All right. Well, if you have a Bible, turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11, I believe it's on page 1283. If you're going to use one of the Bibles, we have underneath the chair in front of you. And kids who are tracking a word today, it's going to be faith. Some of our the kids that come to the worship service, they get a penny for every time I say a particular word, and I think they're going to get a little wealthy today. You know, we're going to be talking about faith as we begin this new sermon series called by faith. And I do want to say it's good to be back here in sunny Florida. We were in snowy Minnesota for a little while. Some of you are aware of that. And we did something that we really like to do at the very beginning of our vacation. We flew on Christmas day. And it's the absolute best possible day of the year to get on an airplane. I'm not kidding. If you've never done it, it is fantastic. There's no lines. We walked right up to the ticket counter and they gave us our tickets. And then they said, would you like us to check all those carry on bags? You know, we have all these kids so that we have 50 bags with us. And they're like, we're like, yes, for free. And they're like, yes. So they checked all our carry on for free. And then we went to the TSA. They're like, forget the metal detector. Merry Christmas. Just come on in. And we just walked right through. That's not totally true. But nonetheless, there was no line. We just kind of walked right through. We get on the little train. It takes us to the airplane. We get on the airplane. It's half full or half empty if you're pessimist. And so all the kids are just laying in their own rows, just all sprawled out. It was magical. Oh, except for there was a crying baby. And by crying, I mean, screaming. Have you ever experienced that? You know, there's like this baby just screaming. It's head off and you're kind of like, what's going on? How long is this going to last? It started about 10 minutes into the flight, which is three hours. It ended about 10 minutes before the flight was over. So it was a good, long scream. Oh, it was our kid too, by the way. I don't know if that's an important detail or not, but let me ask you this. What does faith do for you in a moment like that?
This is faith important in a moment like that. You know, we do, we talk a lot about faith at UPC, primarily because it is the way that we are saved. We're saved by grace through faith in Christ. And so we talk about this every time we talk about the gospel, we talk about the necessity of faith. We can't be saved by what we do, but God forgives us and declares us righteous if we have faith in Christ. But the Bible talks about faith being for a lot more than just salvation. The Bible talks about faith being a way of life that we would live by faith. That virtually everything we would do would be very impacted, very influenced by our faith in Christ. And so for the next five weeks, we're going to camp out in Hebrews 11, which many of you know is sometimes called the hall of faith because it's about several old testament people and their faith. And we're going to look at their faith and learn together about faith and see more and more about faith. Some of us might be a little challenged by some of the things we see in the series wondering if we really do have faith or maybe if we're not living by faith as much as we would like to. But I do believe that we will all experience the grace of God and feel Him building more faith into us, giving us even more faith. And I think it's going to have a great help for us. Be a great help for us as we launch into this new year. So let's talk about faith. Let's read, I will read Hebrews 11, one through seven, here now God's holy, true, and life giving word. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it, the people of old received their commendation. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. 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. By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death. And he was found and he was not found because God had taken him. Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. 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. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household, by this he condemned the world and became an air of the righteousness that comes by faith. This is the word of the Lord. Will you pray with me?
