HEBREWS 11:1-10 - Consequential Faith

Introduction

A number of years ago I saw an item in one of those seasonal gift catalogs—it was a largish ceramic bowl, kind of like one you would eat a large amount of Lucky Charms out of. Covered in red enamel, it had a graceful one-word slogan emblazoned on the side in flowing white letters: “Believe”. Just that. “Believe”.

Now, it’s been wisely said before that there is no virtue or vice in a transitive verb—there is nothing good about “believing” unless you know what you are saying you believe in. You are using the same word to say “I believe in God the Father and Jesus Christ His only begotten Son, Our Lord”, or “I believe the 2020 election was rigged” or “I believe that a person can change their gender” or “I believe I’ll have another helping of Lucky Charms...” Same word, but whether or not it is a good “believing” is entirely up to the context.

Same can be said of the word “faith”. It is as over-used (and therefore drained of meaning) in our modern usage as a word can be. We talk about “blind faith” or “taking a leap of faith” or acting in “good faith” (or “bad faith”), being a “person of faith”; late-night TV is crowded with “faith-healers” or “word of faith” preachers. But what does God’s Word say about “faith”? The word appears in one form or another no less than twenty-two times in Hebrews 11. So it is very important that we define our terms—what does it mean that Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham had “faith?”

Our text this morning is a direct continuation of the author’s train of thought in Chapter 10, where he urges his readers not to abandon their confidence in Christ—and I will suggest this morning that confidence in God is one of the main elements of biblical faith. Go back with me to Verse 35 of Hebrews 10, and let us read through the beginning of Chapter 11, because I think it helps us pick up the momentum the author is carrying forward into our text:

Hebrews 10:35–11:1 (LSB)

Therefore, do not throw away that confidence of yours, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith, And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.

Verse 39 intensifies the importance of faith at the end of Chapter 10:

Hebrews 10:39 (LSB)

But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

Do you see it? Do not abandon the confidence you have in the promises of Christ—to do so is to “shrink back to destruction”. To walk away from the promises of Christ to save you and go back to the Old Covenant sacrifices in the Temple is to walk back to your own destruction. Don’t “shrink back”, but instead have faith.

And so as Chapter 11 opens, the author sets about defining what it means to “have faith”. What does it mean to have this faith? What is the “faith” that will preserve the soul, the faith that will please God?

Hebrews 11:1 (LSB)

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

A few verses later on, the author goes on to say that not only is faith essential to “preserving the soul”, but that it is also the essential ingredient of pleasing God:

Hebrews 11:6 (LSB)

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who draws near to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Remember the flow of the author’s argument in this book—do not fall away from Christ, the only hope for your salvation. Hold fast to Him and do not look for your justification before God in any other place—not the Jerusalem Temple, not the old covenant with Moses, not in the power of the Roman Empire. Don’t put your faith in those things; but rest all of your faith on Christ alone.

And so the infinitely important question becomes: How do we know that we have the kind of faith that pleases God? How do we know we have the faith that preserves our souls? What does that faith look like in your life? Because there are a lot of people out there who would characterize themselves as “a person of faith”.

A politician running for office (if he’s a savvy politician) will wax eloquent in speeches and interviews about how deeply meaningful his faith is to him, and how robustly he identifies as a “person of faith”, and then in the next breath assure his listeners that his faith will have absolutely no impact on the way he will carry out his office. It’s preposterous enough to make a cat laugh, but nobody so much as raises an eyebrow. Because we have all been thoroughly catechized by our secular culture to believe that “faith” is meant to be private and personal and completely irrelevant to the way you live your life.

Beloved, when we search out the Scriptures here this morning, I hope you will see that the faith of these men that are listed here—Abel, Enoch, Noah and Abraham—their faith was anything but inconsequential. In fact, their faith in God led them to make decisions and undertake commitments and define their lives in ways that made no sense whatsoever if their faith in God was meant to be confined to some little corner “way down deep in their hearts.”

There is only one kind of faith that will preserve your soul; there is only one kind of faith that will please God, and that is a consequential faith. A faith that makes a difference in your life. And so the exhortation that I see here in our text this morning—what I want you to see here in God’s Word—is an invitation to

Delight your HEAVENLY FATHER with faith that MATTERS in your LIFE

What does this faith look like? How do you know that the “faith” you affirm is faith that delights your Heavenly Father, faith that will preserve your soul and not cause you to shrink back to destruction?

