Hebrews 11:1-16 - Pictures of Faith

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. We are in Hebrews Chapter 11 today.

And it does not seem like that long ago that we began the book. But today, we're going to be going through Verses 1 through 16. We've been following along with this author and with this group of Hebrew.

Some Christians, some nominal Christians that had been with Christians, we've seen how they've been interacting with pressures and trials and persecutions, and how they've been encouraged by the author to stick with Jesus.

If you will, they've decided to follow Jesus, and the author is encouraging them, no turning back, no turning back.

And so we've walked through seeing how Jesus is better than all of the Old Testament elements, the angels, Moses, the law, all of the communications of the prophets, that he is better than the Old Testament priesthood or the Old Covenant.

We've seen how he is a better high priest than what they had in Israel, and how he is so much better in every way, how he's our only permanent God-accepted sacrifice, the everlasting sacrifice.

And so we've seen all of that, and then kind of the climax of the book that we read about in chapter 10, where he says, okay, because of all of this, like love Jesus, cling to him, and worship and serve and love and encourage and exhort and gather

together as believers, because this is what God wants for you. This is what he set up.

And then he reminds them, because if we know, if we disobeyed in Judaism, we know what the punishment was, and what is God going to do with us if we reject his son, if we reject his spirit, if we reject his sacrifice for sin, what is going to be the

result? But then he encourages, I'm like, hey, you guys, you didn't enter into Christianity when it was easy. You entered and went through hard times. You had friends that went through hard times.

And so I believe that you are going to press on in faith. And then that brings us into chapter 11. And just so you guys know, like, you're not alone.

Faith has always been the way that God's people have operated. So let's read through. I'm going to try to read through verses 1 through 16, and we'll see if I get derailed a little bit.

But then we'll go back through and talk through the specifics of what the author is saying. Verses 1 through 16. Now, faith is the reality, the substance of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.

For by it, by faith, our ancestors won God's approval. I'll talk more about that when we come back to it. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith, he was approved as a righteous man because God approved his gifts. And even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith.

By faith, Enoch was taken away, and so he did not experience death. And here he quotes from Genesis chapter 5 and verses 21 through 24. He was not to be found because God took him away.

For before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God. Now, without faith, it is impossible to please God, for since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

By faith, Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out even though he did not know where he was going.

By faith, he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, co-heirs of the same promise, for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

By faith, even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she considered that the one who promised was faithful.

Therefore, from one man, in fact, from one as good as dead, came offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, and as innumerable as the grains of sand along the seashore.

These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that they were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.

Now, those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return. But now they desire a better place, a heavenly one.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. Man, I love this chapter. I am going to connect the song to the show notes for this one, By Faith, written by Keith and Kristyn Getty.

And it's a great little song that kind of goes through some of the same thoughts as Hebrews 11. And it'll help you to get some of these truths cemented into your heart and mind and even your vocal cords. So I'm going to connect that.

Let's begin in verse number one. He says, Faith is the reality, the substance, the assurance of what is hoped for. So faith is not merely just like, oh, I really hope that Jesus saves me.

Faith is that like bedrock that because of what God has said, I believe it and there is something sturdy. I've heard it phrased this way. It's not the amount of your faith that does something.

It is what you put your faith in that does something. That God, as we believe in His word, as we believe His communication to us, as we believe the promises that He has made, man, that is a substance. That's an assurance of what is hoped for.

We're not just like having nice thoughts about wanting good things, but instead our faith is in what God Himself has spoken for us. So it's the reality of what's hoped for. It's the proof or the conviction of what is not seen.

That is, even as we learn in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, they'll come a day when we no longer have to have faith. We no longer have to believe in what is unseen because we will one day see our Lord and our God.

And what a wonderful day that that will be.

But for now, because we don't see Him yet, because we don't see Jesus yet, because we can't see the Holy Spirit, we are believing in what is unseen based on what God has shown us in His Word and through the lives of believers and the veracity of

Scripture, we can believe in what He tells us, even though currently we can't see it ourselves. And then verse 2, he says, For by it our ancestors won God's approval.

Now when we read that phrase, we can often go like, oh no, okay, well, do I have to win God's approval? Sure, but not in the way you think. This winning of God's approval didn't come through righteous actions.

We could go through and highlight for most all of these, except for maybe Enoch, all of the ways in which the people listed in Hebrews 11, in the quote unquote hall of faith, as it's sometimes called, we could walk through all of the unrighteous and

evil and wicked things that these people said and did. It wasn't through their righteousness that they won God's approval. It was on the basis of faith, on believing what God had said.

And here the author is exhorting these Jewish individuals, believe, even though right now you're going through persecution, believe in Jesus, believe in the coming reward, believe in the fact that if we die, we go to heaven and we're with Jesus, or

if Jesus returns, then we will be with him. So believe in this unseen homeland, in this heaven, that you are not yet there. Believe in the sacrifice of the person that you can't see right now.

