The Nature and Effects of Saving Faith (Hebrews Sermon 44)

There’s some moments, as I read in the Bible, that I would really love to have been there when that happened. Many of them, as a matter of fact, but I think in particular about one morning in the accounts given to us in 2 Kings, in which an army, an Aramean army, has surrounded the city where the prophet Elisha is. And they’re there because they think to take the man of God and bring him back to the King of Aram because he’s so enraged that Elisha’s warning the King of Israel concerning his every actions, and he’s tired of it and he wants to capture this man, so he sends this huge army to go get one man. And of course the servant goes out in the morning and says, “In effect, we’re in deep trouble, we’re in deep danger. We’re going to be taking a trip to Aram very soon.” And Elisha goes out and looks and he says, “Don’t’ be afraid…Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” “What are you talking about? We are vastly out-numbered.” “No, we’re not.” And then he prays this simple prayer. “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.”

Now, clearly, he wasn’t talking about his physical eyesight. Apparently nothing wrong with that. But there is an eyesight of the soul, by which invisible spiritual realities can stream into our hearts. I believe that is called faith. And I think a supernatural thing happened on that particular account, he was able to see what ordinarily we cannot see, invisible beings, chariots, horses of fire, the army of the host of heaven, mighty army surrounding that little town. I wonder if God opened our eyes to see, in an amazing way into the invisible spiritual realm, this morning, what we would see. What it would be like to see the angels, what it would be like to see the demons, the spiritual battle that goes on all the time. But even better for us to see God on His throne as recorded for us in the book of Revelation, God seated on His throne, 24 elders around the throne, four living creatures, 100 million angels ready to serve God.

To have our eyes opened, to see this invisible spiritual realm, that is something that can only come by faith. And so as we come to Hebrews 11, we come to one of the most famous, one of the most beloved chapters in the Bible. Hebrews 11, frequently called, you heard Joshua say earlier; The Hall of Faith. The idea is somehow like the Hall of Fame, where you’re just walking through a grand, glorious museum of men and women of God who have gone before us and who have lived lives of faith, who have done great things in this world because of their faith. The Hall of Faith. And it begins with one verse and one verse is going to be all we’ll get to today. I’ll say it’s straight out, we’re just doing one verse today, Hebrews 11:1.

I. Hebrews 11 Set in Context

It begins with, it seems, a definition of faith right at the start, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” So I want to begin by setting this statement, this incredible statement in its context. It’s in the Book of Hebrews, as we’ve said, the Book of Hebrews was written as a warning epistle to some Jewish people who had made an outward profession of faith in Christ, and had in some way testified to it, probably through water baptism, but were under great pressure to renounce their profession of faith in Christ, and to turn back to Old Covenant Judaism, just out of fear. To turn their backs on Jesus Christ. And the author’s been unfolding the glories of Jesus Christ, the superiority of Jesus Christ to everything that they have known in the Old Covenant. This priority of Christ as our great high priest offering a once-for-all sacrifice, His own blood shed for us, infinitely superior to that which cannot take away our sins, the blood of bulls and goats. Offered in an eternal place not built by human hands but that heavenly tabernacle which God set up. So, in Hebrews 10, he’s giving them a series of exaltations, since we have these glorious benefits of the New Covenant. Since we have all of these glorious things, how are we to live, what kind of lives are we to live, and how are we specifically to persevere?

So as we begin in Hebrews 11:1, “Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for,” the word “now” implies that we might want to look back at least just one verse to see the context. You know that the original epistle was not written with any of these kind of sub-divisions that we find helpful in our Bible reading, chapters and verses, but they weren’t there, and so there’s just a flow right through. And so it’s reasonable to go at least back one verse, where we’re going to actually go step-by-step back, back, back, to understand the context.

But let’s just start with verse 39. “We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” “The righteous will live by faith,” we are told. In Habakkuk, “The righteous will live by faith, and we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe to the saving of their souls.” That’s what the author is telling us.

So we’ve got this incredible doctrine of the justification of a sinner by faith in Jesus Christ. This is the center piece of the gospel. We are justified by faith in Jesus, not by works, but simply by faith, that if you believe in Jesus, the incarnate Son of God who lived a sinless life, who did all these miracles, who walked on water and fed the 5000, who raised the dead, and opened the eyes of the blind, this Jesus, Son of God, Son of man, this one, this perfect, sinless one who died on the cross for our sins, whose blood was shed as a substitute, as a payment for our sins. He died on the cross and He was buried, and on the third day, He was raised to life. And if you put your faith in Him, if you trust in Him, you will be forgiven. You will be righteous in God’s sight, simply by faith. And by that, you will receive the gift of the salvation of your souls. Simply by faith, justification by faith, that’s how chapter 10 ends. “We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.”

So let me just pause and just address you directly. If you don’t hear anything else, if you have come here today, in a Christ-less state, you’re outside the fellowship of Heaven at this present time, you’ve never trusted in Jesus, you were invited here perhaps by a friend, wandered in here off the street, or even if you’ve been here many times before, but you are in a Christ-less state, the Holy Spirit is convicting you of sin, He’s showing you that you have never trusted in Him, the central thing that you can do, “This is the work of God,” said Jesus, “that you believe in the one that he has sent.” Trust in Christ and your sins will be forgiven. This is the gospel. Now, what we have seen in Hebrews is that it’s not enough to just have a momentary trusting in Jesus, a sensation of feeling of trusting, but there must be an entire life of faith that has lived here. There is, in Hebrews 12, a race to be run all the way to the finish line and it’s a race of faith. And so therefore, we must have our faith nourished and strengthened as I’ve been praying.

And so, in order that we may continue to believe to the saving of our souls, the author gives us Hebrews 11. So that you can keep believing in Jesus right through to the end, he gives you this array of godly men and women who have done it before you, who become for us, I think, beautifully the cloud of witnesses that he talks about in chapter 12. Who stand around us to some degree and cheer us on in this race of faith, teaching us that we must endure right to the end. That’s why Hebrews 11 is here, so that we can believe right to the salvation of our souls. Go a step back in Hebrews 10. Back in 10:36, we are told we must have endurance in order to inherit. You need endurance, you need perseverance, the author tells us that. You’ve got to keep going, it’s not enough to start. He who stands firm to the end will be saved, and so we’ve got to continue. You must have endurance if you’re going to inherit what has been promised. And so, I would say, in order to give us endurance, so that we may inherit what has been promised. He gives us this glorious Hall of Faith, Hebrews 11.

