Some of the hymns which we sing
only around this time of the year were not written necessarily
to be only sung at Christmas time, but that's the way things
have developed over the years. Joy to the World, that's a hymn
I like to sing all the year long. Joy to the World. Let's turn
in our Bibles this evening to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, and I want
us to look at the first three verses in this chapter. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it
the elders obtained a good report. 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. The way men
divided our Bibles into chapters and verses leaves between chapter
10 and chapter 11 this matter of faith. If you look back to
chapter 10, verse 38 and 39, The writer said, now the just
shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall
have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw
back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of
the soul. Now, as we begin chapter 11,
we are given many examples of men and women who were the just. and they lived by faith. In other
words, they were justified by faith, trusting in the Lord Jesus
Christ as their Lord and as their Savior, the promised Messiah. And they not only trusted, they
began to know the Lord, but they continued. They lived by faith. And if you look down in chapter
11 and verse 13, they died in the faith. These all died in faith. I was watching a program recently
and the man said, I lost my faith. And I thought to myself, a faith
that can be lost is not a faith that God has given. It's not
the faith that is the gift of God. It's not saving faith. If
a person can lose their faith. When God gives faith and that
person is enabled then to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, come
to know him as his Lord and Savior, he's going to continue to know
Christ, continue to believe, and yes, he will eventually die
in the faith, just like these that are mentioned here in this
11th chapter. But now these first three verses
tonight, first, we're given a definition of faith, verse one. Now, one
of the writers that I have read as we've studied through this
letter of Hebrews, he said this, the pinnacle, that is the top,
the pinnacle of the writers, the writer of Hebrews, the pinnacle
of the writer's theological argument in this whole letter concerns
the new covenant. The new covenant, which is mentioned
back in Hebrews chapter eight and verses seven through 13. And then of course it's mentioned
again in chapter 10, but in chapter eight, verse seven, we read,
for if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no
place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with
them, he saith, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I
will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with
the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead
them out of the land of Egypt. Because they continued not in
my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this
is a covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind,
write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and
they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every
man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the
Lord. For all shall know me from the least to the greatest. There's no mention in those verses
of scripture about faith when he recites to us the new covenant. There's no mention of faith,
but yet we know that faith is a very integral part of this
new covenant. On God's part, we come into the
covenant. How is a person brought into
the covenant? But on God's part, first of all,
by election, and then of course by calling and by regeneration. But on our part, we come in when
we are regenerated and given faith, we believe in Christ. We know Christ. He said, they
shall not teach every man his neighbor. Know ye the Lord, for
all shall know him. When we are brought into this
covenant, as far as by our experience, we have faith. We believe in
Christ. Let me point us back to a verse,
if you will, in Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 55. Beginning in Isaiah chapter 55,
verses one through three. Three, ho, every one that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye,
buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfeth not, hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which
is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your
ear, and come unto me, here, and your soul shall live, and
I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies
of David." The everlasting covenant we know was made with all of
God's children in Christ as their head from everlasting. But when
a person is called, effectual calling, when a person is called
by the Spirit of God, it is then made by the Holy Spirit to trust
in Christ, given faith to trust in Christ, to believe in Christ.
