Please turn now to Hebrews chapter 11, and we'll begin a series of sermons on this chapter this evening. Hebrews 11, I already read the chapter, but if you're listening to this some other time, it might be good for you to read that chapter first and get the full impact of it before delving into it. And there is a sheet there, if you turn inside that order of worship, You'll see on the last page on the inside, you'll find the outline for this message. So this is an overview of the chapter, which I hope to show you its main points, the way it is put together, its purpose. And I call this message Living Nobly by Faith, as I will show you in the study that it is the only noble way to live. And you find that in verse two, for by it the men of old gained approval. I'll talk about that in a minute, but there is the idea, there is the idea in the title, living nobly by faith. So let me at least read a few verses here. Starting at chapter 10 in verse 39, again, but we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul and then faith is. So we have faith through the preserving of the soul, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. Verse 3, by faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. And then you have the what we call the Hall of Fame or the Hall of Faith. You see the list of names there on the sheet in front of you. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, and then there's a summary, and then there's a typo there. I meant to put Abraham. I just put that little insertion mark there last night so that you can put that in, but there's another section on Abraham, Hebrews 11. 17 through 19, and then Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and Rahab, and then another summary, and then two groupings, a first group and a second group. And then I'll read, to close, 1139 through 12.2, which is an important part of the whole chapter, and you wouldn't want to disconnect it. Therefore, since we have so great, I'm sorry, and all these, having gained approval through their faith did not receive what was promised because God had provided something better for us. so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every weight or encumbrance in the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So I love this chapter, I'm sure you do too. Maybe one of your favorites, perhaps. It is truly a great chapter. And it's helpful or it's important to understand the place of this chapter in the whole book. It's not difficult to see its place in the whole book. Because in the book, the writer, as you know, is trying to help these Hebrew Christians, they are Hebrews, they are Jewish, looks like they are Jewish believers. But they are being persecuted, they are no doubt feeling the pressure of Nero and the government, and Nero was a madman. And they're starting, they're beginning to face some fiery trials. And so they're beginning to wonder, is it really worth it? Judaism was just fine, it worked well for all those years, and Moses, Abraham, these are our fathers in the faith, and why not just go back to them? And so he tries to show them that Christ is better, and that Christ is the fulfillment of all that they stand for. And he has an interesting method, it's different from Paul. It's possible that Paul wrote this letter, but it's a moot point because we really don't know and you can have a conviction about it, but it really wouldn't matter much because we don't really know, but it's possible. But he does use a different method than Paul, for sure, and it's the warning and wooing method. Now you're familiar with the word warning, but wooing is one of those interesting words that we don't use very much. But this week, I checked in my dictionary about that word, because that's what he's doing here. Usually, you think of wooing a young man who wants to get married, and he has his love set on some beautiful young girl, and he woos her. He's trying to win her love. And we usually think of it in those terms. But the word woo, it's not like woo-hoo. I don't know where woo-hoo came from. That's a modern word. That's a pretty neat word. when you are happy about something and you say woo-hoo. Woo! But it's not related to woo-hoo. The word woo means to seek to win, to invite, or to persuade. To seek to win, to invite, or to persuade. There's actually a noun called a wooer. I've never been called a wooer before. But it is a noun, wooer. And wooingly, that's another word, an adverb. We don't hear it used very much. Wooingly. But apparently the word existed before the 10th century AD. But the point is that that's exactly what he's doing here. He's warning and wooing. So he uses both. He warns and he woos. And if you remember that when we talked about outlines of Hebrews, we said that here the writer is warning the people and then he woos the people. So he warns them and he woos them and there is a negative and there is a positive. So it's a combination of warning and wooing. That's his method. So here, in this section, he's wooing them. Because in different sections prior to this, he was warning them. And then, like for example, in chapter 10 and verse 26, if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying, that's not very wooing, is it? Terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which consumes the adversaries." That's pretty serious language, and it is couched in warning. But here, starting at chapter 10, verse 39, you notice the tone changes, and this is not something new in the letter. So he's wooing the people. So in this important chapter, he, I believe, gives it his best effort, his best, he takes out the most likely means by which he can do his wooing. Clearly, whoever wrote this book