Abraham: The Faith to Live in the Land (Hebrews 11:9) | Worship Service

Men of blood, depart from me.

They speak against you with malicious

intent.

Your enemies take your name in vain.

Do

I

not

have

to

come

into his presence with singing?

Know that

the

Lord,

people,

and the sheep of his pasture

make

a joyful

audio.

Make a joy Enter

his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to

him, bless his name.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to

him, bless his name.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with

praise.

For the Lord is good, his steadfast love endures forever.

And his faithful men all

generalize.

Make

a joy

To the Lord Where

shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there.

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are -.

If

I take the wings of the

birds of the sea, even there, your hand shall

lead me and your right hand shall hold me.

I say, surely the darkness shall -.

And the light about me -.

The darkness is

not dark to you.

The night is bright as the day.

For darkness is light with you.

Where shall I go from your spirit?

Where shall I flee from your presence?

If

I

make

my bed

in

Sheol,

you

are

there.

If I take the wings of the birds of the sea, even there,.

Your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.

I say, surely the darkness shall -.

The darkness is not dark to you.

Be gracious to us and And

make his face to shine upon That

your way may be known on Your

saving

And

good

morning,

and

welcome

to

Kootenai Church.

We're glad that you've made it here this morning.

Would you please stand as we sing Christ Our Glory.

Our rest is in heaven.

Our rest is not here.

Then why should we tremble when trials draw

near?

Be still and remember the worst that can come.

What shortens our journey and hastens us

home.

Christ our glory, Christ our -.

Be

still and remember the worst that can come.

What shortens our journey and hastens us home.

No hour should be wasted on seeking our joy

and placing our hope in what will be destroyed.

We look for a city that heads have not raised.

We long for a country that sin has not stained.

Christ our glory, Christ our Lord.

Christ our King forevermore.

We look for a city that heads have not raised.

We long for a country that sin has not stained.

And English in Queens all the more.

They cannot compare to the glory in

store.

Come joy or come sorrow, whatever

befalls.

The light of the Savior will outshine them

all.

Christ

our

Come

sorrow, whatever befalls.

The light of the Savior will outshine them

all.

We've

seen

your faithfulness.

You brought us from the wilderness.

Mercy, hear our -.

You

comfort our distress.

Until the promise spreads.

We cry to you from deepest need.

Mercy, hear our -.

Of a father,

Redeemer.

In this bed, strength

until glory.

We will trust and sing.

Of a father, hear our plea.

Rejoin creation's longing grow.

To take your ransomed children whole.

For then,

mercy hears

our

This bed,

until glory.

Trust and sing.

Of a father,

hear

our

For then, the eyes of all will see.

The God of mercy hears our plea.

Until glory, we will trust.

Father, our Redeemer.

In this barren land.

Be our hope and strength.

Until glory, we will trust.

Of a father, hear our plea.

Of a father, hear our -.

Let's end this first half of our worship set this morning with This Is My Father's World.

This is my father's world.

And -.

Things and -.

Music of the spheres.

This is my father.

Of rocks and trees.

Of skies and seas.

This and the wonders brought.

This is my father's world.

The birds their carols raise.

The morning light.

The lily white.

Declare their maker's praise.

My father.

He shines in all that's.

I hear him fast.

Everywhere.

This is my father's -.

Oh, let me dare forget.

It's the -.

It's my father.

I shall be satisfied.

Let me -.

You may be seated.

Good morning.

Just a couple of announcements.

First, immediately after the service today, we have a graduation service meeting.

So if you are a parent of a graduating student, and this can be public school or private school and, of course,

homeschool, then you're going to want to meet in the classroom that is at the back, back here, to begin to discuss your

plans for the graduation service coming up in May.

I think it is.

Whenever you plan it, that's not up to me.

So that is today after the service.

And then also we have coming up on the calendar, I just want to remind you of the Young Adult Fellowship.

I said something last time that caused a whole lot of confusion.

I said Young Singles Fellowship.

So there were people with boyfriends and girlfriends and interests, and they didn't think that they were welcome, and that wasn't it

at all.

So if you are young adult, you qualify for

the Young Adult Fellowship.

And then there is a choir practice for Resurrection Choir next Sunday.

So if you would like to participate in the choir for that Resurrection Sunday service, then make plans to stick around

next week after the service to practice.

Will you please turn to Psalm 105.

Psalm 105 for the Scripture reading.

This is a psalm that calls us to rejoice and give thanks for all God's wondrous deeds.

And the psalmist here recites the deeds that the Lord did on behalf of Israel, beginning with the call of Abraham, and,

of course, bringing them out of Egypt into the Promised Land.

Psalm 105.

Read together the entire psalm.

O give thanks to the Lord.

Call upon His name.

Make known His deeds among the peoples.

Sing to Him.

Sing praises to Him.

Speak of all His wonders.

Glory in His holy name.

Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad.

Seek the Lord in His strength.

Seek His face continually.

Remember His wonders which He has done, His marvels and the judgments uttered by His mouth.

O seed of Abraham, His servant.

O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones.

He is the Lord our God.

His judgments are in all the earth.

He has remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with

Abraham, and His oath to Isaac.

Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statue, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, To you I will give the land

of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance.

When they were only a few in number, very few, and strangers in it, and they wandered from one nation to another, from

one kingdom to another people, He permitted no man to oppress them, and He reproved kings for their sakes.

Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm.

And He called for a famine upon the land.

He broke the whole staff of bread.

He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

They afflicted his feet with fetters.

He himself was laid in irons.

Until the time that His word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.

The king sent and released him, the ruler of the peoples, and set him free.

He made him lord of his house, and ruler over all his possessions, to imprison his princes at will, that he might teach

his elders wisdom.

Israel also came into Egypt.

Thus Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham, and he caused his people to be very fruitful, and made them

stronger than their adversaries.

He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants.

He sent Moses his servant, and Aaron whom he had chosen.

They performed his wondrous acts among them, and miracles in the land of Ham.

He sent darkness and made it dark, and they did not rebel against his words.

He turned their waters into blood, and caused their fish to die.

Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the chambers of their kings.

He spoke, and there came a swarm of flies and gnats in all their territory.

He gave them hail for rain and flaming fire in their land.

He struck down their vines also, and their fig trees, and shattered the trees of their territory.

He spoke, and locusts came, and young locusts even without number, and ate up all vegetation in their land, and ate up

the fruit of their ground.

He also struck down all the firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their vigor.

Then he brought them out with silver and gold, and among his tribes there was not one who stumbled.

Egypt was glad when they departed, for the dread of them had fallen upon them.

He spread a cloud for a covering and a fire to illumine by night.

They asked, and he brought quail and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.

He opened the rock, and water flowed out.

It ran in the dry places like a river.

For he remembered his holy word with Abraham his servant, and he brought forth his people with joy, his chosen ones with a

joyful shout.

He gave them also the lands of the nations, that they might take possession of the fruit of the people's labor, so that they

might keep his statutes and observe his laws.

Praise the Lord.

Will you stand with me as we pray?

Let's bow our heads.

Our Father, you are a God who rules among the nations and among the inhabitants of the earth, and there is nothing going on in

our world in our day today that takes you by surprise.

The nations rage, and the peoples plot together a vain thing.

There are wars, and there are rumors of wars.

There is pestilence and starvation and destruction and disaster, and yet we know in the midst of all of this that you are

accomplishing your sovereign purposes.

Everything is careening towards its predetermined goal and outcome, and we know that we can

trust you in the midst of all of this.

We pray for your people around the world, especially the believers who are in Ukraine, the pastors, the shepherds, the

people who are there who worship you even today, and they gather together to sing praise to you as

they trust you in the midst of all that is going on.

We pray that you would strengthen their faith and encourage them, protect your people, and accomplish your purposes through this.

As you move all of the pieces into place to accomplish your eternal purposes, we know

that you are doing a good thing, and we know that we will praise you for it.

We see how you have worked in and among the nations in history, and we know that the future is just as safe and secure,

and your people are secure in it.

So give us grace to trust you in the midst of this.

Build your church, accomplish your purposes, and we pray that you would bring your kingdom to this world.

We long for that.

We look forward to that day when the nations of this world will be the nations of our God and of his Christ.

And David's greater son will rule them with a rod of iron, and there will be truth and there will be righteousness forevermore.

Make it happen soon and hasten that day, we pray.

Help us today as we worship you to keep our hearts and our minds focused upon you, our great God, and all that you are doing,

not just in this world, but here in our own church, in our own lives.

May we give you honor and glory for your great work of grace in us and in this body, we pray in Christ's name.

Amen.

This morning's reading comes from Exodus chapter 15, verses 2 and 11.

The Lord is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation.

This is my God, and I will praise him, my Father's God, and I will extol him.

Who is like you among the gods, O Lord?

Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?

Let's end our worship service this morning with The Lord is My Salvation.

I'll see the Lord

is my salvation.

Who is like the Lord, strong

to save?

My dead is made, is my

salvation.

His hidden leaf flowers

each promise of his fruit.

I know spring will bloom, Lord is my salvation.

In times of waiting, times of need,

when I know loss, when I am weak,.

I know his grace will renew these days.

The Lord is my salvation.

Who is like the Lord, our God, strong to

save?

And when I reach the final day, he

will not leave.

The Lord is my salvation.

Save me

from the

Lord's

salvation.

The Lord is our salvation.

You may be seated.

And now will you please turn to Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews chapter 11, and before we begin, let's bow our heads in a word of prayer.

Our great Father, we ask now that you would speak to our hearts through your word and that you would open our eyes and our hearts to understand your word.

Help us to see in the faith of Abraham and in the life of Abraham those things which are very relevant and applicable

for us.

Help us to see how it is that you have called us to live in this world that is not our home and to live in a way that is faithful to

you and to your word and to the faith that you have called us to.

Make us, we pray, obedient in all things that you may be glorified in and through your church and the lives of

your people, we ask in Christ's name.

Amen.

So Abraham is our focus in Hebrews chapter 11, and last week we looked at the faith that Abraham had that caused him to

leave the land he was familiar with and go to the land that God had promised.

