Abraham: Faith to Look For a City (Hebrews 11:10)

Kootenai Church

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Let's begin with a word of prayer before we open God's Word together. My Father, as we come to your

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Word, our prayer is a very simple one. We pray that you would give us eyes to see your truth, ears to hear your truth, a heart to love your truth, and a will to obey your truth, and that you would conform us to the image of Christ, inflame our hearts with a love and affection for the

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Lord Jesus Christ, for his soon -and -coming kingdom, and for the grace that you have bestowed upon us in him.

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We pray your blessing on this time, help us to be clear in our thinking and in how we respond to your

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Word we ask in Christ's name. Amen. We turn please now to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, we're going to read together verses 8 through 10.

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We've been looking at the three ways that Abraham's faith was demonstrated in his life. By faith he left his old life, his culture, his religion, for a land that God had promised him.

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By faith he lived in that land as a stranger, and then by faith he looked forward to a city with foundations whose maker and builder was

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God. There was a leaving, a living, and a looking. Beginning of verse 8,

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By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going.

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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.

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

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God. He left, he lived, and he looked. And we've been observing how each of those is analogous to some aspect of faith and how faith is lived out in our lives today.

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Abraham truly is a model of the kind of faith that not only saves, but also sustains and sanctifies believers in this life.

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His leaving is analogous to our salvation. Abraham left a culture and a set of God's people, acquaintances, family members, a land that he was familiar with.

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He turned from that and he followed God in obedience to God. That is somewhat analogous to our salvation.

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We likewise leave all of those things behind and then turn and follow after the God who calls us out of darkness and into light.

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Abraham's living in the land is somewhat analogous to our living our lives here as aliens and strangers.

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He lived in a land that he knew was not his. God had promised it to him, and he never possessed it in his life.

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But Abraham yet lived faithfully in that land, just as you and I are called to live in this world, not as if this is going to be our ultimate home or as if this is all that we will ever possess, but we are to likewise live in this land as aliens and strangers, as pilgrims and sojourners.

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There is therefore a past aspect to faith, the faith that saves us. There is a present element of faith, the faith in which we walk, the faith that we live out now, the faith that we have by which we walk day by day.

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And then there is a future aspect of faith, and that is the forward -looking anticipation of something that is held out for us, the reward that we are promised.

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Faith believes that God is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. That's the faith that saves, sanctifies, and secures us.

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It is a faith that anticipates a reward that is to come. And so today we are looking at that future reward that we see in Abraham's life.

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Now, all of these aspects of faith are connected. And before we jump into it, I don't want you to miss this. All of them are connected. Nobody truly leaves the past life to live the present life in light of promises that are yet future.

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Nobody does that unless he actually has a faith that looks forward and says, okay, I'm willing to leave darkness, and I'm willing to walk in light, and I'm willing to walk in light as long as I have to in order to achieve the reward and the certainty that God has promised us on the other end of that.

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Nobody leaves their sin unless they expect that there is something more pleasurable, more joyous, more beneficial, more profitable, more prosperous than the sin and what sin offers.

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Likewise, nobody lives in this current life and is able to live faithfully in this current life if he has not first left the sin behind.

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We can't serve two masters. We can't pretend as if we have two citizenships. And so the one who lives is to live faithfully in this life must turn from idols.

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There is nobody who holds to that sin and loves that darkness who is also able to live in this life in a faithful,

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God -honoring and victorious way. And the one who lives faithfully in this life has to and is only able to do so by looking forward to the life that is to come and expecting certain rewards and promises and blessings that are guaranteed and given to us.

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And nobody who is living in light of what is future will not walk in faithfulness and not leave their idols.

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See, all of these are connected. They all go together. This faith that Abraham demonstrated, it is all woven together.

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There is a past, a present, and a future to this, and all three of them are present. You can't have one without having the other two by necessity.

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So today we're looking at Abraham's future -looking, forward -looking faith. True saving faith repents, turns from what is past, turns from what it was in, lives faithfully in this life, and will eventually hold on and be secured everlastingly to receive the reward that they are promised.

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So we are looking today at verse 10. Abraham was looking for a city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is

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God. Now this verse raises some interpretive questions for us that we are going to hit head -on and very thoroughly this morning.

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Some interpretive issues. What is this city? Where is this city? Did Abraham ever live in this city?

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Did he ever see this city? Is Abraham in this city now? Is this city a physical city? Is this city on earth?

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Is this city going to come to earth? Is this city in heaven? Must I go to heaven to see this city?

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See, these are all the questions that are tied up with this verse. He was looking for a city which has foundations, whose architect, whose maker and builder is

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God. To put it more succinctly, the question is this. Does this city and the receiving of this city, does that replace the land promises that Abraham was given back in the book of Genesis?

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That's the key interpretive question with verse 10. And we will look at that in due faith, but first let's look at just the details of this city and what we are told

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Abraham was looking for. Abraham was looking, and that is the motivation for his living. You can see the connection between verses 9 and 10.

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By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise. How did he live? He lived as an alien because he was looking. So there is a looking and a living that are going together here with Abraham.

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He was only able to live faithfully because he was looking forward. And he had set his heart and his mind on what

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God had promised him and the ultimate receiving of that promise, and that is his motivation for living.

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The word translated looking here involves more than just what you might think is the bare meaning of that verb in our language.

