11 and this morning we'll be looking
at verse 10. The Scripture says, For he, Abraham,
looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and
maker is God. The title of the message this
morning is the expectation of faith. The expectation of faith. You who believe in Christ, you
who trust in Christ, what do you expect? What do you look for? What do
you anticipate as a result of faith in Christ? The Scripture says of Abraham,
he looked, he anticipated, he expected a city that hath foundations,
whose builder and maker is God. Now the Holy Spirit has taught
us much in these examples about faith. about faith and as we
look into these examples they are a mirror image of our own
if we are a believer in christ the faith of the fathers that
went before us the faith of these men are mirror images of our
faith now their experiences were or or granted in some level they
were much grander than most of our experiences. But I tell you
this, their faith was no less the same as ours. And Abraham,
the scripture tells us, Abraham, he was called. He was called
of God. And so it is with true faith,
everyone who believes is called of God. If you are a believer
in Christ, you should recognize this, keep this always near to
your heart, your calling. is not by your works, by your
will, but rather the will and work of God. This is the work
of God, Jesus said, that you believe on Him whom He has sent. So true faith is called of God. It calls us from death to life,
from unbelief to faith. And true faith that is called
of God obeys. Abraham was called out into a
place that he should go and receive as an inheritance, obeyed. And
that's the second aspect of Abraham's faith, is that he was called
and he obeyed. So it is with ours. When we are
called of God, everyone called of God obeys the Gospel, obeys
the Gospel. Peter said, seeing that you have
purified your souls in obeying the truth. I am so glad God has given me
obedience to obey the truth. To believe on Jesus Christ is
the command of God, is the call of God, and we have obeyed And we see this, that faith,
Abraham's faith, was no one-time thing. In verse 9, he said, "...by
faith he sojourned." And so our faith is no one-time event, but
rather a continual event. We are continually believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are continually trusting.
This is the rule of our life. Not the law. That is not the
rule of our life. The rule of our life is faith
in Christ, just as Abraham's was. And so then this is our practice
to believe. And having all the rights and
privileges of God, having the righteousness of God imputed
and imparted to us in the new birth, we, like Abraham, have
not yet experienced the fullness of the promises." Abraham sojourned
by faith, and as he sojourned, what does the Scripture say?
By faith he looked. He looked forward to something. He looked forward to something,
an anticipation that he did not receive yet upon the earth. And that was the city whose builder
and maker is God. He had promises. God promised
him. God swore to him that he would have a city. And
what did he do? He, with faith and patience,
waited for it. Waited for it. He expected it. He expected it. Therefore, He
looked for it. If I take something and I promise
you something, if I say, hey, I want to give you something,
you say, okay, well, when are you going to give it? I'm going
to give it to you. Just wait for it. And you should,
if I was an honest person and I had the means and the ability,
then you would expect that from me. Now you take somebody who's dishonest,
somebody who has no value or trustworthiness, and they say,
I'm going to give you something. Well, maybe they will, maybe
they won't. You really wouldn't expect it,
would you? But listen who promises us something. God promises. God, who cannot
lie, has promised you, His children, something. Should we then not expect what
God promised? And I tell you this, if we are
not expecting it, then it is nothing less than unbelief. Abraham, he went out and he didn't
know where he was going. But I tell you this, his faith
was not blind faith. He may not have known where He
was going in this world, but He knew where He was going after
this world. And so it didn't really matter
where He went in this world, because His eyes were not set
on this world. His eyes were set on the world
to come. And so it is with us. We are
not set. Does it matter where we go in
this world? It only matters where we're going after. And so we
set like Abraham. Our faith is not blind faith.
