Chapters 1-6: Christ is a SUPERIOR PERSON.
Chapters 7-10: Christ exercises a SUPERIOR PRIESTHOOD.
Chapters 11-13: Faith is a SUPERIOR PRINCIPLE.
Hebrews 11 is often called THE FAITH CHAPTER.
Hebrews 11:6—“WITHOUT FAITH IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PLEASE [GOD].”
Romans 14:23—“WHATSOEVER IS NOT OF FAITH IS SIN.”
Warren Wiersbe—“The great achievers have been the men and women who could see the invisible and strive to reach it. Explorers, inventors, liberators, and pioneers in every field have always been characterized by the steady eye that SEES THE INVISIBLE and STRIVES FOR THE SEEMINGLY IMPOSSIBLE.
If you listened carefully to that statement, you now know the two things that we do by faith: BY FAITH WE PERCEIVE THE UNPERCEIVABLE and BY FAITH WE ACHIEVE THE UNACHIEVABLE.
I. BY FAITH WE PERCEIVE THE UNPERCEIVABLE (Hebrews 11:1).
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (v. 1).
A. We can see into the future.
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for.”
Example: The hope of HEAVEN.
Christian faith is not a “HOPE-SO” optimism, but a “FOR-SURE” conviction.
The philosopher Epicurus, who lived several hundred years before Christ, said THE CHIEF END OF LIFE IS PLEASURE. But he was not a hedonist, as many people think. He was talking of pleasure in the long view—ultimate pleasure, not immediate, temporary gratification. He held that we should pursue that which, IN THE END, will bring the most satisfaction. Understood in the right way, this should be the Christian’s objective [John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Hebrews, p. 287].
2 Peter 1:8-9—“Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”
Faith is THE PRESENT SUBSTANCE OF A FUTURE REALITY.
Faith is LIVING IN A HOPE SO REAL THAT IT GIVES ABSOLUTE ASSURANCE.
Faith provides THE FIRM GROUND ON WHICH WE STAND, waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promise.
B. We can see into the spiritual realm.
Faith is “the evidence of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:27—“By faith [Moses] forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as SEEING HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE.”
The world says, “SEEING IS BELIEVING.” God says, “BELIEVING IS SEEING.”
John 20:29—“Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen men, thou hast believed: BLESSED ARE THEY THAT HAVE NOT SEEN, AND YET HAVE BELIEVED.”
John MacArthur writes,
Faith is not a wistful longing that something may come to pass in an uncertain tomorrow. True faith is an ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY, often of things that the world considers unreal and impossible. . . . If we follow a God whose audible voice we have never heard and believe in a Christ whose face we have never seen, we do so because our faith has a reality, a substance, an assurance that is unshakable [The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Hebrews, p. 287].
2 Corinthians 4:18—“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are TEMPORAL; but the things which are not seen are ETERNAL.”
J. Oswald Sanders, “Faith enables the believing soul to treat THE FUTURE AS PRESENT and THE INVISIBLE AS SEEN.”
We are not in heaven yet, but with the assurance of faith, it is as if we are already there. We cannot see God with our physical eyes, but with the eye of faith we see Him.
BY FAITH WE PERCEIVE THE UNPERCEIVABLE: WE CAN SEE INTO THE FUTURE (“faith is the substance of things hoped for”) and WE CAN SEE INTO THE SPIRITUAL REALM (faith “is the evidence of things not seen”).
II. BY FAITH WE ACHIEVE THE UNACHIEVABLE (Hebrews 11:33-37).
A. We are victorious OVER difficulties too great for us (vv. 33-35a).
“Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. . . .”
B. We are victorious IN difficulties too great for us (vv. 35b-37).
“. . . and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and other had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.”
The transition in verse 35 is important: NOT ALL MEN AND WOMEN OF FAITH EXPERIENCED MIRACULOUS DELIVERANCE. Some were tortured and even died!
The phrase, “they were sawn asunder,” may be a reference to the prophet Isaiah.
