Hebrews 11:6
We want to focus on faith today as we bring to a close our missions celebration month and make our commitments to taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
I think many (if not most) followers of Jesus wake up each day desiring to be pleasing to those around them. If you don’t, then you may have a greater problem with selfishness than anyone is willing to tell you. It’s certainly true that we all go through various moods over the course of a day, as well as our lifetime. But, people that take seriously the scripture and their devotion to Jesus Christ generally seek to bless those around them with the good will they have enjoyed from God and others.
I know that I want to please my wife, children, grandchildren, parents, family, congregation and friends whenever it is possible. I even want to be a pleasing personality to those that might consider themselves to be my enemies. I really don’t want to be viewed as a cantankerous curmudgeon by anyone, nor do most of you!
However, there is one Person above all others that we should aim to please whether we please anyone else or not. And that is God Himself!
The scripture lays out several things that please God. For instance:
- He is pleased when His Word is preached. (1 Corinthians 1:21; Matthew 28:19-20)
- He is pleased when good works are done. (Colossians 1:10; James 1:27)
- He is pleased when men increase in the knowledge of His Word. (2 Timothy 2:15; 2 Peter 3:18)
- He is pleased when children obey their parents. (Colossians 3:20)
- HE IS PLEASED WHEN PEOPLE LIVE BY FAITH! (Hebrews 11:6; Ephesians 4:5).
Faith is such an integral part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus that we find its significance often in scripture. For instance...
In dealing with how a person is made right with God: 17”...The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17; cf. Colossians 3:11; Ephesians 2:8-9)
When wondering how to react to things where the scripture has no definitive word: 23...for whatever is not from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)
To grow in faith we are told there is a key ingredient: 17So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)
When we are struggling with pain and difficulty it important to know what God is specifically testing: 6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:6-9)
The whole of our lives related to spiritual matters can be summarized simply: 7For we walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)
C.H. Mackintosh, who was a nineteenth-century preacher and author, wrote in his devotional commentary on Exodus concerning the crossing of the Red Sea: [God speaking to Moses] “But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thy hand over the sea, and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” (Exodus 14:16) Here was the path of faith. The hand of God opens the way for us to take the first step, and this is all that faith ever asks. God never gives guidance for two steps at a time. I must take one step, and then I get light for the next. This keeps the heart in abiding dependence upon God. “By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land.” (Hebrews 11:29) It is evident that the sea was not divided throughout at once. Had it been so, it would have been “sight” and not “faith.” It does not require faith to begin a journey when I can see all the way through; but to begin when I can merely see the first step, this is faith. The sea opened as Israel moved forward, so that for every fresh step they needed to be cast upon God. Such was the path along which the redeemed of the Lord moved, under His own conducting hand. They passed through the dark waters of death, and found these very waters to be “a wall unto them, on their right hand and on their left.” (Exodus 14:22)
The Egyptians could not move in such a path as this. They moved on because they saw the way open before them: with them it was sight, and not faith,—“Which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.” (Hebrews 11:29) When people assay [try/attempt] to do what faith alone can accomplish, they only encounter defeat and confusion. The path along which God calls His people to walk is one which nature can never tread...Faith is the great characteristic principle of God’s kingdom, and faith alone can enable us to walk in God’s ways...It glorifies God exceedingly when we move on with Him, as it were, blindfold. It proves that we have more confidence in His eyesight than in our own. If I know that God is looking out for me, I may well close my eyes, and move on in holy calmness and stability. In human affairs, we know that when there is a sentinel or watchman at his post, others can sleep quietly. How much more may we rest in perfect security when we know that He who neither slumbers nor sleeps has His eye upon us, and His everlasting arms around us! (C.H. Mackintosh, Notes On The Pentateuch, p. 204)
In light of the above, it’s no wonder that when the author of Hebrews speaks of faith, he gives a definitive word: 6But 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. (Hebrews 11:6)
He declares unequivocally that THE central tenet to having a life that pleases God is that we trust or rely on Him, which is fundamentally what the word “faith” means.
Missionary John Paton (1824-1907) was translating the Scripture for the South Sea islanders (what today is the Republic of Vanuatu in the South Pacific) and was having trouble finding a word in their vocabulary for the concept of believing, trusting, or having faith. He had no idea how he was going to convey this central biblical truth to them. One day while he was in his hut translating scripture, a native came running up the stairs into Paton's study and plopped down exhausted in a chair and said,
“It’s so good to rest my whole weight in this chair.”
