Gooding, David: 2 - A Believer’s Pilgrimage

Hebrews eleven verse eight. By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out onto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith, and at this verse, let me interrupt to say that there is a difficulty in text and translation, and perhaps the best text and the best translation of this verse would run as follows. By faith, he, that is Abraham, along with Sarah herself, received power to establish seed when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised. Wherefore also there sprang of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore, innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own. And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country, that is a heavenly. Wherefore, God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. And may that same God who called Abraham and is not ashamed to be called his God, be pleased to call us here this morning. Now, this morning, I hope you will keep your Bibles in hand, because this is the time of day when it is thought most likely that people can remain awake. And therefore, today we shall be studying together the Holy Scripture, and you may find it convenient from time to time to refer to the actual page of the Bible. Now, we are studying together in these sessions what it means to be a believer. And last night we saw that one of the marks, one of the evidences, one of the trays of a true believer is this, that he or she believes the basic Christian doctrines. And we ran over them together as the early verses of this chapter reminded us of them. There is the doctrine of creation. By faith we understand that the worlds were made by the word of God. Then there is the doctrine of sacrifice and approach to God, the doctrine of redemption, and we read by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Thirdly, we read how that by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and that reminded us of our Christian hope, the consummation of our hope when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come. And not only shall the dead in Christ be raised, but we which are alive and remain, like Enoch himself, shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. And finally, we were reminded by these verses of Noah and the flood. That pointed us forward to the judgments of God that shall descend upon our world, first when the Lord Jesus Christ comes in power and great glory to set up his kingdom, and finally, when this whole planet of ours is dissolved at the end of time and the beginning of eternity. By faith, Noah not only believed God's announcement of coming judgment, but by faith Noah did something about it so that his relatives and friends might be saved and escape that judgment. And so we concluded last night that the first mark of a true believer is this, that he or she believes and goes on believing the basic Christian doctrines and allows those doctrines to have practical effect in the way we run our lives. Now consider again with me briefly that fourth doctrine. It says that Noah was warned of God that there was coming a flood which would destroy the world. It reminds us that as believers we are committed to the view, as I say first, that the Lord Jesus is coming to execute the wrath of God on corrupt civilizations. He shall be revealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And as we said, just let me repeat it, Peter tells us in his second epistle, chapter three that at the end of our Lord's reign, the very universe as we now it know, as we know it now, shall be dissolved. And there shall be a new heaven and a new earth. Now rises a question. If I really believe that, if I really believe that one day this planet of ours will cease to exist, if I really have it in my heart that this world at best is only temporary. What will that do for me? What effect shall that have on my life? And the answer to that question is, as we find in verse eight of Hebrews eleven, it will do for me what it did with Abraham, it will turn me into a pilgrim and a stranger. First of all, for the very obvious reason that when it dawns upon me that this planet is but temporary, and my life on this planet is but a temporary thing, it will alert me to the fact that I'm not here forever. It will raise the question of what there lies beyond the temporary. Once let me get a vision in my heart that while this world is temporary, it is leading me to a glorious and eternal city. And forever after, it will start working in my heart the sense that I am but a stranger here. I am a pilgrim to God's great eternity. Now, the fact that this world is temporary means that the human race as a whole on this planet is a temporary phenomenon. It doesn't take much observation to observe that, of course, every human being on the planet is a temporary phenomenon, as far as this planet is concerned. But you see, there's a difference between people. It's like when perhaps you're shivering on the edge of the swimming bath, do you see, or on the brittle sands of Port Stewart in the middle of summer when the temperature is minus two, do you see, plucking up courage, uh, to dive in and leave the safety of the shore and enter the swirling waters of the abyss. And, uh, you'll say you're standing there shivering, trying to make up your mind whether you're going to dive in or not, when you perceive some evilly intentioned friend of yours sneaking up behind