All right, Hebrews 11, faith defined and illustrated. Now, back in chapter 10, the
last two verses, which is our custom when we're teaching the
chapters, go back just a little bit and pick up the apostles'
themes. And he says here in verse 38
and 39 that those who are children of God, those who are born of
the Spirit of God, they walk not by sight but by faith. They
live by faith. And this statement in verse 38
appears in the Scripture in four different places. in Habakkuk,
in Romans, in Galatians, and here in Hebrews. Now the just,
the justified, the redeemed, shall live by faith. We begin
spiritual life by faith. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. That's how life comes, by faith.
We're justified by faith. He that believeth not on the
Son hath not life, shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him. That's the way we begin life,
by faith. The just shall live, shall live,
shall pass from darkness to light, from death to life, from the
kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his dear Son, by faith. And
not only that, but we continue to live by faith. You don't need
to turn to this, but let me just quickly turn to Colossians chapter
1. It speaks of our Lord's, our
Lord's redemption. And he says in verse 20, and
having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to
reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say. whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were one
time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet
now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death
to present you, to present you. I heard a message by one of our
friends from England on my car tape player on this trip to Virginia. Bill Clark sent me the message.
And he was talking about how many times in the scripture that
it speaks of our Lord presenting us. He'll present you. He said, when you come to this
church where we're meeting, I introduce you to the pastor. I introduce
you to the elders. I introduce you to those of equal
rank. But he said, if you appear before
the queen, they don't introduce you to the queen, they present
you. You're presented to the king.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, now unto him that's able to keep
you from falling into what? Introduce you to God. Don't be
foolish. Present you without spot or blemish. He'll present you. He's not going
to introduce you. He's going to present you. And
that's what? What's that now? He says, and
He'll present you wholly unblameable and unreprovable in His sight.
Now here's where we're coming, if you continue in the faith. So the just live by faith. And they live by faith. They
continue to live by faith. Keep on. You read the rest of
Hebrews 10, look at verse 38 and 39. Now the just shall live
by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure
in him. But thank God we are not of them
who draw back unto perdition, but we are of them that believe,
keep on believing. We have believed, we do believe.
We have been saved, we are being saved. We believe to the saving
of the soul. So the just shall live. They
live by faith, come into life by faith, continue in faith. And then Hebrews 11 verse 13,
and they die in faith. And they die in faith. Now that's
what he, that's how he winds up chapter 10. They continue to believe to the
saving of the soul. Now verse 1 of chapter 11. Here's
faith defined and faith illustrated. You know, faith is not a creed.
I hear it used that way so often. What's your faith? That is what's
your creed. And you know, I had a letter
from a preacher one time that somebody united with our church
from that church, and I sent him a letter telling him the
people had moved to our congregation. He said, well, he wrote me back.
He said, we don't grant letters to churches except those of the
same faith. Well, you know, just one faith.
But what he was saying, the same creed. But faith's not a creed. Faith is an experience. Isn't
it? Faith and experience. It's not
just something on paper. This is what Baptists believe.
You can believe all that and not have faith in Christ. Faith
is an experience. Faith is not a position. Well, this is my position. My position's on the rock. I'm persuasion. I'm not positioned,
I'm persuaded he's able to keep that which I've committed unto
him. I'm persuaded. So faith's not a creed, it's
an experience, it's not a position, it's a possession of a person. And faith's not merely a doctrine
in the head, it's hope in the heart. And here's the definition.
Now what's this? And we've read this dozens of
times, but now I think I can shed a little more light on it
today than I did last time. Now faith, this saving faith,
is the substance of things hoped for. What do we hope for? What do we hope for? Well, we
hope for wisdom, to know God. Oh, that I might know Him, Paul
said. power of his resurrection. We
hope for righteousness, that's our hope, to be like Christ. We hope for sanctification, we
hope for redemption, the redemption of the world, the whole creation
waits for the redemption of God's children. That's what we hope
for. Well, faith is the substance. Now, the word substance there
This is what the word substance, and you write this in your Bible,
it's there in the middle already if you just underscore it, the
middle in the center reference, it's the ground or confidence. Faith is the confidence of these
things hoped for. What do we hope for? Wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Those things
are in Christ. And our faith in Christ, our
confidence in Him, gives us a firm foundation and a firm confidence
we have those things. That's right. I'll show you an
example of that over here in Romans 4. Romans chapter 4. Look over here at Abraham. The scripture says in Romans
4 that he believed God. What was the basis of his confidence? The basis of his reason? Well,
look at verse 16. As it is written, I have made
you a father of many nations, before him whom he believed,
even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things
which be not as though they were. Verse 17. The things that Abraham
had not He didn't have any seed, but the Lord told him he'd have
seed, and he believed Him. He was confident, and his confidence
was in Him who supplies the need, Him who keeps His promise. A
lot of times when the evening comes around,
Doris and I eat lunch about 12. We call it supper, a lot of people
call it dinner, but we eat supper about six. And if she happens
not to be there, I'm back in the study and I get hungry about
that time, I'll come in and start setting the table. You mean you don't fix supper?
