Latest / Reformed Thinking / Deed of the Soul: The Substance and Evidence of Saving Faith (Hebrews 11:1)
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to Reformed thinking. I am so glad you decided to join
- 0:03us today. Yeah, it is great to be here for
- 0:05another deep dive. We really have a lot of ground
- 0:07to cover. We certainly do.
- 0:09So I want you, the listener, to just imagine sitting in your own
- 0:14living room holding your spouse's hand, OK?
- 0:17I am picturing it. And you are listening to the
- 0:20heavy, unmistakable crunch of Roman boots marching down your
- 0:24street. Wow, that is a terrifying sound.
- 0:26It really is because you know that if those boots stop at your
- 0:30door, everything you have worked for is gone.
- 0:33Right. You lose your house, your bank
- 0:34accounts, all of it. Yeah, you lose your social
- 0:36standing and quite possibly you lose your life.
- 0:40And the staggering part is you are losing all of this physical
- 0:43security for a very specific reason.
- 0:46Right. You're losing it because you
- 0:47have sworn allegiance to a king you cannot even see.
- 0:50That is the precise historical reality we are investigating
- 0:53today. It really is.
- 0:55We are initiating a deep denies into two incredibly thorough
- 0:58theological expositions on Hebrews Chapter 11, verse one.
- 1:02Yeah, our sources for this discussion are titled Deed of
- 1:04the Soul and Faith Beyond Sight. And our mission today is to
- 1:08recover a biblical, objective definition of saving faith.
- 1:12We want to cut straight through the modern counterfeits that
- 1:15severely plague the current evangelical landscape.
- 1:19Which is so necessary because we live in a society that
- 1:22aggressively demands visible proof for absolutely everything.
- 1:27Oh, without a doubt. We are conditioned to trust only
- 1:29what we can measure. You know only what we can hold
- 1:32in our hand. Right, and only what yields
- 1:34immediate calculable results. So if seeing is believing for
- 1:38the rest of the world, what does it mean for a Christian to stake
- 1:42their life on the unseen? That is the big question.
- 1:45It is How do you function in a world that mocks invisible
- 1:48realities while your soul depends entirely upon them?
- 1:52Well, that scenario sets the stakes perfectly because to
- 1:54answer your question, we have to realize that biblical faith is
- 1:57not a blind leap into the dark. No, not at all.
- 2:00Nor is it a subjective feeling that fluctuates with our
- 2:03circumstances. According to the Reformed
- 2:06Protestant theological standard, faith is a sovereignly granted
- 2:10gift. It is an objective reality
- 2:12grounded in the truthfulness of God Himself.
- 2:14Spot on. So we are going to look at the
- 2:17historical Crucible of the 1st century, investigate the
- 2:20original Greek legal terminology used in the text, and draw out
- 2:24the specific application for believers who are currently
- 2:27waiting for Christ's return. We are taking a exhaustive look
- 2:31at how the righteous live by faith, not by sight.
- 2:34Yeah, and we will see that this text is a pastoral remedy.
- 2:37It is designed to keep professing believers clinging to
- 2:40Christ when outward circumstances tempt them to
- 2:43retreat. The author of Hebrews is
- 2:45literally handing A lifeline to people who are drowning in
- 2:48external pressures. He really is.
- 2:50So to grasp the gravity of Hebrews 11 verse one, we cannot
- 2:54just pull the verse out of the air and treat it like a
- 2:56motivational quote. No, that does a massive
- 2:58disservice to the text. It does.
- 3:00We have to drop it back into the dangerous, terrifying era where
- 3:04it was originally written. We have to set the scene in the
- 3:08mid to late eighty 60s. You're right, the Roman Empire
- 3:11under the erratic and increasingly hostile reign of
- 3:15Nero, it is becoming a suffocating atmosphere for the
- 3:18early church. Because Christianity is no
- 3:20longer viewed as a protected sect of Judaism at this point.
- 3:23Yeah, it is now classified as an illegal subversive superstition.
- 3:27And for these believers, confessing Christ meant facing
- 3:31property confiscation, public reproach, and, you know, the
- 3:35very literal threat of martyrdom.
- 3:36They were actively watching their earthly security get
- 3:40systematically dismantled by the state Which?
