Today we are continuing our sermon series in Hebrews, and we will be in Hebrews chapter 11. We have been looking at this chapter that gives examples of people of faith, people who had faith from the Old Testament. The purpose is to show us all the benefits that come to those who have faith, to those who believe. As you remember, the Hebrews were wavering in their commitment to God. They were being tempted to go back to their Judaism, some of them. And so Hebrews was written to contend with that and to call them back to a robust walk with God and a committed walk with God. And so he gives them examples with which they were familiar from the Old Testament. We slow down a little bit here so we can look at these examples. We've been going through them somewhat slowly. I think it's really helpful for us to see how does this faith work out in people's lives? What does it do? With Abel, we saw that faith gives us righteousness. Though we are sinners, if we trust God to make us righteous, he will. Cain did not trust God to make him righteous. He looked to his own. He presented his own works. and was rejected, Abel came by faith, trusting in God. With Enoch, we saw that faith gives us immortality in glory. By faith, Enoch walked with God and then he was taken to glory, testifying to the ancient world that there is life after death for those who believe. Not many people had died because they lived for a really long time when Enoch was taken. And so very early on in the history of the world, then there was this testimony of of life after death, of immortality to confirm that they knew that. But it was to really bring that home that, you know, this isn't the only place. This isn't the end. With Noah, we saw how faith enabled him to act wisely when the Lord warned him about the great flood that he was going to send to judge all the earth. And you see, when we have faith, we believe the warnings that God gives and it changes the way we live. It changes the way we act. We do as Noah and we prepare ourselves for whatever we're warned about. So Noah, because of the warning and believing it, he built an ark to the saving of his household. With Abraham, we saw how faith enabled him to obey God's calling, to turn from this world and its idolatry, and seek the blessing of the city with sure foundations, whose builder and maker is God. with Sarah, we saw how by faith she was given the ability to bring forth the child that God had promised, who would bring forth the nation that he had promised to them, who would bring forth the Savior, who would save all of those that God had called, as well as bring the nations to salvation as well, people from all nations. So by faith, She was able to bring forth a child that she could not possibly bring forth in her own strength. God made it clear that this child could not be brought forth by also giving her the physical impossibility of it, that she was a barren woman and that she was past age to have children. in order to show that the bringing forth of the son of promise was something that only God can do. No one could bring forth the son of righteousness that would save the world. God had to bring forth that one. But yet he brought her. He brought him forth through the woman. So we have that testimony here of God. So by trusting in God, she was enabled to actually have her youth restored in order that she could bring forth a child. She and her husband both, Abraham, it says he was as good as dead. So that's what we saw last week. Now faith then enables us to bring God and his blessing into our lives. Because you see, we are able to bring into our view God and His promises, or we do bring into our view God and His promises of salvation as being true and real, so that we respond to Him, asking Him to save us and be our God. asking Him to give us eternal life through Christ as He has promised to do for all who come to Him. When we believe that, it's a reality to us. It's a factor in our lives. It's something that we live around, that we live unto, you see, because of faith. By believing, by looking to Him for all that He has promised, we receive all that He has promised, even before we actually obtain it. Faith has a hand on it, believing that we have the title to it, that we have eternal life, even though we have not yet been made immortal. Our body is going to die as it is in this world, and we're going to be changed. So we have it, but we don't have it, you see. In one way, we have the promise, we have the reality of it, the assurance of it, but we're waiting to actually receive it. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, as it says at the beginning of Hebrews 11. It's the evidence of things not seen. We lay hold of it as something that is promised, but not yet seen. The full blessing of heaven is what we will possess. Without faith, then we avoid the true God. We distort him and we have no use for what he has promised. It's not real to us. We haven't trusted in what he has said. We don't look to him to fulfill his promises to us. So we're divorced from all of those promises. We're alienated from them and from God. And we either then despair and become miserable and suicidal and wish we could die because we see that we have nothing or we delude ourselves for a time into thinking that we can find all that we want in this world. Ignoring not only how short our time is in this world, what we sing about in Psalm 39, but also, even worse, ignoring the eternal sentence of God to everlasting judgment in hell, that we must carry out that sentence because of our sin if we never come to Christ who is the only one that God provided for salvation. And so we delude ourselves if we don't have faith into thinking that we can make it. Without God and his salvation, God did not send his son to die