Hebrews 11:1-12

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
Series: Hebrews

Rusty's Notes

• Saving Faith is different than Everyday Faith

LIVING BY FAITH
HEBREWS 11
1 Now faith is the reality (assurance/confirmation) of what is hoped for, the proof (conviction/evidence) of what is not seen.

• Faith is determined by hope in God’s promises.
• This is different than the faith one must believe in for God to save them.
• This is not a definition of faith, but a description of what faith does and how it works.[1]
• There is a difference between believing in something and allowing what you believe to impact your behavior.
• True faith does two things:

1) It proves the unseen things exist.
2) It brings a desire – within believers – to behave in a way that lines up with what they have come to believe.

•   Many believe in salvation.
•   Few believe they have been made righteous.
•   This is the evil one’s greatest ploy to create a mediocre church today.
• This is why you hear the same message over and over. To increase your belief during the battle.
• This is why it is critical, without me “shoulding on you” to read your Bibles.
• It is your intimacy with the Father that increases your faith.
• The world fails to realize that faith is only as good as its object, and the object of our faith is God.[2]
• Faith is to a Christian what a foundation is to a house: it gives confidence and assurance that he will stand.[3]
• It didn’t take much faith for you to sit in that chair this morning… because you believed that the chair would hold you.
• The chair is not holding you because of your faith… it is holding you because of the chair’s strength.
• It’s not our faith in Jesus that sustains us every day of our life.
• It is only Jesus, in whom we trust, that sustains us.

2 For by this our ancestors were approved.

• “this” – is faith in God.
• Old Covenant believers believed that God would send the Messiah to forgive them of their sin.
• Because of this belief, they were approved/credited/commended for righteousness although they were not made righteous.
• At some point, Christians must be made righteous. When is that? Death? Judgment? Cross?
• At the cross, we were made righteous, he removed our wicked hearts and replaced them with new ones.
• Thank God you live after the cross.

3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

• What better way to motivate their faith than to prove how God has already answered promises in the past.
• Why wouldn’t He continue to keep His promises?
• Confirming God’s faithfulness encourages the Hebrew Christians to walk on and trust Him. Even now.
• But how encouraging is it to know that even when the physical resources that we need do not “seem” to exist, that God can reveal them in a heartbeat?
• There is a greater adventure out there when trust in the things you can’t see.

4 By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was approved as a righteous man, because God approved his gifts, and even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith.

• The writer will take us through a series of believers to show the Hebrew Christians that it was their faith in the Messiah to come that approved them righteous.
• They believed in it so much that it greatly impacted not only how they lived their lives but how they died.
• Abel made a blood sacrifice. Cain made a sacrifice from the fruit of the ground.
• Adam & Eve made the first blood sacrifice when they needed clothing.
• Bloodless sin offerings were not instituted until Lev 5:11… and those were only for the poor.
• Cain tried to reconcile with God on his own terms and it was unacceptable.
• The blood sacrifice always pointed to the cross and the offering that Jesus was to make for our sins.
• Abel was declared righteous… not made righteous.
• Long after Abel was gone… we still talk about him as a model of faith.

5 By faith Enoch was taken away, and so he did not experience death. He was not to be found because God took him away. For before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God.

• Genesis 5:18-24 - Jared was 162 years old when he fathered Enoch. 19 Jared lived 800 years after he fathered Enoch, and he fathered other sons and daughters. 20 So Jared’s life lasted 962 years; then he died.
• Enoch was 65 years old when he fathered Methuselah. 22 And after he fathered Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 23 So Enoch’s life lasted 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God; then he was not there because God took him.[4]
• Intimacy with the creator!
• Mentioned in only a few verses but known for his relationship with God.
• The writer is saying that Enoch was so intimate with God that he didn’t even have to experience death.

6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

• It is faith… not works that pleases God. Works are a result of our faith.
• For believers, it is when we quit seeing God as a judge of sin but a giver of life and rewards.
• I’m not talking a health and prosperity Gospel here.
• I’m talking about walking by His Spirit and the moment of every breath with Him.
• It would be hard to walk intimately with a God when you think He is going to kick you in the butt every time you make a bad choice.
• What if you sin… and God says “Rusty… I dearly love you.”?
• What if you could embrace that thought…
• I’m not saying go sin so He will remind you of what He already did for you.
• I’m saying, when you realize what He did for you and continues to do for you it becomes less of a desire for you to make bad choices.
• If you see yourself as never winning this game… why try?
• If you see yourself as redeemed and forgiven, you will want to live fully in this!
• That is when real intimacy with the Father happens.
• You just wallow in His goodness.
• It is because of our faith in the object of Jesus Christ that we can walk with Him consistently.

7 By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

• Genesis 6:9 - These are the family records of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God.[5]
• “Not yet seen” – Rain and floods.
• Can you imagine the years?
• Noah was not concerned about what others thought about him.
• Now we all descendants of not only Adam… but Noah as well.
• “godly fear/in reverence” – Noah was intimate with the Father.

8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents as did Isaac and Jacob, coheirs of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

• Abraham – Father of the Jewish Nation.
• Genesis 12:1-7 - The Lord said to Abram: Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you, 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5 He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem, at the oak of Moreh. (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring, I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.[6]
• Abraham left as the Lord was telling him to go… that is real faith.
• Where? Just go!
• He was looking forward to a city that has foundations with God as the builder.
• That hasn’t happened yet… but it will.
• He lived as a foreigner… just as the Hebrew Christians did… just as we do.

11 By faith even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she considered that the one who had promised was faithful.

• Sarah? On the heroes of faith list?
• What is she known for?
• Bearing Isaac in her old age…
• But also getting Abraham to sleep with Hagar to bear the son to Abraham named Ishmael and his descendants have harassed the Jews ever since.
• She made the list!
• She had a hard time waiting on God’s timing.
• But the core of who Sarah was believed that God was faithful.

12 Therefore, from one man—in fact, from one as good as dead—came offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and as innumerable as the grains of sand along the seashore.[7]

• Abraham in his old age bore a son named Isaac.
• Isaac bore Jacob (and Esau)
• Jacob had 12 sons that became the 12 tribes.
• Through the 12 tribes came the entire Jewish nation.

[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Heb 11:1). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[2] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Heb 11:1). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Heb 11:1). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[4] Christian Standard Bible (Ge 5:18–24). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Christian Standard Bible (Ge 6:9). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[6] Christian Standard Bible (Ge 12:1–7). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[7] Christian Standard Bible (Heb 11:1–12). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.