Faith, Hope, Certainty

From “hope” to “faith”; from faith to “hope” - to certainty!

What is it you hope for?

Hoping for it in a way that is so real, that you can see it, taste it, even now. Now that it has not yet materialised!

Not “hope,” like hoping to win that lottery prize, the proof or your real hope in that lottery ticket you carry in your pocket!

But hope, like, I hope to see my Lord Jesus face to face in due course - because He has promised me I will be with Him, at just the right time! That even as we are blessed with each new day, with life, with time - the best is yet to come! -

“And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll; The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, Even so, it is well with my soul.”

The latter is faith! “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen! (Verse 1)

The former, fancy!

The latter is Reality! (“By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen,was made from things that are nor visible.” (Verse 3)

The former, a wishful improbability, that even should it come true, you can have no trust in you yourself having moved it to be so, simply by the fact that you had hoped it would happen! And you can have no trust in anything outside yourself, either!

How can I say that it is reality that I will see Jesus, but fancy that I might win the Lottery?

Because there is proof of the former! Look around you! The starts and the moon and the sea shout it out!

But the latter, depends on a man made machine running through a random sequence of zeros and ones and no one can predict what it will produce: a “wealth” or “bankruptcy” (And I can tell you the story of two friends who ended their own lives, because they rolled the dice, and their “trust” in “lady luck” was exposed as no trust at all, but foolish fancy, with no foundation at all, in faith!

Friends, as we come to this part of the letter to the Hebrews, and we see that it is about “Faith”, let’s ask ourselves this day - before it is too late:

Are you a man or a woman of faith?

Such a simple question! - Such an evasive answer for those who do not have it, this “faith!”

Are you a man or a woman of faith?

Let’s consider the answer by asking 4 investigative questions: -

What is faith?

Who does not have faith!

Who does have faith?

What is the benefit of faith?

“Ill walk with God”

A wee story, please ...

A young man is standing with his bride, before the pulpit! It is his wedding day!

He is deeply moved by the experience! “It is as if I am in the presence of God” he thinks!

(He is deeply in love, or so he thinks, but he admits to himself that perhaps, he has not quite come to a true understanding of what love is!)

All he knows for sure at this moment, as the Minister asks him to make a commitment before God, that he will love and cherish his wife - is that he knows he is experiencing a very real feeling of affection towards his bride.

“She makes me so happy,” he thinks!

The ceremony progresses, and the young man and the young woman, still deeply in love, answer “yes” in affirmation of the vows the church demands they should be able to make with conviction.

They feel so very deeply in love - and they are happy. They “feel” happy! “This feeling, they think, must be love”!

They are pronounced “Husband and Wife” - and are asked to turn around, to face the organ on the gallery of the church, from where a family member with a rich, gifted voice starts singing a song they chose together:

It is Mario Lanza’s “I’ll walk with God”

I'll walk with God From this day on His helping hand I'll lean upon This is my prayer my humble plea May the lord be ever with me There is no death though eyes grow dim There is no fear when I'm near to him I'll lean on him forever And he'll forsake me never He will not fail me as long as my faith is strong What ever road I may walk alone

As the singer gets to the second verse ... the husband turns to his wife and looks deep into her eyes, tears swelling in his own eyes as he feels again how much he loves this woman, this gift of God, he thinks …Together, forever, in the certainty of God’s love for them!

I'll walk with God I'll take his hand I'll talk with God he'll understand I'll pray to him Each day to him And he'll hear the words that I say His hand will guide my throne and rod And I'll never walk alone While I walk with God.

Less than seven years later, the man and the woman - are divorced!

And the man hides a picture of their only son, in a drawer, because he cannot bear to see the image of the sadness and brokenness of the now four year old boy, who when he called him yesterday, said: “You know, daddy, mommy cries a lot these days ...”

And their marriage becomes a statistic!

Forgotten, the vows!

Gone, the conviction that theirs would be a marriage in the presence of God, forever!

“I’ll walk with God // from this day on ...”

But neither forgotten, nor gone, the questions that haunts the man wherever he goes, so the story goes:

What is love?

And what is faith?

Did I ever have real faith - when I made those promises before God?

And You, and I, friends?

Do we know what love is, what faith, is?

Are you a man, or a woman … of faith?

Faith - What is it?

The situation in this letter to the Hebrews, brought down to us over the ages by the grace of God, shows us that someone in those days was struggling with the same question:

What is faith?

