All right, let's turn back there
to Hebrews chapter 11. As I was finishing up this afternoon,
I looked out the window and a squirrel was coming down the tree and
he just stopped and he just sat there upside down and just sat there. And I thought
about that for a minute and I thought, we're born into this world like
squirrels. We're just as content to be upside
down as right side up. Every elect child of God must
be and shall be born of the Holy Spirit of God, born a second
time, born again. through the gospel of God's grace.
And with that new birth comes the gift of faith. And when God
gives faith, we don't muster that up ourselves. Faith is the
gift of God. And when he gives us faith, God
turns us right side up so that we are no longer content being
upside down anymore. Now I bring this gospel to you
in hopes that God will give you faith. Those that don't have
it, that God will be pleased to give you spiritual life and
all the blessings of His grace give you faith. And I preach
this gospel so that those that do have faith will have their
faith strengthened by the same Spirit of God. Now this message
that I'm going to bring here is going to prepare us for the
next one. So I want you to pay close attention. Hang on every
word here. We're going to learn some lessons
from Abraham's faith. Lessons from Abraham's faith.
I want to show you three things here. Three main headings. Faith
determines, first of all, what we leave behind. Look at verse
8. By faith Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place which he should after receive
for an inheritance, obeyed. He was called to go out from
somewhere. He was called to leave somewhere.
He left something behind. That's the first thing. Faith
determines how we live in this world, how we live in this life. Look there at verse 8 again.
It says, And he went out. He did this by faith. He went
out. He obeyed and he went out, not knowing where he went. By
faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,
dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with
him of the same promise. And then thirdly, faith determines
what we look forward to. Verse 10 says, For he looked
for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Now remember those three things and you have our outline. Faith
determines, number one, what we leave behind. Faith determines,
number two, how we live. And number three, what we look
for. What we leave, how we live, and what we look for. Alright? Now faith is going to leave something
behind. Faith is going to leave some
things behind. When God gives faith, we are going to leave
some things behind. Verse 8 says, By faith Abraham, when he was
called to go out, he obeyed and he went out. He obeyed and he
went out. What did God call Abraham to
leave behind? I want to read this to you in
Joshua 24. Joshua 24. What did he leave behind? Joshua 24 2. This was some time
later, many years later, but Joshua verse 2. Joshua said unto
all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers
dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah,
the father of Abraham, and the father of Nechor, and they served
other gods. Do you see that? They served
other gods. And I took your father Abraham
from the other side of the flood. God said, I took him. Now that's
what Abraham was called to leave. He was called to go out. He was
called to leave his land where he dwelt. He dwelt in Ur of Chaldees
with his family and he was called to go out, to leave it. Does
that mean that If I believe God that I'm going to have to leave
my family behind, is that what that means? It means this, when
God calls His child, He calls in effectual grace so that we
leave our former vain religion behind and we leave, even if
it means severing the closest ties, we leave it behind. We
have to leave it behind. God called Abraham to leave everything
that was ungodly, all his vain ungodly confidence and hope.
And by faith, Abraham obeyed him. He went out. He left it.
All God's children do. Most everybody here, we have
family, we have friends, and they all worship something. Most
everybody worships something. And most everybody has some kind
of hope. And most everybody worships under
the name of so-called Christianity. Now I want you to listen to me.
If you have any concern about the glory of God in Christ Jesus,
listen carefully. The less offensive the message
is to the sinner, the more it makes Christ out to have failed
on the cross. You can be sure of that, certain
of that. The lukewarm, watered-down message
that takes the offense out of the cross also takes the effect
out of the cross. Those were the two things that
Paul was most concerned about. He said, I didn't come preaching
to you with wisdom of words lest the cross of Christ should be
made non-effectual. That means lest I say something
in a way that makes it sound as if Christ didn't accomplish
what he came to accomplish. And he said in Galatians, he
said, and if I preached that that can be accomplished in any
way by you, by your hand, then is the offense of the cross ceased. What do you mean by offense?
I mean, there is absolutely nothing, A to Z, that the sinner will
get any credit for having done to save himself, and that's offensive
to man. What do you mean by the effect
of the cross? I mean Christ went to that cross to, He came to
this earth to fully fulfill the law of God in every jot and tittle. everything that was written of
Him by the prophets and everything in the moral law. He came and
fulfilled it in perfect righteousness because His people couldn't.
