The Basis & Significance of Saving Faith

Transcript

GR 1707
11/10/2013
The Basis and Significance of Saving Faith
Heb. 11:1-2
Gil Rugh

We're in the book of Hebrews in your Bibles, Hebrews 11. We come to a new chapter, we are reminded we are making progress in our way through the book of Hebrews, and chapter 11 will bring us to probably the best known chapter in the book, a chapter we often come to even when we are not studying the book of Hebrews. But it's important to see Hebrews 11 in the context of the book of Hebrews. The Spirit has directed the writer of this book to follow a very clear pattern. First he established and demonstrated that Jesus Christ, God's Son, came to this earth to function as our high priest and offer a sacrifice that would pay in full the penalty for our sin, satisfy the demands of righteousness so that God could indeed cleanse us from our sin and declare us righteous in His sight.

Really most of the first ten chapters focused on the development of that very subject. These are Jewish believers who are going through difficult times and facing more trials in their future. And some of them are thinking that perhaps a possibility would be a return to Judaism, and particularly the Levitical system under the Mosaic covenant. He has shown that that is not a possibility. So beginning in Hebrews 10:19 he began to exhort them and challenge them to the walk they are to have as believers. When we come to Hebrews 11 what we are going to have are illustrations from Israel's history to show that what he is challenging them to do is the very thing that their forefathers in Israel did. They lived lives of faith.

It's important to see the context of Hebrews 11. At the end of Hebrews 10, verses 32-39 which we looked at in a previous study, he focused on endurance and the need for these believers to endure, keep on under the pressure, through the trials. Hebrews 10:32, “remember the former days when after being enlightened, after the light of the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ shone into their heart, you endured a great conflict of suffering.” And that emphasis on endurance. Down in verse 36 he said to them, “for you have need of endurance.” The battle is not over, the race is not finished. “You have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised.” And that future focus become key. So that emphasis on endurance.

Come over to Hebrews 12, and you'll note at the end of verse 1, the last statement, “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Verse 2, “fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of faith who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.” Verse 3, “for consider him who has endured such hostility;” verse 7, “it is for discipline that you endure.” So you see the end of Hebrews 10 focused on endurance and the challenge to these believers to endure. When we come into Hebrews 12 that is the same focus, the need for endurance. And he uses Christ as the One who exemplified endurance in His suffering for us. Hebrews 11 with his examples of faith drawn from Israel's history are in the context of endurance. And the two are inseparably joined together.

One thing that has caused confusion among believers and in the church is a failure to understand the biblical perspective on faith. Faith is not only a time when we understand and believe the Gospel, faith begins there but it continues on as the foundation for all we do as believers. Sometimes people talk about, well, I trusted Christ many years ago but I'm not living for Him. What does that mean? That's not saving faith as unfolded in Scripture. Saving faith, that's the beginning of a life of faith. That's what the writer to the Hebrews has been stressing and is going to give examples of in Hebrews 11. This truth pervades Scripture.

Come back to Matthew 7, Jesus is in the Sermon on the Mount. And just pick up a couple of places where He exemplifies or emphasizes this truth. Note verse 13, “enter through the narrow gate.” Why? “Because the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction.” You'll note, there will be an inseparable connection between the gate and the road, the path. “The gate is wide, the way is broad that leads to destruction.” So when you go in a wide gate you are on a wide road. The end of it is destruction. And that's the way most people go. “The gate is small, the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few that find it.” The gate to life is Jesus Christ. We enter that gate when we come to believe in Him and the finality of His death on the cross is payment for our sin. Until you place your faith in Him, you have entered through a wide gate and are on a wide road. It's a recognition of, this is not the right road. This road will not lead to life, it leads to destruction. By the grace of God you hear and believe the Gospel, you turn and enter the narrow gate. But you know what happens when you enter the narrow gate. You are now traveling on the narrow road. The idea that you can go through the gate of salvation and that's just a fixed thing, that's it. Now I'm on the other side of the gate, I'm in good shape, my life may change and maybe it won't. That's not a biblical teaching. It leads many people to confusion and Jesus will emphasize that.

