Our scripture reading is from the book of Hebrews. We begin to read in chapter 10, Hebrews 10. And we begin the reading at verse 25 and we'll read into chapter 11 through verse 13. We begin at Hebrews 10. Verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God? and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said, vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But call to remembrance the former days in which after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst ye were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience. And that word patience is, of course, patient endurance. you have need of patient endurance, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition. but of them that 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 report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation, he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. By faith, Noah, being warned of God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. So far we read God's holy word. The text for the sermon is the first three verses of the chapter Hebrews 11, one through three, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, Hebrews 11 obviously is a very well-known and well-loved chapter, partly because it's quite familiar. Many of us have memorized, probably most of us at one time or another, have memorized the chapter. And it recounts stories of men and women who are the very heart of the Old Testament in God's covenant line. It's exciting to recount their triumphs of faith and how pertinent, to see how pertinent, their lives are, even for us, though we live in a very different time and in a very different culture and world. As we begin the verses here tonight, it is important for us to see the context of these three verses, which really is in verse 10. The chapter division is not very helpful because these verses are very much connected to the previous chapter. In the last section of chapter 10, the inspired writer warns, first of all, against forsaking the truth. He warns against forsaking the truth in very strong language. And it encourages them, the saints, and these saints, of course, who are Hebrews, that's why the book is called that. So these are Hebrew Christians who believed in Jesus, but then they began to encounter persecution. And some of them were sliding back to their old Jewish religion. And so he comes to these Jewish Christians. And he says, you have need for endurance. You have need for endurance. That's the verse 36 that I called attention to. You have need of patience, but the word patience there is a patient endurance. And that especially in the trials of life, not only, but as they were facing persecution. And some of their friends were going back to the old religion, forsaking the confession they made in Jesus Christ. He teaches them that the power of endurance is faith. That's verse 38. Now the just shall live by faith. And when we hear that, right away we think of Romans and we think of how we are justified by faith, and that surely is one of the meanings of the idea that the just shall live by faith. We are justified in the blood of Christ, but there's more to it than that. It also means this is how we live. This is our strength. The child of God lives out of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and out of the power of Jesus Christ. He lives by the power of faith in Jesus. And that same faith continually drawing from Jesus is the power, therefore, of perseverance. No matter what trials the believer faces. That brings us to verse 39, the last verse of chapter 10, which says, but we are not of them who draw back unto perdition. You forsake the faith in Jesus Christ, you will end up in perdition. We are not of those who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. That brings in the text we consider tonight. Those who believe faith. Faith in this section then is showing This is the kind of faith that perseveres. It's not intended to be a complete discussion of faith. It doesn't even really give a definition of faith as such, but it will show or draw from one particular aspect of faith that you have hope and in that hope you persevere on the pathway no matter what trials or troubles you may have in it. And the rest of the chapter then will bring out how the power of faith enabled God's people to persevere through their difficulties. Faith is tremendously important. The Bible speaks explicitly of faith or believing or trusting in God over 700 times. But what exactly is faith and why is faith so important to us? That's what we want to see tonight. So we consider these verses under the theme, Our Amazing Faith. Notice three things with me. First of all, Solid proof. Faith is solid proof. And that's especially verse one. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith is solid proof. Secondly, faith gives spiritual understanding. And that's especially verse three. By faith we understand. Faith gives us a spiritual understanding of things. Then finally, the third point is faith gives sure salvation. That's verse 2, for by it the elders obtained a good report. So let's examine this, our amazing faith. First of all, faith is solid proof. I said faith is not given a definition here, but we ought to examine faith itself before we get in too deep into the text. What exactly is faith? And let's start out with this, faith is a gift of God. When I say our amazing faith, you must not have the impression that it's something that we somehow managed to get. Faith is a gift of God. And faith gives us, rather God gives us everything. He gives us, the clothes we're wearing, the food we eat, the home we have, but faith is a spiritual gift from God. You cannot learn faith. You cannot work faith. You cannot give faith to someone. It is a work of the Holy Spirit, a spiritual gift. Only the Spirit can work faith in the heart of an elect sinner. Faith is not passed on from parents to children. Faith is not automatically given to every baptized child. Faith is not something that you get simply by attending catechism and learning all the questions and answers, or going to a Christian school and passing all the Bible tests. That will not get you faith. It might strengthen your faith, but that's not how you get faith. Faith is a gift of God. And when you say that