The Necessity of Faith – Part 1
Hebrews 11:1-7
September 24, 2017
Well, it’s once again time to jump off the dock into the deep end.
Tonight we’re going to begin our look at the 3rd of the 5 SOLAS
Which have come to sum up the Protestant Reformation.
And that doctrine is SOLA FIDE
Namely that we believe that justification comes THROUGH FAITH ALONE.
And of course this 3rd SOLA stands upon the previous two.
We find our basis for this doctrine in SOLA SCRIPTURA
• We don’t follow tradition…
• We don’t follow counsels…
• We don’t yield to experience…
• We don’t bend to logic…
We turn to Scripture Alone, and it is here
Where this doctrine of justification by faith alone comes to us.
This doctrine also stands upon the concept of SOLA GRATIA
• We believe that God saved us apart from any worth or merit or effort of our own.
• We believe salvation to be a monergistic effort by God apart from any contribution on our part.
And if that is true, then salvation can only be by faith alone.
If you add any work to the requirement of faith,
Then obviously salvation can’t be simply by grace,
But rather is becomes an earned reality.
Which of course was Paul’s point in Romans 4
Romans 4:4-5 “Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,”
Salvation can only be by grace alone if it is also through faith alone.
The second you add to the requirement of faith
Is the second you lose the reality of grace.
Incidentally, as we will see later, by adding to the requirement of faith
You also lose the sufficiency of Christ.
This was Paul’s very point to the Galatians
Who, in Paul’s mind, had lost the gospel
Because they had lost the idea of salvation through faith alone.
Galatians 5:4 “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”
Paul was NOT teaching that genuine believers can lose their salvation,
Rather he was talking theologically
About the effects of rejecting the true gospel.
And when you retreat from salvation through faith alone,
Then you also immediately lose the sufficiency of Christ
And the reality of grace.
If you strip the gospel of Faith alone
Then you also strip it of Christ alone and Grace alone.
In short, you lose the gospel and you lose the very possibility of salvation
Obviously then, the doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone
IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE.
Luther is quoted as saying:
“The doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone is the article upon which the church stands or falls.”
In other words, if you lose this doctrine, you lose the church.
Certainly this is because you lose Christ, you lose grace,
And therefore you lose redemption.
Justification through Faith Alone is a vitally important issue.
It was the main issue of the Protestant Reformation
And it remains the central issue of gospel defense in every debate since.
TONIGHT we begin to look at it, and I don’t mind telling you, I expect that it will take us many weeks to work through.
I think it is important that we begin with A DEFINITION OF THE TERM.
We are talking about FAITH, so the obvious question would be:
WHAT IS FAITH?
If you look it up in the dictionary you may run across definitions like this:
“Complete trust or confidence; firm belief, especially without logical proof”
If you look at the Greek word often translated “faith” in the scripture, it is the word PISTIS which simply means “conviction of the truth of anything; belief”
And of course the Bible defines this term itself:
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
The key words of that phrase being “assurance” and “conviction”.
It is simply to believe something to be true,
And often times a belief in something that isn’t actually seen.
And so we are simply talking about belief.
Historic reformed thought has sought to define this issue better,
They have settled over 3 words
That seemed to best portray what they believe is being referred to.
1) NOTITIA – The Latin word for Data or Information (Notes).
It refers to WHAT you believe.
And the idea is that a person must have
The basic information of the elements of the gospel.
A person must know about the person of Christ
And about His substitutionary death.
This is summed up in Paul’s question in Romans 10 when he asks, “How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?”
So a person needs the basic data or information of the gospel.
2) ASCENSU – Which is where we get our word for “ascent”,
Meaning they must ascent to the truth that they have heard.
• It is intellectual or cognitive ascent.
• It is to believe that the data is true.
• It is to agree that what you heard about Christ really happened.
Reformed thought has agreed that
You must hear the truth and believe that it is in fact the truth.
Now it is also important to understand that
Reformed thought has also agreed that these first two elements
By themselves do not qualify you to be a Christian,
They merely qualify you to be a demon.
