Now, faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith, Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offerings, and by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. By faith, Enic was taken from this life so that he did not experience death. He could not be found because God had taken him away, but before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God, and without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. By faith Noah when warned about things not yet seen in Holy Fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents as did Isaac and Jacob who were heirs with him of the same promise, or he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. Praise be to God for his glorious word. Would you be seated, please? Beloved, if the faith available can be described as a faith that worships God, and the faith of being it can be described as a faith that walks with God, and as we discovered last Lord's day, the faith of Noah, a faith that stands alone for God, what is it that can be said by way of distinction with regard to the faith of this patriarch Abraham? Well the answer to that question is very simple. To cut right to the chase, this is a faith that obeys God, a faith that obeys God. It is the distinctive quality that Hebrews sets forth before us as we give consideration to this man Abraham. May I ask you this morning right up front, right from the very start, are these kinds of things this morning true of your faith? Is yours a faith that seeks to worship God as he prescribes? Is yours a faith that walks with God in intimate communion? A faith that is willing to stand alone for God when doing so seems foolish to everyone around you, brothers and sisters, these are the kinds of questions that Hebrews chapter eleven poses to the people of God. And from the life of Abraham, there comes yet another question, perhaps even more penetrating, even more pointed, and that is, does your faith in Jesus Christ impel you to obey Him? I submit to you this morning that Abraham's life is an Old Testament illustration of a phrase used by the Apostle Paul in the opening of his letter to the Romans when he says, through Him, that is, Jesus Christ, and for His name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people out from among all the Gentiles to the obedience of faith. The obedience of faith, interesting that those two nouns are used together in conjunction with one another, obedience and faith, there are some in our day who would suggest to us that those two ideas are mutually exclusive. Obedience and faith? But to the contrary, beloved, in the structure in which these words are used, they serve to interpret each other. In other words, the Apostle Paul is saying, as he opens up this letter to the Romans, we call people to a faith that obeys. We call people to an obedience that believes. We call people to the obedience of faith. It is a faith, brothers and sisters, that speaks to us, not of the inception of the Christian life, not the moment of conversion, but rather it speaks to us of the totality of the Christian life from start to finish. A faith in Jesus Christ that evidences itself in a lifestyle of joyful submission to His Lordship, a steady obedience that expresses itself in absolute trust in the fullness of His saving merit. Well, Abraham is a model of this very thing, the obedience of faith. Now, friends, Abraham is not a perfect man, as you well know. Not him is not a sinless man. His fallen humanity becomes evident to us as you open up the book of Genesis, and I think it is also accurate to say that to this very day our world suffers the consequences of some of the sins of Abraham. This is why, after all, we call you to faith in Jesus Christ. This is why the writer of Hebrews tells us in the very next chapter, so we don't get lost in enjoying all of these men, we are to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. We fix our eyes on Jesus as Savior, not Father Abraham, however, to appreciate what authentic faith is. We can do no better than to take a consideration of this man's life as we will do now over the next three Sundays. It would do you well to realize, beloved, that in this gallery of Old Testament, faithful saints, the author of Hebrews devotes more space to Abraham than to any other. He has already drawn upon Abraham in Hebrews chapter 6 as an expression of authentic faith. And for that matter, as you know, from reading the book of Genesis yourselves, more spaces devoted to Abraham than to any other person, be it Jacob, Isaac, Joseph. In Romans chapter 4, Abraham is the exemplar of the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone. In Romans, Hebrews and Galatians, Abraham is referred to as the Father of all of those of all time who are faithful and consequently we, who are Christians, are referred to as the offspring or the children of Abraham. And finally, by virtue of his great faith, Abraham is referred to in both testaments as the friend of God. What a wonderful description, the friend of God. We have a game that we play with our children. I think some of you have done this as well. Throughout the years, Jim Elif, our friend, has referred to this as that one word catechism. Who is the oldest man? The Thusula, who was the wisest man, Solomon, who was the meekest man, Moses, who was the most patient man, Job, who was the most faithful man. Hands down as far as the sacred text is concerned, it's Abraham. But this causes us to pull back for a minute. From where did Abraham's great faith come? Where did it originate?
