Faith: Looking Forward - [Hebrews 11:13-16]

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There was a man named Russell Carter and he was born in 1849 and I liked
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Russell Carter's life because he was a man's man and he was a man of the world in the sense that he did everything.
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He was an athlete, he was a professor, he taught at the Military Academy, classes like chemistry and natural science, civil engineering, mathematics, he raised sheep, he was a doctor in medicine and just a man with a fascinating life.
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Well at 30 years old he was diagnosed with a heart condition and they didn't know if he would live and so the writer
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Connie Christensen said, quote, he knelt and made a promise that healing or no, his life was finally and forever consecrated to the service of the
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Lord and amazingly the Lord healed him of that condition. He lived 49 more years, he had all kinds of other medical conditions but lived another 49 years and he's especially known for writing the hymn,
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Standing on the Promises of God. You probably recognize some of the words,
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Standing on the Promises of Christ my King, through eternal ages let his praises ring, glory in the highest,
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I will shout and sing, Standing on the Promises of God. Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my
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Savior, standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God and the hymnologist would say it's written with a martial kind of style because of his military background but better than all that is the truth contained, standing on the promises of God.
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I'd like to ask you a couple questions this morning. Number one, can you stand on the promises of God? Is he trustworthy?
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Should you stand on the promises of God knowing what you're going through and circumstances before you? So why don't you take your
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Bibles this morning and turn to the book of Hebrews as we look at the character and nature of God, the object of our faith and that he is worthy to be trusted no matter what.
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While trials are very visible, he is invisible yet he can be trusted and he's faithful and you can in fact stand on the promises of God.
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Now you know the book of Hebrews as you're turning there is a book about Christ's superiority. Jesus has different offices when you think about what he does.
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An office might be king, an office might be prophet and he's both of those of course but specifically highlighting in this book, the book of Hebrews, is
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Jesus is the high priest. Not only does he make intercession for people, he prays for you, he's made an offering for you.
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That offering of course is his own life and the writer wants everyone to know that Jesus can be praised and can be trusted.
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Even at the very beginning, if I read the first few verses, it just starts off with the tenor of the entire book that is a tenor of extolling the
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Lord Jesus. Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world.
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He, Jesus, this high priest, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
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After making purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
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And so this entire book, this is kind of weird, I never do this when I'm preaching. Now they have to learn new things.
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I always like to watch Sinclair Ferguson because he does this, he does the elbow hold. So now
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I'm doing the other elbow hold. One of my pet peeves in life is pastors that drink water from the pulpit.
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It looks just dumb and they never need it. Sorry, I need it. And then they're wiping their mouths and everything.
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So today, crutches, pulpit, stool, I drank water. I repent.
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Now we move to chapter 11 and he is wanting the readers and you to believe in this
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God, to keep faith in this God, to keep trusting in this God. And we all have to recognize and realize that when life brings troubles and trials it's more difficult.
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It's easy to believe the Lord and everything's going great, but when things are difficult, can you still trust this
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Lord? And so he is bringing a lot of Old Testament patriarchs to the front of the minds of these readers and listeners, and of course you, so that you see even though their lives were difficult, even though they were less than faithful, they still had the right object of their faith, the
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Lord Jesus, the High Priest. And that's chapter 11, as we know, it's called the great hall of faith, faith in the
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Lord Jesus. Let me just, for the purpose of review, read the first seven verses,
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Hebrews chapter 11, that will set the stage for our message today. Hebrews 11 1.
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Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation.
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By faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
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By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous,
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God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
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By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death. He was not found because God had taken him.
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Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who seek him.
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By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household.
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By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
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Every single one of these men, and of course women, that we'll talk about today, Sarah, they were walking by faith.
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And this is the exhortation to all of us. And you think of Galatians chapter 2 verse 20, do you not? The life
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I live now, I live by present tense faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave his life for me.
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That is a Christian life, walking by faith and not by sight. The just shall live by faith. And so he wants to engender that.
