We looked at verse 11 last week,
and we'll read that again. We'll read a few verses here.
It says, Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to
conceive seed, and was deliberate of a child when she was past
age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Now, in thinking
about Sarah, It says here, she received strength to conceive
seed through faith. Now, did she believe that she
could conceive? I mean, obviously she didn't,
I mean, from what she said. So when it says that through
faith, it's speaking about the faith that was given to her,
which is Christ. Through Christ she received strength
to conceive seed, not through what she believed, but through
that, not through her act of belief, but through that which
she was caused to believe, even Jesus Christ, that He is the
one that gave her strength to conceive seed. And she was delivered
of a child when she was past age. This was impossible because
she judged Him faithful who had promised. Again, it's not speaking
about the activity that she had, but it's speaking about the One
who caused these things to occur. And He's the One that's worthy
of the praise and not her. Therefore sprang there even of
one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky
in multitude. Of course, that's speaking of
Abraham. as good as dead. I mean, he was 100 years old,
99 years old. I mean, when you get to be 99
years old, the Bible says you're as good as dead. And if most people you see that's
99, that's kind of about what you think. Of course, we know
that the Lord's able to cause a man to live as long as he wants
to. I hear that they're working on a pill that you're supposed
to be able to take that's supposed to cause you to live to be at
least 140. They supposedly got this in the
works, you know. They've figured all this out.
But I can tell you this, I don't know if people will do that or
not, but none of them will live a day longer than the Lord has
purposed for them to live. And because He's set the bounds
of men that they cannot pass. And so they're even of one, him
as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude.
Now, think about this. Abraham considered himself as
good as dead, didn't he, at 99. I mean, he figured things. But
you know, he lived to be 175 years old. So he was as good
as dead as far as the flesh was concerned. But you see, we never
know what the Lord has a purpose for us to do. So it's never too
late for a man to do the thing that God's ordained for him to
do. And so you can't say, as you look at somebody, and say,
well, he'll never do anything in his life. Well, the Lord may
not be through with him yet. Because, I mean, just like you
pointed out, I mean, he was 75 years old when this journey began. So he was already past His prime
as we know it and understand it, but yet the Lord had a purpose. And so even though His men would
judge that He was as good as dead, yet the Lord had much more
for Him to accomplish. So many as the stars of the sky
in multitude and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. And of course that is just speaking
about the offspring that He was the Father of. It would be impossible
to enumerate them. And then he says, These all died
in faith. Now he's speaking about Abraham,
Sarah and all these that he's spoken of thus far. He said,
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 in the earth." Now he says that again, as he said it
before, that they died in the faith. Not that they had all
that much faith and activity, but they died in the faith that
they were given. That is, they were caused to
believe that God was going to do what He said He was going
to do. I mean, the Lord came to Abraham and He said, I will
do these things. And by the grace of God, Abraham
believed that he would. To what degree, I'm not sure,
but I know that as time went on, Abraham saw these things
come to pass, and he believed God. But even then, see, he didn't
receive the promise. Now, if you listen to what the
I, for lack of a better term, the Zionists, and I don't mean
that in a political way, but I mean those who would hold up
Abraham and his natural seed as being the chosen people of
God, they would not necessarily 100% agree that he hadn't received
the promise because they would say that, well, he didn't. They
got the promised land, and it was taken from them. Now they're
going to get it back. But that wasn't the promise that
Abraham was looking for. He died in the faith confessing
he was a stranger and a pilgrim in this earth. He wasn't looking
for a piece of ground. Now isn't it odd that that's
what they tell us that is the promised land? You know, you
hear it called the holy land. This is the holy land. Well,
the only thing that makes that piece of land holy is the fact
that it was upon that piece of land that the Lord performed
His miracles and did these things, but the land itself is not holy. But it is historically set apart. I'll grant you that. It is an
amazing place, and it's certainly a place which people might want
to go and visit and look at. But don't ever think of it when
they say the Holy Land as though that's some kind of special piece
of real estate that on the earth is marked out as some special
place in God's eyes, because it's not that. That is not what
makes the promise of God. It is not the carnal land that
Abraham was promised in that carnal covenant, but rather the
promise that he looked for when he confessed that he was a stranger
and a pilgrim in the earth. He was looking for something
beyond that, looking for something other than that. And he saw the
promises afar off. Now see, you and I, are blessed,
