Faith That Pleases God Series

HEBREWS 11:4-7

FAITH THAT PLEASES GOD [LEAVING A LEGACY SERIES]

[Genesis 4:3-7; 6:13-20; Genesis 5:21–24]

The author now encourages his readers further by reminding them of examples of faith in earlier days. In O.T. times, he points out, there were many men and women who had nothing but the promises of God to rest upon, without visible evidence that these promises would ever be fulfilled, yet those promises meant so much to them that they adjusted the whole course of their lives in light of the promises. The promises related to the future, but these people acted as if they were already a present reality, so convinced were they that God could and would fulfill what He had promised. In other words, they were men and women of faith. Their faith consisted simply in taking God at His word and directing their lives accordingly. Things yet future as to their experience, were present to their faith and things outwardly unseen were visible to the inward eye of faith in God.

The great achievers in history have been men and women who could see the invisible and strive to reach it. Explorers, inventors, liberators, and pioneers in every field have been characterized by the steady penetrating eye that sees the invisible and strives for the seemingly impossible.

It may seem impossible to please a perfect, all-knowing, all-powerful, holy God but there is a way, and that way is faith. The actions of these Old Testament saints shows that faith pleases God and that He rewards all those who seek and follow Him by faith (CIT).

I. ABEL: WORSHIPING IN FAITH, 4.

II. ENOCH: WALKING BY FAITH, 5-6.

III. NOAH: WORKING IN FAITH, 7.

Our writer now leads us to consider the lives of people known simply for their faith. The first three pleased God by their faith in Him (Gen 6:9; 7:1). First, the way to a more excellent sacrifice like Abel’s is to offer it in faith as verse 4 indicates. “By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.”

James Moffatt wrote, “Death is never the last word in the life of a righteous man. When a man leaves this world, be he righteous or unrighteous, he leaves something in the world. He may leave something that will grow and spread like a cancer or a poison, or he may leave something like a fragrance of perfume or a blossom of beauty that permeates the atmosphere with blessing.” We leave this world either a with a legacy of faith or of unfaithfulness.

Dead men do tell tales. They are not silent, but still speak to those who will listen. From many thousands of years ago, Abel speaks to twenty-first-century man. This man who lived when the earth was new, who was of the second generation of mankind, has something to teach modern, sophisticated, technological man. He lived in a far distant age, in a far different culture, with far less light from God than we have. But what he has to tell us is more relevant than anything we are likely to read in our current newspapers or magazines.

This verse indicates that Abel’s faith led to three things, true worship, true righteousness, and true witness. Cain was the oldest brother who exercised and lived out his religion. He was a religious man, but he was not righteous (1 Jn. 3:2). The reason indicated is because his faith was not truly placed in God’s righteousness or goodness but in himself. Cain in someway, perhaps in heart, held himself back from full surrender to God. Let’s review the story according to the narrative of Genesis 4:3-7.

Cain and Abel were Adam and Eve’s first two sons and were born after the fall. Abel and his elder brother Cain brought their offerings to God. Abel, the shepherd, brought “of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions” and Cain the agriculturalist brought “an offering of the fruit of the ground.” Either type of offering was suitable (better or more excellent would indicate the quality not the type of sacrifice was the concern). [See Lev. 2&3 for acceptable blood and grain sacrifices]. Yet “the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering but for Cain and his offering He had no regard.” Why was there discrimination? The sacrifices of both Cain and Abel seem to have been offered as acts of worship. Both recognized an obligation on the part of the created to the creator. Cain offered his sacrifice out of obligation without faith. Abel’s sacrifice however, though also offered out of obligation, was offered in faith by a life that was being lived in obedience to God. An attitude of obedient faith verses an attitude of ungrateful obligation seems to be the difference. God pointed out to dejected Cain why his offering was disregarded in Genesis 4:7; “If you do well will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door. Its desire is for you but you must master it.”