James said it best:
James 2:19 “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”
The demons certainly have the data
And they certainly know the data is accurate.
They have NOTITIA and they have ASCENSU
3) FIDUCIA – Which means “trust”.
As R.C. Sproul put it, it is to “get it into the bloodstream”
It is not a mere intellectual ascent, or a simple profession,
But is in fact a life based upon that truth.
• It involves the full placement of hope upon it.
• It doesn’t just know it is true, it banks upon it being true.
The main idea is to distinguish between
Faith and a mere profession of faith.
And this is an important distinction,
For it is one that has been lost in many cases.
Over the years there have been many in Evangelical Christianity
Who have adopted what can be called “Decisional Evangelism”.
Which basically is a process by which
We seek to get men to “make a decision” for Christ.
And as we talked about in our conversations of grace,
It really has become a process filled with manipulation and gimmicks.
My dad used to teach a Sunday School class in Wichita Falls, and in that class he had a man who would often make these boisterous claims that if you could just give him 15 minutes in someone’s home he could get them to make a decision for Christ.
By which I must admit if I had to listen to him for 15 minutes, I’d be about willing to consent to just about anything too.
The problem is that there is a great difference between
Faith and merely a profession of faith.
For, while everyone who has faith must profess that faith,
Not everyone who professes faith actually has it.
Listen to Jesus:
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”
Or listen to Paul when he writes to Titus:
Titus 1:16 “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.”
I think you get the idea, In fact many of you (like myself) have testimony of how many years you spent with only a profession of faith and no actual faith to support it.
When we talk about being justified by faith,
We are not saying that man is justified by a profession of faith,
We are saying that man is justified by faith.
This is also why we often times qualify this statement
By referring to faith as “saving faith”.
We seek to distinguish between those who actually trust Christ
And those who merely have an intellectual agreement with Him.
Both have faith, only one has faith that saves.
We are saying that saving faith is when a person
Has the facts of the gospel, intellectually agrees with those facts,
And then places his/her trust upon them as true.
And our Scriptural belief is that
When a human being places this faith in the work of Christ
That God grants this person salvation apart from any other work.
NOW THAT IS WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT.
But there are several areas that I think need to be discussed.
And we are going to begin this study with the first 7 verses of Hebrews 11.
We are talking about THE NECESSITY OF FAITH
(Read Hebrews 11:1-7)
You know the context.
• The Hebrews were a group of Jews who had professed faith in Jesus and they had done so at great cost.
• They had been imprisoned, they had their property seized, they faced public humiliation, etc.
• However, instead of getting better, things have gotten worse.
• And some of them are contemplating denouncing Jesus and returning to Judaism.
The point of the whole book is why they shouldn’t.
The writer is now writing to them asking them to exercise their faith.
Hebrews 10:36-39 “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.”
You have to endure, you have to have faith.
Chapter 11 then is the writer’s great illustration.
He just talked about the importance of faith
And now he will give some unmistakable examples of that faith.
I don’t plan for us to cover this entire chapter, but I do want to make sure you understand some of the MAIN THEMES of the chapter..
One of the most obvious is the theme of “FAITH & WORKS”
Every single person listed in this chapter
Has works that validate their faith.
There is no doubting the validity of their faith
Because what they did clearly backs it up.
“Abel offered” “Noah built” “Abraham obeyed” “Jacob blessed” “Moses refused” and so on and so forth.
None of them try to show you faith without works.
Their faith is evident by their works
And that is an obvious theme throughout the chapter.
Another obvious theme is that of “SEEN VS. UNSEEN”
The writer will start by saying, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”
So obviously believing without seeing is important.
And that’s good because most of the people in this chapter
Never saw what they believed.
• (7) Noah was warned “about things not yet seen”
• (8) Abraham was called to move “not knowing where he was going”
And yet while these people couldn’t see how it was going to work,
The writer always focuses on what they did see.
