Neil Silverberg: Powerful.
Neil Silverberg: You know, I I remember reading that Michael Jackson, Jordan Michael Jordan, probably the greatest uh basketball player that ever lived, would be seen after a game shooting foul shots because he understood that the basics have to be mastered at all times, and he could never take for granted the basics.
Neil Silverberg: He kept repeating them again and again.
Neil Silverberg: And so when you hear a series like this mention faith, hope, and love, it's easy to think, well, I know that, and I've been doing that.
Neil Silverberg: But we need to be continually exhorted to do that and to grow in these things.
Neil Silverberg: So we're gonna grow.
Neil Silverberg: The enemy tried to keep me from coming today.
Neil Silverberg: Uh, I went into the men's room and I got locked in a stall.
Neil Silverberg: Matthew Ashley had to get me out, actually.
Neil Silverberg: That really happened.
Neil Silverberg: I almost had to climb under it, you know.
Neil Silverberg: At my age, it's not easy.
Neil Silverberg: That's a true story.
Neil Silverberg: It happened.
Neil Silverberg: I don't lie when I stand in the pulpit.
Neil Silverberg: Well, I might stretch the truth a little.
Neil Silverberg: But I'm here and I made it, thank God.
Neil Silverberg: I appreciate the privilege of speaking to my home church.
Neil Silverberg: Turn your Bibles to the book of Hebrews.
Neil Silverberg: Let's start reading in chapter 10.
Neil Silverberg: We'll read into 11, but to read the context, this message is simply called faith-defined.
Neil Silverberg: Faith-defined.
Neil Silverberg: And again, I'm exhorting you to keep your heart open as God wants to maybe expand your understanding of faith and give you more faith.
Neil Silverberg: We're going to pray at the end for more faith.
Neil Silverberg: How many could use more faith?
Neil Silverberg: Reading in Hebrews 10, verse 26.
Neil Silverberg: For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
Neil Silverberg: Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
Neil Silverberg: How many are glad you're not under the law?
Neil Silverberg: Verse 29, how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace?
Neil Silverberg: For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay.
Neil Silverberg: And again, the Lord will judge his people.
Neil Silverberg: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Neil Silverberg: But recall the former days, when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.
Neil Silverberg: For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
Neil Silverberg: Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
Neil Silverberg: For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.
Neil Silverberg: For yet a little while in the coming one will come and will not delay, but my righteous one shall live by faith.
Neil Silverberg: And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
Neil Silverberg: But we are not of those, thank God.
Neil Silverberg: We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve persevere to the end.
Neil Silverberg: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Neil Silverberg: For by it the people of old received their commendation.
Neil Silverberg: 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.
Neil Silverberg: Father, thank you for putting it in the heart of the elder team to do this series on faith, hope, and love.
Neil Silverberg: We believe the Holy Spirit has led us to preach these things.
Neil Silverberg: And I'm praying that as I kick it off today, Lord, you would anoint the words to change lives.
Neil Silverberg: We pray for change lives as we go through this series.
Neil Silverberg: Men and women would lay hold of faith, hope, and love in an increasing way.
Neil Silverberg: Father, give me utterance to open my mouth and declare with boldness the gospel in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: And everyone said.
Neil Silverberg: So, as Tyler said, we're opening this series this morning, series dealing with three major components of the Christian life: faith, hope, and love.
Neil Silverberg: And we begin this series of the trilogy of faith, hope, and love by talking about faith.
Neil Silverberg: We'll be there for a few weeks.
Neil Silverberg: Anyone who reads the scripture, even in a cursory manner, will understand how important faith is.
Neil Silverberg: And most of our time on that section of this series will be spent looking at the great hall of faith, the list of men and women who had faith to the preserving of their souls.
Neil Silverberg: We'll be carefully examining how the Old Testament saints lived by faith and what it means.
Neil Silverberg: And God has given us this chapter.
Neil Silverberg: God has graciously given us several examples of those who lived by faith and overcame obstacles.
Neil Silverberg: Now you might say, wait a minute, Neil, I don't really need a teaching on faith.
Neil Silverberg: I mean, it's one of those terms we all are familiar with and we use it.
Neil Silverberg: But one of the dangers of biblical terms is we get accustomed to thinking we understand it fully and we only understand in part.
Neil Silverberg: So the answer to your question, why do we need to hear about faith?
Neil Silverberg: Because we need more faith.
Neil Silverberg: And it is vital that we start by defining faith.
Neil Silverberg: Because there's much confusion today in the body of Christ about what faith is.
Neil Silverberg: There are many examples of wrong teaching, I could tell you, but let me just share two quickly, and then we're going to spend our time on what faith really is.
Neil Silverberg: But one wrong idea about faith is so-called blind faith.
Neil Silverberg: How many have heard the term blind faith?
Neil Silverberg: What is meant by the term blind faith?
