FAITH Defined Series, Message #1 & #2, Introduction

Faith Defined #1
12/19  Hebrews 11: 1-3
"The Hall of Faith"
Focus: "What true faith is all about"
12-13 week series
Jack Abeleen, Growing Thru Grace

Lead up
Laid out doctrinal truths before this then...
Paul, Hebrews 10 ---Let us...true heart in full assurance of faith, let us hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering, let us consider one another.
Paul, Hebrews 10:38---Don't throw away your confidence, will have great reward waiting, need endurance, after you have done the will of God, you will receive promises in a little while, but just will live by faith.
Hebrews 12--run the race

Paul could have just skipped 11 and moved on to 12, but he stops to define, to illustrate, to distinguish the characteristics of a kind of faith that is not only true and saving but is pleasing to God.  They needed to see the truth of God's promises that could see them through; ultimately they needed to trust God.

What kind of faith pleases God? This is one of his favorite passages because faith is defined and laid out practically. What is the definition of faith from God's point of view?

Gallows humor---policeman and bridge jumper end up jumping. Reflects a culture that has abandoned God. suicide can not only be stylish but wise, no hope.

As God's people, how far are you and I from that type of outlook?  We have great hope, tremendous futures, awesome promises.  Peter called it a "lively hope," one that kept you going.  Our experience of hope is directly proportional to our faith, or to our confidence in what God has said. The deeper or more profound your faith, the more wonderful your hope will become.  This was the essential truth that Paul was trying to pass along to these Jewish-Christian readers.  Some were in danger of going back to ease up on the pain they were suffering, and all were under attack for their faith.

Preserving faith is an essential part of real biblical faith.  It sees it through.  It really has nowhere else to turn because the doctrine in whom it has placed its trust, the God in whom has elicited that confidence, won't allow it to be turned off or to be turned away from.  This litany of OT saints had persevering faith in common. Some persevered and beat back the enemy, some were sawn in half and martyred, but all overcame by faith.

Solution for both them and us: The just will live by faith.
Taking God at his word---what faith is all about.

Without any visible proof of God's promises, these individuals relegated their lives to live according to them and were so convinced that they took God at His word, which is really what faith is all about.
He will take them one at a time and together, they create a picture of true faith.  In the end, the listener will have a complete list of what faith is.  They needed this and so do we.

He's against "salesmen of the day" who seek to convince others that Alludes to cultural perspective that we need to shake faith out of God or ourselves, "what we need to get from God." He is against the view that "quantitative faith is a powerful tool in the hand of the saints so they can then have exactly what they want." Maligned believers who are convinced that if they just had a little bit more of faith God would give them what they want.

The just will live by faith.

Makes the distinction that Biblical Faith is what we want to understand.

Faith is the substance of what is hoped for, the evidence of the unseen.  Substance=foundation, support beneath, sub-floor, that which undergirds. The guiding principle of what will please God in our lives...The evidence of faith is also provided by faith.

One thing is sure: Biblical faith is sure of something.  It has sufficient proof and has provided it a foundation for life.  This trust or confidence can support and can keep you from beginning to end.

IT IS NOT
a "positive outlook" hopeful words that have no assurance. Faith is not a psychological perspective or positive thinking. A lot of what Jesus said wasn't positive; his words about sin, hell, and judgment for all eternity is not uplifting. God's word must be behind the hope.

IT IS NOT
merely optimistic, a nebulous hopefulness, "Oklahoma" oh what a beautiful morning....
not an emotional sentiment, if you say it enough it becomes so.

Biblical faith:
It is sure,  it is established, it provides a basis for your life, and it gives proof to what you believe because God has stamped himself and his promise upon it.

IS NOT
a hunch, an emotional sentiment, if you say it enough it becomes so...

Biblical faith makes the future present and the invisible seen, and it controls my life, and that faith can grow.

Romans 10--Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
Hebrews 11: 6--Without faith it's impossible to please God because if you come to Him, you have to believe that He is and that He's also a rewarder of those who seek diligently Him.

