Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost (2010)

The Path to Paradise is Faith Rev. Toby Byrd

Hebrews 11:1 (ESV)

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is one of the grand chapters of Holy Scripture. Within it we find a gallery of notable portraits of ancient great believers, each drawn by the Master’s hand. Each of these great believers have one thing in common, they believed the unseen. They all trusted the promise, the promise for which they each had to wait and hope for. Therefore, within the mosaic painted for us by the author of the letter to the Hebrews we see one grand characteristic that ties them all together, making them members of the same family; they all shared a common faith; a faith that prevailed over every adversity, contradictory matter, or painful experience. It did not matter what tried to quench that faith and destroy their immortal souls, nothing in this life could tear them away from the Path to Paradise, which Faith had placed them on.

The writer to the Hebrews begins with a most powerful statement; “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (v. 1). As Christians we gladly and eagerly accept this definition of faith, but this definition is contrary to popular opinion; either the opinion that true faith cannot exist because there is no real truth; everything is relative, or the opinion that faith is something we do—a result of our desire to believe.

Now if one has a relative view of truth then one must believe that truth is something that can be adopted on an individual basis and applied as needed. A relative view of truth suggests that a person's view is true only for themselves. Truth then becomes a matter of opinion; what’s true for you may not be true for me. We saw this played out in real life in last weeks opinion by a federal judge in California who said that humanity had advanced to a point where gender no longer mattered. That in fact, we can no longer look at humanity in terms of men and women. His opinion states that such a view is outdated and God’s creation of male and female is now passé. Therefore, marriage cannot be defined as the union of one man and one woman, but it can include the unholy union of two members of the same sex. With this distorted view of marriage, how long will it be before the government rules in favor of bestiality? Look at the harm such a relative view has on our society. If our government adopts this view as civil law, it will place every believing Christian in opposition to our government creating untold strife and discord, because those of true faith must obey God rather than man.

Others, calling themselves Christians, state that faith is nothing more than their assent to a desire or belief. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Faith is always something or someone that impresses us as being genuine, true, right, reliable, or in a word, something that is outside of us and that is trustworthy, therefore producing confidence and conviction; the true essence of faith in us. To believe that faith is synergistic, that is that we have a hand in its creation, is pure fiction; to believe that the origin of faith rest in our effort is the product of shallow thinking. Those who pin their faith on their ability to believe rest their immortal souls on that which can never save; man’s sinful nature. Faith must come from without and inspire trust; otherwise you have no faith. Therefore, it is this force, outside of ourselves, that proves whether faith is true (justified) or false (unjustified). Truth alone produces true faith; no lie can ever accomplish true faith. However, a lie masked as the truth, succeeds in producing a false faith.

The writer to the Hebrews states that, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for” (v. 1). Here the writer states that faith is a firm, solid confidence in things hoped for. Yet, it is a firm, solid confidence based on truth. Faith is never based on something vague, or uncertain, something indefinable, or something which requires a leap of the imagination or worse. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Faith is confidence in what is reliable, truthful, certain, and real. To have faith is to believe and trust in someone or something even though it is hoped for or unseen. I can remember when I was ten years old, my father took all of us on vacation to visit my uncle in Ft. Wayne, Ind. Piling into our 1949 Pontiac, I couldn’t foresee what would happen on that trip from Kansas to Indiana, but I never doubted my father’s ability to get us there and back safely. I had faith in his ability to keep us safe throughout our journey. Furthermore, I had total faith, absolute confidence in what I hoped for, getting to see my dad’s family, my aunt and uncle and my cousins. My faith was not based on my ability to believe, but on my dad’s ability to navigate, drive, and protect his family; it was from outside me.

