Faithfulness While the Wait

Transcript

GR 1713
02/16/2014
Faithfulness While the Wait
Heb. 11:13-16
Gil Rugh

We're studying the book of Hebrews together where God unfolds the greatness and wonder of the salvation that He has provided in the person and work of His Son, the death of Christ on the cross, His resurrection and His present ministry representing us in the very presence of the Father, interceding on our behalf. What a rich and full salvation we have in Christ.

Hebrews 11 is without doubt the most well-known chapter in the book of Hebrews. Even believers who haven't studied the book of Hebrews in any depth have probably been to the 11th chapter. It records the testimony of a number of Old Testament saints, sometimes referred to as the heroes of the faith. Whole volumes have been written just on Hebrews 11 and they are worth reading. But it is very important that we keep in context what the writer to the Hebrews is doing with Hebrews 11. It's in the context of a letter written to challenge believers, Jewish believers in a local church, to hold fast to their faith in Christ and not waver or turn aside from their commitment to following Him. As we've talked about, under stress and trial, opposition and persecution, we sometimes lose focus, get distracted. The writer to the Hebrews wants these believers to understand the importance of persevering in the faith they have in Jesus Christ.

Come back to Hebrews 3, just to review a few passages with you. It will help set the context of Hebrews 11. In Hebrews 3:6, “but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house, whose house we are,” now note this, “if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” The concept of hope is important, holding on to that which God has promised, the hope that we have in the promises of God. And we are to hold firm to that until the end. Down in verse 12, “take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God,” a failure to have your faith truly placed in Christ. And as we have seen in Hebrews if you have truly placed your faith in Christ, there is no turning away, there is no turning back.

He uses the example of Israel in the Old Testament, and remember they came up to the point of going into the promised land. They continued in their rebellious unbelief and God placed them under His wrath and judgment for forty years. And almost every one of those 20 years and older would die during that 20-year period, closed out from going into the land that God had promised. In Hebrews 3:18, “to whom did He swear they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient. “ So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief….disobedience, unbelief, two related words. Disobedience is the disobedience of refusing to believe what God had promised.

“Therefore,” Hebrews 4 opens up, “let us fear if while a promise remains of entering His rest anyone of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us just as they also,” now note this, “but the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who believe enter that rest.” Many people hear the Word, the promises of God, the salvation He promises to those who will believe in His Son, the promises of the glory of His presence for eternity. But many who hear that and hear it repeatedly fail to believe it and so will fail to benefit from it. Down in verse 6, “those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience.” Verse 11, “therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through the same example of disobedience.” What we're going to have in Hebrews 11 are examples of obedience. He's given examples of disobedience, failure to believe. In Hebrews 11 we're getting examples of those who did believe.

Come over to Hebrews 10, look at verse 23, we see a similar exhortation. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” Hold fast the confession of our hope. There we have our hope again, what God has promised us. Hope is something yet in the future, not yet realized. It's a promise of God to do something. And He who promised is faithful. That emphasis on the promise of God becomes key in Hebrews 11. And that word confession, let us hold fast the confession of our hope, what we have claimed to believe and hold to be true, hold onto it.

Verses 32 and following, he reminded them they needed to endure, they have something better ahead of them. They can lose everything in this life, but that's all right. You have better possessions, what God has promised to you. And you have need of endurance, verse 36. Verse 38, “My righteous one shall live by faith and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” We are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

Then you flow into Hebrews 11, here are examples of those who had their faith in the promises of God and remained firm, endured to the end. Even though they die without receiving the promises, their faith in the faithfulness of the God who promised is not shaken. We've been talking about the man Abraham, picking up in verse 8. And really verses 8-22 are about Abraham and his immediate descendants. Abraham, his son Isaac, his grandson Jacob, and then Jacob's son Joseph in verse 22. The prime focus in this section is Abraham, and joined with him, Isaac and Jacob. These are the fathers—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the patriarchs. That's the line that has the promises of God. The Abrahamic Covenant passed to Isaac, then passed to Jacob. There are other sons that come into the picture, but they are not in the line of promise. For the Jews the prime connection is Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob, and then to the twelve sons or twelve tribes, comprising the nation Israel.

