Faith Without Sight

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0:00I like to watch documentaries. My kids say it's because I'm old, but I just think they're interesting. And I was watching this documentary on this Antarctic research station, and it snows so hard there that if buildings aren't connected by hallways, then what they have is this lifeline. It's this rope that runs from building to building, and they kind of carabiner onto it. Because what can happen out there is a whiteout, a big snowstorm can come through. And when that's happening, you can't even see your hand in front of your face. And so to keep themselves from getting lost, they let the rope lead them where they can't see. Because if they don't do that, then people could freeze to death right in front of the building they're trying to find.

0:53And that's what faith is kind of like. It's not always being able to see the path, right? But it's holding fast to what you know is true. It's trusting that the rope won't let go of you even when you can't see the end of it. And today's text, we're continuing our series in Hebrews, Hebrews 11. And our text is like that lifeline. It shows us what it means to walk by faith when maybe everything else around us is unclear. So our text is Hebrews 11, 1 through 7. And here's how the text works. It gives us both a definition of faith and then examples of people who grabbed the rope and they walked forward into the unknown. Those people are Abel and Enoch and Noah. And they believed God without seeing and their lives show you and I how to do the same. So here's the main point of the text this morning. People of God, imitate the faith of the Old Testament saints who believed God without seeing. And so let your lives speak, please, and obey just like theirs. Okay. So let's read the word together. Before we jump in, let me remind you this is the word of God. It's holy, it's matchless. God uses it for our good. And it is the very words of God. So that's printed there in your bulletin, the text, and as well on the screen. Read with me. God's word says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It's the conviction of things not seen. For by it, the people of old received their commendation. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

2:45By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous. God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death. And he was not found because God had taken him. Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith, it's impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Friends, the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord will stand forever. Amen? Pray with me. Father God, we are so grateful to be gathered together, to be gathered here to worship you. Lord, we are so grateful for your word which speaks to us and teaches us. Grateful that it points to the Son. Grateful that God, the Holy Spirit uses us and uses it, Lord, in us. And so, Father, would you just do that work now in our hearts. Teach us with your word, Lord. It's in your name we pray, Jesus. Amen. Amen. All right, so look again at verse 1 with me. Hebrews 11 1 says, Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Okay? First, we see that faith is not just a blind hope without any evidence. Sometimes people talk about faith like

4:33that, but that's not how the Bible talks about faith. Our text says faith involves assurance. It involves conviction. And being assured points to believing something that has been said or promised. God has given us promises, and they are our hope. Faith is assured that our hope is not in vain. Yes, yes, thank you. And conviction points to believing that something has happened. Things that have been said, things that have been told to us, but not personally seen. And the preacher of Hebrews, he wants to help us understand this definition. And so he gives us verse 3, and it says, by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. And the point here, friends, is that you and I were not there when God created the universe by the word of his power. But we look around, and we see all of creation, and we see and hear what the Bible tells us, that God made everything out of nothing, out of ex nihilo, if you want to sound fancy, right? That means nothing. And we're convicted. We're convicted, though we haven't seen it with our own eyes, that it's true. Faith involves assurance and conviction. So we can put those two things together. Here's kind of my working definition for faith. Faith walks forward on what God will do, and it stands firm on what God has already done. Okay? It walks forward on what God will do, and stands firm on what God has already done. And this faith that we're talking about, friends, it's, it belonged to

6:14the Old Testament saints, too. Look at verse 2 again. Verse 2 says, for by it, by faith, the people of old received their commendation. And to commend means to testify or to witness to. So verse 2 is saying, God saw the faith of the Old Testament church, and their faith witnessed and testified to the truth that they belonged to him. Salvation for God's people has always come through faith. There was a time in my Christian walk early on when I had just been saved, and I didn't understand that. I knew that I was saved by faith, but I wasn't really sure, to be honest, how the Old Testament people were saved. I didn't know yet. But where I was confused, friends, the Bible is very clear.

