Faith That Pleases God
By Tom Holt
It was the night before Jesus went to the cross. The Lord was in the Upper Room with His disciples. While they were eating the Passover, He identified Judas as the one who would betray Him and He sent Judas on his way. The remaining Eleven, knowing that their Master would soon leave them, were all very heavy hearted. Jesus then began to comfort them, assuring them that it was for their good that He was going back to the Father and promising that He would come back for them someday.Hebrews 11:1-7 During that intimate moment together, the Lord gives these disciples two parting giftswhich, of course, are given to all of us believers as well. First, He says in John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you."
Notice how the Lord takes pains to point out that He doesn't give as the world gives. All of us have at one time or another gone through periods of great turmoil and have learned that whatever relief we found in the world was short-lived at best. In contrast, the peace that the Lord Jesus gives us is His personal peace; it is a peace that passes all understanding, a peace that satisfies our innermost being.
Notice how the peace of the Lord comforted Jesus Himself. That same night He said to the disciples, "Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone" (John 16:32). He knew that He would soon fall into the hands of His enemies and that just when He
would need his friends most, the disciples would all abandon Him. Can you imagine what a painful prospect that must have been? But Jesus was at peace. He continued, "And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me."It was that divine peace that enabled Him to keep ministering to others even while He was hanging on the cross. He saved a thief that was crucified next to Him and He made provision for the care of His mother. True, at the worst of His punishment, He did cry out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" But He soon recovered His composure and calmly committed His Spirit to the Father just before He died.
Such is the peace that Jesus has given us. It is a supernatural peace that passes all understanding.
His joy also. But Jesus has also given us His joy. Asking the Father to protect the disciples, He says, "These things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves" (17:13). He wants us to be filled with His joy.
Again, the joy that Jesus gives us is altogether different from anything that we find in this world. It is something we can experience even when we are going through trials. That's why James tells us to count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations. It's an inner joy generated by the knowledge that we are a child of God and that we'll spend eternity in heaven.
We know that in a sense Jesus had dreaded the punishment He had to endure for our sins. Three times in the Garden of Gethsemane He asked the Father to spare Him from drinking that cup of God's wrath. Nevertheless, He allowed Himself to be crucified.
The Lord was obedient, of course, always willing to submit to the Father's will. Still, He did not go to the cross reluctantly. Hebrews 12:2 reveals that He endured the cross "for the joy that was set before him." The joyful knowledge that He would be greatly exalted by God the Father afterwards gave Him the strength and courage to go through that horrible ordeal. And that's the same supernatural joy that Jesus has given to all of us believers.
And yet, it's a sad fact that not every child of God is living a life of peace and joy. When trials and difficulties come our way, we often worry and worry. Instead of walking by faith, we tend to let the circumstances that we see overwhelm us. Why? We simply don't have quite enough faith.
True, having a strong faith is easier said than done. Faith is not something we can manufacture. Nor can we psyche ourselves up to believe. In fact, we should not even try to fake peace and joy. God knows our heart, and He hates hypocrites. Yet, Hebrews 11:6, which is part of the text for this message, says that without faith it is impossible for us to please God.
How then can we strengthen our belief? Well, let's see what we can learn from Hebrews 11, the faith chapter of the Bible. Based on just the first seven verses, I would like to share with you three important truths about the faith that pleases God.
I. The meaning of true faith
We read in verse 1, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," In our everyday language, to hope for something is to look forward to something with expectation. In the Bible though, the word hope conveys absolute certainty. And so, faith is being sure of what we hope to receive from God.I suppose we born-again believers are all sure of going to heaven after this life. Even though we did not personally see the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, we believe. By faith we know that Jesus, the Son of God, died for our sins, rose again on the third day and later ascended back to heaven. And so, we are confident that the moment we leave this body, we will be present with the Lord. In short, we all have a strong saving faith.
But when it comes to our everyday life, I'm afraid not too many of us have a strong living faith. Somehow, while we are convinced that we have been saved entirely by the grace of God and that we do not contribute anything to our salvation, we nevertheless find it difficult to accept the idea that every good and perfect gift in this life comes to us also by the grace of God. And so, we try to plan and manage our future much as the people of the world do.
Sovereignty of God. The truth is, contrary to what the world says, God does not help those who help themselves. Instead, the Bible declares: "There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand" (Prov. 19:21); and "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it" (Psa. 127:1).
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that we should just sit back and do nothing and wait for God to shower us with all kinds of goodies. God warns us repeatedly in the Book of Proverbs not to be lazy. But a believer who is indwelt and led by the Holy Spirit simply will not be lazy. He will do what God directs him to do.
Just like saving faith, a living faith that pleases God is one with which we are sure of what we hope for in this life as much as for eternity.
We read in Ephesians 2:10: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." And in the New International Version of Psalm 139:16: "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."
These verses are teaching us that even before we were born, the sovereign God had already decreed in detail the good works we would do all the days of our life. Since it is not man's plan but the Lord's purpose that prevails, we can rest assured that our every tomorrow will turn out exactly the way God has ordained it. That's why God tells us not to worry about tomorrow, but to live one day at a time.
Things not seen. Let's look now at verse 3: "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." I suppose we Christians have no trouble acknowledging that God is the Creator of the universe. But as a man of faith, we must also keep in mind that God made all this out of that which was invisible.
As I said earlier, very often we have trouble walking by faith because the circumstances around us seem so hopeless. In II Kings 6, we have an account of a pagan king trying to capture the prophet Elisha. One night, that wicked king had his army surround the city where the prophet was staying. When Elisha's servant saw the enemy early the next morning, he was greatly frightened. Then, as Elisha prayed, God opened that servant's eyes and what did he see? The hills all around them were full of horses and chariots of fire, forces far more powerful than the enemy.