We looked at verses 8-12 and saw three things about the faith of Abraham. In verse 8, by faith Abraham left his homeland in Ur of the Chaldeans in Mesopotamia. He didn't know where he was going. God just told him leave to a place that I will show you. And he journeyed up around and back down into Canaan, as we noted. What an adventure. Leave your home, leave where you have been rooted, where you have been raised and I'll tell you where you are going when you get there. The second thing about Abraham's faith in verses 9-10, he lived in the land that God had promised, but he lived in tents as a stranger. We noted he never owned anything in Canaan until he bought a gravesite for his wife, Sarah, because he was looking for a city that God had promised, that He would be the builder of, verse 10. Then the third area of Abraham's faith we noted, there should be an adjustment in the way you have it in your English translation there. In our Bibles it says by faith even Sarah herself received the ability to conceive. Better is by faith even with Sarah herself barren, he received ability to lay down seed, even beyond the proper time of life, since he considered Him faithful who had promised. The point is on Abraham's faith, not to say Sarah wasn't a woman of faith. Keep in mind she is with Abraham from the time he leaves Ur through these journeys. But the point here is on the faith of Abraham, and he'll pick that up again in verse 17, “by faith Abraham.” And joined with Abraham are two individuals mentioned in verse 9, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow-heirs of the same promise. Then he'll pick up and mention Isaac and Jacob down in verses 17-21, and then the child of Jacob, Joseph. So he is focusing on Abraham and the patriarchs who are the foundation of the nation Israel, and the promise God gave to them and their faith in those promises.

In verses 13-16 the writer breaks into this discussion of Abraham personally and then Isaac and Jacob to focus on what was most important about them and their faith. They had faith in a future, a faith in what God promised them, and yet they would all die and none of them would receive what God had promised. Yet they died believing. And so that's what he picks up in verse 13. All these died in faith. Now when he says, all these, he's not referring to everybody he has talked about so far. That might be true, but he is talking about those who died in connection with the promises God had given to Abraham regarding the land. So particularly he is talking about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Isaac and Jacob, as we noted, having been mentioned in the last part of verse 9. And he talks about these who have received the promises and verse 9 talked about the land of promise. So the all these in the context refers to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

All these died in faith, or according to faith. Now as we talked about, in Greek as this was originally written, you can rearrange your words because they have their own form that tells you how they connect. In English we put them in a certain order. In Greek you can rearrange the order and you can give emphasis to what you want. So the first words in verse 13 are in faith, or according to faith all these died, putting stress on. The point is it was according to faith these all died, meaning they died with their faith intact. It's a little different expression than we have had, like in verse 8, “by faith;” verse 9, “by faith.” Here it's according to faith these all died. The point is they didn't fail in their faith, they kept on believing. And their faith in the promises of God was intact, even when they died. All these died in faith, having faith, according to faith. That's a remarkable statement.

You'll note the next line, without receiving the promises. Amazing. Remember Abraham lived 100 years in the land of Canaan that God had promised him. And when he died, all he had was a gravesite he bought to bury his wife, Sarah, in. Then his son, Isaac, would live here and he would die without receiving the promises. Then Isaac's son, Jacob, would die and he wouldn't have received the promises. The promises God gave to Abraham like in the Abrahamic Covenant, Genesis 12—a land, a seed that could not be numbered, would be like the stars of the heaven. And a blessing, he would be a blessing to all the nations. But Abraham, Isaac and Jacob died without receiving the promises. They died in the land of promise, verse 9, but they didn't own any of it. None of what God had promised had yet come to fruition.