• (13) The saw the promises “having seen them and having welcomed them
from a distance”
• (23) Moses parents could see that Moses “was a beautiful child”
• (26) Moses was “looking to the reward”
• (27) Moses was “seeing Him who is unseen”
The contrast is obvious throughout the chapter.
These men didn’t see with human eyes, they saw with eyes of faith.
And the other major theme he continually brings up is “RECEIVED VS. NOT RECEIVED”
He continually makes the point that these people received the promises,
But they did not receive what was promised.
(13) “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.”
(39) “And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised,”
That means that these people believed,
Not based on God’s performance, but based on God’s promise.
That’s big.
Their faith endured even when things
Weren’t working out as they had hoped.
Now, they may not have received what was promised,
But because of their unwavering faith, they did receive God’s favor
• All throughout the first 7 verses we see those who “obtained” a good
testimony from God.
• We see Noah who “became an heir of the righteousness which is
according to faith”
• We see in (16) “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.”
AND SO YOU GET THE POINT.
The faith of these people might not have changed their circumstances,
But it did change their lives & it changed the way God thought about them
And that leads us to the text we are looking at tonight where we learn about THE NECESSITY OF FAITH.
And we say that faith is necessary,
Because it is the only thing God accepts.
And it is through this faith that we obtain God’s favor.
So let’s look at these 7 verses
(two points)
#1 THE NATURE OF FAITH
Hebrews 11:1-5
What you will find here are two basic theological truths about faith
And then two basic illustrations to support each truth.
The first truth is very simply WHAT FAITH IS
(which we talked about some, but let’s see the Bible’s explanation)
(1) “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
This verse reveals both a CAUSE and an EFFECT of faith.
First, we recognize the constant in both statements
And that is that there is something that is only “hoped for”
And that is because it is “not seen”
I mean, if you had it, you wouldn’t be hoping for it.
Romans 8:24 “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?”
So we are dealing with a person who has a hope,
But a hope that is thus far unrealized.
It would be like our hope of eternal life.
It would be like Abraham’s hope for the Promised Land.
It is hoped for, but not yet fully realized.
What the writer is telling us is that there is a certain way
God desires for us to respond to our unrealized hope.
THAT RESPONSE IS FAITH.
Why?
• Because faith “is the assurance of things hoped for”
• And faith is “the conviction of things not seen”
Now what you need to realize is that
The writer here speaks of these two realities,
But he does so in reverse order of the way they occur a person’s life.
Let me explain.
The obvious FIRST STEP is that man hopes for what he does not see.
At this point he has to make a decision in his heart.
He will either choose to believe that his hope will occur,
Or he will choose to believe that it will not.
Those are his only two options.
The person of faith obviously chooses to believe.
Now the Greek word for “conviction” is a word
That literally means “to prove with a test”
It carries the idea of a person testing something
In order to see if it will work or not.
And once the test is completed this person
Will be convinced one way or the other.
Obviously our person of faith has run his test
And is convinced that even though he can’t see something, it is still real.
He is convinced of things he can’t see.
He has “the conviction of things not seen.”
Paul said:
Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
That statement reflects a person convinced of what he can’t see.
The question is what did he test that caused him to be so convinced?
And there is only one thing he could have tested and that is God.
(when we’re dealing with a promise, all we can test is the one who gives it)
God made the promise that it’s real even though he couldn’t see it.
So a person has to test and see if they think God is believable.
They have to determine IF they believe God can do what He said.
And IF they believe that God does keep His word.
(Testing God’s ability & Testing God’s integrity)
Incidentally Paul believed the answer was “yes” on both counts,
And that explains Paul’s conviction of things that he can’t see.
He told Timothy:
2 Timothy 1:12 “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”
It is also the conviction of Abraham:
Romans 4:18-22 “In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE.” Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
It is the same thing we are dealing with here.
God has made promises.
• Promises of an eternal home
• Promises of forgiveness through Christ
• Promises of security in Jesus
But at the very core, they are still just promises from God.
You have to decide whether or not you find God to be dependable.
The men of faith said He was.
Paul said He was.
So they had “the conviction of things not seen.”
