It was a moving experience a few weeks ago to
stand with some others of you beside the Western
Wall in Jerusalem. Others of you have visited
that site as well, which is the most holy shrine
among the Jews in all of the world. The Western
Wall or the Wailing Wall, as it is sometimes
called by Gentiles, It's such a sacred spot because
it is part of the foundation of the wall of the
ancient temple of Israel. As you look at the
wall you see stones that are various sizes and
when you get to the very bottom of what is exposed
today you see two layers of very large stones.
Those stones belonged to part of the foundation
of the wall that was around the temple in Jesus'
day. The temple, of course, was destroyed in
70 AD. And the Jews today don't even know for
sure where it was located there on the Temple
Mount. There's lots of debate about that. But
in their archaeological diggings, they do know
that these stones were part of that ancient foundation.
We don't usually see the foundation of a building.
It's buried in the substructure. It's down below.
It's invisible. But oh, how important the foundation
is to any structure. If the foundation is not
properly built, the building is in danger. And
so it is with our lives. If the foundations are
not properly laid or if they grow weak, our lives
are in jeopardy. And so through the weeks ahead
we want to take a look at the foundation things
of our lives and our walk with God. We want to
firm up the foundation of our lives because frankly
our lives are under attack. We're under attack
from the deceitfulness of sin. I want to tell
you that there are people all over the Church
of Jesus Christ today who have done things in
their lives being Christians that they thought
they would never do. And the reason they succumbed
to the deceitfulness of sin was that somewhere
along the way the foundation got weak, and when
sin came against them they fell. Then there's
the attack of the world. This world system that
has been created by the devil. It is insidious.
And so prevalent is the thinking of the world
in the Church of Jesus Christ today that we don't
even recognize it. We have grown tolerant to
sin. We accept things today. as being okay that
20 years ago we would never have imagined we
could accept. What's the problem? The foundation
is the problem. And so we need to go to the foundation
of our lives and do some work there to firm up
our foundations so that we may be able to stand
in this day of attack against our faith and our
walk with God. Today we're going to go right
down to the very bottom of the foundation right
down to the basics as We think about faith. I
invite you to open your Bible to Hebrews chapter
11 We're going to look at this somewhat familiar
verse in Hebrews 11 is verse 6 Where it says
and without faith it is impossible to please
Him, for he who comes to God must believe. He
must believe that God is, and that God is a rewarder
of those who seek Him. Pleasing God requires
faith. Now why is that? Well, it's because faith
honors God. Faith declares that God is trustworthy.
Faith declares that God is able. Faith declares
that God is wise. Faith honors God, and unless
one has faith, it is impossible to please him.
Warren Wiersbie wrote, faith is not a luxury.
It is a necessity. He's right. That's how important
faith is to us. As we think about faith, I want
you to understand first of all that faith is
the only acceptable way to come to God. He who
comes to God must believe. Must believe. Not
should believe. Not may believe. But must. have
faith. Faith is the only acceptable way to come
to God. We see this illustrated in Hebrews 11.
Now, Hebrews 11, as most of you know, is a great
chapter of the hall of faith of the Bible. It
is the biographical snips of people who walked
with God and walked by faith. One of those is
Abel. He is the first one identified by name.
In verse 4 we read of him, by faith Abel offered
to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through
which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous.
God testifying about his gifts, and through faith,
though he is dead, he still speaks. What does
this tell us about Abel? It means that Abel approached
God By faith, in other words, God had revealed
to man how man could approach him. Abel trusted
that. He believed that. He obeyed that. He came
to God offering an animal sacrifice, shedding
blood. Blood that was necessary for the covering
of sin. It was the only way that God would allow
sinful man to come. Abel said, I believe what
God says, and I'm going to do this. Cain said,
I'm going to bring what I want to God. Look,
I've worked hard for these crops, these fruits
of the field. I'm going to bring those to God.
