In Hebrews chapter 10, verse
38, the writer to the Hebrews says, now
the just, the justified, those who are just and righteous before
God, the just shall live by faith. If any man draw back from this thing of living by
faith, 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. Now, if the just shall live by
faith, what is faith? Good question. What is faith? Well, we don't have to wait to
find out. The writer to the Hebrew says
in chapter 11, verse one, now faith is. There it is. Now faith is. The substance of
things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. Now there's the inspired writer's
definition of faith. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. Now before we get into the meat
of that verse of scripture, I'd like you to turn back a few pages
to 2 Timothy chapter one. Because I believe in this passage
of scripture, we have a simple definition as to what faith is,
as we have anywhere in the Bible. That's how important this passage
of scripture is, and it begins with verse eight, be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor me his prisoner,
but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God. Now, faith must begin with the
testimony of God. If we don't begin there, We started
in the wrong place. We got to begin with what God
testifies. Now, he gives this testimony
in verse nine, who hath saved us? What a simple declaration
of who we believe and what we believe.
He saved us. We didn't save ourselves. We
didn't contribute to our salvation. He saved us and called us with an holy calling. Now the order is of critical
importance. He saved us and he called us. What came first? The saving or
the calling? He saved us. That salvation was accomplished
outside of our personal subjective experience. He saved us when
he said it is finished. I was saved. He saved us and He called us. You see, everybody He saves,
He calls with the call of His grace, a holy calling. He called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works. His saving us was not in response
to anything we did. It's not according to our works.
Now remember, this is the testimony of God. This is the testimony
of God. He saved us. He called us with
a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. What's that mean? Exactly what
it says. is now made manifest by the appearing
of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And here's what he did in his
appearing, who hath abolished death. You see, when I die, I'm gonna
be brought into life. Death has no sting. Death has no sting. I'm going
to be brought into the presence of Jesus Christ and he's abolished
the power of death because he abolished sin. He put it away. He abolished death and he has
brought life and immortality to light. Life, spiritual life,
immortality, eternal life. He has brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. whereunto I am appointed a preacher,
and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which
cause I also suffer these things."
You know, Paul said, wherever I go, bonds and afflictions abide
me. Now, when I go off somewhere
else to preach, I'm treated pretty good. Matter of fact, I'm treated
real good. Paul couldn't say that. He knew
wherever he was going to preach, he was either going to be tied
to a pole and flogged or thrown into jail. For the witch cause, I also suffer
these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed. Four. Now here is that simple
illustration of faith. And there's four words that I
want you to take note of. Knowledge. I know. I know. I know whom I have believed,
belief, knowledge and belief. I know whom I have believed and
I am persuaded, persuaded. Now, that word is in the passive
tense. It was God who persuaded him.
You know when you'll be persuaded? when God persuades you, not before
then. And that's a necessary ingredient
of faith, God's persuasion. I know whom I have believed and
am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him. There's the fourth word, commitment,
against that day. Now that's what faith is made
of, knowledge, belief, persuasion, and commitment. Now, you've got to begin with
knowledge. You can't believe what you don't
know. Is that obvious? You cannot believe what you do
not know. You cannot believe what you've
never heard. Knowledge is essential in this
thing of faith. There's a content to faith. Faith
believes something. There is no saving faith without
knowledge, and I want us to notice this so importantly. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed. He didn't say, I know what I
believe. He said, I know whom I have believed. You see, what
you believe will be completely determined by who you believe. I know whom I have believed. Now understand this, in this
thing of faith, it's really not so much what you know, but who
you know. You got that? It's not so much
what you know, but who you know. You see, everything we believe
is predicated on who he is. Because of who he is, that's
why we believe that if he died for me, I must be saved. I can't
be anything but saved because of who he is. I know whom I have
believed. Now, the second word is believed. I know whom I have believed. There is such a thing as knowledge
without belief. Think about that. There is such
a thing as knowledge without belief. You know, I can study
the writings of Paul, for instance, or any other writer in the scripture,
and if I give myself to studying it, I can tell you what it is
he believed. I read it and I have any understanding,
I can at least spit back out what it was he believed. That
doesn't mean I believe it. That's the difference. Doesn't
mean I believe it. There is such a thing as knowledge
without faith. Here's one example. I can believe
that the Bible teaches that men are sinful. I can believe the
Bible teaches that men are totally depraved. And the Bible does
teach that. There's no question about that.
