Morning. When you find your seats, turn
with me to hymn number 258 in the hardback hymnal. 258. Let's stand, please. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, A wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock, Where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, And covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord. He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love and covers me there with His hand. and covers me there with His
hand. With numberless blessings each
moment He crowns, and filled with His fullness divine. I sing in my rapture, O glory
to God, for such a Redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love and covers me there with His hand. and covers me there with His
hand. When clothed in His brightness
transported, I rise to meet Him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love, I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my soul in
the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand. And covers me there with his
hand. Be seated. Thank you, Adam. Good morning. I don't know of a. Of a him that
would be more appropriate to introduce the message I want
to try to bring this morning. Then the one we just sang. Centers. Are always in need of a hiding
place. A place of refuge. They find themselves. In trouble. all the time and I'm so thankful
that we have the Lord Jesus Christ as that rock. We're going to begin. I want
to introduce this message from Psalm 46 and then we're going
to go to Joshua chapter 20. Psalm 46 will be our first text
this morning. Let's, uh, ask the Lord for his his help.
Our heavenly father, you know that we are men of clay made
of dust. Lord, we're thankful that you
remember our frame and that you're merciful and long suffering toward
us. Or do we come into this place
to worship. We feel so much like the disciples
who could not pray for one hour. Lord, we thank you that you've
made our spirits willing. We come before your throne of
grace, Lord, confessing to you that our flesh is weak. Lord, we ask that you would help
our unbelief. We ask that you would draw us
into thy presence. We ask, Lord, that you would
enable us to put aside those worldly cares that are so distracting
and that you would enable us to worship thee. Lord, that you would open the
eyes of our understanding, that you would unstop our ears. So
many, so many voices and so many things, Lord, that clamor for
our attention. Lord, we we ask that she would
cause us to come unto thee. She would open the windows of
heaven. She will come down and visit with us. Lord, we are in
trouble. And we are in need. of a hiding place, a place of
refuge. We thank you that we have that
in Christ. We pray that that you would reveal
him to our hearts this morning. We ask it in his name. Amen. I've titled this message. Are
you in trouble? And even as I think about that
title, I already know the answer to it. Because the truth is that
all men are in trouble. Some of them know they're in
trouble and most don't. I like what Scott Richardson
once said. He said, God keeps his children
in trouble or coming out of trouble or going into trouble all the
time. And I'm sure that's true. The Lord in his mercy and in
his loving providence has ordained circumstances in our lives that
are beyond our control in order to make us dependent upon him.
And in Christ, we know that he works all these things for good
for them that love him and those that are called according to
his mercy. But we don't believe that we've
got this. The world might think they may
take comfort and confidence in their ability, but God keeps
his children dependent upon him. That is most especially true
when it comes to our sin. When the Lord reveals to us just
a little bit of the depravity of our hearts, we know that we're
in need of a Savior. We're in need of forgiveness.
We're in need of grace. We're in trouble. The Lord gives
us some understanding of the eternal consequences of things.
He causes us to know that it is appointed unto man once to
die and after that the judgment and except we have a hiding place,
except we have a savior, except we have a place of refuge in
Christ, we'll not stand. We'll not stand in that day of
trouble. It's a depravity, it's a testimony to our depravity
that that we don't have remorse until
we're caught. You know that from your own experience,
don't you? Your sorrow and remorse is a whole lot more after you've
been exposed than it is before. And that is a testimony of our
depravity. And here's the good news. The
Lord arrests his children. He exposes them. because he knows
that they'll not be in trouble. They'll not be in need of a hiding
place until he does for them what he did for Saul of Tarsus
and knock them off their high horse and put their face in the
dirt. Saul wasn't in trouble when he was headed to Damascus.
He was riding high. He had letters from the high
priest. He had power and authority. He didn't know anything about
trouble. Oh, he was in trouble, he just didn't know it. So there's
the difference. The difference is that all men
are in trouble. Some have been arrested. They've been exposed. And they see their need for Christ. Others are in just as much trouble. They're in just as much trouble.
They just don't know it. So when I ask the question, are
you in trouble? I want to answer that question
by saying, I hope you are. I hope you are. I'm in trouble. I need Christ. I've got circumstances that I'm
unable. to bear. You know, people say,
well, God won't put on you more than you can bear. Well, you
better hope he does. You better hope he does, because
if you can bear it, you won't need him. And that's the trouble
that the Lord puts us in. He causes us to see our inability
to bear our circumstances and most especially to bear our sin.
