Hebrews 11:1 – Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:2 – For by it the elders obtained a good report.

Hebrews 11:6 – 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.

Romans 1:17 – For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

John 8:56 – Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.

Hello readers, God proves himself. Today I really want to talk about faith. What is faith? Faith is kinda a big deal in the Bible. The Bible defines faith as hearing, reading and believing God’s word. Obviously it’s a belief that is different to that which the devils have, aka it’s a belief with the heart, it’s a belief unto salvation and a belief that goes beyond intellectual assent to affecting how you live your life. When you believe God’s word, aka you hold his word to be true for your life and in your life, it kinda tends to affect how you act. What you believe affects how you act.

The thing is, faith isn’t just choosing to believe something because it suits, or because it makes me feel better. No. Faith is believing God’s word. Faith has an object, it’s believing in something. That something is the word of God. Faith is substance and evidence, because it’s believing God’s word. God wants us to believe his word. Not believing his word is why we live in this sin cursed world. The result of unbelief and thus rebellion to God’s word has resulted in all the pain, suffering, sin that you see in the world. It’s not God’s fault, it’s man going his own ways fault. Man thought he was more right than God, but turns out he wasn’t. In the issue of faith, the key is realizing God is right and God is righteous… and we are not.

Well we go to Hebrews 11, the great faith chapter. It’d be a pretty good idea to read that fairly regularly. There are so many “by faith”s in there. The Bible says in Hebrews 11 that without faith it is impossible to please God. Uh oh. So no matter how good a life you’re trying to live, no matter how good and right and justified you feel you are… the Bible makes it clear that none of that pleases God. Believing God is the only thing that pleases him. It was by faith that all these heroes of the faith acted and did what they did. For instance, by faith Noah built an ark. Noah heard God’s word, and it he believed it, and because he believed a flood was coming, he built and ark to get ready against it. If he didn’t truly believe God’s word, he surely could’ve found better things to do with his time right.

In Romans and other epistles we read about how we are saved by faith through the grace of God. And that’s true. You then get to the book of James and you see that faith is justified by our works. Woah hang on a sec, is that a contradiction? Not at all. It’s not explained away dividing up the Bible, you explain it by rightly dividing the word of truth. James is showing the truth that what you believe impacts how you act. We live in a world that, because it rejects Jesus Christ and his word, they therefore do all manner of sin and are right in their own eyes about it. What Abraham did in offering his son just proved that he had the faith in God’s word that the Bible says he had. He wasn’t going to offer his son because he was a crazy man right? He was obeying God’s word because he believed it!

Our works simply justify our faith that we say we have. You know, God justifies our faith as well. What does that mean? Well that’s what this blog is about. I would like to be justified in the decisions I made in life, I’d like proof that what I did was right and worth it and based on truth. Well the Bible says God is the justifier of him that believeth. You’ll never be sorry or ashamed for having believed God’s word. Was Abraham justified by God when he obeyed God? Everytime. If you ever want to be justified in how you live, think, say and do, if you want to be justified both now and at the end of your life, God will only justify you if it was based on believing and obeying his word.

The issue of righteousness is at stake in the whole faith issue as well. Righteousness and faith are inextricably linked. You know, the reason why people don’t have faith in God’s word is tied to righteousness. They think they’re right. That’s why they reject God’s word because they think they and this world are more right than God.

Today we are talking about God proving himself. Because all through the Bible God proved himself. God proved himself to Abraham. He had promised him a son, a son that it was biologically impossible for him to have, a son to whom all his promises were wrapped up in. Year after year went by and no son. All Abraham had was what God’s word said. Would God’s word have been enough proof for you as it was for Abraham? We are going to see that God’s word is the proof. As mindblowing as that is, God’s word is proof enough for us… but it’s not proof enough for those who reject his word. The fact God had promised Abraham was proof enough for Abraham, despite all the evidence to the contrary… the barrenness of his wife’s womb, his old age, time flying by. But the fact that God had said it was enough for Abraham. That’s why you should read about this guy… you are a child of Abraham if you walk in those same steps he did.

This world wants proof without faith. They want a proof without God’s word. God’s word isn’t proof enough for them. It was for Abraham, it was for everyone in Hebrews 11. Faith is going to separate the wheat from the tares. You might look and sound like a Christian, but you are all that without true Biblical faith. And because there is no faith, there is no new birth, there is no true righteousness, there is no salvation, and there is no way you’ll ever please God despite all your worship and service.

