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INTRODUCTION
ILLUS: A discouraged Pastor one Sunday “I’ve stopped expecting you to make great leaps
of faith, but it would be nice to see a little hop now and then.”
I can safely say our church has made a lot of hops - and many leaps of faith. I have documented
ministry changes past 12 years. Plus records of salvations, baptisms, changed lives.
Series on the Heroes of Faith - TEXT Hebrews 11. Verse 1 - definition.
“Faith” = assurance and conviction based upon hearing. Faith the future God has prepared
is real, and faith the invisible supernatural world is real.
Biblical faith always has its object as God/Christ. A. W. Tozer “the gaze of the soul upon
heart God.” Faith is taking God’s word concerning a subject. Substitute the word
“faith” with phrase “believing in the Word of God”
QUOTE: Crazy Love By Francis Chan: “True faith means holding nothing back. It
means putting every hope in God’s fidelity to His promises.”
QUOTE SIGN: “Faith is not leap into darkness but a step into light.”
Today’s TEXT focuses on two specific subjects of faith. As we live
our life what are the most important facts we must believe by faith that will transform our life?
1. Faith about Creation v. 3
- We need by faith to believe where we came from. In understanding the origins of our
world there has to be a leap of faith. No human was there to tell us what happened. So
what happened? How do we know?
- “By faith we understand” - faith is not without knowledge. Faith is
not the absence of evidence. Very opposite, but evidence that we did not provide. Faith
provides us with the only factual account of creation.
- “that the worlds were prepared by the word of God” God, the unseen
Power took nothing, created the seen world to be something by just speaking. God spoke,
there was a flow of energy of sound waves and it was transformed into matter
(Believer’s Bible Commentary, 1011).
- Power of God’s Word. Hebrew is “rhema” - refers to spoken word.
- Writer of Hebrews is affirming Genesis (1:1). Ex nihilo - out of nothing
- Genesis 1: “God said” - 10 times. Psalm 33:6 “By the word
of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host.”
- The vast world we see, and much we don’t see, was made by the word of God. Over 6
days “God said”: darkness/light, water above/water below, seas/dry land,
light in the sky/“the stars also”, sea life/ birds, land animals/man.
- Just by divine speech the omnipotent God when He spoke - created electrons, protons and
neutrons instantly to be formed into atoms. His Divine Word made all the elements for
visible matter.
- “so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible”
- By faith we can understand and believe how we got here. Not accident.
ILLUS: OR Big bang explosion - explosions cause chaos not order! Just observe the
volcano in Iceland.
- We cannot know our origins by scientific observation - impossible for no one was there
to observe. Nor by scientific experiment - impossible for all experiments start with
something not nothing. Mathematically?
Evolution: Nothing + Time = Everything
Creation: Nothing + God = Everything
- Creationists are not anti-science, science can do a beautiful job in explaining the
mechanics, the intricacies. Creationists and evolutionists look at the same evidence and
come to different conclusions because they both start with different assumptions. God is
OR God isn’t.
ILLUS: Darwin sailed for 5 years on the HMS Beagle. Galapagos islands - he concluded
evolution. The ships captain Admiral Robert FitzRoy concluded creation by God. Same
evidence. Darwin - so marvelous it had to evolve. FitzRoy - so marvelous it had to
be created.
- Remember true Christian Biblical faith can be translated “believing the Word of
God” - God was there as the Creator, and God has told us how it all came
about - amazing and awesome, marvelous and magnificent.
- By faith we should not be embarrassed to say, “God created the heavens and the
earth” (Gen. 1:1). So by faith do you believe God’s account? Or?
- Believing in creation by faith will transform your life, it will determine your
worldview, it will give the foundation for salvation.
QUOTE: Purpose Statement of “Answers in Genesis” “To illustrate
the importance of Genesis in building a creation-based worldview, and to equip the
reader with practical answers so they can confidently communicate the gospel and
biblical authority with accuracy and graciousness.”
- The gospel. The second most important fact we must believe by faith that will transform
our life is Faith for Salvation - Faith in the Gospel.
2. Faith for Salvation v. 6
- We need by faith to believe where we are going. Root subject is the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, the plan of salvation. Hebrews 7:24-25
- “And without faith it is impossible to please God” - it
doesn’t say it is difficult, rather it is impossible. Faith is the only thing that
can put God in His proper place of superiority, man in his proper place of submission.
- There is nothing about God that makes it impossible to believe in Him, it is all our
lack of our faith. Not lack of evidence: Psalm 19:1; Rom. 1:20
- God has revealed Himself and provides the opportunity for us to “come to God”
We can have saving faith, a relationship with God Himself.
- A. Saving faith believes the Being of God - God is: “for he
who comes to God must believe that He is”
ILLUS: The devil and world strike at this very first fact, deny God, mock the
existence of God. “We don’t need God.” The religion today is
humanism. Psalm 14:1 “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no
God.’“
- B. Saving faith believes in the Benevolence of God: “He is
the rewarder of those who seek Him.” What is the reward? Salvation/eternal
life. The quest for God is successful, simple faith/trust/confidence.
ILLUS: The devil and the world try to picture if a God exists He is cruel, a tyrant.
All false religions picture God like this.
- God rewards faith (v. 2) Believing the gospel will change your life.
- Read Romans 5:1-11 Christ gives us: peace with God, grace to live, hope,
meaning in tribulations, character that counts, Holy Spirit to guide, saved from wrath
of God on sin, worship, eternal reconciliation - by faith.
- We seek Him by faith. Pursuit of God, passion for God, love for God.
- Jer. 29:13 “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your
heart.” NT - John 14:6; Gal. 3:26 “For you are all sons of God through faith
in Christ Jesus.”
QUOTE: A.W. Tozer: “Faith will get me anything, take me anywhere in the
Kingdom of God, but without faith there can be no approach to God, no forgiveness,
no deliverance, no salvation, no communion, no spiritual life at all”
(Pursuit, 86).
QUOTE: C.S. Lewis: “Christ offers something for nothing. He even offers
everything for nothing. In a sense, the whole Christian life consists in accepting
that very remarkable offer” (Mere, 129).
CONCLUSION
Faith is the vehicle to understand where we came from - special creation by God not evolution, and
where we are going - our salvation in Jesus Christ.
How is your faith?
What is your faith in?
Do you have saving faith?
Invitation - If you never have put faith in Christ, please today. Look beyond the visible, gaze at
the heart of God, see into the supernatural world as described in the Bible and come to Christ the
only Savior and Lord.
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