From the preceeding chapters, we have seen the writer try and convince again and again, someone who had in more recent days come to faith, had made a commitment, and now was wavering, because of the yoke of suffering in a hostile world under the Romans.

The person in question (or perhaps a group of stragglers in the faith) had come to know of Jesus; had stood up and made a commitment when he heard of “all that Jesus had done and said,”

and for a while had put his hope in this Jesus. His faith, no less!

But now, it has been too long, and nothing has come of the promises Jesus was supposed to have made.

Promises like:

Matthew 11: 28, 29: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.† 29 Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

So what is “faith”

Read, closely, loved ones, and see the answer.

(It is there even in the previous chapter:

Faith is a decisive act, followed by sustained attitude!

To return to the story of the young man, once so very much in love, and now he finds himself, like the recipient of this letter, disillusioned, uncertain, perhaps, even, afraid:

You see, he had made a leap of faith, we might say, when he proposed to his would be wife. He had taken a decisive act: “Will you marry me?” he asked!

“Yes” said his then girlfriend, “I will!” (And in her heart of hearts, must have been convinced that he would never again leave her, care for her, love her and cherish her - till death them would part!”

But when he had proposed, he clearly, in retrospect, did not understand that asking someone to marry, in the sight of God, meant that you would adhere to His formula for marriage: That is, one man, married to one woman, for life, to the glory of God.

The young man had at first an attitude of perceived love, but he did not sustain it!

How do we know?

Well, they did not stay married, did they?

One or both of them may have taken honest, decisive action, but that is not enough to serve as proof of love!

Love demands a decisive act, followed by a sustained attitude!

And so it is with faith!

It does not mean much that you did a profession of faith, if you do not sustain a life of faith!

But how can we know?

Well, it (faith!) is visible in the lives of those who sustain a life of faith, just as some couples are still married after 30, 40, 50 60 years!)

Do you think they were always “happy” with each other?

Like the couple who were asked whether they ever considered getting divorced, and said: “Divorce? Never! Murder several time, but divorced.?Never. We promised before God to be married!”

And so it is with a life of faith, friends!

You see, it means nothing that you have made a profession of faith, but now you live with your boyfriend, to whom you are not married. That is contrary to a life of sustained attitude - an attitude of trust that God gets to say how we are to liver our lives!

Just like marriage, it turns out, when our vows are nothing else but a seasonal whim, or a selfish ambition towards personal happiness and pleasure, if we have not exercised a sustained commitment to our promise.

That is not faith. That is a romantic notion that love is about my personal happiness, and not my personal, sacrificial commitment to make someone happy!

There are three dimensions to faith, it turns out:

Knowledge! Meaning, a knowledge of who God is! He is the maker of the heavens and the earth!

(That is what verse 3 is about!)

Assent! I assent that Jesus is Lord! And therefore, Lord of my life, too, every aspect of my life! Not just “some”!

Trust! I trust in Him alone! Because it has been revealed that He alone is the true Saviour!

You see: It is what we know! (Knowledge) vs what we “feel”

“I might feel worried, but I know that Jesus let’s all things work together for the sake of those whom He loves!

And how much does He love those whom He loves?

So much that not a hair will fall from the heads of those whom He loves!

Do you “believe” that?

Then it will be visible in your life!

Can you see now?

Your faith is visible in what you do, or observe to be true, even as it is founded on that which cannot be seen!

You cannot see your faith as such (it is invisible!) but you can see the result of your faith! Your obedience to God!

And how do we get this faith?

We don’t! It is gifted to us!

We have been included in it, as the Righteous ones!

How do I know I have it?

Those whose lives are pleasing to God! The righteous ones! Their lives are pleasing to God!

How are their lives pleasing to God?

By the way they seek Him!

By the way they live their lives now, asking about His will for them! Not their own will for themselves!

By drawing near to Him (verse 6)!

What is the reward of faith - what benefit?

Let me answer that question, please, loved ones, by asking an earlier question. In fact, our opening question:

What is it that you hope for?

Can you see how your life … is the reality of it is you hope for?

You cannot carry on living a life in rebellion against God, and continue to fool yourself that you have faith!

That is the story of Cain!

But, if what you hope for is peace, and certainty, that “I know that my redeemer lives”

I know that my Redeemer lives; what comfort this sweet sentence gives! He lives, He lives, who once was dead; He lives, my everliving Head.

2 He lives triumphant from the grave, He lives eternally to save, He lives all-glorious in the sky, He lives exalted there on high.

That is the story of Abel … and Enock, and Noah (verses 4-5)

More of that, next week!