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We use the term looking and we can mean a bunch of different things by that. This word has the idea of not just looking for something like you're searching for something, but this word has the idea of expecting something.

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It means to wait, to wait for, or to expect. In fact, out of the six places where this word is used in the

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New Testament, this, Hebrews 11, verse 10, is the only place where it is translated as looking.

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Elsewhere it is translated as wait, as waiting, or as expecting. So there is an element of patience that is involved with this looking.

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It is a patience that is coupled with an expectation. So this is a looking for something, not in the sense that you search for something, but looking for something in the sense that you are waiting for something.

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Does that make sense? There's a difference. This is not that Abraham was looking for a city like you and I look for our keys.

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It's lost and we're searching around for it, waiting to see maybe is it under this cushion or is it behind this door?

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It's not that. It is waiting for something in the sense that you and I look for the mailman or the

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UPS driver when we're expecting something significant. You see somebody looking out the window, what are you looking for?

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I'm looking for the UPS driver. I'm looking for the mailman to come. It has an anticipation, a waiting, and an expectation.

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It's not just searching for something. It's not like Abraham was just peering over every horizon that he came to. What if the city is down in that valley?

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That's not what it was. It was waiting, expecting, patiently enduring. In fact, this word is translated waiting back in Hebrews 10, verses 12 and 13, where it describes

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Jesus. Jesus is waiting for something. He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting.

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It's the same word. Jesus is waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet.

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And he will certainly make his enemies a footstool for his feet. He will certainly return. He will certainly establish that kingdom.

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He will certainly do everything that the Father has planned for him and purposed for him. But until that time, he is waiting expectantly, knowing for certain that his enemies will be made a footstool for his feet.

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So he's waiting. So it's clear that Abraham was waiting for something, and it was for something that he did not realize in his own lifetime, and it was not something in this world at the time that Abraham was waiting for it.

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You can tell from the description of the city, he was waiting for or looking for a city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is

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God. And by the way, I'm glad that the NASB translated that word as looking instead of waiting. Otherwise, my outline would have been all messed up.

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He left, he lived, he waited. You'd be like, what? That's not a good outline at all. But because they translated it as looking, then it works.

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As long as you understand that by looking, we mean waiting. Alright, we can tell from the description that it's not a city that was part of Abraham's world or life at that time.

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This is a city whose architect and builder is God. The word architect and builder, they are closely related, as you might expect.

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The word architect suggests a high level of craftsmanship and skill and design. It's the idea that God is the designer of this, and God has consummate craftsmanship, consummate skill in his design of this city.

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The idea of a builder, that word describes one who makes or works to create this. So this city that Abraham was waiting or looking for is not a city of man.

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It is not a city of men. This city is both designed and created by God. When I say it's not a city of men,

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I don't mean that men are not there, or that men will not be there. I mean that it is not designed or created or anything by the hands of men.

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This is something that is entirely God's doing, and so this would describe not anything on the planet during Abraham's life at his time or since, because this age is destined only to see cities that rise and fall and come and go.

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But this city will not be so. It will never pass away. It will never rot. It will never decay. Nothing will ever corrupt it.

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No impure thing will ever enter into it. So this city, in spite of all of our best efforts and skill, will never be built by man.

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There's no way that men will ever construct this city or design this city because this is not a city that is designed or constructed by men with their intellect or their will or their skills or their abilities.

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We have no part in this at all. In this world, what one man builds falls down and crumbles, and another man either has to repair, restore, rebuild, or build on top of that.

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You go to ancient cities, and you will see ruins upon which current cities are now built. And underneath that is just layer after layer of all of the cities and buildings and structures that have existed in that place over time.

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Sometimes walking through the land of Israel, you'll be walking through a place, and they'll say, well, you're standing right now on the place where Paul did such and such.

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I walked right down the Damascus Road in Israel. Well, not right down the Damascus Road. I walked on top of about 30 feet of dirt that is on top of the ancient

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Damascus Road. It's the closest you can get. The cities, the streets, the roads, the buildings, the architecture of this age is all destined to rot and crumble, and men will build on top of it.

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But this is a city, this city which has foundations, is a city whose entire existence owes itself to one being, and that is

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God. No man will ever rebuild it. No man will ever need to repair it because it is an eternal city.

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Now, here's the key question. What is this city? We can rule out the possibility that the city existed in Abraham's day.

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As I said, it's not he was searching in the valleys and the nooks and the crannies and behind mountains to see if the city existed in his day.

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We can rule out the possibility that this city is a city in our day. We know it's not

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Seattle, Portland, or San Francisco. We know it's not Boston or Miami, and certainly not

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Washington, D .C., on the other coast. We know that this is not a city in our day anywhere.

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It's not present -day Jerusalem. It's not ancient Jerusalem. It's not Jerusalem in Abraham's day.

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It didn't exist in Abraham's day in this world. It does not exist in our world in this day.

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So it is not a city of men. Now, before we answer the question of what the city is, I want you to see three more places where this city is mentioned in the book of Hebrews because this is a theme that the author reminds us of through the rest of the book.

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So notice it. Look down at Hebrews 11, verse 16. As it is, they desired 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. Now this is important because it is in the context of Abraham, of the discussion about Abraham leaving his land and not going back to his former land but staying in the land of promise.

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And it says that he was desiring a heavenly country and a city which God has prepared for them.

