Turn to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Title of the message, Faith Is. Faith Is. And I know I will barely scratch
the surface of this. In the previous chapter, the
apostle closes with the subject of faith. He says back in verse
38, Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back,
if any draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But
we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that
believe to the saving of the soul." Why does he change this subject
now? He's been on the high priest,
he's been on the tabernacle, or the priesthood, the new covenant,
You know, talk about the Old Covenant, the New Covenant, and
then he switches to faith. To faith. Well, first of all, the Scripture says without faith,
it is impossible to please God. It's impossible to please God
if you believe He's a liar and not tell the truth. I mean, I
wouldn't be happy about that, would you? I don't think anybody
could please me if everything I said there said, I don't believe
you. I'll do it anyway, but you've got power over me. You've got
control over me. I don't believe what you're saying. It wouldn't please
me. It would please you. It's impossible to please God
without believing God. Impossible. Everything would
sound to you like it's nothing but foolishness. That's what
it sounds to the world, isn't it? That's what it says over
verse Corinthians. The preaching of the gospel is to them that
perish. It's foolishness. It's nonsense. And you know why? They don't believe God. They don't believe God. If they
believed God, it wouldn't sound like nonsense. Does the gospel
make perfect sense to you? It made perfect sense to me and
to you. That's because you believe God. You believe God. And then secondly,
remember he's writing here to the Hebrews and everything he's
writing to them about, they knew firsthand. I wasn't brought up,
nor were you brought up under a a priesthood and sacrifices
and all these things that they went through. You know, this
is what they cut their teeth on. You know, we take these children
back in these Bible classes and we teach them out of the Word
of God who the Lord Jesus Christ is, who God is. Well, when they
grew up, they were learning about the priest and they found out
who the priest was and the tabernacle and the sacrifices and all that. Well, now they're gone. They were able to see the priest,
just like you dressed up and you walked in that room. Now,
you said that they acted different. Some of the kids acted different
toward him. They saw, they visibly saw the priest. They visibly saw the sacrifices. They saw them being offered.
They watched them being killed. They visibly saw the blood. We don't see that anymore. Not
with these eyes. They saw it. And he's writing
to them and he's saying, now these things that I'm writing
to you about is to be received by faith. That
earthly priesthood is gone. The tabernacle and the temple
is going to be gone. The sacrifices, all of it, gone. They were all fulfilled in Christ.
And many of them, if not probably most of all these, never saw
him. Have you seen him? I've not seen him. I've not seen
the priest, the high priest, not with these eyes, not with
these physical eyes. I've not seen him. I've not seen the holy
of holies. But I believe. I believe that
Jesus Christ is as real as you are sitting there. I believe
He is seated at God's right hand just as sure as you're sitting
in front of me. Now, what makes it that real to me? God-given
faith. Faith is. Now, we know this.
We know it's the gift of God. Faith is the gift of God. This
is the work of God. This is not something that you
and I can muster up. and come up with faith. Can't
do it. It is a gift of God. It's the
work of the Holy Spirit in the new man. And it is his gift. That's why
I can never look at someone and say, I believe, why don't you?
If it wasn't for the grace of God, I wouldn't believe either.
And there was a time I did not believe at all. I always believed in the existence
of God. I was brought up to believe that, just like these children
believe in. But that's not faith. That's not faith at all. Faith, to try and put it simply,
is to believe God. It is to believe God. Abraham
believed God. I want you to turn over Here
is a good example of faith, probably the best example, or among the
best examples that can be given. Acts 27. And after long abstinence, Paul
stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, you should have
hearkened to me. And he's on the ship here, and
the ship's about to crash, and they're in a storm, and they're
trying to bail out and throw things out, and they're ready
to jump out. And he says, Sir, you should have listened to me. That's why I say so often, listen
now. So often I do. I say, now listen. And he said
to them, Sir, you should have listened. I told you, if you
go and read this story, he told them not to do this, not to sail.
