Looking For A City

The churches of Christ Greet You (Romans 16:16)

Text: Hebrews 11:8-10

Scripture Reading: Genesis 28:10-19

Intro.

1. God has blessed us once again to assemble together
1. so that we can call upon His name
2. and study His Holy Word.
2. We continually thank the Father for His goodness and mercy.
3. I personally consider it a joy to be able to write this lesson for you to read.
4. We hope that someone reading,

1. who is not yet a member of the church of Christ,
2. will seriously think about becoming a Christian (Acts 11:26).
4. Our lesson is designed to encourage you to believe in Jesus,
1. repent of your sins, and accept Jesus as your Savior
2. by putting Him on in the watery grave of baptism (Gal. 3:27).
3. You will then be saved by His blood and added by the Lord to His body,
4. the church of Christ (Acts 2:47).

Lesson

Hebrews 11

1. We want each of you to turn in your Bible to Hebrews chapter 11.
2. This chapter contains what most scholars call “God’s Hall of Faith.”
3. Please read with us verses 8-10:

⁸By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should

after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

⁹By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,

dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:

¹⁰For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

4. From this reading we will speak on the subject, LOOKING FOR A CITY.
5. In Hebrews 11:1-11, we find the Holy Spirit dealing with those patriarchs

1. who are known as pilgrims and strangers on this earth (Heb. 11:13).
2. They are also called sojourners.

6. As sojourners they emphasized endurance, hope, and faith toward God.
1. Their faith was an obedient faith that pleased God (Jam. 2:14-26).
2. We know this because they have been included in this list.
7. In this lesson we want to examine the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
1. We want to especially see what it was about them that caused them
2. to live above this world and look for that eternal city called heaven.
8. Now when we look at Hebrews 11:8-10 we see Abraham.
1. Abraham was the father of the faithful.
2. He will serve as the focal point of our lesson.
9. We plan to divide this lesson by looking at vs. 8, then verse 9, and then verse 10.

1. We will comment on Abraham living in UR of the Chaldees.
2. Then we will comment on him living in Canaan,
3. and finally we will see how that city which has foundations
4. whose builder and maker is God
5. influenced his life, and we hope it will influence your life.

Prosperity Gospel

1. As we get into our text, keep in mind how popular some preachers have made

1. the so-called prosperity gospel.
2. This teachings places the majority of its emphasis on the here and the now.

2. These prosperity movements appeal to the carnal man,

1. and many thousands of people are flooding to there ministries.
2. Their teachings are not emphasizing heaven,
3. but they are emphasizing individuals having something on this earth.
4. They speak of blessings we should have NOW
5. because God doesn’t want to see us go without.

3. Now we accept what God’s blessings are,

1. but I’m afraid too many of the teachers and followers of this doctrine
2. are not looking for a city whose builder and maker is God.

Hebrews 11:8

^“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should

after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”

1. Notice now that the Holy Spirit says Abraham was a man of faith.
1. The Bible says “BY FAITH…”
2. You see, faith is important, for Hebrews 11:6 says,

“Without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe

that He is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

2. So we see that faith is important. But what is faith?
3. Well verse one of this eleventh chapter tells us: “Now faith is the substance of things

hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

4. Now Abraham had never seen Heaven but he was looking for that city.
5. Some might ask, how did Abraham know about the city?

1. Well, it was BY Faith.
2. And faith comes by hearing the word of God (Rom. 10:17).

6. So Abraham was a man who pleased God,
1. because he listened to God and obeyed God
2. and thus, was looking for the city of God.

Ur of the Chaldees

1. The Bible says God called Abraham
1. from his home in Ur of the Chaldees (Acts 7:1-4).
2. History reveals that Ur was a significant place.
2. It was the largest city of that area.
1. It was a political power, an industrial community, and
2. a commercial and educational center.
3. The Garden of Eden was believed to have been located in that area.
4. The ancient cities of the Babylonian empire were known to have been there.
5. Today, modern IRAQ is located in that same area where Abraham once lived.
6. Because of the geographic location the city had fertile soil
1. and was the perfect place to irrigate the land and raise productive crops,
2. as well as domesticate sheep, goats, and other animals.
7. Trade was one of its great resources.

1. This gave the people access to other cultures.
2. The main items of their trade were copper, ore,
3. ivory, grain, and even wood.
7. So we know UR was a very popular and productive area in which to live.

