A
FAITH THAT PLEASES GOD
I
think that most Christians have a desire to be pleasing to other people. That is the Christian way. As much as possible we want to be a help and
a blessing to the people around us. But
there is one person that we want to please more than any other person in the
world, and that person is God. In order
to please God, we must have faith. The
writer of Hebrews said that without faith you cannot please God. You cannot know God, you cannot experience
God and you cannot please God unless you have faith. Hebrews 10:38 says “the just shall live by
faith.” That is a quote from Habakkuk 2:4
and it is also repeated in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ you have
been justified. “The just shall live by faith” means that God wants us to live
lives of faith. God doesn’t want us to
just have an ordinary type of faith. The
dictionary describes faith as – a complete trust or confidence in someone
or something. You don’t need to be a
Christian to have that kind of faith.
Every person has some type of faith.
But God wants His children to have faith in Him. Without the right kind of faith, we cannot be
pleasing to God. Hebrews Chapter 11
teaches us what faith is and how to have the kind of faith that is pleasing to
God.
Hebrews
11:1-6
I. First please notice the description of
faith. In the first verse the writer
describes what faith is like. He also
describes how faith works. True Bible
faith is not blind hope and it is not believing in spite of the evidence. True Bible faith is confidently trusting what
God said and obeying it no matter what the situation or circumstance.
A. In
the first verse we see that faith is described by two words. First it says that faith is a “substance” and
second it is “evidence”. The word
substance is a word that means asupport.
Faith is a foundation. It is
something that gives support. Faith is
something you can stand on. It has a
reality to it. Some people have the idea
that faith is not real, that it is our own imagination. But that is not true, faith is real. It is a substance. Faith is to a Christian what a foundation is
to a house. It gives us confidence and
assurance that we will stand. Faith is
the “substance of things hoped for”.
B. Faith is also the “evidence of things not
seen”. The word translated as evidence
is a legal word. It means evidence that
is accepted for a conviction. Faith is
our evidence or proof of that which we have not yet seen. Jesus, heaven, and the rewards that await us
are things that we know are real. The
believer is convinced that the things that he is unable to see are real.
Genuine biblical faith is not blind. It
is described as substance and evidence because it gets its certainty from the
Word of God. Faith is the evidence of
things not seen. There is a great unseen
world out there. The only way that you
know it is there is the evidence that you have in your heart. And the evidence you have in your heart is
faith.
C. “For by it (by faith)the elders obtained
a good report.” The word report is from
the Greek word “mar-too-reh'-o” It means witness. By faith they obtained a good witness. Hebrews 12:1 calls these men and women “So
great a cloud of witnesses”. For each
person mentioned in chapter 11 God gave witness to their faith. This witness was His divine approval on their
lives and ministries.
D. The
3rd verse says “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the
word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do
appear.” Faith gives us the ability to
understand what God does. Faith gives us
the ability to see what others cannot see.
As a result, faith gives us the ability to do what others cannot do. God has put these verses in the Bible because
He wants us to fully understand what faith is.
II. Second please notice the examples of
faith. After giving a good description
of faith the writer then begins to give some examples of faith. In verses 4 and 5 he tells about the faith of
Able and Enoch. Then he goes on to tell
about Noah and Abraham and Moses and several others. Please look at V.32-34. Throughout the pages of the Bible there is
witness after witness of the great faith of the people of God. Because of their
faith they were able to do mighty works for God. There are some lessons we can learn from
these witnesses.
A. First, we learn that there is great power
in faith. C. H. Spurgeon said “Why, even when men have been mistaken, if they
have believed the mistake they have displayed more power than men who have
known the truth, but have not heartily believed it.” Because of their faith these witnesses did
great things for God. In the same way
faith can give us the power to do great things for God. With faith we can do all things. Without faith we will have neither the desire
nor the power to do anything in the service of God. If you want to find men who serve God best,
you will find them to be the men of the most faith. Little faith will save a man, but little
faith cannot do great things.
B. Faith gives courage. The other day I was reading about Jonathan and
I was struck by his faith and courage.
