Back to Hebrews chapter 11. Believing that there is a God and believing the God that is,
is two totally different things. is of God leads to salvation. The other is no more than the
faith of devils who believe that there is one God and tremble.
There's a lot of people who believe that there is a God, but they
don't believe God. They do not believe the God of
heaven and earth. There's a difference, a world
of difference, a world of difference. Now here in Hebrews chapter 11,
We need to remember to whom Paul, and I'm going to say Paul. I
know an author is not given here, but I'm just going to say Paul.
We need to remember to whom Paul is writing. He's writing to the
Hebrews. They were used to the ceremonies. They were used to the do's and
don'ts of the law. For many, many, many years, they
were used to these things. They counted their acceptance
with God in these things. Most of them did. Not all of
them. We just read here in chapter 11. So not all of them did. But there was a few who looked
beyond the types and the pictures and the shadows to the one they
represented. But many of them, many of them
They believed their acceptance with God was in the things that
they did. They had a hard time with this. They had a hard time giving these
things up. And so Paul, in writing to them here in this book, when
he gets to this part of his letter, he recalls many of the old patriarchs. He recalls Enoch. He goes way back there. to Abel and Enoch and Noah. Then he just walks right through
history. He basically walks right through
their history. And as he touches upon each one
of the patriarchs, those whom they look to, the only thing
he speaks of is their faith. He said, they all died in faith. And at the end of chapter 11
there, he says, and these all having obtained a good report
through faith received not the promises, God having provided
some better thing for us, that they without us should not be
made perfect. But he makes mention of all these exploits and these
things that they did, they did by faith. God-given faith. There are three graces for gifts
spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13, 13. Faith, hope, and love. And the Scripture says the greatest
of these is love. But faith, now listen, I thought
about this. Faith is the bulldozer that clears
the path for these and other gifts to travel on. Someone called it the pioneer
gift. The pioneer gift. It goes before
all others. And all others travel on this
path that faith clears for them. You see, faith enables us to
be still and know that He is God. How many times did our Lord say
to His disciples, What about when they were on that ship and
the storm was raging and he was asleep? He was asleep. And they said, Carest thou not
that we perish? And he said, O thou of little
faith. Little faith. True saving faith enables us
as we mature There is a growing in faith. As we mature, as we go through
trial after trial after trial, it enables us to be still and
know that He is God. The storm is His. He hath His
way, He says in the Scriptures. He hath His way in the whirlwind
and in the storm. It's His. And he's accomplishing
his purpose by it. Faith enables us to run with
patience the race set before us. God-given faith enables us
to do that. Faith enables us to walk through
the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil because we know. We know by faith. And faith is
the gift of God. And we know by that faith that
He gives us that He's with us. He said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. And faith embraces that. Faith
lays hold of that promise and clings to it. It clings to it. Faith enables us to lay hold
on eternal life. It enables us to receive Christ
who is eternal life. Eternal life is a person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Faith enables us to look, God-given
faith enables us to look into the mysteries of the gospel and
actually receive some understanding. You won't understand anything
until you believe God. You'll not understand anything
of the gospel until you believe God. David said this in one place,
I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord. He didn't reverse that. He didn't
say I had fainted unless I had seen and then believed. No, he
said unless I had believed to see. That's the order. And if you really want to understand
the gospel, the mysteries of the gospel, first you believe
God. There's a lot of things that's
even going on now. I don't understand. I understand
something about the one who's causing it to go on. I understand
something of the one who's the first cause of all things, God. Faith enables us to hear the
gospel and receive understanding because you believe God. You
believe the gospel you're hearing. It is faith that enables us to
lay this body down someday and bid farewell to this place,
like all these others did here in chapter 11. And listen, and
be at peace with God and be at peace about it. Be at peace about it. And it's only faith that pleases God. Without faith,
it's impossible to please Him. Now, what's the opposite of that?
The opposite of that is with faith, it's possible to please
God. Enoch pleased God. Now, it says
in verse 1, now, faith is a substance. I like to think of it like this.