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So he desired a better country, namely a heavenly one. Abraham desired a country with heavenly characteristics, a country with the things that characterize heaven itself.

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That is what Abraham was looking for. Turn over to chapter 12, verse 22. And here we have a contrast between two mountains that are being described.

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First, there is Mount Sinai where the law was given, where people were terrified and people could not approach or touch. They were sinful and unwelcomed in that state, so they dared not come nigh unto

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Sinai. And Sinai is contrasted with Zion or Jerusalem on Mount Zion. And by God's grace, you and I are not under the thunderings of the

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Old Testament law, but instead we are under the grace offered in Jesus Christ. And that is the contrast here in Hebrews chapter 12.

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Look at verse 22. But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels.

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Now that is the same city mentioned back in chapter 11, verse 16. It is the same city that is mentioned here in our text in Hebrews 11, verse 10.

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So it is called a heavenly country, a city that God has prepared. In Hebrews 12, 22, it's called the heavenly

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Jerusalem. So now we have some idea of what its name is going to be. And this describes ultimately, chapter 12, describes ultimately our citizenship.

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Again, you and I are not under the Old Testament concept of citizenship where we thundered at Sinai. Instead, we have been welcomed with grace into the salvation which is in Jesus Christ, which is signified by Mount Zion.

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So rather than being under the Old Testament condemnation, we are under grace, by the grace of Christ. Finally, Hebrews 13, verse 14, go over to chapter 13.

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For here in his concluding thoughts, the author says, we do not have a lasting city here, sorry, for here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.

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So those are all the references to it in the book of Hebrews. And so there is this city that is to come, and it is not here, the author says, it is part of this heavenly country.

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It is the possession of those who have trusted Christ for salvation, whose sins have been forgiven, those who by the grace of God in Christ have been delivered from the condemnation signified by Mount Sinai and have by God's grace been welcomed into the grace and salvation signified by Mount Zion, the heavenly

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Jerusalem. Now here is where we get to the crux of the interpretive issue. So I have laid out for you what the text seems to indicate, how the

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Hebrews uses this idea of the city all the way through here. So here is the key interpretive issues, and with this we are going to occupy the rest of our time, and I'm going to have to speed it up.

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We have a few questions we have to answer. And by the way, I'm going to pause for a second, even though I know

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I have to speed it up, I'm going to pause for a second. From this point forward, I need you to really engage your mind and to stay alert with me.

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Because I'm going to deal with the interpretive issue as thoroughly, as systematically, and exegetically from this passage as I possibly can, so that I can get that out of the way.

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And if those of you who might disagree with my interpretation of it still disagree, that's fine, but I've had my day to present my case in full.

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So you're going to have to engage your mind, really listen, and stay awake. Last week I kept you awake with a clever song, a politically incorrect joke about somebody's questionable citizenship, and I'm not doing that at all today.

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So today this is just exegesis of the passage. Oh, and I know that last week

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I promised you interpretive dance, but Amazon did not deliver my headdress and my ribbons in time, so I promise you this.

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Next time I preach through the book of Hebrews, and we are in Hebrews 11 at this point, I will give you an interpretive dance.

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So here is the interpretive issue. Is this city an actual city, or is the word city simply a picture of bigger spiritual realities?

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Does this inheritance that Abraham was looking for, does it involve an actual city of a heavenly nature, or is the idea of city here merely an analogy, a symbol, a metaphor, a substitute, as you will, for spiritual realities?

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Heaven now, or heaven in the future, or some sort of spiritual inheritance? Has Abraham possessed this city yet?

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We'd all agree that Abraham has died, and he has gone to heaven. So then if he has entered into heaven, has he then received his promised inheritance?

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If he has received that promised inheritance in the form of being welcomed into the city which is in heaven, if that is the fulfillment of that, then it would stand to reason, it would stand, we could conclude then, that there is no more physical land for Abraham to receive as a promise from God.

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If God has fulfilled his word to Abraham by walking him into a heavenly inheritance, because the land is only a symbol of that heavenly inheritance, then

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God has no more physical boundaries, physical land, or physical promises to give to national

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Israel. Does that make sense? This is the key interpretive issue. So it is believed by some that the reference to a city in this verse, and in other verses in Hebrews, refers to either the present heaven or the future heaven.

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They would say that the reference to Abraham looking for that city is a reference to Abraham coming to understand that the inheritance that he was promised was not something in the land at all, but the promise of the land was something that Abraham would need to look through, to look forward, beyond the promise of physical land to that thing which the physical land represented.

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So even if God does never give him the physical land, with the boundaries, the river of Egypt to the river

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Euphrates, if God never gives him that, he has fulfilled at least the spirit of that promise by giving to Abraham a heavenly inheritance, which sort of replaces or supersedes, or at least kind of lays over top of the promise of physical land and physical blessings.

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So they would say that the promise of the physical land really just represented the spiritual heavenly inheritance, and that Abraham had to get over the promise of the physical land and look beyond it to the reality, the fulfillment, of the spiritual gift that he was given.

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Palmer Robertson says this, and I'm going to quote two people so you can hear them describe this in their own words.

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Quote, Just as the tabernacle was never intended to be a settled item in the plan of redemption but was to point to Christ, tabernacling among his people, and just as the sacrificial system could never atone for sins but could only foreshadow the offering of the

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Son of God, so in a similar manner Abraham received the promise of the land but never experienced the blessing of its full possession.