We saw that God is the sovereign one who calls his people to himself out of darkness and into light, and that

Abraham had faith and he obeyed, and he left all that he was familiar with.

He left his land, he left his people, he left his family, his father's house, the culture, the religion, the civilization, the city,

and everything that he was familiar with, and he went sight unseen to a land that God promised him and to a

land to which God would direct him.

And today we're going to see the faith that Abraham had also not only caused him to leave the land that he

was from, but also to dwell, to live in the land that God had promised him and to live in that land as

a stranger and an alien, as a sojourner, as one who had really, he was to live

as one who had no call and no claim upon any of the land that he was promised.

And so he dwelt among a people that were not his people in a land that was really promised to him but was not his land,

and he did so by faith.

And it is the manner of Abraham's life that the author of Hebrews focuses on, the way in which he lived, and

there's a parallel here for us, because the word stranger and alien that we would apply to Abraham and

the way he lived in the land is the same words, the same analogy that is used of us living in this world.

And so there is a parallel between us and our lives and Abraham and his life, and we have to observe

that parallel and we have to see what it is that Abraham did so you and I can see how it is that the author expects us

to live.

We are to live as aliens and strangers in this land.

So we see in Abraham not just how faith saves us, that he believed God and it was

credited to him as righteousness.

That's his salvation.

But we also see in Abraham the way that faith enables us to live in this world that really

belongs to the children of God but is not yet our home.

We are aliens and strangers here.

So that is our outline.

We see Abraham's faith in him leaving the land that he was familiar with, in living in the land that he was promised, and

then in looking for the eternal city.

That's Hebrews 11, verses 8, 9, and 10.

Last week we looked at verse 8, today we're looking at verse 9, and we're going to save for next week what it means to look for the eternal city.

This is the manner in which Abraham lived.

So let's read verses 8 through 10.

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he

went out not knowing where he was going.

By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land dwelling in tents with

Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise.

For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

That phrase, lived as an alien, is the translation of one word in the original language.

That one word means to dwell beside or to live as a foreigner, to live near somebody.

It describes one who lives or dwells next to people, but he dwells as one who really

doesn't belong amongst those people.

So it means to live as an alien, to live as an outcast, to live as a foreigner amongst other people who do belong.

Amongst all the other people who belong, Abraham lived as one who did not belong.

And that describes not only his relationship to the people, but also his relationship to the land that God had promised him.

Abraham dwelt among a people who were not his people.

Remember, he had left his people back in Ur of the Chaldeans.

All of his acquaintances, his business associates, his family, his father's house, everything he was familiar with, Abraham

and his servants and Lot and his servants, they left that land and went towards the promised land.

So he dwelt among a people who were not his people.

Further, he dwelt in a land that was not his land.

At least it was not his land yet in terms of him possessing it.

It was his land already in terms of God's purposes.

It was an already but not yet.

It was his land.

God said, I'm going to give you this land.

So it was Abraham's land.

The deed was as good as done.

It was his land, but it was not his land.

It's interesting, God said, I'm going to give you this land.

So then if that's the intention of God, then safe, secure, sure, unalterable, it's

Abraham's land.

There's nothing except to work out the details after that, and yet Abraham went into that land and he dwelt in that land

as one who had no right and no claim to that land.

He dwelt in that land as one who had no citizenship in it because he didn't have a citizenship there.

He lived, as it were, in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, verse 9 says.

He had no property or possession there.

Abraham never possessed any land there except one little small plot that he bought from the sons of

Heth to bury his wife later in life.

It was the only land that Abraham ever possessed, and yet he dwelt in that land that God had promised him.

He dwelt there as a foreigner among a people not his people in a land that was really, he didn't possess it.

He didn't have any claim to it.

Abraham couldn't go out and say, from the tree to the river to that stump to that gravel pit, that is all mine.

Never had any of that.

Instead, he dwelt like a foreigner, like an alien, a sojourner, one just passing through, living in tents.

Have you ever been overseas or at least in a foreign country?

I guess you can go now to communist Canada.

You don't even have to travel to go to now a foreign country.

Have you ever been in a foreign country or someplace where it is completely foreign to you?

I mean, Canada is not that foreign in terms of culture, but like going overseas.

And you've walked among a people in a land that is not your people, they're not your land, and everywhere you

turn, everything you see, everything you hear, everything you touch, everything you taste, and everything

you smell reminds you that you are not at home.

And those foreign nations, those foreign areas, everything about them is completely alien to

us.

And so when you wake up in the morning, everything that you experience reminds you, this is not my home.

I belong to a different country.

I'm familiar with a different country.

It can be the language that you hear or the culture that you experience, the worldview that people have, the

commercial practices, the cultural conventions, the customs, the politics, the social life,

the architecture, the way that crimes are committed and punished and the judicial system of a foreign land, the

business driving on the wrong side of the road, the religion, the family dynamics, the economics,

the way they pronounce certain things, even if they're using English, they name things different, they call things different,

they use different language.

And everything that you experience reminds you, this is not my home.

I'm familiar with something entirely other than this.

That's what it was for Abraham.

He left Ur of the Chaldeas and he went to a land he had never seen, never experienced, never walked through.