Neil Silverberg: One author says blind faith means accepting a belief, person, or idea without proof, logic, or reason.
Neil Silverberg: It involves trusting something unconditionally, even when faced with facts of evidence that prove it wrong.
Neil Silverberg: That is believing something else, something without evidence.
Neil Silverberg: In other words, it's believing in something with zero physical proof or rational support.
Neil Silverberg: We refuse, blind faith refuse to look at outside facts or clear proof that goes against this belief.
Neil Silverberg: So, regardless of what you've heard or thought, blind faith is not biblical faith.
Neil Silverberg: The second type of wrong teaching about faith today is that it is not just trust or belief in God, but a tangible governing spiritual force.
Neil Silverberg: It's like let the force be with you.
Neil Silverberg: It's that idea.
Neil Silverberg: And according to this idea, faith operates by spiritual laws, allowing believers to seek desired outcomes.
Neil Silverberg: Those who teach this concept of faith believe literally Jesus taught that spoken words act as containers of power, allowing believers to command obstacles, to move, and claim health and wealth as a present tense reality the moment we pray.
Neil Silverberg: The main scripture used to this idea is found in Mark 11, 23 and 24.
Neil Silverberg: Don't turn there, we don't have time.
Neil Silverberg: But Jesus told the disciples after cursing the fig tree, have faith in God.
Neil Silverberg: And most standard translate Bible translations do translate that phrase, have faith in God, meaning your trust is placed directly in God.
Neil Silverberg: But some scholars and teachers suggest the faith of God is the better translation, or the God kind of faith.
Neil Silverberg: Now there's truth in this.
Neil Silverberg: Jesus says, if you uh ask anything and believe in your heart, you shall receive it.
Neil Silverberg: But it implies a quantity, quality of faith that originates from God and operates with his certainty.
Neil Silverberg: It's God's faith that he gives to human beings.
Neil Silverberg: Jesus is speaking in hyperbole when he speaks uh about you know casting a mountain to the sea.
Neil Silverberg: He's his point is to explain that active, unwavering belief overcomes major obstacles.
Neil Silverberg: He's not teaching that whatever you need you can speak into existence.
Neil Silverberg: You know, a pastor friend of mine from another city believed that concept of faith.
Neil Silverberg: And he needed a new car.
Neil Silverberg: So he spoke into existence, a new car, and then he went down to the dealership to pick up his car or to place his order.
Neil Silverberg: And he he chose the nicest Cadillac on the lot.
Neil Silverberg: And he uh maxed out on different things.
Neil Silverberg: He had leather seats, uh satellite radio, everything.
Neil Silverberg: Then the man, the salesman, said, How do you intend to pay for this?
Neil Silverberg: And he said, My father will be in.
Neil Silverberg: I'm going out of town, but my father will be in and he will pay for it.
Neil Silverberg: They said, Okay, thanks.
Neil Silverberg: So after being gone a week or so, he came to the dealership, fully expecting to pick up his car, and the salesman looked at him and said, I'm sorry, but your father never made it in.
Neil Silverberg: Why didn't my friend get the new car?
Neil Silverberg: It's not necessarily because he didn't have faith, it's because he presumed upon God.
Neil Silverberg: And faith and presumption are not the same things.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you.
Neil Silverberg: When I when God speaks of faith and he spoke to our hearts, that he's go it's going to come to pass.
Neil Silverberg: You know, years ago when I first started writing books, I needed a laptop.
Neil Silverberg: I didn't have a laptop.
Neil Silverberg: And so it was the one I wanted was$2,000.
Neil Silverberg: I had it picked out, but I didn't have the money.
Neil Silverberg: So I told Shelly, I said, I'm going to the bank.
Neil Silverberg: I'm doing what any red-blooded American would do.
Neil Silverberg: I'm going to the bank to borrow the$2,000.
Neil Silverberg: And Shelly looked at me and said, Honey, I have a question.
Neil Silverberg: I said, What?
Neil Silverberg: She said, Have you asked God for it?
Neil Silverberg: And I looked at her sheepishly because I hadn't asked the Lord.
Neil Silverberg: I said, No.
Neil Silverberg: So she said, Shouldn't we ask the Lord for it before we just go borrow money?
Neil Silverberg: So we grabbed hands in the kitchen and we prayed.
Neil Silverberg: And I prayed for the laptop, even told the Lord what size hard drive I wanted.
Neil Silverberg: I mean, I had his ear, so I might as well.
Neil Silverberg: Six, eight gigs of RAM.
Neil Silverberg: Remember when eight gigs of RAM was a lot?
Neil Silverberg: And we prayed, and I had a sense of faith.
Neil Silverberg: I had we prayed the prayer of faith.
Neil Silverberg: And a few weeks later I came off a trip and Shelly handed me the mail.