John Paton immediately knew that he had found a way to express the idea of “faith:” It is resting your whole weight on God. And, that idea went into his translation of their New Testament that helped bring a civilization of natives to Christ. In essence...Believing is putting your whole weight on God.
To get the full impact of how important this kind of faith is to pleasing God you only need to look at how this text (Hebrews 11:6) is worded.
The word ἀδύνατος (“impossible”) is used to convey the idea of something having no possibility of happening; incapable of occurring or being done. It also refers to one that has no strength or lacks the ability to function adequately (cf. Acts 14:8; Romans 15:1).
One lexicon defines it as “lacking capability in functioning adequately, powerless, impotent” (DBAG)
And, the absolute nature of how the author of Hebrews uses this word leaves no question that apart from faith we cannot please God. For instance, he writes...
4For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. (Hebrews 6:4-6)
17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. (Hebrews 6:17-18)
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. (Hebrews 10:4)
As should be obvious by now, if we wish to be pleasing to God then we must live our lives“resting our entire weight” on Him and His promises. It is “impossible” to please Him apart from faith!
Enoch pleased God by faith (as well as the others mentioned in Hebrews 11) and is included in this chapter of the heroes of the faith. Something happened in his life (the seventh generation from Adam) at the age of sixty-five (Genesis 5:21-22). From that point forward and for the next three hundred years he “walked with God” (Genesis 5:24), which is another way of saying that he pleased God by his life of faith. Let’s not forget that Enoch lived in an ever worsening day of apostasy (cf. Genesis 6:5) that ultimately led to the destruction of “Noah’s flood.” But, Enoch did not succumb! He kept trusting the Lord and living by faith in God.
Failing to “rest our entire weight on God” is the very root of spiritual apostasy (cf. Hebrews 3:12). When you stop believing that God “is” and that “He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him,” you have slipped away from a life that pleases God. Even if you haven’t yet demonstrated it openly, it will eventually give evidence in every area of your being. And, that departure is usually a process happening over varying periods of time unique to each individual. As a person increasingly embraces rationalism, individualism and humanism he ends up in the grip of liberalism, agnosticism and atheism. Along this process you leave off things like prayer, the reading of the Bible, and neglecting the gathering of the saints for worship. Gradually you start living with increasing abandon from God’s will and Word, which ultimately turns out to be spiritual bondage to you. Like a spider’s web entangles it’s victim, so the farther you drift from faith, the more you become entangled in the web of apostasy that ultimately enslaves you. UNBELIEF (!!) is the breeding ground of so much of our sinfulness, if not all of it!
The children of Israel forfeited their appointed blessings in the Promised Land because they stopped trusting God (Numbers 14:23). Their unbelief was reflected in their refusal to follow Him in a pleasing manner (in faith), thus bringing themselves under His chastisement (Numbers 14:29). Unbelief is the master sin and as it shut Israel out of Canaan it shuts myriads out of Heaven. It also shuts believers out of the joy of fully following the Lord in a pleasing manner. It is evil and the parent of all our other evils.
“Without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please Him!” It’s not just hard or difficult...it is absolutely and totally beyond the realm of possibility that you can do anything that will please Him...apart from faith!
Albert Barnes writes in his comments on this verse, “It is impossible for a child to please his father unless he has confidence in him. It is impossible for a wife to please her husband, or a husband a wife, unless they have confidence in each other. If there is distrust and jealousy on either part, there is discord and misery. We cannot be pleased with a professed friend unless he has such confidence in us as to believe our declarations and promises. The same thing is true of God. He cannot be pleased with the man who has no confidence in Him; who doubts the truth of His declarations and promises; who does not believe that His ways are right, or that He is qualified for universal empire. The requirement of faith or confidence in God is not arbitrary; it is just what we require of our children, and partners in life, and friends, as the indispensable condition of our being pleased with them.” (Barnes, A. (1884–1885). Notes on the New Testament: Hebrews, p. 258).
Unbelief is equivalent to calling God a liar (cf. Titus 1:2). What could be more insulting? What could be more arrogant than to imply that we know more than God? When we don’t trust Him, we are in essence saying, “I am right and you are wrong!” Is in any wonder why you can’t please God when you are not trusting Him?
