How to Please God - 53

How to please God. Our text today says, but 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 diligently seek Him. How to please God. It occurs to me that that really is the essential question at the foundation of every religion.

And there are many religions, far more perhaps than we could possibly catalog. And each of them has its own set of answers to the question, how do we please God? But the only answer that matters is the one that is given by God Himself.

He alone can tell us what pleases Him. And we have our answer here in the Scriptures in our text today in Hebrews 11 6. Without faith it is impossible to please Him and the other things that are said beyond that in the verse for today.

And because it is so vitally important that we have the right answer to this question, it is therefore important that we give careful attention to what God has revealed to us in this verse of Scripture. So how to please God from Hebrews 11 6, we see first the necessity of faith, secondly the goal of faith, and third the requirements of faith. We begin with the necessity of faith, for without faith we are told it is impossible to please Him. And I begin by reminding you once again of the definition for faith that we have embraced in our study through all the Scriptures, but indeed here in Hebrews 11, the great hall of faith.

And that definition is that faith is believing the revelation of God and acting accordingly. And this text begins by telling us of the necessity of faith. There are three questions I think that we could ask of this beginning phrase, without faith it is impossible to please Him. Those questions are first, faith is necessary for what? Second, faith is often displaced by what? And third, faith is indispensable why? Faith is necessary for what? And the answer is very clear, to please God. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. And this verse, verse 6, is very closely tied to the verse preceding it.

They go together. Verse 5, you know, talked about the faith of Enoch. By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him, for before he was taken he had this testimony that he pleased God, but without faith it is impossible to please Him. Enoch pleased God, clearly, by faith. By faith Enoch did what he did. By faith Enoch believed God. By faith Enoch walked with God. By faith Enoch was enabled to please God, for without faith it is impossible to please Him. He pleased God and he walked with God by faith. In other words, because he believed the revelation that God gave him, he acted according to that revelation. He believed God and as an outflow of that, he walked with God by faith. He lived an obedient, God-pleasing life by faith. There is, therefore, as we see in this passage and throughout the Bible, a necessary relationship between the exercise of faith and the fruits of faith.

They are not identical, but they are inseparable. Here's what Matthew Henry, usually when Matthew Henry is quoted we tend to say, good old Matthew Henry. And here's what good old Matthew Henry said, we cannot please God without such faith as helps us to walk with God, an active faith. We cannot please God without such a faith as helps us to walk with God. In other words, an active faith. Enoch by faith, in verse 5, was taken away, raptured, so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him.

But before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God, but without faith, it is impossible to please him, so obviously Enoch not only believed God, but he lived by faith because you really can't separate those two. Living by faith, that is, according to the revelation of God, is an outflow of believing the revelation of God. Or another way of putting it, if you really believe it, it's going to affect your life, and if it doesn't affect your life, evidently you don't really believe it.

You just say that you do. And so faith is necessary for what? It is necessary to please God. But secondly, faith is often displaced by what? And the answer to that is it is often displaced by human ideas and devices and efforts, which is the very opposite of faith. If we replace God's revelation with our own ideas, then we are not exercising faith. If we replace God's requirements by our own devices, what we think is the right activity by which to please God, then we are not living by faith.

If we replace our efforts for those that God directs us to do, then we're not doing those efforts by faith, are we? From the days of Cain, writes Jeffrey Wilson, multitudes have been designing to please God without faith, all in vain. And we see that going through this chapter, and we started out with the sad account of Cain and Abel. Going back to verse four, by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous and testifying by his gifts, and through it, he being dead still speaks.

And of course, you can't answer the question about Abel's death that is referred to here without going back to the Old Testament and learning that he died at the hands of his own brother Cain. And both of them came to God in a time of worship, in a place of worship, in an act of worship. But the Bible tells us that Abel came by faith. In other words, his worship grew out of his believing the revelation that God had given him and acting according to that revelation. It's obvious, therefore, that his offering was a result of his faith. His offering was believing and acting according to the revelation God gave. God clearly revealed to these young men that the proper offering to bring to God was an animal to be slain, sacrificed upon the altar.

