Hebrews 11 and I want you to
look at verse 16 verse 16 Hebrews 11 16 but now they desire
a better country that is in heavenly Wherefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a city. One of the most astounding statements
you'll find in the Bible is right there. God is not ashamed to
be called their God. That's hard to grasp, ain't it?
When you consider yourself Consider your frailty, and your weaknesses,
and your inabilities, and all your fallings, and all your ups
and downs. God is not ashamed to be called
their God. God looks at every one of us
here today who are believers, who Christ died for, and said,
I'm not ashamed to be called their God. It's hard to grasp. It is for
me. You know, we ridicule the God of this age. We ridicule
Him. He has no power. He has no will. He has no might. He's bound by
the will and power of man. And we ridicule the so-called
Savior who loves everybody. died for everybody and yet we
pity the people who worship Him. We really do. I see all these
crosses in front of these churches and there's one out home that's
got three different crosses and they all got different lights
on them at night. And when I go by there I think, boy how ignorant,
you know, nobody's ever told them any different. They've never
heard any different. And it's sad, it really is sad. But this is a God that they created
in their own image. I remember Tim James said one
time that the word image comes from imagination. Our imagination
comes from the word image. And our imagination is a God
factory. We just manufacture the God we
want when we need Him and why we want to treat Him and how
we want Him to treat us. Just crank us out wanting our
imagination and we got Him just the way we want Him. And that's
the way people are. And I tell you, He can't stand
up. This God that we're talking about, the God of this age, the
Savior of this age, He can't stand up and say to this people,
this people we're talking about to worship Him, I'm not embarrassed,
I'm not ashamed to be called their God. But when you look at those, Look at those, here in Hebrews
11, God looked at Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, I'm not ashamed to be
called their God. Well he told a lie, I'm not ashamed
to be called their God. He put his wife Sarah in an awful
predicament, I'm not ashamed to be called his God. That's
what we're talking about. And then, but yet all at the
same time, though we ridicule the God of this age in the image
that people worship, there's those who ridicule our God. They say, oh listen, you're God
who has all power. You're God who elected a people
and chose a people. And Christ only died for those
people. Well, I wouldn't worship a God like that. That makes Him
unjust. He's unjust to do that. It's
not right for Him to love one and not love all of us. It's
not right for Him to not give us a chance. He's a monster.
To choose one and pass by another? And they'll say, oh my God's
a God of love. Well I'm happy for you. And the Jews, oh how they ridiculed
our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, they ridiculed Him. Called
Him a drunkard, a wine-bibber, called Him a devil. And Pharaoh himself says, when
Moses went down and said, let my people go, he said, why, who
is the Lord that I should obey Him? Oh, my. Paul, when he preached
on Mars Hill, you know what they said about him? He seemeth to
be a setter forth of strange gods. But oh listen, God views us,
God views us right now. God sees us, He knows us, and
yet He says, I'm not ashamed to be called their God. Huh? Oh my, why, why, why? What is it about God and about
us that He'd say He's not ashamed to be called our God? Well, I'm
going to try to answer that question today if I can. First of all,
in verse 6. Without faith it's impossible
to please Him. Now listen to this now. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is. That's the first thing. We believe
that He is. Now when it says here, we believe
that He is, it's not talking about that He just exists. That's
not what He's talking about here. He's not talking about, well
God exists, there's a higher power. That's not what He's talking
about. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is. What does that mean? That He
is who He says He is. that He is as He presents Himself
in His Word. And the first time you mention
God in the Bible, it's in Genesis 1-1, in the beginning, God. The
Gospel starts with God. And we believe that He is. Not that just He exists, but
that He is. When He said, Moses said, Lord,
who am I going to say sent me when I get down there? You tell
them, Thou am, that I am. I am that I am. I am was, I was,
I am, and always will be. And I tell you what, we believe
that He is, first of all, He's eternal. There never was a time
that God wasn't. And I'll tell you something else
we believe. We believe that God ain't never lost, never forgot
nothing, never thought of nothing, never had a contingency plan.
He is eternal and He declared the end from the beginning. We
believe He is. That's why He says, I'm not ashamed.
