Biblical Faith Series

1 John 1:9 states “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Who are the “we” in this verse?? Who is the “He” in the verse??

What are Christians to do??

What happens when a Christian confesses their sins to God??

Please open your Bibles to Hebrews 11……. Before reading our passage this morning, take a quick look back to Hebrews 10:38-39….

Christians are seen by God as righteous through Christ and are to live by faith! What does this mean? Scriptures interprets Scripture; so let us read Hebrews 11…… we will just look at 7 verses today…

Christians are to live by faith. What does this mean?

Biblical faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1. Let us note the original Greek Word used here for faith and hope.

Pistis (Greek) = faith, belief, trust, confidence, fidelity.

Elpízo (Greek) = to hope, actively waiting for God's fulfillment.

And so, in a more meaningful way for us today, Christians are to live (take action) by trust, confidence, and fidelity (loyalty) while waiting for what God has promised even though we do not see it yet!

Christians of course believe in Jesus Christ who died for their sins once and for all!

Now in v2, who were the “ancients”??

And so, God Believers of the past (waiting for their Messiah/Savior) were commended for their faith as defined in v1! God then highlights many of those Believers before Christ in the rest of Hebrews 11. But before listing those heroes God inserts v3…

What is v3 saying?

1. Why do we believe that there is a universe?? – We can see the universe!

2. Christians believe there is a God who made the universe!

3. Christians can see and experience what God has done therefore God exist!

What does this have to do with the meaning of faith?

Faith is believing what is unseen but it is based on what is seen or known! Biblical faith is not a “blind” faith. People can just say “I have faith, that’s all I need!” But we need to ask “what is your faith in and why??”

The rest of Hebrews 11 tells us the faith of the heroes from the Old Testament and how they took action (lived out) their faith.

We will look briefly at 3 of these heroes of faith today; more details can be found in the messages from Genesis we have in the Internet under sermoncentral.com or talk to me and I can give you copies of those previous messages on these heroes. And so…. we start with Abel….. isn’t it interesting that God did not start with Adam and Eve?

v4: by taking action on his faith in God, Abel was found righteous and can still speak to people today about what he did! Does anyone remember how Abel expressed his faith in God??

Both Abel and his brother Cain went to “church” to worship God and gave an offering, but only Abel had the right heart! Godly faith is both external in action and internal in heart attitude! Are there people today who go to church just to attend but not really worship God with their hearts?; and they may think they have faith! Biblical faith is what we all need and it is a complete belief in mind, soul, and heart.

v5-6: God was pleased with Enoch’s faith because of his sincere belief and earnest seeking of God!

v7: Noah believed that a worldwide flood was going to happen as told by God, therefore he built an ark to save his family (Noah’s faith was belief in what he has never seen but what God said and then took action on that belief!)

Two things happened with Noah’s faith:

1. condemned the world?? What does this mean? Shouldn’t God be the one condemning the world?

a. Noah spoke for God as he was building the ark.

b. Through Noah, God was able to judge the world.

What can we note here? God works through and with people who are faithful! Think about that for a moment; God desires to work through and with people like God did with Jesus Christ!

And we can note the second thing happened as Noah took action with his faith….

2. Noah’s faith made him righteous to God!

There are many to note from this passage; let’s keep 3 basic truths in mind as Christians today:

A. We can not fool God; He knows our hearts!

B. If we profess to be Christians, we must live by faith, daily listening to God and doing what He says even if we do not see it or feel it! God never said Christians are to live by emotions! Christians are to live by faith!