This is what the author of Hebrews is after in this passage; exhorting his readers about what saving faith in Christ looks like. And in our text this morning he gives us some of the characteristics of this kind of faith—the first is in verses 1-3—consequential faith—faith that matters in your life--

I. Reckons that only God’s PROMISES are TRUSTWORTHY (Hebrews 11:1-3, v. 6)

Look with me at the first three verses:

Hebrews 11:1–3 (LSB)

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

Biblical faith is first of all

A settled ASSURANCE and CONVICTION (1-3)

in the promises of God. The Greek word underlying the English translation “assurance” is a word that is used to describe a deed to property—proof of a transfer of ownership and the right to possession. When you have a deed to your land, for instance, you have a settled assurance that you can build your home on it—in the same way, faith as defined by the Scriptures is a settled assurance that you can build your life on the promises of God.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for—you are assured that what you are hoping to receive from God will actually take place. So much so that you can begin building your life now on what God will give you later!

The author sharpens his point further in the next phrase—faith is the conviction of things not seen. Again, the word in the original language carries the idea of a settled disposition based on convincing and conclusive argumentation—you have been utterly and irrevocably convinced that God will keep His promises even when you see no evidence of them.

From this verse we can put together a definition of “faith” as the writer of Hebrews is using it in this passage. Faith, Biblically defined, is

FAITH: ACTING on God’s PROMISES even when you can’t SEE them YET

The common thread through all of the Old Testament saints that the writer will use as examples in these verses is that all of them were certain that God’s promises were trustworthy—they knew that they would received what God had promised, even though they did not see any of it when they acted.

Biblical faith is a settled assurance and conviction that God will do as He has promised—even, as we will see, when there is no outward evidence of it. Verse 2 goes on to say that this kind of faith is in fact

The only POSSIBILITY for PLEASING God (v.2, cp. v. 6)

Verse 2 says

Hebrews 11:2 (LSB)

For by it the men of old gained approval.

and verse 6 clarifies even further, saying that

Hebrews 11:6 (LSB)

...without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who draws near to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

You cannot please God while denying that He keeps His promises; you cannot be approved by God while you secretly disapprove of His trustworthiness. What mortal friendship can endure in the face of lingering mistrust? A friend who secretly has no confidence in your promises is not much of a friend at all—how much more do we estrange ourselves from God when we question His motives or doubt His promises? But a heart of faith reckons that God’s promises are supremely trustworthy—in fact, His promises are the only promises you will ever receive that can be trusted immediately and completely.

In verse 3 we are reminded that this faith in God’s trustworthiness extends even to our belief in the nature and origin of the entire creation around us:

Hebrews 11:3 (LSB)

By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

God has declared to us in His Word that He created everything we see out of nothing—and if His words spoke the very foundations of the earth into being, then His words are more solid and permanent and immoveable than the very foundations of the earth itself! If the heavens and the earth and all that fill them all sprang into existence by the command of God, then surely you and I are bound to believe Him when He speaks!

Faith that matters in your life is faith that reckons on the trustworthiness of God’s promises. It is a settled assurance and conviction that God will do all that He has declared—so settled with such conviction that you will act on His promises even when you don’t see them yet.

Faith that delights your Heavenly Father is faith that will act on His promises, will reckon them to be surely coming to pass even before you see any evidence of them. And as our author continues in verses 4-5 he shows us that this faith

II. Hungers for God’s APPROVAL over EVERYTHING else (Hebrews 11:4-5)

In verse 4 we come to the first example of consequential faith—Abel:

Hebrews 11:4 (LSB)

By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he was approved as being righteous—God approving his gifts—and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.

Consider the account given to us in Genesis 4:3-5

Genesis 4:3–5 (LSB)

So it happened in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to Yahweh of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part, also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And Yahweh had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.

Back in Hebrews 9:22, the author reminds us that there is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood. And so choosing to refer to the account of Cain and Abel here is significant—he is highlighting again the necessity of blood sacrifices for atonement. We are told that Abel brought a better sacrifice by faith—Abel’s sacrifice was better because he believed what God said about blood sacrifices for sin. Think through this for a moment, because Hebrews 11:4 suggests that both Cain and Abel knew what an acceptable sacrifice would be. They both heard from God that He would accept a blood sacrifice for sin, but only Abel believed what God said. Cain didn’t take God’s words seriously;perhaps he figured he could impress God with the superiority of his grain and produce or his hard work and dedication to cultivate it; perhaps he didn’t really believe that atoning for his sin was really that important to God; perhaps he didn’t even really believe he was a sinner.

Whatever the reasoning behind it, Cain brought a sin offering that could not atone for sin; Abel brought a sin offering that could cover his sin. Abel believed what God said about blood sacrifices. His faith was a real, consequential part of his actions here: Because of his faith,

Abel parted ways with his BROTHER (v. 4)

Abel would rather please God than his older brother. How many times are we pulled up short in our Christian lives because we are hungry for the approval of a brother or a sister or a parent that rejects the Gospel’s message of atonement for sin by the blood of Christ? How many strained relationships, awkward holidays, tense birthday parties have you had because you are the only one in your family who loves the blood of Jesus that saved you?

