Searching For A City With Foundation

But here tonight, I just want to take you to Scripture for a moment. If you'd turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11.

And after our three weeks of School of Christ with a break, and before that having dealt with water baptism, I just want to return again briefly for maybe a few weeks or a few messages to where we left off before that. You may have forgotten where we were, but we are teaching and preaching an entire series on foundations, biblical foundations. In that series, we looked at what the Bible says about having a foundation.

We looked at the natural foundation of a house. We looked at the foundation of salvation. We even looked at the foundation of the entire New Testament Church of Jesus Christ.

But there was a set of messages I didn't deal with in that series. And so, I want to return here and finish. This series would not be finished without it, but I don't want to continue on.

I actually want to start a new series, but it's attached to that. It's a continuation of that series. This would be part 18 of that series.

But I want to start it as a new brief series. And I'm calling this mini-series attached to that series. This is what I'm calling it, searching for a city with foundation.

You see, we couldn't finish this series unless we not just look at the foundation of our own salvation or the foundation of the Church of Jesus on the earth, but there's another foundation the Bible speaks about repeatedly in detail. And we haven't even touched on it. We haven't even mentioned it in this series, I believe.

It is an eternal foundation, a heavenly foundation, a foundation not of this world, a foundation in the world to come, not visible, not seen, not now. And yet, it has a foundation. The Bible has a lot to say about that foundation.

And unless Christ is your foundation here, you will never have that foundation. That is not your future. Your future will be without foundation.

But if you have Christ as your sole foundation now, you have a remarkable future, which I'm going to begin to open up in this. So, let's turn to Hebrews chapter 11, and I want to read the Scriptures here. My message here tonight, part 18 or maybe it's part 1, you decide.

Searching for a city with foundation. Reading from Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtain the good report.

Then it says in verse 6, but without faith it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those or them that diligently seek Him. And then last of all, reading from verse 8 down to 16, for by faith Abraham, 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 whether he went.

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. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised.

Therefore sprang there even of one, and of him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore, innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promise, 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. For they that say such things declare painly that they seek a country.

And truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire, notice this, a better country, that is a heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Let's pray together. Father, we love you. We thank you, O God.

Father, thank you that our search, our wrestling, our fight against sin, our separation from this world, nor God, our subduing, O God, of that old nature, nor God, all of these things are not in vain. Father, we are searching, we are looking, we are desiring, nor God, we are preparing for a city that is yet to come. There is a city we have never entered into.

Our eye has not seen, O God, apart from by faith, nor God, our feet have not walked there, our hands have not touched its walls, and nor God, yet the Bible is explicit about this city, the greatest of all cities written about in the Bible, and nor God, yet no eye has seen it, nor God, we are asking of you that you prepare a people, even here in this church, O God, online, listening to us. Father, we pray for the preparation of the heart, nor God, tonight in this gathering, will you stir faith, nor God, faith in unseen things, faith in things to come, nor God, faith in things that'll make us run, nor God, separate from, nor God, to walk away from things of this world, nor God, that we would even, Lord God, reject, O God, the things that allure us and tempt us and are in around us, and nor God, that we might have eyes, O God, beholden a city that is yet to come, whose builder and maker, Lord God, is you, nor God, we worship you, we praise you tonight, in Jesus' mighty name, amen, amen. It says there again in verse 10, talking about Abraham, for he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

My message, searching for a city with foundations. So there's a mini-series, but also a message, searching for a city with foundations. My message is this search for a city, a dwelling place, an eternal dwelling place, that the Bible calls a city, but it makes reference to the foundations.

If it didn't have good foundations, you wouldn't search for it, you wouldn't rely on it for eternity. The Bible says in Romans chapter 4 and verse 12, concerning Abraham, the father of the faith, it says this, who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham. In other words, in the Bible, in the book of Romans, written to the church, written to those born again Christians, you're instructed that you, if you're a Christian, if you're born again, you are actually to walk in the steps of our faith, of the faith of our father Abraham.

Abraham is called the father of the faith, not only of the Jew, but of the born again Christian of the church. He is the father of faith. He embodies faith.

He is an example of faith. He is first amongst all of those that believed onto righteousness, by faith made righteous, by faith born again, by faith forgiven of his sins, by faith made right with God, by faith given an inheritance. And so the Bible says of every Christian, every real born again believer, that they are to walk in the steps of his faith, not as unbelief, not as disobedience, not as errors, not in birth and Ishmael.

You're not to follow those examples. You are commanded, if you're a Christian, to find those footsteps. What is a footstep? What are the steps? That's individual markers.

That's where he leaves his footprint. That's where he has left a visible mark. That's what steps are.

That's what footprints are. You leave literally a mark. Did you ever follow your father in the snow? I did.

Those big steps, those big strides, and as a little boy trying to make the same stride so that my foot would fit where his feet fit. And I'll tell you what, his strides were small. Mine were very large.

I had to jump and stretch. I had to use my strength and effort to make sure my foot landed in the step that was left for me. We have been left footsteps by our father Abraham.

He has left markers. Let's not think of the unbelief, or the mistakes, or the disobedience, or those weak elements of the natural man. We are going to concentrate on those steps of faith.

