The Only Kind of Faith That Works - Part 1 (Hebrews 11:1-3)

Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 11. It's 11, Hebrews chapter 11. Yes, Hebrews chapter 11. This is a thrilling, in fact, you know, on Sundays, we're in Romans, and Romans chapter 8 was known as the great high watermark of not only the book of Romans. Many people believe that Romans chapter 8 is the high watermark of the entire scripture.

Well, listen, in Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews 11 is the high watermark of the book. The author of the book of Hebrews makes it extremely clear. And, um, listen, I would encourage you. I know this is, uh, the summer months now, and and activities are coming and all that. I'm just going to encourage you to do the best you can, uh, during this 11th chapter to attend church as much as possible on Wednesdays during this 11th chapter. The reason why is that it's going to be a radical faith-building. You're going to see your faith increase. And friends, listen, faith is the greatest thing that you possess in your life. Believe me, when you start to lose faith, uh, it is a catastrophic moment in an infinite amount of ways.

We're looking right now, just tonight, just to the preamble of this incredible chapter, the preamble. And, uh, the message series will be titled this: The Only Kind of Faith That Works. Write that down, please. The only kind of faith that works is what we're going to be learning about in Hebrews chapter 11. What is faith? How does faith work? What are the aspects or the characteristics of faith? How do you put faith into action? How do you build faith? How do we manage faith? What, what is it? Because in this day and age, faith is such a fleeting moment kind of a word, and it's as soon as it arrives, it disappears. Not biblical faith, church. Because you're going to be finding out in this chapter that your faith is only as good as the object to which it is placed in. Faith is irrelevant by itself. Faith alone is irrelevant. It's worthless. Faith. You must ask, what is the object in which you're putting your faith in? That's what is the terminus or the termination or the target for faith.

I could ask you tonight, do you have faith? You'd say, yes. And I would say, I would ask you, in what or in whom? Some people have faith in the stock market. They're going to need, listen, they're going to need you to preach them the gospel soon. Some people have faith in their health, and then a doctor hands them a slip. Some people put faith in people. The older you get, the less you do that, by the way. I want you to know that. Young people, listen up. When you're young, you have a tendency to put faith in people. You'll say stupid things like this, "Oh man, I have so much faith in her, and I have so, oh, she makes me so happy. Uh, I have to marry her. I can't live without her." God heard that. You know, if your life is wrapped up in anyone or anything else other than God, then that is the object of your faith, and it's, it's going to go down. There's only one that doesn't move ever, and that's Him.

And so tonight, uh, I'll read it to you. You can see it on the screens. I'll read it to you just in your note-taking. The preamble to the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews is found in the first three verses, and they are beautiful, and they are powerful. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence." I love, I love hearing faith and evidence in the same statement. "Evidence of things not seen. For by it, that is faith, the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are, or we're not made of things which are visible." Meaning the things that you and I see right now, including you and I, visible things, according to the Bible, we'll get into this. It's going to be fun. Are actually made by things that are invisible. I think you know this, right? Freshman class physics. This pulpit, this podium is actually about this big. When you remove the space in between the, the molecules that are here, if you remove the space between the molecules that make up this wooden podium, it's about three inches tall. You're actually looking at something that is not visible more than what is visible. Go think about that for a moment.

I love crazy stuff like that. This woman here is wearing a bright red sweater. Did you know that in science, the way that your eyes work, her, her sweater is any color but red? Did you know that? You said, "What? Are you nuts? It's a red sweater." To the human eye, it's a red sweater because the fabric, what it is, the colors that are in that, the spectrum absorbs all the colors into that sweater, but rejects one. And that color that you see is the rejected color. When you look up at the sky today, spectacular blue sky. Guess what? The sky is not blue. That's the blue frequency being reflected back from space because it's not being accepted. It's a fascinating reality. The frequency of colors. You're, my brain, we look at something and see, "Look, that's orange." It's actually, if you strip away the human factor, a bird or a rabbit sees at a completely different color. It's really, really cool. I don't know why I said that, but we're going to get into this kind of stuff in this preamble.