And He is the righteousness of His people. And He went to the
cross and then was made sin for His people and had all their
sin put on Him so that He bore it justly before God and put
it away so that we've been made righteous in Christ Jesus. And when we're born of God, we
behold Him and we're brought to see that Well as he says it
is, that's how it is. He says we're complete in Christ
and the believers complete in Christ. Now that message is,
that's the gospel as briefly as I can give it to you, but
that message is offensive to man and man wants to turn it
around somehow to where he can make it less offensive to the
sinner, but in doing so it's going to make the effect of salvation
being accomplished by Christ to be completely non-effectual.
You can't have both ways. The worst thieves in this world
are those that teach robbery while maintaining an appearance
of honesty and godliness. That's the worst thieves. The
lowest place in hell will be for those who try to teach a
God and a Savior that's not the God of this Bible. Now, I'm a
man teaching the gospel to you, and that's a serious thought
to think about, and I think about it constantly, but that's so.
The worst place in hell will be for those who taught a lie
to sinners on their way to hell. Now, Abraham was called, and
when he was called, he heard the word of God. And everybody
that hears this call, even if you just, if you've just heard
the, if you can go back to the Ur of Cal D, if you can go back
to former idolatry and former confidences, it's because all
you've heard this call with is just a general call. You just
heard it with a natural ear. You hadn't heard it affectionately
in the harp. But if we can do that, if we can go back and we
can take up with something that is not God, if we can go back
and lock arms with something that declares that Christ is
less than anything than preeminent in all things, that God is less
than anything than absolutely sovereign in salvation. We know
He's sovereign in creation. We know He's sovereign in providence.
God's sovereign in creation, I mean in salvation. He gets
all the glory for that. And any message that that declares
that the Spirit of God Himself doesn't come into the heart and
create life where there was no life, give a willingness where
there was no willingness, give a love where there was only hatred,
give a heart where there was nothing but a stone. Any gospel
that doesn't declare that and puts at the same time something
into the hands of a sinner is not the worship of God. I don't
care what men want to call it. I don't care how they want to
candy coat it. If they speak not according to
this word right here, it's because there's no light in them. And
that message is not light. That message is not light. I
don't say that to be contentious. I care more about the glory of
God and the good of your souls than to lie to you about it.
To lie to you about it. Now, there's some here who believe,
and you've got believing mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers,
and you've not had to experience what Abraham experienced here. He had to leave family. God called
him and he left family. Now, you haven't experienced
that, but in this life, you likely will. You likely will at some
point, whether it's your own sons and daughters or whether
it's, it may be in your family, it may be without, but you're
likely to experience it. But remember this, any earthly
relationship in this life that causes you to compromise on the
full, finished, accomplished, atoning work of Christ is a relationship
that has taken preeminence in our heart over Christ. And God
just won't have that. He won't have competition with
Him in our hearts. This is what God said Himself
in Matthew 10, 34. He said, Think not that I am
come to send peace on earth. This is Christ speaking. I came
not to send peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man
at variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And
a man's foes shall be they of his own household. And he that
loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of
me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me
is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall
lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."
You know what happened to Abraham? God called him. God called him
so affectionately that he set Christ in his heart more than
this world, more than his brethren, more than those family around
him. And when he did, Abraham lost
his life in Ur, but he found eternal life in Christ. That's
exactly what happened. Christ said, Abraham saw my day,
and he rejoiced. He rejoiced. Now, faith is going
to determine what we leave behind. And let me ask you this, is that
too much to demand of the servant when that's exactly what the
Lord did? Who rejected Him when He came to this earth? His own
family. His own family. Many, many of
natural brothers and sisters and cousins of those that were
related to Mary and Joseph, they rejected Him. They were some
of the first ones to reject Him. And then the children of Israel
rejected Him. And then, and then, and then
you know who it was that crucified Christ Jesus the Lord. Christ
was crucified by fundamental conservative religious God haters,
right beside liberal religious God haters. The Pharisees represented
one of them and Sadducees represented the other
one. And they both together, they wouldn't have anything to
do with each other, but they joined together to crucify Christ. And this was what we desired
when Christ walked this earth. We desired for a murderer to
go out free and for the prince of life to be crucified. And
that's what's going on from pulpits in our day is men are desiring
for us murderers to have our will and to go free and for the
prince of glory to be crucified all over again. Pious men and
women rejected Christ for their obedience to the law of Moses.
