Confident Faith and Radical Obedience

Good morning once again. We are thankful to have you with us today. At this time any children that would like may be dismissed to our children’s ministry time out the doors there at the back of the sanctuary. I invite the rest of you to open your Bibles or devices to Hebrews chapter 11. The last time I preached Hebrews five or six years ago I covered this entire chapter in one sermon. Today we are only going to cover the first ten verses.

The amazing story of Charles Blondin, a famous French tightrope walker, is a wonderful illustration of what true faith is.

Blondin's greatest fame came on September 14, 1860, when he became the first person to cross a tightrope stretched 11,000 feet (over a quarter of a mile) across the mighty Niagara Falls. People from both Canada and America came from miles away to see this great feat.

He walked across, 160 feet above the falls, several times... each time with a different daring feat - once in a sack, on stilts, on a bicycle, in the dark, and blindfolded. One time he even carried a stove and cooked an omelet in the middle of the rope!

A large crowd gathered and the buzz of excitement ran along both sides of the river bank. The crowd “Oohed and Aahed!” as Blondin carefully walked across - one dangerous step after another - pushing a wheelbarrow holding a sack of potatoes.

Then a one point, he asked for the participation of a volunteer. Upon reaching the other side, the crowd's applause was louder than the roar of the falls!

Blondin suddenly stopped and addressed his audience: "Do you believe I can carry a person across in this wheelbarrow?"

The crowd enthusiastically yelled, "Yes! You are the greatest tightrope walker in the world. We believe!"

"Okay," said Blondin, "Who wants to get into the wheelbarrow."

As far as the Blondin story goes, no one did at the time!

This unique story illustrates a real life picture of what faith actually is. The crowd watched these daring feats. They said they believed. But... their actions proved they truly did not believe.

Similarly, it is one thing for us to say we believe in God. However, it's true faith when we believe God and put our faith and trust in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Faith is central to all of life. For example, you go to a doctor whose name you cannot pronounce and whose degrees you have never verified. He gives you a prescription you cannot read. You take it to a pharmacist you have never seen before. He gives you a chemical compound you do not understand. Then you go home and take the pill according to the instructions on the bottle. All in trusting, sincere faith!

When it all goes bad… for most of you, at some point things are going to go bad…

What is it that holds you firm?

Today we come to the famous Hall of Faith passage of scripture. For many, this is a quite familiar passage. Part of the issue when we come to a familiar passage is that we may become so used to hearing the particular words of a passage that it might cause us to lose sight of the meaning and function in the larger context of the section.

Just prior to this, in chapter 10, the author of Hebrews admonishes and exhorts his audience to persevere and endure amidst “hard struggle”, suffering, persecution, and trials. He reminds them in 10:39

Hebrews 10:39 (ESV)

39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

The theme is perseverance. Perseverance is the demonstration of faith. Faith, according to Mohler, is “grounded in what God has done for us in Christ.”

We have our author encouraging them toward endurance and persevering in their faith because Jesus is better (the main theme of Hebrews), and here in chapter 11 he’s going to give them some examples from their past.

Follow along as I read Hebrews 11, verses 1 through 10.

Read Passage:

Hebrews 11:1–10 ESV

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 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. 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. 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. 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. 7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

This is the Word of the Lord. Let’s pray and ask God to help us understand and apply it to our lives.

I have mentioned this a few times in the last several weeks and months as we have walked through Hebrews, but the author has as one of his primary goals, teaching us how to read the Old Testament. He wanted his initial audience of Jewish Christians who were tempted to fall back into their old religious ways of worship to read the Old Testament Christologically. He wants Christians today to also read the Old Testament Christologically. What do I mean by that? Throughout the history of redemption in scripture there are shadows and types purposely placed by God that pointed forward to Jesus Christ. Then entirety of the Bible truly tells one story. It is the story of the grace of God found only in Jesus the Christ. As we read the Old Testament we should be careful that we are not imposing something on it that isn’t there. However, as we look back we see that the true people of God, even in the Old Testament understood the old covenant to point forward to a coming Messiah. They recieved it by faith. Just as we look back and receive by faith the effective, saving, grace of God looking back to Christ’s life, death, and resurrection they looked forward through the shadows of the old covenant and recieved it by faith.