If the scriptures hold the moments for us in encounters with God, and they do, we can be all sleepy-eyed and, and maybe we've got a strong cup of coffee, it's early, it's dark, it's whatever, and we're trying to read our Bible, and, and all of a sudden, it's like a firecracker goes off, and it's on the pages of your Bibles. The Holy Spirit grabs something, and it becomes illuminated to you. The scriptures speak, and we know that they speak, and there's an experience that you and I have with God in that moment. That's why alone time is something that you must nurture. I, I beg of you, fight to nurture in alone time with God. That's where He speaks. He's very jealous of you in your love. He wants to be alone with you, and He speaks. And when He does, it's an encounter with God. You don't have, you don't have to have bells and whistles and skyrockets and horns. When He speaks, there's nothing better. And, uh, when He does that, it's a life-changing experience. And I, I believe that as a Christian, and I thank God this is true. If it wasn't true, I, I'd bail out on the whole thing. I'd think it's fake. But, um, all along the way, opening up the word of God, if God's word didn't jump off the page and and affect my life, um, I would have just gone on to something else. But thank God it jumps off the page. God's word's alive. Absolutely awesome.

And so, as we keep that in mind, listen, we encounter Him. It's life-changing. And when that happens, as we'll see in the remarkable chapter that this is, this faith that we're going to be hearing about, that is biblical faith, real faith, that it's going to do something to you, people. It's going to do something to you and your family. It's going to do something to your relationships, which is precious. And it's going to cause you, I believe, uh, to walk, uh, with a sense of, of a revived or new reverence. For example, Exodus 3:5. This is Moses encountering God. "Then God said, 'Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.'" Anybody want to venture out and guess why was the ground holy? Was it some pin-drop location? Was it because it was this valley or this mountaintop? Nope. Yes, because of God's presence. God's presence sanctified the ground, made it holy. Moses takes off his sandals in an act of worship, in an act of awe, reverence. His sandals go off. God says, and it's important to God for whatever reason, He says, "This is a holy place. Moses, take off your sandals." Have you ever, first of all, we're talking about the desert. Taking off your sandals. There's a lot to me that speaks. It may not speak to you as it speaks to me. It speaks to me like this: Try walking in the desert with no shoes on. I can barely make it to my bathroom on a wooden floor. I mean, you're just like tiptoeing. Ouch, ouch, ouch. First of all, with your feet, with your feet naked, the sandals are off, you're not going anywhere. You're there with God. And in a good way, I think you're stranded in His presence. And God says to Moses, "Take off your sandals. The place where you're at's holy ground."

And these three verses speak very powerfully. We'll see it tonight, talking about God's reverence and the holiness of God and the sandals coming off. Listen to this. Stephen, you read in the book of Acts. Stephen preached this one and only sermon with great effect, by the way. It was his one and only sermon Stephen ever preached, and at the end of it, he got killed. But it was, it was, it's the longest sermon recorded in the Bible by Stephen, book of Acts, and it was right on. But at the end, Saul of Tarsus and his clan was so upset, they killed him by stoning him to death. Acts 7:30. Watch how this comes to a conclusion. "And when 40 years had passed, Stephen told them, this is the Jews in Jerusalem, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. And when Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight. And as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying, 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' And Moses trembled and dared not look. Then the Lord said to him, 'Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.'" Awesome. Stephen was preaching that account 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem of Moses having encountered God.

Joshua 5:13. Joshua 5:13. "And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said," which I think is awesome. Joshua was no wimpy guy. So you see some guy, you're in, you're in combat mode already, and you see somebody you don't recognize, and the guy is standing there with his sword drawn. If you don't know who it is, he's not on your team. But what does Joshua do? He, he walks toward him. I love that. And so Joshua went to him and said, said to him, listen up, everybody closely. He's going to ask him a question. "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" So he said, "No." What kind of an answer is that? "But as commander of the armies of the Lord, I have now come." For those of you who know your Old Testament, that's like, what? This is what is called an angelophany or a theophany. This happens throughout Old Testament scriptures, and if you read fast, you'll miss it. This is none other than the pre-incarnate appearance of Christ before Bethlehem, and He is the commander of the Lord's armies. By the way, on Sunday, do you remember the Lord of Sabaoth, the Lord of Heaven's armies, is none other than Jesus Christ, and Joshua encounters Him.

