The Only Way to Live | Part 1

We'll be right back. Faith is not a leap in the dark.

To the contrary, it is stepping in the light. What a source of comfort as we face some uncertain days. Many are played with worry, guilt, loneliness, anxiety. But there is not one problem that faith does not have an answer for. That's why it's crucial that we know what faith is, and then we know what it is. I'm going to be talking to you today about heroes, Bible heroes, champions of faith. And we're going to study primarily in the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews. Verse 38, Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 38. Here is a great statement, and it is so abundantly and imminently true. Now the just shall live by faith.

The just shall live by faith. Now that, friend, is a quotation from the Old Testament. It's a quotation from the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk was perplexed. He lived in a day of violence, a day of degradation, a day of apostasy, a day of danger. And he bombarded heaven, and he wanted God to answer.

He wanted God to explain things so he could get along in life as it is. And God said, Habakkuk, you couldn't understand if I told you what I'm up to. You think I'm not working?

I'm working. And Habakkuk, here is your responsibility. You are to live in this uncertain age by faith. You want me to tell you how to live? Don't live by explanations. Live by faith.

Now that's not a lot of hocus pocus, smoke and mirrors. We're going to see that has spiritual steel and concrete in it. But the just shall live by faith.

That is the only way to live. As a matter of fact, this scripture is quoted here in Hebrews. It's quoted again in the Bible in other places. As a matter of fact, it is quoted three times in the Word of God. I wonder if God is trying to tell us something.

Well, I know He is. The just shall live by faith. So we're going to be talking about faith today.

Now, you have some problems, and I have some problems. There's one problem that we have that does not relate itself some way to faith as the answer. For example, worry. Anybody here worry? Well, why do we worry?

Lack of faith. Worry is a mild form of atheism. Worry is a way of saying, God, this problem is too big for you.

Or if there's a God at all, you're not able to handle it. And so worry is just faith turned inside out. And faith is worry. Worry turned inside out.

And if you're prone to worry, you need to strengthen your faith. Are you lonely? You say, nobody, my children don't call. I don't have any friends. My friends have all gone to heaven.

Or I'm a student here. Faith makes God real to you. You're never alone when you have genuine faith because faith brings him so near. Some people here are burdened with guilt.

You did something. So terrible, so horrible, you hope the world never finds out, but you're not able to forget. You're not able somehow to set yourself free from that burden that you carry around like a sack full of stones. Well, why do we have this guilt? Lack of faith? Because faith understands that the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has atoned for that.

But you can believe that intellectually, or you can hear about it theologically. But faith lays hold of it. May I tell you what faith is? Faith is my acceptance of God's acceptance of me.

God receives us, not because of our own goodness, but when we come to him just in faith, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Disobedience? Do you have trouble obeying the Word of God? Do you want me to tell you why you don't obey the Word of God? You don't believe it. Let me give you an example. The Bible says, does everyone want a blessing? They just simply don't believe the Word of God. Have you ever passed a wall and it has a sign on it that says, wet paint, don't touch?

What do you do? Why? You just don't believe the sign.

Somehow you just, you say, oh, I don't believe it's wet, and you're going to touch it. Now, why do we disobey? Because we do not believe the Word of God. In our study today, we're going to leave chapter 10. We're going to come over to chapter 11, and we're going to think about faith, what it is, and how to have it, and the elements of faith. Now, first of all, I want us to look in chapter 11 at what I'm going to call the description of a life of faith. Now, faith is the only way to live. The just shall live by faith. And here God describes faith.

Notice in Hebrews 11, verses 1 and 2. The evidence of things not seen, for by it the elders obtained a good report. Now, as we describe faith today, I think it's very important, first of all, that we understand what faith is not before we learn what faith is. You know, I'm amazed not only at what people won't believe, but what they will believe. Faith is not blind superstition, nor is faith closing your eyes to reality. A little boy said, faith is believing what you know ain't so.

No, no. That's not faith. Faith is not positive thinking or feeling of optimism. I like to be around positive thinkers. I like to be around optimists. I don't like to drive and get behind a person who thinks before they get there, the light's going to turn red, and by the time they do, it has. You ever get behind those kind of people? I don't like to be around negative people.