See here the consequential faith of Abel—his faith mattered in his life to the point that he would rather have God’s approval of his sacrifice than Cain’s approval—even though it cost him his life. He believed God’s promise to atone for his sin through blood sacrifice, and so he had the approval of God as a righteous man. He was hated by his brother for his faith, but approved by His Heavenly Father for his faith!

Biblical faith hungers for God’s approval over everything—the next example of faith we have in our text is found in verse 5:

Hebrews 11:5 (LSB)

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for prior to being taken up, he was approved as being pleasing to God.

In Genesis 5:22-24 we read:

Genesis 5:22–24 (LSB)

Then Enoch walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he became the father of other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

If you read the rest of that chapter of the genealogies of Adam’s descendents, you will find that none of the rest of them were described as “walking with God”. Surely at least part of what is in view here is that he was so hungry for God’s approval that

Enoch parted ways with his WORLD (v. 5)

As the psalmist would write in the opening of the Book of Psalms:

Psalm 1:1–2 (LSB)

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the way of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of Yahweh, And in His law he meditates day and night.

Enoch was “approved as being pleasing to God”—and as a reward, he never saw death. He was an Old Covenant example of the New Covenant promise Jesus makes in John 8:51:

John 8:51 (LSB)

“Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death—ever.”

Beloved, how many times have you been tempted to relegate your faith to a place “way down deep in your heart” where it will not cause you to walk differently from the world? Like our pitiful political class— “I’m devout, I’m sincere, and I’m proud to say that it’s had exactly no effect on who I am today!” But see here what consequential faith looks like: Enoch didn’t walk in the ways of the wicked world of his day--Genesis 6:5 could almost describe our own day:

Genesis 6:5 (LSB)

...the evil of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

But Enoch would rather walk with God and be hated by his world. And as a result, he received the one thing he always wanted:

Hebrews 11:5 (LSB)

...he was approved as being pleasing to God.

Beloved, delight your Heavenly Father with faith that makes a difference in your life! Faith that reckons God’s promises as trustworthy, faith that hungers for God’s approval over everything else, and faith that

III. Believes God's UNSEEN future beyond the VISIBLE present (Hebrews 11:7-10)

Look at verse 7:

Hebrews 11:7 (LSB)

By faith Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Consider Noah—God warned him that there would be a great Flood in a time when there were no floods on the earth! Genesis 2:5-6 tells us that up until Noah’s time God had not caused it to rain on the ground, but a”mist” (or “stream” or “flow”) would rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground”. Noah had never seen torrential rains that would cause flooding; no rivers overflowing their banks, no waters that rose up over dwellings or fields—but

Noah believed God’s JUDGMENT was coming (cp. Gen. 6:22)

Genesis 6:22 tells us that

Genesis 6:22 (LSB)

Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

Even though Noah had never seen that kind of judgment before, he still acted on the certainty of it! He spent a century building the Ark and preparing for the Flood that he knew was coming, though he had never seen a flood before. And the author of Hebrews tells us that as Noah went about preparing for a future promise of God that he could not see, he was pronouncing judgment on his contemporaries—that as he “in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household” he was “condemning the world” (v. 7). 2 Peter 2:5 calls Noah “a preacher of righteousness”—proclaiming by his words as well as his deeds that judgment was coming on his world.

Christian, do you truly believe that there is judgment waiting for this world? Noah spent a century of his life building an unmistakable monument to coming judgment—he spent his life preparing for the judgment God had warned of and warning others of that judgment coming. Christ has promised that He will return one day

2 Thessalonians 1:7–10 (LSB)

…from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, executing vengeance on those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed...

Do you believe this enough to affect your behavior towards those who do not know Christ? Toward those who will be swept away by the flood of His righteous judgment just as surely as those in Noah’s day were swept away? Are you equipped and ready to share the Good News of the salvation Jesus Christ has purchased by His blood? Are you living a life in such a way that someone who wants to know more about God would consider you a good person to approach? Are you building your life in preparation for that moment when He is revealed? Are you demonstrating that your faith makes an actual difference in your life?

Delight your Heavenly Father with faith that matters in your life because you are acting on God’s promises even when you can’t see them yet. Biblical faith believes God’s unseen future beyond the visible present—even though he had never seen a flood before Noah believed that God’s judgment was coming. And in verse 8 we see

Abraham believed God’s CITY was better (vv. 8-10)

Look at Abraham’s faith in verse 8:

Hebrews 11:8 (LSB)

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Consider Abraham’s example of trusting a future he could not see—when God called Him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, Abraham left without knowing where he would wind up! All he knew was that God was going to give him an inheritance!