So this is, is Israeli Commando General Joshua, trained in combat, skilled warrior, who approaches someone who's not recognizable, looking different. Joshua didn't say, "Who are you? Who's glowing in the..." He looked normal. Whoever, listen, this look is to Joshua. He knows enough to be able to not recognize. So he's got to get a determination: "Are you for us or you for our enemies?" And the Lord answers back, "No." What kind of an answer is that? "Conditional statement." You said, "What? How can that be conditional?" Because Joshua set it up. "Are you for us or are you for them?" "No." Meaning, you and them is is not the agenda. Heaven is the agenda. It's not about the side, it's about the will of Heaven. It's what's going on in Heaven. You move pieces on a chessboard, don't you? When you play checkers, uh, chess, what's the game? Monopoly. You, you move it. Your, your hand comes out of the heavens and moves the little piece of wood, and then it, then it goes back to where it came from. Hey, on that board game, man, it looks like a miracle just happened. A house just appeared there on Park Avenue. How did that happen? Heaven came, came down, and Heaven is standing there in Christ, and He makes this incredible declaration when He says, "No, but as commander of the army of the Lord, uh, I have come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, "What does my Lord say to his servant?" And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, "Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy." And so Joshua did. Is that awesome? I love that. Chapter 11 is holy ground. So we'll have to take our shoes off next Wednesday when we come. I'm kidding. Keep them on. I'm just saying.

Listen to this from the great reformer, Martin Luther. "God, our Father, has made all things depend on faith, so that whoever has faith will have everything, and whoever does not have faith will have nothing." That's a powerful statement. You got to remember who said it. This is not some positive confession guy on a Christian TV program. This is Martin Luther, the great Catholic reformer. Of course, the Catholic church was out to kill him. A former Catholic priest, started reading the Bible, of course, studying the Bible, thought it would be right for people to read the Bible themselves. And to the organized church, that wasn't a good idea because then people would start thinking for themselves. People would know for themselves. But thank God for, listen, you and I are probably here right now because of Martin Luther. But look how he stresses faith. Hebrews 11:6. We'll see this in the week or so, but "without faith, the Bible says, it is impossible to please Him." Habakkuk 2:4. You know it well because we've talked about it both in the book of Romans and the book of Hebrews during this current time of this church life. And the Bible there says, "The just shall live by faith."

This is remarkable tonight. If we leave with a better definition of faith in our lives, we will have accomplished what we need to. Number one, jot this down if you would. It's our only one and only point for tonight. And it's this: The only kind of faith that works is this is a faith founded upon facts. That, that, that might shock you. Faith, biblical faith, must be founded upon facts. In fact, it doesn't have to be biblical faith. Let's look at this. Faith, um, faith in something. Whatever that something is, if you put faith in that thing, you can use it. A seatbelt. Why do you put a seatbelt on? My insurance company makes me do it. Why do they make you do it? Because they don't want you to get hurt. They don't want to pay out money to you being hospitalized. By the way, read the fine print of your insurance contract. Did you know that if you're driving without your seatbelt and you get in an accident, they don't have to pay a thing? You're on your own. Faith. You put the seatbelt on. You have faith that it's going to keep you in the car. When the pilot announces to the entire cabin, "We may be going through some rough weather right now. Please put your seatbelt on." Why does he say that? He's got faith in that seatbelt to keep you in your seat, and so do you. We use faith all the time. We somehow think it's some religious thing. Everybody uses faith in something. But just like there's a $5 bill, there's a $10 bill, and where there's a $10 bill, there could be a $20 bill. There's faith in seatbelts, and then there's faith in God.