And upon arriving there, he was immediately surrounded by people who spoke different languages, people who spoke different dialects,

people who had a different culture, different religion.

He was a Yahweh worshiper, and he was a Yahweh worshiper virtually, not exclusively, because Melchizedek was there, and there were

obviously some Yahweh worshipers in the land of promise, but he was virtually alone in his worship of the one true God,

Abraham and his family.

And he lived in that land of promise, a land promised to him but not possessed by him.

In fact, not possessed by him at any time in his life.

And he dwelt in tents, the text says.

Now you may think that if Abraham had real faith, what he should have done was come into the land and just immediately lay claim

to it, right?

Hey, God's promised me this land, and so I'm taking it.

I've got to live out my faith.

I've got to name it.

I've got to claim it.

God said it's mine, so it's going to be mine, and I'm going to start acting as if it's mine.

I'm going to start living as if it's mine.

But Abraham didn't do that.

He didn't come into the land of promise and start immediately walking around his block giving eviction notices to all the Canaanites who were there,

saying, you're out of here, it's just a matter of time, you should probably pack up your bags and leave.

God has promised me this land, right?

He didn't do that singing, this land is my land, this land is my land, this land isn't your land, and it

never will be, from the river Euphrates to the river of Egypt, this land was made for me and me.

Abraham didn't do that.

It was a slippery slope once we did the slideshow, then we do the singing, and he'd come back next week for the interpretive dance.

Abraham didn't enter into the land and go to war with all the nations there, claiming the land to be his.

Abraham didn't enter into the land and start buying up territory every time somebody put their house on the market, Abraham bought it.

He didn't become a real estate magnate and start just gobbling up everything that was for sale, saying eventually God's going to give me this

land, all of it will be mine, he didn't do that.

Abraham didn't even, as far as the record shows, didn't start telling everybody in the land that the land was going to be his.

He lived entirely as an alien, a foreigner, a stranger, and he went in obedience, and

as I said earlier, the only plot of land he ever really possessed was one that he bought later in his life

for the burial plot of Sarah, and that's in Genesis 23.

Listen to this description.

Now, Abraham ended up buying it for the full price, but the sons of Heth tried to give it to him.

Genesis 23, verse 1,.

Now Sarah lived 127 years.

These were the years of the life of Sarah.

Sarah died in Kiriath -Arabah, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

Then Abraham rose from before his dead and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a

sojourner among you.

Give me a burial site among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

He was offering to buy it.

They tried to give it to him, and he said, No, I will buy it from you for the full price of it.

When Abraham described himself as an alien and a sojourner among them at the death of Sarah, he had

lived in the land for 62 years.

Sixty -two years.

How long do you have to live in a land before you are no longer regarded as an alien?

You might think this would be a good place to make an Ed Barber joke, but I'm not going to do that.

That would be low -hanging fruit.

That might be a migrant worker joke itself.

Abraham insisted on buying the land at the full and fair market value of it, and that was not an expression of his lack of

faith.

I think Abraham buying the land was itself an act of faith, and here's why.

By that point, in Genesis 23, this is after God had already revealed to Abraham that though the land

was his by covenant, Abraham would not possess it, his son would not possess it, his grandson

would not possess it, and his great -grandsons would not possess it, but instead, they would go into a foreign land, and

there they would be oppressed, and God would bring them out of there with great wealth and then bring them into the land some 400 years

later.

So Abraham knew by the time that he bought Sarah's burial plot that though the land was promised to him, and he would

certainly live in it and possess it and dwell in it, it would not be in this lifetime.

It would be in the next lifetime.

So Abraham's act of buying that burial plot was him basically saying, this land is mine, but I cannot lay

claim to it now because God is not giving it to me now.

God is going to give it to me in the future.

In the meantime, I'll buy this little piece of land so that his wife could be buried there, and then eventually Abraham was buried

there.

Abraham wanted to be buried in that land, not the land of his father's, but in that land, because he knew that

land belonged to him, but God had not yet given him possession of it.

His buying of that land was itself an expression of his faith that that land would be his someday and that he would walk in it,

and he wanted to be buried in that land.

Remember Joseph, and we're going to look at this later in Hebrews 11, Joseph expresses the same faith when he says to his

children, when the Lord God brings you up out of this land and takes you into the land of promise, just as he said he

will do, bring my bones up with you and bury me in that land.

That was an act of faith, because Joseph knew he likewise will possess that land, he likewise will dwell

in that land, but not in this lifetime.

The patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and the rest of them, that knew that they would dwell in that land that God would give to them,

they did not view their death as a hurdle to God fulfilling that promise.

They knew, if you trust in a God who raises the dead, then if God doesn't give me possession of this land in my

life, he will raise me from the dead and give me possession of this land at some point, because God has

promised to do that very thing.

So resurrection was the key to the fulfilling of the land of promise, which we'll look at next week.

Now there's something that is directly parallel to us and to our experience in the life of Abraham, and it is this, that you and I are

called aliens and strangers and sojourners as well.

And we cannot miss that direct parallel between the life of Abraham and how he is described and how he lived, and

the life that you and I are to live and how we are described in the New Testament.