They believe who I am. Oh, we believe He's immutable.
He cannot change. We change. We're up, we're down. We're happy, we're sad. We laugh,
we cry. But He never changes. You know
why we're not consumed? Because He never changes. He's
immutable. He doesn't have the ability to
change. And that's all we do is have the ability to change.
Here's something else we believe that He is. That He's holy. He's
holy in three persons. He's holy as God the Father.
He's holy as God the Son. And He's holy as God the Holy
Spirit. He's holy. And He's just. He is just. He will by no means
clear the guilty. He is absolutely just. And He'll
deal with men on the basis of His justice either in judgment
or in Christ. He'll deal with them in justice. He's not Lord, He's law. He's
not Lord, He's standard. He's not Lord, He's oneness.
He's not Lord, He's righteousness. He's always is what He is. And He always will be what He
is. Oh my, He's the Creator? You
know, there's people now, and I've seen preachers do it, they
have a way of making evolution and creation work together. They'll
say, we don't know how long the earth existed before God decided
to change how things were in the world. But you can't believe in evolution
and creation at the same time. I have some folks that hung from
trees in my family but they're all horse thieves. But that's about the way it is,
amen. And not only did He create this world, bless His holy name,
He sustains it and holds it up. Why does the world go on like
it does? How does the sun come up every day, and the moon come
up, go from nothing to brightness? How in the world do stars all
stay in their places? How does one season after another
season, after another season, after another, how does this
thing keep going? And I tell you what, me and Bruce
was talking the other day, that God's going to create a new world.
This new world is going to be done away. He's going to fold
it up like you'd fold up an old garment and get ready to put
it away. He's going to fold this thing up and He's going to make
a new heaven and a new earth and the only people there is
going to be people that are righteous. That's why God's not ashamed
to be called our God. Huh? I'll tell you why. We believe
not only that, but beloved, we believe that God does as He pleases,
when He pleases, always as He pleases, and that He's the only
wise God. Look at Psalm 150. Keep Hebrews
and look at Psalm 115. Look at Psalm 115. I bet most of y'all could probably
quote this. Psalm 115. I could, but I want
you to look at it. Look what it says in verse 13,
excuse me, verse 3. Well, let's read the first three
verses. not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory, for thy mercy, and listen to this, for thy truth's
sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, where is now their God?
And that's what they say about our God. Oh, but he said, I'll
tell you where our God's at. Our God is in the heavens, and
he hath done whatsoever he pleased. Oh my! Tell you something else
about Him. We believe that He is. We believe
He's Omni. You know what Omni is? That means
He's omnipotent. Got all power. He is in no competition
with anybody over power. He's omnipresent. That means there's no place you
can go where He's not. He inhabits eternity and He inhabits
the earth. And then he's omniscient. That
means that he's all infinitely, eternally wise. He never learned nothing, never
forgot nothing, and never had a thought. That's God. That's God. Oh my! And I tell you beloved, we find
our comfort, we find our assurance in the God of the Bible, in the
God of Jacob. Oh my! He's sovereign, He's electing,
He's predestinating and everything He does, He does on purpose. Oh my! Oh, if we pray for His will,
we trust in His will, and we bow to His will in this world. Huh? We're not fatalist. You know what a fatalist is?