We are people built and made to function in faith. Faith in relationships, faith in business, faith in one another. And when that faith is broken, because, because we've placed so much on that income or that corporation or that deal or that promise or that person, and we've all experienced this to some degree, some degree or another, when that's broken, we're crushed. Of course, we're crushed. We're human. But in every situation of life, believer, your faith should be preeminently, of course, in Him and in Him alone. And that will mitigate the pain that comes from this world that betrays us, this world that hurts us, the deal that goes bad, the marriage that goes awry, or the situation where you're not as healthy as you thought you're going to be. You're going to need faith. And don't stand around, please listen, don't stand around and have somebody tell you, or please don't you say, "I'm just going to, I've got to have faith." Faith? I just have faith. In what? Faith? I have faith in faith. That's impossible. And when people say, "Just," they just so glibly say, "Man, you need faith." They're not giving you what you need. You need Jesus Christ to put your faith in Him. Not to just say, "I have faith." "I'm a person of faith." In what? Most times when you ask that question, it's in themselves.

And we know this, that faith, according to the scriptures, are founded upon facts. First things first. Verse one is this question we're asking: Is faith present? Think about it. The present of faith, faith being in the present. It says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." And so right from the beginning, we'll establish the Trinity of truth, if you would, this way. It's very, very good for us. Mark it down in your notes, please, this way. One of the great arguments of the book of Romans is that the just are justified by what? Faith. Book of Romans. The just are justified by faith in Christ. In the book of James, part, this is part, there's a trinity to this. Romans, number one. Number two is the book of James. The book of James says that a person is known to be righteous or justified by their works. James is all about works. Romans is all about faith. And listen, I mentioned Martin Luther earlier. Martin Luther said James should not be in the Bible. It's a mistake. Shouldn't be there. He called James a straw man. Pay no attention to James because he came from a world that was all about works. Pray harder, give more, fast longer, you know, all this stuff. And so he, so recoiled from works that he, that he frankly stumbled at it. Watch this. The book of Hebrews is in the middle. Romans is on one side, James is on the other side, and faith pulls them two together. When you have true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have trusted in Him, your life is transformed. And the proof of what cannot be seen. Listen, I can only tell you that I have faith, but you don't know that, do you? I just tell you. Don't believe me. I'm not to believe you if you say, "I have faith in Jesus." I have to see now. Okay? That's a, that's a Romans book of Romans declaration. The book of Hebrews will define what faith is. You and I don't get to define what faith is. The book of Hebrews does. How do I know if it's for real? Book of James does. Does that make sense to you? James, remember, you've heard me say this before. James says this. "So, what's your name?" "Jack." "And you said you're a Christian?" "Yeah." "Well, thank you for telling me, Jack." This is what James would say. "Okay, I'm going to, I'm going to move in to your house and I'm going to write everything down that I see in here about you. And at the end of 30 days, I'm going to tell you if you're a Christian or not." Not. That's the book of James. Paul, of course, rightfully so, says this life of faith has to begin somewhere. And that life of faith is immediate salvation in Christ Jesus because of what He's done for us. He transforms our life in the immediate. But then there's a work of sanctification that begins all the rest of our life. And James and Romans would agree perfectly. Paul would say something to this effect. Watch this. "This person cried out to the Lord. They gave their heart to Christ. Let's watch them. They, they, they profess Christ. And according to the word of God, they are righteous before the very throne of God." And James would say, "Exactly what you just said, Paul, is totally true. And we're going to know it as humans confirmed in 30 days. I'm going to compare my notes to their proclamation, and we're going to know that the truth of the book of Hebrews is operational in their life." Does that make sense? It's a beautiful pulling together. Put Hebrews in the middle of the book of James and the book of Romans, and you'll have no contradiction whatsoever. It's a wonderful thing.

Faith. Write it down. It's the Greek word, pistis. P-I-S-T-I-S. A pledge, proof, placing allegiance, uh, dependence upon that which is ascribed to be one's proof or where one places their assurance. Faith. Biblical faith. Where are you placing your assurance? You put that together in verse one. You've got faith, and it says, "Now faith is the substance." This is a wonderful word, hupostasis. It means the support, the steadfastness or steadiness, even, or like an even keel or a stabilizer, the foundation, hence the result of assurance and confidence. True biblical faith is what you exercise to put into this case, of course, Christ. So when it says that faith is the substance, it's a remarkable statement because we think faith is invisible. We think faith is something that you cannot qualify. The Bible says the exact opposite. True actual faith is founded upon fact, and it's very present. You, you can't avoid it. It's in our every aspect of our lives. But little do we ascribe faith in the right way to Christ. We'll put faith in all kinds of things. Well, the Bible tells us that Christ alone is worthy of all of our faith. Why? Because, think about it this way, He is our assurance. He's our substance.

