Seeking Better, While Living in Worse

[00:00:00] Pray, I'll ask for God's illumination. [00:00:05] Our heavenly Father, we ask that you would send forth your word to us that we might hear it and believe. May your spirit be at work among your people, that we might have eyes to see and ears to hear, that which so much of the world rejects and stumbles over. [00:00:24] And, Lord, we ask because we know that we are not able to see, we are not able to hear, to acknowledge, to believe. [00:00:32] Apart from your gracious work in us, our hearts are often dark. Our flesh is strong. Evil is close at hand, even when we seek to do good. [00:00:44] So, Lord, we ask now for your protection, for your help, and for your guidance, that you would give us a clear vision of your promises, that we might persevere through faith in life and in death. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. [00:01:05] Let's remain standing and turn to Hebrews chapter eleven. [00:01:31] Hebrews eleven. I'm going to read verses eight through 22, but the focus of the sermon this evening will be on 13 through 16, the middle section of those verses. [00:01:45] Let's hear God's word. [00:01:47] By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. [00:02:14] By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful, who had promised. Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants, as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. [00:02:34] These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. [00:02:59] But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city by faith. Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it had said, through Isaac, shall your offspring be named. He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. [00:03:31] By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. [00:03:50] May God bless his word to us. Please be seated. [00:04:21] Well, the author to the book of Hebrews continues his message of encouragement to us. [00:04:28] Encouragement to persevere, to remain strong, and to do so through faith. [00:04:36] Not faith in faith or faith in some abstract feeling or idea, but faith in the God of Abraham, faith in the God of Isaac and Jacob, who are also heirs according to the promise. [00:04:51] Faith in the one who continues to prove over and over and over again that he is faithful to fulfill his promises. Faith in the one who has a steadfast love. Faith in the one who keeps his promises and saves his people. [00:05:10] As the author encourages in this, he pauses here in our verses for this evening, 13 through 22, to talk a little bit about what's in the heads and the hearts of these people he mentions. These all died in faith, verse 13. And he has in mind in particular those whom he just mentioned in the previous verses. Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, Sarah. And perhaps we could include Joseph coming up as well. [00:05:39] We know he means these in particular, and not all of the people that are mentioned in this chapter because, well, Enoch didn't die. [00:05:49] So we know he has a sense, particularly here on Abraham. [00:05:54] Of course, it can be applied to others, and, Lord willing, will be applied to me and to you as well. To die in faith is a very, very good thing. [00:06:07] I want to talk to you a little bit tonight about what that means, what it means to die in faith, what it means to live in faith. [00:06:18] The author gives some explanation of that. [00:06:21] He writes this in verse 13. [00:06:24] These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them, or not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. [00:06:41] We have a sense also of a similar verse, a similar idea, when we are told in verse ten in the previous paragraph, Abraham was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. [00:06:57] You see, they had faith in the Lord and what he had promised. What is it that the Lord promised? Do you remember? He promised seed. [00:07:08] He promised that he would produce through Abraham's seed, and even so many people that would be called a nation, as many as the stars in the sky, as many as the sands, as the grains of sand by the seashore. [00:07:22] He also promised to Abraham land, an inheritance, a place for him and his people to dwell. [00:07:31] If you remember the story of Abraham, he was called out of ur, the land of the Chaldees, to go into Canaan, this place that God had prepared for him. [00:07:43] The author of Hebrews reminds us of this point when he says this in verse 15. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. [00:07:57] So he's asking a question. He's asking us to think what was in Abraham's mind. [00:08:03] What was the homeland, the fatherland, which he was seeking. [00:08:10] Interestingly, it was not the place where his father was from. [00:08:15] If he were seeking that place, the author says, he would have had opportunity to go back. [00:08:22] We have examples, of course, of people wanting to go back in sinful ways. [00:08:27] Lot's wife looking back, right, and turning to a pillar of salt. [00:08:34] Or the Israelites coming out of Egypt and missing their Leeks and their Onions, and saying, let's go back to what you might ask, to slavery, to idolatry. [00:08:50] That was not Joseph's attitude. When JOseph died, we read in verse 22, or before he died, obviously, he gave directions concerning his bones. He did not want to stay in Egypt. [00:09:07] He gave instructions that his bones would be taken to the Land of Canaan, believing and trusting that God would fulfill those promises and bring his people there. Joseph, who was a great ruler in eGypt. Joseph, who had achieved great heights of power, who had accomplished amazing good for both that country for ISrael and other peoples. Joseph, who in many ways, seemed to have settled well in this place in eGypt. [00:09:39] He too, considered himself a stranger and an exile, wanting to go Home. [00:09:49] Where does this kind of attitude come from? An attitude which looks at the things of this world as passing and as temporary. [00:09:59] Because ultimately, that's what Abraham and Isaac and Sarah and Joseph are doing, isn't it? [00:10:05] Even the land of Canaan was not their ultimate resting place. [00:10:11] CaNaan, we are told, is a picture, and it's pointing forward to something even better. [00:10:17] How do we know this? What does the ScriptuRes say? [00:10:21] They were waiting for a city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. [00:10:28] We read in verse 16 that he had prepared for them a city. [00:10:37] We read also that they thought of themselves even while they traveled in Canaan. THey ThoughT of themselves as strangers and exiles, not just in Canaan, but on the earth. [00:10:48] They made it clear that they were seeking a homeland. And then, most clearly of all, verse 16, they desire a better country. [00:10:56] That is, a heavenly one. [00:11:00] If that doesn't sort of certify the point, I'm not sure what would. Right. Abraham was traveling in that place, knowing that there was something yet greater coming, still, something even better than Canaan. [00:11:22] The distance between the promises realized, between the GloriOuS FulfilLment and Consummation of the kingdom of God, and traveling Intense in the Land of Canaan, is what we might describe as this way. [00:11:40] The author says, not having received the things promised in verse 13, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, it's a sense that Abraham, on the one hand, he wasn't totally blind to what was coming, but it was a long way away. [00:12:03] He could see it. He could sense it. He could recognize it. [00:12:09] In what ways might we say? [00:12:12] There's various ways. And I don't want to steal Pastor Ulrich's sermon from him next week, but we do have verse 17. [00:12:21] By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac and who. And he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named. [00:12:37] Right. So here's the promise. Through Isaac shall your offspring be made. And here's the command. Sacrifice Isaac. [00:12:49] How does that go together? One might wonder. [00:12:55] Well, we know how the story ends. Perhaps if you know Genesis, the Lord provides a ram. Isaac is not slain, but what is in Abraham's mind, in his heart. Verse 19 tells us he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead. [00:13:16] He says, what doesn't make sense here in earthly and in human means is not my concern. [00:13:24] The Lord has made his promise, and that is his promise, period. [00:13:31] That's what faith is. [00:13:34] Abraham saw these things. He saw his son, he saw the offspring. He saw the seed coming about. But it was a very distant from the Christ who would ultimately come, that chosen offspring who had come, who is the son of Abraham and also the son of God. [00:13:54] Jesus says in John 856, your father Abraham, rejoiced that he would see my day. [00:14:04] He saw it and was glad. [00:14:09] There's this sense of Abraham both looking forward to that thing that has not yet come, and yet also enjoying the thing that he has right now. [00:14:19] John Owen makes this great point in his commentary on Hebrews on this section. He points out that there is comfort and benefit in the promises themselves, even out without receiving the full thing yet. [00:14:37] And that's true, isn't it? There's comfort and benefit in the promises. There's actual benefit, actual internal and external things that happen when we trust in the Lord, even when we haven't fully received the consummation of these things. [00:14:57] If you've ever been stuck in a job or in a house or a neighborhood