GOD’S WORD FOR JULY 18~ ~ “Hebrews  11:13-16

 “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”

From “We Shall See God”

excerpts from sermons from Charles H. Spurgeon, with comments by Randy Alcorn.

THE JOYS OF ETERNAL LIFE

Spurgeon

When we think about eternal life, does it spark in us feelings of joy or of fear?  This sermon speaks to the never-ending happiness that awaits us.

When David said in dying, “He has made with me an everlasting covenant”  (2 Samuel 23:5), his comfort lay in his belief that he should live in the everlasting age to enjoy the fruit of that covenant.

In very deed the covenant that God made with Abraham was not altogether, or even mainly, concerning temporary things.  It was not the land of Canaan alone of which the Lord spoke to Abraham, but the patriarchs declared plainly that they desired “a better country, that is, a heavenly one.” (Hebrews 11:16).

Even when they were in Canaan, they were still looking for a country, and the city promised to them was not Jerusalem, for according to Paul in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, they still were looking for a “city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”  (Verse 10)

They did not find in their earthly lives the complete fulfillment of the covenant, for they received not the promises but saw them from afar off and were persuaded of them.  The temporary blessings which God gave to them were not their expected inheritance, but they took hold upon invisible realities and lived in expectation of them.  The covenant blessings were of an order and a class that could not be contained within the space of this present mortal life. 

Now, if the Lord made with them a covenant concerning eternal blessings, these saints must live to enjoy those blessings.  God did not promise endless blessings to the creatures of the day.  More especially,  it is to be remembered that for the sake of these eternal things the patriarchs had given up passing or temporary enjoyments.  Abraham might have been a quiet prince in his own country, living in comfort, but for the sake of the spiritual blessing, he left Chaldea and came to wander in the pastures of Canaan, in the midst of enemies, and to dwell in tents in the midst of discomforts.

The patriarchs left friends and family and all the advantages of settled civilized life to be rangers of the desert, exiles from their fatherland.  They were the very types and models of those who have no abiding city here.  Therefore, for certain, though they died in hope, not having received the promise, we cannot believe that God deceived them.  Their God was no mocker of them, and therefore they must live after death. 

They had lived in this life for something not yet seen as yet, and if there be no such thing and no future life, they had been duped and deceived into a mistaken self-denial.  If there be no life to come, the best philosophy is that which says, “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die”  (Isaiah 22:13);  1 Cor. 15:32).

Do you see the force of our Savior’s reasoning?  God who has led His people to abandon the present for the future, must justify their choice. 

Besides, the Lord had staked His honor and His reputation upon these men’s lives.  “If you want to know how I deal with my servants, go and look at the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

Does the Lord want us to judge His goodness to His servants from the written life of Jacob?  Or from the career of any one of His servants?  The judgment must include the ages of endless happiness.  This present life is but the brief introduction to the volume of our history.  It is but the rough border.  These rippling streams of life come not to an end but flow into the endless, shoreless ocean of bliss.

God would not have spoken as He did if the visible were all there is and there were no future to counterbalance the tribulations of this mortal life.  God is not the God of the short lived, who are so speedily dead, but He is the living God of an immortal race, whose present is but a dark passage into a bright future which can never end.

Tomorrow, we’ll see the comments by Randy Alcorn about this subject.

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