And then the word evidence. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." So what is this stuff about things not seen? Faith enables, puts into action, uh, brings forth that which is invisible. If I have a thought, I'm going to exercise faith, and I can put it on an easel. If I have faith, the picture is in my mind. Maybe it's an automobile, or maybe it's a, maybe it's a mountain scene, or, or maybe it's something, or it's a, a sand castle. You're standing at the beach, and you have the sand castle picture in your head. You exercise faith. You say, "Jack, what are you talking about?" Watch this. I have faith. There's nothing on the beach yet. I have faith that there's going to be a sand castle here. That doesn't mean it's going to pop into existence just until faith pops it out there. No, no, no, no, no. It doesn't work that way. Faith seemingly is invisible, but not because faith can never be alone. It can't sit idle. It's present. And what happens is you begin to put sand together on the beach, and you start forming a structure. And guess what? Paul, the Apostle, would be going, "Yay! You're going to build a sand castle. This is going to be awesome. I can almost see it." With you, James is over here saying, "I don't know. Let's wait and see." And as you're building it, what are you doing? You're actually putting faith into action, and you can see faith. And in this illustration, it's a sand castle. That shouldn't surprise us. It's fascinating.

Genesis 1:1. Here you go. You get, you get past this verse, and the rest of the Bible's downhill. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Bam. What's the evidence for us where we're at? The earth. That's the, is it not from our perspective? That's a radical statement. It's more than radical. "In the beginning." That is of the material universe, which means God was outside of it to create it. God created the heavens and the earth. You and I are walking around the earth. When we're made of the earth, the evidence. I love it. That Greek word, evidence, is proven, tested, conviction, facts that support the claim, watch this, or the existence of an argument. And as an illustration, somebody might say, "Having passed the acid test." Ever heard that statement before? Or they've come out with shining colors, or with whatever it might be. What's going on here is that what has come to pass has substantiated or backed up the claim. Do you call yourself a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? Then if you're following Jesus Christ, there should be elements of our lives, for some of us, ever so little, but yet growing day by day in faith, that we start talking, speaking, doing like Jesus. And so, for us, the evidence would be the earth. And this to me gets us in an, I think, a good mind stretch here for a moment.

Psalm chapter 27:3. Psalm 27:13. So watch this. "I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." You know what that's? Hope. Faith. Love. Hope. The psalmist is saying, "I would have lost it if I didn't have the hope that I would be with God, or be among God's people, or are on again, or in God's land." How did that happen? Faith. And it's an educated faith. It's a faith that is operational. It's a faith that is based on evidence. The Christian should never be, never be defined or or take this kind of criticism, "Oh, you guys are Christians. You guys are a bunch of ignorant, uninformed knuckleheads who are, you know, DW of the past. It's too bad." No, no, no, no, no. The exact opposite. It's funny. Sir Isaac Newton had no problem believing in God and trusting in Christ. The great founders of science, by the way. Isn't it interesting? Go back and study these people. Find out who were these guys? What did they believe? You know, most of them were born-again believers. Did you know that the great fathers of the foundation of science believed that God was the creator? That's a statement of faith. If you say, "I believe God created," that's a statement of faith. Somebody could say, "I don't believe that." And you can't prove that. Wait a minute. I can actually argue for the existence of God based upon what evidence I see. I see people that, in spite of the fact that they're so very different in looks, they have an overwhelming signature of God's design. They have faces, they have eyes, they have hands, they have feet. They're human. That's evidence. They're all these manifestations of the evidence of God. So, "I've never seen God." You, of course, have not seen God. But did God, didn't this God say that He made humans? He said, "Well, I don't believe it." Well, well, He said that. Let's see if there's any evidence that bears witness of the claim. It's very, very important.

