Monday November 02, 2009

HEBREWS: DIVISION IV

THE SUPREME AUTHOR OF FAITH: JESUS CHRIST, GOD’S SON, 10:19-11:40

H. The Patriarch’s Faith: A Pilgrim’s Faith, 11:13-16

(11:13-16) Introduction: believers are only strangers and pilgrims on earth. They are only passing through this earth and this life which is ever so brief and corrupt. They are heirs and citizens of heaven. This passage is a picture of the great faith of believers, the faith of God’s pilgrims upon earth.

1. Their faith: a faith that endures that forever seeks an unseen, heavenly country (v.13-15).

2. Their reward (v.16).

1. (11:13-15) Patriarchs— Faith— Pilgrimage: the patriarch’s faith was a faith that endured, that forever sought an unseen, heavenly country. The word patriarch refers to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and other ancient men who had great faith in God and His promises. The point to see is this: these all died believing what God had promised and not a single one of them ever received the promise on earth. If they were to receive them, they had to accept them by faith. Believing them—hoping in them—was the only way they could possess them. Note four points.

1. Their faith was a visionary faith. They saw the promises of God afar off, not by sight but in their hearts and minds. What was the promise? It was the promise...

· of a country (Hebrews 11:14).

· of a better country, a heavenly world (Hebrews 11:16). Christ Jesus even said that Abraham saw His day and rejoiced in the hope of it (cp. John 8:56).

Thought 1. How much more we can see and understand the promises of God. Christ has already come once. To believe that He shall return is much easier than Abraham believing that He was coming the first time. Abraham had no precedent, whereas we do.

2. Their faith was a growing faith.

Þ They saw the promise of God and were thankful to God for the privilege of seeing it.

Þ They were persuaded of the promises of God. They believed that the promises were true, that there was a promised land and that God was going to give it to them. They believed in God and that what God promised He was going to fulfill.

Þ They embraced (aspasamenoi^PWS: 1247) the promises. The word means to greet and welcome. They were ever so thankful and appreciative to God for such a glorious hope as the promised land. They rejoiced and loved the promise, setting their eyes upon it and not looking away.

Þ They confessed that they were only strangers and pilgrims upon earth, just passing through until they could inherit the glorious hope of the promised land. They confessed the glorious hope to all; they bore testimony and witness and did so unashamedly that God had given them the hope of the promised land.

3. Their faith was a working faith. They actively sought after the promised land and declared the fact to all.

Þ They did not just sit back and talk about the promised land, thinking that God would take them to it when it was time.

Þ They did no go on about their lives upon this earth ignoring the promised land, thinking that they were good enough and God would never reject them from inheriting it.

The early believers actively sought after the promised land. They got up and went looking for it, leaving the world and its possessions behind. By their separation from the world and seeking after God’s promises, they declared plainly that they were men and women of true faith.

4. Their faith was an enduring faith. They never returned to the country they had left. They had separated from the world and began a search for the promised land of God and they stayed on the search.

Simply stated, they kept their mind and thoughts upon the promised land.

Þ They did not harbor the thoughts of the old world’s pleasures and desires, possessions and indulgences, feelings and comforts.

Þ They did not return to the old world when they had the chance.

Þ The patriarchs endured to the end. In fact, they went to their grave believing in the great hope of God for the promised land.

“And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform” (Romans 4:21).

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

“For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2 Tim. 1:12).

“For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil. 3:20-21).

“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” (Hebrews 11:13).

“For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come” (Hebrews 13:14).

“For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding” (1 Chron. 29:15).

“Hear my prayer, O lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were” (Psalm 39:12).

“I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me” (Psalm 119:19).

2. (11:16) Faith— Reward: the reward of the patriarchs. Their reward was twofold.

1. They received God’s approval. God is not ashamed to be called their God. Note the present tense: they are still living, even today. And so is God. God is acting now; it is today that He is unashamed. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob today, and He is not ashamed to be called their God. Just imagine! These great patriarchs have been alive and living in God’s presence for thousands of years (cp. Matthew 22:32; Mark 12:26; Luke 20:37). God loves and commits Himself to all who believe Him and His promises. He is not ashamed and never will be ashamed of those who confess that they seek Him and the country He has promised.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

“For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).

“And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them” (Rev. 14:13).

“But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him” (Acts 10:35).

“Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:6-10).

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:17-18).

“To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephes. 1:6-7).

“Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine” (Exodus 19:5).

2. They received the promised land. God prepared a city for them, a heavenly city that will last forever and ever.

“For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (Romans 4:13).

“For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

“But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:16).

“But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels” (Hebrews 12:22).

“For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come” (Hebrews 13:14).

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godlinesss, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” (2 Peter 3:10-13).

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21:1-4).

“And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:10).

“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Rev. 22:14).

“And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Rev. 22:19).

Copyright: Preacher’s Outline and Sermon Bible, Chattanooga, TB Used by Permission