Look how He goes on. Verse 17, “every good tree bears good fruit, the bad tree bears bad fruit.” So you see you manifest what you are by what you produce. “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.” And “those trees that bear bad fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” The end is destruction. “You will know them by their fruits.” Then He says, “not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” You can't be saved by what you do. That's been the whole teaching of Hebrews up to Hebrews 11. But when you are saved it will change what you do. That's the point here.

“Many will say to Me on that day Lord, Lord didn't we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, in your name perform many miracles.” Note, “then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from Me you who practice lawlessness, who do not live your lives in obedience to Me.” You may have done many religious things, you may have talked about Me, you may have even connected some of your religious activities to saying it was because of your relationship to Me. But you did not live your life in submission to Me. I will have nothing to do with you in eternity, you will be condemned.

Now again people get confused. They think, then I have to do all the good I can to be accepted by God. No, you can't do enough good to be accepted by Him. In fact you can't do any good that would be acceptable to Him. The only way of salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ. But when you believe in Jesus Christ your life is changed. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation.” What does that mean? “Old things have passed away, new things have come.” That's the point. When you have truly believed in Christ, life is now different. You will now live your life based on your faith in Him that began at that point when you understood and believed the Gospel. But it did not stop there. It continues on. That's the life that we live.

Come over to John 14. Jesus is on the last night with His disciples and He is giving them clear instruction. And note what He says in verse 15, “if you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” And loving Him, believing in Him, obeying Him will all be used to refer to the same thing. A saved person is a person who has experienced God's cleansing, God's righteousness. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” He's not talking about the Mosaic Law commandments, He's talking about the commandments that Christ gives that we have in our New Testament.

Come down to verse 21, “he who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me.” How do you know if a person really loves Christ? They are keeping His Word, they are living in obedience to what He has said. Verse 23, “if anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word.” Verse 24, “he who does not love Me does not keep My Words.” So you see there is a beginning of new life in Christ and that is by faith. That is where we respond to the love of Christ and we begin our love relationship with Him. But that continues on and it manifests itself, that new life we have in Him, by living in obedience to His Word.

Come over to Galatians 2, a verse that many of your have memorized. Verse 20, “I have been crucified with Christ.” That's our identification with Him. When we believe in Him, we are identified with Him in His death on the cross because Christ is taking my place. So Christ is my substitute. So I am viewed as dying when He died. That's how my penalty is paid. “I have been crucified with Christ. Now note, it no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, in this physical body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” How crucial that is. It is by grace through faith and I now have a life that I live by faith in the Son of God.

It is a theological error of great magnitude to cut off the life from the initial faith. You're talking about a person who was never genuinely saved, the kind of person Jesus said will be condemned at the judgment we read in Matthew 7. “And he will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord,” I went forward in a meeting; Lord, I prayed the prayer. But you didn't live the life. And true saving faith produces a life lived by faith in the Son of God. If I can say I began a life of faith in Christ 60 years ago when I initially heard the Gospel and trusted Christ and everything changed. But one thing did not change. That was the beginning of a life lived by faith in the Son of God. That wasn't an event that began and ended at that time, that was the beginning of life.

Look down in Galatians 3. He asks the question in verse 2, “did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law or by hearing with faith?” Well you received the Spirit of God not by trying to keep the Ten Commandments or the requirements of the Mosaic Law. You received it by believing in Christ. “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit are you now perfected by the flesh?” I mean you enter into life in Christ when you believe in Him and the power of the Spirit invades your life and the light of the Gospel shines into your heart. The Spirit didn't do that and go away. He entered into your life at that time and now He lives there to empower and enable you for a life that is pleasing to the God who has saved us.