And then we find ourselves seeking a place of refuge, seeking a
hiding place. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 46. So thankful that the Lord keeps
his children poor and needy, aren't you? He keeps us coming
before the throne of grace to find help in our time of need. We have a need. There's the difference. The unbeliever has a need, they're
just not aware of it. They're not sensible to it. David was. Look what he says
in Psalm 46. God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. Therefore, will not we fear,
though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried
into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof,
Selah, there is a river. The streams whereof shall make
glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the
Most High. God is in the midst of her. She
shall not be moved. He shall help her. And that,
right early. The heathen raged. The kingdoms
were moved. He uttered his voice. The earth
melted. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge. that cleft in the rock, that
hiding place that we just sang about. The Lord of hosts is with
us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Come, behold the works of the Lord. What desolations he had
made in the earth. Here's our hope. This is what
we've come here to do this morning, to behold the works of the Lord,
to look to Christ, and rejoice in him and in what he's accomplished. He maketh wars to cease unto
the ends of the earth. He breaketh the bow and cutteth
the spear asunder. He burneth the chariots in the
fire. Oh, by nature, we've got our
fists raised to heaven. By nature, we're at enmity with
God. By nature, we will not bow. We
will not come. He makes our spears into plowshares
and our swords into pruning forks. He takes away the enmity. He brings us into fellowship
with him. And so that there's no more conflict. Be still. I hope the Lord will enable us
this hour to be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted
among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob, the God of
Jacob is our refuge. So I ask again, are you in trouble?
Do you need a place of refuge? You need a savior. If you do, that's a work of grace. That's the testimony of God's
spirit upon you. Because the natural man, he may want $2 worth of God just
to get him through another difficulty, but he's not really in trouble. Turn with me to Joshua, Joshua
chapter 20. We looked at the cities of refuge last
Sunday. We saw how the Lord had provided
for the children of Israel a place where they could go and escape
the avenger of blood. If a man killed another man unwittingly. It was a mistake. It was no forethought,
it was no intent, it was an accident. The Lord knew these things would
take place and what a picture of what we've done in slaying our Lord. It was for
our sin that he died And we are unwitting of that until the Spirit
of God causes us to see that and to believe that. We are not
suggesting that we're unwitting in our sin. We sin with our eyes
wide open. We sin purposefully. But we have no understanding
as to the consequences of that sin until the Lord shows us that
the Lord Jesus Christ himself bore our sins in his body upon
the tree. And then as Zechariah chapter
12 says, we mourn after him as one who mourneth after his only
son, the death of his only son. It's when the spirit of grace
and supplication is poured out upon the house of Israel. And
that's always our hope, that the Lord will pour out his spirit
and cause us to become witting to see that it was my sin that
was placed on Christ. Only the Spirit of God can do
that. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
bore all the sins of all of his elect and that he put them away
once and for all by the sacrifice of himself, and that he was successful
in what he came to do, to save his church. We know that. And
the question in the sober man's heart is, but was it for me? But was it for me? And only the
spirit of grace and supplication can teach you that. Only as the
spirit of God points you to Christ and gives you comfort in him
and hope in him and a need for him, can you have any assurance
that what he did was for you? This man had killed another man
accidentally. The Lord provided six cities
in Israel and if you look on a map you'll see that these cities
are evenly spaced from north to south and three on the east
side of the Jordan and three on the west side of the Jordan
so that wherever you lived in Israel there would be a city
of refuge you could flee to. These were Levitical cities. The tribe of Levi did not inherit
any land in Israel. If you look at a map of the 12
tribes of Israel and where they were located as Joshua divided
up the land, you'll see that Levi didn't have any land. They were the priestly tribe.
And their cities were scattered. They lived in cities scattered
all throughout Israel so that you always had access to a priest. What a picture. We're the believer. The church is the priestly tribe.