and we mentioned this last week, I think, that we have received
the promises. See, the promise has been made
known unto us. The promise was never fully made
known unto Abraham. He didn't really know what it
was God was going to do. God gave him a glimpse. He gave
him a greater understanding as time went on, but he looked off
out there and he knew God was going to do something, but he
just wasn't sure what it was. He was like John the Baptist
who saw the Lord Jesus Christ and he said, Behold, the Lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Now, John saw the
Lord Jesus Christ, but John didn't receive the promise because remember
what he said when he was in jail and he sent his disciples to
the Lord Jesus and he said, Are you the one that's that's to
come or we need to look for another one. See, he didn't see the promises
we see. Now, he was a confused man because,
you see, his vision, John's vision of what the Messiah would do
when he came was to set the captains of Israel free. And so he couldn't
figure out, well, he's here in prison about to get his head
chopped off and he's wondering, well, how can he be the Messiah
and here I'm in a mess like this? And I'm the one sent to bear
witness of him. So he had the wrong impression
about what the kingdom of God was about, but nonetheless he
looked for the promise. He was expecting the promise,
of the promise, even as Abraham and all of those saints who have
died in time past were. But they looked for a city which
had foundations, whose builder and maker was God. And that's
what he says as we read on. 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, a heavenly country wherein God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. several layers of this. As we
look at it, it says that they hadn't received the promises
but were persuaded of them, and they declared plainly that they
sought a country. And if they had been mindful
of that country from which they came, it said, they might have
had opportunity to return. Now keep in mind what the purpose
of this book of the Hebrews was written for. It was written to
remind these Hebrew Christians what they have come out of as
those carnal Jews into that which is the essence of the promise
of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he's using this illustration
to remind them of this very thing. He said, Abraham, if he'd been
mindful of the country from which he came out, He would have had
opportunity to return, but because God said, get thee out and go
to another place, that wasn't what was on his mind. He wasn't
trying to go back. He was trying to go forward.
Now we know that that is the essence of what God's people
are called to do. Paul said, I of all men had reason
to trust in the things that I was raised in. He says, I was circumcised
the eighth day. Born of the tribe of Benjamin,
I was a Pharisee of the Pharisee. I was going about seeking to
destroy those that I thought were the enemies of God. And
he said, but now, he said, I count them but dung. that I might win
Christ. He says, I cast them all away.
And he said, forgetting those things that are behind, I press
to the mark for the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ. And so it is that that's exactly
what this, he's saying here to these Hebrews. Forget about it. Move from it. Because Abraham,
if he'd have been constantly thinking about how good he had
it back in Haran, he might have turned around and went back.
But he didn't do that because he looked for that which God
had prepared for him and he moved forward towards it. And so it
is that God's people must not do the same thing. And especially
speaking to these Hebrews, you remember the Lord Jesus said,
to His disciples, on one occasion He said, A man who having put
his hand to the plow and looking back is not fit for the kingdom
of God. Now, I've never plowed with a
mule or an oxen, of course, what probably
they used in those days. But what he's speaking about
is, I mean, if you're going to plow a straight furrow, you can't
be looking back there to where you came from, because you'll
be all over the place. I know that's true in trying
to lay off a row with a tractor. You've got to get your eye on
something up there, and you can't be looking off over here to see
what's happening over there or over there, because pretty soon
you'll be off of that straight line that you're supposedly going
in. And so that's what he says here. He said, truly if they
had been mindful of that country from whence it came out, they
might have had opportunity to return. But we're not looking
back on those things. Now, you know, it's quite often
true that people get complacent in their supposed walk with Christ. There are multitudes. I would
say this is probably descriptive of a great multitude of those
that call themselves Christians, is that they have begun in a
way, and they became satisfied with it, and they just pretty
much stayed there the rest of their life. They didn't really
move forward. They didn't move to the side
or whatever, but they really didn't press on to the mark for
the prize of the high calling either, did they? I mean, they're
satisfied with it. Now, this is the problem that
I have with confessions of faith. I'm not against confessions of
faith, statements of doctrine. But it is a dangerous thing,
a confession of faith, when people adopt it and they say, this is
where we're at and this is where we're going to stay, and they
begin to think that their faith in Christ is resting on those things that
they have come from. Now, our faith rests on that