There are markers for us to walk in. And the Bible, it says, it's insinuating and it's commanding us. You're meant to know the steps.

You're meant to mark them out. You're meant to march those steps. If you've never studied Abraham, studied his life, or spent time considering what great marks or steps of faith did he make, you ought to, because you're commanded to, as a part of the righteousness of God.

Are you saved by faith? Then you ought to be doing this, studying the life of Abraham. We have something we're going to deal with concerning Abraham searching for a city whose foundations were made by a certain person. But let me explain first, what is faith? I want you to understand what faith looks like, what it is, how it operates, how it functions.

It says in verse 1 of this chapter, now faith is, it's an explanation. How are you going to follow the faith of Abraham if you don't know what faith is? How are you going to make steps of faith? How are you going to rightly interpret your life unless you understand faith? It's a word we use all the time, faith. A lot of people think faith is blind faith.

That isn't faith. That's erroneous. That's not taught in the Bible.

Just believing without any evidence is not taught in the Bible. Jumping over a wall without looking is not taught in the Bible. Faith without evidence is never taught and never expected.

God does not demand a blind faith. He doesn't demand that. He actually looks for a faith that has substance.

And so it says here, now faith is the substance of things hoped for. This is the first thing we see about faith. Faith is substance.

And if that's all you hear tonight, it's a very good place to start. Faith is substance. What is faith? It is substance.

It is not typified as a cloud or as mist or something that blows away or something that you cannot touch. No. Faith is substance.

Faith is substantial. Faith has something solid in it. Or listen, or it gives substance to our hope.

That's what faith does. Faith gives substance to your hope. It is the ground of our confidence.

What are you trusting in? What are you believing in? What are you putting your hope in? You know what the Bible says? Faith actually gives you substance, a solid basis for what you hope for. In other words, it gives you a solid assurance. It gives you confidence.

And this is what faith does. It gives you a firm persuasion. So you begin to say, I know.

But how do you know? I know God created all things, but how do you know? Were you there? Do you see it? Have you visited the planets? Have you seen all of creation? How do you know that God created all things? Because of faith. Faith actually brings me to a place of full, absolute, complete persuasion. That is the very substance of faith.

Faith gives you substance. It is a firm persuasion, or it is the ground, or what we stand on for our expectation. It's actually the word substance in our English language is taken from the Latin.

And it literally means that which is placed under you, or to stand under you, or it's a foundation for your feet to stand on. In other words, faith isn't expected to stand on nothing. It's expected to stand on something, a solid foundation.

So what is faith? Faith actually is a foundation that puts your feet on a foundation. It gives into your heart a conviction of the things that are true. It begins to open up to your mind and your eyes, invisible things.

It actually brings near into time things that are eternal, that are far away. They come out of eternity and they're going into eternity, yet they're made nigh by faith. It convinces me of things that are future.

I know what is going to happen. I know what is coming. I know what I'm going to inherit.

That's what faith does. Faith gives you substance. It is substance.

See, if your faith isn't like that, it's not real faith. It's a blind faith. It's a religious faith.

It's a hope-so faith. But see, real faith is not emotion, not feeling, not education. Real faith is substantial.

It actually is based upon something, and it convinces me of many things that are true. It convinces me of eternal things, things I can't see with the natural eye, things that happen, but I wasn't there when they happened. Faith gives me reality to hope in things.

Faith actually brings you into condition of hope. What's the Bible say? No, faith is the substance of things hoped for. It is the substance of hope.

When you say, I hope, we're not saying, I hope that will happen. The hope of a Christian is, I've got a settled, restful future. I know my hope is secure.

That's what hope is. Christian hope is something in the future. Faith always has a reason or a basis for its strong conviction.

When you find a faith that is very, very strong, very dogmatic, look for the reason. Is it a blind dogmatism? Is it a blind belief? Or is it a belief that has come to a conviction for certain reasons? It goes further in verse one. Faith is the substance of things hoped for.

Hope is always future. It is a future, earnest expectation. That's what hope is.

It's never now. It's never past. It's never in your hand.

It is future. Your Christian hope is future. Do you realize you've got more to hope for than you do now? Do you realize the Christian hope, you've got a massive Christian hope that is set in the future.

It's not that you see it now, or feel it now, or have it now, or possess it now. Most of what I am going to have one day, I don't even have a glimmer of it now. I don't even have a hair breadth of it now.

All that I'm hoping for, and you're going to see it tonight, what are you hoping for? What is future? What is eternal? What is it that you don't have? And yet faith gives you substance to hope for it, to believe for it. See, hope is always future. It is a future, earnest expectation.

It is a desire to see the promise of God fulfilled to you and in your life, and to possess what is revealed in the Bible. Who could be satisfied being a Christian having promise, after promise, after promise, and never inherited? Who would be happy with thousands of promises and yet none of them work? None of them will materialize. You won't enter into it.

It just made you feel happier for today, or eased your conscience. Who could really be satisfied to think of thousands of promises going unanswered in a Christian walk? See, that wouldn't be Christian merely hoping for things that never happen. That isn't hope at all.