I know people who brighten up a room by leaving it. I like to be around optimistic people. But faith and optimism may be in some way tangential, but they're not the same. Faith is not positive thinking or optimism. It may lead to that. Faith is not a leap in the dark.

To the contrary, it is stepping in the light. And faith is not faith in faith. The Bible says have faith in God. It doesn't say have faith in faith. Sometimes people will tell you just believe, as if believing will make it so.

Believing will not make it so. Now, we're talking about what faith is not. What is faith? Well, he tells us here that faith is three things, and I want you to get these words down in your heart. First of all, confidence, conviction, and confession. Now, first of all, it is a confidence that rests in hope.

Look at it. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. We call it confidence. Well, because confidence, and that's the way it's translated in some Bibles.

New American Standard, for example, gives it as confidence. Why do I use the word confidence? Well, this word is akin to substance, and substance is an acceptable translation. I certainly believe that. But if I could just hone it a little bit more, it means assurance.

Actually, it was used in the language of this day for a title deed. Now, if you had a piece of property or an inheritance that you'd not yet seen, but you had the deed, you had the assurance of that which you've not yet seen, but you want to have, that's something that your hope is in. And so, faith is a confidence.

It is not a will of the wisp sort of a thing. It is substance, substands, something beneath that we stand on. When we live by faith, it's not smoke and mirrors.

We're not being about walking around on eggshells and Jell-O. It is, as I've said, substance, confidence. Now, it is the confidence that rests in hope. The word hope, look at it there. The word hope doesn't mean perhaps, nor does it even mean wish, nor does it mean desire.

Listen very carefully, or you'll miss the whole thing. The word hope in the Bible means rock-ribbed assurance based on divine revelation. For example, the second coming of Jesus is called the blessed what? The blessed hope. Is that the blessed maybe?

No. It is rock-ribbed assurance based on the promises, the Word of God. Faith, therefore, is the title deed, the confidence that what God has said is true, and God will perform it.

Now, listen very carefully. There is no legitimate faith without hope. And there is no legitimate hope without faith.

These cannot be separated. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Put down the word confidence.

Now, think not only of confidence, but conviction. Faith is a conviction that sees the invisible. Now, here we read it here, faith is the evidence of things not seen. Now, that word evidence may remind you of a Columbo, a kind in his rumpled overcoat, looking around for something.

Well, it's akin to that. But actually, this word evidence literally means conviction. Jesus Christ used this same word when he challenged those who were challenging him, and he said, which of you convicts me of sin? Who can convict me of sin? Of course, obviously, no one.

I wouldn't dare ask my friends that question, much less my enemies. Which of you convicts me of sin? But the word here has the idea of conviction. Now, what it means is that if you have faith in your heart, there is a conviction of something that you've not yet seen. But it is there.

It is an absolute confidence that leads to a conviction, even though you've not yet seen it. You don't have to see it for it to be real. Friend, there is an invisible world. There is a world out there right now, but it's all there. There is an invisible world out there. Listen to Colossians 1 16, for by him, by Jesus, were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible. Don't make a mistake of thinking that everything that is real is communicated to us by the five senses. No, there is a sixth sense. There is another world.

There is an invisible world. Now, what does faith do? Listen carefully. This is important to you.

It's the only way to live. Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen. You can treat the future as present. And you can treat the invisible as seen by faith.

Now, the Bible says you're to live by faith. It is a communication that comes from heaven. Now, Hebrews 11 and verse 2 says, for by it, that is by faith, the elders received a good report. That doesn't mean they made straight A's. As a matter of fact, it doesn't talk about what they did at all. It talks about what happened to them. They received a good report. That is, God spoke to them out of heaven. It doesn't deal with their reputation. Now, maybe they should have gotten straight A's.

But that's not what it deals with. The good report means that they heard from heaven, that God spoke to them. It is not their reputation, but God's revelation that is spoken of here, that God speaks to them.

They were conscious of God testifying to them. Now, if you put this confidence and this conviction and this communication together, when they come together, then you have something in your heart, inexplicable but glorious and wonderful, and it is called faith. And that is the only way to live. You will live by faith. Now, when you put these things together, then you're going to understand, first of all, that faith should not be altered by appearances. Faith should not be altered by appearances.