Zealous men and women rejected Christ for their many wonderful
benevolent works. Sincere men and women rejected
Christ for something they had done to bring themselves and
others to God. And respected leaders rejected
Christ in order to make a profit off of souls. And that's exactly
what's happening today. Exactly what's taking place today.
Shall Christ suffer at the hands of idolaters and God's children
be permitted to lock arms with Him? This is what happened to Abraham.
2 Corinthians 6.17. This is what happened to Abraham.
Right here. This is what happens to every
child of God when God calls us by His grace. 2 Corinthians 6.17. He tells us there in this context
that there's no way, there's just no way that righteousness
is going to have fellowship with unrighteousness. There's no way
communion, there's going to be communion between light and darkness,
concord between Christ and Belial. There's going to be no way a
believer is going to get along with an infidel. There's no way
the temple of God is going to get along with idols. And he
says here, verse 17, Wherefore come out from among them. He's
talking about false religion. Come out from among them and
be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean, and
I'll receive you. And will be a father unto you,
and you'll be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. And
having therefore these promises, Abraham came out. He came out
and he went out. He obeyed God and he went out.
That's what faith's going to do. Faith's going to leave some
things behind. I was watching this ship you
know, Concordia that sank recently. And there was one lady that said,
they asked her, you know, did you consider ever consider just
jumping overboard? And she said, I did. And she
said, but I had so many valuables in my suitcase. She said that
instead of jumping overboard, I went down and thought I would
just risk it and see if I could get out that way. We're on a
sinking ship. We're on a sinking ship. And
we got one of two options. Hold on to our suitcase or leave
it all behind and jump overboard. That's our options. That's our
options. When God calls, you're gonna
leave everything behind. Every vain confidence, every
vain trust, everything that would keep you from God will be removed
by God Almighty's sovereign hand. And when that happens, we'll
lay hold of Christ. You'll go out and obey. All right,
let's go now to the second thing. The second thing, faith. Faith
determines how we live in this life. Now there's several things
to see right here in this and I'll try to spend a little more
time here because this is where we spend the most time, going
through this life. Alright, now first thing here
we see is that the believer is moved by the promise of God. The believer is moved by the
Word of God and not by any kind of promise of earthly gain. It's not that at all. Not that
at all. It's the promise of God of salvation
with our God. Look at verse 8. By faith Abraham,
when he was called to go out into a place which he should
after receive for an inheritance, he obeyed. You know, it wasn't
a promise that God gave him that you're going to leave out of
Ur of Chaldea and you're going to go out here into this land
and I'm going to give you immediate temporal joy and wealth and prosperity
in this world. That wasn't what God promised
him. God said, I'm going to give you this land, but I'm not giving
it to you now. I'm not giving it to you now.
He went out to a land, a place which he should have to receive
foreign inheritance. You see, You see, God provided
for him. He provided for him. Abraham
didn't suffer. Temporally speaking, the righteous
was not forsaken and God's child didn't go begging bread. He had
everything he needed in that land. But except for the tomb
that he was buried in, Abraham never owned anything in that
land. Never anything in that land.
That's the picture here, first of all, of what our Redeemer
did. It's a picture of what Christ did. Glory. glory with God and
with all his children was promised to Christ before the world began
was promised to his to Christ before he's called in Isaiah
he's called in Isaiah the everlasting father he is the last Adam Christ
is he is the everlasting father of all his children just as Abraham
was the father of many nations Christ is that and it was promised
to him even as it was promised to Abraham that he would have
He would have an inheritance with the Father. He would have
all of His children, Jacob, His portion, made up of Jew and Gentile,
His elect, out of all the four corners of the earth. He would
have all of them together with Him in glory. And so Christ left
heaven's glory. Just like Abraham left that land,
Christ left heaven's glory. Too much for us to leave everything
else behind for Him? Christ took upon Him the form
of a servant. Shall we not do so? Is that too
much for us? He walked this earth, not to
be ministered to, but to minister and to give His life a ransom
for many, to lay down His life for those the Father gave unto
Him. He didn't come to heap things upon Himself. He went out to
do something for His people that His people couldn't do for themselves.
