This sermon was delivered to both St. John’s and St. Oswald’s, Scottish Episcopal churches in Girvan and Maybole on the 11th August 2013.
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you O Lord. Amen.
Introduction:
Everyone has faith, everyone has mustard seed faith like it or not. A Houston Pastor named John Bisagno put it this way: "Faith is the heart of life. You go to a doctor whose name you most probably cannot pronounce; he gives you a prescription that you cannot read; you take it to a pharmacist that you have never seen; they give you medication that you do not understand, … and yet, you take it believing that it will make you well." That is living by faith!
There is much more to it than that, but the fact remains that we cannot get through one single day without living by faith. When we hit the light switch, we put faith in the electrical wiring; when we turn the keys in our cars, we expect the engine to start, (well most of the time); and when we sit down, we expect the chair to take our weight.
Or we may place our faith in something deeper like the human potential, or the supremacy of science, or a political power; or “the oneness with nature”; and we all know of people who live their lives according to how their football team did on Saturday?
We all live by faith; faith in something; and to go deeper still, many people have a spiritual faith: Muslims trust in Allah; Buddhists have faith in the teachings of Buddha; Hindus believe in thousands of different Gods; and so on, … and yet all these world religions put their faith in their ability to keep their rules. They must “be good enough” to please their God; … or reach their Nirvana; … or build up good Karma and appease the spirits.
Christianity is completely different from all world religions; Christianity states that to please God, all we have to do is put our faith in our saviour, Jesus. Yes, we do not deserve it, but that is grace; grace which Jesus earned for us on the cross.
This morning we read Hebrews 11, which is referred to as the “The Faith Chapter” as it tells us what Christian faith IS, and what it does. Entire books have been based on this chapter, but don’t worry, this morning I only intend to skim the surface.
1. What is Biblical Faith?
So to start, we ask, what is biblical faith? And Hebrews 11 verse 1 puts this big question into a few words: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”: or in other words, “faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see.”
Aiden Wilson Tozer, the Christian author whom I quote regularly, had an interesting explanation for this verse. He said: “Faith is seeing the invisible, but not the nonexistent.” Biblical faith believes in God when He tells us that there is a reality that we cannot see; and so we must keep our eyes on the one who controls the circumstances; and not on the circumstances that control us.
2 Corinthians 5:7 puts it this way “We live by faith and not by sight”.
To some, this is simple enough, but most people get all kinds of misconceptions about what Faith is and so let us take a few minutes to look at what biblical faith is not.
2. What Biblical Faith is not?
Let us start with the non believers, the people who claim to have no religion at all, yet they live by faith in something; for example, to be an atheist, you must have faith to believe that God does not exist; and personally, I think that is harder than believing he does exist.
If all atheists, agnostics, secular humanists and all the other non believers put their faith into words, it might sound like this: “By faith, we believe that the universe evolved from mindless matter, so that order accidentally emerges from chaos”.
Yet they are very hard-pressed to find any evidence for this. … Can you imagine for example, … a whole scrapheap of junk, and then over thousands of years this junk emerges accidently into a fully functional Jumbo Jet? … No way, … science consistently shows us that order does not grow from chaos, rather, order requires a design, a blue print, and a design requires a designer.
I don’t know about you, but I find Hebrews 11 verse 3 much more plausible: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible”.
As an engineer, I firmly believe that Christian faith is compatible with logic and reason. It is based on historical evidence; it is supported by biblical records and personal testimony, and of course, it is supported by our own experiences.
Another misconception about faith is that we can make God do anything we want. New age teaching is great for promoting this using a technique called auto suggestion. To them God is in a box and all they have to do is ask and receive; well their affirmations ask and they try and believe repeatedly, thousands of times, until they receive.
That kind of faith won’t outlast the first disappointment; and when the first tragedy strikes, this faith crumbles, as there is nothing to hang onto. Biblical faith does not believe that God will do what we say; biblical faith states that we will do what God says we will do; and to do that, we have to walk closely with God, and study his word.
Another common misconception about faith is what I said earlier, that all the other world religions require its followers to know all the laws and commandments; but faith is not an adherence to a list of doctrines. Our faith will certainly not increase just because we have been trying to keep most of the commandments and doing our best to live a good life; come on, we have all tried this at some time; and how effectual were we? Not at all.
No, this approach is all about what we have done, and denies grace, and grace states that no matter how pathetic were are, God will enable us because of who Jesus is, and what he achieved for us on the cross. Rules and regulations are important in their place, but they certainly do not increase our faith.