A hope in the future, in things that can never happen, and will not happen to you, is a torment. It isn't really Christian hope. And then it says, faith is the evidence of things not seen.

It is the evidence. What is evidence? It's proof. So what is the evidence of faith? That faith is the evidence of things not seen.

The word evidence there can mean convictions, or to rebuke the things not seen. That which gives proof or evidence that those things which you cannot see are true is your faith. Your faith convinces you or rebukes the lack of evidence.

In other words, a real faith begins to challenge and rebuke unseen things, and begins to prove and reckon what is true. It convinces you. It persuades you.

It presents to you such strong evidence. That's what faith does. It brings evidence after evidence.

It begins to rebuke all your unbelief, all your fears, all your doubts. Don't we have all of those? Don't we have to wrestle through those things? Questions, doubts, fears, inhibitions, worry about different things, about spiritual conditions, about what the Bible says. Do you know what faith does? It begins to rebuke these.

That's how I know real faith. It begins to rebuke the lie of evolution. It begins to rebuke the lie of atheism.

Strong faith rebukes these things, and it begins to provide evidence after evidence after evidence. You cannot exercise faith without evidence. God doesn't expect you to stand saying, I'm just believing, hoping there's something out there.

No, faith doesn't do that. Faith says, I'll give you evidence. I'll prove to you there's a God in heaven.

I'll prove to you the unseen world is real. I'll prove to you there's a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. I'll prove to you that there's a God, that there's a devil, that there's an eternity, that there's rewards, that there is a city invisible that we're to inherit.

See, faith says, I'll give you the evidence. See, you begin to see faith isn't something casual. Faith is a strong biblical thing.

It is substance. It gives substance. It is the fist in the glove.

Who would be happy with just a glove? A glove is hope, but the hand is literary faith inside hope. It is faith given evidence, given its proof that makes your hope vibrant, joyful. See, hope is a joyful word.

It is a happy word. It is an expectant word, but wouldn't your hope fall flat if there wasn't substance inside it, if there wasn't evidence, if there wasn't proof? You see, your mind is bombarded every single day. Your heart, your mind, your emotions is being attacked.

There's a real devil. There's a world. There's a secular media.

There's compromise in the church that now tries to promote the lie of evolution, but I want to tell you there's a thing called real biblical faith, not mere feelings, emotions. It's not saying just believe that you don't have any evidence. No way.

I challenge you. Search for evidence. Search for a strong foundation.

Find a place to put your feet that is solid. It says there that the evidence is of things not seen. Evidence provided for you of things not seen.

You cannot see them. They are eternal. You can't touch them with your hand.

Faith actually gives you the evidence of things that are unseen. You can't touch them. This side of eternity, you won't see them.

You can't touch them. You can't go there, and yet this faith actually begins to reprove and rebuke and to convince you, and you know what it does? It makes things that are invisible. It gives you utter evidence that they're real.

It gives you a full assurance. It gives you confidence. It gives you a hope concerning this city.

Say, I want to tell you about a city you've never seen. I can't show you a video of it tonight. I can't take you there on some tour to the Middle East.

I am presenting to you a city that only faith can prove to you, and you know what? If you really catch a glimpse of this city, you'll want to make this adventure. If this faith is in your heart, you know what? You have eyes to see this city. I believe it's a vital part of real genuine faith is to know about this city.

I believe every believer, every man and woman of faith is on a journey to this city like Abraham of old. What does it say now concerning Abraham? For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. It says in verse 2 concerning this faith, by it the elders obtained a good report.

By faith the elders. Who are the elders? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, those in the Bible of old time, the old saints, Noah, Abel, and many others. And we see their example of faith.

And he says here the elders obtained a good report by faith. They obtained a good testimony. It was not by their efforts, their intelligence or their religious deeds.

It wasn't by their good motives or their strength of character that they raised up a good report. No. And how are you going to do it? You that are leaving here to go back to Canada and Australia and elsewhere from school of Christ, how are you going to raise up a testimony, a good report of walking by faith? How are you going to do it? You do it by faith.

It's not by your resilience. It's not by your commitment to get up at six o'clock in the morning to pray. It's none of those things.

It's by faith. Faith will open up a whole new walk to you. And all of you in this church, you've been fighting, wrestling, struggling.

How do you attain onto this walk in the footsteps of Abraham? You know how? By faith. Each of their lives of the elders was radically and fundamentally impacted by faith. Every single one.

Read Hebrews 11, by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, by faith Sarah, by faith Jacob, by faith Moses, by faith Joseph, by faith, by faith, by faith, the prophets, the saints of old, men and women of old, by faith, the entire chapter is about the raising up of a testimony, but it is by faith alone. I've got three points for you on this verse here, very quickly. We're embarking on a mini series, a journey.

I want to challenge you. We dealt with foundations, real biblical salvation foundations. Are you born again? Is Christ alone your salvation and his righteousness? Are we as a church, are we built on the doctrine of the apostles and prophets of our Lord Jesus Christ, their doctrines, their biblical teachings, that which is written in the epistles? Is it a part of our foundations? Well, here's another section to all of this, searching for a city without foundations.

And I've got three points for you. Number one, a city forsaken. Look at verse eight, by faith Abraham, when he was called to get out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went.

