This past week we all heard about another horrific tragedy on the border.
Three people died and 25 were injured as smugglers attempted to bring dozens of illegal immigrants into the U.S. via boat along the California Coast. The 40-foot boat broke up on a reef just west of Point Loma off the San Diego Coast. The boat broke into pieces and dozens of people ended up in the surf, some being pulled out into the sea by rip currents.
It was just another day in the border crisis along the U.S. Mexico border. It seems that nearly every week we hear of another disaster at or near the border. In March 13 people died as a Ford SUV carrying 25 immigrants turned in front of a semi near the border in Southern California. We often hear of refrigerator trucks packed with immigrants gets abandoned in hot weather and many of the people perish in the heat and dehydration that results.
People from Central America are spending everything they have, risking robbery, rape and every kind of danger travelling by foot in an attempt to cross the U.S. border. Some are sending their unaccompanied children alone in hopes of finding a new and better life.
Why are people risking everything they have, enduring great dangers, the welfare of their children and even their own lives to get into the U.S. It’s because they believe in the promise of a new and better life, and some are so desperate they are willing to suffer all kinds of difficulties if only they can reach “the Promised Land.”
Yes, we call it now the Border Crisis in the U.S. But it is not entirely unlike the Christian life. It is the story of faith, as we now come to what has often been called the Faith Hall of Fame. And what we discover is that suffering and patient endurance is the normal pattern of a life lived by faith. That Faith’s Hall of Fame features repeatedly people who have been willing to endure great suffering in this life to obtain the promise of a better life in time to come.
We have just completed Hebrews 10. We have found the exhortation there not to throw away your confidence or your faith, because it has a great reward in verse 35. And then there’s the quotation from Habakkuk 2:4: For My righteous one shall live by faith. It is the final reason why we should persevere in the faith. Because our faith has a great reward.
Having explained that it’s necessary for us to live by faith in order to endure, the writer now explains what it looks like to live by faith. And he does so first by describing what faith does, and then providing us with inspiring examples of those who lived by faith throughout biblical history.
He tells us to Keep the faith—in other words, to endure today’s sufferings because you believe God’s promises for a better future.
And in verse one, of chapter 11, He tells us not so much what faith is, as what faith does. Faith assures us of the unseen and hoped-for future. He’s telling us to keep the faith because faith, biblical faith, assures us of the unseen-and-hoped-for future.
Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
So what does faith do for the Christian? It assures us of things hoped for. It convinces of the things not seen.
Now it’s important to remember who the writer to the Hebrews is addressing, and what their situation is at this point. They are Jewish believers who have experienced decades of persecution and are contemplating abandoning their faith in Jesus and returning to Judaism, and it’s sacrifices of bulls and goats to atone for or cover sin. What they’re thinking about doing is abandoning the future reward promised by God in exchange for an easier-go of it in this life.
The author is determined to show them that this is exactly the opposite of what their faith in Christ would motivate them to do.
So, let’s define faith then. Faith is the confidence, trust, assurance or reliance on God’s promises of forgiveness of sins, eternal life and the Kingdom of God. It is the single most essential quality necessary to salvation and a right relationship with God. In fact, faith, or trust, is essential for any human relationship, but is especially so with regard to our relationship to God. If there is no trust between people, there’s no chance of a positive relationship. In the same way, if we don’t trust God, if we don’t trust He wants what is best for us, if we don’t trust the promises He’s made to us, we will not have a relationship with God. And at the heart of that faith is trust in God’s promises for eternal life in the Kingdom to come.
So what is it that faith does for us? It assures us of the very things we have hoped for but have yet to see. Heaven isn’t in this life. Heaven is in the next. Why have we believed or trusted in Christ? It’s for eternal life. It’s for a better future in the Kingdom. Yes, there are benefits in this life as well. But the reason most of us have come to faith in Christ is that we want something more than what this life offers. We want the assurance of eternal life. And so the Christian life is largely about the future, guaranteeing us a good and even better future. Our faith assures us the very things we hope for—they are yet future. It convinces us of things not seen.
In other words, our faith is a faith centered on a better future. It isn’t primarily the promise of a better life here and now, though that is true in many ways. It is primarily a promise of a better life in the future, of eternal life in the future that has drawn us to Christ. And He is saying that promise of a better future needs to be our focus when we experience difficult times as Christians, even because we are Christians in this life.
If we want to endure in the faith, we must walk by faith, in what is unseen, what we hope for, rather than in accord to what is seen and experienced. If we focus on what is seen and what we experience here, well then, persevering in the faith is going to be a real challenge. If we focus on the better things to come, then, even as those who attempt to cross the border, we’ll be willing to suffer in the meantime because the hope of a better future is so great.
So first of all, faith assures us of a better, even an incredible future.