Neil Silverberg: And in the mail, now we had told no one about our requests for a laptop.
Neil Silverberg: We didn't tell one soul.
Neil Silverberg: We just prayed and gave it to God.
Neil Silverberg: And she handed me the mail, and in the mail was a manila envelope.
Neil Silverberg: It looked like cassette tapes were in it because uh, you know, it's back when cassettes were in vogue.
Neil Silverberg: And literally out fell on the floor 20$100 bills.
Neil Silverberg: To this day, I have no idea who sent it.
Neil Silverberg: If you're here, thank you.
Neil Silverberg: I have no idea who sent it.
Neil Silverberg: But God knew he needed a laptop and he put the prayer of faith in our hearts.
Neil Silverberg: The Bible speaks of the prayer of faith.
Neil Silverberg: And so it doesn't teach that anything we speak at any time will come to pass.
Neil Silverberg: But we have to have heard from God.
Neil Silverberg: Now there are four aspects of biblical faith I want to talk about.
Neil Silverberg: Let's not talk about the wrong concept of faith.
Neil Silverberg: Let's talk about what's right.
Neil Silverberg: And there are four characteristics of faith that I want to mention today.
Neil Silverberg: We'll talk about the first three quickly and spend our time on four.
Neil Silverberg: They are faith is fully persuaded, faith trusts, faith works, and faith endures.
Neil Silverberg: Faith fully is persuaded, faith trusts, faith works, and faith endures.
Neil Silverberg: Let's start with faith is being fully persuaded.
Neil Silverberg: Persuaded of what?
Neil Silverberg: That the promises of God are real and can be totally relied on.
Neil Silverberg: Faith is totally persuaded that those promises are real and can be totally relied on.
Neil Silverberg: And this aspect of faith is best seen in the life of Abraham.
Neil Silverberg: I don't want to spend a lot of time on Abraham because one of the messages will deal with Abraham from the whole of faith.
Neil Silverberg: But Abraham's life really demonstrates that faith is fully persuaded, being fully persuaded in the promises of God.
Neil Silverberg: Remember what God had promised to Abraham?
Neil Silverberg: He comes to him in Genesis 15.
Neil Silverberg: He said it says, After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.
Neil Silverberg: Fear not, Abram, I am your shield, your reward shall be very great.
Neil Silverberg: But Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me?
Neil Silverberg: For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.
Neil Silverberg: And Abram said, Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.
Neil Silverberg: And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, This man shall not be your heir, your very own son shall be your heir.
Neil Silverberg: And he brought him outside and said, Look toward heaven and number the stars, if you're able to number them.
Neil Silverberg: Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be.
Neil Silverberg: And he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Neil Silverberg: And that statement, he believed the Lord and counted him as righteousness, is quoted by the Apostle Paul.
Neil Silverberg: It is the truth about how we were justified, because we believed the Lord and we were counted as righteous.
Neil Silverberg: Now God tells Abram he's going to have a son.
Neil Silverberg: At the time that God spoke this word to him, we just read, Abram was 75 years old.
Neil Silverberg: So he's getting up in years.
Neil Silverberg: He's going to have seed as numerous as the stars in the heaven.
Neil Silverberg: He's got to get to work.
Neil Silverberg: He doesn't have much time left.
Neil Silverberg: He's 75.
Neil Silverberg: And when it didn't happen when he was 86, Sarah, his wife, decided the problem was we needed to help God out.
Neil Silverberg: Every time you fill up your car at a gas station, remember this event.
Neil Silverberg: Sarah needed assumed that God needed help.
Neil Silverberg: So he gave Abraham her servant Hagar, and Abraham fathered a child through Hagar named Ishmael, the father of the Arabic people.
Neil Silverberg: After all, when you're 86, you don't have a lot of ability to father children, let alone children as numerous as the stars of the heavens.
Neil Silverberg: And when he was ninety-nine, God came to him and said, I'll bless Ishmael, but he's not the one.
Neil Silverberg: Your heirs shall come from your own body.
Neil Silverberg: 99.
Neil Silverberg: Would you have a problem believing a promise that your seed was going to be more numerous than the stars of heaven when you're ninety-nine?
Neil Silverberg: But Paul speaks this in Romans 4.
Neil Silverberg: Abram's faith, that's why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abram, who is the father of us all, as it is written, I have made you the father of many nations, in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
Neil Silverberg: In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, so shall your offspring be.
Neil Silverberg: He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.
Neil Silverberg: No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
Neil Silverberg: That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness.
Neil Silverberg: But the word it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also.
Neil Silverberg: It will also be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead, raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who has delivered us up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Neil Silverberg: Hallelujah.
Neil Silverberg: Faith is being fully persuaded that what God has promised will come to pass.
Neil Silverberg: And think about the challenge that this man had to believe for.
Neil Silverberg: He looked at the deadness of his own body.
