I particularly love that third
verse where it talks about when thou art by thy sins oppressed. And I thought, boy, my sin oppresses
me. Isn't it good news that salvation
is by grace? Turn to Hebrews chapter 11, please. I want to read the third verse.
of Hebrews chapter 11. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that Things which
are seen were not made of things which do appear." I've entitled this message, Through
Faith We Understand. Now, I want to have some understanding,
don't you? I want to have some true understanding
of God's Word. I want to have some true understanding
of the truth. It was said of the disciples
in Luke 24, verse 45, Then opened he their understanding, that
they might understand the scriptures. And that's what
I want the Lord to do for me. I want him to open my understanding
that I might understand the scriptures. Now, you and I cannot understand
the scriptures unless he opens our understanding. We're totally
dependent upon revelation. His understanding is not by intellect. It's not by education. We just
heard it sung. What reason can't comprehend?
This is only understood by revelation. It is through faith that we understand. Now, that doesn't mean the mind
is bypassed. I've heard people say, well,
I think they believe in their heart what they don't believe
in their head. That's impossible. That's foolishness. You can't
believe in your heart what you don't believe in your head any
more than you can come back from a place where you've never been.
That is impossible. The mind is not bypassed. But until we are given faith. We will not. And we cannot understand. Let me show you this in Scripture.
Turn with me to Galatians chapter 3. It is only the person who
believes that sees the glory of God. Now let me repeat that. Our Lord said that. That's the
verse I read. He said, if you believe, you'd see the glory
of God. And if you don't believe, You
will not see it is only through faith that we understand that
this is a passage scripture. I've never really seen this before.
Look in verse 23 of Galatians chapter three. But before faith
came. Faith comes to you. It's not
something you work up. It's something that comes to
you. Now, before faith came, we were kept under the law. Shut
up. Under the faith, which should
afterwards be revealed, wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us under Christ that we might justify it by faith.
But after the faith has come, we're no longer under a schoolmaster. And if you see that faith comes
to you, there's a time when you don't believe and you don't understand
what it is to believe. And there's a time faith comes
to you and you believe it came to you. There was a time when
you didn't have it, but you do now. Faith has come to you. It's only after faith has come
that we have an understanding. Now, what is faith? Well, it's
exotic. What do I mean by that? It doesn't
come naturally in our hearts. It's not something you can produce.
It's something God must give you. And until he gives it to
you, you will not have it. But when he gives it to you,
when it comes to you, You have it. The natural man cannot produce
faith. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, For by
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. That
faith, it didn't come from you. You didn't decide to believe.
It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Faith is believing God. It's
believing his word. It really is that simple. It's
believing what God says in His Word. Turn with me to John chapter
4. Here's a beautiful example of
what faith is. John chapter 4. Beginning in verse 46. So Jesus came again unto Cana
of Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And there was
a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he
heard that Jesus was come out of Judea unto Galilee, he went
unto him and besought him that he would come down and heal his
son. For he was at the point of death.
Then said Jesus unto him, Except you see signs and wonders, you
will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him,
Sir, come down, ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go
thy way, thy son liveth. Now did he have any evidence
that his son was living? None at all. All he had was the
word of the Lord Jesus Christ. And look what it says in verse
50, Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way, thy son liveth. And the man believed the word
that Jesus had spoken unto him. And he went his way. He believed
that his son lived because the Lord said he did. That is faith. It really is that simple. It's
believing what God says in his word. It's believing the word
of Christ. Now let's go and read it. And as he was now going down,
his servants met him and told him, saying, Thy son liveth.
Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend,
and they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever
left him. And the father knew that it was
the same hour in which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth,
and himself believed, and his whole house. Now it is through
faith, believing what God says, believing his word, that we understand,
and it's through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by
the Word of God. Notice the word worlds is plural. The worlds, the same world spoken
of in Hebrews 1. Would you turn with me there
for a moment? Verse 1. who at sundry times
and in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he
made the worlds," or the ages. And that means everything that
is made, he made. And without him was not anything
made that was made. He is the creator. Would you turn with me for a
moment to Colossians chapter one? Verse 16. For by him, the Lord Jesus Christ
were all things created that are in heaven and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him
and for Him. And He is before all things and
by Him all things consist. Whatever's in heaven. And I don't
know much about what's in heaven. I know angels are there, or cherubims. I don't know what kind of creatures
are in heaven. I don't know what's there, the third heaven. But
whatever's there, He created it. He's the mighty Creator. I love that song, The Great Creator
Became My Savior. He's the Creator. All things
visible. Everything in earth, mineral
life. plant life, animal life, all things that can be seen,
mountains, chromosomes, germs, virus, anything that can be seen,
even if it's with a microscope. He made it. He is the creator
of matter. He brought matter into existence
that was not there before. He's the creator of all things
visible and invisible. They're called thrones. Seats
of authority. dominions or lordships, the powers
that be are ordained of God. Turn with me for a moment to
Isaiah chapter 45. Isaiah chapter 45. Beginning in verse 1, Thus saith
the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have
holden, to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins
of kings, to open before him the two lead gates, and the gates
shall not be shut. Now, this was a heathen king.
And God says, I'm going to take you, and I'm going to fulfill
my purposes with you. Now, he didn't know anything
about it. He had no idea that God was causing him to do what
he was going to do. But God was in control of everything.
He says in verse two, I will go before thee and make the crooked
places straight. I will break in pieces the gates
of brass and cut and sunder the bars of iron. And I will give
thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places
that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which called thee by
thy name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob, my servant's sake,
and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name.
I surname thee, though thou hast not known me. I am the Lord. And there's none else. There's
no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou hast
not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun and
from the west that there's none beside me. I am the Lord and
there's none else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Now, this is God. And I feel
no need to apologize for this. He is in control of everything. He made everything, whether they
be thrones or dominions, principalities or powers, angels or demons.
All things were made by Him. He's before all things, and by
Him all things consist. They're held together by Him. He made the worlds, the worlds
were framed by the word of God, the divine fiat. Light be, and
light was. You know something we read over
and over again in Genesis chapter 1 is this, this phrase, and God
said, and it was so. And God said, and it was so. And God said, And it was so,
and this is the stuff of faith. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
8. Matthew chapter 8. Verse 5. And when Jesus was entered
into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him
and saying, Lord, My servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy,
grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I'll
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said,
Lord, I'm not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof,
but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. Now, he says to the Lord, Your
authority is so supreme. He knew who he was. He knew he
was God. He said, speak the word only. All you've got to do is say it.
And it comes to pass. Speak the word only and my servant
shall be healed. For I'm a man under authority.
I understand authority, having soldiers under me. I say to this
man, go. And he goes to another, come. And he comes into my servant,
do this. And he does it. And when Jesus
heard it, he marveled and said to them that followed, Barely,
I say unto thee, I've not found so great a faith, no, not in
Israel. Speak the word only. And that's the stuff of faith.
Now, back to our text, the Hebrews chapter 11. It's through faith we understand
that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the
things which are seen are not made of things which do appear. Now, what is he talking about
when he talks about the things that are seen not being made of things
which do appear? Well, obviously, on the very
surface, he's talking about creation. The things we see, creation,
are not made of things which appear. God is invisible. The things which are seen are
made by the invisible God. Take man. When we talk about
creation, let's just talk about man. Man, the creation of man. What is man? There are three
different views. The first view is that man is
a random quirk of fate, chance. Some kind of primordial stew
of chemicals were mixed together and there was a big bang and
somehow life popped out of that. You've got to have a real stretch
of faith to believe something like that. I know very many intellectuals
and educated and so on supposedly believe this. And I tell you
what, you've got to really want to suppress the truth to believe
something like that. To think that life would just
pop out of that. I think it's almost amusing. And I want to say this carefully,
but I think it's almost amusing how people who are supposedly
the intellectuals and they'll look at the people who believe
the gospel is stupid for the things they believe. And yet
they'll believe something like that. And these are very intelligent
people. This is not an intelligence issue, but it just people must
want to suppress the truth to believe something that ridiculous
because it is that ridiculous. Now, there is a second view.
