Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the book of Job. Read for
our text, Job chapter 23 and verse 14. Job 23 and verse 14.
For he performeth the things that is appointed for me, and
many such things are with him." Job 23 verse 14. At the very
start of this path of affliction that Job was called to walk through,
he was brought to ascribe what had happened in the giving of
his goods and the taking of them away to the Lord. He doesn't blame Sabians, he
doesn't blame the wind, he doesn't blame nature, he doesn't blame
Satan, he says the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away,
blessed be the name of the Lord. And as this trial goes on and
his friends who first came to him to comfort him and to mourn
with him, they saw that his grief was very great, they sat, didn't
say anything for a whole week and then they began to speak
and they misjudged Joe, they thought that surely with these
things coming upon him that he had done something wrong. This
was chastening. This was the Lord's hand upon
him. And we know that that wasn't
the case. We have in the very beginning
of the book the Lord's own words that he was a man that feared
God, that he walked uprightly, he eschewed, he hated evil. And we are told why the Lord
permitted Satan to do these things. Satan had accused Job that he
only served God because he had set a hedge about him, and that
if God touched all that he had, he'd turn round and he'd curse
him to his face. Now Satan knew that because many
people, that is what they would do. If they take up with religion,
they expect many that God will preserve them, give them health
and strength and goods. You've only got to think of the
prosperity ministries in America that attract thousands, if not
millions, to their followings, and it is those that are after
goods and wealth and things of this life. Well, if those things
are touched, Satan knows then they turn their back upon the
Lord. So, the Lord allowed Satan to
try Job in that way, take those things away, see if he does,
and there you see the difference of grace. Job was surely tried,
and there's many things throughout this trial, we don't know how
long it lasted, that brought things out that no doubt he never
knew was in his heart, and brought things that needed to be reproved
by the Lord himself, things that His friends didn't discern the
wrong, the Lord did. And the Lord eventually said
that his friends had not spoken well as what Job, his servant,
had done. And that they had then to go
to him, he would pray for them, they would offer a sacrifice,
and he would forgive them. But through this trial, Job was
not only to prove Satan a liar, not for anything in Jove, but
the grace God gave him and the help God gave him. And I hope
we realise that whatever trials that we go through, if we are
helped through them, if we still come out the other side, like
dear Peter did, still loving his Lord, though he was in Satan's
sieve, and though for a time he denied his Lord and Master,
we come out the other side and we are still following, still
seeking, still a believer, bless God for that, because there is
many, many that we know that little things has been a trigger
for them to depart from the house of God and they're never seen
there again, or those that use it as an excuse to leave, or
those that are offended and they walk back and go no more. with the Lord. We think even
of the teaching of our Lord in John 6. This isn't hard saying,
the Lord was saying, except you eat the flesh and drink the blood
of the Son of Man, you have no life in you. And they said this
isn't hard saying, who can hear it? They went back, they walked
no more with the Lord. In the world you shall have tribulation,
in me he shall have peace. The fire shall try every man's
work of what sort it is." And certainly Job here is in the
fire and the Lord knows what kind of fires we need and what
we are called to pass through as well. Well Job in the midst
of this affliction, in the midst of many things he learned, many
things that he proved the Lord faithful in, there is seven times
that is brought before him and he speaks them and in one time
that it is Zophar that speaks them and that is God's appointments. He is brought to look at seven
appointments of God in his affliction and this really was a comfort
to him to see This is not Satan in control, this is not just
chance, this is someone in control that is faithful and just and
loving and one in whom he believed and knew, he said, I know that
my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand the latter day upon
the earth. He knew of the resurrection though
After my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall
I see God for myself and not for another. There are things
that he puzzled, one of the portions that we read this evening. How
can a clean thing come out of an unclean? He knew the promise,
the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. Everyone
that is born of a woman is a sinner, is unclean. How can we have the
spotless Lamb of God, shown in all the types and the shadows,
come forth in that way, the seed of the woman? Well, we know with
the virgin birth, the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, how the Lord
was spotless and pure and not from the sinful generation. But
Job, he struggled with that. He didn't know how that would
happen. It's good for us if we cannot understand. what God will
do, how He will do it, just to trust Him that He will do it.