But God was not well pleased and did not accept
the sacrifice of Cain. Abel believed what God
said when God said, this is the way. And because
of that, he was righteous. Hebrews 11 6 says,
he who comes to God, this word come is used a
number of times in Hebrews. At least seven times.
Sometimes it's translated as it is here, sometimes
it's translated draw near. It is a word that
was used in 200 BC, when some people sat down
to translate the Hebrew Old Testament into the
Greek language. It's called the Septuagint. When
they came to words in the Old Testament that
described coming to God in a priestly way, they
chose to use this word that later is used in
Hebrews 11 .6. To come to God means to come in
approach to God as if one were a priest. Now
theoretically there are two ways that one may
come to God, theoretically. Actually there's
only one. But theoretically one may come to God
by the works of the law. Now when I use the term
law, I'm talking about the legal, legislative,
aspects of the Old Testament. We usually think
of the Pentateuch when we talk about the law.
In the law, God reveals His holiness. He exposes
His demands for our righteous living. These demands
are often considered summarized in the Ten Commandments
of the Old Testament. My point is that if one
can perfectly do the works of the law. He can
be accepted by God. God establishes the standard
in the law. And in fact in Romans chapter 2 it
says, for not the hearers of the law are just
before God, but the doers of the law will be
justified. So theoretically one may come to God
through the works of the law by perfectly doing
the works of the law Now I would like to know
this morning if there's anyone here who's perfectly
obeyed even the Ten Commandments Would you stand
please and tell us how you did it? We would all
love to know we would be delighted to hear you
boast about how you did that Oh, well, there
are no takers. You see, one could come to God
that way, though, for the doers of the law will
be just before God. The problem is that once
you're on that treadmill, you've got to keep
treading, and you can't miss a step. In fact,
James says that if we even break one of the commandments,
we've broken the whole law. We might as well
get off the treadmill. So if one is going to
come to God through the works of the law, he's
got to make every step of the way. He cannot
fail once. That's why I say theoretically one
may come to God this way. Because there's a problem.
The problem isn't with the law. The law is holy.
The law is good. The problem is with us. The
problem is with the sin that is in our hearts.
And the result of that sin in us is that we transgress
the law. We break the law, and therefore the
law, as it was set up to do, condemns us. It
condemns those who break it. And that's all of
us. However, the law set up a system of sacrifice
in the Old Testament. God did that Himself. He
set up a sacrificial system that was to be carried
out through the Levitical priesthood, that is
the descendants of Levi, the Levitical priesthood.
And so his people in the Old Testament could
come to God through that system, bringing the
right sacrifices, trusting God that if God said,
you do this, come this way with the blood being
offered, I will receive you, because they trusted.
they were accepted by God. But there was a problem.
Those sacrifices, as important as they were for
that time period, could not ultimately remove
sin. They could only cover over sin. They could
only provide an atonement for sin. In fact, in
chapter 10, if you'll just turn back a chapter,
And verse 1, it says, for the law, since it has
only a shadow of the good things to come and
not the very form of those things, the law can
never by the same sacrifices year by year, which
they, that is the Jewish priests, offer continually,
make perfect those who draw near. There's that
word come. In other words, all of those sacrifices
could not make perfect. Bring to complete forgiveness
of sin those who came to God. God covered their
sin, but the sacrificial system wasn't enough.
Now it says here that the law was a shadow of
the good things to come. What it foreshadowed
was the coming of Christ. All of those sacrifices
of the Old Testament pointed to His ultimate
sacrifice as the Lamb of God, just like that
banner says over there. And when He offered that
one sacrifice for sin forever, Hebrews chapter
10, then God fully dealt with sins. Not only
the sins of the current time, but the sins of
the past administration as well. Those that were
just covered over. Read about it in Romans chapter
4. Now if we can't come to God through the works
of the law, what is the one way we can come to
God? There's only one other alternative and that
is the way of faith. He who comes to God must
believe. Faith is a response of trust in God.
It is committing oneself to the message that
God delivers. Now in the Old Testament that was
the message that here's the sacrificial system.