Neil Silverberg: He was nearly a hundred.
Neil Silverberg: He looked at Sarah, who was in the tent.
Neil Silverberg: She couldn't even get out of the tent.
Neil Silverberg: Yet.
Neil Silverberg: I just got it myself.
Neil Silverberg: No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.
Neil Silverberg: Fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
Neil Silverberg: I have a question.
Neil Silverberg: Are you fully convinced and persuaded that God will do as he promised?
Neil Silverberg: Are you fully persuaded that God will do what he's promised in Scripture?
Neil Silverberg: How about the promises he made regarding your eternal future?
Neil Silverberg: Are you fully persuaded they will come to pass?
Neil Silverberg: The second characteristic of faith is faith trusts.
Neil Silverberg: Faith trust.
Neil Silverberg: Now these are very clearly related, but they're different.
Neil Silverberg: Faith trusts.
Neil Silverberg: One aspect of faith is it teaches us to trust in God.
Neil Silverberg: And perhaps the clearest scripture that speaks to that is found in the book of Proverbs, chapter 3, verses 5 through 6.
Neil Silverberg: You all know this scripture, but let's read it.
Neil Silverberg: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
Neil Silverberg: In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your path.
Neil Silverberg: Let me break down these verses in a clear way.
Neil Silverberg: Four things he mentions.
Neil Silverberg: First, trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Neil Silverberg: Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Neil Silverberg: That means we must put our total unreserved confidence in God, using our deepest will and mind to rely on Him completely, not just on good days.
Neil Silverberg: How many know it's easy to trust in the Lord on good days?
Neil Silverberg: But to trust in Him at all times with our hearts means we must put total unreserved confidence in God.
Neil Silverberg: Our whole will, mind, and emotions are to rely completely on Him, and that not on good days only.
Neil Silverberg: Then He says, lean not on your own understanding.
Neil Silverberg: It means we must stop depending solely on our limited point of view, logic, or ability to figure out difficult situations.
Neil Silverberg: How many have discovered you go nuts trying to figure out difficult situations?
Neil Silverberg: Why is this happening?
Neil Silverberg: Sometimes God is gracious and gives us understanding.
Neil Silverberg: Sometimes we have to walk in darkness, trusting Him even when we don't understand what's going on.
Neil Silverberg: Why?
Neil Silverberg: Because we have limited understanding.
Neil Silverberg: We're able to understand some things, but much, many things we can't.
Neil Silverberg: Then he says, in all your ways, acknowledge him.
Neil Silverberg: It means we must keep God at the center of our daily life, consulting him and involving him in every decision, both small and great.
Neil Silverberg: And then what happens?
Neil Silverberg: He finally concludes with this promise He will make your paths straight.
Neil Silverberg: It means God promises to guide your steps, removing hidden traps and directing you towards his right and secure purpose.
Neil Silverberg: So trusting the Lord is an aspect of faith we must cultivate.
Neil Silverberg: Brothers and sisters, in a nutshell, it is learning to radically trust a sovereign God, trusting him with all our heart.
Neil Silverberg: And trusting God is not a matter of not making right choices.
Neil Silverberg: Somehow we've allowed the idea of trusting God to make us passive.
Neil Silverberg: But it's a very active thing, trusting God.
Neil Silverberg: In Psalm 32, David made this clear.
Neil Silverberg: Don't turn there, but David is confessing his sin.
Neil Silverberg: It's a psalm he wrote after his sin with Bathsheba, along with Psalm 51.
Neil Silverberg: Psalm 32 is also a prayer of repentance for his sin of adultery and murder.
Neil Silverberg: And David is confessing his sin in this Psalm.
Neil Silverberg: And then in verse 8, God chimes in.
Neil Silverberg: And he says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.
Neil Silverberg: Now listen carefully to these words.
Neil Silverberg: This is God's promise to your light.
Neil Silverberg: I will teach you in the way you shall go.
Neil Silverberg: I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Neil Silverberg: That's such powerful words.
Neil Silverberg: I'll counsel you with my eye.
Neil Silverberg: You know, it comes out of the ancient world.
Neil Silverberg: Ancient kings would sit on their thrones, and they had servants at their thrones that looked at the king's face, and they could tell by his eye movements what he was requesting.
Neil Silverberg: And God chimes in and says, I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Neil Silverberg: Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curved with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.
Neil Silverberg: What David is saying here, what God is saying to David, is we can expect to be guided by the Lord, but not in the same way that we guide farm animals.
Neil Silverberg: Farm animals had to be, have bit and bridle to pull them in the direction that they wanted them to go.
Neil Silverberg: So he says, uh, you know, do not be like the horse and mule without understanding.
Neil Silverberg: Don't expect God to pull you with bit and bridle, but he gives you clear understanding.
Neil Silverberg: It says, uh, don't be like the horse and mule.