Shall we not do the same? Shall Christ not be preeminent
in our heart and Christ not be and His people be first in all
things that we do in this life? It meant sorrow. It didn't mean
pleasure for him. It meant being despised and rejected.
It didn't mean acceptance. It meant not having a place to
lay his head. One time a man came to him. He
got all excited. He got to hearing Christ preached.
He got all excited. And he run up to Christ and he
said to the Lord Jesus when he was here, and he said, I'm going
to follow you wherever you go. And the Lord turned around and
looked at him and he said, the foxes have dens. Birds of the air have
nests. The Son of Man doesn't have where
to lay His head. He don't have where to lay His
head in this earth. He who made the worlds, He who
held the waters in the palm of His hand, didn't have a place
to lay his head when he came here in the form of a servant,
as the mediator between God and his people. Yet he had the promise,
Christ had the promise of inheritance. After that, he suffered that
humiliation, and after that he glorified God and saved his people
from their sins. And God raised him. God gave
him exactly what he promised. And you know what God gave to
Abraham when it was all over? Exactly what he promised. That
land Abraham has is a land that's worth more value than that dirt,
dry land over there where Abraham walked. It's present communion
with God Almighty. That's what Abraham's got. That's
what he's got. Now listen, this is what Scripture
says about us. 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians
3.22. This is true of every believer,
right here, 1 Corinthians 3.22. This world, this world, life, death, things
present, things to come, all are yours. All are yours. That's true for every believer.
And you're Christ and Christ is God. But you know it doesn't
always appear that way, does it? It doesn't appear that way,
does it? With the natural eye, it doesn't
appear that way. But faith believes God. Faith
believes God. And after that you have suffered
a while, after that you've been born with this light affliction
for a little while, we'll have the inheritance God promised
us. We'll have it. But He don't give it to us first.
He don't give it to us first. All right, now. Alright, let's
look here, let's look here now at, here's the last thing I want
to say on that. Regard everything in this world
to be yours, yet live as if the only thing here that is yours
is a space large enough to hold your dead body. That's what Abraham
had. It was all his, but the only
space he had on that whole land was the space big enough to bury
his body. That's all he had. If we do that, we'll find out
that the secret to happiness in this life is believing God. I tell you, we will. All right,
here's the next thing. Faith lives. This is under the
same heading of faith living now. Faith lives. Faith lives and walks not by
sight, but by believing the Word of God. Look at verse 8. Look
at that little phrase there at the end. And he went out not
knowing where he went. He didn't know where he went.
Now, over in Genesis 12 verse 1, I'll just read this to you.
The Lord said unto Abraham, He said unto him, Get thee out of
thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house,
unto a land that I will show you. Now the Lord said, I'm going
to show you this land. But God didn't show him that
land first. He didn't show him that land
first. And because Abraham went out by faith, Abraham didn't
ask God, he didn't say, now, how about you let me go in there
and look at that land first? And then when I go in there and
look at that land, if it looks to me like I can make a living
there, and if it looks to me like I can make ends meet there,
pay my bills there and so on, then I'll go in. That wouldn't
have been faith, would it? That wouldn't have been faith,
would it? The Lord said, I'm going to show it to you. I'm
going to show it to you. I think the next message we're
going to see is going to be about those spies going into the land
of Canaan. You know, that wasn't God's idea. You know, God told him, he told
Moses, you can go. But God wasn't the one that said,
Moses, send spies into that land. The people came up with that
idea. And Moses, it pleased Moses. He thought it was a good idea.
And God said, all right, send them. Send them. What if I said, what if I said
this? You just think about this. What
if I stood up and preached this message right here? I stood up
and said, now, if you'll just get yourself ready to believe
on Christ, If what you'll do is if you just save up enough
righteousness and enough holiness so that you have sufficiency
to believe on Christ, then once you have all that sufficiency
to believe on Christ, then come to Christ. I hope you'd run me out of here
on a rail. I hope you would. I think you
would. I believe you would. Or, here's
the other side, what if I said to you, now you wait around,
you just wait around, wait around until you've saved up enough
righteousness. and holiness. But now if you
hadn't saved up enough, and you hadn't got everything worked
out enough, then just, you don't have enough yet to believe on
Him. So don't come to Him now. If you hadn't saved up enough
righteousness and holiness, made yourself acceptable enough to
come to Him now. Just hold off until you get enough
saved up. Now if I so told you, once you've got enough saved
up, come, or if I said, now wait until you get enough saved up,
then come. Either way, whether I tell you
don't do it until after you've got enough or whether I tell
you now you don't have enough so you just wait. Either way,
it wouldn't be faith, would it? It wouldn't be faith. Faith is
believing God. Faith is believing Christ is
my full sufficiency. It's believing that He's my righteousness. He's my wisdom with God. He worked
out, He did things for God in the wisdom of God as a man for
me that I couldn't do for myself. He is the righteousness God demands
for me. He's the sanctification God demands
with which God is well pleased. He is the deliverer of my soul. He is. Faith comes to Him entirely
putting all into His hand, all into Him, saying, He is all. He is all my provision with God. Because God said it so. God said
it and we believe it. It's not, it's not, as some say,
well God said and I believe it and that makes it so. It's not,
my believing it don't make it so. God saying it makes it so. Whether I believe it or not.