is about to push you in, you'll see. Now you perceive that you've got a choice. I think you go in willy-nilly, or you anticipate what's coming and you dive in deliberately. You'll see life is temporary. For many men and women, when the end comes, they'll be pushed over the side and into eternity, whether they want it or not, and much to their dismay. Oh, how far better it is to go deliberately and start it right now. And if we haven't started it before, start now with the realization in our heart that life here is but temporary. Beyond us is a glorious eternity. If that fact grips us, it will revolutionize our attitude to life here. Instead of living as though this world were all, as though this life were everything, we become pilgrims, deliberately journeying on to the great eternity beyond. Doesn't mean that we shall not enjoy the journey. I enjoy journeying because I never grew up. I love being on a ship and watching the captains and hearing the first mate blow the whistle, so long as they don't turn the whole thing over, as nowadays they seem prone to do. I like going by airplane and seeing the thing take off, uh, dulce, and so forth and so on. I enjoy the journeying, but I should be a fool, eh, eh, wouldn't I, if I went to the captain and say, please don't land, just keep going round and round and round and round and round, old boy, because I do like the journeying, and I don't want to arrive. But there's a lot of people who feel like that about life, don't they? They want life to go round in circles, year after year after year after year after year. They make jokes about the gray hairs that come, don't they? And they wish they didn't, for they want a journey, but they don't want to arrive. The true believer is marked by this, that he has become a pilgrim, and his whole philosophy and mindset and attitude to life is fundamentally changed. He sees things around are temporary. He enjoys life as it comes, as best he or she may, but his eyes are set on the goal in advance. Now, this, of course, is authentic Christianity, as you will see if you listen to the apostles. One and all of them, they say this. Listen, for instance, to Peter in his first letter, and he says to his fellow believers, Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your behavior seemly among the Gentiles. We are pilgrims and strangers. Or Paul talking to the Corinthians in his second epistle in chapter five. he speaks like this: We are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Wherefore also we make it our aim, uh, that whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing unto him, knowing this, that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. The words he uses in those verses are interesting words. They are the words that you would apply, on the one hand, to genuine citizens of a city who belong to that city. They were at home in the city, as distinct from other people who might be living in that same city, but they weren't at home. They are what we would call nowadays resident aliens, do you see? They were high-powered businessmen living in Paris, do you see, instead of living in Ballywillwill. They, uh, do you see, were at, uh, not at home, not in Paris, do you see? They were resident aliens, do you see, and couldn't wait to get back, of course, to Ballywillwill. And says Paul, do you know, as long as we are in this body, we'll say, yes, as long as we're in this body, we're very comfortably at home. No, you're not. The very opposite. While we are in the body, we are away from home. We are absent from the Lord. We're like men and women who are on business in a strange country, away from home. We are like ambassadors and have to be here for our job, for we are ambassadors for Christ to a godless world, and being ambassadors for Christ, we have to live abroad. But nonetheless, we are away from home, and there is, says Paul, in our hearts a profound longing to get home, to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. You will say, how did Abram come to see all this and become a stranger and a pilgrim? Well, as you know, Abram's home city, Ur of Chaldees, was a resplendent city. It wasn't some little pokey, one-eared, one-eyed donkey kind of a city. It led the world in its civilization, and as we see the archaeologists' reconstructions of that city, it still leaves us breathless with the tremendously high standard of culture that they achieved in that ancient city. There are cities still in some countries, I won't name them, that are, uh, not so beautiful even now as Ur of the Chaldees was those many centuries ago. Why did he leave it? Well, in the first place, we are told to say that God called him by faith, Abraham, when he was called. It was the call of God that revolutionized him. Don't ask me how or when God called him. There came a day with Abraham when he heard from the long distant eternity a call loud and clear that lifted up his eyes beyond Ur of Chaldees with all its wonderful culture and made him aware of the glories of eternity. Stephen, in his address to the Sanhedrin, recorded in Acts chapter seven, tells us this, that the God of glory appeared to Abraham, and catching sight, however dimly, of the glory of the eternal, it left Abram discontent with even the very best that he would find and experience on earth when he was called. If you listen to Paul and to Peter and ask them what has given them this idea that we are pilgrims and