But I might know the Bible teaches it and not realize it's true
with regard to me. It becomes real when I see that
I am totally depraved. That is the difference. It's
one thing to know a doctrine. It's another thing to know the
experience of that. I know whom, I know the Lord
Jesus, and everything we believe is dependent upon who he is. And I know whom I have believed. Abraham believed God, to him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly.
You got knowledge and you believe that knowledge. You believe the
content of the gospel. And the content of the gospel
actually is summarized in that passage of scripture we just
read. He saved us. He called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. I know whom I have believed. Abraham believed God. Now here is why Paul believed.
Look back in verse 12. For I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. I'm persuaded. Who persuaded
you, Paul? If you have faith, You know it
came from God. I don't have to convince you
of that. I don't have to argue you into
that. If you believe, it's because
God persuaded you. And that is why you believe. Paul says, I've been persuaded.
Abraham was fully persuaded. Who persuaded him? God did. He
was fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able
also to perform. Faith is the gift of God and
we really don't understand faith if we don't understand that.
We'll make it the result of our decision to believe. I believe
because I decided to believe. That ain't faith. By grace are you saved through
faith in that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Now, if I think my faith comes
to me because of a decision I made, that's works. Paul said that. By grace you
save through faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God, not of works. Not of works, lest any man should boast. It's not because of a decision
I made, It's because he persuaded me. And I'm left with no other
where to look. It's not like I have different
options. No, I've been persuaded by God. Everybody that has faith
knows that God gave it to them. Don't you know that? Don't you
know that in your own experience? If you have faith, it didn't
come from you. came from the Lord. And here's
this next important word. I know whom I have believed and
I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day. Now faith is a committal Now,
when people use the word commitment, they think, well, I'm totally
committed. I spend so much time reading the scripture. I spend
so much time praying. I give a large percent of my
income. I'm in every service. I'm witnessing. I'm doing everything I can. I'm
fully committed. I'm all in. That's not what he's talking
about. He is saying that I am persuaded
that He is able to keep that which I've committed to Him against
that day. Now don't miss that against that
day. Against that day, the day of judgment. I have committed. I know who He is. I know Him.
I believe Him. I'm persuaded in His ability. Those blind men came up and the
Lord said, do you believe that I'm able to do this? They said,
yeah, Lord. I believe. I believe He's able. I believe He's able to keep that
which I've committed, entrusted is the word, deposited unto Him.
It means you don't have a plan B. You don't have a contingency
plan. If what he did is not everything
in salvation, you have no hope because all of your eggs are
in that basket. You look nowhere else. I've used this illustration before,
I'll use it again. Commitment is getting in the
plane. You can believe the plane will get you there. You commit
to it when you get in, sit down, and buckle up, and you wait for
it to get you to the destination. You know you can't get there,
only the plane can get you there. If the plane gets you there,
and you're in the plane, you'll get there. If I'm in Christ,
if he gets me into the Father's presence, I'm there, I'm safe,
and I'm secure. Now that's what he's talking
about. I know whom I believe. This is what faith, now faith
is, Here it is, now faith is, what a beautiful illustration
of what faith is by Paul. I know whom I have believed. I know whom, that thief on the
cross. He's used as an example of how
little you believe. My, he believed everything because
he knew who Christ was. Don't use him as an example like
that. He believed the gospel. He believed that Jesus Christ
was God. He believed he was sinless. He believed that he would come
back as a mighty reigning king and couldn't fail. He knew he
was the Lord. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. Now with that said, come back
to Hebrews chapter 11. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. Now let's talk about this word
hope. Hope. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. Now Paul tells us in Romans 8,
24 that hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth,
why doth he yet hope for it? Now, I have a hope. I can't see
this hope, but I have it. And I mean, I'm confident of
this. I've got full expectation. I have a hope that on judgment
day, when I'm gonna stand before the thrice holy God, I'm gonna
stand before him justified, without sin, without guilt, perfect in
Christ Jesus. Now, can I look at myself and
look within and say, well, I can see where that's so? No, no.