- 3:42Brings up a really striking question in my mind.
- 3:44What is that? Well, is faith actually easier
- 3:47when you have nothing left to lose?
- 3:49Or when you were actively watching your earthly security
- 3:51get stripped away? Oh.
- 3:53Oh wow, that is a heavy question.
- 3:54I mean, I think there's a massive difference between
- 3:56having nothing from the start and slowly bleeding out
- 4:00everything you own. Yeah, the psychological toll of
- 4:02that process of bleeding out your possessions cannot be
- 4:05overstated. When you are in the middle of
- 4:07losing your home, you're standing and your safety, the
- 4:10temptation to compromise is overwhelming.
- 4:13It absolutely is, and the author of Hebrews isn't giving these
- 4:17terrified believers a superficial pep talk.
- 4:19Not at all. He is looking at people who are
- 4:21literally losing the deeds to their earthly houses and he is
- 4:25handing them a legal assurance of heavenly property.
- 4:29He is teaching them to measure the present by the promise of
- 4:32God rather than measuring the promise of God by the pain of
- 4:36the present. That is beautifully said because
- 4:39the socioeconomic and religious pressures were just immense,
- 4:43compounding the threat of the state.
- 4:45And these were primarily Jewish Christians, right?
- 4:47Yes, they were facing severe internal and external coercion.
- 4:51To remain loyal to Jesus meant being formally excommunicated
- 4:55from the covenant community of Israel.
- 4:57Which means they lost the social safety net of the synagogue.
- 5:00Well, precisely. They lost their economic
- 5:02standing within their community. They were branded as traitors to
- 5:06the Law of Moses and the customs of their fathers.
- 5:08So the temptation they face was not just a casual drifting away.
- 5:12No, it was a desperate, agonizing urge to go back to the
- 5:16visible, tangible, socially safe institutions of the Levitical
- 5:21priesthood and the physical temple sacrifices.
- 5:24Because you can physically see a priest slaughtering an animal,
- 5:29you can smell the incense, you can see the smoke rising from
- 5:32the altar. Right.
- 5:33The pressure to abandon the unseen Christ for the visible
- 5:36rituals of the Old Covenant was crushing.
- 5:39Especially since these early Christians were living in the
- 5:41last days before the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem.
- 5:45Yeah, their entire physical world, the center of their
- 5:48religious heritage, was collapsing around them.
- 5:51This requires us to look at the theological framework outlined
- 5:53in the Westminster Confession, specifically Chapter 7.
- 5:57Yes, the chapter that deals with God's covenant with man.
- 6:00Because these believers stood at a definitive, redemptive
- 6:03historical transition point. They did.
- 6:05The confession states that the covenant of grace was
- 6:07administered differently under the Law and under the Gospel.
- 6:10Right under the law, it was administered by promises,
- 6:12prophecies, sacrifices and circumcision.
- 6:14Which were all types and shadows pointing forward to Christ.
- 6:17But in the Gospel, those types and shadows are permanently
- 6:21superseded by the substance, which is Christ Himself.
- 6:25And the original audience was being tempted to run back to the
- 6:28shadows when the substance had already arrived.
- 6:30Which makes no sense logically, but under pressure it was so
- 6:34tempting. True saving faith recognizes
- 6:37that the transition has occurred, the Old Covenant
- 6:39administration is finished, and the New Covenant in Christ's
- 6:42blood provides the only solid ground for salvation.
- 6:46I really want to pause on that transition from shadows to
- 6:48substance because it perfectly sets up the vocabulary the
- 6:51author uses. It does.
- 6:53The Greek terms are brilliant. Since these believers were
- 6:56losing physical property and facing tangible ruin, the
- 6:59specific words the author chose to define faith were tailored to
- 7:03their legal anxieties. We really need to look at the
- 7:05bipartite parallel structure of Hebrews 11 verse.
- 7:09One, let's do it. The author uses 2 highly
- 7:11specific Greek terms. Yeah, hypothesis and Ilinkus.
- 7:15And these are not terms of vague religious sentiment.
- 7:17Not at all. Let's breakdown hypothe
- 7:19hypostasis first. In the secular 1st century
- 7:22world, particularly in ancient business, papyri discovered in
- 7:26the sands of Egypt hypothesis function as a rigid legal term.