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In this way, the patriarch looked forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is

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God. Now here's key, listen. If the promised land of the old covenant becomes the blessed object to be achieved, then its tremendous fulfillment in the new covenant could be missed.

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To claim this city with foundations whose architect and builder is God, Abraham had to look beyond the shadowy form of the promise, which he never possessed, to the realities that could be perceived only by faith."

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Now let me break that down to you. His argument is this. Just as the tabernacle was a symbol of something fulfilled in Christ, a spiritual reality that was greater than tabernacle, just as the sacrifices of the old covenant were fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ, a heightened and better fulfillment of that, so it is that the land promise was only a symbol of a greater spiritual reality, namely heavenly realities, things that can only be perceived with the eyes of faith.

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So he says Abraham had to look beyond the shadowy form of the promise, which he never possessed, to the realities that could be perceived only by faith.

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In other words, Abraham had to learn, as all the patriarchs did, that it never was really about physical land. He was just supposed to look forward beyond the physical land to spiritual heavenly realities later on that the land signified or represented.

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Likewise, Peter Walker writes this, quote, in Hebrews 11, positive descriptions of the physical land are then immediately eclipsed by his, that is the author of Hebrews, by his insistence, oh, let me try it again.

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In Hebrews 11, positive descriptions of the physical land are then immediately eclipsed by his insistence that the real focus of the promise to which

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Abraham looked forward was the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. So, he says, the patriarchs were looking forward not so much to the day when their descendants would inherit the physical land, but rather to the day when they would inherit the heavenly country or city, which the physical land signified.

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In a sense, they saw through the promise of the land, looking beyond it to a deeper spiritual reality, close quote.

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So, what both of these men are saying is that if you suggest that the fulfillment of those old covenant land promises, if that is a literal issue, then you're going to miss the greater spiritual reality that the new covenant promises.

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Abraham and the patriarchs, he says, they were looking forward not so much to the day when their descendants would inherit the physical land, but rather to the day when they would inherit the heavenly kingdom.

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So, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, those men were not really looking at the land itself and saying, this is the land that's promised to me,

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I'm going to inherit this in any kind of physical or carnal sense. Instead, those men were looking through that promise to the spiritual promises.

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So, if these men, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, if they have inherited some sort of a heavenly country, then

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God has fulfilled the promise to Abraham, and therefore there is no more land promise to give to Abraham and to his descendants.

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Canaan, they would say, is just a symbol of heaven. Now, listen, I understand that it is not possible,

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I understand that you may think at points that I'm painting with a broad brush here. That is, I have to paint with a broad brush.

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There's absolutely no way that I can represent and answer every shade of every color of every eschatological interpretation of every eschatological passage, of every eschatological position under the sun.

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I can't do that. But I don't feel that I need to do that, because the issue is, does this passage tell us that the land promises have been set aside or, in some way, fulfilled by spiritual realities?

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That's the crux of the issue. Let me give you some answers to this.

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Here's the question. Are we justified in thinking that the author intends to substitute heaven for the land promises, or are we justified in believing that the author intends to substitute spiritual realities for physical ones?

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And I'm going to be very thorough in these next seven arguments that I'm going to give you as to why that is not being described here.

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Seven arguments. I see some of you reaching for a pen. Do not even bother. I promise you, you're going to have to go back and listen to this.

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Just listen. You can write down a recipe if you want, a design for an outfit, whatever you've got in your mind.

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You can go ahead and do that. But don't even try and keep notes, because you will be frustrated before we get done. I'm going to be thorough for this reason.

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I never, ever want it to be said of me that I came to a passage of Scripture that was a crux of a theological issue, that I did not just give it my all.

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Some pastors will do this. They'll come to a difficult text, and then they'll say, look, we don't have time to deal with this today. At some point in the future, we will deal with that.

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And you know what that means? It means I was too lazy this last week to do the work that was necessary to deal with this today, and so I'm giving you some generic, benign, banal, empty -vein promise that we will deal with this at some point in the future, and that's supposed to satisfy your curiosity.

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I don't want anybody who might disagree with my interpretation to ever get to the point of saying, Jim came to that passage, and he just kind of skipped it over, really didn't answer my position, or really lay out his position.

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So I'm going to do that today as absolutely thoroughly, consistently, graciously, but passionately as I possibly can.

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Number one. Here are my seven arguments. Number one. How would a Jew have understood these references in Hebrews?

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How would a Jew have understood this? I'm asking you to set aside your Gentile perspective on this as one who has never lived in the land, never lived under the old covenant, and I'm asking you to ask yourself, how would a

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Jew have understood these references in Hebrews? Fundamentally, that is the central position that we all have to answer whenever we're interpreting a biblical text, because it doesn't matter what it means to me, what it means to you.

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It doesn't matter what it means from a woman's perspective, a black person's perspective, an Asian person's perspective. None of that matters.

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The only thing that matters is how did the original audience, how would they have understood these references? How would they have understood the reference to a heavenly country, or a heavenly

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Jerusalem, or an eternal city, or a heavenly city? How would a Jew have understood those? This is a

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Jewish book, Hebrews, written by a Jewish man to a Jewish audience, expositing Jewish scriptures.

