Really Believing What you Believe…
We have studied Hebrews for many weeks now. We have wandered through the foot hills of faith as we have learned about the nature and person of Jesus. We have struggled through the long and difficult climb on the rugged slopes of personal spiritual growth and we have celebrated the perfect covenant that Jesus established through his death on the cross. Now we travel down the other side of that mountain into the valley of hope and faith.
This week we’ll be learning from Hebrews 11 – the greatest writing on the subject of faith in the entire scriptures. With faith comes a different way of living. The anxious need to hungrily seek after something – anything – that gives some sort of significance is replaced by the resolute desire to live for God. By faith – everything is different. Nothing is off limits. Anything can happen. Any place can be our destination. Only God is constant – all else is variable – and it’s ok.
You see if you really believe what you believe – it changes the way you live life.
But what is faith – really?
Today we will look at Hebrews 11:1 and discover the very best definition that has ever been given.
Faith is being Sure and Certain
1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
Hebrews 11:1-2
This is the definition but what does it mean in real everyday life?
Faith is best defined not by words but by life. Last week we started with this series the first of several video testimonies. Last week we heard from Don Flintoff. This week listen to what Sheila Miles has to say…
When you Really Believe what You Believe
1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
Hebrews 11:1-2
Norm Jasmund has shared his faith not with words but with the testimony of his life which is exactly what happens when you really believe what you believe. Everything changes… including our understanding of this world
By Faith… We Understand
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
By faith we understand that God created our world. Now some people believe that such faith is superstition and foolishness. But I believe that an intelligent design demands an intelligent designer and that such faith is actually less incredulous and more rational than the irrational faith required to believe in a godless evolution creating life from lifeless matter – which doesn’t even answer the question of where the matter comes from.
We don’t have time this morning to go into all of the evidences that point to the rationality and reasonableness of faith in our creator God. For now I’ll just say that I believe God’s word is true – that God spoke and what is came into being – that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
This I believe – and in this I am no different that Abel.
By Faith… Abel Gave Offerings
4 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
Abel believed God was and is and Abel understood that he was worthy of worship so he gave him his first and best offerings. It is this testimony of life that still testifies to the reality of God – even from the grave. We remember his story and his testimony just as we do so many others. Enoch’s faith is truly great.
By Faith… Enoch Pleased God
5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Enoch is a man in the Bible that we know very little about – except this – he walked with God. Because of his faith and his faithful living he was such a pleasure for God to be with that one day Enoch went home with God.
Enoch was a man who had the mind of God and understood how important to really believe what you believe. He is quoted in Jude 1:14 as the one who prophesied about those men who say that they are believers, who are teachers of God’s people and shepherds of his church but are doing so only for their own gain. Jude calls them clouds without rain and autumn trees without fruit and uprooted – twice dead – both fruitless and ripped out of the ground. Enoch preached that God would come one day and all would be judged by the Lord himself.
Enoch understood that it is faith that pleases God. Faith that changes the way we live. It is not just a matter of words – it is a matter of life.
Now let us look at one more. Here is a man who’s story we are all familiar with. His name is Noah. We know him well because he built a boat.
By Faith… Noah Built a Boat
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Hebrews 11:7
But not just any boat – Noah build an ark – literally a box that floated!
When most people hear the word “Noah,” the first thing that comes to mind is that this is the man who built an ark and survived a great flood. But if you said the word “Noah” to the writer of Hebrews, I think the first word that would come to his mind would be “faith.”
The author of Hebrews chose Noah to be one of those listed in the Faith Hall of Fame we see here in Hebrews 11. The list goes on and on naming many you are familiar with and others that are unnamed and unknown to anyone but God himself. All of them have a common experience of faith. It is an experience you can have as well – and that is what we here to learn today.
In Hebrews 11:7 we read, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” Noah’s life teaches us 3 lessons about faith. The first is that faith is the foundation for obedience.
Faith is the Foundation for Obedience
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family...
Hebrews 11:7a
Look at that first sentence in verse 7 once again: “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.”
God warned Noah that He was going to destroy the whole earth by means of water. And Noah responded by believing God—even though he had never seen a catastrophic flood before. In fact, as best we understand the creation story – it hadn’t even rained before. The earth was watered by a mist that rose from the ground. In God’s original creation he had placed some of the waters on the earth where they made up the oceans and lakes but much of the waters of the earth had been place above the atmosphere where they formed a protective layer filtering the dangerous ultraviolet light and diffusing the sun’s powerful energy. There wasn’t a tropical zone and arctic caps – instead the earth was more like a giant terrarium, filled with luscious vegetation and rich earth.