Fatalist says what will be, will be. Well, if God does it, it
will be. I read something the other day. You've got to get this. God only
does for us what is necessary in our lives. And He never does
anything that's unnecessary in our lives. So whatever happens,
it's necessary. Why? God. No, we're not fatalist. No, no. You know what? Here's
the thing. The fatalist says, you know,
that we can't change nothing. Abraham believed God. Abraham
obeyed God. Noah moved with fear. So they
weren't fatalist. They believed God. A fatalist
just believes that there's That they have, you know, they have
no will, nothing. They have nothing, you know,
that they can... But we believe, because we believe
God is, we believe that everything He does, He does by His wisdom. Does by His wisdom. We believe
that He's all wise. that he's kind, that he's just,
that he's full of mercy, that he's pitiful, he pities us, that
he's patient, and he's long-suffering. We're just not going to sit back
and twiddle our thumbs. We've got a God we believe in,
a God we trust in, and we don't twiddle our thumbs and say, well,
whatever God does, well, I'm just going to sit here and see
what happens. That's not the way we view life. We view life
in light of God Almighty and His will and His word and His
power and His ability. Not only we believe that He is,
but look what it says here again in verse 6. He that cometh to God. Well,
when we made us to know who He is, we came to Him. We've come to Him. How did we
come to Him? By faith. Well, as you say, we
believe. We believe. We've come to Him
by faith. We believe. Oh, we believe. Well, look what it
says there in verse 1. Now faith is the substance, the
ground, the confidence of things hoped for. What are the things
we hope for? Eternal righteousness, being
in glory, being with Christ. And I tell you something, you
can't see faith. You cannot see faith. The only way you can ever
know anybody has faith is by them believing God and believing
Christ's Word. That's why Paul says, you know,
we just live by faith. We're not of those that draw
back. There's people that draw back. We're not of those that
draw back. We believe. I've never seen Christ
except by faith. But I tell you what, I've got
confidence in Him. There's lots in this Bible I
don't understand, but I have confidence that every bit of
it's of God. Every jot and every tittle's there. I've never seen
the Holy Spirit, but I have I know that he's the one who comes and
brings us Christ and the knowledge of Christ. Oh my. And I tell you what, it gives
us evidence. Faith gives us evidence of things
we don't see. I've got evidence. What is it?
God's Word. Christ. the blood and I tell
you what look what it says here now here's another thing that
we know that through faith we understand that the world was
framed by the word of God now you know they're building a house
right there when we watch them work on the house they're building
a house right there they started out with a foundation and just
a little while they framed that thing up and put the roof on
it Framed it up. We by faith understand that God
framed this world up. Created it and made it to be
what it is. He called it the pillars of the
earth. And I tell you what, we know that God framed this world
and made it so. And listen to this, so that things
which are seen, how in the world did they appear? We didn't make
him. He did. Now here's the thing
that I really wanted to get to right here. We've come to him
by faith. By faith Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. And he obtained witness. Who witnessed to him? God did.
That he was righteous. God testified of his gifts. And by it he being dead yet speaketh. Now this is what I want to say
is this, we've come to God. by, through our Lord Jesus Christ
and His sacrifice, His blood shedding. You imagine if Abel,
if Abel offered to God more excellent sacrifice and all it does was
a lamb, and God testified of it, you imagine what we have
when we have the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, God's
sacrifice that He Himself provided. We have the one and only sacrifice
that was ever accepted by God, that ever put away sin, that
ever cleansed from sin, that ever satisfied God, that ever
done anything to honor God. And we come to God through Him,
by Him, and because of Him. We sing it today. Jesus paid it all. When we come to God, how do we
approach Him? By what name do we approach Him?
How do we approach Him? We approach Him through and by
and because of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now you imagine God looking
at Abel and Abel shedding that Lamb's blood. And God testifying
that that's a more excellent sacrifice. That's a gift that
I'll say he's righteous by. If ain't God done that to Abel
and him slaying the first lamb, imagine what he does when he
looks at us and we look at the lamb that he provided. And I tell you what, this sacrifice
makes us righteous. Makes us righteous. Look over
here in Hebrews 10. in verse 11 every priest stands daily ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take
away sin but now listen to this but this man After he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever Set down on the right hand of
God From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool and listen to this for by one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified That's how wonderful, that's
why God's not ashamed to be called our God. We've got a sacrifice
that made us perfect. You're complete in Him who's
the head of all principalities and powers. Oh my. Look at Genesis 15 and keep Hebrews
now. Look in Genesis 15. Genesis 15 and verse 6. Genesis 16 We've come to him, but we come
to him by faith faith in a sacrifice faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
faith in the one that God himself Sent into the world to save us
said they called his name Jesus. We saw we sung that song this