And to look upon what He has done and is recorded in Holy
Scripture as to how these things have been opened up, that were
dark once but now are light. And Paul says, we now see through
a glass darkly, but then face to face. In heaven we shall see
clearly, we shall know, And we ought to remember our Lord's
words, that was quite quick, that he did interpret them to
the apostles, what I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt
know hereafter. So I want to look this evening,
with the Lord's help, at these seven, these seven appointments
of God that were shown to Joe. I want to turn first to our First
reading, which was, and each of our readings had two of the
appointments in there. The first reading was in Job
chapter 7, and we have the first appointment in verse 1. Is there not an appointed time
to man upon earth? Are not his days also like the
days of an Highling? an appointed time to man upon
earth. We will look at the beginning
of that time is appointed by God. When we were born, where
we were born, what nation, what family we were born into, what
circumstances we were born into, that was an appointed time by
God God making that appointment and bringing that about that
we were brought into this world. And we think also of the history of the world. We
think of those that were born in the Old Testament times, those
that were born in the time of Christ when Christ first came. There will be those that are
born in the time when He comes again, and it may be us to see
His second coming. There are those that are born
in this nation in the war years. And we are warned that we are
not to say, why was the former days better than these days? We do not inquire wisely in that. We read of David that he served
his day and generation. We think how different our day
and generation is, really in the last say 150 years, the increase
in knowledge and the word says, knowledge shall increase, men
shall go to and fro, and you think of all the aeroplane travel,
the car travel, it's all foretold and with the event of computers
and internet, The changes in these years, even in our lifetime,
they're tremendous changes. And I think when I started off
in engineering design and I was doing all the drawings on a drawing
board, and all the lessons in all our line work and laying
out the drawings and how to do all of that, that is not taught. It's just completely irrelevant
today. Everything is computers. It's
just completely changed entirely. And that's just in my lifetime
to see such a difference. And so that appointed time, the
Lord has put us in our day to experience those things in our
day. And we're never to look and say,
well, we would have been a better Christian in former days, or
we would have made a better profession then. Because the Lord is the
same, he does not change, and his promises lay on with you
always, even unto the end of the world. And so, where the
Lord has placed us, we are to seek to serve the Lord, and obey
his word, follow his word, with the circumstances that we are
born into, where our lot of time is cast. The other end is also,
of course, included, an appointed time to man upon earth. That's
a lot. I often thought, with my own
dear mother, she died at 61, I thought, just so little, those
61 years, if someone had come to where she lived and that,
just before that time, and then they went away and they came
back 62 years later, They would never have known she'd
existed. Her whole lifetime was in that
slot of time. And it made me think how small
our lives are. In all eternity, in all the history
even of the world, just these few years and a point in time,
that is your time. That is your time, in that place,
in that slot. Dear Joe, in the midst of this
affliction, remember, these are things coming out of affliction.
It's a good thing where we can see, like the psalmist said,
it's good for me that I was afflicted. Before I was afflicted, I went
astray. Now I've kept thy words. The
Lord uses things to open our eyes that we haven't seen or
haven't noticed before, and so Job is saying, is there not an
appointed time upon earth? Yes there is and God has appointed
it and God has caused it to come to pass. See when we get to the
specific words of the text that He is also the one that is performing
it. He doesn't just make the appointment
and then nothing is done to make it come to pass. He is the one
also that is making it to come to pass. And it should be a real
help to us when we walk through things ourselves or our loved
one, our children or grandchildren are walking through things. Remember
here is one in control, the Lord is in control and he is appointing
our time here to man upon the earth. The second thing is a
couple of verses down In the midst of his affliction and trial,
he says, and weary some nights are appointed to me. We might think when we have afflictions
that the aspects of it are random and not appointed. Whether we
have a good night's sleep or we don't, When we can sleep or
we can't sleep, we think, well, that just happens. There's no
