God’s Hall of Faith: The Gallery of the Ancients
Note: This sermon was preached in St. Louis many years before the series in Wichita. The text was divided up differently, so this sermon is briefer than the others.
Americans go in big for Halls of Fame. I’ve never visited one, but I have always wanted to go to Cooperstown. And I wouldn’t mind going to the Football Hall of Fame. But I didn’t realize just how prolific Halls of Fame are until the reference service at the Public Library informed me of the following Halls:
Hockey Hall of Fame
Tennis
Boxing
Golf
Skiing
Women’s Agricultural
Senate
National Hall of Fame. for Famous American Indians
Hall of Fame of Great Americans
Hall of Fame of Immortals in the International College of Surgeons.
Well, you’ll be pleased to know that God too has His Hall of Fame, only it’s not restricted to women or farmers or athletes or surgeons. In fact, the diversity in God’s Hall of Fame is almost incredible. The only apparent criterion for membership is that the individual believed God, but not like most people believe God (intellectually, occasionally, and when there’s no evidence to the contrary). Rather they believed God with their whole being even when the evidence went against what God told them. It is to God’s Hall of Fame, or Hall of Faith, that we turn today in Hebrews 11.
I am torn regarding how to approach this passage. On the one hand I would like to do what Dr. Stuart Briscoe did, i.e. preach a separate message on each of the great men and women of faith mentioned in this chapter, which would take at least six months. But the result might be that we miss the forest because of the trees. I really believe the author desired to leave a single impression on us, namely that it is faith that pleases God and is ultimately rewarded by Him. Even he wrestled with the time crunch, as verse 32 makes clear: “And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets . . .” If he were to have gone into detail concerning each of these it may actually have detracted from his primary thrust. In other words, the whole is sometimes more than the sum of its parts.
So I have concluded that we are best served by preaching Hebrews 11 in four sections. Most museums are arranged by galleries. If it’s an art museum there may be a Gallery of the great Italian Renaissance painters, a Gallery for the Dutch Masters, a Gallery for the Impressionists, and a Gallery for Modern Art. If it’s an historical museum, like the Cairo Museum, it will have a Gallery for the Old Kingdom, a Gallery for the Middle Kingdom, a Gallery for the New Kingdom, and a special Gallery for King Tut, not because he was the most important of the Pharaohs–quite the opposite–but because his tomb was discovered intact and therefore there are a great many artifacts to display.
In a sense Hebrews 11 is a museum of faith, which the believer is invited to explore. There are a number of galleries here too, starting with the Gallery of the Ancients, then the Gallery of the Patriarchs, the Gallery of the Exodus and the Conquest, and finally the Gallery of Israel’s Golden Age, Captivity and Dispersion. Today we will deal only with the Gallery of the Ancients, exploring the faith of Abel, Enoch and Noah in Hebrews 11:1-7.
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Our chapter opens with an introductory description of faith.
The description of faith (1,3)
Faith is confidence in the certainty of the unseen future. (1) “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for.” There are such things as unrealistic expectations and fanciful hopes. The writer is not encouraging us in that direction, and he is not praising those who live in a dream world. To him there is one key issue which divides all future hopes into two categories, and that is the question, “Did God promise it, or is it based on human reasoning or human desires?” If the former, then its fulfillment is certain and the only question is, “Do we have the subjective assurance of its certainty?” The assurance that takes God at His Word concerning the future is called FAITH.
Faith is confidence in the reality of the unseen present (1). Faith is not a commodity useful only for determining what the future holds; it’s also absolutely critical for the present. Verse 1 continues, “Faith is the conviction of things not seen.” We worship a God whom we cannot see. In fact, “No man has seen Him at any time.” That’s an obstacle to some, but not to the person of faith. He sees God’s fingerprints every day of his life and is convinced that the fingerprints he sees correspond to reality. He is not so foolish as to hold that only that which is visible is real. Thirdly,
Faith is confidence in the creative power of God in the unseen past. (3). “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” I am a creationist. I believe that the universe came into being by the creative power of God. Evolution has undoubtedly played some role in the development of the universe, but the origin of it is attributable to God alone. How do I know that? By reading creationist books? By studying the geological formations and finding evidence of Noah’s flood? No, I understand it by faith. By its very nature the issue of origins is a metaphysical question incapable of being answered on purely scientific, logical, empirical grounds. It is a faith question.
Now when our author identifies creationism as a faith question, he isn’t relegating it to the realm of the irrational. He isn’t calling it a leap into the dark. He specifically says, “by faith we understand”—not speculate, or hope, or dogmatize, but understand. Creationism is rational; it explains the data well, actually far better than evolution can; it just can’t be proven scientifically.
