i encourage you this morning invite you to turn to hebrews chapter 11 we come now to the great what they call hall of faith and so this morning we are in hebrews chapter 11 it's a little bit of an overview of faith this morning i'm debating whether to come back and look at a little more depth a few of the figures we're going to begin to look at here in hebrews chapter 11 but we will consider the first seven verses which covers the prediluvian period the period from the creation to the flood and we'll be looking at the first seven verses let's give our attention this is on page 1195 to hebrews chapter 11 this is the word of the lord now faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen for by it the people of old receive their commendation by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen is not made out of things that are visible by faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain through which he was commended as righteous God commending him by accepting his gifts and through his faith though he died he still speaks by faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death and he was not found because God had taken him now before he was taken he was committed as having pleased god and without faith it's impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to god must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him by faith noah being warned by god concerning events as yet unseen in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household by this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith and there will end the reading of God's word well I've been long waiting to come to Hebrews chapter 11 I can say in almost 20 years of ministry I've never really preached through Hebrews chapter 11 shame on me this is a great chapter and so much to to reflect on and think with you about I find it very wonderful to look at this chapter after a long development of the gospel in this book a long development of explaining to us the benefits of christ and his sacrificial work and it's a beautiful help to us hebrews 11 it's to be offset in such a way and intended to help us with understanding what it means to live by faith but faith in a peculiar way faith in the hardships of life and the trials of life and the difficulties of life the author wants to help us reframe how we think about things he wanted to do that for the first century christians who were struggling how we think about life how we evaluate life how we look at the things that happen to us under the sun that it's not just something to sort of grin and bear and get through while we're just waiting to experience glory. That's how a lot of Christians think. That's how a lot of people think. They sort of mope through the Christian life because of the hardships, having little perspective about it. It doesn't do them any good, of course. But after much hardship, this is one of the great challenges of people when they face a lot of hardship is sort of now to go through everything sort of pessimistically that we're just supposed to suffer and go through these things and to go through them and not really have any happiness or help through these things. This is what he's countering. This is what he's addressing. This is what he's dealing with. He's saying, but you're missing the real benefit of faith. You're not thinking about the benefit of living by faith. And because you're first-century Christians turning away from faith, you're in the most dangerous predicament. This is what he said in the last chapter. You'll remember in that little call to endurance in that last section, he put two verses together in the middle of that that were really crucial verses that were setting up chapter 11 when he said, listen, now the Lord is coming and he will not tarry. Now, Habakkuk, the just shall live by faith. and the author set it up in the very last verse preceding this by saying so and but we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed but of those who have faith and preserve their souls we have faith such an important segue to chapter 11 isn't it he's really set this all up what was their problem what was he worried about what was he concerned about with this church you know what he was worried about it's been all throughout the book with the various warnings he's been worried about apostasy he's been worried about in the last chapter that in the past they had endured great afflictions and sufferings remember he said in this previous section they had been exposed to reproach and persecutions and afflictions some were even imprisoned some had lost their property They had joyfully accepted before the plundering of their property. But they were wore out. In the past, they had handled it better. But whatever was happening now, some were ready to throw off the faith. Some were ready to leave the gospel for the shadows of the old covenant. Because at least that was an accepted religion, Judaism. At least it wouldn't face hardship. At least it was something that was more visual and seemed to have more glory and power in the present. And they wouldn't have to go through this, this unseen Christianity Christ. I think the great answer to the book is Hebrews 11, after he's explained the gospel. That's why it's such a shining chapter. It's a chapter that Christians have always loved. But when you look at it in context, it has all the more meaning for us when we consider it. What he does here is he explains what faith is and what it looks like in the world. And he doesn't just do this abstractly. He doesn't just do this to sort of give theological definitions. He does this and then roots this by saying, listen, in all those people you knew, who you studied, who had real problems in life in the Old Testament, they all lived this way. This is how they made it. This is how they endured. And so his goal here this morning is to encourage us. His goal is to help us understand, to inspire us to faith, to make us desire to live by faith, to say, wow, there's real benefit in living by faith. There's real happiness in living by faith. But have we understood it? That's the challenge. So that's what he does. He helps us understand what faith is. And then he helps us to look at what faith does and what it receives. We can look at it in those three sort of categories. We'll start with what faith is. Notice this here. When I ask Christians what is faith, I can't count how many times I get Hebrews 11. And it's good. We go to Scripture and we sort of generally say, well, it's the assurance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. And then I always follow up and I say, okay, explain that to me. It's a silence, you know. Well, we're just not seeing something. What are you not