There are many of you here this morning undoubtedly who are well acquainted with the CS Lewis series, the Chronicles of Narnia. And my guess is there are probably a few of you here who actually remember how it is that Lewis brings this seven volumned children's story to a close. On the last page of the last book, fittingly entitled, The Last Battle. Lewis does not end his story in typical fairy tale fashion by saying, and they all lived happily ever after. But rather, after recording all of the exhilarating adventures and journeys that these children had experienced with their great companion, Aslan, Lewis then concludes for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page. Now at last they were beginning chapter one of the great story which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever and ever in which every chapter is better than the one before.
It was Lewis's provocative way of drawing our attention toward heaven. It was his way, beloved, of reminding us that everything in this life, the perks and the pains, all of the joys and exhilarations and all of the difficulties and inconveniences are but the cover and title page for the real story. The great story of wonder and amazement that will never end but only get better for all of eternity. We've been reminded in the last couple of weeks, beloved, that after death there is destiny, that earth is but the robing room for eternity. And therefore how we walk in this life ought to be profoundly shaped by our fixed affections on heaven. It's really easy to build this case. If you would recall in Matthew 6 when Jesus is teaching his disciples how to pray he says to them, this then is how you should pray our Father in heaven. If you are a Christian this morning, then your Father is in heaven. He who is the source of every single thing that we have is in heaven, our Father. The book of Hebrews tells us for Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one he entered heaven itself. Now to appear for us in God's presence. In other words not only is our Father in heaven but our Savior is in heaven as well. Jesus Christ, our elder brother, our Redeemer, our King is in heaven. That's not all. Hebrews 12 goes on to say to the church of the first born whose names are written in heaven and he includes in this the spirits of righteous men made perfect. In other words, beloved, not only is our Father in heaven and not only is our Savior in heaven but our brothers and sisters in the faith are in heaven. All of the Old Testament saints are there. All of the New Testament saints are there and all of those Christians that we have known and loved and lost in death are there. Jesus says to his disciples in Luke chapter 10, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. My dear Christian friend, not only is your Father in heaven, your Savior in heaven, your brothers and sisters in heaven, you, if you are in a Christian this morning, have a title deed to that place. As we will come to see a little bit later, the fact of the matter is you are an alien here. You are a stranger here, a citizen there. Paul tells us in Philippians 3, our citizenship is in heaven. And do you know if you are a Christian this morning that you have a glorious inheritance awaiting you in heaven? Peter says, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. You are in possession of a glorious eternal inheritance that is awaiting your arrival in heaven. In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus says, blessed are you and people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me, rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven. You have an eternal reward in heaven, did you know that? Now beloved, you put all of this together and what do you have? Your Father is in heaven, your Savior is in heaven, your brothers and sisters are in heaven. Your name has been recorded in heaven, your citizenship is in heaven, your inheritance is in heaven, your reward is in heaven. This is why you see for the Christian anything less than heaven is not really home yet.
Just about everything that is precious to us is at this very moment awaiting us in that place.
The great hymn writer Isaac Watts said it this way, there is a land of pure delight where saints immortal reign. Infinite day excludes the night and pleasures banish pain.