on the cross for no reason. It was necessary if anyone was to be saved. It's only by him that we can be forgiven and reconciled to God that we may live with God in glory and blessing forever and ever. in righteousness and wholeness. So the passage that we come to today, it's kind of interesting because we don't have an example of a particular individual here, but it's kind of a general statement that gives us some counsel about faith and how we hold it, that sort of thing. It's Hebrews 11, 13 through 16, and it describes how all those who believe die in faith without or before they receive, actually receive what is promised. So they die believing that they're going to receive what God has promised, even though they don't have it yet. That's what this passage shows us. And it's an important thing for us to get hold of, because if we think we're gonna get it all now, prosperity preachers tell you that, then we're gonna be puzzled and confused and we won't know what to think. So let's look at it. Hebrews 11, 13 to 16. Remember, this is God's holy word. Hebrews 11, 13. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had an opportunity to return. But now they desire better. That is a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. There we end the reading of God's word. Thanks be to God for his precious word. To understand this passage and how it applies to us, We need to clarify three things from this passage. First of all, what does it mean when it says, these all died in faith, not having received the promises? Well, it means that when they died, they still believed that God would give them what He had promised, even though He hadn't. They didn't have it yet. They continued to believe what He had promised throughout their whole lives. Even though they never actually received what he had promised through their whole life, they received bits of it, parts of it, even say much of it, but much of it they did not receive much of it. They died then still believing that they would receive them, that God would do all that is what it means when it says they died in faith. You want to die in faith. You want to die believing, trusting God that he will do what he has said. There are three levels at which a promise can be said to have been received. Let's use an illustration. What if your uncle promises to give you a house? I'm going to give you my house. OK, well, you just level one. You received a promise, right? You received it in a way that it was promised to you. You don't have the house yet. And the second level of receiving is that you believe your uncle will do it. You can have a promise and say, oh yeah, well I know my uncle, he promises things all the time. Or you can say, my uncle is really reliable and I know that he will do what he said. I've got this house, it's mine. Even though you haven't moved in yet, you haven't received, you don't actually, you're not there. So that's the second level. The third level When you could say that you have received a promise is when you actually get the house and you moved in. And this is what it's talking about. We haven't moved in to our eternal habitation with God yet. We're here, we're God's children, we're his people, we are gathered together as his church, we're part of his people that will endure forever. But this isn't glory, this isn't heaven. So this is what we're being taught here in this passage when it says, these all died in faith. Now the second question, who does it refer to when it says these all? Well, you know, this isn't necessarily a hugely important thing, but it's a little bit tricky to see what it's talking about here. There are different opinions. Some say that it only refers to Abraham's immediate family, who have already been mentioned. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob, the ones that have already been mentioned before, you know, these all died in faith. There's certainly a graphic example of this sort of thing, and among those who are like this, because they're specifically described especially as having a land promised to them in this world that was a representation of the eternal city that they were looking for. So they represented that because they never got a land that was promised. They never moved in like when Moses led the people or really Joshua into the promised land later, they actually got the land. to temporal land in the promise. These guys never got it, and they trusted God even though they never got it. So that's why people say, hey, these guys, it's just talking about them. It's a good point, and I think it's a helpful point, but I don't think it's actually, and a true point, but I don't think it's actually what this passage means when it says these all. So there's a second way of looking at it, and that is to think that these all refers to everyone that has been spoken of so far. In other words, it would include Abel and Enoch and Noah, as well as Abraham's people. And those who believe this kind of fall into, well, they fall into a couple of camps. Some of them are clearly wrong, the first camp, because they deny that all of these people ever had any thought of heaven. And that's not true at all. because they clearly did. This whole passage testifies to that. There's other ones that say that these people from of old that, you know, they received so little of what was promised them as emphasis and still trusted God. And that's a lot more, what is the point here? Because in The idea being that they are examples to us because we have received so much more now that Jesus Christ has come, even though we haven't received our full inheritance yet. So the idea is that that these people are examples to us because they didn't even receive Christ did not come yet. And that so so this view argues that even though they were not promised the land of Canaan, They were promised God's ultimate blessing, which they did not receive. Now, it seems better to me with this passage to say that these all refers to all the Old Testament saints who died in faith without receiving the promises seems to be the better interpretation for several reasons. First, because these all the words, these all seem to properly refer to more than just a small company of people. Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, Sarah, and a couple of other people that are mentioned there. It seems, these all. You know, if these all, if that's what we're meant, it would seem that it would just say they. It says these all. And second, because these all seems to be referring to the verse that's just before it. What does it say just before that? It refers to innumerable persons. In Hebrews 11, 11 and 12, By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged him faithful who promised. Therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born as many as the stars of the sky and multitude, innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. So the great multitude that was brought forth, these all is the ones that are referred to by these all. It includes all the people up until the time of Christ, especially it could even be thought to include all of the elect. But I think particularly it refers to up until the time of Christ. So Sarah received strength, you see. A third reason for taking these all to refer to all the Old Testament believers is at the conclusion of Hebrews 11, the end of the chapter, because it uses the same designation to refer to them all in exclusion from us in the New Testament. It says, verse 39, and all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. We who have Christ. See, we have the blessing, because we have received more of what God has promised than they received in the Old Testament. We have actually seen Christ, God's Son, the glory of Christ, and what he did for our salvation. They didn't have that yet, except in shadows promised to them. So we have much more, and the point is, they still believed all the way until they died, even though they hadn't seen all that we have seen. But we are like them, And that we are still waiting for the eternal city that they sought. And that brings us to the next thing that I want to look at of the three things that we need to clarify in this passage. What is the ultimate promise that these all sought but did not receive? And again, I'll add that this is the promise that we who believe still seek and still have not received. And what is that? It is the promise of our eternal blessed home with God our Father. This is set forth plainly in verse 14 in the word homeland. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And the word homeland is richer than it looks in our English Bible. It actually is more literally a father land. It is, patris is the word in the original, which comes from pater, which means father, like paternal, or you get the word patriarch from it. We have already been told in Hebrews 11.10 that Abraham was waiting for the city which has foundations, this is a permanent city, whose builder and maker is God. In verse 16, it is called a heavenly country. And it's called a city that God has prepared for his people. When we hear God's call to salvation, what is it? It's a call to eternal life in his house. Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will not perish, but you'll receive everlasting life. Where? With God in his house. Not just that you endure forever, everlasting life with God in his house. We hear God's call to salvation. That's what it is. Call is expressed in a variety of ways. It is a call to be restored to God as our God through Jesus who saves us because we were cut off from him. It is a call to enter his kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus says the kingdom is at hand. Repent and believe. It is a call to everlasting life. As I already mentioned, whoever believes in him will have that. God told Abraham that he would be his God and that Abraham and all his spiritual seed would be his people. They'd have God as their God. Now, with Abraham and all the Old Testament saints, then we also die in faith if we're believers. Believing this promise, Seeking this homeland, seeking this fatherland. What is this home? It is a home that is a kingdom of those who by Christ have been restored to God as God, as their God. I will be your God, you'll be my people. Where we live with him as God and where he blesses us as his people with a blessing that only God can bestow, a God sized blessing. A blessing worthy of those that God calls His own people and His own children. It's not going to be a little blessing if that's the case. It is a home the way home ought to be. A home where with God as our Father, we have peace, we have wholeness, we have safety, protection, provision, happiness, sweet pleasures. A home where we know God, where we clearly see his beauty, his majesty is before our eyes, his glory, his love is seen even as it's expressed among the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. His wisdom is seen. It's infinitely more. than all of the beauty that this world has, that is just a reflection of his beauty, however much there is. It's more than all the majesty that you would see in the world, all the goodness, all the glory, all the wisdom of the world. God was the one that we behold, a glory that is without corruption, a home where he is the father of the house and we are his children. It is a home where we are all that we were created to be a home, where we are God lovers, where we perfectly love him. Isn't that a marvelous thought? Because we we don't know that's where we're headed, a home where we obey