6 And 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 seek Him.

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Silas Dixon
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1 Page1 September 9, 2012 ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON FAITH IS ASSURANCE MINISTRY INVOCATION Our Father and Creator: Increase our faith that we may receive Your Promises so graciously given. Keep us in Your care always. In Jesus Name, Amen. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW AND UNDERSTAND To explore the meaning of faith and its implications for our lives To appreciate and grow from the faith of others To develop a practice of relying on God for positive change THE APPLIED FULL GOSPEL DISTINCTIVE We believe in the Divine Personhood of the Holy Spirit and His present-day ministry to Believers, including the sovereign distribution of spiritual gifts, which empowers Believers for service in the contemporary church. TEXT: Background Scripture Hebrews 11:1-7, Psalm 46:1-11 Key Verse: Hebrews 11:1 Lesson Scripture Hebrews 11:1-3, 6; Psalm 46:1-3, 8-11 (NASB95) 1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old gained approval. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. 6 And 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 seek Him. Psalm 46:1 11 (NASB95) 1 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; 3 Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah. 8 Come, behold the works of the LORD, Who has wrought desolations in the earth. 9 He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire. 1

2 Page2 10 Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. 11 The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. COMMENTARY Verses 1 3. The nature and power of faith. In the close of the previous chapter, the apostle has spoken of faith as the principle of spiritual life, and the spring of patient endurance. He has quoted a great saying from Habakkuk, The just shall live by faith; and he now proceeds to vindicate its truth in a series of brilliant biographical illustrations. First of all, however, the apostle supplies a theoretic definition or description of saving faith. I. THE NATURE OF FAITH. (Verse. 1.) Faith is a natural principle of the mind. All men exercise it with regard to earthly things, but spiritual faith has for its objects a higher class of realities the truths of religion revealed in the Bible. In the text, faith is looked at in the most general and comprehensive way. It is viewed, not so much as an act, but as a state of mind, and as antithetical to sight. 1. Faith is the eye of the soul. It is the conviction of things not seen the organ by which we look upon the invisible and the eternal. If faith is the eye, the Bible is the eye-glass through which faith looks. The objects of spiritual faith are all supernaturally revealed truths the things of God, the things of the Spirit. These embrace all the great truths concerning God, man, the way of salvation, the Church, the last things. The believer s conviction of these things not seen rests on the testimony of God, given not only outwardly by the lips and pens of inspired men, but inwardly by the witness of the Spirit himself within the soul. Seeing is believing in the world of sense; but in the domain of faith this maxim is reversed, for in spiritual things believing is seeing. 2. Faith is the hand of the soul. It is the confidence of things hoped for. The universe of the unseen contains those glorious realities, which are the objects of spiritual hope. Faith grasps those realities. Saving faith is appropriating faith. The things hoped for are all involved in the coming of Christ s kingdom, which shall bring with it the final triumph of truth over error, and of good over evil. They include also, in subordination to this crowning hope, whatever is necessary for the spiritual cleansing and culture and comfort of the individual believer; as e.g. the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, victory over indwelling evil, growing likeness to Christ, the communion of saints, and the prospect of a blessed immortality. The man whose heart reposes on these hopes will be no longer dominated by the things which are seen and temporal. He will become heavenly-minded. His faith will make him the longer the more humble, 2

3 Page3 pure, laborious, courageous, meek, long-suffering, forgiving. The just shall live by faith. II. THE FOUNDATION-DOCTRINE OF FAITH. (Verse. 3.) Here the author specifies, as one of the great objects of faith, what is really the fundamental truth of all religion, as it is also the first utterance of revelation (Gen. 1:1) the doctrine of the creation of the world by the living God. For our knowledge of this truth, we are indebted exclusively to the Bible. Human theories regarding the origin of the universe have been mere conjectures. Heathen philosophers have dreamed of the eternal existence of matter; or they have taught, in some form or other, the doctrine that what is seen hath been made out of things which do appear. Unaided reason has never ascended by the steps of the design-argument up to nature s God. What, then, does the apostle assert here regarding creation? 1. That all that exists in time and space was skillfully framed and finished by a simple fiat of the Almighty. 2. That it follows that the universe was not formed out of any pre-existing materials whatsoever, but was created by God out of nothing. The question of the mode in which the worlds have been framed is one, when regarded from the spiritual point of view, of very slight importance. It matters little whether what is seen assumed its present form in connection with a series of creative acts, or by a process of evolution. Faith lays stress that the universe is in no sense self-existent, but owes its genesis to the will of a personal Creator or Evolver. Now, revelation explains this mystery. The doctrine of a personal Creator is the foundation-doctrine of faith. If this truth is accepted, it follows that miracles are possible, and that a supernatural revelation is not an unlikely blessing. If God has made us in His own image, then surely we are heirs of immortality; and, although we have gone astray from Him, peradventure He may hear us when we call upon Him, and may graciously receive us back into His favor. III. THE POWER OF FAITH TO FORM CHARACTER. (Verse. 2.) The things not seen and hoped for control the life of the believer. They engage his attention. They call forth his energies. They mould his habits. They direct his affections. The conviction and the confidence, which make his character what it is, are grounded, not upon knowledge, but upon testimony. This truth receives splendid illustration in the lives of the saints who lived during the twilight before the rise of the Sun of righteousness. The elders are the Hebrew fathers. They trusted in a Savior who was yet only hoped for, and in a sacrifice for sin that was not seen. Although they lived so very long ago, and although the truth, on which they rested, was still but imperfectly developed, yet theirs was saving faith, and it was vigorous, valiant, victorious. 3

