By Faith - [Hebrews 11:1-3]

The Father’s Love, the Incarnation, and a New Hymn

Some people think that because Jesus died, then the Father's able to love us. But of course, it's the other way around. Because the Father did love us, he sent his son to die on our behalf. What a great reminder.

I also don't know if you know, congregation, that song we sang, the incarnation, our incarnation, Tim Pierce wrote that. So I was glad to sing a new hymn written by our own Tim Pierce. So thank you, Tim, for that.

And I wanted him to say, I wrote this song, but I knew you wouldn't do that, so. I said to Pastor Steve, as we were singing the song, Pastor Steve, have you checked this song for theological accuracy?

And he just gave me that Steve look. Steve, thanks for preaching last week. I heard it was a great message from Ephesians 2. I hope you were encouraged, your congregation. When I was growing up, we didn't read very much.

And I don't know if that was because of our teachers. That's because we were living in Nebraska. But I do remember reading a few books. Most of the Cliff Notes I read. I remember reading Jaws, Contiki, Alive.

I remember Mad Magazine we regularly read. I remember Guinness Book of World Records. And probably the one I read the most, not in one sitting, of course, was, do you remember in the late 70s, the Book of Lists?

All the different lists put together by David Walakensky and his father Irving Wallace and sister Amy Wallace. And they just had a list of all kinds of different things. The longest lists of places where you should not hitchhike.

People suspected of being Jack the Ripper. People misquoted by Ronald Reagan. There was a lot of things in that list. Breeds of dogs that bite the most and the least, et cetera. But today we're gonna look at the list of lists.

Out of all the lists that are in the world, this is the list. Turn your Bibles, please, to Hebrews chapter 11. The list of all lists, Hebrews 11. I've been waiting for this chapter. I know you have as well.

And here's the issue in this example list, in this biblical list, the most famous list I think in the world, is that like John 3 .16, maybe it's your favorite verse in all the Bible, the most quoted verse in all the Bible, it's also not understood very well.

Most people don't know the meaning of John 3 .16 because they forget the context, they forget it starts with the word for, so they have a hard time with it. Similar fashion, in a similar fashion, we don't understand Hebrews 11 because it's almost too familiar to us.

We just accept it as this hall of faith, as this roll call of the faithful. And so today we're gonna look at Hebrews chapter 11, probably just an overview of it and the first couple of verses, because I want you to understand it, I want you to read it.

And as you do, I want you to read it with understanding, and then it will help you all the more to say, you know, Lord, what you've done for these people, and how you're immutable, and how you don't change, and how you're their God and you're my God in the midst of trials.

I think you'll be encouraged. And so we're gonna look at today Hebrews chapter 11, the hall of faith as some call it, this great chapter in the Bible. And my goal this morning is simple. I just want you to understand this passage better.

I wrestled with Hebrews 11 the last two weeks longer than maybe any other section in Hebrews, or at least tied, because I come to the passage and I think I know what it means, but then I wanna make sure I understand exactly what God is saying.

So we're gonna have a little bit different approach today, but I think you'll be encouraged. As you know, this book, the book of Hebrews, is the exaltation of Christ Jesus. He, the writer, the preacher, has an announcement.

And this announcement is no matter who you compare Jesus to, He is better. He uses that word better often. He's superior. And you can think of the greatest people, the greatest creatures, the greatest things in all the world.

And you can think, you know what? When I actually compare them and put them on a scale, Jesus has more weight. He has more gravity. He has more gravitas. All these other things are like feathers compared to the weight of pewter in the essence and nature of Jesus.

You think angels are great? They have nothing on Jesus. You think Moses was great? And angels were great. Moses was great, but they have nothing on Jesus. You think the system of sacrifice and errand and the old covenant with all its smells and bells and beauty and purple and pomegranates and substitution in shadow form, you think that was great?

And it was, Jesus is greater. And this writer wants to make sure you think the same way he does. What's the purpose of showing the greatness of Jesus? For you to just brush him off? For you to say that's good for you?

That was good 2000 years ago? No, the preacher wants you to believe in what he believes, right? The purpose is for you to say, yes, matter of fact, I get bogged down during the week. Trials come, issues come, sickness comes.