You bring the blood of these animals in faith
and you will find acceptance with God. In the
age in which we live we don't believe in those
sacrifices anymore. We believe in the ultimate
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
message of the gospel. But my point is that all
of those people who have been saved in every
age, whether in the Old Testament or in the New
Testament, must come to God trusting His promises.
Must come to God trusting His promises. And now
God has opened the way to Himself through the
offering of Jesus Christ. Look in Hebrews 10,
19. No Jew ever had confidence to enter the holy
place. No Jew could ever enter the holy place
except the high priest. That's what the law provided.
And he could only come if he had the blood, the
appropriate blood, shed in the appropriate way
with him to sprinkle there in the presence of
God on the seat of mercy. But it says here that
you and I, now that Jesus has died, now that
he has offered himself as the sacrifice and his
blood has been presented before God, now we can
have confidence to come into that place that
no one before dared enter except the high priest.
We may come to the holy place by the blood of
Jesus, by a new and living way. which He inaugurated
for us through the veil that is His flesh. And
since we have a great priest over the household
of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart
in full assurance of faith. Notice the faith.
Faith is the only acceptable way to come to God.
And now at the end of this chapter in verse 38
he is quoting from the Old Testament and he reminds
us what Habakkuk says. But my righteous one shall
live by faith, or I like the King James better,
the just shall live by faith. The just shall
live by faith. The only acceptable way to come
to God is through faith. Have you come to God
that way? Or are you like Cain, the brother of
Abel, who sought to come to God his own way?
And you're trying to bring to God the works of
your life, the good things about you, and impress
God, so that God may somehow find acceptance
with you. Surely, he'll be proud of you. My friend,
that's the way of works. And if you have committed
one sin in your life, it disqualifies you from
coming that way. You can't make it. You're guilty
before God. You have transgressed His law and
the law condemns you. The only way to come to
God is through faith in what He's promised. And
what he's promised is that whoever will call
upon the name of the Lord, the one who died on
that cross and rose again from the dead, whoever
calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Saved from the guilt of sin, saved from the condemnation
of the law, saved to enter heaven and enjoy eternal
life with the Lord. If you've not come to God,
in the only way acceptable to him, that I hope
today you will do that and trust that the sacrifice
of Jesus Christ on the cross was sufficient even
for your sin. However, dark and deep may be the
stain that that blood of Jesus shed there on
the cross is sufficient for you. It is. It is.
Now we learned something else about faith, and
that is that faith is the only acceptable way
to serve God. We cannot come to God by our works.
We come to God by faith, but though we are saved
by faith apart from works, the faith that saves
nonetheless works. The faith works. The only
way to serve God is by faith. Faith in Hebrews
has a broader scope than in the letters of Paul.
Faith in Hebrews talks about not merely justification
or the initial faith, but it talks about the
continuing response of faith, as one writer put
it. The continuing response of faith. of trust,
obedience, and endurance which results from conversion.
Faith in the book of Hebrews is oriented toward
the future. It's closely connected with hope.
For example, look back in verse 1 of the 11th
chapter. Faith is the assurance of things hoped
for, the conviction of things not seen. Faith
is oriented to the future in the book of Hebrews,
closely connected with hope. Faith declares God,
reliable. Faith acts upon what God says. This
obeying, enduring faith is the basis for serving
God in this world. What does this faith do? Well,
notice again from Hebrews 11. that this faith
worships. We see it in Abel. We might even see
it in Enoch who walked with God, but certainly
in Abel. Faith worships. It serves God by worship.
If you and I do not come into this place to worship
God in an attitude of faith, our worship is not
acceptable to God. For he who comes to God must
believe that he is and that he rewards those
who seek him. When we come to worship God in
private worship or in corporate worship, we must
approach God with faith and worship Him in faith,
believing Him, not doubting Him, not complaining
against God, not denying God. but giving him
the appropriate place in our lives. Numero uno,
number one. We also notice in Hebrews 11 that
faith works. It worships and it works. In verse
7, we read about Noah, who was warned of God
about things not yet seen. And in reverence,
he prepared an ark for the salvation of his household.
