Real Faith Lives As Pilgrims

Introduction

Well, it’s good to be with you again tonight, and good to see this audience gathered. Each one of you present here is certainly welcome. I hope you’ll allow me to make special mention of the fact that uh my daughter and her family are here tonight from Plant City. It’s good to have them here. And there are two other men that I want to mention. Uh, and and I hope you’ll allow me to do that. Brother Payne and Brother Harkwright are especially welcome, because I can say something about them I can’t say about the most of you. They make me feel young. And that’s a good feeling. And I just pray to God that I can have the same kind of presence of mind and influence for good that these men have at their age.

The Lord spares me that long, I pray that I may be what they are. We’ve been talking this week about faith.

In fact, I’ve often said that if you wanted to find one word that would end the would uh would uh uh summarize God’s relation to man, it’d be grace. If you want to find one word that’ll summarize our responsibility to God, it’s faith. Not just believing some facts, but all that faith represents, trusting, trusting God’s wisdom, obedience is certainly included in this matter of faith. Often when we’ve thought about faith, we think in terms of what one must do to be saved from past sins. And faith certainly is an important part of that. By grace you have been saved, and the apostle in Galatians it in that passage is speaking back toward that initial salvation from past sin. Jesus said, He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.

Belief is important, faith is important. They’re the same thing, of course. For many years, preachers, and I included, put steps up toward salvation, forgiveness of sins. I think we haven’t been doing that recently because I think many of us have realized that that can be misunderstood. I don’t think it’s altogether bad. But it can be misunderstood in that if one that one may think that once you believe, then you leave that and you repent, and you then you’re finished with repentance and you confess, and you finished with that and you’re baptized. It’s not that way. That same faith that causes a person to obey those initial commands of repentance and confession and baptism, must continue. Such faith must endure. And the Apostle Paul, in the Hebrew letter, if indeed he was the writer of the Hebrew letter, stresses the fact that faith must endure.

I’m going to begin reading with the 32nd verse of the tenth chapter, which we read Lord’s Day Morning, but I think it’s proper for us to read it again. Recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings, partly while you were made a spectacle, both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated. For you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. And then this warning, therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. And then these words, he says, Therefore do not cast away your confidence, for you have, verse 36, you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

For yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith. It’s not just a matter of expressing faith, but it’s a matter of living by faith. But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we’re not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. You have need of endurance. And one of the characteristics of these great men that we study about in the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews is their endurance, not simply that they started out, but that they endured by their faith. Abraham is a good example of that, and he is featured actually in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, as well as in many other passages in the New Testament, as an example of great faith.

1. Abraham Endured by His Faith

And the first thing noted is the fact that he obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he was going. That took faith. Can you not imagine Abraham in this rather advanced city? The archaeologists tell us, packing up to leave, and of course, his neighbors would say, Abraham, what are you doing? I’m moving. Where are you moving? I don’t know. Well, how long you’re going to be gone? I don’t know. Where are you going to live? I don’t know. Well, Abraham, what are you doing here? This is foolish. You can’t do this. Well, I can, because I trust him who called me. I have complete faith in him. Who is that?

God. What God? My God, the only God. I have faith in him, and he has asked me to leave and go to a land he’ll show me. So I’m going. You know, whenever a Christian sets out to be a Christian, a person to obey the gospel, to a great degree, this is what he’s doing. He may think he knows what it means to be a Christian, but I guarantee you this if he keeps studying, he’s going to learn there’s a lot more to it than he realizes. He’s going to go to places he didn’t anticipate in his life. He’s going to make decisions he didn’t anticipate. Because as his faith grows and grows and grows, he finds himself following the Lord wherever the Lord leads, and he doesn’t know where that’ll be when he first responds to the gospel of Christ.

But not only did he leave his homeland to go to a land that he would be shown, but he also had faith enough to obey God even when God asked him to sacrifice his only son. Verse 17 of this 11th chapter. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who received the promises, offered up his only begotten Son. I said a moment ago that when you start out to be a Christian, you may not know where the Lord’s going to lead you. Is there any sacrifice you would not be willing to make? Is there anything God could ask you to do that you would not be willing to do? Is there anything he would ask you to give up that you’d not be willing to give up?