Go a step further back, we talked about, in Hebrews 10:34, about some people who joyfully accepted the plundering of their property, joyfully, because they themselves knew that they had a better and lasting possession. And how it wonderful it is to be freed from earthly concerns, freed from earthly materialism, freed from concern of what people think about you, just unleashed on the world because you know that you have a better possession and a lasting one. In order to help you know that, the author’s given us Hebrews 11. He gives his people who lived for a city that is to come later, whose builder and maker is God, who didn’t receive the things promised in this life but only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. These ones who admitted that they were aliens and strangers in the world, who lived their lives like that. He gives us Hebrews 11, so that we can be like that too.

Finally, one step further back from that. Before that, there’s a terrifying warning of apostasy. It’s a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. This is the warning that he’s given us if we deliberately keep on sinning after we’ve received a knowledge of the truth. No sacrifice for sins remains, but only a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. This is what the author has in mind in verse 39, when he says, “We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe to the salvation of our souls,” so that we will not fall into the hands of the living God as a judge, consuming fire but rather as a loving Father and Savior welcomed after our race of faith. That’s why he’s given us Hebrews 11.

Okay. So as we look at this, we see that in Hebrews 11, it’s mostly made up of testimonials of individuals who have lived, we sang this beautiful song from the Gettys, “by faith, by faith, by faith.” It’s going to be this refrain in Hebrews 11, it’s so incredible. Just a march of faith by faith, Abel did this. By faith, Enoch did that. By faith, Noah acted in a certain way. By faith, Abraham, by faith, Sarah. By faith, these individuals lived their lives.

And so we have examples. And so the author is banking on the power of example. We are to have role models in this life of faith, both dead ones, and living ones, how’s that? We should have dead role models and living role models. Abel is dead and yet he still speaks, right? He’s a dead role model. We need both dead role models and living role models. Examples. We already saw this in Hebrew 6. There in verse 11 and 12, the author said, “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” You are to be an imitator of some people. You are supposed to imitate them. And so we already have the idea of role modeling back there in chapter 6, we’re going to get it at the end. The last chapter in Hebrews 13:7 there, it talks about living role models. “Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their lives and imitate their faith.” So it’s vital that we have men and women who are living the life of faith in front of us, and praise God for them.

Seriously, if you have found someone in your life who has been an example to you, a mentor, a role model, you should go to that man, you should go to that woman and say, “I see God’s grace in you, and it has greatly encouraged me in my faith, thank you.” We need that. Conversely, you get to a certain point in your Christian life where that’s expected of you, and that you are called on to so openly, so conspicuously live your life of faith that others may follow your example. So we can say like the Apostle Paul, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” Oh, we need that. I think the boldest statement on earth that you’ll ever find is made by the Apostle Paul, I love this, in Philippians 4. Can you imagine even saying this to somebody, “Whatever you’ve learned, or received, or heard from me, or seen in me, put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you.” Can you imagine even saying that to someone? Just imitate my doctrine, imitate my life and everything will go well with you, God will be with you. But here’s the thing, don’t we need that? Haven’t you already received the benefit of that?

And so we have these role models. He who walks with the wise grows wise, dear friends, but a companion of fools suffers harm. And so God has given us some wise men and women, both dead and living, that we can walk with by faith, and we can learn from their example. That’s what Hebrews 11 is all about. And so we’re going to have examples, we’re going to find out that these examples extended before the flood. They certainly, all of them, extended before the time of Christ. We’re going to find a tremendous unity across the covenants, Old Covenant, New Covenant, to this one thing, the life of faith. It’s always been the same, these individuals were justified by faith. We’re going to walk through it together and learn.

II. Faith is the Assurance of Things Hoped for (vs. 1)

Alright. That’s a overview of Hebrews 11. Let’s zero in on this one verse, it’s going to take all our time. Let’s try to understand what the author’s saying, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Now, this is a very difficult verse to translate. You can tell that by looking at the major English translations and how different they are from one another, many of them. Let’s take the most famous translation, the King James Version. King James Version gives us this. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The ESV, which you had read earlier, the NAS, and the RSV gives us, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Those three all agree on the translation. The NIV gives us, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see.”

Okay. The key words to understand this verse, come down to the ones that the KJV translates, substance and evidence. That’s where the difficulty lies. That’s where they don’t agree. All the translations say, in effect, “Now faith is the blank of things hoped for and the blank of things not seen.” They all say about that, but we want to know what it is in connection with those things. So right away, all the verses tell us that faith has something to do with the invisible world, things not seen. Faith has to do with invisible things. We walk by faith, not by sight. “Because you have seen Me,” Jesus said to Thomas, “You believe. Blessed are they who have not seen and yet they believe.” 1 Peter, “Though we have not seen Jesus, we love Him.” It’s about invisible things. Faith has to do with invisible things. But how do we understand these two Greek words that are difficult, apparently difficult to translate because their translations are so different one from another.

Well, first of all, the first half of the verse says, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for.” Okay. So we know that faith has to do with things you hope for. What does that mean, things that you hope for? Well, I think you only hope for good things and you only hope for future things. Does that make sense? Second half’s easy because the Bible says it straight out, in Romans 8:24, we are told, “Who hopes for what He already has.” Right? You don’t need to hope for what you already have. And so hope has to do with things you don’t yet have. So we are hoping for things that aren’t ours, yet, we’re waiting on them, we haven’t received them yet. Faith is for future things. And just by logic, by language, we know we only use the word hope for positive things, good things, right?

You might dread something, you might be in anguish about something or fear it, but we don’t hope for things we don’t want to happen. We just don’t use that language. Now, the word hope is a bit slippery in terms of our popular culture. We frequently will pit hopes against expectations, right? Like this one expression, “Hoping for the best, expecting the worst.” The plight of a Red Sox fan, okay? “Hoping for the best, expecting the worst.” We are back there again after some good years, back to that. And what does it mean? It means that in the calm and everyday world, frequently, a hope is something you want but it’s actually a pale reflection of the biblical thing. You actually think probably it won’t happen if you are a pessimist anyway. Look, that’s not what we’re talking about here, that is not biblical hope.