seeing? See, this is important to understand, isn't it? The general meaning, I think, in people is a good one. You know, we're just sort of trusting in something we don't see. And at that point in the definition, I would follow up, well, what makes you different from the pagans? It's interesting, even pagans understand the value of faith. I was reading a book the other day on self-discipline, which I like to do. I like to consider everything sort of borrowed capital, so there's so much wisdom in some of these books, you could see where they got it. But it's fascinating, even this guy who's probably a Buddhist, and he's talking about faith in the book, and he had an entire section called The Power of Faith. I was struck by something he said. Listen to it. Self-discipline requires the virtues of self-belief, perseverance, and sacrifice. All of these are naturally developed when you have strong faith in something because faith allows you to bypass doubt completely. well you could see if it's the power of positive thinking why that faith would be important if that's the case what strike me what struck me about it is that even the most successful people in life who are total non-believers understood something about the basic principle of faith as as we heard christians sometimes define it in something that's bigger than you to get you through all of this even pagans understand that's necessary isn't that interesting tony robbins the great philanthropist said what is the the core belief around when he was asked what is the core belief that has been most helpful to your life he said that life is happening for you and not to you well he understood there's something bigger than him albert einstein said, the most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe. Huh. What do you believe? Faith in what? Steve Jobs said, you have to trust in something. Either your gut, your destiny, life, karma, whatever. successful man generally people believe it's true isn't it it's just generally true that faith faith generally helps people rise above their circumstances so that they can try to find meaning and overcome doubt that's just generally true what's hebrews talking about the author says here we are not of those who shrink back to perdition but of those who have faith and you might ask the question what's he talking about and that's what hebrews 11 leads us into that's what hebrews 11 is intended to do he helps us to understand faith it's not an exhaustive definition by any means it's not intended to do that it's intended to root faith in the particular context and struggle that they are in to understand life but it's a big context for all of life isn't it and his particular aim is to show us what it means to live by faith when we have no control over anything in life he wants to encourage them but specifically he's interested in the kind of faith that endures under trial that's what he just said you have need of endurance you have need of perseverance how what does that what does that look like and the author says with a resounding answer it's faith would you explain that to us I'm glad you asked I'm glad you all were asking this morning I'm going to do that for you I just got a thumbs up from the back first one now faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen the construction here is interesting we're going to do just a moment here of looking at a little bit of of construction and what the author is saying because if you don't get the definition right up front nothing that follows will really make sense the author is stirred up in himself You can just, you can hear him. I think he's excited. He was waiting to get here. This was the answer after he explained Christ and the benefits of Christ and the sacrifice and all that was done for us, outside of us. He wants to capture something dynamic here. It's interesting. There's the verb here in the construction, how it's set up for emphasis. It actually reads very woodenly, is now faith. Is now faith. That's how Hebrews 11.1 begins. So he wants to capture something dynamic about it that in a sense is, now this is faith. What would we say? you know someone from the east might have saw our rains today last week and we thought you know this is this kind of laughed at us and let me take you back let me show you rain now i'll take you back over here to you know the east coast now this is rain one um author uh sort of paraphrases this by saying, now faith celebrates. Faith celebrates. I think that captures this. I think that's exactly what he's doing here with the emphasis of that verb up front, is now faith. Faith celebrates something, which is opposite of what they were doing. They were giving up. Look carefully at this. When you ask the question, faith in what? Faith always, we know, has an object and that's what the author begins to work through doesn't he faith now celebrates what does he say the reality of things hoped for let's just remove reality for a moment let's take reality out of the equation and look at this now faith celebrates hope what is our hope well um he had just said it in the previous section for the Lord will not tarry he is coming he will not delay he is coming the hope is the coming of Christ the hope is the resurrection of our bodies the hope is eternal life the hope is the hope of glory said all over the scripture and that's not wishful thinking it's the certainty of what is to come and that's why he put Habakkuk in connection with what we would say is that dimension big word eschatological dimension of faith that is really living by faith in the future we live by faith because jesus is coming that doesn't quite help does it if we just said that yeah but i got the present i got this present problem and he includes a really important word right before now faith is this in celebration of our hope. What is this? Faith is the word here is important. I'd use it in the Greek, but they always say not to do that. The scholars will know the word's important. It's an important word. All right, it's hypostasis. Why does that word matter? Philip Hughes says there's different ways to translate it. He says typically four ways to take it. It has confidence in something, a foundation of something, as a guarantee. It was the fourth way that he discussed it that I think is the most important, which could mean that the reason this has such a range is because it has all these emphases. But listen to this. The ESV has it right. Faith is, it celebrates the reality of our hope. And he's saying that reality is now. So the hope, faith is the reality. Faith celebrates what you have right now. Faith is the instrument that gives you the reality now. Who is the reality? What has the whole book been preaching to