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He wants you to keep going and keep believing. Remember at the end of chapter 10, what is the exhortation?
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Verse 38, but my righteous one shall live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
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And then even in chapter 12, at the beginning, the other side of the bookmark of Hebrews 11, therefore since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, those men and women in chapter 11, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
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That is, the race of faith, looking to the object of faith, Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
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So today it's not an academic thing. Let's look at these characters. Yes, this is what they did. This is who they are.
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Isn't that wonderful? No, the message is for you because as they trusted in this high priest, and as they were walking by faith,
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God calls every one of you, he calls me, to do the very same thing, a life of faith.
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So our outline today in chapters, chapter 11, verses 8 through 16, picks up where we left off last time.
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And thank you, Pastor Steve, for filling in for me last week. Let me give you four words to help you assess every trial and every circumstance, now and in the future.
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Faith in Jesus endures even though the future looks, and these are the four words, unknown, unmanageable, unfulfilled, and unreal.
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Four words that help us assess our circumstances, unknown, impossible, unfulfilled, and unreal.
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Can you trust in the Lord? In other words, when the future looks bleak and you don't know what's going to happen, when you can't control your circumstances, when you have hopes and dreams that are unfulfilled in this life, and when you don't really know heaven is that real.
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So let's just have a review for the first two, four even those, four words, so that you can still trust the
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Lord no matter what. Faith endures even though, number one, the future is unknown.
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Remember verses 8 through 10? By faith Abraham obeyed. He didn't know what the future would hold.
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Remember he was called out to go to a place that he was to receive an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going.
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By faith, remember in the object, not blind faith, not faith in faith, not a subjective faith, but faith is shorthand, theological shorthand, for faith in the high priest revealed in chapters 1 through 10.
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By faith, he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land. You want to know how foreign it was?
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You want to know how temporary it was? Living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
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For he was looking forward, he's walking by faith, he's by faith looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is
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God. Abraham did not know what the future held, but he knew the God of the future.
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And this God, it says in verse 10, do you notice? He designs this ultimate city, this eternal city, this heavenly city that has foundations unlike a tent.
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He designs it and he builds it, that is God does. He crafts it, he plans it like an architect and actually builds it.
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And without this God, we would have no hope of this eternal city, this eternal heaven.
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And Abraham was a man walking by faith. Everything about Abraham and his faith was not contingent on him or his faithfulness or what he did.
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It was contingent on the God who revealed himself to Abraham. So simply we learned last time that when your future is unknown, go with what you know.
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That is why you want to get that book, The Attributes of God by A .W. Pink. I've probably read it more than any other book in my life, 19 chapters on the attributes of God.
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It's free online, by the way, The Attributes of God. And you learn about God's attributes, his perfections, his characteristics.
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Because what we do is we think about ourselves in trials and we try to think, well, what's going on here? And there's all these unknowns and what will the doctor say?
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And what will the future bring? So what I have to do is when I don't know something, I have to go with what
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I know. When the unknown is before me, go with what I know. And that's why it is good to rehearse the nature and the attributes of God.
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And while I'm not faithful, while you're not faithful, God is faithful. He's he's dependable. He's steadfast.
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He is worthy of trust. That's what Abraham did. It wasn't Abraham was so great, but he was trusting in the great one.
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And the writer wants to say, make sure you keep trusting, too. The second word is unmanageable, or maybe we could say impossible.
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Faith endures, even though the future is unknown. Number two, when you can't manage the present.
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When you think the way forward is humanly impossible versus 11 and 12. I don't know about you, but I like to think
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I'm in control of things. I think I can manage life and circumstances come up. And now that I'm almost 60,
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I already want to say I'm 60, but I'm almost 60. I think to myself, I've seen that before and I know what to do.
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And I've been down that path before and I know how to manage these circumstances. Well, there are some circumstances that the
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Lord puts us in that are not manageable, that we don't have any answers to. So how do we act?
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Do we say bad things about the Lord? Do we say, Lord, you're not good anymore? I can't trust you.
