Living by Faith, Hebrews 11:1-6, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In today's message, we continue through the book of Hebrews with this sub-series on Living by Faith. The word faith can be ambiguous and confusing today. We hear the word often enough, but 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 positive thinking or hoping blindly on a whim. Sometimes we see faith as a tool to help us feel better or to cope with life's circumstances. But Rich shares the far greater purpose for us to walk by faith, the pursuit of God himself.

Let's listen in. An American scientist once visited Copenhagen in the offices of the great Nobel Prize winning Niles Bohr. He's a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understand atomic structure and quantum mechanics. And as this American scientist walks into his office in Copenhagen, he's amazed to find over Bohr's desk a horseshoe securely nailed to the wall and the open part was facing up so that it would ostensibly catch all the good luck and not any of it spill out. And the American said with a nervous laugh, Surely you don't believe the horseshoe will bring you good luck, do you, Professor Bohr? After all, a scientist and Professor Bohr chuckles and says, I believe no such thing, my good friend, not at all. I am scarcely likely to believe in such foolish nonsense.

However, I am told that a horseshoe will bring good luck whether you believe it or not. Last time we defined faith. Faith is entrusting yourself to a trustworthy object. Faith is entrusting yourself to a trustworthy object. If faith does not have an object of trust, then it is not faith. And the whole point to true faith, genuine faith, reasonable faith is what is the object of your faith.

You see, it is very important to understand as we engage these scriptures this morning, the whole point of what the writer of Hebrews is saying is that faith must have a legitimate object. Or else it is just wishful thinking like was just illustrated or faith becomes empty platitudes. It's just a matter of believing without really being aware of what it is you believe. For example, Jonathan Whitfield was preaching to coal miners in England and he asked one man, what do you believe, sir? Well, I believe the same as the church. And what does the church believe? Well, they believe the same as I do. And seeing he was getting nowhere, he says, well, what is it that you both believe?

Well, I suppose the same thing. Is that faith? That's not faith. Not faith at all.

The writer of Hebrews then gets into this chapter because we just left off with a warning last week. Do you have both feet in the boat? What is the object of your faith? Because if you are not trusting Christ, then you have abandoned hope for rescue. Rescue being synonymous for salvation.

Do you have both feet in the boat? And so now he gives us examples throughout history, world history, biblical history, of people who operated by faith, people who lived by faith. It's not because they were particularly special. He's just using them as examples of people who lived by faith. Were they perfect people?

Absolutely not. They were people just like you and me. But he says by faith, this is what faith looks like. So he says, let me show you what living by faith looks like so that we understand what faith is. And the whole point of it is in this first six verses, I'm going to give you what faith looks like.

And then throughout the chapter, chapter 11, there are four things that we will be able to point to say faith looks like this. This is what faith behaves like. This is what people living by faith.

This is what they do. And the first one is in these first six verses, and that is people by faith have a single ambition. People living by faith have a single ambition.

We begin with chapter 11, verse one. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. So what is the substance and the evidence of faith? He lays the foundational work here.

The word substance is the word hupostasis, which means to set under, meaning that which has a foundation, that which has a foundation. And then the word evidence, elenchos, meaning proof or conviction. There's more than enough reason to trust. There's more than enough reason to believe, even though I cannot see. Which is why, he says, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. There is a foundation to it.

It is a reasonable exercise. On July 4th of this year, 2012, a thousand scientists stood in line all night long, and it wasn't for the new iPod. It was to get into the room where an announcement would be made. The head of the coolest new toy in the world of particle physics, the $10 billion large Hadron Collider straddling France and Switzerland, was about to give what many anticipated would be a groundbreaking pronouncement. This pronouncement was about the discovery of what is believed to be the Higgs boson particle. This subatomic particle has been theorized for over 50 years, but has never been seen or measured and never proven. It is so fundamental in shaping the universe that some scientists have called it the God particle.

An article in the New York Times had this to say, leading up to this announcement on July 4th of this year. And I quote, confirmation of the Higgs boson, or something very much like it, would constitute a rendezvous with destiny for a generation of physicists who have believed in the boson for half a century without ever seeing it. Now, isn't that interesting? These scientists have believed in something they cannot see and previously had been unable to prove. And they believed in this unproven particle because what they could see had convinced them that it had to be there. That is substance and evidence. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. You see, so it is with Christianity, Christians believing in an unseen God because what we see reveals his power and his nature. Based on these scientists, based on what they could see, they believed, therefore they pursued it.

For 50 years. That leads us then to what is this single ambition because people of faith have a single ambition. And here it is, I'm going to pronounce it to you this morning, okay? The single ambition of those living by faith is feeling better. Oh, I'm sorry, that's out of the American Christianity textbook. That's not the scriptures. Larry Crabb said in Finding God, way back in 1995, he said, feeling better has become more important to us than finding God.

May God rescue us from that. What is the single ambition of those people living by faith? It is the pursuit of God.

For people living by faith, they have a single ambition and that ambition is the pursuit of God. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. Verse 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 of things which are visible. By faith we understand, that is a key word here.

That word understand means to exercise the mind to comprehend. To exercise the mind to comprehend. The fathers of modern day science did that. They exercised the mind to understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.

Kepler, Copernicus, Newton, Pascal, all of them did this. They exercised the mind to comprehend how the worlds were made by the word of God. This points us clearly to what the scriptures say in Romans chapter 1 verse 20. That the things of God are clearly seen and understood by the things that are made.

Did you get that? Romans 1 20. The nature, the essence of God is clearly seen by the things that are made.

That includes you and me. What is it that is clearly seen in Romans 1 20? His eternal power, that's his infinitude, his omnipotence. You look around, you study nature, you study the universe, you study the creation and you have to come to the conclusion that there is an infinite power behind this. Not only that, but his Godhead.

That is his personhood. 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.