Well, perhaps maybe he grew up in an incredibly godly home with an incredibly pious father and mother. No. Perhaps his formatted years were spent sitting under some careful preaching and teaching of the revelation of God. No. Perhaps he was schooled at home. Perhaps he attended some private school whereby he was carefully guarded from all of the influences and intrusions of the world. No. So what was the cause of his great faith? Let me tell you a little bit about this man Abraham. He was a citizen of one of the most prominent cities in the ancient world, the city of Err. In what today would be regarded as southern Iraq. Conservative estimates suggest that there would be a population of about 300,000 people. It was considered a major cultural center, boasting of an elaborate system of writing, advanced mathematical calculations, educational facilities, extensive business endeavors, and great religious activity. In fact, the city of Err was dominated by this giant three tiered ziggurat, a kind of terrorist pyramid with the religious temple on the top dedicated to the chief deity of the city, the Samaritan moon god, Nana and his wife, Min Gow. It was a distinctly polytheistic culture. Moreover, we know something a bit more about the religion of Err from archaeologists who have discovered what they have called death pits, the graves of the royalty in Err. And why were they called death pits? Because in uncovering these graves of royalty, it was discovered that each royal official was accompanied by dozens in one particular case, nearly 70 human sacrifices intended to accompany this person into the next world. Now friends, this is the culture. This is the lifestyle. This is the epoch in which Abraham had been placed. He was not a good man as God measures goodness. He was not a better person than the people of his day. The fact is he was a pagan raised by pagans in a culture that was decidedly pagan. Joshua chapter 24 tells us that Abraham's family worshipped other gods. In other words, friends, everything about his life was immersed in idolatry. So that begs the obvious question, doesn't it? How does a man go from rank paganism to being the epitome of faithfulness toward the one true God? It happens to him in the same way it happened to you. By virtue of a sovereign display of the intervening grace of God, listen to how the book of Genesis states it in a rather benign way admittedly. Genesis 121, the Lord had said to Abraham, leave your country, your people in your father's household, and go to the land I will show you. In other words, beloved, the one instrument that God always uses to save came to Abraham. His word made effectual. And beloved, when the word of God comes to a person in all of its efficacy, it empowers the very action that it demands. The word of God came to Abraham, that effectual life giving word, Acts chapter 7 fills out the story a bit more fully. Stephen says that God of glory appeared to our father, Abraham. God made himself known to this man. The word of God came, God makes himself known, leave your country, and your people God said and go to the land I will show you. Now friends, quite frankly, God had no plans to save the people from the city of Er, but it was his pleasure to call one man out of that city. But why Abraham? Was it because he was on a quest for the one true God? Was it because his own free will intuitively inclined in toward the religion of Yahweh? There's nothing anywhere in the text that in any way suggests that Abraham was any better than any other idolater of his day. Don't read that presupposition into the text, beloved. Abraham was a fallen son of Adam just as I am just as you are. You say, well, aren't if in fact that's the case then, then it's obvious. The reason why Abraham was saved was God's grace had come to him. And yes, that is true. However, the salvation of Abraham, the idolater, beloved, does not just reveal to us the grace of God, but in a far more profound way it reveals to us the sovereignty of God's grace. 300,000 people in Er and God picks Abraham? Why? Because God chooses weak and foolish things. Because it pleases God to do so. And beloved, this is exactly how God saves sinners today, 500 believers, 500 unbelievers sitting in a room all listening to the same sermon. The gospel goes out, one person responds, why? Because that person is more intuitively sensitive than all of the rest in terms of religious things. Because that one person really throughout his life has managed to prove some kind of ethical or moral value that merits some kind of expression of God's grace. Know the reason why? That one person responds, beloved, is because God has made himself known to that person. Because the word of God has come in its effective power. And what are the results? 