Father, we want to bow before you and ask that now you would work in a mighty way in our hearts as we study your word together. We know that your word is powerful and that it does not go out and return to you void. It accomplishes the purpose for which you send it. And so we are excited now to be in the word and to feel your grace and to see the majesty of your Son. Holy Spirit, fill us now and give us eyes to see ears to hear and show us the glory of Christ and the beauty of faith. We pray these things in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. I think one of the things that we will see today as well as throughout this whole sermon series is that the Christian life is meant to be lived by faith. Faith not being something that we need just so we that we can be saved but rather it is something to dominate every sphere of our life that we would live by faith. That is what God calls us to and gives us faith for. The Christian life is meant to be lived by faith. And so we're going to talk about today the nature of faith for a little bit. And then we'll look at the faith of able and then Enoch and then Noah and see what those things, what these men's faith teaches us about faith in general. So we'll start off by talking about the nature of faith looking at verses 1 through 3. Keep your bottles open. We're going to just walk right through these verses this morning. Looking at the nature of faith, verse 1, which I love because it's kind of like a definition. It may not be an exhaustive definition of everything that has to do with faith but it's very very important definition as we launch into the rest of what he's going to say in this chapter. So look at verse 1. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The conviction of things not seen. So right there what he's telling us is that faith is being sure you're going to receive something that has been promised to you even if you can't see how that's going to come about. So it's not just believing someone exists but believing there are promises, believing that you will receive something that's been promised. So faith in Christ is believing that we're going to receive all the things that have been promised to people who put their faith in Christ in the Word of God. I like what Charles Spurgeon says. He says faith is believing that Christ is what he is said to be and that he will do what he has promised to do and then to expect this of him. That's a really important aspect of the nature of faith that we would expect all these promises that God has made to come to fruition. It looks forward. Faith looks forward and expects. I think we kind of understand that. We understand that faith is believing something you can't necessarily see but look at verse 2 because another important aspect of the nature of faith has to do with how we receive commendation from God. Look at verse 2. The author says for buy it so buy faith the people of old received their commendation and he's talking about from God. It's a good report. That's another way to translate that word. A commendation is a good report and what he's saying is that they've received their good report from God by faith which is huge for us to understand because he's going to launch into talking about many different people in the Old Testament. Many of whom did really amazing things but what he wants us to be focused on is that their commendation came because of their faith. He wants us to understand that the Old Testament which he's going to draw from is not something God has given us as a list of people that we should try to be like but rather these stories God has given us so that we see that there are people who we should believe like. It's a picture of faith. It's a picture all these lives are pictures of faith that God wants for us that we would be sure that we will receive all these things from him just like they lived their lives by faith and I love that so he's going to he's going to move pretty chronologically here so he takes us right back to the beginning in verse three as he's going to talk about creation and then he's going to say by faith in this verse and then 19 times in this chapter we're going to see that phrase by faith. So look at verse three by faith we understand that the universe was created by God I'm sorry by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible now this is one of the fundamental truths of Christian faith we believe God created all things out of nothing okay my little three-year-old daughter asked me the other day who made God and I said nobody made God he's always existed and in fact nothing else did exist until he spoke it into existence and the author I think here is focusing on the power of the word and even showing us an analogy of where faith even comes from because in the same way that nothing existed until God spoke it into existence faith does not exist in any human heart until God speaks it into existence in their heart which is why Paul says in Romans 10 17 that faith comes through hearing which makes the word of God essential for having faith but so he gets us thinking about the beginning and making sure we understand that the in the Old Testament it was the people not who did all these great things so to speak but it was the people who believed it was the people who believed God believed his promises expected to receive from him any and everything that he had said those of the people who were commended and you know what's interesting about that in the New Testament you think about the moments in which Jesus offers some sort of commendation or praise of somebody what's it have to do with never even in Israel have I seen such great faith in the New Testament we see multiple places Matthew 8 Matthew 15 Luke 7 where Jesus is commending people for their faith okay very important for us to understand now let's talk about the faith of Abel okay what did Abel believe what do we learn from Abel's faith why is he in the hall of faith take a look at verse 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 that last line there