Sermon: Faith Defined

As you take a copy of God's word this morning, we're gonna turn open to the book of Hebrews as we continue our way through that book. If you're using a Pew Bible, you can turn right to it. Hebrews 11, page 1007, uh, there in the Pew Bible and this morning as we continue our way through this book, we are beginning what is arguably the most famous chapter in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 11. And this morning we'll look at Hebrews chapter 11

verses one through three.

Hebrews chapter 11 verses one through three this morning, 1007. If you're using a pew Bible, let's pray before we open the word together.

Father, we confess this morning that we are dumb and that we are blind and that we are deaf apart from the work of your spirit in our lives. We are like blind men, men trying to stare on the brightness of the sun or deaf women trying to listen to a symphony orchestra apart from your spirit working in our midst this morning. So we pray that you would make our minds alert that you would unstop our ears, that you would open the eyes

of our hearts, you would make our hearts malleable and soft by your grace and according to the work of your spirit that you would help us to hear your voice this morning above all the cacophony of voices that fill our heads and we pray all this in the strong name of Christ Jesus, the living word, his name we pray, amen. Hebrews chapter 11 verses one through three. This is the holy iner sufficient word of God. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for

the conviction of things not seen for by it the people of old received their commendation By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. So the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever. Thanks. Speak to God. Amen.

Let's remind ourselves this morning, think about the context here. The writer just in the previous chapter in verse 38, he has told these Hebrew Christians that the righteous shall live by faith. And then in the very next verse in verse 39 there in chapter 10, he tells them that you have this faith and because you have this faith, you will not shrink back. You will not be destroyed. Rather, he tells them that they will persevere in this faith

they will even preserve. He says their own souls because they have this faith, he's reminding them that as they, if you'll remember, they are facing the onset of persecution because of their faith and they're looking on the horizon and they see in the not too distant future that even more persecution is coming because of their faith. And so they may be led to the conclusion that faith is the problem and he's reminding them that faith is not your problem.

Faith is the answer. It's not your problem. And he says that to us this morning. It's a good reminder for us I think especially as we get ready to head into another political season and we will be prone to think that politics or government or we could say isolationism or activism or on we go, that that is the answer. It's not the answer. The answer is faith. We are people that are be dominated by faith. Not headlines, not politics, not our ethnicity,

not the color of our skin, not the language we speak, we're to be people that are dominated by faith. Faith is to shape and is to mold and is to drive you and I and everything that we are Faith.

What is faith? Well, we often quote this opening verse here in chapter 11 as the definition for faith and it is a definition of sorts. But what I want you to understand that this is not a comprehensive definition that you get here in verse one. I'm gonna spend more time on defining faith, especially next week as we look at the doctrine of justification by faith. And so we'll spend more time on it this week, but what I want to do this week is just look at the the

limited definition that he gives of it just in this first verse. First three verses of chapter 11. And I wanna do it along three lines this morning. First, faith sees second faith receives and third faith understands. So faith sees, faith receives and faith understands. And we're gonna look at it in those three ways this morning. First that faith sees, faith sees more than simply the visible verse. One, faith is the assurance of things, hope

for the conviction of things not seen. It's the assurance of things hoped for. What's hoped for well, what's hoped for is something that is in the future, something that is down the road that you can't quite see yet it takes, he's saying faith, looking forward to the future. He says it takes what is future and it's bringing that future thing that you're placing hope in that future thing. It's bringing it home as a present reality to the mind

and to the heart. It's bringing it into the present. Faith knows He's saying that the promises of God about the future are certain what God has promised will be fulfilled. He's saying that this faith, the Christian faith is not a kind of wishful thinking. It's not just a a kind of hoping. He says it is the assurance, the substance of things hoped for. Faith takes future things, the promises of God about the future and it brings it home to the mind

and to the heart and to the very soul. And it impacts the present.

It becomes concrete and things hope for become as real to us as what we see with our eyes. This this pulpit, the pew that you sit in, you say, well that that is very real to me. The person of Christian faith says the the promises of God about the future are just as real to me in the present I see them.