Now Cain worshiped. He came to the same place of worship, but he came with his own ideas of how one should worship God. His own notions of what activities please God. His own efforts at what should, in his mind, be acceptable to God. And all of it was utterly rejected by God, and he was told so and given an opportunity to repent and to believe and to come in a God-pleasing way, which he utterly refused and was so angry with God and with his brother that he killed his brother rather than submit to the word of God. So if two people looking at this scene who didn't really know what had been revealed to them might have said, well, they're both worshiping God.

I don't see any difference. They're both giving to God the best that they have. Abel, the best of his flocks, for that's what he did, and Cain, the best of his fields, for he was a farmer and produced this fruit of the soil.

And so both of them came and worshiped God in the same way. And we might think so if we saw this scene without knowing the word of God. But God said, no, that is not true. Abel is worshiping me by faith.

Cain is not. He's worshiping me by rejecting my revelation and superimposing his own ideas in its place. We cannot displace faith by our own ideas. Human ideas in the place of divinely revealed ones are not acceptable to God. Humanly created religious ceremonies in the place of divinely revealed ones are not pleasing to God.

Humanly created religious ceremonies in the place of divinely revealed ceremonies are not pleasing to God. And I quote Jeffrey Wilson again, When God has put an impossibility upon anything, it is vain for man to attempt it. When God has put an impossibility on anything, it is vain for man to attempt it. And the text says without faith it is impossible to please God. God has put his divine impossibility on this activity, namely trying to please God apart from faith. It cannot be done.

It will never be done. Faith is necessary. That's why we sing, my faith has found a resting place, not in device, nor even in creed, though creeds are wonderful if they're biblical creeds and they have their place. But our faith isn't in the creed. Our faith is in the Bible from which the creed is drawn.

We go on to sing, my heart is leaning on the word, the written word of God. That's God's revelation to us. And that is what we must believe in order to please God. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. Faith is indispensable.

Why? Because it is the only way to please God, as the Bible tells us. Nothing can replace it. All efforts to please God apart from faith are ultimately, listen to me now, the worship of self instead of the worship of God. If God reveals to us how he wants us to worship him and we say, well, I think I'll do it this other way. Are we worshiping God or are we worshiping our own brilliant ideas, our own intellect or those that have been given to us by others? Someone else says, this is the way that we ought to worship God. And we say, I think I like that. I'll adopt that.

I'll do that. Are we worshiping God or are we worshiping man? It's obvious in that we are not worshiping God at all. Faith is indispensable because it is the only way to please God. And furthermore, it is the inevitable way to please God. It's not the only way to please God. But when you, as the verse goes on to tell us, when you come to God by faith, you inevitably will come to him.

It's the only way to please God. And if you come that way, it is inevitable that you will please God. What a wonderful promise.

What a wonderful encouragement. And so this is why we say that faith is necessary. But we move from the necessity of faith to number two, the goal of faith as we move on in the text. But without faith, it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is.

He that comes to God. What is the goal of faith? It is to enable us to come to God. It is to enable us to cultivate a favorable relationship with God.

The goal of faith is to enable sinners to come to a holy, righteous God. For coming to God is our greatest need. If we do not come to him, we will be justly punished for our sins against him. Coming to God is often our greatest fear. We don't want to come to God because we don't want our sins to be exposed by his truth, by his light. We don't want him to direct our ways for we prefer our own ideas and our own sinful ways instead.

Our normal response is that we don't really want to come to God at all any more than a thief wants to come across a policeman. But coming to God is our greatest blessing. When God enables us, God gives us a desire. God so works on our hearts that we desire to come near to God.

The Bible shows us the way. Without faith, it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God. And when we come to God, we find our greatest needs are met. When we come to God, we find our greatest fears are banished. When we come to God, we find that our greatest blessings have been bestowed. And so the goal of faith is to come to God, to cultivate a favorable relationship with God.