1 Peter 1, those who reside as aliens scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia who

are chosen.

Now Peter describes his audience as those who are aliens, chosen aliens, and they were the

scattered ones in that they lived amongst all of these other nations.

And he is writing to a dispersed group of Christian people, but he describes them as aliens,

not just because they lived amongst all these other peoples, but he describes them as aliens because they lived in this world, which is

why Peter says in 1 Peter 2, verse 11, Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to

abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

And that is in a section immediately after Peter describes us as choice stones, chosen race, royal

priesthood, and holy nation.

We are something, as believers, we are something other than tied to this world.

We're aliens in this world.

1 Peter 1, 17, Conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth.

The time of your stay on earth.

That is the language of a temporary passing through.

That's what you hear when you check in at a hotel.

Enjoy your stay.

Enjoy your stay.

Do they expect you to be there for the rest of your life?

No, they expect you just passing through.

You're just coming in, you're leaving.

So Peter says, Conduct yourselves in fear during that time of your brief sojourn in this world.

That's how Peter describes us as believers.

Now before salvation, interestingly, the same language of stranger and sojourner, the same language is used of

us, but in relation to being strangers to something else.

Ephesians 2, verse 12.

Remember that you were at that time, that is before Christ, separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel,

and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Ephesians 2, 19.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household.

So hold on, Peter describes us as aliens and strangers.

Paul says you're no longer aliens and strangers.

So what is it?

Are we aliens and strangers or not?

It really depends on which kingdom you're in, right?

If you're in the kingdom of darkness, then you are an alien and a stranger to the kingdom of light.

You're cut off from the life of God.

You're cut off from the covenants and the promises.

You are without God in this world.

So you are a stranger to everything that pertains to God and His kingdom.

But if you're in God's kingdom, then you are a stranger to everything that pertains to life in this world and the kingdoms of this world.

So you've always been a stranger, right?

You've always been an alien.

It just depends upon what you're an alien to.

Before you were in Christ, you were an alien to the things of God and the promises and the grace of God.

After you were in Christ, you were an alien to the things of this world.

That describes the utter and complete translation, transformation that has happened in your

salvation.

You have been taken out of darkness and put in light.

You have been taken out of death and put into life, out of the kingdom of Satan, into the kingdom of God, out of the kingdoms of this

world and into the kingdom of God's dear Son.

Into heaven itself.

It translated.

Completely removed.

Always been a stranger, but now you're a stranger to something that you were not a stranger to before.

And as strangers in this world, Paul says in Philippians chapter 3 that our citizenship is actually in heaven.

See, this is how fundamentally you and I in Christ have been translated out of the things of this world into the things of

eternity and into the kingdom of God.

Our citizenship is in heaven.

Philippians 3 verse 20.

Our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble

state into the conformity with the body of His glory by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

And so while we're in this world, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 20, we are ambassadors for Christ.

So now we have gone from one kingdom to another.

Now we reside in this kingdom.

Now our citizenship is in this kingdom.

Our citizenship is in heaven.

And rather than living now as if we are amongst these people that we were once amongst

and in and part of and were friendly with, now we are ambassadors to them.

So now we are ambassadors to those, and we plead with them to be reconciled to God through the death of His Son.

So God has moved us out of one kingdom into another kingdom, and now we are ambassadors to that kingdom.

And the very language of ambassadors suggests that we don't belong here, doesn't it?

You go to a consulate or an embassy, and you walk in and you meet the ambassador.

Where is his citizenship?

It's from another country.

And yet he's dwelling in this country, representing the country from which he comes.

Our citizenship is in heaven, and we dwell here in this land representing a kingdom, another kingdom from which

we get our citizenship.

Hebrews 11 verse 13 says,.

All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them, that is the promises, and having welcomed them from a distance,

and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

This is what Abraham did.

Even when he went in to buy the burial plot of Sarah, he said, I am a stranger and a sojourner among you.

They confessed that they were strangers and aliens on this earth.

That was their confession.

Abraham knew, this land belongs to me, but it doesn't belong to me.

This land belongs to me, but this is not my home.

Eventually God would give that land to him, and then it would belong to him, and then it would be his home.

But in the meantime, we are aliens and strangers here, and look how the text describes us in verse 9, dwelling in tents with

Isaac and Jacob.

It describes Abraham dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob.

That phrase, dwelling in tents, is an odd phrase in the original language.

The word dwelling means to live or to reside, to inhabit, and to settle, to settle down.

It describes a permanence.

It describes a finality, a rest.

It describes putting down permanent roots and settling into some place and being there for an extended period of time

and finding your rest and making your home there.

It suggests a permanent settlement, and yet the word tents describes anything but that, doesn't it?

Tents don't have foundations.

Tents aren't permanent.

Tents rot and fade, and they tear, and they get blown away by a strong windstorm in the Arabian desert.

They're temporary and moved and mobile, and they don't have foundations.

And yet, Abraham permanently dwelt in a temporary dwelling.

That's the conflict there.

It's almost a self -contradictory phrase.

And this really describes, and it is a picture of our dilemma, because while we are here in this world, we

permanently dwell here, right?