No, I just set the table. She supplies the food. And I'm
confident, I know that when she walks in, she's got something
on that stove. I guarantee you. I guarantee
you. And so I go ahead and set the
table just like there was food there. And that's the way we
believe our Lord. We have confidence in Him. He'll
supply. We go ahead and set the table.
We go ahead and get out the knives and forks and get out the plate
and get out the glasses and whatever, because there's going to be some
food there when I need it. You see what I'm saying? Now,
faith, believe in Him, is the ground. of my setting the table.
Believe in her. I know she's got something fixed.
I know she's 49 and a half years now. She's never failed yet.
She's got something fixed. And so I set the table. Confidence
she'll supply. And you men know what I'm talking
about. Well, my Lord's greater than she is. And when I need
peace, I set the table. He'll supply it. When I need
grace, I go ahead and claim it. Because it's there. He promised. All right? When I need rest,
peace, joy, whatever I need, healing or whatever, it's there
for me. And my confidence in Him is the
ground. Does that help? Well, that's
what it is. I hope it does, because that's where it is. Abraham just
knew he was going to have a son. He's old. Decrepit, but he, who,
how'd he know? He set the table for God's gonna
supply. All right, look at the next line.
And it's the evidence of things not seen. The evidence of things
not seen. Now, what is it that we haven't
seen? Well, a whole lot, but what he's
talking about here is there's things done in eternity for my
redemption that I haven't seen. There was a covenant made in
the everlasting councils of God There was a surety appointed
and anointed. There was a book written back
before the foundation of the world. I haven't seen any of
those things. And then in time, there's a man came to this earth.
A man, the God man, born of a woman, made under the law, made of a
woman, went to the cross, died for our sins. I did not see that. And then in the future, We bury
our loved ones out there in the cemetery, and we're confident
that one day they're gonna rise, and one day we'll be put in the
ground, and we're confident that we'll rise. Now, what's the evidence
of that? Well, I'll tell you the evidence
of it. The evidence of it is is the faith God has given us.
He's already worked in us evidences and proof of his election, of
his sacrifice, and of his resurrection. And I'll show you some of those
evidences. First of all, peace with God. You're sitting out
there tonight, and I'm standing up here, and I'm reading these
scriptures, and I believe these things. Well, the natural man
doesn't believe them, but I do. And the very fact that I believe
them is evidence of the reality of them. All right, let me show
you something else. We have peace. We can go through
trying circumstances and these things, and yet we have peace. We have peace as far as our sins
are concerned, we have peace As far as our future, we have
peace. Where'd that peace come from? Christ said, my peace I
give unto you. Well, the natural man doesn't
have peace. His heart's like the troubled sea. There was a
time your heart was like the troubled sea, but God put his
peace in your heart, and that's an evidence of the things that
you haven't seen. And then there's a rest. We have
entered into his rest. And that's evidence. And there's
the assurance. There's love for God. The natural
man doesn't love God. You do. The natural man doesn't
love the gospel. You do. When Mike was standing
here singing that song, that blessed me. Did that bless you? And you think of the struggles
and trials and disappointments of life and yet Our God gave
us, while we listened to that song, gave us peace. Well, that
doesn't bless anybody but believers, and that's evidence that you have these things unseen. That's evidence. That's evidence. And then the power. The love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts for the Holy Spirit. Faith,
love, joy, peace, humility, grace, kindness, These are not products
of the natural flesh, these are products of grace. See what I'm
saying? And they're all evidences of
a divine work already done. A divine work that was purposed,
a divine work that was purchased, a divine work that was performed
and applied, and a divine work, he that hath begun a good work
in you will finish it, and it's evidence." That's right. Evidence of a future work. God
who hath begun a good work will finish it. Now look at verse
2. And this is the very faith by which the elders obtained
a good report. That is, they were accepted of
God. They believed. I hope that's helpful. That helped
me a lot there. Faith is the ground, the confidence
that the need will be met. It will be met. He's faithful
who promises. And the very fact that God's
done a work of grace in my heart, I'm not what I, John Newton said
this, I'm not what I ought to be, I'm not what I want to be,
I'm not what I expect to be, but I'm not what I used to be.