But I believe it is. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. I have a hope that from then
till now, and really ever since I was born, that everything that
takes place in my life, God is working it together for my good. I can't see it. Sometimes after
the fact, I can see it, but while it's going on, I can never see
it. What's going on? His will, his purpose, whatever
he ordains to take place. That's what's going on. Now,
faith is the substance of things hoped for. Now, what in the world
does that mean? The substance of things hoped for. Now Paul,
or whoever wrote Hebrews, uses this word two other times in
the book of Hebrews, and it's translated by different words,
the exact same word in the Greek, but these other two words give
us some idea of what this word substance means. Look in Hebrews
chapter one. Verse three, speaking of Christ,
who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of
his person, that's the word substance, person, same exact word. And in Hebrews chapter three,
verse 14, for we are made partakers of Christ. If we hold the beginning
of our confidence, same word confidence. Substance, firm to
the end. Now, I love these two words that
are used because it tells us, first of all, faith is the substance
of things hoped for. Faith is the person of things
hoped for. All my hope is in this person. Nowhere else. Nowhere else. All my hope. is in this person. My hope is that everything God
requires of me, he looks to Jesus Christ, his son, for he is all
my salvation. Now let me show you a passage
of scripture that I think illustrates this. Isaiah chapter 43, verse
22. Isaiah 43, verse 22. Thou hast not called upon me,
O Jacob, but thou hast been weary of me,
O Israel. This is God speaking. You've
not called upon me, you've actually been weary of me. Thou hast not
brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings, neither
hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices. I've not caused thee
to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense. Thou
hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou
filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices, but thou hast made
me to serve with thy sins. Thou hast wearied me with thine
iniquities. I, even I, am he that blotteth
out thy transgression for my own sake. Not because of anything
in you. You see what he said with regard
to them. I blot out your transgressions for my own sake. Be ye kind,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. He is the person of my hope. The substance of my hope. The word means literally standing
under. It's made of two words that mean
standing under. He is the person of my hope.
But the next word that we read in Hebrews chapter 3, 14 is he
is our confidence. He is the confidence of my hope. He is the standing under, he's
the confidence of my hope. Now, from 19... 84 through 1993,
we met on American Avenue. And it was a little white frame
church. And we met there for nine years.
And when we first bought the place, it had a big pole in the
middle of the auditorium. It was a small auditorium, probably
about a fourth the size of this auditorium. It had this big pole.
And you could actually see the floor kind of sinking in. And
it was kind of nerve wracking. You had this one pole. And it was disturbing. I'd be
looking at a pole right in the middle while I was trying to preach.
But at any rate, Jim Slott, he was the only, when we started
the church, he was the only adult there, Jim and Kay. A bunch of
kids and Jim Slott. And he was an engineer. But he
came up with an idea. We were going to put an I.B.