I talked to a couple one time who wanted to be baptized immediately, and they were that they didn’t want to wait, and there was some question about their marriage. And I hesitated to put them off completely, but I said, I don’t know your situation, but let me just ask you this question. If if we study this scripture and you find that you have to separate from your companion, would you be willing to do it? And they said, Well, no. I said, then you’re not ready to be baptized. Because when you’re baptized, you’re promising to do whatever the Lord asked me. That’s what repentance is. Whatever the Lord asked me to do, that’s what I must do, regardless of how what a sacrifice it must be. And that’s what Abraham was committing to on the basis of his faith.

And when the Lord said, You take that son, through whom I promised to bless you with a great nation as your descendants. You take that son and offer him for a sacrifice. Abraham took the son, started out early the next morning, took him up on the mountain God had appointed, put him on an altar, raised the knife to put him to death. He was prepared to go through it because of his complete faith in God. He didn’t know why God would ask it. He didn’t even know how God was going to work out his promise to give him a great nation through this Son. But if God said do it, that’s all that was necessary. He was ready to do it. That’s faith. But in addition to this fact, he and his family endured without receiving the major promises.

Abraham was promised he would have a great nation as his descendants. But he didn’t, he didn’t see that great nation. Abraham was promised that his descendants would own the land of Canaan. But he didn’t own any of it. Just enough to bury his loved ones. He was promised that in his seed all the nation of the earth will be blessed. He never saw that. And yet he continued to have faith in God, though he did not receive the promises that God had made to him. That’s featured, I think, in chapter 11 and verse 13, the very beginning of the verse. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off. They were assured of them. They were sure God was going to fulfill the promise even after they were dead.

2. Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth

And if that’s how long it took God, that was all right. That’s the kind of faith they had in God. But I really want to read the rest of that verse. The rest of that verse, it says that they embraced those promises and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And I think that just explains an awful lot about their ability to endure. They didn’t consider this their homeland. Even when Abraham lived in that land, God had promised him, though he didn’t own it. Even there, he did not consider himself at home. He waited for a city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God. He saw something even beyond this earthly land that God had promised to him. And he considered himself a citizen of that heavenly kingdom.

And so whether he ever owned a square mile or an acre of this land where he lived really didn’t make that much difference. He was a homeland, he was he was a citizen of another homeland. And we are.

Strangers are foreigners in land. And pilgrims are those who are passing through another land than their own, seeking some kind of an object of a holy object. Pilgrims many times go toward a place that they consider a place that is especially blessed by God. And so that was the idea of pilgrims and strangers. And that’s what we are, according to the scriptures. Jesus prayed this prayer for his apostles. He said, These are in the world, but later he said, they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Do you remember a few years ago when uh everybody got all excited about flying saucers, and occasionally there was a sighting of some kind of aliens from some other world. And people had all kinds of ideas of what they’d look like.

Well, I know what aliens from another world look like. Christians. Christians. That’s what we are. We’re from another world. We’re not, we don’t pertain to this world at all. And we’re being influenced, not by this world, but by that world we came from. Now we’re not green. It’s not the outward appearance that matters. But it is where our heart is. And our heart is not in this world, but it is in heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven, Paul wrote, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body, according to the working by which he is able, even to do all things to himself. Citizens of heaven.

That you and that is me. Well, what are the characteristics of strangers and pilgrims? Once again, I’d like to ask you to let me use a personal illustration. Take some personal experiences of mine. Some of you have lived in other countries, and my wife and I uh lived for four years in Nigeria, West Africa. Two years at a time. Two years in the eastern region, two years in the western region. And from that experience, I know just a little bit about what it means to be a stranger and a pilgrim in a in a land that’s not my own. Well, one thing, you’re content with imperfect conditions while you’re waiting to go home. We lived in a concrete block house, and that’s not too bad, but we had concrete floors and no rug on the floor.

And the furniture we used was, well, it was the cheapest thing we could get because, well, we were just here for two years and it would be we’d be leaving, and so something won’t matter too much. We wouldn’t use that furniture here, but there we were strangers and pilgrims. We were leaving in just a little while. So we were just content with a lot of things that we would never have been content with in this country. I wouldn’t drive that old pickup truck I drove over there, I don’t think at all, here. Had a hard enough time driving it over there, but I was glad to have it there. Not only that, but you invest in your homeland. I signed up for Social Security while I was there.

It was at a time when preachers could make that choice. I didn’t sign up for Nigerian Social Security. You rest assured of that. I remember going down to the American embassy and finding the forms that I needed and signing up for American Social Security. I was depending more on what I would receive in America than what I would receive in Nigeria. Your homeland is where you put your treasure. Not only that, but you prefer the honors of your homeland. I can remember being so impressed with what some of the doctors were doing over there. I thought, you know, I just am tempted to go to the university and get me a degree in medicine so I can serve these people as these sacrificing doctors are doing.

