Old Testament Characters (Part 11)
Living Lives of Faith - Hebrews 11:1-6

This is one of the great chapters in the Bible. It is known as God’s
Great Hall of Fame. Men and women who have believed God down through the
centuries are listed as being great men and women of God.

The key to greatness with God is faith; the person who truly believes God
is great in the eyes of God. The key to any of us being great in the eyes
of God is faith...ultimately a faith that leads us to Jesus Christ.

Some background
1. The ancient world was offended by the Christian demand that people had
faith in realities that no one could see or experience.
2. The educated Greek required his students to examine all things using
reason and felt that faith could easily become a crutch or a trap for the
simple-minded who dared not face reality.
3. The problem with the modern world is their belief that the church is
filled with people who believe a story and a God who is far removed from
the ‘real world.’
4. It’s suggested that the apathy many feel toward the church (who are in
the church) is the unspoken belief that the ‘real world’ IS somewhere
else!

The message of this marvelous book? Discouragement because the Christians
couldn’t see and touch reality...promises weren’t immediately
fulfilled...the walk had become long instead of ‘short...they lacked
security and endurance.

Hebrews 4:1-3: "Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still
stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short
of it. {2} For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they
did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those
who heard did not combine it with faith. {3} Now we who have believed
enter that rest, just as God has said, "So I declared on oath in my
anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'" And yet his work has been
finished since the creation of the world."

The first part of this great chapter gives us an overall study of faith.
It is the description of faith.
    1.    The meaning of faith (v.1).
    2.    The reward of faith: God’s approval (v.2).
    3.    The basic understanding of faith: God made the world (v.3).
    4.    The spiritual power of faith (v.4-5).
    5.    The necessary beliefs of faith (v.6).

Faith: the meaning of faith. What does faith mean? This is the only time
the Bible ever defines faith. Time and time again, the Bible discusses
faith and its importance.
The Bible tells us that we must have faith—we must believe God—and it
tells us the great things that happen to those who do believe God.

The Bible also gives example after example of men and women who have and
have not believed God and shows in clear terms what happened to each. But
nowhere does the Bible define faith except here.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).

"Faith is a hope that is absolutely certain that what it believes is
true, and that what it expects will come" (William Barclay)

Matthew Henry: "Faith and hope go together; and the same things that are
the object of our hope are the object of our faith.
"It [faith] is a firm persuasion and expectation that God will perform
all that He has promised to us in Christ; and this persuasion is so
strong that it gives the soul... possession... of those things."

Look closely at what is being said and note that faith is being described
as an act, an act of the mind and heart. That is, our heart and mind
believe something and we have assurance and conviction that it is true.

Scripture seems to be saying that faith is more than an act. Scripture
seems to be saying that faith is the actual possession of reality.

Certainly from God’s perspective, we already possess His promises; He has
already seated us in the heavenlies, and we already possess eternal life.
It is not that we are going to possess it; we already possess it.
· Faith is trusting and possessing all that God is and says. That God
will keep His Word!
· Faith is believing and possessing all that God is and says.
· Faith is having confidence in and possessing all that God is and says.
· Faith is hoping for something and possessing it because God is (exists)
and has promised it.
   
Note what Biblical faith is not. It is not...
·    "I think so, I hope so." "It may be so; it may
not be so."
·    "It might be true; it might not be true."

True Biblical faith deals only with truth and reality. It is...knowing
what is real....experiencing what is real....    possessing what is
real.

What is the reward of faith?
God’s approval. God is pleased, very pleased, when we believe Him and His
promises. This is the point of this verse. The elders, great men of God
who lived in the past, believed God and followed God.
· They turned away from the world and its possessions and pleasures and
followed God.
· They believed God, that He had much more to offer—that His promises of
an eternal land and of eternal life were true.
· Therefore they staked their lives, all they were and had, upon that
hope.
· And their faith in God pleased God to no end.
· Therefore, God accepted their faith and has honored them because of it.
· He has, of course, honored them by recording their faith in His Word
and using their example as a challenge to believers of every generation.
· But God has also honored them by fulfilling their faith; God has taken
them on home to be with Him.

The reward of faith is God’s approval, and when God approves us, He
accepts us into His eternal presence. This simply means that God looks
after and cares for us, giving us victory over all the enemies of this
world—including death—and He does it for eternity.

The approval of God means that God fulfills all His promises to us. The
promises of God become a living reality in our experiences, both daily
and eternally.

Faith—Creation: the basic understanding of faith—that God has made the
world. Note the word "understanding" (noeo). It means to perceive with
the mind, to understand, to know a true fact.

Some say the belief that God made the world is only an assumption, that
it is the beginning point in building the Christian’s beliefs and
theology. There is both truth and error in this charge.
· The error is found in the word assumption. The truth is this: the
Christian begins with a fact that is true: God did create the world. The
Christian believer’s starting point is more than an assumption—it is an
understanding, a true fact, the very basic fact that God did create the
world.

This understanding is based upon four things:
· The world itself: looking at and observing the world, and studying and
thinking about its origin, purpose, and end.
· The Bible, the Word of God, the written revelation of God.
· The Lord Jesus Christ, the living revelation of God.
· The witness of the Holy Spirit who is given to every believer.
He bears witness that Jesus Christ and the Word of God are true.