him, where we gladly pour out our lives for Him with devotion. It is a home where we love one another, where we serve one another as we should, where we really do care about each other, not just we kind of put it on, but we actually do that, and where each of us is made perfect and sinless. It's a home then of perfect harmony, where we're in harmony with God, where we're in harmony with each other, and where we're even in harmony with nature. Our body is no longer subjected to sickness and misery and injury and pain and all of these things. There is no more curse, no more death, no more sorrow, eternal joys and lasting pleasures. All of this is contained in God's promise to be our God and to make us His people. If God says, I will bless you, then that means that he will bless us. It means more than we can fathom to have God bless us. It is never a small thing to have God's blessing. So brothers and sisters like Abraham and all the Old Testament saints, we are seeking this glorious city. Once we believe it, once we believe the promise, we seek it until the day we die. We die still seeking, still believing, still knowing that we will receive it. So look at all the Old Testament saints. We die in faith, not receiving the promises. OK, now our passage teaches us how God's promise of this homeland, this house with God as our father, takes a hold of us until we die, of how it captivates us. There are three things to consider here that we see the promises of far off. This is how they how we get hold of them, how they capture us, that we embrace them and that we confess that this is no longer our home. This present world, but that we're looking for God's house, the eternal city, the father's house. Let's look at these three things, though we have not received our homeland, we see it from afar by faith. Verse 13 says that we have seen the promises of far off, even though Christ's kingdom of glory may still be far into the future. Faith has eyes that can see a long way. Faith sees into the future what God has promised. We believe what God has promised, and so we have it by faith. You even have in Revelation the martyrs who are crying out for God to bring about this final kingdom of glory because they don't have it yet either. They're in heaven. They're with God in heaven, but they don't have the resurrection and the full glory that is yet to come either. They're waiting until that day that's appointed. We're all waiting for it. We see it afar off. because we believe that God will do what He said. We know we will definitely have it because God has promised it. Of course, we would rather experience it than just have it as a promise. You know, your uncle gives you the land and you'd rather actually, or the house, you'd rather actually have the house than just have it promised. But we have it with assurance. Now, the phrase that's used there in our The New King James that I read from that speaks of having it with assurance is actually probably not part of the original because it's not in the majority of the manuscripts. And the way it probably got into the text is that it was a marginal note, and it's a true marginal note that somebody put on that, hey, we have assurance now. And then that got stuck into the main text. likely way it is. It doesn't really matter because it's true. Whether it's in or out, it doesn't really make any difference. There's nothing lost, nothing particularly gained, maybe some clarity. But it gives comfort and hope to us in our trials that we have this certainty that what God said is true. OK, so we have we see the promises of far off. They become part of us when we have faith. Something we live for, live by, live unto, something that we carry with us. It dominates us. Next, we're told not only that we see them afar off, but that believers embrace the promises. This word embrace is really a great word. In the original, it refers to greeting or welcoming. So we welcome the promises. We greet them the way you greet a dear friend. So the idea conveyed is that we do not simply believe the promises about inheriting God's house, but we welcome the promises. What if the house that your uncle gave you was a house that was not, it was more liabilities than benefits? He just wanted to download it, get rid of it to you so that you'd have all the problems that were involved. You'd say, oh no, that's okay. I don't want your house. But this house, we embrace it. We say, this is the house. This is what I need. This is the house. It's wonderful. John Brown says, they were not only persuaded of the truth and certainty of the promises, but also of the goodness of the things promised. The blessings promised were the object of their desire, esteem, and affection. This is what I want. Truly, when you believe, you cannot live without God's promise, without the hope of entering into His house. Where would you be if that was denied you? If you did not have the promise of eternal life in God's house? What would you have as a believer? It's intolerable to think of being without that, because that's what you want. That's where the goal is. That's where your heart is. The home is where the heart is. This is your treasure. This is your place. This is your destiny. Like Abraham, what happens to you in the present world doesn't make so much difference anymore because you know that you have this house at the end. What difference does it make what you have here? Even more now that Jesus is coming, we have beheld his glory and had the promise of heaven more fully confirmed to us. We are filled with joy. We have more joy. We should have more joy than the people in the Old Testament did. John Calvin says, though God gave to the fathers in the Old Testament, only a taste of that grace. which is largely poured out on us, though He showed