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Who do you think you are? I knew you would do this to me. What's the response? Well, here, the response with the unmanageable, impossible circumstances with Sarah was faith.
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She believed. Look at verse 11. By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive.
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Remember how old she was? Grandma Sarah, even when she was past the age, past the age of what?
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I mean, she'd been on AARP for 40 years. Do they even do anything as a company or just send out mass mailings?
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I have no idea what they even do. She's past the age of childbearing.
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Her womb's dead since she considered him faithful. Finally, there's somebody faithful in this chapter, and it's not any of the people.
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It's the Lord God, our triune God. She considered him faithful who had promised when God makes a promise.
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He keeps it. I remember raising kids. I tried to keep my word whenever I possibly could.
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But there's sometimes I just can't make a promise hold because I fail or something comes up here.
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This God promised. Sarah couldn't manage the circumstances. Impossible.
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Look at Abraham's body. Look at Sarah's body. It's impossible. But she believed because God said it was going to be true.
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She took him at his word. And if you weren't here a couple of weeks ago, it is a very interesting verse and has some problems in it for us as interpreters, because it says, by faith,
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Sarah herself, Sarah being the subject. But then there's something here that's only used of a man.
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That is, it's translated in the ESV receive power to conceive. Literally, it's to conceive seed.
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No, it's not that at all. It's the father's part of the generative process, not the mother's laying down the seed.
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And so she doesn't do that. The male does. But I think if we go with the interpretive translation of Greenlee, it all makes sense.
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By faith, Sarah herself also received the ability for the deposition of seed even beyond her normal age, since she considered the one having promised to be faithful.
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Can you imagine sterile Sarah? I'd like to have that for a nickname.
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And by the way, it says here, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, whatever will be will be.
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No, that doesn't make sense. I'll stick to what I'm OK at. She was sterile, but she took
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God at his word and she believed. And I think to myself when I'm in some situation and I can't manage it and I've been in many of those situations,
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I don't have the right resources. And even if I had enough money, enough lawyers, enough counselors, enough friends, enough money, enough this, enough that I cannot manage this.
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Then what do I say? One of the best things you can do is just to preach to yourself. And I love Paul has some good advice.
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What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, then. Who can be against us?
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He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
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It is God who justifies who is to condemn Christ. Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God and indeed is interceding for us.
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I can't manage my situation, but I do know the God who manages everything in a sovereign way.
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Oh, Father, you are sovereign. So I'm just going to have to make sure I keep remembering who that sovereign
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God is, the real manager. I love Genesis 18. Now, Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years.
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The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. It's kind of a nice way to put it.
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Well, it is right. The way of women had ceased. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, after I'm worn out and my
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Lord is old, shall I have pleasure till I have a child? And the Lord said to Abraham, why did
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Sarah laugh and say, shall indeed I bear a son now that I'm old? And then what's the next statement from the
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Lord, which is good for us when we have unmanageable circumstances? Is there anything too hard for the covenant keeping
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Lord? No, that's good for us to say. That'd be a good banner for you to write over your problems.
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Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Therefore, verse 12, from one man and him as good as dead.
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We're born descendants as many as the stars of heaven. That's quite a few. And as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
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That's quite a few. And ultimately, not just physical descendants, but spiritual descendants.
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And I'm looking at a couple hundred of them right now. And Scripture, Galatians three, foreseeing that God would justify the
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Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying in you shall all the nations be blessed.
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So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Your father is
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Abraham. If you believe in the Messiah. These struggling believers, children of Abraham, trusted in God, no matter what the circumstances seem to show.
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Well, that brings us to the third word. First word was when the future looks impossible or excuse me, when the future looks unknown, when the way forward or the present is unmanageable.
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And now we'll talk about the third word unfulfilled when there are unfulfilled dreams and hopes.
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There's some specific thing that's unfulfilled here with the patriarchs. But you could think of this generally as well in life.
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You have great dreams and plans. And when they don't come to fruition, how do you respond? Verses 13 through 15.
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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.
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If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had an opportunity to return.
