Welcome back with me to Colossians
this morning. And we're looking at chapter
three, the first four verses of chapter three this morning.
The Believer's Hidden Life is the title that I've given to
it. Let's just read those first four verses of Colossians chapter
three. If ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life
is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, Then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Now, if you've been following
this series, this is from the Apostle Paul when he was under
house arrest in the last two years of his life in Rome. He
knew that he was going to be killed. He was going to be executed
for his faith and for his teaching. He knew that. And people visited
him. He was allowed visitors. He was
allowed to preach. And we have the epistles, most
of them, many of them anyway, because of that confinement of
Paul. We might have thought, how bad?
Why did God allow that? Because look, all of us down
the ages have got these words from that man inspired by the
Holy Spirit to give us this truth of God. Well, one man had come
to visit him, and the man was Epaphras, and he'd come from
Colossae. And Colossae, as I've told you,
is inland southwest Turkey. Colossi, it's near to Laodicea,
very close by. And Paul had not visited them.
He hadn't been there. And he's in prison, and Epaphras,
who he knew, comes to visit him, and he brings news. He brings
news of the faith of the Colossians, the Colossian church, that they
believed the truth, they rested in the truth, they rejoiced in
the truth. But You know when Paul was on the beach at Miletus
with the elders of the Ephesian church and he was about to go
back to Jerusalem which would start the journey which would
end in Rome and his death there, he said to those elders on the
beach at Ephesus, he said, on the beach at Miletus, the elders
of Ephesus, he said to them, look after the church of God,
feed the church of God, he said, beware There will be false teachers
come in. There will be wolves in sheep's
clothing that will come in. There will be that which looks
like angels of light, but it's falsehood. All trying to lure
you away from the simplicity, the singleness, the straightforwardness
of the gospel of Christ. And so he's writing to warn them
about those that would move them, that would shift them away from
that. And we saw it quite clearly in
chapter 2 last week at the end of chapter 2. The simplicity
that is in Christ is a phrase he uses when he's writing to
the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 3. It's
the singleness. The gospel is simple. It's the
most profound thing you will ever come across, that you can
ever come across. There is nothing deeper, there
is nothing more profound. Who can plumb the depths of it,
but yet, at the same time, it is very simple, but man with
his pride, and his religion, and his tradition, tries to corrupt
it, and tries to complicate it, and tries to say it's more than
what the scripture says it is. The simplicity that is in Christ,
the simplicity of the gospel is this, that Christ has done
all, everything necessary. Why? To qualify his elect multitude
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world for his eternal
kingdom. How do we get into the kingdom
of God? Job asked the question, how should a man be just with
God? How should a man be qualified for heaven? And the answer is
in Christ. Christ has done everything. And
so there's the verse, I think Peter referred to it in his prayer,
in verse 11 of this same chapter 3, Christ is all and in all. Like we keep saying about the
man Happy Jack, you know, what are your qualifications for church?
And all he can say is, I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all, but
Jesus Christ is my all in all. Well, surely you must know something
more than that. No, I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all. Jesus Christ is my all in all. I have everything I need for
life and godliness. What does it say in verse 10
of chapter 2? You are complete in Him. You are complete. Complete means nothing lacking,
no space for anything else. You are complete in Him, in all
He is and all He has done. You are made the righteousness
of God in Him. In union with Him from before
the beginning of time, according to the edict and the gracious
choice of God, you are in Christ. Sin's penalty is paid. You are
forgiven, as he says in verse 13 of chapter 2. He has forgiven
you all trespasses. He's freed you from legal bondage,
the bondage of the law. He's clothed you. Isaiah 61 verse
10, he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. I will
rejoice he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He's
given me a Sabbath rest. Oh, a Sabbath day. A day of deprivation
and austerity and misery. No! Sabbath is rest. It's rest. And the rest is in Christ. I
rest from what I have to do and I can't ever do to get into heaven
because He has done it. He is my Sabbath. We don't keep
Sunday as a Sabbath day. He's fulfilled it. He is our
Sabbath. So then, Forewarned is forearmed,
as they say. Don't let religion enslave you,
was what the end of chapter two was about last week. It was about
all of that religion, and it's all around us even now, even
in this godless country, this godless society. It's adding
and complicating and confusing the simplicity of the gospel
of Christ. They claim orthodoxy. They claim to be the gold standard
of the truth of God. They use their King James Version.
