Hebrews 11:1-6 | Unshakeable

Now , faith is the assurance of things hoped for , the conviction of things not seen , for by it the people of old received their commendation . By faith , we understand that the universe was created by the word of God , so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible by faith .

Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain , through which he was commended as righteous , God commending him by accepting his gifts and through his faith . Though he died , he still speaks by faith . Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death , and he was not found because God had taken him .

Now , before he was taken , he was commended as having pleased God , and without faith it is impossible to please him , for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him by faith . Noah , being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen , in reverent fear , constructed an ark for the saving of his household .

By this , he condemned the world and became an heir of righteousness that comes by faith . This is God's word .

Another way to say that is is that in the modern West we went from hard not to believe to easy not to believe to hard to believe . That's the world we live in today . Hard to believe . It's actually challenging to hold faith in our world , and it's not because secularism has erased or eliminated belief , but it changed the conditions for belief .

God is no longer the framework that holds everything together . It's almost like stars that are hidden by light pollution . The unseen reality is still there , but we just don't perceive it as clearly as we used to . And so we look at the modern West and actually what we see is that a hunger for faith still persists .

On April 18th 2025 , that was Good Friday , a couple of weeks ago the New York Times published an article with this title quote Americans haven't found a satisfying alternative to religion . Go read it , it's phenomenal , it's a great read and this is a quote from the article .

Quote people are unhappier than they've ever been and the country is in an epidemic of loneliness . Those without religious affiliation in particular country is in an epidemic of loneliness . Those without religious affiliation , in particular , rank lower on key metrics of well-being .

They feel less connected to others , less spiritually at peace and they experience less awe and gratitude regularly . It's no surprise , then , that the subtitle of this article is this quote is it any wonder the country is revisiting faith ? That's what I wanna do this morning . I want us to revisit faith by looking at Hebrews 11 , verses one through seven .

So if you have a Bible or a device or you can get the worship guide out in front of you , we're gonna look at this text together under four questions what is faith , what is its opposite , what is faith's counterfeit and what is faith's outcome ? What is faith , what is its opposite , its counterfeit and its outcome ? Those are the four questions .

Look at Hebrews 11 , verse one , that first verse , together with me . What is faith Now ? Faith is the assurance of things hoped for , the conviction of things not seen . Faith is the assurance of things hoped for , the conviction of things not seen . Faith is the assurance of things hoped for , the conviction of things not seen .

I spent way too much time this week trying to come up with a definition of faith and then I just conceded that the Holy Spirit would be better at it than me . So that's the definition right there Hebrews 11 , 1 . I don't have like a cool , edgier way to say it than me . So that's the definition right there Hebrews 11 , one .

I don't have like a cool , edgier way to say it than that . Faith is the assurance of things hoped for , the conviction of things not seen . And this definition one of the reasons why I really like it is because it works for non-religious things too . Don't just think it's a religious definition .

This works for sitting in a chair or jumping out of an airplane , right , see , if you're sitting in a chair , you have to have things hoped for , like that the chair is going to hold you up or the parachute's going to open up .

If you are jumping out of an airplane , there's lots of things not seen , like you don't see the quality of the workmanship of the chair and you don't see the hopefully thousands of jump hours that your flight instructor has . But you still sit and for some of us we still jump . Why ?

Because we have an assurance , we have a conviction about the things that are hoped for like we're gonna land safely on the ground or the things that are not seen . And so this definition of faith , it's actually applicable to all of life , because all of us live by faith , whether you're religious or not .

Now , this definition also has kind of two aspects to it . It's got an objective aspect and a subjective aspect . The objective part of it is is that these things that we hope for , or these things that are unseen , that's the objective , which is the future and the present in a real way .

But then there's this subjective sense , this felt assurance , this conviction . Both aspects of faith are really important . But here's the thing when we talk about faith , we can often talk about strength of faith or quality of faith , and that matters . It just doesn't matter nearly as much as the object of your faith .

Let me make that plain doesn't matter nearly as much as the object of your faith . Let me make that plain: Two people sitting on the same airplane , going the same place I mean you'd hope so if they're on the same airplane and one of them is an anxious mess and the other one is napping peacefully .

Now they land in the same destination and they get off the plane , and the question is was it the strength of their faith that got them there ? No , it was the object of their faith , it was the competence of the pilot and the legitimacy of the plane and all of those things . But listen , the strength of their faith made a difference .

One really enjoyed the flight , the other one not so much . And so , in a similar way , it's important to note that Christians are not those who have a world-conquering strength of faith . We're those who have a world-conquering object of faith .

