After Columbus discovered America, the Spanish Nobles gave him a hard time, because they were jealous of the honors King Ferdinand was heaping on him. On one occasion, after they had had a little too much to drink, they began to complain about all the accolades Columbus received. They told him it was “mere animal resolution” that pushed his voyage a few leagues beyond what any one had dared to do before.
Columbus patiently listened. Then he took an egg from a dish and challenged them to show their ingenuity by making it stand on end. It went all around the table, but no one succeeded. Then Columbus said, “Give it to me, gentlemen.” He took the egg, broke it on one end, and immediately he stood it up on the table.
The noblemen complained even more: “We could have done that!” they said.
To which Columbus simply replied, “Yes, if the though had struck you; and if the though had struck you, you might have discovered America.” (Percy; Bible Illustrator #503-506)
It’s amazing what you can do with a little faith “if the thought strikes you.”
We saw it last week. You and I who believe in Christ have a fantastic faith that goes beyond the normal and the mundane. So by faith, be certain of what others cannot be certain – gain a confidence in God’s promises. By faith, see what others cannot see – gain a conviction of God’s principles. By faith, hear what others cannot hear – gain a confirmation of God’s pleasure.
That’s what we learned from Hebrews 11:1-2, so if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Hebrews 11 again this week. Hebrews 11, where we’ll see what else our fantastic faith in Christ can do for us.
Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (ESV)
God’s Word is powerful! Genesis 1 describes the creation of the universe, where It declares several times, “God said … and it was so.” God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light (Genesis 1:3). God said, “Let there be sky” … and it was so (Genesis 1:6-7). God said, “Let the dry land appear” … and it was so (Gen. 1:9). God said, “Let the earth sprout plants” … and it was so (Genesis 1:11). God said, “Let there be lights in the sky” … and it was so (Genesis 1:14-15). God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures” … and it was so (Genesis 1:24). God said… and it was so! God’s Word is powerful, and believers understand that power. So…
BY FAITH, KNOW WHAT OTHERS CANNOT KNOW.
By trusting Christ, gain a comprehension of God’s power. By depending on the Lord, grasp the power of His Word.
God’s Word, which is invisible, created everything we see. Now, that doesn’t make sense to the unbeliever.
Some time ago, Dana Tierney described in The New York Times how both she and her husband John had rejected their childhood faith. They had their son Luke baptized to placate their families, but that was it.
When Dana's husband went to Iraq as an imbedded reporter, she was understandably fearful. But she was surprised at how calm four-year-old Luke was. She assumed that it was just youthful naiveté. Then one day they were watching a TV interview with a U.S. soldier who was sharing his fears about returning to Iraq. For just an instant, Dana saw Luke form his hands to pray. When she asked him about it, Luke at first denied it, but after he did it a second time, he confessed that he had been praying.
Dana was stunned, partly by Luke's faith, and partly by how his faith allowed him to be calm and her lack of faith caused her to be fearful. She was also embarrassed that her four-year son instinctively knew that praying for his dad was not acceptable to her.
When Dana asked Luke when he first began to believe in God, he said, “I don't know. I've always known he exists.” Later in the article, Dana admits that she feels like she is missing out. She writes, “[My religious friends] have an expansiveness of spirit. When they walk along a stream, they don't just see water falling over rocks; the sight fills them with ecstasy. They see a realm of hope beyond this world. I just see a babbling brook. I don't get the message.” (David Hart Bradstreet, Star Struck, Zondervan, 2016, pp. 108-110; www.PreachingToday.com)
“The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1), but the unbeliever doesn’t get the message. Four-year-old believers understand more than 40-year-old atheists. They don’t just see the obvious. Like Dana Tierney admits, they see “a realm of hope BEYOND this world.”
