This is a lightly edited transcript of what I actually said when I delivered this message on Hebrews 11. It differs from what I planned to say; for the prepared text, see the manuscript.
I’m glad for another opportunity to speak tonight. The truth I’d like to share is one of the greatest I’ve learned over the last couple of years—something that has deeply impacted my life. The title is “Faith Works.” The more I read Scripture, the more I’m confronted with the reality that faith works. It doesn’t take a PhD to see that the men of faith in the Bible lived differently from those without faith. I once shared some common misconceptions about faith, but I think it’s clear from the Bible that a faith that doesn’t change the way you live is not a true faith. A faith that does not work, a faith that goes no farther than your head, is not a true faith.
There’s a school of thought often called easy-believism, which says: I pray a prayer, I’ve got my fire insurance, I’m on my way to heaven, and it doesn’t matter how I live—my life is mine to live as I please. That teaching is out there, but the Bible teaches differently. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father” (Matthew 7:21)—not a works-salvation, but a true faith that works. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away” (2 Corinthians 5:17)—grace changes a person; a man cannot have faith in Christ and remain the same. And Paul exhorts professing believers, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5)—because there is such a thing as a false profession of faith. I settled on Hebrews 11 for our text—though it’s all forty verses, we’ll move quickly.
Three Aspects of Faith
I used to think faith is merely to believe something—and if I asked what faith is, most would answer, “to believe something.” That’s true, but the Bible teaches that true faith goes farther. There are three aspects of saving faith. First, the level of understanding, or comprehension: you must first understand something to believe it—no one can believe the gospel who hasn’t heard it and understood that he’s a sinner, that his sin has a penalty, and that Christ paid it. But understanding alone isn’t enough: I understand the theory of evolution—I understand what evolutionists teach—but I don’t believe it. Second, the level of belief, or assent: you understand the facts and agree they’re true. This is often where people stop—“the Bible says I must believe the gospel, and I believe it”—but this kind of faith ends in the head; it’s purely intellectual and doesn’t change the life. Third, the level of reliance, or dependence and trust. James says “the devils also believe, and tremble”—so saving faith must be more than believing and trembling. This third level goes farther than understanding the facts and agreeing they’re true; it casts all one’s trust and dependence upon the object of its faith.
Let me illustrate. Suppose your family drives up to see Niagara Falls, and as you check into the hotel a man runs through the lobby: “Come see the man tightrope-walking across Niagara Falls!” It’s easy to understand what he’s claiming—that’s level one—but you’re not sure you believe it. Curiosity wins, so you go look—and sure enough, there he is, walking a tightrope across the falls, even pushing a wheelbarrow back and forth. He comes to your side and asks, “Who believes I can put a man in this wheelbarrow and walk across and back?” Every hand goes up, including yours—that’s level two, belief. Then he points: “You, sir—you believe I can do it? Come get in the wheelbarrow.” Now it’s level three: no longer a bystander saying he believes, he must demonstrate his trust is real by getting in. As Charles Spurgeon said, “The essence of faith lies in this—a casting of oneself upon the promise.” Another definition that has stuck with me: faith is believing the promises of God and acting upon them. Both involve believing, but they go farther—you believe something so strongly that you show it by how you act.
A Dead Faith and a Living Faith (James 2)
James 2:14–26 helps us here, but we must read it carefully, understanding what James is attacking. Verse 14 asks, “Can faith save him?” We’d answer, “Of course”—but in context James’s implied answer is no. Doesn’t Ephesians 2:8–9 say we’re saved by grace through faith? A contradiction? Some have even doubted James belongs in the Bible over this—but the answer is to see that James is speaking of the level-two faith we described: a faith merely in the head. So read it this way: can a faith that is merely in the head—a workless faith—save you? Three times James drives the point home—“faith without works is dead” (vv. 17, 20, 26). A faith that is merely intellectual, that goes no farther, that produces no good works, is a dead faith. “Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.”
Faith Explained (Hebrews 11:1–3)
Hebrews 11 is often called the Hall of Faith. I’d like us to notice two things: faith explained or described, and faith exemplified or displayed—what faith is, and what faith does. The word “faith” appears twenty-three times in this chapter—clearly its dominant theme. And notice: the faith described here is no different from saving faith. Scripture makes no distinction between the faith a Christian lives by and the faith by which a person is saved. We often think we exercise faith to get saved and then that faith stops—but the faith by which you are saved is a faith that continues throughout your life. Look up a couple of verses to chapter 10: “Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him” (Hebrews 10:38–39). A saved man doesn’t merely get saved by faith—he lives by faith. If I preached a sequel to this message, I’d call it “Faith Perseveres.”
Verse 1 doesn’t give us a technical definition so much as a description of certain aspects of faith: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” First, faith is confidence in regard to things hoped for. The word translated “substance” literally means to stand under—a foundation, something solid and real. Right now something of substance is standing under us—a concrete floor—and it gives us confidence; no one here is trembling in fear of falling through. That’s the picture. This word is used five times in the New Testament, and cross-referencing is one of the best tools for understanding it—the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself. In 2 Corinthians 9:4 and 11:17 it’s rendered “confident boasting”—Paul’s confidence in the Corinthians’ generosity, and in his own apostleship. In Hebrews 1:3 Christ is “the express image of his person”—something of reality, actual existence. In Hebrews 3:14 we’re to “hold fast the beginning of our confidence.” And here in 11:1, our fifth occurrence. So the word means confidence—to stand on something real. Faith gives us confidence in regard to things hoped for.