Now I want you to note something here. It's important. Some take this section of Hebrews to say that this demonstrates that Abraham wasn't looking for a literal, physical land, he was looking for heaven. And they interpret the city in verse 10 and the city mentioned in verse 16 as heaven. So he wasn't looking for something on earth, he was looking for a heavenly city which would be heaven. There is a real problem with that. Read verse 13, “all these died in faith without receiving the promises.” If the promise is to be fulfilled by their going to heaven, this should read, all these died according to faith and thus received the promises. Because if the promise really is heaven, then when Abraham died, he received the promise, he got to heaven. When Isaac died. When Jacob died. But the point is all these died without receiving the promises because the promises related to that physical land and the physical seed and the blessings that would come. All these died without receiving the promises. The city that he is looking for in verse 10 and the city that God has prepared for them in verse 16 can't just be heaven, otherwise they received that promise when they died. When they died, the promise is still not fulfilled. So it’s important to keep that in mind. A number of writers talk about the city is heaven and this shows that this physical land wasn't really what the focus was of Abraham. It was heaven. Well if it was heaven, he got the fulfillment of the promise when he died. But verse 13 says Abraham, Isaac and Jacob died according to faith, having their faith in the promises without receiving the promise. We see that when they pass it on. Abraham died, but he passes on the promise.

What does he say about this in verse 13? “But having seen them and welcomed them from a distance.” They saw what God had promised, yet in the distant future. But it wasn't any less real to them. Come back to Hebrews 11:1, “now faith is the assurance or substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” When we studied this chapter what it said about faith, this is what gives substance, foundation to what you are still hoping for. You don't have it yet. You don't hope for what you already have. But this was a concrete reality to these men. They saw it from a distance because they had the promise of God. The promise of God related to something God said He would do for them and give to them in the future. So they saw the future in the promise of God. We've read on a number of occasions those promises in Genesis 12, Genesis 13, Genesis 15, and Genesis 17. It goes on, but that's all they had when they died. It still is something yet in their future.

Come back to John 8, Jesus is dealing with the religious people of His day, the Jewish leaders of His day. And you talk about how confused religious people can be. They accused Jesus of having a demon. Here you have the One standing before them in whom all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. And they say in verse 48, “you have a demon.” Talk about blindness. What we're here for is verse 56. Jesus says to them, “your father Abraham,” because they are Jews and thus physical descendants of Abraham, but they don't have the faith of Abraham as He made clear earlier in this chapter. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day and He saw it and was glad.” Well they say, “you are not yet 50 years old and you have seen Abraham?” How could Abraham see the day of Jesus? I mean, did God give him a picture, a panorama of future world history and here comes the Son of God born in Bethlehem. I think not. He saw it in the promises God gave, not all the details anymore, as we have talked about, than we have promises of what God will do for us in the future. He says there is an inheritance stored up for us in heaven, but I haven't seen all the details.

Many of our loved ones are in heaven. My parents are enjoying the glories of heaven. They know far more about the glories there and all that is entailed than I do. Of course, those in heaven are experiencing it. But we see it by faith. Now that doesn't mean we see everything entailed; God had given Abraham promises. In that promise there was a particular seed, singular, as Paul makes clear in the book of Galatians. Jesus Christ the descendant of Abraham, that is made clear in the genealogy, is the One in whom all the promises can be fulfilled.

So in believing that promise and looking forward to that fulfillment that contained everything. Abraham believed what God said. That included, even though all the details of what was included in what God promised wasn't unfolded to him, and believing that God would provide the city, who will make possible that city, the New Jerusalem that we'll talk more about in Hebrews 12. And who would dwell in that city and on and on. So Abraham believed the promises, he didn't realize, couldn't realize how wonderful the promises were. Just like you and I cannot appreciate how wonderful and awesome the glory that God has prepared for those that love Him really is. But I've seen it with my eyes of faith because I believe what God said. It is glory beyond compare. It is just as real to me as you sitting before me are real. I believe it. It's a concrete reality to me. That doesn't mean I've seen all the detail, but I have the promise of God. That's the point.

Come over to 1 Corinthians 2. Paul told the Corinthians basically this same thing. Look at verse 9. Now verse 8 talks about the wisdom of God in providing His Son. It's “the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood, for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” What an awesome way to put it—they crucified the Lord of glory. “But just as it is written, things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, which have not entered the heart of man all that God has prepared for those who love Him. For to us God revealed them through the Spirit.” You don't find out about it through the eyes and ears and your own study, it takes revelation. That's what we have, the promise of God. God revealed them to us by His Spirit. We believe what God has said in His Word.

