Is God ashamed of you?

• Hebrews 11:16 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
• John Bunyan made it abundantly clear in his Pilgrim’s Progress that he longed to see, arrive and embrace the promised City of God, the Celestial City.

Verse 1. The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

Slide 1 (Picture)

• Reading: Isaiah 2:2–3 In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. All nations will stream to it, and many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.

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2a “In the last days...”

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• Acts 2:17–18
  • And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all people; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. 18 I will even pour out my Spirit on my servants in those days, both men and women and they will prophesy.
• Hebrews 1:1–3
  • Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. 2 In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

2b “...the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills.”

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• Isaiah 57:15
  • For the High and Exalted One, who lives forever, whose name is holy, says this: “I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed.
• Revelation 21:1–4
  • Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. 3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

2c-3a “All nations will stream to it, and many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.’”

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• The present fulfillment of God’s promise to father Abraham.
• Romans 10:20
  • And Isaiah says boldly, I was found by those who were not looking for me; I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me.
• Isaiah 66:22–23
• “For just as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, will remain before me”- this is the LORD’s declaration- “so your offspring and your name will remain. 23 All mankind will come to worship me from one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another,” says the LORD.
• John 12:31–32
• Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
• Genesis 18:18
• Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.
• Ephesians 2:11–22
• So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh — called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. 12 At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, 15 he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. 16 He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. 17 He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.

3b “He will teach us about his ways so that we may walk in his paths. For instruction will go out of Zion and the word of the Lord”

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• Jeremiah 31:31–34 ”Look, the days are coming”-this is the LORD’s declaration-“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. [32] This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt-my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”-the LORD’s declaration. [33] “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”-the LORD’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. [34] No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”-this is the LORD’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.
• Jeremiah 32:39 I will give them integrity of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, 20 so that they will follow my statutes, keep my ordinances, and practice them. They will be my people, and I will be their God. But we have the mind of Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 2:10–16 Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. 14 But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. 15 The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. 16 For who has known the Lord’s mind, that he may instruct him?

3c “...from Jerusalem.”

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• Psalm 87:1–7 The city he founded is on the holy mountains. 2 The Lord loves Zion’s city gates more than all the dwellings of Jacob. 3 Glorious things are said about you, city of God. Selah 4 “I will make a record of those who know me: Rahab, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Cush — each one was born there.” 5 And it will be said of Zion, “This one and that one were born in her.” The Most High himself will establish her. 6 When he registers the peoples, the Lord will record, “This one was born there.” Selah 7 Singers and dancers alike will say, “My whole source of joy is in you.”
• Galatians 4:22–26 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman. 23 But the one by the slave was born as a result of the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born through promise. 24 These things are being taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery — this is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
• Revelation 21:19–27 The foundations of the city wall were adorned with every kind of jewel: the first foundation is jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates are twelve pearls; each individual gate was made of a single pearl. The main street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.
• 22 I did not see a temple in it, because the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 Its gates will never close by day because it will never be night there. 26 They will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. 27 Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Summary

• Hebrews 11:10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.
• Hebrews 11:13–16, 39–40 All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 14 Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15 If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. 16 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
• 39-40 All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. 40 For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.
• Hebrews 12:18–24 For you have not come to what could be touched, to a blazing fire, to darkness, gloom, and storm, 19 to the blast of a trumpet, and the sound of words. Those who heard it begged that not another word be spoken to them, 20 for they could not bear what was commanded: If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned. 21 The appearance was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling with fear. 22 Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to thousands upon thousands of angels, a festive gathering, 23 to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a Judge, who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel.
• John 14:1–5 Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. 4 You know the way to where I am going.”
• 5 “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?”
• 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
• Hebrews 11:16 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Marching to Zion

• Come, we that love the Lord, And let our joys be known; Join in a song with sweet accord, And thus surround the throne.
• Refrain: We’re marching to Zion, Beautiful, beautiful Zion; We’re marching upward to Zion, The beautiful city of God.
• The sorrows of the mind Be banished from the place; Religion never was designed To make our pleasures less.
• Let those refuse to sing, Who never knew our God; But children of the heav’nly King May speak their joys abroad.
• The men of grace have found Glory begun below; Celestial fruits on earthly ground From faith and hope may grow.
• The hill of Zion yields A thousand sacred sweets Before we reach the heav’nly fields, Or walk the golden streets. Then let our songs abound, And every tear be dry; We’re marching through Immanuel’s ground To fairer worlds on high.