499 walk away all together, unaffected, one, four, six, everything to follow Jesus Christ. St. Augustine was a man that many Christian theologians regard as the single most influential Christian the world has ever known since the apostle Paul. And if you know anything of his life, you know that prior to his conversion, he was a man of the most vile and degrading sinful patterns. And in his confession, this is how he speaks of God's work of converting him. During all those years, where was my free will? What was the hidden secret place from which it was summoned in a moment so that I might bend my neck to your easy yoke? How sweet all it once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose. You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and you took their place. You who are sweeter than all pleasure, though not to the flesh and blood. You who outshine all light yet are hidden deeper than any secret in our hearts. You who surpass all honor, though not in the eyes of men who see all honor in themselves. O Lord, my God, my light, my wealth, my salvation. Did you hear it? Where was my free will when sin and all of its lust was the dominating force in my life? Where was my free will when my heart was enslaved to that iron cage of sin? So a guston, if it wasn't your free will, then what happened? Did you hear it? You drove them from me and you took their place. It is what the Puritans called the expulsive power of a new affection. My dear friends, true Christian faith. The kind of faith we see displayed in the life of Abraham is not the consequence of a man's free will. It is the product of the sovereign grace of God. This is where faith comes from. It originates with grace, and my dear friends, here is the point, when faith is the product of grace, it will display the same kind of qualities, the same kind of attributes we see displayed in the faith of Abraham. It is a faith that obeys, a faith that endures, and a faith that anticipates. Firstly, notice now, it is a faith that obeys. A faith that expresses itself in a lifestyle of unqualified obedience by faith. Don't forget, as we've explained to you, these datives of man are acting on the basis of faith, Abraham. When called to go to a place, he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went. Obeyed and went. The word here translated obeyed was often used to speak of a doorkeeper, a doorkeeper whose duty it was to listen to the signals of those outside of the door that he might grant admission or entrance to them upon hearing the right signal. By and by in its usage over time, it came to mean somebody who obeys on the basis of having heard something from somebody else. In this case, Abraham obeying on the basis of hearing the word of God. Now friends, I don't want to lose you in some of the technicalities of the grammar here, but the way this is put together in the original suggests that immediately upon hearing the word of God, Abraham obeying. In fact, one Greek scholar says it this way, he set out on his journey while the word of God was still ringing in his ears. There is no lag time, there is no sense of hesitation, it is immediate responsiveness to the word of God, unqualified obedience. God appears to Abraham, God speaks to Abraham and as a result, Abraham begins to pack his bags. Now it may have taken place over several days, it may have taken place over weeks or months perhaps to get all these preparations together, but beloved, his disposition was set in place like a flint as soon as he met God. This is what happens, this is what faith is like, faith that is the product of grace. Everything Abraham did from that moment forward revolved around obeying the call of God. This is the heart of a Christian, you see, and you think about what this meant, it meant leaving the people that he knew and loved, family members and dear friends. It meant leaving the comfortable homestead, and my guess is it was a homestead of some means because Abraham was an affluent man, it meant leaving the culture he had grown accustomed to, the language that he spoke, the music that he enjoyed, the food that he ate, his business associates and contacts, and though this were not enough all by itself beloved, I would remind you, you read Genesis chapter 12, you discovered that at this particular point in Abraham's life, he is no spring chicken, he is 75 years old when the call of God comes to his life. Just about the time most Americans think about taking up a rocking chair, no retirement for Abraham, the fact that matters, you don't find retirement anywhere in the Bible, but that's another sermon for another day. One ancient commentator says it like this, Abraham departed the moment he was bitten, taking no thought for anything, either for his fellow clansmen or wardsmen or schoolmates or blood relations on fathers or mothers side, or country or ancestral customs or community of nurture or home life, all of them ties possessing the power to a lure and attract, which it is hard to throw off. He followed a free and unfettered impulse and departed with all speed from Caldia, a land at that time blessed by fortune, and at the height of its financial prosperity. He heard the call of God, he obeyed, he went, no lag time, no hesitation, no pondering, that's what faith does in response to the word of God beloved. Now, if this is all we had to go on, it would certainly speak to us of a great faith, wouldn't. But notice the most amazing thing of all concerning disobedience. He obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. Abraham, are you moving? Yes. Why might I ask? We've been neighbors for so long, our families have been close all these years, tied to the city. Looking for a