We permanently dwell here, but we permanently dwell here really in temporary dwellings, don't we?

There's a parallel there.

We permanently dwell here in temporary dwellings.

While you're in this world, you're not going to be anywhere else while you're in this world except in this world.

So in a sense, you have to settle down, don't you?

In a sense, you're going to buy a piece of property and a house.

You're going to settle in.

You're here for the long haul, aren't you?

You say, well, I'm here for the long haul at least until I die.

That's right, but until you die, you're not going anywhere else.

You're going to stay here.

That's obvious.

So while you're here then, you've got to in some way settle down in temporary dwellings.

Imagine a Canaanite meeting Abraham and saying to Abraham, hey, nice to meet you.

I've noticed you from afar as I've been traveling back and forth and doing commerce.

I've seen your tent here.

It's been a number of years.

I thought I'd stop in and say hi, find out who you are.

How long have you been in this land?

Abraham would say, I've been here 60 years.

60 years.

Yeah, 60 years.

Well, you're in tents.

Where are you going?

How much longer are you going to stick around?

I'm not sticking around.

I'm not leaving anywhere, I should say.

I'm sticking around.

I'm staying here.

This is where I'm staying.

I'm staying here in this land until I die.

Then the Canaanite might say, well, if you're going to be in this land and be here until you die, you might as well settle in, get comfortable, make

this place your home.

That's always the temptation, isn't it?

Living in this world to think that this is our home and to lose sight of the fact that this is not our home.

We're aliens and strangers here for as long as it is that we live here.

And he dwelt in this way with Isaac and with Jacob, and he taught his children the same promise because Isaac

and Jacob lived in tents as well.

In fact, a reference to all three of these patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is intended to call to our mind the

entire time of their sojourning because Abraham came into the land.

He had Isaac, and Isaac had Jacob, and eventually it was Jacob who would leave the land of promise and go down at the command of God

into the land of Egypt to flee the famine and to be cared for by Joseph in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen.

So the reference to all three of these patriarchs takes us all the way through that path that we traveled a few weeks ago when we looked all the way

through that land promise in the book of Genesis to the end of the book of Genesis.

Abraham lived to be 175, and he died in the land.

And when Abraham died, Isaac was 75, and Jacob, Abraham's grandson, was 15 years old.

So all three of these men, for 15 years at least, lived together, and they lived together in tents.

Whatever failings Abraham might have had, he at least passed along to Isaac and to Jacob, his grandson, the way in

which they were to live in the land because it's not as if the minute that Abraham died, all of a sudden Isaac said, all

right, we're going to set down, we're going to set up roots, we're going to build a house, we're going to set up a farm here.

He didn't do that.

For the entirety of those three generations, they lived in tents all the way through until they went into the land of

Egypt.

Why is it that they lived that way?

Because Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all knew, they all understood that though the land was promised to them,

and eventually they would possess all of it, that it was not theirs right then.

This is a reminder also of the vulnerability with which they lived, dwelling in tents.

Remember, Abraham was a wealthy man, and by wealthy I mean he had so much livestock and so many possessions that at some

point he and Lot had to go separate ways because the land could not sustain all that they had.

Abraham was a very wealthy man, a very wealthy man living in a tent out in the middle of that land surrounded by

warring factions and warring kings who were going to war and taking everybody and pillaging one another constantly.

That was something that placed Abraham in a very vulnerable position.

He was very vulnerable, living out in tents in a land like that when most cities, you can go into the land of

Israel today and you can see cities that have foundations that date prior to the time of Abraham.

They had cities with foundations and walls and guard towers and all of that around those cities.

Why?

Because everybody was constantly at war with one another, similar to our day today, but it was much more concentrated

in that area.

Well, if you're a man with that many possessions sitting out in the middle of the valley, in the middle of the field, everybody

can see you.

They can see your herds.

They can see your possessions.

They can see all of your servants.

You're very vulnerable out there.

How did Abraham exist for a hundred years in the land with that kind of vulnerability?

There was a secret.

You know what the secret was?

We read it in Psalm 105 earlier.

When they were only few in number, very few and strangers in it, and they wandered from nation to nation and from one

kingdom to another people, he, that is God, he permitted no man to oppress them, and he reproved

kings for their sake.

Do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm.

In other words, the psalmist is describing the mighty works of God, whereby for a hundred years he reproved kings and he

kept Abraham safe.

Even as vulnerable as he was, even when they were few in number in the land, God said to everybody around him, he

protected him and said, you will touch not my anointed, and you will do my prophets no harm.

God sovereignly protected Abraham out in that wilderness.

You know why it was that God sovereignly protected Abraham?

Because he had guaranteed the end of what he was going to give to Abraham.

And if Abraham can trust God for the promises regarding things yet future, then he can trust

God for the providences of things immediate.

And you and I are in the same situation.

We can look and trust God for his promises knowing that he will accomplish his end and he will accomplish everything that he has

said concerning us.

And if we can trust him for that, which is far off, we can certainly trust him for all of the outworking of his providences in the

day to day.

Because if God has guaranteed the end, he has also guaranteed the means to that end.

And if God has ordained the end, then he has ordained all the means to that end.

