Purpose: To show that faith is real.
Aim: I want the listener to see the reality that real faith produces.
INTRODUCTION: Faith seems to be a mysterious and illusive thing. Many of us tend to think that faith is a feeling that everything is going to be alright, sometimes we call it hope.
When we see others who are confident and happy we think, I wish I had their faith. The truth is we will never have the faith we should until we stop thinking of faith as a feeling and begin to understand it as a reality.
Religious liberals teach that life is divided into two categories: faith and reason. Faith is what we believe about God and the after-life. Reason is what we know to be true. You might say they divided life into "faith" and "facts." They are content to let you believe anything you want to believe as long as you understand that it was separate from reason. The Bible explains faith much differently.
"Faith is confidence in the trustworthiness of God. It is the conviction that what God says is true and that what He promises will come to pass." [1]
How can we have a faith like that? First, we must be sure what the Bible means by faith.
Vs.1 I. The Explanation of Faith
Faith is explained, not defined. For example you can’t define electricity. Is it matter or energy? There are two things that amaze me about science: what they know and what they don’t know.
The author has just finished warning us about having a false faith, notice 10:39. Now he is going to describe what real faith is.
There are two explanations that begin this discussion of faith.
A. Faith is real "the assurance of things hoped for"
"[The word faith] is common in the papyri in business documents as the basis or guarantee of transactions. And as this is the essential meaning in
When we have faith that means we are certain that what God says is so.
"The key is furnished by Heb. 11:27, "as seeing Him who is unseen." Faith apprehends as a real fact what is not revealed to the senses. It rests on that fact, acts upon it, and is upheld by it in the face of all that seems to contradict it. Faith is a real seeing." [3]
B. Faith has results "the conviction of things not seen"
CONVICTION 1650 elegchos (el’ eng khos); from 1651; proof, conviction: KJV evidence, reproof.
Paul makes it clear that real faith will change how we live. Romans 8:23-25 23 ...we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for {our} adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. (NAS)
Jim Elliot put it this way: "To believe is to act as though a thing were so. Mere saying a thing is so is no proof of my believing it."
Noah not only believed God that it would rain, he built a boat!
The Lord gave a warning to Israel not to just say sin was bad but to act like they believed that sin was bad: Isaiah 1:16-20 16 AWash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless; defend the orphan, plead for the widow. 18 ACome now, and let us reason together,@ says the LORD, AThough your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. 19 AIf you consent [say you believe] and obey, [act on what you believe] you will eat the best of the land; 20 ABut if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.@ Truly, the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (NAS)
Vs.2 II. God’s Response to Faith "gained approval"
Look down to verse 6: Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please {Him}, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and {that} He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (NAS)
"GAINED APPROVAL [Emartureetheesan] (grk 3140), literally, "were borne witness to." God bore witness to them in the victory of their faith over all obstacles, and their characters and deeds as men of faith were recorded in Scripture." [4]
In other words, the Lord gave a good report about their faith. Is that what you are looking for?
Augustine said: "Faith believes what it sees not; for if thou seest, there is no faith, the Lord has gone away so as not to be seen: He is hidden, that He may be believed; the yearning desire by faith after Him who is unseen is the preparation of a heavenly mansion for us; when He shall be seen, it shall be given to us as the reward of faith." [5]
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.(NAS)
2 Cor 10:18 For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends. (NAS)
Trials help prove that our faith is real. 1 Peter 1:5-9 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 that the proof of your faith, {being} more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. (NAS)
Vs.3 III. The Evidence for Faith
We have seen what faith is and that it triggers the approval and blessing of God. Verse three will now show us HOW we can have real faith.
First we must accept that,
A. Faith comes before evidence "By faith we understand"
"The world says, ’Seeing is believing.’ God says, ’Believing is seeing.’" [6]
John 11:40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?" (NAU)
Our pride influences us to think that something is not real if it doesn’t SEEM real to us. Real faith forces us to abandon our pride and trust what God says rather than what we feel comfortable with. Proverbs 3:5--6Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. (NAU)
1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (NAU)
Faith in God is not a leap into the dark. Faith in God produces a light that we never saw before.
B. Creation proves the power of God’s words "worlds...by the Word of God"
Psalm 33:6-9 6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses 8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. 9 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. (NAS)
It is easier to trust the Lord if we remember that He is the same One who created the vastness of outer space.
The same God who spoke the universe into existence also said: John 14:13 Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (NAU)
Philippians 4:19 And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (NAU)
2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; (NAU)
Look back at Hebrews 10:37 FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY. (NAU)
The next time you are tempted to doubt what God is telling you look at the stars. The same God who spoke the stars into existence spoke promises in the Bible.
C. God can make something out of nothing "not made out of things"
Everything we see came from nothing. It has to be that way! Evolution claims that life came from a slim pit, but they can’t explain where the slim pit came from. God is the only answer to the question of the origin of life.
Even science believes that all matter is a form of energy. God’s words unleashed enormous amounts of energy that He used to create matter. The universe is filled with things that are invisible to us: atoms, energy, molecules, and gasses. That is how great our God is.
The tangible nature of a creation that came from the invisible proves that the invisible promises of God are also real. Every time we touch something real, it should remind us of the realness of our God.
APPLICATIONS:
#1 Real faith depends on what God says, not on what God provides.
Deuteronomy 8:1--6"All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers. You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. Thus you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. (NAU)
Every physical thing that God supplies is temporary. God’s Word, on the other hand, is permanent. God SAID that manna would come every morning so that they would learn to trust (believe, have faith) in everything that God said.
#2 Real faith prepares us for the unseen.
Real faith allows us to do what we otherwise could NOT do.
Hebrews 11:7By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. (NAU) Without faith he would have drowned!
J. Oswald Sanders put it this way: "Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen." [7]
#3 Real faith breads confidence and excitement
Romans 8:23--25And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. (NAU)
2 Cor 5:8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. (NAS)
"Do you remember how you felt when you were young and your birthday approached? You were excited and anxious. You knew you would certainly receive gifts and other special treats. But some things would be a surprise. Birthdays combine assurance and anticipation and so does faith! Faith is the conviction based on past experiences that God’s new and fresh surprises will surely be ours." [8]
When we live for Christ with a confident excitement we will encourage others to do the same. This is why a long list of those who lived by faith in Hebrews 11is followed by Hebrews 12:1Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (NAU)
CONCLUSION: Do you believe that God created the universe? Then why don’t you believe that God can supply your need for food, a job, friendships or any other need that you have?
If God is real to you it will affect how you live, whether or not you worry, and whether or not you are excited about the future.
The bottom line is that doubting God is not only insulting to Him, it is a sin.
Till men have faith in Christ, their best services are but glorious sins.
Thomas Brooks [9]
[1]MacDonald, W., & Farstad, A. (1997). Believer’s Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments (Heb 11:1). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[2]Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary, etc. From Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
[3]From Vincent’s Word Studies of the New Testament
[4]From Vincent’s Word Studies of the New Testament
[5]From Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary
[6]MacDonald, W., & Farstad, A. (1997). Believer’s Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments (Heb 11:3). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[7]Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Heb 11:1). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.
[8]Study note from the NIV Life Application Bible Hebrews 11:1
[9]Thomas, I. (1996). The golden treasury of Puritan quotations (electronic ed.) (102). Simpsonville SC: Christian Classics Foundation.