slower pace? No, that's not it. Better quality of life. No gangs, better schools for the children, bigger house for the money, some acreage perhaps. No. To be honest with you, I don't have any idea where I'm going. Where will live? Or how will make ends meet? Abraham. Abraham, what is this? You've always been a clear-headed guy, you've always been a rational fellow. Do you realize how irresponsible and erratic you sound? How could you do such a thing to Sarah? How will we get in touch with you? I have absolutely no idea. Abraham, then what in heaven's name do you know? Only this, that God has promised me a place somewhere. All I can tell you is the word of the living God came to me. And in the coming, it's so utterly transformed my heart that now all of those ambitions that consumed me and drove everything about my life have been replaced by one over arching ambition, and that is to obey him. It's my delight to follow him, oh beloved listen, listen to the wonderful words of Martin Luther at this point. This is the glory of faith, simply not to know. Not to know where you were going, not to know what you were doing, not to know what you must suffer and with sense and intellect, virtue and will, all alike made captive to follow the naked voice of God. Abraham with this obedience of faith shows the highest example of the evangelical life because he left all and followed the Lord, preferring the word of God to everything else and loving it above all things. Subjecting himself to the perils of life and death every hour of the day and night. My friends I want to tell you something. This is the kind of faith that is produced by grace. This is the kind of faith that is the consequence of the work of God. It obeys Jesus says to his disciples, if you love me, you will obey what I command. Obenians will be the regular part of your life when the heart is right, when the heart is right, the feet are swift, when the feet are not swift, what does that tell us about the nature of our heart? And the half brother of Jesus, James, what does he say? What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such a faith save him? No. Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead. My friends, an obedient faith is the product of grace. The new person in Christ wants to obey, longs to obey, delights to obey, sacrifices to obey. For the purpose of obeying, the Christian loves to obey. The fact of the matter is, the Christian finds his greatest happiness in obedience because it is now in keeping with the joyful disposition of his heart, of his transformed heart. The Christian longs to obey, not because his salvation hangs in the balance, but because like nothing else it brings him pleasure. That Olympic sprinter from Scotland, Eric Little said, when I run, I feel his pleasure. Would love to let me say to you, anybody who has experienced the faith that comes as a result of grace will say, when I obey, I feel his pleasure. To the contrary, where there is no passion to obey, no compulsion to obey, no inward drive to obedience, then I submit to you, there has yet to be experienced, the sovereign, saving grace of God, regardless of how many aisles a person has walked down. At that particular point, any profession of faith is not a profession of a faith that is adequately Christian. Jesus says, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my father in heaven. Many will say to me, on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles, then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you away from me, you workers of iniquity. Beloved, never ever invert this order. I suppose if Christ's community church stands for anything, this must be one of the pillars. The experience of grace is not the consequence of faith. The experience of faith is the consequence of grace. What have we been reading, LTV men and wow women, the book of Philippians over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, and wasn't that we discovered in the very first chapter, for to us it has been granted on behalf of Christ to believe in Him. Why do you believe in Him because by sovereign grace it has been granted to you? For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not even of yourselves, it is the gift of God. The experience of grace is not the consequence of faith. The experience of faith is the consequence of grace. I don't believe in then get grace, God graces me and as a consequence I believe I believe like this. I believe in such a way that I shape my life around everything God says. Such a faith will obey, second, secondly this is a faith that endures, this is a faith that endures. Now this is an amazing thing my friends in Genesis chapter 12, God tells Abraham to go to a land that he will show to Abraham, or this word inheritance speaks of something becoming a person's possession. Well as we've seen Abraham, here's the word of God and Abraham goes, buy and buy God leads him to Canaan and it is there in Canaan when God finally tips his hand. Look around Abraham, look to the north, south, east and west. As far as your eyes can see, this is the land that I will give to you, this is your land. Now what happens at this point, suddenly all the vile, wicked, polytheistic, child-sacrificing Canaanite show up and gladly grant to Abraham the keys to their cities. Here you go Abraham, it's all yours, this