They go through all of the right motions. They claim orthodoxy. They claim orthodox Christianity,
but I'm making a bold statement here, and it'll raise some hackles
out there on the internet, I'm sure, when people hear this.
But those churches that call themselves so so much pillars
for the truth, they actually deny the gospel of grace. And they bring their people into
bondage. Listen to Galatians chapter 2.
This is Paul again, writing to the Galatians, which is another
place in modern-day Turkey. In verses 4 and 5, he says, he
talks about, he warns about false brethren coming in unawares,
brought in unawares, who came in privily to spy out our liberty,
which we have in Christ Jesus. Why? Why were they looking at
the liberty that we have in Christ Jesus? That they might bring
us unto bondage, that they might enslave us again. You're free
in Christ. They seek to enslave us again
and say, no, you're not, you can't be, you've got to do this,
that, and the other. They bring us into bondage. To whom, says
Paul, we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the
truth of the gospel might continue with you. So then, Colossians,
as I said, verses 16 to 23 of chapter 2, could not be more
explicitly clear. Whatever they say, religion,
whatever they say with their creeds and their confessions,
whatever they say, this is my question. What saith the scripture? That's Romans chapter 4 verse
3. What does the scripture say? That's it. We often quote Isaiah
chapter 8 and verse 20. To the law and to the testimony.
If they speak not according to this word, there is no light,
there is no truth in them. So if you believe the truth,
and you have the truth, and Christ has made you free in the gospel
of his grace, by that which he has accomplished to free you
from the curse of the law, to make you set at liberty, he says
to the Galatians in chapter 5 verse 1 of Galatians, he says, Stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free. Stand
solid. You know when you're bracing
yourself for something you think it's going to hit. You're bracing
yourself so that it doesn't move you. Stand fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made us free. Meaning what? free from
religious restraint? To live as the flesh wants, like
the unbelieving world? Well, no, because that's what
he goes on to in chapter 3, and that's what we're going to look
at in coming weeks as we go through this epistle. So, I've got these
points this morning. We're dead as believers, but
alive. The believer has a hidden life,
and Thirdly, we have heavenly affections, and fourthly, we
have a glorious expectation. So, dead but alive is the first
point. It says in verse 1 of chapter
3, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. If there, you can
read it as since, because. Because you are risen with Christ. You believers, he's speaking
to believers, because you are risen with Christ, seek those
things above. In union with Christ before the
beginning of time, you are with him, you are united with him
in all that he is, in all that he has done. In all of that,
his people who are united with him are made everything that
he is. When he died for sin, it was
his people's sin that he was made, for which he died the due
penalty, the soul that sins, it shall die. He died for his
people, and then he rose for his people. He was lifted up
on the cross for the transgressions of his people, and he was raised
from the dead for the justification of his people. You who believe
are assured by God's word that you are eternally bound up in
him who is God made man. And what's the evidence that
you're bound up with him? You believe, as he said to the
Thessalonians. I know that you're the elect
of God, loved of God, because you believe the truth by sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. So you partake of his
eternal life. This is what this is about. It's
about having the life of God in the soul. To live this life,
as so many do in this world, and to die without knowing Christ,
think about it. How can you partake of eternal
life? In John chapter 17, Jesus said
this as he's praying that prayer before he goes to the cross.
He said, this, what are you talking about? Life eternal. He said,
this is life eternal. What is life eternal? that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou
hast sent." Eternal life, everlasting life, the life of God. You must
know God. and Jesus Christ, whom he has
sent, because you only know God by Jesus Christ, whom he has
sent. To disbelieve this is, as Jesus
said in John chapter 8, verse 24, it is to die in your sins. To not love Christ, 1 Corinthians
16, verse 22, he says, to not love Christ is anathema, it's
to be under the curse of God. Do I love Christ? Do I love God. God is the source of my life.
