All right, Hebrews 11. I'll read verse 11, Hebrews 11, verse
11. Through faith also Sarah herself
received strength to conceive seed, was delivered of a child
when she was past age, past 90 years of age. because she judged
him faithful who had promised. But now Sarah should be a measure
of encouragement to us who believe, who believe God, and yet who
must often pray, Lord help my unbelief. Her faith, she believed
God far from perfect. She had a lot of doubts. Let's
read about it. Genesis 18. Genesis 18. Genesis 18. 1. And the Lord appeared
to Abraham in the plains of Mamre. Now go down to verse 9. And they
said, that is, the three men, the three angels, they said to
Abraham, Where is Sarah, your wife? He said, Behold, she is
in the tent. And he said, the Lord said to
Abraham, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time
of life. And, lo, Saber, your wife, shall
have a son. Saber was eavesdropping. She
heard it in the tent door which was behind him. Now, Abraham
and Saber were old and well stricken in age. They ceased to be with
Saber after the matter of women. Therefore, Saber laughed. within
herself. And she said, After I am waxed
old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord, being old also? Abraham. And the Lord said to Abraham,
Wherefore didst thou relapse? Saying, Shall I have a surety
bear a child which am old? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? At the time appointed, I will
return unto thee according to the time of life, and Saviour
shall have a son." I'll tell you that again. Then Saviour denied that she
laughed. Bless her heart. I understand that, don't you?
She said, I didn't laugh. She was afraid. And he said,
nay, you did laugh. Well, that should be an encouragement.
to us who believe, and yet we have problems with doubt and
fear and unbelief. But she believed God, and it
says here that she received strength to conceive seed because she
believed God. It was an imperfect faith, but
she did believe. But Abraham, his faith wasn't
perfect either. Let's go back to Genesis 17.
How Abraham reacted to this announcement when he was 100 years old. Let's
see how Abraham reacted. We talk about Abraham's faith,
and we should, because he's the father of the faithful. He's
a believer. He endured so many trials, but his faith wasn't
perfect either. In Genesis 17, verse 15, listen. Verse 15, Genesis 17, and God
said to Abraham, as for Sarah, your wife, I shall not call her
name Sarai, Sarai, but Sarah, Sarai. Don't call her Sarai,
I call her Sarah, that's her name. And I'll bless her, and
I'll give thee a son of Sarah. Yea, I will bless her, and she'll
be the mother of nations." See, she's 90 years old now. Kings
of people shall be of her. And Abraham fell on his face
and laughed. Everybody knows about Savior
laughing, now you know about Abraham laughing, don't you? And he said in his heart, he
didn't say it openly, he didn't say it to the Lord, he said in
his heart, he might as well have because God knows our hearts,
shall a child be born to him that's a hundred years old? And she'll say to him, he's 90
years old, bare son, tell you what Lord, I have a plan. The next verse, Abraham said,
Lord, let Ishmael live before thee. Just let Ishmael be the
heir. Oh, bless our hearts. But they believed. It wasn't
a perfect faith. It was a faith troubled by a
lot of infirmities and surroundings which affect our faith. The magnitude
of it, the magnitude of God's promises, the magnitude is just
indescribable. And yet we must believe. In verse
12, listen to this. I think the end of verse 11,
she judged him faithful to the promise. When there is no human hope,
he is our hope. She did, she judged him faithful,
so did Abraham, they believed God. Therefore sprang there even
of one, and him as good as dead, Abraham, so many as the stars
of the sky in multitude, as the sands which are by the seashore
in Where is this promise made? Let's turn to Genesis 15. Here's
the promise, Genesis 15. You're familiar with it. Let's
read it again. Genesis 15. Abraham was complaining that
he had no heir. He was 100 years old, saving
the honey, and he had no heir. I go childish. In verse 4 of
Genesis 15, Behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
This shall not be thine heir, Eliezer of Damascus," his, your
steward. He won't be your heir. He that
shall come out of your own bowels will be your heir. And he brought
him forth abroad and said, look now toward the heavens. Tell
the stars if you're able to number them. You ever stand out and
look at the stars on a bright, clear evening? The stars are so bright and there
are so many of them. And that Lord said, Abraham,
see if you can count them. Our Lord counts them and calls
them all by name, but Abraham couldn't count them. You can't
even either. And he says, So shalt thy seed
be. So shalt thy seed be. And verse
6 says, He believed. He believed in the Lord. He believed
God. And it was counted to him for
holiness, for righteousness, for acceptance. favor with God. What is this righteousness? Abraham
believed God and accounted to him for righteousness. Turn to
Romans chapter 4. Let's see what this righteousness
is. Because we know Abraham in himself
wasn't righteous, even his faith wasn't perfect, let alone his
life. Romans chapter 4. But he was perfect in this righteousness. God accounted him righteous.