land belongs to you now. Not hardly, verse nine, acting on the basis of faith, he made his home in the promised land like that word is very important, like a stranger in a foreign country. He was not a stranger in a foreign country by divine right, this land was now his but he lived like a stranger in a foreign country, even though God had given him his promise. God had given to him his promise over and over and over again, this land is yours and as a result, beloved Abraham turned his back on ur and that life that was there for this land. But you see, beloved faith for Abraham did not end at the very moment, he stepped his foot into the land of promise. The fact of the matter is, if you know the story, it thrust him into even a more severe faith than the leaving of ur. You see, beloved in the most practical way, it is harder to live in anticipation of a promise than it is to live in anticipation of a dream, when you know that it's yours, waiting for it becomes all the more difficult. Let me see if I can illustrate, imagine that God promises to you in your descendants the land of Guatemala. And so what do you do? You sell everything you have, you pack up your camper and you head south. Finally, you arrive in Guatemala, but much to your surprise, there is no reception, no parade, no party, no giving you the keys of the city, the country, no greeting. You can't speak the language, you can't eat the food, you can't drink the water, you can't use your currency to buy anything, all you have by and by is your camper. And so that's where you live, in a camper. It's a symbol of the transitory nature of your life, isn't it? No roots, no permanency. And all you ever do in this camper is move from one place to another. Buy and buy you have children, and when they become old enough, they manage to buy a camper. Buy and turn have children of their own, and lo and behold, guess what they do? They buy a camper, too. And so here you are, you, your children, your grandchildren, cruising down the dusty roads of Guatemala and just broken down camper from place to place, here and there, a month, here, six months, here, three months there, nine months there, you read the book of Genesis and Abraham is always on the move, always moving, always packing up and going somewhere else. Look at it, he lived in tents, that symbol of a transitory life, as did his boy Isaac, as did his grandson Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise, a month, six months, a year, and three years, and five years, and 15 years, and 20 years, and 30 years, living in a camper, and Abraham misheard God, misunderstood God, no, but it was a promise that God would not bring to fulfillment for 500 years. In fact, beloved, when Abraham died, the only piece of land that he owned, that he could call his own, was that little plot of land that he had purchased to bury his wife in Sarah, you realize that on his own deathbed, he could not even look at his own boy, his own grandson and say, well, at least you will experience this promise and all of its fruitfulness. No, beloved Stephen, once again, in Acts 7 says, God sent him to the land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground, but God promised him that he in his descendants after him would possess the land. Why is it that when Jacob dies, he says to his son, Joseph, when you go back there, take my bones and bury me there, and why is it that when Joseph dies, he says, don't bury me here. Pick me back there and bury me there. It wasn't theirs yet, but they knew the promise. What is faith, beloved? Do you remember the description in verse 1? Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Why? Why in the name of heaven did neighbor him just finally throw up his arms and say to his beloved one day, you know, honey, I've had enough. The camper has broken down one too many times. Let's pack up the kids, let's pack up all that we have and head back home for earth, life was so much more pleasurable there. We had wealth, we had prosperity, we had a home, we had friends. The business was good, we could talk the talk, we could eat the food, life in the city was so much more pleasing to us than this. How much better it would be for our son Isaac? How much better for our grandson Jacob? There was none of that. Why? Because when faith is the product of grace, it is willing to endure any inconvenience in order to be obedient to the revelation of God. To be sure, if the decision had been made on the basis of economics,
Abraham had a better financial future in her. If the decision had been made on the basis of a better quality of life, which everybody seems to be clamoring for today, or would have one hands down. But if the decision was made solely on the basis of what's best for Abraham's eternal being, then there was no decision to be made beloved. Dusty roads and broken down campers not with standing. It is the tents of pain and rather than the palaces of error. Why? Because God had made his promise and faith says, though I can't see it now, I shape my destiny in its fullness upon his word. As Elijah calls once said, faith is your spiritual optic. A faith that is the product of grace endures when obedience to the word of God requires endurance. Faithfully enduring in a difficult marriage when other options, frankly, become attractive to you. Faithfully enduring as a