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This guy is a great preacher. Whoever wrote Hebrews. Maybe it's Paul. He is a great preacher.
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And so he's talking about all these folks, Enoch and Abel and Noah and Abraham and Sarah.
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And now he wants to make sure he grabs you in with this rhetorical device in verses 13 through 16.
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So so you're drawn in. He interrupts things and you can tell even by looking. It's an interruption because you see verse four by faith.
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Verse five by faith. Verse seven by faith. Verse eight by faith.
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Verse 11 by faith. Verse 13, they all died according to faith or in faith.
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So he he switches things up so you'll pay attention. So you just kind of sit and reflect a little bit. I think that's one of the great losses of American Christianity is reflection and meditation and thinking.
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And so he he wants to tie into the modern readers with this little kind of interlude, and he wants to say that truth matters.
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Now, if you had to tell me if you were having a quiz, what's the best way to understand
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Hebrews 11? You might respond with, well, if you know how chapter 10 ends and chapter 12 begins, that's right.
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And if you also understand the end of chapter 11, you'll be set. Look at verses 39 and 40, and you will understand the rest of the chapter when you have this in mind.
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Besides context, this is the key to understand Hebrews 11, verse 39 and 40.
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And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised since God had provided something better for.
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And he does the same thing here rhetorically. He ties it into the listener. He ties it into the reader back then.
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And now for you, better for us that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.
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God commends faith in the Lord Jesus. God commends faith in the high priest.
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And even though you don't get everything that's promised on this earth, you still trust in him because there's something better for you.
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So back to chapter 11, verse 13, this pastor, he's been giving a pattern of the by faith, by faith, by faith.
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And then he has this little interlude here because he wants you to remember that even though you love it, that Abraham believed you love it, love it, that Sarah believed.
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What about you? Are you believing? Are you trusting? These men and women did what we want to do.
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They believed what's the opposite of faith. Maybe it's cynicism. Maybe it's unbelief.
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Maybe it's, I don't care what God said. It didn't work out for me. No, we want persevering, saving faith in the right object.
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These men and women, by the way, were realist. You can say, well, they just had their eyes shut. They were all pie in the sky people.
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That's not true. They didn't receive all the promises they were looking from afar. Verse 13 says that, does it not?
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Digging deeper into the verses, they these all died in faith, not having received the things promised.
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I mean, it's so applicable for the readers of the day and us as well. But having seen them and greeted them from afar, having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
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Now, I don't know about you, but I like confessions and you have heard me talk about confessions quite a bit here.
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We have our own London Baptist confession as a statement of faith. Maybe you read the Heidelberg. Maybe you read the
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Belgian confession. Maybe you don't like confessions. But here's a confession for every Christian.
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Now, sadly, the ESV doesn't give us the. Translation that would make you think it's a confession, but here's what it says at the end of verse 13, and having confessed that's the
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Greek word that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. Hey, what's your confession? Christian, it's struggling.
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I'm an exile and I'm a stranger. This is not my home. I have a confession.
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I have unfulfilled hopes and dreams, and I am an exile. The sooner, dear Christian, that you grasp that there's a better life to come, that suffering isn't the end, all persecution is in the end, all trials are at the end, all you will be helped.
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No wonder Peter writes, and he says to those elect exiles of the dispersion.
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Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh. No wonder the psalmist in Psalm 39 writes,
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I'm a sojourner with you. Or Psalm 119, I'm a sojourner on the earth. We are heirs of salvation to the eternal heavens.
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And yet we're refugees on earth. And I'm not trying to make a political statement. The church in California, right across the street from our little place, has a picture of Jesus and Mary and a baby.
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And it says, refugees welcome. Now, I'm not normally one for vandalism.
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I'm just kidding. Our best life is in now, friends.
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That's the point. You don't get everything on earth that you think you might want. I love first Peter, chapter one.
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It's just good for my mind to be refreshed with Scripture after I think about my own thoughts so often in this.
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You rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials so that the testing of the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes.