Come down to verse 11, still in Galatians 3. “Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident.” Same argument we've had in Hebrews—you can't be saved by trying to keep the Law, you can't be saved under the provisions of the Mosaic Law as though going through that, having that earthly high priest and offering those sacrifices were sufficient to save. “Because the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin,” as we've seen in Hebrews. That was simply the manifestation of faith in the promises of God who said He would save you if you believed in His Word. And you manifested that faith by doing what He said. Some people are so confused, they think they are going to be saved because they try to keep the Ten Commandments. Where have you been all your life? I mean, that never was a way of salvation. You understand that is an eternally fatal mistake. You never could be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments. No one ever from the beginning of time was saved by keeping the Commandments or any other good work. You can only be saved by faith, believing the promises God has given. Now you manifest it.

So the end of Hebrews 3:11, there is the verse we have at the end of Hebrews 10, quoting Habakkuk 2:4, the just, “the righteous shall live by faith.” It's not just by coming to a point of believing, but it's a life that has a beginning point that continues on. There is no problem with talking about when we believed, that point that began new life in Christ. But we ought to be clear, it is not just a point that is encapsulated, and there it is frozen in time. It is manifested in the life that we live by faith in the Son of God until we are called into the glory of His presence.

One more verse and we have to come back to Hebrews. Galatians 5:25, “if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” You see the connection. He had that back in Galatians 3, “having begun by the Spirit.” Not possible you would be matured by your physical action. The point here is we live by the Spirit. We entered into life by the work of the Spirit who brought the conviction of sin to our hearts, who opened our blinded eyes to see and understand and respond in faith to the message of the finality of the death of Christ as the payment and the only payment and the full payment for sin. “If we live by the Spirit, let us walk by the Spirit.” That's the continuation of life, the very way it began, by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. Is there any other way? No, this is it.

I hope we are clear on this. I still meet people from time to time and I ask what they are doing. They tell me, I trusted Christ many years ago, but I'm not living for Him. You may have had some kind of experience, but you didn't have saving faith. What's this idea that I can trust Christ, be sure I'm going to heaven and get on with living my life however I want to live. That's a person who is on the broad way to destruction, who is self-deluded. That can happen at this Bible-believing church. I go to Indian Hills, I was raised there, my parents are good Christians. I was even baptized. I remember when I prayed with my Sunday School teacher. Yes, now are you living by faith in Christ? Well, no, but I think I settled that. Well, if you are living by faith in the finished work of Christ and that is the foundation and controlling factor in the life you live, indeed you did trust Him. I'm not saying we are saved by works, but true salvation changes your life. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.” How can you be in Christ and be the old creation?

Come back to Hebrews. That's the argument of Hebrews, that's why he spent so much time on the doctrine. We think, I want practical stuff. I was reading some material this week and the man was talking, bemoaning the fact, really, as he has traveled around and examined many churches, evangelical churches as they are known, the character of the preaching. He said it is some kind of mixture of psychology and Bible, but when you are all said and done there is not much being said that you wouldn't find in pure psychology or motivational talks. We get restless with the doctrine. You understand God's plan. He spent almost ten chapters in Hebrews laying down clearly what is the foundation and focus of our faith, the object of faith—Christ and His finished work. You must understand that. Now he is talking about what we must do in light of that, as we saw exhortations beginning in Hebrews 10:19.

Now he is going to illustrate this, you must endure, you must endure, you have to keep on. What he wants them to realize, when you're traveling down a road in a storm and you cross a bridge and you look in the rearview mirror and the bridge washes away, now you have a decision. And you say, shall we keep going forward or shall we go back? You say, what kind of fool are you? There is no going back, we don't have any choice but to go forward. That's the very argument in Hebrews, there is no going back. You can only go back to destruction, you have to keep on with Christ, you must endure.

In Hebrews 10:38, “my righteous one shall live by faith,” that quote from Habakkuk 2:4 that we saw also in Galatians 3. You'll note, “my righteous one shall live by faith.” Hebrews 11:1 opens up, “now faith is.” So he is going to make clear how faith manifests itself, how the righteous live by faith. The righteousness that was credited to them when they believed in Christ is now lived out in a life of faith. “My righteous one shall live by faith,” the faith that he entered into righteousness in Christ is now the guideline, the foundation of life.