BIBLICAL Faith always has God as its object and His word as assurance/proof.

You can't have "faith in faith" Not just "believe to believe."

And it must become the foundation for my life and the hope for my daily life to allow me to see what others cannot see, basically that God is at work. It gives evidence, supporting proof to what I cannot see and becomes the sub-floor for things I am hoping for, my faith in God.

IT IS NOT
Natural Faith, Blind faith.  Natural faith often takes lots of things for granted, doing something because we are conditioned to do so--trust the water, fly in airplanes, allow someone to operate on us, visit the dentist.  Most of what is we call faith is conditioned, learned behavior.

Spiritual faith is very much different:
Ephesians--through God's grace, He has given to us faith. It's not from us, not from works.  It's a gift from God.
Romans 12---Through the grace that has been given to me everyone of you ought not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think but rather think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith---a capacity to respond and grow and follow Him by study, by the leading of His Spirit, through obedience, and it is to that measure of faith that God has planted in every man that the call of God comes for us to be saved.  Come and believe in Me. Trust in Me. Lay down your ways. Look to Me. And as you begin to move towards the Lord, it is that faith that is then activated, some will respond, many will not, yet that initial faith is freely given to us by God, without it we could not be saved.

And yet, we have opportunity to go to church, get out the Bible, to begin to study and have our faith grow...

And, for the Hebrew believers, their faith grew to persevere through all kinds of things as they learned of the Lord and put into practice what they learned as He enabled them to do what He said.  It was the kind of trusting in God that pleased Him.

Notice--it has a certainty, it is the substance of things hoped for, it is being sure of what we hope for.

In contrast, the Old Testament saints had the task of having to look ahead to a promised Messiah that would come someday, promises were vague at times, incomplete.  Yet from what little they knew, faith reached out and grabbed ahold. Job had so little to go on, lived in the days of Abraham, yet he believed one day in his flesh he would see God.  He knew that his redeemer lived, he knew that when his body was in the grave, he would still be alive--he knew this by revelation from God by faith, he was assured of it and it kept him through all of his suffering. Faith caused that surness and life by faith showed that surity by behavior. That surety showed itself in behavior, substance, that which stands beneath.

SubtanceBiblical faith grabs a hold of the future (that which we hope and that which God has promised and holds it in a foundational sense in the present tense so that everything I do is affected by that hope, I live according to the  it becomes the basis of my life.

Solid certainty about a future hope based squarely on God's word.

Substance
5x's in NT 3x's in Hebrews

Hebrews 1:3 "person"
Hebrews "confidence"
Hebrews "substance"

What do we hope for?  forgiven of sins, accepted into Heaven, faithful reward for service, the Lord to come, and to change the world, and one day to rule and reign with Him, for the Lord to provide for us daily, answer our prayers, to make us fruitful in ministry, give us give us peace in our lives, make us fruitful, these are promises that we can celebrate today.....

True faith can celebrate today what is  future---both near and far term and the content/basis of that faith is made present by faith.

walk by faith

I trust God will provide. I look to Him to open doors. He alone can produce fruit. I want to be lead by the Spirit and not off on my own.  It is a faith that produces hope.  It will undergird with great certainty the way I live.  It will cause me to live a different life than I would before I came to know him. because his promises have given my life substance, as basis from which to work.

And at that point, the difficulty doesn't matter. It moves me because God has promised.

Biblical faith:
A confident expectation that  grabs hold of the future and drags it into the present so that I can govern my heart day-by-day.

I respond to the world around me by faith in Christ and obedience.

He personally hates walking by faith, loves to see the whole picture, to see the whole outcome, to have it before I need it.  To stand and wait, to understand why God isn't hurrying up or have him deal me a couple of jokers from the deck, and wonder What is wrong with Him?  But is there another way to live?  I don't think so, the Bible doesn't give you an out.  Walk by taith or sight is the choice.

Romans 8:24....hope that is seen is not hope anymore.

Rejoicing and not staggering at the promises of God, having no other assurance than what God also told me allows me to persevere against insurmountable odds because God doesn't fail.

