The Life of Faith — William MacDonald

About this discipleship intern training program because it's a burden the Lord has laid on our hearts and you could pray with us in it. What we seek to do is gather together a group of young fellows, we pray them in, and we're looking for young fellows who are really highly motivated in the things of the Lord, young fellows who aren't afraid of work, young fellows who are willing to give themselves for the work of the Lord in the local assembly, aspire, if I may say so, to the work of an elder in the local assembly, and we give them a nine month course, first of all introducing them to practical areas of Christian discipleship, and then in the afternoons and the evenings we take them out on various practical forms of Christian work, and I guess this is a very important part of the program, if we have a funeral we take them to the funeral and weddings, meetings, they're on the campus every Thursday, they have home bible classes, evangelistic bible classes, classes with Christians, pastoral visitation, counseling, and all the rest.

And we're finishing our first year in May, Lord willing, and then we start to pray in a new group of fellows. And it really is wonderful how the Lord has led, we don't publicize the program a great deal, but we do pray a great deal, and it's wonderful how God has led fellows that we wonder how they ever heard about the program, but they hear, and they come and they really work hard.

You should think about it, pray. We believe one of the great needs among assemblies of God's people today is for strong spiritual leadership. And we have put ourselves at God's disposal to seek to train young fellows in this direction.

And right now it's really kind of thrilling, as they're finishing their course with us, doors are starting to open. We found a group of Christians up in Stockton who are really exercised to see a New Testament church in Stockton, California.

And two of our boys are praying about going there and just pitching in, getting a job to put bread and butter on the table, and then just giving themselves wholeheartedly to see an assembly planted. Two others are praying about a work in Grand Junction, Colorado, a new work there.

It's wonderful, you know, with the oil shortage, they found a little shale oil in Grand Junction, and people are moving in by the hundreds. Well, Christians are moving in, too, to see a work started for God.

We, like the Apostle Paul, we don't think we've arrived. We're experimenting with this program, but we do praise God for evidences of His leading that we've seen so far. There are any fellows here who are really serious, older, more mature fellows.

We really don't take fellows right out of high school. We'd like to see them get a little practical experience. They must have worked. I don't suppose it's this way in Canada, but I'm sorry to say we have a lot of young fellows who are allergic to work, and that's a disease we don't tolerate.

He wouldn't be happy, really, in the program. But if a fellow really is tremendously highly motivated and really willing to work hard to extend himself, we'd like to talk to him. I'd like to speak with you this afternoon about a sister grace to the one that our brother Annan has been bringing before us.

And incidentally, praise God for the Word of God, how very practical it is, eh? I believe that that material that our brother was giving us this afternoon is the basis for a healthy mental life, don't you?

I really do. What we need is more of the Word of God, really. Well, I'd like to speak on the subject of faith this afternoon, one of the other glorious virtues of the Christian life. And just turn, please, to Hebrews chapter 11.

Faith as Confidence in God's Word

We'll look at it in a general way this afternoon, and then maybe tonight we can look at it and see how it applies to our lives, more specifically, the life of faith. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gift, and by it he being dead, yet speaketh.

By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whether he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.

For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. What is faith? Well I'd like to suggest to you that faith in the biblical sense is utter and complete confidence in the word of God, and complete confidence in the word of God.

God says something to me, I believe it, that's faith. Faith must have some promise of God, some word of God to rest on, otherwise it isn't faith, it's credulity. A lot of people go floating along in cloud number nine just believing in a general sort of Christian science way that everything's going to be working out all right.

Well that's not faith in the bible sense. Faith takes something that God says, and grasps the hold of it, and knows that it's true, and that what he promises will come to pass. And faith in that sense is the most rational, reasonable, sane, logical position you can take.

But I say that for the benefit of our young friends in schools and colleges today, in case they come up across men who look down their intellectual noses at anyone who's so narrow-minded to have faith.

I like to tell you something, faith is the most rational, reasonable, logical, sensible, sane thing a person can do. What is more reasonable than that a creature should believe his creator? That's what faith is.

It's setting your seal to what God has said that it's true. And it is. And of course in that sense there's no risk involved in faith. There's no risk in believing God. Unfortunately we have some theological definitions that lead us astray.

You hear people say that faith is taking a leap in the dark and finding the solid rock underneath. Well it's nothing of the sort. Faith is not a leap in the dark. Faith is appropriating what God says, knowing that it's true.