My dear friends, the great man of faith, Abraham knew this to be true. That's what the passage before us this morning is attempting to say to us. It was this perspective, beloved, that so shaped his life, so influenced him, that he has come to be regarded as the father of all those who are truly faithful. From the moment of his conversion at age 75 until the day they laid him into the ground at age 175, 100 years, Abraham knew that everything in this life, including the difficulties and trials and inconveniences, but the title page to the great story that goes on forever with every chapter getting better and better than the one before. In other words, his affections were riveted upon the heavenly country, the better country, but such was not always the case in the life of this man, Abraham. We've come to see that he was a man at his times, wasn't he? Abraham was a pagan man. He was a man born to pagan parents, living immersed in a pagan culture, but then something happened to forever change all of that. The word of the living God came to Abraham and all of its transferring power and as a result at that very instant, everything to do with his paganism, shattered into pieces that he himself would never attempt to put back together again. God met Abraham with life-transforming grace and as a result, Abraham's faith was forever riveted, attached to this God. Now we have come to see that this grace-produced faith distinguished itself in his life. It will always evidence itself in a person's life. The faith that is a result of a manipulated decision will not evidence itself in these ways. It will give way to other things. But if faith is genuinely the consequence of grace beloved, it will display itself in the same kind of attributes that were modeled in the life of Abraham. We've come to see that it is a faith that obeys. We've come to see that it is a faith that endures. We've come to see it as a faith that anticipates. We've come to see last Lord's day that it is a faith that relies. That is to say it is a faith that relies upon the character of God as one author has defined faith. Faith is not a fixation or obsession but a rational commitment. It is characterized not by ecstatic intoxication but by sober reflection and critical searching. Well, have you remember what it was that we took a look at last Lord's day? That Abraham did not shut down his mind when God converted him to the contrary what sustained him in his faith through those many years of promises unfulfilled was the careful consideration of the nature of this God who had made the promise. Remember verse 11? By faith Abraham even though he was past age and Sarah herself was barren was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. Abraham's procreative powers had given way to age. Sarah who had always been barren was now long past menopause. Now what does Abraham do? Does he simply shut off his rational faculties in the name of faith? Is that what we call you to? Is that what the Bible calls you to when we call you to faith? No, what did he do? He carefully intelligently weighed the human impossibility of being able to father a child against the divine impossibility of God being able not to keep his promise. And what was his conclusion since God cannot lie? The only other option open is that the laws of human reproduction must be overturned and they were, weren't they?
And so from this one man and he is good as dead came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the sea shore. A faith produced by grace beloved is a faith that obeys it endures it anticipates it relies upon the eternal and unchanging character of God. Now for this morning we move ahead to discover that this faith produced by grace is a faith that redirects and a faith that arouses. A faith that is the product of grace will prove to be beloved a faith that redirects and what I mean by that is it redirects our affections away from this world toward heaven. Now let's watch this become evident verse 13 all these people were still living by faith when they died they did not receive the things promised. Now he's talking here about the people he's just been mentioning Abraham his son Isaac his grandson Jacob and what he is saying about them beloved is twofold. First of all these were people who for the totality of their lives were confined to the regimen of faith that is to say they never had the privilege of living in the epoch of fulfillment. For the totality of their human existence they lived in expectation they lived in anticipation but never once in this body as it were did they ever breathe the air of fulfillment. Realization, consummation of the promise of God and if you think about it beloved in many ways these guys prefigured people like us don't they Christians who have been given glorious promises but as yet they're not fulfilled. That's why the writer of Hebrews is drawing our attention to these guys so that we can see that they had a faith just like ours. But there's a second thing we need to understand here beloved and that is the Greek text is actually a bit different than the English. The English says all these people were still living by faith the Greek text does not say by faith it says in accordance with faith according to faith literally it reads according to faith or in accordance with the principle of faith these all died. And what he is getting at you see is not just that these patriarchs did not live to see the fulfillment of the promises rather that the crisis of death itself did not undercut their conviction that those promises would come to pass. They didn't give up hope in the promises simply because they were not brought to fulfillment within their lifetimes he is telling us beloved that their faith in death was just as vibrant as it had been throughout the totality of their lives. In fact beloved isn't it safe to say that it's often a death that the integrity of faith is really expressed. One commentator has said it this way in death it is in death that hope in things which are future and invisible shines most brightly. Now watch beloved how the author builds his case these people were still living accordance in accordance to faith when they died they did not receive the things promised they only saw them and welcomed them. From a distance they were not realized they were not experienced but he says there was in a very real sense away in which they saw these promises and greeted them. What he is saying is that faith had given them supplied them with a kind of seeing the transcends physical eyesight it is a faith that gave to them an internal visual certitude. He says they saw them and welcomed them from a distance and this phrase from a distance he is speaking about a moment in time that is considerably prior to another point in time. In other words the patriarchs welcomed the promises of God, saw the promises of God long before they would ever be brought to fulfillment. Let me see if I can illustrate.