He made a difference. I have his spirit, his grace.
And that's evidence of things I haven't seen. Evidence. All right, verse 3. Now here's,
what's the foundation of all this? All right. Through faith
we understand that the worlds, the worlds were framed by the
word of God. All things were made by the word
of God. So that things which are seen,
were not made of things which do appear. Now before faith came,
before God gave us faith, before God revealed himself and
his word unto us, we were victims of all manner of speculation.
Speculation. That's the reason you hear so
many wild things preached today and so many wild things. People
you work with on the job, they got some strange ideas, all manner
of speculation and theories and wild imagination concerning the
creation of the world. Did you notice the word worlds
as plural? Through faith, we understand,
we understand that the worlds, more than one world, well, there's
the celestial world. of God, the celestial world.
There's the terrestrial and celestial. And then there's the starry world.
I don't know a great deal about astronomy, but I know that way,
way yonder in the north, beyond the stars and the planet, is
the throne of God. And then there's the starry world,
and then there's the watery world, the water above, the water beneath,
where the rain, the snow, and all this stuff's coming from.
the firmament, there's that world and all that activity going on
in there, and then there's the earthly world that we live in
and upon, and then the spiritual world. So before faith came, before
God gave us faith and revealed his word, we were left to speculation
and imagination and all these things. when he by his grace as evidence
of things unseen, when he by his grace brings his word and
applies it to our hearts, we discover that the world, the
heavens were made by God. The stars were put in space,
in place where they are to serve their purposes, the sun and the
moon. When I consider the heavens, the stars, the sun and the moon,
the things, thou hast made what is man that thou art mindful
of him. Have you entered the treasure
of the snow? Joke's up. The lightning, that watery world,
you know who sends it? Who says go and it goes and come
and it comes? The rain, the frost, do. I learned that when I learned,
I'm not given to wild speculation anymore, theories of evolution,
all that junk, you know. He did it for his glory. And the earth, he said, let there
be light, let the dry land appear, the animals, birds, let us make
man. Man fell. Long before man fell,
he decreed and established and created a spiritual kingdom,
gave it to his son. He said, when the time comes,
I'm going to send you down to the world to redeem a people
out of that world. One day I'll destroy the old
heavens in which sin has entered and the old earth. And the last
enemy I'll destroy is death, and I'll make all things new
in you. I'll have a people like you,
all of them like my son, and that kingdom will go and last.
That new heaven and new earth and new world will last forever. There's a whole lot I got to
learn about that, but I got the foundation of it. I know by faith,
I understand. The Son of God hath come and
given us an understanding. that we may know Him who is true. This is the true God, and this
is eternal life. I have by faith understanding
that these worlds were framed by the Word of my God. And the things which are seen
were not made of things which appear. He didn't take something
old and make something new out of it. He made it. And that's
the way He did in saving you. your old nature and dress it
up. He gave you a new nature and he's going to bury that old
nature. He didn't take your old family
and fix it up, you know, the circle be unbroken. You know,
we're saying all that stuff. Tell mother I'll be there and
all these things, you know. No, it's all gone. It's going
to be a new family. That's right. All family. By
his word. His word. Oh, my, my, my, my. All right. Oh, verse 4, well, faith's got to sacrifice.
By faith able, he offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice. That's what this book of Hebrews
is all about, a better hope, a better covenant, a better priesthood,
a better sacrifice, a better promise, a better country, everything
better in Christ. Well, here's two ballers. Abel
offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained
witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts,
and by it he being dead yet speaketh." Look at these two brothers. Here's
two brothers. I had a brother, two brothers,
born of the same mother, forgotten by the same father. brought up
in the same home, slept in the same bed, wore each other's clothes,
like Cain and Abel, worked side by side, taught the same thing.
Daddy didn't teach one of them one thing and the other one something
else, did he? But when these two boys got to
be grown men, and they came before God to worship, they both came, they both built
altars, they both came to worship. But they brought two different
sacrifices. And the word offering is used
over in the Old Testament. Abel's offering, Cain's offering. Cain brought the fruit of the
field, things he was proud of. I'm kind of proud of my tomatoes
too. You are too. Anything you do, you're kind
of proud of it. You build a birdhouse, you're proud of it, aren't you?