And that is the view that indeed God started life. I mean, it's
unreasonable to think that anything could start without God. Only
God can create life. But then he kind of steps back
and lets it roll. And this is really the evolutionary
view. God starts life. But life evolves. Everything came from this one
single life and all that goes out into these different branches,
the evolutionary view. And basically what we say in
that view is we say, look how far we've come. Look how far
we've progressed. Oh, God gave life. He's the one
that started. It's unreasonable to believe
anything else, but look how far we've come. And then there is
the view of creation, what the Bible says, that God created
man in his own image. And man was created as God created
him. And that man fell in rebellion. Man is a creature, totally dependent
upon God, totally responsible to God. A fallen creature, look
how far he's fallen. and how he needs a Savior. How he needs the grace of God. The things that are seen in Providence.
You're here tonight. Why are you here? Well, because
I wanted to be here. I'm glad you wanted to be here,
but why are you here? You're here by the will of God. Everything
that's happened in your life, the things that you can see,
things that have been painful, things that have been joyous,
things that have made you happy, things that have made you sad,
everything that's taken place in your life, God's the first
cause behind of it. The reason you're here, the family
you were born in, the raising you've had, whether good or bad,
God is ultimately in control of it. Everything that's happened
to you has happened because of him. Let me tell you a story
about something you can see. Jacob had a boy named Joseph. And he showed flagrant favoritism
toward that boy. He made him a coach of many colors. And he loved him better than
he loved his other sons. And you can understand why that
bothered him. And they were jealous of it.
Can you imagine the pain that created? I mean, Joseph and everybody
else. I mean, flagrant favoritism. And then Joseph has dreams. He dreams, you fellows are going
to be bowing the knee to me. Why, even the sun and the stars
are going to bow to me. He dreamed that. And the Scripture
says they hated him even more. In their hearts, they hated their
brother. So these brothers are off tending
the sheep somewhere, and Jacob tells Joseph, go find your brothers.
And Joseph comes after him. And they say, here comes that
dreamer. Let's kill him. Let's put him
to death. And Reuben stopped him. And they
put him in a pit. And then some Ishmaelites came,
merchants, and they sold him to those Ishmaelites. Can you
imagine how horrible that was? And they stripped him of his
coat of many colors. They killed a goat, put the blood
of that goat on that coat, and they bring that coat back to
his dad, their dad, and says, is this your boy's coat? Can
you imagine the pain that created for him? He said, Oh, Joseph
has been ripped to pieces by an evil beast. And he said, I'm
going to go to my grave mourning. He was so upset, the pain involved
in that. So Joseph is sold into Egypt. And what a life he had. He becomes
Potiphar's servant. But the Lord blesses Joseph in
everything he does. And Potiphar becomes so confidence
of the Lord's blessing on this man that he gives him everything,
all responsibilities. It's all in his hand. You remember
what Potiphar's wife did? She accused him in a horrible
way of a horrible crime when he wouldn't come to her. She
kept saying, come to me, lie with me, lie with me. He wouldn't
do it. I can't stand against God like that. So she came at
him again. He fled out. She got his clothes
and said, here's proof that he was coming to mock And he was
thrown into prison. I mean, he didn't do anything
wrong. Everything he did was right. And yet he's thrown into
prison for standing for what's right. Can you imagine the pain
and the anguish of that? But while he's in prison. The Lord. Sends two men that
way, a butler and a baker, and they both had dreams. And Joseph
interpreted their dreams. The butler was saved. The baker was put to death. Joseph
said, this is what's going to happen. That's what's going to
happen. So the butler is freed and he forgets about Joseph.