Jesus Christ , the crucified and risen one , the one because of his death and his resurrection , is both trustworthy and true that he is an object of faith that can bear the weight of a human soul . He can be the thing hoped for , he can be the thing unseen and he can hold up under the weight of our conviction and our assurance . This is the way that D . L .

Moody said it a little faith will bring your soul to heaven , but a lot of faith will bring heaven to your soul . That's the issue . Objective of your faith matters more than anything else . The strength of your faith matters . It's gonna shape your experience in this life maybe bring a little heaven into your soul , but it takes a .

Our catechism says it like this a simple receiving and resting upon Jesus alone , as he's offered to us in the gospel . That's the faith that's required of us . Faith is the assurance of things hoped for , the conviction of things not seen . But what is faith's

opposite ? What is faith's opposite ? Look with me at Hebrews 11 , verse 3 . Hebrews 11 , 3 says this 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 . This is important .

I almost wanted to preach a whole sermon just on this point , but it became a sub point because the story of scripture faith is not opposed to reason , it's opposed to sight . This is the way the apostle Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5 . He says we walk by faith , not by sight . In fact , not only is the opposite of faith is not thinking , it's seeing .

That's really important to get here , because even in verse three of our text , faith involves understanding . It says by faith , we understand . And the reason why this matters is because in our cultural moment , people think you have to bypass your understanding in order to be a believing person . That's not the way the Bible portrays faith .

In fact , faith and reason work together , but faith goes beyond what reason could ever possibly confirm . Let me illustrate this . When you hire somebody to work with you or for you , you are exercising faith and reason . You see reasonably what you're going to do . Is you or for you ? You are exercising faith and reason .

You see reasonably what you're gonna do is you're gonna review resumes , you're gonna check references , you're gonna ask interview questions , but at some point you will never know if you should hire that person until three months after they've taken the job . You're exercising faith .

Reason matters , it can get you so far , but faith fills the gap between what is probable and what is actual . And so some of you this morning , the thing that you actually need . You maybe have an intellectual awareness of Jesus Christ , of the good news , of the gospel , of the Christian doctrines , but you've never actually stepped to commit yourself to it .

And so you're using your reason . That's good , but faith isn't opposed to reason . It just goes beyond reason and it finally commits to the thing that you're putting your faith in . And so verse three says like this by faith , we understand that the universe was created by the word of God .

Why does the author of Hebrews , at this point , go back to the beginning , to Genesis one one ? In the beginning , god created the heavens and the earth . Why go back there ? I think , simply put , because if you believe Genesis 1.1 , then the rest of the Bible is reasonable .

If you don't believe Genesis 1.1 , then you'll pick and choose based on your personal preference or your particular perspective . And so why does that matter ? Well , because if you're only believing what you want in the Bible , it's not God that you have faith in , it's yourself .

And so the invitation here is to believe in the beginning , god created the heavens and the earth , then everything else is possible , because that begins everything . So then , why is faith opposed to sight ? Why are these seemingly at odds with each other ?

Well , because walking by what our eyes can see rather than by what God has said is at the root of the problem of the human condition . After Genesis 1 , 1 , you get Genesis 2 , and then Genesis 3 , where everything goes real bad , real quick .

And this is what Genesis 3 says in the garden , in chapter three , verse five , it says this the serpent is speaking to Eve and he says God knows that when you eat of it , your eyes will be opened and you will be like God , knowing good and evil .

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desired to make one wise , she took of its fruit and ate . You see , sin always results when we prefer what we sense over what God says . So my question is where right now in your life are you preferring what you sense over what God says ?

Where you're trusting your seeing over your believing ? And this is we kind of come by it , honestly , both because we inherited it from Adam and Eve , but also because our cultural moment says seeing is believing . Right , I'm never really going to believe something really exists until I've seen it .

But you take most of life based on the credible witnesses of other people . Just let me give you two examples from science and history . From history , you believe Julius Caesar existed and that the Black Plague actually happened , yet none of you witnessed it personally . Right ?

From science , you probably trust that quarks and black holes and Antarctica and the cells of your body , that those things actually exist . But you take that on expert testimony , not by sight . Right , you see , this is , this is how we live life . It's impossible to live by anything but faith in the testimony of other people .

This is human , not Christian Christians . Just take the testimony of other people . This is human , not Christian Christians . Just take the testimony of God seriously in this equation . And so , while the world says seeing is believing , some of you are out there you're like , yeah , but I've seen videos of cells . Have you seen what ChatGPT can do ?