And, one last misconception is the importance to recognise that biblical faith is not just any old leap in the dark daring something good will happen. Jesus soaked himself in God’s word, and Jesus walked with God’s spirit, and Jesus only did miracles after God revealed them to him, and after God empowered him to perform them.
Jesus walked with God in the same way he wants us to walk with God. Biblical faith is a relationship with Jesus.
Listen to what D.L Moody, the 19th century evangelist and founder of the Moody church said about faith: “I prayed for faith and thought that some day it would come down and strike me like lightning. But faith didn’t seem to come. One day I read in Romans that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” I had, up to this time, closed my Bible and prayed for faith. Now I opened my Bible and study … and faith has been growing ever since. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”.
3. What Biblical Faith Does?
There are many more misconceptions, but I would like to move on and look briefly at some Old Testament characters in Hebrews 11 that put their faith in God, to show you what real faith does.
The first character is a worshiper called Abel, and if you remember, Abel is the younger brother of Cain, who was the first man born to Adam and eve. Hebrews 11 verse 4: “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings”
Able worshipped God in obedience, and with a sincere heart, his faith pleased God. Unfortunately Cain’s offering was not so pleasing to God, and out of envy, Cain killed his brother Abel.
But Abel’s honest worship stands as a testimony that his faith through worship pleased God. That is why when we worship; we should do so with all our hearts, mind, and soul; as Abel learned that to worship God, is to please God.
Our next character in our faith heroes is a rather an obscure character named Enoch. We don’t know much about him, but what we do know is impressive. Genesis 5:24 tells us, “Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away”.
Hebrews 11:5 elaborates, “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God”.
Evidently Enoch walked so closely with God that God took him home without Enoch having to experience physical death. From Enoch we learn that to walk with God is also to please God.
The next faith hero is Noah, a man whose faith led to some long hard work. Noah is known for working with God and think about it, Noah and his 3 sons took over 100 years to build an Ark. That is no mean task and it certainly required a lot of faith.
Hebrews 11 verse 7, ”by faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Most of us won’t be asked to build an Ark, but God has or will give every one of us work assignments to promote his Kingdom, so we must be ready to work for his Kingdom and not ours. To work for God, is also to please God.
The last bible hero of faith is the best known of all, Abraham who is known as the Father of our Faith. Abraham’s life teaches us hundreds of things about faith; but perhaps the biggest frustration Abraham experienced was having to wait.
Abraham waited for a home in the Promised Land; spending his entire life living in a tent. Abraham waited until he was 100 years old for the son that God had promised him and Abraham waited and waited for his eternal home in heaven.
Hebrews 11 verse 9, ”By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God”.
Much to our annoyance, our faith requires us to wait also. At times it can feels like an eternal waiting room: waiting for an answer to a prayer; • waiting for a job opportunity; • waiting for the results of a medical test; • or just waiting for something …
When we have prayed all we can pray, and done all we can do, … sometimes the greatest proof of our faith is that we can simply wait. A faith that pleases God will enable us to wait with confidence knowing that God will come good in the end.
Conclusion.
And to close, all the Heroes of the Old Testament waited with Faith. Hebrews 11:13 says that “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them, and welcomed them from a distance”.
With faith, they looked forward to the coming of the Messiah; with faith we look forward to the time when all the promises of scripture will be fulfilled.
We look forward to the time when we will be reunited with loved ones, and we wait for the time when those who suffer will be comforted.
And while we WAIT in faith: we continue to WORSHIP him; WALK with Him, and to WORK for Him to promote his Kingdom and glory. This is the faith that pleases God.
Hebrews 11 verse 6 says that ”Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
I finish with this quote which I love but have changed slightly, from Warren Wiersbe the Christian author, "Faith enables us to understand who God is; faith enables us to see what others cannot see; and as a result; faith enables us to do what others cannot do."
Amen.
Let us Pray,
Father we thank you for Jesus, we thank you that he died on the cross to set us free; and by his blood we can approach you cleansed from all our sins.
Father true biblical faith can be very difficult for us to understand, yet as your sons and daughters we want to learn, we want to please you.
We want to worship you like Abel, so that we can commune with you to know your will, and you to know ours.
We want to walk with you like Enoch, to see the world through your eyes: to see what you see; and let you see what we see.
We want to work with you like Noah, but you need to tell us what you want us to do. We need you to anoint us and empower us to do your will, and we need you to protect us as we go.
Finally father we need patience, as seen in Abraham. This world now does not give us much opportunity as everything must be done now. Father, slow our lives down so that we may enjoy things more; granting us the ability to trust you, knowing that you will come good in the end.
Father we ask in Jesus name,
Amen.
P.S. I take this opportunity to thank K. Edward "ed" Skidmore who helped me with this sermon.