to them at a distance only an obscure representation of Christ, who is now set forth to us clearly before our eyes, yet they were satisfied, they were satisfied, and never fell away from their faith. How much greater reason then have we at this day to persevere. If we grow faint, we are doubly inexcusable. We have seen the glory of the Son of God. They had not yet seen that. We are on our way to glory. We can't wait to get there. Like Jacob, when he served Laban in order to have Rachel as wife, it said it was a very short, it seemed a very short time to him because of the love that he had for her and our life here. because of the love that we have for our homeland and where we're going is a very short time to serve compared to the glory that is going to come. Let's be honest here. We aren't always so strong in our faith, are we? We struggle to have to rise up to that level of delight in this house. If we're true believers, if we have saving faith, though, we have received not only the truth, Like it says in Thessalonians, the love of the truth and second Thessalonians, those who did not receive the love of the truth perish. Simply believing it's true doesn't carry you through. It's when you love the truth that you go on and through all the trials and troubles. This love keeps us going onward, onward, onward, upward, upward, upward to the celestial city. The third thing we're told regarding the promise of our fatherland is that because of this promise, We confess that we don't belong here anymore, that we're strangers and pilgrims here in this world. When we say that we're strangers, we're saying that this world is not our home. Our home is somewhere else. I don't live here. My home is with God in glory. When we say that we are pilgrims and we're declaring that we are passing through here to another place, we're moving onward to the glory that God has promised ever moving onward. We need to confess this and remember this when life is hard. That's what the psalmist forgot in Psalm 73. and then was reminded of. We need to confess this when we're discontent here and start to covet things of this world. This is not our home. We're pilgrims and strangers here, not settlers. We're passing through here, onward and upward to glory. We have examples of this confession in every age of God's people. Certainly, it's the confession of Abraham and his sons, who, as I mentioned before, literally wandered about without a place to live. God said, I'm gonna give you this land, and I'm gonna send you, and they got there, and he didn't give it to them. They were walking around in it. Abraham had trouble finding a room where he could feed his flocks, and he didn't ever possess any of that land until he bought a place to bury his dead, but he never really owned a place where where he could live in that land. But you see, even even if they had come to possess it. Even if Abraham and his sons had come to possess that land, they would have still confessed and known that they were pilgrims and strangers in this world. Because, like I said before, don't ever think that Abraham was only looking for something in this world. If that was all he was looking for, then Abraham wouldn't have gone on serving God. He was looking for the city, as it says here, the eternal city, whose builder and maker was God. Now, how do I know that Abraham would have said that? Well, I know that because we see David who did possess the land of Canaan. And he said, having come to possess the land that God promised to his people in this world, that he was a stranger here in this world. In Psalm 39, 12, that we sang earlier. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry. Do not be silent at my tears, for I am a stranger with you, a sojourner, as all my fathers were, the same way that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were. I am a sojourner, a stranger in the land. In Psalm 119, he said, I am a stranger in the earth. Do not hide your commandments from me. I'm living by a different standard than the world is living. And in 1 Chronicles 29, 15, he said, For we are aliens and pilgrims before you, as were all our fathers. Our days on earth are as a shadow and without hope. This is also our testimony in the New Testament times, as New Testament believers, that we are pilgrims and strangers. In 1 Corinthians 15, 19, Paul, speaking of the resurrection, confesses, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable. If this world is all that God has for us, then we're to be pitied because we're not living for this world. We're living for the glory that is promised. In Romans 8, he speaks of the whole creation groaning until it is renewed. And then he says, not only that, but we also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For we were saved in this hope. And he emphasizes, but hope that is seen is not hope. When you hope for something, it means you don't have it yet. He says, for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. There is what we might call a holy discontentment with this world, which is a holy discontent that is rooted in joyful contentment. So overall we have joyful contentment because we have the reality of what God has promised. And that makes us discontent in a holy way with this world, not in a complaining way, but in a way that we're yearning for home. We're yearning for our Father's house. Peter also testifies to being a pilgrim and a stranger here when he says, 1 Peter 2.11, to those he's speaking to, beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. This is not your habitation. The world does not understand us. Because we're living for something that is different, that they cannot see, that we see by faith. Our lives don't make sense to them. Why do you do what you do? Why do you live the way you live? We've got something that they're completely alienated from. We are looking for our heavenly inheritance in God's house. We have an eternal perspective. They only have an immediate worldly perspective. So let me ask you, has the promise of an eternal home with God taken a hold of you? Another way to say it, are you a believer? Do you believe the things that God has promised about this house? Are you living for that promise of glory? Every day, as this passage teaches us, you have opportunities to show where your treasure is. That's what Jesus says, where's your treasure? Is it in heaven or is it here? Where's your treasure? You show that every day. Verse 15 explains that the Old Testament believers, if they had wanted to go back to the world, they had plenty of opportunity to do that. You can go back to the world if that's what you want to do. