Now our focus is on God’s will for our lives. We want to please our Savior. We devote ourselves to his commands – not because we have to in order to be saved, but because we want to as people who are already saved. We don’t do this fearing the consequences if we don’t, but rather in the Lord’s loving assurance that his love and knowledge has set before us the best way to a happy and fulfilling life.

We follow him, knowing that his way leads to the place we belong – at his side in heaven! Living by faith means we live differently. When we live by faith we will also put our abso-lute in the Lord – like Abraham! By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.

God promised Abraham and Sarah a son. But the son wasn’t born until it seemed impossible – when Sarah was 90 years old! But Abraham never wavered in his faith! We, too, are called to live by faith with the trust in a promise that doesn’t seem possible. The Lord has decreed that we are saved by faith alone. We know that. We believe that. We are thankful for it. And yet …

It seems too good to be true! So, we may look at the way we live by faith and conclude that this merits the salvation we been given, or that it is proof we deserved to be saved in the first place. We can’t do that. Any good we do is the result of the Lord’s working us. We must always, only, trust in God’s promise of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone.

Finally we are told that people who live by faith, that is, peo-ple who say such things, show that they are longing for a better country—a heavenly one. People who live by faith have a daily choice. They can abandon their journey to heaven and return to the easy path to hell. But they don’t! Their burning desire is for heaven and eternal life with God – no matter what the cost.

And so it becomes their priority to live by faith. Doing God’s will is priority #1! He wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. And so, people living by faith make that their priority! It doesn’t matter so much to them where they vacation, or how new their car may be, or what version of phone is in their pocket.

It all seems so easy, doesn’t it? God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. The problem seems to be so very difficult, but the Lord’s solution seems to be so very easy! As sinners, we human beings are in deep trouble. We have lost the complete knowledge of God. We do know God exists. We know he made us and still preserves us.

We know that he has the right to place demands upon us. We know that we have failed to meet those demands and that some sort of terrible punishment awaits us. We, in fact, live in fear of this hell to come. What we do not know is how to get out of this trouble! Only a few options come to mind.

We could simply choose to deny that God exists, and in so doing eliminate the threat of any hell connected with him. That, however, is difficult to do, for God has placed that knowledge deep within our consciousness. It takes a lot of ef-fort – but it can be done! Another option is to play down the meaning of what God says. We could talk ourselves into be-lieving he wouldn’t really damn us because he is too loving to do such a thing or he really isn’t all that interested in us.

That, too, is difficult to do but many have convinced them-selves that this is the way it is. Perhaps the most common op-tion is to apply human logic which says that if you get your-self into trouble, then you can get yourself out of trouble. If we offended God, then we assume we must be able to do whatever it takes to placate him, to turn away his anger!

This, too, is difficult to do. We can never be sure if what we are doing really pleases God or if we have done enough good to make up for all the bad we have done. Whatever option you choose, saving yourself from hell is hard work and is never satisfying. It is an impossible problem for us to solve!

By way of contrast, God’s plan seems so easy! As Jesus tells us, our sin, our rebellion, our rejection of God doesn’t stop his love for us. It continues on and on. In that love, he can see that we are helpless to help ourselves, so he decides to step in and do something to help us. In his knowledge, of course, he knows exactly what it would take to save mankind. He knows exactly what is required to make everything right once again. It would take the life and death of God made flesh as the Sub-stitute for all mankind.

His love never flinches. He offers his Son as that sacrificial Substitute. Knowing that we cannot do anything to deserve salvation, he gives it to us free of charge if only we believe that what he did, he did for us! Knowing that we can’t do even that on our own, he uses divine power to bring us to faith. By Baptism as an infant or by a faith worked through his Word, we are brought to saving faith and our salvation!

It all seems so easy for us – doesn’t it? Faith, as Paul puts it, is a not earned: It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. Salvation is easy – for us! It is easy to come to faith – for us! And for that, each and every one of us should give thanks! Coming to faith is ef-fortless on our part – it is entirely the working of our God!

I am afraid that such a truth is far too often perverted and ap-plied to something it shouldn’t be. Far too many Christians feel that because coming to faith is easy, so is living by faith. I’d wager that you know someone who claims to have saving faith who insists that nothing more needs to be done. He equates having saving faith with living by faith.

So, he feels he doesn’t need to worship, or pray, or study his Bible, or use his God given resources to send the Gospel into all the world. He feels no need to do anything more! After all, he has faith – what more needs to be done? But the Scriptures are clear that having saving faith always leads to living by faith. The one will naturally follow the other.

And living by faith is not easy! Jesus refers to it as a cross. Our sermon text for this morning makes that point most em-phatically. It directs us to look at the man most associated with saving faith and holds up his example of living by faith. He is the model we are to follow. As we see in Abraham, liv-ing by faith is not easy. Faith is not something we do once and never think about ever again.

Living by faith is hard. In the various events of Abraham’s life, we see the hardships in store for us when we live the life of faith that follows coming to faith. The text begins with the definition of saving faith. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. From the very beginning this is the faith the Lord looked for in his people.

The text then goes on to show how that saving faith is lived. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Living by faith requires believing things that many people around you cannot or will not believe. How ironic that the Holy Spirit chooses this particular example!

It applies so well to our day and age. Denial of God’s in-volvement in our world and its people is high on Satan’s wish list. It is a teaching that the scientific dupes of the devil pro-mote as absolute truth – despite the gaping holes of scientific inquiry it contains. To a large extent Satan has accomplished his goal. Anything but God’s creation is currently accepted as the origin of our universe.

We must cling to God’s Word in every matter, rejecting a host of other beliefs the devil pedals in our midst. When we live by faith, we are called to believe the truth as the Lord gives it – not in fabrications constructed by Satan, be that in the matter of human sexuality or the value of human life or the origin of mankind or the place of self-esteem.

Our text then goes on to show how faith is led by Abraham’s example. By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. Abraham and his family were comfortable in the Chaldees. They were wealthy, respected, and well-established.

When called to saving faith, Abraham was called to live by faith as the Lord directed him to leave his home and move west to a place he knew nothing about. By faith, Abraham picked up and moved to the land of Canaan, where he was a stranger – isolated from his neighbors and constantly on the move. He was no longer comfortable. Why did he do it? Be-cause the Lord required it of him. Whether he understood it or not, he did it – faith allows for nothing less!

So it will be in our lives. As sinners, we are comfortable liv-ing in a sinful world, living sinful lives along with other sin-ners. We have everyone’s complete acceptance. It is a famil-iar and comfortable life. When we live by faith, all that changes! It’s like moving to a foreign country. The way we live is completely different than the lives of people around us. How we live often contradicts the way others live their lives.

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16We Live By Faith

1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and cer-tain of what we do not see. 2This is what the ancients were commended for.

3By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

11By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a fa-ther because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

13All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportu-nity to return. 16Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

What is important to them are the souls of mankind. What they long to see are the faces of people with them in heaven as a result of their witness, their prayers, and their contribu-tions to the support of Gospel ministry throughout the world. You have saving faith. Now live by faith! Amen.