You guys used to be able to see the lamb or see the bull get slaughtered, and so you knew based on sight, oh yeah, my relationship with God is good. And he's saying, I want you to believe by faith in what God has told you.

Pass down through the apostles and those that listen to them. And here's why you can do this. Because this is always the way that our ancestors had their relationship with God.

It was on the basis of belief in what God has said and done. And he starts off with creation itself. He says, by faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God.

It was not just random chance that caused our universe to exist. Instead, it was formed by God himself. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth or the skies and the land as some have phrased it.

He says, the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. Even our world understands this. They don't have really a great explanation for what created all of the cosmos.

They have theories about perhaps the Big Bang in 13 or 14 billion years ago. Here's what happened and we don't know why it happened and we don't know what caused it to happen. All we know is that it did happen.

And certainly as we think about what God's word tells us, there is such a joy and comfort in knowing that we aren't just accidents in this universe, that we are the intentional creation of an all-powerful God.

And so he says, we know what we know about the universe because of faith in God's word.

And a faith in the fact that God created the universe has motivated scientists for centuries to look for order and design and intentionality and patterns in our universe. Some people have tried to like pit science against religion.

But if religion is true, then science works. If there is an all-powerful, all-knowing, creative designer, then we should see evidence of intentional design and intricate detail in every atom of creation. And that is exactly what we see.

We see an orderly world because we have an orderly, intentional, intelligent designer who has made it all for us. I could talk for a long time about that. I'm not going to.

We're going to go on to verse number four. By faith, Abel, so this is right after Adam and Eve, right at the beginning of the biblical story. By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did.

Okay, well, what made it better? Abel offered what God actually asked for. The sacrifice for sin was what Abel brought.

He believed in God's appointed sacrifice versus Cain, who offered his fruits and vegetables, his first fruits, which was a great thing, but it wasn't what God had asked for. It wasn't something that could take away sin.

And so here's the author's writing to the Hebrews. He's saying, hey, you can either be Cain and insist on offering something to God that he has not asked for, or you can believe in what God has said and you can accept the sacrifice of Christ.

So he says, by faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith, he was approved as a righteous man because God approved his gifts. And even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith.

He says, we're still talking about Abel millennia later because of his obedience to God. So let's obey God and let's accept the sacrifice of Christ. Verse number five, by faith, Enoch was taken away and so he did not experience death.

He was not to be found because God took him away. For before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God. I think here, I don't know if this is an extrapolation.

And I'm certain if it is, someone online will tell me. There is an element here where I feel like there is an indication of belief in, at the very least, the fact that when we die, we are with the Lord.

Secondarily, I feel as though this might be an allusion to even the rapture.

That there will be some, as we read about in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15, that will not experience death, but that when Jesus comes, we will be caught up together with him in the air and so we will ever be with the Lord.

Or as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, I'm telling you a big mystery. We will not all sleep, we will not all die, but we will all be changed.

And certainly here there is perhaps one thought that is being given to these believers of Enoch believed God, he walked with God, he had faith in him, he believed his word, and so when God was walking with him, then God took him up and he did not

experience death. And so he's saying, believe God, and it might be that in your generation, this catching up will happen and you will, as Enoch, be taken away and not experience death because of your belief in Christ.

Verse number six, now, without faith, it is impossible to please God. If you don't believe God, it does, if you don't believe what God has said in his word, it does not matter how many good actions you do. You cannot please God.

As the writer here is writing to these Hebrews, he's saying, it doesn't matter how many sacrifices you do. It doesn't matter what holy days that you observe. It doesn't matter all of the gifts that you're bringing to this temple in Jerusalem.

None of that matters if you don't believe what God has said about Jesus. So he says, without faith, it's impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists.

If you don't believe that God exists, then you cannot experience faith. You cannot take God at his word if you don't believe that God even exists. But then secondly, and that he rewards those who seek him.

Man, this is an encouragement to me. Sometimes I can have like a super high view of God and his sovereignty and how like amazing he is over all things and how he's in control. And I can fear in my heart, okay, well, I can be seeking God.

I can want to have faith in him. But there's no guarantee in my life that God's going to like have good things come my way or that there will be happiness. I have no guarantee of that.

So I can pursue God and follow God because I know that he's good and worthy of it. But I can kind of fear what's going to happen when I go to him. And I needed that encouragement from God's word this morning that he rewards those who seek him.

That there is that joy, that fullness of joy that Psalm 16 talks about within the presence of God. Even as David would write there, at your right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. And I'm grateful for that.

Do you believe that God will reward you with more of himself, with a fuller experience of his spirit's fruit being brought out in your life? A fuller experiential knowledge of Jesus and what it means to be his.

Do you believe that God will give all of that to you as you seek him? It's only done, it's only found through faith, believing in what God has said in his word.