1. This was a place ideal for Abraham and Sarah to raise a family.
2. However, God had bigger and better plans for them.

Genesis 12

1. Go with us to Genesis 12:1, 4:

¹Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country,

and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee…

⁴So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him:

and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

2. God spoke to Abraham, he heard God, and then he responded to God.
3. That’s why he made the list of those we read about in Hebrews 11.
4. You see not everyone in the Old Testament times made the list.
1. Why not?
2. Because many did not listen to God, and thus did not obey God.
5. Abraham, however, was a special individual.
6. When God came to him in Ur of the Chaldees,

1. a productive place, a place where any family could be successful…
2. God called him and said go to a place where I’ll show you.
3. God didn’t give him an itinerary or tell him where he was going.
6. Here is a man that was going to leave the known and go to the unknown.

1. Now why would he do that?
2. Simply because God told him to do it.
7. Abraham first went to Haran after leaving his stable home in Ur.

1. By the time he left Haran he was 75 years old.
2. To us this would be pass the age of retirement.
8. He has lived 75 years and now God tells him to get up and leave.

1. It took a very special man to obey that command.
2. But again, why did he leave?
3. He left because he was looking for a city with foundations,
4. whose builder and maker is God.

Sarah

1. We wonder how Sarah felt about this move.
2. Surely there was some discussion about this relocation.
3. Can’t you just picture Abraham saying to Sarah, We’re leaving?
1. And Sarah asks, “Where are we going?”
2. He says, Well I don’t know where we’re going.
3. She says, You mean we are just going to pack up and go?
4. He says, Yes. She asks, WHY?
5. Abraham says, Because God told us to go.
4. You see, Abraham was a man who took God at His word.

Hebrews 11:9

1. Now let’s go back to Hebrews 11:9
2. and see what happened when they got to Canaan (read verse 9).

“By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,

dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:”

3. By faith he sojourned…A sojourner is a temporary resident,
1. which means he has no plans to stay there permanently.
2. Abraham didn’t come to Canaan to stay.
4. You see, from time to time your preacher may go back East

1. to conduct a Gospel meeting,
2. but he doesn’t take a lot of clothes because he’s sojourning.
4. He’s stays in a hotel because his stay is only temporary.

1. And while he’s back there he can put up
2. with a lot of inconveniences because he didn’t go there to stay.
3. He’s just a sojourner.
5. Now Abraham decided to leave that which was permanent;

1. he would leave that which was established,
2. and then go to the land of Canaan and live as a sojourner.
6. You see, Abraham was a man of faith.

1. The record says he died at the age of 175 (Gen. 25:7).
2. So Abraham lived in Canaan as a sojourner in tents for 100 years.
7. During that time God made him extremely rich.

1. He had enough money to buy some property;
2. maybe even some good lake front property.
8. Don’t you know that Sarah could have said to Abraham…

1. This looks like a good place to settle down.
2. You’ve already uprooted me from my home and family
3. and now you have me over here in no mans land living in a tent.
9. But Sarah was also a woman of faith.

1. Here is a woman who allowed her husband
2. to take her from that which was stable and known
3. to that which was unknown, and to live in a tent.
10. That’s why she also made the list.

1. She was a woman of a faith,
2. and with her husband she was looking for a city.

Isaac and Jacob

1. Now when Abraham and Sarah were about 100 years old
1. they had a son who they named Isaac.
2. Isaac died at the age of 180 years (Gen. 35:28).
3. Like his father, he lived in a tent as a sojourner for those 180 years.
2. If that’s not enough, here comes Jacob, Isaac’s son,
1. who lived 147 years (Gen 47:28);
2. He too lived in a tent as a sojourner.
3. So we see three faithful generations living in tents about 430 years.

1. Why? Because they were sojourners…
2. they were looking for a city with foundations,
3. whose builder and maker was God.