Romans chapter 4 verse 1, what shall we say then that Abraham
our father as pertaining to the flesh, Abraham's our father pertaining
to the flesh, hath found, he's a Jew like these folks Paul's
talking to, if Abraham was justified by works he hath whereof the
glory, but not before God. What sayeth the scripture? We
just read this, Abraham believed God It was counted to him for
righteousness. Righteousness, perfect holiness.
Read on. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace but of death, but to him that
worketh not but believes on him that justifieth the ungodly. Perfectly justified, free from
sin. His faith is counted for righteousness. And David described that righteousness. Listen. David described it. Here's the definition. He described
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness
without worth, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom God
will not charge or impute. That's what it is. Abraham was
a perfect man in Christ by faith, in his righteousness. And that's what the Lord said
to him, from that one, as good as dead, so many as the stars
of the sky in multitude, my text, Hebrews 11, 12, and the sand
by the seashore is innumerable. Who are these people? Who are
these people that spring from this man who believed God, through
his son Isaac, the promised son, this righteous man by faith?
Well, who is this multitude? Well, let's see over here in
Revelation 7. John saw them in heaven. He saw
them when all of the world was over and the new heaven, new
earth had been created by God. And John wrote about this multitude
which no man can number. A man couldn't number the stars.
nor could he number this innumerable company. In Revelation 7 verse
9, after this, I beheld, John said, and lo, a great multitude,
which no man could number, of all nations, not just Jews, all
kindreds, all people, tongues, how many languages do they own
on this earth, of tongues, languages? Thousands, I guess. People from
all those nations, kindred people, stood before the throne, before
the land, land clothed with white rose, with palms of victory in
their hands, and they cried, salvation to our God. These people
are all believers like Abraham, who accounted righteous in Christ.
Let me show you another scripture,
Galatians. You know, a lot of times when
we think about this, the heirs of Abraham and the sons of Abraham,
we're prone to think about the Jewish people. And I hope many of them are.
All of them are physical sons of Abraham, and all of them aren't
the sons of Abraham we're talking about here, the stars, people
of God. Galatians 3, verse 6. Now, we read this. You remember? In Galatians 3, 6, Even as Abraham
believed God, it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know
ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same faith,
the same are children of Abraham. That's the children of Abraham.
Look down at verse 26 through 29. Verse 26 says, You are all
the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. As many of you
have been baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit, have put
on Christ, and there's not Jew and Gentile. There's neither
Jew nor Greek. They're not called by those names.
There's neither bond or free. People who are enslaved or live
in free democracies, or Russia or Yugoslavia, that's bond or
free. There isn't male or female. You're
all one in Christ. And if you belong to Christ,
you're Abraham's seed. And you're heirs according to
that same promise. That's who we're talking about
here. Therefore, turn back to my text,
Hebrews 11. Therefore sprang there even the
one and him as good as David. Faith's a miracle. Salvation's
a miracle. Life's a miracle. An act of God. As many as the stars in multitude
and the sands of the seashore, and every one of them are believers
in Christ. They're not Arabs or Jews or
Muslims or these names that... They're believers. Believers. And these people, verse 13, they
all die in faith. These Old Testament believers
we're talking about here, and that same is true of you and
me. We die in faith. These Old Testament people we've
been reading about, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, they lived
believing God and they died believing God. They never changed. They
lived believing the promises and they died believing the promises.