He had reverence for God. He heard what God said.
He believed it. He had never seen it rain. It
had never rained. The Lord watered the earth
differently in those days. It had never rained.
God said, Noah, it's gonna rain. What, Lord?
What does that mean? Lots of water coming down,
Noah. The earth is gonna flood. There's gonna
be so much water. Noah said well, I've never
seen anything like that Lord But Lord if you
say that's going to happen I'll go over here
and get my saw out and some lumber and we're
going to go to work on a boat That's what he
did you see faith works Faith is willing to take
God at what he says and do something about it
Saving faith is a faith that works We see also
that faith waits verses 10 to 13 list Abraham
Isaac and Jacob all of whom responded to God
in faith by doing things But who were waiting
and what were they waiting for the land? God
said Abraham as far as you can see and let me
tell you when you stand in those mountains in
Palestine You can see a long long way And God
said, as far as you can see, that's yours. I'll
give it to you and to your descendants. He said
that to Isaac. He said that to Jacob. And it
says in this context that they died never having
received the promise. They waited. They waited.
They waited. They waited. They died. Now, does
that mean they're never going to get it? No,
it doesn't. It just means that God wasn't going
to fulfill the promise then. God is going to
fulfill the promise one day, and the Abrahamic
covenant will be fulfilled, and Abraham and his
descendants will enjoy that land that God promised
them, and Abraham's son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is going to be the king. But faith learns to
wait. As I said a couple of weeks ago, we would
rather God said anything to us than wait. At
least I'm talking autobiographically. Because,
you see, we're Americans. We don't have to wait.
That's why we have drive -throughs at the restaurant.
We know what we want. We want it now. We want
immediate gratification. But how often God says
to you and to me, for good reasons, wait. And
faith says, okay. And faith says, Lord, even
if I die before I see your word fulfilled, I
believe you. Then we see that faith weighs. It
weighs. Look at Moses in verses 24 to 29. Look
at how Moses weighed things. He chose the invaluable
over the mere riches of Egypt. I say that a bit
with tongue and cheek because Egypt was fabulously
wealthy in Moses' time. I don't know if you've
read about the the recent discovery in Egypt
of the tombs of the sons of Ramses II. They say
it may be the greatest archaeological find in
this whole century. 50 of his sons buried together
in the Valley of the Kings. I've never seen that
area. Someday I hope to do that. They think,
however, that the graves have been looted and
probably were looted within the first century
after their being buried. Now, Ramses II and
his sons lived a couple of hundred years after
Moses. You will read some liberals in particular
who will say that Ramses was the Pharaoh of Moses'
day, not so. Moses was there 200 years before
Ramses II, but Egypt was fabulously wealthy.
And Moses was number one in line for the throne,
probably was going to be the next Pharaoh. He
looked at all of that and he by faith weighed
it and he said, I don't want this. I don't want
what Egypt has to offer me. I want what Christ
has to offer. I want what God says. Faith knows
how to weigh things. It knows how to see the
invisible. It knows how to do the impossible.
You can't walk up to an ocean and strike it and
see it split, but Moses did because God told
him to do it. Let's suppose God told you to walk
up to a swimming pool out in your neighborhood
and said, you strike that swimming pool, I'm
going to split the water. How would you feel
about that? You say, well, what would the neighbors
think? Moses had two million people looking at
him. And God said, go out there, hit it. Lift
up your rod. And what happened? The water split.
He did the impossible. You can't do that. He
did it. Faith knows how to weigh things. I don't
know what this means. I don't know how this is
going to work out. I don't know what the result
is going to be. But Lord, you say it. I'm going
to do it. And then we notice at the end of the
chapter that faith wars. It goes to battle. I
think that faith tells us which battles we ought
to fight. And it tells us what our resources
are. At the end of chapter 11, you will notice
that there were those who by faith conquered
kingdoms, etc. And for many, living by faith,
serving God by faith brought great success. We
read about them in this chapter. They're summarized
in these verses toward the end. Faith brought
great success to them, even bringing the loved
ones back from the dead. But I want you to also
notice in verse 36 that it says, but others,
experienced mockings, and scourgings, and chains,
and imprisonments, and were stoned, and were
sawn in two. They were tempted, put to death
with the sword, etc., etc. To these, the same
faith that brought other success brought suffering.