Faith is the Key

1. Now we’re afraid that many of us today do not have their kind of faith.
2.  You see, most of us really don’t want to leave here.
1. Yes, we want to go to Heaven; but Heaven can wait
2. until after we have lived good long lives and accumulated many goods.
3. You see, we are not looking for heaven right now.
4. It can wait until after we die, and the longer we live the better.
3. So the difference between us and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

1. is that every day of their lives
2. they were looking for that city.
3. Wouldn’t it make a lot of difference

1. if we had more members of the church like these patriarchs of old?
2. When we look at our generations,
3. we are building homes and refinancing
4. and getting bigger and better homes.
4. We are driving hummers and the nicest cars that money can buy.
5. But when we look at Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

1. we don’t see them trying to keep up with the Joneses.
2. We don’t see them building bigger and better homes
3. or buying the latest model chariot.
6. It seems that they got by with the minimal.

1. Why? Because they knew they were not going to be there forever.
2. They were sojourners.
3. They were looking for a city.
7. The churches of Christ all across America are weak

1. because we don’t have enough people within the church
2. who are operating by faith.
3. We don’t have enough people who are looking for a city
4. which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God! AMEN?

Hebrews 11:13

1. Let’s skip down to verse 13 of Hebrews chapter 11. The Bible says:

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,

and were persuaded of them, and embraced them,

and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

2. “These all died in faith…”
1. Wait a minute now.
2. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
3. So if Abraham died in faith, he died not seeing the promise of God Almighty.

1. Since “all” died in faith,
2. then Isaac and Jacob died without seeing the promise.
3. We thank God for giving us these examples of people who died in faith.
4. There are just too many Christians today

1. who have to see something or experience something to believe God.
2. Those are the weak members of the church.
3. Those are the ones who can’t help the church to move forward,
4. because they are a generation of people who have to see something.
5. They never would have made it in Canaan.

1. Their families never would have made it
2. for nearly 430 years, all of them dying in faith.

7. Loved ones, even though we don’t see it,

1. even though we are not able to experience everything
2. that God has promised we must still hole on to our faith.

8. Jesus said, Blessed are they that have not seen,

and yet have believed (John 20:29). 

9. Christians of faith are the kind of people that make a home strong.
10. They are the kind of people that make the church leadership strong.
11. They are the kind of people that will make a preacher strong.
12. They will make a congregation strong. Why?

1. Because they are people who are living by and ready to die in faith.
2. They have their trust and faith in the living Almighty God.

They Were Persuaded

1. So again the Holy Spirit says in Hebrews 11:13, “These all died in faith,

not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,

and were persuaded of them….”

2. Watch it now!
3. Somebody will ask, How could these patriarchs live 430 years in Canaan in tents?
1. Answer: They were persuaded!
2. This means they didn’t hesitate.
3. They were not wishy washy.
4. They were confident.

1. They could say, I haven’t received it, I haven’t experienced it,
2. but I know it is there.
3. They were persuaded there was a city, and that city had foundations,
4. whose builder and maker was God.

They Embraced the Promises

1. So they were persuaded…but the Holy Spirit didn’t stop there.

1. Verse 13 goes on to say, “And embraced them.”
2. Embraced means they held it close to their bosom.
1. You see, when you know God and you trust God

1. you’ll hold His promises close to your bosom.
2. You won’t let anyone pull them away from you.
2. Things may not go as you desire from day to day,

1. but you’ve got the promises of God in your bosom.
2. Your spouse may suffer from this disease or that disease,
3. but you’ve got the promises of God in your bosom.
3. Your child may be still born, but you’ve got the promises of God in your heart.
1. Your friends in school may laugh at and make fun of you,
2. but you’ve got the promises of God in your heart.
4. You see, when you live by faith and you are willing to die in faith,
1. and you are fully persuaded,
2. and you embrace the promises,
3. you won’t let anything or anybody turn you around.

They Confessed

1. Still the Holy Spirit had more to say on this matter…

2. Verse 13 goes on to say, “They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims

on the earth.”

3. They were persuaded or confident, they embraced the promises,

1. and then confessed their understanding
2. of their relationship with this world.

4. If you are sojourning, living in tents so to speak,

1. somebody is going to say to you,
2. “You have all that money so why are you living in a tent?
3. Well the patriarchs confessed it.

5. The reason they were not trying to make Canaan their permanent home

1. is because they were looking for a city with foundations,
2. whose builder and maker was God.
5. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get all the members

1. of your congregation to have this kind of faith…
2. to be persuaded, to embrace it,
3. and be willing to tell others?
6. They could confess that they don’t have to have a new car every year,

1. because they can still drive the old one.
2. They don’t have to build a new house,
3. but can live in their old house, because this world is not our home.
7. We’re just pilgrims passing through this place.