These guys in Hebrews 11 believed God without necessarily having proof, all they had was God’s word. But this blog is talking about God proving himself. You think God proved himself in each one of these guy’s lives? He did, he came through. Their faith was justified. They were proved right in what they did by faith. Noah obeyed having not seen a flood ever before. But you think God proved himself when he’s floating safely in the ark with his family while the rest of the old world is under water? See, God’s word is the truth, that’s why it’s worth believing over all your intellect and wisdom and understanding and what you can see and how you can see it. Because what you think doesn’t change a thing anyway. The old world rejected Noah’s preaching, but it didn’t make the truth of the coming flood any less true or any less coming.

Our salvation hinges on believing God’s word. Our salvation relies on God fulfilling what he said. You know that? I don’t birth myself again. I don’t have the power to lead myself. I don’t have the ability to live the Christian life. It all relies on God coming through on his word… not just once, but every second of every day. That’s grace, inexhaustible and always sufficient, enough to carry me day by day on life’s journey. It’s so easy to live the Christian life without actual faith. We live Christian but there is no faith involved.

I talk to people regularly who doubt, dispute, question and debate God’s word.  They don’t believe it. They’re not the children of Abraham, though they may even say they’re Christian. The Jews claimed Abraham was their father remember, but they weren’t really his children… and likewise Christians claim Christ, but they’re not sons of God. How is one a child of Abraham? It’s those who walk in the same steps of faith that he had. So if you believe God like he did, you’re his child, and the promises that were to him… you are a partaker of them. Abraham wasn’t saved by what he did, he was saved by believing God’s word, and what he did just proved the fact of his saving, real, true faith he had in God’s word. God told Abraham to take his son and go sacrifice him on Mount Moriah. He didn’t get an additional explanation. Would have you obeyed? Or would you have said, I’m not going until you explain yourself God. You see, many people are unwilling to just believe God’s word, but God wants you to trust him first… and then he’ll prove himself to you. It was when God saw that Abraham had obeyed his word that Abraham saw God prove himself in restraining Abraham from killing his only son and providing a substitute to sacrifice.

What we are getting to today is that God will prove himself. But your criteria for faith isn’t having proof first, for there are many times we have to obey when there is no proof, when we can’t see… that’s why it’s faith people! The Bible is full from front to back of people who believed God’s word despite what it looked like, how hopeless and impossible it looked, how inadequate they were, they chose to trust what God said. Faith doesn’t mean you surrender your brain, and facts, and truth… no not at all. But salvation will come down to you choosing to trust God… and boy will he prove himself to you. God proved himself to Abraham, God proved his word was true, God proved his promises, God proved he could be trusted… Abraham’s role was to trust and obey. We only tend to believe if we understand and see it all first, rather than taking God at his word. That walking by sight, not by faith.

A guy called Thomas, a disciple of Jesus Christ, famously said, unless I see, I won’t believe. Well Jesus did show himself to who became known as doubting Thomas. But Jesus in showing Thomas and inviting him to thrust his hand into his side where the spear went… he said blessed are those who haven’t seen yet believe. That’s us. We haven’t seen Jesus Christ, yet believe, just as 1 Peter says. Does that mean we have no proof? No. But we are saved by faith, by believing the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the word of God. We do experience God proving himself to us, personally in our lives as he changes us and gives us true joy, peace, happiness, hope… but God proves himself in all areas of our thinking and our lives.

God wants us to consider his word as proof. His word is proven, and his word is proof. Because his word is truth, it is the proof. So that’s why even though Abraham only had his son by a promise, it was always going to happen because God had promised it. God just proved what was true all along and what was worthy of Abraham’s faith all along… his word. You see, even though we seem to have flippant, don’t care, not relevant attitude to God’s word… God actually rates his word. He swears by his word, because there’s nothing greater to swear by. He’s a man of his word. It is impossible to read God’s word and not realize how highly God sets his word. All Abraham had was the word of promise, and what was tested thereafter was whether he believed what God had said. Satan, this world and our flesh are distinctly anti God’s word. Everything in this world is going to fight against you believing God’s word. That’s just how it is. So it’s the war of the ages, the battle over God’s word.

The thing is, God has proved himself, is proving himself, and will yet prove himself. Jesus Christ resurrection was confirmed by many infallible proofs. But you and I weren’t at the tomb physically, you and I didn’t see him ascend to the Father physically, we take that by faith in the same word that created the heaven and the earth, the same word that destroyed the old word, the same word that keeps the heavens and the earth that are now in store unto judgment, and the same word that is extended by the gospel to you today for repentance and salvation of your soul. Trusting God’s word is trusting the ultimate proof, because his word is perfect, truth, infallible, incorruptible, eternal.

