Well, everybody does it. Everybody hooks their life to some kind of hope. Everybody wants to be sure. There is a new movie out this weekend; it's written by and starring the comedian Bill Maher. The movie is called "Religulous," a combination of two words: Religion and Ridiculous. Bill Maher believes that religion is ridiculous, that there's no reason for faith, and the movie is meant to be a comedy. Maher doesn't really interview the great minds of faith; he sort of interviews people at the street level of faith, and he has a good time with them.
Bill Maher Gets Preachy
The movie is intended to be funny, but the end of the movie is very interesting because at the end of the movie, it's essentially what you and I would call a sermon. Maher gets quite 'preachy' as he declares his faith in no faith, and by so doing, demonstrates that he too lives by faith. It's inescapable! If you are a human being, you search for hope; you search for surety; you want to know that you know. I'd like you to turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 11; that's page 1007 in your church Bible. Last year in my times to preach on Sunday morning, I spent my time with you asking the question, "What is love?" from First John 4.
This year, I've decided to ask the question, "What is faith?" and spend the preaching times I had in Hebrews 11. Hear as I read verses 1 through 7: 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. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts.
And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household.
By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. (ESV) Well, I hope you can handle this this morning. I'm going to give you the last chapter first. Here it is: Christians are not different because they live by faith. Christians are different because of the object of their faith. Everyone lives by faith. It's impossible not to do so. Everyone hooks their life to something. Everybody wants to be sure; everybody wants to have hope; everybody lives by some set of convictions, somehow, someway.
Now I am persuaded that these first few verses of Hebrews are not intended to give us a technical definition of faith. That actually comes later in the chapter. These verses are meant to alert us to the dynamics of faith that operate in everybody's life and then having laid out the dynamics of faith, these verses then apply that to particular faith in God. Look at the first phrase there, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for." Everybody wants to hope in something. Everybody longs, searches, looks for something that will get them up in the morning, something that it is worth living for, something that they can give their lives to.
Hope is not just something believers are concerned about. Hope is the quest of every human being. We were wired not to live by instinct. We were wired to ask the most profound and significant questions in all of life. Now you know that's true if you've been a parent because your child has a quest to know, a quest to understand. And somewhere between 3 and 10, or 2 and 10, they will ask you 45,000 questions all beginning with 'why?' There will be days when your mind will be numb with 'why?' You will want to say, "Please don't ask me why again; I don't know."
That's built inside of them and notice what it says, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for." We don't want just hope; we want to know that what we've hoped in is sure. You want to be convinced; you want to be sure; you want to think that somehow, someway, you're building your life on firm ground. Bill Maher is a man full of hope. His hope is built on this - there is no God and there is no eternity. There is no such thing as this being we call 'God,' and after this life, there's absolutely nothing.
Holding Nothing
And so there is no morality; there is no truth; his hope is invested in this - there's nothing, enjoy yourself! And when I think of guys like Maher, I think of this man who actually is holding nothing in his hands, and he looks at it, and he sees a diamond - but there's nothing there! But he couldn't get up in the morning, he couldn't write his next joke, he couldn't do what he does if he didn't have some kind of hope. It's a deeply intensely human thing to do. We want to be sure. Listen, you have never met an irreligious person in your life.
Hear me say this, "Irreligion is a religion." You have never met a faithless person in your life. Faithlessness is itself a commitment of faith! Amazing, but it's true. But the writer of Hebrews isn't done here. He says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Everybody is concerned about the world of unseen reality. You could argue, and I will, that the most important vision system for a human being is not the physical eyes. The most important vision system of a human being is the eyes of the heart.
The eyes of the heart are always searching, always searching for truth, always searching for meaning, always looking for something that I can give myself to. This word 'conviction' here is probably best translated somewhere between conviction and perception, it's very interesting. Because here's what happens, the thing that I take as my hope, I put on as glasses through which I look at and interpret my world. Hear this truth: every human being is interpreting the scene through the vehicle of the unseen.
Everybody does that. Now here's what this means, when you get up in the morning and you look in the mirror, whatever damage you're surveying that the night has done, you are looking at a theologian. You are looking at a philosopher. You're looking at an archaeologist. Every human being is that. Every human being is developing this superstructure, this worldview of thoughts, and values, and principles, and interpretations that become their basis for interacting with the world that they deal with every day.
Now parents, this ought to send a shiver down your spine because that child you've given birth to is in the process of developing this particular way of looking at life that will be the basis of everything he says, and everything he does, and every choice and interaction that he makes. These are profoundly important observations on the basic nature of human functioning. Life, it's very self, is fundamentally religious; inescapably so. It is utterly, from beginning to end, absolutely about faith. There, have I said it strongly enough?
It is. Now, what makes the Christian different then? What makes the Christian different is the object of his faith. He's not different because he exercises faith. If you're a human being made in the image of God made for relationship with God, you exercise faith. And that capacity, that hardwiring, that drive to know, to understand, to have surety, to have conviction, to have knowledge is meant to drive us to the point where we abandon ourselves, and we abandon our wisdom, and we finally find our rest in God and God alone.
That's what this capacity is meant to do for us. Now having established the dynamics of faith, then the writer of Hebrews begins to apply that to particular faith in God. Notice verse 2, "For by it the people of old received their commendation." Now understand what he is saying here. They didn't receive their commendation because they had faith. They received their commendation because their faith was in God; and once you place your faith in God, you have signed on for the most radical of existences.