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Those that is tested by fire may be found to result in praise and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
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Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.
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Abraham didn't get all the promises on earth. Realized. Did he even see the countless number of his offspring?
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The answer is no. It's all about the timing of the Lord. He makes a promise he will fulfill it, and if it's not on this earth, it's in heaven forever.
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How about Moses? Wouldn't he be a good illustration of this very thing? Moses is promised to get to the promised land.
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Or was he he an angel, an angel, he an alien, he a stranger on earth?
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He said, Lord, I will bow to the fact that the nation would possess the holy land, the promised land, the
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Canaan land. But I'll never make it unfulfilled in his life. Standing on top of Mount Nebo, dying.
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So we as Christians need to have that temporary confession that we are pilgrims, that we're aliens, that we're just passing through.
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I'm an alien. I'm a stranger. This is not my home. There are unfulfilled expectations.
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Then what does it say in verse 14? As we continue, for people who speak thus make it clear that they're seeking a homeland.
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What do you mean a homeland? I thought it was the promised land was a homeland. No, the ultimate homeland. This sounds like Paul, does it not?
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But our citizenship is in heaven. And from it, we await the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.
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That's what we're waiting for. Seeking a homeland, what's the homeland? Israel as a nation, as a country, that's not the ultimate homeland.
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It's the the greater homeland, the earthly dwelling, no, the eternal dwelling. They weren't trusting in the earthly city.
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They were looking, hoping, desiring for that ultimate city. That is the heavenly city.
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Hebrews is teaching us that we ought to long for heaven. Verse 15, if they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they had an opportunity to return.
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Could Abraham have gone back to her? Yeah. Could Abraham say, you know what?
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I think I'm going to go back to the land where I came from. Yes. What about his son?
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He didn't even want his son to go back to the land. Make sure when you go get a wife for Isaac, bring her back here.
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We're not going to stay there. Make sure you do not take my son back there. Genesis 24. Don't go back is the point.
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You say, well, you know what? All these promises of God, they don't seem to be that fulfilled. Shall I just go back? And now you can see how important it is for these recipients of this letter.
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I was trusting in Jesus. Things seem to go well. Then everything broke up.
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Everything split up. Everything was a disaster. Maybe I should go back. And when you look at the Bible, things don't go well for people that turn back.
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Right? Lot had a wife and she looked back.
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Reminds me of the days we'd sit around the dinner table and I'd just try to make up as many Bible stories as I could with counsel time kind of Iwana things.
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And I just remember we're in Genesis. Lot's wife looks back. She turned to salt. I just poured salt in all the kids' hands.
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And we were all like cattle with salt licks, licking the salt. She turns back. Don't turn back.
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You can't go back at the end of chapter 10. Don't shrink back. You can't say, you know, I had trusted my eternal soul to this eternal, faithful God.
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And now I've got problems. I don't know if I can trust him anymore. That's the whole point. You can't go back.
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When I see people, they go back that long to be back in the day. It doesn't reflect well on them.
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Remember when Moses brought the Israelites out of slavery, out of Egypt, and here was their response.
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Numbers 11. Oh, that we had meat to eat. We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing.
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The cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the garlic and the onions. I could just go back if I could just go back to before.
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No, that's not what we want to do. On the other hand, we see people like Peter and James and John, Luke five, it says they brought their boats to the land, they left everything and followed him.
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And then now, number four, unreal. Faith endures, even though unknown, unmanageable, unfulfilled and unreal.
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OK, here's my point. Heaven is almost too good to be true. Heaven is too good to be true, almost too good to be true.
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Is it even true? Let's find out. What does the scripture say? It is so great.
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You're going to think it's just too good to be true. Verse 16, but as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one.
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Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them or he has prepared for them a city.
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This part simple. Remember, heaven is a place and remember who's in heaven.
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That's we're going to talk about the rest of the message that heaven is a place and who makes heaven wonderful.
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So you can tell heaven's a place, even if you look here, a better country, a heavenly one, right?
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You can see that in verse 16, prepared a city. A better country, a heavenly one, he's prepared for them, a city.