Neil Silverberg: Why?
Neil Silverberg: Because they don't have understanding.
Neil Silverberg: We have understanding, and so we must use it.
Neil Silverberg: Sometimes the will of God is very clear and easy to discern.
Neil Silverberg: So Solomon tells us not to lean on our own understanding when he says, trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Neil Silverberg: He doesn't mean suspend your faculty of reason.
Neil Silverberg: I like to call it it's a reasoned trust.
Neil Silverberg: It's a reasoned trust.
Neil Silverberg: How many have things in your life right now you don't understand why it's going on?
Neil Silverberg: But you're still here, you still love God and you're serving him.
Neil Silverberg: Because you you trust him even though you don't understand fully.
Neil Silverberg: So this psalm implies that we won't understand things fully till we get there.
Neil Silverberg: But in the meantime, we have some understanding and we we should use it.
Neil Silverberg: The third character of biblical faith is faith works.
Neil Silverberg: We've seen faith is fully persuaded, we've seen faith trusts.
Neil Silverberg: Now faith works.
Neil Silverberg: Many people are confused when they compare the teaching of the Apostle Paul regarding works and the teaching of the James, the writer of the book of James, the brother of Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: You know, one of the Paul, after talking about Abraham's faith, which we read in chapter 4 of Romans, opens chapter 5 with these words.
Neil Silverberg: Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Neil Silverberg: One of the solas of the Protestant Reformation was sola fide, faith alone.
Neil Silverberg: We're justified by faith alone, which simply means there's nothing a person can do to receive justification except believe on what Jesus accomplished for us by his death and resurrection.
Neil Silverberg: And this is what separates Christianity from all other religions.
Neil Silverberg: In all other religions, a person is made right with God by something they do to be justified.
Neil Silverberg: But in the gospel, a person is made right with God by putting their faith completely on what God accomplished through his son.
Neil Silverberg: And the Apostle Paul taught that clearly in his writings.
Neil Silverberg: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
Neil Silverberg: It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Neil Silverberg: Luther said he hated God because when he read the word righteousness in scripture, he knew it was he wasn't righteous, and God had every reason to send him to hell.
Neil Silverberg: So he hated the word righteousness because it reminded him of his sinfulness.
Neil Silverberg: Then he read Romans 1:16 through 17, and he saw that righteousness is not a quality of God only that he possesses, but it's a gift that God gives to guilty sinners.
Neil Silverberg: And Luther said a whole new world opened up to me, a world in which I knew full justification.
Neil Silverberg: Are you this morning relying on anything of your performance, anything you're doing to be right with God?
Neil Silverberg: It's so easy to fall into a trap.
Neil Silverberg: Because much of the church world, unfortunately, doesn't know justification by faith.
Neil Silverberg: At Trinity years ago, we many altar calls people would come up and I would pray for them, and I would say, What do you want prayer for?
Neil Silverberg: And probably 60, 70% of the time, people would say, I want prayer, I feel condemnation.
Neil Silverberg: And I would start teaching, have you heard the doctrine of justification by faith?
Neil Silverberg: They'd say, No.
Neil Silverberg: I'd say, How long have you been in the church?
Neil Silverberg: Only 30 years.
Neil Silverberg: So I said, I couldn't teach then long because I was praying for people at the altar.
Neil Silverberg: So I said, make an appointment to see me this week.
Neil Silverberg: And some Sundays, I'd have some following Sunday morning, I'd have three, four, five appointments during the week in which I taught people the doctrine of justification by faith.
Neil Silverberg: You have to know this because it is a foundation of the Christian life, that God justifies you, which is a legal term.
Neil Silverberg: He declares you not guilty.
Neil Silverberg: And he doesn't do it based on your performance.
Neil Silverberg: You'll never pray enough, you'll never read the Bible enough, you'll never fast enough, you'll never witness enough to be justified by those actions.
Neil Silverberg: But the good news is you are justified when you put your faith in Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: And we get to do those things: prayer, Bible reading, witnessing, fasting.
Neil Silverberg: We get to do them as a result of faith.
Neil Silverberg: It's the inevitable outcome is that we're justified by faith and we will do the things.
Neil Silverberg: But that seems contrary to what James said.
Neil Silverberg: If you know the book of James in chapter 2, listen carefully.
Neil Silverberg: He says, What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Neil Silverberg: Can that faith save him?
Neil Silverberg: If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to him, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
Neil Silverberg: So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Neil Silverberg: But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works.
Neil Silverberg: Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my your faith, my faith by my works.
Neil Silverberg: You believe that God is one, you do well.
Neil Silverberg: Even the demons believe and shudder.
Neil Silverberg: Do you want to be shown, you foolish person?
Neil Silverberg: I'd like to meet James.
Neil Silverberg: He was needed to be kinder.
