WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.160 Please have Hebrews 11 open, page 1007. 00:00:08.700 --> 00:00:13.460 Conversations about religion and faith are back on the table again. 00:00:13.460 --> 00:00:18.960 ! After a while where they were completely unacceptable topics of conversation, 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:22.660 ! People are talking again about religion and faith 00:00:22.660 --> 00:00:27.420 and the conversations are taken seriously and people are engaging 00:00:27.420 --> 00:00:29.960 and there is interest again. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:36.799 People like Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan and other high profile people that have a huge 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:44.240 following in the world are bringing this topic to bear and people are engaging and the question 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:48.539 of faith is back on the table. 00:00:48.539 --> 00:00:52.120 People talk about something called a vibe shift. 00:00:52.120 --> 00:00:57.260 I don't know what I make of that particularly but it's certainly the case that God, religion 00:00:57.259 --> 00:01:04.060 and faith are talked about in ways that would have been unimaginable even a decade ago. 00:01:04.060 --> 00:01:08.060 But one of the things that I've noticed in lots of these conversations is that when people 00:01:08.060 --> 00:01:11.500 talk about faith, it is often quite generic. 00:01:11.500 --> 00:01:18.299 It is definitely not clear what or who that faith is in and so I'm listening and people are saying, 00:01:18.299 --> 00:01:20.299 well faith is very important. 00:01:20.299 --> 00:01:25.099 I would like to be a person of faith. I would consider myself a person of faith. 00:01:25.099 --> 00:01:27.899 faith is the way that we're going to get through this. 00:01:27.899 --> 00:01:31.899 Faith is a really central theme in the lives of people that seem to be living well 00:01:31.900 --> 00:01:38.700 at the moment and I'm saying to myself, you keep using this word but it's not clear what you mean by it. 00:01:40.700 --> 00:01:44.140 And that's all well and good. We can say that. We can ask that question and it's an important 00:01:44.140 --> 00:01:50.700 question to ask but I wonder as Christians how many of us would be able to describe what it means 00:01:50.700 --> 00:01:58.140 for us to have Christian faith? If someone asked you what your faith was in, you'd be okay there. 00:01:59.659 --> 00:02:05.100 The answer is Jesus. Okay, we're clear on that. That's all right. But then they say, well what does 00:02:05.100 --> 00:02:11.900 that actually mean? What does the life of faith involve? We might say, well following Jesus, 00:02:12.860 --> 00:02:20.300 living for God, trusting what the Bible says or something else along those lines. And all of those 00:02:20.300 --> 00:02:26.219 things are true obviously but is there more that we could say? Is there something else that actually 00:02:26.219 --> 00:02:33.980 would give substance and clarity to that question? And that's the question the author turns to now in 00:02:33.980 --> 00:02:40.140 Hebrews chapter 11. We follow up where we left off last week. If you look back chapter 10 verse 35, 00:02:40.140 --> 00:02:46.860 he's saying, listen, don't give up. Don't give up. Don't throw away your confidence which has great 00:02:46.860 --> 00:02:52.700 reward for you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what 00:02:52.700 --> 00:03:00.060 is promised. Keep going. Don't go back. Keep going. How will you do that? How will you keep going? How 00:03:00.060 --> 00:03:05.900 will you not throw away your reward? Chapter 10 verse 38, he quotes Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4, 00:03:05.900 --> 00:03:13.740 my righteous one shall live by faith. There it is. And what he's saying is you live this life, 00:03:13.740 --> 00:03:20.540 you persevere by faith in the God of the covenant. That is what you will need if you're going to 00:03:20.540 --> 00:03:25.820 persevere and endure to the end. That's what we need if we are going to persevere to the end. And 00:03:25.820 --> 00:03:33.020 having then quoted that text, what we need is to live a life of faith. He says, all right, 00:03:33.020 --> 00:03:40.300 and what I mean by faith is this. And he gives us chapter 11. And we get a definition at the beginning, 00:03:40.300 --> 00:03:45.180 followed by examples of what that looks like in the lives of the Old Testament saints. 