So we make a covenant with Him. By faith, we enter in and experience
this covenant of grace, this everlasting covenant. Now, if
you go back with me to our text, there are two things mentioned
in this definition of faith. The writer connects two aspects
of the new covenant. There are things hoped for and
things not seen. things hoped for and things not
seen. And remember the Apostle Paul
in Romans 8 and verse 24, he uses these two things when speaking
about salvation, about a person being saved. He said, for we
are saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does
he yet hope for? So we see these two parts, if
I might use that term, that which is, which is, are things hoped
for and the evidence of things not seen. The things connected
with the old covenant, they were things that were seen. They were
things which were seen. And it's probably true that those
to whom this letter was directed at first, that may have been
one of their problems. They were having a hard time
turning loose from things which are seen to laying hold by faith
on things which are invisible, things which are not seen. For
example, they were accustomed to a visible temple. Now, when
the law was given, of course, it was a tabernacle. But we know
over a period of time, when Solomon became king, he built that beautiful
temple. Then that temple was destroyed
by the Babylonians. When they came back out of 70
years' captivity, they were given permission by the king of Persia,
Cyrus, to rebuild the temple. And they began to build. And
they built on it a long time. Remember when our Lord said,
destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up. He
was speaking of the temple of his body, but they thought he
was talking about that physical temple. And they knew it had
been years and years in the building. And Herod, who was the king at
this time, he had beautified that temple during his reign
to a large extent. It was a beautiful temple in
the time when Christ was here. But that was visible. You could
see it. It had gold, from what I remember,
had gold on the top of it some way where the sun shined on it. You could see it for a great
distance off. It was visible. But now, this
new covenant, We're dealing with things which are invisible, things
which are hoped for. And this place, if you look back
to chapter 9, the invisible, is a heavenly sanctuary. That
was an earthly sanctuary. A sanctuary connected with the
Old Covenant was a sanctuary that was visible, a sanctuary
that might be seen. But now with the new covenant,
the Lord Jesus Christ, look here in chapter 9 and verse 11. But Christ being come, and high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
which we know He has entered into that heavenly sanctuary. We can't see that. We can see
the heavens where the stars are, but we can't see that place where
God has his throne. It is a place. It is a place
because the Lord Jesus Christ said, I go to prepare a place
for you. We can't see it. And the same
thing about the sacrifices. That old covenant had those animal
sacrifices every day. They could go if they wanted
to, I suppose, and they could get there early in the morning
and later in the evening, three o'clock in the afternoon, and
they could see a lamb slain on the day of atonement. They could
see that whole ceremony. But Christ, the sacrifice that
is associated with this new covenant is invisible. We can't say that. We've never seen His blood. Not
at all. They were accustomed to seeing
these sacrifices. Sacrifices of animals, which
we know their blood could never remove sin. But all of those
sacrifices, and there were many of them, they were all replaced
by His one offering for sin forever. And then they were accustomed
to seeing a great high priest, a great high priest. I was reading
just the other day and some of the history between the testaments. And still again, I read where
Alexander the great, when he came with his armies, he came
up to Jerusalem and the high priest went out to meet him and,
and speak to him dressed in that beautiful robe. And Alexander
was so impressed that he did not destroy the temple. He did not ransack Jerusalem. It was a beautiful robe. But we have a great high priest,
but we don't see him. We see him by faith, but we know
that he's there at the right hand of God. He's there tonight
making intercession. Now you and I, we are aware that
many false religions, many false religions that go under the name
of Christianity, they pander to the natural man's desire for
that which is visible, for that which is tangible. They pander
to man's desire. And all men, pretty much by nature,
desire to see something, to feel something, to smell something.
What's the purpose in these services in places like I'm talking about
to burn the candles? What does that have to do when
we have electric lights which give much better light than candles
ever did? What's the purpose of burning
candles? And you ask people and they say,
well, it just makes me feel good. Or the burning of incense. Now
when you read the Old Testament, that law that was given At Mount
Sinai to Moses, you see that incense was very, very important. In fact, there was a death penalty
attached to anyone who would make that incense. It was a special
recipe that was only to be used with the worship in the tabernacle.
But today they go around burning incense, walking around what
they call an altar there. We have an altar. But our altar's
in heaven. It's not down at the front of
some church building. But what I'm saying is, religion,
many marks of religion pander to man's natural desires to see
something, something that's visible. But everything about the new
covenant is invisible. And that's the definition of
faith that the apostle gives us. Now faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. This emphasizes to you and I
tonight the need of faith. It is faith that enables us to
see the invisible. We see Christ. We see Him, but
we see Him by faith. We don't see Him with these natural
eyes, but we see Him. It's faith that enables us to
see these invisible things. I see Him by faith at the right
hand of God tonight, making intercession for us. We've never seen into
heaven. I've never seen into heaven.