They lived believing the Messiah would come and they died believing
the Messiah would come. It didn't change. It didn't alter. Not having received the promises, Let's read that this way, not
having received the fulfillment of the promise. They had the
promise. They couldn't believe the promise
if they didn't have the promise. They had the promise that Christ
would come. But they hadn't had the fulfillment
of the promise. Christ hadn't come. Over there
in Romans, it talks about that faith of Abraham in Romans 4.
Listen to what it says in Romans 4. Verse 20, "...he staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
being fully persuaded what God had promised he was able to perform." Not having received the fulfillment
of the promise, but look at Hebrews 11 again, verse 13, "...but having
seen them afar off, Abraham saw Christ's day." Christ
said that! In John 8, he said, your father
Abraham saw my day and rejoiced to see it. Abraham saw the promise
by faith. He didn't live to see the fulfillment
of it, but he saw the promise. He said, son, God will provide
himself a lamb. Abraham saw the promise afar
off. He said, God will raise up a
prophet from among the brethren like me. and put his words in
his mouth. Jacob saw the promise afar off.
He said, the scepter will not depart from Judah to shallow
comes. They saw it. And they not only saw it, look
at verse 13. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises of fulfillment, but having seen
them way off and were persuaded of them. They were persuaded. absolutely convinced. My son, God will. Moses says,
God will. God will. Not only were they
persuaded, they embraced these promises. They held them to their
heart. They embraced the promise. They
loved the promises. When everything around them was
falling apart, they had his promise. Even when they were in captivity,
they had his promise. They feasted on his promises,
lived by his promises, loved his promises, had hope in his
promises. God can't lie, and he promised
lies in Christ. They embraced his promises. Embraced
them. They embraced them, held them
to their hearts. And they confessed to everybody who had listened
that they were strangers here. This world is not my home. This body will die and the soul
will return to God who gave it. They confessed that they were
strangers. Strangers. And our faith is not
unlike that. Turn to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter chapter
1. We see by faith, too. We don't
see by these eyes. I hear a lot of people talking
about what they feel and what they see and what God says to
them and what God shows to them and visions in the night and
somebody in the sky and somebody at the foot of the bed, hogwash. The Word is our foundation. God
said, therefore we believe it. I believe, therefore have I spoken."
Look at 1 Peter 1, verse 8, "...whom, having not seen, you love." What did they say about those
people? They died in faith, not having received the fulfillment
of the promise, but having seen it afar off. Abraham never saw
Christ with these eyes. He saw Him with the eyes of faith. whom having not seen you love,
in whom though now you see him not, yet believing you, rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of
your faith, even the salvation of your soul." Having not received the fulfillment,
but having seen by faith the promises of Paul and embraced
them, persuaded of them, confident, embraced them, and confessed
To anybody who would listen, I believe God. I believe God. Joshua said, let the rest of
them do what they will. Me and my house, we're going
to serve God. That's a fact. That's a fact. And verse 14,
they that say such things, what things? What we've been talking
about. God will provide a lamb. God will send a prophet. God
will redeem our souls. Jesus Christ is our righteousness.
They that declare such things, declare plainly that they seek
a country. David said, or Moses said in
Psalm 107, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. And they that say such things,
declare plainly they're seeking a country. Four things about
that country. Tell you how I feel about it.
Number one, it's a new country. Behold, I make all things new.
A new heaven, a new earth. It's a land wherein dwelleth
righteousness. Nothing enters that worketh or
maketh a lie. It's a land free from sin. There'll
be no more death, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more suffering,
no more sin. It's an eternal home. from which
we'll never depart. It's the land where we never
grow old. It's the land of the cloudless day. And we're seeking that country.
Our hearts and our eyes and our minds are set on that country,
promised by God who cannot lie. But when we look for a new heaven
and a new earth, we're looking. We're seeking. We're looking.