I need to kind of have a reboot to make sure I remember that Jesus is great. Every Saturday night, I do the same thing. I set up my clothes, get everything ready. I don't want any kind of chaos on Sunday morning because I know when I get here, the chaos will be waiting for me.

And I always reboot my iPad on Saturday night because I don't want any glitches. And so every Sunday morning, since we live in this world of law and do, and have you done enough? Have you earned God's favor?

How could you do that this week? Everything we go through in our mind mentally, we need a reboot. And here's the reboot. I have good news for you. That no matter what you've done in terms of your failings and your sins and your lawlessness, dear Christian, Jesus's atonement is enough for you.

And he's proved that by being raised from the dead. And so this writer wants you to think the way he thinks. And the way he thinks is simple. No matter what your eyes see and no matter what you go through, you can trust the word of God.

You can trust the Lord Jesus. I love this book because it's all about Jesus. I said to Larry this week on the phone, hope to see you on Sunday. And if I see I got a deal for you, Larry, I'll tell you about who Jesus is.

And he said, okay. No wonder they call Hebrews the fifth gospel because the gospel of Jesus Christ, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John extoll Jesus. One trick pony, one string guitar, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

Does anybody have any good news for me? Yes, Jesus is superior. If you're here today and you're not trusting in this Jesus, that is our hope and our prayer that you would bow the knee in repentance and faith and trust in this risen savior.

How to Interpret Hebrews 11 in Context

How do we interpret Hebrews chapter 11? You might be saying, Mike, you think it's hard. I think it's easy. And maybe that's true. Or maybe you were thinking like I thought when I first approached this familiar text.

So this morning, let me give you for an outline some very practical ways to interpret Hebrews 11 properly. How do we hermeneutically, how do we with interpretation look at this passage to understand it rightly?

Because if you don't get it right, it's not God's word, right? The text is what God says. And if we have a different interpretation, it's not the right interpretation, that would be wrong. So we want to know what God has said when he spoke by the Holy Spirit through this writer.

Maybe Paul, maybe someone else. How do I understand Hebrews chapter 11? That's the outline. Let me just read the very beginning of the passage and then at the end for a framework before we get into the outline.

Hebrews 11 verse one ESV. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, 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.

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.

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 is impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

And then we have the long list of Noah, Abraham, Sarah, and others. Skip down to verse 36. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword.

They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised since God had provided something better for us that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.

This chapter, I'm not exaggerating, is epic. This chapter is foundational and this chapter is very, very encouraging. How do we understand it? In order to understand Hebrews 11, number one, you must grasp the context.

You said, no surprise here, pastor, we understand context is important. And so these principles that I'm gonna give you for Hebrews 11, by the way, work for any place in the Bible. So you say, well, how do we interpret the Bible, this text that's at least 2 ,000 years old, written in Greek in the New Testament, Old Testament Hebrew and Aramaic, different culture, Eastern, we're Western, all these things that are different, how do we interpret this book?

And so if you use these principles that I'm using this morning with Hebrews 11, you will be helped. Number one, context. Now, the first thing that we see here is the word now. Do you see it in chapter 11, verse one?

Some chapter divisions in the Bible are wonderful and some chapter divisions in the Bible are not helpful. This is one of those where it falls into the second category. If you think of Galatians 5 at the end, it talks about that the fruit of the Spirit is what?

Love, joy, peace. And then we have chapter six, like it's this new chapter, but while love, joy, and peace are attitude fruits of the Spirit, what's the action fruit of the Spirit? When the Spirit is working in the hearts of people, what's it look like?

Answer, chapter six of Galatians, you restore people who fall into sin. Here we have chapter 11, kind of like it's just dropped in the middle of nowhere. It has something that it follows and it has something that comes after it.

This familiar passage, Hebrews 11, needs to be thought of in my super technical, and I'm sorry to, you know, you're not supposed to use polysyllabic words from the pulpit, our super technical things from the pulpit, but I must do it today.

Think about this as a sandwich. End of chapter 10 is the bread. Chapter 12 at the beginning is the bread. And the centerpiece, the meat, is chapter 11. So whenever I think of chapter 11, I think something came before it, something comes after.