Whatever you build, you're proud of it. Like the folks say, that's
good. That's good. That's the best
I've seen. That makes me feel good. The
old cane, he brought the best he had. Put it on the altar. He said, this is my sacrifice. His brother Abel brought a lamb and slew it and
spilled the blood. What's the difference? One word,
faith. Faith made the difference. By
faith, Abel offered that sacrifice. What made the difference? What
does Abel's offering tell me? What does Cain's offering tell
me about Cain? Pride. Self-righteousness. The feeling that God owed him
something. Huh? What's Abel's offering tell you?
That Abel believed God was holy. God's holy. That's what Abel's
offering says. God's holy. Man's a sinner. And man's sin must be punished
by death. And there's got to be a substitute
if I come before God who's got to die and shed His blood. There's
got to be a lamb without spot or blemish. That's what Abel's
offering tells me by faith. By faith. And there are people
today coming before God, everybody goes to church. If you don't
go to church, I asked a man one time if he was Christian, he
said, I ain't no heathen. Well, you know, there is a middle ground
there, you know. There's Christian heathen, heathen
Christian. But everybody goes to church,
everybody comes before God, everybody says their prayers. And here's
the difference. self-righteousness, working my
way, feel like God owes me something. Or this fellow over here, he
knows God's holy, unapproachable, unapproachable, dwelling in a
life which no man can approach. He's a shedder. He brings a lamb. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. Sin must be punished by death.
And he says, oh God, let thy blood be propitiation for me
on the mercy seat. When Christ dies, May his blood
put away my sin. And God had respect. Faith made
the difference. Faith is the evidence. You see, the very fact, what
I'm saying, you come here and you believe this word and you
look to Christ and you find in him joy and peace and approach,
access to God. That's very evidence. that you
have faith, you know God. You wouldn't come. Abel wouldn't
have come that way. He'd have come this way, like
Cain. But the very fact Johnny came that way indicates God taught
him something. That's right. Spurgeon said, that's one of
the evidences that I'm saved. I love to hear me preach. I love what I preach, don't you?
I love what I preach. I love what I preach. You love
what we preach, don't you? These elders preach it. You just
love it, love it. Why? That's the evidence you
say. Otherwise, you wouldn't love it. You'd be bored to tears. Most people are. Here's the next
thing. Faith walked. By faith, here,
this is good here. By faith, Enoch was translated. He should not see death. And
he wasn't found because God translated him. But before his translation,
he had this testimony. He pleased God. How did he please
God? Verse 6 tells you, without faith,
it's impossible to please God. He pleased God. You know, when
Moses spoke of Enoch in Genesis 5, both verse 22 and 24, he simply
said, he walked with God. He walked with God. Enoch walked with God. You say
Enoch was a hermit in a monastery. No, he wasn't. He was a man,
a well-known married man, who had lots of children. You go
read him sometimes. He had lots of children. Lots
of children. He was the daddy of Methuselah.
Lots of children. He was a laboring man. He was
a working man. He was a farmer. He had sheep.
He had goats. He had milk cows. He had all
the, he was a working man. You don't support 12, 14 children
without working. They didn't have welfare back
then. Enoch was a working man. Enoch
was a laboring man. Enoch was a family man. Enoch
was a man. Enoch was an old man. He lived
to be an old man. He lived to be 365 years old. And he walked with God all those
years. And one time he went out walking
and never came back, Ronnie. He just walked on to glory. I'll tell you this. His walk
was a walk of faith. He believed God. It wasn't a
walk of sight. It was a walk of faith. It wasn't a walk of
law. They didn't even have the law
then. How did Enoch walk with God without a rule of life? You
ever think about that? They tell me now that the believer,
that he's got to study all these laws so he'll have a rule to
walk by. Well, Enoch never had those laws. He walked with God. He walked right on in the glory.
But his walk was a walk of love, not law. He wasn't doing what
he did because he had to. He did what he did because he
wanted to. It wasn't a walk of works, it was a walk of grace.
It wasn't a... Now watch it. He wasn't running. He's walking. I go down to the park to get
my exercise. These fellas come by all red in the face and sweat
pouring, you know, and their veins standing out like this.
Just running about 30 miles an hour, you know. I say, you're
a miserable looking fella to me. Boy, I tell you, you look
miserable. I'm just strolling along, I'll
feed the squirrels a little bit, you know, and I'll watch them
run up a tree. I'm resting. I'm walking. That's right. I'll watch the robins come down
and get something to eat. That's the way we do what we
run. We walk. Just walk. And either it wasn't rushing
or running, he's resting. Walking with God. That's something significant
there. Moses said he walked with God,
wasn't rushing, resting. And he didn't walk with God for
a little while. Salvation is not a fad. A lot of times when people come
to church and won't join up, I want to tell Martha, when you
put the name in a row, write it in pencil so we can erase
it without much trouble. Don't put it in ink. Let's wait
two or three or five years and see if they're going to hang
around. So often they don't. But I tell
you, if a person meets God, you can write it in indelible ink.