morning You know come all you faithful I'll tell you one thing
He was born in a manger, but do you know what God told Joseph? He said, I tell you what, I want
you to call Him. When He's born, I want you, before
He was ever born, He said, I want you to call His name Jesus. Why? Because He shall save His
people from their sins. Look what it said here in verse
6 now. So it's talking about Abraham here. and he believed
in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness and
he said unto him God speaking to him now through the Lord Jesus
Christ God's always spoken by his son I am the Lord that brought
thee out of the Ur-Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit
it and he said Lord God whereby shall I know that I shall inherit
it he said unto him take me a heifer He said, take me a heifer. Abraham
didn't need the heifer. God needed the heifer. He said,
take me a heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three
years old, and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. All these
sacrifices are for me. That's what God said. took unto him all these, and
divided them in the midst, and laid each one against another,
but the birds divided he not." But I said that to say that he
says, give it for me. And look what happened now. And
he took all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each
piece once against another, but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came, I remember
Jack Shanks preaching on this one time. And when the fowls
came down upon the carcasses, Abraham drove them away. I tell
you what, when anything comes on the sacrifice of Christ, and
assaults the sacrifice of Christ, we drive it away. We ain't gonna
let nothing, nothing, interfere or belittle the sacrifice of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Them old fowls come down on it,
them old crows and them old buzzards and all these old fowl filthy
birds that want to come down and pick on the sacrifice. The
bird of free will, get off of him! The bird of Jesus died for everybody,
get off of him! The bird of Jesus that said,
oh listen, You can be saved and lost again. Get off of him. We don't want no birds on him. No birds. Oh my. They can land on us, but don't
land on him. And I tell you what, let me go
back over here and we're talking about that sacrifice that made
us righteous, made us perfect, sanctified us. Now listen to
me, I said we've come to Him by faith, but I'm going to make
three statements right here. Faith doesn't put sin away, Christ
did. Faith doesn't satisfy God's justice,
Christ did. Faith believes God that it's
done, not do. With his spotless garments on,
I'm as holy as God's own Son. No wonder he said God's not ashamed
to be called their God. We have the sacrifice He provided. We have the blood He provided.
We have the Son of God whom He provided, the Lamb whom He provided.
And because we come to Him, where God said, this is my beloved
Son, hear Him, in Him I'm well pleased. Well that's the one
we're coming to. If God's pleased in Him, He's
pleased with us. Because we're in Him. And then
let me tell you something else we do. Why God's not ashamed
to be called our God. Look what it says there in verse
7. By faith, being warned of God
of things not seen as yet. Moved with fear. Prepared an ark to the saving
of his house. Now listen to this. By which
he condemned the world. You know, believing what God
taught us and what we believe about God Our absolute sovereign,
eternal, immutable, electing, predestinating God. When we do that, the whole world
is condemned by what we believe. It's like when Noah prepared
that ark. And God said to Noah, said, come
thou into the ark. God didn't say go in the ark,
come thou into the ark. And the scripture says that God
shut to the door. Now what happened to the rest
of the world? What happened to the rest of
it? Noah was in there and what he did condemned everybody outside. Every time he cut a board and
put it on that ark, they said that old man is a fool. He kept
telling us that it's going to rain. Oh, I don't believe it.
Well, by the time that thing was over,
mothers was holding up their little babies, hold them up high,
trying to save them. That it's going to stop, it's
going to stop, it's going to stop. That's what's going to happen
to this world when Jesus Christ comes again. I've said this before
and I'm going to say it again. Another thing Bruce and I, we
were talking about the judgment. When this world is brought, God
says, you know, God, so He won't be condemned
with the world, He chastises us. But here's the thing, when
the judgment comes, you imagine how long it would take if God
called everybody up one by one by one by one by one by one.
and then dealt with them all individually. Man, he never would
get done. But whenever he brings forth
the dead and hell out of the... You know how long judgment is
going to be? Why? Because judgment is already
sent. Well, those in Christ, no condemnation,
no judgment. Those outside of Christ, nothing
but judgment and condemnation. People say, well I don't want
to be condemned. He was born condemned. And the only way you
can get out from under the condemnation of God is for Christ to bring
you out from under the condemnation of God. Ain't you grateful he brought
you up? You know, there's a fella told me one time, he said, oh
no, no, Sid, we never have been under the judgment of God. Now
let me tell you, in one sense, we never have. After we learned
the gospel and understood that Christ stood as the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, we were chosen in Him. Christ
came and lived for us and died for us and put our sins away
and rose again and sits at the right hand of God interceding
for us. And He'll come again and get us. But now, we've learned
that. But in our experience, in our
experience, Every one of us know what it was to be condemned.