Do you know what happened here? Abraham living, raised at home, working in a city called Ur of the Chaldees, present-day Iraq. It was one of the great ancient cities of the old world. They actually say it probably originated about 5,000 years ago.

It was among those early cities in the earliest civilization after the ark and after the great worldwide flood. Samaria or present-day Iraq are where these cities of Ur and Babel and many others are, where all these ancient cities of Nimrod the Great mentioned in the book of Genesis were. This was the heart of ancient civilization, the first civilization.

After the flood, everything exploded here. You can go to the Berlin Museum, the London Museum, and you can find the artifacts of Abraham's city. You can see the statues, you can see the writings, you can see many of the artifacts from 4,000 years ago, from the days of Abraham.

This was one of the great cities that Abraham arose in. It was on the cutting edge of technology, of education, of language, of trade, of economy. You name it, it was on the cutting edge of this.

Designer clothes, designer everything. I want to assure you, this was the place to be and it was a mega city that he lived in. It was thriving, it was religious, it was militant, it was burning with expectation.

And here there was a young man called Abram. This young man was raised in idolatry. His father, his mother, his family, his culture, they were idolaters.

They bowed before statues, they went to temples, they made blood sacrifices. This man prayed to statues made of wood, of clay, of stone. This is who he was.

But you know what the Bible says, the first great mark of him in these verses, look at verse 8, by faith Abraham, when he was called out. How did he leave that culture? See right at the beginning, how did he leave his religion, his home, his future, his family, his culture, his common sense, all common sense is in common sense, and his economic logic and skill. How did he make decisions to leave his entire culture? And what's the Bible say, it was the call of God.

God called him. How did he respond? By faith. Look at this man, he is being spoken to in the culture of the day, right at the heart of it, grown up in it, it's all he's ever known.

But he's being called out to go walk into the wilderness. He doesn't know the address, he doesn't know the destination, no promise of a good job is made. He isn't given all of the assurances.

There's no video to watch about where he is going, a call comes to him. Do you know what the call that came to Abraham was? It was conversion, it was the new birth, it was a new heart, it was a change of life, it was a radical repentance turning from idols onto the living God. And what did he have? He had the call of God, the same call that came to Abraham comes to us, the same faith that Abraham operated in, you operate in this room, the same justification by faith that he experienced, you actually experienced, made righteous.

4,000 years ago, this man in Ur of the Chaldees was made perfectly righteous by faith. And I believe it was the imputed righteousness of Christ that was given to Abraham, like we're told in Romans. It wasn't a different kind of faith or a different kind of salvation.

It was the same salvation. It was by faith. It was faith looking forward unto the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, this man Abraham had a lot of interaction with cities. He interacted with all the surrounding cities, with Ur of the Chaldees, later with Haran, later still with Sodom and Gomorrah, those putrid, evil, sensual, sexual cities that God would destroy. Abraham would have intimate knowledge of them.

He went down into Egypt. He knew all the great cities of Egypt. He abode there.

He knew them. But also in the land of Canaan, places like Hebron, the city of Hebron, all these cities of the known world, he had intimate consideration of them. But listen, what do these verses tell us? Here you have Abraham by faith forsaken a physical city, a physical home, physical possessions, physical security, physical promises, physical people and family to make a journey.

Why did he embark? Because he had faith. He had a real faith that had given confidence, that had given substance. He wasn't walking in nothing.

That faith that came into his heart, he heard the call of God. Come, follow me. Forsake your city.

Forsake your culture. Forsake your religion. That's where faith begins.

You know what faith does? Faith will make you forsake an awful lot of things in this world. You'll forsake a job if it gets between you and God. You will forsake things that are very precious to you because faith is at work.

You know what? You've caught sight of an invisible world. I'm not being spooky or strange. I'm being very, very practical here.

Here is Abraham and Sarah, his wife, in these cities. You know what it says in Isaiah 51 verse 1 and 2? Look, speak in Israel, look unto the rock when she are hewn and to the hole of the pit when she are digged. Look unto Abraham your father.

In other words, those who believe, look back to the source of your faith. Look back to your father Abraham. You know what you're going to find? Look to that pit he was dug out of.

Do you know where God found Abraham? Not high flying. He was in a pit. He was in a dark pit of sin, depravity, idolatry.

He was, he was entangled in the things of this world in a way that would have destroyed him. But you know what? A call came unto him. Depart, leave your city, leave your nation, leave your family.

It says in Genesis chapter 12 verse 1, and this is the call of God to him. Now the Lord said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will shew thee. Look at this first call, a call away from a city.

This is a mega city, the ruins of which is in Berlin and London tonight, where archaeologists have dug it up, the great ziggurat of Ur. It is known across our world as one of the most ancient buildings in our entire world. You know what this man forsook it, the riches of Ur, the religion of Ur, the wealth of Ur, the fame of Ur.

It was the place to be. But you've got a man who hears from God, forsake, forsake all these earthly things. Why? To follow God.

In other words, everything loses its power when there's faith in the heart. Then you hear the call of God to come follow me. You know what? Everything loses its power in work, in family, in home, in city, in nation, in culture.