strangers, you will have a similar answer. If you listen to Paul saying, you know, as long as I'm in this body, I w- I'm absent from the Lord, and I have a tremendous longing to be absent from the body and present with the Lord, you would not be well advised to suppose that Paul was an escapist, wanting to run away from life and the realities of life. There are some people, aren't there, and they are escapists. They don't like facing the rough and tumble of life. They don't like facing the realities of earning their living and striving to get through this world. They retreat into their imaginations and into fairy lands of one kind and another, into all kinds of novels that take them off and, uh, other vicarious means of running away from life. Not Paul. You look at his bruised body. He was a man that was prepared to p- fa- face life with all its suffering and the additional suffering that came from his serving of the Lord so valiantly. A man who could write from prison to the Philippians, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ. That's far better, he says, but when I think of your present spiritual needs, then I'm prepared to stay with you, even if that means being in prison. What is it then that has transformed Paul? He says, now he that has wrought us for this thing is God, who has given us his spirit and earnest, the earnest of the spirit in our hearts. An earnest is a part payment. When you go to a shop and you can't afford to pay the full price, you put down a deposit on it. That secures the object, and you are promising the shopkeeper that one day you'll pay him the full amount. And, says Paul, when God saves us, he gives us his holy Spirit. That Holy Spirit forms the down payment, the part payment. It's a guarantee that one day God will give us the complete blessings of our salvation. The Holy Spirit is, for the moment, the earners. But now you perceive something. By putting the Spirit into our hearts when we trust the Savior, God is giving us the earnest of a glorious inheritance beyond, and we begin to taste the very joys of eternity. And with a taste like that in our hearts and in our mouths, and eyes opened to begin to be aware of the reality of eternity. We should be very strange creatures, shouldn't we, if we didn't want to be where the great inheritance is. And that is what Peter is saying, isn't it? He says you've been born again through the word of God. You have been born again by God's Holy Spirit. And now you have, stretching out in front of you, reserved in heaven, an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. It's that that's made you pilgrims and strangers. You're not running away from life. It's a longing to be away from this temporary world where the very best joys have their colors dulled by the gray shadow of oncoming death. Where the very best pleasures are sometimes made bitter by the ugly drops of sin. It's a longing to be away to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away in all the tremendous, limitless treasures of eternal life. Have you been called? When one thinks about it, it's a magnificent thing, isn't it? To be called. One amongst uncountable million. To wake up to the fact that God Almighty has personally considered you and called you. One of the marvels of the world around us, not yet explained, is the flight of birds, is it not? How birds of certain kind, Canada geese, for instance, will at a certain time of the year become uneasy. And presently, who knows what it is, what mechanism, what kind of a call, they'll rise up in their flocks and travel their thousands of miles to their different feeding grounds. It's a marvel of nature, isn't it? I can tell you a give bigger marvel, and that's a marvel of redemption. There comes a point in men and women's lives, if they are men and women that come to know the Savior, when they sense in their hearts the very call of Almighty God. And they realize that they were made for him, and the call of God is upon them, and they realize now that earth is not their home. They were made for God. They shall not be satisfied till they see his face. By faith, when Abram was called. The Bible talks a good deal about our call, the call to salvation, the call to discipleship. This morning we think about the call of God for home and eternity. That call can come in different ways, of course. We are told in these verses that Abram, he looked for the city that hath the foundations, and I suspect implied in that description is this, that Abraham, as he had gone about life in Ur of Chaldees, admired its art and culture, its beautiful architecture, had nonetheless seen that it is not just beautiful buildings that make a beautiful city. A city is more than its buildings, isn't it? It's the people that live in it. And the thing that spoiled Ur was community life that was built on false foundations. Men and women that had given up ideas in God the Creator, and therefore lived in a community that was built on false foundations, with the result of all the ugly things that alienation from God can produce in the life of the individual and in society itself. There was a negative side to his core. Came to see that community life, however you tinker with it, is flawed by sin. And he looked forward to a city, not just a pile of stone, to a community of people built on the true foundation. There wasn't only the negative side to it, of course, there was the positive. And we