appointment in that. But Job says, no, it is appointed
to me wearisome nights. Here's one thing that was made
very sweet to me when my mother died of cancer, because she found
the nights very, very long. When we were all, a lot of us
were asleep, there were times of quietness and times that,
and she found them weary, weary nights with her pain and with
her affliction. And after she had passed away
and I was thinking of this and thinking of this very verse,
the Lord was pleased to drop in the lines of a hymn, infinite
night, infinite day excludes the night and pleasures banish
pain. And it was very sweet to me to
realize that. Now if she'd known, wearisome
nights here didn't exist in heaven. There was no night there and
no weariness there. And it was the coupling of this
verse and the hymn that made that really sweet. And so, it's
good for us to learn, Job learned it here, that in our trials and
in our afflictions, the very Things that make it up are also
appointed of God. The things that make it, the
trier that it is. Whether we have an affliction
and we have good night's sleep every night, or whether we have
an affliction and we don't have good night's sleep every night,
God's appointed that. He's ordered that aspect of the
affliction. And it's good to see God's sovereignty
God's power. Man hates this. He hates to think
that God has a power over his creatures to appoint and to govern
all things that happen. They would rather that everything
happened just randomly, with no cause, no one in control. I don't think they really think
about it, how much better it is to realize that in control
is a sovereign Loving, merciful God, that in bringing about redemption
for His people, suffered and bled upon the cross. Would we
say it was just chance that He happened to be in first? Or the aspects of His agony and
the things that He went through and that those people were saying
to Him? There was nothing there that
was not appointed of God. He was delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, and was taken, and by wicked
hands crucified and slain. But every aspect, that ye look
upon him whom thou have pierced, the bone of him shall not be
broken. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? All the aspects of his suffering
were foretold in the Psalms a thousand years before it came to pass,
and we're having this same teaching reinforced in our Lord and in
His sufferings that the very aspects, even those wearisome
nights, the Lord has appointed it. The Lord has said, Job, this
is going to be part of your affliction, part of what you must pass through. I'll give you grace, I'll give
you help, I'll bring you through it. And Job has seen this in
one of the Lord's appointments. Then we go to the second chapter
that we read, which was chapter 14. Job chapter 14 and in verse
5. Seeing his days are determined,
the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed
his bounds that he cannot pass. Now one aspect is again the bounds
His time, His life span. He won't live an hour more than
what God has decreed. He won't lengthen His days. Man
might, you say, artificially do so, but that is also appointed
by God. And we may also apply it in appointed
His bounds in where we shall actually There, where our habitation
shall be, the bounds of our habitation. Some people, they are born in
a town, they live in a town, they die in that town, and their
compass of bounds, where they have moved, is very, very small. Other people have moved all over
the world. In my case, of course, only in
the UK, and Australia, New Zealand, Holland, perhaps. not many places
compared with some others. But where we actually live, and
specifically when we're brought into places like this, it does
mean, verses like this mean a lot. When I was first called by Grace,
19, then just after that, my father said he was going to move
to Tasmania. Well, if I had been called by
grace, I'd been trying to get away from chapel, I would say,
good, I'm going to go to Tasmania with you. My apprenticeship had
finished. But instead, I said, no, I'm
not going away. I'm staying with the chapel. I want to stay with
the chapel. If the Lord hadn't called me, it would have been
very, very different. But right from that point, then
I've had to know what it is, where my place has been in one
place, like in Melbourne, and my family, 250 miles away, And
now my sibling's 12,000 miles away and over here. And all the time in my life,
and now a daughter back over in Australia, all the time in
my life I'm seeing the Lord appointing bounds and saying, you will live
there, you will live there, your place is over here, not there.
And therefore when I had the opportunity to take Australian
citizenship, because my exercises was I would come back here one
day, And it was rumored if you took out Australian citizenship,
you'd lose your British. So I said, no, I will not take
out Australian citizenship. So I cannot just go straight
back like our daughter is born there. She's an Australian citizen.