he's talking about probably what we normally think of when we think of Cain and Abel that was the first murder right Cain killed Abel which he mentions here but Abel still speaks why because of his faith what his faith says to us through the word of God and what does it say really what it tells us if we really look at this what we see is that it is only by faith that we can even approach God it is only through faith trusting the God is we says he is and we'll do what he says he will do that we can even approach him here's what I mean by that you can turn to Genesis 4 if you want I'm just going to read just a couple verses Genesis 4 3 through 5 and reading these verses because this is what the author is referring to when he talks about these two offerings listen to this Genesis 4 3 through 5 it says in the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions and the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering but for Cain and his offering he had no regard okay so back in Genesis you have Cain and Abel two brothers they both bring an offering to God one is accepted one is rejected what's the difference between the two offerings well what Genesis 4 tells us is that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground it's another way of saying his crops he was a farmer so he put together his his produce or his crops and maybe even made it into a loaf of bread or something but he gave God something that was probably really wonderful Abel's offering Abel took the first born of his flock so a lamb and he offered that to God one's accepted once rejected now think about this they were the sons of Adam and Eve and surely Adam and Eve told these boys their story their story being that they were in the garden with God the Cain came in and tempted they sinned and that they deserved to die they deserved death because of their sin but instead of carrying out that death sentence on them God graciously came in he made a promise that the seed of the woman would one day come and destroy the devil and he also killed an animal and then used the skin from that animal to give clothes to Adam and Eve so they were taught that human beings are sinful and they have no business approaching God unless there's a death that pays for their sin and so Cain did not believe no but God wants us for me to go out and do my best and make a loaf of bread and hand it to him and say here God isn't this wonderful and God said totally reject that Abel's offering was accepted because his offering says I am absolutely desperate I have nothing to offer you but I know that you accept the death of a substitute in place of people who trust you you see the difference you see what Abel believed about God Rick Phillips says Abel brought a sacrifice that pointed forward to the atoning death of a spotless substitute he offered the sacrifice God had established as the means by which he would accept sinful mankind you know we get it so in our head that what God wants is for me to come and say here's what I've done now I've done this now I've done that I've done this right in that right and God rejects all that all he accepts his desperation
branch Apple tells the story in his book holiness by grace he tells the story of this family that had a son that began to be very rebellious for four years he had consistently gotten into trouble and then he would either claim innocence as long as he could or then he'd just begin to start promising to do better and after years of this his mother became just completely exhausted with it and she confided in her pastor who was Brian chapel at the time that that she was really struggling even to love her son that her heart had been hardened against him but a cry of desperation would would change all that he says that after one escapade where the son had gotten into a lot of trouble and of course then once again he's claiming innocence first and then he starts promising to do better in the mother it's so tired of this that she storms out of the room and the young man is sitting there and notices the photo album on the coffee table he picks it up starts flipping through it and he sees some pictures one of which was a picture of him and his mother when he was a little boy and it just pierced him so he calls to his mom who's in the other room and he says will you come back in here and she comes back in and this is what he says mom when I see this picture I understand why you don't know if you can love me anymore in the picture hope fills your eyes as you look down at your little boy but I have dashed all your hopes mom please forgive me for dashing all your hopes and what Brian chapel says is in that moment her hardness of heart completely broke and she just wrapped her arms around him and had a renewed sense of love for him now she knew that he was still going to make mistakes and maybe even be some trouble but she was moved by this cry of desperation I've got nothing more and he says that's what it's like with God he says this God's heart is moved not when we protest our innocence by pointing to our inadequate good works nor when we promise that we will do better in the future though there is not reason for God to love us yet he does this is the nature of grace that we must treasure to know the joy that God wants for our lives and so that's why we have to approach God by faith it's by faith that we can approach God not with our deeds but with our desperation God doesn't want us to present anything we've done to him he wants us to present what Christ has done he wants us like able to offer the sacrificial lamb the ultimate lamb of God who has already taken away our sin we need to come to him desperate and when we do his love just pours out upon us this this by the way is why we confess our sin and the worship service because we do not come here to say here's what I did this week God I hope it measures up we come to say I have nothing to offer you God except I know that Christ the Lamb of God died for me and in my desperation I trust that you will pour out your grace upon me and he does and he does absolutely amazing Martin Luther said it is certain that man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ and this is the picture of able wise able's faith matters so much because able's offering his sacrifices a picture of the fact that he knew he was desperate he despaired of his own ability wasn't going to trust in it one bit he trusted in God and God declared him righteous because righteousness is a free gift that we receive through faith so come desperate what about enoc enoc don't know too many people named enoc