Like , don't believe your eyes anymore . That's what I'm saying . Our world says seeing is believing , but God says believing is seeing . In Psalm 27 , verse 13 , it says this I believe that I shall look , you see that I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of God in the land of the living . Faith precedes sight .

Now , that's important because faith and sight are not necessarily opposed to each other . It's just faith has to precede sight . One day we will see fully , we will know fully , even as we are now fully known , and we won't walk by faith anymore because we will walk by sight . But in the meantime , we trust what God has said and we live according to his words .

And so this is my invitation I wanna invite you to refuse to live in the small world of the invisible I'm sorry of the visible . I want you to get out of that . In other words , living without faith . It confines us within the narrow prison of the present and the seen .

Living by sight is not spacious enough for the human spirit , and so another way to say that is that living without faith is like living in a windowless house . Faith is like a window it lets light in , but it also lets you see out properly .

So when we walk by faith , not by sight , we're actually living with the grain of the universe , because verse three says what is seen was not made out of things that are visible . So what does this look like in practice ? Well , in this text this morning and in our text next week , which will be more of Hebrews 11 , we actually have three case studies .

The first one's from Noah that I want to look at . Look at verse seven . It says this by faith , noah being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen . Pause for a moment . Where does that faith come from ? Romans 10 says faith comes from hearing what God says .

So God comes to Noah and warns Noah , and then Noah responds with faith , because you can have the word of God Right now you're being preached to . We read the word of God , but if it's not mixed with faith , it won't be profitable to you . The way that Paul puts it in Galatians 3 is he calls it hearing by faith . That's what we need hearing by faith .

Did Noah do this ? Well , look at verse 7 . It says by faith , noah being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen , in reverent fear . You see , he trusted what God said and it actually created a meaningful emotional response . God warned . He trusted what God said and it actually created a meaningful emotional response .

God warned him about an impending flood and it created a reverent fear in Noah . And so he constructed an ark for saving , for the saving of his household . Noah trusted God's words over his own sense of sight . Like imagine being Noah for a moment . He's looking around it's the desert . Imagine being Noah for a moment .

He's looking around it's the desert , no clouds , no rain , no Home Depot . And he spends decades building a floating zoo in his backyard . And he does all of this , not waiting for evidence . He does this because he received God's word and responded with faith and obedience . That's why Noah here is commended for his faith .

Verse seven it says by this , he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith . This is so important . Noah was not saved by his actions . Noah was saved by the ark . And Noah built the ark , of course , and he entered it by faith , but in Genesis 7 , 16 , it says that God himself closed the door . That's important .

It's important because God sealed Noah's family in their safety from this coming judgment . In the same way , this is the pattern of the gospel . Jesus is our ark . He's our shelter from judgment . Faith is how we enter . We trust in his provision and then God secures our salvation .

Righteousness that comes by faith , but it will always be in conflict with the world . A righteousness that comes by faith . The reason why is because the world wants a righteousness that can be achieved , not one that has to be received . To say that differently , the world seeks a righteousness that's visible , performance and appearance .

And I'm gonna do enough , be enough , build enough , I'm gonna be impressive enough . And so the world wants to achieve a righteousness rather than that comes by sight , rather than receive a righteousness that comes by faith . So Noah was put in conflict with his world .

In his day , you will be put in conflict with your world in your day , if you're an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith .

And so , every day , we who look to Jesus as our hope , as our righteousness , as our rescue , as our salvation , in some ways we have to live by faith that there is something more true of us than our failures At any given moment . I mean because , listen , by sight , some of us are looking kind of janky . I'm just gonna be honest with you right now .

That's my job . I tell the truth , okay , but by faith you stand before God in holiness and beauty and splendor and perfect righteousness because of Jesus Christ . Do you see that ? So by faith , we actually receive a righteousness that's not our own and Noah is our great , great , great , great great grandfather of that this righteousness that comes by faith .

But what is faith If faith opposite is

sight ? What is faith counterfeit ? Look at verse two , for by it the people of old received their commendation . What I want you to hear me say is , throughout this whole chapter of Hebrews 11 , which I'd encourage you to read at some point this week , all of Hebrews 11 , what happens is that they , it says , by faith .

Then they do something pretty wild and then God commends them for it . And another way to say that is in scripture . Counterfeit faith does not act . Counterfeit faith has intellectual assent . Counterfeit faith might even have feelings , but counterfeit faith does not act . You see , because according to the biblical imagination , there are two aspects of reality .