faith is also, as the Catechism says it, a bond that connects you to Jesus Christ, then you see right away why we cannot get faith on our own. Who could connect himself to Jesus Christ? Faith is a spiritual bond that unites us to Jesus Christ. And flowing from that then is what the Catechism describes a spiritual knowledge and a spiritual confidence. Knowledge and confidence that is spiritual, not earthly. Without faith, a person is strictly of the earth. All that the man without faith knows is of the earth. All that he cares about, all that he seeks, all that he lives for is the earthly and the material. It's money, it's possessions, it's food, it's cars, it's houses, it's sports, it's all the things of this world. If you do not have faith, that's what life consists in. You simply hope to have a pleasant life and die rather peaceably because everything is of this earth. Oh, the believer knows, the unbeliever rather, the unbeliever knows that there is a God. The whole creation testifies of that. The power of God is evident there. His Godhead, his deity is evident there, says Romans 1. But the unbeliever pushes that down. He refuses to allow that to come into his mind. He rejects the idea that there is a God. The American unbeliever can sing of America the beautiful and of the purple mountain magistries, mountains, and even can sing, God shed his grace on thee, But he denies that God for all that. Faith changes everything. That man who only knows the earthly, is only concerned about the earthly, who is given faith, is a changed man. Faith is the substance the foundation of things hoped for that go outside of this world. Faith is the proof that gives one conviction of the things that have been done or the things that exist that you cannot see with your eyes. Now let's delve into that a moment. Things that you cannot see with your eyes. So what are these things that you cannot see? Well, God. The evidence of God is all around us, but you cannot see God. You cannot see angels. You cannot see heaven. And Jesus. Jesus, who is very God and very man. We've never seen him. We've not seen anything about him, his life, that he went about doing good, healing the sick and casting out demons, that he raised Lazarus from the dead, that with five loaves and two fish he fed 5,000 men. You and I have never seen any of that. that he was nailed to a cross outside of Jerusalem, and that there he suffered the wrath of God until it was finished, that he died and was buried, and that he arose again. None of us saw that. We've never seen Jesus. We did not see the empty tomb. We were not standing with the disciples who saw Jesus raised up a little ways, and then a cloud received him out of his sight. We have not seen any of that. Is it true? The unbeliever says, well that's a nice story, can you prove it? What's your answer to that? Can you prove that all these things happened? and that heaven really exists and that God is real and that Jesus was a real person but he's also very God as well as being very man? That he died but rose again, can you prove that? And of course their answer is no, but I have faith. And faith makes me to know that it is true. I have conviction, absolute certainty that it is all true because faith is proof. Faith is proof. Now, what is proof? When we think in earthly terms, if a man says, was a man dressed in rags. He's dressed in rags, the shoes have holes in them, and he says, do you know I'm a millionaire many times over? And we would say, can you prove that to me? Show me your mansion. Show me your fancy cars. Take me into the bank and have the manager show me that indeed you are a millionaire. That's the way we think of proof, don't we? We want to see it. When I see it, I will believe it. That's how we think of proof. But the text says, no, your faith is your proof. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It is your proof. Faith is not a mere feeling. And it is certainly not so that a believer says, well, there are things that I can't prove to you, so I'm just going to believe them. That's not what faith is. Faith is something that is so absolutely rock solid sure that it is beyond proof. There are things like that. Let me give you an example. A woman takes her child into the store, and they're shopping, but they get separated, and the child is lost, and the child, four or five years old, is crying, and somebody takes the child to the manager of the store, and the announcement comes over the speakers, we have a lost child here in the office. Will the mother please come and get the child? And the child comes running to the office. And she wants to take her child. The mother wants to take the child into her hands. But the manager said, wait a minute here. Wait a minute. I'm not just going to give this child to anybody. Can you prove that you're the mother of this child? Can you prove that this is your child? The father will say, that's my child. I gave birth to that child. I feed that child. I take care of that. That's my child. So you can't prove it, really. And so he looks at the child and says, can you prove that that's your mother? And the child says, that's my mother. That's the one who gets me up in the morning. That's the one who puts me to bed at night. This is the one I came to the store with. This is my mother. Can you prove that? No. but there's absolute rock solid conviction of who they are. That's the way it is with God. You're going to prove that there is a God? Prove that he's your father? Prove that there's a heaven? Prove that Jesus is very God and very man and that he came into the world to save his people? Faith is God's gift to his people that is proof, that is evidence, that is rock-solid conviction of the truth. The believer is more sure that God exists than that there is a city in Russia called Moscow that exists. The believer is more sure that Jesus is very God and very man, the Savior of his soul, than he knows that there is a planet called Saturn out there with rings around it. That's how sure, absolutely sure, the believer is. Faith is his proof. Faith does not question what the Bible teaches. If you do not have faith, you will never have this kind of conviction. But faith gives you absolute conviction. Accordingly, faith is the substance of things hoped for. The substance of things hoped for. Hope is the believer's desire, it's his longing for the complete and full salvation that he's been promised. On the one hand, that means deliverance, deliverance from all the pain and the suffering, the sorrow, and the sin of this life. And it means one day entering into a life where all of that is gone and it's a life of joy, it's a life of pleasure, a life of peace that never ends, beyond anything that this life has to offer, which indeed I has not seen or ear heard, it's eternal life. That's the believer's hope. On the deathbed, a believer confesses this hope confidently. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. That's his absolute confidence. I'm going to heaven. I'm going to be with Jesus. I'm going to be with Jesus. And the unbeliever in the next bed says, how do you know that? Have you ever seen heaven? Has anybody ever gone to heaven and come back and told you about it? How do you know that heaven is not a hoax that you've just been taught since you were a child and it really doesn't exist? And what's the believer's answer? Faith. That's how I know. I have faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. And if you take that word substance and you break it down, you have sub, and sub means under, like a submarine goes under the water, so sub. And then stance means the material, what stands under it. Substance is your foundation. It's your foundation. The foundation of your hope. going to, what you'll be delivered from, and where we are going, the substance with the foundation underlying your hope is faith, your faith. Faith is not, therefore, wishful thinking. Or rather, hope is not wishful thinking. Hope is absolutely solid because it's resting on the solid ground of faith. I'm going home, the believer says. And the certainty of faith is two-fold. In the first place, the certainty of faith is God said it. Now that I realize already takes faith, right? I have to believe that this is the word of God and not the word of man. But if it says it here in the Bible, then I believe it. Faith believes every word that is in the Bible. But God doesn't leave it there because faith is also experiential. It's something you know from your own experience as a believer. I know that Jesus died for sin because I've been forgiven. I've experienced forgiveness. That's how I know Jesus died for my sin. I know heaven is real because I have a foretaste of that. I have the beginnings of joy and of life with God already now. I know God loves me. I know He cares for me. That's my experience. Faith is experiential knowledge. Faith is solid proof. It's the evidence of things that you cannot see with your eyes, and it is the substance, the foundation of your eternal hope. Faith is sure proof. Second, faith blesses us with spiritual understanding. Spiritual understanding. What does that mean? Well, again, take the word understanding. It's very much like substance. Break down understanding, you have under and standing. What stands under it? What's below the surface that explains what you see, that explains what you experience in your life? what life is really all about. Faith will tell you what's underneath that, your understanding of life. Man has been searching for answers to these questions from the beginning. What is life? Where did we come from? Where did life come from? Why do we exist? How do all things, how did they come into existence, and what's the purpose of all things? Philosophical questions like, what is evil? Where did death come from? Or as Pilate asked Jesus, what is truth? Apart from faith, Man's searching for those questions of understanding, man's understanding is limited to what he can study here of the physical world. He has excluded God from his studies, and he can study the creation and come up with a tremendous amount of knowledge and some amazing things. He can study, for example, the creation and see how the oak tree is related to the maple tree, and how the fern is related to the flower, and how the deer is related to a horse. So he has tremendous understanding of earthly things, but the true understanding of life eludes him because he has ruled God out. He has excluded God, the creator, by whom and for whom all things were made. All things were created by God with God's purpose in mind. And therefore, everything in this world, the trees, the flowers, the animals, and man, have a certain relationship to God which makes everything understandable. But only faith gives this understanding. The believer grasps by faith what the unbeliever cannot. The believer says, I get it. It makes sense to me. I perceive it with my mind. I can understand what lies underneath the surface. Not perfect knowledge, of course not. But that's the point of verse three. Through faith we understand. And that starts with the very world around us. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. And now the Belgic Confession speaks of that creating work of God. It's a marvelous summary of God's creating work in Article 12 of the Belgic Confession. Let me just read the first part of that. And keep in mind what we're studying here in Hebrews. Article 12, we believe. Starts out that way. We believe that the Father, by the word that is by his Son, hath created of nothing the heavens, the earth, and all creatures as it seemed good unto him, giving unto every creature its being, shape, and form, and several offices to serve its creator. And that he hath still uphold and govern them by his eternal providence and power, for the service of mankind to the end that man may serve his God. So God gave to every single creature its being, its existence, its shape, its form, and the function, the offices in how it would serve God. That's what God did when he created. Now the text says, by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. Now, the word worlds there, why does it say worlds? By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. The literal word behind that in the Greek is ages. By faith, we understand that the ages were framed by the Word of God. And in fact, it's a surprising number of times that the word ages is translated world in the Bible and with good reason. Why that? When it says that the ages were framed by the Word of God, it is emphasizing that this created world of God changes develops through time. It