There's a great power with faith that operates, born again by the Spirit of God, saved by the grace of God, made righteous by God. You know what? Suddenly your vision of this world changes. You radically think different.

You'll make different decisions. You may leave a little floozy that you're interested in before. Why? Because of faith.

Faith makes me separate from things. I'm not talking about separating from your earthly family. I'm not saying every Christian has to do that.

They don't, okay? But Abraham had to come out from this world. Listen to what it says in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 17 and 18. It says, Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord.

The Christian in the New Testament, his call to salvation is a call to separation. Come out from among them. We're to be in the world.

Remember what Jesus said in John chapter 17, praying for them. I don't pray, Father, that you take them out of the world, but keep them in the world. Separation, listen to this carefully.

You better not miss this, what I'm about to say, or else some of you will go off into the left field, somewhere way out there. Separation does not mean segregation. Segregation means removal.

Separation, you can be living in the most wicked city in the world, and you're living separated. You could be in the worst LGBT workplace, and you're living utterly separate and uncompromising, but you're in a hell hole. See, faith does that.

Faith in your heart makes you separate, but it won't segregate you. In fact, quite the reverse. Real faith will make you to stand right in the midst of those dark environments.

So it says in the New Testament, Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing. What does it mean to be separate? Oh, I'm not talking to them.

I'm not having any contact with them. I'm not going to sit with them. No, you'd need to leave the world.

I'm not going to eat with them. I'm not going to casually play a game with them. I'm not going to walk with them.

I'm not going to do sport with them. It doesn't say that. What does it mean to be separate from sinners? It means touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.

It's unclean things, cursing, alcohol, immoral things, blasphemy, idolatry. It's sin. It's not being with sinners.

It's sinning. That's the issue. And it says, If you separate yourself and come out, then will I be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty, having therefore these promises.

Notice how he separates you. He gives you promises. You see, God doesn't just command you to separate yourself.

He'll give you promise after promise after promise after promise. And so it's by these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. God never merely commands you to separate from sin.

He gives you promise after promise after promise. If you do, I will. If you do, I will.

Oh, that sounds like bargaining. No, it's within the heart of God. He says, I will bless you.

Do you think you can follow God and not be blessed? Utterly impossible. He will bless you in all of your ways. You can't separate yourself from this world.

You can't have faith in your heart and catch a glimpse of a whole new life and not be blessed by God. I'm going to tell you God will bless you. It says in Hebrews 13, 13, Let us go forth therefore unto him, that is Christ, without the camp, bearing his reproach outside the religious camp, outside dead religion, outside apostasy, go out from it.

And then listen to the promise. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Saints, I'm seeking for a city.

Are you seeking for a city? See, Abraham left an entire lifestyle. But imagine leaving all of that, leaving family and religion, but not knowing where you're going. Imagine having no promise, no vision, no city with a foundation, saying here's a city with foundation.

Abraham had it at the very beginning. He didn't just embark out into the city. Listen to this very important word in Hebrews 11, 10.

For he looked for a city. See that word for, don't miss it. For he looked for a city.

The word for is a conjunction word. In other words, it joins this first what he's about to say to what has just been said. He said, for he looked for a city.

It's joining it to the previous things. In the previous verses, it tells you about him leaving Ur of the Chaldees, walking out into the wilderness, walking in Canaan. Listen to this, living in a tent, have a new abiding place, living with Isaac and Jacob in a tent.

And you know why he done all of this? For, he gives the actual word there. For he looked for a city. You can't explain the Christian life unless you see a man looking for a city, another world, another country.

You can't understand Abraham. You can't follow his footsteps of faith unless you realize he's looking for a city. This is my second point.

A city sought. Not only a city forsaken, but a city sought. What you see in Abraham is the seeking after a city.

He was to go out into Canaan. There was a land given to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob concerning the land of promise. A physical land.

But that never represents heaven. And it doesn't represent the city we're talking about. There's two different things here.

There's an invisible city that Abraham actually embarks on. But there's something else here. There's also within this is a physical land.

Not just a heavenly city, a physical land. And that physical land is your earthly journey. Do you know what it represents? It doesn't represent heaven.

Canaan never represents heaven. The land of promise doesn't represent heaven. You know how I know that? It's got giants in it.

And heaven has no giants. There's no Goliath there. There's no valleys there.

Heaven is free of all those things. So what does the land of promise represent? Your fight of faith. Your walk with God.

Finding the will of God for your life. That's what Canaan represents. Abraham is challenged to step out in this journey to find the will of God.

To go to the land of Canaan. To forsake his own land. To go to a place that's going to be an inheritance for his children or his seed.

But do you know what? That wasn't the ultimate vision. He never left Ur of Chaldeas for Canaan. He didn't do that.

He didn't make all this journey, all these travels, forsake everything merely for a bit of sun. He didn't do that. He absolutely didn't.

It says in Genesis 15 and 7, and he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldeas to give thee this land to inherit it. There is a physical land given to Abraham. A literal land.

A historic land. A geographical land. It was to be his inheritance.

It was given by promise, by covenant, by an oath sworn by God himself. This land, I swear to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to give it to them, to their seed after them. An entire land.

A geographical bit of land. The land of Canaan. You can go there today.