Do you remember the final scene in the life of Moses? You recall that scene though he was forbidden by God to enter into the land of promise as a result of his own sinfulness. God told him to climb Mount Nebo and from the top of that mountain the book of Deuteronomy tells us the Lord showed him the whole land. God showed him all of it. And then God said to him, this is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I have let you see it with your eyes but you will not cross over into it. Now Moses, you've seen the land. Moses, you've seen the land in all of its beauty, the land that is now to belong to your people. But Moses, you will not experience it for yourself. Beloved, it's like a sailor. After months at sea, seen the shoreline of his own country far off in the horizon but knowing that he cannot land there. That's what the writer of Hebrews is saying to us about these patriarchs. In other words, beloved, they so profoundly took God at his word. But as it were, they could see the equivalent of the promised land in their own mind's eye. They could imagine all of the glorious benefits that would one day be associated with these promises that God had made to them. In fact, it was so real to them by faith that the text says they actually welcomed them. They experienced joy. They anticipated with pleasure the completion of these promises. In other words, their faith so concretized these promises that they actually saw them and were filled with anticipation for their fulfillment. And yet he says they did not receive the things promised. They were still living according to faith when they died. Let me ask you, beloved. You're a human being. Abraham was a human being. Don't you think you might have been filled with just a little bit of resentment? I mean, are you as carnal as I am? God makes you a promise. And because you believe God to be absolutely reliable, you can see the promise coming to fruition in your mind's eye.
In fact, for the rest of your life, you live in anticipation of all of the benefits that are associated with this promise months pass, years pass, decades pass. By and by, it becomes evident that your own death is imminent, that your life has come to its appointed end and you have not experienced the fulfillment of the promise. Now, because you know that God is true, your faith is still as firm as it has always been. It is rock solid, it is unmoved. You know God to keep His word perfectly fulfillment will come. You know that. That's not an issue for you. But just you don't feel, don't you just feel a little bit of resentment at that point? Why is it that these guys can go to their graves joyfully anticipating the fulfillment of promises that they will never see in their lifetime? Because of an all-encompassing perspective that shaped everything else. Look at the last phrase in verse 13. They admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. Huh? Aliens and strangers on the earth. Aliens and strangers on the earth? This is our place. This is our ground. This is our palm. Aliens and strangers. Is this really true? Is this how they felt? In Genesis chapter 23, when Abraham is ready to buy a plot of ground into which he would bury his wife Sarah, he refers to himself as an alien and a stranger. In Genesis 28, Isaac refers to his son Jacob as an alien. In Genesis chapter 47, Jacob refers to his life as the years of my pilgrimage. It's a very similar kind of language. I'm on the move. I'm on the move. I'm on the move. All of these men beloved, you see, unhesitatingly acknowledging that they were not really at home here. You say, well, art, of course they say that. They had not yet inherited the land of promise, but you see my dear friends, the writer of Hebrews is saying something much more profound than that. He's not merely saying that the patriarchs regard themselves as aliens and strangers while they lived external to the promised land. I would remind you that when they called themselves aliens and strangers, they were living in the land of promise. Nor is the writer of Hebrews saying they felt like aliens and strangers while other people were ruling the land that was theirs by divine right. Oh, no, no. He's saying something much bigger than that here and something beloved much more relevant for people like you and me. Look at it. It's not by accident. They confessed themselves as aliens and strangers on the earth. They were alien and strangers while they experienced life as we now know it. You see, beloved, at the end of the day, it's not that Palestine was their home and they just hadn't managed to get there yet. It's not that Palestine was their home, but they weren't as yet running the show. Rather, it's that this entire world system in its present order was not regarded by these people as their ultimate home or destination, that life at its best in this world would always be transitory. When Israel was at its apex, when Jerusalem was the envy of the whole earth and the flag of Israel flew proudly, while in the land of Palestine owning all of it that had been promised to them, they would still refer to himself as a stranger on the earth, some 119, to be a stranger. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob calling themselves a stranger, David calling himself a stranger, beloved, such a declaration reveals something about these kind of folk, don't you think? Verse 14. They acknowledge that they were strangers and aliens on the earth for people who say such things show. They reveal. They manifest that they are looking for a country of their own. They're looking for a country. Friends, do you know what an expatriate is? An expatriate is someone who has left his homeland, literally the word here in this text, is a fatherland. He has left his fatherland, his homeland either willingly or by force. And while he lives as an alien in another country that is not his own, the expatriate longs for his own country, his heart is there, his affections are there, his devotions and preoccupations are set on that place, where you see, beloved, the writer of Hebrews is saying that very thing with regard to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Whenever they would refer to themselves, you see, as strangers and aliens that revealed something you see, beloved, about their own hearts, it revealed something about their own perspective, their own attitude, namely that their affections were riveted on their own country. You say, well, they weren't held in a foreign country against their wills. Why didn't they just pack up and go back to where they came from? Because the country they longed for was not of this world's order. You say, how do you know that? Verse 15, if they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they were longing for a better country. What kind? A heavenly one. Now, beloved, I know that I've gone a long way around the barn, but this is what faith produced by grace does. It redirects our affections away from this world. It sets our aspirations toward that place. My friends, when Abraham was just another garden variety pagan, everything in his life revolved around Err. His family was there. His friends were there. His money-making opportunities were there. His social life was there. Everything about his life, as he had grown accustomed to it, was there. Now, the grace of God invades his life and suddenly he's willing to forsake all of it to live the life of a better one for the next 100 years. That's exactly right. That's the kind of faith that grace produces. It produces a reorientation of our priorities. It produces a revolution in our affections. Suddenly the things that I once hated, I now loved and suddenly the things that I once loved, I now hate. Consequently, in the eyes of the world around us, it appears as though we give up all that we have for nothing. From our transformed vantage point, it's as though we give up nothing for everything. Why does a gifted young man like Jim Elliott turn his back on worldly endeavor and success so that he might bring the message of the gospel, the group of Ecuadorian Indians that would ultimately take his life? It's because he was a spiritual expatriate. He was living here but living forth there. In his own words he said it this way, he is no fool who gives up what he can never keep. In order that he might gain what he will never lose. Now beloved don't miss my mark here, don't get the wrong end of the stick. It's not that we become unearthly. It's not that spiritually minded people are those kinds of people who disengage from the world. It's not that we become as odd as we possibly can to the culture that is around us. Such a perspective beloved is not the muscular Christianity of the Bible. It is the distorted weak and immature perspective of Christianity that has been passed on to us through fundamentalism. Beloved who established this for us, very clearly the balance and boundaries at this point. We are to remain in the world, engaging the world, addressing the world, living in the world, rubbing up our shoulders against people in the world, we are not to live in the world in such a way that the world becomes the predominant allurement to our lives. That we no longer live for this world and its pleasures and its benefits and its preoccupations. We are in it but not of it, of it in the sense of being consumed with the benefits that the world might offer to us. Are you a child of Abraham this morning? Do you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Then listen to how the New Testament describes you. It takes this Old Testament language and brings it right up to date. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to God's elect and how does he now describe the elect of God? Strangers in the world or how about this? Since you call on a father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. In other words, since you're going to meet up with the judgment of God inevitably, don't make this place your home. Live as a stranger here. Or how about this? Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world, same language to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul. According to the Apostle Paul, our citizenship is in heaven. Therefore, as he says in Colossians, set your hearts on things above. Your affections need to be there. In the next verse he says, set your mind on things above. Your preoccupations need to be there, not on earthly things. Our heart, our mind, our affections, our aspirations are there. Friends, it's just this simple. It really does boil down to this. One of two dominating influences expresses itself in your life. Either affection for heaven or affection for this world. None of you here can escape that fact, not one of us, not one of us. One of two dominating affections drives your decisions. Fashions your perspectives, determines the things that are of real importance to you. Affection for heaven or affection for this world. And the most reliable