What Faith Is
Heb 11:1-16
Introduction
This is the great chapter on faith. It is the greatest example of faith in the whole Bible.
In the last few verses of the previous chapter, the writer outlines how the Hebrew Christians in Rome needed to persevere in their faith.
“Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.
For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:
‘For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.
Now the just shall live by faith;
But if anyone draws back,
My soul has no pleasure in him."
But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. (Heb10:35-39)
Chapter 11 Verse 1: “Now faith…” Why does the writer say ‘now,’ ‘now faith’? He wants to tell us something important, something significant.
Professor Breward who taught Christian Thought and History at the University of Otago in Dunedin New Zealand, used to begin all his lectures with the word: “Now…”
The writer says “Now” because he is about to embark on an important journey.
He is about to take us through the evidence of things we have not seen, the evidence of the faithful who have gone before.
Faith is described in Hebrews as something that we can have.
But how do you get it?
Faith comes to us by hearing God’s word. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” says Romans 10:17.
OK, so once we have it, how do we keep our faith in all the ups and downs, the various circumstances of life?
It is in the warning of the previous chapter that we learn what is taught in the writings of all the Apostles: “do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.” (10:35)
According to the writer of Hebrews, Abraham and Sarah obeyed God and a whole faithful nation sprang up. (11:8-12)
What are we supposed to be doing with our faith today?
Does your faith make you obey or cause you to obey God?
Genuine faith is indeed tested by how obedient the person is.
For example, Joseph (mentioned in verse 22) was tested as to whether he would sleep with Potiphar’s wife…and by faith he refused.
The genuineness of his faith was tested and rewarded.
He became the Prime Minister of Egypt.
Communication
In communication, the essential elements are that there is a sender of the information and one who receives it.
Send and receive, send and receive.
However, if the receiver and sender are not connected together, the message will not get through.
Illustration:
Most people have wonderful examples of modern technology in their homes. Most have radios and TVs in their houses receiving all kinds of stations.
If we tune to a negative station we will miss all the good news messages that are being broadcast.
The message of the gospel is the good news and you can hear it if you tune into a Christian radio or TV station. If you don’t you miss it.
Most people: a) Have been set a bad Christian example, or
b) Want to live life their own way, and do not care about God or
c) Believe that God cannot be reached or,
d) Want to get to God by their own efforts.
God send the gospel message via His servants, Jesus Christ being the most prominent One.
How do we receive that message?
Well, according to the Bible, we need to have a ‘personal radio’ and to tune it to hear the gospel message. We need to switch on. We need to open up our hearts and minds and read the Bible.
Faith is able to hear and so to respond to God and to please God.
Heb 11:6 “But 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 diligently seek Him.”
Without faith...it is impossible...to please God, is a spur of encouragement rather than a snub.
It is the writer’s style, his way of speaking, to put his message in the negative and it is intended to challenge us to put our faith into action so as to please God.
If I said “You can please God any way you like according to your own ideas,” I would not be doing my job.
The writer says it is impossible to please God without faith so as to spur us on so as to please God in God’s way.
It is not a snub. If I were to snub you I would say something like: “You don’t please God. You are displeasing God. You never have pleased God and you never will because you can’t.”
That would be a pretty hard word but it would not be God speaking!
God cares about you so much that he sent Jesus to save you from ruin.
God sends us saving power through the gospel. If taken into your heart by faith, the gospel of Jesus Christ will save you from sin to God. “…he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” He really is!
Faith Involves Risk
My experience of faith is different from yours and I do not expect you to do things the way I do them, but let me tell you what happened when I was going to Bible College.
When I became a Christian through faith in Jesus Christ, I realised how little I knew about the Bible. Months passed and the more I read of the Bible the more I came to realise I needed some solid teaching.
I believed that I should apply to go to Bible College in Auckland and learn.
My friend Keith Matthews did not understand this.
He kept asking me: “Are you still going to Bible College?”
My Father, whom I lived with, thought it was foolish to leave a good paying job as a telephone technician to go to Bible College.
Keith kept asking the same question, almost weekly as I remember, and I kept giving the same answer.
I think he even asked me how sure I was about going.
I gave him the answer in terms of a percentage…it was a pretty high percentage, and it got higher each time he asked.
The funny thing was that it was not up to me. It was up to God and up to the Bible College I had applied to as to whether I could be accepted.
It was unusual for them to accept very young Christians which at the time I was.
One day the letter came and it told me I was accepted.
I was of course delighted and scared all at the same time.
But this is the verse that the Principal Dr. David Stewart included at the bottom of his letter:
“He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.” (I Thess 5:24 RSV)
When I look back, it had never been up to me whether I should go to College in the first place, so I should simply have told my Dad and my friend Keith that it was up to God.