1. We are sojourners looking for a city.
2. We’re not here to stay.
8. Loved ones, if we can get a wife and a husband

1. to understand that they are just pilgrims and strangers on this earth,
2. a whole lot of trouble that goes on in the home would never take place.

Hebrews 11:14-16

1. Verse 14: “For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.”
2. You see, we are trying to secure ourselves here and get a portion here.
3. Why are we trying to anchor here?
1. Don’t we know that one day we are going to die and leave it all?
2. Listen, we came into this world with nothing
3. and we are going out of it with nothing (cf. Job 1:21).
4. A rich man was about to die, so he told his wife,

1. I want all my money to go into the casket with me.
2. He made his wife promise to fulfill that request, and she promised.
4. At the funeral she walked up to the casket

1. and slid under his cold lifeless hands
2. a check for all his money.
5. Verse 15: “And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from

whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.”

7. The Bible says if they would have been mindful of where they came from

1. they could have returned.
2. But Abraham was so steadfast in looking for a city
3. That he didn’t want to go back to Ur.
4. That’s not the city.
7. Hebron wasn’t the city.

1. Bethel wasn’t the city.
2. Why go back when you know that’s not the city.
8. So they kept moving from place to place,

1. because they were looking for that city with foundations,
2. whose builder and maker is God.
9. Verse 16: “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly:

wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”

11. They desired a better country; a country better then Ur, better than Canaan.
12.  Friends, we need to start looking for a place better than Portland.
1. Now Portland is all right, but there is some place better. AMEN!
2. The heavenly city is better.
13. Because of this God was not ashamed to be called their God.

1. When God was asked, “Who are you?”
2. He was not ashamed to say, “I Am the God of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob.”

14. God was saying, if you want to know who I Am,

1. I want you to associate me with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
2. God was so pleased with them
3. (that they would be willing to live by faith and die in faith),
4. that when asked who He was,
5. He said I’m the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

15. Do we have anymore Abrahams, Isaacs, and Jacobs in the church today?

Genesis 28:10-19

1. Loved ones, God didn’t let that generation die
1. until He proved to them that there was a city.
2. You remember the story in Genesis chapter 28
3. about Jacob running away from his brother Esau (Read verses 10-19):

¹⁰And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.

¹¹And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night,

because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place,

and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.

¹²And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth,

and the top of it reached to heaven:

and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

¹³And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said,

I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac:

the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;

¹⁴And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad

to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee

and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

¹⁵And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places

whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land;

for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

¹⁶And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said,

Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.

¹⁷And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place!

this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

¹⁸And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had

put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

¹⁹And he called the name of that place Bethel:

but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

2. Again, in verse 17 Jacob recognized that this place

1. where the angels were ascending and descending
2. on the ladder reaching from earth to heaven
3. was the house of God, and the gate of heaven.
2. He recognized that ladder as the way to get to the city.
3. He recognized that ladder as the way to get to God.
4. If a man can ever find Jacob’s ladder

1. then he can make it into the city that has foundations,
2. whose builder and maker is God.
5. Well, when we turn over to the New Testament, to John 1:47ff,

1. we read the story of Jesus calling Nathaniel to be His disciple.
2. After speaking with Jesus, Nathaniel understood, believed, and confessed
3. that Jesus was the Son of God and the King of Israel.
4. In verse 50:

⁵⁰Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee,

I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.

⁵¹And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open,

and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

7. Jesus here identifies Himself as that ladder that Jacob saw in the long ago.

1. That ladder represented the house of God and the gate to heaven.
2. Friends, if you are looking for that city,
3. then the way to find it is upon the steps of that ladder,
4. and that ladder is Jesus the Christ.
7. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the father… (John 14:6).

1. You say, brother preacher, I want to go to that city.
2. Well, you can’t come to that city unless you come to Jesus.
8. Jesus said, “I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9).
9. Again, “He that entereth not by the door…but climbeth up some other way,

the same is a thief and a robber” (John 10:1).

11. Jacob realized that when you find the gate you also find the house of God.
1. Jesus is the gate and Jesus built the church,
2. the house of God,
3. whose house are we (Heb. 3:6).
12. The only way to heaven is through Jesus,
1. and the way to Jesus is in His church.