Scholars have found a Jewish writing called “The Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah” which gives the gory details of Isaiah’s martyrdom. The story narrates that Isaiah withdrew from Jerusalem to avoid the wickedness which ran out of control during the reign of Manasseh. He lived in Bethlehem surrounded by godly prophets until Manasseh’s henchmen seized and falsely accused him. Manasseh’s accusers gave Isaiah a chance to renounce his prophetic warning to the nation, and Isaiah answered, “There is nothing further that you can take except the skin of my body.” With that answer Isaiah’s enemies used a wooden saw to cut him in half. The account adds that he did not cry out or weep, but his mouth spoke with the Holy Spirit until he was sawed in two (Thomas D. Lea, Holman New Testament Commentary: Hebrews & James, p. 211).
Isaiah was one of the greatest Old Testament prophets. Obviously he was a man of great faith. Yet he had to endure unimaginable torture.
Warren Wiersbe tells of the following incident:
While making a hospital visit, I found a patient lying in bed weeping. “What’s the matter?” I asked. Her reply was to hand me a book that she had that day received in the mail. It was on “divine healing” and “the power of faith.” Some anonymous person had written in the flyleaf, “Read this book—it will give you faith to be healed.” The patient happened to be a dedicated Christian who trusted God even in the midst of suffering. But her anonymous correspondent thought that all people with faith should be delivered miraculously [Be Confident, p. 130].
God can and does heal. But God does not have to heal in order to prove that I have faith.
It takes more faith to ENDURE than it does to ESCAPE.
George Muller—“DIFFICULTIES ARE FOOD FOR FAITH TO FEED ON.”
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were perfectly confident that God would save them from the blazing furnace. “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furance, and he will deliver us out of thing hand, O king” (Daniel 3:17). But their greatest faith was not shown in their certainty of deliverance. They went on to say, “BUT IF NOT, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” (v. 18). Their primary concern was not for the safety of their lives but for the safety of their faith. Physical deliverance or not, they would not forsake their trust in God.
Verse 35 states, “others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.” Here is the pinnacle of faith, willingness to accept the WORST the world has to offer—DEATH—because of trust in the BEST God has to offer—RESURRECTION.
BY FAITH WE ACHIEVE THE UNACHIEVABLE: WE ARE VICTORIOUS OVER DIFFICULTIES TOO GREAT FOR US and WE ARE VICTORIOUS IN DIFFICULTIES TOO GREAT FOR US.
CONCLUSION
Warren Wiersbe—“TRUE FAITH IS CONFIDENT OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S WORD IN SPITE OF CIRCUMSTANCES AND CONSEQUENCES” [Be Confident, pp. 120-1].
The Christian life is a life of faith. 2 Corinthians 5:7—“WE WALK BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT.”
May our desire be the same as the disciples, when they asked the Lord, “INCREASE OUR FAITH” (Luke 17:5).
The Christ life BEGINS by faith. “BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED THROUGH FAITH” (Ephesians 2:8).
An evangelist of many years ago told the beautiful story of two little boys he once visited in a London hospital.
The cots were side-by-side. One boy had a dangerous fever, the second had been struck by a truck and his body was badly mangled. The second one said to the first, “Say, Willie, I was down to the mission Sunday school and they told me about Jesus. I believe that if you ask Jesus, He will help you. They said that if we believe in Him and pray to God, then when we die He’ll come and take us with Him to heaven.” Willie replied, “But what if I’m asleep when He comes and I can’t ask Him?” His friend said, “Just hold up your hand; that’s what we did in Sunday school. I guess Jesus sees it.” Since Willie was too weak to hold up his arm, the other boy propped it up for him with a pillow. During that night, Willied died, but when the nurse found him the next morning, his arm was still propped up.
We can be sure that the Lord saw his arm, because the Lord see faith and the Lord accepts faith. By faith Willie saw the way to heaven. By faith he saw what the learned will never discover on their own. God’s greatest truths are discovered by simple faith. It is not the world’s way to truth, but a thousand years from now—if the Lord tarries that long—the world will still be devising and rejecting its theories. The person of faith knows the truth now. Faith is the only way to God [John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Hebrews, p. 294].
