How to Please God

If you would please turn with Me to the book of Hebrews, chapter 11.

Our primary text this evening is found in verse 6:

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

We see that without faith, it is impossible to please God. As we read chapter 11, we see examples of the men and women of faith, and they are all Old Testament examples given to us as New Testament believers. Mankind has always had to approach God by faith; there’s no other way to do so that pleases Him.

So, if faith is the only way to please God, we need to ask ourselves, what is faith? If we back up to verse 1, the author of Hebrews defines it for us:

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The word for faith here is a noun, and is the persuasion or moral conviction that something is true, and in context, refers to the persuasion and conviction that God is real and the things taught in His word are true. It is more than a mere intellectual acknowledgement, however. It is a reliance upon God and upon these truths. Specifically, it is a reliance on Jesus Christ to save us from our sins as He said He would.

The word ‘substance’ is an interesting word. It means a support, foundation, or the substantial quality or nature of a person or thing. It’s the same word translated as ‘person’ in Hebrews 1.

Let’s turn there really quick.

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. (Heb 1:1-4)

Here, the author is describing the divine nature that Jesus shares with the Father, which is the foundation or undergirding of His humanity. Faith then has its foundation in the God of the Bible, made known to us in the person of Jesus Christ. This is the foundation of our hope. It is also translated as confidence or assurance. In other words, it is not what we hope to be true, but what we are confident or assured to be true. Because we are confident in who the Lord is, we trust He will do what He says He will do.

The word ‘evidence’ is the proof or conviction that the things unseen are true as the Bible declares them to be. Once we have become convinced the claims of the Bible are true, we place our reliance in what cannot be seen, and are then living proof of these claims by our changed lives (once we are saved, we are different).

It’s important to note, that faith is not blindly believing something, but it is believing something for which there is reason and evidence, although we do not necessarily experience the object of that faith with our senses. David Guzek writes, “Faith does not contradict reason, though it may go beyond reason. One may objectively prove the Bible is the most unique book ever published and has impacted society more than any other book. But only faith can prove that the Bible is the Word of God. Therefore, this is a belief beyond reason but not in contradiction to reason or against reason.”

Next, the author of Hebrews starts at the beginning, and walks us through the men and women of faith who received a good report because of that faith. So far in Genesis, we have gone up to Abram, so we’ll attempt to go that far in Hebrews 11 this evening. He first starts with creation for which no one was there to observe; we can only see the finished product. It takes faith to believe God created everything, although evidence and reason certainly point to Him. Despite its flaws due to sin, creation is remarkably well designed, and probably the greatest evidence there is an intelligent designer. David wrote in Psalm 19:1, The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.” All we have to do is look at the heavens, and we have to admit someone created all that. He wrote in Psalm 33:6, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” Jumping down to verse 9 of the same Psalm, “For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”

The New Testament tells us Jesus was the person of the godhead primarily responsible for creation. We have already seen in Hebrews how God (the Father) created the worlds through Jesus. John wrote in his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (Jn 1:1-3) From the beginning, Jesus has been the key person pointed to by the Scriptures.

The first man of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11 is Abel: “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.” If we recall from Genesis 4, Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground, but Abel brought an offering out of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord accepted Abel’s offering, but Cain’s He did not.

Cain had his own way of doing things, and thought that his way was better than the Lord’s. Why should he have to kill an animal for an offering when he could just bring one from his crops that he harvested?

There’s a lot of people like Cain: God’s way of salvation just doesn’t make sense to them, so they do what does make sense in their minds, which is trying to attain it by their works.

Abel, on the other hand, trusted God, and did what He said by bringing an offering of the flocks that would cover his sins. It takes faith to trust the Lord and do what He says, even though it might not make sense to us.

Next, the author of Hebrews mentions Enoch. If we recall from Genesis 5, Enoch walked with God for 300 years after the birth of his son, Methuselah. It takes faith to walk with someone you cannot see for 300 years, but because he had such a close walk with the Lord, the Lord took him to Heaven without seeing death. He pleased God by his faith.

And now in verse 7 we come to Noah. “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” It took faith to trust God and build a big barge in light of God saying He was going to destroy the earth with a flood when it had never rained before. It would have taken faith to be a preacher of righteousness in a world in which it states that all flesh had corrupted itself.

