Faith That Pleases God

If you have a copy of God’s Word, turn to Hebrews 11, Hebrews 11, continuing our series in the epistle to the Hebrews. As you’re turning there, we heard news this morning—someone that many of you have prayed for over the years, Rachel Carper’s mother, passed away suddenly this morning. I say suddenly because she had not been well for some time, but Rachel and her sister Sue were hoping they would have time to get there before she passed. Unfortunately, she passed more suddenly than they were expecting. So, they’re making their way there, if they’re not already there. Let’s pray for Rachel, Sue, and the wider family, that God would give them grace and that His Word would be proclaimed with power.

We were preaching downtown yesterday, and a text kept coming to mind: “Prepare to meet thy God. Prepare to meet thy God.” You need to prepare. You can’t just rush into death and out the other side in a way that you’ll be ready unless you prepare. It’s not something you can deal with the way you might deal with other things. Some people are so sharp in their chosen subjects that they can head into exams without really reviewing the material because they know it so well. You do not have a righteousness that will allow you to enter death that way. So, you need to prepare, and that preparation is faith in Jesus Christ.

In our text this morning, Hebrews 11, underscores that. We’re going to read from verse 1, but verse 6 is where we have arrived in our study, and we’ll just look at verse 6 with the Lord’s help.

Hebrews 11, verse 1:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
For by it the elders obtained a good report.
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.
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.
By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found because God had translated him: for before his translation, he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
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.

Amen. We’ll end the reading at Hebrews 11, verse 6. Once again, what you’ve heard is God speaking to His very word, receive it and believe it. And the people of God said, Amen.

Let’s pray:
Lord, bless us in Your Word. We think of how this Word impacts every single person. It tells us what we must do in life, and it tells us what will happen if we don’t, after death. We ask, Lord, that as some here—especially as we consider Rachel and Sue—you would draw near to the family, comfort and console them, and that the evidence of Your presence would be real to them. Family will gather, people will talk, and reminiscing will occur. We pray in all of this, You would reveal Yourself. We’re thankful for how death itself becomes a pulpit that preaches to the living. Oh God, we pray that every time any of us hear of the passing of someone, we would hear God speak in His providence: Your time will come. So, help us to prepare to meet our God.

Bless us here in the Word. Help us to really receive it and profit from it. Give us just a little of Thyself in this—not just information, but Thyself. Reveal Thyself. Come in the fullness of Thyself. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The constant testimony of Scripture, both in the Old Testament and in the New, is that the just shall live by faith. Faith, then, is not an optional addition to our lives, but the God-ordained means whereby we stand before Him through Jesus Christ. The text that we have read this morning tells us plainly: without faith, it is impossible to please God. Too often, faith is presented as something primarily for our own comfort. In times of trial, people will say, “I have my faith,” as if it’s some kind of coping mechanism. And while we wouldn’t disparage the reality that our faith upholds us, in some way influences us through trials, true faith is not first and foremost about our comfort. It is a means by which we please God.

This is what the apostle declares in our text. Without faith, we cannot have Christ for ourselves. Faith is the conduit by which we lay hold on the Son of God and obtain the salvation He has procured. All that He has accomplished in His life, death, and resurrection—all that He is doing and everything that is showered upon us and promised to us—is received only by faith in Him, reaching out and believing upon Him.

So this morning, with the Lord’s help, we’ll look at the faith that pleases God. We’ll see three things here. Our thoughts are brought under three heads: its requirement, its reality, and its reward.

Requirement

What is the requirement here? The faith that pleases God. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. The apostle does not say it’s difficult to please God without faith. It does not say that the chances are low to please God without faith, but that it is impossible to please God apart from genuine faith. Its nature is essential for us. It’s absolutely essential for you to possess what this text is revealing.

Let us consider a few things in this requirement. First, the demand of it. The demand of it, from the earliest pages of Scripture, is what the context is dealing with here. By it, the elders obtained a good report, and it proceeds then to deal with Abel. The contrast between these two brothers, brought up in the same context, instructed by the same people, in the same environment, and yet one had faith and the other did not. One made his sacrifice in faith, the other did not. One, therefore, was commended, and the other was not.

Never forget that. Don’t read the details and remove that aspect. This faith that pleases God is how every one of these verses begins, telling us about these individuals in the past. So, there’s no avoiding it. Abel’s sacrifice was acceptable because it was offered in faith. Cain lacked faith. He did not offer it in faith, and so his sacrifice was unacceptable.