but it's a great name look at five and six it says by faith enoc was taken up so that he should not see death and he was not found because God had taken him now we don't have a whole lot of explanation on that we know that enoc and one other person Elijah never died they just kind of went to heaven which is amazing but what's really in focus here is the second part of verse five where the author says now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God but verse six is key look at this and without faith it is impossible to please God for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him to say to seek God biblical is another way of saying to live by faith okay and then in addition to that if you were to look at the brief little snippet we get about enoc in Genesis 5 you would see that in two places Genesis 5 22 and 24 is the phrase enoc walked with God which is another way of saying he lived an obedient lifestyle he he did the things that are commanded in the law of God but look at what the emphasis is here
is God commending him because he did these things and what the author is saying well it's impossible to please God without faith so faith is what's really at the center of enoc's walk with God and of everything he believed about God God was only pleased with anything that enoc ever did because it flowed out of his faith it was a byproduct of his faith never to earn something but it was that he trusted him believe that he was good and that he could trust him so it's only by faith that we can please God that's really really mind blowing if you think about it the God doesn't want us to simply just go try to do stuff try to obey his law he wants all or any of our obedience to flow out of the fact that we trust him that we believe he's good and you think about it like we want to please him when we think about what we learn from able space that we get to come absolutely desperate and yet God calls us righteous because of what Christ has done that fills our heart with love for God and when you love God you want to please him and what's so beautiful as God is pleased with the things that we do when they flow out of our faith I don't even think we have to be really worried at how well we end up doing things because anything that flows out of faith is pleasing to God he is so pleased with our faith and he can't accept our works because we are sinful but he does accept our faith he's pleased by it and it says he rewards it he rewards our faith he's so pleased by our trust in him when we trust him there are rewards that come with that we shouldn't be afraid to say that we shouldn't be afraid to say that think about a father rewarding his son with something that maybe he wanted I realized just a date or two ago that I totally forgot to do something this Christmas that I always do and I didn't do it I did not want to Christmas story okay like the crap the classic Christmas movie you know you'll shoot your eye out you saw I'm like 24-7 on the cable networks and stuff like that and I just totally missed it this year which is a bummer because one of my favorite scenes is when Christmas day is basically over they've opened all the presents there's wrapping paper everywhere the little brothers sleeping with a blimp or something like that the Ralphie is sitting there his parents are sitting there and his dad asked him if he got everything he wanted and he's like yeah but he didn't he hadn't gotten a B began yet and his dad says what's that what's that over there Ralphie and Ralphie says what he said is there another present there behind the desk and Ralphie's getting kind of excited he says why don't you go check it out go go check it out go look behind the desk and sure enough Ralphie runs over does with his father asks him to do and then there behind the desk is this box he opens it up and yes it is the red rider BB gun and he's so overjoyed he takes it out in the backyard and shoots himself in the eye but you know he was okay because it really hit his glasses but here's the thing here's this father so loves his son so pleased with his son wants to give him something good tells him to do something gives him a command go look behind the desk Ralphie could have said well now I'm not gonna do it I don't trust you dad out of his trust he goes to see what his father has for him he obeys his dad and there's a reward the BB gun now what we have to understand is God does not accept our works he accepts faith and so when he commands us to do things it's not so that he can approve of us and let us into heaven it's because he has good things for us it's because he wants us to trust him that if we do the things he says no matter how difficult they are there are good things to come he does reward our faith he's very pleased when we trust him because he knows there's going to be joy to follow at least at some point what's beautiful those the real crux of the reward is him it's God himself because as we step out in faith which he's very pleased by we're going to see that he really is faithful that he really is trustworthy that he really is powerful that he really is good and so the greatest reward that we get from God when we step out in faith is we see more and more of how phenomenal he really is so that is Enoch in his life which is such a powerful call to live by faith to trust our father to know that he has good things for us Noah let's talk about Noah lastly here verse 7 by faith being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household by