00:03:45.740 --> 00:03:50.140 And it's like he's pointing at them and he's saying, do you remember him? Look at that. Look at 00:03:50.140 --> 00:03:55.580 them. Look at him. And he's saying, that's what faith looks like in real life situations. 00:03:57.020 --> 00:04:02.140 And then he says something as well about the motivation for that. He holds out something to us 00:04:02.139 --> 00:04:08.619 in the chapter to say, look, here's why the life of faith is worth it. So that's where we're going to go. 00:04:09.099 --> 00:04:16.060 An explanation, examples, and then the end, the end goal. Point number one, an explanation. Look at 00:04:16.060 --> 00:04:22.060 verse one. There are two parts to what explanation or definition. The first is this. Faith is the 00:04:22.060 --> 00:04:29.659 assurance of things hoped for. Hope is a big theme. We'll have seen that in the book of Hebrews. We hope 00:04:29.660 --> 00:04:35.180 for, or we hope in something that we're looking forward to. And much of this letter has that forward 00:04:35.180 --> 00:04:41.020 focus. Looking ahead to the world to come. Chapter two, verse five, our Sabbath rest. Chapter four, 00:04:41.020 --> 00:04:46.860 our eternal inheritance. Chapter nine, and the great day of the Lord. We saw that last week, 1025. 00:04:47.820 --> 00:04:53.980 The great day of the Lord that is in the future. And we're looking forward to those things. The future 00:04:53.980 --> 00:04:59.500 holds the fulfillment of those things. Each one, the world to come, Sabbath rest, our inheritance, 00:04:59.660 --> 00:05:05.980 the great day of the Lord. And faith is the assurance of those things in the present. 00:05:07.340 --> 00:05:13.100 And what does that mean? Well, I think the word here is assurance is tricky to translate. 00:05:14.540 --> 00:05:19.500 Confidence or foundation, some translations go with. I think given the context, the best translation 00:05:19.500 --> 00:05:28.860 is substance. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. What this means is that faith gives substance 00:05:28.860 --> 00:05:34.220 in the here and now to things that we don't yet hold in our hands. Things that we can't touch. Things 00:05:34.220 --> 00:05:40.860 that we can't actually physically see. Such that it's as if we possess them already. 00:05:42.540 --> 00:05:44.780 You see this in the life of Abraham. Look at verse nine. 00:05:44.779 --> 00:05:50.859 By faith, Abraham went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land, living in tents with 00:05:50.859 --> 00:05:56.619 Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise for he was looking forward to the city that has 00:05:56.619 --> 00:06:03.099 foundations, whose designer and builder is God. He is looking forward. He is hoping in something in the 00:06:03.099 --> 00:06:10.299 future. And the way he lives in the presence gives some substance to that. It demonstrates it. 00:06:10.300 --> 00:06:17.660 His eyes were fixed on the heavenly city. And by faith, that reality in the future was so real to him 00:06:17.660 --> 00:06:21.660 that he lived the way he did in the present, trusting that God would work out his plans. 00:06:23.900 --> 00:06:30.699 Now you think about it, that's our experience, isn't it? The world to come that we 00:06:30.699 --> 00:06:38.060 we have our faith in, that we are looking forward to. It lies in the future. We will receive our eternal 00:06:38.060 --> 00:06:44.379 inheritance in the future. But our faith takes hold of it in the present in such a way that our life 00:06:44.379 --> 00:06:52.060 decisions now are shaped by that day. We live with confidence. We live with certainty. They are the 00:06:52.060 --> 00:07:00.939 substance of our future hope. The substance of things hoped for. Faith is also the conviction 00:07:01.899 --> 00:07:08.620 of things not seen, verse 1. The conviction of things not seen. Now again, this word translated 00:07:08.620 --> 00:07:14.699 conviction here is tricky. I think proof or demonstration are actually better options. So what 00:07:14.699 --> 00:07:23.099 he means is the life of faith demonstrates or proves the existence of a reality that we can't see by 00:07:23.099 --> 00:07:30.779 ordinary sense perception. Life lived by faith in the invisible God. He is invisible. He is spirit. 00:07:31.579 --> 00:07:40.300 Holding on to promises made centuries ago is unavoidably based on things not seen. We can't see the promises 00:07:40.300 --> 00:07:47.500 that were made centuries ago and we can't see the invisible God. But through faith, the believer is 00:07:47.500 --> 00:07:54.139 convinced of their truth, convinced of their reality, and so we live now accordingly. 00:07:56.780 --> 00:08:01.660 This is what happens when the Holy Spirit does his work of illumination and conviction. 