When God caused the flood all of that water above the atmosphere came down onto the earth – in buckets! It took 40 days and then the world changed. There was a whole new climate, new weather patterns, warm tropics were created and the ice began to build up on the poles where the sun didn’t shine directly.
Noah didn’t understand any of this. How could he? Even with all the evidence that there is for a catastrophic change in our world people today still want to discount God’s existence and believe in a great asteroid strike or some massive evolutionary change. But Noah believed what God said would happen and then obeyed his word.
And that’s the essence of faith—believing what God says, even if appearances seem to dictate otherwise. Let me remind you again, of what the author of Hebrews said when he defined faith back in verse 1: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Noah believed what God said and responded in obedience to His command. Noah built an ark to save him and his family. He told him to build the ark because God had grown weary of the evil that man had become such a part of in his life.
In Genesis 6 we read that mankind had become incredibly wicked during the pre-flood period. So much so that Genesis 6:5 describes them in these terms: “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, ‘I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.’”
Back in Genesis 1:31, God looked over His original creation and saw that it was very good. But now, mankind had become so corrupt and so wicked that God decided to wipe them off the face of the earth. Verse 7: “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.” “But Noah …” In contrast to everyone on earth who was engulfed in wicked living, there stood a righteous man named Noah.
And God revealed to Noah that He was going to judge the earth by a flood. And the only way Noah and his family would be spared is by building an ark. Noah believed God and responded in obedience. Now, Noah’s ark is often depicted as a small boat with animals crowded on deck. But this isn’t the picture that the Word of God gives us.
The dimensions of the ark are given in the Bible: “This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.” So, the ark was 1½ football fields in length, as wide as a football field is wide, and 4 stories high. It had 3 decks on which you could fit 20 college basketball courts. And the inside of the ark was over 100,000 square feet. It was an impressive vessel that took Noah 120 years to build.
Genesis tells us that “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” And look at 7:5: “And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.” So, the first lesson that we learn from Noah’s life is that faith responds in obedience.
Do you really believe what you believe? If you do, the first response is obedience. You begin with repentance and baptism and you continue with worship, service, and proclamation to others. But this is the easy part. Now comes the hard stuff.
Turn back with me to Hebrews 11:7. There we find a second lesson from the life of Noah. Not only do we learn that faith responds in obedience, but also …
Faith Rebukes Ungodliness
7 …By his faith he condemned the world…
Hebrews 11:7b
The middle of Hebrews 11:7 states, “By his faith he condemned the world.”
Jeff Foxworthy is a comedian who became famous through his “You Might Be A Redneck If …” routine. Well, I came across some “You Might Be A Preacher If …” statements.
You might be a preacher if …
You’ve waded in a creek wearing a necktie
You’d rather negotiate with terrorists than the music minister (sorry, Esther)
A church picnic is no picnic
You’ve ever wanted to fire the church and form a congregation search committee
You’ve been tempted to take up an offering at a family reunion
You’ve ever wanted to give the soundman some of your own feedback
You’ve ever wanted to lay hands on a elder, and you weren’t thinking of praying for them
Your sermons have a happy ending—because everyone’s happy when it ends
And finally, It’s your job to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable
Well 2 Peter 2:5 refers to Noah as a “preacher of righteousness.” And as a preacher of righteousness, he afflicted the comfortable. Can you imagine the taunts that Noah’s neighbors hurled at him? “Hey, Noah! You building that thing according to code?” Can you imagine him trying to get a special use permit to build that boat? “Hey, Noah! What are you doing building that monstrosity in your backyard? Are you trying to drive down our property value?”
No doubt people asked Noah why in the world he was building that huge boat. And that gave Noah the opportunity to preach the message of God’s upcoming judgment because of their sins. Noah rebuked their ungodliness through what he said. He also rebuked their ungodliness through what he did. The very act of Noah building the ark was a continual reminder to everyone around him that God would one day judge them for their wickedness.
Noah’s words and his works; his lip and his life; his talk and his walk rebuked the men of his day for their sinful and wicked lifestyles. And so Noah teaches us that faith rebukes ungodliness.
Our faithfulness to God rebukes the world’s ungodliness. Here is the real reason so many people resist the work of the church in the world today. Our very presence, our testimony of life, is a condemnation of their way of life.