And let me mention four areas that this involves. Number one, it involves and requires reconciliation with God. The fact of the matter is that we are estranged from God because of sin. I'll read a text in a moment that tells us that very plainly. But the Bible makes it clear that in our sinful rebellion against God, because that's really ultimately what our sin and rebellion is directed toward, and because of our sinful rebellion, we have made ourselves enemies of God.

I'm not saying that everybody has a sense of that, not that everybody recognizes that. So many times we're so blinded by our own misconceptions about God and our own misconceptions about ourselves that we don't even recognize that we are, in fact, enemies of the one true and living God, the God that reveals himself in Scripture. But the truth of the matter is that we are estranged from God, we are enemies with God, we are unable to reconcile ourselves to God, but God has given us a way to be reconciled to him through his Son, giving his Son to live the righteous life, the obedient life, the perfect life of obedience that none of us have lived, and then to die upon the cross as a payment for the sins of those who deserve to be utterly condemned, and rising again from the dead as the testimony that all of this was accepted by God, God has given us in his Son the way for us to come to God, the way for us to be reconciled.

We are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and his work in his obedient life and his vicarious death. I read Romans 5, 10, and 11. For if when we were enemies, now that's what the Bible says. Paul is writing to those who now are believers, but he says we, including himself, were enemies.

We are of all people. And again, the question is, are you going to believe the revelation of God? God says that if you have not been born again, if you have not yet been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, that you are an enemy of God. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. There it is, reconciliation with God, brought back into fellowship with God, brought into the presence of God, coming to God like Adam and Eve were in the garden before they sinned, in perfect harmony, perfect fellowship, perfect worship, perfect service of God. But all of that has been spoiled by sin. And yet that is our created purpose, to commune with him, to fellowship with him, to worship him, to serve him, to give him glory, to give our lives ultimately and completely unto him.

We can't do that in our sinfulness. We first must be reconciled to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God, reconciliation. He who comes to God, number two, worship. It has been observed by many people that mankind, human beings, seem to have an innate need to worship something or someone.

As anthropologists scatter out across the globe and study different tribes, different peoples, they find one thing in common. Everybody has some form of worship. Everybody has something they call God. Everybody seems to have a need to worship something, and yet the evidence is clear that in most cases this need to worship has been corrupted, and rather than worshiping the one true and living God, they would prefer, we would prefer, in our sinfulness, to worship some substitute in his place. But we have a God-created need for worship. But sin destroys both our desire and ability to worship the true God, the thrice holy God, the omniscient God who knows everything about us, the omnipotent God who has all power, the righteous judge to whom we are accountable. We don't really want to worship that God. We'd like to have a substitute God, something we can worship, whatever it may be. We may not even call it God. In fact, we may even call it something else than God to pride ourselves on the fact that we don't believe in God.

But there's always something, I've told you I think, about the yard sign in a house not too far from where we live that looks just like the ones you've seen all over the place in the last year or two that say, thank you, Jesus. And this one says, thank you, science. I'm sure these people would say, we don't believe in God. We believe in science. Well, I could begin to show you the folly of that for a number of reasons.

But just please note this. These people, evidently, who will not worship God, it nevertheless elevates something that they honor in the place of God and, in effect, are worshiping instead of God and give their thanks to science for whatever good we enjoy in this world because man is created. Man has been created as a worshiping being and we need to learn to worship the true God. And faith enables us to be reconciled to worship God.

This is the way that sinners can be brought near to God. By faith, it is impossible to please him, but he who comes to God by faith is reconciled. He who comes to God to worship is enabled to worship. He who comes to God, number three, to fellowship with the eternal God of the universe is enabled to do so. Again, sin destroys, destroyed and continues to destroy our fellowship with God. But salvation's cleansing restores fellowship with God. We who cannot come near to God because of our sin are, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, invited into the very presence of God, into fellowship with him. He who comes to God in reconciliation and worship and in fellowship. And finally, he who comes to God to receive aid from God. We are dependent upon God.