Now, you live above the level of what you can see. We live in a world that says seeing is believing. The Bible says believing is seeing. Put this verse down, John 20, verse 29. He said, blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believed. First Peter 1.8, put that down, speaking of Jesus, whom having not seen, ye love. You see, by faith, we see the invisible, so faith should not be altered by appearances.

Don't let any so-called appearance make a lie out of the Word of God in your heart and in your mind. Number two, faith should not be fettered by feelings. Faith is confidence that goes beyond emotions. I've told you before that your emotions are the shallowest part of your nature.

Faith is the deepest work of God, and God doesn't do the deepest work in the shallowest part. Don't live your life under the tyranny of emotions by feelings. Now, it feels good to feel good, and nothing wrong with feeling good, but feelings are fickle. Sometimes you'll wake up with a dull headache. Sometimes things will happen, and you'll get all bent out of shape because of feelings. Sometimes that happens to preachers. Now, you know, when I come up here on the platform, I always try to look like I'm having a good time, and I feel good, but sometimes I don't.

Surprised? Maybe I didn't get any sleep last night. Maybe I've got an upset stomach. Maybe I've got a dull headache, and I come up here, but it's time to preach, and I'm going to preach. And then, you know, sometimes you think it's going to be a good service, and you get your foot in the lard bucket and can't get it out while you're preaching. And then you wake up, and the ushers won't ush, and the choir sounds like a couple of calves dying in a hailstorm.

And you say, good night. God is light years from this place, and yet heaven comes down. Your emotions had nothing to do with that. You see, listen, faith should not be fettered by feelings. I'll tell you something else about faith. Faith is not limited by logic. Faith just goes beyond logic. Now, if this rug is a ditch, and I'm over here, and I'm moving step by step by step by step to this ditch and let my walk be logic, then I come to a place where logic ends. And I need to get over there. I need to take a leap of faith.

Now, I could completely jump over this rug, but I don't want to show off. And I come across by a leap. There comes a time when you have to make a leap of faith. Faith is rooted in logic. Faith goes beyond logic. Faith becomes its own best logic.

On the contrary, it is not limited by logic. When Jesus was there with those people following him, and they were tired and hungry, and he called Philip, and he said, Philip, how are we going to feed these people? There are 5,000 there.

How are we going to feed them? Philip got out his pocket calculator. Oh, he said, well, it'd take a laboring man a year's wages to feed these. Technically, he was right. But any good red-blooded atheist could have done the same thing. Now, when Jesus asked Philip, how are we going to feed these people, he wasn't asking for information because the Bible says he knew what he would do. He was just wanting Philip to learn something about a miracle.

And, of course, there was a little boy there with a lad's luncheon fed the whole multitude with that couple of fish and loaves. Now, you see, if you're adding up an equation, you're never going to get the right answer if you leave out one of the elements. You see, what Philip did, he left out God.

He just figured without an answer. Now, logically, he was right, but faith is not limited by logic. Are you trying to figure out something? Some of you, I mentioned tithing a while back. Some of you are trying to figure out how you tithe, and you get all the figures and say, we can't do it. Did you add God in? Did you add God in? I mean, is God a part of the equation? Faith is not limited by logic.

Bring God into your calculations. Now, we've talked about the description of faith. Let's talk about the dynamics of a life of faith. Let me tell you how dynamic faith is. You see, we live by faith. First of all, faith is the dynamic of spiritual wisdom. They're things that you will never understand apart from faith. Now, look if you will in verse 3. Through faith, we understand.

Don't you like that? Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. So that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Plain English, the visible was made out of the invisible. Now, God in the Bible is not explained. God is not argued. God is just simply presented, and God must be accepted by faith.

Go down to verse 6, Hebrews 11 and verse 6. He will say to you, prove there's a God. Don't ever try it. Never.

Why? Because the finite cannot prove the infinite. And you say, well, I can't do it, and he will smirk.

But it's not over yet. You say, now, friend, prove there is no God. Of course he can't prove there is no God. He accepts by faith there is no God. All people are believers. They're those who believe in God.

And those who believe there's no God. We also want to invite you to check out our Grow Your Faith page where you can get grounded and dig deeper in your faith. Simply go to lwf.org slash radio and click on the tab that says Grow Your Faith or find answers. We can't wait to hear from you today. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's lesson, you can call us at 1-877-LIVE-GOD.

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