They believed God’s word and were convinced it was true,
Even though they couldn’t see it.
And the ILLUSTRATION that the writer would use is found in verse 3.
“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.”
The Jews he was writing to certainly believed that
God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing.
They believed God spoke the world into creation.
Why would they believe that?
• Were they present at creation?
• Did they see nothing become something?
No, but God said that is what happened (Genesis 1)
And every Jew this writer was writing to fully believed it.
They had no visual proof they could see,
But simply because they had believed God’s word,
They had a “conviction of things not seen.”
(that’s a basic illustration of the faith the writer is talking about)
This conviction then led to “the assurance of things hoped for”
Conviction comes first and then assurance.
The word for “assurance” here literally means “a standing under”
It is a word used of a “support” or something “steady”
It would be like a beam or the trusses that hold up this roof.
Hence it is a word that spoke of assurance and ultimately security.
Because we are convinced that God does things;
(Even things that we can’t see,)
We have an assurance that He will also do the things we hope for.
So…
• A man hopes but does not see
• He chooses to believe anyway based upon God’s character and promises
• That conviction then becomes an assurance that steadies him and guides him
and protects him.
It is like the writer said at the end of chapter 10.
We are “those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.”
THAT IS WHAT FAITH IS.
It is choosing to believe what you can’t see
Simply because you trust the One who told you it’s there.
It is then having assurance that you will receive what you hope for
Regardless of how bleak the circumstances may appear.
John MacArthur described it like this, “Faith is living in a hope that is so real that it gives absolute assurance.”
(Hebrews commentary, pg. 287)
SO FAITH STARTS AS CONVICTION AND ENDS UP AS ASSURANCE.
And honestly, that alone makes it a pretty good thing.
Assurance is a wonderful reality.
BUT THAT ISN’T EVEN THE MAIN BENEFIT OF FAITH.
You see what it is,
The writer also wants you to understand WHAT IT DOES
(2) “For by it the men of old gained approval”
“gained approval” translates MARTUREO
And it literally means “to be well testified of”
It’s a word the writer uses several times.
For Abel the same word is translated in verse 4 as, “obtained the testimony”
For Enoch the same word is translated in verse 5 as, “obtained the witness”
And the point the writer is making is that when men gave faith to God,
They received His approval.
It is the doctrine of “Justification by Faith”
(2) “For by it the men of old gained approval.”
It was by faith that the men of old received a good testimony from God.
In short, man was and is and always will be justified by faith alone.
Romans 3:19-24 “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;”
Romans 3:25 “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;”
Romans 4:1-5 “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,”
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Galatians 3:6-9 “Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.”
We are talking about SOLA FIDE – “faith alone”
It is what God desires
It is what God expects
It is the only currency God accepts
When man gives this faith described in verse 1 to God,
God responds by declaring that person righteous.
This reality has been a universal and timeless reality.
It is true of those who lived in the Old Testament
And it is certainly true of those who lived in New Testament times.
And the writer makes that truth inescapably clear.
(2) “For by it the men of old gained approval.”
Now next the writer will give you a couple of examples,
Which we can’t do justice to in our time tonight.
What I want you to understand tonight before we go home is that
No one was ever saved (not in the Old Testament, not in the New Testament) any other way than by faith.
It’s not as though in the Old Testament God saved people by works
And in the New Testament He switched to faith.
That was never the case.
It was always faith.
“For by it the men of old gained approval.”
This is so repeatedly made clear in the number of times which God rebukes Israel for their pathetic sacrifices and tells them to stop bringing them.
We read those texts over and over and over from the prophets; “bring your worthless sacrifices no longer”.
Now why would God command those sacrifices and then tell them they were worthless and to quit bringing them?
Because they weren’t bringing them in faith.
Listen to Paul:
Romans 9:30-33 “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”
Listen to the writer of Hebrews:
Hebrews 4:1-2 “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.”
Faith is all that God has ever accepted,
And if you try to go through some action without it,
It will not be acceptable to God.
Our point is that FAITH IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.
And we’ll continue on with this next time.
