All civilizations and all societies have sought out ways to have assurance about the most important questions of life that plague the conscience. Why are we here? Where are we going? How do we make sense of the world? And on and on. And at one time, the predominant method of achieving certainty was an appeal to the supernatural. false gods, idolatry, astrology, magic, divination, sorcery. People sought after certainty by supernatural means. And now in our own day and age, though all of these things are still alive and well, they have nevertheless sharply receded into the background, especially in Western society. We seek our certainty by so-called natural means, by science. We look to science to tell us why we are here and who we are and where we are going. And the supernatural method was inherently flawed, not of course because there are no spiritual realities beyond what we can see and touch. but because people sought out information from demons rather than from the one true and living God. And the natural method, the scientific method, it has absolutely yielded to society tremendous benefits. Benefits we would never want to deny or disparage. But, as for certainty, it's a different matter in a different question. Science is predicated on the observation of phenomena, on the building of theory on collected data. And so really, there is no absolute certainty. There is no certainty that new phenomenon or new data won't significantly change our theory. And God has blessed us with high degrees of certainty regarding many important scientific areas of study. But absolute, unyielding certainty, science does not and cannot offer. As regards the most important questions that plague the conscience, science offers no certainty. And what the Bible presents to us is the only method available to mankind whereby we can truly achieve absolute, unyielding certainty regarding the most important questions of life, why we are here, where we are going, and how we are to make sense of the world. And that method is, of course, faith. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Faith is the perfect marriage of the invisible spiritual realities of God's grace with the visible realities of the created universe, the supernatural with the natural. The assurance that all we can see and all we experience in this life is created and governed by an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable God whom we cannot see. Only by faith can we have the certainty that we crave, the certainty that we yearn for, the certainty that we were created to want, because it is only by faith that we understand that God has spoken to us in His Word, and His Word is truth. Hebrews chapter 11 is probably the most widely known and familiar chapter in the book of Hebrews. It is the gallery of the faithful. Here we have the great cloud of witnesses who walked by faith and laid hold of the promises of God unto their salvation. And because of our general familiarity with Hebrews chapter 11, there is the temptation to divorce this chapter from its context within the book of Hebrews. And in divorcing it from its context, we risk misunderstanding and misapplying it. And it was three weeks ago now that we were last in the book of Hebrews, and so it's an appropriate time to back up a little bit and review where we have been. Remember the basic transition that takes place in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 19. Our author transitions from his doctrinal teaching about the person and work of Christ to the application of that doctrinal teaching to the Christian life. And so, in other words, chapter 1 verse 1 through chapter 10 and verse 18 is primarily concerned with our doctrinal understanding of who Christ is and what he has done for us. And then chapter 10 and verse 19 through to the end of the book is primarily concerned with our believing response to who Christ is and what he has done for us. And so we saw in chapter 10 and verses 19 through 25, our author gives to us those three great responses of the Christian to the person and work of their Savior. And we had time to look at those in some depth. We are to draw near with full assurance and with a true heart. We are to hold fast to the confession of our hope and we are to consider one another in love. And then in verses 26 through 31 of chapter 10, our author warns us about the dreadful reality of apostasy and what will surely happen if we abandon our Christian profession. But immediately after this warning, of course, our author is quick to encourage us to endure and to persevere, verses 32 through 39. And it is out of this passage of encouragement that Hebrews chapter 11 so naturally flows. Chapter 10 in verse 38, our author quotes from the prophecy of Habakkuk. My righteous one shall live by faith. My righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. And verse 39, our author makes this comment on Habakkuk's prophecy. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. And so the sensitive and astute reader or listener would have arrived at the end of chapter 10 with a couple of very pressing questions ringing in his mind. Do you have the same questions ringing in your mind at the end of chapter 10? What is this faith that the righteous live by? What does it look like? Tell me what it is and show me what it looks like so that I too can walk by it and live by it and preserve my soul and endure to the end. Chapter 11, verse 1, 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. And our author, he heard the questions even before they were asked. He heard them in his mind and he gave us 40 plus 2 glorious verses describing this faith and vividly demonstrating the effects of faith in the lives of God's people from Abel chapter 11 verse 4 all the way to our Lord Jesus Christ chapter 12 and verse 2. If you look at your outlines this morning You'll see that there are two basic points that we'll be considering this morning. And you should recognize them from our call to worship from Ephesians chapter 4. One body and one faith. One body and one faith. So first we'll look at the testimony of Hebrews 11 regarding the nature of the true church. And then second we'll look at Hebrews 11 regarding the nature of true faith. one body and one faith. So we come to our first point, one body, and I want us to look specifically at verse 2 and then verses 39 and 40 of Hebrews chapter 11. Verse 2, for by it, that is, by faith, the people of old received their commendation. And then verses 39 and 40, all these, that is, all those he has just described as living by faith, 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. Remember the specific temptation that was plaguing these Hebrew Christians. They were tempted to renounce their profession of faith in Christ and return to the Judaism of apostate Israel. And perhaps in order to be loyal to the traditions of their fathers, they thought that they needed to renounce Christ. And our author shows the most eloquently that in order to follow in the footsteps of their fathers, in order to find favor with God, what they needed to do was exactly the opposite. They needed to hold fast to their confession of Christ and to embrace him all the more and walk by faith in the Son of God. Renouncing Christ would actually have been the ultimate disloyalty to the way of their fathers. For their spiritual fathers walked by faith in the promises of the same exalted Yahweh who took to himself human body and soul for the salvation of his people. And because this is the case, as we New Covenant believers read the Old Testament, we should never be diverted from faith in Christ, but we should always be pointed and directed toward faith in Christ. The Old Testament should always and ever point us to the Lord Jesus. In the predominantly doctrinal section of Hebrews chapters 1 through 10, our author quotes again and again and again from the Old Testament to show us that indeed the Old Testament teaches us a very great deal about the Lord Jesus Christ and here in chapters 10 through 13 the predominantly exhortative section of Hebrews where our author is predominantly concerned with application again he continually quotes again and again and again from the Old Testament to show us that indeed the Old Testament also teaches us a very great deal about the Christian life and how we are to glorify the Lord in our lives and with our bodies, how to live for the glory of Christ. All 39 books of the Old Testament, therefore, are relevant and important for the Christian life because there are not two bodies of Christ. There is one body of Christ. There are not two peoples of God, Israel and the church. There is one people of God. Those who walked by faith in the anticipation of the first coming of Christ and those who now walk by faith in the anticipation of the second coming of Christ. You see, just like our Old Testament fathers, we are pilgrims and sojourners in a foreign land who have not laid hold of the full and final consummation of our salvation. Verse 39, they did not receive what was promised. And again, for us in the New Covenant age, though we have received much more light and much more revelation, we have Jesus Christ revealed to us as incarnate and as reigning from the right hand of the Father. We too anticipate the still future completion of our salvation and the still future fulfillment of the promises that God has made to us in Christ. We too have not yet received the full measure of our redemption. And so we too must still lay hold of God's promises by faith. Our author in this chapter wants us to intimately feel the unity of the church in all ages. And he accomplishes this by taking us on a sweeping journey of redemptive history. It's important to notice that his catalog of the faithful is arranged both chronologically and covenantally as well. Verses 4 through 7, Abel, Enoch, and Noah, the pre-patriarchal examples, Verses 8-22, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, the patriarchal examples of faith. And then verses 32-38, the judges, the kings, and the prophets. He follows the historical development of God's revelation along the lines of those major developments in covenant history. he shows us that throughout history God was indeed revealing himself more and more with greater and greater light bringing history to its apex finally chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 with the revelation of Jesus Christ and with the beginning of the new covenant church different periods of history different ethnicities different genders different levels of understanding and varying degrees of revelation but one, unchanging, unifying, distinction-obliterating commonality. Faith. Faith in the perfection of God's character, that He who has promised is faithful. There are not two Gospels. There is one Gospel of our salvation. And yes, in verses 39 and 40, there is distinction, there is an us and a them. But there is a greater and abiding unity, verse 40, since God has provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. In other words, all of us, believers before the Lord Jesus, Cain in human body and soul and believers after the incarnation of the Lord Jesus are all made perfect only through Christ, one Lord, one faith. In God's wisdom the BCAD distinction serves an