Hebrews 11, read verses 8 through 10. Hebrews
11, 8 through 10. By faith, Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place which he should after receive
what obeyed and he went out, not knowing
whether 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. For he looked for a city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. So much is
said of faith in God's Word. We cannot dwell on it too much. We cannot overstate the importance
of it by faith, by faith, by faith. This whole chapter is
dealing with a subject of faith. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. It says that we're to hold fast. We're partakers if We hold the
beginning of our compass, that is faith, steadfast unto the
end. The just shall live by faith. And every one of these people
mentioned died in the faith. So this faith is so important. And many, he says, will depart
from the faith in the last days. Now these examples, these men
and women were saved, it says, through faith, which is a gift.
Faith, not works. but faith, and that faith is
even not of ourselves, but the gift of God. But faith works,
faith acts, and that's what these examples are about, what faith
does, what faith believes, who faith believes, and what faith
does. And these are men and women just
like us. Saved just like us, given this, if you've been given
this blessed gift of faith. What a blessing. That's the blessing
of all blessings. But these were men and women
just like us, though a little different world, yet same things
that we go through. Abel and his brother. We looked
at that story. Abel and his brother were divided
over the truth, weren't they? And Abel was persecuted by his
brother. Enoch walked a solitary wall
in a wicked world, didn't it? As God's people feel that they
walk pretty much alone. Noah feared God, and that ark
was his life. And they called him a fool for
that ark's sake. So it is with God's people. Abraham is mentioned seventy-five
times in the New Testament alone. Abraham. He's called the father
of the faithful because who Abraham believed and how he believed
is exactly who all of God's people believe and how. Abraham. It began with Abraham. Now, who
did Abraham believe? Now, it didn't say what. Because
what you believe is determined by who you believe. Who did Abraham believe? Hebrews
11. Who did Abraham believe? He believed the true God, the
living and the true God, Jehovah God. He's called the God of Abraham. He believed Christ. Abraham believed
Christ. People argue about that, and
there's a big word called dispensationalism, which means that some believe
that Old Testament saints were saved by keeping the law or saved
by another way, and New Testament saints were saved by Christ. Well, that's completely false. Our Lord Himself said, Cometh
unto the Father, but by man." He says, Moses wrote of me, didn't
he? He said to the Pharisees, you
search the scriptures and in them you think you have life,
and they, speaking of the Old Testament, they are they which
testify of me, Christ said. He said, Abraham, And the Pharisees
and others were bringing up Abraham as their father. We're Abraham's
seed. Abraham is our father. And he
said, if you were Abraham's seed, you'd love me. He said, Abraham,
rejoice to see my day. To see Christ? Absolutely. He said he saw it, didn't he? That's what the Lord said, Abraham
saw my day and he was so glad. When did he see it? Well, most especially he saw it when
he and Isaac went up on that mountain that day in Genesis
22. spared Isaac by substituting
a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And that ram was killed
in the stead of his son. That substitution, that's Christ.
That ram was Christ. Abraham knew that. So did Isaac. And so that's what our Lord said.
So Abraham believed God. Abraham believed Christ. All
right, look at verse 8, Hebrews 11, verse 8. It says, By faith
Abraham. Now, wait a minute. Who is Abraham?
Go back to Genesis 12 with me. Genesis 12. Who is Abraham? His name was first Abram. Abram. All right? Who is Abraham? Well, he was born a Chaldean
in a place called Ur of the Chaldees, which is now modern-day Iraq
or Iraq, however you want to say it. And what that means was,
where he came from, who he was, means that he was born a heathen. There were no Jews at this time.
He was not a Jew. He was not circumcised. And the
Scriptures talk a great deal about that, doesn't it? In Romans
and Galatians about how was Abraham saved. Was he saved by circumcision? No. By the law? No, there was
no law. 400 years before the law. But anyway, Abraham was a heathen. He didn't know God. He didn't
know the truth. He served, in Joshua 24, it says
he served other gods. That means he was an idolater.