- 7:30Right. It meant assurance, substance or
- 7:32title deed. It was a guarantee of property.
- 7:35It provided the objective essence of the things hoped for.
- 7:39When you consider that these people were being legally robbed
- 7:41of their possessions, the use of hypothesis is staggering.
- 7:45It really is. The author's essentially saying,
- 7:47look, the Roman state took the deed to your earthly house, but
- 7:52faith is the objective title deed to your heavenly
- 7:55inheritance. It is a stunning pastoral move
- 7:58to use property law terminology to comfort people who are
- 8:01victims of property theft. I love how scripture does that.
- 8:04Yeah, it is a brilliant move, and the second term, alinkos,
- 8:07carries an equally rigorous legal and philosophical force.
- 8:10Let's unpack that one. It translates to conviction,
- 8:13proof or evidence produced by demonstration.
- 8:15Like in a courtroom setting? Yes, in a classical Greek court,
- 8:19alendos was the cross examination that brought the
- 8:21hidden facts into the light, providing undeniable proof.
- 8:25It is the evidence of things not seen.
- 8:27So faith functions as the cognitive and spiritual evidence
- 8:31of the unseen world wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit.
- 8:34And if we bring in Westminster Confession Chapter 14 of Saving
- 8:37Faith, we find a masterful synthesis of these concepts.
- 8:42The Confession teaches that the grace of faith, whereby the
- 8:45elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is
- 8:49the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts.
- 8:51By this faith, a Christian believes whatsoever is revealed
- 8:55in the Word to be true, based on the authority of God Himself
- 8:58speaking therein. Faith is the instrument by which
- 9:01we lay hold of the righteousness of Christ.
- 9:03It is an objective reality. It is the proof in the
- 9:06believer's soul of realities that remain invisible to the
- 9:10physical lie. The Spirit takes the promises of
- 9:12God and stamps them onto the human heart with such force that
- 9:15the invisible world becomes more certain than the visible world.
- 9:18I love the analogy of a property deed to illustrate how that
- 9:21certainty functions. Yeah, it is a very helpful
- 9:23picture. Imagine you live in London, but
- 9:27you hold the legal deed to a massive farm in Australia.
- 9:30OK, I am with you. You have never been to
- 9:32Australia, You have never physically touched the soil of
- 9:35that farm. You cannot see it with your own
- 9:37eyes, right? But it does not matter that the
- 9:40farm is out of your line of sight.
- 9:42The paperwork in your hand is the substance of your claim.
- 9:45It is the legal guarantee that the property belongs to you.
- 9:48Well, I mean, you can make life decisions based on the fact that
- 9:51you own that land entirely because of the document.
- 9:54This highlights the massive contrast between the biblical
- 9:57definition of faith and the modern secular idea of a leap of
- 10:01faith. Oh man, secular philosophy
- 10:04totally frames belief as jumping into a dark void, closing your
- 10:08eyes and hoping something catches you.
- 10:09But this text frames belief as standing on solid concrete.
- 10:13You are not jumping into the dark.
- 10:15You are standing on the immovable reality of God's
- 10:18declared Word. The proof is the divine
- 10:20testimony. That objective reality is
- 10:23absolutely essential because it forces us to discard the
- 10:25counterfeits. We really have to do that.
- 10:28Now that the scriptural standard is clear, we must clear away the
- 10:31false definitions that have hijacked the modern
- 10:34understanding of belief. We must walk through the
- 10:36specific rejections listed in the sources.
- 10:39Let's hit the first one. First, faith is not mere
- 10:42optimism. Optimism is rooted in human
- 10:45temperament or wishful thinking. It assumes things will get
- 10:48better without asking whether God has actually spoken.
- 10:51Which is so common today. And 2nd, faith is not simple
- 10:56intellectual agreement. A person can agree with orthodox
- 10:59theology, checking all the correct doctrinal boxes without
- 11:02ever resting their soul upon Christ. 3rd Faith is not
- 11:05self-confidence. Relocating the strength of
- 11:08belief from God to man is a fatal error.
- 11:11True faith draws its might from the Creator, not the creature.