But I didn’t think about going to a Nigerian university. I was going to come home and go to a university here. Whatever honors I was going to receive, degrees, recognition of any kind, it needed to be in my homeland and not there. But finally, I would say that we give priority to the laws of our homeland. When I got my passport to go to Nigeria, there were two restrictions clearly stated that if you voted in a foreign election, or if you served in the armed forces of a foreign country, you would forfeit your American citizenship. Now, I I was careful to live by the laws of the land. I drove on the left. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here. Had a hard enough time getting here, even driving on the left.

3. Content With Imperfection

But I drove on the left all right. And I I paid their taxes, and I I kept other laws that uh were made by the Nigerian government. But if they had made a law that I had to vote, no way. If they’d made a law that I had to serve in their armed forces, no way. Because I would not forfeit my American citizenship in order to obey the laws of a for a country in which I was a stranger and a pilgrim. Well, I believe there’s some applications of this. And I believe we actually see this in the in the examples of these men of faith that we read about. And let’s just see what was true of them. In the first place, they were content with imperfection.

Look at the Hebrew letter, chapter 11. We’re going to be looking at that in the main, and if you’d like to turn there, you can look with me to verse after verse here. In verse 9, it said concerning Abraham that he dwelt 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. Dwelling in tents. Have you ever lived in a tent? Well, I suppose many of you have.

And it can get cold in that country where Abraham lived. I read some time ago there was snow in Jerusalem. It can snow and the wind can blow and it can get cold. And I wondered sometime if Sarah didn’t say to Abraham, couldn’t we live in something other than a tent? A hundred years they lived in the tent. Why? The next verse says they were waiting for a city, God’s city. And so they were content to dwell even in tents with Isaac and Jacob. And this is the reason why we should be content. In Hebrews 13, verse 5, let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. What difference does it really make if we don’t have all the things that other people have?

What difference does it make if we don’t have all the luxury in which some other people live? It makes no difference, because this is really not home, and we just need enough to live on, enough to survive. It’s not wrong for us to have comfort, but we should be content with whatever we have. If we can provide something better, okay. But not discontent in what we actually have. This is a message that Jesus gave in the book of Matthew, isn’t it? Matthew the sixth chapter, where he said that we’re not to be anxious for tomorrow about the things that we desire, the things even that we need. But we are to trust the Lord. Let’s read what is said here in Matthew the sixth chapter, beginning with verse 25.

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body what you will put on, is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them, are you not a more valued than they? Which of you by worrying can add a one cubit to his measure, to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith.

Therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For after all these things, the Gentiles seek. That is the people around you in this world. That’s what they’re seeking. Your heavenly Father knows what you need. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble, this translation says.

4. Invest in Your Homeland

Look with me at the 11th chapter of Hebrews in verse 20. By we told here concerning Isaac, that he blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of his sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning on his staff. By faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel.

And yet he blesses his sons, more or less telling them what part of the land of Canaan they’re going to receive. What right did he have to distribute the land of Canaan? Was it his? Yes. By promise. And that promise was so certain as far as he was concerned, because of his faith, that he could pretty well distribute the land that he didn’t even own at that time. Telling where each of the tribes, or several of the tribes at least, would dwell. If some of the Canaanites had been there, they would have been said, What do you think you are giving away our land? Not mine yet, but it will be, it will be after I’m dead. It’ll be mine. That’s the kind of faith he had.

And for us, what about it? That same passage, Matthew the sixth chapter. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. I can’t read without the quotation from the King James Version that I learned when I was a child. That’s the reason children need to learn the Bible, isn’t it? Learn it. You remember the quotations that you can’t remember when you’re a little bit older. But get the message. Get the message there. Don’t put your treasure here. You see, is it wrong to save up a little money? I hope not.

I’ve tried to save up a little bit, primarily so my family and the church won’t feel obligated to take care of me when I can no longer produce any income. A little bit of little savings. An insurance policy. It’s okay. But that’s not my treasure. Let me tell you now that if it’s your that’s not my treasure. And if it all wiped out overnight, I I’d hate to see it for my family’s sake and others’ sake. But I’m going to live. I’ll I’ll make it. It’ll be okay. Because my treasure, if I know my heart, is in heaven. That’s that’s what you know. Your treasure is what you think about most. It’s what you’re depending on for your future. Is that what you think about most?