It states he became heir of the righteousness which is according to what? Faith!

Lastly, we come to a guy named Abraham. “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” Wait, did Abraham really obey when he was told to go out? In Genesis 11, we are told they left for Canaan, but they made a stop on the way in a city named Haran. Haran was really a sister city to Ur of the Chaldees, and they were bound together by the worship of the moon god. We don’t know for sure why they stopped there, but many believe Abraham’s father had something to do with it because once he died, they left Haran for Canaan. So, Abraham obeyed, but it was a delayed obedience. As we study Abraham further in Genesis, we will see he definitely had other flaws, some of which you might think the guy needed to be horse whipped for. However, it wasn’t reckoned to him because he was a man of faith.

By the time we get to the book of Romans, Paul uses Abraham as a prime example of how we must be justified by faith rather than works, even calling him the father of all those who believe. According to Romans, those who attempt to earn righteousness by their works will end up in debt to God (Rom 4:4) and subject to His wrath (Rom 4:15).

Lastly, our text in Hebrews 11:6 says that we must believe that He (God) is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Although salvation is our greatest reward, faith is more than simply securing our salvation (fire insurance). It is believing that all that God says in His word is true for us personally. It is seeking Him, not only for answers to our prayers, but primarily seeking Him for who He is, our Lord, Savior, and friend.

The Scriptures actually have a lot to say about seeking God. Here are just a few:

David wrote in Psalms, “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.” (Psa 63:1) He also wrote in Psalm 27:8, “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek.’” In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Mat 6:33)

I think most of us find it easier to relate to God as our Lord and Savior, but don’t often think of Him as our friend.

Abraham, the father of the faith, was called the friend of God (James 2:23). Jesus told His disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” (Jn 15:13-15) We seek the Lord through prayer, reading the Scriptures, and assembling together with other believers.

When we diligently seek Him, He promises to reward us. The scriptures state:

“if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chron 7:14) “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jer 29:12-13) “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:7-8)

As we can see from these passages, turning from sin is a key ingredient in seeking the Lord. Sometimes, we don’t even know we are doing it, and as we seek the Lord, He reveals those things in our lives that are not pleasing to Him.

In these examples of faith we have covered this evening, can anyone tell me what is a common thread we see in these individuals? Their faith produced obedience. Abel obeyed God by offering a blood sacrifice, Enoch walked with God, Noah built the ark, and Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees for the land of Canaan. This is what genuine faith always does. When you’ve got faith, you want to obey the Lord. It takes faith to obey the Lord when everyone else isn’t. We saw this in Noah’s day, and we see it today. Truthfully, it’s always been this way since the Fall; it’s just getting harder as the end approaches.

Alright then, is there anyone who does not have faith, faith in God who raised up Jesus from the dead? Many of you may remember the story: Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson, Belshazzar,  was throwing a big party for one thousand of his lords. They were drinking wine out of the gold and silver vessels from the temple in Jerusalem and praising the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. As they were partying up, there appeared fingers of a man’s hand and wrote on the wall. The king was so troubled that his knees began knocking against each other. They eventually brought in Daniel to interpret the writing.

Part of what was interpreted was, “You have been weighed in the balances, and

found wanting.” What Belshazzar didn’t know was, while he and his lords were drinking themselves drunk, Cyrus was out re-routing the Euphrates River so his army could walk under the gates of Babylon and take the city. He died that same night.

If you don’t have faith in the Son of God and death comes to you, your works will be weighed in the balances, and you will be found wanting on the day of judgment. The only way to be righteous is to have God’s righteousness credited to your account by placing your faith in Jesus Christ. He paid your debt for you so you could go free. Repent and believe the Gospel, and you will be born again. For those of us who are believers, are we trusting God as these men did that we talked about tonight? It is becoming very counter-cultural to walk with the Lord today. That is why it is all the more important to trust God and seek Him with all our hearts. We need to allow our faith to work out obedience in our lives. There will be hick-ups along the way, just like there were for many of these men, but at the end of the day, we still trust Him, repent, and keep walking with the Lord. Trust Him, because faith is what pleases Him.