Faith, God-given faith gives real substance. It gives real
substance to the things hoped for. The Lord Jesus Christ is
as real to you as the person sitting beside of you. He's not somebody in a far off
distant place, but He's someone that's with you. Faith gives
substance to that. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. It's the evidence of things not
seen. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. We hope
to be like Christ. We hope to be with Christ. We
hope to enjoy His presence, His likeness. We hope to do that
someday. We hope to stand spotless. And
it's faith. Now listen, it is a God-given
faith. It's not something we work up.
You cannot work this up. This is something God gives.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit in you. It is this thing that enables
us to embrace, to embrace these things. Look at verse 13. These
all died in faith. Now, that's how I want to die.
That's how I want to die. I want to die in faith. Not having
received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded
of the end, they believed God and embraced them. They embrace
them. That's what faith does. It is
faith that embraces these things and causes us to run with patience
the race set before us because these things are real. They are
real to us. And it's the evidence of things
not seen. I've never seen Jesus Christ. Not with these eyes. I've never seen Jesus Christ.
Have you? No, you haven't, don't you? No
one has. Not here. I'm telling you what, he's real.
That man is seated at God's right hand right now. He's in the heart
of every one of his children. Every one of them. He's real.
We cannot see these things with the human eye, but we know they
are so by faith, by that faith that God has worked into our
hearts by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel,
preaching of His Word. This faith is from Him, and it
receives Him, and all that's about Him, it receives Him, embraces
Him. The natural man cannot receive
these things because he doesn't believe. He does not believe,
and that's why he doesn't receive them. Light has come into the world,
and they love darkness rather than light. Christ said in one
place that he did not many mighty works among them because of their
what? Unbelief. Unbelief. They didn't believe.
Then it says the elders obtained a good report there in verse
2. As we read this chapter, you notice that not one negative
thing was said about those who died in faith. Not one thing
is said negative in this chapter about them. It says they all
died in faith. And it says in verse 3, we understand
by faith that God made this world out of nothing. I believe that.
You know what? I believe that and I can't help
but believe it. I believe the gospel because
I cannot help but believe the gospel. Those whom God gives
faith to cannot help but believe. It's the work of God. It's the
work of God. And we understand, we have some
understanding by faith that God made this world out of nothing.
He spoke. He spoke and it came into existence. Do you have a hard time with
that? I don't. You don't either. Not
if you believe the gospel. You don't have a hard time with
it. You know that God said, let there be light and there was
light. And the scientists are scratching their head. They're
trying to figure out how this thing came into being and evolution
and how we evolved from a monkey, which is a slam on the monkeys.
That's for sure. I don't have a problem with that.
How God said, let there be light, and there was light. He created the plant life, He
created the animal life, He created all this. And I believe that. I believe
that. I don't care who would make fun
of me over it, I believe it. Now the world can't understand
this. As I said, they scratch their head and try to figure
it out. And I'll tell you why they don't understand it. They
don't believe God. They do not believe God. Unbelief
is the very root of every sin there is. Unbelief is the very
root of it. By faith, it says, Abel offered
unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain did. Why did he offer a more excellent
sacrifice than Cain? I'll tell you why he offered
a more excellent sacrifice. He believed God. He believed
God concerned in the blood. He believed God concerned in
the sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission
of sin. He believed God. Cain did not believe God. Cain
believed that his turnips would be worth just as much as the
blood of those animals. Abel's sacrifice was more excellent
because his sacrifice represented Christ, the Lamb of God. Cain's represented nothing but
works, no blood. And I'll tell you another reason
why his sacrifice more excellent because he did as God instructed
him to do. He obeyed. Cain was not instructed to offer
what he offered, which shows unbelief. Cain did not believe
God. Unbelief will cause a man to
approach God by his works. Faith will cause a sinner to
approach God through his Son, His blood and His righteousness.
But apart from that, men try to come into God's presence just
any old way, except by the blood and righteousness of His Son.