Verse 12, “now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God so that we might know the things freely given to us by God.” Verse 14, “but a natural man, a soulish man, a man without the Spirit does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him, he cannot understand them because they are discerned spiritually.” It has to be the Spirit of God unfolding the truth of God. So God has revealed to us glorious things about the future and we know them. They are real to us even though they have not happened to us yet because we know what God has promised He is faithful to accomplish.

I was watching a program on the history channel or something like that. I turned it on when I was having lunch yesterday. It happened to be on the antichrist, an older program, I don't know how old, 15 years or 20 years, but it was on the antichrist. So of course I was interested in that, and they had some believers in the truth of God and what God has revealed prophetically about the future. But they interview religious leaders who say that's not telling you about the future. And you realize for those who believe God and the promises of God, it's reality, like it is for us. But those without the Spirit, that's foolishness that you are taking that literally, that you think that God is telling you about the future. But we know it is a reality. I'm just as sure that Christ is going to come for me or I'll go to Him in death as I am of anything. It's a reality, and the promises of glory. I really believe. I'm sure that I have an inheritance stored up in heaven that won't fade away. I'm more sure of that than my bank account, and I'm glad for that. And I'm sure it's worth a lot more than my bank account, so why should I be worried about my bank account? Why should I be worried about this life? We keep our focus there.

One of the tragedies happening in churches that claim to be Bible-believing today, there is a strong movement and it has come to be a bitter attack on those of us who believe the Bible should be taken literally about future things. They say we are destroying Christianity and we have turned our attention away from improving the world and meeting the needs of the world and we keep talking about something that is going to happen in the future. Do you know what your attention is turned away from what God has promised, the hope? Then you get mired down, distracted and soon turned away from the truth. That's why the writer to the Hebrews keeps calling their attention back to what God has promised and living in light of His promises. And that is our hope. So he told them in Hebrews 10, doesn't matter if you lose all your possessions, doesn't matter if you are imprisoned, keep on for the hope, for the realization of the promise.

Come back to Hebrews 11. Verse 13, “all these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and welcomed them from a distance.” They were happy over them, they rejoiced over them. “And having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” That goes with it. We have the promise of God, we have the hope of what He has promised, but that has not been realized so we are strangers and aliens on the earth. That's not a good translation. There he's not talking about the world as we sometimes talk about for us as believers today, he's talking about the land here, strangers and exiles on the land. Up in verse 9, “by faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise.” That's what he is talking about down here, exiles on the land. In other words they are on the land that God has promised, but it's not theirs. It was occupied by a variety of foreign peoples, their cities. But they acknowledged, we are just aliens here, we don't own any of it. We don't have the rights of the citizens here. We are strangers and aliens, is the point.

Come back to Genesis 23, this account mentioned. Sarah dies, Genesis 23:1, “Sarah lived 127 years, Sarah died in Kiriath-arba ( that is Hebron) in the land of Canaan.” You think this had to be a disappointment, not only in the loss of his wife but here she had journeyed with him from Ur of the Chaldeans. She is 127, Abraham is ten years older than she is, so he is 137. He was 75, so you do the math, 62 years or whatever it is, they have been in Canaan together; then she dies. And do you know what? They own nothing in Canaan. He doesn't even have a place to bury her body. They didn't even get a chance to say, we've been here many years, now we're going to build a house and buy some land and settle. At least we'll know we own some of it. Nothing.