Neil Silverberg: Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works, is useless?
Neil Silverberg: Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
Neil Silverberg: You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works.
Neil Silverberg: And the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abram believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God.
Neil Silverberg: You see that a person is justified by his works and not by faith alone.
Neil Silverberg: And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
Neil Silverberg: For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
Neil Silverberg: How in the world do you reconcile what Paul teaches that people cannot be saved by their works with what James teaches faith without per works is dead?
Neil Silverberg: And the answer is really easy.
Neil Silverberg: They're both speaking to two different audiences.
Neil Silverberg: Paul is addressing those who are attempting to be justified by works.
Neil Silverberg: But James is dealing with those who think that faith alone, without works, will save them.
Neil Silverberg: The best way I've heard it described is we're not saved by our good works, but we are saved for good works.
Neil Silverberg: And it's critical that we understand that both of those.
Neil Silverberg: Paul says it this way in Ephesians 2, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God ordained beforehand that we should walk in them.
Neil Silverberg: By the way, it's so interesting.
Neil Silverberg: The word workmanship there.
Neil Silverberg: Ephesians 2, 10.
Neil Silverberg: Workmanship is a Greek word which means the thing that he has made, but it's actually the Greek word from which the English word poem is derived.
Neil Silverberg: We are his poem.
Neil Silverberg: And another translation which is valid is we are his works of art, his masterpieces.
Neil Silverberg: He creates us in Christ Jesus, James, uh James uh Paul says, for good works.
Neil Silverberg: Again, we're not saved by good works, but when he makes us his workmanship, he creates us for good works.
Neil Silverberg: You want to do good works.
Neil Silverberg: The night I got saved 52 years ago, I was supposed to party with my friends that night, but I went to a gospel meeting with my brother, and Jesus encountered me, and I've never recovered.
Neil Silverberg: People's testimony, you know, they say, I was messed up, I met Jesus, now I'm fine.
Neil Silverberg: My testimony was I was fine, I met Jesus, and now I'm really messed up.
Neil Silverberg: But how many are glad to be messed up in a good way?
Neil Silverberg: So true.
Neil Silverberg: Notice God gave ordained us for good works before the foundation of the world that we should walk in them.
Neil Silverberg: When my brother and I were growing up in Philadelphia, he worked with his hands and took apart things, and I was writing articles.
Neil Silverberg: And is it any wonder he ended up owning a construction company and I ended up writing books?
Neil Silverberg: Because God ordained the good works that we walk in.
Neil Silverberg: And that goes back to even your beginning as a child.
Neil Silverberg: Let's look at the final one, a little longer, but let's take it slowly.
Neil Silverberg: Faith endures.
Neil Silverberg: We've seen that faith is fully persuaded, faith works, faith trusts, faith works, and now faith adore endures.
Neil Silverberg: And this final section of Hebrews, if you read it, starts with another one of those warnings we find all through the book.
Neil Silverberg: We've read when we read the opening verses, verses 20, 10, 26 to 31.
Neil Silverberg: That verse has scared many people, and it should not cause us alarm.
Neil Silverberg: It's not talking about sin in general.
Neil Silverberg: Now, if you go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, it's not talking about sin in general, but a certain sin which we now should be familiar with if you study the book of Hebrews.
Neil Silverberg: It's a sin of apostasy, it's a sin of trampling underfoot the Son of God and treating as unholy the blood of the covenant.
Neil Silverberg: And that's what the book of Hebrews is warning about.
Neil Silverberg: People get all freaked out when they read, if you keep keep on sinning.
Neil Silverberg: Now, if you keep on over openly flagrantly sinning and not repenting, that's a problem.
Neil Silverberg: But the sin of apostasy is what the writer of Hebrews is.
Neil Silverberg: And he's warning them if they continue on the path they are on, which was tempted to deny the Lord Jesus as Hebrew believers, then they would be committing a sin unto death.
Neil Silverberg: And he does, he wants to help them realize the danger of that.
Neil Silverberg: He reminds them of what they had been through in the past.
Neil Silverberg: These people had already suffered for their faith.
Neil Silverberg: Many lost their possessions, were imprisoned, others were mocked and identified, others were mocked for identifying with those who were in prison.
Neil Silverberg: Now the writer of Hebrews urges them not to throw away their confidence because it has great reward.
Neil Silverberg: Remember what he said in an earlier chapter, Hebrews 6?
Neil Silverberg: I didn't read it, but it says, God is not unjust to forget your labor of love for God's people.
Neil Silverberg: And then he reintroduces us to the main theme in this section by exhorting them to endure.
Neil Silverberg: Now, sometimes the word endure in the English Bible is translated from the word patience.
Neil Silverberg: But almost every place where the word patience occurs, it's the Greek word hupomeni.
Neil Silverberg: Hupomini.
Neil Silverberg: And that's translated in the English Bible as endure or endurance.
