About this sermon
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. After the warnings of Hebrews 10, the writer reminds believers of their earlier endurance and points them to Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham, who looked for a better, heavenly country. Faith rests on Christ, the high priest of the new covenant, and it perseveres in hope because he continues to intercede for his people.
Sermon transcript
Turn with me now to the Scriptures as we open our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11 this morning. Our Scripture reading is Hebrews 11, verses 1 through 16. Hear the inspired Word of God, Hebrews 11, beginning with verse 1. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
For by it, the men of old gained approval. By faith, we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous. God testifying about his gifts and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death. And he was not found because God took him up. For he obtained the witness that before his being taken up, he was pleasing to God. And without faith, it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.
By faith, Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise. For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
By faith, even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore, there was born even of one man and him as good as dead at that as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Thus far, the reading of God’s inspired word. Will you pray with me? Father, once again, we come to you asking, that the word of truth, the word of scripture, the word inspired by your own spirit would be a word imprinted upon our hearts and minds even today, that you by the grace of the spirit who moved the writer of old to write these words would now illumine us with understanding and grace, the grace of faith to accept this word as a word for us, a word of instruction, a word of encouragement, a word of exhortation, a word of truth, that we would act upon it, and that we would know the freedom that belongs to the children of God. Our Father, bless the reading, the preaching, the hearing of your word today. Grant power from on high. We ask it together now, in Jesus’ name, amen.
This morning, we take up the question, what is faith? Our text is Hebrews 11, one through 16, which we have read. But by way of introduction in the sermon, I ask you to open your Bibles again, this time to Hebrews chapter 10, where I will begin reading from verse one of chapter 10 of Hebrews. Here, we meet the superiority of the new and better covenant in comparison to the old covenant. Hear with me then the word of God, Hebrews 10 and verse one.
The writer of Hebrew writes, for the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very forms of things can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would not they have ceased to be offered because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins year by year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, sacrifice an offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, behold, I have come, in the scroll of the book it is written of me, to do your will, O God. After saying above sacrifices and offerings and whole burn offerings and sacrifices for sin, you have not desired nor have you taken pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law. Then he said, behold, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second.
By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet. For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us For after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws upon their heart and on their mind, I will write them. He then says, and their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more. Now, where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he has inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.
Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace? For we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
But remember the former days when after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations. and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
For yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay, but my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. At first sight, it would appear that the comforts and joys of the new covenant outlined in Hebrews chapter 10 are then by the end of the chapter negated by the terrible threats and warnings that are associated with the judgment seat of Christ, the son of God.
The inspired author of Hebrews certainly has, we can tell, a deep conviction of the awesome holiness of the divine majesty and of the divine majesty of the Son of God, Jesus. It is a terrifying thing, he says in verse 31, to fall into the hands of the living God. These words of verse 31 have no doubt been used frequently as a warning to the ungodly of what lies in store for them unless they amend their ways. We ourselves, upon hearing these words, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. We ourselves are undone by them.
Who can possibly stand before this righteous King? And then we come to verses 32 to 39 of chapter 10, where we see that the primary application, even in this reference to the judgment, the primary application is to the people of God. It is given to you, dear people of God, to see the greatness and the holiness of God, reminding you that the fear of the Lord truly is the beginning of wisdom.
It is in this light that we understand the serious warnings against apostasy that are found throughout the epistle of Hebrews. Calvin’s commentary at this point is most instructive. He says, quote, warnings and admonitions are the very means which God employs to secure the final salvation of his people. And to conclude from such warnings that they may finally fall away is by no means a legitimate argument, end of quote.
In other words, the author of Hebrews does not wish to discourage his readers, but rather to embolden them so that they will emerge victorious from the present growing test of their faith. This he does now in the first place by reminding them of how they in former days stood a severe test that in the earlier days of their life as Christians, not long after their having been enlightened, verse 32. enlightened through the knowledge of the truth of the gospel, the wonders and the awesomeness of the new covenant realities, including Christ’s awesome throne. Then, as offered in the early part of Chapter 10, are actually meant to prepare us for Chapter 11. Hence, we read those words for our introduction this morning.
And what this spirit-inspired exhortation as a whole, the book of Hebrews, has to say to us about faith, whereas the Apostle Paul in the New Testament usually represents the believer’s faith, as an external instrument, the instrument of justification by which the righteousness of Christ is imputed to those who believe, he doesn’t exhaustively or exclusively speak of faith in those terms, for Paul does also speak of walking by faith as distinguished from walking by sight.
Faith in the New Testament, faith in the book of Hebrews, is the great spiritualizing principle. For faith is the state of mind that keeps us in touch with the higher world. Therefore, does the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews speak of faith as being, quote, assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
There is indeed a close connection between faith and hope. There is such a thing as hope of the imagination, mere externalistic wishful thinking. But there is also a hope closely joined to faith, a hope which goes straight to the root of things, that is to the promises of God.
