Is Your Faith Working?
Hebrews 11
7-19-09
Intro
I want to begin this morning with a question. Is your faith working? Since the Bible says, “The just shall live by faith” I would consider that question extremely important. Are you living by faith? Martin Luther applied that verse to justification. Certainly no one will be saved without faith in Jesus Christ. The key to being accepted by God is not your good works, but the righteous act of Christ at Calvary. Let me say clearly, I believe Luther was right. Righteousness before God is available through faith in Christ not in our own goodness.
But does that exhaust the meaning of the verse, “The just shall live by faith.”
I. Habbakuk’s Experience
Let’s look at the first place in Scripture where this phrase is given, Habakkuk 2:4. Habakkuk was a contemporary of Jeremiah. The spiritual level of God’s people was extremely low and there were all kinds of injustice going on in the Southern Kingdom of Israel. This book is a dialogue between Habakkuk and God. The prophet is baffled as to why God doesn’t immediately intervene and correct the injustices—judge the guilty and defend the innocent. Habakkuk is even more bewildered when God tells him He will judge Israel by giving victory to an even more evil nation, Babylon. Habakkuk deals with the age-old question of why the righteous suffer and why the wicked prosper. It’s important to get that context if we’re to understand the phrase “The just shall live by faith.”
Now look with me at some of the questions Habakkuk asks God in Chapter 1. His first question is in verses 2-4 “ LORD, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear?
Even cry out to You,"Violence!"And You will not save.
3 Why do You show me iniquity, And cause me to see trouble?
For plundering and violence are before me; There is strife, and contention arises.
4 Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.”
What is the essential question here? “God why don’t you do something about all my troubles and why don’t you do something about all the evil going on around me?”
Look at God’s answer: verse 6 “For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans,
A bitter and hasty nation Which marches through the breadth of the earth,
To possess dwelling places that are not theirs.” God is telling Habakkuk He is about to judge Israel but that He will do it using the Chaldeans or Babylonians who are even more ruthless than the ungodly in Israel. In verse 11 God even tells Habakkuk the Chaldeans will even ascribe the victory He gives them to false gods rather than to Him.
The rest of chapter 1 is Habakkuk’s response to that. Verse 12 & 13, “Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die.
O LORD, You have appointed them for judgment;
O Rock, You have marked them for correction.
13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness.
Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours A person more righteous than he?”
So here is Habakkuk basically confronting God for His apparent disinterest in all the injustice that’s going. “If you’re from everlasting, surely you’re able to do something about it. If you’re Holy surely it would be expected that you would intervene. So God, what’s your problem?” Have you ever had those kinds of questions going through your mind? You talk to the man on the street and it’s not long until they’re saying, “If there is a good and righteous God, why does He allow all the pain and suffering of war, why does he allow little children to die of malnutrition?”
To understand the context, you have to understand the Jewish concept of Jehovah. They were so sensitive to His majesty they would not even speak His name for fear that they might use it without proper reverence. This is the God who killed Aaron’s sons for using strange fire in their worship. And Habakkuk has dared to question God’s actions. Hab 2:1
“I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart,
And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected.”
He’s ducking his head waiting for the lightening to strike. “Oh boy, what am I going to do when He corrects me for asking such questions?”
Hab 2:2-4 “Then the LORD answered me and said:
‘Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. 4 "Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him;But the just shall live by his faith.”
God knows all about the sin going on among the proud. But Habakkuk here is my word to you, “The just shall live by his faith.” “Whether you understand what’s going on or not, you keep trusting Me and doing right.”
Faith is not just for your initial experience in God; it’s for your whole walk with God. Faith is not just necessary for entry into the kingdom of God; faith is the way we live in the kingdom of God. Faith is not only essential for justification but is also essential for sanctification. 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.”
II. Hebrews 11 Experiences
Now let’s go to Hebrews 11 and address our question more fully. “Is your faith working?” Most of you know this as the great faith chapter in Scripture. The flow of this chapter can be seen in the two words that begin many of the verses, “by faith.”
Vs 3 “By faith we understand....”
Vs 4 “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice....”
Vs 5 “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death....”
Vs 7 “By faith Noah....”
Vs 8 “By faith Abraham obeyed....”
Vs 9 “By faith he dwelt in the land of promise....”
Vs 11 “By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive....”
Vs 17 “By faith Abraham, when he was tested offered up Isaac....”
Vs 20 “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau....”
Vs 21 “By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph....”
Vs 22 “By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the
children of Israel....”
Vs 23 “By faith Moses ...refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter....”
Vs 27 “By faith he forsook Egypt....”
Vs 28 “By faith he kept the Passover....”
Vs 29 “By faith they passed through the Red Sea....”
Vs 30 “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down....”
Vs 31 “By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish....”
You get the feeling that faith is a pretty significant part of doing the will of God. Example after example is given to drive home the importance of faith—to reinforce the state in verse 6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him....”
Before proceeding, I want to point out two results of faith in these examples.
1st By faith we know things that we could not know any other way. Look again at Heb 11:3 “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” It didn’t just evolve by chance. The material world we see today was not made by a visible material world of the past. It was made by the eternal, invisible God. God spoke it all into existence. The worlds were framed by the word of God.
How do we know that? We know it through revelation. It was revealed in Scripture; and at a level not understood by the world God’s Spirit has borne witness with our spirit that Scripture is true. Scripture told me that if I would confess with my mouth Jesus’ lordship and believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead I would be saved (Rom. 10:9). I did that and what happened? God’s Spirit bore witness with my spirit that I was a child of God (Rom. 8:16). Jesus gave a key to knowing the truth when he said this in John 7:17 “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.” Revelation does not come to simply satisfy human curiosity. Revelation comes to those who want to know so that they can do the will of God. Of course, even that desire is a gift of God.