By the way, the only problem I have with the evolutionists in our universities, who speak so dogmatically about evolutionary origins is that they teach in the biology, geology, zoology, and chemistry departments whereas they should move over to the philosophy or religion departments. When they try to explain the origin of life they are no longer doing science but are dabbling in philosophy and religion. At least they could be honest enough to admit it.
Our text goes on to give just a hint about how the original universe was created, namely by the command, the spoken word of God. He didn’t use previous matter to create; He just spoke it into existence. I can’t tell you when He did that. I can’t tell you what it looked like. I can’t tell you all the processes which have operated to bring the universe to its present form. But I can tell you that according to Scripture it came into being by the command of God.
So faith relates to the future, to the present, and to the past. And the examples of great faith the author is about to share with us are those who believed God in the present because of what He had done in the past and who were confident He would continue to be faithful in the future.
The demonstration of faith in the Gallery of the Ancients (2‑38)
The author’s method is to give us a tour through God’s Hall of great men and women of faith. Most halls of fame have statues, pictures, objects, tapes—anything to help the visitor catch a glimpse of the hero. Let’s suppose we have just entered God’s Hall of Faith and our guide allows us a few moments to stand in awe at the number and variety of the exhibits. Then he calls us over to the Gallery of the Ancients. I think he starts here in order to impress upon us that faith is not a relatively recent requirement which God has laid upon the human race. It is as old as the human race.
The faith of Abel, who still speaks. (4) The NASB reads in verse two, “By faith the men of old gained approval.” He takes us all the way back to the original First Family for the first great example of someone gaining approval from God because of his faith: “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks even though he is dead.”
There are two key terms here which explain Abel’s presence in this Gallery‑‑”better sacrifice” and “righteous,” and the explanation for the first depends upon our understanding of the second. It has been widely held that the reason Abel’s sacrifice was better than Cain’s is that Abel’s was a blood sacrifice while Cain’s was not. Frankly, I wonder if that doesn’t involve reading a lot of NT theology back into the book of Genesis. I can find nothing in Genesis to indicate it was the content of the two offerings which distinguished between Cain and Abel. Rather I believe it was the character of the two men which determined the acceptability of their offerings. Abel obtained the testimony that he was righteous, while Cain gave evidence that he was wicked.
All through the Scriptures the point is clearly made that the content of a man’s offering is insignificant compared to the attitude of a man’s heart. Time and time again God denounced the ritually perfect sacrifices of the Israelites because their hearts were not in it. “To obey is better than sacrifice” was a constant theme. Of course, to obey and sacrifice was even better, and that’s what Abel did. By faith he brought a better sacrifice because he was a righteous man.
The connection between faith and righteousness is a very important one to the writer of Hebrews. In the 38th verse of the previous chapter he quoted the prophet Habbakkuk to say that the person who is righteous lives and survives by faith. Abel is a prime example. He lived by faith and his faith still speaks. I like that epitaph at the end of verse 4: “And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.” We are told that “dead men don’t tell tales,” but the Scripture says they do. Would you like to go on speaking after you die? William Carey does; the five missionaries to the Aucas, murdered in 1955, still speak; Francis Schaeffer still does. You may have a grandmother whose simple prayers and reading of God’s Word is still heard in your family’s heritage.
The faith of Enoch, who walked with God. (5-6) Enoch is the second exhibit in the Gallery of the Ancients. “By faith Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.” Once again the connection between faith and righteousness seems uppermost in the author’s mind, for he lays stress on the fact that Enoch was pleasing to God before he was taken to heaven without experiencing death.
Enoch is one of those biblical characters concerning whom we would love to have more information. Here is the sum total of his biography, as found in Genesis 5:21-24: “And Enoch lived 65 years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.”
Years ago I read an article by Vance Havner called The Vanishing Pedestrian. It is instructive because of how often the Bible speaks of the life of faith as a “walk,” and it focuses on Enoch.
One traffic hazard that is being eliminated rapidly these days is the pedestrian. Most of them are eliminating themselves since we do not walk any more. Motorists are eliminating the others as fast as they can run them down. Too many of us do not think with our heads or walk with our feet—we just sit. It will be interesting to know what we will look like in several generations if we keep this up.
Walking is said to be the perfect exercise. We are so constructed physically that walking does us good all over. But we are not availing ourselves of this benefit. In a day when we spend millions on buses to haul children to school and millions more on gymnasiums so they can exercise, there ought to be a revival of plain, old-fashioned walking. This writer is happy to be one of the vanishing tribe of pedestrians. Walking is my only un-American activity.