He's the source of everything that we see created. Do I love
my God? Peter, said Jesus after the resurrection,
when he's with the disciples, he says to Peter three times,
Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know that I love
you. I am in union with him. His life is my life. Again, John
17 and verse 23, he says this. Jesus is speaking. He says, I
in them, I in my people, Thou in me, the Father in him, the
Son, that they, the people, may be made perfect in one, and that
the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved
them as thou hast loved me. This is life, to be in union
with him. His life is my life. He is the
root stock. He uses the picture of the vine,
of the grape vine. And the root stock is where the
life and the energy for the plant comes from. And the branches
are where the fruit is born. Our Lord Jesus Christ, our God,
is the rootstock. And we, his people, are the branches. He, to use another picture, he
is the chief foundation stone, the chief cornerstone. And his
people, who believe on him, are the living stones in the temple.
For you, the church, are the temple of the living God, resting
on him. He is the bridegroom. His church
is the bride. He is the head. He is the head
of the body which is his church. His members are his people in
his church. Hence, the unchangeable truth
that his people, those who believe in him, they suffered, they died,
they were buried, they arose, they ascended together in him
in the In the justice of God, in the judicial reckoning of
God, it was all done in Him, because they were united with
Him before the beginning of time. In time, Each one is brought
by the Holy Spirit, making them alive, giving a new... You must
be born again, said Jesus to Nicodemus. The new birth, the
Holy Spirit must come and give that spiritual life which Adam,
in the Garden of Eden at the fall, which he forfeited, he
threw away. In the day that you eat thereof,
you shall surely die, but the Holy Spirit comes and gives that
new life. You must be born again. He gives
repentance of sin, to see something Not all, no doubt, but something
of what it is. He gives faith, the sight of
the soul, to see the things of God, to apprehend the truth of
it. So that, as 1 Corinthians 6.17
says, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with the Lord. And so, we quote this verse every
week, I know, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of Jesus Christ, by
what he did, who loved me and gave himself for me. So then,
Verse 3 of Colossians chapter 3 says, ye are dead, for ye are
dead. If you be risen with Christ,
set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth.
Why? Because you're dead. Dead? Dead? In what sense? In
what sense? What was it that killed me? Two
things. Firstly, the law of God killed
me. The righteous requirements of
God killed me. And then secondly, The gospel
of God killed me. Killed what? Killed my old sinful
man in the justice and reckoning of God. Killed my old sinful
man, the man that wants nothing of the things of God, that rebels
against the very idea of God. How? How? In Romans chapter seven,
and we'll turn to keep a finger in Romans chapter seven, but
in Romans chapter seven, verse nine, It says there, Paul's writing
here, he says, I was alive without the law once. When I wasn't aware
of the righteous requirements of God, I was living my life
perfectly happy. Look at the world all around
you today. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life, why was it ordained to life? Do this and
you shall live eternally. Don't do this and you shall die.
The day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. The commandment
which was ordained to life, I found to be not to life, but unto death. The commandment says do and live,
but the flesh can't. The law kills legally. It kills. Cursed, it says in
Deuteronomy, and it's quoted in Galatians as well. Cursed
is everyone that continueth not in all things written in the
book of the law to do them. And guess what? You can't, and
I can't. It's a hopeless calling, I cannot
do it. Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things written
in the book of the law to do them. In the day you eat thereof,
you shall surely die. But then, secondly, the law,
not only it condemns in that sense, but it stirs up sin. As it said in Romans chapter
7, and verse 11, for sin, taking occasion by the commandment,
deceived me and by it slew me. You see, taking occasion by the
commandment. The idea here is the, you know,
with children when they see a notice. I don't know what it's like today.
Things seem to have changed since we were bringing up children.