The same is true for Enoch, of course, which is the immediate context of verse 6. By faith, Enoch was translated. And it doesn’t deal with his feats. It doesn’t deal with his heroism or the mighty things that he did. He certainly did many honorable things as a prophet of God, but it’s his faith. And because of his faith, he was translated. Because of his faith, he pleased God. And that’s how the text is introduced to us. 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.

Essentially, verse 6 is coming on the heels of verse 5 by saying that Enoch’s life, the crucial aspect of Enoch, was his faith. So, Enoch, who walked with God, did so in this ongoing trust and evangelical faith. He took God at His word. He looked to the promised Messiah. He rested in that. He preached that. And this then pleased God, as he in a consistent fashion carried on a life in that way.

Enoch becomes a powerful illustration of what it means to please God by faith. He was a man of genuine faith. God took him to be with Himself. That’s what we want. We want our faith to prevail, not just in this life, but in the life to come. His faith had an impact not just in the world in which he lived, here and now, but impacted into the world to come. And this is because of his faith.

Hebrews 11 verse 6 presents an antithetical parallelism, which reinforces the central point. The phrase, “without faith, it is impossible to please Him,” is contrasted with, “he that cometh to God must believe.” So, you have the negative, “without faith,” that’s the exclusion being emphasized, and then the positive, “must believe,” presents the necessary condition for drawing to God—the negative and the positive.

This mirrors then Hebrews’ larger and broader argument that if you don’t have faith, you have nothing. And if you have faith in Jesus Christ, resting in Him, you have everything. That’s Hebrews. We put our arms around what we’ve dealt with already. This is the whole point. These Jews had their tradition, had their priests, had all the religious activity, and all the religious garb, and still the temple standing and offering the same sacrifices. They can never take away sin. They can’t deal with the problem. But by faith, the problem is dealt with.

By faith, we see the answer for man. Now, that needs to be understood. If you understand nothing else, and you understand that, if you understand the central message of Hebrews—that it is driving us to an ongoing trust in Jesus Christ that pleases God—then you will get the central point. And if you act upon it, truly believing in Christ, all will be well.

Romans 8:8 reminds us, “They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” For in the flesh, not walking by faith, walking in the flesh—relying upon your own obedience, your own adherence to things, your own prayer life and Bible reading, or whatever your form of religion may take. No amount of intellect, no amount of morality, no amount of religiosity can circumvent the absolute necessity of faith. It is the instrument that unites us to Jesus Christ, the only acceptable ground upon which to come to God.

So, you can’t just know about Jesus Christ. You have to believe in Jesus Christ. You can’t just recognize Him as a prophet, as a good man, as an honorable character. He must become your master, your Lord, everything to you.

Faith then is not a mere psychological wish. It’s not something we muster up when we just want a better outcome. It is essential. It is the anchor of the soul, as Hebrews 6 puts it, resting upon God’s promise in Christ to forgive all who believe in Him.

The Damnation Without It

There’s a demand for this faith, but also the damnation without it. It follows that if faith is so necessary, unbelief is profoundly perilous. It’s not a small thing. Unbelief is the repeated warning through Hebrews. Thomas Watson, in his work on the Beatitudes, said this: “Unbelief is the root of apostasy.” This is what Hebrews is dealing with, the danger of apostasy—the danger of turning away. A people who have the truth and adhere to it and assent to it, and in some way believe in it.

The turning away from that position. If you’ve been a Christian long enough or been in the church long enough, you will know people like this. You say, “Why did they go away?” You might point to things like, “Well, someone said something unpleasant to them once at church,” or “They went through some hardship.” You can give circumstantial aspects to it, and I’m not denying their significance, but the reason people depart, the reason people engage in what we term apostasy, is always unbelief.

Watson continues: “Unbelief is the root of apostasy.” What is the reason those who seemed once zealous now despise God and leave off prayer in their families? Is it not their unbelief? They believe not that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

We’ve gotten our warnings here. Hebrews 3:12 warns us against “an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.” An evil heart of unbelief. You can point out all the evil things in the world, but unbelief, God describes as evil—an evil heart of unbelief. And that departure from God, of course, is seen in a departure from Jesus Christ.

Beloved, this is so crucial. We need to get this. You need to have this and you need to see it sustained in your life. You don’t pick it up and then set it aside like some hobby. It’s not some seasonal thing where you’ll be zealous for God at certain periods in your life. Again, like pick up hobbies in the summertime or in the winter season. Various things you do and enjoy at different periods.