Then after Havner shares a number of Scripture passages that speak of spiritual walking, he adds,
Let it be observed that the Christian life is more than taking a stand or a step. It is a walk, and a walk is one step after another. Some dear sous take a step of faith, but never a walk of faith.
The outstanding spiritual pedestrian is Enoch. He walked with God, he pleased God, and God took him. What a biography in three brief statements! And what an epitaph! But the point often overlooked in all this is that walking is a leisurely unhurried pace. Our Lord walked over Galilee and He never gives us the impression of being in a rush, dashing about in a fever to make a deadline. He walked.
The Vanishing Pedestrian, whether in the flesh or in the spirit, needs to come back into his own. We do not have to stand or run, freeze or fry. The choice is not between living in a stupor or in a stew. We have only to return to the Gait of Galilee. God grant us a new race of pedestrians. Sons of Enoch, of whom it may be said at the last, “They walked with God, they pleased God, and God took them.”
It was Enoch’s walk of faith that pleased God so much that God decided to allow him to be one of only two individuals in all of human history to enter His presence without experiencing death, Elijah being the other. There will be more when Jesus returns, but so far apparently just these two.
Now, having noted that Enoch pleased God, our author inserts a parenthetical thought in verse 6, which is probably the key verse of the entire chapter. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Friends, it is not difficult to please God when you doubt His Word; it’s impossible. God hates all sin, of course, but what must grieve Him more than any other sin is when He hears one of His children say, in effect, that He can’t be trusted. The faith that pleases God begins with His existence, but it doesn’t end there. Even demons, James tells us, believe in God’s existence. The watershed issue is that we must believe that He rewards those who earnestly seek him. He may not take them to heaven without death, as he did Enoch, but He will reward them.
I think the most embarrassing thing about my own life and the state of the evangelical church in general today is the lengths to which we will go to achieve rewards, particularly financial rewards. We will work our fool heads off, we will skimp, we will save, we will fenagle, we will manipulate, some will even play the lottery at odds of 10 million to one—all the while forgetting that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him, and His rewards are the only ones that will last.
The faith of Noah, a preacher of righteousness. (7) Moving on, our guide stops in front of a stunning figure. He’s very old but he seems to exude strength. We are told that he is Noah. “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
If Abel worshiped by faith and Enoch walked by faith, Noah worked by faith. He too was a righteous man (in fact, Peter calls him “a preacher of righteousness”); he too walked with God. But what causes Noah to stand out in the Gallery of the Ancients is the fact that when God announced that He would do something absolutely unprecedented in human history, Noah took God at His word. And not only did he take God at His word intellectually and spiritually, but he began to make practical preparations for the day when God’s Word would come true.
You recall that God told Noah to build a boat some 500 miles from the nearest ocean. And this boat was not a runabout. Using the most conservative measurements possible, it was the length of a football field and a half, had a deck area of 100,000 feet and a total volume of about 1.3 million cubic feet. It would hold the equivalent of 450 semi-trailers. He overcame the doubts that are invariably produced by environmental evidence (it apparently had never rained on the earth up to that time), doubts produced by ridicule (people scoffed at Noah’s Folly), doubts produced by delay (120 years passed before the flood came), doubts produced by lack of response (Noah had no converts, though he preached for over 100 years), and doubts produced by exhausting labor. In spite of all this, the text says, “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.” The only evidence he had was the Word of the Lord, but he staked a claim there, by faith. And then it started to rain.
Let me read a paragraph of application from John MacArthur:
“The Lord has arks for every believer to build. It is just as important for us to build the ark He gives us as it was for Noah to build the one God assigned him. Ours may not be as big or as awesome or as time‑consuming as Noah’s, but it is the only one we can build that will please God. And, like Noah’s, when we build it in faith, according to God’s plan and by His power, it will accomplish what God wants it to accomplish. Also like Noah’s, our work for the Lord may look foolish and purposeless in the world’s eyes. But if it is His work, it will please Him, the only one a believer needs to be concerned about pleasing.”[i]
Faith was possessed and exercised by the ancients. These three examples of Abel, Enoch and Noah are sufficient proof. But faith was not their exclusive possession, for it also characterized the great Patriarchal period, which is where our walk through God’s Hall of Faith will take us next.
Tags:
Faith
Creation
Evolution
Abel
Enoch
Noah
Righteousness
[i] John MacArthur, Hebrews, 321.