But there'd be a notice saying, keep off the grass. And guess
what? That was the one thing that prompted somebody to go
and walk on the grass. Just the very fact that it said,
don't do it. And then thirdly, it constantly, through all our
lives in this flesh, condemns every sinful act. every sinful
act, but in union with Christ. When he died under the law's
penalty, loaded with the sins of his people, made the sin of
his people, God made him who knew no sin to be sin. When he
loaded him with the sins of his people, he there stood guilty
and condemned and justly so under the justice with God. And when
he died for that sin, I died with him. His people in union
with him died with him. Just as a bee dies when it stings,
the law died when he died and I died in him. The law died to
me in its ability to execute a penalty over me. We don't have
the death penalty in this country. But when we did, a murderer hanged
for his crime, was taken down dead from the scaffold, and that
dead person was no longer under the law that thou shalt not kill,
thou shalt do no murder. He was no longer subject to his
penalty. Why? Because he was dead to that
law. So the law of God killed all hope. in his people of attaining
the holiness required by God. Okay? So the law killed me. Secondly,
the gospel killed the old sinful man that wants nothing to do
with God. The gospel killed the law's power over the believer.
Again, back to Romans chapter 7 and the first four verses. where Paul says this, know ye
not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, you know,
you're people who are familiar with the Old Testament mosaic
law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth.
As long as we live in this body, this body of flesh, the law has
dominion over us, for the woman and then he uses the example
of marriage, the woman which hath an husband is bound by the
law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if the husband
be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then,
if while her husband liveth she be married to another man, she
shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is free from the law, so that she is no longer an adulteress,
though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren,
ye also, believers, ye also, are become dead to the law by
the body of Christ. By his death on the cross, you
who are in him, united with him, are dead to that law which condemns
sin. that ye should be married to
another. To whom? Even to him who is raised from
the dead. Who was raised from the dead?
Our Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. That we should
bring forth fruit unto God. Union with Christ kills the power
of all other life relationships. For example, a clear sight of
gospel grace subdues fleshly sin like nothing else can. It's not legal threats or promises
that constrain the believer's behavior. It's gospel grace. It's a sight of what Christ has
done for his people. Look what it was that changed
Saul on the Damascus Road from the murderous zealot that he
was into a gracious, loving brother. It was the grace of God, not
the law. He was a champion of the law,
a Saul of Tarsus, but it was the grace of God that turned
him into a gracious brother. So it's by the faith of Jesus
Christ that these things are done. But that inner spiritual
life of which we've been thinking now, you're alive in Christ,
your life is hid with Christ in God, that life is hidden,
as it says, hidden with Christ in God. Jesus said, in John 14,
verse 19, he said to his disciples, to all believers, he said, because
I live, ye shall live also. Are you alive, spiritually alive
with the hope of heaven? It's because he lives. Because
he lives, ye shall live also. He said, his sheep shall never
perish. No man shall pluck them out of
the father's hand. He will keep them forever into
eternity, eternally safe in the father's hand. But this spiritual
life that is the possession of the child of God is hidden. from all external human view. It is hid with Christ in God. You are dead and your life is
hid with Christ in God. It's deep-seated in the heart. It's what Jesus calls elsewhere. When he was talking to the Samaritan
woman in John chapter 4, he talks about it as living water within. John chapter 4, verse 10. Jesus
met the woman by the well on that hot day and the disciples
went into the town to buy food and he's there alone with this
woman, this Samaritan woman, and he asked her for a drink
from the well because he was thirsty, it was a hot day. And
she said, this is odd, you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan, why
are you having anything to do with me? We don't have anything
to do with one another. And Jesus answered and said unto
her, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith
to thee, give me to drink, Thou wouldst have asked of him, and
he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him,
Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, nothing to dip down into
the well, and the well is deep. From whence then? Where are you
going to get this living water? Are you greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us this well, and drank thereof himself, and
his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto
her, whosoever drinketh of this stagnant water out of the well
shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that
I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing
up into everlasting life. This is what he's talking about,
the life of God in the soul, a well of water springing up
into eternal life. Others may see evidence of that
life, but that life itself from God is hidden deep within. It's the life of God hidden in
the soul of man. Ye are dead, and your life is
hid with Christ in God. You know, sometimes you might
be in a part of the world which is generally arid and barren
and sandy and no life there, but you see a strip of greenery
down in the valley below. And you may not see the little
stream that's there, but you know that that greenery is there
because of the little stream that's hidden. It's hidden. The
stream is hidden, but here's the evidence of it. There's greenery
all around in that parched place because of the little stream.