Second, the author tells us, this kind of faith has always been how people pleased God. Live by faith—a faith that is willing to suffer now to experience glory later—because this kind of faith has always been what distinguished the people of God from those who weren’t.
Verse 3: For by it the men of old gained approval.” Whose approval did they gain? God’s approval. It was this kind of faith which was willing to suffer in the present in order to gain a better life eternally that always characterized those who pleased God.
The writer now provides us with three different examples of this kind of faith—faith in the unseen. It is the faith that distinguished these men from all around as having pleased God.
The first one is a bit surprising. It’s faith in an event that is already past, but no human being ever witnessed. It is faith in God’s creation of all that there is. Verse 3: “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made of thing which are visible.
Now this reminds me of Romans 1:20 which tells us: “For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made.” In other words, none of us saw God create the world. However, it’s evident that some invisible power that is beyond our comprehension must have been responsible for what exists. No visible power is a sufficient cause for the vast order and complexity we see in life and the universe. And therefore, it becomes evident to all of us that what is seen came into being by what is unseen, by God, by His spoken word, at the point of Creation. The emphasis is on the unseen nature of the being who created everything, and that his act of creating everything was unseen, and yet though unseen, we believe it. We have faith in it. Everything that exists testifies to an invisible Creator who created the world without a single human witness—so that in effect, all that exists is a testimony of an unseen Creator’s ability to do the impossible—to create something, even all things, out of nothing. So just looking at Creation ought to be an encouragement to believe in that which is unseen, because that which is unseen is clearly what brought all that is seen into existence.
So, your faith as a believer is well grounded. It is grounded in all that exists itself, for without an unseen Creator, the seen, all that is visible, could not exist.
It is this same kind of faith in the unseen God that has characterized how the people of God pleased God throughout biblical history.
And the writer begins his review from the beginning, with two pre-flood characters who lived very close to Creation, chronological speaking, Abel and Enoch.
Now it has always been a mystery to me what it was about Abel’s offering that pleased God, and what it was Cain’s offering that did not. The text in Genesis doesn’t definitely tell us. Here, in Hebrews 11:4, we have an explicit explanation of exactly what it was about Abel’s offering that made it acceptable in comparison to Cain’s offering. And it had primarily not to do with the nature of the offering, but the attitude of the one making the offering. It says, “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.”
So what was it about Abel’s offering to God that was pleasing? It was his attitude, his attitude of faith toward God when he gave it. Now I’m not saying that his attitude didn’t affect what He gave or how He gave it—His attitude may have caused him to give a blood sacrifice rather than a plant sacrifice, to give the first and best of his flock rather than just some of his possessions. However, it was the attitude of faith that he had, that apparently Cain didn’t have, that resulted in his offering being acceptable. Cain’s lack of faith, his carelessness about this matter of being obedient to and pleasing God became evident in His response. He not only murdered His brother on account of his jealousy, but then he became insolent and even more disobedient when confronted about his murder and given a suggested way to deal with his sin. Cain’s faith was clearly careless with regard to the fear and reverence of God, it was neither repentant nor obedient, which is likely the ultimate reason why his offering was not acceptable. In any case, what separated Abel from Cain as pleasing to God was that what He did was done in faith, likely a reverent, repentant and even obedient faith, as opposed to Cain’s religious activity which was done with a different attitude.
And then we come to Enoch. Again, the key phrase here is found in the first two words of verse 5: By faith. By trusting God, Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death, and he was not found because God took him up. For he obtained the witness (the testimony from god0 that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. You see, the equation here: Faith=pleasing God. When you trust in God and His promises, you please God. Enoch, in a generation full of ungodly men hurtling toward the judgment of flood so distinguished himself that He did not die—Good took Him. God translated Him and transposed Him from earth to heaven because He was unique among all the men of that time because of one essential factor—His faith. And because He trusted God, He pleased God. Can there be any more central characteristic of a Christian than that He is a believer, one who trusts in God. And God counts that as righteousness and is pleased with people who do so.
So live by faith—its always how the people of God pleased God. Live by faith in the unseen, the promises God gives of a better future, even when things don’t turn out so well in this life, as they did for Abel.
Now the author will shift his emphasis slightly. What is it that you need to believe about God? Merely that He exists. No, but also that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.
Live by faith, he says, but especially the faith the believes God rewards those who seek Him.
Verse 6: “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Clearly now He emphasizes it’s not enough to believe God exists. We have many people today who say “Well, I believe in God, as though that should settle everything.” Well, it settles nothing. For the demons believe and shudder. What is essential in addition to believing God exists is believing that He reward those who diligently seek Him. And this is essential as well for the person who would persevere in the faith. The person who endures in the faith must absolutely also believe that God will ultimately reward him for diligently seeking Him. If He doesn’t, in the face of the difficulties of life, His faith, lacking as it is, will fall flat. Because it will give him no hope.
