What Is True Faith?

Hebrews 11 and the Meaning of Faith

Turn with me, please, once again to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11. Before we engage this tremendous text, this tremendous portion of Scripture, we definitely need to ask the Lord's blessing upon our time.

Let us do so. Our gracious Heavenly Father, as we come to this text of Scripture, we beseech you, the very author of these words, to meet with us. Without your assistance, without your presence amongst us by your Spirit, we will not be able to understand.

But if you will meet with us, then, Lord, indeed we can be benefited. For you know the meaning of these words. You know what you wish to communicate to us. And so, Lord, please be merciful to us during this time.

Meet with your people. Bless us, we pray, in Christ's name. Amen. Well, most of you know that it has been a while since we have been in the book of Hebrews. We had been making fairly decent progress, and it seems like we sort of just stalled out.

And, of course, I am to blame for that completely. We could have tackled this chapter many months ago, but we have looked at a number of other subjects, a number of other issues, and sometimes you feel like there are issues that need to be addressed.

But I will be perfectly honest with you. The primary reason is because when you approach a text that is so well known, I will not ask for hands, but I have a feeling that Hebrews 11 .1, even if you don't necessarily know the reference, is probably a text that many in this room have memorized.

Now, what version you have it memorized in, different issue, but when you come to very familiar texts, I will be perfectly honest with you, they are difficult texts to preach on. You would think it would be the opposite way.

You would think that it is easy to preach on John 3 .16, but it is not. The texts that people know the best tend to be the texts that we know best by tradition. And maybe the tradition is a good one. Maybe it is not.

It all depends. But when I came to Hebrews chapter 11 and I began asking questions of myself as to what exactly, specifically verse 1 meant, I had to confess that I really wasn't sure. Oh, I had read the commentaries and the commentaries actually raised more questions than they really answered.

And so part of the reason that we have been so long moving from chapter 10, which we finished, I was going to look, but I forgot to look, a number of months ago, into chapter 11 has partly been because I feel the need to handle this text and to handle it well.

But to be honest with you, as I look at the text even this morning, I recognize that there are a lot of background issues and there is a lot of application that I hope the Lord meets with us and blesses us with His Spirit because we need to hear what this text is saying.

Faith, Endurance, and Not Shrinking Back

Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. That is one of many, many, many translations. And in fact, I have a list here. Let me just, we are going to go back over this later on, but let me just give you an idea.

We have faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. That is the New American Standard. Now, faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.

That is the New English Translation. Now, faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen. That is the Old American Standard Version. Only a few of you would be familiar with that one.

Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. That is probably the one that most of us have memorized, if you are at least of my generation or older. That is the King James.

Now, faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. That is the Holman Christian Study Bible. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

That is the New Revised Standard Version. And finally, now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. I won't even mention what the translation there is. That was just a list.

And what that introduces us to is the fact that this particular text, and I would not say that any one of those translations was in any way wrong. And in fact, I think if we really dig deeply into each one, we pretty much come to the same spot.

But it is not a simple text. It is actually nice and easy to memorize. It is in the form of a Hebrew poem. It is very similar to what we would have in the Psalter where you have two lines and they are basically repeating the same thing in different words.

It is easy to memorize and it sticks with us and it is encouraging. But the real question is exactly what does it mean? And for us, I think it is very important to recognize that this chapter, yes, it does mark a transition in the book of Hebrews.

Up till now, remember that this is one of the bad things about taking long breaks is I have to remind you of where we were in chapter 10. Remember chapter 10 had some pretty tough passages in it. Strong warning passages.

Don't go back.

And right at the end, we had a quotation from Habakkuk 2. And if you look back with me, you will notice that this really is a continuation. It is a transition. Chapter 11 is going to be all these stories of faith.

The word faith appears over and over. Nearly one-tenth of all the appearances of that word in the New Testament are in this one chapter. So clearly, it is a little bit different along those lines. But it actually is a continuation of what we had in chapter 10.

We know that those chapter divisions weren't there originally. I think it is a good place to make a division. But the thought is actually continuing. So you look back at verse 36. 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. And that text is a very, very important text.

Quoted a number of times in the New Testament. My righteous one. If we want to know what it means to be a saint, to be one of God's righteous people, that righteous person shall live by faith.

And then there is this language we don't like to hear.

And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But immediately, our author says, but we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

And so here a very, very important contrast is introduced. It's a contrast that's right there in the original Old Testament text. And yet the author, even though he's had strong words in chapter 6 and chapter 10, he says, we are not of those who shrink back to destruction.