was a wooer. And so, in a chapter that we really love, because we love the summary of the different Bible characters that you have here, they're beautiful, they're majestically short and simple, and they're helpful because they take a lot of Old Testament history and compress it into nice little nuggets. But notice what he's doing here. There are three things that he's doing when you take the whole section. It's a call to live by faith. That's chapter 10, 39 through 11, 3. And then you have the testimony of those who live by faith. That's the section we usually concentrate on. The testimony of those who live by faith. That's chapter 11, 4 to 38. But it also includes verse 2. For by it the men of old gained approval. And then he skips that for a verse and then back in verse four, by faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain. So all of those verses refer to the testimony of those who live by faith. And I'll say a few words about that later. But thirdly then, you have the perfecting of all who live by faith. And that comes in chapter 11, 39, through chapter 11 in verse two. The perfecting of all, I put even Christ, who live by faith. And we say even Christ because that has been a subject in the letter. There are four perfecting passages, we'll come to that later. So this is what ties the whole section together. It's a call to live by faith, it is a testimony of those who live by faith, and it is the perfecting of all who live by faith. So living by faith does have a term in it, it does have a goal. And that goal is to become perfect. And you become perfect by living by faith. So let's look at this first point then, the call to live by faith. I left some of these blanks, at least I have a little bit to do tonight. I'll write down some points, but there are three things that I see in these verses here. And that is first of all, that faith is the only way to keep our souls. You see that in verse 39, it is the only way to keep our souls, or preserve our souls. In the Bible you have different words used for man. You have spirit, you have soul. I think that soul is just referring to the whole life, body and spirit. But keeping yourself, as opposed to shrinking back to destruction, as opposed to weakening or having a faith that corrupts, or in the language of the parable of the sower, being like the second soil or the third soil, the soil in which was where the seed fell on rocky ground and a nice pretty plant came up but didn't last very long, or the third soil where the seed was sown among the thorns and the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of the riches choked out faith. So that's kind of the idea there, that we're not those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. And any shrinking, any spiritual decline that is headed in that direction, that's a dangerous thing to be on. It's a dangerous slope to be on. We can comfort ourselves and we do need that comfort that God will preserve us and he will keep us and no one can snatch us out of Christ's hand, but the Bible still warns us to watch our own souls and be careful because There may be things about ourselves that we have wrong. There may be aspects of our faith that may be wrong and that may be incorrect. And if we continue in that course and we shrink back, then that would be the evidence that we really, we thought we had it right, but we didn't. So living by faith is the only way to keep our souls. My righteous one shall live by faith, verse 38. That's from Habakkuk chapter 2, verses 3 and 4. And Paul quotes that important verse in Romans chapter 1. But my righteous one shall live by faith. That is the only way to keep our souls. If you have in your life any fear, and it may be a legitimate fear, maybe you've seen yourself wavering a lot, Maybe you're in a period right now where you've been wavering. That is a cause to fear. But the only way for you to keep your soul is to live by faith, is to strengthen your faith so that your soul will be preserved. Secondly, the call to live by faith, faith is the only way to live life, is the only way to live life. Verse 39, it's the only way to keep your soul, it's the only way to live life. This is the essence of verse 1. passage which we talked about a little bit last week in Sunday School. It's a beautiful verse. It's a wonderful verse. I love explaining the words because the words are so important. They're really critical, actually. The word translated in the New American Standard, assurance, is actually much better translated substance. Substance. It's not talking about a byproduct. Assurance is a product. Assurance is something I have because of God's faithfulness. This word, hupostasis, is the same word that is used in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 3, that Christ is the exact representation of His nature. Christ is the exact representation of His nature, of the Father's nature. Essence, hupostasis. And Paul, the writer, is saying here that faith is the hupostasis. It is the substance of the things that you hope for. And he's going to give all these examples of people who lived by faith, who lived by hope. They desired a better country. They could have gone back to their other country, but they desired a better country. They were hoping in that. So, the only way to live, it is the substance of things hoped for. Faith is substantial. Most people think that faith is some leap, or it's something wispy, or it's just something spiritual. It's just something that you hold on to. Maybe some people think it's a crutch. Maybe some people think that it's not really real, but the things that you touch are real. But it's real. It's substantial. So the Word teaches us. It's