Let's now take our Bibles and read Hebrews chapters 10, 11, and 12. Well, a selection thereof. Hebrews 10. Let's pick up the reading at verse 32 and read through to 11 verse 2, then 24 to 27 and skip ahead to 32 till chapter 12 verse 2. Beginning then at chapter 10, verse 32. But recall the former days in which after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings. Partly while you were made a spectacle, both by reproaches and tribulations. and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated. For you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which is great reward, For you of need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise for yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith. But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we're not of those who draw back to perdition. but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it, the elders obtained a good testimony. Now we read a number of examples concerning these elders. We'll skip through to the one about Moses. Verse 24 through 27. By faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured, seeing him who is invisible. Now we move on to verse 32. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness remained strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourging, jests and of chains and imprisonments. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destined to afflict the tormented, of whom the world wasn't worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. In all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God, having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us, and therefore we also. Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight in the sin which so easily ensnares us, let us run with endurance the race that set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. For the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Clearly, that piece of scripture addresses the subject of faith. In Lorsday 7 of the Heidelberg Catechism, the church summarizes what the Lord has said in his word in relation to faith. Of course, that's a bigger picture than simply the passage we read from Hebrews. Nevertheless, Lorsday 7 wants to echo God's revelation on the topic. Lord's Day seven, and there we make confession in relation to faith. Question 20, are all people then saved through Christ, just as they were lost through Adam? Only those are saved who do truth. So what is true faith? What then must a Christian believe? all that is promised us in the gospel, the summary of which is taught us in the articles of our Catholic and Christian faith. And what are these articles? I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven. and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there you will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, a holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. So, brothers and sisters, you'd think that you and I, the Church of Jesus Christ, would be very familiar with what faith is. Here's a Lord's Day. What is true faith? We also know from other passages of Scripture, and we confess that too in the Catechism, that faith is necessary for salvation comes to us through the proclamation of the word of God, and that is why we come to church, to hear again the word to be strengthened in faith. We embrace that faith, and so profess it Sunday by Sunday, We recite the Apostles' Creed, or perhaps an IC in Creed. Surely then, if anybody knows what faith is, it'd have to be us. I'm not so sure that that's really true. What do you think? Is faith a thing you have or an action you do? Is faith something of your head or of your heart? Can you describe for me what your faith looks like in daily life? What would you say? What is faith? The more we think about it, The more faith feels slippery, hard to grab hold of, to describe, what is it? The Scriptures, brother and sister, would have us know that faith, in fact, is an action Faith, might I say it this way, is a verb, an action we repeat day by day by day by day, hour by hour. With obvious consequences, faith looks like something. That's why I summarize the sermon with this theme, true faith looks steadfastly at Jesus Christ alone. True faith looks steadfastly at Jesus Christ alone. I want to unpack that further. and use three questions to help us unpack it. The first is, what is true faith? Then, what does faith look like in practice? And then, what does this mean for us? I ask the question, what is true faith? Because scripture does give some sort of a definition, description of faith. And the closest it comes is the passage you read from Hebrews 11. Faith says the apostle is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 11 verse one. I wanna zero in on that passage. But we first need to understand why the apostle gives this description of faith. And it needs to be clear to us that the apostle isn't teaching a theoretical catechism class, but he's talking to people in the grunt of daily life. That's why I had us read the last number of verses of chapter 10. Because what are his readers up to? Well, the passage tells us that when these people were first illuminated, first enlightened by the gospel, first came to hear of Jesus Christ and embrace the gospel, verse 32, you endured that great struggle with sufferings. Their coming to faith resulted in a whole measure of abuse from their loved ones, from their community. What did that abuse, that suffering look like? Partly, verse 33, you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations. See it in the eye of your mind. These new Christians were left out. Very uncomfortable. And not only that, verse 33, second