Would you turn back to Hebrews
chapter 11? I've entitled this message, Not
Received, But Embraced. And you'll see why I titled it
that as we read this passage of scripture again. Not Received,
But Embraced. Verse 13 of Hebrews chapter 11. These all died in faith, not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and
embraced them, welcomed them, and confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth. I've been trying to preach for
Romans chapter 16 for some time now, six or eight messages, I
guess. And I noticed in that passage
of scripture in Romans 16, 16 times Paul uses the word salute
or greet. Salute so-and-so and greet so-and-so. And the word means more than
our hello or goodbye. It means bid them welcome, wish
them well to receive joyfully. And generally in those times,
in that culture, when that word was used, there was embracing
and kissing involved. And the goodbyes were frequently
long lasting because of this. And the word is found, this greet
or salute or embrace, 60 times in the New Testament. And every
time it is used, with the exception of once, it's used to greet someone
or salute someone or embrace someone. And in our text, this
word is used differently. Same word, but it says, these
all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having
seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embrace them. That's the word. Welcomed them. saluted them, embraced them. I just couldn't get away from
that verse. Now, what is it that would make
someone confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the
earth? Now, that's really a unique concept. A stranger is somebody
that's not from here. If I'm a stranger, that means
I'm not from here. I'm from somewhere else, and
my desire is to go back home. This is not my homeland. I'm
from somewhere else, and I'm just passing through. I'm a citizen
of another country, and I really don't fit in here, and I'm looking
forward to getting out of here. Now, what is it that will make
someone say that? Now, with regard to this world,
I love God's creation. I love the blessings of God's
creation. I love the blessings of my friends
and my family. There's so much in life to be
thankful. So this is not just talking about
someone who's miserable with his circumstances and wants to
get out of here. This could be talking about someone
who's happy with his circumstances, but yet he says, I'm a stranger
here. I'm not from here. This is not
my home. I want to be somewhere else. I want to go back home to heaven. Now, somebody says you've never
been to heaven. Why would you say I want to go back home to
heaven? You've never been to heaven. If I'm united to Christ. I've been to heaven. I've always
been there. In my beloved. In the one in
whom I, that's where I am. I was in heaven before time began,
and when I go back to heaven, I'm going to be going back home.
I'm going to be going to my homeland. Now, this is Impossible to understand,
but it's real. This is the reality of union
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Both he that sanctifieth and
they who are sanctified are all of one, through the which cause
he's not ashamed to call them brethren. If I'm united to Christ,
one with him, I've always been one with him. Before the foundation
of the world, I was one with him. I'll spend eternity being
one with him, and I look forward to going back home. When you
get to heaven, you'll find that you've always been there. Now,
can you understand that? Well, can you understand how
God is one God in three persons? No. Can you understand how God
never began to be? He's always been? No. There's
so much we don't understand that we just believe. And we believe
ourselves to be. strangers and pilgrims here.
This is not my home. I'm looking forward to getting
home, the place where I'm truly at home, the place where I'm
truly comfortable. I want to leave this place. Now, back to verse 13. These all died. Speaking of Abel,
Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah. These all died in faith. These all died. And that is going
to be the final chapter of me and you. We're going to die.
We're going to die. That's a sobering thought. We're
going to die. Now, if I'm a believer, there
are three words that are used to describe my death. Blessed
are the dead who die in the Lord. The best thing that can happen
to a believer is to die. I'll be ushered directly into
the presence of Christ. A state of sinlessness. You know,
people talk about believers, well, they got in trouble, God
punished them and killed them. Since when is that a punishment?
To get killed and to be brought straight into the presence of
Christ. Blessed are the dead, every one
of them. Don't ever look at it in any other way. Blessed are
the dead who die in the Lord. And then the psalmist said, Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. When one
of his saints dies, oh, it's precious to the Lord. And then
Paul said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Best day of my life. I don't
have any question about this. The best day of my life will
be the day of my death. You know, I hope the Lord takes
me painlessly. I'd rather die without a long extended illness.
Probably won't. But at any rate, the day of my
death, I'll be brought straight into the presence of the Lord.
Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last ending be like
his. If I die in faith, I'll wake
up to a sinless existence, the pure bliss of heaven, worshiping
the Lord Jesus Christ, beholding his beauty, beholding his glory. Now that's the desire of every
believer. Heaven's gonna be being with
Christ. It's going to be being conformed to his image. These
all died in faith. But look what it says next. I
think this is so interesting. Verse 13, these all died in faith,
not having received the promises. Now during their lifetime, they
never, and that word received, write this down. This is one
of the definitions. They never experienced the promises. They died in faith, but during
their lifetime, they never experienced the promises. Now salvation is
by God's promise. And God has promised that everybody
Christ died for is justified. And what does justified mean? It means sinless. That's the
best definition of justification, sinlessness. It means you never
sinned. You never committed a sinful
act. You've never done anything wrong,
and all you've ever done is that which is right. When Christ justifies
somebody, that's what happens, and that's the promise of the
gospel, to be justified. God has promised that everybody
Christ died for, they were predestinated to be perfectly conformed to
the image of His Son. Now, this is two of many promises
in the gospel that are all one promise, but here's the point. I have never experienced justification. I've never experienced a state
of sinlessness in my experience in this life. I have never experienced
perfect likeness to the Lord Jesus Christ. On the contrary,
here's my experience. My experience is sinfulness,
not sinlessness, but sinfulness. I have never experienced the
promise of God as far as my experience goes. But I've seen
them far off. And I'm persuaded of it. And
I embrace them as good news. And I confess because of these
promises that I believe that this makes me a stranger and
a pilgrim here on earth. Now these people that he'd spoken
of up to this point, they had never experienced the promises.
I love, we're gonna get to Abraham in a minute, but Stephen tells
us in Acts chapter seven, verse five, that the land that God
promised Abraham, he never stepped one foot in it, as far as his
experience goes. He never stepped one foot in
it. Now go back to Abel. Here's the
first person he mentions in verse four. By faith, Abel offered
unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained
witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts,
and by it he being dead yet speaketh. Now Abel, the very fact that
he brought a sacrifice in the first place, he was saying I
deserve to die. That's what I, I deserve to be cut off. I deserve
to be destroyed. And the only way that I can be
saved is through the sacrifice. And not just sacrifice. He understood
that lamb he was offering up could never put away his sin,
but he knew what that lamb pointed to. The coming lamb. The coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The seed of woman that would
bruise the serpents, crush the serpent's head. And he saw this
afar off. And he believed this promise. He didn't experience it. In his
experience, all he was was a sinner who needed a sacrifice. He saw
the promise afar off. By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice. And then we read of Enoch, verse
five. By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death
and was not found. because God had translated him. Now remember
the Enoch? He was not. He never died. After
318 years of living here on earth, he walked straight into heaven.
That's what the generous account tells us. For before his translation,
he had this testimony that he pleased God. Now does that mean
that Enoch was such a good person and walking so far above sin
that he just walked right into heaven? Well, let's go on reading. Verse six, but without faith,
it is impossible to please him. You know why he didn't please
God? He looked to Christ. That's the only way someone can
please God. He saw the promise of far off, and God brought him
straight into heaven. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he's a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. By faith Noah, these are the
ones that died in faith. By faith Noah, being warned of
God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an
ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the
world and became the heir of righteousness, which is by faith.
Now you think about this. God told Noah, I'm gonna flood
the earth. The end of all flesh has come
before me. Man is exceedingly corrupt. He saw the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that everything, imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. You
build an ark. There hadn't been any rain yet.
Never had been rain. People didn't know what rain
was. The earth was watered by a dew. He said, you build an
ark. And he gave him the dimensions
of it. And it was half the size of the Titanic. That's how big
this thing was. And it took him 120 years to
build it. And he knew the only place of safety was in the ark.
And he saw this 100, he saw this afar off. It was way over 120
years from now. He's building that ark. And I
can't, can you think of how people make fun of him all the time?
I mean, this guy's an idiot. Where's the water at? Why is
he doing this? Making an ark on raw land? And
I love to think of Noah walking into that ark before a drop of
rain fell. But he saw the promises afar
off, and he knew the only place of safety was in the ark. Just like we know the only place
of safety and security is in Christ. nowhere else. He saw
this afar off. Then Abraham, look what it says
about Abraham, verse 8, by faith Abraham, when he was called to
go out into a place which he should afterwards receive for
an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out not knowing whether
he went. By faith he sojourned in the
land of promise, as in a strange country a foreign country dwelling
in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of
the same promise, for he looked for a city which had foundations,
whose builder and maker is God." Now, God promised him this vast
place that he never stepped a foot in, but he knew it was his. He
saw the promises afar off. Verse 11, Through faith also,
Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered
of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful
who had promised." Now I love this. When the Lord was telling
Abraham, you're going to have a child through Sarah, Sarah
started laughing. She said, shall I have pleasure
at my age? She'd already gone through menopause.
She knew she couldn't have a child. She didn't believe what she was
hearing. And the Lord said to Abraham, why'd Sarah laugh? And
Sarah, right in the presence of the Lord, lied. I didn't laugh.