What biblical hope is, is an expectation based on a promise that God has given, that he will most certainly keep that promise for that good thing. It’s completely based on the promises of God. I’m going to look back at 10:23, Hebrews 10: 23. It says, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” Do you see that? That’s a key verse in understanding biblical hope. It’s based on the promise. And even more than that, it’s based on the character of the one who promised. Does that make sense? He who promised is faithful, or he who promise cannot lie. He who promised will keep this promise, and therefore, it is absolutely certain. It just hasn’t happened yet. It’s going to come. So that’s what we’re talking about, things hoped for. So what are those things hoped for? They’re good things in the future.

In Amazing Grace, John Newton put it in this way in one of the less familiar stanzas. “The Lord has promised good to me. His word, my hope secures.” That’s perfect. He’s made a promise of something good in the future and because it’s in His Word, I get hope out of it, and it secures my hope. That’s it. That’s spot on. And so, because God’s made you some promises of good things in the future, hope springs up, wells up inside the heart. That’s what we’re looking at. What future good things has he promised? Well, how many are our blessings? Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms, all the good things that are coming. There’s a long list. You just go through the book of Hebrews, one after the other, and you see all of those things that the author to Hebrews is telling you. Just focus on Hebrews, and go through it. I did this through 12 chapters of Hebrews one after the other, just seeing all the good things that God’s promised us.

For example, in Hebrews 2:5, it speaks about the world that is to come, about which we are speaking. There’s a world that’s coming. It says in Hebrews 10, it talks about personal glory and bringing many sons to glory. We are being brought to glory, so we will be glorious in that beautiful world. We will be free from death. Hebrews 2:15, that Jesus frees those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Jesus has liberated us from death, and from fear of death.

We have a heavenly calling, a promise toward a heavenly calling, that He is going to say, in some way, “Come up here.” He’s going to invite us to heaven and we will come and we will be there with Him. We have an eternal Sabbath rest, where we will finally be done with all of our labors and toils. We’ll be done at last. There remains, therefore, a Sabbath rest for the people of God because anyone who enters God’s rest, also rests from his own works, just as God gets from His. We’re going to lay it all down, friends, all the strife and conflict, and weariness and labor and toil. We will be done.

It’s a good thing that’s yet to come in the future. Eternal salvation, the resurrection of the body. It talks about that in Hebrews 6:2. The powers of the coming age, there’s a powerful coming age coming. What a mysterious phrase that is, but how glorious to consider. Rewards for helping God’s people, God is not unjust. He’s not going to forget your labors in your work, as you help God’s people. He’s going to reward you. Good things yet to come. Guaranteed salvation right to the end.

Jesus is able to save to the utter most, He is able to save to the end, those who put their trust in Him. That’s a future thing that you haven’t received yet, right? Your final salvation. It’s in the future, but you have hopes in that, don’t you? It’s going to happen. Future salvation. It’s going to keep on coming. God is going to keep you saved until at last, you will see Him face-to-face. Transformed hearts resulting in a whole different way of thinking. We have foretaste of this, but someday, our minds will be totally conformed to Jesus. Our heart, totally conformed to Jesus. We will love perfectly what He loves, and hate what He hates. We’re looking forward to that. It’s a future. We’re going to be conformed to Him, perfect in every way.

The full knowledge of God, God will be with us and He will be our God and we will be His people, Hebrews 8:10. And we will know Him intimately from the least of us to the greatest. All of our sins forgiven on Judgment Day, not guilty, not guilty on Judgment Day. Judgment Day hasn’t come yet. It’s in the future. Are you going to be acquitted on Judgment Day? If you’re a Christian, the answer is a resounding “Absolutely, yes.” You will be acquitted on Judgment Day. It’s a good thing and you have your hopes in that, don’t you? That you will not be condemned, but acquitted on that day.

And you will come into an eternal inheritance. How about the second coming of Christ? That Jesus, Hebrews 9:28, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him. We’re waiting for the second coming. Is Jesus coming back? Do we have hopes in that? I do. He promised, He’s coming back. And so I have hopes in the second coming of Christ, and perfect holiness at that point. Perfection in every way, and the heavenly Jerusalem, the unshakable kingdom, it’s coming. He talked about that in chapter 12. You come to Mount Zion to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. Thousands upon thousands of angels and joyful assembly. You’ve come to the church of the first born whose names are written in heaven, and you’ve come to God.

That’s all in the future. It’s all in the future. Seeing all of that, experiencing all that, we get foretaste now through the Spirit, through the Word, but we get the reality later. And our hope wells up. Okay. So those are the things hoped for. Faith is the hupostasis of that. Okay. Does that help you? It doesn’t help me. That’s a Greek word. It’s the hupostasis of that, or the substance of it, to the KJV. You know what they did? They bailed. Hey, I mean, all respect to the KJV translation. You know what they did? They took the Latin literalistic translation of hupostasis, which is substantia, and they just put substance over, and I don’t… When I think of substances, I think of substance abuse or something like that, or a foreign substance in a ball, baseball, like Vaseline, that makes it do weird things. It’s illegal, it’s spit ball. Substance. What does that mean? The substance of things hoped for. Well, the word hupostasis is really… That’s what the commentators debate on. And you can either look at it in terms of a subjective interpretation or an objective.

Faith is either looked at here in this verse by what it does to me or what it is, in and of itself. Does that make sense? So what it does to me is it gives me assurance. And this is how it works. By faith, those words, those ethereal things, that we cannot touch or see or handle now by five senses, become as real to me as the five sense world I live in. Does that makes sense? And so, right now, you’re used to living by your eyesight, most of you. And you’re living by what you can see, and so your sight tells you that you are at church now. I hope that’s what it’s telling you. You’re at 414 Cleveland Street. You’re looking forward, looking at me. My right arm is waving. Do you see it? Okay. And you have a sense of certainty about that. There’s no doubt about that, okay?

The light is flowing into your eyes, and Jesus said, if your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. So by your eyesight, reality is flooding into your soul. Right? And so your eyes are good, and you’re able to be filled with the light of this world and see the reality of it. I believe faith is the eyesight of the soul, by which, invisible spiritual things floods as vigorously into your soul as light into your mind, and tells you it is all true. It’s real. It’s as real as anything you can see with your eyes. And you just you have no doubt about it. Therefore, they translated assurance. You see, it brings about an assurance, a sense of the absolute certainty of invisible things, of things that you’re hoping for. Does that makes sense?