which we're going to. You see, our faith is not in
that which we have come from, but our faith is resting on that
which we're going to. Now, don't say that I'm saying
that the doctrine and the things that we believe change, because
the doctrine of Christ never changes. It's always the same
thing. But what must be changing is
our perspective of these things. And I think, as you pointed out
there a minute ago about Think of where you were 25 years ago. Now, if you're in the exact same
spot you were 25 years ago, you probably have bogged down somewhere,
because the Lord is constantly dealing with His people, and
He's teaching us things that you can't learn from a confession
of faith. Now, the doctrine of Christ never
changes. but the perspective of who we
are and what we are before God is constantly changing as we
stop and see the glories that reside in Christ and we're ever
moving in that direction desiring to walk in the ways of the Lord. Now that's what it is to be looking
for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
It's not to be mired in the past. but it is to be expectantly pursuing
that which is before us. Not looking at those things which
are behind Paul's head, but pressing to the mark for the prize of
the high calling of Christ. So we are moving. See, that's
what the life of God's people is a fluid movement. It's not stagnant. We don't just
sit down by the rivers of Zion and weep. But you see, now that
does happen from time to time. But that's not the goal. See,
our goal is not to sit by the rivers of Zion and weep. Our
goal is to move to the city which has foundations, whose builder
and maker is God, desiring that the Lord might work in us His
perfect work, that He might mold and shape us and fashion us in
the image of Christ. Now indeed, that is the work
of God, but it is that which God stirs up within us. I mean,
are we satisfied? Would we pray, Lord, just keep
us like we've always been? I mean, would you want to be
just like you've always been? Or would you say, Lord, teach
me to know thy way? in a fashion which I have not
known it heretofore, in a fashion which I have not walked in it
heretofore. Lord, give me that which I need
to bring glory to Thy name as I go through my life because
our lives are constantly changing one way or the other. May the
Lord give us grace that we might be a people that are growing
in grace and the knowledge of the Lord because that journey
is not one that is done from a place of stagnation, but it
is one that is accomplished in us as the Spirit works in us
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And so may we
never leave the doctrine of Christ, but may we move forward from
just resting on dead doctrines and things that tickle our mind
but don't stir our heart. And may it be that our heart
and our mind is stimulated by the Word of God, ever looking,
ever desiring. Oh, that I might know Him, Paul
said, and the power of His resurrection. He says, I count not myself to
have apprehended. I have not gained that yet which
I am desiring. I want something more than what
I see in the present time. I want the presence of God more
aware in my knowledge. Now, you know, I know there is
all sorts of aberrations of that sort of thought, and one that
comes to mind is the concept that some have taught over the
years, which is generally referred to as progressive sanctification. And in that viewpoint, it is
that we're getting better and better and better and better
and better. Well, you're not getting any better. You know, if you'll be honest
with yourself, you're not getting any better. But by the grace
of God, I believe there's one thing that we are coming to a
place of, and that is a more clear understanding of who we
are and what we are by nature. and the more reliant that we
are on the grace of God every day of our life. Now, it takes
a long time in the life of a man to weed out self-reliance, and
the Lord does that. You know, as a man gets older,
I believe this is the reason for aging, and that is that a
man comes to the place where he can't rely on himself anymore. Because as long as you think
you can rely on yourself, you probably will. But as the Lord
enables you by His grace to know that your health is not in yourself,
it's not in your ability to believe, it's not in your ability to perform
things, but it's in Him. See, all of our help comes from
Him. And that is really, I remember reading one time about something
that Spurgeon had said, because Spurgeon in his later years,
of course he died as a relatively young man, I think he was 58
when he died, but he became, he had a problem with gout and
ultimately I think that was what ultimately killed him. or the
complications resulting from that. I don't know that that
in itself was it. But he confessed that the times
of illness that came upon him were a great blessing from God
because it caused him to turn his eyes away from what he could
do, to see that only the Lord could do these things. And I
see that, you know, quite often. as men become ill and they cannot
do the things that they wanted to do, they thought they could
do. And it does, if the grace of God is with a man, that will
cause him to turn his eyes more so to Christ. Now, can we trust
Christ more? I don't know how to answer that.
I mean, you know, a man trusts Christ. I mean, did Abraham trust
Christ more at the end of his journey than he did at the beginning?
I can't answer that. He did, I believe, in disrespect. If you looked at Abraham when
he left Aaron, and you looked at Abraham when he was 175 years
old, I believe you could have told the difference, don't you?