real. You might say reality. No faith, no substantial reality. And living by faith helps other people to realize, I was talking this morning about being an example to young people in the Sunday school, remember? Well, when young people see us living by faith, they see that faith is something real. It gives people a substrata by which to live their lives. And then the word conviction of things not seen, this is the word Which means proof. It's the same as getting a conviction under the law. Like you get a motor vehicle moving violation and you contest it and you go before the court and you are convicted. So they prove that you actually committed that crime. That's a conviction. And so it is with faith. Faith is a conviction of these substantial things. There is proof. So faith is substantial and there is evidence, there is proof in our faith. And it's the only way to live life, living by faith. And we who have lived by faith and have proven that God is faithful, by our living by faith, we look at others who do not have a true and biblical faith and we sorrow for them. And we just know how much they're missing, and we wonder, how could you live your life without faith? We who have lived by faith testify that it's a wonderful life, it's a blessed life, and it's real. It's not imagined, it's real, and it's not something wispy, and it's not something ethereal, it's real. So it's the only way to keep our souls, it's the only way to live life. And thirdly, in verse three, it's the only way to explain the creation. And we'll say more about this verse in a future study because it is worthy of our more careful attention. But for now let me just say that by faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. Now there are two statements here and the first refers to The word prepared means to put in order. So the first statement actually is not referring to the origin of the world, but it's referring to the present form of the world. But the second statement is a reference to the origin. So the first statement speaks about the form and the function of the world, and it is interesting that he put that first. Some say that it could be because he's trying to show the Hebrew Christians that God can change the form of things. that although they are now suffering under the rage of Nero, that God can change all that. He can change the form of the government, and He can change the form of things. Personally, I think that's a little bit forced, but that has been said. Not exactly sure why the writer put it in that order, but there it is. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, There's no real problem here, it's just that what the writer is saying, that we understand by faith that everything that we see in the present form in which we find it has been done by God so that the things which are seen are not made out of things which are visible. So, they really go together. Origins and form. Creation ex nihilo. Creation out of nothing. The primary creation conviction that Christians must have. Christians may differ about other things about the creation, how many years it took, and all the rest. That is not as important. This one is critical. Creation, we call it in Latin, creation ex nihilo, creation out of nothing. That's the most important thing. That there were no pre-existing materials, that there was nothing but God. Imagine a time when there was nothing but God. When God was all sufficient, the triune God. It's mind-stretching. So verse three is saying that the only way to explain creation, its origin and its present form and function, is by faith. It's by faith that we understand. And if people want more than that, we may not be able to satisfy what they want, but that doesn't matter to us. Because in the end, the explanations that they offer for the explanation of reality and even matter and the world are not satisfying. Creation is the only satisfying explanation. That there is a designer, that he is a benevolent creator, and that he has so put together this life, the inanimate and the animate, that reveals his glory, fearfully and wonderfully made. So it's a call to live by faith with these three elements. Faith is the only way to keep our souls, the only way to live, the only way to live and the only way to explain. Now secondly then, you have here in the largest sections, well starting at verse two and then skips over to verse four, this testimony of those who live by faith. Now verse two is critical because it says, by it the men of old gained approval. Now this is the word martireo, we get our word martyr from this and it has an active sense and a passive sense. You know the difference between the active voice and the passive voice. When it's active it means I'm doing the action, when it's passive it means the action is being done to me. So in the active sense, this word refers to Testifying. If I speak and give my testimony, I'm bearing witness. I'm testifying. Bearing witness, testifying. Or, if I speak well of someone, that's like a eulogy, then that's the active sense. I'm speaking well of someone else. But verse 2 is the passive sense. So, by it the men of old gained approval. By it the men of old received approval. So that's why I call this message living nobly by faith. Because it is the only noble way to live, it's the only way to have a eulogy in which you can say of a person, actually you know there is no better eulogy than the one I'm about to share with you. That the person, the dead man or the woman, lived by faith. He lived by faith. She lived by faith. He grew in his faith, he loved, and he served. And that's what I hope can be said at my funeral. He lived by faith, he grew in his faith, he loved, and he served. But this is a eulogy in that sense, verse two. For by it the men of old gained approval. By the men of old were eulogized. And here are the eulogies. You can look at each one of these as a sort of a mini funeral. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, and all of the others. And so we will as we proceed in weeks to come, we will be looking at each one of these, but this is the essence of the larger section there. It's the testimony of those who live by faith, the eulogy, by it they gained approval. People who die not in the Lord may do very good things in their lives, and you've been to many funerals where many good things are said about the deceased. and the love that they have for their family, and the good things they did, the ways they served their fellow human beings, the way they enjoyed life, and all those things. And they're all touching. But you won't hear they live by faith. You won't hear in the funeral of an unbeliever that they live by faith, that their whole life was governed by the Word of God, that they sought God's will in His Word and sought to apply it to their daily lives. You won't hear that. But that's what we hear about these people. And then thirdly, and finally, the perfecting of all who live by faith, even Christ. And this again is verse 39. All these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God has provided something better for us. so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. Therefore, since we have a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. And then you have verse two, which focuses now on Christ, who is now called, in verse two, the perfecter of faith, the author and perfecter of faith. Now, if you've been to any of the Hebrew studies we had in Sunday school, you will remember that I pointed out, I've been pointing out, that there are four perfection passages in the book of Hebrews. And these are, in a sense, the most important verses in Hebrews, because they speak about Christ being perfected. And we do wonder, how could Christ, the eternal Son of God, the sinless one, in any way become perfect? Does that mean He was imperfect before? Well, the four verses emphasize these things, and I'll just mention these, and of course the answer to that other question is no. But in Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 10, the first of the four perfection passages, it says that he has perfected the author of their salvation through sufferings. God has perfected the author of their salvation through sufferings. So it's not that Christ was imperfect in any way, but that his sufferings were part of this process in which he was proved, proven in some respect, it says, it was fitting for him for whom are all things and through whom are all things and bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father. And so Hebrews 2 and verse 10 is very much like Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2. Because there, it speaks of Christ as the author, and it also refers to him as the author in chapter 2 and verse 10. And, now it speaks of him not as the one who is made perfect, but as the one who perfects others. And also, Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 10 speaks of sufferings. And all of the people that are mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 endured some measure of suffering, some more than others. You might say that the ultimate suffering, the ones that are described in Hebrews 11, and it's really horrible, is being sawn in two. So, your first perfection passage is Hebrews 2 and verse 10. The perfect, the author of our salvation through suffering. The second one is Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 9. And it says there that having been made perfect, he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation. Having been made perfect, Jesus, he became the source of eternal salvation, which is again very similar to Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2, fixing your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. He became the source of eternal salvation, having been made perfect. And then Hebrews chapter 7 and verse 28 refers to him simply as a son made perfect forever. A son made perfect forever. Then you have the last of the four is Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 11, which says, that when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come to the greater and more perfect tabernacle, and that more perfect tabernacle is His body. It's the tabernacle of His incarnation. So that these four perfection passages which relate to Christ are now brought forward to the lives of people who live by faith, who now have as their goal to also be perfected in their life of faith. That's our goal, and if you didn't know that, that should be your goal. Your goal should be not only to live by faith, but to attain the perfection even through your sufferings, just as Jesus. And that's why we look to Him. We fix our eyes on Jesus, well, for many reasons. We fix our eyes on Jesus because He is lovely. Just this afternoon I was reading a book on the attributes of God, a little bit, which I just got in Grand Rapids, that quoted John Owen, and why Jesus is so lovely. And it had like 12 things, as only John Owen could state it. There are lots of reasons why we look to Jesus. He is the altogether lovely one. But here, there is a specific reason. Now here we look to Him, not so much in the loveliness of it all, but because He is the author and perfecter of faith. Whose faith? My faith. So I look to Him because I'm living by faith and I want my faith to be perfected through my sufferings, just like it was with Him. And so, the heading. The perfecting