Eph 2:8
We have been saved by grace and through faith. So our faith has got to do directly with our salvation. If we reflect upon our journey of faith, when we first came to know and believe in the Lord, there were many things that required us to switch our thinking on, and believe. That was the beginning of our faith. As we understood the teachings of salvation, it was by faith we embraced the teachings and acted upon them. Why were we baptised? Was it because we were simply nice, kind, good people? There are many nice/kind/good people according standard of the world but they may not necessarily accept baptism. Why? Because they don’t have the faith baptism is something critical. But when we understood the significance of baptism, understanding he who believes will be saved (Mark 16:16), we believed. We realised that if we wanted to be saved, we must get baptised!

Why were we baptised? Because we believe it is during baptism that the blood of Jesus Christ washes our sins away. Simply because we understood Peter said so in Acts 2:38 “Repent and be baptised for the forgiveness of sins”. It was understanding the fundamental teachings in the Bible that caused us to take action.

Likewise, why did we undergo foot washing? Because Jesus says we have no part with Him if we don’t. (John 13:8)

When we first accepted the faith, we understood and believed. We did something about it. Acting upon it were the works of our faith.

If we understand the nature of Christian Faith, we realise it’s not something intellectual. It IS something we intellectually understand, and then we have a strong belief and conviction. That belief and conviction leads us to action according to that faith. THAT is Christian Faith.

But now that we continue on this journey in our Christian walk in this faith today, how do we live? How do we walk?

2 Cor 5:7
We walk by faith and not by sight. The difficulty we face as human beings who have been baptised is that we continue to lead a physical life. Oftentimes leading a physical life in a physical world gives us a natural inclination that all we can see and touch and feel is all there is. In an unknowing fashion, we live with such a philosophy: seeing is believing. So on one hand we’re Christians, but on the other hand we live our lives not very much different from people who are Christians. But here the Bible tells us we ought to walk by faith, not by sight. It seems to suggest not everything we see is necessarily faith. “Seeing is believing?” A big question mark in our walk of faith. In fact it could be the exact opposite.

What is faith?
Heb 11:1
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.”

What does this mean?
• “Evidence of things unseen”
Many people live by the philosophy: seeing is believing. “If I don’t see, I won’t believe. Unless I see, I won’t believe!” Yet here tells is faith is not seeing and yet believing. When you tell someone something, they may say, “I don’t believe. Where’s your evidence? Show me.”

This happens often.
You: “I believe in God.”
Other person: “Show me where He is.”

You: “I believe God can do this.”
Other person: “After He does it then talk to me.”

The people in the world may react like that. But as we walk our journey in life as Christian, has this also become the way we think and is this what drives our decisions? Faith means taking that there is already evidence even though we don’t see it. It means being able to believe without seeing. This belief is no weaker than having seen the evidence. That is a Christian Faith.

• “Faith is the substance of things hoped for”
We may say “ok I’ve not seen it but I still hope for it”. When we hope for things, it’s something still not concrete. It’s still intangible; not physically real.

But here tells us faith is as good as the substance; the actual thing. So we’ve not seen God. Can we believe? Do we believe?

We hope for the love of God. We’ve not necessarily received. Is it as substantial to us if we had already received it?

We’ve not seen heaven. We hope for heaven. Is it as substantial to us?

Rom 8:24-25
We are saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. Because if you’ve already seen it, that’s not hope, you’ve already got it! “For why does one still hope for what he sees?” Hoping for what we can’t see required patience. Faith and hope are very closely related.

Examples of faith in the Bible
Examples in the Bible that teaches us different aspects in our Christian walk will be raised in this sermon. It’ll help us reflect on our walk of faith after baptism. Do we indeed walk by faith and not by sight?

Heb 11:1 is the definition of faith.