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. Verse 16, but now they desire better, that is a heavenly country. When it speaks of calling to mind, use that word, calling to mind that country from which they had come out, it speaks of calling it to mind in a dreamy way. longing for the world, of wanting to go back, like Lot's wife. After Abraham left Ur where he had lived like a prince, he could have gone back if he wanted to. Once he realized that he had been reduced to a nomadic life when he came to serve God, they had to live in tents. Abraham, we understand from studying that culture, as I mentioned to you, that Abraham and Sarah, they probably had flush toilets, because they had those in Ur at that time. It's amazing, this city was really, really prosperous, and Abraham was a very wealthy man in that city. And he left that, he's wandering around in tents quarreling with his nephew about where they're going to, about the land, who's going to take this part or that part. He could say, it's enough. I came to serve God and I was better off when I was in Ur. If he said that, he could go back. He didn't have to stay. He had the means to go back if that's what he wanted to do. Yet he concluded that he was better off with God. He concluded that he was better off to continue with him. It's the same with you. Every day, in fact, you're given little choices and every day there are big choices that are brought to you. Are you going to do what pleases God, is the question? Are you going to pursue the things of this world? Will you live for the Lord or for the world? Will you serve others or yourself? Will you look at porn or will you look at God's word? Where's your treasure? Where's your heart? Will you tithe or will you purchase whatever you've been dreaming about or making yourself secure in this world? Will you keep the Sabbath Oh, you find something else to do that's more appealing to where your heart is. You get drunk or high. Or will you be filled with the spirit? And give praise and thanks to God for all that he's done. You correct your child when they need it. Or will you ignore the child because you got other things that you want to you don't want to be bothered? Will you testify to your neighbor of your hope in Christ? Or will you protect yourself from ridicule? Nobody knows that you are with God. Will you spend the day worrying about what people think of you? Fretting and worrying and carrying on? Or will you focus on their needs and go and serve them? Will you lash out in anger? Or will you restore your relationship with the one that wronged you? Where's your treasure? Will you indulge your bitterness about the past? Or will you give thanks to God for His many blessings and for forgiving you when He should be bitter against you? You are constantly showing where your heart is. What is your treasure? Is it God's kingdom? Or is it this world with all its temptation and sin? There are plenty of opportunities to return to the world. It's there, it's calling you all the time, it's pulling you, it's tugging you always. But if you have faith, you see another world and you live for that world. There's a huge contrast here. Let me tell you, there is nothing worthwhile for you in this world. You have an eternal soul. And it cannot be satisfied by this world. However, you may try to delude yourself about that, as it says in verse 16 of believers, they desire a better. That is a heavenly country. It's a better place. The world is a vain and empty show. It is full of promise that will never be fulfilled. It offers you immediate pleasure. It offers you some kind of a ridiculous escape. But it always afterward disappoints. God will not disappoint. Those that he blesses will be blessed. Let me warn you, the passage is clear. God's reward does not come to you. Now I've emphasized this, but I want to bring it home here at the end because the passage does. God's reward does not come until after you die. God does not give us our full inheritance now. It would not be good for us. He tells us rather to expect suffering now. Jesus told us if we follow him, we will have much tribulation. Paul once said in Philippians 1.29 that the Lord is given to you not only to believe, but what? You know what follows? But also to suffer for his sake. It's given to you now to suffer for his sake. This isn't glory, this isn't heaven. We heard Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 15. If our hope is only in this life, we're of all people most to be pitied. Peter tells you not to think that something has gone wrong or that something strange has happened when fiery trials come. 1 Peter 4.12. This is the way that God deals with us when we come to Him for as long as we're in this world. We die in faith, not receiving the promise of glory yet. You see, this is what we're to expect. We're told in verse 16 of our text that he is not ashamed to call us his people, even though we live our