have thought about it. Let me say it once more and be done. Beyond the temporary joy, he saw the eternal. Do you notice what that verse says? Let's read it again. It's verse eight. that along with the other heirs of the promise, Jacob and Isaac and company, he lived in the promised land, that is in Canaan. God had promised him the land. One day Abram knew that his posterity would be given that land to inherit it. But here for the time, uh, Abram and his sons were required to live as though they didn't own it, and live as resident aliens. It was a curious situation, wasn't it? Here was Abram in a land promised to him. God had given it to him on covenant. He knew that one day his descendants would possess it and enjoy it. He lived in it as though it didn't belong to him, as a resident alien. Of course, uh, he enjoyed the plums and the pomegranates, what he could buy, and uh, pitched his tent and fed his cattle, but always with the sense that for the moment, no, it didn't belong to him yet. And he must wait. What kept him from wanting to settle down and grab it now? What, uh, kept him content to be a resident alien in the very land that was one day promised him? Why, uh, it is explained to us in the verse ten. he looked for this eternal city. And therein, you know, uh, uh, the analogy is true of us, isn't it? Do you know who owns Castlewell? And the estate? And Newcastle? And Northern Ireland? And the whole of Ireland? And the whole of the UK? And the whole of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, and any other continents there may be to be discovered? Do you know who owns it? I do. Oh yeah. I do. Ah, you smile, you grin as though I'd gone crackers, of course. Think what you like. One day you'll find out I own it, and then you'll wish you hadn't, you you you hadn't doubted it all, you see. I shall be a somebody one day, you know. Mark my word when you meet me in glory. You'll see, says the Bible, that this, uh, this world, yeah, was promised to Abraham and to his seed. And then says Paul, Galatians chapter three, and if you have been baptized into Christ and you have put on Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. I like that verse. You'll see, being greedy of disposition, I'm not content with heaven, I'm going to have earth as well. Do you see? And I don't regard myself as being unspiritual for the purpose, do you see? Because the Lord Jesus is going to own it. There will come a day when, uh, according to the invitation of God himself, the Lord Jesus will ask. Psalm two. uh ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. When the Lord Jesus rises up and asks, the Father will give him the whole of this planet. When he comes and reigns, I shall reign with him, won't you? And what he owns, listen, heirs of God, joint heirs with the Lord Jesus. What he owns, you own as well. Ah, but you see, now listen to Abraham again. Conscious that one day his descendants would own the very land, he was content for the moment to be as though a resident alien, and so must we. When the Blessed Lord was here, he knew right well the promise of the Father that all should be his. There was many a night when he had nowhere to lay his head. And the only place where it is written he bowed his head was when the sufferings of Calvary were over, and he bowed his head as his body was impaled on the tree. What will keep me from impatience, from the attitude that says, yes, I'm saved, but I demand to own my rights here now? What will keep us from that is what kept Abram. He looked beyond even his nation's one day possession of Palestine, and he looked beyond all the temporary gifts of God on to the eternal. It's an attitude of heart then, isn't it? Have you noticed that there's a difference of attitude in the way that the child of nine plays with his toys and his father plays with the same toys? Didn't you know that's why fathers buy Christmas presents? Ostensibly for nine-year-olds, year old, but so they can play with them themselves. Didn't you know that? Well, know it now anyway. You'll see why they go and spend, you'll see, uh, ninety-eight quid on some marvelous electronic affair, you'll see, so that Tommy can play with it, though father has to show Tommy how it should be played with. Of course he does. And not only when Tommy's there either, but when Tommy's gone to bed, Father has to practice for showing the boy the next day, doesn't he? Of course he does. But there is a difference. For Tommy, it's everything. Fills the man's horizon. That's all what Tommy's been growing up for this past nine years, is to get his hands on one of these. That is the ultimate. Father plays with it too, but Father is aware that there's a big beyond this electronic toy. And for him, it isn't the everything. And what will keep us as believers from becoming worldly is not that we despise God's temporal blessings. A home, a family, a wife, children, business, job, holidays, music, literature. We don't despise God's gifts. He's given us all things richly to enjoy, but oh God, help us to put them in their true context, and the thing that will do that is a real concept and awareness of the great eternity beyond. God calls us in our joys. When we begin to realize that the very best joys that we could have anticipated in this life, when we have them, don't fully satisfy. We thank thee, Lord, as the hymn, uh, hymnist put it, we thank thee, Lord, that thou hast given us many joys, but