Thank you very much. Would you turn in your Bibles again to Hebrews chapter eleven? Hebrews chapter eleven. My wife Nancy had a chance to talk to the ladies this morning and was telling about some of the southern summer mission teams that we have taken out in the last three years from Emmaus. This coming year we have a wonderful opportunity, a tremendous opportunity to take a group into China, a country that has really been closed to missionaries for so many years, but the opportunity is through teaching English, but the goal is really to reach high school students who already can speak English so we can communicate with them. but who are interested in really perfecting their English and are most eager to have Americans come in and teach them. It gives us a tremendous opportunity for sharing the gospel with them, and it also is a tremendous opportunity to have an impact on these Christian young people who will go over. We need ten members of our team, and we have five of them already. and we have a number of them who are praying as to whether God would open the door for them. So if you think about that, pray for the Emmaus students who are considering going to China next year, this summer, I should say, that God might enable us to have the team that we would like to have. Now, Hebrews chapter eleven, we said yesterday that this is the the chapter of faith. And if any word would describe the Christian life, it is the word faith. We walk by faith and not by sight. And the preeminent example of faith in the Old Testament and the preeminent example of faith in the New Testament is Abraham. And when you come to Hebrews chapter eleven, there are more verses on Abraham than any other person in the chapter. There are many heroes of faith, but the one who is described in most detail is Abraham. And he is the pattern and example for us of one who lived his life walking by faith. Now I question tonight, first of all, would be to each one of us. Is faith the word that really would describe your Christian life? Do you walk by faith? Even when you do not see things realized that you would like to see in your life, even though you do not see God's hand acting the way you would expect him to act. Will you believe God and believe his promises and walk by faith? What we see in Abraham's life is that here is a man who began his life by faith. It says by faith, when Abraham was called of God, he went out. His faith was the response to God's call. His life continued by faith. Even when what God had promised him did not seem to be realized, Abraham continued to believe God. He walked, he continued by faith. And even when what God had promised Abraham became an impossibility, there was no way it could happen. Abraham believed that God would do what he said. Abraham's life was a life characterized by faith. Now let's look at this. The verses start in verse eight. By faith Abraham obeyed. when he was called to go out to the place which he would afterwards receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God, 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 had promised. Therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born as many as the stars of the sky and multitudes, innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. All these 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 on 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 opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God. for he has prepared a city for them. Look at verse eight. Abraham's life began by faith. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would afterward receive as an inheritance. There are three words that are really the key words in this verse. First of all, It says by faith. Secondly, it says Abraham was called. And then thirdly, it says that Abraham obeyed. This is Abraham's initial faith in response to God. You have to realize that Abraham was raised a pagan. Tells us that clearly in Joshua... chapter twenty four and verse two it says in Joshua twenty four that Joshua said to all of the people your fathers including Terah the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor dwelt on the other side of the river in old times and they served other gods Abraham was raised in a pagan family They worshiped other gods. Abraham himself was raised in that kind of background. But God called him. That call of God is found in Genesis chapter twelve. It says in Genesis twelve, verses one and two, Abraham, go get out of your country from your kindred and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you and in you all of the families of the earth will be blessed Abraham get out of the country and go to the place that I will show you Abraham God called and Abraham obeyed. Faith was Abraham's response to the call of God. Now what is faith? What is faith? Faith is not wishful thinking. If you say a person is a man of faith, a woman of faith, what do you mean by that? Faith is not wishful thinking. There are a lot of people who look at faith like that. They say, I believe in God. What do they mean? I hope that there is a God. I believe in life after death. Means I hope that there is life after death. I believe that there is life on other planets. That's my conviction. That's my belief. I believe in reincarnation. People have all kinds of beliefs and they have all kinds of faith. Sometimes it's what they want to believe. Sometimes it is wishful thinking. What is faith? Faith is not wishful thinking. Faith must have a basis. Faith must have something that is believed. Faith is not just a subjective attitude. You know, if you believe something hard enough, if you believe something strong enough, if you are convinced in your own mind. That's what many people think faith is. I remember when I was young, a young child going to Sunday school, I learned that if a person has faith, he can move mountains. By faith, all things are possible. If you only believe, Well, in those days, probably about eight or nine years old, I used to go on Saturday afternoon to a double-feature cowboy movie every Saturday. And I loved cowboy movies, and I loved horses, and the dream of every nine-year-old is to have a pony. And so I believed what I was taught in Sunday school. That if I would only have enough faith, God would give me a pony. And so I would scrunch up my eyes and pray and believe and expect the next morning. There would be a pony there, but there wasn't. And I did this time and time again and and hoping and hoping again. And you know what I learned from that? I learned that I didn't have enough faith or I didn't have the right kind of faith. That