That's the one thing unbelief will not bow to. And then it says, Enoch in verse
5. Enoch was taken because he had
this testimony. It gives no exploits. He didn't
build an ark. Noah built an ark. It doesn't say anything about
Enoch as far as the things he accomplished. But he has a testimony that I
hope you and I get to die with. He pleased God. He walked with
God. He pleased God because he believed
God. He believed God. The greatest
glory that anyone will ever give unto God is this, to believe
Him. To honestly, from the heart,
believe Him. Take Him at His word. That's
one powerful testimony. That's one of the most powerful
testimonies in all the Word of God. He pleased God. And he did it by faith. He did
it by faith. But it says in verse 6, but without
faith, it is impossible to please God. It is absolutely impossible
to please God. Now, there's no mention of the
degree of faith, just its presence. You notice that? Just its presence. They believe God. No matter what
we do, or how good we live, or how much we give and sacrifice,
we cannot please God without faith. And faith, God-given faith, looks to the Lord Jesus Christ.
for all its needs. And at the end of the day, we
say we are unprofitable servants. We've only done what we ought
to do. But He, Christ, He's my righteousness. He's my high priest. He's my all in all. He's my all
in all. Now, God will not tolerate unbelief. And He's proved this throughout
the Scriptures. The children of Israel I mean, the original group, the
adults, the original group there that came out of Egypt, went
across the Red Seal dry land. They saw a lot. Moses smoked
that rock. They drank water out of that
rock, and that rock followed them. And that rock, it says,
was Christ. They had a pillar of fire by night, and they were
protected. But they did not enter the promised
land for one reason. One reason is giving. Unbelief. It does not name out a whole
list of things. Because actually, if you want
to name out a whole list of things, we can go down through here and
we can start picking them out. Noah, after he got off the ark,
what did he do? He got drunk. Abraham, he says,
she's my sister. Give her to Pharaoh. David, Bathsheba,
Uriah. I mean, you can go ahead through
a whole list of things, but it says this one thing about the
children of Israel. Not entering the promised land.
Unbelief. And these. We know their history. But it doesn't say anything about
it, does it? It just says they believe God. They believe God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Our chief end, listen, our chief
end is not to get a good job and have a great retirement.
That's not our chief end. Our chief end has absolutely
nothing to do with what we are able to do for ourselves. Our
chief end is to glorify and please God. And we can only do this by faith,
by believing Him, taking Him at His Word, trusting Him, just
trusting Him. The just shall live by faith. That's how they live. I asked
Henry just a few years ago concerning all this, and I asked him, how
do you know the will of God concerning these things? You know, I was
talking about this church, and he just said, well, he said,
I tell you, one stone comes up, you step on it. When the next
stone comes up, you step on it. He said there's no clear-cut
path through life. You don't have this clear-cut,
this is it, this is the way. No, it's just one stone at a
time, and you step on it, and then he'll send another one up
when it's time, and you step on that one. And that's the way
life will go. The just shall live by faith. The just shall live by believing
God. The Scripture says, whatsoever
is not of faith is sin. Now it says, for he that cometh
to God must believe. Must. It's a must. Nicodemus
came to our Lord and the Lord said to him, you must be born
again. Now, if God says you must, you
must. There is no alternative. You
must. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is. That He is. There is a coming
to God through Christ. And the man whom God calls by
His Spirit comes to Him through Christ, and He keeps coming to
Him. He comes to God for forgiveness. He comes for mercy. He comes
for cleansing. He comes for help in a time of
need. If he believes God, he does.
Let me show you over here. I might preach from this. I don't
know. I've been looking at it. Sunday
morning, Lord willing, but I don't know. But in Mark 9, chapter
9, listen here. Let me just read some Scripture
to you. In verse 14, And when he came to his disciples, he
saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with
them. And straightway all the people, when they beheld him,
were greatly amazed, and running to him, saluted him. And he asked
the scribes, What question ye with them? And one of the multitude
answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which
hath a dumb spirit." I've been thinking about a message here,
a message for parents. There's a good message here for
parents. And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, and he foameth
and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away. And I spake
to thy disciples that they should cast him out, and they could
not. And he answered him and said, O faithless generation,
how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?
Now here's the message for parents. Bring him to me. Bring him to
me. And they brought him unto him,
and when he saw him straightway, the Spirit tear him, fell on
the ground, wallowing, foaming. And he asked his father, How
long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.