She can just go back there. And you see the difference. The
way the Lord is setting bounds and saying, no, your place is
here, not there. or you shall go over there and
that person shall go there and I think it is especially with
those that are called to walk in those different paths with
their families or their churches that really notice this aspect
of the Lord's appointing, appointing our bounds, where we shall live,
where our habitation is and not to cross that, not to break through
that and I believe we see it we see it with Abraham called
out at Ur of the Chaldees we see him charging his servant
to get away from his kindred but not to bring his son back
there it was important to him the land of promise he had to
be brought back to Canaan and right through the history of
Israel. The Lord is speaking about these
bans. He says to Abraham that thy seed
shall be a stranger in a strange land. They shall afflict them
four hundred years. Yes, He knew what would happen
to them in Egypt. He appointed that. And in the
fourth generation they shall come hither. The iniquity of
the Amorites is not yet full. And so Job, he is, you might
say, in the same place where he is, he is viewing this, where
he is, his bounds, of course he'd lost his, his family, his
children, his loved ones, where they had been, where they'd been
in that house when it fell, when the wind smote it, time and place,
they were all, all appointed. And how many times that he might
say something if I hadn't have been in the the wrong place at
the right time, or thanking the Lord that we weren't in a particular
place when something happened, the Lord in order that we moved
out. Job is being brought to state
these things, to see these things in his affliction. I hope you
say with us the things the Lord has appointed and brings us through,
we say, I've learned that I've seen this which I haven't seen
before, innit? And so we move down to verse
14. In the same chapter, chapter
14, verse 14, we read, If a man dies, shall he live again? For
all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change
comes. Now the previous verse, He said,
O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that thou wouldst
keep me secret until thy wrath be passed, that thou wouldst
appoint me a set time, and remember me. Now, this verse has been very much
upon my spirit regarding the bills that were passed at the
third reading last week, with the assisted dying bill. Because the thought there is,
well if someone is afflicted and tired of their life like
this, you imagine going to Job and he's, or going to a person
and they're saying, oh they're hiding in the graveyard. You're
asking to be killed, you want euthanasia. But that's not what
Job is asking for. He is seeing the grave, he has
that good hope beyond the grave. And many Lord's people, they
do express on the dying bed, they long to be gone. My mother
used to say that I had wings of a dove, I'd fly away and be
at rest. And those who express those things,
well, What a fear to think if I was to express those things
when this law is coming in and my relatives and perhaps ungodly
relatives will hear it and they'll say, she's giving approval to
end their life prematurely. But that's not what Job was saying
at all. Because when we read the verse
I'm reading before you here in verse 14, But then he says, all
the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come.
He's not saying, I'm going to decide the time. The time of
my change, the time of my death, the time when my soul leaves
the body and returns to God, that is appointed by God, and
I'm going to wait for that time. Even in this affliction and in
this trial, I'm not going to change it at all. Would it frustrate
God's purpose? If he did take his life, would
we say, well then he managed to die at a time that wasn't
appointed? We would say that God's sovereign
will still took place, that Job did that which was wrong. The revealed things, the things
that, secret things, belong unto God. Those things that are revealed
belong unto us and our children. Deuteronomy 29, 29. The Lord doesn't have two wills. He has one sovereign, eternal
will, and that will in every jot and tickle be fulfilled,
and He has that which He's revealed as the law and what His people
should consult to know what they should do and what they shouldn't
do. And that should be our guide,
not thinking into the secret will of God, or the sovereign
will of God, not trying to double guess what's going to happen,
but to do what is the will of God. With Jonah, what was the
will of God? He should go and preach. The
revealed will of God was that he should go and preach to Nineveh. That was Job's command, and that's
what he should have done. But he ran away. Well, that was
the Lord's sovereign will that he should run away, that he should
experience that, that he should as it were, rise from the dead,
that he should appear to the Ninevites as one that they thought
dead, but was suddenly alive. Jonah didn't frustrate the appointments
and will of God at all. He was disobedient and walked
a path I don't think any of us would want to walk and experience.
And no doubt he thought that he would perish in the water,
and God had other purposes. much over here, he would do that
which the Lord had shown him, and in his affliction he would
wait, he would abide in those wearisome lights until his change
come. God would do it, God would bring
it about, but he would not put his hand to it. You think of
what they said when David and his men were hiding in the cave
and Saul came, and his men said, this is the day the Lord has
delivered the king into thine enemy into thine hand smite him
kill him no said David how can I touch the Lord's anointed it
may be that he shall enter into battle and be slain or the Lord
shall slay him but my hand shall not be against him and David
is is thinking of the law and what was right for him to do
before God and not thinking, well, this is a providence put
in my hand, let me take it. And this is the means that Saul
is going to be delivered out of my hand. He wouldn't take
his life in that way. And so with Job here, he's waiting. Many of us We may have things
that we're waiting for. We might be waiting for a house
exchange and frustrated because it's not going through as we
thought, or waiting that the Lord would provide a husband
or a wife, or that the Lord would appear for us in some providence,
or it may be waiting when the expectancy of a loved one be
taken home, passed away. And we're called to wait God's
appointed time. But no, there is an appointed
time. But sometimes those waiting times,
they are hard, but maybe made a bit easier by thinking what
we're waiting for is a time appointed by God. There's no uncertainty
in it. And however difficult, whatever
trials, we're waiting that appointed time. time. I want to look now at the 20th
chapter, and this is one that Zophar brings before Job. In chapter 20 and verse 29, last
verse, He says of the portion of the
wicked, this is the portion of a wicked man from God and the
heritage appointed unto him by God. And he's described all sorts
of things that shall happen unto a wicked man. This is where they're
misunderstanding Job and God's dealings with him. and almost
implying that Job is a wicked man. These things are happening,
therefore he must be wicked. While there is a heritage, there
is that appointed unto the wicked by God, that often is not very
evident, and we find that in Psalm 73, where Asaph, He was tried because of the prosperity
of the wicked. He said, my steps are almost
gone. There are no bands in their death.
