Hebrews Chapter 11
Letter to the Hebrews • Sermon • Submitted
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· 8 viewsThe Cost and Rewards of living by Faith
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End of Last Week
End of Last Week
38 But My righteous one shall live by faith;
And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
What is Faith?
What is Faith?
This is a question that has followed me for many years. I wrote a paper when I was in college Philosophy on the difference between belief and knowledge. How do we know something? What is required to believe something? How does this relate to faith?
Paul writes tho the church in Thessalonika
8 But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.
What does the breastplate protect? The heart.
How about the helmet? The mind.
Faith is a matter of the heart and hope is a matter of the mind. The two go together, mind and heart.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
2 For by it the men of old gained approval.
3 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.
We have been reciting Hebrews 11:1 in class each week for the past 10 weeks. It has been our memory verse. But memorizing a verse does not change your life. We can have a great knowledge of the Bible and not have hope. Even Satan knows the bible, probably better than most Christians. Yet, Satan does not possess a saving knowledge of God. Satan has no Hope. And, Satan has seen God!
The word"faith” or “faithful” appear in 358 verses in the NASB. Throughout history, man was measured by his faith. He was called to faith, lived by faith, died because of faith and at all times believed God.
Hebrews 11 begins with a simple definition of faith and then shows the Old Testament Saints who were saved by faith! The people to whom this letter was written were Jews!
Judaism was a works based, legalistic religion that seemed to ignore their foundation. Temple worship was central to their belief in salvation. But Jesus said the temple would be destroyed. Then where would they be? They would need to return to their foundation.
Our writer wished to remind his readers that their foundation was faith!
Paul writes in Romans 4:1-5 in describing Abraham
1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?
2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.
5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,
We are told in Habakkuk:
4 “Behold, as for the proud one,
His soul is not right within him;
But the righteous will live by his faith.
Faith was, and is, all that is necessary for salvation! Hope in that which is unseen!
Faith results in salvation!
Faith results in salvation!
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
The first 10 chapters of Hebrews was focused upon showing the superiority of Jesus Christ, our High Priest. We no longer need to rely on the Temple ceremonies. Indeed, the Temple has been destroyed by the Romans in 68- 70 AD.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
We have to believe that God exists. But, believing is not enough. We have to have faith that He is the rewarder. We have to have faith in the reward. We can’t see it, like you see a trophy.
No, you have to have faith!
Throughout the Bible, God’s love letter to you and me, we see examples of faith. Our writer lists many in this chapter, emphasizing that it was not the actions that brought people to salvation but their Faith!
How the people of God drifted from Him and His salvation.
They say that “seeing is believing.” If you so not see, it is hard to believe. As I said earlier, belief is of the mind. Knowing that something exists.
Faith is of the heart. It is knowing without seeing. We do not see our reward.
That is why so many on this lost world ignore God. They can read the Bible, but it means nothing to them. It is intellectual stories that do not penetrate their souls. Without faith, they are doomed.
Hebrews 11:39-40 tells us about these many saints in the Old Testament:
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.
The Old Testament Saints did not see what was to come but they persevered through the breastplate of faith.
In the New Testament, the writers continually speak of faith.
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
In the Heart we believe - that is Faith! With the mouth we confess - that is of the mind! That is Hope!
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Faith comes from hearing. But as we said earlier, many hear, but few develop faith. Where does it come from? The Word of Christ!
I believe that we are drawn irresistibly to a saving knowledge of Christ. Our hearts can only be filled with the Word of God.
Pascal wrote in his seminal work Pensees:
“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace?
This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself”
We all have an emptiness inside ourselves that only God can fill. He wants you to have Faith - and Hope that He can indeed fill it.
In Romans 14:23, Paul writes
23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.
Everything, that is not from faith is sin!
As a Christian, we must walk by Faith and not by sight. Your eyes can be deceived.
Indeed, your faith can be put in the wrong objects. It can be in science. It can be in government. It can be in different individuals. This is not true faith.
It is from hearing the Word of Christ! (Romans 10:17)
This is why God sent the comforter to us - so that we can discern the true Word of God.
16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
We cannot have faith without the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. and faith is:
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Throughout our lives, our faith will be tested. It seams more so today than when we were young.
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
We are called to endure this testing. But the only way to endure it is to embrace the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to fill you every day. Put on the fill armor of God when yo awaken each day and trust Him to protect you when you go to sleep each night.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,
Take up the Shield of Faith - protecting your heart!
Pray at all times in the Spirit - trusting Him for the discernment yo need to avid the snares of the evil one.
Always remember those old testament saints that our writer listed in Hebrews 11. He reminds us in Hebrews 12:1-2
1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith. He is the trophy set before us. It is in Him that our hope lies.
At the end of our lives, I hope that I can say, like Paul in 2 Timothy 4,
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;
8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.