When ends life's transient dream,
When death's cold, silent stream Shall o'er me roll, Blest Savior,
then in love, Fear and distrust remove, Oh, very safe above the
ransomed soul. Thank you, Jeanette and Gabe. Hebrews 11. Now, Hebrews 11. What a wonderful, wonderful portion
of Scripture this is. Hebrews 11. Never tire of this. Always learn something new. This
one verse is such a great blessing. So much here. Let's read verses
13 through 16 though. Hebrews 11, 13. These all died
in faith. not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and
embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country, and truly if they
had been mindful of that country from which they came out, they
might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire
a better country, that is, and heavenly, wherefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them
a city. Paul told us in 2 Corinthians
13, verse 5, to examine ourselves. Examine ourselves whether we
be of the faith. That's what he said. Not examine
yourself to see if you're doing this or doing that, but if you're
of the faith. And then we examine ourselves
by God's Word. Because God's Word tells us what
the faith is and illustrates it. These are examples. We just read in 1 Corinthians
10, an example. And the Lord gives us clear examples
of people just like us who lived by faith. And it says they all
died. died in vain. So let's examine
ourselves in light of these people, okay? In light of God's Word.
And after hearing this, I hope you can say from your heart,
that's who I believe, that's what I believe, and that's worth
dying for. Alright, it says these all, verse
13, died in faith. Abel, of course, Enoch walked
on into glory. He's the only one in this chapter,
16 names, the only one who didn't die, but the rest did. They died
in the faith. And Noah and Abraham, they all
died in the faith. Now, first thing, we want to
take this just line upon line. These all died. It's appointed
unto man once to die. These all die. All believers
know that. And they are wise in considering
their latter end. That's what Moses told them.
Oh, that they were wise, that they would consider their latter
end. We all die. Some saints lived
700, 800 years, 900 years. They still died. We just live
70 short years, maybe 80. But we'll die, won't we? We know
that. Are you ready? It's going to
happen sooner than you think. These all die. We know that we're
going to die, and believers are ready to die. Why? Well, we have a good hope.
It's who we believe. Brother Floyd Boren, they told
him he had cancer of the stomach. Brother Floyd Boren in Crossville,
they told him he had cancer. Now, he's 80 years old. And they
told him that it was pretty much certain that he didn't have much
time, but they were going to give him some treatments anyway,
and he said no. He refused the treatment. He said, I don't want
to prolong what I'm looking forward to. Paul said, I have a desire to
depart and be with Christ, which is far better, he said. That was in the first Timothy.
Then in the second letter he wrote Timothy, he said, I'm now
ready. I'm ready to depart. I've fought a good fight. kept
the faith. Paul died in faith. He was beheaded
for the faith. And we see examples in the latter
part of this book of those who suffered many things. But they
all lived by faith and they all died in faith. And we will die
too. And if we live by faith, we'll
die in faith. We die like we live. Everyone
dies like they live. If Christ is our life, He will
be with us in death. Okay? For me to live is Christ,
Paul said, to die is gain. If for you to live is Christ,
that is to know Him, to win Christ, be found in Him, to worship Christ,
then you will die in faith. Examine yourself. Alright? So
these all died in faith. We've seen very clearly what
faith is. It's in a person. Not in a doctrine, not in a creed,
but as a person. I started to go back to, and
we've been laboring this point, but in Galatians 4, it says that
the gospel was preached to Abraham. That's what it said. And also
in Hebrews it says the gospel was preached to all of them in
Hebrews 4. All of them. The gospel is Christ. Christ
and Him crucified. So that's the faith. Well, they
all died looking to, believing in, trusting the Christ who was
to come. Of whom the lambs and bullocks
and all of that were types and pictures. They all knew that
animal blood couldn't take away sin. But they knew that blood
represented the one who could and would. Their substitute.
Like Abraham and Isaac. Sunday, we're going to look at
that Sunday. That's the next story, is Abraham and Isaac. My, my, it doesn't get any better
than that. They knew Christ. They knew the gospel of their
salvation was substitution in Christ. Alright, it says, these
all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having
seen them fire up. Promises. Promises. Peter wrote, he said, we have
many Great and precious promises. Precious promises. Promises. Promises from our God. The promise
of eternal life. And all that that means. Life
of righteousness. Life without sin. Is that interesting? That doesn't interest many people.