If we're honest, we will recognize that. We are dependent upon God to give us a living environment on this planet whereby life as we are created can be sustained. There's no other planet that has been found yet in this vast universe that is able to sustain human life, but this one is created perfectly for that purpose. And we can live upon this planet as designed by God with exactly the right amount of oxygen, with exactly the right amount of gravitational pull, with exactly the right amount of water and on and on and on it goes. We are totally dependent upon God to even be able to live on this planet where we find ourselves. We should recognize that we live according to his mercy and by his kind providence. And we should therefore recognize that in ourselves we are not self-sufficient.

We cannot sustain ourselves. We could not draw another breath unless God should permit us to do so. Have you ever choked and for a moment wondered if you were going to die before you got over that choking incident?

I certainly have. It's a reminder, isn't it? How quickly life can be snuffed out. If I can't draw another breath, if my ability to breathe freely is blocked by something, I'm a goner. It's been probably 10 years ago now that I woke up in the middle of the night with the bed shaking and I thought it was an earthquake. And I woke up with a start trying to figure out what's going on and then I realized that's not an earthquake, that's me, that's my heart.

This was the first manifestations of AFib and it was going wild. And I lay there and I realized, Lord, if you don't stop this, I'm coming home. I can't live like this.

I can't live very long with my heart unable to pump blood through my body and into my brain. It's not doing that now. It's just beating so wildly and erratically.

It cannot sustain my life. Lord, if you don't stop this, I'm coming to see you. And I must say with great gratitude, I realized when all of this was over, I really had no fear.

I was just analyzing the situation. If you don't stop this, I'm going home. And it stopped.

That happened to me twice before they found a medicine that seems to have stopped that and for the last 10 or more years I haven't had another episode like that. But you see how fragile we are, how dependent we are upon God's kindness? We need Him. We need His aid.

We're not self-sufficient. And when we think we do not need God, then we are in the most grave peril because we don't acknowledge reality and we are in trouble. But when we recognize our needs, we rejoice in being able to come to Him.

What's the goal? To come to Him. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him, but He who comes to God. That's what we want.

That's what we need. Praise God. That's what we may do by faith, which brings us third to the requirements of faith in the last part of this verse. He who comes to God, and there are two things that we are told here. Number one, must believe that He is, and number two, that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. The requirements of faith, to believe in the one true God, and number two, to believe in God's welcoming kindness, I think is a good way to put it. To believe in the one true God, we must believe that He is. Now some have taken this to simply mean we've got to believe in a higher power. We've got to believe in a divine being of some kind, a first cause, a supreme being. And of course, that's a good place to begin, but that is so far from what this is talking about that we're not even close to it yet. What this is talking about is to believe in the God who has revealed Himself to us. That's what this whole book is about.

I mean, you can't lift this one verse out of context. God, we read at the very first verse of Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1, God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed there of all things, and through whom also He made the worlds, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person and so forth. God is revealing Himself who He is in the very first verses of this book. And so when He tells us here, He who comes to God must believe, we're talking about faith and what it requires, He who comes to God must believe that He is, that is, the God who truly exists and has revealed Himself to you is God and you are coming to Him, you are believing in Him according to the way He has revealed Himself to you.

Believing in the God who has revealed Himself through creation and through the Bible, through scriptures. There is a revelation of God in creation as Romans reminds us in chapter 1 verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse.

The Bible says that God has revealed Himself sufficiently to all people to be able to come to Him believing in who He is, but the problem is the revelation, as we've already said, the revelation that God has given is almost universally rejected and replaced with a different concept of God than the one that if all we had was the vast creation. I'm sure I've told you but it's been quite a while of years ago when I was asked to speak in a grade school chapel, an assembly in South Africa, having been invited there by I think in this case missionary Tony Payne, and I said what in the world am I going to say to children ages kindergarten through sixth grade? But I thought about it and came up with the best thing I could think of and the time came and here they came, a thousand of them coming in, marching into the gymnasium in perfect order, obedient, quiet, all of them sitting down on the floor in perfect order, no talking, no disturbing.

