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Well, once again, we have an amazing opportunity to open up the Word of God and see what the Spirit has to say to us from it this morning. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews chapter 11. We continue to make our way through this amazing epistle, verse by verse, and this morning, we will be looking at the first three verses; and I've entitled my exposition to you this morning, "Faith in Action." Follow along as I read the text. Hebrews 11 beginning in verse one.

“Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

"For by it the men of old gained approval.

"By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible."

As we will discover, this is not necessarily a definition of faith in the fullest theological sense, but rather a description of faith. And the rest of the chapter will give us many examples of godly individuals who believed what God said, who lived by faith, who took him at his word. And we must bear in mind that the great need of the early Hebrew believers, that this epistle was written to, the great need that they had, was for the power to persevere under great pressure, and you can only have that power when you understand faith and live consistently with it, and certainly each of us share this great need. I'm sure a number of you within the sound of my voice are under enormous pressure today because of some issue in your life. Some of you are hurting, some of you are confused, you're afraid, perhaps you're angry, lonely, depressed, whatever; tempted to do something that will bring relief, because in our flesh, we tend to seek relief more than blessing. In fact, relief tends to be the only thing that we tend to go after when we're not living by faith. But those who trust in the goodness of God and understand His word and are willing to live consistently with it, those who believe in the promises of God, find themselves able to not only endure but to literally, at some level, enjoy the presence of God in the midst of great pressure.

So let's remember that the first century Jewish believer was under great pressure. Many of them were discouraged. They were depressed; they were afraid. They were sorely tempted to take matters into their own hands and just go back to their comfort zone, go back into Judaism, where they felt safe and secure despite all of the compelling reasons not to do so, that the writer has given us in the previous 10 chapters. And so it's for this reason that the author now addresses their profound need for faith - for active, obedient faith - which is the theme of chapter 11. Moreover, the Spirit knows that persevering faith actually flourishes in the soil of adversity. So it's no accident that this early church was under attack. How else was it to grow? How else was it to understand its great need to depend upon God and believe in him? So it's all the more reason not to ever uproot our faith, but we need to water it. We need to feed it, uproot the weeds around it, knowing all well that that our glorious God is the indefatigable gardener that is always caring for our tender plant. Indeed, as we will see in weeks to come, in verse six, "without faith it is," what, "impossible to please God."

Now you will recall at the end of chapter 10, he warned them not to succumb to the temptation to shrink back, but rather to press on in faith. Verse 38, "But my righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul." And now, as he comes to chapter 11, he gives example after example of saints who refuse to shrink back, shall we say. He gives the example of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses' parents, Moses, Joshua and Israel - during their exodus from Egypt - Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets; and every single one of these people manifested the power of faith under fire. Faith that not only survived but thrived within the crucible of grace that God had brought their way.

In verse 33 we will read in chapter 11 that they were those who,

"by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword from weakness, were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

"Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection;

"and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment.

"They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, ill treated

"(men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

"And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised,

"because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect."

How encouraging as we will see in days to come; and how convicting these truths would have been to these early saints, and to each of us, because they were, many of them, desperate. At times, they felt as though all was lost, when, in reality, all is found when we live by faith. Because when we live by faith, we experience real joy, real peace, real power. That's what's available to those who trust in the Word of God and obey his Word. And the Spirit, now, inspires the author to write on this because he knows full well the great danger of living by sight rather than by faith, and that's basically all the Jews knew for the most part. When you think about it, most placed their faith in the visible, not the invisible. They had the temple that they could see. They would lay their hands on the animal sacrifices to transfer guilt onto the animal and then they were witnesses of God's temporary covering of their sins when the animal was sacrificed; they saw the priest, they saw the high priest, and so forth. But it was hard to have faith in the things that they could not see, namely the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ and all of the promises of the New Covenant.

Now they did have some measure of faith. They couldn't live only by sight. I mean, after all, they would see, for example, the high priest disappear behind the veil, and they knew that when he was in the Most Holy Place, he was making a sacrifice - the atonement for their sins - and they could not see it, but they were confident that God was covering their sins at that time. In fact, even before the inauguration of the Old Covenant, godly people could not gain blessing from God apart from faith - active faith - and the writer is going to go on to illustrate this. But like all of us, it was hard for them to live consistently, day by day in faith.