I didn't laugh. And that's the Old Testament
account of what took place. And I love the difference between
the Old Testament account and the New Testament account. The
New Testament account is, by faith, Sarah received strength
to conceive seed. Doesn't say anything about her
errors. The Old Testament tells us about
the old man, and the New Testament tells us about the new man. And
we can see that so clearly. Therefore, verse 12, therefore
spring there even of one and him as good as dead, as many
as the stars of the sky and the multitude and as the sand, which
is by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, not
having seen the promises, but having seen them afar off and
were persuaded of them. Now the word persuaded here is
in the passive tense. You know what that means? That
means somebody persuaded. And I know who it was. If you
believe the gospel, you've been persuaded to believe the gospel. You remember the rich man in
hell, he said, I'm suffering in these torments. He says, take
Lazarus and send him back to earth. and tell him to warn my
brothers of this awful place. I don't want him to come here."
And Abraham replied, well, they have the Moses and the prophets,
let them hear them. And he said, nay, Father Abraham,
but if somebody rose from the dead, they'd believe. And he
said, if they don't hear Moses and the prophets, they won't
be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. It won't happen. You see, the only one who can
persuade me and you to believe is God Himself. If you believe,
it's because God persuaded you to believe. And now you're persuaded
of the truth. I love what Paul said, I know
whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded. I've been persuaded. And here's what I'm persuaded
of, here's what I've been convinced of, that He is able. to keep that which I've committed
to Him against that day. That's what I'm persuaded of.
I'm persuaded of the ability of the Lord Jesus Christ to save
me without any help from me. I've committed the entire salvation
of my soul to Him, and I'm persuaded He's able to keep that which
I've committed to Him against that day. It was said of Abraham,
he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded. You see, if God persuades you,
you're fully persuaded. Being fully persuaded that what
God had promised, he was able also to perform. They were persuaded
of these promises. I'm persuaded that whatever God
has promised, it must come to pass. I'm persuaded that salvation
is utterly and completely in Christ and that I'm complete
in Him. I don't need anything else. God
has persuaded me of this. Now look at the next word in
verse 13. These all died in faith. Not having received the promises
by experience, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded
of them, God persuaded them of them and embraced them. Now that's the word salute or
greet or welcome. They embraced them and welcomed
them. I don't generally like to use
examples of my own life as an illustration, but this is one
of the highlights of my life. And I think this tells me what
it means for a welcome. About, I think it was in 1992,
the first time I went to Mexico, I was gone for three weeks. And
this was before 2011, or 2001, rather, I'm sorry, 9-11, when
people could be waiting there, when you get off the plane, people
would be waiting right there. When I got off that plane, there
was a female who was waiting for me. And she was so excited,
she was jumping up and down for joy, and she was actually trembling.
And let me tell you, it wasn't Lynn. My little girl was so excited
to see me. She was clapping her hands. She
was jumping up and down and trembling. She was welcoming me. And you
know, that's one of the highlights of my life, seeing how happy
she was to see me. And you know, that is the way
we receive the gospel. Do you receive with joy that
salvation is all together by grace without your works? Is
that good news? Is that something you get excited
about and you're just so happy? Do you receive with joy? that
God freely elected a people before time began, and that election
is the election of grace. And it doesn't have anything
to do with your works. The children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God, according to election, might stand not of works. Does that
make sense? I'm so happy. I'm glad. when you hear of the complete
redemption that's in Christ Jesus, how He made complete payment
for all sin, and you owe nothing. Does that make you happy and
glad and rejoice? Well, this is great news! I welcome
this! I salute this! I embrace this! It's called receiving the love
of the truth, is what it's called. It's not just giving agreement
or assent to a doctrine. It's receiving the love of the
truth. Justification. Have you figured out that I love
justification? And I love talking about justification, being justified
by Christ, being perfectly, I have a perfect standing before God,
perfectly righteous because of Him. I embrace that. Now what
is it that would cause somebody to not embrace this and get excited
about it and clap their hands about it? Self-righteousness. That's it. Not having a need. I tell you what, I need this.
I need this because I know I don't have any personal righteousness.
I need this. So when I hear the gospel, you
know, I haven't experienced these things as far as experienced
sinlessness. I see it far off, I believe it,
but I haven't experienced it in my own experience. But I have
been persuaded that it's the truth. You know I believe the gospel
that I preach is the truth of God. You know how come I believe
that? He's persuaded me. I'm convinced. Not only am I persuaded, I embrace
the truth. the gospel. It is good news indeed. And next it says in our text,
these all died in faith, died believing the gospel. And you
know how you die, that's how you're going to spend eternity.