Genesis 12:1–3 (LSB)

And Yahweh said to Abram, “Go forth from your land, And from your kin And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

And when Abraham got to the Land that God had promised him, verse 9 says, he never lived in it as if it were his own!

Hebrews 11:9 (LSB)

By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise,

Abraham was not just obedient to leave his old city, he was patient while he waited for his inheritance—patient through the decades while his son Isaac and grandson Jacob all waited with him, none of them receiving the promise in their lifetimes! Abraham went there in faith, he lived there in faith, he raised his son and his grandson in faith, he buried his wife there in faith, and he finally died there having never received the promise (v. 13).

How does a man live his entire life waiting for God to give him something, and then die without receiving it? Because even as he wandered in the land that would someday be given to his descendants, Abraham was still believing in God’s unseen future— verse 10 says

Hebrews 11:10 (LSB)

...he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

We will see this “city of God” appear again in these final chapters of Hebrews. The author introduces it here to demonstrate the final object of Abraham’s faith—Abraham was not merely hoping in a patch of dirt he could call his own, he was looking forward to Heaven itself! There was no delay, no disappointment, no setback or opposition to Abraham’s possession of Canaan that could shake his confidence in his possession of eternal life in the city of God Himself!

Is this the faith that characterizes your life, Christian? The ups and downs of this world, the setbacks or oppositions that you deal with, the times when it seems like God’s promises to you have stalled out or broken down—none of them shake your confidence in the future promises of God?

One of my favorite passages in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia takes place in The Silver Chair as the Queen of Underland is casting a spell on Jill and Eustace and Prince Rilian and Puddleglum the Marshwiggle. She is bewitching them to forget that there was ever such a place as Narnia, that all that ever existed was the Underworld realm that she had trapped them in. She insists that they had dreamed it all, and that they needed to come to their senses, and admit that The Underworld is all that there is.

To this, Puddleglum the Marsh-wiggle replies:

Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things—trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. (Lewis, C.S.. The Silver Chair (Chronicles of Narnia Book 6) (pp. 190-191). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.)

Christian, that is faith that delights your Heavenly Father! Faith that looks around at the dark brokenness of this Underworld we live in and all of its lies that this is all there is—and clings to the promises of God! The darkness of the broken and rebellious world you live in weighs on your soul, doesn’t it? When the doctor’s news is hard to hear, when you stand beside the casket of your loved one, when you watch a family member suffering with pain or affliction, you are tempted to forget that there is a Day coming when your Savior

Revelation 21:4 (LSB)

...will wipe away every tear from your eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain..

When you become weary dealing with the unrestrained wickedness of people who are trying to slander or defraud you, when you have to constantly defend yourself from lies and attacks from your adversaries, it is hard to see past this present darkness to the Day promised by your Savior when He brings justice, and

Luke 12:3 (LSB)

“...whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops.

Live in the faith that believes God’s unseen future over the visible present.

Faith that delights your Heavenly Father is faith that hungers for God’s approval over everything else—because hungering for His approval will be rewarded like nothing else! Enoch walked with God instead of the world—it didn’t matter to him that his contemporaries thought he was simple-minded or judgmental or hopelessly ignorant. He didn’t care how he appeared in their eyes, because he knew that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him! Trust His promise, Christian:

James 4:7–8 (LSB)

Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you...

James 4:10 (LSB)

Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

The faith that delights your Heavenly Father is the faith that believes God’s Word that “without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb 9:22). It is the faith that led Abel to bring a blood sacrifice before YHWH; the trust that said “I want to be righteous before God, and blood is the only way to do it. Cain believed he could be right before God without his sins being paid for in blood, and so his sin lay in wait for him and ambushed him, damning him. Abel trusted God, and his righteous voice still speaks six thousand years later to call us to confess that God is faithful to save everyone who comes to Him by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Do not leave here this morning without knowing that your faith is faith that pleases God. Faith that reckons God’s promises as worth staking your life and eternity on. Faith that will cling to Him no matter how far it distances you from the world, faith that looks beyond the shadowlands of your present condition to the mountain peaks of His unfading promises, faith that delights Him because it is faith that rests in His Son—your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

Ephesians 3:20–21 (LSB)

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

FOR FURTHER REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION:

Write down something you learned from this morning’s message that is new to you, or an insight that you had for the first time about the text? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Write down a question that you have about the passage that you want to study further or ask for help with: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Write down something that you need to do in your life this week in response to what God has shown you from His Word today: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________