- 11:14And 4th faith is not sight. We cannot demand visible
- 11:18evidence before we obey. And most severely, faith is not
- 11:21a technique for material gain. We must rigorously dismantle
- 11:25these errors to protect the purity of the gospel.
- 11:27We really need to unpack that last point, especially against
- 11:29the prosperity gospel because it is so pervasive today.
- 11:32It is an absolute plague. Treating faith as a
- 11:35psychological tool to manifest wealth or health is an absolute
- 11:38blasphemy. It turns God into a cosmic
- 11:41vending machine. And it turns faith into the
- 11:43currency you use to buy worldly comfort.
- 11:46If faith were a guarantee of earthly prosperity, then the
- 11:50martyrs of Hebrews 11 would be considered massive failures.
- 11:54Which is absurd. Some of them were sawn into
- 11:57destitute, afflicted, and mistreated.
- 11:59They didn't lack faith. Their faith was so strong that
- 12:02they embrace suffering rather than compromise.
- 12:04We also have to reject the Roman Catholic error of implicit
- 12:07faith. Yeah, that doctrine suggests you
- 12:09can have intellectual assent without fiducia or personal
- 12:12trust. And we have to reject the
- 12:14Armenian view that treats faith as a meritorious human work.
- 12:18Because faith is not a human achievement that earns God's
- 12:20favor. It is simply the empty hand, the
- 12:23instrument that receives the grace of God.
- 12:25Furthermore, against modern mysticism, we must deny the
- 12:28priority of extra biblical Revelations faith.
- 12:31Rests entirely on the completed Canon of Scripture.
- 12:35The psychological draw of these errors is obvious, right?
- 12:38We want control, we want merit, or we want a fresh, personalized
- 12:42word from heaven. But they all destroy the actual
- 12:44mechanics of salvation. Let's examine the mechanics of
- 12:47fiducia because it is vital for understanding why the Roman
- 12:51Catholic concept of implicit faith fails.
- 12:53Right Reformed theology breaks faith down into 3 components.
- 12:58Yes, Noticia, which is knowing the facts of the Gospel.
- 13:01A census which is agreeing that those facts are true.
- 13:03And fiducia, which is the actual casting of your soul upon Christ
- 13:08in trust. The Roman Catholic model often
- 13:10halts at a census. It allows a person to simply
- 13:14agree with whatever the Church teaches, even if they don't
- 13:16understand it, and calls that faith.
- 13:18But James too tells us that even the Demons have noticia and a
- 13:22census. They know God is, and they
- 13:24shudder, but they do not have fiducia.
- 13:26They do not trust him for salvation.
- 13:28Furthermore, when the Armenian makes faith a condition that man
- 13:31fulfills out of his own free will, they subtly turn faith
- 13:34into a work. They make faith the reason God
- 13:36saves rather than the instrument through which God saves.
- 13:40And when the Mystic looks for a new revelation, they insult the
- 13:43sufficiency of scripture. Biblical faith is a God wrought
- 13:46word governed confidence. It acts because God has spoken.
- 13:50It bows before the light of divine truth rather than human
- 13:53been speculation. Let me offer a relatable
- 13:56scenario to push back on this a bit, because I think the line
- 13:59between human optimism and biblical faith gets blurry for
- 14:02people in their daily lives. That is a very fair assessment.
- 14:06Suppose I say I believe I will get a promotion at work next
- 14:11month. I pray about it, I feel a sense
- 14:13of peace about it, and I tell my friends I have faith it will
- 14:16happen. I hear that kind of thing all
- 14:17the time. But realistically, that is
- 14:19optimism based on my own human preference.
- 14:22I want it to happen, so I hope it happens.
- 14:24Right. How do we spot the subtle
- 14:25difference between hoping for a good outcome and exercising
- 14:29actual biblical faith? Because I see Christians
- 14:32constantly confusing their own intense desires with divine
- 14:36promises. It's a very common trap.
- 14:38They want a specific outcome so badly, whether it is a job, a
- 14:42healing, or a relationship, that they convince themselves God has
- 14:46guaranteed it. And when it doesn't happen,
- 14:48their quote UN quote faith is completely shattered and they
- 14:50end up angry at God for breaking a promise he never actually
- 14:53made. So how do we parse that out?
