Faith
FAITH
And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.
And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.
11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
3 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. 4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
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2 Beloved, I cwish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.
7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. 8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Faith is necessary to receive God’s blessing Heb 11:6 See also Ps 40:4; Jer 17:7-8; Jn 5:24
let me address the biblical idea of hope, because the word hope functions somewhat differently in the New Testament than it does in Western countries today.
When we use the word hope, we usually are referring to an emotional state of desire in our hearts regarding what we would like to happen in the future but are not sure will come to pass.
We may hope that our favorite teams will win football or basketball games, but that hope may never materialize.
For instance, I am a perennial fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I regularly hope that the Steelers will win their football games. This may be a vain and futile hope because it’s anything but a certainty. There is a kind of hope that does not make us ashamed (cf. Rom. 5:5), but I’m constantly afraid that my hopes for the Steelers may make me ashamed, for while they regularly win championships, they lose games, too.
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil
However, when the Bible speaks of hope, it is not referring to a desire for a future outcome that is uncertain, but rather a desire for a future outcome that is absolutely sure. Based on our trust in the promises of God, we can be fully confident about the outcome. When God gives His people a promise for the future, and the church grasps it, this hope is said to be the “anchor of the soul” (Heb. 6:19).
5 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
The hall of fame of faith begins with one of the earliest men of God:
Here we see that faith is not simply trusting God for the future or trusting the Word of God for the truth about things that are invisible to our eyes, even things that happened in the past, such as the creation. Faith is also the means by which we live in response to the commands of God.
“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” (Heb. 11:4).
“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” (Heb. 11:4).
God was very concerned, as we see throughout the Old Testament, with the heart attitude of the person who brought a sacrifice to the altar. Very often in the Old Testament era, people simply went through the motions, offering their sacrifices in a perfunctory way, for which they were hypocrites. God said, “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies” (Amos 5:21).
People go to church every Sunday and go through the motions of religion while their hearts are far from God. They act out their religion, as actors in a play, but without faith, without any real personal commitment to God.
God was displeased by the faithlessness of the people as they went through their religious practices.
Enoch
But when Abel brought his sacrifice, he brought it with the sacrifice of praise. He wanted to honor God. He was trying to be obedient and to manifest his love for God and trust in Him. It was a genuine act of worship.
Noah
The next hero of faith cited in Hebrews 11 is Noah: “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” (v. 7).
In Hebrews 11:5 we read, “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.” This vignette builds on that of Abel. Enoch was translated (bypassing physical death) because he pleased God. The author of Hebrews then explains the connection to faith: “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” (v. 6).
We cannot come to God if we don’t believe there is a God. That’s simple, isn’t it? We cannot seek to please God if we don’t believe that God exists and rewards those who seek after Him. Enoch demonstrated his faith by seeking to please God, just as all faithful people do. So faith is central to the motivation of the human heart to live in a way that honors God.
We know that it took Noah many years to build the ark, and many Bible scholars have made the point that Noah must have been ridiculed by the people of his time. Many years ago, I heard a comedy routine in which Bill Cosby played the role of Noah. As he was building the ark in the middle of the desert, his friends would come by and ask, “Noah, what are you doing?” He would reply, “Building a boat.” “Why?” “Well, because there’s going to be a flood.” Cosby captured the ridicule that Noah likely experienced when he gave the response of the people: “Yeah, sure.”
Building an ark in a desert is certainly ludicrous in and of itself. But Noah believed God, and he was willing to be what the New Testament speaks of as a “fool for Christ” (1 Cor. 4:10). He put his confidence not in the judgments of this world but in the judgment of God. He built the ark, through which the human race survived, because he lived by faith.
As I mentioned in the previous chapter, this man has been called “the father of the faithful.” We read: “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance” (Heb. 11:8). Notice that the word faith is conjoined here with the word obeyed. Living in submission to what God commands is the essence of faith.
We can sensationalize it and make it more pious than real, but the reality was that Abraham was an old man. He had his roots firmly established in Mesopotamia. That’s where his family was. That’s where his possessions were. That’s where his heritage was. But then, in his old age, God came to him and said: “I want you to get out of this land. Get out of your place where you’re culturally comfortable. I am going to make you an alien in a strange and foreign land. I’ll show you where it is.”
The author of Hebrews goes on to speak of Abraham’s wife, Sarah: “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore” (11:11–12).
Like her husband, Sarah judged God to be faithful.
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.