CAPITAL BAPTIST CHURCH MAY 2, Faith Needed to Please God Hebrews 11:4-7 Faith s Hall of Fame

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1 CAPITAL BAPTIST CHURCH MAY 2, 2004 SERMON NOTES PASTOR BILL HAKEN Faith Needed to Please God Hebrews 11:4-7 Faith s Hall of Fame Intro: Last week we learned what faith is: it s not positive thinking; It s not a hunch that is followed. Faith is not hoping for the best, it is not a feeling of optimism. Heb. 11:1 says that faith is the reality, the confidence, the assurance that the Promises of God are true! It is also the evidence, the proof of the real world. It is not a leap into the dark, but a confident step into the Light of God s Word. All people have faith in something or someone. Rom. 10:17 says faith comes by hearing the Word of God Today we learn why it is necessary note what vs. 6 says, 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. 1. Why is faith a vital necessity? Each of us needs to make sure that he has faith. It is by faith the convicted and repentant sinner is saved (Acts 16:31). It is by faith that Christ dwells in our hearts (Eph. 3:17). It is by faith that we live (Gal. 2:20). It is by faith that we stand (Rom. 11:20; 2 Cor. 1:24). It is by faith we walk (2 Cor. 5:7). It is by faith the Devil is successfully resisted (1 Peter 5:8,9). It is by faith we have access to God (Eph. 3:12, Heb. 10:22). It is by faith that we fight the good fight (1 Tim. 6:12). It is by faith that the world is overcome (1 John 5:4). Now notice in your outlines: To please God you have to trust Him. Without faith (without believing, or trusting) it is impossible to please God. God is not pleased by worry, fear, and unbelief. Psa. 106:24 Then they despised the pleasant land; They did not believe His word,25 But complained in their tents, And did not believe the word of the Lord. To trust Him you have to believe in His reality as a Person. Verse 6, He that comes to God must believe that he is, that God exists. There are some who say, "That's the hard part, that's what is difficult." No, it is not. The easiest thing in the world to do is to believe that God exists. It requires effort to disbelieve; it requires no effort to believe. The

2 interesting thing is that everyone in the world, without exception, starts out believing God exists. It is only when they are carefully trained to disbelieve that any come to the place of declaring God does not exist. Light from God is streaming in on every side and all we need to do is open our eyes to see it and know that God is there. That is why children have no problem with this. The concept of God ought to be one of the most difficult ideas for children to grasp, since God cannot be seen. But the amazing thing is, children have no difficulty at all in believing that God exists. It requires long and careful effort to train the mind to reject this evidence and explain it on other terms. To come to Him you must believe that it is worth it. That He rewards those who seek Him. And ye shall seek Me and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart Jer. 29:13,.2 Chron.15:15 Eagerly they sought after God, and they found him. And the Lord gave them rest from their enemies on every side. Cf. 10:35 Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: 2. How do three examples show the qualities of faith? Abel shows us the Worship of fait Here are the world's first brothers, Abel and Cain, sons of Adam and Eve. They lived when the world was young, when everything was much different than it is today. It was before the days of income tax, and smog, and clogged highways, and the terrible problems that we struggle with. Yet, despite the fact that they enjoyed what we call "the simple life," they longed for something better, they hungered after God. For no matter how good life is, it is never good enough if you do not have God. Man is never satisfied without him, and these boys hungered for God. Both had been told the way by which they could come to him, this is implied in the account. But Cain chose to believe a lie, the lie that is still very evident today, that "one way is as good as another." He took the way that was easiest for him to work out and the result was, he was rejected, for, of course, it is always a lie that one way is as good as another. That never works in anything -- nature, life, or with God. But Abel believed God and came the way God had outlined. When he believed God he discovered a great truth, the truth that man cannot have God's ability until he is prepared to recognize the poverty of his own. That is what a blood sacrifice teaches. There must be a life laid down before one can have the life of God, which is the point. You cannot have his ability for your problems until you are first ready to lay aside any dependence upon your own. That is the greatest truth that man can ever learn.