This is the faith spoken of here in chapter 11. This same point of view is also found in the Apostle Peter. For example, in 1 Peter 1, verse 21, where he writes, which we may correctly render in that text, that your faith might also be hope in God, faith and hope closely joined together. In connection with the subject of faith here, the writer of Hebrews also dwells at length on patience under persecution and in the midst of tribulation. This is connected with what we have called the same spiritualizing principle of faith.
Patience is a term characteristic even of Stoic philosophy. But in Stoicism, patience is sheer willpower to hold out and bear up. We should note, however, the etymological meaning of the Greek word for patience. Hippomonene, which means to keep under. That is, to keep the mind under and not to be ruled by it.
But Christian patience is not merely a suppressing of powers. Rather, there is, in Christian patience, another power which enters into the believer’s life to offset the power of persecution and of tribulations. This new power comes to him through faith, an application of the Holy Spirit’s work in new covenant grace. Thus, through the exposition and application of Christ as priest and sacrifice of the new covenant, the Book of Hebrews earnestly appeals for the Christian community to apply the blessing of Christ’s high priestly ministry to your own daily life. In light of what Christ has done and is doing, the only rational and godly response is faith, to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
When J. Gresham Machen’s little book, What is Faith?, was published in 1925, The modernist fundamentalist controversy was raging in all-out war. Machen and those who stood with him took their stand on the reliability of the inspired word of God. In the opening lines of his book, Machen writes, Quote, the question, what is faith, which forms the subject of the following discussion, may seem to some persons impertinent and unnecessary.
Faith, it may be said, cannot be known except by experience. And when it is known by experience, logical analysis of it and logical separation of it from other experiences will only serve to destroy its power and its charm. Quote from Machen. Modernism’s attack on biblical authority comported with an anti-intellectual skepticism that refused to acknowledge God’s revealed authoritative truth.
Machen observes, again, quote, indeed, nothing makes a man more unpopular in the controversies of the present day than an insistence upon definition of terms. Anything, it seems, may be forgiven more readily than that. Men discourse very eloquently today, Machen says, upon such subjects as God, religion, Christianity, atonement, redemption, faith.
But they are greatly incensed when they are asked to tell in simple language what they mean by these terms. They do not like to have the flow of their eloquence checked by so vulgar a thing as a definition. And so they will probably be incensed by the question which forms the title of the present book. What is faith? In the midst of our current celebrations of faith, usually faith contrasted with knowledge, it seems disconcerting to be asked what faith is.
While you were not there, beloved, in 1925, nor were you there in 1936, but you, beloved, as Orthodox Presbyterians, have taken your stand with Machen outside the mainline camp in time. And many of you have suffered for it, suffered much for it. And I would just say to you, in the years that have intervened since then, Postmodernism has not made things better. Skepticism and relativism have only increased in culture and even in the church. And more and more folks have become impatient with and intolerant of intellectual confessional Christianity.
So it is that the plea of this sermon today is a call to faithfulness, a call to endurance. Let it be said of this congregation, Grace Church, that faith is still a trusting response to God’s word. Faith clings to the reality of promises that are not yet seen. Faith then, by definition, is forward and upward looking. Faith has an end in view.
Significantly, many of those persons listed in Hebrews 11 are men and women who persevered in their faith even in the face of suffering and even death. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, and the rest. All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, and he has prepared a city for them. May that, beloved, speak to you today, Grace Church.
And remember, for without faith it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. The Heidelberg Catechism, a very faithful and reliable summary of the Reformed and Biblical faith. In question number 21, ask the question, question 21 of the Heidelberg Catechism, what is true faith? It answers, True faith is not only a knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in his word is true, it is also a deep-rooted assurance, created in me by the Holy Spirit through the gospel, that out of sheer grace earned for us by Christ, not only others, but I too have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation. That is, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, for by it the men of old gained approval. Therefore, beloved, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.
For yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay, but my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction. but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
And since we do have a great high priest over the house of God, let us, beloved, draw near with a sincere heart in the full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope and that without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and to good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Amen. Let’s pray together. Our Father, we are reminded that ours is to believe, to believe your word, to believe your promises, to believe those things that have been revealed concerning your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest, whose once for all sacrifice on the cross has paid for our sin, all our sin, so that we can with confidence approach the throne of grace for mercy. knowing Christ has loved us and that he continues even now to intercede and mediate for us.
Our Father, we pray that we would not grow weary. We pray for endurance. We pray for that endurance that perseveres and overcomes. We pray that for ourselves. We pray it for our children and for our children’s children. We pray it for Grace Church. We pray it for the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Father.
We ask that we might press on in gospel hope, faith that is secured by an everlasting hope, a certain hope according to the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray and give thanks. Amen. I invite you to turn with me in our hymnal to hymn number 424.
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