Hebrews 11-1-40

Sunday, January 25, 2026

Pastor Eric Bauer

[Hebrews 11:1-40] NASB

Central Baptist Church - Luling, TX

Sermon in a Sentence

Persevere in Faith

Fallen Condition Focus

A distrust in God’s character leads to a shipwrecked faith

Redemptive Solution

Trust in God’s character and persevere in faith.

Welcome

I want to start this morning by telling you that I love you.

That you are valued and you matter the world to me.

You are not alone in this life, the Lord who conquered death is with you, your pastors and deacons, your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are here for you.

Y’all are beautiful in ways that words cannot describe.

The Lord wanted me to remind you of that this morning.

INTRO

In my office is a framed quote by John Calvin that says, “If a preacher is not first preaching to himself, better that he falls on the steps of the pulpit and breaks his neck than preaches that sermon.”

I believe that church. I have wrestled this text out and the Lord has convicted my heart so I’m excited to share what the Lord has for you this morning by encouraging you to “persevere in faith”.

Prayer

But before we do anything, let’s pray that we would have the appropriate heart posture before the Lord this morning.

Father, empty us of ourselves so all that’s left is You. Lead us by Your Holy Spirit as we read Your Word which is perfect and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, correction, for training in righteousness, without any mixture of error. For Yours is the Glory and the Power from everlasting to everlasting. Shut the door to the whispers of the enemy and open our hearts to receive the food that is Your Word. Reign fire down on the lies and things that have gotten in the way of Your path into our hearts. Your glory is immeasurable and we approach You Father with a humble and contrite spirit, trembling under Your Word. AMEN

INTRO

If you would please take out your copy of God’s Word and make your way to the book of Hebrews Chapter 11…

You might remember that I preached from Hebrews back on July 2, 2023. I do plan to somewhat pick up where I left off, so feel free to pull those notes out from your bible and follow along with me.

The writer of Hebrews answers two questions for us:

Who is Jesus?

And What Has He done?

The he writes about 7 dangers or warnings to Christians who were struggling to persevere in the faith amid persecution.

I preached to you previously on the danger of ceasing to grow spiritually, but this morning, I felt led to preach to you on the dangers of losing faith.

But, before I get into the text, I’d like to present your heart with two questions…

Is your faith rooted in what you can see, or is it rooted in God’s Character?

Better yet, if your faith was rolled out like a scroll, and the Creator of the Universe put it on display for all creation; would He be ashamed to be called Your God?

That hits us hard doesn't it. Hit me hard. Makes us cringe to even think about it.

And yet, our faith i-s on display. It’s on display for the whole world to see.

Your co-workers see it.. your pagan family members… friends.. maybe you have an unbelieving spouse who sees it, your children, grandchildren…

I’d like for you to keep those questions in mind as we work our way through these 40 or so verses in our time together.

Now, the author uses all of chapter 11 to define what he writes about at the end of chapter 10 in verses 36 through 38, so I’d like for us to start there this morning in order to provide some context for what we’re going to see later in Chapter 11.

Chapter 10 v36, Are you there with me….. I’m reading from the NASB.

“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the

will of God, you may receive what was promised.”

In v37 & 38 he quotes Habakuk 2:3-4

“For yet in a very little while, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND

WILL NOT DELAY.”

v38

“BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE WILL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE

SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM.”

The author cites these verses to remind us of the certainty of God’s intervention for those who trust Him and that their faith would support them as they waited. That is “Endurance”.

But a warning is issued for those who would choose to shrink back.

This phrase “shrink back” means to withhold under (out of sight), or to cower or conceal something.

These Christian Jews, who were just one or two generations removed from Jesus’ ministry - were struggling.

Timothy had just been released from prison and these brothers and sisters of ours were facing intense persecution - which caused some to shrink away from their new faith in Jesus and revert back to Judaism.

And for them, God says, “My soul has no pleasure in them”. You see, they honored God with their lips, but when it got uncomfortable, they didn’t honor Him with their hearts or their actions.

The prophet Isaiah spoke this in chapter 29. Jesus would later quote it when He referred to the Pharisees in Matthew 15:8, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me.”

They put their faith in only what they could see, what they experienced…

They had faith, but only to the extent that it didn’t actually cost them anything.

So, when it became difficult and the time to endure or persevere was upon them, their heart really wasn’t in it.. and comfort became the god that they would choose to serve.

Woe to us church, if we dare follow suit in this same way. If we are a people who honors God with our lips only, and not also our hearts.

The author pivots in chapter 11 calling us to persevere in faith. He gives us 19 “by faith” statements of OT people whose faith in action was pleasing to God.