A little bit of money in the bank. I knew a lady one time who had $70,000 in the bank. She thought that was a huge, huge amount. And I think it’s pretty good myself, but but she spent all her time trying to shepherd that little bit of money. She thought about it every day. She she watched the stock market, and she she was very, very careful about the banks and what she was getting in this C D and that C D and whether it’d be better to put them somewhere else, you know. She thought about, of course, she lost it all. Before she died, she lost every penny of it. But what you depend on for your future is your treasure, and if you’re depending on money, you’re in trouble.

Even gold, as we mentioned, that people are urging you to buy, you can’t depend on gold. How do you know you’re gonna get it in your hand when you want it? I’ve thought about that a lot of times. It’s off somewhere in New York and some with some vault somewhere, and who knows but what that vault’s gonna be. Maybe you know something I don’t know about that gold, but don’t tell me. I don’t want to put my treasure there. That’s not it. Treasure, real treasure, is in heaven. Look with me at 1 Timothy, the sixth chapter. It’s not wrong to have some money. Sometimes people have thought when Jesus told the man to go and sell all he had and give it to the poor, that that’s what everybody was expected to do.

No, no. Paul writes in the book of 1 Timothy, the sixth chapter, verse 17. Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty. It doesn’t say they have to sell everything they have, but not to be haughty, nor trust in certain uncertain riches. Don’t make that your treasure. No matter how many riches you have. They’re uncertain. Don’t let that be your treasure. But trust in the living God. There’s where your treasure is, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, let them be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come. The money you have now, the real treasure you want to lay up is what you give now to the Lord and use for those who may be in need and use for good causes and good purposes.

5. Prefer the Honors of Your Homeland

Yes. A true pilgrim invests in his homeland, not in this life. He prefers the honors of his homeland. Look with me at chapter 11 and verse 22. We began reading it a while ago. By faith, Joseph. Who was Joseph? Prime Minister of Egypt. And when we die, he died, as far as we know, he was at the peak of his popularity. He had attained the highest honor you could ever hope that he could attain. And the Pharaoh was still very favorable to Joseph, and I don’t know that he would have created made him a pyramid, but I suspect he would have erected an obelisk. You know, those obelisks that were in that were used to honor people and battles and other things. I suppose he could have had an obelisk in Egypt, and it might even have been preserved and brought over to New York or London or somewhere so that you could still look at it.

I don’t know. But when he died, the honors of Egypt were not what meant most to him. Well, what did he say? Well, it said that he made mention of the departure of the children of Israel and gave instruction concerning his bones. Bury me back in my homeland, not in this land of Egypt. Back in Canaan, which God has promised to you, to his people. Where what are you looking for in the way of honor? Luke 16, 15 really impresses me in this regard. He says, What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. What’s highly esteemed among men? Oh indications of popularity, symbols of wealth, degrees of education, not opposed to education, but these are the things the world considers honorable.

If you have those things, you’re somebody.

It makes a big difference. You don’t, you you don’t, you don’t count much if you don’t have those things. Those are not the things that really matter at all. The honor that really matters is God’s honor. With me, Paul wrote, it’s a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. What people think of me. Now, Paul tried to maintain his influence for good, but he said, What you think of me does just doesn’t make all that much difference. He who judges me is the Lord. And if the Lord approves me, then what difference does it make? What people may think about me, except that I will try to maintain an influence that I can use for good, not by hypocrisy, but by being what I really, really ought to be.

What honors mean the most to you? I heard a couple of stories that really helped me to illustrate this thought. I heard about a pianist who who played a piano recital, and the crowd just went wild. But as he went back behind, he said, I failed, I failed. And someone said, How can you say you failed? Listen to the applause. People are shouting their approval. He said, Did you see that little wiry fellow down on the front row? Yeah, he wasn’t applauding. Well, what there was he’s my teacher. The question is, does God applaud? Does God approve? Heard another little story that meant something to me. It told about a missionary that had spent his life overseas working in some part of Africa where he sacrificed tremendously.

And he came home on a great steamship. And when they arrived, there was a band out there. There were politicians there to make speeches. What they were doing was welcoming an arriving general who had been in the wars, and there was a big, big welcome for him arranged. Well, this little missionary got off, went out round the crowd, took off, and a reporter happened to see him and know him. And he said to him, doesn’t it make you feel kind of bad that there’s such a celebration for the coming of this general and nobody’s even here to meet you? He said, Oh, it doesn’t matter. You see, I’m not home yet. Just think about that. We’re not home yet. And the real welcome that matters is the welcome we receive when we really get home.