And if God is overseeing the end so as to certify and promise its accomplishment and

to make it absolutely certain, then we can trust him for all the providences that lead us day by day, moment by

moment, year by year, in all of our sojourning here on earth.

Abraham did not have to worry about his day to day interactions and his day to day issues because he was trusting

God for the promises.

He knew the land belonged to him and he wasn't going to die, and his child was not going to die, and the sons of promise were not going to

die.

Why?

Because God had guaranteed the end.

And if God has guaranteed the end, then we can trust him for the means as well.

If we believe God's promises, then we can trust also his providences.

So how do we live then?

There's a parallel here, obviously.

I've kind of hinted at it.

How is it that you and I live as aliens and strangers, sojourners, travelers, and exiles, as men and

women who really have a true home in a country that is not in this world, whose citizenship is in heaven?

This is a difficult balance, I think, for us.

I think it's probably more difficult for us sitting here in this nice, comfortable building, going home to nice, comfortable houses, than it is for

our brothers and sisters in other countries whose houses have been destroyed by bombing air raids.

We are, in a sense, tied to the things of this world in a way that other believers do not experience,

unfortunately for them, or maybe fortunately for them, depending on what your perspective is.

But we have to be in this world, don't we?

And this is a difficult balance.

We have to live and do commerce and get married and raise children and have families

and go to work.

In a sense, we have to pay for our bills.

We have to buy things to eat.

We have to prepare our food.

We have to serve one another.

We have to worship.

We have to love one another and care for one another.

And in a sense, it is entirely impossible to not be concerned at all about the

things in this world, because we have to be concerned by the things in this world.

There are things that go on in this world that affect us.

Things in this world affect the ease and the comforts with which we do all of the things that we have to do.

So we have a legitimate concern for the kingdom of God and His truth and His word and His church and His people and His

causes and how it is that we can contribute to those and advance those things.

We have a legitimate concern for those whom God has entrusted to us, whether it is our families, our children, our

grandchildren, our co -workers, the people in our church, our neighbors, anybody over which we

have authority or exercise oversight.

There is a legitimate concern that we even have for our fellow man.

We don't like to, nor should we ever like to, or be unconcerned with the fact of seeing people be destroyed,

whose lives are ruined, who are harmed.

And yet we live in this world where the nations rage, people bomb one another, nation rises up against nation, there's wars,

there's rumors of wars, there's pestilence, wicked men prosper, justice is not done,

people are murdered, we have abortion that is rampant, sexual immorality that is the order of the day.

All of this stuff affects us.

All of this stuff affects the church.

And it would be wrong and unbiblical if we just said, well, look, this is not my home, therefore I don't

care about any of this.

My neighbor gets pillaged and I just say, it's not my home, why should I care what happens to my neighbor?

Or something happens to my children, I say, well, this is not our home, so hey, just get used to it.

There is a sense in which we are concerned about the things that happen here, and it is a legitimate concern that we have.

And I think it is an unbiblical response to say, I'm just not going to care about any of it.

Why should I care if people are destroyed, if souls are ruined, if people are harmed?

We ought to be concerned for the flourishing and the good of our fellow man, right?

And yet, how are we to be involved in these things without being consumed by these things?

That is a very difficult balance.

And I will say to you, there is no formula that I'm going to present to you that tells you how that is to be.

Does the example of Abraham mean that we all have to live in tents, or that we should all sell our homes and go get mobile homes, and we should live in

trailers?

Is that the lesson to be learned?

That's not the lesson to be learned.

I think the lesson to be learned from Abraham is that we should all have the mindset that even though we might dwell in a home, even

a nice home, we have to remember that it's only a tent.

This body is only a tent.

This is not my home.

I can't cling to these things.

Here's the balance, I think.

It's not that we lack concern for the things in this world.

It's that we lack despair about the things of this world.

There's a difference there.

It's not that we lack concern.

It's that we lack despair.

We can be concerned without ever being without hope.

So we're not unconcerned, but we're not without hope either, because our message is a positive one, and our

future is a very bright one, and our confidence is in a God who is going to conquer all of the kingdoms.

He's going to establish His kingdom.

He's going to set up His kingdom.

He's going to rule and reign in truth and righteousness forevermore.

It's a very optimistic future that we have.

So we can be concerned, but we don't have to be in despair about these things.

So there is a way in which we can say we can work and labor in this world for the good of our fellow man, for the advancement of God's causes.

And really, Proverbs says it is the fool who is unconcerned about the things of this life.

It's the fool who says, yeah, the roof is leaking, but hey, this is not my home.

It's the fool who says, yeah, I might have a harvest full of fruit out in the field, but this is not my home.

I'm not going to harvest.

I'm just going to sit back and wait for God to accomplish His purposes.

Those are the marks of folly.

That's the mark of a fool.

It's the wise man who says, I will be involved in this world, but I'm not going to despair over the course of this world because I know

that this is not my home.

So we can be involved and concerned, but not in despair.

We should be involved.

I put it this way.

We should be involved in the affairs of this world without having an affair with the things of this world.

We can be involved in the affairs of this world without having an affair with the things of this world.

And you say, well, how do I know if I'm having an affair with the things of this world?