We’ll begin there in verse 1.

1 Now faith is the certainty (your translation may say assurance or confidence) of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen.

2 For by it the people of old gained approval.

3 By faith we understand that the world has been created by the word of God so that what is seen has not been made out of things that are visible.

4 By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he was attested to be righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.

5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for before he was taken up, he was attested to have been pleasing to God.

6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for the one who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He proves to be One who rewards those who seek Him.

—————————————————————————————————

Some commentators say that though there is no complete definition for it. Verse 1, is the best explanation of “faith” that Scripture offers us.

But I think it starts with the fact that God exists, and

the trust, that we have in His character, is what gives us confidence in a reality that we cannot see.

Faith is not an emotion or feeling we have.

It’s certainly not a compromise; God if you’re real than just….. fill in the blank.. or if I can’t see it, I can’t believe it.

Just show me first… then - I’ll believe.. As if God, our creator should have to prove to the creation that He is who He says He is.

You remember in Matthew 27, verse 42, where the chief priests, scribes and elders mocked Jesus, saying,

“He saved others; He cannot save Himself! He is the King of

Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will

believe in Him.”

God’s character wasn’t good enough for them.

In order to believe in God’s promises, don’t we first, need to trust His character?

Trust who He says He is?

Where else do we need to look to learn about His character other than scripture?

Now scripture says that He is:

Loving and Merciful,

Faithful, and Trustworthy,

Holy, and Just,

Omnipotent and Sovereign,

Eternal, Unchanging..

And the list goes on about His character and attributes. Church, who God says He is, isn’t hidden from us. He makes Himself plainly known and He speaks to us.

—————

If you were here for the New Years Eve prayer service, would you raise your hand..

The Lord put prayer on Walter’s heart and he responded in obedience by organizing that prayer service. Thank you brother for your faithfulness.

We prayed through the ACTS prayer, that is Adoration - Confession - Thanksgiving - Supplication..

Now at the end of the prayer time, Walter asked us two questions:

Ask God if there’s anything He wants to say to you?

Ask God if there’s anything He wants you to do?

I lowered me head, closed my eyes, and said Father is there anything you want tell me?

God clearly spoke two words - TRUST ME.

I went to work Thursday morning thinking about it. “God, trust you with what exactly?”

Now, one of my spiritual gifts is faith, so I’m thinking… of course I trust You… This isn’t something new, scripture repeatedly tells us to trust in the Lord.

Friday morning, I’m going to work and I’m thinking about it again.. But now I’ve sort of up’d the stakes in my mind.. Lord are you calling Kim home, or our kids.. I’m I going to get arrested or something because you want me to start a new prison ministry…

He didn’t say any of that.. He just said Trust Me.

Later that afternoon, I got a call from Pastor Brad excited that the Lord was calling him to a new work..

I now understood why God answered my prayer and said, Trust Me. But here’s the thing church, it wasn’t just for me. God knew that I would be standing here in front of you today preaching this sermon and He wants me to say the same thing to you,

TRUST ME.

Trust in my character. Who I say I am.

V4, Abel knew this. He understood God’s character and as a result his actions reflected a better sacrifice than Cain..

V5, Enoch’s heart knew the same thing and it reflected his trust in God’s character. And God took him up without having to first die in the flesh. God did the same when He took Elijah, who served God faithfully through all sorts of adversity.

V6, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for the one who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He proves to be One who rewards those who seek Him.

As I worked through this text, you want to know what the Lord told me concerning my faith….

Eric, Am I not enough for you?

Loving, Merciful, Faithful, Trustworthy, Holy, Just,

Omnipotent, Sovereign, Eternal, Unchanging..

Is there something better that man created, that’s more worthy than Me?

Child, what do you lack, that I am unable to provide?

Eric, I gave My Son… Christ Jesus as a ransom for you. I withheld the wrath that was owed to you because of your gross and detestable sin and poured it out on My Son. One final sacrifice for all time. So that you could stand before and partake in a future glory with Me.

Who could love you more than Me???

He’s saying the same thing to you church..

[Call out people’s Names]

And so knowing this, what kind of response is required of us?

Perhaps we need to start by not making everything about us?

Our comforts, our wants, going through the motions of christianity..

Just going to church, attending events and programs but never making a single disciple.

Never really dying to self… with things like..

————

But God, I don’t want to sell everything and go to another country to teach others about You..

But God, I don’t want to give up my financially lucrative job for full time ministry.

But God, I don’t want to serve the widow and the orphan.. I’ll just write a check.

But God, I don’t want to open my home to host or lead a connect group..

But God, I don’t like kids, they’re too loud, let somebody else serve in the nursery.. Let the parents do it, I’ve already raised my kids..