That incidentally is what truth is. Truth is what God says about a thing, isn't it? It's what truth is. It's what God says about a thing. The Lord Jesus said, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.

Faith in the Invisible and Future Promises of God

It's wonderful, really. Faith deals in the realm of the invisible and of the future. And it deals in the realm of the impossible, too. But faith is a wonderful thing. God tells me something hasn't happened yet.

Maybe it never happened yet in the history of the world. And yet the minute he tells me I believe that, and it's just as sure as if it had already taken place. Isn't that a wonderful thing? God promises us that our salvation will one day be complete when we receive our glorified bodies.

We're going to be taken to heaven in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, and we're going to be receiving a glorified body that will be forever free from sin, suffering, sickness, disease, death. I've never seen heaven.

And I'd like to tell you something, friends, I'm just as sure of it as I stand here today as the people who are already there. Why? Because God said it, that's why. More happy, but not more secure, the souls of the blessed in heaven.

And that's a wonderful thing, that faith can take things that are invisible and that are not yet, and make them real in my life right now. Because that's what the first verse we read said. Faith is the substance of things.

You say, that's just exactly what it is. It isn't the substance of things. Ah, but it is. It is. I believe the promise of God, and it's real to me right now. You know, it's possible to live in heaven a long time before you ever get there.

I know a lot of people have gone to heaven, but they weren't strangers when they got there. They'd been living there for years. Why, by faith. It's a wonderful thing, isn't it? Faith is the substance of things, hope, for the evidence of things not seen.

Now, I say that faith often deals in the realm of the impossible, and I like that. I think it was George Mueller that said that faith begins where possibilities end. Isn't that good? Faith begins where possibilities end.

And so often in the history of the world, and we'll see it in this chapter, God comes along and he says things to men that, humanly speaking, they're absurd. And there's no historical background for it at all.

Ah, but God said it, and that makes it sure. Isn't that wonderful? God said it, just as sure as it already happened. And then, we're going to see in this chapter today that faith is often tested, too.

In fact, it's always tested. But once again, if I can quote George Mueller, he said, trials are food for faith to feed on. And in this chapter we're going to be reading, we're going to find a lot of God's people, and they had promises from God, and they believed the promises of God, but I'll tell you, the years went by and they never saw the fulfillment.

And some of them died and never saw the fulfillment. But just before they died, they waved to them. They were so real. The fulfillment of the promises was so real that they embraced them and waved to them.

I'll tell you, that's the kind of faith that you have in the Bible. Faith, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It says in verse 2, "...for by it the elders obtained a good report.".

The elders in that verse refer to the patriarchs of the Old Testament period that we will be reading about in the following verses. How do they have witness born to them? Because of their fantastic, intelligent quotient?

Ah, no. Because of their fantastic faith quotient, that's how. Just because they had the simplicity to believe what God said, even though everything naturally was against it. And God bore witness to them, and he inscribed their names in his honor roll forever.

Creation Understood Through Faith

Okay, we're going to talk about faith. Where shall we begin? Well, the writer says, why don't you go back to the beginning? Well, that's a good place to begin. How did the world come into being? How did man come into being?

Well, I'll tell you, there's only one way to find out, and that's talk to the person who was there. The only person who was there was God. The triune God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

Alright, how did the world come into being? Well, through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. Could I just stop with those first four words? Through faith we understand.

Once again, I guess I'm thinking an awful lot of the young people who are with us today, because this is so much ridiculed in scientific, intellectual circles today. Just grab a hold of those four words.

Through faith we understand. That says an awful lot. It's the only way you do understand, really. You see, it's the opposite. Man says, seeing is believing. God says, believing is seeing. You believe what I say, and you will understand it.

And this is a consistent testimony of the word of God. When the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross, they said, come down from the cross that we may see and believe. That's interesting. We believe today because he didn't come down from the cross.

Because he was there bearing the load of your sins and mine on the cross. But that's the heart of man. Come down from the cross that we may see and believe. Jesus said to Martha, said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God.

You believe first, Martha, and you will see. And then John tells us in his first epistle, chapter 5, verse 13, these things have I written unto you that believe that ye may know. Believe first, and then you'll know.

And that's what the writer is saying here in this verse. Through faith we understand. My advice to people, young people and old people today, is this. Trust the word of God. And never allow a doubt concerning the scriptures to stain your mind.

We were singing today about the Bible stands, how true it is. Through the onslaughts of men, down through the years, the Bible stands. Don't ever allow a doubt concerning the Bible to stain your mind.