You have to evaluate that.

How tied are you to it?

Teach your children like Abraham did, that this is not your home.

You're just passing through, and you are eventually going to die because by faith we live in this land that is

not our home.

We call a different place our home country, our home nation.

Our citizenship is there.

This world is not our home, and it never will be.

It never can be because this world is unfit for us as children of God.

It's unfit for us.

Do you want this place to be your home?

That's the peak of folly, or fooly, either one.

That's the peak of folly.

That's the mark of a fool to think that this world is your home and to long for it to be so.

And the longer we live in this foreign land, the more foreign it should feel to us.

The longer we are here, and the more we experience and see, and the older that we get,

the more foreign everything around us should feel and look and seem to us.

So that we get to the end of our lives, and we say, I just want to go home.

I'm tired of this place.

And we're going to end up going to a home that we will never get tired of for all of eternity.

So how is it then that we relate to the people of this world if this world is not our home?

We ought to be concerned with them, and keep in mind, friends, that the unbelievers that you interact with,

this is their home, and this world is all their hope.

Most unbelievers that you and I encounter have no hope for anything beyond this life.

They're running as if this is all they have, because in their mind they know that this is all they have.

And we ought to have compassion on them, rescue them, give them the gospel, because truly they have nothing beyond this

life.

And anything that we should, anything that we receive from them that is good, we should be thankful for that.

I think it was in my reading, and I forget to write down exactly who said it, but I think it was Matthew Henry who said that

Abraham lived in the land of promise, and he received from the people their favors with thankfulness and insults and

injuries with patience.

He received their favors with thankfulness and their insults with patience.

That's how we interact with the people around us.

When they insult us and when they do harm to us, we are patient and we bear it.

We're long -suffering toward it.

And then when we receive something good from this world, we should thank God for it, because it is a good gift from God.

But then when we don't receive anything good in this world, how should we respond?

With patience.

How can we do that?

Because this world is not our home.

And so anything that we get while we're passing through, we enjoy it just as a sojourner would.

And how do we relate to the things of this world?

Do we heap up treasures in this life?

Is that what we should be driving for?

No, we know we shouldn't be doing that, because it's all passing away.

Your kingdom is going to shrink to about 100 cubic feet.

Three feet by six feet by six feet.

Your entire kingdom is going to shrink to that.

And you are going to bury hundreds of your friends and loved ones until that day comes when hundreds of your

friends and loved ones bury you.

So like Abraham, when this is all said and done, the only thing we're going to lay claim to is six feet of dirt.

That's it.

We get a burial plot and that's all we get in a creation that is ultimately promised to the sons of God.

But like Abraham, we have to look forward and live as if we have a stake in a city that has

foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

There's a forward looking to this reality of living here as a pilgrim, understanding that this world is not my home, and yet

God has promised this entire creation to us.

Because after the kingdom and after the judgment, there is a global fiery conflagration in which

everything is burned up with fire, and he will create a new heavens and a new earth, which will be this creation

resurrected again, and we in resurrected bodies will enter into that resurrected creation, and we will

enjoy that blessed land forever and ever.

And that is our home.

That's ultimately what we are longing for, ultimately what we are looking for.

Ultimately, that is where our hope is.

So all of this creation is promised to us, just like the land was to Abraham.

All of the creation is promised to us.

And so we live here in this place that is ours, but we don't yet possess it.

It's an already, but not yet.

It's ours, but we don't possess it, and we live in it as if we are just passing through, because we really are just passing through in this life.

And he will raise us to newness of life, and he will seat us in that land forever and ever.

And there we will dwell in a city, verse 10, that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

That is the forward looking aspect of that, and we will examine that next week.

Let's pray.

Father, what a hope you have given to us in your son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

By your mercy, you have called us out of this world of darkness and despair.

You have given us a hope that transcends this life, that goes beyond the grave into the new creation, the new

heavens and the new earth.

Like Abraham, we know that that is true, and yet we dwell in this land that is promised to us, but is not ours.

And we pray that you would help us to have the mindset of a stranger and an alien, to dwell here faithfully, to have

compassion on those around us who are part of this creation that do not yet have that hope in your son.

We pray that you would make us faithful and keep us faithful in all that we do, so that we are able to stand in that

kingdom.

Having received your glory and having seen your glory and having embraced that, that we're able to stand there and receive the reward for

faithful lives.

That is what we desire.

We pray that you would do that work of grace in us, comfort us, strengthen us, encourage us, but most

of all, fix our hearts and our hopes upon the resurrection and the glory that is to come.

We ask this in Christ's name.

Amen.

Would you please stand and sing with us, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it, mount of thy

birth.

Hither to thy love has blessed me, thou hast brought me

to this place.

And I know my head will bring me safely home by

thy good grace.

Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the

throne of God.

He to rescue me from danger, clothed me with

his precious blood.

Grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to

be.

Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering

heart to thee.

Prone to wander, prone to leave the

God I love.

Here's my heart, oh take and seal it, seal it for thy

courts above.

According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to the obedience of Jesus

Christ and the sprinkling of his blood.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Thank you for joining us today.

Have a great week.

Understanding that I may come.