And that's what he's talking about. The life of God in the
soul. You're dead and your life is
there. It's hidden. It's hidden. with
Christ in God. This is true spiritual eternal
life. This is riches. What are we as
beings? What are we as people? What are
we as men and women and boys and girls? What are we? as human
beings. We're living souls, we know that.
God made Adam of the dust of the ground, it says in Genesis,
and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, the life
of God, and man became a living soul. Here is life. Have you ever wondered What is
this in me? What is this consciousness in
me? I remember as a young man starting to think about these
things and thinking, what is this in me that is doing this
thinking? What is it? What is this life?
Well, we're getting close to it here in the Word of God. The
life of God in the soul of man is true life, is eternal life,
is the life that Jesus spoke about in his ministry. It's the
life that dwells with Christ, the God-man, in the bosom of
God. Your life is hid with Christ
in God. And being hid with Christ in
God, we can deduce certain things about it. Number one, it's safe
from all evil. Satan can't touch it. The devils
and spirits and circumstances can do nothing to it. It's safe
from all evil, safe from Satan, safe from the powers of darkness.
It's hidden treasure. It's treasure that the unbelieving
world that goes through its life with no thought or desire for
any of these things knows nothing about. But oh, what treasure!
All spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. and it's untouchable
by whatever events of life may come our way. They tried to deprive
John Bunyan of his family and of his liberty and of his church
that he preached to. And they thought, we'll stop
him doing this, we'll lock him away in Bedford jail for 12 years.
And you know something? They couldn't do anything to
that hidden life of God in the soul of that man who was given
such sight of the truth of God that he wrote Pilgrim's Progress
and the Holy War and those other such profound books. So then,
what's the consequence of this? Verse 2, set your affection on
things above. If you're dead to the things
of this world, and you might have noticed the hymns we've
been singing are about that, being dead to this world. It's
the things of heaven. It's the things of eternity.
Set your affections on things above. Think on those things.
Meditate on those things. And not on things on the earth. Yes, we have to interact with
this earth. We have to live in this world, but we're not of
this world. We're not of it. We live in it, but we're not
of it. So if Since your life is intimately bound up with the
life of God in Christ, what must be your focus, your main objective? Is it earthly things? Some of
them are necessities. Some of them are the necessities
of life. But no, the things of this world
are but perishing toys. The things of this world are
but polluting vanities. The things of this world are
but the cares of the body and of the flesh. No, growing in
grace and knowledge, which is what the Apostle Peter encourages
the people of God to do, grow in grace and the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Growing in that grace, knowing
more, sensing more of the presence of God in the soul, rejoicing
more in the salvation that Christ has accomplished, counting spiritual
treasure laid up in heaven, anticipating heavenly bliss of uninterrupted
communion with God. Increasingly, these are the things
that the believer values. Earth and fleshly experience,
they lose their power to allure you and to entrap you, to entice
you. Think of the world's very richest
people. You know, there's such great
envy. of incredibly rich people. I saw that somebody somewhere
won a Euromillions jackpot of 200 million pounds the other
day. suddenly they go from just being like everybody else you
know just about making ends meet to suddenly having so much money
it's beyond it's beyond conception two hundred million pounds all
at one go and then there are the billionaires millions of
times more wealthy than that and you think oh gosh to have
their riches but I tell you come the hour of their death come
the hour of their departing from this world all of those riches,
all of those possessions, all of those experiences that they've
had in this world, all of those things that they've done, are
utterly, utterly worthless. Utterly worthless. And so Jesus
told the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man
who lived sumptuously And Lazarus, the poor beggar, sitting at his
gate, begging with sores and deprivation. And they both died. And this isn't, sort of, how
can I put this? This isn't from which we get
our doctrine of what it's actually like in heaven and hell. But
what Jesus was teaching was this. that that rich man was then suddenly
aware of how, although he had been rich in life, how utterly
poverty stricken he was for eternity. And he says, go to my brothers
and tell them before they come to this place, go and tell them,
get someone to rise from the dead and go and tell them. And
he's speaking in this parable to Abraham in heaven and he's
saying, go and send somebody from the dead to them and that
will convince them. And Abraham says back in this parable, Abraham
says back to him, they've got Moses and the prophets. What's
that? This book. They've got Moses and the prophets,
the Bible. Let them hear them because the message is here,
clear. Let them hear him. And he said,
no, no, no. But if someone rises from the
dead, they won't take any notice of this. No, no, no. They spent
all their life taking no notice of this. But if someone rises
from the dead, that will convince them to which Abraham says, if
they believe not Moses and the prophets, they will not believe
that one should rise from the dead. It won't make a scrap of
difference. So then, it's not just obvious, worldly allurements,
but legitimate things, too, that can get in the way of the believer's
relationship with God. A career, necessary, must have
a career, got to do something. Spouse, good thing. Family, home. But it all must be secondary
to the believer's love of Christ. How to promote it? What to do?