all with wings, so that we see gleaming on high diviner things. The sacred relationship of man and wife will in the end prove itself what it was meant to be, a pointer to something infinitely bigger. Nor must we expect um a hundred percent full and final joy here on this world. It is but temporary, at its highest, a pointer to bigger things. And of course, sometimes God's call is heard, is it not, in life's sorrows and disappointments. The Lord calls, and the reality of eternity beyond stands out vividly in our hearts and minds. By faith, when Abram was called, he obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went. We notice now that the first step in the pilgrimage Abram was required to take in blind faith. He went out, not knowing whither he went. That is always so in true discipleship. But let's, uh, make a distinction, a very important and necessary distinction in our thinking. When God calls us to trust his son, Jesus, as Savior and Son of God, God does not ask us to step out in blind faith. Though sometimes you will hear people talking like that. God gives us evidence. The Gospel of John is written, isn't it, so we are told by, uh, for the purpose of supplying evidence. These signs are written. Miracles that carried a message that present evidence that Jesus is the Son of God. God does not ask blind faith. He gives evidence to provoke our faith. That is very important, you know, in our gospel work. I was talking to a young Christian man, and a delightful and noble Christian man he is, in one of the countries behind the Iron Curtain. And over coffee one night, the conversation drifted round to this matter of evidence. I said, do you do much here in your thinking with evidence, in your evangelism, with the evidences of Christianity? No, no, he said, no, no, no, no, no, we don't. Oh, I said, is that so? Well, how do you go on then? Well, he said, it's the quality of our lives, you see, that talks to the unconverted, and then they make inquiries. I said, that's excellent. I said, when it comes to saying and explaining to them that, uh, the quality of your life is brought about by Jesus Christ, uh, and you believe he's the Son of God, uh, do you offer them any evidence that he is? No, no, no, no, evidence at all. I said, what do you think then, that when God exhorts us to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that God himself doesn't offer us any evidence? Yes, he said, that's what I believe. There is no evidence. Well, I said, that's most interesting. So how do you know whether you're believing God or the devil if there's no evidence? What's the difference between the two? Well, he said, there isn't any. You have to find that out by experience. You trust in blind faith, and then subsequently you find out whether it's God you've believed or the devil. I say, things have come to some pass, haven't they, Watto, when you don't know whether it's God you're believing or the devil. No, no, no. God is asking nobody to believe that Jesus is the Christ as an act of blind faith, of course not. God gives the evidence, these signs are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. There is evidence, but once you have trusted the Savior and he begins to call you to a path of discipleship, then he will demand that you follow his call initially, if need be, as a matter of blind. Obeying just because Christ says so. That is always the basic condition of discipleship. Sometimes you hear folks say, don't you, I don't see reasons why I should be baptized. Well, it's good to inquire the reasons, but suppose you don't see the reasons why you should. The question is, who commands it? Well, if I, I know it's in the Bible. You mean you know that Jesus Christ commanded it? Well, yeah. You don't see the reason for it, and so you're not going to do it. But in the path of discipleship, the first reason is that he says eat. And if I come to him and say, yes, I'll follow you, Lord, but but, you know, I have my reservations, I I he'll say, well, then you don't follow then. He obeyed, went out, not knowing whither he went. Why is that important? Well, because you'll say in the call of God. What is the ultimate end, do you suppose? Uh, just as an aside, just as it comes into my scatterbrain head, why are you going to heaven exactly? You say, why do I want to go to heaven? What stupid question. There's a mansion for me. And with my notions open this week, you see, to see all this marvelous castle we're living in, and all this art. If this is an earthly mansion, well, obviously I want to go to heaven to be in the heavenly mansion, and anyway, all the Mercedes-Benz up there run on lead-free petrol anyway, and I- I- I'm looking for a heavenly chariot, what do you think? Oh, I see. Ha ha. Well, that's obvious that God will have to correct your ideas before you get there. Because if you had went to heaven with that notion, you might never turn up to a heavenly prayer meeting, not in all the length of eternity. You'll be so occupied with your mansion and your heavenly Mercedes-Benz or something. The reason for going to heaven is to see the Lord, isn't it? And if that's our reason for wanting to go to heaven, why not start here? The point is that when God calls, you follow him, not knowing where he may lead, because the prime point is the Lord himself. Isn't that so? And since our blessed Lord has gone to glory, we follow him, wherever it may lead. We cannot