No matter what men say. After all, the men of this world have no right to say anything in the realm of faith. Because it says in 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, that it's impossible for them to know. Neither can they know them.

It's not just that they are unwilling to know them, unable, they just can't know them. It's a realm that they have no right really to invade. Through faith we understand. What do we understand? We understand the worlds were framed by the word of God.

Somebody might be tempted to say, well that's not a very scientific explanation of creation, but it really is. Because we know today, we know today that matter is energy. That's what this verse is saying, God's full energy, matter came into being.

It took science a long time to come to that, but it's been in Hebrews 11 all down through the years. Matter essentially is energy is matter times the square of light. Einstein said, what does it say? Matter is energy, that's what this verse says.

God spoke, the world came into being. And then what else does it say? It says, so that the things that are seen were not made of things which do appear. Well of course this is basic now, isn't it? Everybody knows this now.

Never seen a proton, never seen an atom, never seen a neutron. Yet this is what matter is made of. So the good old bible is right here as relevant as it can be. You never need to worry that you're taking any risk in believing the word of God.

You take the risk but you depart from it. Alright, so much for creation. Who's he going to go to now when he's going to speak of human beings who've exercised faith? With whom shall we begin? Well, strangely enough he begins with Abel.

Abel's Sacrifice and Righteousness by Faith

Has he forgotten someone? Strange, he didn't begin with Adam and Eve. You'd think Adam and Eve would come in next, wouldn't you? No they don't. Adam and Eve have passed over in this passage of the word of God.

Why, I wonder. Why did he skip Adam and Eve? Well I think I know the answer. I think I know the answer. God revealed himself to Adam and Eve. God said, here it is friends, the garden. You can eat of all the trees of the garden.

This one tree, don't eat of it. You eat of it, the day you eat of it you'll surely die. And then one day the devil came along and said to Eve, well how are you getting along? She said, well fine. He says, have some fruit, be my guest.

She said, well we can eat of all the trees of the garden but we can't eat of that tree. He said, who said so? Well she said, God said so. Well he said, it isn't true. He said, go ahead and eat of it, you won't die.

And Eve that day was faced with a choice. She had to decide whether God was a liar or Satan was a liar. And she decided that God was a liar. All the sorrow and all the sickness and all the suffering and all the death that has come into the world came in as a result of the sin of Adam and Eve in calling God a liar.

What do you think of that? You say, oh sin isn't so great. It isn't. Pardon me, it's pretty great. He said, God's a liar, Satan is telling the truth. How shocking, yes. And if you're here on stage today, that's just what you're saying too.

If you never trusted Christ as your Savior, that's exactly what you're saying. Satan's saying, put it off, you know, you've got your life to live, you know. He's sitting there on your shoulder telling you all these things, you know, postpone the decision for Christ.

God is saying, now is the accepted time, now is it. People would rather believe the devil than believe God. The human heart is much more prone to believe error. Fallen human nature, much more prone to believe error than to believe the truth.

Paul says, am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth? That's it. The writer of the Hebrews skips over Adam and Eve, and I think I can see why, can't you? Imagine, imagine calling God the liar, and calling Satan the one who's telling the truth, he the one who is a liar from the very beginning.

And so he skips Adam and Eve and he goes on to Abel, and it says here by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gift.

And he, and by it, he being dead yet speaketh. Abel. God appeared. Faith must be based upon some word from God. Some revelation from God, and we believe that God gave a revelation to those two young fellows, I don't know when.

Doesn't say when, but God appeared to them, either through the instruction of their parents, or in some other way, and said, look, sin has come in, and sin has created distance between God and man, and if you're going to approach me, you must approach me on the ground of the blood of a sacrificial victim.

And those two fellows were faced with a choice, and the choice was whether they believe God or not. And Abel said, well, I'll believe God. Then he went and he flew the animal, and he came to God with the sacrificial blood.

And Cain said, not me, I've got a better way than that. But he went out to his garden and picked his vegetables and his fruit and brought them to God, and there wasn't a drop of blood in the whole basket.

It wasn't harmless at all. It wasn't harmless at all. Abel's faith grasped a hold of the word of God and said, I might not understand all the theological technicalities connected with redemption by blood, but God has said it, and I'm going to do it.

You don't really have to understand all the technicalities. All you have to do is just believe God and leave the consequences with him. And Cain said, no, I just don't see it that way. I never have cared for that slaughterhouse religion myself, and I'll come another way.