It's like a sandwich. And so to understand 11, what does it have before? What does it have after? Let's find out. The two questions solve the problem. How does 10 end? How does 12 begin? Therefore, you won't have this disconnected from everything else.

Chapter 10, verse 32 of Hebrews, with this theme of endurance. And you're gonna see that word endure, our endurance, in both end of 10 and the beginning of 12. Hebrews 10, 32. But recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, sometimes being partners with those so treated.

For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession, and an abiding one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward, for you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.

What do you tell people who are suffering and they're Hebrews? You give them the Bible, and he gives a little composite of Isaiah 26 and Habakkuk 2 in the next two verses. He gives them the Bible. For yet for a little while, the coming one, the Lord Jesus, the one who was, the one who is, and the one to come, will come and will not delay.

This isn't going to last forever. And then he gives the quote that's very familiar from Reformation time, from Habakkuk 2, from Romans 1, from Galatians 3, but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, that's the opposite of faith.

My soul has no pleasure in him. This isn't going to last forever, so you need to endure. This is language, by the way, in secular usage, that the men at the front line, the infantry men, are approached by the lieutenant, or maybe a colonel.

And he says, hold the line for a little while longer. The cavalry's coming. Backups are coming. He has said in chapter nine, we are waiting for the soon return of Jesus for salvation. We are eagerly awaiting for him.

How do you help people persevere that are Jewish? You give them the scriptures, and then it says in verse 39, do you see it? But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Of course, holding fast and having faith isn't a condition of their salvation, it's an evidence of their salvation. But that's what we're talking about here at the end of 10. Endure, have faith, don't shrink back, persevere.

That's the top part of the sandwich. What's the bottom part of the sandwich? Go to chapter 12, verses one and two. Therefore, Hebrews 12, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the human Jesus, the God-man Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, what?

Endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. You see what's happening? Chapter 10 at the end, endure, don't shrink back, don't be like those apostates.

Keep believing. I know you're going through trouble, I know you're going through persecution, I know there's difficult times, but you can't go back, you have to keep walking by faith. Because Jesus has endured.

Because Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith. And here's the other thing that I think some forget when they look at Hebrews chapter 11, when it comes to context. These Jewish people, think about it for a second.

When I thought about this this week, this was kind of one of those, oh, one of these great moments. If I ever were to just do this in my office and just think, oh God, thank you, this would be the time.

You ready? Jews, you want to go back because you're getting persecuted. Everything was fine in your life and the temple's right over there and you're worshiping and everything's fine. You're introduced to Jesus, the Messiah.

You say you trust in Him, you say you believe in Him and now everything breaks loose. Trouble, persecutions, they take your home, you're on the run, you can't go out in public, you can't serve, you can't eat, you can't be part of the synagogue, you can't do anything and you're thinking, is it worth it?

Should I go back? By the way, everybody in Hebrews chapter 11, they're Jewish people who are looking forward. Enoch was looking forward to the day you're in. Noah was looking for the day you're in. Abraham was looking for the day you're in.

They were all looking for the Messiah to come and by the way, He's come and you have Him by faith. Why would you go back? I mean, you would just be caught in a loop forever because you're thinking, I better go back to Judaism because if I go back to Judaism, life's easier.

Go back to Judaism, what was Judaism doing? Looking forward, looking to the Messiah. Sarah, Abraham, Samson, they all were looking for the One who's come. Now you've got Him. Don't go back. Difficult times, you're going to stop believing in Jesus?

No, you can't do that, endure. All these Jews were looking for the Messiah, Jesus. And there's a whole list of all these people. One writer said, chapter 11 is a challenge to remember what the original purpose of the old covenant was all about.

You want to go back to the old covenant? Your fathers of the old covenant were looking by faith to what you now possess in the gospel. Why would you want to go back since what you now have fulfills their expectations?

Recognize Figures of Speech: Anaphora and the Faith/Faithfulness Distinction

How do you understand this book? Number one, grasp context. Number two, recognize figures of speech. Recognize figures of speech. Now there's all kinds of figures of speech in the Bible. And you can think of similes and metaphors and Leviticus and other things.