consent to be away from him. What will keep us, therefore, steadfastly moving forward to our goal? We've already noticed it many times. We come back to verses nine and ten. He looked for the city that hath the foundations whose builder and maker is God. And looking constantly for that city, he found it nourished his faith, because the more he thought of that city, the more real it became to him. And the more vigor it lent to his pilgrimage. Wouldn't be a bad idea if we took a squint ourselves at this juncture, would it? Get your telescope out, if you must, and have a look with me. The city that hath foundations is described, as you know, in the final chapters of the Revelation. Just let me point out to you what its two functions will be. Revelation chapters twenty one and twenty two. And when he had seen the city, he was told that the city has, will have, two functions. Verse three, chapter twenty one: behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. Function number one: It will serve as a tabernacle for God. Verse nine of chapter twenty one, the angel comes and says, come hither, I will show thee the bride of the Lamb. Function number two then, the city will form the bride of the Lamb. For God the Father, a tabernacle. For God the Son, the Lamb of God, a bride. Now you may ask in your mind, rightly, whether this glorious city is going to be a place or what it is. Surely it will occupy place anyway. Or, you know, the marvel of our, one of the marvels of our Christian gospel is this, that when the Lord Jesus ascended to glory, he went with him, taking with him a real, though glorified, human body. The implications of that is that the body, of course, involves space, doesn't it, in the technical sense, both time and space. Ah, there is a place in the universe. On the other side of the universe, the dark side of the universe that we call heaven, there is a place. And of that you can be sure it's occupied by the blessed body of Jesus Christ our Lord. He's not gone off as some disembodied spirit. And when finally you get your resurrection body, my dear fellow Christian, you won't be a disembodied spirit either. You will have a body that will occupy so much space as well. But when we think of this city, we don't merely think of it as some glorified Belfast with gold streets instead of Tarmak Adam. Dorsey. The city is formed of people, isn't it? It is the bride of the Lamb, and to tell you the truth, the Lord Jesus hasn't fallen in love with a lot of heaps of stone or gold either. It's people he's fallen in love with. This great concourse of redeemed people. Its function shall be two. First, a tabernacle for God. A place within the creation where the transcendent Lord who existed before there was any creation whatsoever. A place within the creation into which the transcendent Lord may condescend and come to dwell and make his presence known. It is a magnificent story told throughout Old Testament, is it not? Of the early days when God came down and visited our planet. And bad Moses built a tabernacle that his glory might dwell therein. Can you imagine the scene when God came down and, as the Old Testament quaintly puts it, stood on Mount Sinai? Well, poor old Mount Sinai went on flame and the whole planet rocked under the feet of her transcendent Lord. He came down and his glory dwelt in that tabernacle, and had you come near that tabernacle and had been allowed to go inside and walk around it, you would have learned something even by from the tabernacle of God, wouldn't you? Its beautiful colors, oh. Its magnificent and eloquent rituals with the lampstand and the table of showbread and the altar with its incense. Its sense of the beauty of God and of the holiness of God. But of course it was only made of linen and gold and copper, dead materials. It was a prototype of the great eternal tabernacle that shall be the dwelling place of God, the center of the universe, where men and women, the nations of them that are saved, may come and find God. How? God himself will still be invisible. They will see the glory of God through, mediated through the personalities of his redeemed people. Hm. I'm not even talking, um, fa- I'm not talking fairy tales, am I? Do you know God has already begun to build that building? Look at that dear Christian lady sitting beside you. Watch her in her daily life. You'll see here and again a flash of a beauty that's more than earthly. Watch a good Christian man, you'll see in his life presently in action, and it'll set you asking, and what is the source of the grace and the courage and the sacrifice and the patience? And you will catch a gleam even now of a glory that's unearthly. Why? Because that man, that woman is redeemed. Their very bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, that's why. When God is done with them, and they are totally like the Savior, you'll be able to come across them, each one with his different personality and her different personality, but glorified and made like the Savior, and looking at them, you will see the very beauty and glory of God himself. It shall also form a bride for the Lamb. And I must allow you full reign to develop all the romantic ideas you care to develop around that, for Christ does love the church as a man loves his wife. But even, uh, when you have had the honeymoon, you have to come down to, uh, realities to, well, not realities, but you know, you've got to do something, haven't