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So it seems that we should ask this question, how would a Jew have understood references to this kind of a city and this kind of a country? So I want you to take in your mind your average first century

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Jew who has been steeped in the Old Testament, they lived their lives under the old covenant, they have come out of that, and they would have in their mind hundreds if not thousands of passages bouncing around that would describe to them a messianic kingdom.

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The Old Testament prophets had promised the Jews that they would be gathered into the land, that they would possess all of the land that was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob from the river

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Euphrates to the river in Egypt. They were promised that the barren and arid regions of the desert and the uninhabited cities would become an

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Edenic paradise. All of that rock and sand between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea, that was all going to be like Eden.

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Water everywhere, abundant, fertile, fruit, cities inhabited, abundant prosperity, that's what they were promised.

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They were promised that that Arabian Peninsula would be terraformed into the most lush green garden that the world had ever seen.

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And at the center of that regenerated, rejuvenated, and renewed land would be a capital city over which

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David's greater son, the Messiah from heaven, would rule and reign all of the nations forever.

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And that that city would be the center of world commerce and religion and prosperity and commercialism and culture and everything.

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It would be a Jewish -centered, Zion -centered, Holy Jerusalem -centered kingdom.

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That's what every Jew would have expected. They would have expected a Messianic kingdom that would bring heaven to earth.

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That heaven would come and rule in this world. That was their expectation. And in doing that,

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God would fulfill His promise to Israel, to David, and to the descendants of Abraham. They believed because they were promised under the

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Old Covenant, particularly the New Covenant promises in the book of Jeremiah chapter 31 and Ezekiel chapter 36, that this

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Israel that would dwell in that land would be a renewed, regenerated, and saved Israel. That they would worship and serve their

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Messiah in that kingdom, that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit, that they would know Scripture and be empowered to walk in God's statutes.

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That's what the Jews expected. That Jerusalem, Mount Zion, would be the center of the world, and that the

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Jews would live in safety and security in that land, never to be threatened by their enemies, never to be mocked again, and that this kingdom would be a kingdom of such peace, security, prosperity, justice, holiness, and righteousness, that it could only be described as a heavenly kingdom.

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That's how the Jews would have understood it. That such a city, where that heaven -sent Messiah would come and rule, you could only describe that as a heavenly city.

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It would be Jerusalem, but it would be a heavenly Jerusalem. So now I ask you, how did the Jews understand the reference to heavenly city, heavenly country, heavenly

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Jerusalem, eternal city, everlasting city, however you want to phrase it, how would a Jew have understood those references?

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We have a Jewish man in a Jewish book, expounding Old Testament Jewish Scripture, speaking to a Jewish audience. We ought to ask the question, how would a

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Jew have understood that? This Jewish man would not have had to explain anything that I just explained to you to his

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Jewish audience. It all would have been assumed. And further, I could assume that if this Jewish man writing to that Jewish audience meant something different than the already established

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Jewish expectation of the day concerning the Millennial Kingdom, he would have said something to them to make that clear.

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So these phrases, city with foundations, heavenly country, heavenly Jerusalem, lasting city, would have been understood by them as references to their

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Messianic kingdom, their Davidic kingdom, a Millennial kingdom. We call it the Millennial kingdom because Revelation tells us that the length of it is going to be a thousand years on this planet, and then it is going to continue everlastingly into eternity after this planet is consumed in a conflagration of flames, and then

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God recreates a new heavens and a new earth. So in short, a Jewish Christian would not have understood that the land prompt that they would have to go to heaven to experience the land promises.

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They would have expected that the land promises would be fulfilled when heaven came to earth. That's it. A Jewish Christian would never have thought that they had to go to heaven to experience the land promises.

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They would have expected that the land promises would be experienced by them when heaven came to earth in the form of that kingdom that was promised to David.

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So when someone says that these references to heavenly city, heavenly Jerusalem, city with foundations, is a reference to us going to heaven to a city or a heavenly kind of country where we exist, that is imposing a

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Gentile mindset onto a Jewish text, and that is what we call eisegesis. We can't read this as a

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Gentile would read this. We have to read this as a Jew would read this. And for Abraham, resurrection is the key.

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That is why both Romans 4 and Hebrews 11 emphasize that Abraham's faith was in a God who raises the dead. It was not that Abraham expected to go to heaven and receive these promises.

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Rather, it is Abraham expected to be resurrected in this world and receive those promises.

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That's what he was looking for. He wasn't looking to go somewhere else and experience these blessings. He was looking to experience these blessings here in his land that God had promised to him.

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That's why God reiterated the promise of the land to Abraham on multiple occasions. He was looking forward to bodily resurrection.

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It was no problem at all for Abraham to expect that he would dwell in the land, that the land would be all that God had promised him to be land flowing with milk and with honey.

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You could describe the Arabian desert as a thousand things, but never land flowing with milk and honey. But once you understand that it's going to be lush and green and glorious and fertile and filled with people, once you understand that, and that there's going to be a capital city at the center of that land, and the greater son of David ruling and reigning on a throne,

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David's throne in that land, then you can understand this is going to be a land filled with milk and honey. This is going to be a land of plenty and prosperity.

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Abraham would have been looking forward to that, and Abraham could die in faith never receiving that promise. Why? Because Abraham believed

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God raises the dead. That's why. If I die, I die. But guess what?

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I will rise again. That is the Old Testament hope and expectation of the Old Testament saints. So they would walk and dwell and live in that land.