isn't what faith is. It's not believing something hard enough. It's not being convinced enough in your own mind The important thing for faith is not your subjective attitude of faith. The most important thing of faith is what you believe in. You see, our faith does not mean, does not make God exist. I believe in God. Rather, God's existence gives reality to our faith. What you believe The object of your faith, what you believe, is really the crucial thing. What you believe must be true. Or it is worthless. What was the basis for Abraham's faith? It was God's call. God called him. God told him to do this. Now, you look at what God told Abraham to do. This is really crazy. Abraham is a man who's seventy years old. And God tells him, Abraham, I want you to leave everything that has been part of your life in the past. I want you to be uprooted. I want you to take off and I want you to go to the place that I tell you to go to. If you met Abraham on the road and you asked him where he was going, his answer would be, I don't know. God told me to go. He didn't tell me where I was going. Well, where are you going, Abraham? I don't know. Well, how will you know when you get there? I really don't know yet. God is going to have to indicate that to me. Abraham took off in this crazy venture because he believed God. If any of you tried to do something like that at this point in your life, your children would probably rise up in arms and physically throw themselves in front of you to try to prevent that kind of an action. But Abraham took God at his word. He believed God. If God has spoken, then I have a basis for my faith. You'll notice, secondly, it says that he obeyed. That was the effect of his faith. His faith was complete. He did what God said. And this action of obeying God was the beginning of Abraham's faith. It was the beginning of Abraham's spiritual life. In fact, All spiritual life begins by an act of faith. Scripture says that we are all spiritually dead. We are by nature in Ephesians two, children of wrath. We are born dead in our trespasses and sins. And the spiritual life begins when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ as our own personal Savior. By grace are you saved through faith, the Bible says, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. The spiritual life begins by faith. But let me say this. It is not your faith that saves you. It is the Savior who saves you, Jesus Christ. Faith in Him, faith in Him will save you because He is a Savior who is really able to save. He is the one who died for our sins. He paid the penalty that we deserve to pay. He was victorious over sin and death. If you put your faith in trust in Him, you will be saved because He is a Savior who is able to save. If you put your faith in any other object, any other Savior, any other means of salvation, that faith won't save you. What's wrong? It's not your faith that's wrong. It's in the wrong object. It is not your faith that will save you. It is the Savior. But the spiritual life begins when by faith we trust Him and receive Him as our own personal Savior. Abraham believed God. And when he believed God, he trusted God and he did what God said. This was the beginning of his spiritual life. Now, as we go into verses nine and ten, of this chapter we find that Abraham's his life his walk continued by faith Abraham continued to exercise faith as he walked before God now it says in verse nine by faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a foreign country dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Now, the key to understanding verses nine and ten are to notice, first of all, in verse eight, that God had told him that the place that he was going to send him, he was going to give him as an inheritance. If you turn back to Genesis thirteen, we find God telling him what that land was. Genesis thirteen verses fourteen to seventeen. The Lord said to Abraham, after Lot had separated from him, lift your eyes now. and look from the place where you are northward southward eastward and westward for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever and I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth so that if a man could number the dust of the earth then your descendants also could be numbered arise walk in the land through its length and its width for I give it to you Abraham had us had a very specific promise that God was going to give him this land it was the land where he was living it was the land of his soldier he was moving up and down this land God said this is the land that I am going to give you now I'm sure that it went through Abraham's mind the question how how is God going to give me this land maybe maybe God is going to make me a king I'm going to become maybe I will become king of this land and it will be all mine maybe Maybe I'm going to make an investment like in Microsoft when it's first starting to come out, you know, when Bill Gates is still a college student. And I'm going to have just millions and I'll be able to purchase all of this land. Maybe I'm going to get involved in some kind of real estate deal and all of it's just going to drop into my lap. How was Abraham going to receive it? He didn't know. God did not tell him. But God had said it, and Abraham believed it. But then God began to test the faith of Abraham. Look at how God taught Abraham to live by faith. It says in verse nine, he sojourned in the land of promise. You see that word sojourn? As in a foreign country. He was a sojourner. He lived in a foreign country. And it says that he lived in tents. with Isaac and Jacob. All of those words, stranger, alien, sojourner, foreigner, living in tents, indicate that that land did not belong to him. He was living in a foreign land. It was land that was not his. It belonged to others. As Abraham got when opened his tent each morning and looked out he could see the walled cities of the Canaanites that lived around him this was their land he was not a citizen he he did not have a permanent dwelling you notice you know how scripture shows us that Abraham did not own this land did not receive this land as an inheritance when his wife died when Sarah died This land, the land that God had promised to him, the land that God said, this is going to be your inheritance, Abraham didn't own enough property in that land for a burial plot for his wife. You see, God was teaching him patience, teaching him to live by faith. And in fact, all through Abraham's life, He lived in that land of promise without receiving the promise. He never received that land as his inheritance. It says in