There's the seen and the unseen . Francis Schaeffer , who is a great apologist and evangelist in the last century , he said that it's like two chairs . You've got chair number one and people who sit in chair number one , they see the total reality of the universe . With the seen and the unseen combined , they live in light of both of those realities .

But chair number two it interprets life based on only what you can see . Now , here's the key thing . Here you can be a Christian faith in Jesus , saved by Jesus , and live most of your life in chair two . In other words , you can live as if in the second chair , even while claiming faith in Jesus Christ .

He made this distinction Schaeffer did between unbelief and unfaith . I like this . Unbelief is when people who say they don't believe act as if they don't believe . That's just consistency , right . Unfaith is when people who say they don't believe act as if they don't believe . That's just consistency , right .

Unfaith is when people who say they believe , act as if they don't believe . That's hypocrisy . And so the invitation here is to step out of chair two into chair one and live as if the whole universe exists the way that it is , because these Christians are usually the most anxious and exhausted and competitive .

They're not often very kind or generous and that's because they feel alone in a really hard world . I get it . Living by faith it's not just a mental assent that certain doctrines are true , it's trusting that God is really with you , moment by moment , through every bit of your day . That's what living by faith in chair one actually looks like .

And so we can say we believe in an unseen world . But if we live as if God is irrelevant to the realities of life , we actually are probably living in chair two .

I went for a walk this week with a friend and I asked him what his schedule looks like these days and he said well , you know , I actually started a business a few years ago and so for the last few years I've been working 80 hour weeks . And this man had some good friends and some good community around him who challenged him lovingly on that .

Like this isn't sustainable , man , you can't keep doing this . And he said , yeah , I know , and you know he was understanding of it , but it wasn't until he heard a sermon about how God cares , clothes the lilies of the field and feeds the birds of the air Matthew 6 .

He heard this sermon and when he heard that sermon it was the first time that he got the freedom to go . I don't have to live like this .

He actually cut his work hours in half , from 80 to about 40 , spent more time with his wife and his kids , and the business became more productive and profitable somehow , and he lives with a level of increased personal health and relational health and spiritual health and family health , like all those things .

What happened in that moment was he moved from chair two to chair one . He began to live like there really is a father in heaven who knows what we need before we ask . Like there really is a father in heaven who knows what we need before we ask .

Like there really is a father in heaven who is so generous and abundance towards us that we can live carefree in the care of God . He began to live as if that was true and I want you to hear me .

Right now I'm commending him for his faith , just like Hebrews 11 , commends because of faith that acts , and so a counterfeit faith is a kind of faith that doesn't act , because if you don't act as if it's true , you don't actually believe it's true . It's the simplest way to put it .

So let me look at a case study with Abel . Look at Hebrews 11 , verse four . It says by faith , abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain , through which he was commended as righteous , god commending him by accepting his gifts and through his faith . Though he died , he still speaks . There's a conundrum in Genesis four , this story .

It's not entirely clear what's going on , but there's different interpretations . But Cain and Abel both brought offerings to the Lord . But Genesis 4 doesn't really tell us why Abel's was accepted but Cain's was not Genesis , or , I'm sorry . Hebrews 11 tells us , though it's , that faith made the difference . Abel made the offering by faith .

Let me just kind of let you in on the inside . Here In ministry , every Sunday I have the joy and the duty of standing up in front of you and saying isn't God good ? And here's an occupational hazard . What if I don't believe that ? I know some of you come in here not believing that , so why wouldn't I ?

I'm human , like you , and it's a real occupational hazard to stand up here and go . Hey , I'm just gonna offer up a sacrifice of praise in the spirit of Cain , not the spirit of Abel , not by faith that God really is who he says he is and that he really is good . And so Abel's faith actually echoes through time . It says In the text .

It says and through his faith , though he died , he still speaks . So , if you'll permit me for a moment , damien , though you're stepping out of the senior pastor role , through your faith you still speak . Brother , recently I found a letter that I wrote Damien in gosh this is going to be hard in October 24th 2017 .

And I told him this story that I wrote Damien in gosh this is gonna be hard In October 24th 2017 , and I told him this story that I'm about to tell you .

Years ago , while I was training to be a counselor and a pastor , I led a therapy group with four pastors in it and I entered the room really intimidated , because these were four people who'd been in ministry at least 10 years .

They were in every way my superior and after five days of bearing their stories stories of elders at odds with each other one spouse caught in secret addiction . Another spouse , like putting her husband's feet to the fire to ask the church for more money . Another pastor who's just crushed under the unrealistic expectations of his congregation .