or someplace where you really, really don't want to be, and you feel stuck, trapped, it's an awful feeling, isn't it? It gnaws at you. It's terrible. It's draining. It's hard in every way. You don't know what you're going to do. You feel, like I said, stuck, trapped, enslaved, right? These terrible feelings. [00:15:28] But what happens when you find out that all of a sudden there's an out? [00:15:33] We can sell our house? [00:15:35] I got another job offer, right? [00:15:39] All of a sudden, when we learn about that promise, right? This thing that we're hoping for the way out of our situation, even when our situation has not changed yet, even when we're not yet in the new house, even when you're not yet in the new job, in the new place, there's relief, isn't there? [00:16:01] There's even joy. And it changes your perspective to everything that you're doing, isn't it? You kind of think to yourself, I'm not going to be here that much longer. [00:16:10] You start holding things a little more lightly. You start letting go. In some ways, things that maybe once bothered you in a really, really big way and stressed you out and made you afraid. All of a sudden, it's the same thing. This is not that big of a deal because you're going to be gone in a week. [00:16:30] There's a perspective change, a heart change that happens, a mindset change that happens when we take hold by faith of these promised future realities. [00:16:44] Now, if that's true of a job change or a location change or something like that, can you imagine what it might be like to be promised heaven? [00:16:55] I think, I hope many of you can. [00:16:58] Because you have been promised heaven. You have been given by the Lord and savior of this world, eternal life itself. He's promised you an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, a city that is prepared for you, a place that is undefiled, unfading, protected and beautiful and without sorrow and totally safe. [00:17:21] And he promises you that that place is yours to dwell with him forever, where there is pleasures at his right hand forevermore, where there is no more danger, no more sorrow. All of a sudden, when we put our faith in those promises that come to us through Jesus, this promised offspring of Abraham, this world begins to look kind of different, like Abraham, we begin to think of ourselves as strangers, as exiles. [00:17:59] Sure, I'm here, and I love my city and I love my place. I'm going to do everything I can to benefit this world and serve as I'm able. But at the end of the day, something bigger is something. [00:18:14] Paul describes it as an eternal weight of glory that can't even begin to be compared to the difficulties that we face in this world. Don't even bother comparing it. It's so much more awesome, so much more beautiful, so much more wonderful and safe and lovely when we fix our eyes, as Abraham did on that heavenly city that God has prepared for us, a homeland that is not tied to the changing seasons and government and people and place of this world, but it's tied to our covenant Lord and his indestructible life. [00:18:58] We start to let some things go. [00:19:01] We let things not bother us so much or tear us up inside, or make us fear. We stop clamoring so much and grasping and grabbing the things of this world that won't last, even good things, but penultimate things. [00:19:19] Instead of clamoring after sinful things or even turning good things into ultimate things, idols, instead, we learn to see and trust in the Lord, even in times when it doesn't seem to make any sense to do so. [00:19:42] Sometimes it's very difficult to trust the Lord. [00:19:46] Sometimes the pressures and the challenges that are nearby us feel so present, so heavy, so difficult, it's hard to know what to do. [00:19:55] But we have encouragement here in the scriptures, don't we? We have couragement in the examples of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Sarah, of people who considered themselves as good, as dead, and yet through faith in God, produced a nation. [00:20:13] They lived in faith because they let go of the things of this world. [00:20:19] Ur in particular, the Chaldees, the gods that Abraham and his family once worshipped. [00:20:27] They let go of the things of this world, and they put their hope in the promises to come in that heavenly city, in that place that has been prepared for us. [00:20:42] And that's what faith is for us as well. [00:20:45] When we see, when we acknowledge, and when we act, trusting in the Lord God, that's what faith looks like, and it changes us. [00:20:59] I want to conclude by considering two verses in Hebrews twelve and then Hebrews 13. [00:21:07] I want to encourage you through the rest of this letter in a couple of other parts of this letter, that this thing that Abraham was looking forward to was