From the first day you were brought forth into this world your lives have been influenced by your surroundings and education; forces outside of yourselves. The blessed trust and faith you had in your parents, teachers, pastor, and others as a child can be lost and turned to cynicism because of the experiences of life. Likewise, from the first day of your spiritual rebirth your spiritual lives are influenced by the same things; the experiences and education of your adult lives. As you grow older and more self-reliant, it is not uncommon for adults to look to their own abilities to resolve the challenges of life. More educated and worldlier experienced adults begin to challenge their trust and faith in God. They tend to dismiss God’s Word and cling to the things of the world, becoming less reliant on their faith in God and turning instead to trusting their own abilities to resolve their problems, forgetting that the Spirit of truth is with them and in them. St. Paul warns us against this downward spiral, this wandering from the faith when he writes, be careful so that, “your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:5 ESV).

Therefore, you must be careful that you are not walking backwards in unbelief and despair. Rather, you should walk upright and forward in the blessed hope of faith, clinging to the words of the writer to the Hebrews, who wrote; “but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (Hebrews 10:38-39 ESV).

However, we are thankful that we have a merciful and loving God. Through His power He continues to reach out to you calling you into His loving arms. Sometimes His call is only a whisper, a soft, gentle breeze and you must be ever vigilant to hear Him. If you cling more to the world than to His Word, the world will deafen you and you will miss hearing His voice.

Out of His unending mercy, He called each of you to be cleansed of all your sins in the waters of baptism, and there, in that blessed water He gave you the gift of the Holy Spirit who has led you to believe; to have faith in the atoning sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This gift of the indwelling Spirit gave you the confidence to agree with the writer to the Hebrews when he writes, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (v. 1) and “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Heb. 11:3 ESV). Thus, this gift came from outside of you, it came from God.

God’s holy Word is the agent that produced faith in you. It is not something you possess of your own. Therefore, it is only through His Word that you are given the gift to believe that God is the Creator of the universe, that His Son, Jesus Christ, came to earth to redeem you from your sin and that the Holy Spirit continues to sanctify you, leading you to the fulfillment of God’s promise; eternal life with Him in the new Jerusalem. Now you were not witnesses of the Creation, nor did you physically see our Lord, Jesus Christ, nailed to the cross, bleeding and dying there for your sins, nor have any of you personally witnessed that which awaits us all; God’s heavenly home. Even though you have not personally witnessed these events, you believe and trust God’s Word which describes these events and His people in the history of His Creation. You believe because you have the truth, all the truth you will ever need: Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Our Lord Jesus is God's visible truth that His word is reliable and true. St. John makes this clear when he writes, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17 ESV). Our faith clings to His truth which has revealed all these things not seen, all their realty, their greatness and blessedness. Faith leads us daily on the Path to Paradise.

Because of faith, your hope in the promises of God is not mere wishful thinking. On the contrary, it is the certainty that God will do exactly what He said He would. He will fulfill every promise He has made. Man’s hope is imperfect because we are sinful and often fail to do what we say we’ll do. But the believer’s hope, which the author to the Hebrews is writing about, is a “hope beyond human hope” because it points to God who is completely reliable and true to His word and who is all-powerful to fulfill all that He has promised. Hope enables you to persevere when your faith is put to the test. Without question you will experience trials, setbacks, difficulties, and even failures in this life. However, God will triumph over all of them and He will accomplish His purpose for you, which is to live with Him and all His saints in His kingdom of glory for eternity. Knowing that God is faithful, you can embrace the words of the writer to the Hebrews, who wrote; “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23 ESV).

Yes, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (v. 1). It is this blessed gift of faith from our Lord, Jesus Christ that gives us the confidence to believe in His atoning sacrifice—His willing death upon the cross that paid the price for our sins—and leads us to hope for that which we have not seen. Through His precious gift of faith our hearts are turned to Him and in repentance we can confess our sins seeking God’s forgiveness, knowing that for the sake of His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, He will forgive us. Furthermore, through this precious gift of faith, the Holy Spirit sanctifies our lives, leading us to conform to the righteousness of our Lord Jesus while guiding us to the fruition of this great and loving gift of faith; life eternal with our Lord Jesus in His heavenly Paradise. There is but one Path to Paradise and that is Faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

May the Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.