For example, in this first century context, it was hard for them to see how all of the persecution they were experiencing was - combined, by the way, with all of the emotional and the physical and spiritual trauma that they were struggling with - it was hard for them to understand how that this was all part of a loving Heavenly Father's mercy upon them in disciplining them for their good in his glory. Verse 11 (chapter 12), the writer says,

"All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

"Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed."

You see, these are verses which, in days to come, we're going to examine in great detail. These are verses that paint a very graphic picture of a person who is in great distress, someone who is despairing, is depressed and disappointed in life; and that's what these early believers were experiencing, very acutely; and as we will see later, more clearly, apart from active, obedient faith, both human and divine relationships will begin to suffer for this reason.

He goes on to admonish them in verse 14, "Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

"See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;

"that there be no immoral or God, godless person like Esau."

I'm getting ahead of myself a bit, but it's important for you to kind of see where we're going. What he's saying here is that there is a dangerous progression that can take place in the midst of distress and discouragement. Without faith, without a confident assurance that God has ordained our afflictions for our good and for His glory, sorrow and pressure will breed doubt in the goodness of God; and then that will produce a disengagement from God, a disengagement from God's people, resulting in resentment, resulting in bitterness, and all the troubles that are associated with broken relationships. And if left unchecked, such a man will eventually succumb to the temptations of immorality and all manner of ungodliness. And see all of these things are rooted in a lack of faith, a lack of trust and obedience in the living God. And it all starts there. And as we will see from the outset of chapter 11, and the examples of even Abel and Enoch, God's righteous ones, he says in verses four and five, will live by faith. They will have a total confidence in God's promises. They will have a total commitment to the Lordship of Christ. This, by the way, is how, in verse one of chapter 12, we are able to "run with endurance that race that is set before us." We've got to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of faith.

So for the believer, dear friends, not only with faith - a believer that lives by faith - not only will he survive, but he will thrive in the fires of adversity. In fact, the hot fires of difficulty will actually temper the steel of his faith, and it's for this reason James says in chapter one, verse two, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

So by way of introduction, this is the emphasis of chapter 11, "Faith in Action." And I'd like to focus on these first three verses by looking at them under three headings that I think are very instructive, very practical. We're going to look at the basics of faith, and then secondly, the blessings of faith, and finally, the basis of faith.

So let's notice, first, the basics of faith. Again, this is not a theological definition per se, but a description of how faith operates in the redeemed. He says, "Now faith is the assurance," or in other words, the absolute confidence, "of things hoped for." You see, we must understand that biblical faith that honors God is not some leap of faith. It's not some leap into the dark. No, no. "By faith we understand," verse three tells us, in other words, by faith, we apprehend with the mind real things that exist but that we cannot see. So this is far more than just hope against hope; hoping in something that is vague and uncertain. In fact, hope actually presupposes faith. For example, I'm not going to hope that my brain tumor - by the way, I don't have a brain tumor - but if I had one, I'm not going to hope that somehow, it's just going to go away, unless I have faith in a doctor that can do the proper surgery. So hope presupposes faith. Romans eight and verse 25 remember Paul there is talking about future glory and our resurrection body, the redeemed body, and so forth. And he says, "But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it." And certainly, only a fool would hope in such a thing without a confident assurance that God is able to do exactly what he has said he will do.

It's fascinating, too, when you think about it, the Old Testament saints could see into the future very clearly because they had the eyes of faith. Obviously, we can too. In fact, in verse 13 of chapter 11, it says that they "died in faith without receiving the promises." But he went on to say, "they welcomed them from a distance." They welcomed them from a distance. You know, people without faith are utterly blind to the promises of God, and therefore, they have no hope, they have no joy, they have no understanding of how to please God. They can only see what is visible. They can't see what is invisible. The unregenerate have no means of spiritual perception. They are utterly blind spiritually. They cannot see God because God has not given them the eyes to see. He has not given them the gift of faith. Therefore, they have no way of knowing how to trust him, obey him, love him, serve him. They have no hope in all that God has promised. Like Moses described in verse 27 of chapter 11, he says, "By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen." People without faith in God know nothing of what that means. Oh, how these dear Hebrew people needed to hear this.