6:59God's people have always been saved by their faith, faith that God has done and will do what he says. By faith, the people of old received their commendation from God. Isn't that glorious? I mean, it's amazing to see how unified the plan of God and the people of God truly are. Can I get an amen? All right, amen, amen. Listen, God didn't have a plan for the Old Testament church that it was workshopping, and then he kind of finally figured it out when Jesus came, right? The church in the Old Testament looked forward to faith in Christ. And then he came, and now the church looks backwards in faith to Christ, right? The basis is the same. It's Jesus. It's faith in Jesus. It's nothing but Jesus. Only Jesus can save God's people no matter what point of history they exist in, amen? Listen, if that's bothering you, I say amen. I used to be a Baptist preacher. You're just going to have to deal with it, okay? I'll say amen about 37 times, all right? That's all right. Jesus alone, friends, is the way, the truth, and the life. By him alone, people are saved. And we see great examples of Old Testament faith spelled out for us right as Jesus is coming on the scene. We see it in the person of Simeon.

8:24Look at verses 22 or 25 through 26 of Luke 2. We see Simeon who was existing in the Old Testament faith right as Jesus was coming on the scene. And look what it says about him. There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was righteous and devout, and he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. He was looking forward in faith to Jesus. The object of Simeon's faith is Jesus. He was looking forward to that fulfillment of God's promise in Genesis 3.15 to bring a redeemer to the people. And so did all the people of God in the Old Testament, including those in our text this morning, Abel and Enoch and Noah.

9:15So let's shift now from the definition of faith, and let's look at the example of faith in their lives. First, we're going to look at Abel's faith. Verse 4 says, By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. It says Abel was commended because his sacrifice was more acceptable than Cain's.

9:46Let me give you a little background in case you don't remember or don't know. Abel was born, the firstborn son of Adam and Eve. He was followed by his brother Cain. And their story picks up sometime after sin had entered the world through their parents. They were the first of humanity, Cain and Abel, born with sin. And they were taught by their parents to worship God and to look for the promised redeemer that Adam and Eve were told about, the one who could undo their sin.

10:14And so they offered sacrifices to God to worship. And Abel offered the best of his flock of animals, and Cain gave the best of his produce. And our text says God looked favorably on Abel's offering, but not on Cain's. The Bible doesn't exactly tell us why Cain's sacrifice wasn't accepted. And it's not super wise to talk a whole lot where God's word doesn't. So I'm not going to, okay? So let's just look at what we do see, what we see in Abel. We know that Abel offered the best of his flock, the best of what he had as a sacrifice to God. Blood was shed, an animal died in Abel's place.

10:51And this pointed forward right then to the prefiguring of Christ coming and dying for his people. And so Abel should have died, but instead an animal did. And we know that by verse 4 that Abel offered this not as just a rote sacrifice, but by faith, a faith that pleased God. Church, there's only one kind of faith that pleases God, and that's faith in God. Abel believed in God's promises, though he couldn't see it with his own eyes. Abel didn't know. He didn't know at that point the Messiah would be named Jesus. He didn't know that the Messiah would come from the line of Abraham and King David, people who didn't even exist yet. He didn't know that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and live in Nazareth. He didn't know any of these things because they hadn't happened yet. But Abel did know that God promised to send a Redeemer, one who would crush the head of the serpent, one who would undo the terrible curse of sin. And he put his faith in the promise of God that it would happen. And by his faith, by his faith in God, God commended him as righteous.

11:59Abel looked to the promised Messiah in faith, just like you and I do. And he was saved. And our text tells us something at the very end of that verse. It says this, by his faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. What does that mean? What is God's word telling us here? I think funerals can shed light for us. My very first pastor gave me a lot of experience with funerals. I buried nine people in two years. And that might sound daunting. But honestly, I found that preaching these funerals was actually pretty easy. Do you know why? Because the people that we were burying, the people that we were putting to rest, they lived their lives full of faith.