This is not one of those things. You think of the generation of Israelites, and this is, again, the argument of Hebrews. It takes us back there over and over again. And we’ve been reading about it in Psalm 78, providentially. Psalm 78 is one of those Psalms that narrates the history of the Israelites and the undergirding problem of their unbelief. Psalm 106 is similar, giving this history and warning.

God delivered the people from slavery in Egypt, demonstrating His power through signs and wonders, and yet they persist in unbelief. They despised the things that God sent. Things that would point to and typify where their hope really lay. So, you have Moses, and he’s typifying for them the need of a mediator. He has this Christ-like aspect of being the mediator between God and men. And they despised Moses.

Or they had the manna sent down from heaven—the bread of God sent down from heaven. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that (see John 6). And they despised it. The types and shadows intended to communicate mercy in the gospel ended up being despised by them, showing again the true nature of their heart. Their unbelief produced disobedience, dissatisfaction, and ultimately divine displeasure.

Spurgeon has a sermon on unbelief titled “The Sin of Unbelief.” Here’s a relatively lengthy quote that I found challenging and edifying:

“Unbelief in the Christian is of the same nature as unbelief in the sinner. It’s not the same in its final issue, for it will be pardoned in the Christian. Yes, it is pardoned. It was laid upon the scapegoat’s head of old. It was blotted out and atoned for. It is of the same sinful nature. In fact, if there can be one sin more heinous than the unbelief of a sinner, it is the unbelief of a saint. For a saint to doubt God’s Word, for a saint to distrust God after innumerable instances of His love, after 10,000 proofs of His mercy, exceeds everything. A saint, moreover, unbelief is the root of other sins.”

And he closes this thought: “Unbelief is the mother of vice. It is the parent of sin. And therefore I say it is a persistent evil, a master sin.”

So, that means you and I struggle with this all the time. Because if we struggle with sin at all, unbelief is there, present in all that we do. If we truly believed in who God is and trusted Him as we ought, it would be a real mitigating factor in driving us away from all other forms of sin. But we struggle.

How do we develop this faith?

Development of Faith

We’ve seen the demand of faith, and the damnation without it. Now, let’s briefly consider the development of it. Faith is a gift from God, as Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us. It’s a gift. You can’t conjure it up yourself—it’s a gift from God. And it’s meant to grow and deepen. If your faith seems small, don’t be discouraged. Like we said last week, it was the little faith that Jesus always rebuked. “Oh, you of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” But small faith—like that of a mustard seed—has great potential, even though it is small, yet it’s persistent in trusting God and continues on.

How do we maintain it? How do we keep it? It’s really simple: immerse yourself in God’s Word. There has never been a man of real faith who has neglected the Word of God—ever. There’s an immersion in the Word. You must take the Word, seize upon it, and let it undergird your soul.

If you want to avoid apostasy and the sin of unbelief, you must constantly resort to the Word. Read it. Believe it. You must pray for increased faith. Luke 17:5 gives us a good prayer: “Increase our faith.” So that places us not just before the Word, but before God in prayer. As we seek Him, we’re also asking for an increase of faith that draws us nearer to God. And there’s the ongoing looking to Jesus. I mean, that’s the argument that leads us to Hebrews 12:2: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”

We have this great cloud of witnesses that stand around us and cheer us on and are examples to us. Let us look unto Jesus as they did—the author and finisher of our faith. So, we keep looking to Him. This is important for us.

Reality of Faith

Now, let’s see the reality of faith. What does he say in verse 6? “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is.” There’s first the assurance of God’s existence. This is basic: he that cometh to God must believe that He is. You’re assured of His existence. When it says this, it speaks of that acknowledgment in our hearts. Not just that there’s a divine being that exists somewhere, but the true living God. Not just the God of philosophers, who might talk about some entity or force, but you believe in the covenant-keeping God who came to Moses and said, “I AM.”

The eternal God is the believer’s refuge. We see Him and rest in Him. We believe in the reality of His being—the one who came, who is not distant or aloof, but is personal and keeps His Word. We need to keep this in mind because James 2:19 warns us that “the demons believe in God’s existence.” So, if you align yourself and say, “I believe there’s a God,” that’s very good—so does the devil and his cronies. Is that the party you want to stand in? The temptation wasn’t to go back to some professed atheism, although that’s what it would be, but they were going back to a form of religion that God had set aside because He had sent His Son.

They were going back to something that was divinely instituted, something God had given in His Word. They could say, “God said this, God gave this.” And yet, still, to go back to it was a form of unbelief. They believed God, they believed there was a God, but they rejected the grounds of approach that God had stipulated—the rejection of the Son.