We know what things, what what, what future things. We have assurance we we know with conviction, we have assurance. We know that Christ will return upon the clouds with the angels and the archangels 'cause God's promised it. We know that when he returns that we will be raised from the grave our bodies and shall reunite with our souls in the air. We know it because he's promised it. We know that when he returns that he shall set all things right,

that he shall judge iniquity and he shall bring justice to bear upon all things we know it. We know that we shall be glorified even as he is glorified. We know that he will make his home among us forever because he promised it. We know that we will reign and rule with him over the new heavens and the new earth and there will be no more pain and no more crying and no more dying because he promised it that future promise, that reality is as real to us

as this pulpit is real. Could even say more real because he promised it. I see it to virtue in our day to be uncertain. It's like on this side of kind of postmodernism breaking its way into our culture that the one inexcusable is that you are certain about things you were told. Be told that you're proud, that you're arrogant. That how, how do you know no one really knows. We're told that we're to keep an open mind all the time

and we're not really to be too certain about anything. You have your truth, I have my truth and we just kind of go along. Truth is something that's fungible that no we're to have a open mind until we come upon truth. And then once we've encountered the truth of God, our our, our our mind is to no longer be open about those things. I love GK Chesterton famous quote of his, he said, merely having an open mind is nothing.

The object of opening the mind as of opening the mouth is to shut it again on something solid. You have an open mind until you find truth and then you shut it. You shut it upon that truth. Humility, yes, wishy-washy. No we we see things by his grace. He opens up as the apostle will say, the eyes of our hearts. So now that we see these things of truth that he is promised and so I receive them in humility. There is not pride here.

There is not arrogance here because it is only by his grace that I have seen it. But by his grace I know this to be true and because of his grace I know it to be true. So there must be conviction. There's assurance.

Now it's true that many of us struggle with doubt. I've told you before that, oh my goodness, the first probably five years of my Christian life, this was the thing I struggled with more than anything else, was just, oh, a constant sense of doubt. And we all go through different seasons of of doubt and the Christian life about different things. There's this constant temptation for us to see what, what only I I see

and I don't know all things in the Christian faith with equal certainty, but faith is is always to be growing. I'm always seeking to, to have more certainty, to even be more assured about the promises of God and what he has said. To grow in this faith has to be a constant pursuit. It's not to be shied away from we're to see more than simply the visible with certainty. Calvin said this about seeing that which our eyes cannot take in.

He said the spirit of God shows us hidden things, the knowledge of which cannot reach our senses. We are told of the resurrection of the blessed. But meantime we are involved in corruption. We're declared to be just and sin dwells within us. We hear that we are blessed, but meantime we are overwhelmed by untold miseries. We are promised an abundance of good things, but we are often hungry and thirsty. God proclaims that he will come to us immediately

but seems to be def to our cries and that is reality.

That's just living in this world.

And then he asked this, what would happen to us? We did not rely on our hope. And if our minds did not emerge above the world, out of the midst of darkness, through the shining word of God and by his spirit, faith is therefore rightly called the substance of things which are still the object of hope and the evidence of things not seen.

This world, this visible world wants to discourage you in every way

from believing the promises of God.

This visible world in every way is trying to speak into your ear

and to get you to believe what you see more than what is unseen.

The constant temptation

we have to look with the eyes of faith. You have to keep looking with the eyes of faith and you have to listen with ears of faith. You'll notice how closely the faith is, is tied to the word of God. In this chapter 11 and throughout the scriptures it's, it's the word that tells us what, what God has promised. It's the word that tells us what is truly true beyond all other things. It tells us what God has done. You can't see what he's done,

but it tells us, it tells us what he's doing. You can't always see what he's doing, but it tells us what he's doing. You can't see what he's going to do and yet it tells us what he's going to do to trust the word.

And for the Christian, this is going to sound very odd for those of you that don't know Christ in this room for the Christian, this becomes more reliable to me than what I see. This, this is more trustworthy than what I'm experiencing because my experience can be clouded. My eyesight is not always clear, hence my glasses. And even with my glasses, this is always true without air always

we can't see what he did before, but we know it to be true. We can't see his activity now, but we're convinced we haven't yet seen what he promised us to come. But we know we see more than simply the visible. As the apostle says over and over, he opens the eyes of our hearts. We see what is unseeable.

I had a few teenagers corner me I think last week after a service and they had some good questions, uh, right questions. And one of them was this. They said, uh, pastor do, do you actually believe that there are angels and demons at work in this world? I said, I not only believe that they're at work in this world. I believe that they're at work in this room right now.

There's much more going on than you can see. I would even argue there's more going on that you don't see than what you actually see. You think about that passage in two King six where Elijah is asleep and you'll remember the king of Syria sent down an army to capture Elijah. And so they have surrounded the city of Dothan and the servant of Elijah rises early in the morning and he looks out and he sees all the city surrounded

by these chariots and by horses. And he wakes up Elijah and he says, what are we going to do? He's afraid. Why is he afraid? 'cause of what he sees.

But Elijah sees more than he sees.

And Elijah of course says that famous line to him where he says to him that there do not be afraid for those who are with us or more than those who are against us. And you remember he prays that the Lord would open his servant's eyes and his servant's eyes open And what does he see? He sees that surrounding this enemy army. Up in the hills around them are chariots and all kinds of chariots of fire and horses. There is a huge angelic army that surrounds that army.