We don't have any land in this world. We don't have any interest
in this world. Our home is not here. We have
an eternal home and we have access to the very into the very presence
of God as the priest of God. God said, I will make unto you
a nation of priests. And so with the Lord Jesus Christ
as our high priest, we are able to come into the very presence
of God, knowing that he as our forerunner has gone in and put
his blood on the mercy seat and we can come into the presence
of God. These cities of refuge are a
picture of the church They're a picture of the church. And
they're scattered all over, as are the churches of the Lord. They're scattered all over the
world. They're little here, little there. None of them are great
and impressive in the eyes of the world, but they're the people
of God. And those who have been responsible for the death
of Christ, for their sin, have a place where they can go, a
hiding place, a place of refuge. This is what the Lord tells us
in the book of Revelation when he says the woman, that's the
church, was cast out into the world but the Lord made a place
for her in the wilderness. And the two great wings of the
eagle take her to that place. God's Word and God's Spirit,
the Spirit of God blessing the Word of God, takes us to the
place where we can rest, where we can hide, and we can find
our hope and all of our salvation in Christ. That's what these
cities of refuge are pictures of. Only as the Lord is pleased to
reveal himself will we ever see ourselves for
what we are. When Isaiah saw the Lord high
and lifted up, the first words out of his mouth were, woe is
me, I'm undone, I'm in trouble. I'm a man of unclean lips, I
live among a people of unclean lips, there's nobody to help
me. My eyes have seen the king, I'm gonna die. And the Lord took
a coal from off the altar and touched his lips. But Isaiah
could not see his need until the Lord was pleased to reveal
himself. When Daniel saw the Lord, He
said, my comeliness, my beauty and my strength and my ability
is now turned into corruption. I've got no strength in and of
myself. It's always the case, always
the case. When Peter saw the Lord after
the resurrection, he fell at his feet and he said, I was thinking about what Thomas
said, but, Peter said, depart from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man.
You see, we see ourselves, don't we? When Job heard Elihu tell
him about Christ, and then he heard the voice of God himself,
the Lord Jesus spoke to him through the message that Elihu had preached.
That's always our hope. Elihu was just the messenger.
If God doesn't take the words of the messenger and make them
effectual to the heart, we'll not hear from God. But Job heard
from God. And after Job heard from God,
what did he say? Behold, behold, I see something
I never saw before. Look at there. I am vile. I'm a sinful man. I need a place
of refuge. I need a hiding place. I'm in
trouble. I'm in trouble. And I say again,
what we're talking about right now is true of all men. It's
true of all men. It's true of every person that's
here. And if the Lord's pleased to
show it to us, that's a great mercy. That's our hope. You have your Bibles open to
Joshua chapter 20. After this man who was, you see, I'll repeat
something I said already last week, that the law is very strict. The law of God is inflexible.
The law of God demands perfect execution of its demands, of
its requirements. And the law of God says an eye
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And so the continuation of that
is a life for a life. And so even if you committed
manslaughter, you killed someone accidentally, the law says you
got to die. And the nearest of kin to the
person that you killed had the legal right to take your life
in retribution for the life that you took. That's the law. Inflexible. Unless you could
get to a city of refuge. And you stay in that city. The law couldn't come. The avenger
of blood was not allowed in that city to take your life. You were
safe there. You were safe there. The law
of God pursues sin relentlessly. It will not allow a single infraction
to go unpunished. It requires exact retribution. Letter for letter. And the Lord
Jesus Christ said, I did not come to destroy the law, I came
to fulfill it. I came to fulfill it. He is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. The full weight of the law was
poured out in retribution against Christ on Calvary's cross as
he bore in his body upon that tree the sins of his people.
And God saw the travail of his soul, and God said, I'm satisfied. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
city of refuge. There's no excuse for any Israelite
to not be able to get to one of these cities. The only reason they would not
flee to a city is if they thought, well, you know, I'm innocent.
I didn't do that. I'm not guilty. I can face the
law and I can prove that I'm innocent. But for those who have been arrested,
they've been caught, they've been exposed, oh, they're gonna
need a place of refuge. Six cities. Very quickly, I want
us to look at them. Verse seven of Joshua chapter
20. And they appointed Kadesh in Galilee and Mount Naphtali
and Shechem in Mount Ephraim and Kirjath Arba, which is Hebron
in the mountain of Judah. And on the other side of Jordan
by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon
the plain out of the tribe of Reuben and Ramoth in Gilead,
out of the tribe of Gad and Golan in Bashan, out of the tribe of
Manasseh. As I said, these cities were
evenly spaced and each one of them tells us something about
the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ as our city
of refuge. One at a time. Kedesh. Kedesh. Translated, it means
holy. Holy. Now holy involves moral
purity, but it's so much more than that. Holiness means other
than. It means that there's nothing
in me whatsoever that's like him. Unless Christ be in me. And he'd be my hope of glory.