way of determining which it is in your case is when the circumstances of life bring you to a fork in the road. When affection for the world and affection for heaven are at cross purposes, beloved, which path do you take? Is it going to be faithfulness to the Lord Jesus or the promotion of my career? Is it going to be faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ or will it be immoral pleasure? Is it going to be faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ or will it be the absorption of materialism? We can illustrate it like this. Two men are walking along the road and behind them follows a dog. Now we don't know to whom the dog belongs, but you will soon enough. You see, when the two men come to a fork in the road, one goes to the right, the other goes to the left. Which man does the dog follow? He follows the one that is his master. Will you see, beloved, I want to tell you this morning, the very same thing is true in your life. When Jesus Christ and the world go along together, it is impossible to determine which of the two you are following. But when there is a parting of the ways, when Jesus Christ goes one way and the world and all of its allormons and pleasures and satisfactions, go another way, buy and buy, you will very quickly discover who it is that exercises dominating influence in your life. It's the one that you follow. And for those of us who are here this morning as parents, it is this that at the end of the day, will prove or deny the integrity of the professions of faith that come to us from our children. When they enlist for the military, when they go off to college, when they get an apartment and begin their own career, at that point, who do they run with? What choices do they make? How do they spend their money? What do they do on the Lord's day? It's impossible to determine which of the two you are following when they are both going in the same direction. But when there is a divergence, what's real becomes evident. Abraham and those with a like kind of faith, a faith produced by grace are driven, beloved by their affections for heaven. Did you see the flow of this? Back up in verse 10, we are told that Abraham was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And then in verse 14, we are told that people who are like Abraham continually seek after their own country. It is a stronger word. He is looking forward to this. He is seeking after this. We come to verse 16, and it's the most strong of these words. We are told that these kinds of people never cease their longing for the better country, the heavenly country. You see, my friends, this is what grace does. It produces a faith that redirects our affections away from this world toward heaven. Is this the kind of faith that you have? Is this the kind of faith that you are in possession of this morning? This is how you can know that you've met up with the grace of God. This is how you can know that your faith is an authentic, God-granted faith. Finally, grace produces a faith that arouses. It produces a faith that arouses. It arouses what? It arouses the pleasure of God. Look at it. They are longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, right? LTD guys? Wow, women? Therefore, on the basis of this kind of faith that we have just seen, a faith that obeys, a faith that endures, a faith that anticipates, a faith that relies, a faith that redirects, therefore on the basis of this kind of faith, God is not ashamed to be called their God. This is so incredible that God is not ashamed to be referred to as the God of Danmak, that God is not ashamed to be referred to as the God of Guy Minor, that God would identify himself by people who have faith in him.
Beloved, you've all read Rags to Riches' stories. I would suppose, Horatio Alger novels, I read them in college. Perhaps you've known of a situation where a person has come from abject poverty to a position of great wealth and influence and bind by what you see in that person's life as a desire to distance themselves from everything to do with their past, past associations, past friendships, past identifications. Don't want to be known by that past. One day, just a person, a person very much like this is walking down the street with a friend, another rich acquaintance. And much to his surprise, he's confronted by a man that he not seen in many years. The clothing and the appearance and even the smell of this man revealed him to be a person of low position and of little means. But he says to the rich man, Robert, how good it is to see you, it's been so long, how are things with you? And so the affluent man speaks to him, dignifies his presence but only out of a sense of duty and obligation, all the while embarrassed, all the while wanting to get away as quickly as he possibly can. Well, the poor man can see the embarrassment in the eyes of his friend and so he says, well, I'll be off, it was surely great to see you. The rich man tips his hat and quickly walks in the opposite direction. And the friend who had been with him asks, who in the name of heaven was that awful looking man to which he responds with much shame and embarrassment? It was my brother, ashamed, embarrassed. Do you realize that if you are a Christian this morning, that is something God will never do to you? Do you recall Hebrews chapter 2 where we read that Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers? But what's being said here, beloved, is even more profound than