00:08:03.259 --> 00:08:05.340 You think about it, there was a time for many of you 00:08:05.339 --> 00:08:13.819 when you didn't believe these things and now you do. I know in my own life there was a time when I had 00:08:13.819 --> 00:08:20.139 no interest in God and I thought the people that did were foolish. Now I'm convinced, utterly convinced 00:08:20.139 --> 00:08:27.019 that Jesus is who he says he is. I am certain that he was raised from the dead for our salvation 00:08:27.899 --> 00:08:33.659 and I'm confident that I'm going to be with him in glory for eternity and I would die for that truth. 00:08:33.659 --> 00:08:42.939 It's all based on things unseen. But the Holy Spirit has granted me, he has granted us who believe, 00:08:42.939 --> 00:08:50.779 faith and that gives it all substance in our lives. And the way that we live, those lives demonstrate 00:08:50.779 --> 00:08:59.980 that these things are as real for us as things that can be seen. By the way, just to say, if you have the 00:08:59.980 --> 00:09:05.500 privilege of being a covenant child, particularly boys and girls, those of you that are covenant 00:09:05.500 --> 00:09:10.779 children, there may never be a time when you didn't believe these things. That's a great thing. That's 00:09:10.779 --> 00:09:16.539 actually what you want. You want to grow up never knowing a day when you didn't believe these things. 00:09:16.539 --> 00:09:22.700 But that faith is based on things you can't see, but that the Holy Spirit has convinced you of. 00:09:22.700 --> 00:09:28.540 You believe them because the Holy Spirit has worked that faith in you and that faith will grow and grow and grow 00:09:29.100 --> 00:09:31.980 and be more and more visible in your life as you get older. 00:09:33.900 --> 00:09:35.980 See how it works with Noah. Verse 7. 00:09:35.980 --> 00:09:43.019 By faith, Noah being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear, constructed an ark for 00:09:43.019 --> 00:09:47.580 the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that 00:09:47.580 --> 00:09:56.060 comes by faith. He was told about something as yet unseen and it shaped how he lived in the present. 00:09:56.060 --> 00:10:02.060 He was assured of its truth and he hammered away and painted and did all that he needed to do, 00:10:02.059 --> 00:10:09.019 despite the complete absence of water anywhere nearby. And what that did was demonstrate a reality of an unseen God, 00:10:09.500 --> 00:10:11.339 despite the mockery of those around him. 00:10:13.419 --> 00:10:19.579 That is Christian faith. John Owen says the Christian makes his life on things invisible. 00:10:19.979 --> 00:10:23.259 We make our lives as Christians on things invisible. 00:10:25.979 --> 00:10:29.500 These Hebrews have shown this at the most fundamental level. Verse 3. 00:10:29.500 --> 00:10:35.580 By faith we understand, collectively he's saying we who are listening, we understand that the universe was 00:10:35.580 --> 00:10:40.379 created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. 00:10:41.500 --> 00:10:48.299 The author is saying, look at your own faith. You already believe that most fundamental thing, 00:10:48.299 --> 00:10:53.419 that God is our creator and that the world he spoke into existence, the entire universe, 00:10:53.419 --> 00:10:58.460 came about by his word out of nothing. You believe that. You didn't see it, 00:10:58.460 --> 00:11:05.820 but you believe it and you shape your lives around its truth. Now at this point, I can imagine maybe 00:11:05.820 --> 00:11:10.780 you're here and you're critical of this. You're looking into things. You're thinking to yourself, 00:11:10.780 --> 00:11:15.420 well, look, that's all well and good. But what you're describing is just wishful thinking. 00:11:16.620 --> 00:11:22.940 Like the fan who says that they know that their team will win. I know it. I know they're going to win. 00:11:22.940 --> 00:11:30.700 And they talk about their team winning with great confidence and they do everything that they do in 00:11:30.700 --> 00:11:34.620 their lives around the fact that they are unshakably confident that their team will win. 00:11:36.060 --> 00:11:40.460 You could say that they're living in the present in light of what they hope for, 00:11:40.460 --> 00:11:46.140 the as yet unseen victory of their team. Now I'd say, well, how is Hebrews 11 any different 00:11:46.139 --> 00:11:52.860 than that? Well, because at root, our faith is based on the promises of God. 00:11:55.500 --> 00:11:59.819 That fan's confidence might be reasonable. Their team might be better than the opposition, 00:12:00.860 --> 00:12:07.980 but they