I. Genuine faith finishes well.
-Adrian Rogers "A faith that fizzles before the finish was flaw from the first."
-II Tim. 4:6-8
a. The Patriarchs trusted in God's promises without receiving their fulfillment.
-Kent Hughes "Death is the final test of faith..living by faith right up to the last breath. The beauty of their dying was that they died in faith though never receiving the fullness of the universal blessing that had been promised."
b. The Patriarchs believed God's promises while only seeing them from afar.
-welcomed from a distance = aspazomai = greet from afar; idea of passengers on a ship greeting friends on shore
c. The Patriarchs confessed they were pilgrims in a foreign land.
-Gen. 23:4
-stranger = xenos = foreigner
-exiles = parepidemos = one who makes his home along side of, one from another country, pilgrim, one who stays for a while in a strange place
d. The Patriarchs refused to consider returning to the land they left.
-thinking of = mnemoneuo = to remember, keep in mind
-Morris "All these men wholeheartedly accepted God's word. Had they been earthly minded, they could have gone back to Mesopotamia. But their hearts were set on their heavenly home and they did not go back."
II. Genuine faith longs for its true, better home.
-desire = oregomai = to stretch oneself out for, aspire, yearn for, strive for
a. God was not ashamed to be called their God.
b. God has prepared an unshakable city for His people.
-has prepared = etoimazo = prepare, make ready.
-Rev. 21:2
-Bruce "The earthly Canaan and the earthly Jerusalem were but temporary object-lessons point to the saints' everlasting rest, the well-founded city of God. Those who put their trust in God receive a full reward, and that reward must belong not to this transient world-order but to the endure order which participates in the life of God."
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