The fact is, there are many things we don’t see yet. If seeing first is the criteria for you believing, you’ll never believe. God has made it so that it’s by faith we are saved and justified. God reckons his word is enough proof, and his word is proven in all areas of life, be it corporately, individually or in creation and in all aspects and facets of our existence.  Faith is trusting God’s word as truth and authority and agreeing that God is right even when we don’t necessarily have it all within our intellectual grasp, even when it doesn’t fit everything that we think and feel and believe and see. You think Joseph lacked a bit of “proof” for God’s promises to him when he was rotting in a dungeon in Egypt? You see, where you are at right now, even if you just don’t see how it’s possible, even if you don’t understand… it is worth trusting God’s word in the end, even if you don’t have “proof” right now. Think about it, even though Joseph may not have see how God’s word was true and going to happen and how it would work for many years… did it change the fact that God’s word was the truth and worthy of his faith and belief? Because God’s word said it, it was sure.

We live in a society that wants “proof”. Prove God to me. Sure, we know that they really don’t want proof.  The proof they are looking for and willing to see is what justifies them and their sinful lives. They’ve long rejected God’s word. They’ll never see God’s word as proof, and they’ll never see God prove himself to them, until they’re convinced of it in death and judgement thereafter when all the delusion and deceit of this life is rolled away. Proof and faith are NOT mutually exclusive. There is more than enough proof for God’s word to damn you to eternal hell. God won’t send you there without you having had more than enough chances to repent and believe. God has left himself with abundant witnesses, from creation to conscience to history to science… but you won’t have the capacity to see it until you surrender you being right to God’s right-ness.

There’s an example of what we’ve been talking about in 2 Kings 7. In that chapter we see Samaria under siege by the mighty Syrian army. There came a day during the siege that the prophet Elisha said that by this time tomorrow they’d all have food in abundance. It looked impossible, they’d been eating their children and dove’s dung and asses’ heads were at a premium in the food market. So times are tough. One particular guy heard what Elisha said, which was God’s word spoken by the man of God, but he didn’t believe. He couldn’t see how it could happen, there was no proof to him, and thus he didn’t believe. Because he didn’t believe, he saw it happen, but he died as all the city rushed out to the empty Syrian camp to spoil their tents for all the food they had.

The fact God had said that they’d have food the next day was enough proof, because God had said it. Everything that happened thereafter just proved what was right all along, before they saw and realized the truth of it… God’s word. God’s word is the proof. What God has said is the truth. Even  if you don’t accept it, it doesn’t change that it’s true. This guy not believing what God had said didn’t change that it was going to happen. God doesn’t want us to believe just when we think it’s possible, when we see and understand and have it all within our mind’s grasp… he wants us to believe… because it’s what he’s said. God’s word wasn’t enough proof for this bloke, and it cost him his life.

I said I’d’ get to the link between righteousness and faith. Because faith costs us our righteousness. That’s why people don’t have faith in God’s word. Because we tend to exalt our rightness of our thinking and understanding and rationalizing and what we see and feel and know over what God’s word says. Often what God’s word says conflicts with our sinful, fallen lives. Faith requires you seeing that God is right and you are not right. You’re not right in anything, about anything. You’re not right in how you think, what you believe, how you live, who you are, what you are. Boy how insulting that is to someone who thinks they’re pretty right on all levels! That’s why the preaching of the cross is offensive, that’s why people get persecuted and killed for the faith. Because Jesus Christ insults your righteousness and rubbishes your justification of yourself. True righteousness and justification comes from believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is just and righteous.

Until you have the capacity to assent to God’s righteousness, that he is right and you are wrong, that he is true and you’re a liar, that he’s good and you’re a wicked hell deserving sinner… you won’t ever arrive at the place of faith. People are righteous in their own eyes, that comes naturally to us. We try and justify ourselves, look at how people justify themselves rather than justify God! Biblical faith is saying God you’re right, you’re righteous, you’re correct, you’re truth, you’re just, I’ve got nothing. It takes you saying, I’ll believe you God over what I think and see and feel and over what others say and think as well. You are the truth. God will prove himself many times over to that person in ever sphere of life. You’ll see all that proof that God has so abundantly furnished every aspect of this creation with of himself finally. We don’t see the proof because we are blinded, because we don’t believe in Jesus Christ who came to make the blind see. The problem was never there was no proof, the problem was we rejected the proof, because we were in darkness, blind and knowing not at what we were stumbling.

In God’s word, HIS righteousness, how right he is in everything… that’s revealed to us. Because he’s faithful to us. And when read his word, and we believe his word. And hence this wonderful verse… Romans 1:16, 17 – For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. As we read God’s word, as we hear the gospel, which is the word of God… that’s God revealing himself to us, and we realize how just and holy and right he is. He reveals that so that we will place our faith and trust in him. It’s why the gospel is so important, it’s the gospel that has the power to produce a new birth, a new life, complete and utter salvation from sin, because you’re believing the record of God from man to us, submitting yourself to him. Our righteousness, our justification, our truth, everything we have, it’s dirt at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ. God’s word isn’t just proof, God’s word will save you.