- 14:55The distinction lies entirely in the presence of a specific
- 14:58declared word from God. Biblical faith requires divine
- 15:02revelation. Let's look at the example of
- 15:05Noah in Hebrews 11. Perfect example, Noah did not
- 15:08build a massive boat on dry land out of human optimism.
- 15:11He didn't just wake up with a positive feeling that building
- 15:14an ark would be a good career move or a fun project.
- 15:16He built it because God specifically spoke and warned
- 15:20him of an unseen judgement. Faith honors the sufficiency of
- 15:24divine revelation. If God has not spoken of promise
- 15:27in Scripture, you have no warrant to exercise biblical
- 15:30faith regarding that specific outcome.
- 15:32You can pray for a promotion, you can ask for healing, you can
- 15:35intensely desire good outcome, and you can trust God's
- 15:38sovereign Providence whatever happens.
- 15:40But true saving faith, the hypothesis is anchored
- 15:43exclusively to what God has explicitly promised in His Word.
- 15:47He has promised to save you, to sanctify you and to raise you on
- 15:50the last day. He has not promised you a corner
- 15:52office or a life free of illness.
- 15:54When believers confuse their personal desires with God's
- 15:57promises, they're practicing a form of self-confidence
- 16:00disguised as religion. They were trying to dictate
- 16:02terms to the creator. Which is never a good posture
- 16:06for the creature. Not at all.
- 16:07So understanding what faith is and what it is not forces us to
- 16:12look at how it operates in real time.
- 16:14How did the author of Hebrews string this argument together to
- 16:17persuade his audience? We have to trace the literary
- 16:20flow of the epistle to fully grasp the argument.
- 16:23Hebrews 10 contains terrifying warnings against shrinking back
- 16:27to destruction. It sets the stakes.
- 16:29If you abandoned Christ, there is no sacrifice left for sins.
- 16:33Then Hebrews 11 provides a massive list of historical
- 16:36examples of those who endured. Finally, Hebrews 12 points the
- 16:40believer to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of faith.
- 16:43The entire progression is designed to produce
- 16:45perseverance. And when you look at the Hall of
- 16:46Faith in Chapter 11, you see a consistently escapological,
- 16:50future oriented posture. Abel offered a better sacrifice
- 16:54and still speaks, though dead. Noah moved with reverent fear
- 16:57regarding unseen events. Abraham left his comfortable
- 17:00homeland for a city built by God.
- 17:03Moses deliberately chose the reproach of Christ over the
- 17:05visible immediate treasures of Egypt.
- 17:08They were all looking forward. That eschatological posture is
- 17:11the definitive characteristic of covenantal obedience.
- 17:15Look closely at the Patriarchs. The text explicitly states that
- 17:19they died without receiving the physical fulfillment of the
- 17:22promises. They greeted the promises from
- 17:24afar. This proves conclusively that
- 17:26faith is not imprisoned in the immediate moment.
- 17:29They did not receive the full manifestation of the land or the
- 17:32city while they were breathing on this earth, yet they died in
- 17:35faith. Their obedience was not
- 17:37contingent upon immediate, visible reward.
- 17:40Moses is a stellar example. He was raised in the courts of
- 17:43Pharaoh. He had access to unparalleled
- 17:46wealth, power and status. He evaluated the visible glory
- 17:49of Egypt, and he evaluated the unseen reward of suffering with
- 17:53God's people. By faith, he determined that the
- 17:55unseen reality was infinitely more valuable than the visible
- 17:59illusion of Egyptian supremacy. He endured as seeing him who is
- 18:02invisible. His value system was completely
- 18:05inverted by the grace of God. That inversion of values brings
- 18:08up a phrase from the source material that hits incredibly
- 18:11hard. Practical atheism.
- 18:14Oh, I really want to talk about this because it targets the
- 18:16modern church directly. It does.
- 18:18How often do we make financial, relational or career decisions
- 18:22based exclusively on visible circumstances, completely
- 18:26ignoring the invisible realities God has declared?
- 18:29Let's use a modern analogy. Suppose you are offered a job
- 18:32that double S your salary. It provides amazing benefits and
- 18:36fully funds your retirement accounts.