Heb 11:3 starts off with “by faith”. Many verses in Heb 11 starts off with this phrase.

v3 “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.”
In other words, the things which are seen today were made from nothing. It was the word of God that framed the worlds. When we read the account in the book of Genesis, that was indeed the case. God said, “Let there be…” and there was…

The worlds were framed by the word of God. Did we see it? Were we there during creation. We were not. But do we believe? Do we understand? The early believers say we understand by faith. Interestingly, the visible things were made by things unseen. It is the word vs the world. So is the word more powerful or the world more powerful? Simply through the word, the world came into being. If we live our lives truly understanding this, then in the decisions that we make and actions that we take, why do we still choose the world over the word? Oftentimes we think the world is more important and powerful. Something for us to ponder.

Abel
v4 talks about Abel.
“By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.”
When Abel made an offering, he did so by faith. When we read the account in Genesis, it just says God esteems the offering of Abel but not that of Cain. As a result, Cain was angry. Eventually, we know Cain murdered his brother Abel. But what was the difference between the offering of Abel and that of Cain? Here at least it says Abel offered by faith, which would also imply Cain’s offering was not offered by faith. Both made offerings, but one did it by faith, the other didn’t. This was why one was esteemed and the other was not. What was the difference? If we read Genesis, Abel offered the firstborn of his flock, whereas Cain simply offered from something of the ground. He could’ve offered the first fruits but he didn’t. While both made an offering, God could clearly see - one gave the best and thought first about God. But Cain kind of just went through the motion, he didn’t offer the best.

So as we walk in our journey of faith, in our offering to God whatever it may be - possessions, time, skills, knowledge, gift - how do we go about it? If we truly have faith to know and understand who this God is; to whom we’re making this offering to, that should naturally trigger the belief, conviction and right type of offerings. Do we offer only what we don’t want? Do we just offer a fraction of the excess of what we have? Or do we think of God first and give off the best, whatever it may be?
Enoch
v5 talks about Enoch.
“By faith, Enoch was taken away so he did not see death.”
Why was Enoch taken away by faith? In Genesis, Enoch walked with God 300 years. But did he always walk with God? Actually no. Initially he didn’t. But after the birth of his son Methuselah (longest living man, 969 years, died just before the flood) when he was 65 years, he walked with God.

Lesson for us: we walk with God now. But for how long? Can we last all the way? Whatever spurred Enoch’s decision to walk with God, he stuck with it and did not depart. How long can WE walk with God?

It’s very sad as we walk the journey and witness people forsake the journey. We thank God we’re still seated here this evening. It’s something we should be thankful for because we’re still walking with the Lord now.

Let’s not talk about 300 years. None of us will live that long. So actually we won’t have to walk that long. Some of us here don’t even have 30 years left to walk. But can we even walk 3 years? Something for us to reflect upon.
Noah
v7 talks about Noah.
“By faith, Noah being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark.”
God gave him specific instructions on the materials, dimensions, etc. What happened thereafter? Noah devoted his entire life to build the ark. This was about a 100 years. People watched him. He preached and warned of the danger that was coming. Nobody believed him. Imagine devoting your entire life to doing something the entire world thinks to be crazy or stupid. Yet Noah did not waver. Who had ever seen a flood at that time? No one. A flood was unimaginable. But Noah continued in his journey.

The ark that Noah built was a prefiguration of the ark of the last days - the true church. We have likewise been divinely warned. Not that we necessarily heard a voice in our ears, but the Bible clearly warns us the world will come to an end. Just like Noah was warned a flood would come to destroy the world.

As God had instructed Noah the exact dimensions and material to build the ark; the only way for him and his family to be saved, likewise today the way of salvation has been clearly instructed to us. The true church is just like the ark. Completely according to the specific instructions of God. How dearly do we hold on to this? Now that we know, how much of our lives have we devoted to the ark; in its building/construction? Do we endeavour to keep ourselves in the ark? Because there’s no salvation outside the ark.

Was the ark just a portion of Noah’s life, where we devoted his time to other things in that 100 years? Recall what Jesus said “The Last days will be just like the days of Noah. People will be eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage. And then suddenly the destruction.” They we’re enjoying their lives as per normal with completely no belief and understanding this would come to an end. But Noah’s life was completely different. The ark wasn’t just PART of his life. He devoted his ENTIRE life to the ark.

