Be Revolutionary. Be Normal and Live By Your Faith
Hebrews 11:7
A lady in California was listening to the radio around rush hour in the afternoon and heard the traffic guy warning motorists that there was a car traveling the wrong way on the freeway. Well, realizing that her husband was actually supposed to be on that freeway coming home from running errands for her, she called him on his cell phone and told him that there was a car on the freeway going the wrong way. To which, he very excitably replied—“One—there’s not just one—there’s hundreds of them going the wrong way.”
Whereas we should be going with traffic on the roadways—when it comes to living our lives and making the decisions that really define our lives—it should be the norm for us to be traveling upstream and against the status quo of this world. You see, as Christians we are called to be different in many ways and that should be normal to us. And the reason for this is because we are different—if you are a believer you are in Christ and He is in you and by virtue of that union with Christ you have to be different and if you aren’t in any way, shape, or form—this would be a good time to become concerned. And the difference is going to be primarily seen in our affections, the kinds of decisions we make, priorities and ambitions we pursue, activities we involve ourselves in, and our reactions to whatever comes our way. And all of these things—our affections, decisions, priorities, ambitions, activities, and reactions will either express a life that possesses and is exercising true saving faith or a life which does not possess and thus obviously cannot operate by faith.
Now our text for the next few Sundays, which is Hebrews 11 must be seen in context with Hebrews 10:32-39, in that the kinds of people the writer of Hebrews is talking about in Hebrews 11 are examples of those who truly possessed and lived their lives by the kind of saving faith that is being spoken about in Hebrews 10. This faith that the writer describes for us in Hebrews 10:32-39 seems to be a radical kind of faith. In fact, some would call it fanatical and even unrealistic.
Interestingly enough, God calls it true biblical and saving faith and makes the point that this is what any normal believer’s faith should look like and do.
Now don’t make the mistake of thinking this is the kind of faith you need to conjur up in order to be saved. No. That is not the point of Hebrews 10:32-39. The point of theses verses is that this is the kind of faith that people who have been truly saved have and should be exercising.
Now it is also important to understand that we can possess true faith without always exercising it as true believers. We do that every time we choose to sin.
But, the point that these verses are making is that if the overall tenor and consistency of your life and specifically of your faith is such that you have little desire to take risks for the glory of God, little desire to do hard things for the sake of extending and expanding God’s Kingdom, and little desire to endure and persevere under your trials as a means of making much of Christ—you are not living by faith and thus you are an abnormal Christian—if you are a Christian at all!
Those who have been born again and are saved by the blood of the Lamb and have had their sins forgiven and have been declared righteous by God—shall live by their faith! (Hebrews 10:38) It is not an exhortation or even a command—it is a statement of fact. Interestingly enough, it is also in the future tense, which tells us that if you are a true believer but are struggling with consistency in living out your faith—do not despair because you will get there.
God’s work of conforming you to the image of Christ is the work of making you into a Christian who lives his or her life by faith—believing God and entrusting yourself to God to such a degree that you are willing to do whatever He asks in order to make much of Him and thus satisfy your soul. And after making this point, the writer then provides us with a whole list of men and women who did possess and exercise true biblical faith in their lives. But again, don’t make the mistake of thinking they are being hailed as extraordinary men and women of faith—because they’re not. They are being hailed as normal men and women of faith. In fact, it is really a misnomer when this chapter is labeled “God’s Hall of Fame of Faith” because the intent of the writer is not to portray these people as “super saints” who all had a dose of more faith than anyone else including us.
No, the writer of Hebrews is using them as examples of what normal saving faith in the life of a believer who simply exercises it looks like.
Having said this—let me also clarify that the faith that saves us is anything but natural—it is supernatural—but it is the same supernatural faith that every believer possesses. The faith of these people in Hebrews 11 is not a faith that is superior to ours—it is the same faith—and thus the tough, hard, engaging, costly, risk-taking, and joy-fueling things that they were willing and even desirous of doing should be normative for us as well. Like them, we should be normal saints living out a supernatural faith.