Now I tell you, some men call faith blind. They say, well,
I'm just believing God for something. Let me ask you, is your expectation
then based on a promise God gave you, or is it just something
you've made up in your own mind? Because true faith is not blind. I am not expecting something
from God that He has not promised me. True faith never expects
something from God that He has not promised. Now, we can ask for things. A
person gets sick, a believer gets sick, and he's at the point
of death, and we pray to God, and what do we do? Do we expect
God to raise him from the sickness? No. We don't expect. What we do expect is God to hear
our prayers, judge rightly, and do rightly. Whether that mean
He get well or that means He dies. It matters not. God has not promised us whether
they would live or die. God has promised to do us good
no matter what. And so then we expect this, that
whatever happens is good. Because God promised that. God
promised that. So our faith is not blind faith,
but our faith rests on a sure foundation. It rests on the evidence
of God's Word and the revelation of God's Word to us. And also,
it rests on the revelation of this Word in our hearts by the
Holy Spirit. Remember, the apostle said this
in Romans chapter 8. He said, the Spirit of God testifies
with our spirit. that we are the sons of God.
And if sons, then heirs. Join heirs with Christ. So then
as heirs and join heirs, we should expect an inheritance. Isn't
that what an heir is? Someone who inherits something?
And so then if the Word of God is testified to us in our hearts,
and we believe on Christ, then listen, you are an heir with
Christ. And what does that mean? Whatever
Christ receives, you receive. That's a joint heir. Whatever
he gets, we get. Now listen, I don't know what
God will do in Providence. I cannot tell you what circumstances
await us this day or even this hour. I have no word from God
as to what circumstances await us. We do know something about circumstances,
don't we? In this world you shall have
tribulation. Now then, what are you going
to expect in this world? I'm going to expect tribulation.
Why? Because that's what my Savior promised me. In this world you
shall have tribulation. Listen, I expect the world to
hate us. Why? Christ said it would. He
promised this world shall hate you. Why? Because it hated me
before it hated you. So we should expect that. But see, faith doesn't look at
the circumstances of time. Faith is not founded on feelings
or the imaginations of men. Faith is of God and is fixed
on one object. One object. One hope. One joy. One expectation. that all who believe on Christ
will receive all the promises of God. Faith is not blind because
it has an object. That object is Jesus Christ.
That object of faith is Jesus Christ. And the reason we should
expect all of the promises that God is going to give is based,
is founded on the object of our faith, Jesus Christ. I am going to receive everything
God promised because of Christ, and Christ alone, because of
my object. We are sure of heaven, sure of
eternal life, sure of this coming city whose builder and maker
is God. Thus Abraham did not believe
blindly. He didn't just assume he was
going to heaven. He just didn't one day wake up
and say, well, I think God's going to bless me. I think God's
going to give me a kingdom. I think God's going to make me
a nation. No, he had a word from God. He was called of God to
believe that word, and he obeyed. He believed that word and went
out, didn't care where he went. He knew this. I'm going to have
a city. I'm going to go and be with God. I'm going to have a place. In faith, he trusting Christ
and then expected, and that's what this is, he said he looked.
With expectation he looked, anticipation he looked. And so then the first expectation,
what do we tend to expect? What is this that we are to expect,
true faith expects? Abraham looked for a city. Now
we know this, he was not looking for an earthly city. He did not
expect an earthly city. Matter of fact, God told him,
yeah, I'm going to give this land to your people, but listen,
Abraham, you're going to die before you ever see it. You see, Abraham wasn't looking
for a physical city. Abraham wasn't looking for a
place in this world. He fully expected God to give
it to his people. Yet he looked for something much
more than that. Although God did promise a land
of Canaan for his people, he looked for a city that cometh
not with observation. Isn't that what Jesus said about
his kingdom? He said, My kingdom cometh not
with observation. How many so-called Christians
are looking for a kingdom in this world? Looking to somehow
make our government Christian. So that we can have some place
to dwell in where everybody loves Jesus, everybody's going to get
along. That's not going to happen in this world. We're not looking
for that. I'm not looking for that. Abraham wasn't looking
for that. And neither is anyone who believes
in Christ. Yet every day of his life he
lived in faith expecting God to give him what he promised.