I said wow, they can do that here and we can't do that in America. And I said boys and girls let me tell you about my writing pen. And I pulled out of my pocket a pen that had been crafted and given to me by Doug Shropshire. He used to make these beautiful wooden pens, some of you are familiar with that, others of you have made them as well.

He would make of course the barrel and he would buy the spring and the cartridge and so forth to make it all work together. But these beautiful handmade pens, no two were alike. And I said boys and girls you see this pen? And I held it up and they could see it. And I said let me tell you about this pen. I said I'll tell you how I came to have it. I was walking out in the woods one day in a storm and a lightning struck a tree and the tree splintered apart and I looked down at the base of the tree and I saw this pen, quite amazing. And I picked it up and it wrote and it was wonderful.

And that's how I came to have this pen. I said how many of you believe that? Some of them wanted to raise their hand because they weren't used to not obeying. But they knew better.

I don't think anybody raised their hand that they believed that. So I said well let me tell you a different account of how I came upon this pen. I said I have a friend who is now with the Lord by the name of Doug Shropshire and he made this pen. He crafted this beautiful wooden barrel. He put together the pieces that he had to purchase in order to make it a writing pen. He created this pen and gave it to me and that's how I came to have this pen. How many of you believe that?

Every hand went up. Because that is the only thing that makes sense. If you've got a pen somewhere there's a pen maker.

You've heard similar thoughts. If there's a clock there has to be a clock maker. If there's a car there has to be a car maker. If there's anything that shows order and complexity and genius it has to have had some mind behind it that designed it and made it. When you look at this universe it is truly insane. I started to say impossible and it is impossible but no it's not. It is possible because many people are insane. But it is truly insane to look at all this to analyze this and say it just happened with a big explosion like the lightning strike in the forest that produced that nice beautiful pen.

That is utter nonsense. The heavens declare the glories of God. The firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech. That is it tells us a message. Night unto night shows knowledge.

There's no speech or language where that voice is not heard. So to come to God we must believe that he is according to the way he has revealed himself to us. And there are different levels of revelation but you are responsible for the revelation God has given you. But to come to God we're talking about the requirements of faith there are two. Number one we must believe in the one true God. The one that we read about at the beginning of the service this morning. Now to the king eternal immortal invisible to God who alone is wise be honor and glory forever and ever amen. That God.

That one. And that one is revealed to us not in creation but through scripture. There are many things about God we cannot know except he has given it to us and he has. By his spirit he has directed human instruments to write down truth about himself and about salvation and about many other things and he's given to them given them to us in a book called the Bible. And we must believe what the word tells us if we have the word if we have a copy of the Bible which of course in this country and in this auditorium everyone does.

So the requirements of faith are number one to believe in the one true God as he's revealed himself to you and number two to believe in God's welcoming kindness. There are a lot of things that are true about God but there is one thing in particular that we must believe if we're going to come to him and that is that he wants us to come. He is a holy God. He is a God who must separate himself from sinners unless he himself makes a way for them to become righteous and therefore brought into his presence. But of course he's done that.

He's done that. He who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. He is telling us therefore that God can be found. He's not a distant God out there in the universe somewhere that nobody can really know. We have atheists who deny that there is a God. We have agnostics that say well there may be one but nobody can know him.

The Bible says yes you can. Believe that he is as he's revealed himself to you and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. He can be known.

He can be found. He delights to be sought and he is never sought in vain. He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. He rewards those who seek him by faith that is by believing the revelation of God and acting accordingly drawing near to him in the way that he has said. Who diligently seek him, the Greek in that phrase means to come by strenuous effort. Earnestness that flows out of a serious desire. Earnestness that manifests his supreme value. I think Christ's words in Matthew chapter 13, the chapter of the kingdom parables is very helpful at this point.