Know what it was to feel guilty. Know what it was to feel sinful. How's that? Because that's the
way God brings us to himself. He don't bring nobody but people
that's ever been a sinner. And the only way you can be a
sinner is for God to make you one. Preacher can't do it. Church can't do it, but if God
makes you a sinner, you're a safe sinner. God gonna be saying that once
you become a sinner, you are a safe sinner. You may not have
much assurance about it, but when you learn the gospel, you'll
find out. Oh my! He done this on purpose. He got
me lost so he could find me. He called on me so I'd call on
him. He said, seek ye my face. And
I said, oh Lord, I will, I will, I will. Ain't that right? Oh my. So we condemned the world. You
imagine, you imagine what it's going to be for our children
and and our sons and daughters, grandchildren, that you know,
we've been faithful to Christ and faithful to His gospel, and
yet they won't believe. It's going to be awful. It's
going to be awful. Not only are we, by faith, condemned the world
like Abraham, like Noah did, but I tell you something else
that we're doing. We're looking for a city. Huh? Look right down
there in verse 10. He looked for a city. What kind of city is he looking
for? One that God made? One that God built? One that
God laid the foundation of it? Oh my! Whose builder and maker
is God? Oh my! Paul said over in Hebrews
13 said, Here we have no continuing city, but we look for one to
come. Oh my! We're looking for a city. We're looking for a place where
God dwells. We're looking for a city. And
I tell you what, God has already prepared us a city. God's made
us a city. We're in, beloved, we can dwell.
God built the foundation of it. God made it. Now what it's going
to be like, I don't know and I don't care as long as God made
it and God built it. God put the foundation. I don't
care what it looks like. If God done it, it's just absolutely
perfect. You say, I don't want to live
in that city. There's a lot of places I don't want to live.
I don't want to live in New York. I don't want to live where people,
you know, I don't want to live in a big city where there's people
just bustling around and traffic bumper to bumper and all that.
I don't want to live in a place like that. A lot of cities I don't want
to live in, but right here's a city I'm going to live in it. And you know what? Every one
of them, everybody in that city, you know what they got? Every
one of them got a mansion. You know, God said, you know,
folks used to say, well, I got a mansion just over the hillside.
I'll tell you one thing. Christ said He prepared us a
mansion. And He built us a city. And you
know what dwells in that city? God dwells in that city. And
we dwell in that city. And that city is an eternal city.
And it'll be the most beautiful, glorious city that ever was.
I don't have a clue what it's like. I ain't gonna try to describe
it. But I know that's what he said he was looking for. You
think he found it? I believe he's there right now.
Huh? Oh my. He condemned the world
he believed God got in that ark But oh my well, let me tell you
another thing here Who are these people who are these people who
he's not ashamed we call their God you remember over in Revelations,
I believe it's 14, but I mean don't have to look there, but
I believe it says there is that one of the elders said to John,
or John said to the elders, who are these? Who are these? And that elder said to him, these
are they that came out of a great tribulation and have washed their
robes white in the blood of the Lamb. Now who are these? Who are these
that God is not ashamed to be called their God? Well I know
that Cain is not one of them. I know that Ishmael was not one
of them. I know that Esau wasn't one of
them. I know that the Pharisees weren't
some of them. But who was it? Well, Abel was
one of them. Abel was one of them. Enoch was
one of them. One day Enoch went out walking
and God said, I'm going to take you with me. And God translated
him out of this world and took him up. And they went looking
for him. Where's Enoch at? He's gone. Where'd he go? All I know is
he's here and then he's gone. That's where he's going to be
with us. Oh my. Noah was one of them. Abraham was one of them. Jacob
was one of them. Moses was one of them. Joseph
was one of them. And you know something about
every one of those people? They were all sinners. Sinners
all of them. Abraham said, I'm but dust and
ashes to speak with you. He's before the Lord and he said,
I'm just dust and ashes. Jacob said, I'm not worthy of
the least of thy mercies. Sinners all who came Because God did something
for all of them. Oh, listen. There's David. There's David. I heard Don Fortner say this,
and oh my, and it's true. He said, David was just as accepted
of God when he was in the arms of Bathsheba as he was when he
had a sword in his hand killed Goliath. You say, boy, that's, it has
to be, can't be no other way. That means that God didn't love
him when he was doing that, and then when he called him at it,
he said, well, I love him now. We're just as righteous in God's
sight as we'll ever be, no matter where we are and what we're doing. You say, boy, that sure is hard
to swallow. It ain't for me. It ain't for me. Oh boy. And then Simon Peter.
