Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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We’re living in an increasingly faithless nation. Nearly every stat I see shows that people in America are leaving the church, and leaving the faith of their parents. And I can personally recall many friends of mine who I attended church with for years who have either given up their faith purposefully and decisively by their own admission, or at least have no evidence of faith by the way that they live. Somewhere along the line, they decided, as millions across the world do every day, that faith in Christ isn’t good for anything.

But faith in Christ gives us so much!

Read Hebrews 11:1-3

This chapter of the Bible has come to be called the faith chapter because it first defines faith for us in verse one, and then goes on to give example after example of people who lived by faith. The definition of faith, as we learn in verse 1, is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Faith is being sure of, being confident of, the hope that we have in Christ. We hope for Heaven, and faith in Christ gives us confidence that we’ll receive it. We hope for a full pardon from sin, and faith in Christ assures us that this is a reality. We hope for the Holy Spirit to guide us and teach us and grow us up in our faith, and we can know by faith in Christ that He will do exactly that because God has promised us that very thing in His Word, and we can be sure of it by faith. So even though we don’t see Heaven now, we can’t see forgiveness of sins, we can’t see the Holy Spirit, we are sure of God’s promises because we have faith in a God who is faithful.

The text names three things faith gives and has given to us and people in the Bible.

1. It gives us assurance of what we hope for. This is the definition of faith, but it’s also a benefit of faith.

2. It’s given commendation, or a good report, of Old Testament believers.

3. It gives us knowledge of the unknowable.

First, faith gives us assurance of things hoped for (v. 1). As we conclude 2012 and enter into 2013, what are some things that you’re hoping for? Many people make resolutions this time of year. I personally am making a resolution to stop dieting and start losing weight. No, seriously, I’m tired of counting every calorie, because that system just led to me wanting pizza rolls even more. I’m not saying that system can’t work for some people, but it’s not for me. But I would like to exercise a bit more. I actually enjoy running, in moderation. So I made a plan and I hope to stick to it. It’s a good thing to set goals! It’s a good thing to have hopes!

But the hope we have in Christ is far greater than anything we can hope for this in this world. And by faith, we can know we will receive what we hope for in Christ! Realize also that our hope in Christ isn’t merely things. Christ Himself is our hope! When we trust in Christ, we receive Christ, and by faith in Him, we know that we have Him and will always have Him, our greatest joy, our greatest hope, the one who gives us peace and purpose, who loved us even while we were yet sinners, and loves us so much that He desires to transform us into saints. This is our Savior, our hope, who we have hope in not just for tomorrow, but for today, because we know by faith that in Him we have hope of being transformed into radically weird people for God.

Second, by faith we have knowledge of the unknowable (v. 3). Nearly ever science textbook today presents a view of the origins of the universe that is contrary to Scripture and completely false as if it were fact. The Big Bang states that everything in the universe was, 13 billion years ago, condensed as singular point. Not only is this obviously absurd, but this would mean that matter has always existed. The reality is that God created everything, out of nothing, by His spoken word. Everything we see was not made from visible things. God’s word is so powerful that He can bring call matter into existence. God can create light out of darkness. God can create life from dust.

Someone might ask, ?How can you know all that?? The truth is, none of us were there. But we know the One who was there, and He’s told us all about it in His Word. I think we can know other unknowable things by faith as well. We can know that God has a plan for us, and that we can trust that plan. We can know what happens after we die. And we can know that Jesus Christ was and is the unique Son of God, fully God and fully man, who died in our place so that if we trust in Him, we would have eternal life.

Third, the Bible says that faith has given Old Testament believers their commendation (v. 2). Old Testament believers had to have a lot of faith. They looked forward to the one who would come and forgive them of their sins. By faith, their sins were forgiven through Christ, even though Christ had not yet in time died for those sins! They lived by that faith. They prophesied by that faith. They staked their whole reputation and livelihood on that faith. The rest of this chapter is devoted to telling some of their stories.

I want to point out to you that every single man and woman of faith mentioned in this chapter comes from the Old Testament. You might respond, ?Of course they’re all from the Old Testament. The New Testament wasn’t finished yet, so the pickings were few. The writer of Hebrews didn’t have a great selection of New Testament believers yet to name as examples of men of faith.? But I would remind you of the faith of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. And I would remind you of the faith of Peter, who boldly preached by the power of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, and 3,000 became Christians in a single day. No, the reason the writer of Hebrews gives example after example of Old Testament believes as men and women of faith is because we must not ignore the faith of our fathers.

There’s a tendency every generation to say something like this, ?The church has grown so stale, and so archaic, that we need to just scrap the whole thing and start over.? And while much of the church today certainly needs to be revived, and while we certainly need to reach new people with new and relevant methods, we must never forget the faith of our fathers, because it’s the same faith that we need to hold onto today, the faith once and for all delivered to the saints.

By faith, men and women of faith throughout history have received their commendation, or a good report. Their faith was their testimony. It was their legacy. None of the people listed in this chapter were perfect people. They all had sin, and some of them had sins that even greatly impacted their lives and ministries.

Moses, for example, although he was the great leader who showed God’s power to the Egyptians through miracles and plagues, and who led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, was told by God at one point to speak to a rock so that water would flow from it, and God would provide for the Israelites in the wilderness. But out of anger, Moses struck the rock, and in doing so was exalting himself as the giver of the water. As a result, Moses’s ministry was cut short, and God didn’t allow him to go into the Promised Land.

Or take David, who although he had God’s own heart, and was used by God to write such beautiful praises to God, at one point messed up big time, falling into sexual immorality, which then had huge ramifications for the rest of his life.

But despite their sins, these people are known in this chapter not for their failures, but for their faith. Their faith was their testimony to us. Their faith is their legacy. The question, then, is this: will your faith be your legacy? Long after you’re gone, will people think of you as a man of faith in Christ? Or better yet, will your legacy even outlast your name? Will you be willing to do anything God asks you to do, and go anywhere God asks you to go, to be weird for Him, not so that you would build a name for yourself, but so that Christ would be praised? So that others would embrace Christ and be saved?

Will your faith be your legacy? It can be. You don’t have to be defined by your sins, but by your faith. Because Christ has dealt with your sins on the cross. He died for you to see you free from sin, so that you might live for Him, and in Him. Making your faith your legacy isn’t an easy thing, but it is simple. Put your faith in Christ. Walk by faith.

If we as a church are going to leave a legacy of faith, we must be willing to walk by the faith that we confess. We must be willing to stop coming to church, and start being the church. We must be willing to be honest about our failures, and to repent and turn to Christ, not being satisfied with lives of sin, but having a faith that’s sure of a greater things in our future. And that starts by God doing a work in us that gives us the willingness to even look a little weird for the sake of Christ.