I came , so I entered the room intimidated . I exited the room disillusioned . I came , so I entered the room , intimidated , I exited the room disillusioned . I came home to my wife , alana , in tears and I said is this what ministry does to people ? Because if this is it , then I think I've chosen the wrong calling , as if you could choose your calling .

And so I stood at a real brink . There was , I mean , this was a crossroads of sorts , and fear was whispering that I should pursue a different path , one that helped me engage with the church , but at a safe distance . So I came home and I poured out my heart to Alana , and she asked me a simple yet poignant question .

She said do you know of any pastors who give you hope for ministry ? And immediately one name came to mind a pastor who loves Jesus and refuses to let cynicism infect his soul . A pastor who leads well and lays down his life for his wife and kids .

A pastor who , despite immense pressure , never spoke to me , or anyone that I know with a sharp tongue , a pastor who sacrificially served the church even when it was hard , a pastor who learned ministry in the school of Christ . That pastor was you , damien . You became an able to me in that moment . I needed a model of a pastoral life by faith .

That's what I was looking for , and I got one in Damien . We all got one in Damien . What a gift . And so your life has spoken to us .

It still speaks to us and today , even as you transition out of this role , I want you to know that , through your faith , you still speak and , brother , you will always speak , and we love you and we're so thankful for you . I've got to land this plane . What is

faith's outcome ? The last question look at verse five with me . By faith , enoch was taken up so that he would not see death , and he was not found because God had taken him . Now , before he was taken , he was commended as having pleased God , and without faith , it is impossible to please him .

For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards . Impossible to please him , for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him . Simply put , faith's outcome is intimacy with God . It's intimacy with God . Enoch is our last case study today .

In Genesis 3 , 8 , it says this and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day . It says this and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day . That's life as God intended it . But things went bad in Genesis 3 .

And so ever since then , this intimate , walking , conversational relationship with God has been broken and forsaken and rejected because we chose to live by sight and not by faith . But only a chapter or two later , in Genesis 5 , we hear this Enoch walked with God and he was not , for God took him .

And in a moment we get a little bit of hope that conversational , intimate fellowship with their creator is an option again . And not only is it possible , maybe it could be normal for us . And so Enoch gives us this hope . Because he walked with God , there's maybe a hope for restoration between God and humanity .

Now the KJV says it like this Enoch was not found because God had translated him . Studying for this text gave me a new life goal . This is my new life goal . Like I don't know what level you have to get at in Jesus to be able to say beam me up , scotty , and you're just out , and you're just out .

And so my hope is that some of you at some point are like , hey , where's Ben ? And some of you respond you say he was not found because God had taken him . New life goal . I'm just putting it out there , you can hold me accountable to it . I'm after that , I'm after the Enoch ministry right here , this Enoch anointing . He had . Look at verse five with me .

It says this now , before he was taken , he was commended as having pleased God . Now , without faith , it is impossible to please him . I don't know how you hear that language of pleasing God . Some of you it feels burdensome and overwhelming because you had a father that was impossible to please .

Some of you it feels like this invitation , like if I could live a life that was pleasing to God , that would be the most important thing I could do . Listen , this is the way I think about this .

I think that every father is pleased at its baby's first attempt to walk , but no father would be satisfied with anything less than a firm , free , joyful run as a grownup adult . And so , in the same way , I believe that God is easy to please but he's hard to satisfy , that God is easy to please but he's hard to satisfy .

He is easy to please If you have the simplest childlike confidence in your father . He is so pleased with you , he is so he delights in you , and he wants more for you , not more from you , more for you . He wants you to learn not just to walk but to run . He wants you to feel the freedom and walk but to run .

He wants you to feel the freedom and the joy of what it looks like to have an intimate conversational relationship with your creator . You see , this is the outcome of faith . It says this , for whoever would draw near to God must believe one , that God exists , and two , that he restores , that he rewards those who seek him . Jesus came to restore the Eden .

Walk with God again . That's the invitation Jesus gives to all of us . He's inviting us to walk freely in the presence of our creator once again . And so we draw near , we draw near to waste time with God in friendship , and those of you who know what I'm talking about know that that's a reward in and of itself .

You see , god himself is the reward for those who seek him . And for those who seek him , they would be satisfied with nothing less . Let's pray , father . We pause before you and we hear the words of Hebrews and we want to live by faith because you're trustworthy , your voice is good , jesus . You tell us in John 10

that your sheep hear your voice . We know your voice . You call us by name . We don't listen to the voice of another . As you speak to your people this morning , would you bring faith ? Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ . We have confidence in you , jesus . It's in your name we pray , amen .