Pastor Jim Dewar - USN Retired - First Baptist Church Bancroft, IA – fbcbancroft@gmail.com

 

Hebrews 11:6a “But without faith it is impossible to please him...” Many know of the term The Hall of Fame, but what about The Hall of Faith?  In the sporting industry there are different Halls of Fame scattered around the country for different sports.  No doubt many know the location of a certain hall of fame and different individuals that have been inducted to their sport’s hall of fame for accomplishments they have made. Have you ever heard of the Hall of Faith? In the New Testament book of Hebrews, Chapter 11 details the lives of numerous people in the Bible that did acts of service to God by faith. Because of this, Hebrews 11 is referred to as the Hall of Faith. The word faith is used in 231 verses in the King James Bible.The verse at the beginning of this article tells us how important faith is. The only way we can please God is by our faith.

 In Hebrews 11 alone, the word faith is used in 23 different verses. Let’s review some of these today. The first family on the earth, Adam and Eve’s two sons are mentioned in here. One is mentioned in the positive in that Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice to God than his brother Cain and showed the righteousness in his life. The Scripture says Abel did it by faith.  “Hebrews 11:4 “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.” How are at you doing things you have not seen? Noah was called by God to build an ark to save his family from a flood that he had never seen, but Noah had faith in God and obeyed. Heb. 11:7 “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.”  One account that is always of interest to me is referenced in “Hebrews 11:29 “By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.” This is referring to the Children of Israel escaping Egypt through the Red Sea. Having sailed through the Red Sea in 1978 and 1979 on a US Navy Destroyer, this is always of interest to me, how that God used the wind to hold back the water for them so they could go across on dry land.  What is Faith? I want to leave you with an acrostic I heard back in Bible College days for the word faith.

FAITH is:

F- Forsaking

 A - All

 I - I

T - Trust

 H - Him.

The accounts we looked at today and the multitudes of others in Hebrews 11 were defined by people that had demonstrated active faith and trust in God. I would encourage you to pick up a Bible and read the 40 verses of Hebrews 11 and be ready to have your heart stirred by FAITH!