Does that interest you? To be without sin forever? No
more sin? Life without sin. Righteousness. Peace. Eternal peace. Joy. Joy. The promise of a promised land,
a new heaven and a new earth where God dwells, where Christ
dwells, to dwell with Him. It's not so much like Abraham,
not looking for a place so much as a person to dwell with Him. Does that interest you? Promised
land where Christ dwells. You know, Adam, before he sinned,
he walked with the Lord day in and day out. I can't even imagine
what that was like. It must have been like. My, my. Apparently it's going
to be so glorious, we're going to walk on streets of gold and
not give them a thought. The things men die for now, gold,
silver, We're going to be walking on it like we do pavement now.
Nice street. We're going to be so taken up
with the pearl of great pride. But the promise of eternal life,
the promise of resurrection, the body resurrected to meet
the Spirit, the promise of the promised land, it says these
all, they didn't receive it. They were not received, but they
believed. And they saw them, verse 13, they saw them afar
off, that is, by faith. They believed and they were seen
by faith. They didn't see them with their
physical eye, but they saw by faith. They understood what that
meant. Do you ever say that? When somebody
tells you something, you say, I see. I see. They saw them afar
off. They believed and they saw them
by faith. They weren't received yet, but
they were believed and they were seen by faith though afar off. That's just another way of saying
they had hope. Because hope that is seen is
not hope. They had hope. What was their
hope? They hoped in God. Their hope
was Christ. So God, who cannot lie, promised eternal life to
those who come to Him by Christ. And the Scripture says, I love
this verse, all the promises of God in Him are yea. Yay. It means yes. No ifs, ands,
maybes in Him. You're complete in Him. You're
accepted in Him. You're redeemed in Him. You come
to God by faith and Christ, and all these promises are yay. Do you love me? Yay. Will you
have mercy? Yay. Forever? Yay. Forgive me all my inerts, yea,
and amen to the glory of God by us. Alright, but how do we
know these promises are true? How do we know they're true?
Because I just quoted that. All the promises of God are in
Christ. God spoke. You remember how this
whole book began? God who at sundry times in diverse
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets hath
in these last days spoken unto us by some. God who promised
was manifest in a plan. God who made the promise a long,
long time ago, 4,000 years after He When he first spoke, he came. He was manifest in the flesh.
God was with us. Emmanuel was His name. And believing
Him, seeing Him, we see the promises. We see the promises. Let me illustrate
that. Thomas said, show us the way. Christ said, Thomas, I am the
way. Philip said, show us the Father. He said, he that hath seen thee
hath seen the Father. To see Him is to see the promises. He's the promise. He's our hope. They're all in Him. Martha said,
her brother died, she thought. She said, Lord, if thou hadst
been here, my brother wouldn't have died. Well, he was there. And he didn't die. See that? Martha said, and then
the Lord told her, if you believe, you see the glory of God. She
said, I know my brother shall rise in the resurrection. You remember what he said to
her? Martha, I am the resurrection. You see him, he is all the promises
of God. How do we know that there is
such a thing as eternal life? Jesus Christ died, was buried
three days in the tomb. Remember they said of Lazarus,
he's been dead four days, by now he's stinking. The same is
true if you're dead three days. But he saw no corruption. Third day, just like he said,
just like Scriptures. were written, he wrote, he said,
now see, the promise in me is sure, it's yea, the promise of
eternal life. He that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Do you believe that? If you believe
him, you do. You see Him, you see the promises
afar off. You see the promises afar off.
Oh my. I love that story of Stephen.
He got a good name, Stephen. Stephen was having his brains
beaten out with rocks. And it says he looked up and
he said, I see the Son of Man. I see the Lord standing at the
right hand of God. I see Him. And you will too.
You'll see Him with your own eyes. But right now we see afar
off, don't we? We haven't received these things,
but we believe and we see because we believe Christ is the promise
of God. Christ is our hope. Look at the
next line. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them." Persuaded. Persuaded of them. The word persuade means to convince. To be convinced. Made confident. To have trust. Now, if you hear Christ's voice,
This is the only way we're going to be fully persuaded. If we
hear Him speak to us. When He speaks. If the Spirit
of Christ through His Word, through the Gospel preached, speaks to
you, you will be persuaded. You will be convinced. Our Lord
said when He comes, the Holy Spirit, He'll convince, He'll
persuade, A people out of every tribe, kindred, and nation, tongue
of sin. Because they believe not on me.
