Transcript
Now for our final message in the book of Hebrews, I invite your attention to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1. Hebrews 11 and verse 1. Hebrews 11. Beginning to read at verse 1.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
Come down to verse 4.
By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. And through it he, being dead, still speaks. By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Most of you have probably seen Patricia Neal on television as she plugs for Anacin. And as she tells her viewers in that raspy voice of hers, “Fight headache pain and win.” Well Patricia Neal is almost ideal for a commercial like that because she has been fighting all kinds of pain for a long time.
Of course she is a very talented actress. She won a Broadway Tony for her role in The Other Side of the Forest. And in 1964 she won an Oscar for her role in Hud. But her real life story reads like a bad, bad television script.
In 1953 she married a British writer named Roald Dahl. And seven years later she was struggling with the rehabilitation of their young son Theo who had been struck by a New York taxi. Theo recovered but with mild brain damage. Later the couple lost a daughter Olivia to the measles. And in 1965 Patricia Neal suffered a series of strokes that left her comatose for two weeks and threatened to thoroughly destroy her powers of speech.
Her husband Roald stood by her faithfully and pushed and prodded and encouraged. By him she managed to recover sufficiently to give birth to their daughter Lucy who is now seventeen and eventually to resume her career in films and television. But the story does not have a happy ending.
About nine years ago when she was doing a television commercial for Maxim coffee she met a wardrobe woman who soon became a family friend and a frequent houseguest. Unknown to Neal she also became a rival for the love of her husband.
In a particularly candid interview recently with People magazine Patricia Neal described the situation. She explained that the woman came from a fine home, had been married and had three children. She said, “It’s horrible to look back on how many times we were together on holiday and I never knew. I even took her into my home for two weeks after she had been hospitalized. And one time when she was at my house we were having a girl talk and she was telling me about her new love, a married man who had one son and three daughters.”
“Oh,” I said, “that’s just like Roald and me.” Being her friend I wanted happiness for her and so I said to her, “Would your lover ever leave his wife for you?” “He’d like to,” she said. “He doesn’t love her.” Of course she was talking about Roald about Roald right to my face and I didn’t even know it. Oh it was ghastly.
And indeed it was ghastly. About a year and a half after the affair began Patricia Neal found out about it. She confronted her husband and he admitted it. But he gave her the impression that the affair was over and she believed it. “I should have known better,” she said, “but I guess I didn’t want to. I had mocked him so many years. And to me when you are married you are married forever.”
Two years ago last December she discovered that the affair was still going on. And it was obvious that the marriage was ruined. And Patricia Neal has come back to this country and Roald has sued her for divorce. Speaking to People magazine she said, “So many horrendous things have happened to me but the fact that our marriage has not worked is the most agonizing. I just can’t swallow it. It’s as if the worst dream I can think of has happened.”
Now the story of Patricia Neal is a classic case of trust betrayed. A husband who one loves and trusts proves to be unfaithful. A friend who one has helped and trusted proves to be no friend at all. It has happened over and over and over again in human experience. And no doubt it will happen many times more.
But a story like this reminds us of a very basic and simple fact of life. And the fact is this. All of our valuable relationships in life are built on trust. All of our valuable relationships in life are built on trust.
When a husband and wife stop trusting each other they may continue to be married but they can no longer have a happy marriage. When two friends stop trusting each other they may continue to see each other but they no longer have a true friendship.
And if that is true in our human relationships how much more is it true in our relationship to God? And in one of the truly great statements of the Bible the writer of Hebrews tells us, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” And there is no way that our relationship with God can be pleasing to Him unless we trust Him.
And do I need to remind you this morning that that is where it all begins for us? The way that we become a Christian in the first place is by an act of faith, by an act of trust. And when I come to the living God as a guilty sinner who deserves to go to hell and when I receive from Him through Jesus Christ the free gift of eternal life I am engaged in a tremendous act of faith.
I’ve never seen God. I’ve never seen this place called heaven or the place called hell. I’ve never seen Jesus Christ. I’ve never seen this thing called eternal life. And yet when I believe God’s Word those things which I cannot see become realities to me. They take on substance for me. And by faith I gain assurance and conviction about things that my eyes cannot behold.
And that is what faith is all about. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things not seen.” By faith we reach out and take hold of realities that are invisible to our eyes.
But getting saved is only the first step. It is only the first step. It is the start of a journey that cannot be traveled successfully in any other way than by faith. By faith.
