Living by Faith, Hebrews 11:7-12, Part 2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Hiram W. Smith says your behavior is a reflection of what you believe.

If someone truly believes his house is on fire, he will grab his family and get out. What we believe will change what we do. People who live by faith will take action. Today, Pastor Rich looks into the lives of the people mentioned in Hebrews 11 whose faith was evident by their obedience and their actions. Let's listen in. This is the second part of a study on Hebrews 11, 7 through 12.

It was first preached on November 11, 2012. The person exercising faith needs to trust the one giving the information because there are unknowns. If you knew everything, you wouldn't have to trust, would you? Now stop and think about that for a minute. If you knew everything, you wouldn't have to trust. There would be no reason for faith. How many of us exercise so much energy and resource in trying to know everything?

You can't do that. And God says, I have given you information. Act upon the information that I have given you and that's the third component in these examples of people exercising faith. One, there is information. Two, there are unknowns.

But three, there is action. The one exercising faith takes action even though there are unknowns because the one giving the information is trustworthy and he gives trustworthy information. So the whole point of this comes back to the fact that God is a trustworthy informer. He is the object of our faith.

This is not credulity. This is not a blind leap in the dark. God has given information. And so we have three examples before us today beginning in verse 7 of Hebrews chapter 11 of those who exercised faith.

And we're going to look at these three components in all three of these examples. There was information, there were unknowns, but there was action. Those who exercised faith, they took action upon the information that they did have. So we begin with Noah in verse 7. By faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. So first of all, there was information. Did Noah have information?

Yes, he did. He was warned by God. How God communicated that?

The Bible doesn't say so. God oftentimes in the Old Testament spoke in visions and dreams, but he came and he approached Noah and he informed Noah that something is going to happen. Information from a trustworthy informer.

God said, I am going to judge the world. There is going to be a flood. What is that? That is information. Here's another element of the information. Not only is there going to be a flood, you need to build an ark, a big boat, a huge boat. That's information. God warned him.

Alright, so what are the unknowns in this equation then? Did Noah have all the information regarding everything that would be happening? What does it say? Being divinely warned of things not yet seen. I've never seen anything like this before, Noah says.

Events yet unseen. Lord God, what is a flood? He'd never seen a flood before. Lord God, what is an ark? I've never seen an ark before. We live on dry land.

What is this big boat thing you want me to build? God gave him the information that he needed. And though he'd never seen anything like this before, and though he was ridiculed incessantly by those among whom he lived, yet the action that he took, what does the scripture say?

Condemned the world. It convicted them of their lack of faith. What does the scriptures tell us? Noah moved with godly fear out of reverence and awe for the one who communicated to him, rendering him, judging him, trustworthy and trustworthy information. Noah had never seen anything like this before, but he took action on the information from God. And he saved his own soul and the souls of his household. You see, people living by faith take action.

He built a gigantic boat expecting a lot of water, and he entrusted himself to the information based on his understanding and trust of the informer. Folks, that's faith. That's living by faith.

Alright, we take to the second example now in verses 8 through 10. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. The builder and maker is God. Okay, so did Abraham have information?

Yes. Once again, God spoke to Abraham. God communicated to Abraham because God is person, he is a communicator. So he communicates to Abraham and he says, Abraham, I want you to go out of your land, and I want you to go to another land. And so we have that in verse 8.

He was called to go out. Verse 9, there was a promise mentioned. Verse 10, he waited for a city, so God gave him information. God says, I have this objective, this people that I am building for myself. That is the information that Abraham had.

That was truth. What were the unknowns? At the very end of verse 8, and he went out not knowing where he was going. You see, he didn't have all the information, but he had enough information that he was able to trust the one who gave him the information.

He went out not knowing where he was going. Look at verse 10 with me for a second. And he waited for the city, which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

What is the essential point of this verse? It is that there is more to this than what I can see here and now. There is more to existence, there is more to reality than what I can see here and now. This is a problem for empiricists who believe the only things that we can know are the things that we can experience with our senses. Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, and he made this well-known statement, what science cannot tell us, man cannot know. There's a problem with that statement. It's a fatal problem with a statement. Science didn't teach us that statement. Therefore, if that statement is true, then it is false.

That's a problem. What science cannot teach us, man cannot know. That catapults any possibility of revelation from God.

That is a wrong statement. Abraham knew that. God communicated to Abraham, and then what does it say? He obeyed. He obeyed, and he went out not knowing where he was going.

He obeyed, and he lived in the land. He moved away from home. He didn't know exactly where his destination was, but he moved out. He put one step in front of the other, and he said goodbye to home, and he moved out. Not only did he just move out, but he also, what does the Scripture tell us? He lived in tents for a while. So this Abraham, a very wealthy man by the standards of his day, in his obedience to God, he remained wealthy, but he was a wealthy, tent-dwelling nomad.

That wasn't exactly his career of choice now, was it? But he obeyed God. He entrusted himself to the information that God gave him, to the call that God placed upon his life. We have a third example in Sarah, verses 11 and 12. By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

What is the information that Sarah had? She considered him faithful who had promised. In other words, God had made a promise. God had made a promise, a specific promise. You will have descendants coming from you and Abraham. You will have descendants. It says they will be innumerable as the stars in the sand.

In other words, look at the stars. You want to start counting them? No, that's okay. I'm not going to bother. Okay, go to the seashore.

Look at the sand. You want to start counting that? No. In other words, you're going to have so many, it's not going to be worth counting them. You're going to have a lot of descendants, and they're going to come directly from you and Abraham. That was a promise. Let me pause here for a moment, okay? Because we want to trust God, and we ought to trust God. And we ought to trust the information and the promises that God gives us. Now, listen to this very brief warning, okay?

Because there are a lot of things you want. Do not accuse God of not keeping promises that He hasn't made. 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.