Think about it. Since the days of Abraham, the Jewish people were looking for the fulfillment of God's covenantal promises to them, a coming Messiah, an earthly kingdom that would flow through Abraham, through Isaac and through Jacob. They were looking for that down through millennia, and God spoke through his Old Testament prophets regarding a descendant of Judah who would eventually rule over the Gentiles and bring material and prosperity and bring spiritual cleansing and so forth. That's repeated again in the Davidic Covenant. And then again in Jeremiah and Ezekiel in the New Covenant. And the first century Jews had their hopes set upon God's promises that would bring blessing, not only to Abraham's physical descendants, but to the Gentiles as well; that this kingdom would bring universal blessing. They're looking for this. And you will recall, for example, in Hebrews chapter seven, the writer explains the typological link between the king priest of Salem, remember Melchizedek, and the greater antitype, the king priest the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. So they were looking for all of this. But with the gospel, their hopes, at some level, were shattered, because they're seeing that in the Messiah, he has to come the first time to suffer and to die, and only then could he make ready the citizens of the kingdom that would come at a future date. So the writer here is essentially saying, Folks, although times are hard, you must live by faith. You must live consistently with all that God has promised. You must have a steadfast confidence that what he says will come to pass, that all you have hoped for that is consistent with his promises will come to fruition.

So faith is the assurance of things hoped for and notice secondly, that produces "the conviction of things not seen." In other words, with this kind of faith, we are so confident that what God has promised will be fulfilled that we live as though it has. And this is why it is so important to know, for example, what Peter called his precious and magnificent promises. Folks, you need to know the promises before you can relax in them and rejoice in them and live consistently with them. If you don't have those promises, when things go terribly wrong in your life, you will struggle. How many times I have seen that. The apostle Paul was under enormous pressure, and he suffered in many ways for the cause of Christ, but because of his faith, he could say with confidence in Second Corinthians four, "...momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." You see dear friends, true faith sets its eyes on the invisible promises of God - on the eternal - and those promises are found all through Scripture. I was reading that some have estimated that there are 5467 promises in Scripture, things that are not seen. I don't know if that's an accurate count, but let's put it this way, there's a whole bunch of them. Right?

By faith we know that he will forgive us our sins when we place our faith in Christ, and he will give us the righteousness of Christ, and he will grant us eternal life. By faith, we know that he will give rest to the weary and to the burden. By faith, we know that he will never leave us nor forsake us. We know that he will supply all of our needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus. We know that nothing can ever separate us from his love. By faith we know that he will never allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able, because he will always provide a way of escape and endurance. We know by faith that he will cause all things to work together for good to those who love God. We know by faith that he will be near to the brokenhearted and save those who are crushed in spirit. We know by faith that he will comfort the afflicted. We know by faith that he will give mercy and help in times of need. And we know by faith that he longs to give us, and he will give us, the very joy of Christ when we abide in him and keep his commandments. We know these things and so many more because of faith. Folks, I have to ask you, are you confident in the promises of God? Do you have the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen?

Let me give you an example. I was thinking about this, and I began to think through the history of my life; and I believe, by the help of the Spirit, my memory landed upon an occasion many years ago when my youngest son, Joshua - and I told him I was going to tell on him a bit here - my youngest son Joshua, was grieving over something. What had happened is our family and some friends had planned to camp out, and that night, for some reason, he was all sour and sullen, and his eyes were kind of teary. And I remember him going to bed and something was wrong. Sorrow had gripped his heart. He was probably about six years old. And so I went in, I sat on his bed, and I said, "Son, what's going on? Why are you so sad?" "Oh, Daddy, all the big kids are going on a hike when we go camping. They're taking their BB guns and they're going to go fishing and they said, I was too little, and I had to stay in camp with mom and the other little kids." His heart was broken. It's pretty traumatic for a six-year-old. And I remember saying something like this, "Well, son, let me make you a promise. You can come too, and I will go with you." You know what happened? Instant euphoria. Instant euphoria. He's happy. He fell asleep within minutes. Why? Because he had absolute faith in the word of his father. He had the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. So he could relax, he could rejoice. I had to laugh. However, I believe it was the next day or so I overheard an argument. Of course, with his newfound assurance came a certain amount of pride and a bit of a swagger, and he went in to tell his older brother and some of the other kids, "Guess what Dad said. I get to go too." And an argument ensued. Obviously, they did not rejoice with those who rejoiced. And so I had to intervene, if you know what I mean. But you know what's remarkable as I think back on that? No matter what they said to the contrary, they could not phase him. Nothing could phase him because he had faith in the word of his father. Folks, obviously, you see the parallel. The just shall live by faith. Scripture says God's righteous ones will live by faith. The testing of our faith will produce endurance. Would that we trust in the good promises of our heavenly Father; to trust in his Word; to have that confidence in the invisible, the not yet - the things which are not seen - but promised by our sovereign, omnipotent God, who cannot lie.