not just for him, but it's for those who first read this letter, and it's for us as well. [00:21:26] In Hebrews, chapter twelve, verses 22 through 24, we read this, but you, he writes to his hearers, have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. [00:22:07] He puts this in contrast with coming to Mount Sinai, which we read in the verses before a mountain so threatening, so dangerous, because of the holiness of God there and the sinfulness of his people, that they were told not to touch the mountain or they would die. [00:22:24] I have a question for you. Is Mount Zion less holy than Mount Sinai? [00:22:32] The presence of the Lord is on both mountains. In Mount Zion we have the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, all of hose hosts of heaven, we have God there, the spirits of the righteous made perfect. It's not less holy. [00:22:48] If anything, it's more holy. [00:22:50] So why is it that we can come to this one but not even touch the other? [00:22:56] Because when we come to Mount Zion, when we come to the heavenly Jerusalem, even now, by faith, as those who are seated in the heavenly places where Christ is, as Paul says in Colossians, we come through Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. We come not in our own righteousness. We come not in our own obedience. We come not in our own strength. [00:23:20] We come in him and his name. [00:23:24] We come through his blood. We come through his sacrifice, the sacrifice that was made where God did give up his own son for us. [00:23:36] That's why we can have confidence in these things, because of Jesus, his sacrifice, his work. We are citizens of this heavenly city, and we can look forward to it, both living and dying in faith. [00:23:50] Finally, Hebrews 1313 through 14 therefore, let us go out. Let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured speaking of Christ. [00:24:05] We identify with him, ourselves. With him, we suffer afflictions with him we struggle in this world. We are strangers and exiles, hated as he was. [00:24:16] But we do this because in verse 1414, we are reminded here, here on earth, we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. [00:24:32] Beloved, put your faith in the Lord. Put your faith in the son of God, who gave himself for you, who sacrificed his blood for you, who made you holy so that you might dwell holy with him on Mount Zion. [00:24:48] And look not to the places and the cities of this world for your hope, but to the city that is to come, the heavenly Jerusalem, the place that God has prepared for you. [00:25:01] Let's pray. [00:25:05] Our heavenly Father, we ask that you would open our eyes and help us to see you and to believe the promises that you have made. [00:25:12] O Lord, how great Abraham's faith must have been to see and greet these things from afar. [00:25:19] When we consider how much more we know than even he did, how much more we know about Jesus, his coming, the prophecies about him, his life, his ministry, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his apostles, and the building up of his church, which he even now continues and works and ministers in. Lord, as we consider all of these things and the great unfolding of the new covenant as we experience it in our own lives, and it is as testified and talked about throughout the New Testament, Lord, our hearts are filled with wonder and joy at the strength and the steadfastness of your promises. [00:26:06] Lord, help us to be those who die in faith. [00:26:11] Lord, teach us to persevere against the challenges and the struggles that we face in this world, the moments of confusion and darkness, the times when we fall deeply into sin, the times when we don't know which way is up and which way is down. [00:26:30] Lord, we ask that you would help us to see things rightly, so that we would rejoice having seen your day and looking forward to the day of the Lord that is to come. [00:26:41] Lord, having seen it, make us glad. [00:26:46] Fill our hearts not with dread and fear, but with rejoicing, with joy, with satisfaction, peace, anticipation and hope. [00:26:59] Looking forward to the great things that you have yet to do while the world remains and the things that you will do in that city and that great kingdom that is to come. [00:27:14] Lord, we thank you for making us citizens even now of that heavenly city and for allowing us to worship you in a spirit of holiness, in the splendor of holiness. [00:27:29] We ask that you would continue to receive our worship here this evening through the sprinkled blood of Christ, and that you would receive our lives in the coming week as acts of worship. Help us to give ourselves over to you daily as offerings of thanksgiving, of thanksgiving and of praise. [00:27:51] Bless us, o Lord, in all of these things we pray in Jesus name. Amen.