The kind of faith mention in Hebrews 11:6 and exemplified in this entire chapter is: 1. Intentional, 2. Sustained, 3. Tenacious.
- Intentional...because you don’t accidentally draw near to the Holy One. (cf. James 4:8)
- Sustained...because you repeatedly come seeking God. (cf. Hebrews 11:6 - both are present tense verbs) .
- Tenacious...because you know that God will prove Himself a rewarder if you “diligently seek Him.”
On this last point, let’s remember that even though Enoch lived 365 years (a long time by today’s standards), in the context of Genesis 5, his life was short compared to the other pre-flood patriarchs listed. Though Enoch was noted for his godliness and faith he only lived about a third as long as the others! This reminds us that faith’s reward is not necessarily a long life on earth, but eternal rewards with God in heaven for living a life that pleases Him.
After abandoning journalism for the ministry, [Charles] Templeton met [Billy] Graham in 1945 at a Youth for Christ rally. They were roommates and constant companions during an adventurous tour of Europe, alternating in the pulpit as they preached at rallies...His friendship with Graham grew. “He’s one of the few men I have ever loved in my life,” Graham once told a biographer...But soon doubts began gnawing at Templeton...the skeptical Templeton, a counterpoint to the faith-filled Henrietta Mears [Christian author and educator], tugging his friend Billy Graham away from her repeated assurances that the Scriptures are trustworthy. “Billy, you’re fifty years out of date,” he [Templeton] argued. “People no longer accept the Bible as being inspired the way you do. Your faith is too simple.” Templeton seemed to be winning the tug-of-war. “If I was not exactly doubtful,” Graham would recall, “I was certainly disturbed.”
Graham searched the Scriptures for answers, he prayed, he pondered. Finally, in a heavy-hearted walk in the moonlit San Bernardino Mountains, everything came to a climax. Gripping a Bible, Graham dropped to his knees and confessed he couldn’t answer some of the philosophical and psychological questions that Templeton and others were raising. “I was trying to be on the level with God, but something remained unspoken,” he [Graham] wrote. “At last the Holy Spirit freed me to say it. ‘Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word—faith! I’m going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts, and I will believe this to be Your inspired Word.’ ” Rising from his knees, tears in his eyes, Graham said he sensed the power of God as he hadn’t felt it for months. “Not all my questions were answered, but a major bridge had been crossed,” he said. “In my heart and mind, I knew a spiritual battle in my soul had been fought and won.” For Graham, it was a pivotal moment. For Templeton, though, it was a bitterly disappointing turn of events...The emotion he felt most toward his friend was pity.
Now on different paths, their lives began to diverge. History knows what would happen to Graham in the succeeding years. He would become the most persuasive and effective evangelist of modern times and one of the most admired men in the world. But what would happen to Templeton? Decimated by doubts, he resigned from the ministry and moved back to Canada, where he became a commentator and novelist. (Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith, Locs. 114-136) HE WAS TENACIOUS!!
Conclusion:
Now that I’ve challenged us to be people of “faith” it’s the time of decision concerning our “Faith Offering” for this new missions year. The “faith” question before us is, “Will we live in a manner pleasing to God and trust Him to give through us to the cause of missions above our normal giving?” This is precisely the reason we call this “faith giving!” It is an opportunity for us to exercise faith that we might be pleasing to God. This isn’t about sitting down with our pay checks or bank books and asking how much can we AFFORD to give? Neither is it about looking speculatively at today’s economy to determine the amount of our gift. This day is about taking a leap of faith to claim His promises and to believe that God wants His work done more than we want it done. Consequently, in faith we commit to trusting Him weekly to supply the amount of money we commit to give back to Him for the cause of bringing others the message of the Gospel. Some of you may want to make your commitment tonight as a family when the children will be joining us in the candlelight ceremony. Either way, every believer should join in the effort of “faith giving” so that we might be pleasing to God.
Listen to how Paul described the giving of the believers in Macedonia.
1 Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. 2 They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity. 3 For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. 4 They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem. 5 They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do. (2 Corinthians 8:1-5 NLT)
They didn’t have anything else to give, but they trusted God to give “far more” through them. That’s the gist of the “faith life” that pleases God.
What will you trust God to give through you for the greatest cause on earth...making disciples of all men to the ends of the earth? This is the life of faith!