important purpose in this life and in our understanding of God's Word. but in the life to come it will be ultimately irrelevant we are all sons of God in Christ Jesus so Hebrews chapter 11 teaches us to look upon our Old Testament brothers and sisters as members of the same family abiding monuments to the one true faith pillars of history pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ to embrace him all the more and to run with endurance the race that is set before us. Now, with all of this being said, I want to prepare us for the weeks to come as we work our way through this chapter. We will be examining the faith of our forefathers and seeing the extraordinary effects that faith produced in their lives. And the point of all of these examples isn't to simply marvel at them. It isn't simply to acknowledge that yes, God accomplished marvelous things in these people's lives through faith. The point is that we would emulate their faith. The point is that we would follow their example and go and do likewise. And yes, our faith will produce different manifestations in our lives. None of us will be commanded by God, for example, to build an ark. or to sacrifice our firstborn son on the altar, or to cross the Red Sea on dry land. But, all of us are commanded to exercise a faith that works by love. All of us are commanded to be witnesses unto Christ in a dark and a dying age. And though it will look different, God has purposed to accomplish marvelous and extraordinary things in the lives of his new covenant saints through faith. And so, are you ready to emulate? Are you ready to follow? And what we will discover marvelously is that by emulating and following our forefathers in the faith, What we are actually doing is emulating and following Christ. Because we will be walking side by side with our old covenant forefathers, bearing our cross, all of us with eyes fixed on the same glorious and exalted Savior. And again, it is this common faith that brings us into such intimate union with our elder brothers and sisters in Christ. The church is not about shared ethnicity. The church is not about shared social status or shared likes and dislikes. The church is ultimately not about the sharing of any earthly physical commonality. The church is about a shared faith in the one true and living God who has revealed himself to us in the Lord Jesus Christ and by the work of the Spirit And so let us now come to our second point and think some about this shared faith as we focus our attention now on verse 1 of Hebrews chapter 11. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. The first thing to establish about this verse is that our author does not intend to give us an exhaustive definition of faith. When John tells us that God is love, he's not saying that God is only love, or that God is more love than he is justice, or goodness, or truth, or any of his other attributes. John is appealing to that aspect of God's character most suited to his teaching at the moment. And so it is with the author of Hebrews. He's not saying that this is all faith is. He is appealing to that aspect of faith most suited to his teaching at the moment. And remember, what is his teaching? It is the exhortation to hold fast and to persevere to the end of the Christian pilgrimage. And so in that context, he points us to that glorious aspect of faith which gives us certainty concerning the promises that God has given to us about the future. What was it about the faith of all these individuals that made it possible for them by grace to persevere and to endure? It was that in the face of all the uncertainty of this life, in the face of all the so-called improbability of God's promises, these believers held fast to the word of God with the firm knowledge that he who promised is faithful. No matter how humanly impossible God's promise might seem from our earthly perspective, faith penetrates beyond all seeming doubt and anchors itself in the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable character of our triune God. God has promised. God cannot lie. God, therefore, will most certainly fulfill. Now, depending on which Bible translation you have with you this morning, you may have noticed some differences between my verse 1 that I read from the ESV and your verse 1. The ESV again reads, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For example, the New King James reads, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So what you have is substance instead of assurance, and evidence instead of conviction. And quite frustratingly, all the commentaries I own pretty much split the difference 50-50. And one of the difficulties of translating this verse is that these two words are not common words. In fact, the word translated as either conviction or evidence occurs only this one time in the whole of the Greek New Testament. And the basic difference between each set of choices is this. The assurance-conviction combination emphasizes our subjective response. In other words, faith produces assurance and conviction in our hearts, while the substance evidence combination emphasizes the objective reality of what faith is. Faith is the possessing of the substance of future events, and faith itself is the very evidence of things not seen. Things that we cannot see with the eyes of our sight. And really the choice is all the more difficult because the two options are not mutually exclusive. Each one contains the other. the subjective emphasis would necessarily presuppose the objective reality. And the objective emphasis would necessarily lead to and produce the subjective response. And in either case, faith is