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Heaven is a place. It's more than a place, but it is a place.
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And so when you think of the Bible and what does it teach about heaven, the place, what does it say?
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Now, before I get into this passage any further, I want you to realize that this passage helps me and should help you to navigate through crazy
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Christian television, crazy Christian preachers, small
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C Christians, people that talk about health and wealth and prosperity and all these things on earth.
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That's not Christianity. This passage will teach us that there's something better that's not now, but it's better that blessings that are spiritual are better than material.
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And we see the world saying, oh, it's all your best life now and everything else. But it's crazy.
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And I remember my old pastor used to say, if your best life is now, what does that mean for you eternally?
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It means you're going to go to hell, but your best life isn't now. It's a wonderful life. Great things happen in life.
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The common grace of God and God's grace toward his children. It's awesome. But this faith that, that is cultivated in this chapter is not a faith cultivated in easy street.
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It's not a faith cultivated in everything's going my way. Yes, you should believe when everything goes your way, but this is a faith that's cultivated in difficult times for them.
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It costs them their life, their property, their person. For some of these readers like Abraham and Noah, it costs them shame.
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It costs them ridicule. This is a faith that's cultivated in the soil of trouble.
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I just want you to remember that when people come along and then they want to say, why are your life so difficult?
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And you tell them you're trusting in Jesus, but then all of a sudden you don't have enough faith. Uh, how sad that is.
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That's not what this passage is teaching. It's a place first. It's a city and it's a country.
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Did you know, sometimes the Bible teaches that heaven is described by a house.
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That's kind of interesting. Remember this speaking of places, figures of, of heaven in the
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Bible, heavenly realm house. Jesus said in my house are many dwelling places or what's the
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King James say mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you for, I go to prepare a place for you.
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If there's a dwelling place, there's this great place. I go to prepare a place for you. Our Lord Jesus said, heaven is more than just a person.
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It's a place. And why did he pick home? Why did he pick house? Because it's the center of, of loving relationships and where we depend on one another mutually and we're provided for and their security.
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It's a house. Heaven is also spoken of as a place. Remember Jesus, uh, had
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Paul go up to heaven and Paul said that he was caught up into paradise. It's a house.
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It's called paradise. It's also called a garden or a paradise garden today.
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You shall be with me in paradise. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, but here it's called two things, a country.
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Do you see? And a city while this is amazing, the Bible talks about heaven as a holy city, a heavenly city, a glorious city, a protected city, an accessible city.
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It's talking about a place. It's a, it's a city. And this is in the context of Hebrews where everything's better.
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Jesus is better than angels. Melchizedek is better than Abraham. Jesus is a better hope. He's got a better covenant.
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He's got a better sacrifice. His blood's better than Abel's and there's a better country, a better place to go.
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That's why sometimes when I take trips to Israel, I hope you go with me next year. And people think they've made some kind of pilgrimage to the holy land of all holy lands.
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Um, I love Israel. Don't get me wrong, but I'm looking for a place. I'm looking for a better place. I'm looking for a better city.
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And that's what they were looking for to a better country, a better city. Heaven is a place. One commentator said it should be evident therefore that what they really looked to was a better country.
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He's talking about Abraham and Isaac and these others, a heavenly one. This is the true reason why they showed no remorse at Abraham's leaving
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Mesopotamia, the eternal values involve the promises of God made them willing to disregard their earthly experience as a pilgrimage and kept them from despair.
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Even when it is evident that death would overtake them before fulfillment came. Longing for home, but the real part of heaven isn't the place it's who's in heaven.
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And here, if I have one part that I've been looking forward to of my own sermon, it's this part here. Who's the who of heaven?
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God is not ashamed. Verse 16. Do you see it to be called their God? Now let's just become really, what do people do when they sit on stools?
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Let's become authentic. Let's become authentic.
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I didn't need that one. If you knew what
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I thought and did a lot of times, you'd be ashamed of me. Now, I hope you're proud that I'm your pastor.