It described the believers in 1 Thessalonians, the last thing
it says about them, they're waiting. They're waiting. Waiting for
his son. Looking for him. Looking for
his return. Seeking that country. They're seeking it. And it's
a better country. It's called a better country
over here in verse 16. They desire a better country. It's a better country. You know,
God made this country and pronounced it good. God made this land and
pronounced it good, but sin entered this country and this land and
defiled it and corrupted it. But that country is a better
country, better than good, better than good, because sin can't
enter. And three reasons why it's a
better country, he dwells there. I will be with them, and I'll
be their God, and they'll be my people. I shall see him as
he is. He dwells there. Secondly, everybody
else who dwells there is going to be like Christ. There are some areas in which
we are all alike here, in that we believe the gospel. There
are a lot of areas in which we're not alike. Everybody's alive. They're like
Christ. That's a better country. No misunderstandings,
no hurt feelings, no doubt, no question marks. It's all like
Christ. Known as we have been known. And it's a better country
because he especially prepared it for his bride. He said, I
go The almighty, eternal, omnipotent Son of God says, I go to prepare
a place for you. Boy! My goodness alive! What a country! I prepare it for you. For you. And then that country's
far off. One of our group went there and
came back and said, I can't even tell you about it. It's so wonderful.
You couldn't understand it, Paul, with that, did it? He said, I
can't put in words what I heard. It's far off, I haven't seen
it, but the Lord told me the way. One of the disciples said,
we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? He said,
I'm the way. Not the church, not the preacher,
not the altar, not the baptister, not the law, not the priest. I'm the way. I'm the truth and
I'm the life. And no man comes to that place,
to my Father, but by me. His righteousness gives us his
holiness and enables us to dwell there. You're not going to dwell
there without his holiness. His blood cleanses us and justifies
us, enables us to stand there. Who shall ascend into the holy
hill? Who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean
hands and a pure heart." Well, by his blood he gave us a pure
heart. By his righteousness, clean hands.
And his Holy Spirit gives us spiritual life so that we have
a nature that'll like it there. A nature that desires that country. covets that country and will
be satisfied to dwell in that country. You see, look at Hebrews
11 again, verse 15. These people who seek that country,
if they had been mindful of the country they came out of, if
their hearts had still been back there and their thoughts back
there, like Lot's wife, she left Sodom, but she never left Sodom. Oh, she did. No, she didn't.
Her body did. Her heart never left Sodom. That's
why she looked back. And these people, he said, their
hearts were still back there. As far as I'm concerned, God
said they can go back there. That's right. And he said that
to the disciples one day. He was preaching to several thousand
people and he got to talking about, started talking about
his sovereignty. And his power, I'm the bread
of life. I read it to you, John 6, a while ago. That was what
he said to them, those things I read to you. And they said,
we can't hear that, that's hard to say. And they left. They left. He turned to the 12, and he said,
would you also go? That's when Peter said, Lord,
we got nowhere to go. We burned our bridges. We believe
and assure that you're the Christ, the Son of the living God. We're
yours. We burned our bridges. We're
not interested." Now, if they had been mindful of that country,
they could have gone back. And that's true of me or you
or anybody else that professes to believe Christ. If your heart's
still back there in the world, materialism and all these things, get going. That's what he said. I'm not being hard, I'm telling
you what he said to the disciples. They've been mindful. See, God
changes your mind. He doesn't keep his people by
force. He keeps them by faith. We're
kept by the power of God through faith. He said, I'll never leave
them and they'll never leave me. You don't leave life. When God gives you life, you
don't leave life. God makes you a son, you don't go back to the
filth and mired corruption of the dunghill. When you sit with
the king at the king's table, you're through with that mess.
If they'd been mindful, you see, mindful. They that are the flesh
mind the things of the flesh. They that are spirit, Paul said,
mind the things of the flesh. That's what God changes. He doesn't
just give you a pasted-on righteousness and wash your sins away and leave
your heart in the world. He gives you a new heart. He
gives you a nature that can't stand the world. I imagine some
of you like me getting where you can't stand to read the newspaper.
You can't stand it. You just bring into your home
all that rock gut stuff. Who wants to read it? Television? It's where you can't stand it, because your heart's not in that
stuff. You want to think on things that are righteous and pure.