3 Because Abel was the first man to learn that truth, the writer says he is still speaking to us -- and we still need to listen! Enoch shows us the Walk of faith 5 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him ; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. In order to please God four things must concur, all of which are accomplished by faith. First, the person of him that pleases God must be accepted of Him Gen. 4:4 The Lord respected Abel and his offering. Second, the thing done that pleases God must be in accord with His will Heb. 13:21 Now may the God of peace make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, Third, the manner of doing it must be pleasing to God: it must be performed in humility (1 Cor. 15:10), in sincerity (Isaiah 38:3), in cheerfulness (2 Cor. 8:12; 9:7). Fourth, the end in view must be God s glory (1 Cor. 10:31). Faith is the only way these four requirements are met. By faith in Christ the person is accepted of God. Faith makes us submit ourselves to God s will. Faith causes us to examine the manner of what we do God-wards. Faith aims at God s glory: of Abraham it says he was strong in faith, giving glory to God (Rom. 4:20). In Gen. 5, we are told that for 65 years Enoch, lived like anyone else in his day, no different from the rest of his age. But at the age of 65, something happened. It was not that he got his Social Security, he found a deeper security than that. The record says he began to walk with God. When he did that he discovered a great reality, just as you will, if you try it. He found a fellowship that death could not interrupt. According to the record, he never died. He was one of two men in the Scriptures of whom it is recorded that they never died. He was "not found," that is all. God took him, the record says, without death. I love the way the little Sunday School girl tells it. She said, "Enoch was a man who learned to walk with God, and they used to take long walks together. One day they walked so far that God said, 'Look, Enoch, it's too far for you to go back; just come on home with me.' So he walked on home with God." Notice several more things: 1. God is not tied to the order of nature: Gen. 3:19( dust you are and to dust you shall return), was set aside in the cases of Enoch and Elijah.

4 2. To exhibit the world s enmity God suffered Abel to be martyred, to comfort His people God preserved Enoch. 3. What God did for Enoch He can and will yet do for a whole generation of His saints (1 Corinthians 15:51). 4. There is a future life for believers: the removal of Enoch to Heaven plainly illustrates this. 5. The godliest do not always live the longest: all mentioned in Genesis 5 stayed on earth a much greater time than did Enoch. 6. They who walk with God please Him. 7. They who please God shall not lack testimony thereof. The apostle had just spoken of Enoch s translation as a consequent of his pleasing God, and now from the fact of his pleasing God, it proves his faith. He became forever a picture of what death is to the Christian -- only an incident, hardly worth mentioning. That is the reality that Enoch discovered by faith. He also illustrated in type the Rapture of the Church, found in 1 Thess. 4: (By the way, one of our members sent me an stating that a television preacher was saying that the believer s pets were going to be raptured! That is sheer nonsense and lunacy! There are no scriptures that remotely suggest anything like that. He has a $30 tape series he is trying to sell, and I m sure that desperate deceased pet lovers will buy them to try to get some hope for Rover beyond the grave, but it s not there!) Enoch illustrates the believer s rapture to be with the Lord, we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord. Noah shows us the Witness of faith Noah believed that God was in control of history. All the things these men believed, we are asked to believe today; there is no difference. Noah believed that God was in charge of history. He believed when God told him there was coming a great flood. When Noah told this around everyone began to laugh, and say how foolish he was. But Noah went right ahead and built a boat. Now that is not unusual in these days, but he built it five hundred miles from the nearest ocean, a thousand times too big for his own family, and when he got it finished he filled it with animals! They probably called Noah in those days: "Nutty Noah." But he anticipated history and thus showed how short-sighted the world is when it walks in the light of its own reason, alone. He was led on by his faith to become, as this text says, "the heir of the righteousness which comes by faith," i.e., in Christ Jesus, and he became part of the divine family. That is what faith is.

5 Faith believes there is another dimension to life other than those which can be touched, tasted, seen or felt. There is more to life than that. There is also the realm of the spirit, the invisible spiritual kingdom of God. All the ultimate answers of life lie in that kingdom this is really the Real World Faith believes that God, in his grace, has stepped over the boundary into human history and told us some great and very valuable facts. Faith believes them and adjusts its life to those facts and walks on that basis. The world does not understand and oftentimes uses derogatory terms for those who walk by faith. Certainly they are not oddballs in every way, although in some way every Christian is, but though the world does not understand why, the man who walks by faith wins the day because he has come in touch with things as they really are. That is the glory of faith. Now, do you have faith? Are you a man or woman, boy or girl of faith? Is there a hunger for something better in your life? Is there a conviction that God is ready to answer your cry? In fact, he has already answered it, in Christ. Are you ready then to commit yourself to obey what he says.