He didn't know the living and true God. He was an idolater. He was 75 years old at this time. A 75-year-old unbeliever, an
idolater, a heathen. Now, can you teach a 75-year-old
man anything? A 75-year-old man is set in his
ways. If he's believed a certain way,
if he has a God, he has a religion, and everybody does, and Abraham
did. But it was false. It wasn't a
living and true God. It was an idol, as so many have
today. All right? Seventy-five-year-old,
heathen, set in his way, dead and trespassed in sin. He was
without the living and true God. He didn't know Christ. He was
without hope in this world. But God. God came to him. God loved him. God chose him. God predestinated
him. And God called him. Look at verse 1 of chapter 12,
Genesis 12. Now, the Lord had said unto Abraham,
Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from
thy father's house. unto a land that I will show
thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless
thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses
thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be bled."
So Abraham departed. Why? As the Lord had spoken unto
him. Abraham didn't know God, wasn't
looking for God, wasn't calling on God, but God knew Abraham. Long before Abraham knew God,
God knew Abraham and called him. Abraham did call on the Lord.
All God's people do. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord, Romans 10, 13, shall be saved. Well, why do they call?
Well, that verse comes from Joel 2.32. Whosoever shall call, the
remnant whom the Lord our God shall call." They call. They
won't call unless He first calls them. They won't love God unless
He first loves them. So God called him. God called
him. And it's the same with every
single person whom God Almighty chose Him to call. That's what
the Scripture says, very plain. The false gospel says this. If
you will, God shall. You just read with me there where
God says, I will and you shall. That's the God of the Bible.
That's salvation of the Lord. The false gospel says if you
choose God, you need to choose God. The truth says He hath chosen
us. The false gospel says if you
call on God, He'll come running. The truth says He calls us and
we come. He's the master, isn't he? Dogs
don't call masters. The master calls the dog. The
false gospel talks about, oh, how we love Jesus. Well, the
truth says, oh, how he loved us and washed us from our sins
in his own blood. The false gospel says God wants
to. The truth says God wills. The
false gospel says God tries. The truth says God worketh all
things after the count. God shall not fail. He shall
not fail, nor even be discouraged. Known unto God all his work from
the beginning of the world. That's what the truth says. That's
the God who is God. True and living God. So God called
Abraham, or else Abraham wouldn't have known God and wouldn't have
called on God. Now, what did he call him to
do? Back in our text in Hebrews 11,
it says, when he was called to go out, by faith, Abraham, when
he was called to go out into a place he should after receive
for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, called out. Abraham was called out, called
out, as all of God's people are. They're called out of darkness,
the Scripture said, into His marvelous light. Called out of
the darkness of ignorance and superstition and tradition and
religion. The Lord said, if the light that
is in you be darkness, how great is the darkness. Double darkness.
Double darkness. A darkness of ignorance. A darkness
of sin. Out of sin, out of bondage to
Satan. Only one person can deliver someone
from the bondage of Satan. And that's a stronger than he.
It's not you. It's not me. It's he. It's our
Lord. Out of death. Dead and trespassed
in sin. And you who were dead and trespassed
in sin. Hath he. And you. There's the
gospel. And you, dead. Hath he. Out of self, out of love of self,
out of trust in self to him. Out of idolatry. That's what
he said to the Thessalonians, didn't he? He said, by God's
grace, because you're his elect, because he called you, you turned
to God from your idols. Turn from your idols to serve
the living and the true God. Out of. What I was turning to,
Exodus chapter 3. I love that. You can just listen.
Exodus 3, here's what the Lord said about His people when He
had purposed to bring them out. It says, here's the gospel. Here's
why Israel was delivered. Because God said, I am come down. to deliver, not try, but to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that
land into a good land. He says, I am come down, unless
God had come down. God was manifest in the flesh.
God the Son came down to deliver. Did he do it? His name is called
Deliverer. If He didn't deliver whom He
came to deliver, He's not the deliverer. He's a failure. Isaiah
42 says, He shall not fail. And He delivered His people.
Thou didst come down to deliver us. What? Where? Out of the hand
of the Egyptians. Out of the world. That's what
the Revelation says. For thou hast redeemed us out
of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue. under heaven, out
of, and to bring them up from the dunghill set among princes. That's of the Lord, just like
Abraham. All right, go back, you're there,
Hebrews 11. So Abraham was called to go out,
to go out. And we read there in Genesis
12 where he told him, get out of thy country. and thy kindred,
and thy father's house." The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5 spoke
of marriage, and he said, For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother to cleave unto his wife. When a man and
a woman are united in marriage and united in love and betrothed
to be married, the man, it says, leaves his father and mother
to cleave unto his wife. Well, Paul went on to say, this
is a mystery, but I speak of Christ and his church. And every
single one whom God Almighty calls, whom God Almighty betroths
to his son, the Every single one whom God Almighty gives a
love for the truth, a love for Christ, a need for Christ, they
leave their father and their mother. They leave their kindred.