We have figures of speech in Hebrews chapter 11. And if you get them, or if you get it, especially you'll understand the Bible better. Now, what is a figure of speech? It's been defined as a word or a sentence thrown into a particular form different from its original or simplest meaning or use.

And the Bible's full of figure of speeches. I pulled out my Bollinger's figures of speech a book this week. It's a good doorstop. I don't use it that often because I have everything I need in kind of digital forms.

But even the table of contents is 28 pages with 200 different kinds of figures of speech. Why would the Bible have figures of speech? Well, there's lots of reasons. It makes you remember things. It adds color.

It's vivid. It's spectacular. I mean, if I told you it's really raining hard, you'd go, yeah, it's raining hard. If I said something like it's raining cats and dogs, you'd go, oh, okay, I can pay attention to that.

If I said, so-and-so is a good gardener. They're horticulturally adept. Easy for you to say. If I said, no, that person has a what? A green thumb. Oh, it's just an interesting way to say it. I don't know what you call your spouse.

Maybe you call your spouse honey, sweetheart. Those are all figures of speech. Maybe you have heard of Jesus called the Lamb of God. There's different ways that figures of speech come together. And it just helps you remember.

It gives color, vividness, boldness. God is faithful. God is trustworthy. But I could say this way. God is a rock, a refuge, a mighty fortress. That's a figure of speech. Well, the figure of speech found in Hebrews chapter 11 is, does anybody know?

I will buy you a coffee if you know the name. It's a Greek word. Anybody know the figure of speech? That if you get this, you probably get Hebrew. Hebrews 11, anaphora. I didn't say anaphylaxis. Anaphora, A-N-A-P-H-O-R-A.

Anaphora. And what you would do is you repeat something, the first few lines of something over and over and over so that you would remember it. So it would flow. So it would have this repetition of these sequence of words so that you would go, oh, I get the emphasis.

Now, before we look at our passage, Shakespeare said, mad world, mad kings, mad composition. William Blake said, what the hammer, what the chain, in what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil, what dread grasp, dare its deadly tears clasp?

Byron said, strike as I struck the foe. Strike as I would have struck those tyrants. Strike deep as my curse. Strike, but only once. And when you probably know, and why do you know it? Why do you know this almost by heart?

From Dickens' Tale of Two Cities. It was the best of times. What's the next sentence? It's anaphora. It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom. It was the age of foolishness. It was the epic of belief.

It was the epic of incredulity. It was the season of light. You can study, even today, Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech, I Have a Dream, regularly repeating that phrase. Psalm 29, anaphora. The voice of the Lord is over the waters.

The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness.

The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forest bare. That's anaphora. A repeating of a sequence of words at the beginning of the clause. And so what's our anaphora here? By faith, by faith, by faith.

He wants you to remember it. He wants you to be inspired by it. He wants you to be encouraged by it. That's why you use anaphora. He's trying to persuade. He's trying to inspire you to think through this.

And it's kind of tricky because at the beginning of this anaphora chapter, Noah, Enoch, Abraham, and you're just kind of caught up and it's going well. And they're all doing pretty good. Life is good for them.

Enoch walked with God and then God took him. He didn't walk any longer. And by the time you're taken into this anaphora and you're just kind of sauntering through this, by the end, we're getting sawn in two.

Very, very effective way to motivate, to have people remember, to have this example list. As you walk through this example list, this anaphora, you're gonna see it's just not an example of a person. They are what I call redemptive examples.

People who have been redeemed by the Messiah and people who are looking forward. And why is that so important for those who are going through trials? It's like Graham Scroggie, a pastor in Scotland years and years ago.

He was a new pastor, young, made some changes. And what do they usually do to pastors who are young and make changes? Done, right? Never happened to you, Bob? Out of everybody here, Bob's the main one smiling.

He stood his ground, he gets kicked out. He's got no house, no way to provide for his wife and two children. And a guy came up and said, pastor Scroggie, what are you going to do? And he said, well, I'm gonna do what I did before I got fired.