What's the opposite of shrinking back to destruction? It's having faith to the preserving of the soul. And so clearly when you make such a strong delineation, there are those, they shrink back to destruction.

And that small Christian community in those first years, they were seeing that. They were seeing people who had once been with them, who were going out, they were going back, they were offering sacrifice.

We've followed that theme through the book so far. And clearly the Old Testament text would be, my soul has no pleasure in him. And they shrink back to destruction. If God has no pleasure in you, that's what destruction really is.

But we aren't of those. We don't shrink back. Instead, there's something different. We are having faith to the preserving of the soul. And so a person who is in a difficult situation, a person who's facing the opposition of the world, these believing Christians who are facing the opposition of the world,.

They want to know.

Well, I want to have faith to the preserving of my soul. I want to be one of those that's called one of God's righteous ones.

What does this faith look like?

Now, this is even more important for us today. It was one thing back in those days. You didn't have yet a huge number of Christian churches, or at least churches that called themselves Christian. Oh, yes, there are already false teachers.

That's been there from the beginning. But you didn't have a huge number of them. Today, it's a real question. What is faith? There will be many people who will say, oh, I believe. And immediately we want to see if there is any consistency between what they say the object of their faith is and their life.

When people say they believe, oh, I believe, there are people today who put that belief over in one little corner of their existence. And it doesn't impact how they live their life. It doesn't impact how they speak or dress or act or make decisions for the future.

But I believe. And, of course, one thing you can't do today is question anyone's... you don't want to offend anybody. I mean, that is the dogma of our day, isn't it? No offense. Don't offend anyone. Unless it's you that's being offended, then it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal.

But don't offend anyone. And so, do we have to accept every claim of faith? What about faiths that shrink back? What about faiths that do not stand firm? And so it makes sense that at this point, our author is going to seek to encourage after these strong words of warning.

This is supposed to be a section of encouragement. Examples of faith. You would think, then, that we wouldn't really struggle to define faith. But what is faith? How do you know you have it? What does it look like in our society today to say that a person is a person of faith?

He's a man of faith. What that meant in 1950 is not what it means in 2012. To say that someone was a man of faith in previous generations.

Was a compliment.

It spoke of a spiritual vitality in someone.

It was a good thing.

For most people today,.

What that means is, well,.

He's been out in the sun a little bit too long. A little bit touched. Not quite up to speed with the current philosophy. And somehow he made it through the educational system without us curing him of that problem.

Because that's what the educational system is for.

It's curing people of faith. To say someone's a man of faith is not to compliment him, but it might still have some begrudging recognition that he might be consistent with his faith.

But the idea is.

Probably not someone you'd want to put a lot of trust in. Not someone who's really up with what's going on. Someone who's behind the curve as far as history is concerned.

What is faith?

I mean, the first three words of the chapter, now faith is.

And I'm not sure that the author.

Is going to be trying to give us some type of exhaustive definition.

Of what faith is.

But before we can look at the examples that are given, I want us to think this morning about faith. We want to be people of faith. In fact, I remind you of the incident that took place in the life of Jesus.

And remember when the disciples were with Jesus, Luke 17, verse 5, the apostles said to the Lord,.

What?

Increase our faith. Increase our faith. We're looking at a new year coming up. And as you know, every year people make resolutions. And as Christian people, I hope that we make resolutions regarding being better servants of Christ, more holy in our living, more consistent in our application of the truths that we learn from the Scriptures to our lives, all those types of things.

But how often do we, with the apostles, say, increase our faith? In fact, I think there's almost a danger for some of us Reformed folks. Because we recognize the Bible does say that faith is the gift of God.

We know that when Paul wrote to the Philippians, he was talking about the fact that it has not only been given to us to believe in Him, but to suffer for His sake. It's been given to us through faith.

Faith that preserves the soul, that perseveres through trial and tribulation. We know there's something about sin, there's something about being in an unregenerate state that keeps us from being able to have that kind of faith.

Oh, there are lots of people who claim to have faith and talk about faith, but they don't follow after Christ. They don't do what Christ commands. And so we recognize those things. It seems like sometimes we look at the apostles in a place like Luke 17,.

And we go, well,.

Those poor apostles. Before the Holy Spirit came and the sense of Pentecost, those apostles didn't understand.

Who Jesus was.

We tend to sort of look down a little bit on them. And we don't necessarily make as one of our resolutions, Lord, increase our faith. Because we sort of figure, well, if I'm truly born again that I have saving faith, why would I need to increase it?