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But when they do, it'll be a heavenly country, a heavenly city, a heavenly Israel, with a heavenly

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Jerusalem right at the center of all of it. Number two. Is that was one? It was one. Number two.

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We have an indication as to how these phrases are to be understood right here in this very text.

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Look at verse eight. Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for the inheritance.

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Now, according to the author, what is the place that Abraham was to receive for the inheritance? According to verse eight, what does it say? He went out to where?

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To heaven? No. Where did he go? He went out to the land that he was to receive for an inheritance.

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The author of Hebrews still believed that Abraham is going to receive that land. Abraham left for the land that he was promised.

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He left for the land that he was yet to receive for an inheritance. The very land that was promised is what it is that Abraham is going to receive for the inheritance.

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So the author does not say that Abraham went out to a land that he thought he would receive for an inheritance, but God had better plans for him.

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He's actually going to get heaven. The author doesn't say that. And if the author meant to suggest that, this would be the perfect place to say that, but the author does not say that.

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The author affirms in verse eight what every first century Jew would have understood, namely, that Abraham will still receive the land as an inheritance.

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It is not heaven that is going to fulfill that promise, because the place to which Abraham went out, he is still to receive as an inheritance.

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And if the author meant to suggest that heaven has replaced that promised land, he would say so here, but he doesn't. Instead, he says that Abraham went out to the land that he is to receive to an inheritance, because he didn't go out thinking that he was going to receive it, but then didn't get it.

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He died in faith knowing, believing, that he would still receive it. This is what makes Abraham's faith so notable.

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Verse 31 says, All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

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So Abraham was promised the land, but he died in faith never receiving the land. And look at verse 8,

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He went out to a land that he was to receive an inheritance. Verse 13, He died having never received the promises. Now if heaven is the fulfillment of those promises, then

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I ask you this, shouldn't verse 13 read and he died and thus received the promises? Or he died and then received the promises?

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Or when he died, he received the promises? That's what we would expect to read. But we don't read that. We just read that he died without receiving the promises.

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And there's no reason, certainly from this text, to suggest that the author has in mind that he received those promises when he died.

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He died in faith having never received the promises. But he believed until his dying breath that those promises stated as God gave them to him would be fulfilled.

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But Abraham knew it will be in the resurrection. He will dwell in that land. Number three, the city which has foundations is not contrasted in this text with the cities of Canaan in Abraham's day.

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The city which has foundations is contrasted with the tents in which Abraham dwelt. That is key.

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To say that heaven has replaced the land promised would require that the author contrast this heavenly city with the cities in Canaan.

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But that's not the contrast. It would require that the author say God promised to Abraham cities without foundations in Canaan, but God has instead provided something even greater, namely a city with foundations in heaven.

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But that's not the contrast. The contrast is not between the cities in Canaan and heaven. The contrast is between the tents in which

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Abraham dwelt, which have no foundations, and the city in which Abraham lived. So the upgrade is not being promised a land and then delivered heaven.

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The upgrade is living in the tents in that land, and then later on, living in that same land in a city with foundations whose architect and builder is

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God. That's the upgrade. It's not going from the land to something else. It's going from one mode of residence in that land to another mode of residence in that land.

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That is the comparison that the author is making. He is not substituting heaven for the promised land. He is substituting dwelling in the promised land in tents for dwelling in the promised land in the city, whose architect and maker and builder is

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God. That is the contrast of the text. Number four. There is not so much as a hint anywhere in the text of any

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Old Testament passage that suggests that the land promised would be fulfilled by going to heaven or by spiritual realities in the afterlife.

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Not a single one. Not a single patriarch ever would have understood that. Earlier I read to you from one of those quotes where he said the patriarchs would have understood or the patriarchs were looking forward to.

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No, they weren't. You know what the patriarchs were looking forward to? Possessing that land. Why do they look forward to that?

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What do you think? Because that's what God promised them. There's nothing. There's nothing in any text relating to that land in the

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Old Testament that suggests that it would be fulfilled in heaven by some spiritual reality. There's not even a hint of that.

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God never said anything close to that to any of the patriarchs ever. And for 2 ,000 years, well, 1 ,500 years after Abraham, 2 ,000 years after Abraham, that promise of the land was reiterated and restated and reaffirmed hundreds of times in Old Testament passages all the way through the prophets consistently and constantly it is described in that way.

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And the promise is restated in the New Testament as well. And not once does the Lord even suggest, not even remotely, that the nature of the fulfillment of that promise has been changed and now it has been switched to heaven or some spiritual inheritance that we receive after death.

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Number five, God specifically spoke of the land that he had given to them in contrast to heaven.

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This happened in Genesis 28. It's a very telling incident, and you may remember this. This is when Jacob was getting ready to leave the land.

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We talked about this a couple weeks ago when we did our jet tour through the book of Genesis. Jacob was getting ready to leave the land and go back to where Abraham had come from.

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Remember why he was leaving? He had a little bit of a falling out with his brother Esau. Esau, with a Texas accent, said, some people just need to be killed.

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And he had in mind Jacob by that. So Jacob was fleeing the land, heading back up to Haran, and God stopped him, and God gave him a vision of heaven.

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And here's what we read, Genesis 28. I want you to listen. This is a significant passage. He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven.

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And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the

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Lord, the God of your father Abraham, the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants.

