Turn with me in your Bibles to
the book of Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. And I'm going to continue talking
about the dynamics of saving faith this morning. And what
I'm going to do, this passage of Scripture, Hebrews 11, which
is normally called the Hall of Faith because in it The Holy
Spirit raises up the examples of Old Testament believers. Many
who suffered for the cause of the gospel suffered greatly because
of the persecution that comes from sin and Satan and the world,
the flesh. And he shows how this issue of
faith this issue of God-given faith, which is the evidence
of a sinner saved by grace, the evidence of a believer. And he
speaks of it in several ways. Verse one of Hebrews 11, faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. I brought out last week how throughout
this series of messages on this passage. I want to show you basically
three things over and over again by the examples in different
ways and different languages as it's presented here. So many
people today when they think of the word faith they think
of simply believing. I brought this out last week
how people say well it doesn't matter what you believe just
so you believe. Well people can believe a lot
of things that are wrong. Idolaters believe, but they believe
a lie. Idolaters look to a god, but
it's a god of their imagination. When it comes to salvation, multitudes
of people believe in a salvation that does not honor God, a salvation
that God never promised. And that's what we have to understand.
Many people today have what I call faith, not in Christ, but really
in their faith. If you think about it, the moment
you believe that Christ brought forth some blanket pardon, and
then the difference is up to you in your believing, you don't
have faith in Christ, you have faith in your faith, and we talked
about that. But here's the three things that I want to continually
bring to our minds. Number one, the foundation of
faith. Faith has a foundation. Now this
word faith here is a noun, as I said last week. In other words,
it's not an act. It includes an act of believing. We are to believe. We must believe.
He that believeth not shall be damned. But what are we going
to believe? Faith is the substance. That word substance means the
ground or confidence. And here's what I know about
my believing. My believing is not the ground or confidence
of anything. The ground or confidence of a thing is the source of that
thing. So I believe, I have faith. Well,
what is the source of my faith? Can that source be trusted? Can
I be confident that this is true? There's a story about a man on
his deathbed and his preacher came to see him. And the preacher
asked him, he said, do you have a good hope? Do you have a good
ground of salvation? And the man looked at the preacher
and he said, well, I do if you told me the truth. Well, what if the preacher didn't
tell him the truth? That's why we're commanded to test the preachers.
In other words, you have no warrant from the scripture to take my
word for anything. Now that's right. You're to measure
me, judge me, if you will, test me by the word of God. Now the
problem with people is they, some people say, well, we do
test the preacher, but how do you test him? Well, he's not
that good of a speaker, or he's not that eloquent, or he's not
that charismatic, or he doesn't have that much of a pulpit presence,
or I prefer one over the other. See, those are all wrong ways.
Word of God, that's the foundation of faith. This faith here in
Hebrews, now faith is the substance of things. You know what that
faith is? It's what God promised. It's the doctrine of Christ.
It's the message of salvation. It's the gospel. How do I know
this is true so that I can have confidence, that I can have assurance,
a good ground, and believe it? I'll tell you how. God said it. There it is. God said it. You say, well, if the Reverend
Dr. So-and-so says it, it must be true. Oh, no. First of all, none of us are
reverend. Only God is reverend. You know that, don't you? Holy
and reverend is his name. Don't give that to me. That's
God. But secondly, even if the preacher
is preaching the gospel, he's just a sinner saved by grace.
He's just one sinner speaking to other sinners. Brother Mahan
used to say, one beggar telling other beggars where to find food
and shelter. That's what we are. The foundation
of faith is the Word of God. This faith that we're going to
be seeing in these various examples, they believed, and that believing
was the gift of God, you know that. It wasn't something that
man out of his own goodness or spark of goodness mustered up
within himself, but it's the gift of God. For by grace are
you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It's the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You're not
gonna believe God until the Holy Spirit gives you ears to hear
and eyes to see, gives you a new heart. You must be born again,
scripture says. But this faith here is faith
in what God says. So that if I believe something
that God did not say, then I'm believing a lie. Now next week we're gonna deal
with Abel. Remember Abel? God said, there's only one way
to approach me and find favor, find salvation, find blessing.