can't be certain. They can't have absolute certainty. And therefore that hope 00:12:07.980 --> 00:12:15.899 is always a hope for the best. There may be lots of factors around that mean that what they believe 00:12:15.899 --> 00:12:22.539 in and what they're hoping for is likely to come to pass. But it's always a hope for the best. 00:12:23.420 --> 00:12:31.180 It isn't founded on certainty. It isn't founded on promises that can be relied upon. That's why it's 00:12:31.180 --> 00:12:37.740 different. And what we're talking about here is different. We are relying on promises that the God of 00:12:37.740 --> 00:12:44.379 the Bible made from the beginning about His Son, and His Son, the Lord Jesus, then came into the 00:12:44.379 --> 00:12:51.740 world and did what those Old Testament promises said He would do. He fulfilled them. He brought them to 00:12:51.740 --> 00:12:59.740 pass. And He showed that God keeps His promises. And as we've told in Hebrews, Jesus Himself brought in 00:12:59.740 --> 00:13:07.100 a new covenant and acted on better promises, promises of a future we can really trust. Faith in God is not wishful 00:13:07.100 --> 00:13:13.420 thinking. It is not hope that is hope for the best. It is grounded on the promises of God. 00:13:15.100 --> 00:13:20.620 Faith is an assurance, is the assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen. Well, 00:13:20.620 --> 00:13:27.980 next let's turn to the examples, point number two, the examples. We've had this method already in the 00:13:27.980 --> 00:13:32.860 book of Hebrews. Back in chapter 6, the author called his hearers to be imitators of those who had gone 00:13:32.860 --> 00:13:38.779 before. He even named Abraham as an example. But now he provides a long list of saints who remain 00:13:38.779 --> 00:13:45.180 steadfast through persecution and trials, and he urges us all to imitate them. Just as back in chapter 00:13:45.180 --> 00:13:51.820 3, he mentioned the wilderness generation as a negative example of being faithless, here this list is a 00:13:51.820 --> 00:13:59.019 positive example of faithful people to be imitated. Look at verse 4. At the outset, we have Abel by faith, 00:13:59.019 --> 00:14:04.620 Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as 00:14:04.620 --> 00:14:09.019 righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, 00:14:09.019 --> 00:14:15.980 he still speaks. He's closely followed by Enoch, verse 5, by faith Enoch was taken up so that he 00:14:15.980 --> 00:14:20.539 should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. Now before he was taken, 00:14:20.539 --> 00:14:26.379 he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith, it is impossible to please him. For whoever 00:14:26.379 --> 00:14:33.019 would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Both these 00:14:33.019 --> 00:14:40.220 men, Abel and Enoch, had faith. Abel's sacrifice was accepted and Cain, his brothers, was not. And Enoch 00:14:40.220 --> 00:14:47.899 was taken into heaven because he pleased God through his faith. The basic point is that God cannot be 00:14:47.899 --> 00:14:53.740 pleased apart from faith. If you will come to God, by definition, you must believe that he exists, 00:14:53.740 --> 00:15:01.419 and that he is good, and that he wants to bless you. But if we come this way, if we do that, if we put 00:15:01.419 --> 00:15:12.139 our faith in him, we come the same way that these men did. That gets to actually one of our big problems. 00:15:12.139 --> 00:15:15.980 You see, the truth is, our temptation is to believe all kinds of other things, 00:15:15.980 --> 00:15:23.180 things rather than believing that God exists and he rewards those who seek him. 00:15:24.139 --> 00:15:30.060 Our temptation is to believe that the things that the culture holds before us with the promises of life 00:15:30.060 --> 00:15:37.580 and success and blessing are much more worth our time and effort. And especially that is the case when 00:15:37.580 --> 00:15:43.420 life is tough, when life is tough, precisely because we're trying to follow Christ. When through our 00:15:43.420 --> 00:15:52.460 decisions to be faithful and obedient, we come unstuck, life gets difficult. The temptation then 00:15:52.460 --> 00:15:59.340 to go elsewhere is incredibly powerful. And that is why the example of these ancients in chapter 11 is so 00:15:59.340 --> 00:16:06.220 vital for us. So let me go through a number of them here. When we are tempted to give in to the mockery 00:16:06.220 --> 00:16:13.340 of those around us, when we feel the pressure from the culture to conform to the culture and not to the 00:16:13.340 --> 00:16:22.700 things of