As Matthew Henry says: “Our fidelity (faithfulness) to God depends on His faithfulness to us.” (MH Comm. on I Thess 5:24 in E-sword Bible)
My call to St Mark’s as pastor was bit different. I was out of parish ministry for a while and when I came back to Dunedin, New Zealand, I began to worship at the local Presbyterian Church, here at St Mark’s. I took some services over a period.
After some time, the Board which was discussing who to call as their minister asked Arthur to ring me and I was at home that night and went down to meet with them. I took on the challenge as from God and I took the risk that if I left my work at the University which I would have to do in order to give the time to St Mark’s, God would provide for me.
And the rest as they say is history. I am now very grateful to Arthur as Session Clerk, and to you all for your support, forgiveness and kindness to me and my wife Kathy.
Yes, faith involves risk..
“Attempt great things for God expect great things from God,” was William Carey’s motto, the founder of modern missionary work.
Also “what is not from faith is sin,” because faith expects God’s guidance and is willing to obey it. (Rom 14:23)
Also that which is not of faith is usually self.
You assume you know what you are doing and where you are going. You are an adult after all! But you do not ask God in faith.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Mt 7:7-8)
Faith is the condition, the requirement, the ‘substance’ and the evidence says Hebrews, which allows you to receive this message of salvation.
George Mueller’s Faith
Some of you may have heard of the life of George Mueller.
I tell it in order to encourage you. It illustrates what faith in God can achieve.
“George Mueller (1805-1898) did many great works for the Lord in his lifetime, among them building several orphanages.
The following is a great story he tells:
It was time for breakfast at one of my orphanages in England and there was no food. Not only was there no food in the kitchen, but there was no money in the home’s account. A young girl whose father was a close friend of mine was visiting the home. I took her hand and said, "Come and see what our Father will do." In the dining room, long tables were set with empty plates and empty mugs. We sat down at the table with the others and I prayed, "Dear Father, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat."
At once, we heard a knock at the door. There stood the local baker. "Mr. Muller," he said, "I couldn’t sleep last night. Somehow, I felt you had no bread for breakfast, so I got up at 2 o’clock this morning and baked you some fresh bread. Here it is." Muller thanked him and gave praise to God. Soon afterward, a second knock came. It was the milkman. His cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. There was no way to move and repair the cart except to empty it of the milk he needed to still deliver so he asked me if we could use his milk. We had a wonderful breakfast that morning.
Faith was the pinnacle of George Muller’s life. Without a personal salary, he relied only on God to supply the money and food he needed to support the hundreds of homeless children he befriended in the name of Messiah. A man of radiant faith, he kept a motto on his desk for many years that brought comfort, strength, and uplifting confidence to his heart.
It read, ’It matters to Him about you.’
Mueller believed that those words captured the meaning of 1 Peter 5:7, and he rested his claim for divine help on that truth. He testified at the end of his life that the Lord had never failed to supply all his needs.” (Worthy Brief: Wed, 08 Aug 2007, in my Yahoo email dated 8/8/2007; in “Worthynews.”)
George Mueller’s experience of answered prayer was definitely the result of having faith in God, but the results were not so much miracles as examples of God’s providential care and provision.
It is true that these examples are spectacular answers to prayers of faith, but the point of them is to show us that God is to be trusted.
God is to be trusted to supply us with what we need if we have an active faith.
We do not need to have the same results as this great Christian leader and benefactor, but we do need to have the essence of what he had in order to enter heaven.
Our faith must be more than a nodding assent to some facts about Jesus or God.
Our faith needs to be more than a vague assurance that things will work out in the end somehow.
Our faith has to be personal. Jesus said:
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.” (Jn 14:1)
“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14:6)
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16)
Our faith has to be actively trusting God each and every day no matter how hard our circumstances are and how impossible life seems to be.
In this chapter the writer of Hebrews gives a long list of those who suffered for believing God. The ancient saying is true and wise: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.” (Prov 3:5-9)
I found this recent statement about being a Christian:
“Now in order (then) to be a Christian, you must have at some point admitted that you failed God and ignored Him - probably that you failed Him for a good many years. You must ask forgiveness for this, and you must ask that that forgiveness be through Christ - because the only way we can be forgiven and not punished is if there is someone who has already taken the punishment - and because of His great love for us, God in Jesus took that punishment for us - he took the punishment we deserve.
As a sign that you genuinely understand that God is Lord and His way is right, you have to live a life of service to God - that means living the way He directs and seeking to glorify His name. Such a person as is described here, once forgiven, will be living in a restored relationship with God and therefore a Christian.”
(http://www.1way2god.net/printerfriendly/dyk.html)
Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, on the verse “Christ who is our life” from Colossians 3:4 says:
“Where there is the same life within, there will, there must be, to a great extent, the same developments without; and if we live in near fellowship with the Lord Jesus we shall grow like him. We shall set him before us as our Divine copy, and we shall seek to tread in his footsteps, until he shall become the crown of our life in glory. Oh! how safe, how honoured, how happy is the Christian, since Christ is our life!” (C.H Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, August 10, E-sword Bible.)
Amen.