Faith says I believe God. He said it so, I believe God.
But we don't see any of that with the carnal eye. that righteousness,
that wisdom, that redemption that's accomplished, that sanctification,
that deliverance that's done. We don't see any of that with
the carnal eye. But God says of His people, as
He is right now, so are you in this present world. How is He? I don't guess you could get more
perfect. I don't guess you could get more at one with God. I don't
guess you could get more as certain of never again having any charge
laid to his account. You couldn't get any more certain
of everlasting, eternal, blessed communion with God which shall
never be interrupted. And John said, this is what's
going to save us from all fear in the day of judgment is this,
as he is right now. That's how the believer is in
this world. You believe it? I know if you
look at me, you'll say, well, I don't see that, Clay. I don't
either. Not me or you, but I see it in
Christ by faith, by faith. Alright, let's look at this next
thing. That's how we go through this life. You see, think about
this. It's a great blessing of God
to make us to see that all of the greater promises that God
has made us concerning our eternal salvation being accomplished
in Christ It's a great blessing of God to make us be assured
of that by showing us as we go through this life for a little
while, ever dependent upon Him in this very temporal existence
to provide everything for us, and see Him to provide everything
for us, it makes us assured that the word that He's given us,
if His word's sure concerning these lesser lesser salvations
that he accomplishes for us, it's certain concerning that
eternal greater salvation. And that's a blessing for him
just to leave us walking here a little bit to show us that.
And that's what he did with Abraham. He went out by faith. He didn't
know where he was going, but God led him. All right, let's
look at this next one. Faith, as we walk through this
world, faith doesn't conform to this world. Look at verse
9. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange
country. Now don't forget, it's all his.
God said it's all yours. But he walked through it as if
he was a complete alien, a foreigner, a stranger. Both that world to
him and him to that world. Abraham, be a stranger in this
world. Believer, be a stranger in this
world. Paul said this, he said, by the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ, he said, the world is crucified to me and I'm crucified
to the world. The world's dead to me and I'm
dead to the world. The world looked at Paul as being
completely, thoroughly an oddball in the midst of everybody. And
Paul said, and I could care less. Abraham could care less if the
Canaanites looked at him and said, you don't look like a Canaanite. Abraham would say, I don't care.
I'm glad you, thank you. Thank you. I don't want to look
like a Canaanite. And it would have bothered him
greatly, though, if they'd have said, you know, you look just
like one of us. You get along just like one of
us. That would have bothered him greatly. Whether it's this
world's religion, whether it's their idea, this world's idea
of what a successful life is, whether it's this world's idea,
all their fads and all the things that makes you accepted in this
world, All the things that this world regards as needful, as
necessary, they change as constantly as the evil heart within a man. They do. And they're worthless.
They're worthless. My gospel's not contemporary.
It's as old as my God is. And my gospel is as old-fashioned,
out of fashion, and as unpopular as my God is. but the world can
have everything in it. I'm not changing, I'm not changing
and bringing my God down to suit this world. It just ain't happening. God keep me there, it just ain't
happening. Why would I be concerned about the particulars going on
in another country other than my own country? Are you worried
about, are you really concerned about what's going on in Nigeria? Is it paramount of importance
to you what's going on in Nicaragua right now? It don't really concern
me much. My own country concerns me a
lot. Look at Philippians 3.20. Let's read that verse 19. Verse 18, he said, many walk
of whom I've told you often, and I tell you even weeping.