They are not in trouble as other men. Their eyes stand out with
fatness. They have all that heart could
wish. And God's people, then, they're
in sorrow. They're in distress. They're
in trouble. And it wasn't until he went into
the house of God But then he said, then I understood I their
end. And I set them in slippery places. And he saw that death is a divide,
that this side of death they were at ease, but as soon as
they passed through it, then they were in distress. Then they
saw the reality, they saw themselves as sinners, they saw the Lord,
then they were in terrors. And there is then that appointed
for the wicked, but often it is not in this life, it is in
that which is to come. We read of the Lord speaking
of the rich man and Lazarus, and on this earth the man was
rich. Lazarus was laid at his gate
full of swords. That was the outward circumstances
and the implication is of course that Lazarus was one that feared
God. And yet his outward circumstances
were not pleasant, they weren't good. It seemed that God's blessing
was upon the rich man, not upon Lazarus. But the other side of
the grave, then Lazarus is in the bosom of Abraham. He's in
the covenant, and the rich man is in hell and in torment. It's
a very, very different picture. And we need to remember that. Zohar here, was misapplying with
Job, but nevertheless is a truth that there is a heritage appointed
unto wicked man by God. As much as with the people of
God that they have an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, reserved
in heaven for them, so there is a heritage that is reserved
for the wicked, most solemn, heritage, a time in hell and
banishment from God or under the eternal wrath of God, and
that is appointed for them. Most solemn, may the Lord give
us to whatever, whether we're wealthy or poor, to know the
fear of the Lord and the blessing of the Lord here below. He shall give grace and glory.
That is what we want, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord will deal with the giving of glory. I want to come now
to the words actually of our text in verse 23 and verse 14. For he performeth the thing that
is appointed for me, and many such things are with him. Now in this verse What the emphasis
is, is that it is the God that is performing what is appointed. So God is appointing these things
and saying at such a time this shall happen, or at such a place
this shall happen. He appoints it, but He also performs
it. You might say, well what about
the crucifixion? What about the Romans and the
Jews and the wicked hands. But God is the performance. Is there evil in the city and
the Lord hath not done it? That is not sinful evil, but
it's things like famines or wars or things that we would call
evil happenings, not nice happenings. But the Lord has done it. Who
is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth
it not? Who is he that saith, and it
cometh to pass, when the Lord permitteth it not? No, it's not
just permitted, it's commanded. That this shall happen, these
things shall be brought to pass. It doesn't take away man's responsibility,
man's accountability. No, that was charged upon those
who crucified our Lord. But we are to look to a performing
God. A God who is able to do exceeding
far above all that we can ask or think. He is not powerless. There are many times in our lives
that we are powerless to do what we want to do. There might be
a loved one we'd like to help them, we can't because of time
or distance. We might want to help someone
but we don't have the money to do it. or we don't have the skill
to do it, or the wisdom to do it. Many times we'd like to be
able to perform one, to bring something about and we cannot.
But that does not apply to the Lord. Is anything too hard for
the Lord? How many times we have that in
Scripture. So with the Lord nothing shall
be called impossible. It was with Abraham and the giving
and the promises of the child of Isaac leading to Christ And
it was as well when John Baptist was to be born again. Both cases
naturally impossible. The women barren or too old to
bear. But the Lord was the one that
was going to perform it and to do it. And so Job he says that
it is He, for He performeth the thing that is appointed for me.