- 18:38Sounds great on paper. But the job requires you to lie
- 18:41on compliance reports or requires you to relocate your
- 18:44family to a place where you have no access to a sound biblical
- 18:48church. If a Christian takes that job
- 18:50purely because it makes logical economic sense to the secular
- 18:53mind, while disregarding the commands of Scripture regarding
- 18:56honesty in the corporate gathering of the Saints, they
- 18:59are acting as practical atheists.
- 19:01They profess God with her mouth on Sunday, but their Monday
- 19:04through Friday decision making process requires visible proof
- 19:08and temporal financial safety. They are choosing the treasures
- 19:11of Egypt over the unseen reward. Practical atheism is a
- 19:14devastating spiritual disease because it treats the visible
- 19:17world as ultimate. It evaluates reality through the
- 19:20lens of a spreadsheet rather than the lens of Scripture.
- 19:23When we connect this back to the literary flow of Hebrews, we see
- 19:27that faith is the steadfast energy of covenant fidelity.
- 19:31It does not guarantee an easy path.
- 19:34It is the God-given faculty by which the believer receives
- 19:37divine revelation and orders life accordingly, even when
- 19:41obedience brings severe suffering.
- 19:43When a Christian refuses to compromise their ethics at work,
- 19:47even when it means losing a promotion or losing their
- 19:49livelihood entirely, they were operating in the same faith as
- 19:53Moses. They are choosing the reproach
- 19:55of Christ over the treasures of the corporate ladder.
- 19:57Faith evaluates present circumstances in the light of
- 20:00future certainty. It says that God's approval is
- 20:03more solid, more real than human applause or financial security.
- 20:07It recognizes the temporal losses for the sake of Christ
- 20:10are actually eternal gains. The Saints of the Old Testament
- 20:13look forward to something unseen, but our focus must
- 20:16sharpen on the specific person they were anticipating.
- 20:19Faith is completely meaningless without a trustworthy object.
- 20:23You can have all the intense psychological belief in the
- 20:25world, but if the object of your belief is false, you are ruined.
- 20:30All of Scripture finds its center in Jesus Christ.
- 20:32He is the hypostasis of our salvation.
- 20:35In Hebrews one verse 3, the sun is described as the exact
- 20:39imprint of God's nature, and the Greek word used right there is
- 20:43also hypothesis. The substance of our faith is
- 20:46not an abstract concept, it is a living person.
- 20:49This is the Christological fulfillment of faith.
- 20:52We must examine Christ's threefold office to understand
- 20:56how He secures our confidence. We are ignorant, guilty and
- 20:59weak. Therefore, Christ acts as
- 21:01prophet, priest and king. Let's break those down.
- 21:05As prophet, he speaks the final authoritative word of God,
- 21:09opening our blind eyes to the unseen realities of the gospel.
- 21:12He cures our ignorance. As priests, He provides the
- 21:15perfect once for all sacrifice, securing the righteousness that
- 21:19our faith grasps. He cures our guilt.
- 21:21As King, He currently rules from the heavenly Throne over the
- 21:24hearts of those waiting for His Kingdom.
- 21:26He cures our weakness. Consider the not seen aspect of
- 21:29Hebrews 11 verse one in relation to Christ's current heavenly
- 21:32session. He is presently out of physical
- 21:35sight. He is ascended.
- 21:37He is interceding at the right hand of the Father.
- 21:39The world mocks us because our King is invisible to their eyes,
- 21:44but faith apprehends the reality of his current sovereign reign.
- 21:48He. Is directing all of human
- 21:49history toward his designated conclusion.
- 21:53I want to offer an analogy to illustrate why the object of
- 21:56faith is everything and why the intensity of our feelings
- 21:59doesn't save us. Please do.
- 22:00Imagine two people standing on a frozen lake in the middle of
- 22:04winter. One person has massive amounts
- 22:07of confidence. They are an absolute optimist,
- 22:09fully believing they are safe. They are jumping up and down,
- 22:12completely devoid of fear. A recipe for disaster.
- 22:15It is because they are standing on ice that is an eighth of an
- 22:18inch thick. Despite all their internal
- 22:20psychological certainty, they will drown because the object
- 22:23they're standing on is frail. Wow.