Look what Abraham says, verse 3, after mourning for her, for Sarah, “then Abraham rose from his dead and spoke to the sons of Heth saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner among you.” See how Abraham sees himself. After all these years living in the land of Canaan, he doesn't say, God has given me this land. I am here by divine direction and divine authority, the land is really mine. No. “I'm a stranger, a sojourner among you.” He had to ask them to give him a site that he could buy to bury his wife because he has no right to any of the land at this point. So where am I going to bury my wife? So he says, I'm asking a favor of you. The land still belongs to them. It belongs to him by promise but not by present possession. And Abraham acknowledges that. There is no fighting here. There is no argument with God—God, I've been faithful, Sarah was faithful, here we are now, I have her body and I don't even have a place in the land you said would be mine. Nothing. He’s right up front with the people of the land. “I'm a stranger and sojourner among you.”

Abraham is a rich man, but he owns nothing in this land. “They say you are a great and mighty prince among us,” verse 6. Interesting to me, down in verse 10, now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth and Ephron the Hittite answered, what Abraham would like is a cave there, the cave of Machpelah belonged to Ephron the Hittite. And Abraham ends up buying this piece of ground at a high price from this Hittite man.

Back up to Genesis 15, God reiterating His promises to Abraham. You know we have to be reminded of what God promised, God keeps reminding these men of what He promised. We've gone through some of the repetition here in these chapters of Genesis in other studies. Look at verse 13, “God said to Abraham, know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in the land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for 400 years.” Great, all I've been through—left my homeland, here I am living on this land and now He tells me we are going to be moving out for 400 years. That means you won't see the promise fulfilled, your son won't see the promise fulfilled, your son's son won't see the promise fulfilled, you won't even be back here for 400 years and you won't be here when they do come back. Then He goes on. “I will judge the nations whom they will serve, afterward they will come out with many possessions.” That's Egypt, remember. “As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age,” parenthesis—owning nothing in the land, not having received the promises. I inserted that. “Then when the iniquity of the Amorite is ripe, then judgment will come.”

Note the promise, verse 18, “on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham saying, to your descendants I have given this land.” If you don't know what I'm talking about, “it's from the River of Egypt as far as the Great River, the River Euphrates.” That's not heaven, He's talking about a physical, earthly piece of land. Note who dwells there, all these people—“the Kenite, the Kenizzite, the Kadmonite and the Hittite.” Abraham has to buy a grave from a Hittite. You know what God's intention is, after 400 years when He brings His people in under Joshua to take the land, every man, woman and child is to die. Every Kenite, every Kenizzite, every Kadmonite, every Hittite, every Perizzite, on it goes. They have to be cleaned off the land. It will belong to Abraham and his descendants.

Come back to Hebrews. They confessed, and there's a concrete example of Abraham acknowledging he is a stranger and exile on the land, the land of promise. Verse 14, “for those who say such things make it clear they are seeking a country of their own.” The word country there would be better, a homeland. Built off the word father, Greek word patreda, patre—father, the fatherland, the homeland. Those who say such things, that we are strangers and aliens make it clear they are seeking a homeland of their own. Now they are not denying that the land of promise was going to be their homeland. Verse 9, “by faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise.” They make clear they are seeking a homeland of their own, but at present they don't have it. They only have a promise relating to it. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. The country that they went out from—their original homeland. That's the way we talk. I asked somebody this week, where is your home? And they mentioned a town in Nebraska. But I've lived here for 27 years. All the years I've lived here in Nebraska, but if somebody says, where is your home? I say, my home is Philadelphia. Well, it's not my home, I live here. Where was Abraham's homeland? It was Ur of the Chaldeans.

So verse 15, “indeed if they had been thinking of that homeland from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.” They could go back there to Ur of the Chaldeans, they have family back there. Abraham is going to send his servant back to their homeland in Mesopotamia to get a wife for Isaac. Isaac's son, Jacob, is going to spend time there and get a wife. If they were thinking of a homeland in just the physical sense, they would have gone back to Ur of the Chaldeans, but stressing that they were strangers and pilgrims and they are seeking a homeland of their own. They are not thinking of their physical homeland from which they came because as it is they desire a better homeland, that is a heavenly one.