Unbelief. That's the greatest sin. Not
believing God. Sin. That we're sinners and we
need a Savior. Are you persuaded of that? My, my, the Holy Spirit continually
persuades us of that, our sinfulness, and our need of a substitute,
our need of a Savior, our need of a righteousness, our need
of His bloodshed, right? Our need of a mediator, an intercessor. He continues to persuade us of
that. I'm persuaded. Are you persuaded?
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, I'm a sinner. I need a Savior. And
the only way I'm going to get there is if he saves me. Righteousness. He convinces,
he persuades all of God's people of righteousness. Because I go
to the Father, he said. Righteousness. John, God is holy. Are you persuaded of that? God
is holy. Too holy to even look on sin.
Behold, the moon it shineth not. He charges His holy angels with
following. God is holy. And it must be perfect
to be accepted. God is righteous. That's not
just doctrine. It's soul, isn't it? Now, how am I? How can He
be clean that's born of woman? How can a man be just before
a holy God? How? One way. I'm persuaded there's one way.
That is by Jesus Christ Be in my righteousness. Surely, shall
one say, in the Lord have I righteousness. Well, that's me. That's me. I must be the one. Anybody else?
I'm persuaded that all my righteousnesses are what? Filthy rags. But in
the Lord have I righteousness. He is my Jehovah Sidken. I'm persuaded of that. And I'm
complete in Him. Not in myself. In Him. Are you
persuaded of that? and judgment. Our Lord said of
judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. There's
a judgment to think. Alright? All men shall stand
before God to be judged by God for the things they've done in
their body, whether good or bad. Alright? In my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. I don't want to stand before
the judgment of God in myself. Jesus Christ was judged for me. Jesus Christ was made sin for
me, who knew no sin, that I might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. And the Prince of this world, who is the accuser
of the brethren, can find nothing in me, because it found nothing
in Him. That's right. He's judged. And
I was judged in Christ. So that's what he persuades,
and so much more he persuades us. And if he does, you'll be
fully persuaded. Abraham, it says, was fully persuaded
that what God had promised, God is able also to perform. Who? The God-man. He did. He came. He's able? Yes, He is. And He came and He
did it. He performed it. That great work. And like Paul,
you'll say, I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded. Persuaded. Are you persuaded
that there's salvation? Neither salvation in any other.
But there's only one name given among men under heaven whereby
we must be saved. Are you persuaded? What's that
name? Christ. Are you persuaded? If not, then you'll be like a
gripper who's just almost persuaded. But if God does, you'll be persuaded. And you'll die. You'll die believing
that. Look at the next sign. So they
were persuaded of them. Notice the word them is in italics. Persuaded of Him. And embraced
Him. Embraced. All who die in the
faith, they saw the promises of God in Christ, yea and amen.
They were persuaded that He is able and He did what He came
to do. And they embrace Him, the promises of God in Him. They embrace. See, the truth,
the gospel is not mere head knowledge. It's not a mental persuasion.
It's heart. It's heart belief. With the heart,
man believes. Now if you believe something
with your heart, that means you love it. It means you love it. It says that of God's people,
they receive the love of the truth. Some people don't receive
the love of the truth. But God's people do. They love
the truth. The truth is a person. And the love of God. What does
God love? The love of God is shed abroad
in their hearts. What does God love? Christ. He loves His Son. He made a whole
universe for His glory. That's who He loves. He made
a people to be His bride. That's who He loves. So if God
sheds abroad His love in His people, who do they love? They
love the same one He loves. They love the Son. God sheds
that love abroad in their heart. And whoever or whatever you love,
you embrace, don't you? If you love somebody, can you
refrain from embracing them? No. That's what love does. Love lays hold of. Seizes. Come here! I think Nancy loves
me. I think she does. I'm pretty
persuaded of it. Because every now and then she
says, And we embrace, don't we? The field is mutual. Come here.
Seize. Seize. Hug up. Oh brother, Maurice
Montgomery always says that. Hug up. Hug up to Him. That love
embraces us. Love, joy, desire. Those you love, you embrace.
It means you're joyful to see them and you just want to lay
hold of them and just embrace them. Here I go again, my grandchildren.