Verse number seven, By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Here, looking at the example of Noah, the writers telling these Hebrews, you know that judgment is coming when one day every person will give an account to God, where they will either be with God forever in heaven or they will be condemned to hell.

And on that day, what will you experience? Will you be like Noah, who knew what was coming because of God's Word and took shelter in that ark?

We take shelter in Christ, who is talked about as kind of that ark in 1st Peter chapter 3 in the latter part of it. Do we find that salvation in him?

Do we in one sense condemn the world to say, you are deserving of your punishment that God is living out because you are not heeding the Word of God, you are not obeying through faith.

What I am believing in faith, because I hear what God has said and I am in obedience to it. That is how Noah condemned that early world, that someone did respond to the call of God.

It's not that God's call wasn't clear enough, it's not that it wasn't strong enough, it wasn't that it wasn't valid, it was simply that people did not believe what God had said, like Noah and his family believed.

Verse number 8, By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out even though he did not know where he was going.

By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents as did Isaac and Jacob, co-heirs of the same promise, for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Here he's writing to the Hebrews and he's saying, Right now you feel nomadic, you feel as though you are trying to navigate through all of these difficult circumstances and you feel like you're constantly kind of having to maybe run from place to

place or house to house or that you don't really have like some place you can set down roots because of persecution. Let me comfort you that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, they obeyed God, they set out and they had to live nomadic lives.

They were living in tents and they were looking for a city, some place established, some place that had walls that could protect them, and leaders and soldiers that would provide safety from the outside world.

And he says they were looking for the heavenly city, and we as well are looking for that heavenly city today. So we can go through nomadic, not forever life now, realizing that we are looking forward to being with Christ.

And I love, again, just that thought, whose architect and builder is God, that God is an incredible designer, and I can't wait for heaven to see what it is that God builds and what he's done.

I think it's just going to be the most amazing things that we could ever see.

Verse number 11, By faith even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring even though she was past the age, since she considered that the one who had promised was faithful.

This is the exact same statement that was made in verse number 23 of chapter 10. Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering since he who promised is faithful.

Here I think there's a specific word picture that's being used is that we are carrying, like a pregnant mother, we are carrying the hope of the gospel inside of us.

And one day, that, if you will, that proverbial baby is going to be born and we are going to actually be able to see what God had promised us come to life, that we'll experience heaven, we'll experience no more sin, we'll experience the presence of

God forever. And just as Sarah believed God, that even though she couldn't, you know, she couldn't make it happen on our own, that she believed God could give her a son and he did that.

Verse number 12, Therefore from one man, in fact, from one as good as dead came offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and as innumerable as the grains of sand along the seashore.

Here from one man and he says, in fact, from one as good as dead, he's saying, in essence, Abraham was so old, he might as well have been dead for the children that he was going to be able to have with Sarah. Like dead people don't have kids.

There was no way that Abraham was going to be able to have kids with Sarah on his own. And yet all of these descendants came.

And here he's calling us to think about Jesus, the one who was dead and how he now has many spiritual offspring through his sacrifice. And all of those Christians throughout the past 2,000 years that have believed in Jesus and all who will believe.

Verse number 13, These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. They didn't see all of the promises of God come true in their life. And so he says to these believers, right now you're going through things.

Jesus hasn't returned yet. You're not seeing like the kingdom of God come in full power and authority. And you're worrying, don't worry.

Just like these ones, we are waiting for that coming day. We are believing that God will be true to his promise. He says, but they saw them from a distance, greeted them and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.

This world is not our home. The next one is. And that world will one day come on down and we'll have that new heaven and that new earth even as we read about in Revelation.

Verse 14. Now, those who say such things, that they're foreigners and temporary residents, they make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. We are going to a home.

If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return. If they cared about, Abram came from, what was it? Ur of the Chaldees.

If he had wanted to go back there, he could have, verse 16, but they now desire a better place, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Do you know this?

God is not ashamed to be called your God. You might be ashamed sometimes to confess all of your sins, to think about all of the ways in which you have been imperfect and failed, and you might carry shame about who you are.

But for every believer in Christ, God does not view you with shame. He views you as his sinless son, and for the heart that believes, God is happy to be called your God.

What a wonderful comfort and balm that is to our sin-sick and weary souls, that God is delighted to be called our God. He does not feel shame, if you will, kind of the opposite. God is honored.

He is glorified. He feels a holy pride to be your heavenly father, much as I am proud to call Bea and Evelyn my kids, and that I love them with all their quirks, with all their sins and failures. I'm proud to be their dad.

And God is not ashamed. He is honored and glorified and proud to be called the God of those who have belief in Jesus. Well, that's about all we got time for for today.

Tomorrow, we're going to be looking at verses 17 through 40.

So we're going to take the last half of the chapter as the author then pivots to, hey, here's tough times that the saints of old, the Old Testament believers, here's all of the hard things that they went through so we can go through our hard times

and our persecutions with the same faith that they did. Thanks for tuning in today. I hope you have a wonderful day.