Now the writer will proceed to give us three more examples of this kind of faith in verses 7-12. We will need to quickly summarize them here. The truth about all three of these examples, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, is that they believed this. They believe God would reward them for diligently seeking Him. They believed there would be a reward for their faith. And in retrospect, they were rewarded greatly.
First Noah. Verse 7. He was warned by God about things not yet seen. Before the flood things were watered by a mist that went up from the earth. People likely had never seen rain. He was warned of rain and a flood the likes of which mankind had never seen before and has never seen since. Since he believed, He obeyed God in constructing an ark. Because he had an obedient faith, and his faith caused him to act in building an ark, which took years and years to build, guess what, his faith in the promise of God was realized. The rains came, the flood come, and the ark saved His family and made him and his sons the heirs of the world to come, and an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. His faith saved his family and condemned the antediluvian world for their unbelief in one great historic moment. Because he believed God rewarded faith, He was rewarded.
Second, Abraham. Verse 9. Abraham when called by God went out by faith not knowing where he was going, only that God was going to lead him where he needed to be. And God did, to the future promised land. It was indeed the land he would inherit, though He did not inherit it in his lifetime. And by faith, he lived has a foreigner, a stranger, an alien in the land of Promise, and he lived with his sons in tents, because he was a sojourner in that line. It wasn’t his at the time, but because of his faith He occupied it believing that one day it would be His. Well, as we all know, eventually that land became the property of His descendants, as was promised, and now Israel is back in the land again, a sign of God’s faithfulness to His promises in the present age. God rewarded Adam because of His faith that God rewards those who diligently seek Him. His faith was translated into action, obedience, and was thus reward. And verse 10 tells us that the ultimate reward he was looking for in his faith was a city whose foundations architect and builder was God. In other words, he suffered, he patiently endured as an alien among foreigners without his own land, because he trusted in God’s promise to reward Him.
And then thirdly, Sarah, Abraham’s wife, in verses 11 and 12. We’re told here that even Sarah believed Him who promised was faithful. Now we know she didn’t always believe. She had her rough moments. She laughed when the Lord showed up with the two angels and announced at that time the next year, she would bear a son. But ultimately, she believed, and even she was rewarded. And how! Consider this, she was impregnated by a man who was a hundred years old, after she had been childless all of her life, and had passed the season when she would give birth to children, the man had no ability himself to produce children, and now, look at the result. God’s promise that this childless couple in their old age would still have descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore had been wildly fulfilled. The whole nation of Israel, the millions that it consists of, is proof that God’s promises are valid, that He is faithful, and how! And what is there that the unseen God can’t do to fulfill the promises that we can’t see but can only believe! Wow!
So God is faithful. Live by faith—believe especially that He rewards those who diligently seek Him. And be among them. He will reward you, when you have patiently endured, as these stars of the faith have done so throughout history.
But one more thing. One more very vital thing. Remember, that none of these received all the promises of God while they were still living. All these died in faith without receiving the promises. The promises ultimately get fulfilled in heaven.
Now this point was so vital for the readers. They were still suffering. They had not received what had been promised. That’s why they were being tempted to abandon the faith. They wanted heaven now. But the testimony of all those who so believed as to be in Faith’s Hall of Fame is that they believed, the endured patiently in this life, and none of them ultimately received what had been promised. Ultimately, all those promises will only be fulfilled in eternity, in heaven!
Verse 13; “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. “ Remember this is you remember anything. This ain’t heaven. Heaven’s coming. But it’s coming only when Jesus gets here. Not before. All the promises you’re trusting in won’t be fulfilled until Jesus comes back and brings heaven to earth. You patiently endure here not so that you can experience heaven on earth right now, but later, in the Kingdom, when all God’s promises to you, and to these Faith Hall of Famers will finally and ultimately and incredibly be fulfilled. Meanwhile, your patient endurance here demonstrates you have the kind of faith God will ultimately reward in the Kingdom to come.
And for those who were thinking about quitting. These Faith Hall of Famers didn’t quit. They hung in there. They kept the faith. Verse 15: And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”
What city is that? I take it that it’s the Heavenly Jerusalem, spoken of in Revelation 21, a place where all sickness, call crying, all pain and all death will be done away with.
So How do you live by faith. Just like these folks did. You endure today’s suffering because you believe in God’s promises for a far better tomorrow.
So where’s your focus. This life, and what it offers. If it is, you will be disappointed, and your faith may not endure. If it’s the next life, heaven, and what it offers, you focus faith is in the right place, and you will be able to endure whatever it takes to get there.
After all, wasn’t it Jesus who said, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things will be added unto you?”
It’s worth thinking about.
Let’s pray.