Now my intent is not to deal with every example of true biblical faith provided in Hebrews 11 or in the Bible for that matter—because as the writer himself said in verse 32—there just isn’t enough time to do that. But over the next couple weeks I do want to review some of the lives mentioned in this chapter on faith and show you the things that are true of all believers who are committed to living by their faith. And if, in doing so, we find that we possess the kind of faith they had but aren’t exercising it to the degree that they did—the most radical and life-changing new year’s revolution you could set for yourself today would be to purposefully start to live by your faith so as to make the kinds of decisions and set the kinds of priorities and involve yourself in the kinds of risk-taking, hard, and costly activities which make much of Christ for the glory of His Name and he satisfaction of your soul.
I hope that as we finish out short mini-series considering biblical truths that can revolutionize our lives that we see that Living by our faith will revolutionize our lives. And furthermore, this kind of living—living by our faith and living out our faith—should be the norm for us.
So, turn with me to Hebrews 11:7 where we will see how Noah lived by faith.
1. Believers who are living by their faith believe and do really hard things in obedience to God. (7)
Can you imagine yourself along with three other men building a structure taller than a 3-story building, 150 feet longer than a football field, and about as wide as this gymnasium and then building enough stalls and cages to house about 40,000 animals and birds?
That would be a hard thing—most of us would say an impossible thing especially in light of the fact that Noah and his sons did not have power tools, cranes, booms, fork lifts, back hoes, or Home Depot. And that may be why it took them about 100 years to finish it. But they persevered and continued building in obedience to God even when they never saw a rain cloud even once while they were building it.
True faith does hard things and doesn’t quit even when there seems to be no reason for doing what you are doing other than God told you to. And keep in mind, God required Noah to believe something that had never happened before, something totally unprecedented, unlikely, and with no hard evidence to even remotely support it. I mean—no one had ever seen rain before let alone a universal flood. But not only did God require Noah believe Him—He commanded him to build a boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high—something no one had ever seen before and would ever see again until 1884 when the Italian Ocean Liner Euturia was built.
In essence, God’s command was not only hard—it seemed utterly impossible but Noah in living by faith took on the challenge and did a hard thing—an extraordinary thing—and to God a normal thing for any believer who would choose to live by faith. And if you have the same kind of saving faith that Noah had—and you are committed to living your life by that faith—you are going to be required by God to believe the hard things of faith and to do hard things for God that may indeed consume the totality of your life.
You will be required to stay married when your marriage isn’t all it should be.
You’ll be required to keep working when you want to quit and move on to something easier and more fun.
You’ll be required to fix your broken relationships rather than running away from them.
You’ll be required to hang in whatever God has called you to for the long haul even when it never appears as though what God has promised—God is going to bring to fruition.
Those are some hard things and some of the hard things believers who are going to live by their faith will have to do and these are the things which will revolutionize your lives.
2. Believers who are living by their faith give attention to God’s Word for the purpose of doing His work His way so as to make much of Him. (7a)
Look at the first part of verse 7 again. Whereas in our last point we looked at what Noah did by faith—in the first part of verse 7, we see how he did it by faith. Note that it says that Noah, “in reverence prepared an ark”. This 3 word phrase is only one word in Greek and it means: to take heed to do something with careful attentiveness. In other words, Noah really paid attention to what God had to say to him in Genesis 6:14-21 when He gave Noah the instructions for building the ark. Thus, Noah made the decision, which would be quite novel today considering how most churches do church, to do God’s work in the way God had prescribed down to the nitty-gritty details. Thus, those believers who are truly living by faith are in the Word finding out what God wants and in the Word finding out how God wants it done. You see, how we obey God matters as much as the fact that we do obey God. Thus, anytime we are trying to do God’s work without paying attention to God’s instructions—we are not operating by faith.
Consider the example of David and The Ark of the Covenant in 2 Sam. 6:6-7. As David is bringing the Ark back home the Ark almost falls but Uzzah reaches out his hand and steadies it. But, Uzzah, in touching the Ark sins. It is interesting that in verse 7, we are told that God killed Uzzah for his irreverence. This word in Hebrew means an act of irreverent sin, caused by carelessness, negligence, and not giving heed to God’s instructions. That which made the sin “irreverent” was the fact that care was not given to obeying God’s Word in exactly the way He prescribed. You see, per God’s instructions in Numbers 4:15, no one was to touch the Ark directly.
