1. One of the greatest words in the English language is the word “faith.”  Faith means “reliance” or “trust.”  Faith is the guiding principle of the Christian life.   True Biblical faith has God as its object. 
2. Our Lord said in Mark 11:22, “Have faith in God.”
3. Saving faith is faith which rests upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. Webster’s Dictionary defines faith as “the assent of the mind or understanding to the truth of what God has revealed.”
5. Matthew Henry gives a longer definition: “Faith is a firm persuasion and expectation that God will perform all that He has promised to us in Christ; and this persuasion is so strong that it gives the soul a kind of possession and present fruition of those things, gives them a subsistence in the soul by the firstfruits and foretastes of them; so that believers in the exercise of faith are filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
6. Faith has three aspects:

1. The intellectual aspect.  “This involves a factual and positive recognition of the truth of the Gospel” (Charles Ryrie, Basic Theology).  “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).  Consider the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip asked the eunuch, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” (Acts 8:30).
2. The emotional aspect.  “The truth and the person of Christ are now seen in an interested and absorbing way” (Ryrie).   We see this in Acts 8:34 where the eunuch asked Philip, “I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?”  The Holy Spirit draws us to Christ (cf. Rom. 10:9, 10).
3. The volitional aspect.  A man may believe that Jesus Christ is God and still be lost.  There may be an assent of the mind but there must also be a surrender of the heart.  To be genuinely saved, a man must appropriate personally the truth of the Gospel and he must place all his reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ.   We see this in Acts 8:36 where the eunuch asks Philip, “See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?”  Philip replied, “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.”  Then the eunuch answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (Acts 8:37).

I. THE DEFINITION OF FAITH (HEBREWS 11:1).

1. Hebrews 11:1 is a good Biblical definition of faith.   Note the words, “not seen” (11:1b).  This is why Paul says in II Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”  
2. J. Oswald Sanders said, “Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen.”
3. This theme is seen throughout Hebrews 11.  “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet…” (11:7).
4. Abraham “looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (11:10).
5. Abraham, Sarah, and others mentioned here, “all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off…” (11:13).
6. Moses turned his back on Egypt and followed God – “as seeing Him who is invisible” (11:27).
7. The world says, “Seeing is believing.”  But the Christian says, “Believing is seeing” (cf. Heb. 11:27b).
8. “Evidence” (11:1) is the conviction (or proof) that the Bible is the Word of God.  “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).
9. I have a conviction that God is real; the Bible is real; heaven is real; hell is real, etc.  These convictions are based on faith in the Bible, God’s Holy Word.
10. Before going further, let me stress that faith is not based on feelings, but on fact.  A.T. Pierson said, “Feed faith with facts, not with feeling.”   The Bible is a book of facts.

II. FAITH PLEASES GOD (11:5, 6).

1. Now if faith pleases God, then lack of faith must displease God.  Romans 14:23 says, “For whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
2. When Christians do not believe God they are sinning.   What would have happened if Noah did not exercise faith and build the ark (11:7)? 
3. It had never rained before.  Yet Noah started building his ark.  With the exception of his immediate family, all of Noah’s neighbors, and all of the people were wicked sinners.  Second Peter 2:5 says Noah was “a preacher of righteousness.”
4. He kept working and he kept preaching – by faith (Heb. 11:7).
5. Why would Moses leave Egypt and go live on the backside of the desert for 40 years? Faith in God (cf. 11:24-29).

III. FAITH GUIDES AND DIRECTS BELIEVERS.

1. Harry Ironside said, “In all these past ages we see that faith was the controlling power that enables men to walk with God and triumph over the corrupting influence of their times” (Hebrews).
2. Why did David Livingston go to Africa?  Hudson Taylor to China?  Adoniram Judson to Burma?   And what about CT Studd who served God in China, India, and Africa? 
3. They all were guided by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who told them, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).  They believed Him.  Do you?
4. Have you ever wondered why some people believe in evolution and global warming and just about every harebrained idea that comes out, while others have enough discernment to reject all of this foolishness?
5. Hebrews 11:3 says, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
6. “Through faith we understand…” (11:3).  Faith gives us understanding and discernment and good judgment.
7. Tom Henderson is a retired NASA Engineer who now travels around the world teaching creationism.  He has degrees in math, physics and science education and worked at the Johnson Space Center for 37 years.   He is a man of faith.
8. Tom Henderson argues that societal decay, theological erosion and moral bankruptcy will ensue if evolution is embraced. “The basis for all Christian doctrines is found in the first 11 chapters of Genesis,” he said. “If it is not true, then what is our basis for morality?” 
9. Tom Henderson also said that the evidences he has found for creationism could remove barriers to faith. “For some people, evolution is a barrier to the good news of Jesus. They feel if evolution is true, Christianity can’t be – and they are right,” he said. “But if evolution is a myth, then they can take that step to faith.”
10. In other words, evolution hinders faith, whereas the Bible strengthens our faith.   Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary has a lengthy section under “faith.”  One of the definitions is “simple belief of the Scriptures.”
11. I miss our Christian school.  Every morning the students would say the pledge of allegiance to our American flag, and then to the Christian flag, and then to the Bible.
12. “I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God’s Holy Word, I will make it a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path and will hide its words in my heart that I might not sin against God.”
13. Tom Henderson has degrees in math, physics and science education and he has worked at the Johnson Space Center for 37 years, and he believes the Bible is the Word of God. He has faith. 
14. And his faith has guided him around the world as he teaches people how God created this world and that evolution is a lie.
15. Throughout history, faith has moved believers, and directed them, and motivated them.  By faith Abraham started traveling, not knowing where he was going (11:8-10).
16. By faith Moses stood on the banks of the Red Sea.  With Pharaoh’s army behind him, and the Red Sea in front of him, Moses said, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever” (Ex. 14:13).
17. Hebrews 11:27 says Moses “endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.”   True faith is enduring faith (cf. Luke 8:13).
18. Joshua had faith.  God told him and his soldiers and the priests to march around the walls of Jericho (Josh. 6).  Then on the seventh day they were to blow the rams’ horns, and the walls would come tumbling down.
19. The Scofield Bible says, “The central truth here is that spiritual victories are won by means and upon principles utterly foolish and inadequate in the view of human wisdom.” 
20. Yes, and the principle here is faith.  Hebrews 11:30 says, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.”
21. Faith gave David the courage to fight the giant Goliath, armed only with a slingshot (Heb. 11:32).
22. Faith “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens” (11:33, 34).

CONCLUSION:

1. Our faith rests upon the Bible.   The Bible is the inerrant Word of God.
2. In the original Bible there were no chapter and verse divisions.  Hebrews 11:1 follows Hebrews 10:39.
3. Those with faith in Christ “believe to the saving of the soul” (10:39).
4. Those without faith in Christ go into “perdition” (hell).
5. There are only two ways to go.   John 3:36 says, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
6. In John 20:27, our Lord said, “Be not faithless, but believing.”