But Isabella the other day was so happy to see me. And man,
oh man, that's just wonderful. I just don't know of anything
more wonderful. And Buddy, I'm just as happy to see her. And
I just like the feel of her. Steven, I was holding on to her
the other day. I didn't want to let go. Embracing
her. Just couldn't get her close enough
to him. You know what I'm talking about. Well, that's the love
that God gives his people for the gospel, for Christ himself,
for the truth. Like Jacob. Jacob said, Dad,
he said, I will not let you go. That wrestling match that they
had wasn't in anger. Nobody was angry. Nobody was
trying to beat the other one up. The Lord came to embrace
Jacob and reveal Himself to him and lay hold of him. And Jacob
was laying hold back, wasn't he? He said, I will not let you
go unless you bless Me. So love embraces. Love embraces. What is it to love? What is it
to love God and to love Christ? It's to love His glory. It's
to love His honor. It's to hate anyone or anything
to share that honor. It's to love His Word. It's to
love His name. Love His name. His name is who
He is. It's to love His worship. Do
you love the Lord? Well, do you love to worship
Him? That's what we do when we come here. Just Him. It's just
all about Him. That's all it is. Him. Do you
love His people? Love those that are like Him?
That's what it is to love Him. These are great revealers. They
reveal this love for Christ. And you never want to leave those
you love. And if you really love, you'll
die loving them. So that's what this faith is.
It's embrace, love the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 13, And they were
persuaded and embraced Him and confessed. They all died in the
faith, but while living, they confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth. They confessed. And those you
love, you confess them. You're not ashamed of them. You confess them. Marriage is
a good picture of this, because that's what the Lord said. Christ
and His church is like marriage. Marriage, a person who really
loves someone and they want to live with that person,
they will be committed to that person and go before everyone
and say in that marriage ceremony, This is the one I love. I want
everyone to know that this person and I, we're in love. That's what Mary said. Baptism
is a good picture of that, isn't it? Baptism is not only a confession
of faith in Christ crucified and we're buried and risen to
walk with Him in newness of life. It's also standing before everyone
and saying, I love the Lord Jesus Christ. By His grace, I love
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to be married to Him.
I want to live with Him forever. Confess it. Those that don't
are ashamed of it. Those that won't commit to someone
they say they love, they don't love them. Let's live together
a while. Ah, no. No, no, no, no, no. Committal. Committal. I think the word is acrostic.
We take the first letter of the word and make words from it. Is that it? Some of you college
educated people. Acrostic. We take the first letter
of the word. Faith. F-A-I-T-H. Faith. Forsaking all. I take Him. That's what faith is. Forsaken
all, I take Him. You have the Word, I take Him. That's faith. So these all confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims Turn with me to Psalm 39. Very
quickly, Psalm 39. This is good. They confessed
that there were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Psalm
39. The marginal reference gave me
this, and I'm glad it did. Psalm 39, look at verse 12. David
said this. He said, Hear my prayer, O Lord,
and give ear unto my cry. Hold not Thy peace at my tears. You know, David went through
so many trials, and he had so many enemies, and struggled with
sin, and Satan himself, and the world, and longed to know Christ
and walk with Him. And he says it, For I am a stranger
with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. I'm a stranger. God's people are strangers and
pilgrims. They have a strange God. The
world thinks their God is strange. That's what they said of Paul
then. He seems to be the setter forth of some strange God. Strange doctrine. Strange to
the world. The truth is so strange now. Strange ways. God's people have
strange ways. They walk in humility. That's strange today, isn't it?
Men are petty and high-minded and proud and lovers of self
and boasters and so forth like that. Not God's people. None
of them. They're all walking humility,
meek and low. That's strange, isn't it? In
this dog-eat-dog world. Turn the other cheek. Charitable. Honest. Loving kind. Strange thoughts. They have strange
thoughts. God's people have strange thoughts. They are living to die, like
old Brother Floyd. Living to die. Waiting to die. That's strange. That's really strange. Strange
or peculiar. Peter said they were a royal
priesthood of peculiar people. Very peculiar to the world. Strange
people. Like Noah. 120 years a preacher
of righteousness. In a world that scoffed and mocked. Working on a boat on dry land. And the strangest thing of all
was when one day on a sunny day, he walked in and sat down in
that boat on a sunny day and just waited. What a strange fellow. Waiting. What are you waiting
on? God. I believe God. We come in here
and this is our life, isn't it? Worship Christ. Waiting. What
are you doing? Waiting. Strange. Strange. And pilgrim. Pilgrim means a traveler looking
for a better place. Those people over in England
came over here. They're called pilgrim workers.