He said it both to Abel and to Cain. I believe through his parents,
through their parents, Adam and Eve. Now, Abel believed God and what
did he do? He brought the blood of the lamb.
the more excellent sacrifice. He brought, that was a picture
of salvation for sinners by grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.
But Cain believed another message. It was a message that's natural
to fallen sinners, that I can be accepted, that I can be favored,
that I can be blessed based on something that I do. And he brought
the works of his hands. What was the problem? See, both
had faith. But Cain's faith had no foundation
in the word of God. Cain's faith was faith in a lie. But Abel's faith was in the Lord.
How do you know Abel's faith was the gift of God? Because
he believed God. And so that's what he's talking
about here. The foundation of faith. And then there's the object
of faith, that's the second thing. Faith has a foundation, faith
has an object. What is the object of faith?
It's not just that you believe or believe hard enough or sincere
enough. You can believe a lie, very hard
and very sincere. But the object of faith, based
upon the foundation of faith, the object of faith is Christ
crucified and risen from the dead. He says here, now faith is the
substance of things hoped for. What is that hope? That's not
wishful thinking, that's a certain expectation of some outcome that
is promised. And the evidence of things not
seen. Now that really brings us to
both the second point and the third point. Number one, the
foundation of faith, the word of God. Number two, the object
of faith. Well, what did God promise his
people? The Savior. The Messiah. Who
would do what? Who would stand in their place
as their surety and substitute himself under death, the death
of the cross, and bring forth everlasting righteousness whereby
he could be just and justify the ungodly. That's what he promised.
I'll save you based on this ground. What ground? Now that word evidence
there, it's the word conviction. That's what it means. He says
it's the conviction of things not seen. In other words, this
is not based upon sight. You know, the Bible says we walk
by faith, not by sight. It's not based upon what we see.
It's based upon what God said and there's a conviction of that.
And that conviction is shown in the object of faith. Now turn
back to John chapter 16. You know what a conviction is,
don't you? It's something you believe because
you know it's true. It's a convincing. How does that conviction come
about? Where does it come from? None of us have this conviction
by nature. The evil heart and the natural
heart and the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, neither can he know them. So there's the object of faith
and it's Christ crucified, risen as the substitute surety of his
people who brought forth righteousness, who put away our sins and secured
our salvation. The third thing is the proof
of faith and that's this conviction too. Are you convinced that what
God says is true. Number one, are you convinced
that God said it? If you're convinced of that,
you got to back it up with the word of God. Are you convinced that
it's true? Well, look here at John chapter
16. Look at verse seven, Christ speaking to his disciples. He
says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient or
necessary for you that I go away. He's going away. Where's he going
to? well he's talking about going to the cross that old rugged
cross he's talking about going to do the work that he was brought
in that he came into the world to do he told the disciples this
is the reason i came here he's talking about his death his performing
the duties of his surety ship you know christ was set up to
be the surety of his people before the foundation of the world wasn't
he? God chose a people in Christ. But in time He had to come and
He had to become incarnate, the Word made flesh, dwelling among
us without sin. And He had to keep the law and
He had to go to the cross as the surety to pay the debt to
God's justice that we had run up in Adam and in ourselves.
To bring forth everlasting righteousness. So He's going away. He's going
to go to the cross. He's going to die. He's going
to be buried. He's going to be raised again the third day. And
then he's going unto the father. And why is he going to the father?