Look at Simon Peter. He denied the Lord three times. Did the Lord Cast him off? No, no. I'll tell you why. Who is it not ashamed to be called
their God? David wasn't. Peter wasn't. Me
and you. He's not ashamed to be called
our God. Looking dead at us right now.
Looking dead at us. Looking right into our hearts.
He said, I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed. Stand up before
all the world and the universe. He said, these are my people.
These are my people. You find the place, you find
the situation, you find the circumstance where God is ashamed to be called
their God. Find it, if you can. Well, what about before law?
Christ is the end of it. He fulfilled it. What about His
justice? Christ died under it and satisfied
it. How about in the four devils?
You know what God said to Satan? He looked at his servant Job
and he said, have you considered my servant Job? A perfect and
an upright man. The four men, they stole Stephen
to death and the Lord Jesus Christ stood up. He said, come on out
Stephen. Took him to glory. And I tell
you what, He's not ashamed to be called our God before our
own hearts, with all our grumbling, with all our complaining, with
all of our sinfulness, and all of our flesh, and all of our
sufferings. He's not ashamed to be called
our God. Listen to what he said. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me. What did he say
next? There's nothing Nothing, nothing
that they'll ever do that will make me cast them out. Nothing. You say, boy, listen,
I've done things, said things, and went places that I'm embarrassed
about, I'm ashamed of. But still God said, He's my child.
He's my child. He's mine. He belongs to me. There's never a time, never a
place, never a situation or circumstances where He's ashamed to be called
our God. We confess Him, we own Him, we
bless Him and bless His Son for being our great God and Savior.
Now let me close in Romans 10. Look in Romans 10. Let me close
over here with this. Look in Romans 10. And I tell
you something else, when we get to the end of our life, and when
we get to the end of the way, not only will God not be ashamed
to be called our God, but we won't be brought to shame. We
shall not be ashamed of God or be brought to shame by God. What
he said here in Romans 10, 9. that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
Then he tells us how this happens. For with the heart man believes.
He believes in his heart that God raised him from the dead.
And with a heart man believes, and he believes unto righteousness.
And then he turns around and confesses with his mouth that
I trust Christ and Christ alone, He's all my righteousness. Now
listen to this now. For the scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. Are you ashamed of God? No, no, no. No, no, you know,
a lot of people, the Lord Jesus says, I never knew you, depart
from me you workers of iniquity. But those that believe in their
heart, and confess Jesus Christ with their mouth, and believe
that God raised Him from the dead, and He sits right there
now for us, will not be brought to shame.
And I'll tell you something else. It's in Hebrews 11, 13. Don't
have to turn back there. These all died in faith. Oh, I've seen a few people die
in faith. Ain't you? It's a wonderful,
wonderful thing to know somebody leaves this world in faith. I come into this world without
it, but I leave with it. Yeah, I'd leave with it. Amen. Our Father, oh, blessed be your
name. Thank you for your gospel. Thank
you for the truth. Oh, who's like unto you. God,
you bless our hearts, bless our souls. You make us to understand
things. It's just absolutely the flesh
can't grasp it. Oh, faith does. Faith sees the
substance in it. Faith sees the reality of it.
Faith makes these things unseen, seeable. And oh God we bless
you for it. Save your people in this place
for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.