Pilgrim fathers. They came over here looking for
a better place. Well, they found a place. And this ended up not
being much better than where they left it. We're looking for
a better place, alright? Verse 14, they that say such
things declare that they seek a country. Verse 16, a better
country. That is a heavenly. A heavenly
country. A better country. That's what
we're looking for. A better world. The world loves
this world. People in the world love this
world. Now, God calls this place an evil
world. He calls it this present evil
world. Doesn't He? That's what He calls
it. Because of sin. ruined this place, didn't it?
This world was fine until sin came here. And when sin entered,
death came by sin and corruption. And everything bad known to man
came because of sin. And it's in this place and it's
worse and worse and getting worse and worse until, like God said
in the days of Noah, the whole earth is corrupt. Man's imaginations
and thoughts are only evil continually. Do you want to stay here really? What is here? Nothing. And all it does is entice me
to sin. Does it you? The world loves
this place though. Why? They love sin. God's people
don't. Let me out of here. I want to
be without sin. Don't you? I want to be without
sin. I want to be in a new world wherein
dwelleth righteousness, holiness, gentleness, goodness, meekness,
peace, love, joy, where God is. The world doesn't want God. God's
people do. It says here that there are strangers
and pilgrims on this earth looking for a better place, a spiritual
country. And verse 15, oh, I love this.
If they had been mindful, these forefathers of ours, if they
had been mindful of that country where they came out of, they
might have had opportunity to have returned. Some of them did.
We read that, didn't we? Some of them were overcome. They
were thinking about Egypt. What were they thinking about?
Flesh pots. Leeks and onions. That's all
they could think about. My, my. Things that are higher. Things that are nobler. The psalm
says, these have allured my sight. Peter said it on our behalf,
didn't he? To whom shall we go? What are we going to go back
to? Boats and nets? Oh, no. We've got a taste of
the heavenly. That's where we want to go. We
want to go with You, Lord. We want to go where You're going.
We don't want to go back, do we? He said back in that chapter
10, we are not of them that draw back. You want to go back? Would you go back to the Dunheap? Like a dog to its vomit. Please,
Lord, please, I don't want to go back. I don't want to go back.
Well, it says, oh, this verse 16, Now they desire a better
country so that it is in heaven. Wherefore? Because they have
this God-given faith. God is not ashamed to be called
their God. Boy, you can't laugh the holy
laughter at that. God is not ashamed to be called
their God. Imagine that. God proud of His
people. To be not ashamed is to be proud
of them. What do you think about that?
It says, Christ is unashamed to call us brethren. My, my,
my, my, my, my. Is that you? Is that you? Have you seen these things afar
off? Him? Seen Him? His glory? Are
you persuaded? Huh? Persuaded who He is. You're in need of it. You embrace.
You love the truth. You love Christ. Confess Him. Are you like me, whenever someone
is baptized, you want to say, let me do it too? Huh? Confess. Do you feel like a stranger
here? Out of this world? Pilgrim? Are
you looking for something better? Someone? God's not ashamed to call you,
be called your God. That's marvelous. Okay. Stand
with me. Our Lord, thank You so much for
Your Word and these examples of Your people that You gave
this gift of faith, You gave this heavenly, precious gift called
faith. We thank You. that we have these
stories and people just like us, Lord, there's no temptation
or trial that we go through that they didn't go through. And You
will not give us or cause us to go through that more than
we're able to bear, but with the trial, You make a way to
bear it, a way to escape, and Christ is the way. You said,
you're an ever-present help in times of trouble. Lord, may we
walk by faith. The just shall live by faith.
May we live looking to Christ, believing, trusting Him, looking
for a better country. And Lord, may we die in faith.
Let us die the death of the righteous. Let us die in faith, Lord. Keep us believing, trusting,
looking to You, exhorting one another so much more as we see
that day approaching. Thank You again for Your Word.
Let it sink down deep and plant it in our hearts. In Christ's
name we have met here tonight. Amen.