Because he put away our sins. Because he brought in everlasting
righteousness. And he's going to be seated at
the right hand of the father ever to live to what? To make
intercession for his people. pleading the merits of his blood,
his righteousness alone. He says, for if I go not away,
the comforter will not come unto you. The comforter there is the
Holy Spirit. And he says, now what does the Spirit do? The
Spirit gives life. The Spirit is the agent, the
sovereign agent, the third person of the Holy Trinity, the sovereign
agent in the new birth, born of the Spirit. You must be born
again. And that is a literal resurrection
from the dead, isn't it? We're born dead in trespasses
and sin. The spirit gives life. He gives a new heart. He gives
life, spiritual life, a new spirit. But Christ says, if I don't do
my work, if I don't go away, the spirit won't come. If Christ
did not do what he did on that cross to put away my sins and
bring forth righteousness, there'd be no life to give. Where does
spiritual eternal life come from? What's the source? Well, you
could say God, but God isn't just God. And the wages of sin
is death. Where does life come from then? Spiritual, eternal, comes from
righteousness. Romans 8, 10. Remember it says the body is
dead because of sin, this physical body, but the spirit is life
because of what? Righteousness. So why did Christ die on that
cross? To justify his people before
God. And his righteousness is the
ground of our justification. His righteousness is the source
of our life. It's from his righteousness that
comes life. So he tells him, he said, if
I don't do this, the spirit won't come. Why? Because there's no
life to give apart from Christ's righteousness. Apart from his
death, there is no life. So he says, but if I depart,
if I go do this great work, the greatest event in redemptive
history, reconciliation, he said, I'll send him unto you. And look
at verse eight. And when he has come, he will
reprove. Now that word reprove, if you
look in your concordance, you might see the word convict, convince. The Holy Spirit, by
the word of God, will convict the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. Three things there. He says of sin because they believe
not on me. In other words, without Christ,
it's all sin, folks. Now think about that. And that
applies to the best of the best to the worst of the worst. Religion is religion, listen,
religion without Christ is religion without truth. You say, well,
it's got some truth, not the truth. The one truth that we
as sinners need, the gospel truth of how God saves sinners. Religion
without Christ is religion without truth. Religion without Christ
is religion without grace. Religion without Christ, listen
to me, in God's sight, according to his standard, religion without
Christ is sin because it denies the glory of God. It denies Christ. Paul wrote it in Galatians 2
and verse 21. He said, if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Now you may believe
strongly that God will save you if you'll do your best. Your
whole life is a living testimony to your unbelief, claiming that
Christ died in vain. That's how this goes. And so
when the Holy Spirit comes in conviction, he convinces you
and me that without Christ, it's all sin. How do I know that? God said it. And then he goes on, he says
in verse 10, of righteousness, because I go to my father and
you see me no more. That's simply saying this, he
convicts us that the only righteousness we have, whereby to stand accepted
with God and to be blessed of God and to have favor with God
and to have fellowship with God is the imputed righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. I have one righteousness
to plead. Christ died for me. I don't have
any other. You say, well, I've been trying
to be good all my life. That's okay, but that's not,
if that's your righteousness before God, it'll fall short.
We cannot make it. It's all Christ. Is that your
conviction? Because if it's not, you don't
have faith. You see what I'm saying? There's
the foundation of faith, the object of faith, and the proof
of faith. If it is not your conviction
that apart from Christ, as he's identified and distinguished
in this word, it's all sin, and that you have no righteousness
but him before God, then you don't have faith. And then he
goes on in verse 11 of judgment because the prince of this world
is judged. What he's talking about there is the believer who's
convinced that he himself was judged on that cross when Christ
died as his representative and substitute. I'm justified. That means I'm not guilty, not
condemned. That means I have a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice. I've already
been judged for all my sins and that's sins. And that's what I'm convinced
of. Why? Because God said it. Well, where did He say that?
Well, let me give you an example. Turn to Romans chapter 4. I'll give you two examples. This
is what God says. See, this is the foundation of
faith. Faith that doesn't have this
foundation, friend, is not faith at all. It's faith in a lie. It's idolatry. But look at Romans
chapter 4. He says in verse six, this is
just one example now. Romans four and verse six. Even
as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom
God imputeth, charges, accounts righteousness without works. When David said, now he quotes
from Psalm 32, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute or charge with sin. God said it, didn't
he? One more, turn to Romans chapter
eight. Now I could show you a lot of scripture on this. I'm just
giving you two examples. Romans chapter eight. And verse
31, he says, what shall we then say
to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him
up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely, unconditionally,
without a cause, give us all things? Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. On what
basis did this happen? Verse 34, who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Now notice, now turn back
to Hebrews 11. Now notice in that verse, when
he asked the question, who is he that condemneth? Or when he
said, who shall anything to the charge of God's elect? He didn't
say, it's you who believe. He said, it's God that justified.