you? Christ. Faith celebrates that you have Christ right now as you live and hope for Him to come. That you have access to Him now. that you're enjoying the reality now now you see how important this is in light of the book you can't turn from this he's completely countering the idea what do they want to go back to types and shadows you have types and shadows and you have reality he's saying faith celebrates that you have the reality right now he's completely countering this idea of what we read with some of the pagans this is a blind faith this is not a blind faith they might have shot back and said well wait wait wait wait what are you talking about not a blind faith we don't see jesus and that's what he addressed back in chapter 2 didn't he when he said now we cannot yet see we can't see that everything's put under his feet there seems to be no evidence in the world right now that anything is put under his feet you know i mean really you know we claim a kingdom we claim victory we're gonna look at this tonight please don't miss tonight i titled the message warrior to attract all you should be here the warrior i'm gonna preach on a warrior tonight best movie you'll ever see there seems to be no evidence of anything it doesn't seem like the nations are streaming to jesus this is why post-millennialism so popular right now because they just haven't seen much of a reality of things so they're saying we're waiting for this great thing to happen and i think the author of uses will say what are you talking about something great has happened now faith celebrates the reality of our hope and it is the conviction of things not seen yeah you don't see jesus isn't this what jesus said our problem is about the nature of the kingdom i want to see it now i want to see the kingdom coming now and jesus said no no no no no stop the kingdom of god does not come with observation see here or see there the kingdom of god comes in ways you do not expect and the reality is within you what don't we see right now well what you don't see right now is jesus what you don't see right now is the future what you don't see right now is glory and i think there's a real emphasis here even on events of the future when he says this you don't see what's coming you don't know what's coming and it's as if he says to us don't underestimate what faith gives to you you've not thought a lot about faith the way you should this concept you think's difficult the reality is what we're hoping for he says is the realization of things not seen i think he's probably thinking of the events of life and the difficulties of life and some of you you know it's just interesting in life some of you are going to have a lighter path and some of you are going to have a more difficult path coming what he is saying is no matter what you don't see you already have the reality you already have jesus and you already live in the realization of his love and forgiveness and peace and justification and and even in the realization of what you can't see that is ahead and the glory that awaits you. Faith, listen, gives to you Christ and that means you have everything. Now, faith connects you to the reality. Faith gives you Christ. You see him. Faith gives you assurance even though everything is unseen. Now that's huge for life, isn't it? that's pretty big for life what i love about hebrews is he doesn't just give us definitions what's marvelous about hebrews 11 is that he shows what it looks like in the real lives and how this works in the real lives of people just like you and me how they lived how they went forward he says in verse 2 doesn't he this is how the people of old were commended when you ask the question what does god commend in your lives what would be the greatest thing well he starts from creation and he moves to the flood here we're going to go briefly through this and maybe we'll come back next time and go a little more in depth than i'm still debating but notice he starts with creation by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of god so that what is seen was not made of things that are visible that's he starts at creation and and he says think about what faith accomplishes here um it's really ex nihilo creation i i think you can make the case for here whatever the case it's not really the debate the whole universe was called into existence by the word of god and he put it all in order and he formed it all and he made it all. And what does the author celebrate? Everyone who receives that by faith. Faith is not blind here. Now this is the point. Faith doesn't just say I'm blindly trusting in things. Faith confers something. as this gift of God faith confers to us and provides for us what we cannot see as proof that it happened it gives us the reality as you just said by the word of God from which we're told everything was made in the scriptures through the voice of Jesus so even in creation think about how this works now even in creation i wasn't there you weren't there this instrument this faith that he gives us gives us absolute conviction that this is true even though it's unseen that's a blessing to you you get to live knowing who made all of this you get to know and live knowing the bigger questions of life Mark Twain famously said the two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why faith answers it it answers all of it how should that have helped first century christians who were being persecuted they're being persecuted and hated by the world and who created all this who holds all this who holds their lives in his hand who does the world belong to they have faith in the creator who controls everything what are you fearing and you get to enjoy that knowledge he moves to abel by faith abel offered to god a more acceptable sacrifice than cain through which he was committed as righteous god commending him by accepting his gifts through faith. Though he died, he still speaks. We spent a lot of time on Cain's sacrifice and why Abel's was rejected. The author doesn't go into any of that. Here's what he does. Here's what he wants you captivated with. Imagine this today. Two worshipers come up in here to worship. What's the fundamental difference between the two? Abel had faith. Cain had no faith. How big of a deal was that? Huge. Abel brought a sacrifice that was trusting in Christ, that believed the reality as he lived in hope of what was to come. And he celebrated that hope. When he came to worship, he was celebrating Christ. His faith celebrated the reality of that sacrifice. His faith connected him to that reality. It had strong conviction that though he couldn't see Jesus, where's Jesus? He was there. He was speaking. He was receiving him. So he worshiped in faith. That