2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 7. "For we walk by faith, not by sight." I want you to think about this for a moment. This is an awesome statement. The, listen, the point is to walk right. To walk, to live. We live, for we walk, we live, we exist by faith, not by sight. I'm going to argue with you tonight to say that faith gives you more stability than sight. If you see a bridge across the river, you will assume that it can carry your car, you and your family, across that river. You've never been across that bridge before. But what if that bridge is compromised? You say, "I don't care. I can see it." But what if the engineer, his faith is no longer in the bridge? He's discovered fractures, and he's discovered problems with the bridge. Are you with me? He no longer has faith in that structure to carry your car. But you see the car. I mean, you have the car. You see the bridge, and you say, "I see it. I'm going to do it." Do you see where I'm going with this? That would not be a good idea. Just because you see the Golden Gate Bridge doesn't mean it's safe to go across. Now, we could be paranoid and say, "I want to see the latest engineering report of the Golden Gate Bridge." But who's got time for that? Just floor it, will you? We'll get across fast enough. We'll try to beat the crack. But it's a remarkable truth, and I do want you to think about that tonight. Faith is actually more powerful than sight itself. We walk by faith. You don't walk by sight. You have to think about that for a moment. One foot in front of another has nothing to do with sight. It has everything to do with faith. Where are you going? "I'm going to go get a drink of water." You know how you're going to do that? "By faith?" No, I can see the water fountain over there. How are you going to get there? How do you know if you're going to get there? You're trusting, are you not? Without even thinking about it, you're, you're trusting in your own mobility to get you to that drinking fountain. And yet, every breath that you and I draw is given to us by God. You and I are exercising faith all the time.

2 Corinthians chapter 4:18. "While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." How do we do that? Faith. "For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." See, Jack, this is freaking me out. I can't take this. Yeah, you can, because you know down deep inside, the real part of who you are has nothing to do with your thumb. The real who you are has nothing to do with the color of your hair or your eyes. The inside of you, the soul, the spirit of who you really are, is an invisible. We do live off the things that we cannot see. You're breathing right now. I mentioned about the podium and the molecules and, but, uh, it is amazing that we're breathing exactly the right combination of gases that keep you and I completely perfectly sustained right now. And if they get messed up, if those ratios get messed up, you're going to pass out. Think about the technology of God. It's His signature. The atom, the nucleus, all of the rotations of what's going on. You cannot see it. Most of you, maybe most of us, have never seen that actually going on. We've seen cartoons. You know, it's a fact. It's an actual fact. You know, they, they made an atomic bomb using existing facts. Are you with me? But they couldn't see it. Think about that. Let's, let's build something that we can't see. We'll just see the effect of when it happens. How can we do this? Because we believe in science whereby we are allowed to see into an invisible world based on science. We can do this. Some people say, "You're nuts." And then a bang goes off. That bang, that was very, very physical, happened because of invisible things. If that's true in this physical realm, then as a believer, what, why is the supernatural so strange and distant to us? It shouldn't be. It's right past my nose here.

Faith. Faith should actually stretch our hearts and our minds in a good way. The second thing is this, in verse two, is that faith is effectual. This is fun to me. Verse two says, "For by it, the elders obtained a good testimony." The elders, uh, the presbyteros in the Greek language, but we'll just simply put it this way, the, the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs of the Bible, Ruth, Joshua, Noah, Deborah. How did they obtain a great witness so that you're reading about them in your Bible? Because they were people of faith, and their faith was effectual. It means that their faith made a difference. We need a world today where there are men and women of God whose faith makes a difference right now in our world. Our world is not only leaderless right now, our world seems to be void of men and women of faith right now, or we're just too silent. It's a remarkable thing. True faith is very effectual. It accomplishes things. And that word testimony is where we get the word martyr, by the way. Say, "What is a martyr?" Don't worry. According to the Bible, all of us are martyrs. It simply means this: we are bearing testimony. We are are bearing witness that we are followers of Jesus. When a martyr dies, he just finished his witness by martyrdom. He was killed like Stephen in his martyrdom. He kept the testimony. It's amazing.