Now even the unregenerate operate on some measure of faith. I mean, every time anyone gets into an airplane, there's a certain degree of faith that this thing is going to actually fly and land safely. When we get on an elevator. When we drink bottled water, we have faith that there's not something bad in there. When we submit ourselves to a surgeon and go under the knife, as I have and you probably have. But for the most part, the natural man only believes in what he can see, things that are visible. That's why, First Corinthians 2:14 says that he, "does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them because he is spiritually appraised." In other words, that term means he's unable to discern. He's unable to examine or understand. It was a judicial term - "anakrinō" - it was a term that essentially means that a person is incapable of rendering a decision because they can't recognize the facts.

You see, the natural man, the man without Christ, is literally incarcerated in a visible world that is passing away. That's a dreadful thing to think about. He cannot see divine truth, what Paul called "the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory," in First Corinthians 2:7, because the hidden wisdom -- the truth of God - only comes through divine revelation. It doesn't come through human cogitation. It doesn't come through empirical research. It doesn't come through rational thought. It comes from God himself. Divine truth is, shall we say, non-discoverable. He went on to say this in First Corinthians two and verse nine,

"'THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEART, AND which HAVE NOT ENTEREED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOS E WHO LOVE HIM.

"For to us, God revealed them through the Spirit."

And in verse 12, he went on to say, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might know the things freely given to us by God." So obviously, the natural man will only place his faith in the visible; and that's why you will have highly intelligent people believing things that are utterly preposterous, like the irrational theories of the origin of the universe, that nothing plus nothing equals everything, or the easily disputed theory of Evolution, which takes more faith than I could ever imagine, because there is nothing in the natural world that would support that theory and everything that would refute it. But the kind of faith that believes in the promises of an invisible god and will joyfully submit to the commands of that God, is a faith that has been given to a man or a woman by God. "For by grace you have been saved through faith that not of yourselves it is the gift of God." (Ephesians 2:8). It's utterly foreign to those who have never been born again.

Now a short digression. It's important for you to remember, for you to remember that it is not the act of faith. It is not the act of faith that saves a man, even when that faith is focused on the correct object. Saving faith is a result of what God does. So you might say it is the object of faith that does the saving. God, the Father, who has sent his Son and ministered the gospel through the Spirit; in a mystery that we cannot even begin to understand, God works in the human will so that it freely and voluntarily chooses to believe in Christ - chooses Christ in saving faith - and then he responds to that act of faith and justifies the believer.

Moreover, I want you to bear in mind that genuine faith involves the whole of man - the intellect, the emotions, the will. Think about this: it requires, first of all, intellectual; there's an intellectual component; there must be knowledge. There must be objective truth, which is the conscious objective or object of the faith. So in other words, faith does not operate in a vacuum. Romans 10:14, "How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?" Verse 17, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

So there is, first of all, an intellectual component to faith. Secondly, there is an emotional component; a heartfelt assent, if you will. What the mind believes to be true must be embraced as a deeply held conviction to embrace it wholeheartedly; to have a wholehearted assent to that truth. We've got to fall in love with that truth, shall we say. So that we repent of our sins and yield ourselves completely to Christ. This is like the gospel seed that falls upon the good soil in Matthew 13. This is the man who hears the word and understand it. He perceives it, he accepts it and follows it because it addresses the consuming needs of his eternal soul. Unlike those who are deceived and who will perish in Second Thessalonians two in verse 10, because "they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.'

And finally, I would just add, there's a volitional component as well. We must trust in what we believe to be true, an act of the will. When a man believes and loves the truth and thereby repents and wholeheartedly embraces the truth, he makes a conscious decision to reject the lies he is trusted in and depends solely upon that truth, and then he will sing with us, so often,

 "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

"I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

"On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand."