up in the auditorium. And we took four by fours on
each side, and we got an I-beam in there, and a jack, and got
it up there, and lifted up, and it supported the ceiling. We
took off that pole, and then we covered the drywall, the things
the I-beam were sitting on, and everything looked good. And I
remember the first service I preached, I looked out, nobody would sit
under that thing. They were scared to death. And
Paul, you were one that would usually sit under it, but those
rows were empty. And I heard Jim muttering something
under his breath. He sat down and sat right under
it and said, see? Sitting under. Sitting under. The only I have confidence to
sit under Him, where all God sees is Him, and He's able to
keep that which I've committed to Him against that day, a sitting
under. Now, faith is the substance,
the person, the confidence, of things hoped for. Now what you say next? Hebrews
11. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The evidence of things not seen. Now the things that are not seen
have already been described. My justification before God,
I can't see it. I believe it. Can I look within
my heart and say, yeah, you must be justified. I can't see perfection
before God. I can't see sinlessness before
God, but I believe I have it in Christ. It's the things not
seen. And I believe, this is not seen,
that everything is working together for my good, no matter what it
is. Bad stuff, good stuff, mundane stuff, neutral stuff. It's all
of the Lord working together for my good. I can't see that,
but I believe it. What's the evidence of it? Faith
is the evidence of things not seen. And this is what I entitled
this message. An evidence or the evidence. Now don't miss this. An evidence
or the evidence. He saved us. That's what 2 Timothy 1.9 says.
He saved us. And this was not a cooperative
effort. I do remember hearing this from a preacher, and he
was trying to illustrate faith. And he said, you're in the lake
or the ocean drowning, and the person on the boat or the lifeguard
throws out the life preserver, and there you are flashing in
the water, drowning, but it's up to you to grab the life preserver. That's faith. You grab the life
preserver. That's as ignorant and foolish
as anything I've ever heard. Is there somebody that's going,
no, you're out there drowning. Somebody throws it. No, I don't
like it. Am I going to take it or not? Of course not. You're going
to grab it. It's a life preserver. See, he
always saves who he intends to save. It's not like there's anybody
who, as far as that goes, You're dead in sins. And if it's
up to you to have the ability to hold on to that life preserver,
well, that's ridiculous, isn't it? Salvation is of the Lord. It's
of the Father in election. I love the scripture. We're bound
to thank God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. He didn't
say, we thank you. Oh, we're so thankful for you.
I am thankful for you. I don't want to in any way. I
remember I read an article by Jack Shanks. He said, preachers
say, we thank you for being here. He said, y'all thank God that
you're here. We thank God for you. We thank God for you. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
salvations of the Father in choosing you. Salvation is of the Son
in redeeming you. He by Himself purged our sins. No help from you. All praise
goes to Him. Salvation is of God the Holy
Spirit in regeneration. Birth by the Spirit of God. Born of the Spirit. Now, you
had about as much to do with your second birth as you did
with your first birth, which is none. None. Salvation is of
the Lord. And if you believe, you know
that what I'm saying is so. Here's our statement of faith.
He saved us. He called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Now, what is the evidence that
he has done this for me? If they arrested people, for
being Christians, would they have enough evidence to convict
you? What is the evidence? What is the evidence? There will be evidence. Faith
without works is dead. Being alone. You're on the right
day of judgment. He says to one group, inasmuch
as you did it to the least of these, my brethren, you did it
to me. That was the evidence that they'd
been chosen from the foundation of the world. And to another
group, he said, inasmuch as you did it not to the least of my
brethren, you did it not to me. Now, it's interesting that the
ones who did it said, we're not aware of that. When did we do
this? When did we do that? And the
fellas who didn't do it, we thought we had. What do you mean? We
thought we had. We've done many wonderful works. But there was evidence. And we
will hear from false religion. Now don't miss that. There is
such a thing as false religion. Non-saving religion. It's what most of quote
Christianity is made of. Non-saving religion. We will hear from false religion
that faith is an evidence. One among many. Faith is an evidence. There are also other evidences.
You need to show as an evidence your changed life, your victory
over sin. You need to manifest the fruit
of the spirit. And if you don't demonstrate
those evidences, you don't have any right to conclude that you're
a Christian. Is there anybody here that doesn't
want a changed life? A life that glorifies God? And if you're a believer, you're
not what you used to be. You're a new man in Christ Jesus.