“Now faith,” verse 1, “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” You know the reality of it is, it's that faith in the foundational finished work of Christ that is the basis for endurance. Do you know what happens when you begin to waiver? You begin to be unsure. Will God do what He promised? Things are difficult, I don't know if I can go on. All I have are the promises of God. Everything I can see, everything that is happening to me in my life at this period of time seems to be trouble. Well, what does it mean? All I have are the promises of God to claim.

So we're told here “faith is the assurance.” And if you read commentaries on the word assurance here and the word conviction as we have them translated, you'll see quite a bit of discussion. That word assurance is a compound word, the Greek word hupo means under and the second part is stasis which comes from the word to stand. So it can be used of a foundation. You think of the foundation of something, it stands under the house, under the building. We want to note that here because the assurance is not just a subjective feeling I have, this is the concrete reality. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It's not faith in my faith. Like we have today, we have people of faith and we're getting together as faith organizations, which is meaningless. The only faith that matters is the faith in the promises of God which focus in the work of His Son. So faith is what gives substance to the things hoped for. And the things hoped for are the things we haven't realized. That's what we hope for. We are to hold onto our hope, he said in Hebrews 10:23, “let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” So I'm going to hold on in faith that God will do what He promised. My life is falling apart. I'm a believer but I have health problems unbelievers don't have, or I have financial problems that unbelievers don't have, or I'm having problems in my family. We've had a tragedy in our home and I look around and the unbeliever's life is going well, mine is going to pot. What do I have? I have the promises of God for me as a believer.

Come back to Psalm 73. Asaph who wrote this, it's in the Psalms, so many of which are David's. But he experienced this. Note what he says, verse 2. He starts out saying “God is good but as for me,” verse 2,”my feet came close to stumbling. My steps had almost slipped.” Why? “For I was envious of the arrogant, I saw the prosperity of the wicked. There are no pains in their death, their body is fat, they are not in trouble as other men, they are not plagued like mankind. They are proud, they are indulgent, and life is good.” Verse 12, “behold these are the wicked, always at ease. They have increased in wealth.” I begin to think, it's not worth it. “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure, washed my hands in innocence.” What do I have to show for it? “I have been stricken all day long, chastened every morning.” That idea, I have tried to live my life pleasing to God, my faith is in Him. But then I begin to look around and I'm having a hard time making ends meet. Here are the wicked who have no concern for God and they have more than enough. My health is going down, I have children who perhaps have serious health problems. But I look at the wicked, his kids are going to private schools and just doing great. It seems everything goes well for them, and everything is going poorly for me. And it's just not worth a life of faith.

Verse 16, “when I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight until I came into the sanctuary of God. Then I perceived their end.” We are reminded God has promised something. “The broad gate and the broad road lead to destruction, the narrow gate and the narrow road lead to life.” So verse 23, he has the assurance. “Nevertheless I am continually with you,” he's speaking to God, “you have taken hold of my right hand, with your counsel you will guide me. And afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And besides you I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold those who are far from you will perish.” Verse 28, “but as for me the nearness of God is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge.”

Do you know what happens when we get focused? This is what is going on in Hebrews. Some of these Jewish believers, the pressure that is brought to bear, the losses they have taken and now they can see worse things on the horizon. Maybe I should go back to Judaism and the Mosaic system. And we'll get to this in Hebrews 11, but Moses, what did he have to do? He had to give up the pleasures of sin for a season—living in the house of Pharaoh, having the good life, having everything that life can provide. He had to let it all go like Paul did in his testimony to the Philippians—all the things I had in this life had to go on the dung heap.