How to set your affection on things above? Read the Word of
God. Meditate on the Word of God.
Pray, it says, without ceasing, that God will give understanding,
that God will give light in the soul. Attend to faithful preaching. There's an awful lot of preaching
that's absolute rubbish and nonsense and nothing to do with the Word
of God. But attend to faithful preaching. Don't forsake worship. Get it wherever you can. By these
means, heavenly blessings are communicated and reinforced.
The more you do, the more you see that he is the chief among
10,000. That he is, as verse 11 of chapter
3 says, he is all and in all. The love between Christ and his
people and the experience of it, that is the pinnacle of existence. It's the pinnacle of existence.
Think on the Song of Solomon, the book The Song of Solomon.
You read that almost in places, erotic language. It's just so
full of overflowing terms of love, but it's speaking of that
pinnacle of life experience of the love between a believer and
his God in our Lord Jesus Christ. And think on heaven where that
life is possessed. As we often say in our prayers,
what a prospect without sin. Because here, in this flesh,
sin is always in the way. Sin is always clouding the experience. The fall is always dividing between
us and our God. But think on that place, that
existent, where there will be no sin, where there will be nothing
that defiles, where the communion between God and his people will
just be intimate and uninterrupted. So then finally, verse 4, when
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear
with him in glory. And I'll be very brief. He who
is the believer's life. Who is the believer's life? Christ
is the believer's life. Christ who is our life. I am... Crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of Jesus Christ
who loved me and gave himself for me. When he who is the believer's
life comes back, we shall see him. He's coming back into this
world where he's going to appear. Every eye shall see him, it says
elsewhere. Every knee shall bow. I want
nothing to do with him. No, I want nothing to do with
him, I'm telling you. You will bow. that every knee shall bow,
and everyone shall confess that Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. But when he does appear, when
he does appear, and that day is coming, be in no doubt, that
day is coming. When? Today? No, I don't think
it'll be today. Oh, said Jesus, that's interesting,
you know, you don't think he's coming. In the hour that you
think not, he will come again. You believers shall also appear
with him. You also shall appear with him
in glory, to be manifest, to be known in the eyes and experience
of yourself and to the eyes of all creation in glory. You will
appear with him. If you believe in him, you will
appear with him in glory. And you will appear with him
to possess the promised hope. To possess the promised hope.
We live in bodies of flesh and sin and death and corruption. Yet there is a hope for a believer.
Be ready always, said Peter, to give a reason to anyone who
asks you about the hope that is in you. What is the hope?
that I've got a home in glory land, that I've got a home in
heaven, that my Lord Jesus Christ has gone away as he promised
to prepare many mansions, that he's gone to prepare a place
and then he'll come again to take me with him. His will that
he prayed, his request to his father that cannot be denied,
is that his people there shall be with him that they might behold
his glory with him, to inhabit the heavenly Jerusalem. the heavenly
Jerusalem, to commune with God in Christ, to inherit that kingdom. Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Amen.