I. An Eternal Commendation (v.1-2)

Their commendation

This isn’t talking about temporary blessings but a final, end of time, eternal commendation instead of condemnation.

These are the only two options for our eternity. It’s either commendation (approval) or condemnation. On the day of judgement you we all will fall in one category. We will either be approved in Christ Jesus or we will stand condemned without Jesus. It’s that stark and that serious. There’s not another way out.

The natural question for a Jewish Christian that would have been reading Hebrews or hearing it read for the first time would be to think about their ancestors and wonder, what about Moses? What about Abraham? How do they get brought into this story of forgiveness and grace in Jesus Christ. They were alive on earth and died before the earthly ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The author aims right for this question because he knew they would have wondered this. I was even asked about this several weeks back as I preached through Hebrews. He gives them a plain answer. They recieved approval from God because they exercised faith. In Romans 4:1-12, Paul makes a consistent point that is really the same here.

Al Mohler explains it this way, “These passages demonstrate the consistent and clear New Testament teaching that the redeemed from Israel who lived before the death and resurrection of Christ were saved because they trusted God to be faithful to his promises. Their faith was a messianic faith. They had an assurance that they invested in the promises of God. They hoped in things yet unseen, in a deliverer that had been promised but had not yet come.” As I said earlier today, they looked ahead to the savior just as we look back to his sacrifice and resurrection. And their faith was exercised. They demonstrated their faith by the way they lived.

II. Faith Walked

Several times in chapter 11 you see these two words, “by faith...” I don’t want us to speed past these words because doing something by faith is important. We can live by faith or not by faith. In the very beginning, in verse 1, our author describes faith. It is described as:

The assurance of things hoped for...

The conviction of things unseen...

Assurance: Greek *hypostasis* also translated “confidence.

Biblical faith is not some kind of vague hope based on wishful thinking. It’s a settled confidence that something in the future, that is not yet seen, but God has promised will come about because God wills it.

This faith is not a blind leap into the dark (Indiana Jones), or a blind trust in the face of surmounting contrary evidence.

It is a confident trust in the eternal God who has revealed Himself in His Word and in the person and work of Jesus Christ. His promises have been proven true for generations. We are told that God can not lie and so His promises can be trusted. Later in Hebrews we will hear that He will never leave or forsake us.

Faith brings a confidence in God’s promises and shows trust in his character.

Practically speaking, faith consists of taking God at his word and acting accordingly. It’s acting because you take God at His Word. Not hoping or because you have a warm feeling about something but acting because of what God’s Word has said and having a confidence that God’s promises will come to pass because God wills them to. This is the type of faith that saves. We have a confidence, a certainty, that God’s Word is true and our lives are different because we show a trust in that by living differently than the world.

III. Examples of Faith Lived Out

The author goes on to give his audience examples from Jewish history of those whose faith was demonstrated in their actions. He doesn’t go into their shortcomings and this should comfort us. Though they were sinners just like you and me, they lived faithful lives and are mentioned here even amid sometimes making some poor choices. The overall trajectory of their lives was one of faith.

These men lived the way they did because they were walking by faith, in other words, they were looking to a Redeemer.

1. Abel (v. 4)

In the modern church we have a tendancy to moralize every storing in the Bilble and talk about the moral lessons we learn and the example to follow or not. We esepcially do this in children’s teaching. And though there are certainly moral lessons we can learn from the stories of those of great faith in the Old Testamenet, those moral lessons are not the main point. These moral lessons take place within the larger framework of the storyline of the gospel. This brings us to Abel in verse 4.

Hebrews 11:4 (ESV)

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.

Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by God and his brother Cain’s was not. We don’t have that fully explained in Genesis but we do see hints throughout the rest of the Old Testament about why. In some sense, we see Abel’s offering of a sacrifice as a foreshadowing of the sacrificial system in the Old Testament and further to the sacrifice of Christ. Abel’s greatest problem was his sin and being under God’s judgement. He needed to provide a sacrifice to remove judgement and so he offered a sacrifice from his flock. It was offered by faith in God’s promises and was acceptable to God.

Genesis 4:4 (ESV)

4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,

I want to point out the final statement about Abel in Hebrews 11 where it says that “…though he died, he still speaks.” What will people say at your funeral? What words are going to be used by a guy like me, or for some of, it will likely be me, to sum up your life in about 15 minutes of eulogy? Abel died but his life bore witness to grace and mercy that would be found only in a substitutionary sacrifice. Christian, let’s aspire to leave a legacy of faith in the risen Christ and not only live our lives striving for that which will not last.

2. Enoch (v. 5-6)

Next we come to Enoch. We don’t have a whole lot of information about him. It’s again comforting for God to have included even minor characters in the Hall of Faith. You have giants of the faith and then a guy like Enoch who we know little about.

Hebrews 11:5–6 ESV

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. 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.

Enoch’s life ended remarkably. Genesis 5:24

Genesis 5:24 ESV

24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

Enoch’s faith honored God and God commended him so that “he didn not experience death.” Faith honors God and God honors faith.

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

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.

This verse shows proof of a couple of theological truths.

Without faith it is impossible to be commended.

With faith it is impossible to be condemned.

3. Noah (v. 7)

Noah believed the Word of God. His actions flowed like a river from the reservoir of his faith.

4. Abraham (v. 8-10)

When you think back at the history of Israel it may seem obvious that the author would include Abraham here but let’s not race past the significance. To this point, the examples we have of Abel, Enoch, and Noah were here before the formation of Israel as a nation. They are just as much a part of the story of humanity in general as they are in the story of the nation if Israel.

Hebrews 11:8–10 ESV

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

So, if Abraham believed in the promised Messiah then all of the Jews should as well. Abraham is the fountainhead of the nation. The readers of Hebrews were tempted to reject Christ and embrace Abraham. However, this is to misunderstand Abraham. Walking in accord with Abraham is to embrace Christ.

Abraham set his hope on the fact that God would act to bring about final salvation. He was looking beyond the promised land to the city of heaven. He was faithful in the present because he had confidence in what God would do in the future.

IF you didn’t know that you had joy ahead of you in the life to come then you would just run as hard as you can trying to rack up all the pleasure you can in this life. But as Christians we don’t find ultimate satisfaction or hope in the things this world has to offer. Living by faith is recognizing that one day we will have greater joy than any amount of happiness we can find here and now. Mohler says, “If we live for those joys, we will set our affections on eternity, live meaningful lives for Christ, and endure suffering in his name as we look for the joy that awaits us in God’s heavenly city.

Our cities, our homes, and the comforts of this life are fleeting. This is not an eternal city, but Christians know that there is a city where Christ is King.”

Conclusion - Invite musicians back up

Confident faith and radical obedience

Faith in Christ is what grants us citizenship in that city to come. Faith is a certainty that that future is yet to come. And faith is how we, as Christ followers, are to live our lives. So the question for you to ponder today is this: What does it look like for your life to be lived by faith?

When we look back at these guys we have examples of so far we see they had confident faith but it wasn’t just some kind of nebulous feeling. It was faith that moved their feet. They did something about it. God told Abraham to go to the land He would show him and so Abe packed up. So many of us want to say we would do the same thing and yet we fail to be radically obedient to the things God has told us to do right here in His Word. What will your response be to that? Will you submit to God’s way as better than your way? Will you submit to His Word as better than whatever your plan is? Confident faith leads to radical obedience. I think you follow it backward as well. If you look at a life and see no obedience, then you have to question if there is truly faith there.

The writer of Hebrews is writing to these Jewish Christians so they won’t reject Christ and go back into their old and easy ways of living in their culture. He was writing to encourage them to persevere and hold to their faith in Christ and live their lives based on that confident faith. Where will you land? Will you believe and live out of that belief?