And what this shows us is that we tend to have a very shallow view of what faith really is. We have a very shallow view. We tend, because of the controversies that we frequently have to engage in,.

To focus upon, well, the difference.

Between saving faith and non-saving faith. Temporary faith. And that certainly is right here in Hebrews. I mean, the people that were walking away had been in the congregation. And so we can't help but think about people who've made a false profession of faith.

But is it all just a matter of it's either real true faith.

Or it's false faith?

What about increasing in faith? What does it mean to increase in faith? And why should that be something we desire to do? Over the course of the centuries, godly men examining the Word of God have recognized different aspects of faith.

For example, the good brother Spurgeon liked to speak of faith as knowledge, belief, and trust. Knowledge, belief, and trust. And his fellow Londoner of a different time, the good Dr. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, had awareness, assent, and commitment.

Awareness, assent, and commitment. Each one of these represents the intellectual,.

The emotional,.

And the will.

Now, some of you, because we are Reformed, we like to every once in a while throw around a few Latin terms. You know, sola fide, and things like that. It warms our hearts. And so what each one of these was referring to are the three elements of faith.

Faith, notitia, assensus, and fiducia. Notitia, knowledge, assensus, assent, and fiducia, trust. Now, where do we get these from? Well, when we look at how the word faith is used throughout the text of the Bible, we can't come up with one tiny little succinct definition that fits all of it.

I mean, you have faith as a verb to believe. But then you have faith as a noun, by faith. All the way through this chapter, men did things. But then you have the faith. Paul will talk about the faith when he writes to Timothy and to Titus.

The whole body of divine revelation.

So, obviously,.

This idea of belief in God is not a simplistic thing. And you have to be aware of that, because in conversations with others, when they ask you, well, why do you do the things that you do? When young people, you are in school, or you are at the workplace, and you won't engage in certain activities, and instead you will put those things aside so that you can serve Christ.

So that you can give time to helping others and to doing things to be pleasing to Christ. People might ask you, well, why do you believe those things? They're asking you, why do you have faith? And for many people, faith is the turning off of the mind.

I cannot tell you how many times I've heard people completely misdefine what it means to believe.

You just believe.

And what's behind that in their thinking? Well, you don't have any facts. You're disengaging your mind. You're going against what you really need to be doing. You're dropping below where you should be, operating on the level of faith, when the reality is,.

Faith is above.

It is a step beyond what the mere rational capacities of man can do. And we have to recognize that, because the world will use that as a club. Oh, you're just talking about faith. You turn your mind off.

Well, it's interesting.

If we think of it in the three ways, the first is knowledge. Because when you think about it, when you say, I believe, what's the very first thing? If you just walk up to someone and say, I believe, what's the first logical question they're going to ask?

What?

What do you believe?

That's exactly right. You have to have faith in the scripture as an object. It's first and foremost in God, but that's not the only thing that faith is, because we will see very clearly there is faith that's placed in the promises of God.

Is it just sort of a vague idea of God that I put my faith in? That's paganism. That's the force.

That's this unknown, unknowable God.

This is concept. That's not Christianity. The very essence of Christian faith is that God's revealed Himself. He's there. He's not silent. He has revealed Himself. He's revealed Himself in His word. Both His word as in the written revelation, but preeminently in the word who became flesh.

And so there is an object of faith. There is knowledge. Now, that does not make us Gnostics, because there's a lot of people, sort of the mystical type folks, like to say, don't you realize you're leading people into Gnosticism there?

Gnosis being knowledge, and the Gnostics were those ancient heretics who believed that by going through various ceremonies you'd learn the secret esoteric knowledge that would allow your soul to be freed from the prison of your body.

That's not what we're talking about. We don't have any secret ceremonies where you get keywords and passwords and codes and stuff to get you to the next level type stuff. That's not what we're talking about.

But true faith has an object. And to increase in faith therefore means what? It should be our desire, every one of us,.

To know God better.

Do you think you could ever really get to know Him in this lifetime? But it should be our desire to continually be knowing Him better. I mean, the more you know of His character, wouldn't it make sense that the more you're able to live in a way that's pleasing to Him?

And just as we see young boys who want to be like their daddies, little girls who want to be like their mommies and they imitate them. We're supposed to be imitators of God. But how often do we become apathetic?

I know enough. No better than that new guy.