So we come back to Hebrews 11, what does he say? “Faith is the assurance,” the substance. A. T. Robertson, the great Southern Baptist grammarian, Greek scholar, says the title deed of things hoped for. I have never seen heaven, we've sung about it, we've studied about it. All I have are the promises of God. I hope in what He has promised me. The world looks at it and says, you are a fool. Thousands of years people have been talking about that and you are still here struggling. But it's a concrete reality to me. And as a believer you know what that is. You know it is that assurance, that confidence. This is real, this is not just a feeling in my heart. I have my faith in the God who has promised. Faith is the conviction of things not seen, it's the proof. Isn't it amazing, the way things change when you place your faith in Christ? All of a sudden everything is seen differently. I belong to God, I can come before His throne and speak to Him as my Father. I'm destined for the glory of heaven, riches beyond compare, the inheritance He has laid up for me. Faith is the conviction of things not seen. You know the challenge is to live by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5, Paul wrote about this. Turn back to 2 Corinthians 5. This is the same comparison we're talking about in other passages. It permeates the Scripture. Sometimes we need to be reminded of it. We're like the psalmist we read in Psalm 73, “I began to look at the things of the world and the people of the world and I almost stumbled.” And that's where the Hebrew Christians are. They are seeing what is going on. They begin to see the misery of their life physically and the difficulties that face them and they almost stumble. They have to be reminded, you can't go back. You go back, it's to destruction. True believers don't go back, that's the point. It's not that maybe some of these genuine believers who were saved will go back. By God's grace genuine believers can't go back. Those who go back were never saved. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 7? “I never knew you.” It's not, at one time I knew you but you left Me. No, I never knew you. One of the great blessings is to know that we truly belong to Him. We belong to Him for eternity.

In 2 Corinthians, the closing verses of chapter 4, verse 16, “therefore we do not lose heart.” And he's talked about the sufferings and difficulties that he has experienced. But we do not lose heart. “Though our outer man is decaying, our physical body, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” That's the new man we are in Christ. “For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” You have to be careful, the affliction you are going through wouldn't be a trial if it weren't really affliction. Paul says it is momentary, it is light. But that's in comparison to “the eternal weight of the glory that is far beyond all comparison.” Do you think Paul has been basking in the glory of God's presence in heaven for the last 2,000 years, still talking about it was really hard to suffer those things. I don't know that it was worth the sacrifices as I look back. You know, I gave up a lot, I suffered greatly. Maybe it wasn't worth . . . It probably seems like nothing. I don't know how to measure it in the trillions of endless years of eternity ahead of him. It is momentary, it is light, it is nothing compared to the eternal weight of glory.

Now note the secret here, verse 18, “while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Once you get your focus off Christ, remember we are walking by faith in the Son of God, and I begin to look and walk by what I see, the world begins to influence me. You are giving up so much, you are losing so much, you are missing out on so much. Then all of a sudden I begin to get unsettled, I almost stumble. Like these Hebrews, they begin to think, I ought to go back. Is it worth it? That's why the study of the doctrine of the Word of God is so crucial. That's why we spent almost ten chapters as the Spirit of God unfolded it, explaining in detail the person and work of Christ. Because He is the focus of your faith, we now live by faith in the Son of God. And I remind myself, no, He's God's Son. He came, became a man, suffered and died on the cross to provide for me the fullness of God's salvation which includes eternal blessings in the presence of God. Now I begin to see the things of this life as they are. They are nothing, they are past, life is over quickly and it is gone.

My parents went to glory in recent years. I cleaned out some of the things my dad saved. He had saved the deeds from the different houses he bought. It doesn't really matter what kind of house he had. I threw them away. What are you going to do with them? Somebody lives in those houses now. I recently went through a file I have and I had all the paperwork for the cars I had bought. You know, I sort of like cars. And I said, what's it matter? That thing is probably in a junkyard someplace. It was almost there when I bought it, but now I'm sure it's there. I mean, those things don't matter, they are gone.

Does it matter what kind of physical suffering a person goes through? My mother had Alzheimer's in the closing years of her life. Oh, too bad she couldn't have lived longer with her mind completely in . . . That would have been nice, but it doesn't matter. Glory matters. What you have when this life is all said and done is all that matters. The world doesn't know that, and the world keeps proclaiming that we believers are the ones missing out. I don't know, we have everything and they have nothing. That doesn't mean we can't enjoy the things God gives us. I'm glad for the health I have, I'm thankful for material things that do make life here easy. I'm thankful I don't have to be in prison for my faith. But those are not the things that make the difference. As Paul said, it's not the things which are seen, it's the things which are unseen.