Now I've got the very holiness of God. Now I've been sanctified
in him. But here's what you and I need.
You see, because of his holiness, our sin demanded death. Death was the only penalty that
would satisfy his holiness for sin. And because he is holy,
his death was the only death able to put away sin. You see,
if we die in our sins, we'll never be able to satisfy the
demands of God's holy justice in an eternity of hell. You know,
sometimes you hear people say, well, you know, they've suffered
and now they're not suffering anymore. And most of the time
I hear that, I think, oh, you have no idea. You have no idea,
their sufferings in this world were nothing now compared to
what they are for all eternity. And here's the truth, if a man
spent a thousand years in the fires of hell and came back to
this earth, he would not have an interest in the gospel. unless
the Lord did a work of grace in his heart. What I'm saying
is that there's no amount of suffering that will redeem you,
and there's no amount of suffering that will teach you the truth
of the gospel. These things are done by grace.
This is the work of the Spirit of God. He's holy. He's holy. It all begins with
His holiness. Everything about our God begins
with His holiness. And here's what the Lord tells
us, for by one offering, by one offering, because He was a holy
sacrifice, by one offering, He has sanctified, made holy forever,
perfected forever them that are sanctified, those that are made
holy. His offering was effectual and
acceptable to God because he is holy. Oh, we've got to flee to the
one that's holy. If we have any, God's eyes are
too pure to look upon sin. Without holiness, the Bible says,
no man can see God. If we don't have Christ as our
holiness before God, we'll not be able to stand in the presence
of God. Sinners who are in trouble and in need of a refuge flee
first to Kadesh. They flee to that place. Notice in our text in verse seven,
and they appointed. That word means holy. And the word holy means set apart
or sanctified. God has to set us apart. He's
the only one that can make us holy. And there's no holiness
outside of Christ. No holiness outside of Christ.
Oh, but in him. Listen to what the Lord Jesus
said in John chapter 17. He said, I sanctify myself. He's praying to the father. on
behalf of his church, and he says, I sanctify myself. He's the only one that could
ever say that. I make myself holy. That they also might be
sanctified in the truth. So the hope of our holiness is
in the truth of his holiness. Those that are in trouble flee to Kadesh. They flee to
the one who is holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, the spotless
Lamb of God, the only hope. But in Him, in Him, we have perfect
righteousness, perfect holiness before God. Notice In our text, Kadesh was
the first city in Mount Naphtali and Shechem is the second city. These six cities point us to
Christ. They reveal to us who he is and
we cannot see ourselves for what we are and our need for what
it is until the Lord's pleased to reveal himself. And so these
types and shadows are revealed in the light of the gospel. Shechem
translated means shoulder. It means shoulder. Oh, what broad
shoulders our Lord has. His shoulders are broad enough
to bear the yoke of the law and to satisfy all of its demands. His shoulders are the only shoulders
that are broad enough to bear the sins of his people. The scripture says the governments
are upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful.
The Lord Jesus Christ like Like Samson, you remember when Samson,
Samson went to Gaza and Gaza was a city of the Philistines
and Gaza by translation means strength. It's the strength of
man. And Samson went to Gaza and he
took the gates of that city with its hinges and put them on his
shoulders and carried them up the mountain and exposed the
city of those who were trusting in their own strength and in
their own righteousness. There's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He has taken the very gates of hell. He said the gates of hell
shall not be able to prevail against me. He goes in to the
place where his people are held captive and he leads, the scripture
says, captivity captive. He leads captivity captive. Now
what that tells me is that all men are captive. You're either
captive to the devil or you're captive to Christ. All men are
slaves. You are a slave right now. You're either a slave and a servant
to Christ or you're a slave and a servant to the devil. And the
Lord Jesus Christ is the only one with shoulders broad enough
to remove the gates of hell, the very strength of man, and
go in and lead those who are captive to their sin and captive
to their own will and captive to their blind, dead nature and
make them captive to himself. And in doing so, he sets them
free. He sets them free. Oh, there's
freedom, there's liberty in worshiping, in being a servant to Christ. There's freedom. Freedom from
our sin, freedom from death, freedom from hell, freedom from
the difficulty, not the difficulties, but the fear of our circumstances,
freedom from fear. What rest there is, what hope
there is in being able to go to the one who has ordained everything
as the one who has the governments upon his shoulders and know that,
Lord, you're sovereign in this. I can't handle this. This is