12:50Full of faith. These funerals were homecomings, where we celebrated their faithful, God-honoring lives. There was a lot to talk about because their faith just kept speaking, even though they had passed into glory. And that's not uncommon, is it? We do that with so many heroes of the faith, church. Why do we still remember and talk about Martin Luther and John Calvin and Jim Elliott? Why are we talking about Abel right now? Because they lived their lives as faithful witnesses to the goodness of God and the strength of his promises. Their faith still speaks after their death. Friends, church, let me encourage you and I this morning to think about our legacy of faith that we will leave behind. What will people say about you when you die? Will your funeral be easy to preach because your life was filled with the faithful pursuit of Christ? Let that be our goal.

13:52Look, make it easy for the preacher, okay? Let that be our goal. Amen. A life so faithful that they have to leave stuff out so they can make time in the service. Don't you want that? I do. I want to live my life in such a way that when I die, my faith is still speaking and pointing people toward the only God that can save them. Amen? Amen. Abel's faith teaches us to live faithful lives that still speak about the goodness of God after we die. All right, so let's keep moving into verse 5, and now we're going to see Enoch's faith. Verse 5 says this, by faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God.

14:48There's not a lot to expand on in the story of Enoch. The main account of it, if you want to read it yourself, can be found in Genesis 5 and 21 through 24. And it says what the preacher of Hebrews says. Enoch lived a faithful life, and he did not die because God took him. See, death, friends, is a part of the curse that came when sin entered the world. It was never supposed to be this way. God told Adam and Eve that they ate the fruit that was forbidden, that death would come to the world, and so it did, and so we all die. But God looked at the life of Enoch and blessed him so that he wouldn't experience death. Isn't that incredible? What would that even be like? Did he warn him, or did he just like kind of scoop him up? Like, I don't know. From Enoch, though, we learn this. Faith honors God, and God honors faith. Verse 6 sheds more light. Verse 6 says, and without faith it's impossible, friends, impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists, that's faith, and that he rewards those who seek him, that's faith. Enoch drew near to God, believing that God rewards those who seek after him. How did Enoch draw near to God? In faith. Because without faith it's impossible, impossible to please God. Church, hear me. A mountain of works done without faith might be impressive to the world, but it cannot please God. This is clearly demonstrated in the Bible. It's demonstrated in the lives of the Pharisees. Jesus looked at the Pharisees, and he said of them, you look beautiful

16:33on the outside. All your actions look right, but inside you're full of death. Without faith you and I can only offer up to God a life spent trying to earn our salvation, friends, and that doesn't please him. Let's not expend our lives chasing after right actions while neglecting the heart of faith that honors God. And if you listen, if you don't think you're in danger of that, let me just kindly say you're kidding yourselves. We're all susceptible to it. And let me also tell you, nothing hollows out a believer faster than trying to be righteous in your own power. I've been there. Have you been there? It's awful. It's awful. When you get in that place, you do everything fueled by the perception of how people see you. Fueled by the perception of if you're doing the right things. And you start to believe that right actions equal acceptance by God. And that almost sounds right. It almost sounds good.

17:36God is pleased with my right actions, isn't he? Doesn't that prove I have faith? But it's backwards. That's not the gospel. That's not the gospel. As Lanier Furr would say, he was the very first pastor that called me in the ministry. He would say, that's wrong. That's wrong. That's R-O-N-G, wrong. Okay? He was a little country, could you tell? Listen, the first time we went to that church, he said that the first day we went to that church, and I thought, Lord, he can't even spell.

18:10And I was the dummy because I didn't get the joke. Listen, God-honoring faith isn't centered on our actions. It's true faith in Christ that brings about faithful actions. But our faith is centered on the one who did everything for us. God-honoring faith bows at the feet of the living waters. God-honoring faith believes in Jesus. It looks to Jesus for all comfort. It looks to Jesus as the basis by which we draw near to God. God-honoring faith believes that Jesus and his riches are the promise and the great reward for the Christian. God-honoring faith is anchored in Jesus. And from a heart of faith comes faithful actions that please God. Let's not get it backwards.