So saving faith is the knowledge of, the ascent to, and the unreserved reliance upon the finished redemptive work of Christ as revealed in Scripture. But at the core of saving faith is the object of that faith. You know, often we hear people today talk about, or they use this phrase, "people of faith." You've heard that all the time. "People of faith"...doesn't matter what you believe, you're people of faith. Faith in what? Faith in whom? For what purpose? You see, just having faith is utterly meaningless and worthless unless that faith includes, as I just said, the knowledge of, the assent to, and the unreserved reliance upon the finished redemptive work of Christ as revealed in Scripture. So the pivotal question is not, "Do you have faith?" But, "In what or in whom have you placed your faith?" And if your answer is anchored in the Gospel, you will be the undeserved recipient of the gift of supernatural saving faith, and you will possess the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Then notice verse two, "For by it the men of old gained approval." So we move now from the basics of faith, secondly to the blessings of faith. And in the rest of the chapter, the writer will illustrate this in the lives of those who have gone on before us, especially in verse six, as I alluded to earlier, "Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." And of course, Scripture is filled with all of the blessings that come to those who live by faith. There is hope, there is joy, there is peace, there is power, there is confidence, there is boldness in preaching. There is the soul exhilarating joy of Christ's presence as Christ dwells in our heart through faith. Peter tells us “To you who believe, He is precious." My, what a gift that is. You know, ask the people without Christ, if Christ is precious to them, and they will laugh at you, but he is precious to us.

Later in this chapter, the writer is going to remind us of the testimony of Abraham. Verse eight, he says, "By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. As we will discover, he left Ur of the Chaldees, which was a magnificent, cultured, sophisticated, wealthy civilization. It was not some primitive desert wilderness, as some might imagine typically, thanks to Hollywood, but rather he leaves this magnificent place. In verse nine, "By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise." I mean, who's going to do that? "As in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking," for something, what was that? "For the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God." Folks, how can a man do such a thing? The answer is: he has been given the gift of faith, and therefore Abraham took God at His Word. Of course, he had seen what God had done in Sarah, his wife, by giving her a son and him a son. He had seen how God had preserved Isaac and provided another sacrifice at the altar. In fact, in verse 19, it says, "He considered that God is able to raise people from the dead."

Oh, dear Christian, do you take God at his Word? Is your marriage, is your parenting, your service to Christ, your job, your personal pursuit of holiness, are all of those things shaped by the word of God? Young people, I ask you, does his Word govern your life? Because genuine faith will produce obedience and service to Christ. Faith without works is dead, right? And when a man or a woman fully trusts in the living God, there is absolutely nothing that can shake his confidence in all that God has promised to give to those who love him.

Moreover, that kind of a person will consecrate themselves solely to the Lord. They will gladly give up everything in their life, everything that is visible, in exchange for that which is invisible; they will leave everything to follow Christ. Think how God blessed Abraham. Think how God blessed his descendants. Indeed, by faith, the men of old gained approval; and folks, the same is true for us today. This was the great message to those early Jewish saints.

So we've seen the basics and the blessings of faith, finally, the basis of faith, and this is really intriguing. Follow along. Notice what he says in verse three, "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible." "By faith we understand that the worlds" - a reference to all that exists in time and space. A term that would include, especially in this context, all of the observable physical universe and all of the inviolable laws of physics that God uses in his providence to make it all work together. It would also include all of the invisible things, both present and eternal; that by faith, we understand that all of this "was prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are invisible."

Now, at first glance, this seems to be a non sequitur. It seems to be a passage that just doesn't fit. It doesn't seem to follow until we begin to think deeply about what the Spirit is saying in this context. Let me paraphrase it. Here's what he's saying to those dear people, "Folks, I know you're struggling, but by faith, you understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are physical. That being true, since the Word of God spoke everything into existence, don't you think you can trust him? Don't you think you can believe everything else that he tells you in his Word, especially regarding the promises concerning the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ?" You will recall in Romans 1 man is without excuse because he knows that God is creator, but he hates it because of creation and because of conscience, and because man is made in the image of God, he innately and intuitively knows of God's existence and knows of his creative powers, knows that he's responsible to him, therefore he is without excuse. But Romans 1 says that he "suppresses the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God, is evident within him, for God made it evident to him." So this is, in essence, what he's saying here in verse three.

