Living by Faith, Part 2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Today is the first message in a sub-series called Living by Faith. The word faith is thrown around in both religious and secular circles.

You might hear it on a Disney movie, at a football game, or at a healing service. The word faith can be ambiguous and confusing today. What does the Bible mean when it calls us to live by faith? In today's message, Pastor Rich teaches from Hebrews 11, 1-6, explaining the difference between biblical faith and hoping blindly on a whim. He also explains that the objective of faith is not to feel better and shares the real reason for walking by faith. Let's listen in. This is the second part of a study from Hebrews 11, 1-6, first preached on October 28, 2012.

I like what Michael Horton says. He gives this illustration where he was anxiously expecting the premature of triplets. Well, his wife was anyway, not him, but his wife was. But he was waiting for the event. He says, I will never forget the moment the doctor looked at me and announced they're all alive.

They are all alive. It was not a foregone conclusion, at least for one particularly. Until that report, my wife and I were in suspense. All the wishful thinking could not alleviate that suspense. I could believe all I wanted in a successful delivery, but I had...

Listen, this is important, okay? I could believe all I wanted in a successful delivery, but I had no promise to rely on, either from God or the doctors. And the intensity of my believing it had nothing to do with the state of my affairs.

My confidence developed entirely on the words that the doctor uttered. Similarly, the gospel is news because it reports a completed event. Faith does not make something true, but embraces truth.

Do you see the difference there? Just because I believe something doesn't make that true. And just because I believe it ostensibly more than the next person doesn't mean I have more truth than they do. Faith does not make something true, it embraces truth, a completed event. And this is what the writer of Hebrews is writing to his readers and saying, Listen, this is truth.

This is the completed event that has taken place. You need to embrace this. You need to entrust yourself to this. Forget trusting all the good things you do. Trust Jesus Christ.

Entrust yourself to Jesus Christ. So here is the test of faith. What am I trusting?

Really, what am I trusting? What is the object of it? I'm not asking you how much do you believe. I'm asking you, what is the object of your faith? Is the object of your faith a decision that you made? I proposed to you this morning, that's the wrong object of faith. Is the object of your faith maybe the fact that you in some church walked an aisle and came down and knelt down and that becomes the object of your faith? I'm trusting that to know that I have eternal life. That's the wrong object of faith. You are trusting something you did to make you right with God. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, you have to trust the boat.

You have to have both feet in the boat. What are you trusting, really? And listen, I grew up as a missionary kid, as a pastor kid. I came to Christ when I was 11 years old. But, you know, I had to be confronted one day with the fact that, you know, I was trusting the wrong thing. I was trusting the fact that I grew up in a missionary kid home.

I was even born on the mission field. Right. I should be OK with God through that.

Right. And I was doing, you know, I obeyed Mom and Dad. I was never really a rebellious kid. I never remember a day in my life where I wasn't committed to going to church all the time. Until I was 11 years old, I was trusting that to make sure that I was OK with God. Until my oldest brother confronted me and says, Rich, your life isn't manifesting a trust in Christ. What are you trusting this morning? And that warning is particularly for those who have been Christian for a very long time.

You younger generation in here this morning, you need to ask that question. I know for a fact that I have seen people who have been Christian for a very long time and got to the point where they realized, you know, I've been trusting all my goodness. I've been trusting the fact that I've been doing all these things that a Christian is supposed to do. That's what I've been trusting. And I have never truly entrusted myself to the person of Jesus Christ.

This is a very serious warning from the writer of Hebrews this morning, and I encourage you to heed it. There is a big picture here that he draws us to. Do we understand the big picture?

Because if I'm trusting me, if I'm trusting my goodness, then I've lost sight of the big picture. I'm going to appeal to Francis Chan's book Crazy Love with the illustration that he uses. Suppose you're an extra in an upcoming movie. And we've had some movies made around this area, you know, and there's been the invitation for you to be an extra in the movie.

You know what extras are? You're just one of the people in the crowd. You're just a face in the crowd. You don't have any real particular part in the movie. You just are part of the crowd so that there is a crowd in the movie. But the movie is focusing on the main characters of it. But suppose you're an extra in the upcoming movie.

You'll probably scrutinize the one scene where hundreds of people are milling around just waiting for that two fifths of a second where the back of your head appears. All right. So it looks something like this. All right. This is a scene in the movie. You see that guy way over on the right with a bald head in the gray T-shirt. OK, guys, that's you. Ladies, you're the one with the blue T-shirt there in the middle of the long blonde hair. Let's say that's you. All right.

All right. Let's go back to that last blank screen. Now, this is the upcoming movie and your scene, you're going to be an extra in the movie and you're going to have two fifths of a second where the back of your head is showing. And it'll look something like this. Boom. That's it. That's all you appear in the movie.

And what do you do? You contact all your friend. You contact every friend you have and you rent out the movie theater and you say, come watch the movie about me.

What are they going to say? You're crazy. How can you think it's about you? Loved ones, do you understand something in the scope of all of eternity and in the context of the infinite majesty of God? It's about all you are in this life. You have two fifths of a second in the scope of all of eternity.

Who are you trusting really? What is the object of your faith? That is a question that you need to answer. That takes us to the big picture. You see, the whole point is this. Your existence, your life is about the sovereign of the universe. The very reason you exist is for his pleasure and his glory.

And your time on this earth is that two fifths of a second. Are you making it about you? The movie's not about you. It is about the one who made you and he made you for himself. Verse 30 makes it clear he is the one to whom we must give account as he says back in chapter 4. The bottom line once again, have you been reconciled to God? Or as it depicts in verse 29, do you just brush it off as, meh, he's just another, he's just another religious guy. I'm really not going to take God's word seriously.

The infinite sovereign of the universe has revealed himself. I'm not going to take it seriously. He has given me the prescription, the one thing I need to live and to survive his wrath. The one thing I need. I'm just going to brush it off.

I'm going to trample it underfoot. I'm going to consider it common. Not for me.

It's not important. Have you been reconciled to God? Or are you brushing off the work that makes that reconciliation possible? Let me just go back to Francis Chan for a minute. He says this, and I'm quoting him, how is it possible that we live as though it's about us? We have only our two-fifths of a second long scene to live. I don't know about you, he says, but I want my two-fifths of a second to be about my making much of God. I like that. You have two-fifths of a second to make much of God.

How are we doing? What Scripture means when it says do all. Do what?

All. For the glory of God. Think about that verse. It's a deep verse. Because Francis Chan is pretty blunt here. He says, what does that mean for you and me?

Frankly, you need to get over yourself. That's pretty blunt, isn't it? But it's true. I think that's what the writer of Hebrews is saying. If he were to write it today, I think that's what he would have said.

I have that inspired information, just so you know. What he's saying is that your self-preeminence, your trusting yourself, will condemn you. If you think getting back on the dock and trying to build that dock to get across the lake, if that's what you're trusting, and that dock represents the good things you do, that dock represents you. All your life you've been in a Christian family and you've been doing all the things that a Christian is supposed to do, that dock represents that. If that's what you're trusting, you've got the wrong object of faith. It's a very serious, a very personal assessment that we need to engage in this morning.

Because Hebrews 10, verse 31 says, it is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, 7 Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. 7 Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.