Approach to God in Faith

There is also the approach to God in faith. He that cometh to God must believe that He is. There’s an idea here of not just believing in God, but coming to God. It’s not just an assurance that we have of God, but a coming to God. This is one way you prove that you believe there is a God—by coming to God. It’s one thing to say, “I believe there is a God,” but do you come to God?

The Greek verb used here suggests an intentional drawing near. The coming to God is intentional, purposeful. In the context of the passage, they could look back to how the high priest alone could really enter into the immediate presence of God. He went in once a year on the Day of Atonement, as we see in Leviticus 16. We’ve considered all of that already in the book of Hebrews. That context frames the approach to God, and so there was a sense in which God was aloof, and the high priest could go into His immediate presence, but we couldn’t.

But the gospel comes and shatters that, and Jesus Christ, we come—what does it say?—boldly to the throne of grace. We come boldly into God’s presence to obtain mercy. Over and over again, the drive is that through Jesus Christ, all may come and know they stand in the immediate presence of God because of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice has purged our sins and permitted Him to sit down at the right hand of God.

So, all who are in Christ come, as it were, and sit there in that very presence of God—seated in heavenly places, as Ephesians tells us. So, you approach God. It’s not through ritual, not through status, not through works, not through religious effort, not through our position and title because we’re priests or pastors or elders. But we’re Christians—saints, blood-washed people of God—and we come and approach God.

So, the text is encouraging us: he that cometh to God. Not just believing that He’s there, but approaching Him in faith, knowing that He can be approached. And it’s not presumptuous—it’s real. I wonder about us. I wonder whether we really believe that we are entering into the presence of God when we pray.

Alignment of Our Priorities

He that cometh to God—there’s an alignment of our priorities. He that cometh to God. That the believer is one who keeps coming to God. There is an alignment in your life. Saying something about God’s people. These are a people who come to God. I’ve said this a number of times, and I’ll say it again: go through the Bible, and the mark of the people of God is frequently described as the people who call upon the Lord. His people are people who commune with Him.

We are to believe that He is. See that? Must believe that He is. And again, this takes it away from just mere existence. What does it mean that He is? There are lots of things that are—many things you could say, these things are real: my family is, my duties are, and so on. You have all sorts of things, but God is. What does that mean? Is it just information? God is—declared as a statement of fact, “God is,” or does the fact that God is have an impact on your life?

And I say to you, beloved, I think we must see it as impacting us—everything. The fact that God is changes how you make decisions. Does it not? Take God out of the equation and make your decision. Put God in the equation, how do you make your decision? Take God out of the picture, and you can live in a nihilistic fashion or live as the Epicureans, purely for self-pleasure, and many do. You see it in the world. People make decisions that are not made in the fear of God. They’re made purely out of self. God in their life is self.

But when we understand that God is, it affects every decision. It shapes our ethics, conforms our worship, and instructs our hope. So, we start not just storing up treasures on the earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and thieves break through and steal. We begin to lay up treasures in heaven. We seek His kingdom first.

Reward of Faith

We’ve seen faith’s requirement, its reality, and now its reward. He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Faith does not go unrewarded. It’s true evangelical faith. God promises to respond graciously to those who seek Him in earnest. And we’re not to think of it as transactional, “I believe, therefore I get.” It’s not a transaction. It’s not a currency whereby you buy what you’re after from God. But God, in His mercy and in His love, has ordained that those who earnestly seek Him in faith will find Him.

And oh, how that is the key! Because you may not always find the other things that you might naturally desire, but you find Him. There is here the promise of divine favor. The term “rewarder” occurs in this form only here in the New Testament. God is the remunerator, and He is the one who pays out, as it were, wages. He rewards, and so He has benefits.

Our Lord Jesus does bring this into the realm of the practical experience of life. The context of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, when He describes those things that the Gentiles seek for, He encourages those before Him, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” Seek Him first.

Now, some of you need to hear that because as you struggle with some of the material aspects of life, your mind gets filled with those circumstances, and you’re seeking that which is material, and that’s at the forefront to the detriment of your seeking of God. And you start to substitute because of the urgency of the matter, because of the pressing need. You start to substitute the priority of God first because of the challenge. And that is unbelief at work. You’re giving in to an evil heart of unbelief. Faith will always put God first, because God is, and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

And so, you get to see Him marvelously meeting needs practically. Oh, you may not be the next person designated as a billionaire in the United States of America, but you’ll find He meets your needs. You seek Him first. But as I have intimated already, the real reward is God Himself. James 4:8, “Draw nigh to God, and the universe will come to you.” No, it says, “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.” That which exceeds the universe will draw near to lowly you when you draw near to Him.

