Not long ago, we considered some of the principles of faith as expressed in verses 1-3. Tonight, let’s think about three very, very early examples of the kind of faith which pleases the Lord. You could say that earlier we took our little sail boat out in the sheltered bay and tried to familiarize ourselves with sailing. What are the physics involved in applying wind to sail – rudder to currents – gravity to buoyancy? In a sense, we were in the classroom. But now we are taking our sailboat, out around the point and into the open sea where the waves are bigger and the dangers much greater. Here is where we begin to see what sailing is all about. What is faith? How am I to get it? Why is it important? A woman asked Catharine Booth to illustrate faith – she said that it’s like a bride taking a husband. Is anything more practical than that? “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
This evening let’s consider three early people whose lives expressed faith in God.
First, we have Abel.
“By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” Abel was the second male child to be born on this sinful planet; perhaps he had an older sister or two, but of that we aren’t made aware. He was a part of the first generation after the creative hand of God. In other words, he is at the very fountainhead of humanity. What Abel can teach us about faith ought to be rudimentary, basic, untarnished by time and tradition.
Someone might ask, why wasn’t Adam’s faith was included in this list. I can only guess, but my first guess would be that there wasn’t room to include every everyone. Let’s be thankful that the Lord knows all those who are His. “The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in Him.” – Nah 1:7. Then there is the fact that Paul, lead of the Spirit, is making his list based on Old Testament revelation. We know a little bit about the faith of Abel, but we know next to nothing about the faith of Adam. It’s not that the Holy Spirit couldn’t have revealed things to Paul about Adam, but apparently He didn’t. And then there is the fact that the lessons drawn from Abel are perhaps more important and clear.
Of course, we are all familiar with the early history of the Book of Genesis and Adam’s family. The first sons of Adam and Eve were Cain and then Abel. They were taught about Jehovah by their parents, and they were taught about properly approaching Him. I can only guess, but I’m reasonably sure that Adam taught his sons about faith – something which Adam lacked the day that chose to sin against God. But Cain chose to disregard the lessons of his Father, walking in the same steps as his father. Here we have one of those “do as I do” – versus “do as I say” lessons. Cain chose disobedience and innovation – attempting to alter God’s proscribed approach to His altar. Instead of coming to God with the blood of an animal sacrifice, Cain thought that Jehovah could use more fruits and vegetables in His diet. But the Lord doesn’t appreciate man’s inventions when the lessons are quite clear. Man’s inventions are in some ways the very opposite to faith – at least obedient faith. So God vividly displayed His displeasure with Cain and His pleasure with Abel.
Someone has said that faith is like a bunch of calories. Has anyone ever seen a calorie? Have you ever walked into a grocery store and up to the calorie counter? Has science ever put a telescope or microscope on a calory? What color are they? Calories are merely units of energy, which cannot be put into a bottle as such or on a shelf. But despite being invisible themselves, they produce visible results. And its those results that the scientists can measure, and so can all those of us who aren’t scientists. Similarly, faith may be naked to the eye, but its results can be seen if we are interested in looking.
We learn from Abel that faith is pretty simple – the younger brother simply believed God and obeyed Him. And when God looked on the young man’s faith He blessed him. But wait a minute, didn’t God look at Abel’s offering and bless him for that? Why is Paul talking about “faith,” when Genesis 4 only talks about the two sacrifices? The question is – what prompted each of those two sacrifices? Cain’s came about through self-righteousness and personal wilfulness. Abel was obedient to the Lord because He believed what his father had taught him – he believed God. Abel’s faith witnessed to the fact that he was righteous before the Lord..
“And by his faith he being dead yet speaketh.” Abel has been preaching to people for more than 6,000 years by way of the Word of God. Faith is not a sacrifice, a prayer, church membership, a clean life and generosity. Faith is taking God at His word, and from that relationship with the Lord, these and other things flow. Forgetting about Cain’s wilfulness, the man who tries to please God by doing the right things without faith, will never succeed in pleasing the Lord. We can’t get the cart before the horse – “without faith it is impossible to please Him.”
We are all either spiritual heirs of Cain or of Abel.
Our second great example of faith is Enoch.
“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Enoch was in the seventh generation from Adam, and he was most unusual. He was a preacher of righteousness, and that always sets people a part. He also lived only 365 years which was unusual in both its length and its brevity. Many of his righteous neighbors and kin folk were living twice and almost three times as long. But the most unusual thing about Enoch was that God took him to heaven. In contrast to all the others mentioned in Hebrews 11 or Genesis 5, we are not told of his death. He was “translated” – carried from one sphere of existence to another. Genesis 5:24 – “And Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him.”
Enoch was the first of a multitude of people who shall not pass through the doorway of death. I Thessalonians 4 describes a future global event which was first illustrated by the translation of Enoch. Who are the people which will participate in this translation? Like it or not, it will only be enjoyed by people who “please God.” In defining the verb “to please” we separate the sheep from the goats – the saints from the sinners. Cain tried to “please God” with an unacceptable sacrifice – and of course he failed. But Abel pleased God by faith. Verse 6 – “Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
There is a sense in which anyone can potentially spend eternity in the glories of Heaven. Poverty doesn’t exclude anyone; marital status; education level doesn’t exclude; not even musical abilities. The only requirement is faith enough to believe God and to believe in – to trust – Christ Jesus. With that kind of faith we please and prove that we have partaken of the righteousness of Christ. Enoch not only had that kind of faith – by the grace of God. But he also was commissioned to preach about that kind of faith – offsetting his stern message of upcoming judgment. Enoch laid the ground work for the Noaic flood, and perhaps only Noah heard the message.
Our third example is perhaps the clearest of the three – Noah.
“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” God and Noah, obviously had a long-standing relationship. Noah had no problem believing the Lord when he was told to build the ark. It was absolutely unique in its day – never had there been such a thing before. No one had seen a boat, a barge, an ark; and no one had ever heard of a flood, except by definition. But then again, it is unlikely that anyone had ever seen rain, part of the source of the flood.
The world was reveling in sin with complete disregard for the Lord. It was to the point that God was ready to start over again, with Noah and his family. That start over required that Noah believe something completely unheard of. It didn’t matter whether or not Noah had ever seen an ark before, because Jehovah described it to him. It didn’t matter whether or not man had ever experience rain, because God said that it would rain. We know the rest of the story.
God did not coerce Noah into doing something that he didn’t want to do. The Lord didn’t attempt to outwit the man with intellectual arguments for the upcoming judgment. God simply stated what Noah was to do, and the man did it – by faith – he trusted the word of the Lord. And by his obedience, he became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
I think that it is interesting that the first examples of Biblical faith boil down to examples of faith unto salvation? The lessons in these three men don’t stop there, but salvation is the commencement point of “the just shall live by faith.” All three of these men, believed and trusted the Lord right up – and into Heaven and eternity. Isn’t that what the Christian life is all about?