They're the enemies of the cross of Christ. whose end is destruction,
whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who
mind earthly things. But now look what he says of
the believer. Our conversation. You see that word conversation?
It means citizenship. It means the place whereof we're
a citizen. Our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we
look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change
our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body, according as he to the working whereby he's able to
subdue all things unto himself. That's where my citizenship is,
so I'm not real concerned about this strange country that I'm
a stranger to, and that is a strange country to me. That's not real
concerned about, this place called earth, this world. All right,
look at this next thing, back in our text, Hebrews 11. Faith lives in constant awareness
that this world is passing away and only God changes not. Look
at verse 9. It says there that he dwelt in
tabernacles. You know what that word is? It's
a tent. He dwelt in a tent. Now, does
that mean if I believe God I'm going to have to live in a tent?
Of course, it doesn't. Of course, it doesn't believe
that. But live this life knowing this, all of our possessions,
all of our dearest times, this whole world itself, everything
here is as weak as a tent. And it's as apt to change as
quickly as a tent can be taken down and removed that quickly. We get a piece of land and we
think, man, now we're on solid ground. We're on solid ground. We get a little money and we
think, we're safe now. We get a good job, we think,
we got job security. Either we're gonna bury our children
or our children are gonna bury us. and have no guarantee of
one over the other. That's how much this life is
just a tent. That's how much of uncertainty
it is and how changing it is. The more that we're attached
to things of this world, the more distraction we'll have from
believing God. God says that all through His
Word. It's so simple. And yet we come out of this world
trying to get all we can and can't all we get and sit on the
can. And we try to teach our children to do the exact same
thing from day one. And God says, the more we are
attached to the things of this world, the more distraction we'll
have from believing God. And the less attached we are
to this world, the less we will be vexed with the things that
worry the men of this world. If you don't have a whole lot
invested, you're not real worried when the whole world is crying
over the stock market. You're just not. Hold on loosely. Hold on very loosely. The only
sure thing is God, His Word, His faithfulness. Our rest, our
righteousness is Christ. There's surety there. Surety
there. Alright, let's look at this next
thing. But even though these things, I know that our young
people sitting here, everyone that doesn't believe this Word,
sitting here thinking, man, this sounds like I'm giving up everything
I like. Sounds like I give up everything I love. One day, if God speaks, you'll
hate what you love now and love what you once hated. That's what
God's grace does. But here's what He does. Here's
what He does. Through faith, He gives us precious,
precious new company. Precious new company. Abraham
left family and friends and that land he was in, but God gave
him some new company. Look at verse 9. He sojourned
in the land of promise as in a strange country dwelling in
tabernacles. with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs
with Him of the same promise. Isaac was a son of God's promise. He was a chosen, elected child
whom Christ was surety for him. He was redeemed before he ever
knew he needed being redeemed. And God gave him to Abraham.
And Abraham had that boy with him for around 75 years. And
then, Then Isaac had a grandson named
Jacob, Abraham's grandson named Jacob, of whom God said, Jacob
have I loved. Jacob have I loved. According
to that the purpose of election might stand. I've loved Jacob.
I chose him. I've everlastingly loved him.
I put him in Christ. And he'd went with Jacob around
15 years. They weren't only children, they were like-minded, given
faith with Abraham. They were heirs of promise. They
were children of the same grace, of the same God, worshiping the
same God, living for the same end, co-heirs with Him of the
inheritance God promised to His children. I had somebody tell
me recently that they were speaking of some of my brethren that I
know and they wanted me to know, just be assured that they meant,
those brethren of mine meant absolutely nothing to them. And
you know, if they meant enough for God to shed his own blood
for them, they mean something to me. They mean something to
me. I don't care if I know them on
a personal basis, but if I've just met them and sat down with
them and talked to them and I see that God's called them by the
same grace, they trust in the same Savior, they've been redeemed
by the same blood, they got the same hope, we got the same faith
of the same Spirit of God, they mean something to me. And those
preachers that have hazarded their lives in the midst of men
who are venomous, men who want you to know you don't mean anything
to me, men who've had the spine, by God's grace, to stand up,
preach the gospel, rather than being a spineless jellyfish,
like those men that want to say they mean nothing to me. Those
men that God sends to preach the gospel, they mean something
to me. They're heirs of the same promise with me. They mean everything
to me. I may not know them. I may just
hear them preach and hear the voice of my God speaking through
that ambassador, but they mean something to me. I don't have
to know them on a one-on-one basis. I don't have to know them,
but if God shed his blood for them, they mean something to
me. God gave him something here. He gave him some brethren, some
brethren. I'll tell you what I'll take
any day of the week. Any day of the week, I'll take the company
of a brother who speaks food from my heart rather than the
man who tries to dazzle my head. I'll take that any day of the
week. I'll take any day of the week the company of the man who's
trying to lift my spirit from the dung heap that it is in my
own flesh and lift me up to the throne of God to see my completeness
in Christ. I'll take his company any day
of the week to the man who wants to put that pharisaical eye on
me and try to cover me up in mud. I take it any day of the
week. I don't care if he can speak
with the tongues of learned men or if he sounds like he came
straight from the backwoods somewhere and can't pronounce all his words.