you? Can't sit there and just look at each other twenty four hours a day, I mean to say. Uh, uh, so shall it be with the heavenly city. It shall be the bride of the Lamb, like Eve was bride for Adam. Adam was put over this planet and told to develop it and make something of it for God. And to help him in his task, he was given Eve. Our blessed Lord is going to inherit this universe and all the other universes there may be. And his people are given him. Eve to Adam, church to Christ, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. That's a vision. You will say, how do you get into that city, and what are the conditions? Uh, just let's check we've got them right. Abram looked for the city that hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God. When John is finally shown the city in the book of the Revelation, he tells us about it. One of the things he saw was that the city had foundation. But once more, we're thinking not just of a literal city of stones, we're thinking of the city of people, this great community, and it's built on solid foundations. It's one of the reasons why Abram left Ur, that it wasn't built, socially speaking, politically speaking, wasn't built on secure foundation. What is the foundation of the eternal city? The foundation is taught us, of course, in the life of Abram and Sarah. And put it doctrinally, it's this: the great foundation of justification by faith, and the other side of that story, justification by works. Justification by faith, Paul explains it to us in the epistle to the Romans, means that we cannot earn salvation in any fashion, are utterly and completely dependent upon God's grace and his justifying mercy in Jesus Christ our Lord. Guilty sinners, as the old preachers said, helpless sinners, cannot by our, even by our best of good works, merit acceptance with God. But if we're prepared to come in radical repentance, confessing that we are lost and helpless ourselves to avoid God's eternal displeasure, and we put our faith in God, his word, and his son, then God accepts us. It's not just a doctrine, you know. You want to be happy in heaven? Well, you better get the foundation right. You'll see, fancy imagine you're living, uh, in being invited to Buckingham Palace to spend your holidays there this year, and the Queen writes and said, I've heard it's a little bit difficult these days in Benidorm. It's rather crowded. Would you come and and and and and and uh, uh, spend your holidays with me, do you see? So along you go with the dear Queen, do you see? And living in all that splendor, suddenly occurs to you to ask, am I really welcome here? On what terms am I here? Could I, any day of the week, if I didn't suit Her Majesty, be politely or otherwise asked to leave? Well, if you were uncertain, it would make the holiday less than enjoyable, wouldn't it? And the more wonderful the surrounds were, the more you liked them, the worse the torture would be. Could I get thrown out? Imagine being in heaven and not quite sure what the foundations were of your being there. Ah, the foundation is justification by faith. It is justification by works, isn't it? And what does that mean? Well, the great example is what happened to Abraham when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar. You see, God had early on taught Abraham the exam- the the lesson of being justified by faith, that is learning to put his faith solely in God. Towards the end of his life, God brought Abram through the great test. It was, if I may paraphrase it this, now Abram, your faith for acceptance, your faith for eternity is in me, isn't it, Abram, and nothing else. Yes, Lord, said Abram, it is indeed. Yes. Your faith for the future, Abram, what's that in? Well, you, Lord, I say. Wouldn't happen to be in Isaac, would it? Well, no, Lord, you gave me Isaac, but you know my faith is really in you. Righto, says God, we'll demonstrate that, can't we? Just to get it straight. You give me Isaac. You Who don't want to, Abram? Where's your faith for the future? And Abram said, I see it, Lord. I see it, Lord. I say I believe in you, my faith solely in you. Yes, Lord, take everything I have. My faith for now and forever is you. It's a good thing to learn, isn't it, before you finally leave this world, because one of these days you'll have to go anyway, won't you, and leave everything behind. You wouldn't enjoy heaven unless you had learned the lesson of faith utterly and solely in God, then are you eternally secure. And nothing should ever be able to shake you. The lessons can be passed over very quickly. We've talked about Abram as a pilgrim, a resident alien, his attitude to this world. Once more, let me point out to you that it wasn't escapism. It wasn't a negative, barren attitude to life. Far from it. By faith, Abram, along with Sarah, received strength for the establishment of seed, and from one who was as good as dead, or two of them that were as good as dead, there sprang a multitude of descendants. In other words, that life, that the life of a pilgrim and resident aliens became astonishingly fruitful. It did so at the level of physical descendants. But of course, it did so even more at the level of their spiritual descendants. I don't know how you got converted, whether Abraham and Sarah had anything to do with your conversion. Did Abraham lead you to the Lord? You say, goodness me, how do old you think I am? Abraham lead me to the