And you should have listened to me and not have loosed from
Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss, and now I exhort
you to be of good cheer. Why be of good cheer during a
storm? For there shall be no loss of any man's life among
you but of the ship. For there stood by me this night
the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, saying, Fear
not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar, and, lo, God hath
given thee all them that sell with thee. Wherefore, sirs,"
here in verse 25, wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, don't
be afraid, for I believe God. He didn't say it, for I believe
in God. Well, the devil does too. Well,
guess where he's going? He says, Sirs, I believe God
that it shall be even as it was told me. That is faith. Faith is believing God, is taking
God at His word, is believing it will be just as God said it
would be. That's faith. Faith is. That's it. It's believing God. It's believing that it will be
just as He said it would be. You know, the Scripture tells
us, I believe it's over in Isaiah, that when the child of God sits
in darkness, let him trust in the name of the Lord. Let him
take God at His word. Let him trust the Lord. When
you can't see anything else, providentially, when all is dark
and all is black, You take God at His Word. I'll never leave
you nor forsake you. You take Him at His Word. He
that comes to me, I'll never cast him out. Take Him at His
Word. I don't feel saved. I don't see where the Word of
God teaches me to feel. It says believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt feel saved. So, he says, you'll be saved.
You'll be saved. We've been taught from a child
that God is, but that's not faith. That God exists, but that's not
faith. Faith is to believe God, is to
believe that He is who He says He is. God has revealed Himself
in His Word, and when we read in His Word, of who He is, we
believe it. I mean, we receive it, we believe
it, we live upon it. To say you believe God, then
to say He's not sovereign, that He's not sovereign in salvation,
that He does not save whom He will, pass by whom He will, that's
not to believe God. That's not taking God at His
word. He's the sovereign of the universe.
God saves whom He will. That's what He said over in Romans. Saves whom He will, pardons whom
He will, calls whom He will, passes by whom He will. That's
God. He's eternal, He's sovereign,
He's just, He's holy. And when we read these things
in the Word of God, we believe them. We believe this is God,
this is our God. It's to believe God concerning
His Son Jesus Christ. Those who believe not on Christ
believe not God. It's to call God a liar. It's
to deny that His Son is who He is. His Son, the Messiah, the
King, the Redeemer, the High Priest. It's to deny that. It's
to believe God's concern of what He says about us. You know, He doesn't say one
good thing about us, does He? By nature, seriously, by nature,
He has not one good thing to say about me and you. Now, you
and I have a lot of good things to say about ourselves. Everybody's entitled to our opinion,
aren't they? But God said there's none good,
no, not one. You know, he said the imagination back in Genesis,
that the imagination, the thoughts of man is evil, and that continually,
continually, you can't even have a good thought. There's only a select few people
in this world who believe that. Now, you know, people will admit
they're not perfect. That they do things they ought
not to do and da-da-da, you know. But I'm not that bad. Well, God
said you're not good at all. You're worthless. You believe
you're worthless by nature. You believe you're worthless.
That's offensive, isn't it? That's offensive. But I believe
God. And you believe God. And you
know that apart from Christ, there's not one good thing about
us. Apart from Him. How do you know that? By faith. By faith. Then it says faith
is the substance, see? It's the ground. It's the confidence. It is the reality of things hoped
for. The faith that God gives in salvation,
in the new birth, that faith enables you to realize that God is, and He is who He
says He is. I don't know if this is the right
way to put it, but it gives reality. It makes these things real. It's through faith that, it's
through that God-given faith that God is real to you. He's
not just, He's not just something you learn about, or He's just
someone way out there. He's real. He's real. Now faith is the ground,
it's the confidence. The reality of things hoped for.
What would you even hope for if you don't believe it? If you did not believe God, what
hope do you have? You don't have any. Faith and hope always go together. If you have faith, you have hope.
You have a good hope through grace if you have faith. What are the things hoped for?
Well, to be accepted of God in Christ, to be eternally saved
and with Him, to be resurrected and be with the Lord forever. And because of this God-given
faith, these things are real to you. They are a foolishness to the
world, and when you talk about them, they may not say it to
your face, but it's like, that's foolish. That's foolish. But it's not foolish to you,
is it? It's as real as you are. It's real. And that belongs to
faith. And it's the evidence, he says
here, of things not seen. It's the proof. Faith is the
ground. It's the ground of all you hope
for. If you don't believe God, you don't have any hope. Why
would you even hope? And then it's the evidence. It's the proof. It is a firm conviction. It is a firm conviction. By faith,
you know that these things concerning God, concerning Christ, concerning
eternal life, are so. They're so. I mean, they're real
to you. Is it not real to you? When you
go before the Lord in prayer, Is He not real? Eternal life, is that not real
to you? These things are real. They're
real to you. Faith gives substance to these
things. They make them real to you. They have a present reality. They have a present reality.