whole life often afflicted without receiving what he has promised. Those are your people. Look what it says. God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. The world will look at us and say. What do you have? for all your service to God. Perhaps they have more money. Perhaps they have more leisure. Perhaps they have better health. They measure what we have on their terms, not realizing that this world in all its glory will pass away. Not realizing the glorious kingdoms of this earth that Jesus saw are not worthy of our attention. Not realizing that the glory of this world is nothing compared to the glory of God and life in His house. Without faith, they can't see what you see. It's right there. The promise of God is right there. But they suppress the truth. They push it away because of a wicked, unbelieving heart. They sinfully suppress. It's not just that they're stupid and can't see. They know, but they drive it away. When you tell them that you are seeking the glory that is to come to those who are reconciled to God through Christ, they will mock and laugh. So what is good? What is good? What good is that to me now? Like Esau said. But you see a far off, right? You see a far off what God has promised. To you it is real and you embrace it, you love it, you cherish it. And you confess that your treasure's not here, it's there. God is not ashamed for his people to be in that condition. To be people that don't have much now. Why not? Why is he not ashamed? Because he knows what he's prepared for us. He knows that glorious city that he is going to give us and that he is preparing for us while we're in this present world, preparing us for while we're in this world. The world can mock and ridicule all at once, but the Lord knows what he's giving us. If what he gives us in this world is his people, what we have in this world was all that he intended to give us, he would be ashamed. He would be embarrassed. This is what your people have? Wandering around in tents and stuff and having enemies come after them and drive them this way and that way? They would be right to say, is that all? God be ashamed. But He is like a father waiting to bestow wonderful gifts that He has prepared for His children at the appointed time when those gifts will be most appreciated. At the time that He has set. It is he's kind of like the father, you know, unwrapping the gift a little bit and give us a little peek at it, you know, and showing us a little as it goes through the years of history, bring us closer and closer and closer here. Here's my son. Two thousand years ago. Look at him. Look at what he did for you to bring you into this glorious city. You see, this city is a is a very wonderful place because it's such a holy place that you couldn't even belong there unless my son dies for you. You know, He's setting that forth and opening it up more and more as we draw nearer to the day. You can be absolutely sure that when we receive our final inheritance, God will have no reason to be ashamed or embarrassed. And you will be so delighted, you won't even be able to contain yourself. Please stand and let's call on His name. Gracious Heavenly Father, how we thank You for the testimony, Your holy testimony of Your Word. It's such a powerful thing for us, Lord. We pray that we would indeed believe the things that You have said, the promises, that we would receive what is promised by faith. And we pray, Lord, that we would embrace the things that are promised, that we would love them and delight in them, that our treasure would be with you, O Lord, in your house and what you have told us. We pray, Lord, that we would live in such a way that we show where our treasure is. We will live in such a way that we show where our treasure is. We pray, Lord, that our treasure would be in the right place. We thank you so much for giving us such promises. And all the way back there in the old of old that you first came to Abraham and you said, I'll bless you. And really, that's all we need to know, that you're gonna be our God. When we had cut ourselves off from you by sin, you were gonna take us as your people and that you're gonna bless us. And because of who you are, That means that we've got something wonderful coming if we believe that promise, if we receive that blessing that you have promised. Well, Lord, thank you. We pray that you would awaken us, Lord, to the reality of things, because those who do not take into their purview your word are living in the dream world. They're living outside of truth, outside of what is real. And those who embrace your promises are living in reality. We pray, Father, that we would all live in reality. I pray that you would help each person here to do that, that they would not miss this great blessing that you have set before us. Father, help us to be encouragers of each other. We ask, Lord, that you would help us in our trials, that we would not be beat down by them. that we would use those trials to keep lifting up our eyes to the glory that you have promised. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to know that even those trials are working for us a greater glory, that all the things here are in preparation for that glory. This is the field, and this is a time when we live in our own world and when we have trials and affliction, and then the glory comes. We thank you that you know how to prepare us for it and that you will not fail. Our trust and our hope is in you, oh Lord. Pour out your spirit upon us that we may have joy in serving you and waiting on your promise. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Now may the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, Give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe. Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.