Now this morning I feel constrained to tell you about the way in which I recently earned my badge as the chicken of the sky. I was traveling to Topeka earlier in the year in the month of May. And I arrived in Kansas City via American Airlines jet. And I was supposed to travel from Kansas City to Topeka on a commuter service called Capital Air Service.
And when I got to the correct terminal and went up to the ticket counter the ticket agent surprised me by asking me how much I weighed. Now I have been flying the airlines for a long time and no ticket agent has ever asked me how much I weighed before. But I was too naive to figure it out.
And so I sat down in the waiting room with two other people and I kept looking out the window for the Capital Air Service jet to arrive. And it never did. After a while an employee motioned the three of us to follow him down some stairs and out on the landing strip. And when we got out there I realized why they had asked for my weight.
We were not going to Topeka in a jet. We were going in a little tiny four-seater that had a seat for the pilot and a seat for each of the three passengers. And I want you to know I climbed aboard that plane with growing anxiety. My nervous system does little flips even when I go up the glass elevator to the top of Reunion Tower in Dallas. And I could just imagine what flip-flops it was going to do bouncing along in the clouds in that little frame.
And then they started to load the baggage and they had a lot of baggage and they were having trouble cramming it into the little tail section behind my seat. And I happened to be carrying with me a big heavy box of Ryrie Study Bible books. And I said to myself, “If the passengers and the rest of the baggage don’t bring the plane down the Ryrie Study Bible books sure will.”
It was then that my spine turned a sickly shade of yellow and I announced to the surprised pilot that I had just decided not to go to Topeka on that particular flight. And would they give me my baggage back please?
By the time I got outside the terminal with my baggage the same bus driver who had let me off a few minutes ago picked me up again. And he laughed heartily at my lack of fortitude. But at that point the whole world could have laughed. There was no way I was going to Topeka on that tiny plane.
I did eventually get there. And when we arrived what do you suppose was parked on the landing strip just outside the terminal at Topeka? Yes you guessed it. That tiny little four-seater that I had refused to fly in. But I have a theory. The only reason that they made it is because they didn’t carry me or the Ryrie Study Bible books.
Now it’s going to take a great deal more courage than that and a great deal more fortitude than that to travel the journey of the Christian life. You see God is asking us to get aboard a vehicle that in the eyes of the world looks too light for the weight that we need to place upon it. And yet those who fly on the wings of faith are able to soar to heights that cannot be reached in any other way.
Well let’s face it. Let’s face it. Sometimes they have to fly through stormy clouds and through choppy skies. Sometimes they have to fly directly into fierce headwinds of spiritual trial and opposition. And to put it simply it isn’t easy to live by faith. It isn’t easy to live by faith.
But I’ve got good news for you this morning. I’ve got really good news. Lots of people have taken that journey ahead of you and they have reached their destination with distinguished success.
And I think it is very appropriate that the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews should sometimes be called Faith’s Hall of Fame. For in this chapter are inscribed the names of famous men and women who practiced the greatest art that is known to man. They practiced the art of trusting God.
You know when you fly the airways of America you often find yourself in very impressive company. I was on a flight to Atlanta many years ago and a man walked down the aisle toward the first-class cabin and I was ninety-nine percent sure that it was Dr. Martin Luther King. Some years later I was flying to Washington and I recognized the man in the first-class cabin as the newly appointed secretary of labor in the Carter Administration. And he spent a great deal of the flight giving an interview to a reporter.
And once when I was about to fly out here to Los Angeles I was sitting in my window seat and who should sit down next to me but my very distinguished colleague from the seminary Dr. Charles Ryrie and his wife. And we marveled not only that we were on the same flight together but that we had seats next to each other.
And a flight is always better if you are in good company. And listen. If you’ll let me change the figure of speech for just a minute the jetliner called faith is loaded with distinguished passengers. You have many fellow travelers on the journey of Christian living.
And in the few minutes that remain to me this morning I would like to introduce you to just three, just three of your fellow passengers. Because I think that if you get acquainted with their lives you will learn a lot about what it really means to live by faith.
The first fellow passenger that I want you to meet is a man you probably will recognize. His name is Abel. And of course he was a son of Adam and Eve. And he was also the first man in history to get murdered.
You say, “Wait a minute, Zane. Wait a minute. What possible inspiration could I get from a man who got himself killed? What challenge could there be in the life of someone who was brutally butchered by his own brother?”
Quite a bit I think. Quite a bit. You see Abel understood by faith one of the greatest secrets which it is possible for a man to understand. Abel understood the way in which it is necessary to approach God.