What are these things hoped for? The future benefits for believers—the promises we find in God’s Word. The basis of a believer’s faith is always God’s Word; we hope for nothing outside what God has revealed. Answered prayer, eternal life, final glorification—all these promises become things we can be supremely confident in when we embrace them personally by faith. Faith is not the power of positive thinking, not conjuring up enough mental energy to bring something to pass. Real faith is always based on real truth—on the promises of God. Look down to verse 13: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Their faith continued to the point of death; they were so confident God would keep His promises that they didn’t even count the earth their homeland—they looked for a better country.
Second, faith is proof in regard to things not seen: “the evidence of things not seen.” The word “evidence” appears only one other time in the New Testament—in 2 Timothy 3:16, translated “reproof,” carrying the idea of convicting or convincing. So it means proof or evidence, and here it’s evidence of things not seen. What are things not seen? Verse 3 gives one kind—things of the past: none of us saw the creation of the world or the flood, yet “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 proves these unseen things in two ways. Objectively, God has revealed them in His Word, and by faith we embrace them as real. Subjectively, faith sees the fingerprints of God on His creation—“the heavens declare the glory of God”—so that we look at what He has made and know it is His handiwork. The flood, the miracles, the life, death, and resurrection of Christ—we did not see them, but we embrace them by faith, and faith is proof enough.
Faith Exemplified
Here’s where the message gets its title. Read through this chapter sometime and underline every proper name—Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and on down the list. Then read it again and circle every action verb attached to those names. It’s striking: in this great chapter on faith, we don’t read “by faith Abel believed this about God,” but “by faith Abel offered,” “by faith Enoch walked,” “by faith Noah built.” Action after action of people whose faith was so strong it stepped out upon what it claimed to believe.
Faith and Works
A word here about faith and works. If faith is this closely tied to works, are we saved by works? Not at all. Ever since the Reformation, those who hold the Bible’s teaching have rightly and strongly opposed the Roman Catholic system of a works-salvation, emphasizing justification by faith alone. That is exactly what Scripture teaches: works have no part in obtaining our salvation. But in the process, works have gotten a bad reputation—treated as non-essential or even suspect—and the necessity of works as a demonstration of real faith has lost its emphasis.
Here’s the key distinction. A person who believes in a works-salvation does what he does to earn favor with God—by church attendance, Bible reading, prayer, confession, the sacraments—thinking God will look down, be pleased, and grant him eternal life. A person saved by faith alone will also have good works—Scripture teaches this emphatically—but his motivation is entirely different. He realizes that nothing he does earns any favor with God, that all his righteousness is filthy rags (Isaiah), and that his only hope is the righteousness of Christ freely imputed to him by grace through faith. Yet the grace that has worked in him causes him to work, as a demonstration that his faith is real. One man works to earn favor; the other works because he has freely been given favor he doesn’t deserve. Scripture teaches the necessity of good works—but only as the demonstration of a living faith. “Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3).
Now watch how faith worked in each of these lives. Abel—the obedience of faith (v. 4): by faith he offered God the sacrifice God required, saying, “Not my way, but God’s way.” Enoch—the walk of faith (v. 5): “he pleased God”; back in Genesis, “Enoch walked with God.” Could that be said of you at the end of your life? Noah—the work of faith (v. 7): warned of rain he had never seen, mocked by everyone, he believed God at His word and built. Abraham—the submission of faith (vv. 8–10, 17–19): he left his country not knowing where he was going, and later, unable to reconcile God’s promise through Isaac with God’s command to offer Isaac, he stepped out beyond reason and obeyed. Sarah—the trust of faith (v. 11): past childbearing, “she judged him faithful who had promised.”
Isaac—the perception of faith (v. 20): though deceived as to which son stood before him, God revealed “things to come,” and Isaac pronounced exactly the blessing God gave him—refusing to change it even after the deception was discovered. Jacob—the anticipation of faith (v. 21): dying, leaning on his staff, he blessed Joseph’s sons, laying hold of God’s promise to make a great nation. Joseph—the conviction of faith (v. 22): certain God would redeem His people, he gave commandment concerning his bones, giving Israel hope of the coming exodus. Moses’ parents—the fearlessness of faith (v. 23): their fear of God outweighed their fear of the king’s command, so they hid their child. Moses—the decision of faith (vv. 24–29): he rejected the pleasures of Egypt to suffer affliction with the people of God—and no one trades pleasure for suffering except by faith. Joshua—the victory of faith (v. 30): he marched around Jericho day after day, seeing nothing for six days, yet kept on until the victory came. When you pray for the same thing day after day and see no answer, do you quit—or, like Joshua, keep marching until God gives the victory? Rahab—the help of faith (v. 31): even in something as simple as hiding two spies, her faith worked.
And then the others—the endurance of faith (vv. 32–40): those who “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,” and those who were “tortured, not accepting deliverance,” who endured mocking, scourging, bonds, imprisonment—“of whom the world was not worthy.” No matter the obstacle, faith impelled them forward. Folks, I don’t know how to say it more simply: faith works.
Does Your Faith Work?
We’ve seen faith explained—confidence and proof in regard to things hoped for and things not seen—and faith exemplified in all these men and women who by faith worked for the Lord, not to earn righteousness but to demonstrate that they had received Christ’s. Tonight you’re in one of two groups. Perhaps your faith is merely intellectual, a level-two faith that has never stepped out in true reliance on Christ. To you I say: come to Christ wholeheartedly. No longer stand in the background with your hand up—get in the wheelbarrow. By faith, step out upon the promise of God.
Or perhaps you’re trusting in Christ alone, yet you’ve seen tonight that your faith hasn’t been working as it ought. To you I say with Paul, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13); and with Peter, “Give diligence to make your calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10). May there be no doubt—in your mind or anyone else’s—that your faith is a living faith. Can people look at your life and say without hesitation, “This person is born again—look at that working faith”? Folks, we’ve seen tonight that faith works. I ask one simple question: does yours?