reality, believing, trusting. Cain brought a sacrifice. What did that look like? Those who have faith are going to come up to the house of the Lord believing that they're meeting with Jesus and that a great sacrifice has been given to them and they're going to enjoy that reality and they're going to fellowship with him. You don't need all the sensory stuff. You don't need to have a wow gift like Cain did. You don't need the lights and the drums and all that. You come by faith, you get the most important one. And Cain was blessed. I mean, Abel was blessed even though he didn't see. Those with no faith come up to worship drawing near with their mouths, but what? Their hearts are far from God. They don't believe any of this. Even though they bring a gift. Enoch, by faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death and he was not found because God had taken him. Now before he was taken, he was committed as having pleased God. All we know from Genesis 5 is what? He walked with God. That's all we're told. I mean, Jude gives us a little more. He prophesied and saying the Lord comes with 10,000 of his holy ones to execute judgment and convict all the ungodly for the ungodly deeds they've spoken in an ungodly way and the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. What did he do? He walked with God. he had unswerving commitment to the truth in an age that valued none of it. In a sea of an ungodly culture where darkness abounded, Enoch's faith celebrated communion with God. See? Communion. He lived in hope that he would enjoy, and in the present, enjoyed communion with God. He enjoyed it right now and lived in hope of the unseen future. By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Noah was told, God's going to judge the world. You've been told that. You either believe that or you don't. So what did he do? He built an ark. That ark was a type of Christ where people could be saved and enter in as the only way. What all three of these did received great opposition in this world. Abel was killed. Enoch was persecuted. Noah was laughed at. but he kept building. For what end? He took the Word of God seriously. He celebrated the reality of Christ in the building of the ark and maintained a strong conviction that even though it hadn't rained yet, his family needed to be saved. He wouldn't have missed church. See, the author wants to encourage us. You've got to live by the same faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. For whoever would draw near to him in worship, you've got to believe that he exists. And, now notice this, that he rewards those who seek him. What is the reward? well that's what faith receives put it together verse two for by it the people of old received their commendation faith they were what commended as what was abel commended for by faith he was commended as righteous god commending him accepting his gifts by faith Enoch was commended as having pleased God by faith Noah was commended because he became an heir of the righteousness that comes through faith it's not the works that are celebrated here it's faith now faith is is this faith this is faith faith celebrates the reality of our hope and it is a strong conviction of what you do not see. Celebrate it. And this is where he talks about a reward in this life. The rewards are not just future. This is what I want you to understand. The rewards are not just future. Faith gives you a reward right now. You are commended by God. listen to me this is so important so that you are righteous and that you are justified by faith and and notice what it says as you live by faith notice what it keeps saying of these figures they pleased god did you hear me you can please god today did you know that you great sinners you can please god without faith it's impossible to please him notice the reward though how does he reward you he doesn't just declare you're righteous it's the second half of that definition of faith he gives you a conviction in the things not seen he gives you assurance in the things not seen that's the reward it's wholehearted trust heidelberg 21. It's assurance that he gives you. That's your reward. Think of what you take for granted. You're going to go to the hospital bed one day, as I've been as a pastor, and there's two people sitting next to you. Some person has no faith and is about to die and enter eternity. And you can go to your deathbed in hope and assurance. That's a reward. didn't he say this in Hebrews 10 therefore do not throw away your confidence which has what great reward there's a reward for you when you have faith there's a reward of confidence meaning he's giving you a life of peace in all this and whatever is the unseen future Abel guess what was martyred, Enoch was taken. Some might have a hard death, some might have a light death. You belong to him by faith. This week in family, in Linden, a family I love dearly who lost their son to a car accident in his mid-twenties just a few days ago. Their daughter was diagnosed in her mid-thirties with stage four kidney and liver cancer. How do you understand these things? This is a pious, godly family. Some are going to have hard paths ahead of them. Others may get an Enoch-like path in death. But at the end of the day, many are the afflictions of the righteous. But the Lord delivers them out of them all. Faith confers and gives you the confidence in the unseen future that God is for us, that you have Christ no matter what happens to you. That is the kind of faith that cannot be taken from you. That's why he said we are not of those who shrink back to perdition, but of those who have faith. The Lord is coming soon. He will not delay. now the just shall live by faith do you understand it we are not of those who shrink back we are those who have faith to the saving of the soul do you believe he wants you to believe he wants you to trust no matter what it is you're facing trust him you have the reality you celebrate the reality of the one who made all things, who sent down his son for you so that you might be forgiven. And he rewards you today by faith with assurance. So trust him, believe him, enjoy him, and all that he's promised to you by faith. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we give you our great thanks. Give us faith, O Lord, as a gift. And thank you for the great reward built into it of assurance. Thank you for encouraging our hearts. And strengthen us in faith so that like these believers all throughout history and whatever they were called to endure, you blessed and helped them and you commended them as having pleased you when they lived by faith. We are cast upon you for such a mercy. Help us, O Lord, to live by faith. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.