Today we say “I know this is the ark! I believe!” The speaker understands many of us believe. But how much of our lives have we devoted to it?

The Christian Faith is the conviction that leads to the decisions and actions we make in our life. For Noah, the ark was his devotion and his entire life. What about us?
Abraham
v8 talks about Abraham.
Different aspects of Abraham’s faith was recorded.
“By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called out to go to a place he would receive as an inheritance. He went out not knowing where he was going.”
If someone were to tell us that today, what would our first question be? “Go where ah?” “How far is it ah?” “What will I have there ah?” “What’s the weather there like?”

We consider all these things which are very normal in the world. But for Abraham, he obeyed when he was called to go out. He went out not even knowing where he was going.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We can see how Abraham applied that! He was given a promise of going to a wonderful place. He would inherit it. Didn’t see it, but with faith it was like evidence, so just go. Didn’t receive it, but with faith it was like substance already so just go.

When he went, there was no house. He dwelt in tents, “for he waited for the city which has foundation, whose builder and maker is God.” (v10)
He looked even beyond to the heavenly kingdom. When he died, he hadn’t even seen this!

Today as we walk on this journey of faith, we we willing to put aside our old comforts and habits? Surely home is always a comforting place. It’s a place we know well and are familiar with. It’s not easy to give up these comforts we’ve gotten so used to. But in our walk of faith, we do have to put these things behind us sometimes. Especially recognise this life on Earth is temporary. That the final rest is in the heavenly kingdom - the city whose builder and maker is God.

v17
“By faith Abraham offered up Isaac his only begotten son”
This is an interesting aspect because God had promised it would be through Isaac he would have many descendants. Yet God told him to offer Isaac up. It was completely senseless! God seemed to be contradicting Himself. So sometimes we get a bit wiser than God. We think we’re wiser than God. But as we read the whole story of Abraham offering Isaac up, we can see he never wavered. He didn’t question “God why ah? Did you say this and that? I don’t understand.” He took Isaac on a 3 day journey. Many of us would have struggled in our hearts on this journey. When they finally got up on the mountain, Isaac asked where the lamb for sacrifice was. The whole way maybe you can still numb yourself and pretend, but when your son asks this question, innocent, not knowing HE is the sacrifice, how would you feel? Abraham didn’t waver. Faith wasn’t an intellectual thing. He did the only thing he knew that was right, which was to obey God.

v18-19 shows what was going through his head. God said in Isaac his seed would be called. Yet God said to sacrifice him. To rationalise this, Abraham didn’t think maybe God changed His mind or wasn’t keeping His promise. He concluded God would raise Isaac from the dead. Had Abraham ever seen this? Not that we’ve seen recorded. Abraham just knew God was right and would take whatever to fulfil His promise. That was why Abraham went on and of course God intervened at the right time.

So in our life of faith, sometimes we may find ourselves in a similar situation. Something is completely out of our control. We’re at our wit’s end; we don’t know! God seems to be contradictory. He’s love. But sometimes we don’t seem to see it. He’s merciful. But we don’t seem to see it. “How can a God who is love and merciful ask me to kill my son? How can a God who promised me this son take him away?”

If we look at things from only one angle, sometimes it’s not just difficult but impossible to understand. But can we have that unwavering faith that God is God. He’s sovereign. He knows what to do. He doesn’t just know, He CAN do what He wants to do. Simply having unwavering faith in Him even when the immediate results doesn’t seem to make sense.

Abraham shows us this good example.
Conclusion
There’re many heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. This sermon cannot cover all of them in a 1h sermon. The speaker’s intention is to raise up some examples of faith to show that faith is not just an intellectual understanding. It goes beyond that to become a deep belief and conviction. And it doesn’t end there. It has to drive us in the actual decisions we take; our actions and how we lead our lives. Then we are truly transformed as Christians.