But if we really want to imitate Him, if we want to be like Him, should we not be, well, what's the term in the New Testament? Growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ? And so the idea of knowledge is vital to faith.

We need to know what it is we are believing in. And that should drive us continually to the Word of God. It should drive us continually to this place of worship. A place of instruction. It should drive us to want to memorize.

The Word of God.

And to understand the Word of God. And in fact, my friends, your love for God's Word should transcend your love for the study of anything else in this world. I did not say that you should not enjoy the study of other things.

Because God's Word, knowing the God of this world... I was Department Fellow in Anatomy and Physiology. I still find the study of science fascinating. But what makes it really fascinating is to know the God who created these things.

Our love for the Word, our desire to be immersed in it and exposed to it, it should be a passion, not just a duty.

So, knowledge.

The mystical faith is not a mystical experience. There needs to be knowledge. But then there is assent. There are many people who have knowledge.

Of the Bible, of the Gospel.

I debate many of these people. I've debated many a former Christian, or at least a person who claimed to be one. And we can go over to that place of higher learning over in Tempe. And you can walk into classes there or go to places of lesser higher learning.

At other smaller places, I suppose.

All across the United States. Because that's a pretty big one over there. And you'll find men and women with many degrees after their names who have much noticia.

Of Jesus,.

Church history, teachings of the Reformers,.

Christian theology.

But they have no assent. Now, I personally have never understood why anybody would want to study this stuff when it didn't thrill your soul. I don't understand that.

I don't understand how anybody.

Can preach in a seminary and bore people. Of course, I may be boring you right now. I don't know. I suppose that would be a danger. But I certainly don't understand how the unbeliever spends his life studying this stuff when you don't believe it.

There's no assent. There is no recognition. This is true. You need to know what it is. But then there is the assent. And it's not a begrudging thing. There is an assent. And I believe that when God changes someone's heart, He makes them a lover of truth.

A lover of truth.

When you hear lies, when you hear lies about the faith or lies about history or really lies about creation itself,.

Does it bother you?

If you love the truth, you will be bothered by falsehood, which means that we probably should be bothered.

Pretty much daily.

Because we live in a land that is soaked in falsehood. Falsehood is extolled and proclaimed and rejoiced in. Not just religious falsehood, but the falsehood of man's centrality, the secular humanism that has become the very essence of the fabric of the religious identity of Western culture.

When we assent to the truth, we become lovers of that truth. It is a commitment. If we look at it in the sense of the intellectual, and this is the emotional, there is a commitment on our part to what we now believe is true.

We have the knowledge of it. We will continue to grow in that. But then there also needs to be a growth.

Here as well.

Because sometimes, sometimes we start off real well here. Do you remember right after your baptism? Do you remember right after the Lord grabbed hold of you? There was zeal. There was passion. And I know that I'm speaking to many who can look back on that time and you will confess before us all.

There have been times when that flame has not been nearly as high as it was then.

And don't get me wrong.

Zeal must be joined with knowledge. We like to talk about the cage stage. Cage stage Calvinists. That's when you just got done reading Sovereignty of God by A .W. Pink and you're ready for the world. You buy yourself about 20 copies and you drive your entire family nuts.

And your neighbors and your former friends. And it's that time when the older of us feel you'd be better in a cage. Where you can't hurt others and not yourself as much either. We're not talking about a zeal that knows no bounds, that has no connection to the truth.

And in fact, I would say that there is a kind of a sense and emotional elements to this that is much longer lasting than the kind of cheap emotionalism that we have in much of evangelicalism. Where you come into church and everybody gets happy clappy and you start revving people up and the whole purpose of the entire service is just rev everybody up.

Get their batteries full power hoping that they'll make it to Wednesday so you can give them another little charge and then they're back on Sunday. But it's just... That's not what we're talking about.

There is a kind of a sense, there is an a senses that is lifelong and the way it is primarily seen is in the consistency of the life and in the joy that is found in the things of God. The world doesn't understand it.

The world calls it foolishness, but you know the people that's got it. You know the people that have it. And that doesn't mean that they're always as joyful as they need to be. And all of us, we confess.

There are times we complain, we whine. But real assensus, real assent to the truth of God gives us a level of contentment and thanksgiving that introduces us to that peace of God, which passes all understanding.

And that is a possession.

The world cannot understand.

And cannot take from us.

But then you have fiducia,.

Trust, commitment.

I know,.

I assent to the truth of this and I commit myself to it. I will live in light of it. I will not allow it to be merely some intellectual construct in my mind that makes me happy. I will recognize that true faith demands that I live in light of what I say.