Of them that diligently seek Him, there’s a promise of divine favor. There’s the preciousness of God’s presence really flowing on in a similar vein. The reward of faith is not primarily material or circumstantial blessings, but it’s God Himself. We strip it all back. What do we really need? What does the Christian really want? What is the drive of Hebrews?

Some of these people are suffering materially. Again, as you progress through the book, eventually we’ll get to those sections where you get a little more of the context of what they’re immersed in and the challenges they’re faced with. And you realize what they are enduring as they remain faithful to Christ and what they’re weighing up. So the apostle is not saying that the reward, if you keep seeking Him, is that all your financial troubles will go away. You can be absolutely guaranteed that you will not suffer as a martyr. None of that is the reward.

The reward, men and women, is God. Abraham had his own challenge of faith and difficulties, waiting for God to fulfill His promises to him. The Lord comes to him, encourages him—especially as he had actually turned away from the great spoils of the battle in Genesis 14—and Abraham turned away from that. “I don’t want these spoils of the battle.” But he was afraid of the consequences of his victory. “What if these armies all amalgamate again, reconvene, and pursue and destroy?” God comes to him and says, “Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.”

“I am your reward.” Abraham knew that. That’s why he rejected the spoils. He didn’t need it. He wasn’t looking for it. He wasn’t aspiring to multiply wealth to himself. But it comes, and it’s affirmed afresh in his soul. “I am your reward.” The psalmist acknowledges in Psalm 16, “In Thy presence is fullness of joy. At Thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.”

So what God rewards is people who believe. We’re not talking about just material things—it is the most precious thing: intimacy, the knowledge of God. Do you know God? I mean, do you really know God? There’s a good question for 2025: Do I really know God? God rewards with more of Himself as there’s a diligent seeking of Him. Our ignorance is testimony of our lack of seeking Him. The One who loves you, redeemed you, wants you to draw near to Him.

And if you find yourself in this moment of your life with a strange, unsettling dissatisfaction, maybe this is the problem: the preciousness of His presence. There is, of course, then the practice of diligent seeking. The verse concludes with this phrase that invites and challenges us at the same time: “Them that diligently seek Him.”

Diligently seek Him. The language is communicating an earnest, wholehearted pursuit. Diligently seek Him. Not sporadically seek Him, but as a lifestyle. How would you describe this person? They are diligently seeking God. You’re yearning for Him. Your interest is towards Him.

Scripture never describes seeking God as a one-time event. Now, it does describe certain one-time events, but the seeking of God is not a one-time event. It’s continual. It’s a life marked by prayer, ongoing obedience, worship, and saturation in the Word. You see it in the life of the early church—constantly praying, seeking God. You see it in the consistency of individuals like Daniel, who daily prayed three times. You see it sometimes in the intensity of one particular moment, like Jacob, who wrestled to the breaking of the day and said, “I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me.”

So, there’s a marriage between consistency and intensity. And Christians do best when there is a consistency in their intensity. This is difficult. In any area of life, really, where failure tends to begin is not just because we lack intensity. Often, we can have these fits and starts of intensity, right? You know, you’ve made your resolutions, and so on, and the gyms are—if everybody who signed up to be a member and they all appeared at the same time, there wouldn’t be enough equipment. The gyms are hoping that you all don’t come at the same time, and that eventually, you’ll stop coming, and you’ll continue to pay your membership. That’s what they’re hoping for. You know, because the weeks go past, “Oh, I’ll do better next week, I’ll do better next week,” and the intensity fades. The consistency was there for a moment, but there’s no consistency.

Sometimes we’re consistent in certain things, but there’s no intensity. Oh, how the mountains move when consistency is married to intensity. And so there’s not just an ongoing seeking of God, it’s a diligent, real heart to seek God, a reality about it. You know what I mean when you’re praying in a way that’s just rote praying? Some of you may not be praying at all. There’s no consistency at all. God help you. Some of you have the consistency, and you get there before the Lord, but you know what I mean when I describe the experience of just going through the motions versus when you hear tragic news, and all of a sudden, there’s a punch of intensity in you in the way you pray. There’s a reality to the way you seek God.

Trying to maintain that is a challenge, but oh, that there would be more of it. This is what your family needs. Your family needs you to diligently seek God.