Now, just to be clear, their faith is NOT unreasonable. It just goes BEYOND what a person’s reason and senses can access. You see, science and reason can only answer certain questions. It can answer WHAT MATERIAL something is made of. It can answer the IMMEDIATE CAUSES of certain reactions. It can answer questions of SHAPE AND FORM. But science and reason cannot answer questions of origins and purpose. They cannon answer HOW it all got started and WHY something was made. Those questions are BEYOND the realm of scientific observation, but they are not beyond the realm of faith.
I like the way Troy Van Voorhis, Professor of Chemistry at MIT, puts it. He says science and faith work together to give us “multiple layers of meaning.”
Let me give you an example. You could ask me, “Troy, why is your shirt purple?” I could answer this in a scientific way: “My shirt is purple because there is a high concentration of… dibromo-indigo in the fibers that were used to weave it.” I could even test that hypothesis by attempting to remove the dye from the shirt, to demonstrate the molecular reason why my shirt is purple.
However, I could offer another explanation: “My shirt is purple because my wife thinks I look quite nice in purple.” Both explanations can be true. (Troy Van Voorhis, Certainty: Is Science All You Need? The Veritas Forum, 2014, pp. 12-13; www.PreachingToday.com)
In the same way, faith is not CONTRARY to science. It just allows us to go BEYOND science and reason to answer questions we could not otherwise answer. In fact, a lack of faith in God actually leads people to unreasonable and unscientific conclusions.
The popular theory of origins today is “The Big Bang Theory,” which, along with the theory of evolution, says that our universe is the result of a huge explosion several billion years ago. After which, by chance, atoms and molecules came together to form inanimate and animate objects. Then over time those objects evolved into the various forms of life we see today.
Though many science teachers often teach this as “fact,” many scientists themselves know this to be at best an unproven hypothesis. Gerald A. Kerkut, who himself was an evolutionary biologist at Cambridge University, admits as much. In 1960, he wrote a book called The Implications of Evolution. And in it he says the evidence that supports the General Theory of Evolution is not sufficiently strong to allow us to consider it anything more than a working hypothesis (p. 157).
Then Kerkut gives a list of seven basic assumptions in the theory which he says are totally unproven and unprovable. They are as follows:
(1) The first assumption is that non-living things gave rise to living material, i.e. spontaneous generation occurred.
(2) The second assumption is that spontaneous generation occurred only once.
(3) The third assumption is that viruses, bacteria, plants and animals are all interrelated.
(4) The fourth assumption is that the Protozoa (single-celled organisms) gave rise to the Metazoa (multi-celled organisms).
(5) The fifth assumption is that the various invertebrate phlya (organisms without a backbone) are interrelated.
(6) The sixth assumption is that the invertebrates gave rise to the vertebrates (animals with backbones).
(7) The seventh assumption is that within the vertebrates the fish gave rise to the amphibia, the amphibia to the reptiles, and reptiles to the birds and mammals. (Harry R. Osborne, “Evidences: Assumptions of Evolution,” Guardian of Truth XXXIX:2, p. 14-15, January 19, 1995)
With regard to the first assumption about spontaneous generation, Lewis Pasteur disproved that in 1859. No reputable scientist believes that today, and yet spontaneous generation is critical for the theory of evolution. Atheistic evolution demands that it must have happened, for there is no other alternative to sustain the theory. (Vic Vadney, www.wayhome.org/TheAssumptionsOf Evolution.html, 2012)
As for most of the rest of the assumptions, there is absolutely no evidence in the fossil record that one kind of animal gave rise to another kind of animal. Dr Colin Patterson, who was at one time the senior paleontologist (fossil expert) at the British Museum of Natural History, had written a book for the British Museum simply called Evolution. After the book was published, Luther Sunderland wrote to Dr Patterson asking why he had not shown one single photograph of a transitional fossil in his book. Patterson then wrote back with the following amazing confession which was reproduced, in its entirety, in Sunderland’s book Darwin’s Enigma:
Patterson said, “I fully agree with your comments on the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them…” Then Patterson goes on to say, “[Stephen] Gould [the now deceased professor of paleontology from Harvard University] and the American Museum people are hard to contradict when they say there are no transitional fossils… I will lay it on the line—there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument.” (Gary Bates, That quote! – about the missing transitional fossils, Creation.com, February 18, 2008, https://creation.com/that-quote-about-the-missing-transitional-fossils)
Many of the evolutionists themselves, at least the honest ones, admit that there is no evidence to support their assumptions.
