Hebrews 11:16a
"But now (because of faith) they desire a better country,…" Remember how we’ve been stressing this all through Hebrews that everything in the past was okay, it was good. But this is so much Better - the spiritual eternal view. This is so much Better, because now they were looking for not just the earthly things, the external and the material but now the divine and heavenly things. Notice that the word "country" is a lighter shade then the rest of our passage, this is because it has been added by the translators, to clarify the better. But if we remove it and this we can do without changing the intent we get "But now they desire a better, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city."
Hebrews 11:16b
"…that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city."
I was going to take you back to Revelation, but I don’t have to, because you all know what it is. The streets paved with pure gold. The gates made of pure pearl. And all the gemstones that you can imagine are the stones of the foundation. Oh, that city is coming wonderful or full of wonder. God hasn’t forgotten. God is never going to go back on His Word. For His Word reveals His character just as Jesus is the expressed image of God Jesus is the character of God in Truth and Grace. And so this beautiful city that they were looking for by faith, will one day become a reality! Just as it will be for those who have chosen God above all others.
So, I guess maybe I’m about the only one at least that I’m aware of, where we are teaching verse-by-verse. It’s the way I know how to teach. I don’t know what I would do if I would have to put together a separate little message for every thirty minutes. Even when I've been asked to preach the Lord would change my plains and I'd have to do something different than I had planed. Boy, that is hard. But all I have to do is just pick up where we left off and we just go from there. It has gotten to the point where I no longer have to depend on my own sufficiency as He by His Spirit gives what to say and when to say it. For the greater One Lives His ontological Life within me and I can say with Paul, "It is no longer I who lives but Christ Live His Life through me!" As God restored to man.
All of our promises are heavenly. Now granted, we’re blessed in earthly things, I don’t deny that. But, by and large, our blessings, our rewards, are waiting for us in Glory. And it’s there that we’re going to one day come to cash in, if I can call it that. But for the Old Testament patriarchs, their blessings were earthly. Flocks and herds and children and what have you. But they, too, have entered into a heavenly existence, which is NOT Heaven on earth. Remember that God first dealt with the earthy (natural man) then comes the spiritual (born again man, man quickened by the Spirit of God). How? By the finished work of the cross and Christ Jesus' resurrection and ascension by the power of Eternal Life and the Spirit of Holiness. All right, let’s go on into the next verse now, verse 17.
Hebrews 11:17
"By faith Abraham, when he was tried, (a trial, or tested) offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,"
Now let’s go back and look at it. That’s in Genesis chapter 22, because a lot of these little things I think the average reader or even student, overlook, and they’re pertinent, they’re important. Now we’ve already stressed that Abraham was fifty years waiting for the promised son. During that time God was working on him perfecting His revelation within Abraham and Sarah developing His character within them. His character is Life to our flesh and so it was to both of them, even thou they were beyond or stricken in years of child bearing. God is Faithful.
Of course, he and Sarah took things into their own hands, you remember, back when he was about 86 and they had Ishmael by way of the slave girl, Hagar. This was in the flesh so to speak as God had NOT told them to do this thing. But see, God never recognized Ishmael as the promised son, because he wasn’t. God had nothing to do with the birth of Ishmael. Ishmael was conceived by an operation of the flesh or Abram's and Sarai's own sufficiency. That was strictly in the flesh between Abraham and Sarah and the girl Hagar. But, the promised son wouldn’t come for another fourteen years, which made a total then, as I said earlier, of about 50 years that Abraham was waiting for the son of promise, Isaac.
All right, but now Isaac is a young lad himself. And now after waiting 50 years for the lad to be born, enjoying his companionship for 14-22 years, now God tells him what? "Give him up to Me, as a sacrifice." That must have been horrendous. But remember, God was doing it for only one purpose. And what was it? To test Abraham’s Faith and Obedience. My, you wouldn’t think God would have had to test Abraham anymore - he’d already been tested for 70-some years. But, nevertheless, God is going to test the trust of this man of faith, Abraham, once again. Now, I've said it before and I'll say it again bot Abraham and Isaac saw the day of Christ as a shadow of future events, looking forward. Now knowing the day or the time of those thing seen, but they both trusted God and His word. Why? Because Isaac was the produce of their bearing Him.
Genesis 22:1-2
"And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, 'Behold, here I am'. And He said, 'Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of'."
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