But if you're honest, you know you're old man. I don't care
how long you've been a believer. Your old man is just as sinful
as he ever was. He hadn't got any better. Change
life, looking for that as an evidence. I would never sin again. Your
victory over sin, I would never sin again. I want to say this carefully,
but as the Lord is my witness, Well, I'm scared saying that,
but I don't want to sin. Part of my old man does, but
my new man doesn't. I don't want to have anything
to do with sin. I want to never commit a sin again. But is there any
one sin that I can say, well, I've got the victory over that?
You know, I've been dealing with pride and I finally put it down.
No more pride. Got that one down. I've been
dealing with just whatever sin you want to name. Have you ever? Completely, no. When we talk
of the fruit of the Spirit, now if I'm a believer, I do have
the fruit of the Spirit. Every believer has the fruit
of the Spirit. I have love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. If I don't have those
things, I'm not a believer. I've never been born again, but
do I look at my fruit and say, well, yeah, my love's pretty
good. I gotta be saved. My joy. Check that box. I've got that one down. My peace. Yeah, really good peace. I must
be saved. My patience. My long suffering. Yeah, I'm good to go there. My gentleness. Yeah, I got that
down. My goodness. Check that box. My faithfulness. Meekness before
God? Yeah, I'm meek before God. Temperance? Yes, I have control to some extent,
I hope, of my earthly passions. I think that I'm okay there.
Would you do that? No. No, you don't look at your
fruit to figure out whether or not you're saved. Faith is the
evidence. Nothing else. If you have a works-based
evidence, you've got a false evidence. Faith in Christ is
the evidence of things hoped for. Turn with me to Acts chapter
8 in closing. Oh, this eunuch had heard Philip
preach Christ unto him. Verse 30, and Philip ran thither
to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah. And he said,
do you understand what you're reading? Of course I do. Here's what I think. Here's what
it means to me. No. And he said, how can I? Except some man should guide
me. And he desired, Philip, that
you come up and sit with him. And this place of the scripture
which you read was, it was out of Isaiah 53. Verse 34, and Eunuch answered
Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh thou the prophet
this? Of himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth
and began the same scripture and preached unto him, what?
Jesus. Jesus. Wouldn't you have loved
to heard that message? Wouldn't you like to have been
right there with him, hearing what all Philip was saying? Going into Isaiah 53, that great
message with regard to the substitutionary death of Christ, oh, I bet Philip
was thrilled when he asked him that question. And they went on their way, and
they came under a certain water. And the eunuch said, see, here
is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And no doubt he talked about
baptism at that time. I don't know what all he heard.
I know he heard the whole gospel. I don't know how long this message
lasted. It might have been there for hours. It might have been
20 minutes. I don't know. But somewhere baptism came in the
picture. And he said, See, here is water.
What hinders me from being baptized? What evidences do I lack? What
is it that I need to demonstrate before I can be baptized? I remember
one time I heard of this one church that if you asked to be
baptized, you were supposed to be examined three years first
to see if you would work at work. You know, we'll see if you're
really serious and we're going to watch your life and examine
you for three years. And after that, if you pass the
test, our test, our test, you're not so wicked. If you pass our
test, then you can be baptized. What does Philip say? And Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe. that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. He didn't say, I believe that
I bear the fruit of the Spirit. He didn't say, I believe that
Christ died for me. He didn't say, I believe I've
been born again. He didn't say, I believe I'm
one of the elect. He said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the son of God. And he commanded the church to
stand still, and they went both down into the water, both Philip
and the eunuch, and he baptized him. What is faith? It's believing that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God? Then my dear friend, you have
that faith that is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. Let's pray. Lord, would you be pleased by
invincible, irresistible, saving grace to persuade each one of
us to believe your gospel. For Christ's sake, in his name
we pray, amen.