Good place for you to start evangelism. Maybe somebody is showing you their new house. You say, this is a beautiful home. I'm sure you will enjoy living in it. What kind of home do you have in the realm that is not seen with the physical eye? What kind of place will you live there? Those are the things that matter.

So he comes down in verse 6 and he reminds them, and Paul experienced this, with the beatings and mistreatment his body took, the times in prisons that weren't heated and air conditioned and all that going on, you can expect his body was feeling the effects of a difficult life. He talks about this earthly body is like a tent and in time it gets taken down and folded up and put away. You're not going to be living in it for a time. But we know something we have beyond this life, and God has given us the Spirit of God as a down payment guarantee that He will fulfill all His promises to us. That's verse 5. So verse 6, “therefore being always of good courage, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.” There is that statement again, we walk by faith and not by sight. And so our preference in what we are anticipating is to be at home with the Lord, that's our destiny. What do we have? We have the promises of God, that's what we have, and I am holding onto those by faith. And in the most trying of circumstances we come back to focus on my faith is in Jesus Christ, who He is, what He has done and the promises that God has given me in Him.

Come back to James 1. And he is writing to Jews as well, and Jewish believers comprise the bulk of the early church through Acts 1-11, and then we get Paul beginning his missionary journeys. And a transfer will take place. Then the last part of Acts will get Gentiles included. Many of these Jews who had converted to Christ knew what persecution and suffering and trials were. James was writing to the twelve tribes of the diaspora, as he says in verse 1. Then he says in verse 2, launches right in, “consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.” Now he doesn't say, be glad you are suffering, but be glad in your suffering, “knowing that the testing of your faith produces,” here is our word from Hebrews, “endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect.” It's part of God's maturing process that we might be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing.

It's like your children as they grow up. If you continue to shelter them and shelter them and protect them and protect them, pretty soon they are adults that are still functioning like kids. And sometimes as parents you will have a discussion, maybe more often with the father to the mother, but in the interaction, we have to let him go through it. Not that you want him to be crushed or destroyed, but you realize he has to learn. He has to get a job, he has to make money. We have enough money to give it to him, but somewhere along the line, unless you are going to support him like some parents do, until who knows when. I told you my dad's philosophy. He had me sit down and said, “you will not be receiving another dime from me. I raised you, I paid for your support. You are on your own.” That doesn't mean he would never help me. He did say, “I may sometime help you, but don't be expecting anything. And when I die, I will have probably used it all, so don't be waiting for anything.” It was good for me. I made one mistake on that. I'm on a sidetrack, I got married. That wasn't the mistake. But after we got married we were going to buy a car. So I went in, picked out the used car, it was a used red Volkswagen. I went in, got everything arranged, went in and sat down to sign the paper and the guy said, “you are only 20.” “I says, yeah.” He says, “you can't sign for a car, you have to be 21. Your dad will have to sign for you.” “I said, I'm married, this is my wife, my dad doesn't sign for me.” You can't buy the car without signing. So I got on the phone and called dad. That's the last time I ever did it, I learned a lesson. You don't do that. If dad wants to give me something, he’ll initiate it. It was good.

All of that to say we are God's children. You are going through trial, we get so focused on the trial and say, I don't see any good to come out of this. You don't believe in the God who said, I work all things together for good for my children. That's why if we're not really rooted and grounded in the Word we get into these things and we're like floating without any anchor. I can't see any good in it, but that doesn't mean God is not doing good for me in this. I don't see why God would do this, but I don't have to see. He told me. I believe He is perfecting me. I think He could have done it another way. But He is God and I'm not, He is my heavenly Father. And we get to this kind of picture when we get to Hebrews 12.