Two short parables that come at the end of the other ones. He says again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and hid and for joy over it has gone and sells all that he has and buys that field. It's worth everything he's got.

Why? Because it's so valuable. He knows it.

He knows it. Or the one that follows. Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls who when he has found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and bought it. That's demonstrating the value of Jesus Christ and how much we should value him and what extent we should go to in order to have him, in order to find him, in order to embrace him, in order to make him ours. Proverbs 25 2 says it is the glory of God to conceal a matter but the glory of kings is to search out a matter. God will be found but he must be sought. God will be found but he requires that he be diligently sought. God will be found but he does require that we must put strenuous effort to find him and yet the rewards are so great and by being willing to put forth that effort we demonstrate how much we value him. We demonstrate how important it is that we find him. We demonstrate how great we believe the reward is that we will have by seeking him. Could I quote one more commentary? I don't usually quote this many but here's one more. F.F. Bruce said full confidence that he exists and that his word is true and that he will never put off or disappoint the soul that sincerely seeks him.

That's a summary of what we're seeing here in this text. What do we have to come to God? What is required? Full confidence that he exists and that his word is true and that he will never put off or disappoint the soul that sincerely seeks him.

I have two lessons in closing. First of all about the nature of God pleasing faith. The nature of we might call it genuine faith or heart faith or biblical faith and that clearly is not mere intellectual assent.

Remember what James said in chapter 2 verses 19 and 20. You believe that there is one God. You do well even the demons believe and tremble but do you want to know oh foolish man that without faith works is dead? Taking that first verse first. A lot of people say they believe in God.

Congratulations. You have the faith of demons. They believe in God. They believe that there is a God. They know that there is a God. They know it. They've experienced him.

They were holy angels one time in his presence. You don't have to convince demons. You don't have to convince Satan. You don't have to convince demons that there is a God.

They know it. That's not the faith that saves just having the intellectual concept that there is a God. There has to be a God but not mere intellectual assent is the faith that the writer of Hebrews is talking about. He's talking about what we might call sincere heart faith and the question is how do you know the difference?

We talk about that. I think most all of us have heard that, maybe said it ourselves, agree to it. It's not enough just to have head knowledge. You've got to have heart faith, heart knowledge.

Agreed. That's what James is telling us. We've got to have more than the faith of demons. How do you tell if your faith is heart faith rather than head knowledge? And do you tell by the way you feel?

A lot of people think so. I know this is the real thing because I feel real happy about it. I know it's the real thing because I have this certain feeling about it and therefore I know this is the real thing. Sorry, don't depend upon that.

Don't depend upon that. That may lead you into the same place that the demons with their knowledge of God are going. How do you tell if you have the fruit that faith produces?

That's how you tell. That's why I read not only James 2.19 but also James 2.20. But do you want to know, oh foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Is he saying that it's works that save us? That works that somehow manufacture, create the new birth within us? That works is the way we are justified before God?

No, he's not telling us that. He's telling us to distinguish between head faith and heart faith, between intellectual extent and true living Holy Spirit wrought faith. And what he's telling us is if it doesn't produce living works, it's a dead faith. It's not that the works are what saves us, but the works inevitably flow from a living faith that does save us. But faith without works is a dead faith, the kind the demons have, that won't get you into heaven. But a living faith can't help but produce spiritual fruit.

Not as much as we would like, not every one the same amount, some 30 fold, some 60 fold, some 100 fold, but there are no no fold Christians. Every true believer produces fruit in his life. So you can't tell by the way you feel, but you can tell by the change of life, the change of direction, the change of desires, the change that this work of grace in your heart that brought you to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ produces. Now the question likewise might be, is it possible to have works without faith?

And the answer is, well, yes and no. You can have something called works, but without faith works are dead works. Without works, faith is dead faith, but without faith works are dead works. They really aren't living works. They aren't really works that grow out of faith. They aren't the works that please God. And you say, how do you tell that?