But God, I don’t want to engage my community, make disciples and plant churches. I like my church just the way it is.

Or, you’ve heard this…

But God, I go to church, read my bible, pray… Isn’t that enough?

No, I’m sorry to have to tell you church - it’s not.

It is not enough to just sit in here every Sunday, hear from God, and never be transformed by the Power of His Word.

And because of it, the church begins to look more and more like the world. A watered-down version of the church spoken of, in the book of Acts.

And you know why it matters….

————

Peter said, in his first letter, chapter 1:18-19, I like how the NLT puts it,

“For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.

Christ didn’t shed His blood on the cross for you and me to be a lukewarm Christian going through the motions, only thinking of ourselves.

Because those who really trust in God’s character will persevere in faith….

And maybe you’re thinking pastor Eric, how do we do that, practically speaking..

James said this to the 12 tribes that were dispersed,

“For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” 2:26

—————————————————————————————————

Now here’s my favorite part of chapter 11… Pay attention to how the [faith - the trust in God’s character] produces works of righteousness…

v7 By faith Noah, being warned by God 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

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

9 By faith he lived as a stranger in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;

10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. - he’s talking about heaven..

11 By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. She was 90 years old..

12 Therefore even from one man (Abraham), and one who was as good as dead (100 yrs old) at that, there were born descendants who were just as the stars of heaven in number, and as the innumerable grains of sand along the seashore.

13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen and welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.

15 And indeed if they had been thinking of that country which they left, they would have had opportunity to return.

16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and the one who had received the promises was offering up his only son;

18 it was he to whom it was said, “Through Isaac your descendants shall be named.”

19 He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. (Abraham had a resurrection level of faith.)

20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come.

21 By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.

22 By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones.

23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,

25 choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the temporary pleasures of sin,

26 considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.

27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he persevered, as though seeing Him who is unseen.

28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch them.

29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned.

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after the Israelites had marched around them for seven days.

31 By faith the prostitute Rahab did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.

32 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets,

33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,

34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

35 Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection;

36 and others experienced mocking and flogging, and further, chains and imprisonment.

37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented

38 (people of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts, on mountains, and sheltering in caves and holes in the ground.

39 And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised,

40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.

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Church, they fully trusted God’s character which allowed them to persevere in faith by doing whatever God asked, without question, without compromise and they didn’t concern themselves with their comfort or what they could get out of it.

They set the example for us to live a life that is more concerned with where we’re going - that is Heaven - instead of what’s going on in the world around us.

They were willing to face threats, persecution, and even death as trusted in God’s promises and said Lord, I freely give it all to You!

Here am I Lord, send me. To the ends of the earth - because I will not tell You no, I will not say, But God - I don’t want…

Church, Jesus’ blood purchased our freedom - to do the will of thy father, not ours.

For Your glory, not mine, Your Kingdom, not mine.

And when I stand before You in glory, how I desperately hope to hear the words,

“Well done my good and faithful servant” because I chose to serve You, instead of myself.

And just like with Abraham, Noah, Moses, Rahab, Sara… He will not be ashamed to be called your God.

Church, can I challenge you this week?

Get right with God.. repent for the “but God” heart that we have.

And in faith.. because you actually trust in His character - produce the works of righteousness that He calls you to.

Don’t be like the world. Count the cost and make a decision on whom you’re really gonna serve.

It’s going to look different for each of you, but at a minimum - when you open your eyes tomorrow morning, start by asking God this..

Lord, please give me everything you know I need to fulfill the Great Commission today.

And if we’re not willing to do that, then there’s no point of showing up here next week.

My prayer is that the Lord spoke to You this morning, with correction, rebuke, encouragement, and training in righteous so that you would be complete for every good work.

The Lord loves you and so do I.

Let’s Pray……

Prayer

Father, my prayer is that we would bring glory to your name, not shame.

You command us to share the good news with the lost and to disciple those who are sealed by Your Holy Spirit. This is the mission of the church Sunday to Sunday.. We gather to be convicted and encouraged to take Your Word to the ends of the earth until such a time that You would call us home. Until that day, help us to die to self and live a life that is a reflection of Your character. You are better, Your ways are better and we joyfully surrender this life to you. Amen

**LONG ENOUGH FOR THE WORSHIP TEAM TO COME UP**

Church as our worship team leads us in a song of response, we’ll have brothers and sisters available to pray and encourage you.

If you have a praise come.

If you need to repent and want prayer, come.

If you need to respond to the Holy Spirit, come.

If you can’t make it down here, just raise your hand and I will come to you.