Christian single when opportunities to become unequally yoked make themselves available. Faithfully enduring as a Christian student when the taunts of the academic world come at you. Faithfully enduring as a Christian businessman when opportunities to make more money may compromise your spiritual well-being. Faith to endure joyfully is a Christian in the face of an unfair boss, a hostile family member, modest and meager, living accommodations. A faith that is the product of grace endures gladly when obedience to the word of God requires endurance. How do you know beloved this morning if you've experienced the grace of God? How do you know if you've really been transformed by the saving and sovereign grace of God Himself? I'll tell you how you possess a faith in Jesus Christ that obeys Him and it obeys Him enduringly. It's a faith that obeys and a faith that endures finally, it is a faith that anticipates. And this at least throughout this next section of Hebrews is going to become the anchor to this whole business. It is a faith that anticipates, well, love it on the most practical of levels. What is it that enabled Abraham to endure for so long? So long without ever seeing the fulfillment of the promise, Abraham understood that the land of Palestine was a foreshadow of something infinitely greater. We had hints of this back in chapter 4. There still remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. There still remains a Sabbath rest that will not be experienced in that little strip of geography, a Sabbath rest that will be ours in a place far greater than the land of Palestine. You see, beloved Abraham knew that that land would one day belong to his people. God had made his promise. The book of Joshua records the fulfillment of this promise. But you see my friends, he had come to view that land in the same way we view the elements of the Lord's Supper. They are elements invested with the kind of sacramental significance. That is to say, they point beyond themselves. They point beyond the piece of bread. They point beyond the wine to something infinitely far greater. If I say to G.B. this afternoon, next Christmas, son, I'm going to buy you a train set. And I show up on Christmas morning and I hand him the deed to Southern Pacific Railroad. Have I kept my promise? I certainly have but an infinitely far greater way than he would have ever expected. And such was the case you see with that land of Palestine. Abraham discerned in the promise of God something far greater than a strip of geography. That's why he endured so long. This is why he gladly lived a life of a nomad, the life of a better one. For all those years, he understood that God's promise to him involves something infinitely more valuable than the land of Canaan. Look at it for yourselves, beloved. He lived in tents as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise for. There's that word of explanation. He was looking forward to echo my to expect with absolute confidence. In fact, the tents that used here means ongoing action in past time. He was continually expecting with confidence, the city, the city. Now I know that you cannot fully appreciate this nor can I. We live in a different age. But you need to try and understand, beloved, that to cultured people in the ancient world, the city was regarded as the highest form of cultural existence. The highest form of civilization, the city, and notice that he says here, a city after all that has foundations. See, to comparison, tents, city, 10 pegs that need to be driven into the ground and extricated every time you pick up and move over against immovability, permanency, stability. That's what foundations speak to. And the most important thing of all about this city, its architect and builder is God. It owes nothing to any inferior being. God is the city planner. God is the constructor. This is the city that God has built. Abraham didn't endure merely for the sake of Canaan. God was not the architect and builder of Canaan any more than he is the architect and builder of any other land. Abraham saw in that promise that which the land prefigured, the place of which God is the architect and the builder, heaven itself. And beloved, the writer of Hebrew speaks about this now. Over and over, we are going to see this again and again. Heaven is the better country, the heavenly country, the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, the city that is to come. The Apostle Paul refers to this as the Jerusalem that is above. The Apostle John speaks of it as the city of my God, the Holy City, the New Jerusalem and Jesus Christ speaks about it in much the same way only shifting the metaphor just a little bit when he says, don't be filled brothers with anxiety, don't be thrown into emotional travail, trust in God, trust also in me, in my father's house are many places. This is why Abraham endured. Why obey? Why endure? Because a faith produced by grace anticipates. It is a forward-looking thing. It is a future-oriented perspective. My friends, the child of faith is a person who recognizes that our promise reward is in the world to come, not in this world. Nor should I let myself live, as though I think God's reward is owed to me now. It is a faith that makes investments on the basis of an eternity there. This is why, beloved, you see, we're told in first John not to