There's more to be seen than can be seen. Did did that servant of Elijah see well? Well yes. He saw what was visible and no, he didn't see what was invisible.

Faith sees more than the visible faith has the conviction of things not seen.

And I remind you of this. There are many of us in this room right now that are just in a mess, mess

a mess and that your marriage is falling apart a mess. That your family is falling apart, a mess that your friends have abandoned you, a mess, that you've lost your job, a mess, that your finances are in the gutter, a mess that you're suffering bodily a mess, that you're suffering through disease, that you're dying. It's just a mess.

And the visible would say to you, and the world says to you, you're isolated, you're alone. You're destitute, you're forsaken.

What it says. And that's why we get discouraged and that's why we get depressed and that's why we get anxious.

There is much more. His promise is more real than what you see than what you're experiencing. His promise never to leave you nor forsake you. That's what this writer of Hebrews is writing to these Christians. He's saying, look, you are fearful, okay? You're suffering persecution, but let me remind you of the promises of God. You have faith in this God and he has you.

He has you. You'll be preserved in faith.

So he says to every single one of us this morning, he's got you.

There's much more going on than the visible. He never fails to pull his promises. See more than what is visible like the psalmist says, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Trust what he says to you in his word, faith says, I trust and I see that he's good.

Second and more briefly, faith sees second faith receives verse two. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By what? By what did they receive? The commendation. By faith. Faith receives. Faith sees, faith receives. Most of us have been in some kind of relationship. Maybe it's with a boss, maybe it's with an employer, maybe it's with a spouse, maybe it's with a child, maybe it's with a parent. Maybe it's with a friend where you're just not quite sure

what is it that they want from me, right? And we'll say that. We'll even say that with words. I I just don't understand what they want from me. There's no such confusion with God. He's very clear. What he wants is you to believe. What he wants is for you to have faith, to look to him. In faith, this is what they were rewarded for faith. They received commendation by faith. As a writer will say in verse six, and we'll get to in a few weeks, without faith,

it is impossible to please God. Impossible. You can't please God. Apart from faith, and this is actually very good news, it's great news because if we were to line everybody up in this room, there are different kinds of abilities. There are different kinds of gifts. There are different kinds of strengths that each of us have. Some of us have an easier life than others have. Some of us have more help in our lives than others have.

Some of us had an easier start than others have. But you see, he, you don't receive a commendation from God based upon your abilities, based upon your gifts, based upon any of that, but based upon faith. And faith is a gift as Paul says in Ephesians two. It's a gift that is extended to you and we receive that, that faith and then by that faith we receive the Lord Jesus Christ and his bloodshed for us. By that faith, we receive his strength and his power.

By that faith we store treasures in heaven. By that faith, he commends us. By faith, faith receives. Faith sees faith receives, and finally faith understands. It truly understands.

You'll notice the writer He, he's not talking about a general kind of faith. He's not talking about an absent kind of minded faith. He's very particular it. It's not belief in the power of belief, it's faith. He says in the living God, this is the writer's point. Verse three, by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God. So that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. He's asserting that our hope in God, this God,

it's not pollyannish, it's not wishful thinking. When you and I have faith in this God assurance of things, hope for it's based upon his word, it's based upon this, it's conviction of things not seen based upon this. And he's saying to us it is this, this same word, this word that we have conviction of. It's by this same word that he created all things, everything. What you are believing in is the word of his power. It created everything.

Accusation is often made that that faith or religion or belief in God is a crutch by which weak-minded people limp through the sufferings of this life with listen, God is not a crutch.

A writer of Hebrews hears pointing out that this belief in this God is a God who made all things, who made all things out of absolutely nothing.

Where else would you turn?

There's a reason that our bibles begin the way that they do that when you open the word of God to the very first page that it begins and it says in the beginning, okay, what? What was in the beginning? What did it look like in the beginning? In the beginning was God, that's it. Nothing else in the beginning was God. God and no, no and just God. If there's anything else that is there with God, then that thing is infinite.

That thing is eternal. That thing itself is God. No. In the beginning was God.

And God created everything. Everything. Visible, invisible, everything. Animate, inanimate everything that you can see and you can't see everything that is in heaven above and that is on the earth beneath and that is under the earth. Everything. Everything you can possibly imagine He created. That means that all things are from him. That means that all things are created through him and that ultimately means that all things are created for him.

Everything.

And God creates everything by the word of his power.

