“The Key Ingredient”
Text: Hebrews 11:1-16
8-10-2025
In the name of Him who gives us a saving faith, dear friends in Christ. If you’ve done any amount of regular cooking or baking then you’ve probably experienced what I’m about to describe. You may be following a written recipe or even working from memory and suddenly you get distracted. But soon you’re back to whipping up that delicious entree or dessert. Into the oven it goes with the joyous expectation that when it’s done everyone who tastes it will marvel at your culinary skill. Sometimes, though, even before you get to sample it, you know something is wrong. Instead of being a tall, fluffy cake it’s as flat as a pancake. Or perhaps it was a fancy meat dish which ends up tasting bland and boring. So you go back over the recipe and discover that an ingredient was left out.
Now that doesn’t sound so bad, but what if it was a key ingredient? I mean something that if it’s missing totally invalidates what the dish was supposed to be. For example, if you left the cocoa out of the brownies you can’t call them “chocolate” any more. Or if you leave the flour out of bread—well, you’ve a got a slurry of some sort, but certainly not bread. Somewhat related to that, it always amazes me when I hear someone at a restaurant order a cheese burger... without the cheese! Call me cynical but that’s not a cheeseburger then. Anyway, you get the point. The key ingredient is essential. If it’s missing, then you’ve got something different than what was planned or intended.
While these scenarios may be disappointing to your taste buds, in the bigger scheme of things it’s not a big deal. It is, however, when it comes to your salvation. And there is most certainly a key ingredient that’s essential when we’re talking about an eternity in heaven or in hell. That key ingredient is faith. Without it, you don’t have what God intended and planned for the people whom He created. That key ingredient of faith is what the writer of Hebrews keeps pointing to over and over in chapter 11, as he gives us numerous examples of some rather famous people in the history of Israel. They are commended to us because they possessed a trusting faith in the Lord, which is essential.
But before we can go any further in looking at this key ingredient, we have to know what the definition of “faith” is. And in verse 1 of the text, we are told how God defines that word. It says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Actually, the King James Version has a stronger translation of the Greek. It says that faith is “the substance of things hoped for...” A Pastor friend of mine did a good job of explaining the importance of what that means for our definition. He said it’s like holding out your hand and being able to feel the texture and weight of an object that you hope to receive but that you do not yet have and cannot see. It would be like me offering to give you a bar of pure gold. As you wait to receive it, you can imagine in your mind how heavy it is and the almost cold feeling of the metal. In your mind, it’s just as true and real as if you were actually holding that bar of gold. When we apply that principle to our faith, it’s more than just saying you believe. This kind of faith receives what God’s Word says about the past and the future and treats them as if they were happening right now. A person who has that kind of faith lives and acts upon the firm confidence of this new reality. Working with that definition, we now have the essence of the key ingredient.
It’s really quite interesting what the writer of Hebrews does in verse 3. He’s about to give us a rather long list of ancient saints who had the key ingredient of true faith. But before he starts, he gives us a rather good illustration of that faith in our understanding of the world’s creation. In all the subsequent examples there’s a person who was a witness to what was accepted by faith. Not so with the Creation. Who was there to witness it? Nobody except God. The only way we can know anything about it is through His Word. But knowing the Creation story is not the same as believing it. The key ingredient of faith has to be there for us to believe what God said. Without it, then the Theory of Evolution becomes a valid alternative to the Creation account in explaining how the world came into existence.
Which leads us to ask: Where do we get that key ingredient of faith? Well, actually the answer is found in this same verse. The world couldn’t wish itself into existence. Rather, it had to be created through the power of God’s Word. Something came out of nothing. And it’s the same with faith. We dare not skip over this lightly because there are plenty of voices in our day that try to convince us that we have to somehow do the creating when it comes to faith. Listen, you can’t wish faith into existence nor can you generate it from your own power. Just as with the creation of the world, it requires a supernatural power—the power of God’s Word—to create faith. He truly creates something out of nothing within us. And just like the creation of the world, when our faith is created it is unseen. Yes, you may see water being poured over a baby’s head or a person speaking the Word of God, but you can’t see what’s going on in the heart of those who are receiving it. And yet we can see the final result because the evidence is found in their actions and profession of faith.
Okay, so that’s what faith is and how we receive it. Now we’re ready to look at this faith in action. And that can be seen in the lives of the saints which begins in verse 4. Keep in mind that this is only a partial list. Next week, you’ll hear the rest of them. Now, I’m not going to examine each of these one by one. While they’re all unique they still have one thing in common. And you can find it in the phrase that’s repeated over and over, “By faith...” These saints had the key ingredient of faith and they lived by it. Contrary to what we might expect, they generally didn’t do anything too spectacular. They simply lived their lives in holy obedience to God, and they did it by faith. That’s not to say that God didn’t do some amazing things for them in the process. He did! Just look at Abraham and Sarah. Verses 11 & 12 tell us that by faith they received the power to conceive a child in their old age, which is something they were unable to do before. All the saints on this list are commended for trusting in God’s promises by faith. Even the promises that were not received in this lifetime. The greatest of these being our eternal home in heaven. Remember our definition from earlier? Faith holds onto the reality of God’s promises for the future just the same as if they were received right now.
So, all those saints of old possessed the key ingredient of faith. And the reason why that’s so important is found in verse 6: “Without faith it is impossible to please {God.}” That is to say, without the gift of faith you will never be able to recognize your sins. And therefore, without faith you will never be sorry for your sins and repent of them, asking for God’s forgiveness. Without faith you will never receive the righteousness of Christ which covers all your sins. And so, without faith you will remain a sinner damned to hell.
Thankfully, the opposite is true. By faith you can look into the mirror of God’s Law, see your sins, and confess them. By faith you can believe God’s gracious promise that they’re all forgiven for Jesus’ sake. By faith you can be guided by the Holy Spirit to live a Godly life. By faith you can trust in God’s promise of eternal life in heaven. All of those are things which are not seen, and yet you believe in the reality of them by faith. And that truly does please God. Nothing pleases Him more than seeing you saved.
That’s not all though. The key ingredient of faith gives us the conviction of many other unseen things which benefit us. By faith we’re able to believe that the Son of God came down to earth and miraculously joined Himself to human flesh. By faith we believe He went to the cross where He took the punishment of the whole world’s sin. By faith we believe He rose from the dead. Like the creation of the world, we were not there for these events nor can our minds fully comprehend them. And yet, by faith we believe they actually happened. That’s very true when it comes to God’s Means of Grace which we receive through Christ’s Church. By faith we believe that the Lord works the miracle of faith in people’s hearts through Water and the Word. By faith we believe that God is truly here among us as we gather in worship because we trust in this promise of His. By faith we believe that Christ Jesus is bodily present in the bread and wine of Holy Communion. Logic tells us these things are not possible, but faith grasps them as a present reality. Praise God that He has given to us that key ingredient of faith. For by it, we are able to live in a way that pleases God. And by that faith we have the joyous confidence of holding onto the reality of our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!