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And maybe you say, Oh, God's used me in your life. And I'd be blessed for that. But I've done a lot of shameful things.
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I still do. If I got to know you really well, and I got to know those dark secrets, would you be ashamed for me to know them?
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I think you would. Yet the Lord God almighty knows everything that you've ever said or done.
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And he is not ashamed of you. I love to introduce people to my brother and sister because they're really neat, neat people.
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And I'm proud to be their brother. I'm happy. I'm proud to have my kids.
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I'm proud to be their dad. And when they do something well, I'm thinking, you know what? They reflect well on me. I'm proud of them.
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What's the opposite of pride? Shame. Here, God is so faithful.
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And you think about what this high priest had done in terms of cleansing and no longer remembering sins, justification and sanctification and future glorification.
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The text says, God isn't ashamed to be called their God. That is amazing.
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No matter what you've done or said this week, Christian, God's not ashamed to be called your God. Now think about this honor shame culture that these
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Easterners lived in. That's amazing. God isn't ashamed.
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He should be shamed of me. My sin is shameful, but the Lord has paid for it. What's the opposite of shame?
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I think pleasure. No wonder when the father said of the son at the transfiguration at the baptism, this is my beloved son in whom
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I'm what ashamed. No, in whom
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I'm what well pleased. I'm proud of this son. He knows they've been tempted.
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He knows they haven't always done the right thing. He knows they've been less than faithful.
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And he says, because you're to speak theologically, you're united with Christ. I don't see you.
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I see Christ. And when I see Christ, I don't see shame. I see honor. I'm not ashamed of you.
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That's fascinating to me. That's wonderful to me. I mean, how often do you hear preachers give their congregation messages like this?
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Because if you do, you, you might just run off and do crazy things, but I'm going to do it anyway, because God's not ashamed of you.
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Listen to Zephaniah 317. You ought to memorize this verse. Zephaniah 317.
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Yes, Zephaniah is in the Bible. You're going to want to read it. The Lord, your
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God is in your midst. OK, what should you be thinking? You don't want to know, Lord, you don't want to be in the midst because I'm unholy and you're holy.
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This isn't a good recipe. Ask Isaiah. A mighty one who will save and then the next line blows me away.
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He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing.
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Now, how can that be knowing that sin is real and we confess our sins, but we also have another confession.
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Jesus Christ has cleansed me from every sin and I no longer am an enemy, I am a son and my sonship stems from the
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Lord Jesus and my righteousness stems from his righteousness and I stand before God cleansed.
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And because of that, I want to live a holy life. That's for certain. But God is not ashamed. That is amazing.
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He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He's so unashamed of you.
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He's made heaven for you. That's the point. Now, we we sing it, I think, today or we sing it regularly.
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Jude 24 and 25, the doxology now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with what great joy.
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Now, you could say, you know what, are you going to have joy when you get to heaven? Yes, but I don't think that's the only joy that's going to be in heaven, not just angels rejoicing when sinners believe, but this is joy of the father because he doesn't see us in our sins anymore.
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Those things have been dealt with. Remember, chapter eight of the new covenant. I will remember your sins. What? No more.
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Your righteousness is in heaven. We need to learn regularly to say Jesus lived for me and Jesus died for me.
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And of course, has been raised to honor the father, to be proud of people like us, not to be ashamed.
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If I was Jesus, I'd be ashamed of me. But he's not. Look back at chapter two, the same language is there.
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Could it be any better for Christians? Is this a good way to see through trials?
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Yes, this is amazing. Hebrews chapter two, for it was fitting, verse 10, that he remember this is that this is the
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God of chapter one, Jesus, this eternal God. It was fitting. It was appropriate that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, the
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God of the universe, it's fitting for him to do what? In bringing many sons to glory, it should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering because he's going to be our representative and he's going to be our substitute for he who sanctifies.
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This is language only used of God, by the way, the Old Testament sanctification is used of God. So we should be thinking
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Jesus is God. And of course he is. And those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.