Neil Silverberg: It's not merely patience, it's endurance.
Neil Silverberg: Paul uses this word when he says tribulation produces endurance.
Neil Silverberg: Remember James Fay's famous statement that he said in his letter, the trying of your faith works patience or produces endurance.
Neil Silverberg: Same word, let endurance have her perfect work.
Neil Silverberg: And now this section of Hebrews uses the word continually.
Neil Silverberg: It will say Moses endured as seeing him who is invisible.
Neil Silverberg: He will tell the Hebrews, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
Neil Silverberg: And he also will say, if you endure chastening, then you are sons.
Neil Silverberg: The word endurance, whopomini, has two ideas.
Neil Silverberg: First, it carries the idea of submission.
Neil Silverberg: If one endures, he submits to the situation causing him to endure with and stays in it, does not run away from it.
Neil Silverberg: The second idea is that of continuing on undeterred and of not drawing back.
Neil Silverberg: That's why it's such an important concept in this letter.
Neil Silverberg: If you don't go on, they will eventually draw back even to apostasy, as I said.
Neil Silverberg: So that's why the writer immediately quotes from Habakkuk, the prophet Habakkuk in the Old Testament.
Neil Silverberg: He says, But my righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.
Neil Silverberg: But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
Neil Silverberg: So the opposite of our shrinking back is our enduring to the end, and thus making our calling and election sure.
Neil Silverberg: The writer assumes something that's so important.
Neil Silverberg: He assumes that if they are true saints, they will persevere to the end.
Neil Silverberg: This is a major doctrine of scripture the church needs to embrace.
Neil Silverberg: He that began a good work will bring it to completion.
Neil Silverberg: Philippians 1.
Neil Silverberg: He promises if he began it, and you're a Christian because God began a work in you.
Neil Silverberg: And then he has promised to keep you to the end and complete what he began.
Neil Silverberg: Right now, you're in process.
Neil Silverberg: I'm in process.
Neil Silverberg: You are not completed, but you're getting there.
Neil Silverberg: And one day your faith will no longer be needed because you'll have a full knowledge and awareness of the truth of God.
Neil Silverberg: Spurgeon said it best.
Neil Silverberg: That's the assurance we have that we can rely on that God will persevere in grace because the saints persevere in holiness, but it's because of God's grace alone.
Neil Silverberg: And what if some do not persevere to the end?
Neil Silverberg: Second Corinthians 13 says, test yourselves to see if you're in the faith.
Neil Silverberg: And he warns against failing the test.
Neil Silverberg: That that's the context in which the great 11th chapter of Hebrews is drops in.
Neil Silverberg: It doesn't just drop in out of thin air, it drops in in the context of this call to endurance.
Neil Silverberg: It's so important.
Neil Silverberg: He's attempting to show us that the only way we can endure to the end is by faith.
Neil Silverberg: In chapter 6, verse 12, he's already linked faith with endurance when he says, through faith and patience or endurance, same word, we inherit the promises.
Neil Silverberg: And he gave there the example of Abraham, which we talked about this morning, who believed and endured.
Neil Silverberg: That's in this chapter the most important aspect of faith that's stress.
Neil Silverberg: It's faith that endures to the end in spite of all opposition and suffering.
Neil Silverberg: Now, ultimately, faith has to do with things future.
Neil Silverberg: We'll see when we get to it how faith relates to hope and love.
Neil Silverberg: It has to do with things future.
Neil Silverberg: It doesn't matter if we can see them as long as they're covered in the promises of God.
Neil Silverberg: And faith is so convinced that they are real that it will venture out.
Neil Silverberg: On them and sacrifice everything in the present to make them real.
Neil Silverberg: Even if faith doesn't receive what is promised in this life, it will continue on enduring whatever, assured that it will come to pass in the next life.
Neil Silverberg: All the people listed here in Hebrews 11 will be parked there for a while, demonstrate that they were things assured of things hoped for and convinced of things not seen.
Neil Silverberg: Some more than others demonstrate their faith that endures to the end and suffers loss.
Neil Silverberg: But let's start with finally looking at verse 3 of chapter 11 again.
Neil Silverberg: 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.
Neil Silverberg: So the writer starts his great faith chapter by talking not about a person, but talking about God and his creative power by which he brought all things into being.
Neil Silverberg: You know, Genesis 1.1 is absolutely unique among the religions of the world.
Neil Silverberg: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Neil Silverberg: And one of the reasons it's so unique among the religions of the world, in the ancient world, is that there was no such thing as the idea that you could create something out of nothing.
Neil Silverberg: The ancient world believed that all things that are physical came out of all things that are physical.
Neil Silverberg: But the Bible starts with a simple phrase: God created the heavens and the earth.
Neil Silverberg: The Latin phrase used to describe this is the term ex nihilo, out of nothing.