I'm gonna walk by faith and I'm gonna trust in God's promises. These people are in this chapter to motivate you to say, you know what, no matter what I'm going through, I can trust in who the Lord is.

He hasn't let me down. I can't see him, I can see my trials. He is invisible and my trials and temptations are not, but I'm gonna be encouraged. I'm led along this redemptive list all the way up to and including the Lord Jesus.

You'll notice in this anaphora, forward-looking, future examples. By faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. How do you understand any book of the Bible, any chapter of the Bible, any verse of the Bible?

Recognize grass context, number two. Recognize figures of speech, number three. You ready for this one? You know this all too well, dear congregation. Read carefully the passage, read slowly. Now here's the trick.

The anaphora here is by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. But if you don't read slowly, if you don't read carefully, here's what you read because we all do it together. By faithfulness, by faithfulness, by faithfulness, by faithfulness.

We don't see by faith, we see by faithful. And there is a difference, faith and faithfulness. Faith is not faithfulness. Talked about this many years ago and regularly talk about it. If I ask you, are you a person of faith?

Most of you would say, especially here at BBC, yes. What does that look like, you being a person of faith? And what do you say to me? I read the Bible, I pray, go to church, have a ministry, try to use my spiritual gifts.

Amen, praise the Lord. But that's not a definition of faith. That's a definition of what? Faithfulness. If I said, tell me, are you a person of faith? Yes, I am. What's that look like to you? Well, here's what it looks like.

It's not always a powerful believing, but I do believe even with a little bit of faith, even just a weak faith, that Jesus Christ is who He said He is. And that He is the eternal Son and He adds humanity so that He could be our representative and so He could bear my sins, so that He could be born of a woman, born under a law, that He might redeem us from the curse of the law.

And He was raised from the dead. And He said, if you believe in Me, you'll have eternal life. And I'm all in trusting Jesus. That's a person not of faithfulness, but of faith. So when we come to this chapter, if you're not careful, you're going to think, Abel, faithful.

Enoch, faithful. Abraham, faithful. Sarah, faithful. Noah, faithful. Jephthah, faithful. Samson, faithful. And you're going to think to yourself, I'm in trials and I'm not doing what I should be doing, and I'm sorry that I don't and I'm repenting of those things, but I could never be those faithful people.

But if you look at this with the word faith, for faith in Jesus, the Messiah, who for us has come and for them would come, that's completely different. And on your deathbed, if I say to you, how faithful have you been?

You'll know I'm tricking you because I'll want you to end up saying, what kind of faith do you have? No, who is the object of your faith? If you are less than faithful, this chapter is important for you.

Now, by the way, the word faithful is found in Hebrews 11, true or false? By faith is found, I think 18 times. Is faithful found in the book of Hebrews 11? The word faithful. You say, well, maybe you're playing this game, faith, faithfulness.

Oh yes, you know what? I will give you the exception. Faithful is found in Hebrews 11, 11. Let's read it together. By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

Oh, sorry, the word faithful is found in Hebrews 11, but it's spoken of God being faithful. I mean, when you look at chapter 11, verse seven, and we'll get into this next week as well. By faith, Noah.

Can you imagine? He's warned by God. 120 years, he starts constructing the ark. It had never rained before. It says in your text, does it not? In reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household.

You know, these Jewish people who got this knew what Noah did when he got out of the boat. And what did Noah do when he got out of the boat? Genesis nine, Noah began to be a man of the soil and he planted a vineyard.

He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father.

Their faces were turned backwards and they did not see their father's nakedness. Not too faithful, but Noah had faith. What about Samson? What do we do later in the book, chapter 11, with Samson in verse 32?

I mean, we could talk about Jacob, the deceiver. What do we do with him? We could talk about Abraham. Don't sleep with her. She's my, don't kill me. Sleep with my sister. She's not my wife times two. We could go through the list here.

But I mean, the ones that really get me are Samson and Japheth, especially Samson. If you think faithful, you're not gonna get it. If you think by faith, Samson, you'll understand. Listen to Judges 14.

Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. Then he came up and told his father and mother. Is this how you talk to your dad? I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah.