Come back to Genesis 24. Important because some people get confused and say, they are not looking for a physical land, they are looking for heaven. Genesis 24 is the account I just referred to. Sarah died in Genesis 23. Now Genesis 24, “now Abraham was old, advanced in age. The Lord had blessed Abraham in every way. And he said to his servant, and I want you to swear.” Verse 3, “I will make you swear by the Lord the God of heaven and the God of earth that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I live.” You see there is to be no mixture here. This is going to be Abraham and his descendants' homeland, but there is to be no mixing of the seed here. So pretty soon these people of Canaan and Abraham, they just intermarry. No, no, no. You go back to our homeland to get a wife.

You “go to my country, my relatives, take a wife,” verse 4, “for my son Isaac. And the servant said, suppose the woman is not willing to follow me to this land?” I mean, just come with me to a distant land you have never been to, to marry a man you've never seen. What if she is not willing to come? “Shall I take your son back to the land from where you came?” Well, sure, that's our homeland. No. Abraham said, verse 6, “beware that you do not take my son back there. Then Abraham's confidence is the God of heaven who took me from my father's house, from the land of my birth. That was his homeland then. Who spoke to me and swore to me saying, to your descendants I will give this land. He will send His angel before you and you will take a wife for my son.” But he realizes the servant may not have the same faith in the promises of God that Abraham does. So He says, “if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from my oath. Only do not take my son back there.” What he wants clear is my son does not leave here. Why? He realizes if his son goes back there, he can become entangled back there, married back there and may not want to leave back there. He has to stay in the promised homeland even though it is not his homeland now, except by promise. But that's concrete to Abraham. But he doesn't confuse it, he's willing to acknowledge, I'm a stranger and sojourner on this land. But it's mine by promise. I don't want my son leaving to go back to the original ancestral homeland. No, he can't leave the land here. The wife has to come here. And that's what we read back in Genesis 15, that's the land God promised.

So come back to Hebrews 11 from Genesis. So verse 16, “but as it is they desire a better homeland.” Better homeland, not better than the land of Canaan that God promised, better than the land that they came from in Ur of the Chaldeans, in Mesopotamia, the region that we know. So they desire a better homeland. What's the contrast? Well, if they had been thinking of that homeland from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better homeland, what God has promised. We just read what Abraham said, God promised me this land. He's not looking for something better than what God promised him.

Verse 9 talked about “he lived as an alien in the land of promise.” As it is they, the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—but even when Jacob leaves the land as we will see in future study, it's with the intention of coming back, acknowledging this is where he belongs. That is a heavenly one. That's not saying heaven. It's not he desires a better homeland, heaven. No. I mean, everything becomes irrelevant. If the goal is heaven and when you die, you go to heaven, Abraham, so that's the fulfillment of the promise, that's what he was looking for. No. They desire a better homeland, a heavenly one, one that God would provide. They were willing to trust God, believe the promise and that God would do it in His time. That's why in faith, “according to faith all these died,” verse 13, “without receiving the promise.” But that doesn't mean they gave up on the promise. That's the point.

I believe that Christ is coming for the church to meet Him in the air. I remember my father-in-law telling me as he got older, Gil, I don't know whether the Lord is going to come in my lifetime, but I think for sure He'll come in yours if not in mine. I appreciated his settled faith. He died, but he kept the faith right up until his end. And do you know what? I'm looking for the coming of the Lord, but if you have a funeral for me here some day, don't think the promise failed. I'll be in heaven waiting for the final resurrection of the body and the full fulfillment of it and waiting to meet you there. I beat you, so great.

What is it saying? They desire a heavenly one, what God would provide, the city that He has prepared for them. So God is not ashamed to be called their God. Negative way of saying, God is pleased to be their God, a people that trust Him, that rely upon Him, that believe as we had back in Hebrews 10:23, “let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For He who promised is faithful.” Isn't it wonderful, Abraham comes to the end of Sarah's life and he hasn't lost confidence in the promise. You come to the next chapter in Genesis and he is saying how important it is that his son, Isaac, stay in the land of promise. He still believes God is going to do what He promised. When he faces death, he makes all the provision for Isaac to inherit the promise. When Isaac dies, he'll have to pass it on to Jacob. But all he is passing on is a promise. They don't own the land, they haven't built any cities. Well, God is not ashamed to be called their God. You see the kind of people that God wants for Himself, a people who will trust Him.