part, partly also, you became companions of those who were so treated. So you stepped in. to the lives of brothers and sisters you'd heard about who themselves were abused on account of the gospel suffered. That includes, verse 34, the author himself. You had compassion on me and my chains. You stood beside me. You associated yourself with me even though you knew that I was in chains. And standing beside me in my chains, of course, means that you're leaving yourself wide open to be similarly arrested. But you did that. And then the passage continues. You joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods. They lost their business. Their house was burned down. Whatever. the plundering of their goods. And the question is, why did these Christians respond to the gospel that way? Why were they happy? To lose so much. The answer to that question is at the end of verse 34, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. What they were doing was embracing the promise of the gospel Christ Jesus has atoned for sin in order that those who were exiled from God's presence in paradise because of sin might be restored to God's presence in a paradise restored. They're embracing the sort of promise that Peter recorded, and we quoted at the beginning of this service, blessed be the God and the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has begotten us again to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that doesn't fade away, reserved in heaven for you. They said, what's ahead? is far better what we have today. What's ahead is worth so much, I'm happy to lose what I have today. Well, except that these young Christians got tired of losing everything, got tired of the abuse they experienced, got tired of being a laughing stock. That's verse 35 with the instruction, don't cast away your confidence. They were dropping their confidence. So verse 36, you have need of And then a quote from Habakkuk chapter two, what the endurance needs to look like, the just shall live by faith. And that's what prompts the apostle brothers and sisters to write chapter 11. His readers had spiritual flat tires. So how do you pump them up? And the author says, let me tell you what faith is. You need faith to be saved. What is it? So there's your context. This is not a theoretical catechism class. This is the grunt of real life. with its real challenges. That's the context in which he says, chapter 11, verse one, now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Okay, now that's clear, isn't it? Not really. As a matter of fact, that word substance, faith is the substance of, what's that word mean? It's a tough one to get a handle on. So I'm gonna skip it for a moment and grab the next phrase and I'll circle back to the word substance. I'll grab the next phrase, things hoped for. What's that? The things hoped for is what the Apostle already had referred to in verse 34 of the previous chapter. The better and enduring possessions, the reward mentioned in verse 35. Christ has obtained access for you into God's eternal presence. That's the things hoped for. You're looking forward to seeing God sharing the joy of his presence, pleasures forevermore, Psalm 16. That's things hoped for. The term hope needs to be understood biblically and not the way we commonly use the word today. I mean, when we use the word hope in today's language, it refers to a maybe, maybe, I hope a nice weather tomorrow. But when scripture uses the word hope, it's capturing the notion of 100% certainty. Certainty because it's God who promised, because it's Christ who obtained access for us into God's presence. Now if you have that certainty of glory in the presence of God that does things to you, what's it do? So you're climbing a steep hill You're wanting to see the view from the top. You get tired, and your muscles are sore. You sit down for a break. But you're seeing in the eye of your mind already the wonderful picture that's going to be there up top. That's things hoped for. That's things not yet seen with the eye of the body. But you've got some vision of that view up top in your mind. You're ready. It's going to be beautiful. I am going to reach it. It's that expectation of what you're going to see with your real eyes that's already there. that gets you off the rock and walking up the hill again. That, what you're seeing in the eye of your mind, that expectation, what's longed for, what's now not yet seen, what you're doing is you're substantializing it in the eye of your mind. You're seeing it. And the apostle says, now that is faith. Is the substance, is the substanceizing, substantialization, making real for yourself, what you're longing for. The promises you've read in scripture. The expectation, the certainty, hope, that Christ has obtained for you access to the presence of God. He says that is faith. What God's promised is real to your mind. You're seeing it here, though you can't yet see it here. And it's the seeing here that get you off your rock and keep walking to the New Jerusalem, to the top of the hill. What it means, brothers and sisters, in the midst of the actual struggles of daily life, the tiredness, the aching muscles, All the discouragements that the Hebrews were experiencing, or that we are experiencing. What does faith do? Faith looks forward to what God's promised. Faith looks beyond today's trouble, over the horizon that the eye of the body can't see, What's ahead? And what the eye then sees, the eye of the mind, gets you going, keeps you going. You push on. That, says the apostle, is the is the way to pump up your spiritual tires, is the living by faith, is the reaching forward to the promises and giving those promises legs and