God, again, consider Noah. Verse 7, he built an ark miles from any body of water. His friends and his 00:16:22.700 --> 00:16:27.980 neighbors laughed at him for doing this. He had been told that God was going to bring a judgment. You can 00:16:27.980 --> 00:16:33.019 imagine the neighbors coming past. Morning, Noah. Still waiting for that judgment, are you? 00:16:33.659 --> 00:16:38.139 The sun's shining. The ground's dry. There's no water anywhere near. And this guy's building a massive 00:16:38.139 --> 00:16:49.580 boat. But Noah took God at his word and he kept preparing his vessel. When we're tempted to doubt the 00:16:49.580 --> 00:16:55.980 promises of God, the promise that God has given that he will save a people for himself and that he will 00:16:55.980 --> 00:17:01.259 build his church and that the gates of hell will not prevail. When we feel like our evangelism is 00:17:01.259 --> 00:17:07.259 unimpressive and a bit pointless. We don't seem to get anywhere. We share the gospel. We hold out the 00:17:07.259 --> 00:17:13.660 hope of Christ to people and they just seem completely disinterested. In that case, consider the example of 00:17:13.660 --> 00:17:20.299 Abraham and Sarah. Verse 12, by faith Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the 00:17:20.299 --> 00:17:26.460 age since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore, from one man and him as good as dead, 00:17:26.460 --> 00:17:32.220 were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the 00:17:32.220 --> 00:17:39.419 seashore. Why do we share the gospel with our friends and neighbors? Why do we go on doing it? 00:17:40.539 --> 00:17:47.740 Why in the IPC do we go on planting churches despite the opposition in our culture? Because we are convinced 00:17:47.740 --> 00:17:56.220 that God has given his son the nations as his inheritance. We are convinced that he has promised 00:17:56.220 --> 00:18:02.700 descendants as numerous as the sand on the beach, the grains of sand on the beach, and we trust him to 00:18:02.700 --> 00:18:12.620 use the preaching of the gospel to build his church. When we struggle with the temptation to give up the 00:18:12.619 --> 00:18:19.579 fight. That happens, doesn't it? Some of you here this evening might be right at this point. Do you know 00:18:19.579 --> 00:18:23.500 what? Actually, it's too difficult. I'm going to give up the fight. Well, consider Moses. Verse 23, 00:18:24.379 --> 00:18:30.419 by faith, 24, by faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:36.839 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 00:18:36.839 --> 00:18:43.119 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking 00:18:43.119 --> 00:18:49.919 to the reward. By faith he left Egypt not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured a 00:18:49.919 --> 00:18:59.220 seeing him who is invisible. The fleeting pleasures of sin. Moses knew that sin was enjoyable in the 00:18:59.220 --> 00:19:05.659 moment. The temptation to sin that is before us is attractive to us because we know it will be 00:19:05.660 --> 00:19:11.500 enjoyable in the moment. But what did Moses do? He didn't give in to that. Instead, he saw with the eyes of 00:19:11.500 --> 00:19:18.940 faith that choosing obedience to God, choosing to identify with Christ all those years before Jesus 00:19:18.940 --> 00:19:28.560 came was worth more than anything he would enjoy through sin. It's the same when we pass up the instant 00:19:28.559 --> 00:19:35.039 pleasures that sin offer us now because we trust by faith that obedience is better. 00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:43.799 When our heart breaks because we have to give up that relationship that isn't pleasing to God. 00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:52.200 Or in that moment we fight really hard to hold our tongue despite the desire to say what we want to say. 00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:58.539 Or we fight our appetites despite where those appetites want to lead us. 00:20:01.980 --> 00:20:09.440 When we do that, by faith we are acknowledging that the fleeting pleasures of sin aren't worth comparing 00:20:09.440 --> 00:20:15.840 to our heavenly reward. Often in these cases we can feel a bit hard done by. Or we can resent God 00:20:15.840 --> 00:20:18.980 because we don't have the life that we wanted. Well, consider Moses. 00:20:18.980 --> 00:20:25.180 The fleeting pleasures of sin are not worth choosing 00:20:25.180 --> 00:20:34.579 at the expense of our reward. What about when we get frustrated with the regular, ordinary, 00:20:35.660 --> 00:20:41.319 culturally strange, some would say boring nature of church life? 00:20:41.319 --> 00:20:51.879 Doing ministry God's way. The slow work of preaching the word, observing the sacraments, 00:20:52.319 --> 00:21:00.659 being diligent in prayer. Well then consider Joshua verse 30. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down 00:21:00.659 --> 00:21:07.319 after they had been encircled for seven days. God told him to gather the priests to march around Jericho 00:21:07.319 --> 00:21:12.899 seven times, seven times blowing trumpets. Very odd behavior. Very counter-cultural. 00:21:14.259 --> 00:21:19.079 But he did it because God told him. And he stuck at it because God told him. 00:21:20.579 --> 00:21:26.720 Don't despise the distinctiveness of the church in our culture. When we gather, we read God's word, 00:21:26.960 --> 00:21:32.799 we preach his word, we pray to him, we come to his table and we feed on Christ by faith 00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:41.940 because he told us to do this. There's nothing boring about it. What we're doing is engaging with 00:21:41.940 --> 00:21:47.960 the living God, the God of all the earth. And we're doing what he has called us to do out of 00:21:47.960 --> 00:21:52.379 obedience because we know that that is what he will bless. It's really interesting. And part of 00:21:52.379 --> 00:21:56.619 these conversations about faith and religion and everything else, there has been research 00:21:56.619 --> 00:22:02.839 that reveals a rise in church attendance in the UK over the last couple of years. And those who were 00:22:02.839 --> 00:22:10.099 surveyed said that they were drawn to the Bible and to ancient religious practice. Now for years in the 00:22:10.099 --> 00:22:15.299 church, we have been told that we need to be as relevant as possible. Well, it seems actually that 00:22:15.299 --> 00:22:23.979 the world wants the church to be the church. But even if they didn't, this is God's appointed means to 00:22:23.980 --> 00:22:28.559 gather a people for himself from every tribe, tongue, and nation. So we go on doing these things. 00:22:29.079 --> 00:22:36.640 Why? We do them by faith. What about when we're tempted to compromise because of fear? 00:22:39.299 --> 00:22:43.660 We could consider the example of Moses' parents. Verse 23, they stood against the state. 00:22:44.259 --> 00:22:48.539 They did what was right, even though the king's edict told them to do something else. But then also 00:22:48.539 --> 00:22:54.159 consider Rahab. Verse 31, by faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were 00:22:54.159 --> 00:23:01.259 disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. Joshua chapter 2, the king of Jericho 00:23:01.259 --> 00:23:07.539 sent his men to find Joshua's spies. Rahab hid the spies and sent the pursuers away. She put herself in 00:23:07.539 --> 00:23:14.240 danger for the sake of God's people. She trusted that honoring God was worth the risk. Faith puts its head 00:23:14.240 --> 00:23:20.099 above the parapet in support of the gospel and in solidarity with God's people, whatever the risk. 00:23:22.440 --> 00:23:30.819 And it does that. The life, the faithful person does that even when those people aren't as 00:23:30.819 --> 00:23:36.859 sophisticated or as cool or as kind of savvy as we would like them to be. A quirky street preacher 00:23:36.859 --> 00:23:43.179 gets arrested or a social media post gets a Christian canceled. We stand with them by faith 00:23:43.179 --> 00:23:51.899 because faith triumphs over the fear of man. Surely one of the things that these examples teach us is 00:23:51.899 --> 00:23:57.819 that Christian faith is therefore visible. Now there's a sense I know in which all faith is visible 00:23:57.819 --> 00:24:03.039 because anyone's ultimate beliefs inform the way that they live. If you think being rich is the most 00:24:03.039 --> 00:24:06.599 important thing in the world, the way that you live will show that. You'll be greedy, you'll be 00:24:06.599 --> 00:24:12.539 materialistic, and so on. But if Christ is the most important thing to you, it will show as well. 00:24:13.379 --> 00:24:17.859 And the last example I want to highlight here as we consider these examples challenges us when the 00:24:17.859 --> 00:24:25.200 public nature of our faith brings opposition. So consider these unnamed men and women in verses 34 to 39. 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:32.879 Now some of this list, as he lists what's going on here, some of this were called the heroic things. 00:24:33.039 --> 00:24:40.859 Shutting the mouths of lions, verse 34. Putting armies to flight. And we think, yes, Lord, use me to do 00:24:40.859 --> 00:24:46.420 that. I don't mind being called to that life of faith. But look at the others, verse 36. 