This is an act of God. When he asked the question, who
is he that condemneth? He didn't say, you believe. He
said, it's Christ that died. That's the foundation and object
of faith. Your believing it or my believing
it in conviction is the proof of faith. Isn't that right? It's
the fruit of what Christ did. So look at verse one now. Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen. Now look at verse two. He says,
for by it, that is by this faith, by what God promised, and they
believed it now, the elders obtained a good report. That means a good
witness. What is our witness? Turn to
Matthew chapter five. Show you something here. I think
this is another one of those most abused verses of scripture. Now, there is no question, this is
Matthew 5, we're going to look at verse 16. There is no question
that every true believer ought to seek to be the best person
he or she can be in every way. Isn't that right? Moral. Should we be moral people? Of
course. We don't have any excuse to live
immoral lives. We ought to be pillars of the
community. You fathers. The best fathers
you can be. Husbands you can be. You wives.
The best mothers and best wives you can be. All of that. The
best church member. I ought to be the best pastor
that I can be. I'd not give the enemies of God
any occasion to blaspheme God because of my bad behavior. I
should never do that. But here's what I'm saying. That's
not my witness before God and before men. You understand what I'm saying?
Now, I can let that hinder my witness. You know, if I become
a laughing stock in the community or a joke, I can let it hinder,
but that's not my witness. Now look at Matthew five and
verse 16. He says, let your light so shine before men that they
may see your good works and glorify your father, which is in heaven.
Now, what is our light? Our light is not our good works.
The light is the gospel. Christ is the light. Our witness
is the gospel. Our faith is in him. Our faith
is founded upon the word of God. Whenever I get challenged or
whenever I just get asked a question about salvation, I always try
to direct people toward the scriptures, not what I think or my rationale
or what's Reverend so-and-so said back in 1651 or whatever. What God say, go to God's word.
All the time I talk to people and they say, well, I believe
such and such. And I'll look at them, I'll say, well, there's
a problem with that. And they'll say, what? And I
say, it's not in the Bible. It's not there. I had a lady
send me an email one time. She said, where does it say in
the Bible that God helps those who help themselves? I said,
it's not in the Bible. That came from a false preacher.
Should people do everything they could to work and help themselves?
Well, of course, but that's not salvation, folks. Cleanliness is next to godliness.
That's not in the Bible. It's just not there. Whatever
you believe, whatever you claim to believe, is it in God's word?
That's the first thing we go to. That's the light. This is
the light of God's word. His word is a lamp unto my feet. Christ said, I'm the light of
the world. Everything in this Bible leads sinners to trust
Christ. That's why I had Mark read that
Psalm too. Kiss the Son, that means believe on Him, rest in
Him, love Him, trust in the Lord. Not in your own understanding,
but in His. But the light shines on our works
and reveals them either to be deeds of iniquity or the fruit
of God's power and grace in Christ. And here's our testimony. Here's
our witness. Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and do what? Give you the
key to the city? Honor you? Brag about you? No. Glorify your father, which
is in heaven. I'll tell you the first thing,
a true believer, one who's convinced One of the ways he or she proves
their faith is whatever you see me do, whatever act of kindness
or charity, whatever act of morality, I want you to know, here's the
light shining, I want you to know that it makes up no part
of my righteousness whereby I stand before God. That if God were
to judge me based upon that best act of charity or kindness, I
would be doomed forever. I have one righteousness, I have
one holiness, I have one salvation, and that's Christ crucified and
raised from the dead. That's faith. Go back to Hebrews
11 now. And that's how the elders, talking
about believers in the past now, whom God had given faith, how
they obtained a good witness. That was their witness, and we're
going to see that as we go through some of these. Here's old Noah. Building an ark, which he did
not have the capability of doing apart from the power of God,
you realize that, don't you? And he didn't look out and preach
to the people of his day and say, now look, God's smiling
on me because of what I'm doing here in this ark. No, he was
a preacher of righteousness. And whose righteousness do you
think he preached? Not his own. He preached Christ. I'm gonna
show you that. It was the righteousness of faith.