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God's not ashamed of father and Jesus isn't ashamed to call you brother. Now, maybe some of you have a black sheep for a brother.
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You are ashamed of that brother. I always think it's so funny because I remember Jimmy Carter had a brother that was kind of a black sheep brother.
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And remember Billy Carter and the scandal, Billy Gate and Billy Beer. And I'd be thinking if I was
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Jimmy Carter, I can't believe I've got this brother. Be awful, be ashamed of that brother.
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There's another brother combination that I find quite fascinating too.
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Malik Obama is the brother of ex -president
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Barack Obama. And I don't know if Barack, Mr. President Obama is ashamed of his brother who has between three to 12 wives.
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We don't know exactly how many. Malik is a naturalized U .S. citizen, current half brother, half brother, by the way, rather, and he's an ardent supporter of Donald Trump.
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Now, I don't know if you'd be ashamed to have him as your brother, but I think President Obama is ashamed to have him as a brother.
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Jesus isn't a beat. He isn't ashamed to call you brother. I know some people here, especially kind of reformed Baptist and stuff.
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They come up and they'll say, hey, brother, Mike, how you doing? Hey, brother. Can you imagine? God is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters.
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Listen to the Belgic confession, last judgment. It is very pleasant and a great comfort to the righteous and elect since their total redemption will then be accomplished.
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Then they will receive the fruits of their labor and of the trouble they have suffered. Their innocence will be recognized openly by all, and they will see the terrible vengeance that God will bring on the evil ones who tyrannized, oppressed, and tormented them in this world.
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The faithful and the elect will be crowned with glory and honor. The son of God will confess their names before God, his father and the holy and elect angels.
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All tears will be wiped from their eyes and their cause at present condemned as heretical and evil by many judges and civil officers, people persecuted on this earth, their cause will be acknowledged as the cause of the son of God by the son himself.
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Can you imagine that last day? Not a shame, not ashamed now, not ashamed then.
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I just think that's so wonderful to think in this honor, shame culture of the old Testament, where today shame is focused on the individual and there in the
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East, shame is focused on public reputation that Jesus remember even with Jesus and the disciples, your disciples, remember the false teachers would say your disciples,
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Jesus, because you would be friends with these disciples. It puts shame on you. Maybe you're, you're with your spouse and your kids act up.
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What do you like to say? If you're not thinking properly, I know what I like to say, honey, your kids are acting up.
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He knows everything. And he said, I'm not ashamed of you because you're seen in Christ.
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Jesus, this great high priest, he bore our shame. That's the point.
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When the world considers you shameful, the sun doesn't. When you think you're ashamed of yourself and in our sins, we should be shamed up until repentance, but it does not change our status before God.
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We may be disciplined by the father, but the status does not change. Hebrews 11 is true to the day we die.
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As it is true today. God is not ashamed to be called their God. He's my
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God. God is not saying don't call me that until you get all your act together.
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No, call me that as long as you're trusting in Jesus, the high priest, that's what's wrong with evangelicalism.
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Get your act together so that you can present yourself before God and evangelicalism should be thinking what the
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Bible teaches. And that is, we would desire to have our act together, but understanding that we don't, we still trust in the faithful one,
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Jesus, who has his act together. And God, the father sees me through the lens of Jesus's righteousness.
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And he says, I'm not ashamed of you. What kind of love is that? Behold, what manner of love the father has given unto us.
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Let's pray. Father, thank you for our time in your word. We would acknowledge that we were dead in trespasses and sins.
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We lived in the passions of the flesh and then something happened, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which you have loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, you made us alive together with Christ.
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Thank you for grace. And father, we don't want to presume on that and just live a life of luxury and a life of licentiousness.
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Father, help us to categorize things that we stand before you, not ashamed because of Jesus.
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And because of that, we want to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, but father, protect us from the awful air that we're your children based on what we've done.
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Because if that was the case, there'd be no hope for any of us because we'd have to perfectly obey. So we stand today in the righteous robes of the high priest who's been raised from the dead,