And oftentimes it cast him into the fire and into the water to
destroy him. But if thou canst do anything, have compassion
on us and help us. And Jesus said unto him, If thou
canst believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth. Straightway the father of the
child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help! Help thou mine unbelief. Help me to believe. Give me this
faith that you require, that you just spoke of. Lord, help
me. Help me to believe. When Jesus saw the people come
running, He cast out that spirit. We come to him for help in time
of need, like that man did with his son. And we come to him in faith, expecting, not demanding, but
expecting to receive these things for Christ's sake. And he said to come. He said to come. Now here's the
first requirement. Listen. He must believe, he says,
that He is. That He is the only true God
and there's none beside Him. None to be compared with Him.
He is not a God among many. He is the only God there is.
He admits no other. He must believe that he is who
he says he is, not who I think he is. You can go out here on
the street and you can get asked who God is, you can get all kinds
of replies. But God revealed himself in the
pages of this book. And God is who he is. I am that
I am. And we need to find out who he
is. And that is a lifelong, in fact,
that's an eternal long project, finding out who he is, knowing
God. We must come to him as one who
is absolutely holy. Holy. We come to him as the sovereign
of heaven and earth. That's who he is. He's holy. He's sovereign. And then we come
to Him as the God of all grace and the God of all mercy. That's
who He is. That's who He is. And we come
to Him for truth. We don't know the truth. Scripture
says all men are liars. Until God does a work in the
soul, we wouldn't know the truth if it slapped us in the face.
Wouldn't do it. But we come to Him for truth.
God is truth. And if we know Him in Christ,
we know the truth. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. We come to Him who is faithful. Faithful
is He that hath called you who will also do it. We come to Him who changes not. He does not have mood swings
like you and I have. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. This is who He is. This is who
God is. And His Son has come into this
world and declared Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And in Him we have As it says
over Colossians, all we need. Complete. Complete in Him is
what it says. He is our provider. You read
this back in Genesis 22. Abraham said the Lord will provide. He is our hope. We preached on
that Sunday. Christ, all our hope. He is our
righteousness. He is our high priest. He is
our mediator. He is our king. He is our brother. He's our substitute. He's our
Lord. He's our maker. The Lord is thy
maker, the scripture says. He's our all in all, and we need
nothing else. We have in Him all we need. And we come, now listen, this
is important. We come by faith. believing that God is who He
is, as He has revealed Himself in the Scriptures, and that He
is a rewarder, that He will give just as He promised to give.
He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. That's a
promise. That's a promise. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. That's a promise. He's a rewarder. You see, faith, true faith comes
not demanding, not cocky, but it comes expecting God to do
and to give just as He promised. That's taking God at His word.
That's taking Him at His word. One of the scriptures that I
that I often quote to myself. I just had a little tip of my
tongue. I remember as I go along here.
Call upon me. You ought to be standing here. You know why I do this. I forget.
Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou
shalt glorify me. I hang on to that. He is a rewarder. He will do
just as He said He would do. Take Him at His Word. It is serious business to seek
the Lord. This is not something we do half-heartedly. We're always told to seek Him
diligently, seek Him with the whole heart. We are told to do
that. It is a diligent search and seeking of God with the heart.
Because that's where salvation takes place. In the heart. In the heart. God giving a new
heart. David was a man, it says, after
God's own heart. Another place, David said, my
heart is indicting a good matter. My heart. Was your heart indicting
a good matter when you came here this evening? I know it's not
always that way because of sin. I know we live in His flesh and
it causes us so much trouble. Sometimes it's like dragging
a dead body with you all the time. But you can say with David, my
heart is indicted, bubbling over with a good matter. 1 Samuel, Samuel said this in
1 Samuel 12, with all thine heart, be totally engrossed in it."
Completely engrossed in serving Him. And that He is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek Him. No one, no one who has ever diligently
sought the Lord went away lost. No one. He will give them, He says, the
desires of their heart, of which desires are after spiritual blessings,
such as forgiveness, cleansing, pardon, fellowship, acceptance. I promise you, if that's the
desire of your heart, He'll give it. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently, diligently seek him.