Radical Old Testament History
I can't think of history more shockingly radical than the history that's recorded in the Old Testament. Unless you believe in God, unless you're deeply convicted that God exists, this history makes no sense at all. Why would Moses, a murderer exile, go back to the place of his crime? Belief in God. Why would Noah, bless his heart, spend 120 years building that huge boat when there wasn't even any rain? Belief in the existence of God. Why would elaborately wealthy Abraham get up and leave his place of comfort and go to a place he had no idea where he was going?
Belief in the existence of God. Why would Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego say, "We will not bow to this idol even though you've threatened us with death"? Belief in the existence of God? There is nothing more radical than to believe that, and if you really believe in the existence of God, it will begin to shape everything in your life. Everything in your life now changes because instead of you being at the center of the universe, God is now at the center of the universe. Somehow, someway, everything in life is about Him.
The minute you say, "I believe God," everything changes. No neutrality; everything changes. But look what else is said in verse 3: "By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible." What could be a more radical commitment of faith than to believe that this world was created out of nothing by nothing other than the Word of God? God had no need of raw material. He literally spoke this world into existence. You have never spoken anything into existence in your life.
Everything you've ever created begins with raw material. I love to cook. I have yet to speak a meal into existence! In fact, there are times when I start with wonderful raw material, and the final product doesn't match the vision that was in my brain. You see, this is a glorious and amazing thing to think--that stepping into the void of nothing was a God of awesome power and awesome glory, and He literally, by words, spoke the universe into being. Wow! Now, faith embraces the implications of that; because if God is Creator, everything that exists belongs to Him.
I'm a painter, sort of, by part-time avocation, and when I get done painting the painting, it belongs to me. I've got more of those that still belong to me than I actually want. But that's what happens. In the same way, by the product of His created right, the world belongs to God. There is nothing in your life that actually belongs to you. Your possessions don't belong to you. Your relationships don't belong to you. Your gifts and graces and mentality don't belong to you. Your finances don't belong to you.
Your leisure doesn't belong to you. It all belongs to the Lord; it hasn't been given for your using; it's been given for His glory! It all belongs to Him. Do you live as if you actually believe that there is a Creator who owns everything that is you and yours? Would God look at you and say, "This person lives a commendable life because I can watch everything in this person's life and it is an extension; it is an application of what it means to believe in me"? If you're a husband, does belief in the existence of God and the Creator glory of God shape the way you relate to your wife?
Wives, to your husband? If you're a university student, do you live in that university in a way that would only ever happen because you believe in the existence of God? If you're a businessman, do you work in the business place in a way that is shaped and moved and structured because of the belief in the existence of God? The way that you invest in leisure and entertainment, is that shaped by a belief in the existence of God? That's faith. Now maybe you're sitting here, and you're asking the question, "Oh, Paul, where do I get this faith?"
Faith Comes by Hearing
Well, the Bible answers that question in two ways. The first comes out of Romans 10; it says, "That faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." God is a God of awesome grace. He knows what a great struggle the struggle of faith is. He knows how fickle our hearts are and how wandering our minds can be; and so in His grace, He's given us His Word. This Word, written by the Creator that is an origin-todestiny manual of life that addresses all the great questions of life, that opens to us the mysteries of the plan, and purpose, and grace, and love of God.
This Word is given to be a stimulant, a foundation for your faith. If the muscles of your faith are weak, perhaps it is because you're not spending time in the Word of God. I want to say to you this morning, "I think there's a whole lot of spiritual anorexia among us. I think there are many atrophied hearts among us because we're not feeding on the rich food of the Word of God that builds and strengthens our faith." If you have struggles with faith, I would say to you, "Run to the Word." I can't think of how a person could live without the Word.
But there's another thing that's said; it's so beautiful, I don't know if I can wrap words around it. The words are simple, but they are magnificent. It comes out of Ephesians 2, "By grace you have been saved through faith. (Are you listening to me?) ...it is the gift of God." Humbly admit with me this morning that, yes, as a human being, you are a person of faith; but, no, you do not have the ability to work up faith in God in your own heart. You can't do it. You could do 1000 religious things and you could never workup faith in your own heart.
Hear this humbling but satisfying truth: faith is only ever, faith in God is only ever the gift of His grace. Now maybe you're sitting here this morning, and maybe you've been confronted with the question, "Perhaps what I thought is sure is not sure. Perhaps the hope I've hooked myself to is not hope all. Paul, I don't think I've ever actually stepped out and placed my rest in God." I would welcome you; I would encourage you, bow your head and do that right now. Say to the Lord, "Please forgive me for my unbelief, and won't You, in Your grace, plant belief in this heart of mine?
I want to be sure, but I don't want to just be sure, I want my surety to be in You." And your Lord says, "You come to me, I will never turn you away." Maybe you're a believer here this morning; you have confessed your faith in the Lord; but as you look over your life, it may not be much of a commendable life. You sit here this morning and you realize that your life is this pendulum swinging between faith and doubt. Sometimes you do live in that courage and hope; sometimes you do put your feet solidly on faith in God, but there are other times where you act like He doesn't exist, and you live by some other competing system.
I would encourage you to run to Him as well and say, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief. May I be a person of consistent faith? May I be a person who believes in the utter ownership that You have over everything in my life? May my life be commendable in Your sight?" We Christians aren't different because we live by faith--what marks us out is we believe we have placed our faith in God and God alone; and because of that, we are willing to live radical lives of faith. No longer for our glory, but for His and His alone because our Savior is our Creator.
We live joyfully recognizing His ownership over everything we are and everything we have. Is your life characterized by that kind of faith? Let's pray: Lord, how powerful and how practical and how radical Your Word of Truth is. I pray for everyone in this room that our faith would rest in You and that the result of that would be not only a settled heart that needs to search no more, but a life that's commendable in Your eyes. In Jesus's name, Amen.