What sort of things are righteous and pure and holy? Think on these
things. Think on these things. And if
they'd been mindful of that country they came out of, they could
have gone back. Now look at verse, "...but now
they desire a better country." They desire a better country. They really desire to die. Like
Paul said, as far as I'm concerned, I have a desire to depart and
be with Christ, which is far better for you. It's needful
for me to be around a little longer. But as far as I'm concerned,
I died a long time ago. They desire, they desire a better
country. I turned to the preacher this
morning, he said, now when the time comes when you have to leave
here, you have to? I get to. I'm going home someday. Remember
when I let you go home in the service? Did you want to stay
over there? I didn't either. It's time to
go home. Time to go home. They desire
a better country. They do. And God's not ashamed to call
them... He's not ashamed to be called their God and call them
His sons. They're different. And He's prepared
for them a city. One thing I want to tell you
and then quit. Verse 17 through 19. Let's read this, "...by faith
Abraham, when he was tried, he offered up Isaac. He that had
received the promises offered up his only son, of whom it was
said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that
God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence
he received him in a figure." Now, we know three things. The
secret will of God was not for Isaac to die. That's not why
he told Abraham to take him up on the mountain and sacrifice
him as a burnt orphan. God's will, secret will, was
not that Isaac should die. Abraham didn't know that. You
and I know that. The command to offer Isaac was
for the trial of Abraham's faith and the trial of Abraham's love. That's what it was for. Second
thing I know, Abraham offered Isaac. You see that word there,
verse 19? Abraham, verse 17, Abraham when he was
tried, he did offer up Isaac. No, he didn't preach it. Yes,
he did. I beg your pardon. He offered up Isaac in here and
in here. As soon as the command came,
he started that mountain. To do what? Offer up Isaac. He
fully intended to. As soon as the command came,
he traveled three days to Mount Moriah, headed that way. To do what? Offer Isaac. He walked
up that mountain with the wood and the fire to offer up Isaac. He bound Isaac and put him on
that altar. For what purpose, Ron? He raised
the nine. Isaac was a dead man in Abraham's
heart. He offered him up. As far as
Abraham was concerned, it was done. The third thing, accounting
verse 19, that God was able to raise him from the dead. That's
faith. Abraham knew in here that the
Messiah was coming, and the Messiah was coming through Isaac. No
Isaac, no Messiah. The promise of the seed, that
seed was crushed. Without Isaac, no promise, no
Messiah, no redemption. So this is what he knew. All
right, I'll sacrifice him by God's command. But I fully expect
God Almighty to raise him from the dead. The first time he received Isaac,
he received him from the dead, didn't he? From a dead woman
and a dead man. So what's the problem? God, who can give him to me the
first time from a dead woman, can give him to me the second
time from a grave. I believe God. Come on now. I believe God. Abraham offered up his only begotten
son. There are so many ways in which
Isaac is a type of Christ. Right here in verse 19, accounting
that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence
he did receive him. of whom it said, And Isaac shall
thy seed be called." That's the basis of his faith. Now let me
show you how Isaac is a type of Christ, and I'll close. In his birth, he's a picture
of Christ. Both births, Isaac and Christ,
were announced by the angels. Both births were long awaited,
long awaited. Both births were kindred in nature.
Isaac born of an old woman, Christ born of the virgin. Both Isaac
and Jesus Christ were sons of Abraham. That's right, Christ
son of Abraham. Seed of David, seed of Jesse,
tribe of Judah, son of David. Isaac was the only heir of his
father. Christ is the only heir. You're heir in Christ. We're
joint heirs with Christ. He's the heir. Isaac carried
the wood on which he was to die. Christ bore his cross up Mount
Moriah, Calvary. Isaac was offered on a mountain
by his father. Please God to bruise Christ.
Isaac was not slain. The ram died. Listen, the divine
son of God didn't die. The lamb died. That's right. Jesus died. God can't die. The lamb of God died. Both Isaac and Jesus Christ were
delivered on the third day. God came and said, Abraham, take
your son to the mountain. Three days' journey. On the third
day, with all the sun shone for Abraham again, the victory, it
took him off of Palawood. On the third day, our Lord arose
from the grave. And then, Scripture says, Isaac
went home with his father. Went to his father's house. Our
Lord rose and he said, I go to my father and your father. And there's where he's seated
at God's right hand, victorious. It's finished. The work's done. The redeemed are redeemed. Saved. Price is paid. The forerunner has already entered
and occupied. in our name, and we'll soon join
him.