of all who live by faith. The perfecting of all who live by faith today, who follow Christ, who also live by faith, and was perfected through his sufferings and his obedience, and lo and behold, the testimony of those who live by faith includes those two elements, suffering and obedience. By faith he obeyed, by faith he obeyed, by faith she obeyed. And that's what Jesus did. He obeyed. So the perfecting of all who live by faith has these two parts to it at the end of this section here, and you see them there. It talks first about the Old Testament saints and then the New Testament saints. So let's fill in the content of these two. So it speaks about the perfecting of Old Testament saints, and then it speaks about the perfecting of New Testament saints. So what does it say about the perfecting of Old Testament saints? Well, first of all it says that they are not perfect except without us. So that apart from us they would not be made perfect. Sounds strange in a way, but I think you understand what he means. It's not cryptic. So that apart from us they would not be made perfect. The point is that they are perfected with us and not without us. Verse 40. In the sense that we are the fulfillment of what they were looking for and hoping for. The New Testament saints are the fulfillment. We live in the age of fulfillment. So that's, he's basically tying the Testaments together. So they are perfected with us, not without us. And that surely has something to do with what it says in that same verse, that they are a cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance. So this cloud of witnesses there in heaven, I don't think that it necessarily means, because I don't think people who live in heaven right now can see what's going on down here. I don't think that, and the Bible teaches that. So some other sense must be in view here and it is that their lives, their lives are, we remember their lives. We view ourselves as in an arena and we view the people in the bleachers there and the spectators as being these Old Testament saints. So, that seems to be what he's saying here with regard to the perfecting of the Old Testament saints. And he's also saying that the fulfillment of their faith was not in their lifetime, but in ours. That's interesting. They did not receive what was promised. They lived by faith, they gained approval through their faith, they enjoyed the blessings of faith, and they made it, as you see in these examples, they made it through to the end. They didn't receive what was promised. That is, what the Old Testament promised, whereas we have. So it's teaching that the fulfillment was not in their lifetime, but in ours. And they become, as I just stated, heavenly witnesses for us, chapter 12 and verse 1. So here's the perfecting of the Old Testament saints. Then you have the perfecting of the New Testament saints, described in chapter 10 and verse 40. God has provided something better for us. That is the phrase that applies to this point. The perfecting of the New Testament sayings is the something better for us. So we have something better than they have. They had the substance and they had the faith and Abraham was even justified by faith, which is the only way to be justified, but they didn't have what was promised. So something better for us because we have what was promised. So we have this huge advantage, this great advantage. And I hope you see it as that. You can get out of your, just your little world, our little world of everyday living, which is what the Bible calls us to do. You know, some people are so wrapped up in their everyday life that they can't see any further than their lives. The Bible calls us to live much broader than that. For example, it says, as Shiraz read this morning, we look upon unseen things. But even in this life, we have to learn to realize, we have to learn that we're part of a great purpose of God. We're part of His work throughout the ages. And so therefore, we enjoy something that all of these great people did not have. You are actually more blessed than the people who are listed in this chapter. And as Jesus said to the people who heard Him, He reminded them that the prophets, the people of the Old Testament would have rejoiced to hear what you're hearing, but they didn't hear it. So the New Testament saints have something better, and the New Testament saints, because of this, are called upon to endure, to endurance. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us and run with endurance the race that is set before us. So the perfecting of New Testament saints is through endurance and looking to Jesus, verse two, the author and perfecter of faith. Father, we thank you for this great, truly great and marvelous chapter. We praise you. And Lord, we pray that as we look into it in coming weeks, However long it may take, Lord, we pray that we will be strengthened in our faith and walk with you and enjoy the blessings of living by faith, the certainty, the assurance, the confidence, the warmth, and also just the intellectual, the knowledge. Not in a proud way, but not in a boasting way, but we have an understanding of the mysteries of life. because we know the Creator. And this doctrine of creation and this doctrine of Christ and salvation, these doctrines give us great stability so that we can live comfortably, yes, by faith. I pray that you will speak to the heart of anyone here, young or old, man or woman, boy or girl, who still cannot say that they trust in Jesus for the salvation of their eternal soul. Lord, what will they give in exchange for their soul on the last day? So help them to come to Christ by faith and help us all to live by faith, we pray in Jesus name.