And I submit to you that their assumptions take as much, if not more, faith to believe than the simple declaration in the first verse of the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). After all, it takes an incredible amount of faith to believe that an explosion, followed by a series of chance mutations, created the order and design we see in the universe today.
So, as a believer in Christ, don’t ever be ashamed of your faith. Instead, by faith, be certain of what others cannot be certain – Gain a confidence in God’s promises. By faith, see what others cannot see – Gain a conviction of God’s principles. By faith, hear what others cannot hear – Gain a confirmation of God’s pleasure. And by faith, know what others cannot know – Gain a comprehension of God’s power. Then…
BY FAITH, DO WHAT OTHERS CANNOT DO.
By trusting Christ, gain the capacity to please God. By depending on the Lord, delight Him in your worship and in your walk with Him.
Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. (ESV)
Abel’s life still speaks to us today even though Cain, his brother, killed him in the first murder ever recorded in history. You see, Cain was jealous, because God accepted Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s.
Genesis 4 says, “Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground”, and “Abel brought of the first-born of his flock and of their fat portions” (Genesis 4:3-4) In other words…
Abel brought the first and the best of his sheep, because He truly believed God and wanted to give God His best. Cain just grabbed some grain and threw it before the Lord, because it was expected. It was mere ritual. It didn’t mean anything to him.
People, who don’t really believe, just go through the motions of worship. People, who truly believe, worship God from the heart, wanting to give Him their very best.
How about you? Why are you here this morning? Is it mere ritual to you, or do you really want to express your gratitude to God from the heart? You see, that’s the kind of worship that pleases Him.
So worship God from a heart full of faith in Him like Abel. Worship God, not out of obligation, but in spirit and in truth. Worship the Lord, because He really means the world to you.
Marshall Shelly talks about giving his wife a terrific anniversary gift early in their marriage. It was a rain gage. At least he thought it was a great gift. After all, Susan, his wife, is a farmer’s daughter and keeps close watch on the weather. He thought she would really enjoy tracking the precipitation in their backyard and congratulated himself on his creativity.
It reminds me of the time my father gave my mother a brand-new vacuum cleaner, the latest and greatest model, on their anniversary.
Needless to say, my mother was NOT impressed, and neither was Susan, Marshall Shelly’s wife. The gauge, like the vacuum cleaner, is now a family joke. (Marshall Shelley, Leadership journal, Spring 1999, p.3; www.PreachingToday.com)
I’m afraid a lot of worship is like that gift, a gift given out of obligation, because it is expected. And We THINK God will really like it. We THINK God will really like our songs, our offerings, and our prayers.
But God is not impressed with mere ritual. Instead, God wants our hearts full of faith in Him. He wants hearts that truly rely on Him. Then we come to Him with real gratitude for our salvation, and we express that gratitude by giving Him our very best. Those are the kind of worshippers that please God. So worship God from a heart full of faith in Him like Able.
Then walk with God right into heaven like Enoch. Live your life with the pleasure of the Lord’s presence. Go through every day enjoying God’s companionship.
Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. (ESV)
Literally, he was well-pleasing to God. That is to say, God enjoyed his company! Genesis 5:24 says, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took Him.” According to Genesis 5, they walked together for 300 years. Then one day it was as if God said to Enoch, “You’re so far away from your home, why don’t you just come home with me?”
They enjoyed one another’s company, and that’s the kind of relationship you can have with God through faith in His Son. You can walk with God, not only enjoying HIS company, but He enjoying YOUR company. Doesn’t that just blow you away – God enjoys your company!?