A city whose builder and maker is God. He fully expected to
enter in and possess heaven as a rightful heir with Christ his
seed. Even so should we as we journey
through this world Every day of our life, we should expect
God to give us what He promised. Expect God. I didn't say expect
God to give you what He didn't promise. Expect God to give you
what He promised. What He promised. And so then, I want us to see
several of these things that God, we should expect. We should
expect of God. Believer in Christ, what do you
expect to receive from God if we have faith to believe on Jesus
Christ? Then we must also know this if
we believe in God We must believe that he is and is the rewarder
of them that diligently seek him Do you believe God is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek him? You believe in God you do What then are we to expect from
God who believe on Christ? First of all, true faith in Christ
expects eternal life. Do you expect eternal life? When
you die and this body goes to the ground, do you not expect
to open your eyes in glory and be received of Christ? You should. You should. You should with great
anticipation. Wait for it then. It's coming. You have it already. But I tell
you this, we should expect it. Are we being presumptuous? Are
we being presumptuous to look for this by the hand of God? Am I being too presumptuous for
you? Not if God promised it. Let's go to John chapter 3. John
chapter 3, verse 14. Our Lord says, concerning this
new birth, concerning believing Him, He says, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. That whosoever believeth in Him,
listen, should not perish, but have eternal life. Eternal life. our lord jesus in that account
in john chapter ten he said my sheep i know my sheet and i'm
known of mine and i'm give unto them eternal life and no man shall pluck them out
for the father which gave them the is greater than all in no
man shall pluck them out of my father's hand I and my Father
are one. What is this saying? Is this
not the promise that we are to cleave to? Is this not a promise
of God? I give them eternal life. Freely give them eternal life. And if I give them eternal life,
they shall never perish, never perish, never perish. So what then should you expect?
When you die, what should you expect? You should expect to
never perish, but have eternal life. Why? Because He was lifted up. If
I be lifted up, the Son of Man is lifted up. As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man. Think
about that illustration, those that were bitten by those serpents.
What was the command? Look and live. Now, to everyone that looked,
what should they have expected? They should expect to live. How
many said, oh, you're being too presumptuous. I can't look. I won't look. That's presumption. And then they call that humility.
No, that's disobedience. That's not faith. Faith is obedience. And by obedience, we have something
that we should expect. You should expect eternal life.
because god promised that christ paid for it and faith secondly
faith looks to receive eternal life by the merits and blood
of christ alone Now then, we get into the grounds, the reason
you should expect eternal life. The reason that Abraham was so
sure of a city whose builder and maker is God. Because of
the seed, because of Christ and His merits. No believer ever
expects eternal life and glory based on personal merit. You
listen. If you expect eternal life based
on your personal merit, you are deceived. God never promises you eternal
life based on your merits. But here's the good news. My
eternal life is based on the merits of another. On the merits
of Christ, and not my own. We who believe on Christ, we
confess our sins. We confess we have no merits.
We confess that we are poor and bankrupt of any righteousness
and deserve only the judgment of God. Yet our expectation of being
made an heir of heaven rests solely and completely and absolutely
on the shoulders of Jesus Christ. Why? Because that's where God
placed the responsibility. God placed the responsibility
of obtaining our eternal life, our righteousness, our justification,
solely on the shoulders of Jesus Christ His Son. And when Christ
came into the world, that's what He came for. He came to do the
will of God, which was to obtain redemption, obtain righteousness,
obtain eternal life for us. Now, if there's any question
as to your eternal life, believer, then you are questioning the
merits of Christ. You have moved it off of Christ
and put it on yourself. If there's any doubt, if there's
any fear about our eternal life, then you have taken it off of
Christ and put it on yourself, because He's perfect. His work
was right. His work was good. God accepted
His work. Therefore, I should expect eternal
life on the grounds of Christ, on the foundation of Christ.
Look what Paul says here in Colossians. Go to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1, and look
at verse 12. The apostle says, giving thanks
unto the Father. Giving thanks unto the Father.
Listen. Which hath made us qualified. to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness, hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son, in whom, in his Son, we have redemption through his blood,
even the forgiveness of sins. It is no presumption To see that
God by Christ has made us qualified. See, look at me. I want you to
see me. I'm qualified for heaven. There's a standard of heaven.
