Welcome to the Emmaus Bible Hour. This is a program for you and your family. A time to open the Bible and see what God has to say to us through his word. Hello, everyone. Well, it's a joy to be together again for another session in our course, What the Bible teaches. Today brings us to lesson number ten in the series. You'll find lesson number ten on pages thirty-four to thirty-six of our manual. Now you have your New Testament, in fact your whole Bible I trust, open before you, and also your manual. Again your manual is open to lesson number ten, and you'll notice that our subject concerns faith. F-A-I-T-H, faith. Now you'll agree, won't you, that when I say that We're face to face with a word that's common in the New Testament. In fact, it's sprinkled generously throughout the entire Bible. Lesson number nine, you remember, concerned the subject of grace. And we were defining grace and seeking to describe grace. And I trust that you've already done your exam on lesson number nine. Now today another great Bible word, as I've said, the word faith. Perhaps we should begin by turning to three passages in the New Testament. Let's open our Bible, shall we, to Hebrews chapter three, and we'll read together verse six. That's Hebrews chapter eleven and verse six. But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. A second text is found in Romans chapter ten. Let's go back to Romans chapter ten and verse seventeen. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And I'd like to tie that in with one more verse in John chapter three. That's right. John chapter three in verse thirty-three. He that hath received his testimony, that is God's testimony, hath set to His seal that God is true." I was just looking at the American Standard Version of . And I noticed that it reads like this. He that hath received God's witness has set His seal to this, that God is true. Now you'll notice that lesson number ten deals with a number of basic questions. Questions that we should really find the answers to. For example, Number one, what is faith? There's no use talking about faith, of course, unless we understand what the word means. So section number one concerns what is faith? And then number two, where does faith come from? And then three, what is the true object of faith? And then finally we'll glance at some examples of faith. This looks like an intriguing lesson to me, and I think we're going to have a good time as we study it together. Well, first of all, what is faith after all? What is it? Now we read in Hebrews eleven six that it is indispensable to a pleasing of God. Without faith it is impossible to please God. So whatever it is, you and I must have it. How good it is that it doesn't say without education. it is impossible to please God. Or without money it is impossible to please God. Or it doesn't even say without religion it's impossible to please God. But it does say without faith it is impossible to please God. So as I say this is an indispensable factor that we must have. Now, the lesson rightly points out that faith is simply confidence. Faith is reliance upon the word of another, and it's a commitment to the word of another and to the one who utters that word. Take, for example, the definition that we have in John, three, thirty-three. We just read it. It says, He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. I like that. Let's think now what it means. John is saying the person that has received God's witness. Wait a minute. Has God given us a witness, a testimony? Certainly He has. He has given us a witness, a testimony, an affirmation in His Word. And this Word concerns His Son. And this Word concerns the work of that Son on the cross. Now it says that he that has received this testimony has set to his seal that God is true. You see, it's like a notary putting his seal, his official seal upon my signature or my affirmation. He may witness my signature to a certain document, and then the notary public puts his seal upon it as the witness, as the official, dependable, authorized witness, that the signature is genuine. Now the person who has received God's testimony has said, Yes, God, I believe that you are telling the truth. All right, where does faith come from? How can I acquire this? How do I acquire this? If it's so important and so indispensable, how do I acquire it? Well, I think Romans chapter ten says, Verse seventeen has an answer for us, doesn't it? So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Faith is by a report. The report comes, of course, in the Gospel, through the Scriptures. It's really the report, the witness, the testimony of God, the Holy Spirit. Now, first of all, I hear that report. My heart goes out and receives and believes that report. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Now here's an illustration given by an evangelist in his own words. He says, I remember one evening when a number of boys and girls were crowded into the front rows and the adults sitting behind them that I suddenly thought of an illustration and plunged my hand into my pocket. I grasped a coin. Let's call it fifty cents. And bringing my hand out of my pocket, with my hand closed, I held it up, and I said, Now boys and girls, I want you to notice, in my hand here I have fifty cents. Whosoever wants the fifty cents can come up and get it. I'll give it to them. I kept my hand in the air. Of course, I didn't show them the coin. I kept my hand closed. And then, you know, the fun began. Some of the boys and girls began to nudge one another to go up. One little fellow got up out of his seat, started toward the platform to get his prize, and then he lost his courage and went back. So I repeated my offer. I said, How many of you boys and girls believe that I do have a fifty cent coin in my hand? Well, I got a number of hands on that one. I said, How many of you don't believe I have anything in my hand? Well, I got a few timid hands on that one. Some believed and some did not. I repeated my offer. I said, I have fifty cents in my hand. I said, you can't see it, but it's there. And I said, I'll give it to the first boy or girl who comes forward. Well, after some hesitation, a little girl got up. A little girl came up the aisle. She came right up where I was. She put out her little hand, and I dropped the coin in her hand, and she looked at it with wide-eyed excitement, and was about to return to her seat when I laid my hand on her shoulder and said, Now just wait a minute, honey, just a minute. What's your name? I've forgotten what her name was, but let's call her Mary. And I said, But I didn't say that if Mary comes forward, she could have this coin, did I? She looked rather confused and crestfallen. think she thought I was going to take it away from her. But some of the boys and girls said, Oh, no, Mr. But you said, Whoever comes up. Right. Whoever comes up. And Mary said, Well, that means me, and she came up. Now I said, Hold up the coin. Some of them don't believe you have it. So she held it up jubilantly, and there it was. Of course the boys and girls wanted me to do it again. But I said, No, I just do this trick once. If I repeat it, I would have the whole tent up here. Then I turned to them and I said this. Now look, I want to tell you something. What's the first thing that Mary did? Well, someone said she believed. Yes, she believed, but that wasn't the first thing she did. Someone said, well, she came. That's true. She did come, but that isn't the first thing. Not that she believed, not that she came and received the coin. That wasn't the first thing. Now think a minute. Then I think someone got the right answer. The first thing that Mary did was hear. That's it. She heard. She heard what I said. Second, she believed what I said. And third, she came and received the coin as a result. Now, the first thing a person does to receive God's salvation is to hear the Word of the Lord. And that's why Romans ten, seventeen says, Faith cometh by hearing. and hearing by the Word of God. That was a true story given in the words of an evangelist. Now then, under Section III, we have the question, what is the true object of faith? And here we must be very, very clear. After all, it's not faith that saves. It's the object of the faith that saves. Now, salvation comes to the believing sinner through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of the Living God. It's Christ who saves. It's Christ who makes the offer. But faith is that response on your part and mine that lays hold of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in Acts twenty that salvation is through repentance toward God. Number one. And faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Number two. Faith must, to be dependable, have a proper object. You see, strong faith in a weak bridge is a perilous thing after all. Much better to have weak faith in a strong bridge. It's not so much the quality of the faith then. It's the object of the faith that makes all the difference. Some years ago a well-known cruise ship that traveled between Florida and the Bahamas was on one of the routine cruises when midway between these two locations she caught fire and foundered at sea, and over eighty persons perished. Now there was nothing wrong with the faith of those passengers, but there was something wrong with the seaworthiness of the ship. So true saving faith is in the dependable, mighty, living Christ of God. And then the examples of faith. Look at page thirty-five of your lessons. Look up the text that's indicated there in Matthew eight and another one in Matthew fifteen. Read these instances of examples of men and women who brought their feeble need and reached out and laid hold of Christ and received the reward of faith, God's wonderful salvation. Now let's review the lesson and get to our exam. As we apply ourselves to the exam, I'm sure that our hearts will respond in glad appreciation and obedience. God understands your sorrow. He sees your falling fear and whispers, I am with you. Now father, not nor fear. He understands Your deepest grief He bears. So let Him bear your burden He understands and cares. so so Thank you. so so