Now, the objective translation, I have a hard time understanding, by which faith is the actual substance of it. It’s kind of like faith is the pillar that stands under the thing hoped for, like a foundation of a building, something real and tangible, and faith is that. But the more I talk, after a while, it starts to float away from me and I end up with assurance anyway. And so, I think that’s the best way to understand hupostasis, that basically, because of faith, by faith, the promises of God become substantially real to us. Does that makes sense? That’s the best I can do with that.

And so, faith has a sweet attractive beautiful winsome positive side. It causes you to be constantly filled with hope, that your best things are yet to come, even when you get a dreaded cancer diagnosis, and you’re told you have two to four months to live. Even when something like that can happen, still, you’re filled with hope, and you can go through that right to the end and die filled with hope because of faith. And it’s beautiful, it’s beautiful. It’s a beautiful way to live, and you need it. And so do I. And without it, we cannot serve Christ well in this world. You’ll be a grim, negative, depressed, beaten down person without faith. Miserable, frankly.

But, by faith, instead, you are constantly saying, “God’s promises are real. God is on His throne. God, who cannot lie, made those promises to me. God’s purposes cannot be thwarted. We are going to a glorious world, infinitely better than anything I can see here. And nothing I go through in this world even remotely compares with the glory that will be revealed at that time. Praise God, thank you, thank you, thank you. And you just live your life like that. And you’re going to be the best witness you could be for Jesus, if you live your life like that. People are going to ask to give you a reason for what the hope that’s in you. I’ve just, I’ve never seen anyone live so filled with hope.

Why are you like this? Why are you able to just radiate hope all the time? It’s by faith. So, faith has a sweet attractive, positive side.

III. Faith is the Conviction of Things Not Seen (vs. 1)

I would contend from the second half of the verse, it also has a maybe hard, difficult, painful side as well. This is what I’m arguing that the second half of the verse means. Not only is faith the assurance of things hoped for, but it’s also the conviction of things not seen. Now, here we get to the second difficult word. What do we mean by conviction? The word is a elegkos. It’s only used here in the entire Bible. And whenever you have a word that’s only used one time in the Bible, you have problems. You’re going to have difficulties.

Now, there are a couple of things that you can do. You can go to how the word is used, how scholars tell us the word was used back then in other writings that aren’t the Bible. And you can go to, are there any, let’s say, verbal parallels. This is a noun here. Are there any verbs that are related to it etymologically? And you do that. Both of those things tell me the same thing. Alright? There is a Greek lexicon. I’m not going to burden you with what it is, but basically, it goes through Herodotus, Thucydides, etcetera. And what that Greek lexicon tells us is that elegkos means a cross-examining or a testing for the purpose of disproof or refutation, as in a court room or a trial of law, or you could use it the evidence by which a prisoner is convicted of the crime. Now, this is where I think the KJV translators got their evidence idea. It’s evidence laid out in front of a judge or jury so that the accused can be convicted of what they did and sentenced. But what ended up happening is, just in the flow of English translations, it ended up being a lot like the NIV. It’s, His faith is being sure of what you’ll hope for and certain of what you do not see. And it ends up saying the same thing twice. I don’t think that’s what elegkos means.

Now, let’s go over to the verbal uses. This word actually is used 18 times in the New Testament, so it’s not one or two times. We actually have a lot of them and every single time it’s used, it’s used in the same way, reproof or rebuke for sin, every time. Not once or twice, not 15 out of 18, every single time. Let me give you some examples. If your brother sins against you, just between the two of you, go re-prove him for his sin. What are you doing? What’s happening in that encounter? You are laying out what happened, just probably verbally, but you’re saying, “This is what happened, that… ”

And then, your goal in the evidence is to bring your brother to what? Repentance. The goal is repentance, it’s not punishment, it’s not beating somebody. Your goal here is conviction for the purpose of repentance. Does that make sense? And that’s what this is. Okay. Other examples of the word. It’s used many, many times. Speaking of John the Baptist, he reproved Herod for marrying his brother Philip’s wife. Same Greek word. He said it’s wrong. What you did was wrong, it’s against the law. Or in John 3:20. “Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” Okay, there it is. It’s an exposure of evil. And people don’t want that to happen so they shrink back from the light. Or Jesus Himself, standing in front of His enemies, John 8:46, saying, “Which of you can reprieve or prove me guilty of sin?” What a bold statement. He’s saying there is no evidence that I have ever sinned, ever. Imagine saying that your enemies. Or John 16:8, very familiarly. “When the Holy Spirit comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment to come.” It’s the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. What does he do? He comes and shows you your fault.

Just in the very next chapter, in Hebrews 12. You can look there if you want, just flip over. In Hebrews 12, in verse 5, talking about us as sinning children of God. When we sin, it says you’ve forgotten that word of encouragement and addresses you as sons. “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline and do not lose heart when he… ” And here’s the same Greek word, “rebukes you.” Alright, so that’s what the word, I think, means. Faith is the rebuke of things not seen, or the conviction, I guess is a good translation.

Basically, in effect, you know what faith does? Faith does what Nathan, the prophet did, when he stood in front of David, who was in denial about what he did with Bathsheba, and tells him a story. David’s anger is kindled. You know the story, you know the whole thing. And then, he says, “The man who this deserves to die.” And the Nathan points the finger and says, “You are the man.” That’s what faith does. Faith says you are not excused from this. Even day-by-day, moment by moment, the Holy Spirit comes and says, you just slandered somebody. You just shaded the truth. You just lusted after someone. You have sinned. Faith comes and gets in our business, gets in our face, points the finger and says, “You are the man. You have sinned.”

You know what faith does? Faith brings us to that point that Isaiah was when he saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. And He heard that the seraphim crying out, Holy holy holy is the Lord Almighty, and He said, “Woe is me, I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” When I read that by faith, I’m convicted that I’m a sinner. See, I’m a sinner. And you say, “Wait a minute, we’re justified. We’re forgiven. Right?” That’s true, it’s true. Does that mean you’re done being convicted? Are you done with that now? No. You know why? Because you still have Romans 7:17, a hideous thing, sin living in me. It’s still there. It’s still dangerous, you’re in danger while you live. Someday you won’t be in danger anymore. You won’t need faith anymore. You will not need to be convicted in heaven. Amen, hallelujah. But while you live, you are in danger, and you must have this convicting work go on constantly. It’s necessary. It’s got to happen. You’ve got to have the Holy Spirit working in you constantly, a way of making you aware of your sins.