Now keep in mind this is written to encourage people who are facing terribly difficult times—persecution, suffering, opposition from family, friends, imprisonment. Hold fast the confession of your hope. Do you know what happens when we get focused down here? I don't know if I can take the suffering anymore, I don't know if I can take the loss, I don't know if I can go through this. You know what happens when I'm looking down here. Look at the promises. Do you know what the devil does? Tries to tell the church, you don't need to be worried about future things, let God worry about the future. You need to be concentrating on the here and now. What are you going to do if you lose this? How are you going to accomplish if you lose that? If this happens? That's the whole point. We are strangers as they were. As Paul wrote to the Philippians, “our citizenship is in heaven from which we are eagerly awaiting a Savior, the transformation of this body into conformity with the body of His glory.” That's our promise. We stop focusing on the hope, what do we have? So the church ends up muddling around, despairing, going from counselor to counselor. Man thinks he will make a difference in the world by adopting social programs to clean up the world. God never called Abraham to clean up Canaan. He was a stranger and alien there. So God fulfills the promise. Our citizenship is not here, that doesn't mean I'm not willing to recycle. Sure, I'll recycle. But I'm not focused here. I have God's promises. We're not to lay up treasures for ourselves on earth where everything and anything corrupts and destroys it. We lay up our treasures in heaven. Have you ever seen your treasure in heaven? No. I haven't either. What do we have? He who is faithful has promised.

What does it say about the church? It's so easy, just let's go with the promises that we have in Scripture, the hope that is ours, the future that is ours. We become mired down in the world that will only experience change and transformation and newness when Christ comes.

He has prepared a city for them. Verse 10, “he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” We'll talk about this more in detail. We've talked about the New Jerusalem. What's the importance of the city? What will it be when the land becomes theirs? What's the first thing Joshua had to do when he moved into the Promised Land? He marched around the city of Jericho because the people to whom the land belongs dwell in cities. The city here, the city whose architect and builder is God indicates God will establish the New Jerusalem, establish His city on the earth. That will indicate then that the promises of God will be fulfilled because this is the city for them, as we will see when we get to Hebrews 12. Willing to wait, willing to wait, willing to trust God and the pressures and problems and trials that we face presently can press in and blur the picture.

I love Genesis 23 where Abraham has to buy a gravesite for Sarah. And then you come to Genesis 24 and my son can't leave the land because this is the land God promised to me. You go back there and bring a wife here because this will be our homeland. He already knows it's not going to be the homeland for Isaac at that time because 400 years are going to go by with the people leaving the land. But that's all right, the promise of God is just as sure, as if he had a deed for it. The promise of God is the deed. I'm willing to wait until God does it, His provision. That's what sustains and encourages us.

Think of the promises we have, God's people, all that God has promised us in Christ. We live with those promises. We live in this world. We know what God is going to do in this world ultimately. We're not here to renovate the world. We're not here to improve the world. We're here to call the world to salvation in Christ. That's what these days are, to share with them the truth that there is a Savior provided by Almighty God, the judge of all men, who desires to be the Savior of all who will believe in His Son who died and rose again. We must never let go of the promises and the hope. Heaven and earth will pass away, but Jesus said, “My word will not pass away.” It doesn't get any more sure than that. What more do we need? So we just tuck this Bible under our arm and say, that's all we need. I have the promises, I'm sure, just waiting for the time and being faithful while we wait.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of your grace, all you have promised for us in Christ. And Lord, there is so much fullness contained in the promises that we cannot comprehend at this present time. But, Lord, what you have promised contains everything that will bring glory unimaginable. You are the God of glory. Lord, we praise you and thank you for your Word. We thank you for the testimony of these great saints, not because they were perfect, but because they believed you and clung to the promise. And we would hold fast to our confession of our hope with the same conviction that you are the One who is promised and you are faithful. We praise you in Christ's name, amen.