feet in the grunt of life. So there's our first question, what's faith? the substance-izing of what you're hoping for, of what God's promised. Does this come alive for you? That's our second point. So what's that look like in practice? Can we color it in more? The apostle, the author of Hebrews, thinks it imperative that he indeed color it in more. And so what he does is ask his readers to look back into the Old Testament. He gives many examples. of people in the challenges and difficulties of life who lived by faith. Who saw beyond today over the horizon of tomorrow into the promises of God and had consequences. I'll lift up one example and that's Moses. We all know who Moses was. While the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt and they were abused, they had to drown their children in the Nile. They had to labor under the whip of Pharaoh's taskmasters. Moses himself lived in the luxuries of the palace as the adopted daughter of Pharaoh. So what's Moses seeing? What he's seeing in the palace is luxury. He's seeing, he's experiencing that he can get anything his heart desires. Yes, luxury, women, music, Why? Come and go as he will. Palace, right? Elite, upper class. He's seeing that, that's how he's raised. What else is he seeing? And you can imagine it, perhaps, you're looking out the palace window, the upstairs window, and you're seeing all these slaves. how they're being abused. And he knows, those are my people. What's Moses do? What would you do? What he does is leave the palace and associate with the slaves. Why does he do it? Simply a sense of empathy, a sense of social justice. Why does he do it? The scripture says, by faith, what was that again? Moses is looking over the horizons of time. seeing the promises of God, the things hoped for, things not seen with the eye of the body, and he's substance-izing what God has promised, they become real in the eye of his mind, and he says, that is what I want. So he looks over, beyond the luxury of the palace, to the promises in the future. He says, how do I get from here to here? I need to be with the people to whom God has promised this. And the people whom God's promised this, well, they're not in the palace. So what's he do? He leaves mother. Pharaoh's daughter, yeah? Leaves his brothers and sisters, other princes of the palace, leaves them all to associate with the lowly, with those of whom God had said, that's my people. You see, that face, his substance-izing God's promises, and his doing that, seeing it for real, has legs and feet in real life. Can you see, brothers and sisters, how Moses' head works? what faith is. That substance-izing, making real in the eye of your mind what God has promised, results in action. So I say, faith isn't a thing. It's a verb. It looks like something. It looks like this prince leaving the palace, and associating with his own people. Faith has consequences. Faith looks like something. In the words of verse 26, he esteemed the reproach of Christ. Oh, yes, he knew to get from here, palace, to here, New Jerusalem, he'd have to go through quite some valley, associate with these slaves. chose the reproach of Christ, that's the way to get from here to there, so I'm gonna, I'll pay the price. Let goods and kindred go, the palace, there's more to life also, because I want that. Things hoped for, things today not seen with the eye of the mind. That's what it says. Verse 26. He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. That's faith. But the same thing's true, says the apostle in 27. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured a seeing him who's invisible. Why did he leave Egypt? We know the account from Exodus, he killed a man and said to flee for his life. Oh yes, no, that's absolutely the case. He killed a man and so he had to hide from the police. But here we learn that he dared to leave his hiding place. Even while Pharaoh's agents were everywhere. Why did Moses not shrivel up in fear? He dissociated with his people, he left the palace, killed an Egyptian. Why didn't he succumb to his fear? Because, says the apostle in verse 27, he endured as seeing him who's invisible. In the eye of his mind, he was substantizing making substantial, making real, who God was, what God had promised. And because God was who he was, he wasn't gonna let the agents of the king keep him tucked away in a corner to perish. He dared to get out and leave. So again, I ask you, do you see, my brothers and sisters, how his brain is working? What information he's bringing on board as he makes his decisions, what do I do now that I'm stuck in this corner and this Pharaoh's agents are everywhere? What factors do I have to bring in to decide what I'm gonna do next? Only the stuff he sees, agents? Or is there more to factor in? And he says, absolutely, there's more to factor in. And that is God, and God's promises. That's real in the eye of his mind. And so, that influences his decisions. So I say it again, my brothers, my sisters, because it merits repeating. Faith is not a thing you put on the shelf. Faith is not that you come to church. Faith is not that you repeat the Apostles' Creed once a week. But faith is an action in which you take on board and act in step with that hope. God's promise that you're an heir to life eternal in Jesus Christ. That's why the chapter we have, chapter 11, is full of verbs, actions, based on the convictions of what God has promised. And that, His Lordships seven. What is faith? And says answer 21, faith is not only a sure knowledge, it is that. It's a sure knowledge of what God has promised and how I get to the new Jerusalem with all the glories of that. It's that, oh yes, but it's more. Those