What's a standard? What does it take to be qualified
for heaven? You must be as righteous as God. Now there's a standard. Now you watch me just a little
while and you'll find out that I have no righteousness in myself. What you'll see is a man unqualified. You know what I see? I still
see a man unqualified. I still see this. In my flesh
there dwelleth no good thing. I understand that completely. But my qualification was not
made by me. My qualification was made by
God through Christ. Christ made me qualified. My substitute, my surety, my
mediator, my intercessor hath made me meet, qualified for this
inheritance. He hath made me righteous. And
so it is with you who believe. You are made qualified. What's the evidence of our qualification? He has delivered us from the
power of darkness and Translated us into the kingdom of his dear
son. He's removed us from darkness to light You see I see this I See this Christ is all my salvation faith in Christ is the evidence
we've been moved. We've been translated from darkness
to light to believe on Christ. It is His redemption. It was
through His blood that He had taken away our sins. And if Christ has removed our
sins, should then we not expect to be received? We should expect to be received
because Christ hath removed our sins. Isn't that what the Scriptures
told us? He hath removed our sins how
far? As far as the east is from the
west. So far hath He removed our transgression
from us. So far that Jeremiah by the Lord
says this, In that day shall the iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for and shall not be found. and their sins shall be
searched out, and there shall be none." Well, if there's no sin, if there's
only righteousness, what then should we not expect? What should
we expect? We should expect to be received
into glory. Expect it. John told us what to expect.
He said this, If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our
sins. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now,
we are not blind as to not see the old nature that still abides
in us. Though we have been given the
righteousness, made meek to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light, we've received these things in the
inner man, yet the outer man we know, this old man, is still
with us. And we must daily and do daily
confess our inability, confess our sins, But when you confess your sins,
what do you expect? What do you anticipate? How often do believers mope around
in despair, saying, God won't forgive me. I've sinned too much. I've gone
too far. I've fallen too great. My sin
is too great for God to forgive and he will abandon me. And then all the while we do
this, we call it humility. No. It is nothing but unbelief. Why? You have a promise. You have
a promise. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful. You get that? Who's faithful?
He is faithful, and listen, just. That's good. He's not only faithful
to do it, He's right to do it. To forgive your sins and cleanse
you from all unrighteousness. Therefore, true faith should
be expecting forgiveness. And it's not presumption. And
it's not pride. We're not demanding of God anything. We expect it because God promised
it. We expect it because Christ paid
for it. We expect it because we are in
Him. Therefore, we come boldly confessing, not denying that
we're sinners. We confess. We repent. We loathe our sin. We weep over
them. But we should not do so in unbelief
concerning forgiveness. When we come to God, He will
forgive our sins. He will. because He promised
to. Believer, if you look upon the
foundation of flesh for any assurance of your rightful place in heaven
or forgiveness or glory, you will not find any. Now, if you're
expecting it based on what you've done, how many times you've done
something and it's good, it's good work, you've done something,
and you stick out your chest and then you expect Something
from God. And add a boy, pat on the back,
whatever it is, and you don't receive it, you get all upset.
No, you're trusting in you and you're dependent on God to give
you something based on you, you're not going to find anything. You
won't find any assurance in your works, you won't find any assurance
even in your faith. Put faith in your faith and you
won't find any assurance in it. Oh, but put it on Christ and
you'll find all the assurance you need. In fact, the more we grow in
the grace and knowledge of Christ, don't we realize more the vileness
of this flesh? We do. Paul, toward the end of
his life, wrote, I, O wretched man, that I am. Not that I was,
that I am. Job said at the end of his trial,
Behold, I am vile, vile. Even so, we who believe are continually
made more aware of this old vile nature and more aware of our
need of forgiveness. It is this nature, our sin, our
iniquity, our failures, our unbelief that cause us much pain. Yet
in the very teeth of them, in the very teeth of our sin
and nature, we may have confidence that God will forgive our sins. Believer, do you need Forgiveness? Then ask. Ask in faith, expecting God to
do what He said He would do. Why? Because that honors God. That honors God. To expect what
He promised. Believer, we should expect, like
Abraham, a city, a heavenly city, wherein dwelleth no sin, but
only righteousness, a city whose foundations are built of God,
established on the immutable purpose and will of God. Believer, by what right, then,
do we have to enter such a city, to expect such a city? Believer, we should look for
and expect the city of God because God willed it to be so. Abraham looked for this city
because God purposed him to have it. Even so, with us, we should look
for it. expected because God willed it
to be so. Scripture says, We know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are called according to His purpose. For whom He did
foreknow, He did what? Predestinate. Determined beforehand to be conformed
to the image of His Son. And as a result of that, them
He predestinated, He also what? Called. Whom He called, He also
justified. Whom He justified, He also glorified. What shall we say then to these
things if God be for us? Who then can be against us? You see, I am going to receive
heaven because of Christ. I expect eternal life because
God gave it to me. I expect eternal life because
Christ purchased it. I expect all the way through
this life to be forgiven of my sins because God ordained it.