that God-given grace that communicates to us certainty regarding future events. Again, God has promised. God cannot lie. And so that which He has promised to me is as good as mine. I have but to wait upon the Lord and trust to bring about its ultimate fulfillment in His good time and according to His good pleasure. And so this morning I want to take us in the direction of the objective emphasis. This meaning more deeply penetrates into the supernatural glory of our faith. You see, the world mocks faith. The world says, show me something that I can see with my eyes and touch and smell and taste. And when you say you must believe, the world mocks you as simple and naive. But they think that faith is something that you have just conjured up within yourself. Something that you have mustered up by your own strength to give some sort of meaning to an otherwise meaningless existence. But that is not what biblical faith is at all. Faith is a God-given grace whereby we receive from the Holy Spirit the solid, the real, and the substantial assurance that God will fulfill all that he has promised to us in his word. It's not something we conjure up within ourselves or muster up with our own strength. It is something that God himself works in us. And so the existence of faith in our hearts is itself the evidence that the unseen realities of God's Word are indeed true. Faith is a supernaturally wrought gift from God. You didn't create it in your own heart. The Holy Spirit worked it. And because of the Holy Spirit's presence and activity, you indeed have assurance and confidence that faith is indeed the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. Faith is that most glorious spiritual organ that brings you into vital and real connection with the unseen spiritual realities that God describes for us. in His Word. Without eyes, you cannot see. Without faith, you cannot believe, and you are not privy to the spiritual realities of the created universe. But with faith, with the eyes of faith, the universe of redemption is unfolded before you in all of its glorious reality. By faith, this life becomes as much a part of the life to come as the doorstep is part of the house, as we look forward to the return of Christ, and to the consummation of all things in the new heavens and the new earth. And so do you see the way in which faith ought to illuminate every aspect of our lives? Without faith, God's promises are folly, and the Bible is just a drug that we use to stay anesthetized to the harsh realities of life. But with faith, we come into direct contact with the substance of spiritual reality, and we possess evidence of that reality in our own hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit. And God unfolds His purposes before our eyes of faith. And the answers to the most important questions of life become manifest to us. We are here to glorify God. and we are bound for glory as we hold fast to Christ and embrace Him by faith. You see, when the Apostles realized this, Luke 17 and verse 5, the only thing they could say to the Lord was, increase our faith. They cried out to the Lord, increase our faith. When you get a taste of the glorious spiritual realities by faith and by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, you realize that you have much need for the increase of faith in this life. And so is this your prayer every day? That the Lord would increase your faith? And if it isn't, why isn't it? Faith is nothing less than that supernatural grace that communicates to us a more deeper, a more abiding, and a more soul-satisfying communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. And is that not your greatest desire as you call upon Him? The world wants nothing more than to see Christians spend all of their time cultivating their earthly sight while neglecting their spiritual sight, neglecting their faith, neglecting that which they can only have assurance and conviction of through this Holy Spirit-wrought faith in our hearts. But which is more important? Our earthly eyesight or our spiritual eyesight? If you exercise only your physical eyes in this life, then you will be spiritually blind for both time and eternity. But if you exercise eyes of faith, If you embrace the Lord Jesus by faith, then despite all the struggles and the obstacles of this life, you possess with certainty, here and now, the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. And the Lord will most surely grant you, as he has promised, a most glorious entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray together. Our gracious Father, we praise you for the grace of faith. That, Lord, what we were totally unable to do for ourselves because of the great love with which you have loved us, you have done for us and in us by the work of Christ, the ministry of the Spirit. For our eyes were truly blind to the spiritual realities of grace. But Lord, you have removed the scales from our eyes that by faith we might have the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. And that you might work in our hearts assurance and conviction about your promises to us. And so Lord, we do pray that you would increase our faith. that day by day we would strengthen our embrace of Christ as the Holy Spirit is working in us to do so. And that Lord, you would protect us through faith for the salvation that you have prepared for us from before time began and that is now ready to be revealed to us at the last time. And so along with the prayer to increase our faith, We pray that the Lord Jesus would come and glorify you in the manifestation of His glory to all the earth. We pray this in His name. Amen.