love the world. We're told in the epistle of James not to have friendship with the world. Now that doesn't mean that we become isolationist, that we become out of touch, that we purposefully do everything we can to show ourselves obnoxious to the world around us, what it means is that our affections, our preoccupations, our investments, our efforts, our decisions, our pleasures are riveted upon the city of God rather than the city of man. May I ask you, Mom and Dad, is this the perspective that you are laboring to infuse into the minds of your children? I don't care what parenting methodology you choose. I don't care what schooling option you opt for. What I'm asking you is that in the midst of all of that secondary stuff, are you breeding into the minds of your children, the realization that this life is a stewardship given to us by God? And the most important thing that we can do with it is to spend it for him and his glory. Or to the contrary, have you convinced your boy, Mom and Dad, that the most important thing in life is to secure a good career so that he can make as much money as possible? Have you convinced your daughter that the most important thing in life is to have a cute figure in a pretty face so that she might attract the attention of the boys? If this is what you are doing, you are not teaching your children to be Christians, whatever decision you may happen to coerce from them, you're teaching them to be the center of the universe and that the living God exists to pander to their whims. Let me be even more practical. You cannot ready your children to go to some obscure malaria infested corner of Africa to preach the gospel or to translate the scriptures if nothing about your life reveals anything of a sacrificial nature for the city of God. Simply coming to church once a week will not do it. Take that from someone who loves you. An hour and 15 minutes one day a week will not breathe that mentality into your children. They must see you give away your money. They must see you open up your home. They must see you turn down promotions. They must see you spending your time sacrificially in gospel ministry. What are they seeing in your life right now that reveals to them that you are living for this city with foundations whose architect and builder is God? All the sort of Abraham had to do was get out of bed in the morning. Daddy, why are we living in these tents? Son, because God has promised us that heaven is our home. Do you believe what you sang?
Nothing compares to the promise we have in you. Really? Is that what the expenditure of your time this past week would reveal? How about opening up your checkbook? Is that what it would reveal? Nothing compares to the promise we have in you. The way you're training your children, nothing compares to the promise we have in you shortly after the turn of the century. Pioneer missionary Henry Morrison returned to New York City after 40 years of hard, hard, laborious missionary endeavor on the continent of Africa and returning on his ship at the same time was President Theodore Roosevelt, a man who at that time was wildly popular with the American public. As they entered into New York Harbor, President Roosevelt was greeted with this enormous fanfare. As Morrison and his wife stepped off the boat, there wasn't even one single person there to greet them. And as you can appreciate, he was discouraged and saddened and rejected. After all, four decades in the Lord's service is dear wife. Reading her husband as only a sensitive wife can do
leaned over and whispered into his ear. Henry, we're not home yet. This is not our home, beloved. We must not live as though it is. We are strangers and aliens, Peter tells us. Our citizenship is in heaven. Now this is the kind of faith that grace produces. A faith that obeys, a faith that endures, a faith that anticipates, or he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. Nothing compares to the promise we have in you. Let's pray, shall we? Our Father and our God, we are thankful for your word.
And over these last several weeks, we have been aroused to give fresh consideration to the nature of our faith, knowing that it is not enough to say in our own kind of American ease. I believe, I believe, I have faith. Lord, your word is very specific and detailed about the nature of faith that is the product of grace. We have seen it weaken and weak out, weaken and weak out. And now, Lord, we come to this again and we are profoundly moved to see a faith that obeys. A faith that obeys immediately, a faith that endures, a faith that is steady and persevering, a faith, a faith, O Lord, and God that fixes its greatest affection upon the city to come, the city of God. O Lord, and God may we not live in this life as though this is all there is, as though this is the epitome, may everything in this life now begin to prepare us for what is to come and may our decisions, even how we parent our children, how we spend our money, how we invest our time, may all of these things reflect the fact that we are aiming for the heavenly country, a city whose architect and builder is none other than God himself, our Father, we love you. And we do acknowledge that there is nothing in this life that compares with the promise that is found in you. We love you and we worship you in the name of Jesus Christ. We pray. Amen.