And so I want to just touch on this for a second. There's a prevailing lie, I'll put it that way, that is constant in the hearts of and minds of people that having faith. We hear this all the time, especially you young people that are in school. You hear it this way, "Oh, I don't, I don't believe in God. I don't believe in faith. I, I believe in science." Have you ever heard that before? Listen, you guys, seriously, our world has gotten so ignorant, so poorly taught, that when somebody says, when somebody says, "I don't believe in God, I believe in science," they don't even know science. They have no idea what they're talking about. Every honest scientist practicing science in whatever discipline it is, medicine, astrophysics, astronomy, oceanography, if they're the best of the best in their field, they will be the first ones to turn to you and say, "I know so little about this topic." It's the freshman who knows everything. It's not until you've lived that field out for 50 years that the Einstein turns around or the Faraday turns around and says, "We've barely scratched the surface." It's remarkable that people would say, "You believe in God? A poor thing. I believe in science." Well, let me ask you something about your science that you believe in, because I know real science gives you the answer. But the science that you're playing with, what is it? What's it doing for you? What does it do for you? Can you describe my, can you describe your science to me? Because if you're going to interpret or define science as science is, did you know that science, nothing is scientific unless it's repeatable? Did you know that? I don't, I think this is basic. I think we all got this, right? For something to be scientific, it has to be repeatable, and it has to be explained by existing sciences, things that are dependable. So, in somebody says, "I believe in science. I can't believe in God." "Well, why do you believe that?" "Well, because, because science explains everything." Have you ever heard that one? Really. John Lennox made this very famous application. It's gone around the world a thousand times, and it's going to be in your ears tonight. John Lennox says, "Science tells you how to make a cake." Eggs, and I don't know how to make a cake, but eggs, flour, milk, what, whatever, sugar, and, and you make this, and you got to make the cake, and the cake is made. And you say, "See, look, science, science made the cake." Okay, science made the cake. It's all, you can unpack it all, the molecules, all science, there, boom, science. And you think that's your answer? That's where you stopped. That's your answer. Science made the world. It's all scientific. If it's intelligent, and something that's intelligent is something that is hard, hard to understand. You got to apply yourself. If it's intelligent design, I would say to you, that's the fingerprint of God. Because you can only tell me how the cake was made and what it's made of. What's left that science? No, it's not. You're missing the key element. Why was the cake made? Cakes don't pop out of the ground. 747s don't just appear out of nowhere. Houses have to be built. In fact, according to the second law of thermodynamics, everything's falling apart. You have to keep tightening the screws. Why? Because they keep undoing themselves. You want to know why? That's evidence that this universe started, and it's unwinding. It's coming apart. Science cannot tell you why Jupiter is Jupiter. Science can tell you how it works. Science can tell you various things about it, but it can't tell you why it's there. You can be the greatest physician, a research physician, you can tell me all about the human body, but you can't tell me why we're here.

Why is faith effectual? Faith accomplishes things. As a believer, faith never sits idle. It's impossible. By the way, I just have to put this on the screen. Guys, can you put that? It's on the page, bottoms, uh, at the bottom of page six. I just have, I just had to show it to you. Is it there by any chance? It says, "I don't believe in faith or God. I believe in science." In, uh, facts and science. And I, I just made that that up right there like that. And I put, and I put, "Professor." There it is. "Professor, by professor, you are a fool." And you might say, "That's a little harsh, isn't it?" Um, no. Write this down, please. Uh, Psalm 14:1. "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God." You see, I just made a statement, and I backed it up with science, and I told you the reason why. The foolest said in his heart there is no God because his head knows better. He knows this is why, by the way, the world can never have wisdom. Did you know this? We can have all the knowledge. We can have all the knowledge. The world does not have wisdom. Our world is lacking today in wisdom because our, our world is Bible dumb. We're Bible illiterate in our world. So there's no wisdom anywhere. You can be super, super brilliant, smart, and have no wisdom. The Bible says in the book of James chapter 3 verse 14, "But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there." There's a wisdom of the world that is demonic and destructive. We're talking about real wisdom. Great wisdom is literally found in the knowledge of God. To know God, you'll have wisdom. God will give you wisdom. Somebody has once said, I don't remember who said it, but that wisdom is the proper application of knowledge. Isn't that good? Look, we all just went through a big, big grand experiment that was probably the greatest mass murder, suicide, whatever you want to call it, event in world history. So-called scientists told us, "Trust the science." And then they turned right around and did everything against the science. "Let's create a vaccine without testing it and shoot it into everybody. See how that works." And we hear on the news tonight that America, Americans right now, are developing never-before-seen grand scale cancers that have been previously unknown tonight in the news. I'm not saying that there's a link, but I'm not saying there isn't. What in the world is going on? Wisdom from above, that's of God.