Our problem so often a weakness in faith, as if God has left town.

God would have us live with a settled conviction of His promises that will govern our lives.

We tell our kids to trust us, but we are so slow to believe God.

Future being certain...
Present proof of that confidence...

Faith:
It's the organ by which we see the invisible around us.

Jacob and his dream of the ladder.  He showed him God had been ministering to the people like this for generations, commerce between Heaven and Earth on his behalf.  Bethel.

Reunion with Esau, wrestled, goes forth with God's blessing.  He was no longer Jacob, "hip catcher," catcher but Israel which means "governed by God." He saw something he hadn't seen.  He knew God was in control; God had broken Him.  He went with a vision of God he had not had before though He had known Him for years.

Elisha asks God to reveal the armies to Gehazi (his servant) to see the unseen.

Word: evidence, certainty
Means: to be proven or tested

Noah, 120 years building, 100 miles away from water, it had never rained,  yet Noah believed God.
He evidenced that foundation by his actions--built a boat though he had never before.

Paul to the Corinthians--In truth the things that are not seen are more permanent than those that are seen----"light affliction which is but for a momentary...while we look not at the things that are seen..."

Recap: Faith, first and foremost, must become the basis on which we build our lives. Faith must have God as our object, His word as our assurance, provides proof for what we have yet to see.

Until we see Him, faith provides a proof, a certainty of His promise.

v 2 "For by it the elders obtained a good testimony"

The activity of faith in lives of these elders enabled them to provide a good testimony/report, a declaration to the world, John describes it as a "witness in himself" 1 John.

All had confirmed in their hearts that they were in the right place, a good report within their own heart.

The outcomes among these saints were tremendously different, but the assurances of faith were all the same.

Daniel & his friends--it gave them great authority to stand, "but if not..." great assurance in the heart, even if it meant their very lives. They stood with certainty of the future, and they saw the invisible.

The same lesson is repeated and illustrated: faith has a foundation, it provides evidence and proof ,and it has a long history.

v 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen are not made out of that which is visible."

It allows a view of the invisible; it allows knowledge, perception, among what we could otherwise see.  Faith is far wiser than what my eyes can accomplish.

Our stars and the universe ought to cry "Creator!" to man--the sheer expanse. Scientists investigate, speculate, hypothesize, and they change the rules, but they are no closer to the truth because faith demands we trust God.  The reward is that we see the things we otherwise could not see. What a marvelous thing to look out and say "Wow, look what God has done."

They also set aside the flood... Peter mentions (2 Peter 3) will always be scoffers, "where is the promise of His coming," but they "willfully forget that the word of God said..." the flood.  Floods mess up archaeological records.

Science will never see the beginning because it requires faith in God; it's the reward of trust. Faith may not understand all of the processes, it does see God behind it all.  The faith that we have in God convinces us that what we have seen was made by the Lord, and it was made of things we don't see.

He made the world--bara---"Out of nothing"  not asah (cobbled from components) speaking the world into existence. Job 38  "Where were you when I created the world and hung the stars on nothing?"
The discovery of origins is outside the scope of man's knowledge. Not blind faith, but rather a Biblical faith that comes to know God and accept His testimony due to the proofs found in His word.

Man's attempts to explain origins change constantly, but the writer of Hebrews knew by faith he could view creation. If you can get by Genesis 1:1, the Bible is easier after that. -Pastor Chuck.  Until you can rest in that though, things are very difficult.

Biblical Faith Summary
It makes the future present.
It makes the unseen seen.
It has a history of commendation in the elders who walked with God.
It brings knowledge that is otherwise unknown.

God has to be the object.
His word has to be our assurance.
As if you know Him, then you know that in that measure of faith that God has given you, which has began to grow in your heart, as you are exposed to God's word, as you seek to obey what He has said  in your heart, He brings an assurance to your heart that He is indeed who He says He is.

"Do"is involved on our end. John 7---"If any man, then do..."

Faith defined in verses 1-3 but illustrated the rest of the chapter.
Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham...and so it goes...