Let me make this real practical. Folks, let me ask you, do you take God at his Word? Is your private life, is your public life, is your marriage, your parenting, your worship - are all of those things shaped by the word of God? Young people, let me ask you again, do you take God at his Word? You realize that it's his command for you to trust Christ as your Savior, to yield to him with your entire life. Have you done that? Do you believe him when he says that he will bless those who fear him and keep his Word? Do you believe him when he says that he will bless you when you delight in his Word, when you meditate in his Word, when you obey his Word? Do you really believe that? If so, why do some of you have no desire to do any of these things? I want to make this very practical in application. Folks, true faith does what God says. Is that fair enough? That's pretty simple. It believes in what God says. It hopes in it. It loves it. So I would ask us to think for a moment, do you take him at his word?

Young people, do you have a confident assurance that what God has said is not only true, but he has said it so that he can give you enormous blessings in your life, and so he can bring glory to himself? Do you believe that? If so, why do some of you young ladies’ rebel against God's command to dress modestly? Just give one example, all of the skimpy clothing, the revealing clothing. Sometimes I see it even in the church. It's appalling. It screams, "I am desperate for attention. Please look at me, not Christ." And dear ladies, there is no lasting life or joy or peace in dishonoring Christ. In fact, Peter says it's "the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quite quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God." By the way, young men, stay away from that kind of girl, because that kind of self- worship and seduction will only bring misery into your life. I've seen it countless times, and you will never be able to make her happy, because she is using her body to get what only God can give. And there's not enough revealing in all of the world to ever satisfy that kind of emptiness. Proverbs 5:6, says she does not ponder the path of life; her ways are unstable, she does not know it. Verse eight says, "Keep far away from her and do not go near the door of her house." Young men remember that the more a young lady reveals on the outside, the less she has to offer on the inside.

Young men, let's think about faith in your life. Do you trust God when he says to you that you need to hide his Word in your heart so that you won't sin against him? That you need to walk by the Spirit so you won't carry out the desires of the flesh, that you need to be careful not to allow the world to conform you into its mold, but rather be renewed and transformed, I should say, by the renewing of your mind? Do you believe those things? Do you believe that he has commanded those things, given them to you because he wants to bless you in ways that you cannot imagine? If the answer is yes, then why do some of you show absolutely no interest in spiritual things, and you seem to do everything you possibly can to become more like the world? By the way, young women pay no attention to that kind of man. Run as fast as you can to get away from him, because he will bring unimaginable sorrow into your life. Proverbs 5, verse 22, "The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. He dies for lack of discipline and because of his great folly, he is led astray."

What about husbands? You husbands? You wives, you parents? Do you trust in what God says? Are you living by faith? You show me a couple with a cavalier attitude towards the Word of God - the authority of the Word of God as it relates to their marriage, as it relates to their parenting, their oneness, their finances, you name it - you show me that kind of person, and I will show you a marriage and a family that is a train wreck waiting to happen.

I ask you, dear Christian, as we come back to the text, do you by faith, understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible? In other words, do you really believe, as I do, that God merely uttered a word and he created the entire universe out of absolutely nothing? Do you believe that God can utter a word and raise the dead as Abraham did? Dear friends, if the answer is yes, then don't you think you can trust Him in everything that he says? Don't you think you can relax in his great promises and live consistently with his truths so that you can enjoy the blessings he longs to give you.

Living by faith is very practical, isn't it? It involves every area of our life. Oh Child of God, hear what the Spirit says, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval." You will never be able to persevere under pressure apart from active, obedient faith. Moreover, you will never enjoy the fullness of God's grace and love in your life this side of glory apart from this kind of faith. You will never experience that soul satisfying joy of his presence until you submit to the soul nourishing power of the truth of his Word. So I humbly give that to you as your pastor and as your friend. Think on these things, live consistently with them in every area of your life, and watch what God will do. Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these truths help us to understand more of what it means in our lives. Thank you for the gift of faith. Help us with our lack of it at times. We all struggle with it, and so we commit these great truths, these great warnings and these words of encouragement to the power of your Spirit to do as you will in each of our hearts, I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.