I don't think you have either. But we know by faith that it
is a real place. Remember years ago when that
cosmonaut, wasn't it, the first man up into space, a Russian,
he came back and he said, I've been into the heavens and I didn't
see God. That proved to him, I guess there
isn't a God. The heavens, he just got up into
part of the heavens. I mean, the heavens, the heaven
of heavens, where God's throne is, the natural man doesn't. see into that place, but we see
it by faith. We know it's a real place. We did not and we never have
seen the Lord Jesus Christ with these physical eyes. We've never
seen him. We didn't see him dying upon
the cross, but we know by faith and we see by faith. We see by
faith. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And by faith we see. We see Christ. We see, we know that in the fullness
of the time, miracle of miracles, God sent forth his son, made
of a woman, made under the law to redeem us from the curse of
the law. We see that. He did not come. He did come rather to conquer
sin, death, and the grave. And we have never seen him in
heaven making intercession for us, but faith gives substance. It gives substance for the things
hoped for. Look at verse 27 here in chapter
11. This is pointed out about Moses. In verse 27, it says, by faith,
he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. Now notice,
for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. He saw by faith,
just like you do, just like I do. By faith, we see. Also, turn
to 1 Peter, look over here at 1 Peter 1, in verse 8. 1 Peter 1 and verse 8, whom having
not seen, we've never seen Christ, but we love him. We love him,
why? Because we've seen him by faith. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Faith allows us to see spiritual
realities and to trust in the reality of those things. Now
a definition, I said here's a definition of faith, but remember this,
a definition of saving faith must include trust. It must include trust if it's
saving faith. The devils, James tells us, the
devils believe and tremble. They're not saved. So it's not
only seeing, it is seeing, but it is also trusting. Trusting,
we see and we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith enables us
to see and to trust. We trust in Christ, we trust
in His finished work on the cross. Second, verse two. we are told
that it is by faith that the elders obtained a good report. Now, the elders spoken of in
this verse are not the elders that are normally spoken of in
these New Testament letters. The elders in the New Testament
letters were pastors, pastors and teachers. But these elders
here refers to the Old Testament believers, those who who lived
and believed in Christ before he actually came in the flesh. And a few of them are mentioned
in this chapter. And they're not all men. They're
not all men, because women also are mentioned. And they were
not all necessarily old in age. Some of them were younger people. The one thing true of them all,
whether they were man or woman, young or old, the one thing that
was true of them all, and that is they look forward by faith
to the coming of the promised one and they trusted him and
his work of redemption. That's how they were saved. They
received a good report, a good report. Everybody likes to get
a good report card when you're in high school or when you're
in school. They got a good report. They got a good report. How?
By faith. By trusting in the one who was
to come and his finished work. Now the third verse, we see we
understand by faith two things about creation. First of all,
we understand by faith that the worlds were framed by the Word
of God. Now, we're all familiar with
the fact that the eternal Son of God is called the Word, the
Logos, and by Him all things were created. We're told that,
you know this verse very well in John chapter one, In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God, and without Him was not anything made that was made. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. Now that's
speaking of the eternal Son of God, the Logos, the Word that
was in the beginning with God, the Word who is God. Also look
in Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1 and verse
16. For by Him, well let me begin
reading up above that, speaking of Christ. In verse 12, giving
thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the
kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his
blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, and notice,
for by him That is, the eternal Son of God. By Him 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 or things. All things were created by Him
and for Him. So this verse of Scripture tells
us that by faith, through faith, we understand that the worlds
were created by the Word of God, but this word here in our text
in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 3 is not the word logos. It is
the word which means utterance. Utterance. We understand by faith
that in the work of creation God spoke. If you look in Genesis
chapter 1 sometimes, and just look at the several times, I
believe it's six times, where we read, God said, God said,
God said, God said, let there be, and there was. So this verse of scripture here
is reminding us that by faith, we didn't see the creation, of
course, neither did any other living man, or any man period. We sang that hymn a while ago
about the angels singing on creation's morning. The angels were created
before man was. But God, we understand by faith
two things about creation. We understand that everything
that was created the space and time and everything because there
was a point when there was nothing but God. That's hard to take
in, isn't it? That's just above our mind's
ability to really comprehend. But there was a point when there
was nothing. There wasn't space, there wasn't
time, there were no stars, no universe, nothing except God. And God was happy. God didn't
need anything. He didn't. He's self-sufficient
in himself. And yet by faith, we understand
that he spoke and he spoke the worlds into existence. And number
two, by faith, we understand that the world was made out of
nothing. You read in Genesis chapter one
and verse two, we read that in the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void
and darkness over the deep. That we read in Genesis chapter
one and verse two. That everything that was created
was created out of nothing. Matter, this is what some of
the philosophers, the Greek philosophers taught, that matter is also eternal,
but God alone is eternal. And what we see and what we understand
by faith about creation is that out of nothing, God created all
that there is. He created by speaking the word. And isn't it interesting to say
that not only did he create all things, but he created all things
for himself. For himself. Now, I should remind
us as we think about faith, that faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. The apostle Paul tells us in
Romans chapter 10, faith cometh by hearing. We hear the word
of God and God, the Holy Spirit creates and works and gives us
faith. That's one reason it's so important
for every believer to read the Word of God and to hear the Word
of God, because faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen. May the Lord bless this time
that we've had here tonight. Brother Bill, you come, if you
will, and lead us in a hymn.