So I understand this is God's plan, so I endure. Not because I like to suffer but because I believe what God has promised. And even this trial, painful as it is, serves a purpose. That's faith. That's a life of faith. That's why we have to be rooted in the Word. So that's where I draw my attention back when I almost stumble. Then I remember what God promised and I remember what God said. And I say, God, I believe you. And so endurance develops. That's the way the devil works to weaken us. Churches spend less and less time seriously studying the Word and Christians get shallower in their understanding. Then trial and difficulty comes into the life and then all of a sudden my world is in turmoil. That doesn't mean I don't almost stumble sometimes, sometimes don't get apart with the Lord and say, “Lord, I don't know what is going on and I am losing perspective.” Sometimes what I need to do is just go in and close the door and remind myself of what God has said and say,”Lord, that's what you said.” And I put myself in a world of confusion because I have taken my eyes off that and have begun to look at what is seen. And what is seen is difficult. When I can look around and say, “I'm in a world of hurt, but Lord, you say you are in charge. I belong to you. I go forward, there is no going back.” That's the point we have here in Hebrews.

Come back to Hebrews. We're looking at things not seen. To the world it is foolishness, to us as believers that's concrete reality. I have the promises of God. That is better than what is seen, that is more sure than what is seen. Then we're reminded, “for by it men of old gained approval.” The men of old would be men like verse 4, “by faith Abel” did this; verse 5, “by faith Enoch.” I believe it is eighteen times he'll use that expression by faith to drive it home. By faith they did this. How they responded, how they handled themselves when all they had was the promise of God. But they endured. It's a characteristic of a genuine believer, they endure. We call it the perseverance of the saints. The saints persevere because the grace of God that has brought us salvation is a salvation that assures the completion. He who has begun a good work in you will continue to bring it to perfection until the day of Christ Jesus. It's not that I don't want to stop sometime but God doesn't. True believers and those who have just professed to believe are separated by this reality—those who don't endure, don't persevere, never were genuine. Now be careful, that doesn't mean a believer can't stumble, can't sin, can't sin even grievously. But a believer can't live on that road. He cannot not endure. He can't go back to the world and live there.

One further illustration that I share with you because the person shared it with the congregation many years ago, and some of you were here. And they were put under discipline with some others at the same time, church discipline. This person's testimony, they went out to live in the world, but their testimony was that I was miserable every day. Finally, couldn't live there. Their observation, the people who were disciplined with me, recognized they weren't their judge, but he said, I don't think they were truly saved because they were happy there. I never was. Finally, I have to repent and come back. So I want to be careful we don't sit in judgment because someone who is a believer can stumble, but they cannot live on the wide road that leads to destruction. When you travel through the narrow gate, you travel the narrow road. And even when you stumble, as we have examples for in the Scripture, you can't stay out there. Praise God for His grace.

We'll pick up with verse 3, “by faith we understand the worlds were created by God.” And he's going to start with something all believers share in common in their faith. Then he'll go back to the Old Testament. So verse 3 will say, “by faith we understand.” That's we, he includes himself with his present readers and shows how our understanding comes through faith and what God has promised. And we are believing something we haven't seen. Then he'll go on to give specific examples of individuals from Old Testament history.

Do you understand something of this faith? Are you living a life of faith? A life of faith is not a life without trouble; a life of faith is a life that is sustained through trouble and trial and difficulty by faith in the promises of God given to us in Christ. You know who you are, you know what you are, whether you have attended this church for years, whether you were raised here, you know where your heart is. I made a profession when I was young, I responded when I heard as an adult. But has it changed your life? Do you have new life in Christ? The focus of the life you live now on Jesus Christ, what He has done and that shapes the decisions of your life as you seek to please Him, because He is the One that you love because He first loved you.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Lord, a grace so great we cannot encompass it with our finite minds, a grace that has brought us a salvation that we enjoy every day, that we appreciate every day but we will not enter into the fullness of the splendor and wonder of all that you have provided for us in Christ until a yet future day. Lord, we have your promises and those promises are reality to us as your children. And Lord, we thank you for the challenge and encouragement of your Word. And as we believe in the One who loved us and died for us and live by faith every day, we are privileged to endure in anticipation the culmination of all that is promised. We praise you in Christ's name, amen.