If we could visualize a great hallway of the portraits of individuals who saw much of God and risked their lives for God and His glory, we’d see exactly what the author of Hebrews is showing us in Chapter 11! Can you see it? Many of you, hopefully all, will be pictured on this hallway one day! This hallway will be consumed with racially obedient lovers of Christ! Those who have found they’re only hope in the amazing love and grace of Jesus Christ! Hebrews was written to cause us to trust in the promises of God in order to risk everything for God!
The Definition of Faith (vv.1-3)
Faith is the complete trust in the promises of God!
What are some of the promises of God seen in Hebrews?
- Christ is the once for all final sacrifice for our sins (9:14)
- Christ makes us perfect by a single offering (10:14)
- Christ gives us a clean conscience from sin by his own blood (9:14; 10:22)
- Christ is our sympathetic high priest before God (4:14-16)
- Christ is our source interceding for us day after day in heaven (7:25)
- Christ seals the laws in our minds and writes them on our hearts (8:10)
- Christ forgets our sins (8:12)
- Christ promises the security to never leave us or forsake us (13:5-6)
Let’s go back to the first three verses and expound on the definition of faith.
- 1- It is assurance of hope in Christ. It is confidence in the work of Jesus even though you can’t see Him.
- 2- How did the patriarchs and matriarchs of Israel win God’s approval? It was by faith.
- 3- We are confident in the Word of God! The Word of God produces faith! This is John Piper’s definition of faith based on verse 3. “Faith – at least in part – is the spiritual seeing or perceiving of the fingerprints of God on the things he has made.” It is spiritually gripping the promises of God!
The Devotion of the Faithful (vv.4-12) This morning I want to give you a small glimpse of a few of these faithful individuals. We’ll continue this study of more of them tonight.
- Abel’s faith became a lasting example. (v.4)
- Enoch’s faith pleased God, he was taken to Him. (v.5)
- Noah’s faith caused reverent obedience. (v.7)
- Abraham’s faith caused him to move. (vv.8-9)
- Sarah’s faith caused her to conceive. (v.11)
A Description of the Faithful (vv.13-16)
Four things faith produced in these individuals that we see this morning and that we’ll continue to study tonight.
- They saw a big God. Because they saw a big God they were willing to sacrifice all they had to serve him. True Christianity is not for consumers, it’s for servants who see God! They saw Him without being able to physically see Him. They spiritually saw Him and were in awe of Him.
- They took risk, knowing God was worth it. Faith in God’s promises will cause you to take risk for God’s glory! Telling your neighbor about Christ, great risk, great message of glory! Noah building a huge boat, great risk, great reward! Hebrews produces the type of faith we see in 10:32-34. They had friends that went to prison because of their faith, so instead of shrinking back, they went to visit them. As a result of caring for them, the government plundered their stuff! The faith of these early Christians said Christ is worth more to us than our stuff.
- They desired to be with God. Everyone wants heaven, but very few want Jesus.
- They were forgiven. This is not in this text, but each individual from Abel to Samuel had great faults, problems, and weaknesses. It’s not about our faults, it’s about faith in the blood sacrificed on the cross. It’s a confidence in the awesome powerful love of Christ. It’s an unending joy to be with Jesus!
The truth of the gospel transforms those who are comfort-seeking, entertainment-addicted, security-craving, and approval-desiring individuals into mighty warriors, courageous servants for the Kingdom of Christ. Because of the gospel, the faithful have every reason to risk everything for Christ.