Faith and Pleasing God

English Standard Version Chapter 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. 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.

Introduction

How do you stand strong when things around seem so uncertain? How do you resist the pull of the crowd when they pull you in a direction you know is wrong? How do you avoid sinking into despair when you just can’t seem to make any progress in getting out of the hole you’re in? How do you keep from pulling your hair out as you raise children when they seem headed down a dangerous path? The answer is to have faith. Paul likened life today to a battle, noting that they enemy seeking to draw you into sin, sink you into despair, strip away your hope, and fill you with anxiety is very real. We are to take the shield of faith to fend off his fiery darts.

As many of you know, these last two weeks have been a bit surreal for me. We received a call a little less than 2 weeks ago that dad’s time was coming to a close. The hospice nurse thought it would be soon. So we packed up hastily and drove up here to Oklahoma. Dad passed 2 days later. We began planning the funeral, I started writing a sermon and contacting friends and family to speak. It was busy. The day before the funeral, the government starting asking that groups more than 50 stop gathering. A day later it was 10. Dad died and the world was put on hold, or so it seemed. We’ve bounced around between my mother’s home, my sister’s home, and my in-law’s home. We’ve shopped in sparse stores to get our parents stocked for a couple of weeks. Our kids were here a few days and then gone. I’m not even sure when we will drive home yet. Surreal.

Of course, the upside-downness caused by the coronavirus is everyone’s new normal and we’re really not sure how challenging things will get. If ever there is a time to believe that God exists it is now. And if there is ever a time to believe that God rewards those who seek him, it is now. When you look at faith through this lens, what do we need to see? That’s where the writer of Hebrews takes us next.

A couple of weeks ago we saw from verse 3 that faith and reason are not incompatible. Instead, faith informs our understanding. It provides the starting point of reason altogether. Christian faith, in particular, invites people to think. Once you start thinking of understanding life in light of faith in God, the next question is “where does faith lead?” Faith is the path to pleasing God. And why should you want to please God? We’ll start with verse 6 and work our way back up to verse 4.

Paul likened life today to a battle, noting that they enemy seeking to draw you into sin, sink you into despair, strip away your hope, and fill you with anxiety is very real. We are to take the shield of faith to fend off his fiery darts.

Faith plays a crucial role in life, which makes it vitally important to understand. Last week we saw from verse 3 that faith and reason are not incompatible. Instead, faith informs our understanding. It provides the starting point of reason altogether. Christian faith, in particular, invites people to think.

If the first point the writer of Hebrews makes about faith is that it leads to understanding, the next point is no less important. Faith is the path to pleasing God. This is what I want to look at this morning. What does this faith look like? And why should you want to please God? Since we covered verses 1-3 last week, I want to focus on verses 4-6 this week. We’ll start with verse 6 and work our way back up to verse 4.

Faith that Seeks God

In verse 6 we see that faith is a requirement for pleasing God. Here the writer explains why, “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.”

The author equates pleasing God with drawing near to God. Why would a person want to draw near to God? Because he believes God exists and has a reward. The only way you will ever approach God and gain a reward is by having faith that those two things are true: 1) God really is real and 2) God rewards those who seek him. That’s pretty straight forward.

But if we take a step back, we see that this is true about any religion, any god. Ancient myths speak about men needing a god’s help and so draw near in order to gain the help needed – a reward, in other words. They must 1) believe the god they approach is real and 2) that he has a reward for them. Does this show the same kind of faith the Hebrews writer mentions? The Greeks sought their gods for reward only when they got over their heads and needed help. For example, when they went to war they sought favor from a god. This is often the time that many people today seek after God too. When you feel overwhelmed you look to God for help. But other than times of trouble, people often have little interest in God. This kind of faith – a temporary faith – is more like that of the ancient Greeks than that mentioned by the writer of Hebrews.

A kind of faith more in tune with the writer of Hebrews is most often exhibited in a way that we may not immediately recognize because it doesn’t involve our traditional understanding of God. If we turn the two beliefs into questions and ask first: Do you seek a reward? The answer to that is, of course. We’re all working toward something. You may work in your job because you see it as the way to gain reward – money that you can save and spend on toys or leisure or education or this or that. Looking back on my teenage years I can see that I, along with most of the people I knew, sought social rewards. We wanted to know the “right” people and be accepted by the “in” crowd. We worked on our bodies or hair or having the right clothes so that we would impress others. As parents we get caught up in the same thing though it comes in different ways. We impress not so much with our clothes as our kids. Are they behaving well? Are they making good grades? Are they successful? In other words, we are always seeking rewards from something. That seeking is evidence that we believe there is something out there that can give us the reward we’re after. We all have faith in something.

It is this kind of faith that the writer is bringing to mind. The kind of faith that has us in continual, daily pursuit – not just when we find ourselves in a jam – but the kind that drives our everyday activities. It is a faith that is always at work, always on display – so much so that we don’t recognize it as faith. We’re so certain that pursuing financial gain or social acceptance leads to the reward we want that we don’t think of it as faith. This is what the word translated “seek” in verse 6 means. It is a careful searching out, a diligent search. It is also present active participle implying a continuous, habitual action. This is the kind of faith, only in God, that pleases Him.

The Reward of Faith - Walking with God

English Standard Version Chapter 11

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.

How do you go from having temporal faith in God – just when you need his help – to life-driving faith in God? How do you shift your sights from work or relationships or toys or play as the thing can give you the reward you want to God as the one who can give you the reward you want?