God proved himself to Abraham many times over. That’s how Abraham’s faith grew and grew and grew. Faith requires things like patience, and patience has a perfect work the Bible says. You see, in faith you may require patience. You don’t see it yet, you need to wait for it. But it’s worth waiting for, God always comes through on his word, and justifies our faith. Just think, all the proof Abraham had was a promise of God’s word. That’s… all… he… had. He trusted God despite everything he felt and thought and understood and saw. But you think when that miracle son arrived… you think Abraham’s faith grew just that bit more, you think God had abundantly proved himself to Abraham? You think Abraham experienced what was true that whole way along… the sureness of God’s word in spite of everything. And God’s word was proved true… thy word is truth Jesus said… if Jesus rates God’s word that highly, why don’t we? Three it is writtens Jesus said to Satan… maybe we are so defeated in our lives because we’ve left off faith in God’s precious word.

But today, we arrive at an ultimate proof. The Lord Jesus Christ himself was God proving himself. All those promises made across hundreds to thousands of years of a coming Messiah, a Saviour, a Redeemer… and in the arrival of Christ God proved himself an innumerable times over. Jesus Christ is a tribute to the proof of God’s word. His birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his position and purpose, everything he says, is and does, is a tribute to the word of God… and he is the Word of God. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us… That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life. The Bible is a divine book. Jesus was delivered to us from faith to faith. God is always faithful to us, is it that hard for us to believe him?

It’s amazing to me in that same story in 2 Kings 7 that a couple lepers had gotten back from the Syrian camp saying hey guys the enemy is gone and there’s food there. This is what Elisha had said was going to happen. But the king said nah it’s a trick stay in the city. The king said I’ll show you what the Syrians are up to. He was way off. Why do we ever trust the words of fallible, lying, deceitful, deluded man over the word of God? But one of his servants said why can’t just a few of us go out and see? What harm can it do? We’re eating each other, we’re starving, we’re dying, can we at least just go and see? They couldn’t believe it when they came to the empty Syrian camp. God’s word was true, don’t let others stop you from going and seeing. Don’t let this world, Satan, your flesh prevent you from seeing Jesus Christ for yourself. There are going to be heaps of people content in sin, content in unbelief, who aren’t going to go in the steps of faith… but don’t let that stop you from believing and experiencing Jesus’ day in your life, the salvation and forgiveness and redemption and blessedness and abundant eternal life that he offers and has power to give. Jesus said, Abraham saw my day and he was glad. May Jesus have his day in your life today, may you experience God proving himself to you, proving himself true in your salvation, proving himself true in every facet of your life.

What it looks like doesn’t change what God has said. The just shall live by faith. Believe God’s word in spite of everything and guess what, you like Abraham will experience God proving himself… and you’ll rejoice and have gladness in your heart and life. Abraham didn’t have it all worked out, he just believed… and his faith is proven, but faith came first. It was worth it. Your faith will be justified, God proved himself to Abraham and he will prove himself in your life many times over as well. He’s never lied, not once.

That servant said to the king, can’t we just go out and make sure? Can we send someone to see if this is true? They’d been told God would destroy the Syrians, and it’d been confirmed by a bunch of lepers who’d been there… and yet they’re still waiting around in unbelief. They were only in the siege because they’d rejected God’s word continuously in the first place. Don’t let someone else stop you from believing like this king was trying to do, preventing you from taking God at his word and seeing and experiencing the proof for yourself. That Syrian camp was empty and there was food in abundance, and meanwhile they’re cooling their jets in the city starving. The king finally said… go and see. Maybe you should open the book of life for yourself.

Where was the proof for Abraham? The only proof he had of being blessed, of having a son, the only proof he had of any of this FOR YEARS was God’s word which said… surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. That’s Hebrews 6:14, read it for yourself, read God’s word for yourself and just believe it even if it all doesn’t make sense or blows your mind. Wait for God to prove himself to you, he’ll prove his promises by saving you from your sin, he’ll prove himself in giving you true life, true light, wisdom, joy, peace, happiness. He can be trusted. God’s word is the truth people, God’s word IS the proof, it was proof enough for Abraham and all those heroes of the faith. Make that your own reality today… believe on it, stake your soul on it, and you won’t ever look back. God proves himself.

1 Peter 1:23 – Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

1 Peter 1:24 – For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

1 Peter 1:25 – But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

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