And so therefore, as I put Hebrews 11:1 together, I see the sweet, attractive, beautiful, positive side, assurance of things hoped for, plus the harder, more difficult, not favorite topic, other side of constantly convicted for sin, together as what’s needed to get me through this world into heaven. Does that makes sense? I need both of them together to get me fruitfully, productively, in a way that glorifies God through, until I don’t need faith anymore.

Need them both. Now, what is the thing not seen? “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Well, in order to understand that, I would go up a couple verses to Hebrews 11:7. So look at Hebrews 11:7, and there you have this interesting expression. “By faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear, built an ark to save his family.” So, that’s Noah. We’ll preach about that in due time, but you’re just grabbing the phrase, “things not yet seen.” You see, it’s the same idea. Not the exact same Greek word, but the same concept.

Okay. What was Noah’s thing not seen? Well, why did Noah build the ark? The flood’s coming. He was warned by the Word of God that a flood was coming. He, in holy fear, took that warning seriously, and said, “If I don’t build this ark, I am a rebel no different than any of these other sinners and I will deserve to perish with them. I must build the ark.” By faith, he built the ark. Does that make sense? And so there is something coming, something bigger than a flood. Do you understand what’s coming? It’s called Judgment Day. And that could be a thing not seen, an invisible day that’s coming, all the more as you see the day approaching, right? All the more as you see the day approaching. The day is coming. What’s coming?

A day in which we will give God an account for every careless word we have spoken, a day is coming, in which, all of the nations are going to be gathered before Jesus and He’s going to separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. A day is coming in which we are going to have to give to Jesus an account for the things done in the body, whether good or bad. Greatly underestimated verse in the Christian life. And I, as the apostle Paul put it on his trial in Acts 24, before Felix, he said, “I have the same hope in God as these men [the prophets], that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. So I always strive to keep my conscience clear before God and man.” He lived in holy fear.

Is that appropriate for someone who believed in justification by faith alone, apart from works of the law? Do you think Paul believed in justification by faith alone, apart from works of what? He wrote Romans. He believed in it. But he strove always to keep his conscience clear before God and man. Why? Because a thing not seen is coming, Judgment Day. Tell him hold on, I’m almost done.

So what things not seen could there be? Anything that will serve to convict you of sin? It could be past things not seen. I am convicted by reading the account of David and Bathsheba. I’m convicted by it, because I know I have lust in my heart. And I don’t want that lust to destroy my world the way it somewhat destroyed David’s. I don’t want that, so I fear, and I take steps to be holy.

I read about the warnings to the church, the Corinthian church, based on what happened in Israel, how their bodies are scattered in the desert. I take those warnings seriously. Anything that does it, in the past, past history, history of Israel’s sins, David, Bathsheba, or something positive. Let’s look at Daniel. Look at the way he lived, the way he was courageous, the way he stood by faith, three times a day, he prayed. Good solid walk with Jesus. I’m convicted by that if I’m not measuring up. Makes me want to do better. So it’s not just negative, it’s positive. I just want to be like Daniel. Does that make sense? So anything in the past.

How about present or the things not seen in the present that can convict you of sin? Well, we’re going to get to that great cloud of witnesses. People get weirded out by that, like we’re being watched all the time? People watching us? Yes. I have a little bit different take on the cloud of witnesses. We’ll talk about that, but yes, you’re being observed. The angels are watching you. They’re living to serve you. They’re there, but you know none of them matter anywhere near as much as the one who has holy eyes, eyes like blazing fire and feet like burnished bronze. Jesus is watching you right now, all the time. And you live your life before one who is unseen, Almighty God, the Holy One is watching you.

And that convicts you, doesn’t it? It gets you serious about sin. It gets you serious, it’s a present, thing present. So, things passed. It could be a thing not seen. Things present could be a thing not seen. Things future, like Judgment Day, thing not seen, but all of those things can produce or work in conviction of sin. And so, therefore, you as a godly man or woman, should expect to be regularly, consistently convicted of sin. You should expect it.

Now, if you are the one that God’s going to use to bring that, be sure you go like Jesus said, gently like you’re taking something out of someone’s eye. And be sure you take the plank out of your first. You go gently. We’re told in Galatians 6:1 that if you go to be a convicting agent, be sure you go gently, and be sure you go humbly, because you also have sin and you might get drawn up in it too. So that needs to happen, but it needs to happen very, very gently. In terms of the titration, mix 100 to one encouragement to that kind of conviction. That’s about what I think we need, because we know we’re rife with sin, and we just need that. It’s not 50-50 or 70-30 friends. If you have to go take something out of someone’s eye, do it, but do it gently.

But all I’m saying is on the other side, how do you receive it? Can you humble yourself? Can you say, “I’m sorry.” Can you look for the words in the words of what the person’s saying, and say, “Yeah, I did that wrong. I can do better. I want to do better. Please forgive me.” Are you ready to be convicted? Alright. So, faith is both a sweet positive river of encouragement, a hope of all of those good things that God’s going to give you, plus a consistent conviction of reality of how it’s really going for you in your sanctification life, the sin that you’re struggling with. Those two, together, will bring you to heaven. So what should you do? Feed your faith. Does that make sense? Feed it.

Read the Word of God, listen to good preaching, be around godly people who will speak God’s word into your heart and your life. Pray this for each other. Pray for people’s faith. I think we need to go through the phonebook, I hope you’re still praying through the phonebook, but go through those names and just pray faith, pray faith, pray faith for people. “God, I pray that they would have the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.” I pray this for so and so, I pray this for so and so, I pray this for so and so. Just run through the whole book over the next month, and pray faith for people, that God would be building faith. Do that. And when you are… We tend to have a…

We tend to lean too much. Don’t want to be optimistic or pessimistic here. Have a balance in these areas. Just know that you need both. You may have a tendency one direction or the other, but just need both. And know that Faith is temporary. Isn’t that incredible? It’s temporary. There’ll come a day you don’t need it anymore, when at last, you see Him face-to-face. Yearn for that day. Close with me in prayer.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

ESV Hebrews 11:1-3 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 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.