But the world requires rational proof for some things that can only be known by revelation. And the revelation only comes to those who will believe. The great error of the 20th Century was the idea that rational logic is the only way to know something. Today even the secular society recognizes the fallacy in that thinking. One of the positive outcomes of the postmodern movement is the fact that many in this new generation are breaking out of the old Modern, rationalistic straight jacket. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:10-14). “By faith we understand....” That doesn’t mean we throw rational thinking out the window. It simply means we don’t worship the human mind; we don’t limit the Holy One of Israel to our own mental capacity. John 4:24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” So one characteristic of faith is the capacity to know some things our mind could not figure out on its own.
How did Noah know that a flood was coming? Did he review historical data and rationally conclude that it was just about time for the world to be flooded? No, God spoke to him supernaturally. He could have never concluded that a flood was coming except by supernatural revelation. By faith he received the warning. Then he acted in accordance with that revelation which brings us to the 2nd characteristic of faith I want to talk about.
2nd result of faith is action. Faith causes us to move in obedience to God. “By faith Abraham obeyed....” If your faith does not cause you to obey God, then something’s wrong. James made this clear in his epistle. James 2:20-22 “But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?” The NIV captures the idea a little better in verse 22, “You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.” To have a ship in the harbor is nice, but it never accomplishes its purpose until its launched out to sea. Faith has not fulfilled its end-purpose unless it produces obedient action.
You can see that principle by looking at the active verbs in this chapter that follow the words “by faith.”
Vs 4 “By faith Abel offered ....”
Vs 5 “By faith Enoch ...pleased God.”
Vs 7 “By faith Noah...prepared an ark....”
Vs 8 “By faith Abraham obeyed....”
Vs 17 “By faith Abraham... offered up Isaac....”
Vs 20 “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau....”
Vs 21 “By faith Jacob...blessed each of the sons of Joseph....”
Vs 22 “By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure....”
Vs 23 “By faith Moses ...refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter....”
Vs 27 “By faith he forsook Egypt....”
Vs 28 “By faith he kept the Passover....”
Vs 29 “By faith they passed through the Red Sea....”
By faith we hear God and by faith we obey Him. When that’s happening our faith is working.
III. Two Kind of Faith Expereince
Faith has two primary ways it is expressed in our lives. We see that in the remainder of this chapter. Heb 11:32-40 “And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: 33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35 Women received their dead raised to life again.
Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented -- 38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.”
In the middle of verse 35 there is a define shift from one expression of faith to another.
1st in 32-35a we have a powerful summary of faith that overcomes obstacles, removes mountains, and produces glorious victories. Gideon’s 300 defeated an army of 135,000 by faith. Samson killed 1000 Philistines with the jaw bone of a donkey, by faith. David defeated Goliath, by faith. The aged Daniel emerged victorious over the lion’s den, by faith. It is exciting to read about the awesome victories God has given people who put their faith in Him during a crisis. It’s not hard to understand the value of faith when it delivers us from destruction and meets our needs supernaturally. Verse 35 talks about women receiving their dead raised to life again. That happened in both Elijah’s and Elisha’s ministry. What joy must have filled those mothers’ hearts.
But then the tone changes a bit in verse 35. Instead of these external victories we see something that is more internal. The 2nd expression of faith in verse 35 begins with the word “Others.” “Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented.” Where was their faith? It was just as real as the first group. Why we’re they delivered? Was it a lack of faith? No, verse 39 tells us all these obtained a good testimony through faith. Instead of being delivered from the trial, they were given grace to endure the hardship. By faith they trusted God through the problem and did not lose heart. Jeremiah was thrown into a pit and suffered terribly for his faithfulness to the word of the Lord. Tradition tells us Isaiah was sawn in half. Elijah was persecuted by Jezebel. Their faith was working.
Our question this morning is this: Is your faith working? Your external circumstances do not necessarily answer that question. By faith you may be making millions of dollars for the advancement of God’s kingdom. Missionaries may be on the field because of your faith. Souls may be coming to Christ because you have believed God for the impossible. Healings may be bringing glory to the Lord through your faith. Others may be glorifying God by enduring hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Maybe others don’t treat you right on the job; but you are kind to them and faithfully do your work. Maybe people shun you because of your testimony of Jesus; but you will not and can not renounce the Lord you love. 1 Peter 4:14-16 “If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name” (NIV).
Who decides whether you will be a Samson defeating 1000 adversaries or a Jeremiah thrown into a slimy pit? God decides those things. Our part is to trust Him in whatever circumstance we may find ourselves in. Paul said he had learned how to abound and how to be abased (Phil. 4:12). For most of us our life’s experience will be a mixture like Paul’s. There will be times when we see God come in for us and bring amazing victories—times when we speak to the mountain and the mountain is removed. But there will be other times when we pray for a trial to be removed and God simply says to us, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor. 12:9).
Heb 10:38-39 addresses two possible responses to the challenges of life.
“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.
You know your faith is working when you’re not drawing back from God. You know your faith is working when you’re pressing into God whatever the circumstance. You know your faith is working when neither prosperity nor adversity turns you from God. You know your faith is working when the trial causes you to draw closer to God and depend upon Him even more. You know your faith is working when you give Him the glory for the exciting victories that He gives. “The just shall live by faith.” In whatever circumstance you may be in today, that is always the answer. Put your trust in God and He will take care of the matter.
Pray
For FOOTNOTES/SOURCES go to www.GatewayNixa.org
Richard Tow
Gateway Foursquare Church
Nixa, Missouri