verse thirteen, all these died in faith, not having received the promises. And yet Abraham believed in God in spite of his circumstances. As the years passed, And Abraham still had not received any of the land from. He still believed God. He still believed God. Verse ten says that his hope was in a better city. It says, for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He was looking for a better city. He was looking for the heavenly Jerusalem. the heavenly city. Now, one thing that if you read the commentaries on verse ten, a lot of the commentaries, I think, make a fundamental misinterpretation, a fundamental mistaken interpretation here in verse ten. A lot of the commentaries say that the land that Abraham was looking for, what Abraham was really looking for was heaven. That is not what it says. It says that he was waiting for a city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God. And it is true that it says that in verse sixteen, these desire a better. That is a heavenly country. But if you remember in Genesis chapter thirteen, the land that God said to Abraham, this is the land that I'm going to give to you. That was a very specific earthly land. Abraham, look north, south, east and west. That's the land that I'm going to give to you. Walk up and down in it. That's the land that I'm going to give to you. In Genesis, he says, the land of the Hittite and the Parasite and all of the other ites that you have there. That's the land that I'm going to give to you. This was a very specific earthly land. God did not tell Abraham that his hope, his inheritance, was in heaven. What verse ten says that Abraham walked up and down the land of Canaan. And he saw that that land of the Canaanites, which was an evil, corrupt land, a land filled with sin. And Abraham said, I want something better. I want something better. Abraham's hope was that there would be a day coming when this earthly land that he was living in would be changed, when the kingdoms of this earth would become part of the kingdom of God, when there would be a transformation and the kingdom of the Canaanites would be transformed into the kingdom of God. That was an earthly land. But he was looking for that land at a time when God's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. That was the heavenly city that Abraham was looking for. And because Abraham had a better hope or a hope for something better, he was content to wait. He was content to wait. When I ask you this morning, where is your hope? Is your hope in the present or is it in the future? Abraham's hope was not in the present circumstances of this corrupt, earthly land and society. His hope was in what God was going to bring at a future time. Where is your hope? Is it in the present? Is it in this world? Is it in this life? Or is it beyond that? We say that our hope is in the future, but why do we build our lives around material things? Things of this life. Why do we build our lives around pleasures, things of this life? Why do we build our lives around success in terms of this society? Abraham had a better hope, and so he looked to God for what he would do in the future. And Abraham believed God even when what God had promised became an impossibility. Now I say impossibility in terms of every kind of reckoning and consideration that you or I as a human being could factor into the equation. The writer of Hebrews shows us this in verses eleven and twelve. It says, now there's a problem of translation here in verse in verse in verse eleven that I'll look at in a minute but in verse eleven and twelve the point of this verse I think is is very clear the main point of the verse is that Isaac was a miracle baby Isaac is referred to it says 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 who faithful who had 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 what this is saying is that In Abraham's life, he and Sarah got to the point where it was impossible for them to have children. And yet God had promised them that they would have a child. God said to Abraham in Genesis fifteen that he was going to have a child, a physical descendant, and he says, look at the stars, you're children, your offspring are going to be as innumerable as the stars in the sky. Now most of my life I have lived near big cities and the lights of the city always cloud up the sky. But if you have ever been out in clear, open country with no lights and a new moon, so no moon is shining, it's absolutely dark and clear sky. I remember a couple of occasions in my life, a couple of years ago when we were down in Bolivia, I saw a sky like that. A few years ago I saw that in Texas when I was out at a camp there. You can see the Milky Way as a cloud in the sky. It's an awesome sight. And God said to Abraham, your offspring are going to be innumerable just like that. In Genesis, he said, Sarah is going to be the mother of that child. And so Abraham believed God. But that was impossible. There are three things that are mentioned here, which make this promise an impossibility. It says that Sarah was barren. She was not able to have children. In verse eleven it also refers to the fact that she was past age. Sarah was ninety years old. How many ninety year old women do you know who have had children? And not only was Sarah ninety years old and past the age physically of being able to have children. It says in verse twelve that Abraham, who was a hundred year old man at this time, it says that he was as good as dead. Abraham, he was past the age of having children. And yet they believed God. They believed God. If God had promised it, they would believe that promised. Now, the problem that we have in verse eleven is a problem that has to do with translation and interpretation. If you read the New International Version, this is how it reads. 