This bit of land was given by God to a man. And yet, guess what? He didn't inherit it himself. He was going to spend his entire life with promises about a physical land.

Valleys. Mountains. That were promised to him by covenant.

He would never inherit that. He would labor to strive and tempt her. Listen to what it says in verse 16.

But now they desire a better country. That is a heavenly. Wherefore God is not allowed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

The land of Canaan was not the city that I'm talking about. You see, it's talking about another land. A better land than Canaan.

What could be better than Canaan? And who does he promise it to? He promises it to Abraham. And he says that better land is a heavenly It's not Israel. It's not in the Middle East.

There's another land that's far better than Canaan. Far better than what God gave to Israel. It is a heavenly land.

But that land is also called a city. I have prepared for you a city. And you know, in this context, he's talking about Abraham.

Abraham embarked. What was Abraham doing? Looking for a city. Oh yes, he was looking for a land.

And he walked on it. Do you know he only bought one little part of that land? When his life, when his wife Sarah died. And he bought a cave and a field and a plot of land to bury her.

To have a tomb for her. It was the only bit of Israel he ever owned. That little bit of ground.

A burial site. And it became their family burial site. Just outside of Hebron.

But do you know what? He never inherited the entire land. His seed would. But do you know what he was looking for? He was looking for a city.

See, some of you are suffixed on the will of God for your life here. Concerning a wife, a husband, a job, a place, a ministry, preaching, whatever it is. The will of God where to go, when to go, what he's going to do, how he's going to use you in this lifetime.

All of that's wonderful. It is very important what you do in the will of God in your lifetime. Life is so short.

It's going to be over shortly. But do you know what? That's only a means to an end. If all you are is focused about, I'm going to preach.

I'm going to win souls. I'm going to be a Christian. I'm going to contend for the faith.

You're actually missing something very, very important. The Bible says Abraham searched for a city. Why did he live the way he did? Why did he walk the way he did? Why did he follow the will of God the way he did? Why did he make steps of faith in this lifetime? Because he's looking for a city.

He is actually searching for a city. Look what this says here in verse 10 and 11, that he looked for a city. Now I want you to notice carefully this word looked.

It doesn't mean look around or go searching. It doesn't mean to act as a tourist. It doesn't mean to go wandering around to see what your eye falls on.

That isn't the word looked means here. Listen to what the Greek means. It means to receive kindly, accept deliberately, or readily, or willingly.

It means to roll out the welcome mat and invite into your heart and your life. It means to wait expectantly, filled with hope, filled with fervency. It means to receive a vision into your heart.

He looked for a city. There's a certain city that he had received into his heart that he had opened up the gates of his heart and he had welcomed in a vision. I'm going to a city.

Saints, I wonder if you know you're going to a city. There's an actual city not of this world you're meant to inherit. And if you have faith in your heart, you're going to forsake an awful lot in this world and you're going to make a journey and you're going to travel in this world.

Do you know why? You have a faith that has caught a glimpse of a city. You are looking for a city. You have embraced this city.

But since you haven't seen it, you haven't touched it with your natural hand. Do you know where this city is now? Heaven. Heaven is described in the Bible both as a country and a city.

Here in these verses, it's called a better country, a heavenly country, not of the earth. In Revelation chapter 21 and 22, right at the end of the Bible, the future eternal place where a real believer spends with God for all eternity is called the city. Saints, this is the final destination of all things.

It's not getting the right partner in life. It's not having the right ministry. It's not being the right place at the right time to do the right thing for God and you can be satisfied.

I've done the will of God. That isn't it. Those are stops on the journey.

Do you realize our final journey and the thing that affects how you walk this life, how you live this life, the steps of faith that you make is a vision of the city, looking for a city. In other words, you've embraced the city. That is home.

That's my destiny. Nowhere down here. Do you know the impact of this on Abraham, the greatest man of faith our world has ever seen? Do you know what impacted him? This heavenly city, an actual city.

He caught glimpse of it. His faith was persuaded of it. You know, that city become more real than Ur of the Chaldeans, more real than Sodom and Gomorrah, more real than Hebron and Israel.

And Hebron was a great city. But do you know what? He had his eyes on another city, a heavenly city, a future city, an invisible city. It consumed him.

It made him live in a tent year after year, seeking after God. It says in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 1, for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavenlies. It says back in Genesis 23 and 4 about Abraham and the land.

I am a stranger and a sojourner with you. Do you know how long he was in the land? 62 years. Walking, building altars, interacting with local people, 62 years.

And yet he never lost vision of another city, a radically different city. It wasn't of this world. You couldn't find it on this earth.

Everything you do in this world is not comparable. You have to see there is a city, but that city, going to that city, believing in that city impacts your life down here in the most radical and amazing way. He actually says it made him a stranger down here.

That means a guest, a foreigner, not at home. Are you a stranger in this world? Has a vision of this city so captured you that you'll live in a tent your entire life here, be it 62 years or be it 15 years. Your entire life, when you catch glimpse of this city, you can never be satisfied anymore.

This can never be home for you. You're on a journey. You're on a destination.

You're seeking after something. And this was Abraham. This vision, this looking for a city, this embracing the city made him a stranger.