In his mindset. Now, Abraham might not have seen
much difference at all. But there was a difference because
it is the grace of God working in a man to conform him to the
image of Christ, bringing him to that place where He'd have
him to be. But it's not a thing that's perceptible to men and
it's a good thing because what we'd probably do is make us a
little chart and put it on the wall and say, well, I've got
here. And there are a lot of people,
a lot of religious teachers today teach men that very concept that
you can kind of mark your progress as you're moving up. Now you've
got this, and now you've got that, and you've conquered this
problem, and you don't have that sin anymore, and you're just
moving up and up and up. That's not what I mean at all.
But it is a work that if it's not perceptible to us, It is
perceptible in some measure that God's people are growing in grace
and the knowledge of the Lord. I mean, I think this is a true
thing. The more that we know about Christ, the less we understand
that we know. I mean, you know, when I was
younger, I used to think I had a pretty good understanding of
a lot of things. I thought I really had a handle
on it. But the further I go, the less I do know. Or at least
that I see, that I know, because of the fact that that's what
the Lord teaches us. He teaches us to rely upon Him and not upon
ourselves. And so that's what it says here.
For they that seek such things declare plainly that they seek
another country. We're looking for something outside
of ourselves. And truly if they had been mindful
of that country from whence they came out, they might have had
the opportunity to have a return, but now they desire a better
country. We want something better than
this. Now if you, of course, you know in the flesh, the flesh
is, it wants to hold on as long as it can. I mean, it wants that
last breath, doesn't it? I mean, that's just, it's just
the natural way of a man. He's just gasping for the next
breath. He can't just stop breathing.
He wants the next breath because that's the way he's built. That's
the way he's designed. I mean, if we want to, like a
fellow told me that he said he'd heard people say they didn't
want to be 90 years old. Or he told a fellow, let me say
it this way. He said he told a fellow he was
90 years old. The guy said, well, I wouldn't
want to be 90. And he turned to him and he said, that's because
you ain't 89. See, because it's one thing to look out there and
say, well, I wouldn't want to be, you know, 100 years old.
But as you go along the journey, you want to wake up the next
day, don't you? I mean, that's just the normal thing. That's
just the way that we are. But yet there is an understanding
that we have and a longing and a desire and a sadness that we
see in this world that we can truly say, this world is not
our home. I don't want to be here forever. I mean, think if you had to live
every morning, every day with the fear of going somewhere and
some idiot pulling out a gun and shooting you or shooting
everybody. I mean, is that the way you want
to live your life from now on? Is that the way? Is this a world?
That's what this world is. It's a place of fear, a place
of distrust, it's a place of sorrow. It's not that country
to which we desire to go. And of course, for the child
of God, as the Lord works in him, and causes his reliance
to be more on Christ, he desires to be in the presence of Christ.
Even as those disciples now, you know, when the Lord said,
I'm going away, they didn't want him to go away. And when he said,
I'm coming again, that made them happy, didn't it? Why was that? Because they loved him. Because
they knew where he was. They knew him as he walked among
them, and they wanted to be with him, and it caused them sadness.
to think that they would be apart from Him. And so it is as the
Spirit works in God's people. And, of course, the flesh, again,
the flesh wants to be here right now. I mean, you know, as the
Lord said, I'm going away. And many of them said, well,
we want to go with you. He says, you can't. He says,
you don't really want to. Peter said, I'll go to the death
with you, Lord. He meant that, didn't he? Well,
He did in the flesh. But then whenever He got there
to the place where Christ was being tried, He wouldn't even
stand up and say, you know, hey, I'm one of His disciples. But
He denied the Lord. Why did He do that? Because the
Lord was teaching Him something. What was He teaching Him? Was
He teaching Him what a sorry no-count He was? No, He was teaching
Him not to rely on Himself. He was teaching Him what He was
by nature. He was teaching him to rely on Christ. And so it
is that the Lord would work in us. And now they desire a better
country that is unheavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called
their God, for He hath prepared for them a city. Now the evidence
of the fact that He is not ashamed to be called the God of His people
is that He has prepared for them a city. Now that's what He said
to His disciples, if I go away, I will come again. He says, I
go away to prepare a place for you that where I am there ye
may be also. And that is exactly what he is
saying here. If God is not ashamed to be called their God, it is
evidenced by the fact that he has prepared for them a city.