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. In the New International Version, the faith that is referred to is Abraham's faith. And Sarah is mentioned as an obstacle to that faith because she herself was barren. Now, if you look at most translations, verse eleven refers not to Abraham's faith but to Sarah's faith. The New King James says, by faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed and she bore a child. The New American Standard Bible, by faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive even beyond the proper time of life. I have fourteen translations on my computer and I glance through them on this verse and all but two refer this faith to Sarah's faith. Now, if this is referring to Sarah's faith, then I think that it is. The same point is made that we have just said that they believed in spite of the impossibility. But there's one additional point that I think is significant if this is referring to Sarah's faith. The fact is that Sarah's faith was not a perfect faith. We refer to Thomas as one who was a doubter. Well, Sarah was a doubter. When she heard that she was going to have a child, do you remember her response? She burst out laughing. She had never heard anything more ridiculous in her life. This is totally absurd. Her laugh was the laugh of skeptical unbelief. But you know what this verse is saying? Sarah changed. Sarah changed. Her skepticism turned to faith. She believed God. Is your faith always perfect the first time you were challenged or the first time you need to make a response? The fact is that a lot of us struggle with faith. And our first response is not always the best response. Sarah had to battle with unbelief, but she overcame. Look at her faith. It says here that she believed because she judged him faithful who had promised. She judged God faithful who had promised. Isn't that a wonderful definition of faith? To judge God faithful because He has made a promise. That is what faith is. It is taking God and His Word and believing Him. Many people want faith to be believing what they want to be true. What is it to live by faith? Well, first of all, you have to have a promise from God. Faith is not believing what you want to be true. You have to have a promise from God. If you listen to these television evangelists, they tell you that if you have enough faith, you can be healed of any disease that you have. Is there a promise for that in the Bible? They tell you that if you are poor or that you need more money, all you have to do is have enough faith and God will give you wealth. This health and wealth gospel. Where are we promised health or wealth in the Scriptures? Many of you may have known one of our teachers at Emmaus by the name of Jim Catrin. This last year, almost a year ago, Jim went home to be with the Lord. But I remember as I was talking with Jim and he was dying, we were talking about faith. We were talking about the promises of the televangelist. And he was telling me that he remembered a number of years ago. There was a young man who was convicted wrongfully of a crime and was being sent to jail. And he was telling Jim, I know that God is going to overturn this conviction. I know that God is going to get me out of jail. And Jim asked him, where has God ever promised that he would do that for you? There are many believers who have suffered unjustly. and been treated wrongfully. God has never promised us things like that. The issue is, even if you are forced to stay in jail wrongfully, will you still trust God in circumstances like that? That is what faith really involves. There have been many childless couples. it is one of the great trials in life to want desperately want children and not to be able to have them and there are many Christian couples who have turned to Abraham and Sarah and as Abraham believed and as Sarah believed that they would have a child say that they have said I will believe also we will believe and we believe that God will give us children Where is that promised in the Bible? This promise for Abraham and Sarah was a specific and a unique promise. God had chosen them to be the ancestors through whom salvation would come to the whole earth, through whom the Messiah would come, through whom Jesus Christ would come. They were chosen uniquely. The promise that was given to them is not a promise. And there are many couples who have lived their lives desperately wanting children and have not been able to have them and have never been given children by God. And the issue really is, will you continue to walk by faith trusting God even when you do not receive children? I remember a friend of mine who also was dying of cancer. and he said to me one day, I believe that God is going to heal me. I am absolutely convinced that God is going to heal me. God didn't heal him. But where has God promised to heal us? Where has God promised that he would keep us from dying? Where has God promised that he would keep us from suffering? The real issue is Can you continue to walk by faith even while you are dying and while you are suffering? The fact is that many of the promises that God has given to us are different from the promises that the Old Testament saints had. Many of the promises for the Old Testament saints were earthly promises and had to do with physical well-being and prosperity. But the promises that God has given to us are not basically promises that have to do with this physical life and with prosperity and health. In Ephesians chapter one it says that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly in Christ Jesus. He has promised us not riches or health or length of life, He has promised us every spiritual blessing that He has for any of the saints. Look at First Peter chapter one and verses three to five. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. Where is our hope? Where is our inheritance? It is a future hope. It is a future blessing. It is a future inheritance. Our redemption is not complete in this life. We are part of this old creation that is groaning and travailing, awaiting the redemption, the completeness of our redemption. You'll notice that in verse six, Peter says, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while it need be, you have been grieved by present trials. If all we have is this life, then we really do not have any basis for faith. This life is affected by sin. In this life, everything falls apart. We have been promised a bright hope for the future. And we know the one who has made the promise. He has not promised us health and wealth and all kinds of prosperity in this life. But he has promised that he will be with us. He has promised us that he will never forsake us. He has promised us that he will lead us and that he will always be faithful to us. Sarah believed God because she believed that the one who had promised was faithful. Can you believe that kind of promiser and trust him and live by faith in this kind of a world? Abraham did. And that's what God has called us to do. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for Abraham. He was a great man of faith, but the kind of faith that he exercised is the kind of faith that you call each one of us to exercise. We pray that we would have more faith and less doubt, that we would trust in your goodness and your faithfulness and not be caught up by our own circumstances. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.