Lord. You, madam, has Sarah ever been of any spiritual help to you? They have to me, you know. Oh, what tremendous examples they've been to me. What stability they have given to my faith. The whole elementary lesson of justification by faith. I learned it through Paul, and he learned it through, uh, uh, from the Lord on the basis of Abram's experience. And that's come down to me, you know. Abram and Sarah having a positive effect on my life. Ha! How I'm looking forward to getting home to glory, aren't you, after the first prayer meeting and the songs. I hope the songs don't go on all the time. I want to get round to have a word with some of these folks. I feel I know them already, you know. I'm going to have a beeline for Sarah. Got a lot of questions to ask. I say, Sarah, dear, tell me if I may be ask without being rude, what was it like living with Abram, you know? You know. Was it glory already, Abram, Sarah, my dear? But when I've asked those impertinent questions, I'm going to tell her how she did help me, and Abram too, and I trust he from his eminence will run his fingers through my heavenly curls. I'm going to have them, I'm going to have them there, and say, my boy, glad to see you. I'm glad if my life was some help to you. How fruitful they've been. What it should be for them not only to see the Savior, but to see the multitudes that were brought to faith as a result of their experience. Will you be able to run your fingers through anybody's spiritual curls? Say, glad to see you here. Glad if my example, the way I lived, was of some encouragement to you and helped you on the way to glory. Oh, God forbid it should ever be said by anybody, you know, you nearly wrecked me, you encouraged me to live a worldly life, and I went off far from the Lord and only came back when I was ninety nine and a half. Oh dear, what an example you set me. And finally, their perseverance. You'll see it said that, uh, Abraham made it clear to everybody around that he was a resident alien. You will remember the story when he came to bury Sarah, his wife. He decided he wanted to buy a piece of ground to bury her in. And he went to the sons of Heth, and he asked if he might buy from them a bit of field and a cave to bury Sarah in. And he explained to them he wasn't trying to buy up the whole process, he wasn't Jacob, he was Abraham, and he he was a stranger, he said. Yes. What do you mean he was a stranger? Well, a resident alien. And what did that mean? That he still hankered back after Ur of Chaldees, where he was at home. No, no, no, no, no. He could have gone back to Ur of Chaldees if he wanted to. Oh no, when he said he was a resident alien, he meant he was a resident alien in Palestine, and if he had gone back to Ur of Chaldees, he was a resident alien there as well. He was a citizen of the great eternal city and confessed it and lived like it. For they that say such things make it clear that they seek a fatherland, that is a heavenly fatherland. And it is written that God says of them he's not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. Is God ashamed of me, I wonder? Just imagine you, and you've got a uncle and aunt in America, see? Mm-hmm. Have seen them, not seen them, but they are sizable people in their place. That one is said to be the local, uh, magistrate or something, George say, and they're coming now, uh, to Northern Ireland, and you're going to entertain them, you'll see. They're going to land in Dublin early morning, they're going to get a rest in a hotel, and then they're coming up, and you've got a lunch at one o'clock, uh, you'll see, and you're inviting some of your special friends in to meet these great Americans. Oh, the silver is out, the best tureens and everything else under the sun, you know, and the cooking is out of this world, you'll see. Cordon Bleu stuff, and you're telling the neighbors for I don't know how many weeks in advance, my, my, my, uh, uncle, you know, he's a big chief out there in America, and he and his wife are coming, you'll see. You want them to know. He's the governor of Honolulu or something, and he's coming, to see. Righto. So they do at one. you're expecting the big limousine to drive out- come up outside, and they don't arrive. One o'clock? No. Quarter past one? No. Quarter to two? No. 3? No. And the neighbor's saying, well, haven't they arrived? Haven't they arrived? We say, I don't know what's gone wrong. Uh, perhaps there's another Boeing gone down or something. I hope not. Uh, no, they haven't arrived because the dinner is absolutely ruined. Uh, uh, quarter past four, here they come. And you'll say, I'm sorry you've been so delayed. There was a flight horrible. No, they said, we got in on time. Oh. Did the car break down? No. Oh, I thought you were going to be here at one. Well, no, actually, says the wife, you see, we came across a very, very nice, uh, wimpy bar in Dundalk, and we started to look around, and I was... And when the neighbor asked, what happened? Was it that the plane was delayed? You don't know whether you dare tell them. My uncle and aunt saw a wimpy bar, and they thought that was so marvelous. And God has provided for us a cities, ladies and gentlemen. Ha. I hope he doesn't find us dawdling on our way home to glory, lest he have to explain to Michael the Archangel, you know, what's holding them up? They found a wimpy bar, and they think they prefer that to heaven. The Lord bless his word for his.