- 22:25Yeah, the second person has trembling, weak knees.
- 22:28They're terrified, full of doubts, and their faith feels
- 22:30incredibly tiny. But they're standing on a foot
- 22:33thick sheet of solid steel. They're perfectly safe.
- 22:36The strength of the faith isn't the point.
- 22:38The strength of the object is everything.
- 22:41A weak faith that lays hold of a strong Christ saves the soul.
- 22:45That analogy perfectly captures the Reformed understanding of
- 22:49saving faith. We do not look inward to measure
- 22:52the intensity of our feelings. We look outward to the
- 22:55perfection of Jesus Christ. If you spend your life analyzing
- 22:59the strength of your own faith, you will plunge into despair.
- 23:03As a source text points out, Jesus is the founder and
- 23:06perfector of our faith. He's the pioneer who blazed the
- 23:09trail of persevering trust, enduring the cross for the joy
- 23:13set before him. We look back to his finished
- 23:15work on the cross, we look upward to his exalted reign in
- 23:18heaven, and we look forward to his premillennial return.
- 23:21The Old Testament Saints look forward to a promise they did
- 23:24not fully understand. We look back at the accomplished
- 23:27historical reality of the crucifixion and resurrection.
- 23:30Christ guarantees the promises. He is the mediator of a better
- 23:34covenant. Because his priestly work is
- 23:35finished, the opposasis of our faith rests on an unshakeable
- 23:39foundation. He is the one who initiates our
- 23:41faith, sustains it through trials, and will bring it to
- 23:44completion on the last day. This theological reality must
- 23:47now Pierce through our modern pragmatism and our spiritual
- 23:50lethargy. How does this dictate daily life
- 23:53for you? We cannot leave this in the
- 23:56realm of abstract theology. The author of Hebrews applies a
- 24:00sword to the conscience, and we must do the same.
- 24:03We must press the demands of the text onto our own lives.
- 24:06We are called to repent of unbelief.
- 24:09We must repent of cowardice. We must repent of prioritizing
- 24:12temporal safety over covenantal obedience.
- 24:14When we shrink back from confessing Christ because we are
- 24:17afraid of being cancelled, mocked or losing our social
- 24:20standing, we are betraying a lack of saving faith.
- 24:23We are acting as if the approval of our neighbors is more
- 24:25substantial than the approval of God.
- 24:27The application of this doctrine cuts in multiple directions
- 24:30depending on the spiritual state of the individual.
- 24:32For the afflicted, this doctrine is the ultimate comfort.
- 24:36To the believer who feels the crushing weight of cultural
- 24:38hostility, who has lost relationships or jobs because of
- 24:41their fidelity to Christ, this text is a healing balm.
- 24:45It assures them that their unseen inheritance is eternally
- 24:48secure and that their current suffering is producing an
- 24:52eternal weight of glory. However, to the careless, this
- 24:56text is a severe warning. We must warn the nominal
- 24:59Christian who demands visible proof for God's actions, who
- 25:03refuses to obey until God explains himself.
- 25:05Furthermore, this completely indicts the pragmatic, seeker
- 25:09sensitive church models of our day.
- 25:11So much of modern evangelicalism relies on visible spectacle,
- 25:15light shows, fog machines, emotional manipulation, and
- 25:18demographic targeting. They rely on what the eye can
- 25:21see, attempting to manufacture a spiritual experience through
- 25:24physical means rather than relying on the invisible force
- 25:27of the preacher. I am glad you brought up the
- 25:29seeker sensitive model, because we have to contrast the modern
- 25:32evangelical metric of visible success with the biblical metric
- 25:35of unseen fidelity. Today, church success is
- 25:38measured almost exclusively by crowd size, budget size, and
- 25:42cultural influence. If you have a massive building,
- 25:45thousands of attendees and a slick production value, you are
- 25:48deemed successful. But Hebrews 11 measures success
- 25:52by steadfast loyalty to God's revelation, even if it results
- 25:56in poverty, imprisonment or death.
- 25:58Let me ask a very practical question regarding the agony of
- 26:01the unseen. Go ahead.