I am not at home. I can never come to rest here. It made him a sojourner.

That meant someone who keeps traveling, someone who is never at their final destination, someone who never ultimately settles down and says, this is home. Saints, can I warn you that if you ever come to a place where you go, I'm finished, I'm over, I've made it, I'm retired, I can settle down now, it's time for me to go on all those promised holidays that I so deserve that I never got in earlier years. I'm finished.

That's a dangerous place. David, at a time where kings go out to fight battles, what did he do? The Bible says he stayed at home. That's very dangerous.

You want to know why a great man like David looked from the top of his house, looked where he ought not to, and committed sin he never should have. You want to know why? He removed himself from the battle. He said, I'm tired.

I fought a lot of battles. I've done a lot of journeys. I've won a lot of wars.

I've done a lot for the glory of God. I walked in faith. I walked in holiness.

Saints, until you breathe your last breath, you're not home yet. You're on your journey. You're in the battle.

Stay on the front line. Never retire. Never draw back.

You need rests. Some of you don't get enough and others you get too many. But I want to tell you, never draw back.

Saints of God, we are on a journey to a heavenly city. The Bible actually shows we are to wait for this city. We are actually to have an expectant hope.

We're to have a vision of it. It's meant to impact our entire Christian life here. We shouldn't be like other people, says in Hebrews 11, 13.

These all died in faith, not having received the promise, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded by them. Look what the promises of God do. They stir up faith within you.

You see them afar off. You're persuaded by them. You become convinced.

Then you embrace them. Then you confess them. This becomes your life.

And then it says, they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. I'm a stranger here. I am not at home here.

This world, if it all falls apart, I'm not home yet. Should you get no seeming reward? Nobody notices me. Nobody acknowledges what I do.

Nobody applauds me. No one sees the things I do for God or how I pray or what I've done in secret. Well, do you want your reward now or in the future? Do you want it from man? Are you actually seeking to be applauded every step of the way by man? Well done, brother.

Well done, sister. Well done. We've seen this.

We saw that. Are you looking for your eternal reward? You need to be so careful of your heart when you're captivated by this city. I'm in a city with foundations.

When you begin to see the greatness of this city and the glory and what kind of city it is and who built this city, it affects you here in the littlest of things, every area of your life. Third and finally, let me finish. A city secure, a city forsaken, a city searched for, but finally a city secure.

Let me just look momentarily at this city that we're all to be enraptured with. Since I'm not home, we're going to live in the same city. I'm very glad that all those watching online, one day very soon they won't be scattered in cities across the world.

We are all getting gathered to one city, the same city, the same place at the same time. There's going to be a great gathering for the saints of God. But look at this, a city secure.

What does it say in verse 10? For he, that is Abraham, he looked for a city. He embraced it. He warmly accepted it in his heart.

He was expecting it. He lived in the vibrant reality now. He was looking for this city.

Every day was impacted by this search for a city. He was searching for it. All those journeys.

Do you think I was for a wee bit of land in Israel? Do you think I was merely to find a wife or to have a child or to have a people raised up? It was something far greater. It was a search for a city, a city whose foundation, whose builder and maker is God. It had to have a foundation.

Abraham wasn't full. He's seen great cities and their great foundations made out of rock, out of stone, out of blocks. Later cities would be laid in marble like in the city of Rome.

But you know, in these days he knew great cities built with great foundations. They had to be, if they're going to withstand the desert, these are cities raised up out of desert sand. They've got to have great foundations, mega foundations.

I'm telling you, very expensive foundations. But he was not interested in them. He's living in a tent.

You have no foundation in a tent. You're living with sand under your feet constantly, movable. I lived in the desert for three months when I was 18.

I lived in Saudi Arabia, then over into Iraq and then into Kuwait. Three months. You eat there, you wash there.

Try washing in the desert, I want to tell you. I lived there constantly. Everything was in the desert.

I ate it. It's in my ears, between my toes, constantly sand everywhere. That's all you have.

You're so aware of this moving tide of sand, nothing is fixed. There's once I got up knowing exactly where my tent was, about 12 midnight, and I had to go to the toilet. It was pitch black, nothing.

And I go, I marched out my 10 paces away from my tent. I'd done the necessities, turned around, and could I find my tent again? There's nothing. Everything looks the same.

Everything is quiet. There's no light there. And I wondered, and I wondered, and I wondered.

And thankfully, after praying fervently, oh God help me, I finally found my tent. I got back. But do you know what? See out there in the desert, there is nothing.

When you live in the desert, you're aware of the fickleness, the shortness, how temporary life is. You've got tent pegs. You've got moving canvas material, not one static wall.

You know what you're becoming aware of? Living in that tent with other people, you're aware of the brevity of life. I am not settled here. I haven't finished the end of my journey.

I don't have all my rewards here tonight. I am laboring. I'm doing the will of God here.

Do you think I would go through all the suffering, and the pain, and the sacrifice for what's sitting here in this room, or what is there online, or some people being touched elsewhere? Do you think I would go through all of this willingly? No way. I have caught a vision of a city. See, this city is unique.

Notice what he says about it. A city with foundations, and we're going to deal with this further on Sunday, or maybe next week. A city with foundations.