4 Page4 Faith is the belief of a Divine testimony, whatever that testimony may be. Under every dispensation, the believer has ventured his eternal interests upon the bare word of God. The elders had witness borne to them, i.e. the approving testimony of God and His Word. The apostle proceeds, in the verses which follow, to name some of these illustrious elders, and to show that their excellence of character was due to the moral power of their faith. In conclusion, have we this faith? The assent of the intellect to Bible truth is not enough. Faith for us means personal trust in a personal Savior. Spiritual faith is a grace; it is God-given. Only the Holy Spirit can enable us to be guided, in our whole walk and conduct, by the unseen and eternal realities. (Verses. 5, 6.) Here we have: 1. A statement regarding Enoch s translation. (Ver. 5.) His faith is represented as the reason on account of which he was transported to heaven without tasting of death. His wonderful removal was the reward of his singularly holy life; and that, in turn, was the fruit of his faith. 2. An argument in support of this statement. (1) Such is the representation of the Old Testament (ver. 5). Enoch s translation is there said (Gen. 5:24) to have taken place in consequence of the peculiar favor of God. Scripture bears witness to him that he had been well-pleasing unto God before it informs us of his glorification. (2) It is self-evident that none but a believer can obtain the Divine favor (ver. 6). The spring of holiness is always faith. Enoch, like Abel, had met with the unseen Jehovah over a bleeding sacrifice. He had lived under a sense of the Divine Presence. He had confided in God, and cultivated congeniality with Him. He had been a witness for him to a sensuous and ungodly world. The apostle mentions in this connection two indispensable articles of faith regarding God. First, his being. To believe in God is to be convinced of a truth not seen, and made evident only by revelation. Secondly, his benevolence. To believe in God as a Rewarder is to cherish the confidence of things hoped for. But the gospel revelation alone assures us of Jehovah s accessibility, and of the principles of his moral administration. Yet Enoch firmly grasped these great doctrines; and the faith of them led him on, step by step, until he found himself in the glorious presence of God in heaven. Psalm 46:1-3 Verse 1. God is our Refuge and Strength, A very present Help in trouble; literally, a very accessible Help one easy to be found. Verse. 2. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed; or, though the earth change a somewhat vague expression, probably to be understood of political changes and revolutions. And though the mountains be 4

5 Page5 carried into the midst of the sea; rather, and though the mountains be hurled into the heart of the seas. A metaphor for still more strange and violent disturbances and commotions. Verse 3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled; or, roar and foam. Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof Psalm 46: 8-11 Verse 8. Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. The deliverance of Israel from its peril is effected by desolations or devastations, which God accomplishes among the nations. The announcement is very vague and general, so that it would apply to almost any occasion when the people of God were delivered from a pressing peril. Verse. 9. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth. Each great deliverance effected by God is followed naturally by a term of peace and the land had rest twenty, forty, eighty years ), each such term being typical of the final peace, when God shall have put down all enemies under Messiah s feet. He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; i.e. he destroys all offensive weapons, so that none may hurt or destroy in all his holy mountain. He burneth the chariot in the fire. War-chariots were largely employed by the Assyrians, and formed the main strength of the army of Sennacherib. Verse. 10. Be still, and know that I am God. As a general rule, God requires man to co-operate with him. We are fellow-workers with God, but there are occasions when man must stand aloof, and all must be left to the Almighty Disposer of all things. The invasion of Sennacherib was such an occasion. Human effort could not but be futile; and unless God gave deliverance in some strange and extraordinary way, there was no hope of escape: Judæa must cease to exist as an independent country. I will be exalted among the heathen. When a deliverance was plainly miraculous, the God of Israel got Him special honor among the neighboring heathen nations, who could not gainsay the fact that there had been a supernatural interposition. I will be exalted in the earth. Verse 11. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge. RELATED DISCUSSION TOPICS CLOSING PRAYER O, Father of mankind: We give thanks for the assurance of Your grace and mercy. You have built us up to believe and to rely. For that, we praise, honor, and adore You. In Jesus Name, Amen. 5

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STEADFAST CONFIDENCE Sunday School- September 9, 2012 Unifying Topic: FAITH IS ASSURANCE Lesson Text I. What Faith Is (Hebrews 11:1-3, 6) II. God Is Our Refuge (Psalm 46:1-3) III. Wars Will Cease And God