Takeaways

So let me make the takeaways really clear. 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. So much in that text. We just, in a cursory fashion, went over it. But this is the practical side. There must be, first, the drawing near to God daily. If you believe that God is, you will draw near to Him. And you will learn to do so with diligence.

But your world is full of distraction. Full of distraction. There’s always some other thing crying out for your attention. And you assess it, and you say to yourself, “Why am I so easily distracted?” And we lose sight that God is. If we could just abide in the knowledge that He is, it might help us not to be so easily distracted.

So there’s a certain discipline required. You need to carve out the time. You need to read the Word. You must. Reflect on His promises. Let the promises get into your soul. Take statements of God’s Word that you’re reading. Carry them with you. Look for them. “Lord, what’s the nugget today? What’s the nugget today?” That’s what I try to do. I read God’s Word. I’m trying to understand what I’m reading, of course, but I’m also looking for the nugget. What’s the nugget? What’s the thing for me to subdue my sin, to increase my faith, to inform my prayers? What’s the nugget? Give me it, Lord.

It’s just a little you need from the Lord, you know. It’s just a little. You know this. How your appetite is satisfied. Just a little, Lord. Yes, even the crumbs that fall from the table, the dogs get those. And even crumbs. But God provides so much more for His people. You’re not a dog. You’re His child. So draw near daily. Seek Him for the reward of Him.

This shapes how we pray, coming with burdens and cares, learning all how we need to learn it, and coming back to it. And I was challenged by it in my own thoughts. Coming back, “Why am I seeking God? Is it for the reward of God Himself?” Resisting the lure of praying so fervently just for material and superficial desires, but knowing God. Not leaving those things aside. You don’t want to become a pietist where we only seek God for God’s sake and nothing else matters. Those other things do matter. Moses went up the mount and was in God’s presence, but it had practical end for his ministry to the nation.

So, there’s a seeking of God that might be going out, like the disciples going up the Mount of Transfiguration. They want to stay up there, but they have to come back down. But going up to meet with God in the day—the reward of Him. But also then the filtering of the benefit of that and praying and interceding for the matters that concern your family and your circle.

Surround Yourself with Those Who Seek God

Then surround yourself with those who humbly seek Him. This is the other thing: you need to draw near to God daily, seek Him for the reward of Him, and then surround yourself with those who do the same—the like-minded believer. The previous chapter exhorted believers not to withdraw from others. And the standard of that fellowship is not conditioned by there must be sinlessness—no. But you must stay with others and join to others, and you will be a blessing to them, and they will be a blessing to you, and you will find that the fire and the coals of the fire keep the coals burning while they remain together, not in isolation.

Surround yourself. Look around. These are your people. These are the coals that are going to keep your coal alight. Be around them. Thank the Lord for them. Desire that the intensity of their zeal might increase because it will also for you.

Conclusion

Believe in God. Faith that pleases God. Do you want to please Him? Get to Christ, stay there, keep looking to Him, resting in Him. Have Him open your eyes to eternal realities, even to God Himself. In a world in which you live that demands tangible proof, they that come to God believe that He is. And He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

And so we declare that the God that we come to and the word that He has spoken is more sure than what can be tested in a lab. If an engineer says the walls of Jericho will never fall by people walking around them, and God says they will fall, we believe God rather than the engineer.

They that come to God must believe that He is, and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. He has sent His Son. He has done the impossible in redeeming us to Himself. And when He says He’s going to do something else, it is a lesser thing. And we believe Him and take Him at His word. So if He says to you, “I’ll provide for your needs,” you believe Him. If He says to you, “I love you,” you believe Him. If He says He will guide you, you believe Him. He will be your reward.

Let’s bow together in prayer.

This is why we come here—to hear what He has to say. You may feel, as I have felt, the challenge of this text, the inconsistency of your own life. Those that the apostle addressed in the very context of the epistle, some of them also were wavering. The Word given was intended to strengthen and help them. I trust that has been the case today also.

Lord, help us. We stand in need of help. Help us. We stand in need of more grace. We have enjoyed some. We have enjoyed much. But oh, that Thy word would change us more and more, chip away the remaining false ideas, polish off the remaining worldliness, and make us seekers of God. Bless this people with such grace. Bless this preacher with such grace. Hear us now. Go with us from this place. Help us to be buoyed up by Thy word and meditate therein that we might be like a tree planted by the river of water.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit be the portion of every child of God now and evermore. Amen.