By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. He was reckoned righteous on the basis of his faith. And incidentally, let me just pause here to say, faith in the Bible is a non-meritorious act.

That solves a conundrum that we face all the time in talking to people about the gospel. We say to them, you don't have to do anything, all you have to do is believe. We say this double talk. You don't have to do anything, all you have to do is believe.

When we say you don't have to do anything, we mean there's nothing of a meritorious nature that you can do to be saved. And faith is not meritorious. I can't pat myself on the back and say, nice going, McDonalds, you believed God.

I'd be a fool not to believe him. You see, it's not meritorious. Faith is just coming and accepting what God has said. And that's what Abel did. No merit involved. God justified him on the basis of faith through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.

And God justified of his gifts in buying it, he being dead yet to speak of it. I think that's wonderful. You know, the life of faith is a wonderful life. It enables your vocal cords to go on operating long after your body is lying in the grave.

And Abel's body has returned to dust long since, and he's talking to us this afternoon. What's he saying? He's saying, look friends, there's only one life that really counts, it's the life of faith. Isn't that what he's saying?

It's pretty good. Vocal cords keep on going. By it, he being dead yet to speak of it. Do you want a life to count? Do you want a life where the results of that life will outlast your earthly tenure? The life of faith.

The life of faith. I tell you, it beats everything else that's going. And then we come next to a man named Enoch. Wonderful, really. The more I study it, the more thrilled I am with it. God, sometime in this man's life, God appeared to Enoch and said, Enoch, you're never going to die.

Enoch's Walk of Faith and Pleasing God

And Enoch believed the Lord. That was really something. He said, I'm going to translate you. I'm going to take you to heaven without dying. And Enoch believed the Lord. Was there any risk? No. The minute God said that, it was absolutely sure.

Enoch wasn't taking any risk. He believed God and he was translated that he should not see death. He was not found. God had translated him, but before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God.

That's a wonderful thing. I'll tell you why it's wonderful, because up to that time in the history of the world, everybody either had died or was in the process of dying. And Enoch couldn't look back on any history that would corroborate what God had said.

It was something new, something unique, something unparalleled. But he believed God. You know, God says to us today, behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. We shall all be changed. It's possible.

It's possible that most of us, if not all of us here in the room this afternoon, could go to heaven without ever dying. How many believe that? Well, quite a few of you believe it. But it's not as much credit to you to believe it as it was to Enoch.

Because you can look back and I can look back and say, look, it happened to Enoch. If it happened to Enoch, it can happen to somebody else. I can say it happened to Elijah. He went to heaven without dying.

If it happened twice, it can happen three times. But I'll tell you, poor Enoch, he couldn't go and look it up in the Encyclopedia Britannica or anywhere else and find any previous evidence of this ever happening.

But God said it, and it was absolutely sure to Enoch. It's wonderful, isn't it? Really wonderful. You say, where does common sense come in? Wouldn't common sense have told Enoch, this is impossible? I tell you, sometimes in the things of the Lord, in the realm of the Spirit, you have to throw common sense, so-called, out the window.

Faith is higher than common sense, because man's common sense has been perverted by sin, and it's not as trustworthy as the Word of God is. Before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God.

How did he please God? By believing His Word. That's how he pleased Him. God loves it when people take Him at His Word. I really believe that with all my heart. I believe God is looking for men and women, young men and women, who will come to the Bible with their minds on their knees and bow in submission to the Word of God.

If God says it, I believe it. Whether I see anybody else around me practicing, I don't care. I'm going to believe the Word of God. That's really what counts in the spiritual realm. God loves the meek, the humble, the obedient heart.

He really does. He says without faith it's impossible to please Him. Why? Because if I don't believe God, I'm calling Him a liar. It says that in 1 John 5, it says, He that believeth not hath made God a liar.

And really that's a serious thing. It's a serious thing to look up into the face of your Creator and say you're a liar. Without faith it's impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

Two things here a person must believe. First of all, he must believe that God exists, that God is. Now that's important, but it's not enough. The other thing is he must believe that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

That means he must believe that if God says something, he'll do it. I told you five years ago, and I was here with a young fellow, and he came to me and he said, Mr. McDonald, either the Bible means what it says, or we ought to throw it away.

I said, oh, how shocking. Not shocking at all. God loves that attitude. Either the Bible means what it says, or we ought to throw it away. You show me a man or a woman who lives on that principle, and I'll show you a man or a woman God is blessing today.

Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. You must believe that He is. You must believe that He does what He says He will do. God came to Noah, and God said to Noah, Noah, I'm going to destroy the world with a flood.

Noah's Faith in the Coming Judgment

And Noah could have said, what's a flood, Lord? Because up to that time in the history of the world, I don't believe there had been any floods here. I don't think that the word flood was in the Webster's Collegiate Dictionary at that time.

As far as we know, there never had been rain up to this time in the history of the world. The ground was irrigated by a mist that came up from the ground. And God said to Noah, Noah, I'm going to destroy the world with a flood.

What did Noah do? Well, he not only believed, he went to work. He went to work, and sometimes faith does put you in a position that seems rather ridiculous in the eyes of the world. But think of that dear man of faith, building a landlocked ark.

Far from the waters, far from navigable waters. I can hear the taunts of the onlookers. And they have clever ways of expressing their contempt and their jibes. Didn't bother Noah, because God said it.

And I'll tell you, the minute God said it, that flood was just as sure as if the rain were already falling. But God tests faith, and that dear man of faith waited 120 years. How do you like that? 120 years.

Trials are food for faith to feed on. Did his faith weaken during that time? No, he went on hammering away and preaching. He was a preacher of righteousness, the scripture says. And he never flagged in his calling.

Telling people, look friends, only one way, one place of safety is the ark. If you want to be saved, get into the ark. What does it say? By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness, which is by faith.

I don't know how you feel about it. I believe God's going to destroy the heavens and the earth the way we have them now by fire in a coming day, because it says so in 2 Peter 3. And I believe it with all my heart.

I believe that the sustainer of the universe is just going to take his hand of control off matter, and it's all going to go up in one great nuclear blast. I believe that. But I don't think it's as much credit for me to believe that as it was for Noah to believe what he believed.

Because once again, he had no historical background for it, no historical precedent. He believed against all impossibilities. Faith, mighty faith, the promise these, and looked to God alone, lost at impossibilities, and cried, it shall be done.

Abraham's Obedient Pilgrimage and Heavenly Hope

And then, dear Abraham, and what a dear man of God he was, by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should ask to receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whether he went.

That's really something, isn't it? Man brought up in heathen idolatry, and God appears to him and says, I want you to move, I'm not going to tell you where, but I'll go before you, I'll lead you the way.

Abraham, that's good enough for me, Lord, I'd rather walk in the dark with God than walk alone in the light. Faith. This is in the next verse, that although God gave him that whole land of Canaan, and I really love this, God gave him the whole thing, yet he said, there's something better than this.

There's something better than this, he said, and so he was content to live in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. It's really wonderful, you know. Here's a man, and wealth, the whole thing was his.

He said, oh no, there's something better than Canaan. You know, there's a sense in which this whole world belongs to the child of God, and I really believe that all things are yours, and ye are Christ, and Christ is God.

I believe that whole aeronautical industry was arranged yesterday for the people of God, and today as well. I believe that all the public services are arranged for the people of God. All things are yours.

And I think God looks down and he sees his people down here, and they could be living in luxury comfort and ease, and they prefer to live a pilgrim life, and it pleases the heart of God. It pleases the heart of God.

That's what it says in this verse. Verse 9, By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. Why? It says, for he looked for the city.

I think in some of your versions of the Bible, it's fine instead of a city, it says he looked for the city, which has the foundation, whose builder and maker is God. And what that says to me is that in the reckoning of faith, there's only one city that's really worth the name.

And it isn't Calgary, it isn't New York or Washington or anything like that. It's the heavenly home. That's a wonderful thing, isn't it? God makes this promise to man, sets man down here on this earth for a little time, and gives him the promise of an eternal home, and a man lives in the light of that eternal home with God in heaven.

The life of faith is really the only rational life. In the next verses it tells how God promised to Abraham a numerous posterity. Abraham and Sarah, impossible for them to have a child. Not when God says it.

Not when God says it. God says your posterity is going to be like the stars of the sky in multitude and the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. And Abraham had to wait. He had to wait 25 years before that boy was born.

25 years is a long time. But I want to tell you something else. When Abraham died, he was 175. Numerous posterity. He had one son, 75, and two grandsons, 15. But he died in faith, giving glory to God.

And the promise to him of a numerous posterity and a seed in whom the world would be blessed, which is as real to him as it had already come. Don't ever hesitate to believe God. Faith, unbounded confidence, is the word of the living God.