- 26:02When we are stuck in the tension of a delayed answer to prayer,
- 26:06when the affliction lingers for years, maybe it's a chronic
- 26:09illness, a prodigal child, or season of intense financial
- 26:12ruin. How do we keep from concluding
- 26:14that God is neglecting us? Because that is the visceral
- 26:17temptation, isn't it? When the visible circumstances
- 26:20scream that God has abandoned us, how does the doctrine of
- 26:23Hebrews 11 keep us anchored? That is the most agonizing trial
- 26:27a believer faces in this life. The answer from the text is that
- 26:30waiting does not mean abandonment.
- 26:32Faith relies entirely on God's timetable, not our own.
- 26:36The patriarchs waited their entire lives and died without
- 26:39the physical fulfilment, yet they knew God was faithful.
- 26:42When delay tempts you to despair, faith redirects your
- 26:44gaze to the character of God. He cannot lie.
- 26:48His promises are secure. Your current suffering is not
- 26:51the final word. In Reformed theology, we speak
- 26:54of the third use of the law. The law no longer condemns the
- 26:57believer because Christ bore the curse on the cross.
- 27:00Instead, the law guides the believer in grateful obedience.
- 27:04When we are waiting in the dark, when the heavens seem silent,
- 27:08faith grips the law of God, the commands of God and the promises
- 27:13of God, using them as a lamp for our feet.
- 27:16We continue to obey, We continue to assemble with the Saints.
- 27:19We continue to worship, not because we see the immediate
- 27:23result or the immediate deliverance, but out of immense
- 27:26gratitude for the imputed righteousness of Christ that
- 27:28secures our eternal future. Obedience in the dark is one of
- 27:32the highest expressions of faith.
- 27:33We have covered massive ground today, and we must summarize the
- 27:37central idea. True saving faith is the Holy
- 27:39Spirit wrought conviction that God's future promises are more
- 27:43real, more solid, and more substantial than our present
- 27:46visible pains. The world shouts that seeing is
- 27:49believing, but the. Reality of the Gospel is that
- 27:52believing the Word of God is the only way to truly see the glory
- 27:55of the invisible King. You are called to evaluate your
- 27:57life not by the passing shadows of this earth, but by the
- 28:00permanent substance of heaven. You are called to hold the title
- 28:04deed of your salvation with a firm grip, knowing that the one
- 28:08who promised is faithful. Before we conclude, there is a
- 28:11final vital concept from the source material regarding the
- 28:14corporate life of the Church. What is that?
- 28:17The Lord's Table Gathering for Communion beautifully integrates
- 28:21hearing the Word with high worship.
- 28:23God in His grace knows our frame.
- 28:27He knows we are weak, prone to wander and constantly tempted to
- 28:31rely on sight. So he gives us physical
- 28:34elements, the bread and the cup, to nourish the soul and fortify
- 28:37the believers. Hypothesis.
- 28:38When you partake of the Lord's Supper, you are holding tangible
- 28:42tokens of a covenant promise that cannot be broken.
- 28:45You can taste the bread, you can drink the cup.
- 28:47It is a visible sign of an invisible grace.
- 28:50It angers you to the historical reality of the Cross and
- 28:53provides a physical foretaste of the future great feast in the
- 28:56coming Kingdom. It is God's way of accommodating
- 28:58our weakness by giving us something to touch and taste
- 29:01that confirms the invisible truth of the gospel.
- 29:03I challenge you to evaluate your own title deed today.
- 29:07Are you trusting in your own optimism, your own works, or
- 29:11your ability to physically see outcomes?
- 29:13Are you trying to dictate the terms of your own salvation
- 29:17based on what makes sense to your eyes?
- 29:19Cast those counterfeits aside. Lean entirely on the imputed
- 29:22righteousness of Jesus Christ. If seeing is believing for the
- 29:26rest of the world, for the Christian, standing on the
- 29:29unseen word of God is the only way to survive the coming storm.
- 29:32Your physical property may be flundered, your reputation may
- 29:35be ruined, and your earthly comforts may vanish, but your
- 29:39heavenly inheritance is guarded by the King.
- 29:41Hold fast to the substance. We bid you farewell until our
- 29:45next deep dive.