The Christian believer has four strong sources that show the origin,
purpose, and end of all things; and all four are undeniable. How can this
be said? How can we say that these witnesses are undeniable?
· Because we can look and observe the world. The world is real; it is
truth. The world does exist.
·     Because we can look and observe the Bible, its teachings and
promises at work in human lives—the lives of those who believe it. The
Word of God sitting there and working itself out in lives is real. The
Word of God is truth; it is absolutely true that it exists and works in
human lives just as it claims.
· Because we can know the Lord Jesus Christ through a study of the
records of His life. He lived, and the fact that He lived is truth. But
we can also see that the very things He claimed are at work in human
lives. Jesus Christ can be studied and known in the lives of those who
truly believe and follow Him. For Jesus Christ lives in the lives of true
believers and followers of His.
· Because we can know and see the work of the Holy Spirit in lives as
discussed above.

Again, the believer has four strong witnesses that bear testimony that
God is—that He exists and that He has created the worlds. Where did the
worlds come from? A chart is probably the best way to grasp what the
believer understands as opposed to what the unbeliever understands.

When a believer looks at the origin of the world, he sees...    When
an unbeliever looks at the origin of the world, he sees...
1.    God   
                  1.     Nothing—absolutely nothing
2.    God’s Word—God willed and spoke
                  2.     Nothing—absolutely nothing
3.    Matter appeared, the worlds were created by God’s Word
                  3.     Matter appeared; some gas or force formed out of
absolutely nothing
4.    The things seen were made by God   
                  4.     The things seen were made by just appearing out of
absolutely nothing

William Barclay: "The writer to the Hebrews goes further. He says that it
is an act of faith to believe that God made this world. Then he goes on
to say that the things which are seen emerged from the things which are
not seen. Now when he said that he was aiming a blow at current belief.
It was current belief that God created the world out of already existing
matter, and not out of nothing. Further, it was current belief that this
existing matter was flawed and that therefore from the beginning this is
a flawed world because it is made from flawed material. The writer to the
Hebrews insists that God did not work with existing material; God created
the world from nothing. Now when he argued like this he was not
interested in cosmological speculation. He was not interested in the
scientific side of the matter. What he wanted to stress was the fact that
this is God’s world. If we can grip the fact that this is God’s world,
that God is responsible for it, then two things follow. First, we will
use it as such. We will remember that everything in it is God’s and we
will try to use it as God would have us use it. Second, we will remember
that, even when it does not look like it, somehow God is in control. If
we believe that this is God’s world then there comes the faith and the
hope which enable us to do the most difficult thing in the world—to
accept what we cannot understand. If we believe that this is God’s world
then into life there comes a new sense of responsibility and into life
there comes a new power of acceptance, for everything belongs to God,
and all is in the hands of God" (The Letter to the Hebrews, p.147f).

(11:6) Faith—God, Existence: the necessary beliefs of faith. This is one
of the great verses of Scripture...    "But without faith it is
impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he
is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Hebrews
11:6).

It is impossible to please God without faith. By faith is meant a living,
active faith, a faith that knows and follows God, communes and
fellowships with God. It does not matter what a person does; without
faith he cannot please God. It is utterly impossible to please God
without faith.

The person will never be acceptable to God nor accepted by God. Without
faith the person will never live with God, not in this world nor in the
next world. Without faith, a person has to plow through this life all
alone and handle all the trials, temptations, sufferings, accidents,
diseases, and death by himself. Without faith, a person stands all alone
in this world—utterly without God. It is impossible for him to please
God.

The Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest says: "The writer lays down an axiomatic
truth. He uses the aorist tense in the infinitive ‘to please.’ The
statement is universal in its application and timeless. The idea is,
‘Without faith it is impossible to please Him at all’" (Hebrews, Vol. 2,
p.198).

The person who comes to God must believe two things.
    a. He must believe in God—that God is—that God exists. The words
"must believe" (pisteusai dei) mean necessary and essential, absolutely
necessary and essential. A.T. Robertson says it is a "moral necessity to
have faith....The very Existence of God is a matter of intelligent
faith...so that men are left without excuse (Romans 1:19f)" (Word
Pictures In The New Testament, Vol. 5, p.420f).
· A person must look at the worlds (heaven and earth) and at himself—at
the existence, design, order, and end of all things—and believe in God.
· A person must look at the Word of God, the Holy Bible, and believe in
God.
· A person must look at Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, who reveals
God to man, and believe in God.

    He must believe that God rewards those who diligently seek Him.
Note the word "diligently" (ekzetousin). It means to seek out God; to
diligently seek to find Him and to follow Him.
    God does not reward the sleepy-eyed, complacent, non-thinker,
half-interested, worldly-minded, pleasure seeker. The idea is that we
must be in earnest and persevere and endure to the end.

    What is the reward to those who diligently seek God? It is the
same reward given to Abel and Enoch: righteousness and God’s care in this
life and deliverance from death unto eternal life.

"And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and ye shall
find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh
receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened" (Luke 11:9-10).

"That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and
find him, though he be not far from every one of us" (Acts 17:27).

"But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find
him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul" (Deut.
4:29).

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and
pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear
from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2
Chron. 7:14).

"I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me"
(Proverbs 8:17).

THE BEST WAY TO GROW IN FAITH?
To walk and talk with the faithful! We do that literally with people
today and figuratively by faith with those of the past (as this chapter
describes).

This kind of faith makes demands upon us:
1. it separates us from the values of the culture in which we live
2. it causes us to build our lives upon unseen values
3. it means we trust His Word and act upon it no matter what the
circumstances or consequences
4. we believe God will do what is right and best for us – we obey Him!

Last modified: April 18, 2006