Now he has prepared for them a lasting place. The book of
Ecclesiastes, Solomon calls it, we go to our long home. That
is, it is a place which is designed for us and a place where we will
dwell. Now, our houses that are in here
in this world, they fall apart. You know, you can have a new
house today, but it will never be new but once. Isn't that right? I mean, you can have a house
and you figure, well, this thing will last me, you know, for the
rest of my life and right on. And then from the day you get
in it, it starts falling apart. And it doesn't make a difference
who built it. It doesn't make a difference how much money you
spent on it. It starts deteriorating and things start tearing up and
things start wearing out. And that's just the way it is
with the natural world. But God has prepared for them
a city which is not of that type. It's not one that grows old.
It's not one that fades away. As the Scripture says, the robbers
don't break in, thieves don't break through and steal, and
all of those things because the Lord has prepared it to be a
lasting world. Now this world is not lasting,
but it's the one that the flesh cleaves to with all of its heart
and mind and soul and wants to hold on to, and all the things
that are in it But it's the least permanent. And so it is that
the man that's born again, he's given a hope in something beyond
this present world, something that does last, something that
is not like this world. Now the flesh's concept of the
world to come is that it's just like this. You know, that's the
concept the flesh has, where everything that I enjoyed here
is going to have to be there. I mean, if I like steak, there's
got to be steak in heaven, because if there wasn't, I wouldn't enjoy
it. But see, it's like that song, glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God, he whose word cannot be broken formed
it for his own abode. It says, and then one of the
verses ends this way, it says, solid joys and lasting treasures
none but Zion's children know. Now how can we know that when
we've never been? We've never been there, but yet
the Lord gives a longing in the hearts of His people to be there,
not because of what we will gain by it, but because it is that
place where He has gone to prepare for us. And it is a lasting joy,
that which won't fade away according to His promise. He said, if it
wasn't so, I'd have told you. Now, if we believe His Word,
then that's the promise upon which we rest. He would have
told us if it was different. And so God is not ashamed to
be called our God. and it is evidenced by the fact
that he hath prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when
he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he that
had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. Now when Abraham was tried, he
offered up The Scripture says he offered up Isaac when he was
tried. Now, when he was tried, was God
trying him to find out what Abraham would do? Now, that's usually
the way that that's approached. Well, the Lord wanted to put
Abraham on trial, so He says, well, here's what I'm going to
do. I'm going to tell him to go offer Isaac, and I'm going
to find out if Abraham's going to believe. That's a foolish
way to look at that because the Lord knew what Abraham was going
to do. Why? Because he had already told Abraham,
I will make this covenant with you and you will be the father
of many nations and in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Now
if the Lord was in doubt about what he was going to do, how
would this have ever occurred? So the Lord tried Abraham. This was for Abraham's sake.
This was that which was given for Abraham. And by faith, when
he was tried, he offered up Isaac. And he that received the promises
offered up his only begotten Son. Now, I believe there is
some prophetical language there. As it is, the Lord gave the promise
to Himself, did He not? I mean, the Scripture says, to
Abraham and his seed, not as of many, but as of one, even
Christ, that was he to whom the promise was made. So we know
that the promise was made to Christ. This was the lasting
promise. He was Abraham's seed. It was
not to the multitudes that would come out of Abraham's loins,
but it was from the multitudes that would come from the loins
of Christ in the sense that they would be given faith. to believe
him. And he that received the promises
offered up his only begotten son. So Isaac was that he offered
him up. Now we know he didn't actually
kill him, but he offered him in the sense that he set forth
that. He would have done it. At least
we believe that he would. I mean there's no reason to think.
I mean he raised the knife. He was fixing to do it, but the
Lord stopped him. because that was the purpose
of God. And, you know, may the Lord,
let's stop there and remember that everything that the Lord
has done for us, He's done through Christ. We've never received
any blessing, even as Abraham never received any blessing,
even as no one ever received any blessing, even as none of
the children of God through any age have ever received any blessing
except that which was in Jesus Christ. Now, if we declare that
we are the followers of Christ, then we are those who declare
that we look for a city which had foundations, because Christ
is the foundation. There's no other foundation can
no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. He's the foundation of that city
to which we go, to which we look. And though we have received the
promises, we yet look for a city because He went to prepare a
city. Now, we've received the promise in the sense that we
know that Christ is the one who would come. Abraham didn't know
that. He knew one would come, but he
didn't know who he was. See, you and I are privileged
because we know who he is, and we declare his name, and we rejoice
in that which he's provided.