They leave their house. They leave their idolatrous family. Why? to go to Christ, outside
the camp. That's what Hebrews 13 says.
Let us go, therefore, unto Him outside the camp. Most of us were born and raised
in false religion, whatever, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic,
so on and so forth, worshiping a false god, another Jesus, another
gospel, but God. We heard the gospel of truth.
This gospel you're hearing right now. God Almighty brought us
out of that mess, that religious mess. And it is a mess, isn't
it today? They've got man as God and God
as a man. It is a mess. And our Lord said
this of everyone, he that loveth father or mother, husband, wife,
son or daughter, his own life also, more than me, cannot be
my disciples. And quite often, the Lord, He
said, I have come to set a man at variance, a woman at variance,
that is, a division. He said, you think I've come
to bring peace? A sword. Separate. Divide. And a man will be at variance
against his father, a woman with her mother. Over what? Truth. Truth. Now, how many in here?
I've had that happen with your flesh and blood. And my, my. My, my. That's the way it is.
It's just the way it is. So Abraham was called to go out. Out of. What did he do? He went
out. When God calls, you answer. When God gives faith, He walked
by faith. It says he, verse 8, he's called
to go into a place which he should after receive for inheritance,
obeyed. He obeyed. This is the obedience
of the faith. And God makes us obedient. We're
not born obedient. Oh, my. And we would still not
be obedient unless he made us obedient. My old dog, you heard about him
so much, I'm sorry, but it's a good illustration. He, to this
day, I still have to teach him and to chasten him and to instruct
him to this day. He's an old dog. And you can't
teach an old dog new tricks. You can't teach old Baptist new
hymns. little dig there, but you can
teach an old sinner. The Lord does. He has to keep
teaching us and chastening us and so forth. Or else, if I didn't
do that, my dog would just go with the rest of the dogs. So Abraham obeyed. He did obey. God commends faith. because faith
commends God. God honors faith because faith
honors God. To take God at His Word, nothing
honors a man more than to take Him at His Word. Just believe
Him before you see it. Just take Him at His Word. That
honors God. God said, I will. And so we say,
okay. Without seeing faith, we live,
we walk by faith, not by sight. unseen God. Looking for an unseen
world, don't we? That honors God. That honors
God. God said it. That settles it. It's true. God cannot lie. God
who promised eternal life. God who cannot lie. So it says
he obeyed. He went out not knowing whether
he went. Verse 9. And by faith By faith,
Abraham sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country. It says he sojourned. This is
good, sojourned. The word sojourn means to dwell
as a stranger. to live somewhere as a stranger,
stranger in a strange land. That's a good description of
all of God's people. That's what our Lord said they
were. He said they're not of this world. Our Lord, in his
prayer to the Father in John 17, said they are not of this
world even as I am not of this world. The Scripture says we are not
of this world, and the world knoweth us not. And the fact
of the matter is, we don't even know ourselves. We're strange
to ourselves. This new creature is something
strange, an enigma. We're an enigma to ourselves,
the believer. They're not of this world because they are new
creatures created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Strange creatures. Fish, as it were, out of water. being born from above. Our Lord
said, since you're from beneath, I'm from above. They couldn't
understand Him. Why? Because He's something other
than they were. Something different. Higher,
nobler, and so forth. Such is the new creature created. And that's not us in ourselves. That's that new man that God
Almighty created. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Created in Christ's image. Not of this world's thoughts.
Don't think like this world. Psalm 50, God says, Thou thoughtest,
rebuking the world, the people of the world, and religions of
the world. He said, Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a
one as I said. And that's what everybody thinks
until God Almighty gives them right thoughts of Him, right
thoughts of Himself. Not of this world's thoughts,
not of this world's opinions. In fact, we don't even want an
opinion. We just believe what God says.
Not of this world's pursuits, the world's after the world,
the world's after the things of this world. God has set his
people's affection on things above, unseen things. Not after
this world's desire. They're called a peculiar people.