I.   Hebrews 11 Set in Context

A.   The Most Famous and Beloved Chapter in the Book of Hebrews

1.   The “Hall of Faith”

2.   The sheer joy of tracing out these astonishing examples of men and women of faith

3.   The “Heroes of the Faith”… the power of their example has electrified generations of God’s people for two millennia

4.   But WHY IS THIS CHAPTER HERE? What did the Author intend by giving us this amazing chapter? And how can it benefit us today to contemplate these amazing heroes of the faith?

B.   Immediate Context

Keep in mind that the original letter did NOT have any division between so-called chapter 10 and so-called chapter 11… the argument flowed immediately from one section to the next

So, to understand why this chapter even exists, we have to look backward

Indeed, the grammar of the beginning of Hebrews 11:1 urges us to do that… look backward:

“NOW faith is …”; the Greek construction implies the author is illuminating a point he’s just made

So… we LOOK BACKWARD

1.   Back to 10:38-39: The Righteous will Live By Faith, the Unrighteous Shrink Back and are Destroyed

Hebrews 10:38-39 But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.” 39 ¶ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

a.  The author is writing to Jewish people under persecution and pressure to renounce their faith in Christ and go back to Old Covenant Judaism

b.  He is warning them of what saves their souls… he is speaking of the SALVATION OF THE SOUL

c.  Therefore, it is essential that we not set Hebrews 11 aside as merely referring to a way we ALREADY SAVED people can have an improved life of service to Christ and be more fruitful and get a bigger reward, but not to a way by which we MUST BE SAVED FROM HELL, SAVED FROM OUR SINS

d.  NO… the author ends Hebrews 10 with a clear description of how it is we are saved (BY FAITH), and the dire warning of the opposite:

e.  You are either going to live (walk) by faith as these ancient heroes did, or you’re going to shrink back to destruction

f.  So Hebrews 11 is a long discourse displaying plainly the life of faith that ends in the salvation of the soul

2.   One Step Further back to 10:36: You NEED ENDURANCE in OBEDIENCE in order to INHERIT

ESV Hebrews 10:36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

a.  The author had made it plain that the Hebrew Christians needed ENDURANCE in the Christian life

b.  Why? Because the promises have not come yet; they seem to tarry, they seem to delay; and all we’re seemingly left with here on earth is trouble and distress and persecution and suffering

c.  Without ENDURANCE, you will quickly fall away when trouble or persecution comes because of the word; you will be what Jesus called a “STONY GROUND HEARER” (Matthew 13:20-21)

d.  In order to give this kind of endurance in the face of suffering while WAITING for a promise that HAS NOT YET COME, he gives us Hebrews 11

e.  These heroes were characterized by amazing endurance ever when NONE OF THEM had received the promised eternal inheritance

f.  So, the order given us by Hebrews 10:32-39 is

i)  HOPE in God’s Promise

ii)  OBEY God’s commands with ENDURANCE

iii)  INHERIT God’s promise in the end

3.   One Step Further back to 10:34: To Create THIS KIND OF PEOPLE

a.  To persuade them to this kind of life, the author had reminded them of the way they were when they first received the gospel

b.  They were their OWN “heroes of the faith”

c.  Remember the circumstances:

i)  Christianity had somehow become illegal

ii)  some of their number had been publicly persecuted and arrested and put in prison

iii)  the rest of the church had a tough decision to make: to go into hiding and keep their Christian faith under wraps (or even worse, to renounce Christ) OR to stand publicly with their brothers and sisters and risk losing their property, their freedom, their health, and perhaps even their lives

iv)  they BOLDLY made their decision:

Hebrews 10:34 You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.

v)  John Piper: the entire book of Hebrews was WRITTEN TO PRODUCE this kind of Christian

vi)  These are otherworldly people: JOYFULLY accepting the confiscation of their property BECAUSE THEY KNEW they had a better possession and a lasting one

vii) So, Hebrews 11 was written to show them examples of other people who also lived this exact same way

·        Noah who turned his back on his reputation and built an ark in the middle of the dry land

·        Abraham who left a comfortable and lucrative life in Ur of the Chaldees and left to go wander in some land he knew nothing about

·        Abraham who chose to live in a tent rather than to settle down and build a city with walls of protection

·        Moses who chose to endure suffering with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a little while; Moses who was LOOKING AHEAD TO HIS REWARD (that is EXACTLY the same attitude as Hebrews 10:34

·        All these heroes of the faith were LOOKING AHEAD to a promise they had not yet received and lived lives of aliens and strangers on earth

d.  So, it was to produce this kind of people: those who JOYFULLY ACCEPT an earthly poverty, an earthly suffering, an earthly deprivation that you would not be suffering if you were not Christians… JOYFULLY ACCEPTING reverses and opposition and diseases and rejections and even beatings and imprisonment and death because of the promise of the gospel

e.  The “HALL OF FAITH” (Hebrews 11) was written to help produce this kind of people

4.   Finally, One Step Further Back: 10:26-31: Dire warning against apostasy

Hebrews 10:26-27 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

a.  All this is in the context of the alternative… if you do not live a life of faith in this pattern, you are among those who shrink back to destruction

b.  The dire warning of apostasy is always hanging in the background

c.  Hebrews 11 (the Hall of Faith) is to strengthen us so that we will NOT renounce Christ to gain the pleasures of this age

C.   The Power of Examples and Heroes

1.   To achieve all this, the author gives us HUMAN EXAMPLES…

2.   Already established in Hebrews 6:11-12

Hebrews 6:11-12 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. 12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

3.   Not only dead ancient heroes, but living ones, men and women who lived their faith out in front of you

Hebrews 13:7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

4.   So, Hebrews 11 establishes the power of godly examples for strengthening our faith… so that we will have a strong HOPE, so that we will DO THE WILL OF GOD in our generation, to have ENDURANCE, and in this way finally, to INHERIT what has been promised

5.   We all know the negative power of poor role models; every parent of growing children is very concerning about the negative example of PEER PRESSURE; scripture actually heightens this concern

Exodus 23:2 “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.