You see, what we see is not always what we get. With God, all things are possible. He delights in saving us from a seemingly hopeless situation, because only then will we truly give Him all the honor and glory. Remember Jesus told the Apostle Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness"? The weaker we are, the greater is the power of God and the more He will be glorified.
God always exists. Still defining faith, the middle of verse 6 declares, "for he that cometh to God must believe that he is." On the surface, this added definition of faith seems redundant. If I am certain of what I hope for, I obviously know that God exists. But the question is, how well do we know that. You see, many churchgoers think of God only on Sundays. To them, for all practical purposes, He hardly exists in the rest of the week. But notice what David writes in Psalm 139:8-10:
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;David constantly remembers that wherever he is and whatever he is doing God exists. When a person is aware of God's presence all the timewhether at home, at work, on vacation or whereverhe is more likely to rely on God for strength and wisdom, and to be careful not to behave disobediently. This is faith that pleases God.
Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.II. The way to build faith
How, then, can we increase our faith? Let's stop and review how we became saved to begin with. God declares in Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." Our saving faith comes from God. Actually, all faith comes from God. But whereas God gives every believer the same saving faithyou are either a believer or you aren'tHe gives more living faith to some believers and less to others.In Romans 12:3, the Apostle Paul tells every believer not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Instead, he says each of us ought "to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith". You see, God deals different measure of faith to different people.
To expect God to give us more faith, we first have to acknowledge our lack of it and then beseech the Lord to strengthen it. In Luke 17:5, we read about the disciples coming to Jesus and saying, "Increase our faith." Likewise, in Mark 9:24 the father of the boy with an evil spirit comes to Christ and pleads, "I believe; help thou mine unbelief." In short, we be
gin by praying.Seek God. Next, we read in the last part of verse 6, "he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Along the same line, the Bible says elsewhere: "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you;" and "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled."
What all these verses reveal is that the more we seek to know God, the more we get to know Him. And the more we know God, the more faith we'll have in Him. This is the principle behind Romans 10:17, where we read: "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." We see the same truth in Romans 12:6: "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith."
Because the strength of our faith is directly proportionate to our ability to declare the word of God and vice versa, I simply cannot overemphasize the importance of our spending quality time to study the Bible.
III. The outworking of faith
Besides knowing what faith is and how to build faith, we need also to know how real our faith is. James says, "Faith without works is dead." In other words, our faith must be reflected in our behavior. To help us examine ourselves, let's look at the three men of faith listed in our text and see if we can somehow relate to them.The fear of God. Verse 7 reads, "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."
Although Noah had never seen nor heard about rain before, he went ahead and built an ark in holy fear to save his family. Not only that, we learn from the two epistles written by Peter, Noah also preached to the people of his day (I Peter 3:19; II Peter 2:5).
We are now living in a world much like that prevailing just before the Flood. But unlike the flood of Noah's day, the upcoming Judgment will not be limited to physical destruction. Anyone who has not trusted in the Lord Jesus will be condemned to eternal punishment in hell. If we have the same faith as Noah, we too should in holy fear warn the people of Judgment Day to come.
Futhermore, we don't know how many people were living in Noah's day. But we do know that God saved only Noah and his family. Likewise, of the billions of people in the world, we are among the remnant whom God has chosen to save. When we put things in eternal perspective, we cannot help but have great joy bubbling in our hearts.
Better sacrifice. Verse 4 reads, "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh."
Reading the historical account of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4, it's hard for us to understand why God was pleased with Abel's offering, but not Cain's. But from what we learn from the rest of the Bible, we can safely conclude that the Lord must have told the
brothers that being sinners by nature, they were under the wrath of God, and that to atone for their sins, blood must be shed. God might even have told them that the animals killed in the sacrifice were pointing to the coming Messiah. Abel believed what God had told him and so he offered a better sacrifice.If we are like Abel, we too must remember that it is the shed blood of Christ that has covered our sin. Our Lord Jesus had to pay a great price to redeem us. To show our gratitude, we should now offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.
Walking with God. Finally, we read in verse 5, "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." Enoch never died. God just took him up to heaven.
Why was he so blessed? Because, it says here, "he pleased God." How did he please God? All the Bible tells us is: "Enoch walked with God."
Amos 3:3 is a verse that helps us understand what walking with God means. It asks rhetorically: "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" To walk with God, therefore, is to agree with God. When we agree to walk with God, we agree to follow Him, because Christ always does the leading and we do the following.
In Luke 9, the Lord says: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." (vv. 23-24). That's what walking with God is all about.
You see, if we truly agree to follow Christ, then we must die to ourselves. It means that what I want for myself no longer matters. Christ is the One who decides which path shall my life take. Thatís really a great blessing, because we humans are bound to make mistakesósometimes serious ones. But having Jesus in full charge of every aspect of our future, we can rest in the knowledge that everything will surely work together for our good.
To walk with God also means to be content with whatever lot God has given us. It may not be pleasant all the time, but once we have learned to be content and not to grumble against God, we can never be disappointed by anything. Isnít that great?
In closing, let me say again that Jesus has given us His peace and His joy. All too often, we fail to experience them because we continue to live our lives the old way. To take hold of the peace and joy of the Lord, we must have the kind of faith that is pleasing to God. That means we are certain of the good gifts that God will give us in both this life and the next. To gain increasing faith from God, we must prayerfully seek Him by studying the Scripture. Only after we have learned to do that shall we begin to enjoy the blessings of being free of the cares of the world. o