18:58Enoch wasn't righteous by his actions. His faith commended him as righteous before God. Faith honors God and God honors faith. And church, this should be encouraging for us because it means, here's what this means, that your life lived out faithfully matters. And it pleases God. Christian, listen, do you know that God is pleased with you? That he delights in you? He, listen, he isn't tolerating you. God the Father isn't begrudgingly accepting you because God the Son is making him. That's terrible theology. Your God loves you. He's delighted by you. He looks at you like a father is with a child, like Nick and Jordan look at, like we all look at Oakley, right? Precious. Precious. God looks at you and he says, precious. Hear me, please. Listen, as an ambassador for Christ, as a spokesman for God, I'm telling you that when you place your faith in Christ, all your sins are done away with. All of them.

20:09The condemnation and the guilt is done away with. Jesus pays for all of your sins. That's your past sins, your present sins, the ones you did on the way here, and your future sins, okay? All of them. And God is greatly pleased with you in Jesus. He loves you. And the world says this. The world says this about your faith. It doesn't matter. Why are you living like this? It doesn't matter. No one sees. No one cares. God sees. God sees you. He does. Your life lived in faith is a pleasing aroma to your God. He delights to see you grow in your faith. And God will honor you by giving you all that he has promised to those who come to faith in Jesus. And friends, that's everything. Everything. In Abel, we see that our faith speaks past our death. And Enoch shows us that our faith honors God and that God honors our faith. In our last verse of the passage, we see Noah's faith. Noah's story is probably one of the most well-known stories in the Bible. But just for consistency, let me recap it for you. Genesis 6-5 says that the Lord looked on the earth and he saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. Sin had done its work, had built up in the world so that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only continually evil. And in that story, God is judging the world with a righteous judgment against sin. He's going to flood the whole earth. But Noah is a righteous man who walked with God. And so God preserves the promise of the coming Redeemer through the line of Noah. He tells Noah to build an ark. That's a huge boat and to wait for the flood. That's the story

22:00in a nutshell. And verse 7 gives us some background on Noah's faith. Look with me. It says, by faith, by faith, Noah being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and he became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. So what do we learn from faith, from Noah's faith? This, faith obeys God in uncertainty, church. Faith obeys God in uncertainty. The world had never seen a flood before. Listen, it may have not even rained by this point. There's different opinions on that. Before the fall in Genesis 3, the world was watered by mists and streams. Regardless, God was describing to Noah something he had never seen before. The world covered in water. And Noah's actions proved that he believed God, though he couldn't see what God was saying. Or even imagine, probably, what he was being warned about. It says, in reverent fear, he constructed an ark for the saving of our household. Our text says this, basically, friends, talk is cheap, but obedience is not. Do you know that to be true?

23:18Talking faithfully is easily done. But actually living faithfully requires obedience to believe what we have not seen, to take the words of God and to believe them and to live by them. And church, you know, that's not easy. Think about Noah. Think about the story a little bit. Imagine you're Noah's neighbors. And he begins building this massive structure in his yard. I mean, this thing was huge. It's a little longer than a football field. And when it was done, it was four stories high. And so he's building the frame for this in his yard. Like, your HOA has a problem with the color of your mailbox, right? This is a whole other level, all right? And keep in mind that the building of the ark wasn't an overnight endeavor. It took somewhere between 75 and 100 years to finish the project. Talk is cheap. Obedience is not.

24:18Noah's faith teaches us to faithfully walk with God in obedience through uncertainty for as long as it takes. For as long as it takes to not give up, to not grow weary of doing good. Even when the world around you shakes their head, even when people think you might be a little crazy. Even when that touches you close to home, when our families do this even. Friends, my brother thinks I'm insane. Things I've heard. How can you live your life by a book? You're wasting your life, Jacob. You have so much talent, Jacob. You could do so many things and you're wasting it. You could make so much money.