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Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south.

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And in you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you, and I will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what

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I have promised you. Now, when Jacob saw that vision, he referred to it as the house of God and as the gate of heaven.

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Genesis 28, verse 16. Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.

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He was afraid and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

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Now, in that vision, Jacob was able to see into heaven itself. So he has this vision.

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He sees the ladder with its top reaching up into heaven. He's looking into heaven. He says to himself, This is the house of God.

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This is the gate of heaven. Now, if Jacob was supposed to look past the carnal physical land blessings to the spiritual fulfillment of that in heaven, this is the point where God would have said,

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Jacob, now you're getting a glimpse at the true fulfillment of the land promise. Really, the promise of Egypt to Euphrates, it's all about spiritual blessings.

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Look into heaven. This is your real inheritance. The land promises are not that. You've got to look beyond the land promises.

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But God doesn't say that. What does God say? I will give to you the land upon which you lie. It's almost as if the

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Lord would say, I know, Jacob, you're tempted to look into heaven and say, I want to go there. got your attention,

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Jacob? The land on which you lie, I will give to you. North, south, east, west. Look at it.

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All of it. I'm going to give all of it to you. If this were the point, if God's intention was to fulfill the land promise by taking the patriarchs to heaven and giving them the blessing of heaven and saying, therefore,

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I fulfill the land promise, this would be the point where we would read. And God could have for all time have settled this issue right here by saying, this is the true inheritance here.

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Don't get confused by physical land. But he doesn't do that. Instead, he says, the land on which you lie,

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I will give you. Physical land with those physical boundaries. Number six, the nature of the land promise is different than the forms and the features of the

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Mosaic covenant. Now, I read earlier the quote where the guy says, just as the tabernacle was a picture of Christ tabernacling with us, just as the

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Old Testament sacrifices were a picture of Christ's sacrifice for us, just as the Old Testament priesthood was a picture of Christ's priesthood for us, et cetera, right?

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You had the small, the lesser, the type, the shadow, the prophetic symbol that prophesied or looked forward to and anticipated some greater reality, some greater spiritual blessing.

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There's one problem with that argument, and it's a huge one, and it is a glaring one, and the problem is this. The tabernacle was a figure or a feature of which covenant?

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The Mosaic covenant in Sinai. The sacrifices were figures and features of what covenant?

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The Mosaic covenant. The priesthood was a figure and a feature of which covenant? The Mosaic covenant.

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The land promise is part of which covenant? The Abrahamic covenant. These are 400 years apart.

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Two different men in different circumstances in different situations at different times for different purposes. In fact, the Mosaic covenant was intended to be temporary and passing, and it is now made obsolete.

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So it is wrong, therefore, to take those apples and compare them with this orange. You can't say that these things, which were intended by God and are marked out as temporary and passing, since those things are temporary and passing, therefore, what?

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Every promise of God is temporary and passing? Are we going to apply that to the land promise? You can't compare those two things.

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These are two different covenants. Further, we have in the New Testament explanation as to why all of the forms and features of the

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Mosaic covenant have passed away. We have the whole book of Hebrews and multiple chapters in Scriptures which describe to us why those things were fulfilled, how they are fulfilled, and now what has taken place and how we are to function in light of that having taken place.

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But when it comes to the land promise, we are given no such explanation anywhere in the New Testament. And you can't point to Hebrews 11 because this passage doesn't make that case.

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This is not an explanation of how one thing has replaced the other. You know why? Because we can't take something that's true of certain promises under one covenant to one man and then go and apply those things to a different covenant to a different man in a different circumstance 400 years separate.

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That's not how interpretation of Scripture works. Further, the promise of the land is not connected to the

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Mosaic covenant which has passed away. It is connected to the Abrahamic covenant. And not only that, and this is significant, the promise of the land is connected to the new covenant.

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Ezekiel 36, 24 -26. Listen to how Ezekiel describes the new covenant. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you to your own land.

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Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean, and I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

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Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

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I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe

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My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers, so you will be My people and I will be your

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God. Ezekiel 36, verse 33. Thus says the Lord God, On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities,

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I will cause the cities to be inhabited, the waste places to be rebuilt, the desolate land will be cultivated.

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Instead of being a desolation in the sight of everyone who passes by, they will say, This desolate land has become like the

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Garden of Eden, and the waste, desolate, and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited. Then the nations that are left around about you will know that I, the

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Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted that which was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken and will do it.

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Now if the promise of the land, that's a close quote from Ezekiel, if the promise of the land and the Jews living in the land is fulfilled as part of the new covenant, then that promise has not changed by the new covenant superseding the

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Mosaic covenant. While the Mosaic covenant has been replaced and made obsolete by the new covenant, the land promises have not.

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How do we know that? Because the land promises are connected to the fulfillment of the new covenant. We are under the new covenant.

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We are about to observe the Lord's table. We are under the new covenant. Guess what? The fulfillment of the

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Jews returning to that land and that land becoming everything that is promised is tied to that new covenant.

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And God cannot remove that without violating not just the Abrahamic covenant and His word to Abraham, but His word to national

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Israel as part of the new covenant and His word to us. We're brought in and we get to enjoy those blessings.

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Why? Because we are part of the new covenant. And God has made that new covenant with national

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Israel. And He will fulfill the terms of that to national Israel. The land promise has not passed away and been superseded by the new covenant.