I read recently of a woman who pulled her twin daughters out of a local school system and began to homeschool them because one of her daughters got in trouble at school. The misbehavior? While in KINDERGARTEN she was asked to write five words that start with "J" and she wrote "Jesus". The teacher hauled this FIVE YEAR OLD to the office where the school administration called the parents in to tell them this was not permissible.
Response to “Whose Kids are they” in “ToTheSource” email, April 8, 2008
Faith’s foundation is obedience and its effect is condemnation of the world but there is a third lesson that we learn from Noah’s life of faith. And it’s that faith has a reward.
Faith Results in Rightness Before God
7 …he… became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Hebrews 11:7
I see this at the end of Hebrews 11:7: “… and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
God was pleased with Noah, and He rewarded Noah’s faith. I remind you of what the writer of Hebrews penned in verse 6: “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Noah exercised faith in God. But believing God did not make building the ark easy or less costly. And his faith did not reap immediate rewards. But eventually, he was rewarded. Verse 7 says that Noah became an heir. What did he inherit? Turn back to the book of Genesis chapter 9.
Now, in Genesis 8 we discover that the floodwaters eventually abated. And after being on the ark for a year, Noah, his family, and the animals were able to leave the ark and live on dry ground. And Genesis 9:1 states: “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.’”
One aspect of Noah’s reward is that he became an heir. Noah was given the privilege of ruling over the new world.
And that same privilege is given to us as a reward for our faith. You’ll recall that in our study of Hebrews 2, we said that one of the rewards for faithful believers is the privilege of ruling with Christ when He sets up His kingdom here on earth.
But that’s not a present reward—it’s yet future. Noah was faithful in building the ark and preaching for 120 years. It wasn’t until after the flood that Noah received his reward. And the same is true of us. Don’t expect your reward here and now. Your reward awaits you in Christ’s future kingdom on earth. But you will be rewarded! Faith results in reward.
God’s Promised Blessings
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3-10
Jesus spoke of this in what we call the beautitudes…
Someday – it’s all ours because of our faith in God!
How was Noah able to Endure?
Now, in all of this I ask myself the question, “How was Noah able to endure? How was he able to remain faithful to God for 120 years when all around him was wickedness, sinfulness, and ungodliness?” And I could ask the same question of you. “How can you remain faithful to God in the midst of the wicked, sinful, ungodly society and culture in which you live?”
I believe the answer is tucked away in one verse in Genesis 6. Turn back a few pages and look at Genesis 6:9: “This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”
Notice the three characteristics that Noah possessed that need to be present in our lives as well. First of all, we need to be
Righteous
And the only way to become righteous—to be right in God’s sight—is to place your faith in Christ as your Savior. We cannot become right with God through our good works. We must receive the free gift of salvation by faith. That’s what Noah did—he looked forward and placed his faith in the One who would come to pay for his sins. And we must look back and place our faith in the One who came to pay for our sins.
Have you done that? Have you placed your faith alone in Christ alone to forgive your sins and give you eternal life? If not, you need to do that because that’s the first step in living a life of faith and following the example of Noah.
Next, we need to be …
Blameless
Verse 9 says that Noah was “blameless among the people of his time.”
Now, blameless does not mean sinless. Noah wasn’t perfect. The word “blameless” has the idea of being upright in character. Noah was blameless in the sense of being a man of integrity. If he did wrong, he admitted it and sought to make it right.
So, let me ask you: Are you a man or woman of integrity? When you mess up, do you try to hide it or lie about it or blame it on others? Or do you own up to it and try to rectify the wrong you’ve done?
Righteous. Blameless. And then, thirdly, like Noah, we must …
Walk With God
That’s what the end of verse 9 says. It tells us that Noah “walked with God.”
Do you remember who else walked with God? Enoch—the great grandfather of Noah who walked with God – and was no more.
To walk with God means to fellowship with Him—to enjoy intimacy with God. And we do that by spending time with Him in the Word and prayer.
After we complete Hebrews on May 11, Mother’s day we will be launching a six week long series of messages called TRANSFORMATIONS. During these six messages I will be encouraging you to form one-to-one teams to encourage one another in your spiritual transformations. I’m also preparing a five-day a week study to go along with the series to help you with your personal walk in the ways of God. This is one of our goals for our master plan of ministry – we want to help people move from seeking God to being a maturing follower of Jesus.
The simple fact of our current reality is that we – like Noah – live in a wicked, sinful, ungodly culture. But we can be people of faith—just like he was, if we follow his example.
Become righteous – this is done only through Jesus, live a blameless life with his help, and walk with God.
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”
Are you ready? Let’s pray.