develops. You only have to think of what was the world like when God formed Adam and Eve and put them in the garden? And then what was that world like when Noah was building the ark? And what was that world like when Nimrod built Babel and The world, the nations were diversified, the languages changed, and they all spread out. And so you can see that the world itself, the created world, has ages in it, has change built into it. It says that the worlds were, or the ages were framed by the word of God. And that's not the word for create. It was a different word for create. It's a word that means, that the ages were equipped, they were prepared by the word of God. Now, the expression word of God, something we're very familiar with, it refers especially to the spoken word of God, that powerful word of God that is able to call those things which be not as though they were, simply call them into existence, God spoke. And when God spoke, all of the mass of material came into existence that had not existed a moment before. God's Word then determined What the Belgic Confession says, the place, the function, the form of each and every creature, the Word of God that spoke, called into existence, the horse, the tree, the flower, by that power. But now when we remember that the Word of God is Jesus, John 1, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and it was God, that's Jesus, who became flesh. Then this text is even deeper significance, because Jesus is the wisdom of God. In Jesus, the whole of God's world, the whole of God's counsel holds together. Everything has meaning and purpose as it is tied to Him. He's the focus of all things. The whole history of the world, the Old Testament was a looking forward to the birth of Jesus, and then from that time on, we're all looking forward to His second coming. The whole of the history of the world revolves around Jesus, the Word of God. The point is then that the Word of God not only called into existence but formed and shaped the whole of his creation perfectly for the whole of God's eternal plan. It was perfect when God formed it and put Adam and Eve into it. It was perfect for the moment when Jesus was born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger. It was perfect when Martin Luther nailed the theses to the chapel door in 1517. And it's perfect for 2025. The Word of God framed, prepared the ages that God's purposes would be accomplished. Faith understands that. Faith does not struggle with the questions that unbelievers cannot answer satisfactorily. Faith understands life is from God and life exists for God. Faith understands death is not natural. Death is a punishment for Adam and Eve's sin. Faith understands that the whole purpose of the creation is giving God's glory. giving Him glory in the way of saving His elect people out of all the nations through all of time, and in the revelation of His power and majesty. The whole creation exists to give God glory. Faith understand that this creation is not the end of all things. This creation is only a step toward the final glorious heaven and earth. Faith understands that man is not the center of all things, that the world does not exist for man, that the world and all creation exists for the glory of God. Faith understands. That's the point. Through faith we understand that the worlds, the ages, were framed by the Word of God. And we understand that that word of God did indeed call into existence the heavens and the earth. And that's especially the second part of verse three. so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. That little phrase at the end of verse three is so very important to reject so many errors. The error that matter, material thing, always existed. This says no. No, that's not true. The lie of evolution. That, out of this material that didn't have any life, somehow life came out of it. And then that one-celled organism turned into a many-celled organism and developed into grass and flowers and ultimately, over billions of years, into trees. Or the idea that out of that non-living mass, a one-celled living thing came out and developed into many cells and became all the animals over billions of years that we see in the land, in the air, and in the sea. This text says that is all a lie. Because the lie of evolution is that the thing you can see now came from a lower creature, which came from a lower creature, which came all the way back. So it came from something that you can see. Some material thing. And this text says no. The things you can see did not come from things which do appear. God called them into existence. They did not exist. The material world did not exist until God by His Word spoke and it became. Faith understands that God spoke and it was. That He formed all things by His powerful Word. Jesus is the one. John 1, all things were made by him. And without him was not anything made that was made. All things were not only created by Jesus, but again, all things were formed in such a way that they have meaning in Jesus. They have purpose in him. They fit into the plan of God. And he's still upholding them by the word of his power. and he's still directing the whole course of history. Faith is God's gift to you so that you can understand. Without faith, no one will ever understand the purpose of life, where it came from, why we exist, why is there evil. He will never understand. He may send rockets out into space hoping to find maybe where life came from, but he will never find it. He will never understand how the things that we can see came not from things which already existed. Unbelief is a dreadful darkening of the understanding. It's a darkening. When Adam and Eve were created, they have an amazing ability to see the glory of God and the word of God in all of the creation. And then sin came, and it darkened their understanding. And for an unbeliever that does not have faith, he remains in that darkness. Dreadful. It's a willful rejection of the truth. The most brilliant scientist in the world without faith will not understand. He refuses to understand. Though he may be way smarter than anybody in this room, he will not understand. Thank God for his gift of faith. By faith you live understanding. You know why things exist. For God's glory. You know where things are going. It's going to the end where Jesus comes in the clouds of heaven. This world will be burned. The bodies will be raised and changed, but this world will end and it will be recreated into new heaven and earth. You know that. You understand that because It all ties in to Jesus. All of it. Faith is the essential difference in man's understanding of life and eternity. Faith is sure proof. Faith is spiritual understanding. And finally, faith is the believer's sure salvation. And that's verse two. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Who are the elders? The word elders can be used in the sense of the elders of the church, can be used in the sense of the elderly in a congregation, but here the word elder simply means all the Old Testament believers. Adam and Eve. are part of this group of elders. Abel and Seth and Enoch, Abraham and Sarah, David and Bathsheba, those are the elders. By faith, the elders obtained a good report. What does that mean, to obtain a good report? Well, back up just a little bit because the original words are a little bit different from a good report. I don't think it's a bad translation at all, but let's get the sense of it. By faith, the elders, literally, were witnessed to. It's the word for witnessing. Someone witnessed something about them. The same word translated a good report is used in John 1 verse 7 and it speaks of John the Baptist who came for a witness to bear witness to the light. But it is often translated, that word which means simply to witness, to speak a witness, is often translated a good report. That's the way it is used, for example, in Acts 16 verse two, where it says that Timothy, it says he was well-reported of, well-reported of. Paul came to the city and it says, He was witnessed. Someone gave a good witness concerning Timothy, so much so that Paul would then take him on his missionary journeys and train him to be a pastor. So the text says the elders had a witness concerning them." Someone gave a witness and clearly it is not a bad witness, it's a good witness. It's the same word used later in the chapter here in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 39, all these having obtained a good report, a good report. And so you have it here, by faith the elders obtained a good report. They had a commendation. A commendation was given concerning them. So now the question is how could those Old Testament saints receive a good report if you took the whole of their life into account? How could Adam and Eve who plunged the human race into death and corruption How could they get a good report? How could Noah, after the amazing event of the flood, then plant a vineyard and make wine and get drunk and lie in his tent exposed? How could he get a good report? How could Abraham, who doubted God's providence, lied twice about Sarah being his wife, and didn't believe the promise and so took another woman, Hagar, and married her to try to get a child? How could Abraham get a good report? How could Jacob, who tricked his father into giving him the birthright blessing? How could he get a good report? Or Moses, who disobeyed God and struck the rock and called God's people rebels? How could Samson, a judge of God, who committed horrible fornication with the Philistines, get a good report? And what does the text say? By faith. By faith. In fact, it's a little stronger than that, because verse one says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Verse two says, for by it, that is, for by this, for by this, by faith, the elders received a good report. The just shall live by faith. That's the only answer. They were declared righteous in and through Jesus alone. All the works that you can read about in this chapter, amazing things, but that's not what gave them the good report. Those works had to be covered by the blood of Jesus Christ as well. They were completed with sin. The only explanation for why they could receive a good report is faith. Faith. And it's by faith that they persevered to the end. And that's part of the reason why in verse two it starts with the word for, for. For is proof of something. And we're in that, remember, go back to verse 10. We are not those who draw back unto perdition, we are those who believe to the saving of the soul. Because faith is this important, for. Here's proof, here's proof that faith is the power that makes you persevere not to perdition but unto salvation, for by it, by faith, the elders received a good report. That's the only explanation. Again, how did they persevere? How did Noah, with millions of people opposing him, ridiculing him, ready to kill him, how did he persevere to the last nail and bring those animals into the ark with him? By faith. That's the only explanation. We are not of those who draw back We believe. We believe the promises of God. And because we have the promises of God, that's the sure foundation of our hope. We have hope. And because we have hope, we persevere, we keep going, we're on our way. And that's the testimony of Hebrews chapter 11. How did they do that? Not in their strength. We must not look at the people of Hebrews 11 as if they are some superhuman saints that had a strength that you and I do not have. No, they just had faith. They endured by faith alone, united to Jesus Christ. That bond of faith was flowing to them. That was their power. That was their strength. And they endured patiently to the end of their life. How will you? You don't know what you're facing. Some of you have faced tremendous trials. And we don't know what the future holds. How will you persevere to the end when the Antichrist comes and when persecution is as the church has never experienced it? And the answer is, you will persevere by faith alone. Faith is your salvation. That's the amazing gift of faith. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank thee for thy word as it explains that marvelous gift of faith. Lord, strengthen our faith and make it to be that it is our power by which we live. It's our assurance, and it's our understanding, and it's our absolute confidence that this life is not all there is. We're not ending up here. We may die, but we will go. We are on our way to eternal life. Strengthen that faith. We thank Thee for it, and we thank Thee for Jesus, the object of that faith, in whose name we pray. Amen.