I want to emphasize this foundations. I'm not going to tell you what they all are, or what it looks like, but Abraham was searching, looking for, embracing a city that had foundations. It was a certain kind of city, invisible, heavenly, in the life to come.

It was out of reach, out of sight, out of feeling. It was in a time to come, not in his lifetime, or in the following generations, and it still has not come. A city with foundations.

He was looking for a city with foundations, not a city alone. He said it's got to have foundations, certain kinds of foundations. Nothing I've seen in this lifetime will be like the foundations of that city, since you can't even imagine what this is like.

This isn't even the foundations of the church on earth. This is an eternal foundation that's going to have one city, one people of God, from out of all of world history, from Genesis to Revelation and beyond, right down to the end of the age, when Jesus comes back. You're going to have one people, one faith, one righteousness, dwelling with one God.

The Bible calls it the city of God, a city with foundations, the new Jerusalem, or the heavenly Jerusalem. Abraham was looking for this city. He was a man of faith, and you know what? Every single believer in Israel and in the church, Old Testament and New Testament, have all and will all be searching for this city.

It's a city with foundations. It's got to have solid foundations. What do foundations do? They make it perpetual or enduring.

If it's going to be a city that endures eternally, forever and ever, it must have some foundations. The entire city depends on its foundation. And you know what? You better know that you're looking for a city of foundation.

Some of you are actually gazing in directions that have no foundations, seeking certain things that have no foundations. You're actually going after a dream without searching into the foundations. If your entire eternity, future, destiny, heaven or hell depend on this city and its foundations, you better study these foundations.

You know what else it says? It builder and maker is God. God has laid these foundations. Not man, not Moses, not Paul the apostle in the New Testament.

God has laid these foundations. He is the builder of this city. He is the layer of these foundations.

It is God who has literally built this city and has risen up this city. A city in which every single believer throughout all of history is going to live in. That's their final destiny.

Since life is a short time, 70 years, however long you live, shorter or longer, that is a short time to live on earth. Your life is like a tent and then it's all over. It is brief.

It's momentary. It's moving around desert lands. But where are you going to spend eternity? Where is your final destination? How much do you know about that city? What do you know about its foundations? Let me close here tonight, Hebrews chapter 12, 22.

But ye are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Notice the description. It's describing the city that we are going to dwell in, that we are to possess.

I actually believe this could radically change your Christian life because some of you are fixated on the will of God, finding the will of God. But that's temporary. The will of God in this lifetime is temporary.

It's important. It is to do with holiness and obedience and following God, but it's temporary. It's brief.

It's a short time. If your eyes are only fixed on doing the will of God here and now, I actually believe you could make mistakes, get frustrated, grow weary, become disillusioned. You say, where is the fruit? Where is the inheritance? Where is the reward? Where is the blessing? Can I help you fix that? You ought to be looking for a city.

You'll never get it until you breathe your last breath or the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and catches you up, resurrects you alive. Imagine being resurrected without dying, making that change from your physical, natural body now into a resurrected, changed body. Remarkable.

But do you know what? Most of you, unless the Lord comes, you're going to travel through death. And this flesh is going to, it's not about your life here. It is about that final journey.

And listen, this city that's called the heavenly Jerusalem, listen to the description of that city to an innumerable company of angels. You can't even number them. Angels inhabit that city, saturated everywhere.

To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, they're there now. The church that has gone on ahead of us, the real church, Candace is there. Do you know two years ago today, she departed this life.

Today, two years ago. Do you know where she is? I know her address. I know her destination.

I know where she is. I know where she's residing. I know the city of residence.

And you know what? I know how to get there. I don't know when I'll get there. I know how to get there.

I maybe know the incident that will take me there. It says, which are written in heaven and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Let's close here tonight.

We are going to embark on a journey concerning this city. And all aspects of the Christian life are important. But we're going to look at a city, and I want you to have a vision of it.

And I want it to impact your decisions, and the will of God in your life here, and how you live your life, and the decisions you make, and your work life, and your relationships, that you catch such a vision that you'll see nothing is more important than God himself. I need a vision of this heavenly Jerusalem that has solid foundations, eternal foundations, foundations built of God. There's nothing you need to be more sure of.

There's more important than your marriage, more important than your work, more important than career, or knowledge, or experiences, or fame and fortune in the church of God, to make sure that this city, you are looking for this city, and that you'll be there. Let's pray. Father, we love you.

We thank you here tonight. Father, I pray for such a heavenly vision, a vision that's not of this earth, nor, God, of a destination that is not of this natural world. We want to see the new Jerusalem.

Father Abraham, nor, God, he could see afar off from Ur of the Chaldees. He began looking for a city whose foundations were built by God himself. And Father, we're asking, grip our hearts.

If that man embarked on a journey, forsaken the cities of this world, walking separated from the cities of this world, not even focusing on Hebron, nor, God, we're asking for the same vision. Open the eyes of our understanding that we'll see our final destiny. Nor, God, that city, the new Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God, the dwelling place of every redeemed saint from world history.

Nor, God, we're asking that you encourage us and bless us and strengthen us in Jesus' mighty name.