If all things are created for him and exist by and through him, as CS Lewis wrote, we may ignore, but we can know where he evade the presence of God. Why? Because the world is crowded with him and faith understands that. Truly understands that

faith shapes our living.

You. You can't help you, you can't help. It doesn't matter who you are, you can't help it you. You exist for something. It's just part of being a a person you can't help but do. So there's something that's keeping you going even in the moment right now. I don't know what it is. It could be that it's that next promotion at work. It could be that you want to raise good children. It could be that you want to maintain your marriage.

It could be that you're living for retirement. It could be that you're living for that game this afternoon. It could be that you're living for that next nap, but you're living for something. There's something that keeps you going, something that shapes you, something that motivates you, something that drives you not just to throw in the towel and give it all up something. And what the writer of Hebrews is pointing out is

all these things created

all these things derivative from him. Why is it that we would place our confidence and our trust in these things instead of the one who created all things?

Now he, he alone existed and exists and forever exists. He alone is the one that has no beginning and thus has no end. It doesn't mean that these other things are unimportant, it just means that they're less important. He's saying one thing rises above all the rest. One thing is worthy of your trust and that one thing puts all the rest and right perspective. It is that which has no beginning, that which created all things God.

Everything else lived in light of God.

His word created all things out of nothing. And that word is worth trusting. Why would you trust in the things that he created when he, he speaks these words to you.

Trust this word

has the kind of power to create old things.

That's something worth trusting. They seize. It receives and it truly understands. Puts everything in right perspective. Lemme give you three quick applications. First, pursue faith. Pursue faith. One of the greatest prayers I think we can pray for ourselves, for those around us, for each other is what the disciples crowd to Jesus there in John 16 when, or John 17 when they say, uh, Lord, increase our faith, increase our faith.

Or when that, that father of the child that is suffering and Jesus says to him, he says, do you believe And that Father says, back to my belief, help me in my unbelief. That's a good prayer. We, we want to have faith. That's assurance and confidence of things hoped for of conviction of things not seen. We want to have faith and we want to keep growing in that faith. And so you have to pursue it. You can't be content where you're at.

So you pray for an increase in faith. We want to grow in degrees of faith throughout all of our days, but not just pray for it. We, we are to be chasing after it. So we read for it. We read it's promises for it, but not just read. We we, we have to like Christian when he is running away from the city of destruction and pilgrim's progress, we gotta stop up our ears and and stop the voices that would try and steer us away from greater measures of faith

that would get us just to focus on the visible and to forget hearing about the invisible have seen with the eyes of her heart yet to pursue faith. It's never wasted effort. Second, ignore the mocking of detractors from faith in God.

Ignore the mockers. Faith understands if you have faith, you understand. You understand better than the mockers do of what is really true. You better understand. So their mocking cannot and should not deter you. It shouldn't stymie your faith. If I'm with a three-year-old and the three-year-old looks up at me and says, pastor Jason, I don't like the way you talk. It's boring. I'm not going to talk the rest of my days as a three-year-old.

Why? Because I know more. I understand if the three-year-old says to me, there is a monster under my bed, you are so silly for not believing it. I'm not believing there's a monster under the bed. I know more. I understand now. I have never looked at a three-year-old with pride or arrogance. Why? Because I understand just because I've grown more the grace of God. The Christian never looks at the un, the non-Christian and says with pride and arrogance.

I just can't understand why. They don't understand. We don't look at them with disdain,

but we also aren't swayed by their arguments. Silly. You understand more than they understand. By the grace of God, you don't get deterred by three-year-olds.

Lastly, trust the eyes of your heart more than the eyes of your head.

You must, you must trust the eyes of your heart more than the eyes that are in your head.

We do not see all visibly. In fact, again, I would argue that most of what has occurred in our world is not that which is visible.

That which is most lasting is not that which is visible.

God's promises are not visible, but they're no less real.

We trust God. We trust the truth of his word. We open our eyes, the eyes of our heart. We are a people of faith. People of faith in the living God who created all things out of nothing by the word of His power. This word works. This word is worth leaning into. This word is worth trusting beyond everything that you see. Everything because it's his promise.

Faith sees, faith receives and faith understands. Truly understands. We pray for us.

Father, we are thankful that you are a God of promises. A God who fulfills his promises, thankful that we see that in the word that we have heard it as it is read to us and as is preached to us. You are a God who is faithful to the very end. We're thankful that you are a God who even now works by your promises and that you are a God who will bring all of your promises to fruition. So please help us, oh Lord, be a people of faith

and increasing faith. May we look to you as the one sure foundation, you as the one true entity that is worthy of our everlasting trust. We look to you even now with the eyes of faith in Christ. Holy name, we pray that great man of faith, the Lord Jesus. Amen.