And I tell you what, it affects your whole life. It affects the
way you walk, talk, act, everything about you. Because you believe
God. You believe God. And God is real. Christ is real. Eternal life
is real. Judgment is real. Eternity is
real. These things are real. And the reason they're real is
God gave you faith to believe. He gave you faith to believe.
The evidence of things not seen. What are the things not seen? Well, first of all, God. No man
has seen God at any time. You seen Him? I haven't seen
Him. Well, then how do you know He exists? How do you know that? I'll tell you how I know. Faith. God-given faith. That's how you know. You know
it. You say, I know it. You know it like you know your
name. And the reason you know it is
because of the faith that God's given you. He's enabled you to
believe. And in believing comes understanding. I'll show you this here as we
go along. But the thing's not seen is God. Covenant of Grace? I've never seen that Covenant
of Grace. Have you seen it? Lamb's Book of Life? Why do you think your name is
written in the Lamb's Book of Life? Because you accepted Jesus
as your personal Savior? Because I believe God. I believe God. I believe God. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe He's God. He's the Messiah. I look to Him. I look to Him for salvation.
I look to Him for cleansing. I look to Him as my all in all. And I tell you, look in His faith. Look in His faith. The thing's not seen, Christ.
I've never seen Him. Have you seen him? No, you haven't
seen him. We haven't seen him. But here
I'm telling you, to every one of us who believe, he's as real
as we are. He's as real as we are. There
is a man seated at God's right hand. How do you know that? I believe God. Resurrection? I haven't seen anybody raised
from the dead. I believe there's going to be a resurrection because I believe God. You believe
God. By faith, these things, these
things that we have not seen, we have a firm conviction of
them. They are so. They are so. They are real to us. Those who believe not, God's
not real to them. They just believe there is a
God with the same faith that they believed that Abraham Lincoln
was the president. Some historical facts brought up as a child. When God gives faith to a sinner, it goes from believing that there
is a God to knowing God. That's the difference. It goes from historical to experience. You know God. Or Paul said, I'd
rather know no God. He's real. And it says, if we're
by Him, By this faith, this same faith, the elders, and we will
see this in the next couple of weeks, and we've got a list of
the elders here who believed God. And by it, the elders obtained
a good report. I tell you, listen just to the
first one. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice
than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was, you know
what it says? Righteous. Abraham believed God and it was
imputed to him for righteousness, but God does not impute what's
not there. He says, you're able. He didn't have it pasted on righteousness.
He was righteous, he says. That's a good report, isn't it?
I hope to have that report. I hope to have that report. You
hope to have that report. What he's saying here is by it,
by this same faith, by this same faith, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
Abel, Noah, Moses obtained a good report. Obtained a good report. And through faith, we understand. Now, if you don't believe God,
you don't understand anything. You don't. That's why you don't believe
God. You can't understand. That's
why evolution got started. Unbelief. They look at creation
and they can't comprehend or understand an eternal being who
has no beginning of days or end of life, who knows all things,
who's infinite in wisdom and knowledge. who has infinite power,
and they look at that and they say, no, let's go with the Big
Bang Theory. That works for me. Well, it does if you're stupid
and in unbelief, it works. But when God commands light,
when He illuminates, when He commands light and life, What's
the first thing you do? I see. I understand. And the reason you see and understand
is because He gave you faith to believe Him. To believe the
light. Walk in the light and you'll
be given more light. You walk in it because you believe
it. You're not going to walk in something you don't believe. When He commands light and life,
At that instant, you believe God, and you understand how God
can save a wretch like me. The world can't understand that.
That's why they go to works. They say, no, you've got to do
something besides, you know, that Philippians chapter. What
must I do to be saved? You've got to do something. Well, if God ever grants you
the gift of faith, you'll understand you can't do anything. You cannot do anything. Not in
saving yourself. Through faith, we understand
that the worlds were framed. You know, it's something here
that he starts with creation. You can't believe, I heard Henderson
say this once, you can't believe the Bible and evolution. You
can't believe, you can't believe both of them. And he starts here with the first
thing of faith. He starts with the Creator, God
in creation. Through faith we understand that
the worlds, the ages, were framed, how? By the Word of God. It wasn't matter coming to matter
and, you know, get all this mess and then all of a sudden here
we are. God spoke. Why is that so hard to believe?