You see when Cain brought his sacrifice he brought of the fruits of the ground. He brought some of the things that his own hands had produced. And God didn’t want to be approached with that kind of a sacrifice. And Abel understood that if God was to be approached He must be approached through sacrificial blood. And he brought animal sacrifices. He brought of the firstlings of his flock.
“By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. And through it he being dead yet speaks.”
Abel understood the great truth that God is approached through sacrificial blood. You know there are lots of people in the world today who think they can approach God very much like Cain did. And they bring in their hands their good works, their efforts to be good and religious and worthy. And there isn’t a person on the face of the earth who can be good enough to be accepted by God.
If we expect God to accept us we must come to Him on the basis of the precious blood of Jesus Christ. None other.
In one of the galleries on the island of Gibraltar two soldiers mounted guard one night. One of them was a Christian and the other was a man who was seeking Christ. At midnight when they were making their rounds the Christian soldier was meditating on the blood of Christ and on the peace that he had found through faith in that blood. And the unsaved soldier was brooding on his fears and doubts.
Suddenly an officer confronted the Christian soldier and demanded the password. And the soldier without thinking and speaking just out of the thoughts of his heart said, “The precious blood of Christ. The precious blood of Christ.” And then immediately he corrected himself and gave the official password. And the surprised officer passed on.
But the words that he had spoken echoed down the rock gallery and bounced off of the solid stone walls. And they fell on the ears of the troubled seeking soldier like they had been a message from heaven. And it was just as if an angel from the throne had said to him, “The precious blood of Christ.”
And do we understand this morning, my friends, that the only real password into the presence of God is the blood of Jesus Christ which was shed on the cross for our sins? And that when we come to God to receive eternal life we come on the basis of that blood, trusting only and completely in what Christ has done for us and not only when we come to God for salvation but every time we come to God in prayer, in praise, in worship we come not on the basis of our own merits. We come on the basis of what Jesus Christ has done for us in the cross.
And the life of Abel is an illustration of that truth. And even though he was killed by his own brother he being dead yet speaks. His life is a memorial to the supreme reality that God is approached through the sacrificial blood of Christ.
And you won’t be able to live the Christian life successfully unless you keep that principle in mind. That’s your first fellow passenger.
The second fellow passenger is a man you might not know a great deal about. His name was Enoch. And this man stands in striking contrast to the man we’ve just talked about. Because you see whereas Abel’s life was cut short by the cruel hand of his brother Enoch’s life never ended. Enoch’s life never ended. He never died.
And the writer of Hebrews says,
“By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God.”
You see Enoch lived in the days that led up to the flood. And these were days of growing violence, of growing moral and spiritual decay very much like our own day. And yet despite all of the corruptness and violence around him Enoch pleased God. And he pleased God so well that God just simply took him directly to heaven.
How did he please God? Well in the Old Testament in the book of Genesis we read a very impressive statement about Enoch. We are told in the book of Genesis, “Enoch walked with God.” Enoch walked with God and he was not because God took him.
And if Abel is a man who worshiped God by faith Enoch is a man who walked with God by faith. You see Enoch had a companion on the pathway of life. And they were in company together and they walked along together. And when they got to the end of life’s road God said to Enoch, “Don’t bother about dying. Just come back home and be with Me.”
Enoch walked with God.
Anne Sullivan was born in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts in poverty and in affliction. And she was also half blind. When her mother died she went over the hill to the poorhouse. But later at the Perkins Institute for the Blind a brilliant operation restored her sight. And from that time and forward she devoted herself to the care of the blind.
Meanwhile a little baby was born down south. A little girl who after early childhood would never hear or speak or see. Her name was Helen Keller. And in due time Helen Keller came under the care of Anne Sullivan. In two weeks Anne Sullivan taught her thirty words just by spelling them out by touching her hand.
And under the tutelage of Anne Sullivan Helen Keller rose to national prominence. And teacher and pupil became companions. Companions. And they were inseparable until the day of Anne Sullivan’s death.
And in her darkness Helen Keller had found a companion who could teach her and who she could trust.
And my Christian friend this morning if you really want it you can have a companion along the pathway of life. And though you cannot see Him you can trust Him. And He can teach you and be with you. And by faith you can walk with God and please God.
“Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him.”