Now get her for me as my wife. If Luke ever said that to me. But his father and mother said to him, is there not a woman, I can almost hear the dad, kind of a mousy dad. But is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives or among all our peoples that you must go take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?

And Samson said to his father, get her for me, for she is right in my eyes. Samson's in the hall of faithfulness? No, he's in the hall of faith. Judges 16, Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went to her.

And he went into her. You know the rest of the story. So what I want you to do when you look at the Bible, and especially Hebrews 11, because we're gonna be at it in the next five to six weeks probably, I want you to say, you know, what's the context?

Endurance chapter 10, endurance chapter 12, endurance by faith in chapter 11. I want you to say there are figures of speech that are going on here, so I can recognize things like by faith, by faith, by faith.

I want you to not read too fast, so you just don't accept what you normally think is there, but you're processing through. By faith is different than by faithfulness. Number four, I want you to embrace theological vocabulary.

I want you to embrace theological vocabulary. Now I know I said earlier, Old Testament is written in Hebrew with a little Aramaic, New Testament is written in Greek, but that's not what I mean here, embrace theological vocabulary.

You go to a different country, they speak differently. In different parts of the country, they have different dialects, and we dear Christians speak a different language, and that's called the gospel language.

We talk differently than other people do. And if you can talk differently, then you have different vocabulary, and it should not surprise us. So here's some theological vocabulary that you need to know to understand Hebrews 11, because otherwise you can read it to use a figure of speech till the cows come home, and not understand it.

And it'll be Latin. If I was R .C. Sproul, I'd write on a chalkboard right here. By the way, before I died, I got to see R .C. Sproul write on Latin, with a chalkboard writing Latin. Tim, you probably saw it all the time, didn't you?

You never saw it? No chalkboard. Well, I'm the anointed one, and you're just sitting there. I get special things. Simul justus et peccator. You need to think this kind of language, I could put it this way, you need to have an analogy of the faith, you need to have a systematic theology, you need to think in proper categories.

Simul justus et peccator. Simul, simultaneous. That's an easy one. Justus, it starts with a J in Latin, and it's like it's Spanish, we would have a J, a Y sound. Justus, just, or righteous. Et, always like R .C. Sproul says, et is the past tense for eat.

What have you et? No, but it's and. Peccator. I didn't say pescato, I said peccator, okay? Sin, sinner. Simultaneously declared righteous by the perfect law keeping of Jesus, this is language of justification, and yet every one of us knows, simultaneously with that, we still sin, do we not?

We are still sinful people. And so if you look at this list, and you just go faithful, you're off base. And if you also say to yourself, you know what? How can godly people sin so much? The answer is found in, we're not glorified yet.

We are positionally declared righteous by the work of another. But practically, we still deal with sin. Otherwise, you'd have no category for Paul when he said in Romans 7, I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. When you think of categories like this, simultaneously just yet I still sin, you're gonna be saying to yourself, you know what?

That explains why David could write Psalms and then sleep with Bathsheba. This isn't an excuse, this is an observation. Of course, we should not sin that grace may abound. But we are righteous, and at the same time, sinners.

Faith as Assurance and Conviction, Not a Full Definition

And finally for today, to help us understand, observe theological shorthand. Observe theological shorthand. Now we're gonna look at verses one and two. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

For by it, Hebrews 11 to people of old received their commendation. Now if I were to tell you that just shall live by faith from chapter 10 is theological shorthand, I think you'd easily get it. Because you would say, wait a second, the one declared just by the perfect work of Jesus imputed to his account and the sin of that man or woman imputed to the account of Jesus confirmed by the resurrection.

The just person, the one declared just in God's courtroom, acquitted by the righteousness of another, alien righteousness, forensically, judicially just. The just shall live, present tense, by faith. It's not faith in faith, it's not faith in feeling faith, it's not faith in blind faith, it's not faith in some kind of Kierkegaardian leap of faith, it's faith in the object, the Lord Jesus.

There's theological shorthand going on all the time in the Bible. The just shall live by faith is theological shorthand. Here we have some shorthand as well. Because you initially read Hebrews 11 .1 and you think this is the definition of all definitions of faith, no other definitions matter.