I sure think that's easier to believe than coming from a monkey. It is, really. It's funny we don't take and
do it the reverse, that the monkey came from us. That would be devolving,
not evolving. That would be going the wrong
direction. But to start with God, the Creator,
you look at Him, then you realize how far you've fallen. But He starts here with the Creator.
Through faith, how do you understand the world we're framed? How do
you understand all that exists? Through faith. I believe in God. You believe in God. The world
were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen
were not made, did not come from, things which do appear. That
just shoots evolution all to pieces, doesn't it? Faith gives understanding
to the spiritual mind. It gives understanding. We understand how God in the
beginning spoke. And creation happened. I have no trouble, and you have
no trouble, who believe. If we believe God, we have no
trouble believing that He said, let there be light, and there
was light. I understand that. I understand that God spoke and
it happened. And it doesn't need to go any
further than that. I don't need scientific proof of this and
that. I don't need it. You know, it's interesting. I
say this, science is interesting when I look at it and see the
means that God uses. See how He uses these means and
brings them together. But in the beginning, God spoke.
He spoke and it happened. He created. Let there be light
and there's light. Let the earth bring forth and
it brings forth. Hey, it gives understanding to
the spiritual mind. We understand how he does these
things. To understand something, you must be able to what? You
must be able to rationalize it. That's why the natural mind thinks the gospel is foolishness. It cannot rationalize it. It
cannot rationalize us doing nothing. It cannot rationalize substitution.
God taking my place, dying in my stead, and me doing absolutely
nothing in order to obtain salvation, in order to please God? We can't rationalize that. But
you know what? Faith gives spiritual rationalization
to all these things. to the spiritual mind. If you
don't have a new creation, a new spiritual being, that which
is born of the Spirit is spirit, you can't understand the things
of God. You can't do it. But when God grants life and
faith, the gospel makes perfect sense. It makes perfect sense. And I tell you, I'm glad it's
so. I'm glad for representation. It doesn't make me a bit mad
that I fell in Adam, no more than it would make me mad that
I'm saved in Christ. Lost in one, saved in the other.
I understand that. I understand representation.
I understand substitution. And through the faith that God
gives comes that understanding. We understand how God can be
a just God and a Savior through faith. Then he says here, and I'll close,
so that things which are seen were not made of things which
do appear. We understand how everything exists. In creation,
in the universe, we understand. We understand that God spoke.
He did not take existing matter and create like you and I do.
We build a house. We do not say, let there be a
house. No, we go chop down trees and
put bricks and put mortar and sand and stuff together. And
we make stuff that already exists. We put it together. God put nothing
together. He didn't take anything that
existed. The only thing that existed is Him. And He spoke. And that's the
same thing He does in the new creation. He doesn't take any
part of this old creation. He doesn't take any part of this flesh. and use it to make a new me. He just spoke me into existence. That new creation is a real new
man, created in Christ Jesus, created in righteousness and
true holiness. And that person is real. Not fictitious. It's a real new
man. It's a real new nature. It's
a real new heart. How did that come to be? By His
Word. He spoke it into existence. It's like He did the first creation. He does the same thing with the
new creation. Let there be light. And all of a sudden, you're light
in the Lord. You begin to love God. You begin
to understand things that are spiritual that you never understood
before. You have a spiritual mind. You're given spiritual understanding.
And all that comes through faith, believing God. Those who believe not, know not.
They have no understanding. Faith is absolutely necessary
to understand the gospel. It's absolutely necessary, pleasing
God. Apart from faith, No man, no
person will enter the kingdom of God. No one will be saved.
Not apart from it. Because apart from it, it's evident
you've never been born again. You're still lost as the day
you're born. But the greatest evidence, the greatest evidence that you
or I have been born of God is this, sirs, I believe God. It will be just as he said. Greatest evidence of salvation.
It's the evidence of things not seen. Sirs, I believe God. Be of good cheer. Be of good
cheer. And that God will do just what
He said He'd do.