He and His armor bearer went out to fight a garrison of Philistine
soldiers. Although there were 20
soldiers he knew that God was with him. He
said to his armor bearer “Come up after me: for the LORD hath delivered them
into the hand of Israel.” He was
absolutely sure that God was going to give them the victory. God rewarded that faith and gave them the
power to be successful. When Goliath
defied the army of Israel all the soldiers and King Saul were afraid. But, David had great faith in God. That faith gave him the courage to fight for
God. A strong faith will give us courage. We don’t have to face troubles and
difficulties alone. God is on our side
and He is there with us. Faith will give
us a holy boldness to be a witness for our Savior. Faith gives us power and courage to serve the
Lord.
C. But
the Bible also tells about people who had a weak faith. One good example of that is the Children of
Israel. God had delivered them from the
bondage of Egypt and led them through the Red Sea but they did not believe
Him. They wanted to return to
Egypt. Even after the entered the
promised land they were continually turning from Him in unbelief. King Solomon was the wisest person in the
world. He built the beautiful temple for
God and at one time was very pleasing to God.
But he allowed to world and the women of the world to influence
Him. His faith in God became so weak
that he started to worship other gods. Because
of this his life he became very displeasing to God. I Kings 11:9 says “And the LORD was angry
with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which
had appeared unto him twice”.
D.
When we refuse to live by faith and start living like the world we
become displeasing to God. Unbelief in
our hearts will also affect the decisions that we make in life. For example, why would a Christian marry an
unbeliever? This has been a source of
confusion to me. I have finally
concluded that it is a lack of faith. A
person who does that has a very weak faith.
They may come to church and they may know how to pray, but they really
don’t trust God. If your faith is so weak
that it does not affect how you live, it is the same thing as being without
faith. That kind of faith can never
please God. We should remember that
faith is extremely important to a Christian.
There is nothing that we should be more concerned about than our
faith. Although you may have had a weak
faith in the past, faith is something that we can strengthen in our life. In fact, it is our responsibility to have a
strong faith.
III. Third please notice the Duty of faith V. 5-6 It is our duty to please God. The Westminster Catechism asks “What is the
chief end of man?” The answer is “To
glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”
That is true, but it could have also been said that the chief end of man
is “to please God”. Our chief end, our
main purpose, our duty is to please God.
We please God by walking by faith.
Without faith you cannot please God.Because of his faith Enoch had the
testimony that He pleased God.We all want to have that kind of testimony. So how do you develop a faith that pleases
God?
A.
First, make a complete surrender of your life to God. Have you done that? Have you said “Lord,
everything I have is yours. My time my
life and my all?” That is the first
thing you must do to be pleasing to God.
B. Second, fill your mind with the Word of
God. In Romans 10:17 the Bible says “So
then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” There is something in the Bible that produces
faith in your heart when you read it. The Bible tells about the great and
mighty promises of God. When you read the Bible,diligently seek to know God
better. “He is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him.”
C.
Third, pray. Faith is a gift from
God. We should pray and ask God for it. Do you know what the disciples prayed? With the Lord they said, “Increase our
faith”. If the apostles said this, then
all of us need to pray this prayer. If
the twelve mightiest in the army of the Lord of hosts had need of such prayer we
know that we do also. Faith is mentioned
as one of the gifts of the Spirit. Since
it is a gift let’s ask God for it. Say
“Lord, increase my faith”. Be like that
man in Mark 9:24 who prayed “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” If you pray that sincerely God will hear and He
will bless you.
D.
Next, use the faith that you already have. Jesus said that faith was like a mustard
seed. We know that no man can produce a
mustard seed. A laboratory cannot build
one that will grow. A mustard seed is
supernatural because it has life in it.
It comes from God. God is saying “I
put a little faith in your hand, take it and plant it.” One mustard seed can produce thousands of
mustard seeds. God said that faith,like
a grain of mustard seed, could move a mountain.
He is saying that faith is not something that you hold in your hand, it
something that you invest. It is
something to plant. Take the faith that
you have and use it. Faith, like a
muscle grows with exercise. So, start
putting your faith to work and it will grow.
Conc.
It is marvelous to know that we can
please God. We are just sinners saved by
grace, but we can please Him. He is the
King of kings and the Lord of lords and we can please Him. To please God, we must have faith. God has
given us a description of faith and some examples of faith. Now it is our duty to grow in our faith and
to live by faith. Please take a moment
to think of all the wonderful things that God has done for you. Then determine to have the kind of faith that
pleases God.
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