are promises, valid for me. That's why the confession adds, it's also hard to trust that the Holy Spirit works in me by the gospel. All those promises. They're actually written into my account. I can hope for hope, conviction, certainty. I may be confident. I'm going to see Christ Jesus with my own eyes. And I'm going to take in the glory of God for eternity. That's the promise given to me. Faith. Embracing that reality. Well then. Clearly, that's gonna have legs and feet that impact what I do today. I factor that expectation, that conviction into my decisions. So what's that mean for us? Our third point. I suspect now we say, okay, We follow how Moses makes his difficult decisions and leaves the palace and joins with the people. That's goods and kindred go. He loves God more than father and mother and brothers and sisters and lands and houses and palace and everything else. Okay, yeah, we get that. God has said and he embraces that, we understand. Why Noah would build an ark? He's never seen a flood before, but God said it's gonna happen. Okay, if God said it, explained it, yeah, fine, then we work with this and we build this ark, yeah, we get that. And we say, but I'm not a Moses. I'm not a Noah. I'm not an Abraham. I mean, those were heroes of faith, no? and that's not me. Yeah? And we feel inadequate to that challenge. In other words, we find ourselves where the apostles' first readers were. Spiritual flat tires. This is too much. That's why it's instructed, brothers and sisters, that the apostle writes chapter 12. In the discouragement, he says, therefore we also. Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses as lay aside every weight. Great cloud of witnesses, and who is that? Yeah, it's the people mentioned in chapter 11. including those of verses 33 and following, who subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, received their dead back, others were tortured, accepting deliverance, not accepting deliverance. No, that isn't us. We couldn't survive that, could we? And the apostle says, we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Witnesses, what have they seen? They all looked over the hill to Jesus Christ and what Christ has obtained, their vision was fixed on the hope of glory through Christ. And the apostle says, Now you go and do the same. Verse two, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher, perfecter of our faith, wobbly as our faith is, but look to Jesus, what did he do? who for the joy set before him endured the cross. Endured the cross, we've got a sense of what that was, just a ton of suffering, hellish agony. But the apostle doesn't focus on the suffering, what he endured on the cross, but he focuses on the joy. that was set before him. What did Jesus do? Exactly what faith is. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Jesus on the cross substantized, there's a verb, what God had promised. Pleasures in God's presence forevermore. And so Jesus persevered in all the abuse of the cross because his eye wasn't fixed on the abuse, on the suffering, on the pain, on the injustice, but he looked beyond to the joy that was set before him back in the presence of God. And according to verse three, the result is, in verse two, he sat down at the right hand of God. Seated triumphantly in the presence of God where there's fullness of joy. Faith is action. And now you, We feel so inadequate to seeing clearly what's ahead and making the hard decisions to let goods and kindred go because we want that. And we fail time and again. Oh, yeah, that is true. We need encouragement. Jesus is the author of our faith. And the perfecter, he made perfect our faith. Point? In all our wobbliness to walk by faith, God writes Christ's perfection to our account. And he says to you in May, in all the pressures of this mortal life, keep your eye fixed on Jesus Christ. He persevered in the abuse, didn't fixate on the injustice, on the pain, on the suffering, but he kept looking beyond. His faith, so his obedience has coattails to your benefit. What is faith? Can you live by faith? And faith is an action. The Lord, my brothers, my sisters, would have you hold on to what Jesus accomplished. Keep that in your mind. And in all the struggles, Fix your eye there in that staring on Christ is going to have an impact on the decisions you make today. And he adds, then one day, As you look to Jesus today with so much imperfection and weakness, one day you will actually see him with the eye of your body. Glorious promise of the gospel. Lord God, we thank you. For what you have revealed in Jesus Christ, what he did, kept looking to you. For the joy set before him endured the shame of the cross. Thank you, he's the finisher the perfecter of our wobbly face. We do experience, Lord, that our eyes are time and again torn off the wonderful hope of salvation, the expectation of seeing you being in your presence, And all the problems of this life can so consume us that our decisions get made simply with today in mind. Lord, we thank you that you tell us what faith is. Looking to you, today seeing as real, which you have promised to give us tomorrow. And so, Father, we pray for grace. Indeed, to let goods and kindred go is more to life also and to make our decisions based on your promises. You know us, Lord, the struggles we have. There's nothing hidden from you in the nitty gritty of our lives. We pray for grace in that nitty gritty to look beyond the here and now, beyond what the eye sees, to see what's invisible to us today. Your presence, Christ triumphant, give us grace to factor that reality in to all our decisions. Yes, also in our changing and challenging times. We pray it in Jesus' name.