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The land promise is attached to the new covenant. God promises. He will fulfill that promise to Abraham.

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He will fulfill that expectation of the land. Why? Because He has sworn to save national Israel. Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31.

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Number seven. We do not have to choose between the fulfillment of physical promises and the presence of spiritual or heavenly realities.

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This is a false dilemma. You're just expecting a physical kingdom. I mean, how carnal, how worldly, how earthly, how tied to this realm, how transient, how temporal can you possibly be to expect a kingdom like this?

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In fact, sometimes my pre -millennial position and by pre -millennialism I mean the expectation that Jesus Christ is going to return prior to Him setting up a 1 ,000 -year reign.

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He's going to reign and rule over the throne of David in Israel for 1 ,000 years, according to Revelation 20. Sometimes that is characterized, and I think blasphemously and strawmanningly, manningly?

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Strawman? It's a strawman perspective, as what is often called carnal Zionism. As if the pre -millennial expectation is that Christ is going to return,

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He's going to set up some just earthly, fleshly, physical kingdom with no spiritual dimensions to it whatsoever. And He's going to appoint

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Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris to positions in His cabinet, and we're going to have some worldwide, carnal, fleshly, sin -filled, unjust kingdom on this earth.

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That is not our hope. That is not our expectation at all. As I said earlier, the Jews would have expected a kingdom so righteous, so peaceful, so prosperous, so glorious, so spiritual, that you could only describe it as a heavenly country.

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The only description you could use is that this is as if heaven came down and occupied Jerusalem. It's a heavenly

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Jerusalem. It's a Jerusalem with heavenly characteristics. Yes, it is true that we will be in physical, glorified bodies in that kingdom.

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Yes, it is true that it will be on this earth. Yes, it is true it will be a physical rule, a physical reign over a physical nation in a physical land with physical boundaries on a physical planet.

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But it will be the most spiritual reality that you can possibly imagine. It will have spiritual dimensions to it, spiritual aspects to it, spiritual capacities to it that we cannot even begin to fathom right now.

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Because we are in carnal, fleshly, fallen, limited bodies. But when we are in glorified bodies and Abraham is raised and gets that land and he gets that kingdom and that heavenly

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Jerusalem dwells where present day Jerusalem is, then we will say of that kingdom, this is a city with foundations.

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This is something designed and made by God. This is a heavenly kingdom in a heavenly country and everlasting dominion.

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And he will rule and reign over all of creation forever. And there will be no end to his peace.

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And there will be no end to his kingdom or to his rule or to his reign. But as the angel promised Mary, over the throne of David, on the throne of David and over the house of Israel, he will rule and he will reign forever.

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Maranatha. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Let's bow our heads. Our Father, we praise you for your goodness.

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Our hope is truly a lasting one. It is a glorious one. We anticipate and look forward to and long for that eternal and heavenly kingdom.

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You are glorious beyond description and what you have promised for us, your people, is truly in keeping with your infinite nature and character and your goodness and your love.

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How merciful you are to save sinners, to redeem us from our sin, to take us out of this world of darkness and to promise us an everlasting kingdom of light and joy.

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And it is all because of what you have done in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. We praise you for this grace and we praise you for that blessed hope.

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Thank you that you will fulfill all of your word. Thank you that those whom you have saved, you are also sanctifying and you are securing everlastingly.

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For our hope is in a God who always keeps every last promise. And because we believe that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance and cannot be revoked, so it is that we believe that you will fulfill your word to us.

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That those who have believed upon Christ, have their sins forgiven, are made righteous and are brought into heaven to dwell and to be with you forevermore in joy and pleasure and blessing and glory and delight that our minds cannot comprehend, this world cannot understand, and certainly we will experience all of these things by your grace.

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We thank you in Christ's name. Amen. So there is a forward -looking aspect to our hope and there is a forward -looking aspect to the

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Lord's Supper as well. So we're going to observe the Lord's Supper here in just a moment. Before we do, I remind you that we do not partake of the

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Lord's Supper in an unworthy way, and by that we mean that if you're not a believer and you're sitting here and you've never trusted

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Christ for salvation and you do not know the state of your soul, do not partake of this. This is not for you. This is for those who have repented of their sin and trusted

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Christ for salvation and have been born again, redeemed, and know His grace. Because this is a symbol of what

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God has done and provided for us that we may have eternal life. Second, if you are a believer and you are living in unrepentant sin and you are not walking away from that sin and you are living in bondage to it, you need to let the elements pass from before you as well.

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Or you can confess your sin and turn from it, and that's really the emphasis of this communion time. We turn from our sin, we repent, we acknowledge our sinfulness before God privately and then corporately, and then we partake of the elements together because these symbolize the price that was paid for our redemption.

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And we do this, Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 11, we do this until the Lord comes. So it is always our joy to do this, knowing that our sins have been forgiven, they've been laid upon the glorious Son of God.

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Our sin had been taken out of the way and He has given to us His righteousness. But as we partake, we are always longing for and looking forward to the day when

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He will come again. We do this until He comes, until He returns. So every communion, every communion is an expression in our hearts,

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I hope this is the last one. I hope that we get to partake of that kingdom, that we get to see

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His face before I partake of communion again. That's our hope. So let us bow our heads in prayer privately for a few moments and then

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I will pray for all of us and then we'll partake together. Amen.