And then Pharaoh has those dreams. Here, Joseph's been in prison
for years. And Pharaoh has those dreams.
If you're familiar with the story, how Joseph interpreted the dreams,
and all of a sudden he's been made the head of all of Egypt. He was in control of everything.
If you've got anything to eat, you had to come to Joseph for
it. Pharaoh even made a, he said, bow to me, to Joseph. Bow to
me, to Joseph. So Joseph, as far as what we
can see, he becomes the most powerful man in the world. Now his brothers, Come back down
to Egypt. And he recognizes them. But they
don't recognize him. And they bow and scrape before
him. And he remembers his dreams.
Now, turn to Genesis 45. This is what I want you to see.
Genesis chapter 45. This is when he makes himself
known to his brethren. Verse 1. Then Joseph could not
refrain himself before all them that stood by him. And he cried,
cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with
him while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians
in the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
I am Joseph. What do you reckon they thought
at that time? They were scared to death. They thought it's over
for us. I am Joseph. Doth my father yet
live? And his brethren could not answer
him, for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said
to his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came
near. And he said, I'm Joseph, your
brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now, therefore, be not grieved
nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither, for God did
send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath
the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years
in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God
sent me before you to preserve you of posterity in the earth
and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not
you that sent me hither, but God. How many different ways
are there to take that? You didn't do it. Yes, they did. They were wicked. They were evil
in what they did. There wasn't any excuse for that.
Oh, how evil. But yet, Joseph said, it wasn't
you. It was God. And he made me a
father to Pharaoh and Lord of all of his house and the rulers
throughout the land of Egypt. Now, you are Looking at a believer
right now. I'm one of these fellows who
believes the Word of God. I know it's by the grace of God.
But you're looking at a believer right now. Now, what you see
was not made of things that appear. I believe, and that's the gift
of God to me. That's not something I worked
up. I'm justified before God. It was God who justified me.
That's not my work in any way. I'm redeemed by the blood of
the Lamb. My sin is wiped out. It's put
away. I have no sin. And I can tell
you this. That's not my work. That's the work of my Redeemer.
What I made is not made of things which do appear. It's His work
and His work only. I realize that. I persevere. And it's because I'm kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation. I understand
what I made. It was not made of things that do appear. What
do you make? Well, the Scripture says we're
made the righteousness of God. Every believer is actually made
the very righteousness of God. And I know it wasn't me that
made me that way. I was made that way by Him. He did it all. You know, it's so easy to believe
sovereign grace when you've been saved by sovereign grace. The
only folks who have a hard time with it are folks who haven't
been saved by it. But if you've been saved by sovereign grace,
you believe sovereign grace. You know your salvation is the
work of Him and Him alone. what I am. He was not made by
things which appear. I am what I am by the grace of
God. And that is the testimony of
every believer. There are some people who are
saying, Amen. I am what I am by the grace of
God. Here is a man You see, they tie him to a stake, rope him
up, put wood underneath and light the flames, and say, if you'll
recant, if you'll say, I don't believe that salvation is all
of grace, we'll let you go. If you'll just say salvation
is by grace and works, you'll be set free. And the man with
tears in his eyes say, I can't do it. My only hope is the salvation
of all of grace. That's the only hope I've got.
So they light the flames and they burn him to death. And what
you see is not made of things that appear. That is the grace
of God in that man. You see anybody persevere in
the faith, continuing in the faith, what you see, that's not
made of things that appear. That's made by the grace of God. What I am right now, a believer, a Christian, God made me. I know that. The things which
are seen are not made to things which do appear truly, truly
by faith. We understand. And until you're
given faith, you cannot understand. It's a mystery. But when you're
given faith, you understand that the world, that's everything,
was framed by the Word of God so that the things which are
seen are not made of things which do appear. Through faith, we
understand. Let's pray.