And this He did before the world began. He purposed it. He determined it. In Timothy,
Paul said to Timothy, he said, God saved us and called us with
a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose. Why am I going to receive this? Why do I expect
this? Because He purposed it. My salvation
was no accident. It was on purpose. It was by
design. And I'm going to receive it. According to His own purpose
and grace which was given us when? Before, in Christ Jesus,
before the world began. And I pray that God, the Holy
Spirit, which stir up our hearts, not to fear and despair, but
to power and love and a sound mind, that we should embrace
this gospel. Let go of everything else and
cling to Christ, expecting Him to give us what
He promised. Embrace Christ the Apostle said
that we should set our affection where? Not affections affection singular
where things above Where Christ Our King since our Savior since
our We should expect that God is
going to give you all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
Isn't that what he promised in Ephesians? He said, thanks be
unto God our Father who hath given us all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. We should not and must not expect
earthly blessings in earthly places. I know God gives them
on occasion to us, doesn't He? We have multiple blessings here,
multiple benefits that God pours out on His people daily. Food,
shelter, clothing, all of those are gifts of God. But our expectation
is not in these things. Our expectation is in heavenly
spiritual blessings. We should expect heaven. Our
Lord declares to all those on His right hand, remember when
He divides the sheep from the goat in that last day, He will
say to those on His right hand, come, you blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation
of the world. All this kingdom we're expecting
is an old kingdom, isn't it? It's an ancient kingdom. One
prepared, one ready, and one God has made us qualified for
in Christ. Matter of fact, he says in Luke,
it is your father's good pleasure, good pleasure, to give you the kingdom. Let us then, by faith, always
be expecting what God promised. Believing what God had promised. In spite of what we feel, or
see, or think. Let God be true, and every man
a liar. Is there anyone that doubts God
is willing or able, not willing or able, to give this to us? Then let us, like Abraham, look
for it. Wait for it. Close with this illustration.
Remember those spies? Those spies, 12 spies went out and they saw
the giants, they saw the walls, they saw those things that would
prevent them from inheriting what God promised. But old Caleb, Caleb, he believed God. And it didn't really matter how
tall the giants were, and how thick the walls were, how strong
their horses were. The scripture says Caleb stilled
the people and said, let us go up and take it. Do you suppose he was being presumptuous? Those people that did not believe
said, Caleb, you're presumptuous. No, Caleb had a promise. Caleb believed the promise. If
it was up to Caleb, they would have went out that day and took
it. That's faith. Faith expects God
to be God. He expects God to do what God
promised to do. What did God promise you? Eternal
life. Forgiveness of sins. Heaven and
eternal glory. Let us then expect it. Anticipate it. Set our hearts on it. Why? It's ours. It's ours. You know
what happened to those people after? God says, since you didn't
believe, I'm shutting the door. You don't have that promise anymore.
And then they said, oh, let's go now! Let's go out! And those
people went out and they were killed. See, that's what a lot
of people, when they don't have promises from God, they go on
out into eternity without promises. And they end up under the justice
and judgment of God. See, I'm going to glory based
on the promises of God, based on the merits of Christ. And
I expect it. And faith should. Abraham looked. Expected. A city whose foundations
whose builder and maker of God. I'll ask you, did he get what
he expected? You bet he did. And he's there
today enjoying it. So will we. So will we. Who look to Christ. I pray God
bless us, Jesus.