Is that the right word, indelible? That means it can't be erased,
isn't it? God brought her there, she'll
be there when he calls her away. That's the only way she'll leave,
is for him to call her. You're not going to run her off. That's right. He walked with
God for 365 years. And then he went to glory. That's
the walk of faith. Look at this next verse. By faith
Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear."
How do we know that Noah believed God? Well, when God spoke to
him about the flood, he moved with fear and built an ark. He
obeyed God. He obeyed Him. See that? He obeyed God, prepared an ark
to the saving of his house by which he condemned the world,
became heir of the righteousness which was by faith. Look at verse
8, "...by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out unto
a place which he should have to receive an inheritance, he
obeyed." You see that? Here in the book of Romans, it
says Abraham was justified by faith without works. Over in
the book of James, James says in chapter 2, "...was not Abraham
our father justified by works when he offered Isaac?" You say,
is that a contradiction? Not at all. Paul is talking about
the justification of his soul. His soul was justified, redeemed,
cleansed, accepted in Christ without any work. Over in the
book of James, Abraham justified his faith. By faith his soul
was justified, but it was a faith that was justified in evidence
by his obedience. That's right. You can't separate
faith and obedience. You see, one of the key words
here, look at verse 8 again. By faith Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place which he should have to receive
an inheritance, he believed God. How do we know he believed God?
He went out. That's how we know. That's how. Abraham was a man of faith. How
do you know? He obeyed God. He acted. Now here's the key,
not knowing whether he went. Abraham obeyed, not knowing where
God was taking him. And Abraham believed he would
have a son, not knowing how God would accomplish it. And Abraham obeyed God when he
said, put Ishmael out, and he didn't know why. He didn't understand
fully why. And he obeyed God when he told
him to sacrifice Isaac, and he didn't know why there either.
So faith obeys God, not knowing where, not knowing how, not knowing
why. But now watch this. Let me give
you, let me go on down and give you something before I quit.
And by faith, verse 9, he sojourned in the land of promise, as in
a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles, tents with Isaac
and Jacob, the heirs with him with the same promise. For he
looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and
maker is God. And through faith also Saviour
herself received strength to conceive and was deliberate of
a child when she was past age." Now watch this, "...because she
judged him faithful, who had promised. Judge him faithful who promised. I don't know where, but I know
he does, and he's faithful who promises. I don't know how, but
he does, and he's faithful that promised. And I don't know why. A lot of times, do you? But he
knows why, and he's faithful that promised. He's faithful. And I believe him. He doesn't
have to give account of his matters to me. Martin Luther said one time,
I don't need a God that I can understand. That's the last thing I need
is a God I can understand. But I'll tell you this, the God
I need and want and love and glad we have is a God who's faithful,
who promises, who's faithful. And I will show you one more
thing. Therefore sprang there even of him, of one, and him
as good as dead, as many as the stars of the sky and multitude.
That's talking about the saved people. And as the saying, which
are by the seashore innumerable, children of Abraham by faith.
And these all died in faith, not having received the promises
fulfilled. They were looking to Christ who
was to come. He hadn't come yet, but they
believed he would. But having seen them afar off,
and they were persuaded of these promises, and they embraced them,
and they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on
this earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly they seek a country. We seek a country. We seek a
city whose builder and maker is God, which has foundations
And here's your perseverance of faith. And truly, if they
had been mindful of that country from which they came out, if
that's where their mind still was and mind still were, that's
where their thoughts and minds and affections and desires are still
in that pagan country where they could have gone back. That's
what it said. They might have had opportunity
to go back. But when God brought them out of darkness and out
of the kingdom of darkness, their minds aren't there anymore. They
set their mind and affection on things above. That's right.
And there's no desire to go back. There's no desire to go back.
We desire, verse 16, a better country, a heavenly country. Wherefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city."
Faith. Lord, increase our faith. The Lord prayed for Peter that
his faith wouldn't fail. Let's sing a closing hymn, number
327. We'll sing it to another tune,
Mike. But oh, for a faith that will
not shrink oppressed by every foe that will not tremble on
the brink of any earthly woe. We believe, like the Savior said,
I count him faithful who promises. He will fulfill every promise.