
It's what God promised him. It's not his believing. He did
believe it. That's a work of God. But it's
the content, the message of grace, and it's proven right here. Verse
six, David, what he's saying here, David and Abraham agreed.
Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth what? Righteousness without works. God does not impute or count
our believing to us. That doesn't make sense. He imputes
Christ's righteousness to his people. He has imputed Christ's
righteousness to his people. and we receive the reward of
His grace that Christ earned for us. All who diligently seek
it. Now let me just give you these
things in conclusion. Here's what we learn. Number
one, God-given faith is the gift of God. He gives it to His people, all
for whom Christ died. Not everyone has it. Do you know
if you're a believer, you're a walking, talking miracle of
God's grace? For by grace are you saved through
faith, but that's not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. God-given faith is the gift of
God. Secondly, God-given faith is the work of God by the Spirit
in the new birth. How do you? The famous book,
How to Be Born Again, written by the famous preacher. My friend,
it's a lie. That's the only way I can tell
you. He says, you make the decision, you believe, and then you're
born again. That's not what the scripture says. Over in John
chapter one, look at verse 11. He says, Christ came unto his
own, and his own received him not. That's us by nature. Verse 12, but as many as received
him, to them gave he power, not the ability, but the right to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
His name is that which distinguishes him and identifies him. And it
says in verse 13, which were born not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, or works of the flesh, nor of the will of
man. That's not how they were born, but they were born of God. It's a work of God. Thirdly,
God-given faith is believing God's word. Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. That's what it says. For God-given
faith is evidenced by two things. Repentance of dead works. If
you turn to Christ, you'll turn away from self. If you turn to
his righteousness, you'll turn away from your own supposed righteousness. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to God. What you used to crow about
in your salvation, think made you saved, you'll now call dead
works and dung even, as Paul wrote about it. Turn to Christ,
and then secondly, perseverance. You'll continue in the faith.
You'll continue in Christ by the will of God, by the power
of God. You cannot leave him. And that's
what was stated back here in Hebrews 10 verses 38 through
39. Paul wrote, the just, the justified,
sinner saved by grace, shall live by faith. Live how? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. But if any man draw back, forsake
it, apostatize from it, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
But we, that is the justified, Sinners saved by grace are not
of them who draw back unto perdition, damnation, but of them that believe
to the saving of the soul. And we won't quit. How many times
have I said it? If God has brought us to saving
faith in Christ, God-given faith, that knowledge, that truth, that
gospel, that Christ, we cannot deny it. We cannot ignore it
and we can never leave it. That's God-given faith. All right.