Just a little over a year ago (May 2017), Judy O’Conner, to her complete surprise, received an MBA from Chapman University just after her son received his. Her son, Marty, is a quadriplegic and couldn’t take his own notes while in class, so Judy attended every class with him and took his notes.
After Judy had wheeled Marty across the stage so he could receive his diploma, a choked-up graduation announcer said the school's faculty, administrators, and board of trustees had decided to give her an MBA, as well.
According to the Los Angeles Times, “[A] stunned but composed Judy O'Conner blew a kiss to the crowd giving her a standing ovation.”
Judy had been living in Florida when Marty fell down a flight of stairs and was paralyzed back in 2012. She then moved to Southern California to help her son earn his MBA.
For Judy, the classes were a privilege: “I'm a geek,” she said. “I love being in school… I'm not going to lie. I've enjoyed every minute of it.” (“Mom Who Attended Every Class with Quadriplegic Son Gets Honorary MBA,” Los Angeles Times, 5-23-17; www.PreacingToday.com)
She walked with her son through school and enjoyed every minute of it. In the same way, God walks with the believer through life and enjoys every minute of it. Even though we’re like quadriplegics compared to God, He enjoys our company even more than we enjoy His.
But that’s what faith can do! So by faith, worship God from the heart like Abel. And by faith, walk with God right into heaven like Enoch.
To sum it all up, by faith, win God’s favor. By depending on Christ, live a life well-pleasing to the Lord.
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (ESV)
Faith, more than anything else, pleases the Lord. Simply believing that He exists, and simply believing that He rewards those who look for Him makes Him very happy.
When Harry Truman became president, he worried about losing touch with common, everyday Americans, so he would often go out to be among them. Those were simpler days, when the president could take a walk like everyone else.
One evening, Truman decided to take a walk down to the Memorial Bridge on the Potomac River. When he grew curious about the mechanism that raised and lowered the bridge, he made his way across the catwalks and came upon the bridge operator, who was eating his evening supper out of a tin bucket.
The man showed absolutely no surprise when he looked up and saw the best-known and most powerful man in the world. He just swallowed his food, wiped his mouth, smiled, and said, “You know, Mr. President, I was just thinking of you.” According to Truman's biographer, David McCullough, it was a greeting that Truman adored and never forgot. (Robert Morgan, Moments of Reflection: Reclaiming the Lost Art of Biblical Meditation, Thomas Nelson, 2017, page 33; www.PreachingToday.com)
The Lord adores it when he finds us just thinking about him, just believing in Him, just trusting Him.
By faith, be certain of what others cannot be certain – Gain a confidence in God’s promises. By faith, see what others cannot see – Gain a conviction of God’s principles. By faith, hear what others cannot hear – Gain a confirmation of God’s pleasure. By faith, know what others cannot know – Gain a comprehension of God’s power. And by faith, do what others cannot do – Gain the capacity to please God.
In 1983 Lorne Whitehead published an article about the domino chain reaction. You can picture it in your mind, can't you? You knock over a domino, and it sets off a chain reaction that can knock down hundreds of dominoes in a matter of seconds. But the unique significance of Whitehead's research was discovering that a domino is capable of knocking over a domino that is one-and-a-half times its size. So a two-inch domino can topple a three-inch domino. A three-inch domino can topple a four-and-a-half-inch domino. And a four-and-a-half-inch domino can topple a … well, you get the point.
By the time you get to the 18th domino, you could knock over the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The 23rd domino could knock over the Eiffel Tower. And by the time you get to the 28th domino, you could take down the Empire State Building. (Mark Batterson, Chase the Lion, Multnomah, 2016, pages 169-170; www.PreachingToday.com)
Like the little domino, it’s amazing what a little faith can do! So trust Jesus with your life and see what He will do for you.