Proverbs 1:10-15 My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them. 11 If they say, “Come along with us; let’s lie in wait for someone’s blood, let’s waylay some harmless soul; 12 let’s swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; 13 we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; 14 throw in your lot with us, and we will share a common purse”– 15 my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths

1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

6.   BUT Hebrews 11 goes the opposite direction: the indispensable power of POSITIVE role models for the perseverance in the faith

Proverbs 13:20 He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.

a.  Without these role models, we will quickly fall away

b.  When Elijah thought he was the only one who still believed and still obeyed God, he was ready to give up

c.  When God showed him that 7000 had not bowed the knee to Baal and that a godly man like Elisha was to follow him in the ministry, and that a zealous man like Jehu was to be anointed king over wicked Israel, his faith was revived

D.   Major Outline of Hebrews 11

1.   Faith described by its EFFECTS (vs. 1-3)

2.   Faith displayed by EXAMPLES (vs. 4-40)

3.   Bookends to the chapter

a.  Introduction: vs. 1-2

Hebrews 11:1-2 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation.

b.  Conclusion: vs. 39-40

Hebrews 11:39-40 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

4.   Stylistically: Middle section in two parts

a.  “by faith…” (18 times in vss. 3-31)

b.  Summary catalogue (vss. 32-38; the word “faith” only appear once, but many actions that flow from faith are displayed)

5.   Content outline:

a.  Vs. 1-7: faith in the invisible… the invisible God using His invisible word to promise us invisible things

b.  Vs. 8-22: faith of Abraham and his descendents; people who lived in tents and wandered about waiting on the promise of God; who died without receiving these promises

c.  Vs. 23-31: faith of Moses; who left a secure life of Egyptian power and earthly pleasure to wander in the desert with the people of God

d.  Vs. 32-40: other examples of faith in action

E.   Now… Faith Described in Terms of the EFFECT on US (vs. 1-3)

II.   Faith is the Assurance of Things Hoped for (vs. 1)

ESV Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for

A.   Hebrews 11:1 Notoriously Difficult to Translate

1.   Various major versions DIFFER:

a.  KJV the most different of them all

KJV Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

b.  ESV, NASB, and RSV all identical

ESV Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

NAU Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

RSV Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

c.  NIV two halves of verse seem to be merely a repetition

NIV Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

d.  Holman Christian Standard Bible

CSB Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.

2.   Two Key Words: “Substance” and “Evidence”????

a.  Basically all the translations have the same concept for the rest of the Greek words but two

b.  The pattern is

i)  Now faith is the _____ of things hoped for, the _____ of things not seen

c.  So it all seems to come down to two Greek words that are VERY DIFFICULT to translate here

i)  First is what KJV translates as “substance” of things hoped for

ii)  Second is what KJV gives as “evidence” of things not seen

d.  “substance” comes from Greek word u`po,stasij ; the KJV translators merely took it straight from Greek over through Latin: substantia… literally “that which STANDS UNDER”… in one sense, they didn’t even translate it, but just transliterated a literal LATIN translation

e.  “evidence” comes from Greek word  e;legcoj which is used NO OTHER PLACE in the NT (although there are some similar forms which I shall discuss)

f.  Two VERY DIFFICULT words giving us a wide array of translations

B.   How Faith is the Assurance of Things Hoped For

1.   Faith operates in the realm of HOPE… actually, in some ways faith and hope are almost impossible to distinguish from each other

2.   HOPE has to do with an internal disposition of the heart… a buoyant sense of CONFIDENCE in something

3.   Hope ALWAYS deals with the future… AND with things you deeply DESIRE to come true

a.  Who hopes for what he has?

Romans 8:24 hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?

b.  Who hopes for what he DOESN’T WANT?

4.   Biblical hope is founded on the promises of God… the unshakable nature of God’s WORD

a.  In this it is completely unlike normal everyday hope

b.  Normal everyday hope is a vague wish for something good in the future

c.  But biblical hope is ALWAYS founded on God’s PROMISES for the future… ultimately founded on the CHARACTER OF GOD to keep His promises

Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Titus 1:2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time

5.   As we’ve already seen in Hebrews 6, hope is an ANCHOR for the soul

Hebrews 6:17-19 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

Our hope is based on nothing less than the CHARACTER of GOD to keep the PROMISES of God

C.   What are the Things Hoped for?

1.   John Newton’s “Amazing Grace”

The “Lord has promised good to me; his word my hope secures”

2.   What good things has the Lord promised to us?

a.  Ephesians 1 summary

Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

b.  Hebrews overview

i)  A perfect world to come

Hebrews 2:5 the world to come, about which we are speaking.

ii)  Personal glory

Hebrews 2:10 In bringing many sons to glory

iii)  Freedom from death

Hebrews 2:15 free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

iv)  A heavenly calling (literally, an invitation to heaven)

Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling

v)  An eternal Sabbath rest from all our labors in the presence of God

Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands Hebrews 4:9-10 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.

vi)  Full access to God’s throne room

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need

vii)  Eternal salvation

Hebrews 5:9 once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him

viii)  The resurrection of the body

Hebrews 6:2 the resurrection of the dead

ix)  A powerful coming age

Hebrews 6:5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age

x)  Rewards for helping God’s people

Hebrews 6:10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.

xi)  Guaranteed salvation right to the end

Hebrews 7:25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

xii)  Christ as our High Priest and Mediator at the Right Hand of God

Hebrews 8:1 we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven

xiii)  Transformed hearts

Hebrews 8:10 I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts

xiv)  Adoption as God’s people

Hebrews 8:10 I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

xv)  Full knowledge of God

Hebrews 8:11 they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest

xvi)  Full forgiveness of sins

Hebrews 8:12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.

xvii)  An eternal inheritance

Hebrews 9:15 Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance

xviii)  The second coming of Christ resulting in our final salvation

Hebrews 9:28 he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

xix)  Holiness

Hebrews 10:10 we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

xx)  Perfection

Hebrews 10:14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

xxi)  The heavenly Jerusalem

Hebrews 12:22-23 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect

xxii)  An unshakeable kingdom

Hebrews 12:28 … we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken

3.   These are just SOME of the rich promises made to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ

4.   These are the THINGS HOPED FOR

D.   Faith is the HUPOSTASIS of those things hoped for

1.   Alright… that doesn’t help me

2.   The word can either be taken in a SUBJECTIVE sense… what faith DOES TO ME; or in an OBJECTIVE sense… what faith IS in and of itself

3.   In the subjective sense, faith is the “ASSURANCE” that these hoped-for things will MOST CERTAINLY come true

a.  Faith is the gift of almighty God by which you perceive invisible realities

b.  I have often called faith the “eyesight” of the soul

c.  It is by the eyes that your “whole body is full of light” (if your eyes are good)

Matthew 6:22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.