Note as well—that part of Noah’s motivation in giving careful consideration to God’s Word so as to obey it was his concern for his family. One careless mistake in following God’s instructions in building the Ark would have been disasterous for Noah’s family. One moment of laziness in which he was just sick and tired of applying pitch to the seams on the Ark and the Ark would have taken on water and perhaps sunk with all of his family on board.
Just a note dads—are you keeping watch—careful, diligent, unrelenting watch over your lives, your homes and your families to make sure all is being done God’s way? Do you know what your kids are reading and listening to? Do you even care? Are you noticing their walk with the Lord? Is it healthy or has it gone dry and cold? What are you doing about your kids disinterest with God and the things of God? And how about your wives—are they flourishing under your watchful, careful, diligent, and loving leadership?
Christian dads who are living by their faith are carefully working to apply God’s commands and principles in their homes all the time! And if you’re too busy to know—you’re too busy and something probably needs to change and making that change may be the most revolutionary thing you will ever make for your family. And that doesn’t make a dad a great dad—it simply makes him normal in terms of what a dad should be.
3. Believers who are living by their faith will by their actions not only be different from the world—they will condemn the world. (7b)
Noah’s pursuit of a hard task for the glory of God condemned those who were pursuing easy tasks for their own comfort. Noah’s desire to obey God to the letter condemned those who were content with giving God lip service and token obedience.
Noah’s willingness to be made a laughing stock and a joke to his generation as he built an ark to save his family and thousands of animals from a flood when no one had even ever seen rain before condemned those of his generation who would never risk their reputations to outwardly do anything that might smack of being sold out to God and thus appear weird or different.
Noah’s willingness to sacrifice his time, money, tools, resources, and even time at home in his recliner condemned those who were too interested in their homes and their recliners and their toys to even thing about God’s work.
4. Believers who are living by their faith demonstrate that they have it and are indeed heirs of righteousness. (7)
Some have confused the last phrase in verse 7 to be saying that by Noah’s actions he became an heir of salvation as though salvation were by works. That is not what the writer of Hebrews is saying. The two word phrase “By Faith” that begins verse 7 is to be applied to each of Noah’s activities so that we see that by faith, Noah reverently built the Ark, thus saving his family. . . And that by faith he condemned the world as he made decisions and choices that revealed to them their lack of faith and obedience to God. . . And that by faith he became an heir of the righteousness or the salvation which is according to or through faith. Thus, in living by faith, Noah was living out his faith and that demonstrated to all that he was truly a saved man—a man of Faith.
The greatest assurance you and I can ever have that we are indeed truly saved and heirs of salvation is that we purposely and intentionally pursue the kind of lifestyle, make the kinds of decisions, and press on in obedience to the Word because we simply want to make much of Christ.
CONCLUSION
During his presidency, Abraham Lincoln would occasionally attend church in Washington D.C. with one of his assistants. One Sunday as they were walking back to the capitol, Lincoln’s assistant asked him what he thought of the pastor’s sermon. Lincoln thought for a moment and then told his assistant that he did not think it was very good. When his assistant asked him why—Lincoln replied that whereas the exposition of the text was complete and correct—the pastor did not apply the message by asking of them anything great.
So . . . let me ask you to do something great and revolutionary this week—Be a normal Christian and live by your faith. And if you do—if you’ll just be a normal Christian in the eyes of God and live by faith—live your life believing Him and entrusting everything in and about your life to Him—you will become—and here is the irony of it all—a great man or woman of God.
As the last Puritan of the 19th century, J. C. Ryle put it:
“In walking with God, a man will go just as far as he believes, and no further. His life will always be proportional to his faith. His peace, his patience, his courage, his zeal, his works—all will be according to his faith.”
In other words, you can go as far in the Christian Life as you want and your experience of God can go as deep and be as exciting and breathtaking and exhilarating as your faith will take you. So that, if you only have to trust God for small things—your faith and your experience of God will remain small. If your desire to make much of Christ remains small so that you have no desire to take the risks and do the hard things and remain in the tough situations that demand a greater faith than you have ever exercised before—your faith will remain small, Christ will continue to look small, and your life experience of Christ will remain small as well. If, however, you trust God and in fact put yourself in situations, for the glory of God, where you must trust Him for big things and big challenges and in big problems and in big ways—your faith and experience of God will be big because your God is Big.
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