that, that the living God is not ashamed to be identified as the God who, God of those who have faith in him. This is an amazing thing, this is for us, just as much as it was for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And in fact, beloved, in the original text, this is a figure of speech that purposefully is stated in the negative so as to stress the positive. In other words, God is well pleased to be called their God. And my friends, how does God often introduce himself in the Old Testament? I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Could you imagine any higher honor being paid to a human being? I'm the God of Dan Mack, I'm the God of John Mueller, I'm the God of Lynette Harper, you've got to be kidding! God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you say, are those three patriarchs? They were less than perfect men! God wants to be known by those men? Oh, friends, I can do you one more. Of all three of those patriarchs, the most notorious weasel of all was Jacob. And do you know that of those three patriarchs, God refers to himself as the God of Jacob? More often than he does the God of Abraham, Isaac, what am I trying to tell you, beloved? It is faith that brings pleasure to our God. He doesn't need us for anything. We don't contribute an Iota to him, what arouses pleasure within this God. Is the confident trust that we express in him and his word? A trust that manifests itself in obedience, endurance, anticipation, reliance, and redirected affections which cause us to forsake the pleasures of this world for heaven, because to have heaven is to have him. If you have this kind of faith, God is not ashamed to call you his own and to call himself your God. And did you know, beloved, that for God to refer to himself as your God means that he will act on your behalf, he's on your side. He will act for your greatest good. And one of the ways that he acts on your behalf is stated so beautifully at the end of this verse. For he has prepared a city for them, for all, for every man and woman, every boy and girl, we offer the gospel freely to all, but heaven has only been prepared for them, those who have this kind of faith. You see, beloved, the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it was not faith in a mirage. A city had been made, heaven had been prepared, God has made heaven for all who have faith in him. It has been prepared for every person who has come to place his trust in Jesus Christ. And in fact, beloved, to be a bit more comprehensive at this point, all preparations have already been made for every person who has ever lived, those who believe in Jesus Christ and those who refuse. Jesus Christ himself tells us that when he returns, all people will be gathered before him and separated as a shepherd separates sheep and goats. Sheep to the right, goats to the left, and this is what he says. Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, take your inheritance. The kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. It's just like CS Lewis says you see, everything prior will have been but the title page. From that moment forward, beloved, the great story will begin with every chapter getting better than the one before. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew that and so do all genuine Christians, but such will not be the case for all people. To those who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ, there is another story that will commence. Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angel. Let me ask you, has heaven been prepared with you in mind? Has heaven been prepared for you? Say, well, how do I know? Is God pleased to call himself your God? How do I know? Do you have this kind of faith if you don't ask God to give it to you? Help thou my unbelief. Let's pray together, shall we?
Our father in heaven, the issues that we seem to address in your word every week are issues that deal with eternity. They are issues that deal with destiny. They're bigger than how I'm going to spend my day tomorrow. What I'm going to do with my free time, how I'm going to spend the bonus I get at work. Father, these are the issues that will determine the eternal future of men and women and boys and girls. We are thankful that for Christians there is a city that has been prepared for them, that we are strangers and aliens in this place. We don't disengage from this world, Lord. We understand that, but there is a sense in which we are not at home here, that we are living O Lord and God for this city that has been prepared for us, the better country, the heavenly country. Where all of those things that are so important to us are awaiting our presence. I pray, O Lord, and God for Christians, for those of us who know and love Jesus Christ, Lord reinforce this in our thinking. Lord, cause it to grip the way we live and the decisions that we make. Father, there are those believers here, perhaps even now, who are in the throes of making some major decision in their life. Some major choice that they are confronting at this particular moment may this, O God, become the predominant issue in their minds, driven by affections for heaven and not by affections for this world. Father, I pray for those who are here this morning who are not Christians. Oh, Father, in God, I pray that they would come to see the significance of what it is that confronts them. The issue of life and death eternally speaking, cause them to see that their only hope is in...