d.  By eyesight you see the visible world around you accurately; you are absolutely certain that you are at 414 Cleveland Street, sitting on a pew, surrounded by specific people, some of whose names you know; you see that I am standing here, I am waving my arm right now… you see it, you know it is happening, your mind is unshakably convinced it is so

e.  In a similar way, it is by faith that your WHOLE SOUL is filled with an unshakable assurance that EVERYTHING GOD HAS PROMISED will come true

4.   BUT the word “hupostasis” itself in other places never means ASSURANCE or CONFIDENCE; So many scholar rule it out as a possible meaning

5.   They go rather for an OBJECTIVE sense of the word

a.  Faith is the REALITY or SUBSTANCE of what you are hoping for

b.  It literally means “that which STANDS UNDER” … like Aaron and Hur HOLDING UP MOSES’ arms while Joshua defeated the Amalekites (Exodus 17); faith stands under the promises of God and sustains them in your soul like a structural support beam or the foundation of a building

c.  Your hope reaches ahead for a vaporous promise, your FAITH makes it REAL, almost like you can touch it

d.  Faith is something objective, in the here and now, that gives a reality to the promised thing

e.  So God has promised that someday all Christians will be resurrected from the dead; faith makes that promise something as REAL in the furniture of your mind as the place you are presently in… it is as real as the existence of the pew on which you are sitting

6.   This is more ETYMOLOGICALLY correct… but friends, I can scarcely separate the two; the objective reality of a future event AND the sense of confidence and assurance are almost identical to me

7.   In any case, the sweet positive side of faith is this: I take the promise of God and faith makes it AS REAL TO ME as any physical thing in the universe

8.   The thing God promises is as real to me as the sunlight streaming through that stained glass window

E.   Faith is a Gift of God to Go With the Promises of God

1.   Faith is a gift of God

Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith– and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God

2.   Faith goes with the promises of God

a.  Without faith in the promises of God, those promises are completely unhelpful to us

b.  It is like giving a beautiful painting to a blind man; he cannot possibly appreciate the magnificent colors and brushstroke techniques… he’s BLIND

c.  God’s promises are as incomprehensible to a faithless man as a magnificent sunset is to a blind man

d.  So God opens up the EYESIGHT of the SOUL to receive streaming in the light and colors and contours of the promises of God

III.   Faith is the Conviction of Things Not Seen (vs. 1)

ESV Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

A.   The Word “Conviction”

1.   Again, Greek word translated “evidence” is e;legcoj which is used NO OTHER PLACE in the NT

2.   One word very similar found in 2 Timothy 3:16

3.   Two other ways we can get at this meaning

a.  Ancient writers’ use of the word

e;legcoj, o`, (evle,gcw) a cross-examining, testing, for purposes of disproof or refutation, e;cein e;legcon to admit of disproof, Hdt., Thuc.; eivj e;lÅ pi,ptein to be convicted, Eur.; oi` peri. Pausani,an e;l. the evidence on which he was convicted, Thuc.

b.  The use of the VERBAL form in the NT

Matthew 18:15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.

Luke 3:19 But when Herod the tetrarch was reprimanded by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the wicked things which Herod had done, Herod also added this to them all: he locked John up in prison. [NASB]

John 3:20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

John 8:46 “Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? [NASB]

John 16:8 When he (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:

Hebrews 12:5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you

[There are in all seventeen verses where this verb is used, and in every case without a single exception, it means “reprove” or “rebuke” or “expose” sin.]

B.   Faith Convicts You of Sin

1.   By faith, “things not seen” reprove or rebuke us of the existence and gravity of our sin

2.   By faith, these “things not seen” stand in front of us like Nathan the prophet did for King David after he had sinned with Bathsheba, points a finger at us and says

YOU ARE THE MAN!!!

3.   Faith spreads out the evidence of our sin in front of us and paces back and forth like a prosecuting attorney, sharply proving to the jury that you are guilty as charged

4.   Faith takes the invisible realm of a holy God, seated on His throne, radiant in glory, and shines it in your heart at the same time as demonstrating to you how deep is your own sinfulness and need of Christ

Isaiah 6:5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

Romans 7:24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

C.   Conviction of Sin is Necessary to Ongoing Salvation

1.   Sin’s convicting work is necessary as long as sin goes on living within us (as Romans 7:17 says it does)

2.   God promises to keep convicting us of sin as long as we live in this world, as long as we have a bitter struggle against sin as Hebrews 12:4 says we do

3.   The essence of our sanctification journey is putting sin to death by the power of the Spirit (Romans 8:13); if we cannot detect or identify sin, we will not be able to put it to death

4.   God uses many means to do this:

a.  A good sermon

b.  A convicting book

c.  A rebuke from a loving spouse or friend or elder

d.  A good devotional time in the word in which a text of the Scripture is pressed to our hearts by the Spirit

5.   Sometimes we are blind to our indwelling sin, and God needs to use more aggressive means to bring us to conviction of sin and repentance… that’s where the discipline of the Lord is needed (MORE IN HEBREWS 12:4-11)

6.   Jesus promises to do this for us:

Revelation 3:19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.

D.   What are the “Things Unseen”?

Faith is the … conviction of things not seen

1.   Hint: verse 7

Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.

The “THING NOT SEEN” was the wrath of God expressed in a flood; it convicted him of sin and of the need to obey God and build an ark

2.   Anything in the Bible that brings the existence and magnitude of our sin smartingly home to us is a “thing unseen”

a.  Past “things unseen”: examples from the Bible of saints doing great things or sinners doing vile things: Moses’ anger, Israel’s idolatry with the golden calf, David’s adultery, Uzzah’s pride

b.  Present “things unseen”: the holy throne room of God, His eyes of blazing fire, the invisible holy angels, the surrounding “cloud of witnesses”

c.  Future “things unseen”: the Second Coming of Christ, Judgment Day, heaven, hell

E.   A Spiritually Mature Man EXPECTS to be Constantly CONVICTED of Sin

1.   Such a person will not bristle up with pride whenever someone confronts him/her about sin in his/her life

2.   Such a person will be GRATEFUL for the rebuke and accept it BY FAITH

IV.   Application

A.   Come to Christ

B.   Feed Your Faith Daily

C.   Stoke Up the Positive Aspect of Faith: Things HOPED FOR

D.   Stoke Up the Negative Aspect of Faith: Conviction for Sin

E.   Understand the Essential Nature of Faith

F.   Understand the Temporary Nature of Faith