A royal priesthood of peculiar people. Peculiar. These people
of God, like Abraham, actually fear God. That's such a rare
thing today, isn't it? It used to call people back just
30 or 40 years ago. God-fearing people, didn't it?
You never hear that anymore. Do you? In fact, Romans 1 says,
in the last days, these days, there's no fear of God before
their eyes. No fear. No fear. These people, though,
actually fear God. Abraham feared God. Abraham actually
believed God, didn't argue with God, didn't question God. He
believed God. He loved God as God. He loved
God being sovereign. He knew God was sovereign. And
he loved it. He actually looked to and believed
and trusted in Christ alone for his salvation. Nothing and no
one else. Here's the true people of God.
They worship God in the Spirit. You don't need all this flesh
and all this stuff. You need one thing, a Bible.
Worship God in spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no
confidence in anything to do with the flesh. That's the true
people of God. And that was Abraham. It says
he sojourned as a stranger, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob. Strange tent dwellers. Tent dweller. That's what God's people are.
Passing through. Tent dwellers. All of God's people,
like Abraham, know that our homes, our possessions, our families,
our bodies, they're all temporary. Temporary. We know it. And we teach our children that.
Isaac and Jacob. Our Lord said this about Abraham.
He said, I know Abraham. He'll instruct his children.
He told Moses, you teach your children there. Teach them what?
Tell them who God is. That's what the church is all
about. That's what we do here. That's all we do here is preach
the truth, preach the Word. What do you have for your kids
down there? The truth. They don't need anything else.
There's a YMCA for them to play basketball and have fun. This
is the pillar and the ground of truth. They need the truth. They need the truth to set them
free from themselves, from sin, and the world, and so forth.
We teach our children, as Abraham did Isaac and Jacob, and bless
God if He's pleased. Right there sits my daughter.
She loves this same truth. Oh, how blessed I am. How blessed
we are if our children believe the truth. That means God chose
them as He did us. What a blessing! Blessing of
all blessings! It doesn't matter what our children
attain to in this life, career and all that stuff. Who they
are, what they are, it doesn't matter. It won't matter a hill
of beans when it's all over. The only thing that will matter
is, do they know God? Do they know God? Do they die
in faith? That's what matters. Oh, how God blessed Abraham,
his son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob. Love the same God. I don't know how many people
in here, probably few, get to experience the greatest blessing
of all that I've experienced. My father, my grandfather, my
grandmother, my wife, my children, And we get around the table and
talk about the thing. What a blessing. Sammy, what
a blessing, isn't it? Your dad, your mom, your brother
and sister. And if God's pleased, both your
daughters, wouldn't that? Could you think of anything?
Any greater blessing. Your sister-in-law. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob dwelt together
in tents. What mercy, what grace that God
would do that. They would dwell with Him. You
see, we never lose people that are in the family of God. Never
lose them. We go on to be with them forever. All relationships
end. After this, sons, daughters,
husbands, wives, so forth, in heaven, no, but relationships
in Christ, brother and sister in Christ, that never ends. That
never ends. Never ends. Oh, my. And Jacob, we're talking about
Christ as the object of faith. Christ is the faith of God's
elect. Christ, like Abraham. Isaac knew
Christ. You know he did. He's living
because of that ram. What about Jacob? Jacob no cry? What happened to you, Jacob?
A man wrestled with me. Who, Jacob? The Lord Christ came
and shook me. Yes, he knew Christ. Now, let's
close here. Look at what God says Abraham
was looking for. God told him about a land, but
that's really not what he was looking for. Look at it, verse
10. It says, He looked for a city
which had foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He goes on to say that all of
God's people do. All of them. They seek a better
country. That is a heavenly country. Abraham really wasn't looking
for an earthly place at all. He was looking for a heavenly.
He wasn't looking for a permanent dwelling place here at all. He's
looking for an eternal life with God. That's who he was looking
for. Let me close with quoting our
brother David and what he said. And this is the desire, the pursuit
of all of God's people. David said in Psalm 27, he said,
one thing, have I desired of the Lord? And that will I seek
after, that I may dwell where? In the house of the Lord all
the days of my life, the kingdom of God, the church of Christ,
the family of God. Doing what, David? Beholding the beauty of the Lord,
whom I'm in love with, and to inquire in his temple. David
went on to say, The reason I have that desire is because the Lord
said, Seek my face. So I said, My face will I seek. Salvation is up to the Lord.