To do that you need to understand what the reward is that God offers, because it isn’t what most people are looking for when it they think of seeking God. Our tendency is to seek God in times of trouble so that God will get us back on our feet. We don’t want to trouble God. “God, just help me out here and I’ll leave you alone” is a common attitude. But the reward God gives isn’t just help when in trouble, it’s Himself.

In Lot, Abraham’s nephew, and his family were taken captive along with the people of the city in which he lived. Abraham learned of it and went after the invading army. He defeated them and as a result came away with a huge plunder. But he refused to take it. We might scratch our heads and wonder, “Abraham, are you crazy?” But God explains in response something that begins to make sense of his refusal. God says, “I am your very great reward!” What God offers is himself! We see this in verse 5 with the example of Enoch. Enoch is one of those Old Testament figures that remains somewhat mysterious. We don’t know that much about him. He’s only mentioned in a few verses in . In those verses we find something unique with Enoch. The writer of Hebrews draws our attention to the fact that, by faith, Enoch was taken. tells us why: Enoch walked with God. The reward of faith given to those who seek him is walking with God. This was what Adam and Eve experienced before they were kicked out of the garden of Eden. The text says that God came down and walked with them in the cool of the day. It was his habit. It was a picture of perfect peace – that which we were created to enjoy and experience. To walk with God is to walk naked and without shame, to have nothing between you and God. In fact, you can understand every one of man’s pursuits by seeing it as an attempt to fill the void caused by his inability to walk with God.

We don’t often view God this way – as the goal of our faith itself. Instead, we often view God as a means to some other end. God is the way I can get what I really want. The challenge for you is not to reluctantly give up pursuing the things that really interest you. It is an invitation to see that walking with God is better than any of them! It is God’s image in which you were made and it is only in relationship with God that you can be truly human – free to live according to your design.

But walking with God can only happen for those who have been commended by God. Let’s turn to verse 4 and explore this.

Faith that Finds God

English Standard Version Chapter 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.

So if the goal is a relationship with God himself, how do you have faith that succeeds in finding God? Does all faith find God? Here we turn to verse 4 and the example the writer of Hebrews uses. He draws a comparison between two Old Testament figures, Cain and Abel, that bring offerings to God. One is more acceptable than the other. This is a fascinating case study. It’s fascinating because there is so much in common between Cain and Abel. They are brothers. They’ve had the same upbringing. They’re both worshipers. They both bring offerings. Yet only one is acceptable to God. What’s up with that? What was the difference?

Cain and Abel are children of Adam and Eve. We read about them in , immediately following Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit and God’s curse and eviction from the garden that followed. Here we find the first offerings made to God. That’s interesting in itself. What prompted Cain and Abel to come to God with an offering? There was a time when their parents walked and talked with God as they were. They were naked and unashamed. Nothing was hidden from God as Adam and Eve regularly walked with Him. But all of that changed when they took of the forbidden fruit. Suddenly they felt exposed and ashamed. They hid from God and from each other as they made coverings made of fig leaves. Suddenly they couldn’t come to God without something anymore. Suddenly there is distance between man and God. Cain and Abel know the same thing. They know that they cannot hope to come before God on their own. So they come with an offering, hoping that God will accept them on the basis of their offering.

It is the difference in the offerings that we must take note of. As we look back to we find that Cain is actually the first to come with an offering, and he comes with the result of his hard work. His offering is a model picture for what we think of when we think of religion. We bring our hard work to God, hoping that he will accept us because of it. “I’m a good person, God. I’m not like the murderers, thieves, and others who menace society. I try to do what’s right. I love my kids. I love my parents. I help out others at school or at work. I support Christian ministry efforts.” We want to bring God our record as an offering and say, “accept me because of it.” Cain’s offering was not acceptable and neither is ours. You can cover some of yourself with fig leaves but you leave too many holes.

In fact, it is not just to God that we bring offerings. We bring offerings to any relationship, hoping to win people over by them. We bring our attention. We wear our nice clothes to impress. We lose weight to make ourselves more attractive. We come in nicer cars to catch people’s attention. We hope people will accept us because of the “offerings” we bring.

There is only one way to overcome this need to bring an offering – to be free from the anxiety of always trying to impress. We look to Abel to understand it. What was Abel’s offering? It was one offered in faith. Cain came with works. Abel came with faith. I want you to think about Abel’s offering. Abel is a keeper of sheep. At that time in history, animals were not eaten. God had given every seed-bearing plant to man for food. It wasn’t until after Noah leaves the ark that animals were given to man for food. Why would Abel be a keeper of sheep? We find the answer in something God had done for Adam and Eve. After Adam and Eve came in their inadequate coverings of fig leaves before God, God clothed them with animal skins. Sheep was God’s provision for man’s covering. This is what Abel brought before the Lord. He brought the best he had – that which God himself had provided – as an offering. He came in faith – as if saying, “God, I have no way to approach you other than to come with the offering that you yourself provided, only with the covering that you yourself provided.” His offering was accepted and he was commended as righteous for it.

It is only when we come to God clothed in the covering God himself provides that we can be commended before him. It is the offering that makes us acceptable. It was the slain animal that provided the first covering, but it would be the seed of the woman that would eventually provide that covering. It would be the seed of the woman that would be bruised in his heal (killed on the cross), that would bruise the head of the serpent (defeat death). It would be this promised son – Jesus – that would provide the garments of righteousness that would allow you to be commended as righteous. Those whose faith is in this covering, this Christ, will be accepted and no other.

When you put your faith in Christ and his death on the cross as God’s provision for your righteous covering, you are accepted before God. If you’re accepted before God, this makes it possible to set aside the need to win the approval and acceptance from others by way of offering. It means we can let our hair down and be honest.