this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith now one of the things we've got to see there is you've got the picture of the flood which is destruction but you've also see the picture of Noah being declared as righteous right and not dying in the flood but what you the emphasis here is that he has the righteousness that comes by faith so the the emphasis being that Noah is not declared righteous because he built an ark he built an ark because he believed God's warning and it's that faith it's his faith that winds up causing him to be commended as righteous by God not only does God forgive us of all of our sins but he also declares us righteous through faith that's the one of the main emphasis here of this verse but I also want to show you something else as I was thinking about this and praying through this I also noticed that the author makes very clear that it says in reverent fear he constructed an ark for the saving of his household in other words he he part of what his motivation was he believed that God was serious and that if he did this it would result in the salvation of his family and so that is absolutely amazing we think about it he got to partner with God as he saved people and that's the other thing that we can realize about Noah is that it's only by faith that we can partner with God as he saves others Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 3.9 he says for we are God's fellow workers that God uses us and works through us as we trust him and do the things that he calls us to do and to say the things that he's called us to say as we do those things by faith he uses those things in the salvation of other people I mean what greater privilege other than being a child of God ourselves what greater privilege is there than being involved in other people coming to know that they can run to God desperate and they can please him like crazy by trusting him and that they too can be involved in the salvation of others will you important understood this a man of really amazing faith some of you probably know about him he was born in the early 20th century graduated from high school and had tremendous opportunities father was extremely wealthy had a position in the family business forum but he wanted to travel the world so he went around the world for a year and then the time he met a lot of different people and he began to feel a real desire to go be a missionary to just leave his wealth behind and go be a missionary and he and he did he gave up all his wealth and his position with the company and he went and on the day he decided to do that he wrote in his Bible no reserves not holding anything back I'm going for this and then he enrolled in the Yale University so that he could start his preparation there getting a college degree while he was at Yale this amazing while he was at Yale he started a Bible study and by the end of his time there 1,000 of the 1,300 students were attending his Bible study okay that's a lot of coffee and donuts so he goes to finish his there he goes on to seminary prince and seminary and he learns Arabic he wants to pursue Muslims and at this time his dad is really upset with this life that he's choosing why is he doing these things why isn't he coming working for the family business he's a millionaire what's going on here and he writes him a letter and he says if you don't come back now forget it you cut off and that same day that he got that letter he wrote in his Bible no retreats now what's interesting is he finished his preparation and then he set out on his journey he was in Cairo briefly so that he could then go on from there and while he was in Cairo a week after he arrived there he came down with spinal meningitis and he died at the age of 25 there was this outpouring of grief his family and his friends and people saying this was such a waste
but he didn't see it that way it turns out that just a day or two before he died he wrote with what little strength he had left in his Bible no regrets no regrets and I'll tell you what his epitaph what's written on his tombstone is a very very sweet and beautiful thing if you ever want to read the whole thing the last line is phenomenally inspirational here's what it says the very last line on his epitaph apart from faith in Christ there is no explanation for such a life now hear me I'm not telling you you got to go be a missionary you got to do all these things what I'm telling you is look at the power of faith look at what God does in and through people as we give ourselves over to him in faith what would your life be like with more faith what would you be doing what might you see in you and in others more faith because we see now this is a phenomenal thing so backwards from the way the world works we think we got to if we're going to be acceptable or good we've got to show up with a bunch of things we've accomplished and able shows us that we got to come to God completely desperate and trusting in Christ alone Enoch shows us that it's not just doing a list of things that God is looking for but actually he's looking for our faith for us to trust him and he's so pleased when we operate out of that faith that Noah shows us not only that righteousness is a free gift that comes through faith but also that as we trust him we will and we are used in the process of other people coming to know this God who welcomes desperate sinners like you and me what could be better than that so we're going to keep talking about the space it's for more than salvation for everything it's for our whole life let's pray by the way we want to cry out to you and ask you for more faith we want to thank you for the things that you reveal to us in your word and we pray that you will continue to do that throughout this whole series and throughout this whole year would you bless us holy spirit would you fill us with more faith this year than we had last year and would you do wonderful things in us and through us as you equip us and send us to our neighbors and the nations with the gospel we pray these things in Jesus name amen