Well, let me give you a couple of ideas. In what you are doing to act like a Christian, to do what you think Christians are supposed to do, to be showing the works of your Christian faith, whether it's your church attendance or any number of things that you may look to. The question is, in all of this, is your focus on pleasing God or men? Why do you attend church? Because I want people to know I'm a Christian.

Well, that's a good secondary answer, but that's not the first one. You attend church because God has commanded it and he's pleased with it and you don't want to displease him by forsaking the assembling of yourselves together. In other words, what you believe about the word of God is what motivates this particular area of obedience because faith believes the revelation of God and acts accordingly. And if your church attendance is out of desire to please or to impress somebody else other than God, then it is not living works.

It is dead works that are not flowing from a living faith but from a dead faith. And secondly, and closely aligned to it, are your works rooted in God's revelation or in human ideas, either yours or somebody else's? Why do you do this particular thing? Well, that's because I was taught in church. Why do you do this particular thing? Well, that's because of what my parents taught me. Why do you do this particular thing? Well, that's because I've decided that that's a good idea that Christians ought to do that. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

If those are your answers, that's dead works. Why do you do? Why are you endeavoring to do? Because we never do perfectly.

Why are you endeavoring to do this particular thing? Because the Bible tells me to do it and I believe the Bible and I'm trying to please the God who gave me his word. In other words, faith is believing the revelation of God and acting accordingly. Is it possible to have some kind of works without true biblical faith?

Yes, but it is not possible to have true biblical faith without God honoring works, imperfect as they may be. So that's the first lesson, the relationship between the nature of God-pleasing faith, what it really is. Number two, the way of salvation down through the ages, and this should be helpful to us. And we need to understand that the way of salvation has always been the same, namely believing the revelation of God. It is faith by faith.

Men have always been saved by faith. However, it's also obvious that the amount of revelation has differed starting with less revelation, the further back you go and more revelation, the further on you come because God's revelation is progressive and he keeps giving more revelation and more revelation, more revelation until Christ came. He was the ultimate revelation and therefore when Christ came, the revelation was now complete.

It was just a matter of bringing it together in the book we call the Bible, the New Testament scriptures in particular, through the work of the apostles that Christ guaranteed he would guide into what they said. So, what did Abel believe to honor God with his sacrifice? Well, since we're not told exactly, we don't know, but I doubt that he knew that there was a Savior named Jesus.

He did have that promise in Genesis 3.15 of the seed of the woman. I don't know how much of that he figured out, but what God required was that whatever had been revealed to him, he believed. And we know some of what was revealed to him by the kind of offering he brought. So, it pointed to a blood sacrifice and I don't know what God had revealed to him, but whatever it was, he believed it and acted accordingly and God honored that and pronounced him righteous.

And we could go right on down through here. What did Enoch understand about God? Well, he probably knew a great deal. He walked with God, he communed with God, but again, he didn't know that someday a virgin would conceive a child and would call his name Jesus, but he knew that God would provide a way of salvation and he trusted God for that way for himself. And he was declared righteous by faith. Faith is believing the revelation of God.

And it's always been the same in every generation. Whatever revelation has been made available to you, that's what God requires of you. You need to believe that.

You need to act accordingly. And we have a lot more revelation than they did because we have 66 books in our Bible and therefore we are required to believe more than they did because more has been given to us. And therefore, we can't back up and say, well, I'll pick and choose what I want to believe out of the Bible. I like this part, I'll believe that.

I don't like this part, I'm not going to accept that. Then you're not manifesting faith in the revelation of God. What you call faith is really unbelief. What you call faith is really faith in your own intellect to be able to discern what is and what isn't, what ought to be and what should be and what ought not to be. What God should be like different from the God in the way he's revealed himself.

You're in trouble. Without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is as he has revealed himself to be and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Is that true of you? Shall we pray? Father, take this word and apply it to every heart according to the need as you see it and know it to be. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.