6. Give Priority to the Laws of Your Homeland

And that’s heaven, if indeed our citizenship is in heaven, from whence we await a Savior, Christ the Lord. But in addition, we understand that those who are in another land give priority to the laws of their homeland. And that’s what Moses’ parents did. Read with me, verse 23. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents because they saw that he was a beautiful child. They were not afraid of the king’s commandment. They knew what was right when they had a child, and it was to rear that child to know God. And when the king said you kill that child, God’s law took precedence. God’s will determined their action and not the law of the king. Yeah, but look what the king may do to you.

What difference does it make what the king may do to you? What matters is obedience to the Lord and not obedience to some earthly king who is presumptuous enough to make some law that violates the law of God. In Acts 4 and verse 19, when Peter and John were told to preach no more in the name of Jesus Christ, they answered, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. You judge. Well, they really didn’t have much they could condemn them on at that point, but they made an injunction. Now you preach no more. No more. So now they had an injunction that was violated when they preached. And so when they were brought up for trial, what did they say?

Conclusion

We ought to obey God rather than men. Why? We’re citizens of God’s heavenly kingdom, not of your kingdom. And we’ll obey your laws to be orderly, to maintain a right influence with the work people around us for Christ’s sake. But when your law violates the law of God, our citizenship in heaven takes precedence. What’s the secret then of endurance? It’s being recognizing that we are pilgrims and strangers. In verse 14 of this same chapter, it said that those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly, if they had caught had to call to mind the country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. They had thought about all the pleasures of the city of Ur, they would have been inclined to go, but they didn’t think back.

They thought forward. They thought of where they were going more than where they had been. Verse 16 says, 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. Which direction do you look? You look back into the world, perhaps the world from which you came, to pleasures that you experienced there, or to things others are doing there. Look forward by faith. Yes, but but heaven, as the unbelievers say sometimes, is pie in the sky by and by. No, it’s not. It’s your promised homeland. It’s what God has promised you. And if you have faith in him, you’ll wait until that day when you can live forever in that land that he’s prepared for you, rather than the brief time that you’re here upon the earth.

Your homeland is in heaven. Desire a better, that is a heavenly country. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things that are upon the earth. That’s a challenge for you, isn’t it? It’s a challenge for me, I’ll tell you now. It’s so easy for us to be influenced by the values of the people around us, by the goals of the people around us, by the things they admire around us. But we’re citizens of another country. We’re people from outer space, as it were. We’re aliens in this world, literally. Pilgrims, strangers, looking for a better place. And may God help us to keep our attention on that place and walk by faith and not by sight.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Are you in the Lord tonight? Your labor is in vain if you’re not in the Lord. I’ve illustrated it this way sometime, and I believe it’s valid. You could be start sending a hundred dollars every week into a bank here in town. A hundred dollars every week. And it would accumulate, wouldn’t it? The amount you had sent in would be uh come rather large over a period of two to five to ten years. But if you went down and tried to collect it and you said they said, You have no account here. Well, I’ve been sending money in here all these years, but you have never opened an account.

And so that money doesn’t it doesn’t matter. It’s it’s not to your in your name. Our our treasure is in Christ, our hope is in Christ. It’s in Christ that we have forgiveness. The reward of faith is in Christ. Our labor is not in vain in Christ. And if you’re not in Christ, you may be a good person. You may resist a lot of evil and you may do a lot of good works, but if you’re not in Christ, then all the sins you’ve ever committed are on your on your shoulders. Most of us understand that good works can’t can’t pay for for sin. They they can’t pay the price of sin. Only the death of Christ could do that. Only the blood of Christ. But you have to be in Christ for that.

Ephesians 1 6 and 7, in the beloved we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of their sins. And you must be in the beloved. You must be in Christ to reap the benefit of whatever you may do by faith. Is there someone here tonight who will respond to the Lord in the faith to begin the walk with Christ? But realize that that’s a long commitment you make that will take you right on to the end of life when you’ll really receive the great reward. There are benefits now, but the greatest rewards are in the future. You have faith enough to believe that, to live for the things that are above. If you do, then let us assist you in obedience to the look of the Lord, obedience as we stand and sing.