Today as we look at the riches we have in Christ and the blessings that are ours, this is going to be a bit different. Looking at Hebrews 11:13 we see a different blessing. This is one you may not think of.
Hebrews 11:13-16 says, “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.” It is speaking here about the Old Testament patriarchs and matriarchs like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah and so forth. Abraham and the other patriarchs are a wonderful example, on a physical level, of people who walked by faith with God in the Old Testament. Abraham in particular, left his home country and he went out to a land that God had promised him. Starting with Genesis 12 there is a repetition over and over throughout the book of Genesis of a covenant that God made with Abraham. The covenant was to Abraham that if he followed the Lord, if he came into this land and followed Him, then all that land that he will sojourn on and travel on is going to be for his descendants. Abraham believed God and by faith he was justified, and the Lord kept His promises as Abraham obeyed Him, in this regard, and the other patriarchs did the same thing. The picture here is that they never actually owned the property that they walked on. The only property that Abraham ever actually owned was a burial spot for his wife Sarah, and later on some of the other patriarchs were buried there and their wives and so forth, but they never actually owned that land themselves. Even with Isaac and Jacob, they never actually owned that land that they sojourned on, but by faith they believed it was coming. They believe that God would deliver to them that piece of real estate that He had promised to give them. As a result of that they were looking for a country that was beyond this country. In fact, Hebrews 11:10 says, “for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” They were looking beyond this physical real estate to something even beyond that to a heavenly city and to the eternal life that they would have with God, but they were sojourners on this land. They were strangers and aliens. That is what I want to speak about today . . .