And you say, All of these things that's happened here, that you've
been through, all of your losses, your crosses, we know actually
is Satan. No, he says. The Lord was performing
it. And you think of the account
when David numbered Israel. One account, it says that Satan
stood up against Israel. and he provoked David to number
Israel. Another account says that Israel
had provoked the Lord to anger and he moved David to number
Israel when David was convinced of his sin of pride and of not
paying the five pence into the, or five shekels into the sanctuary
of everyone that was numbered. And the sentence against that,
if they didn't redeem each one by that amount, then a plague
would come on the nation. Well, that is exactly what came
on the nation. And yet when David was convinced
of it, he doesn't say it's the Lord's fault or the Satan's fault. He says, I have sinned. He ascribes
it to his sin. But the Lord used that to show
David where the temple was to be built. David had been preparing
abundantly for the temple, but David, when is it going to be
built? So the Lord overruled that time of numbering Israel
to show where he appeared to have, where the plague was stained,
where the fire came down from heaven, same place as Abraham
offered up Isaac, but the fire didn't come from heaven to off
when Isaac was offered up, because Isaac said, my father, the fire
and the wood, where is the land? The land was missing there, but
there on Mount Moriah, then it was the fire that came down from
heaven. When the temple was built, when
the temple was dedicated, then again the fire came down from
heaven and kindled the altar there. And that all arose from
that affliction, from that appointed time of David numbering Israel. The Lord performed it. He brought
it about. And Job, he says here, and many
such things are with him. The thing that is appointed for
me, he performs it. And so that is the thought to
leave with us, isn't it? Many such things are with him. Many things in our lives. The
Lord is performing, the Lord is working, I will work, and
who will let it, who will hinder it? The Lord's eternal counsel,
it goes on. We're only going to read the
first chapter in Matthew, and we have the lineage, the beautiful
order, fourteen generations from Abraham to David, from David
to the carrying wains of Babylon, from the carrying wains of Babylon
to Christ, 14 generations. You think here is one that is
performing through the history of time a beautiful orderly plan
through all of these generations and bring forth. His son, that's
still going on. We're in the middle of it so
it's hard to see, for us to see this plan and ordering But we
know that it is happening, and many such things, says Job, the
Lord is bringing these things about. And especially, he says here,
for me. It is a personal thing. We do,
it is a help, a comfort when we're looking at loved ones and
their lives as well applies for them. But when we can see for
ourselves when we know in Romans 8 28 we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God to them that are
called according to his purpose and we see this is because the
Lord is performing it and he's causing it to work for good and
it's personal it's for me there's one last one I'll bring before
you in chapter 30 and verse 33 Sorry, it can't be verse 33. It must be another verse. The verse that I should have
the right reference for, I'm not sure where it is, is, is
there not a house appointed for all living? The Lord has appointed
a house for all living. And in one sense it's pointing
to the grave, all must come down into the grave, and all living
must go. We know, of course, when the
Lord comes again, then it shall be that those alive like Enoch
and like Elijah, they shall be caught up with the Lord in the
air. But for the most part, all men,
return to dust, dust thou art, and unto dust thou return. And
Job, he realizes that, that the Lord has appointed this place,
a house, a dwelling for all men. But if we go to the soul, then
we have also either two places, only two places, either heaven
or hell, there's no in between. And may our desire be that what
the Lord has appointed for us is to be with Him in heaven.
I believe there are those things that very clearly scripturally
show that that will be so. It is said that heaven is a prepared
place for a prepared people, that hell is a prepared place
for an unprepared people. But we also know in Psalm 84
that he shall give grace and glory, no good things shall he
withhold from them that walk uprightly. If we are to know
our interest in glory, the Lord will give us grace here. By grace
ye are saved through faith and not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God. Also the very aim of God in salvation
is to bring about a union between him and his people. At the fall,
there's an alienation, a separation, a casting away. In the Lord Jesus Christ, there's
a reconciling by bringing nine. And so rather than looking for
individual texts or the Lord to tell us that our interest
is in heaven, the best token is to be walking with the Lord.
In Romans 8, you read, there is now no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus, who will not after the flesh, but
after the spirit. And that is the best token. If we are to be in union with
the Lord, have the joy of the Lord in heaven, then in a measure
we will know it here below. We will desire to have it, in
the fellowship of the saints, in assembly of the saints, at
the throne of grace, in prayer, to know what it is to have our
heart burn as the two on the way to Emmaus did, to desire
that union with the Lord. We know that we pass from death
unto life because we love the brethren. One of the hymn writers,
he takes it up and said, with them may I be now and to eternity. And so if we are looking for
a token for heaven, look for that token here. So walk with the Lord, enjoying
the Lord, delighting in the Lord, and his people, and his word,
and his ways, and there is our token for heaven. Father, I will that they whom
thou hast given me here, given me as my brethren, be with me
where I am, that they may behold my glory. And that appointed
time then, appointed time of calling by grace, appointed time
to bring home to glory, that is in the Lord's hand. And may
this word then be a comfort, a strength to us on each of these
occasions throughout this book. for he performeth the thing that
is appointed for me, and many such things are with him. The Lord add his blessing. Amen.