We got to wrap this up. Romans chapter 1 verse 18 says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against ungodliness and unrighteousness of man, who suppress," that is hold down, "the truth in right, in unrighteousness." Because why do they do that? Why do they try to hide the truth? Because verse 19 says, "What may be known of God is manifest in them." They have an internal witness. They know better. "For God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." This is brilliant. "Even as eternal power in Godhead, so that they were without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful, but became feudal in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened." Look across the landscape of America's youth today in college camp. Their foolish hearts have been darkened. Verse 22, "Professing to be wise, they became fools." And change, here's, here's why. They changed the glory of the incorruptible God, watch, into evolution, into images made like into corrupt man, birds, four-footed beasts, creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up.

And finally, this, verse three. Faith is factual. Faith is factual. Verse three says, "By faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." This is absolutely awesome. The Bible is calling upon us that we, by faith, can understand what God's work was in doing to bring about an observable universe. By faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. Church, it's this order to things. You can stand. You can stand. It's the order to things in God's handiwork, in what God does. You and I are sitting here right now, and so I don't know the numbers to this exactly, but you and I are here right now, and you're, you're, you're standing still, somewhat, right? Do you know that you're moving in one direction at about, I think it's about 1,200 or 1,400 miles an hour right now in one direction? But then the very thing that we're standing on, while we're moving, we are also moving in another direction, something like 7,000 miles an hour. And then the solar system that we're in, by the time 24 hours passes, you and I will have moved something like several million miles from tonight, night, in 24 hours. And you think you stayed at home. All this is happening right now as we stand here. You go, "I don't see it." Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not happening. It's happening. God is doing this thing, and you're enjoying the benefits of it. And He's, His signature is right in front of your face, and He's saying to you, "If a little sparrow cannot fall to the ground, your Father knows all of them." Jesus said, "My Father knows all the little sparrows, and not one of them can fall to the ground in death without my Father knowing about it." He says, "How much more does He know about your life?" You see, all of a sudden, it's not what we see. It's actually seeing having put our faith in the One who is. He should be, He must be the object of your faith because He's the One who, when He spoke, He framed what a word. We can't do it tonight any further than now. The word "framed" it is so scientific. God established the literal workings of things. He says in His word, "I have told the ocean to go so far onto the shore, but no more." God says, "You know what? I said, water evaporate, form into a cloud. I'll blow it over the land." Imagine God moving tons of water. How does He move tons of water? He floats it, and then He snaps His fingers. That's a miracle. He snaps His fingers, and the atmosphere changes, scientifically perfectly designed, and He floats tons of water and a cloud that you can fly through, snaps His fingers, and it condenses and falls on the desert and causes the desert to bloom. I need to stop. I can talk about this forever. I love this stuff. Lord, You're awesome. God, You're amazing. We're breathing right now. We're about to clap. We're about to sing. Only if You give us what You have. If You withhold, our heart will stop beating. If You change the electrical function of our very heart and muscle and sinew and tissue, we're in trouble. If You change the elements in our blood, we're done. Truly, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And we put our faith in You, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, crucified Lord, resurrected King. We come and we proclaim to You the great forgiver of our sins. Mighty, oh God, are You in all Your ways. And we rejoice because You are the object of our faith. And we sing now to You by faith. We believe You're going to be listening. And so may we sing to Your heart. May we sing straight through Your ears, through Your ears, and may we bless You in our words. In Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen. Amen. God bless.