Enoch believed deeply in the reality of the living God. And he believed it was worth seeking Him. He believed he could get to know God intimately because God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Back in my apartment in Dallas, Texas I have a long-play record by Mario Lanza on which he sings the charming music of The Student Prince. And of all the songs on that record the one that has touched me the most deeply is a song that is entitled “I’ll Walk with God.” And the words of the song go like this:
“I’ll walk with God from this day on. His helping hand I’ll need apart. This is my prayer, my humble plea. May the Lord be ever with me. There is no death though eyes grow dim. There is no fear when I’m near to Him. I’ll lean on Him forever and He’ll forsake me never. He will not fail me as long as my faith is strong. Whatever road I may walk alone I’ll walk with God. I’ll hold His hand. I’ll talk with God. He’ll understand. I’ll pray to Him each day to Him and He’ll hear the words that I say. His hand shall guide my throne and Lord and I’ll never walk alone while I walk with God.”
Enoch walked with God and he was not because God took him.
But there’s one last fellow passenger that I want you to meet very quickly before I close. And he is undoubtedly the most famous of the three. He is Noah.
And if Abel worshiped God by faith and if Enoch walked with God by faith Noah worked for God by faith. Noah worked by faith because he built the ark.
And the writer of Hebrews tells us,
“By faith Noah, being warned of things not seen as yet, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”
You see Noah lived on the very threshold of the greatest calamity that had ever overtaken the world. He lived at the doorstep of the flood. And he had no visible evidence that the flood was coming. But he believed what God said about the coming flood. And because he believed that he got to work. He got to work and he built that ark in which his whole family passed safely through the flood. And he came out on the other side having become an heir in that select circle of those who live righteously by faith.
And do I need to tell you this morning that you and I are living on the very threshold of the greatest disasters that the world has ever known? The Great Tribulation is coming according to the prophetic word of God. Seven years of unparalleled calamity in the experience of mankind from which graciously we will be saved by the rapture of the church.
And if we really believe that deeply enough we’re going to get to work. We’re going to get to work. We’re going to get to doing the things that God has set before us to do.
Charlotte Elliott had a brother who was in the ministry and was trying to raise funds for a school that would minister to the daughters of other clergymen. Charlotte was forty-five years of age and she was in poor health and she couldn’t do anything to help. And then there was supposed to be a big program which was designed for fund-raising.
And the night before the program Charlotte Elliott couldn’t sleep. And she tossed and turned and she was really doubting that she could ever be useful to God. The next morning everybody got up and went to the program and Charlotte Elliott was left at home alone.
And as she sat alone in her home she began to meditate on her own weakness. And she realized a great truth. She realized that just as her salvation was by faith so also her Christian life must be lived by faith and trust. And she picked up her pen and she wrote a hymn. And the hymn that she wrote has become one of the truly famous hymns of the Christian Church. Its title is “Just As I Am.”
“Just as I am without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me and that Thou biddest me come to Thee O Lamb of God I come, I come.”
And do you realize that that hymn which she wrote has been sung in literally thousands of evangelistic meetings? And only God knows the number of souls who have been touched by the words of that hymn and drawn to personal faith in Jesus Christ.
And you see Noah used his hands to build the ark. Charlotte Elliott used her hands to write a hymn. And if you and I are men and women of faith we are going to use our hands to do whatever God wants us to do. And like Noah we will become heirs of the future world. We will become partakers and partners with the King in His glorious kingdom if we work for God by faith.
Uncle Dudley was an elderly gentleman who had lived all of his life in a small West Virginia town. And on his seventy-fifth birthday an aviation enthusiast invited him to take an airplane ride over the town where he had lived his whole life. And so they got up in the airplane and they flew around in the airplane. And eventually they had landed on the ground.
And when they got down to the runway the pilot turned to Uncle Dudley and he said, “Were you scared, Uncle Dudley?” “No,” came the hesitant reply. And then Uncle Dudley added, “But I never did put my full weight down.”
Do you know that that’s exactly what is wrong with some Christians? They never have put their full weight down. Oh yes they’ve come to Christ through personal faith in Jesus Christ. They trusted Him for salvation. But then when they meet the problems and difficulties and struggles of life they try to solve them on their own. They don’t put their full weight down. They have never really learned that the entire Christian life must be lived by faith and trust.
For by faith we worship God. By faith we walk with God. And by faith we work for God.
Simply trusting every day. Trusting through a stormy way. Even when my faith is small. Trusting Jesus, that is all.
Singing if my way is clear. Praying if the path be drear. If in danger for Him call. Trusting Jesus, that is all.
Trusting as the moments fly. Trusting as the days go by. Trusting Him whate’er befall. Trusting Jesus, that is all.
Shall we pray? Father out of this week which You have graciously given us to look into Your Word in the book of Hebrews teach us this above everything to live and walk by faith, to trust Thee and to trust only Jesus Christ. We ask it in Christ’s name. Amen.