Neil Silverberg: And it's the idea that God spoke everything into existence.
Neil Silverberg: I recently read through Genesis 1 again, and it was so refreshing to read that it was the word of God that created all things.
Neil Silverberg: And he now upholds all things by the word of his power.
Neil Silverberg: Today the modern theory of evolution rejects ex-nihilo and looks at the idea that something can be made out of nothing as ridiculous.
Neil Silverberg: Then the writer of Hebrews goes on to mention several who lived by faith.
Neil Silverberg: Some had miraculous intervention.
Neil Silverberg: Verses 33 through 34.
Neil Silverberg: They shut lions' mouths, they escaped the sword.
Neil Silverberg: And you can read that and go, yes, faith overcame.
Neil Silverberg: Yes, it did.
Neil Silverberg: But right in the middle of that, he talks about others who endured terrible sufferings, and they did so by faith.
Neil Silverberg: They did not receive what was promised.
Neil Silverberg: Why?
Neil Silverberg: Because they didn't have faith?
Neil Silverberg: No, because God was waiting for us to come along so that with us they might be made perfect.
Neil Silverberg: So I close by quoting Hebrews 11:6.
Neil Silverberg: And without faith, it is impossible to please him.
Neil Silverberg: For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Neil Silverberg: The writer in that statement says there's two things we must believe if we're to have biblical faith.
Neil Silverberg: First, that he exists.
Neil Silverberg: You say, duh.
Neil Silverberg: But we must be totally convinced that the God of Scripture is real, that he exists.
Neil Silverberg: And then the second thing we must believe.
Neil Silverberg: You know, we have to believe he's real because it's possible to confess faith in God yet be an unconscious atheist.
Neil Silverberg: But secondly, we must be convinced that it's worth our time to seek him, for he will richly reward us.
Neil Silverberg: When we hear the word reward, we often think of monetary terms.
Neil Silverberg: And it's true.
Neil Silverberg: God blesses us monetarily.
Neil Silverberg: It certainly can mean that.
Neil Silverberg: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things.
Neil Silverberg: What things?
Neil Silverberg: The things the Gentiles seek after.
Neil Silverberg: Food, clothing, riches.
Neil Silverberg: He says all these things shall be added to you if you seek first the kingdom of God.
Neil Silverberg: But you know what the ultimate reward is if that he gives?
Neil Silverberg: He gives us himself.
Neil Silverberg: I was reading recently in Hebrews, I'm sorry, in Ezekiel 44, and in that chapter, God's talking to the priests, the sons of Zadak.
Neil Silverberg: And you know, he he gave inheritance to all the tribes.
Neil Silverberg: But you know what he says in that chapter?
Neil Silverberg: They shall receive no inheritance in Israel.
Neil Silverberg: I am their inheritance.
Neil Silverberg: God blesses our lives.
Neil Silverberg: I stand before you this morning as a blessed man.
Neil Silverberg: He's met my needs, he's been faithful.
Neil Silverberg: But the greatest joy of my life is to be rewarded by increased knowledge of God.
Neil Silverberg: I want to know him.
Neil Silverberg: And that's the ultimate inheritance.
Neil Silverberg: So I hope you were helped this morning by seeing faith in all of its glorious dimensions.
Neil Silverberg: And there's three words that the apostles asked the Lord Jesus that I want you to ask with me tonight today.
Neil Silverberg: Remember when they said, Lord, increase our faith.
Neil Silverberg: I want to have you join me as we ask God to do that very thing to increase our faith.
Neil Silverberg: If you want your faith increased, would you please stand?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: God is faithful to do.
Neil Silverberg: And I want to remind you also, there's a gift of the Spirit called faith.
Neil Silverberg: And some we need to operate.
Neil Silverberg: As I was preparing this message, I felt the importance of us asking God.
Neil Silverberg: The elders prayed this morning and asked God as well to increase our faith.
Neil Silverberg: Increase our faith in Jesus, increase our increase our faith in his work on our behalf.
Neil Silverberg: So, Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, thank you for the truth about faith that we learned this morning.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you for speaking to us from your word.
Neil Silverberg: Lord, we've been encouraged and blessed and challenged.
Neil Silverberg: And Lord, we pray as a congregation, say it with me.
Neil Silverberg: Increase our faith.
Neil Silverberg: Lord, we cry out to you and ask you that you give us more faith, that you give the many people in the congregation to operate in the gift of faith.
Neil Silverberg: But Lord, increase our faith for daily living, increase our faith for financial support and supply.
Neil Silverberg: Priest can increase our faith for healing in our bodies.
Neil Silverberg: We ask you for an increase of faith and a new measure of faith.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you, and we're thanking you for it.
Neil Silverberg: And we expect to hear good reports of people whose faith grew and you did marvelous things.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name.
unknown: Amen.