Now, what about you? I'd rather have the success
than the suffering. But you see, the important
thing is not God's deliverance. The important
thing is God's approval. And it says in verse
39, in all these, those who did the spectacular
and those who were tortured and put to death,
all of these gained approval through their faith.
That's the important thing. Not whether others
see us as successful. Not whether we've done
something that's going to stun the world, but
whether we have believed God. And if we have
believed God and served God well, we've got God's
approval. And that's what counts in the end.
That's what counts. What role does faith have
in your life? Where is it in the foundation of
your life? Is it active? in the decisions that
you make in your home, in the job opportunities
that are presented to you, in the service opportunities
that you have for Christ within the church, what
are you trusting God for? You see, God is never
going to allow us just to grow old and complacent.
Now he may allow us to grow old, but he's not
going to let us grow old apathetically. You see,
God is the God who leads in the path of life,
not the rut of death. I don't care how old we
may be or how young, God today wants to stretch
us. He wants to grow us. He will not allow us
to slip into heaven with complacency. Where does
faith fit in your service for God? The day I
got out of chemistry was a day of joy, second
only to my salvation. But I have read that you
can take hydrogen and oxygen and put them together
and what do you get? If it's two molecules of
hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen, what do
you get? Can you get that class? Well, you're
supposed to get water, but the fact is that it
doesn't happen unless you have a catalyst. A
catalyst is something else that you insert in
there to make the exchange happen. You have to
have a little bit of platinum to make the water
form out of the hydrogen and the oxygen. You
can be a Christian. You can have God in your
life. You can be who you are. But until you have
the catalyst of faith in your life, you will
never experience what God wants you to experience.
Where is faith in your foundation? As we come
to the Lord's table today, we need to come to
this table by faith. We don't want to come to
this table in unbelief. We don't want to partake
of these elements if somehow we are not trusting
God. If there's something in us that is displeasing
to God that only brings condemnation to us. But
God says, you may come, you may draw near to
me if you believe. And so let us examine our
hearts and confess unbelief. Confess whatever
is not of faith so that we may come believing
God to this table. Let's bow together, please.
With the Holy Spirit examining our hearts, what
unbelief may you need to confess to God? What
is it that you've refused to do because you didn't
believe that God could enable you to do it? Where
have you said no to the Lord? Because you didn't
have trust that He would come through. You need
to talk to him about that before you come to
his table. For he who comes to God must believe
that he is and that he rewards those who seek
him. We do come to this table, Father, with gratitude
that the way to you has been opened. Thank you
for the offering of Jesus Christ. for His blood
shed for our sins. We remember that as we partake
of these elements. Thank you for this bread that
we're about to partake of. Lord, we eat it in
faith. Not that this bread itself can save us,
but because we believe that the offering up of
the body of Jesus Christ for us was sufficient
for our sins. We eat it in faith. Amen. We partake
of the blood of Jesus Christ by faith. And having
been brought into his family, his eternal family,
we need to be a part of a local church. Today
we extend the right hand of fellowship to the
following who are recent new members of our church.
I'm going to ask them to come right over here
on the organ side and to stand so that we may
greet you after the service and welcome you into
our church. If you're in this service, would
you slip out right now as I'm closing in prayer
and we'll look for you right over here in the
line. Thank you. Let's pray together. Would you
stand please with me? Lord, we remember that
the just live by faith. So may we live this week
that we declare to ourselves and to all the world
that you are trustworthy. And may the faith that
we evidence worship, work, wait, weigh, and war,
so that we may gain approval for our service.
In Jesus' name, Amen.