That doesn't mean that his faith, his believing, became his right.
It means he preached what God promised in the way of righteousness,
which is in Christ. But look at verse three, and
we'll close with this one. It says, through faith we understand
that the worlds were framed by the word of God. This is creation
now. So that the things which are seen were not made of things
which do appear. Is there any other verse in the
Bible that you need to read to prove to you that the theory
of evolution is a bunch of hogwash? He says here, that the things
that, right here, he says, the things that are seen, we look
around, we see this world, they were not made of things which
do appear. God created the world. That's
a foundation, one of the foundational truths of Christianity. But what
does that mean? Now, how does that apply? Well,
let me show you two verses and then I'll close. Turn to Acts
chapter 17. The reason that we must understand
by God-given revelation that God created this world, two things. Number one, we're
the creatures, God's the creator, we must seek the Lord. And that ought to be the main
goal of our lives, to seek the creator, to learn more of him. And secondly, to understand that
we're going to be held accountable to this creator. You didn't create
yourself. You say he's a self-made man.
Well, he may think he is, but he's not. What's the old joke? They say he's a self-made man
and he's in love with his creator. You say, well, I worked hard
for what I've got. Well, yeah, but I'll tell you what, God's
the one who gave you the ability and the drive and the opportunities
to work hard. You ever known anybody who worked
hard and didn't, wasn't successful? You think there's been anybody
in the world from the history of man who's worked hard and
not been successful? Sure there has been. What's the
difference between him and you? I'm telling you, think about
these things. God's the creator. We're the
creatures. He's the sovereign. We're the subjects. Paul stood
on Mars Hill and he started out talking about God the creator.
God created us all. We're here for God. He's not
here for us. But for years, God didn't reveal himself to the
Gentile world. He revealed himself to the Jews
and they rejected it. All of us would by nature. But
verse 30 of Acts 17, he says, the times of this ignorance God
winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
You got thoughts about God. Some of those are natural thoughts.
God needs to change that. And here's the basis upon which
he does it. Look at verse 31. He's commanded all men everywhere
to repent because he has appointed today in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness, see that, by that man whom he hath
ordained, in that he hath given assurance unto all men, in that
he hath raised him from the dead. There's going to be accountability.
And when sinners seek the Creator, they're going to find out this.
The measure of our accountability is righteousness that can only
be found in Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, in His death on
the cross. And that without Him, I have
no hope of salvation. I have no hope of eternal life
without Christ. What is the standard by which
we will be held accountable? Jesus Christ, crucified and raised
from the dead. Righteousness. and I don't have
it, and you don't have it, and the only way we can have it is
by God's grace in Christ. This one more verse and then
I'll close. Second Corinthians chapter four. This is about creation
now. Why must we believe that God
created? You know, there are people who will tell you, well,
you can be a Christian and believe in evolution. Not according to
the Bible. You say, well, things change.
Yeah, they change. But God created man upright.
in the image of God and man fail. He didn't create him as an amoeba
and later on improving so that he arose out of the primordial
ooze and sprout legs and consciences. No. That didn't happen. But look at 2 Corinthians 4 verse
6. The God of creation is the God
of salvation. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, let there be light, Genesis 1, had
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Faith has a
foundation, the word of God. Faith has an object, the Lord
Jesus Christ, crucified, risen. the Lord our righteousness. And
the proof of that faith is that conviction of things not seen.
Convicted by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the
gospel we're in bringing a sinner to Christ for all salvation. All right.