Did you know that? These all died in faith. I love, hold your
finger there and turn to Revelation 22. Verse 11. He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still. He's going to spend eternity
like that. And he which is filthy, let him be filthy still. And
he that's righteous, oh, to die righteous, let him be righteous
still. And he that's holy, let him be
holy still. Now how do you die? is how you're
going to spend eternity. Now 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 it made them
confess. It made them confess. And this
is an unusual confession. It made them confess. And there's
something public about confession. It made them confess that they
were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Now this is the effect
it had on them. It made them confess that they
were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Now turn with me to
Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. Verse 9. 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. For with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. Now here's the point. What you
really believe you'll confess. And confession has something
to do with a public confession. It's confessing before men. Whoso
confesses me before men, him will I confess before my Father
which is in heaven. And whoso denieth me before men,
him will I deny before my Father which is in heaven. So this thing
of confession has something to do with a public nature. You
want people to see this. Now, here's what faith does. It makes those who die in the
faith confess that they're strangers and pilgrims in the world. Now,
what does that mean? I'm a stranger and a pilgrim
in the world. Does that mean I hold myself up into a monastery
and try to stay away from the influence of the world and try
to close my eyes to everything and try to not be interested
in the things of this world in any way? Does that mean I start
communing? Does that mean I'm unhappy and
miserable in this world and don't want to have anything to do with
it? No. No, it doesn't mean that at all.
I thank the Lord for the blessings that he has given in this life.
There are many trials, there's no doubt about that. I got plenty
of myself and you do too. There's many trials that makes
us sometimes think, oh, I want to get out of here and not have
to deal with this. I realize that, but still, by and large,
I'm thankful for the privilege of getting to pass through this
church. What a blessing that is to be able to preach the gospel
to people, to be able to preach the gospel to children, see them
believe. What a blessing. But this world,
I am a stranger and a pilgrim just passing through, and I want
to go back home to the place where I came from, Emmanuel's
land. You see, we do not love the world's
values, the world's maxims, the world's philosophy, the world's
religion. We hate the hatred of the world
for our Savior. And you know, the natural man,
understand this, the natural man does hate Jesus Christ. Savior, our Lord, our master. The world hates him. Now, most
folks don't know they hate him because most folks have never
heard the gospel. But as soon as somebody hears the gospel,
that's when they find out, well, I hate that Jesus. Yeah, I know
you do. I know you do. And we become so weary of this
world that that that hates our Redeemer. And we really are not
comfortable here. We're strangers. and pilgrims
passing through. Now, I have to say this. I do
not understand when someone who is a believer makes the persons
that they want to socialize with unbelievers. I don't understand
that. Evil communications corrupt good
manners. They'll always bring you down
to their level. I don't want to go in that direction. I don't want to make my friends
unbelievers. Now, I want to understand this.
I want to be a witness to unbelievers. I want to preach the gospel to
them. I want to love them. I want to be a good example to
them. I want to be a true friend to them by telling them the truth.
But I'm talking about my intimate companions, the ones I socialize
with. I'm not going to make unbelievers
my companions. I don't want this world. I'm
a stranger and I'm a pilgrim in this world. And that's the
way every believer feels. This really is not my home. I
want to go back to my homeland and I want to confess to this
world. He said this is some kind of public confession. They confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims. And I confess. I want the world to know And
I'm just, this world is not what I want. I want to be with Christ. I want to know him. I want to
lay hold upon him. So they confessed. These all
died in the faith. And I love the way it says they
hadn't experienced the promises. Because I haven't either. I believe
them. I believe that I am sinless before
God, perfectly justified, perfectly conformed in the image of Christ.
I believe that. But do I experience it? No. But
I know I am. You see, I've been persuaded
by God Himself, by God the Holy Spirit, through the preaching
of the Gospel. I've been persuaded. Not only have I been persuaded,
I embrace. I love the Gospel of God's grace.
I love the Gospel of Christ. I embrace it. It comes as good
news to me. It's good news. It's not just doctrine that I've
been indoctrinated into. It's good news. Oh, how good
news the grace of God is. I embrace and I confess because
of the gospel I believe. It makes me walk through this
life as a stranger and a pilgrim. I want to get back home. This
is not my home. My home is in the presence of
the Lord Jesus Christ, being perfectly conformed to his image,
where everybody there loves him. He that is begotten of God loveth
him that is begotten of God. And that's true of every believer. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that we might die
in faith. Lord, we know if we don't die
in faith, we die in our sins and Lord, we don't. We can't
stand the thought of facing you in our sins. Enable everybody
in this room to die in faith. Not having received the promises
or experience, but believing. You persuaded us. And Lord, we
embrace your gospel, and we confess that because of your gospel,
we're strangers and pilgrims in this earth, earnestly longing
to return to our homeland, Emmanuel's land, the presence of Christ. In his
blessed name, we pray. Amen. We got one.