Fiducia, trust, commitment.

That is real faith.

That is an act of the will. It's interesting to me, we've been going through the Heidelberg Catechism before Sunday school. And the 21st question asks,.

What is true faith?

And notice right here at the beginning. True faith is not only a certain knowledge whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in His Word,.

But also,.

Now I'm going to read the rest of it, but did you catch that? True faith is a certain knowledge. It's not a feeling. It's not just an emotion. It is a certain knowledge. But it's also an assured confidence which the Holy Spirit works by the Gospel in my heart that not only to others, but to me also, remission of sin, everlasting righteousness and salvation are freely given by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ's merits.

Catechism recognizes this is the work of the Spirit of God. But notice it calls it a certain knowledge. Now, in our day, people will say, oh, well, you can't be certain of anything. Well, if what you mean by that is the absurd category of meaning I have all knowledge and therefore I have knowledge of all possibilities and therefore as an infallible and omniscient being I can say X, Y, or Z.

Well, duh.

Of course not. But that's not really a meaningful category because none of us are omniscient. And so to place it in that realm of discussion is rather ridiculous. Let me give you one more run through what the three of these mean so you're clear on them.

Notitia refers to the content of faith or those things that we believe. We place our faith in something or more appropriately, someone. In order to believe, we must know something about someone who is the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is sort of a summary of how Brother Sproul would present things. A census is our conviction that the content of our faith is true. You can know about the Christian faith and yet believe that it is not true.

Genuine faith says that the content, the notitia taught by Holy Scripture, is true. Fiducia refers to personal trust and reliance. Knowing and believing the content of the Christian faith.

Is not enough.

Or even demons can do that, James 2, verse 19, and they tremble. Faith is only effectual if, knowing about and assenting to the claims of Jesus, one personally trusts in Him alone for salvation. Now, I truly believe that if we were to survey the entirety of the New Testament, that these three elements would be seen over and over again in a full-orbed understanding of what faith is.

But you need to be warned,.

There are many in our land who seek to eviscerate the full-orbed biblical definition of faith that comes from hearing all the Bible says on this topic. And the result is a truncated gospel in a sub-biblical life.

There are people this day, in this valley, standing behind pulpits saying all that stuff that those Reformed folks say about faith, they're adding to the Word of God. And the faith they're calling for isn't biblical faith.

Those folks will say all you have to do is simply acknowledge the fact of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and that is it.

You're saved.

Now, I know all sorts of folks that acknowledge that. Bart Ehrman, John Dominick Crossan, they all acknowledge that Jesus died. Whether He rose again, maybe we'll give you different definitions. But if you just believe that,.

You're saved.

Don't worry about all the rest of this stuff. Ongoing nature of faith. Increase our faith. All that's just for super-Christians. It's just enough just to tip that hat one time, shake the preacher's hand, sign the card, whatever it is.

And you've got your ticket punched. You're going to heaven. That's it. Doesn't matter what you do after that. It doesn't have to impact your life. It doesn't have to impact the way you live. Those are all good things.

We're called to do those things, but you're just saved by that bare intellectual affirmation of a very truncated summary of the events of Jesus' life.

That's it.

And I don't see how that kind of faith can command from us any assent whatsoever. Especially in light of this interesting phrase that the Apostle Paul introduces to us in the book of Romans. And we'll close upon looking at this, and we will set a new record of having only covered three Greek words in one entire sermon.

Which obviously means we'll get to those three Greek words specifically, plus a few more this evening. The Apostle Paul twice refers to the obedience of faith. Romans 1 .5, Romans 16 .26. Sort of bookends the entire epistle.

He speaks of the obedience of faith. Now, if that sounds odd to you, Romans 1 .5,. "...through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ.".

The obedience of faith. And then in Romans 16 .26,. "...but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the command of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever.

Amen.".

The obedience of faith.

Now, once again, we see here the importance of balance. Because there are people.

Who will go over on the one side.

And it's your acts of obedience. Here's the list of things for you to do.

On the other side,.

It's just faith.

There's no obedience. How do you hold these together? Well, until you're willing to allow.

God to be God.

And the gospel to be something He does and salvation something He does to glorify Himself, you can't hold them together. And that's why men's religions will always be falling off a cliff.

One side or the other.

But when you recognize the sovereignty of God and the fact that God is glorifying Himself and the salvation of a specific people, then you see how these two work together. Because you see, faith is a divine thing.