25:00You're wasting it. You're wasting your life. I've heard all these things. He loves me, but he's misguided. Faith that believes the unseen, friends, means we orient our lives based on God and his word. And that's it. Not on the approval or disapproval of the culture we live in or the opinions of those we love. We base it on God and his word and what he has said because our God alone is faithful and true and you'll do everything he promised. Amen? Like Noah, you and I need to be faithful before a watching world. Listen, eventually someone was going to ask Noah, uh, Noah, what are you building?

25:47An ark? A what? Uh, a boat. I'm building a big boat. In the middle of nowhere? You're not even near a river. Noah, why? Well, because God's going to judge the world. What? Because God's going to cover the whole earth with water as a judgment for sin. Laughingstock. Crazy. But sin wasn't a laughing matter. And it still isn't, friends. It still isn't. Verse 7 says that by his faith, Noah condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Listen, the Bible doesn't explicitly say that Noah preached warning to the world around him, but I bet he did. Peter in 2 Peter calls Noah preacher of righteousness. He uses that word herald preaching. Noah didn't just build in the ark in silence. He built it in public. His faithful building of the ark was a warning to the world around him.

26:45Every board he placed, every nail he hammered was a sermon to the world around him. Every day that the ark stood unfinished, it was an opportunity for someone to repent, but no one did. Noah preached warning with his life and his faithful obedience. He preached warning. And I wouldn't be surprised if he used his voice as well. Yet the world chose to ignore him. His faith stood in contrast to their corruption. And in this way, our text tells us he condemned the world. And friends, let me say, let our lives be the same. Let our lives be a faithful testimony of God. When we live in obedience to God in a culture that mocks him, we too become living warnings of judgment to come. And that's a good thing. It's a good thing for people to look at your life and say, maybe I'm wrong. Why would they live like that? Maybe I'm wrong. Listen, when we live faithfully before God, we do become living warnings of judgment to come. But here's the really good news. We also become living invitations to God's grace and mercy found in Jesus. We call people to come and to know Jesus. If you don't know Jesus today, I'm calling you to come and to know Jesus. God loves you and he wants to forgive you of your sins. And he has provided the way for that to happen in Jesus. Jesus lived a perfect life in your place. He died a death on the cross in your place. He defeated death by rising so that you would be saved. And that gift is for you. It's free.

28:27And if you don't know how to do that, if you want to know more, come talk to me. Come talk to Joel. Talk to someone you're comfortable with that you know loves Jesus. Today is the day of salvation, the Bible says. Like Noah, let us live faithfully over the long haul as a witness. Amen? Church, the preacher of Hebrews is calling us to live today by our faith. A faith that speaks like Abel's long after we're gone. A faith that walks with God like Enoch and receives the reward.

29:00A faith that obeys like Noah's building and warning and enduring even when it doesn't make worldly sense. The preacher of Hebrews is saying to us, listen, don't just admire their faith, imitate it. These saints believed God without seeing. They took him at his word and they staked their lives on it. And you and I are called to that same kind of life. Listen, when you're tempted to doubt God's promises, remember Noah, hammering away for decades, trusting what he had never seen.

29:35When living faithfully seems to you like it doesn't matter, remember Abel whose worship still speaks long after he's gone. And if you feel forgotten, if you feel unseen, remember Enoch whose faith delighted the heart of his God. God sees you, you're seen. Look, you're probably not going to build a boat this week, but you might build faith in your children. Okay? You might not preach to a corrupt world about your faithful obedience, but your faithful obedience preaches louder than you think it does. And you may never be known like Abel and Enoch and Noah, but God sees your faith.

30:14He sees your faith and he's pleased with you. So new creation, let's be a people who believe God without seeing, who walk by faith, not by sight. Let's be a people who live as if everything God has said is true. Because it is.