00:24:47.420 --> 00:24:56.680 Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn 00:24:56.680 --> 00:25:06.320 in two. They were killed with a sword. Now there were numerous others like this of whom the world is not worthy. 00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:13.580 And they all bear witness, every one of them, to the goodness and the faithfulness of God. 00:25:13.579 --> 00:25:23.240 So will we take it on faith that whatever we might endure by way of hardship or trial for naming the name of 00:25:23.240 --> 00:25:30.199 Christ in our day is worth it? Because God has something better for us in the future. 00:25:30.200 --> 00:25:39.700 He does. He does. In fact, there is a glimpse of that reward that bookends the chapter. And here's point 00:25:39.700 --> 00:25:46.700 number three, the end, the goal. Verse two, by faith, the people of old received their commendation. 00:25:47.460 --> 00:25:54.100 Verse four, Abel was commended as righteous. Verse five, Enoch was commended as having pleased God. 00:25:54.099 --> 00:25:59.299 Verse 39, those who suffered, all of them were commended through their faith. 00:26:00.939 --> 00:26:04.679 In the end, when you strip it all away, isn't that ultimately what we want? 00:26:05.659 --> 00:26:09.099 The commendation of God on your life. 00:26:11.179 --> 00:26:21.539 That we would hear, well done, my boy, my girl, when we stand before him and receive what these 00:26:21.539 --> 00:26:32.539 ancients looked forward to. The current England rugby team has a culture now that when you get your 00:26:32.539 --> 00:26:40.740 first cap, if it's possible, they invite your parents to come in to the changing room and give 00:26:40.740 --> 00:26:46.980 you your first cap to present it to you. And what's happening in that moment on the one hand is the 00:26:46.980 --> 00:26:53.339 England coach is saying, this is a much bigger thing than this individual. We want to honor their 00:26:53.339 --> 00:26:58.539 family in this whole process. But there's something as well, isn't there? When that cap is handed over, 00:26:59.299 --> 00:27:06.420 all the hard work, all the effort and all the sacrifice has been worth it. This is what you were 00:27:06.420 --> 00:27:11.960 aiming for. And here you are. And they give over the cap. Well done, my boy. 00:27:11.960 --> 00:27:21.579 There's a little hint there of what we're looking forward to when God on the last day commends us for 00:27:21.579 --> 00:27:30.740 living by faith in his promises and persevering and enduring like the ancients did as we go forward to 00:27:30.740 --> 00:27:38.059 that which is unseen. We can't see it. But by faith, it is a reality in the presence and we live like that now. 00:27:38.059 --> 00:27:44.819 Look at these examples. Consider the way they lived their lives, the sacrifices that they made, the courage 00:27:44.819 --> 00:27:51.599 that they showed, the way that they stood up because they believed by faith that it was all true and it was going 00:27:51.599 --> 00:27:59.059 to be worth it. If we are going to persevere, if we are going to get that commendation, if we're going to keep 00:27:59.059 --> 00:28:04.279 going with the kind of faith that these examples hold out, and we have an even better example to follow, of course, 00:28:04.279 --> 00:28:09.359 from our perspective, we have seen the one on whom the ancients hope was founded. 00:28:10.779 --> 00:28:17.139 The one who came and lived by perfect faith in his father and who because of that was rejected and 00:28:17.139 --> 00:28:22.899 suffered the death we deserved and yet still faithfully endured. We have seen him. We're going 00:28:22.899 --> 00:28:27.920 to remember all of that in a moment as we come to the table. We're going to taste it. We're going to smell it. 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:37.400 And by faith, we're going to participate. The one in whom the ancients hoped is the Jesus of our 00:28:37.400 --> 00:28:43.660 history. And of course, we don't just have his example, but we have his finished work. We have 00:28:43.660 --> 00:28:49.500 the presence of his spirit working within us. And so we have even greater promises on which to lean 00:28:49.500 --> 00:29:01.680 our faith. Keep going. We look to an invisible future, but by faith, we believe it and we give 00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:06.519 it substance in the way that we live now. And as we do that together, we encourage one another 00:29:06.519 --> 00:29:11.400 to keep going. Keep going. Let's pray. Our Father.