He speaks the unsearchable golden riches of Christ Jesus and he
means more to me than all the intellectual, spineless wife
slaves and honor slaves and world slaves that walk around in this
world and can't even stand up to a flea. for the sake of Christ. Those are princes among men. Princes among men. We're experiencing that together.
You know it? We are. I sat over there the other night.
We watched a football game, and I was thinking about this. I
thought, the Lord's doing something here. And He's doing it through His
gospel. That's how He said He would do it. And He's bringing
hearts together. He's making it so we can talk
to each other. without being trying to cover
up, just talk. He's making it so we can cry
to one another. He's making it so we can laugh
with one another. He's making us honest before
God and with each other. He's making us brethren in Christ. That's what he's doing. And he
does it through this gospel. I feel so sorry. I feel so sorry
for men that are too smart to know, too smart for their own
good to know that God does this through the gospel and they miss
it. They just miss it. Absolutely miss it. Well, let's
end this. Let's look at this third thing.
Now, I said to you, first of all, our first heading was faith
makes us leave some things. Secondly, faith makes us live
some certain way. That's what we just looked at.
Now, here's the last thing. We'll be brief here. Faith makes
us look forward to something. Verse 10. For he looked for a
city. We're looking for heaven's Jerusalem. We're looking for a heavenly
city. A city that's going to have the fellowship of a number
that no man can number. Walls that can't be attacked,
streets that don't have any adversary. A city. which hath foundations. You know, there ain't a city
here that's got a foundation. There's not a city on this earth,
this earth itself, that has a foundation. It's all gonna be burned up.
It's all gonna melt with a fervent heat, Peter said, when he returned. It's gonna all, it doesn't have
a foundation. But that city, we won't be dwelling
in tents anymore. We won't be, there'll be nothing
changing about that place. It'll be eternal love, endless
bliss, and immortal glory. with our God. We're looking for
a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Would you look at just the singularity
of that? You think about This little Rocky
Hill borough, this Rocky Hill borough, I got a book recently
about Rocky Hill, and I was studying, reading about Rocky Hill. If
you tried to name all of the people that had a hand in founding
just this little Rocky Hill borough, we couldn't name them all. We
couldn't name them all. And there's nothing lasting about
this place. There's no foundation about Rocky
Hill borough that will last. it won't last. If 1000 years
go by, if God Terry's 1000 years go by, you probably won't even
know what rocky Hillboro was, or much less have a clue that
it even existed. But this city that we're talking
about, whose builder and maker is God, this city that's going
to remain, it just has one that built it, just one, God, God. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit, He gets the glory for building this place.
Now, I want you to think about this. Go home with this. God
Himself, the Spirit of God, holds up Abraham for us here now. It's
been 2011 years since Christ walked here, this earth. I don't
know how many thousands of years it was back when Abraham lived. It was 430 years before he ever
gave the law in Israel that he lived. It's been thousands of
years that Abraham lived. But now all of this time later,
Abraham's name is still being mentioned. His name is still
being held up for us by the Spirit of God right here. It's being
told us that he left behind his former religion by faith. By
faith he lived upon God's promise as a stranger in a tent with
his brethren. And by faith he looked for that
eternal city made by God Almighty. What a legacy. Want to put your
mark on this world? Want to leave something behind
for ages to remember you by? How about this? He lived by faith. What else? What else is there? Would you tell me? He lived by
faith. That'd be a legacy to leave. He lived by faith. I hope that can be said of me.
He lived by faith. Amen.