beyond my understanding and beyond my ability, but I can rest my
head in knowing that you're in control. You've ordained this,
you've purposed this. I can rest there. That's faith,
that's trusting God. He's the only one with the shoulders
able to do that. Our shoulders can't do it. Kedesh,
holy. Shechem, shoulders. Oh, he's able to save to the
uttermost them that come to God by him. The third city is Hebron. Hebron translated means fellowship. Fellowship. Our fellowship is
with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. First John
1.3. And if we walk in the light as
he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanses us of all of our sins. I will sup with
them and they will sup with me. We are by nature at enmity with
God. We're separated from him because
of our sin. Your sins have separated you
from your God. And when by the spirit of God,
we're able to come in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, have our
sins put away we have fellowship with God we're able to come boldly
and that word doesn't mean with some sort of irreverent cocky
spirit it means to come with confidence and our confidence
is not in ourselves. We are the circumcision created
in Christ Jesus, worship Christ Jesus, worship him in the spirit
and have no confidence in the flesh. Our confidence is in Christ. And so we come before the throne
of grace with great boldness, great confidence, knowing that
the Lord Jesus Christ is our Hebron. He's our Hebron, the
holy one who has made a way for us to have fellowship with God. John 14, 20, I am in my father
and you in me and I in you. You shall be my people and I
shall be your God. We have fellowship with God.
Who's this for? It's for the manslayer. It's
for the one who's been caused to see that though they were
unwitting in putting the Lord Jesus to death, now they see
that it was their sin for which he died and they must have a
city of refuge. They must flee to the one who
is holy, the one who has broad enough shoulders to bear the
weight of their sin and the weight of God's law and the weight of
the gates of hell. They must come before the one
in whom they have fellowship with God. And blessed is that
man whom the Lord chooses and whom the Lord causes to come
unto him. God has to bless us for us to
come unto him. God has to choose us. This is
not a decision that we make. This is a work of grace. The
fourth city of refuge is the city of Bezer. And Bezer means
a remote fortress or a remote stronghold. And the scripture says that we
have to come out from among them and be separate. We follow the
Lord Jesus Christ outside the gates where he was put outside
of religion. He was put outside of the world.
This is a remote fortress. This isn't a place where we can
just have fellowship with the world. This is a place where God brings
us into a wilderness. wilderness we sang Adam you let
us in that hymn this this dry land in which we live this is
a parched land there's no there's no water here there's no food
here the Lord takes us outside of this city and and puts us
in Christ and causes us to come out from among them and be separate apart from the safety of the
multitude. David said in Psalm 62, verse
six, he only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved. I have
fled to Bezer. I have fled to the place where
I have safety in Christ. Oh, child of God, when the battle
of sin Rages in your heart. There's a stronghold. There's
a place of refuge. There's a city. It's come down
from heaven. The place where we can have rest.
When the accuser of the brethren sows seeds of fear and doubt
in your heart, there's Beezer. Go to Beezer. It's a remote stronghold. You're not gonna find it anywhere
in the things of this world. You've got to come out of those
things and find them only in Christ. When sickness attacks
the body, we have a stronghold. There is Beezer that we can flee
to. He only is my strength. He only
is my fortress. When sorrow afflicts the soul, We have a city of refuge, fleet
of Beezer. It's a stronghold. And most importantly,
most importantly, when God separates the sheep from the goats and
the overflowing scourge comes in the wrath and judgment of
God, we have a stronghold. We have a beezer. We have a fortress. It's a remote place, but it's
safe. It's safe. Fifthly, the fifth
city mentioned here is the city of Ramoth. Ramoth by translation
means exaltation. We need a successful savior who
has been given by God a name that is above every name. A name that every knee shall
bow and every tongue shall confess, that He is Lord. Oh, we need
Him to exalt Himself in our hearts. We won't exalt Him. We'll exalt
ourselves. We'll promote ourselves. But
when the Spirit of God exalts the Lord Jesus Christ and lifts
Him up, only then will we be able to believe. That he's sovereign
in salvation. That he's the one that caused
me to come. He's the one that caused me to
believe. It is not of him that willeth. It is not of him that
runneth. It is of God that showeth mercy. I need one who's able to sit
at the very right hand of God and be my advocate with the Father.
That's an exalted one. Sit thou here at my right hand
until I make thine enemies thy footstool. That's what the father
said to his son. When the Lord Jesus Christ ascended
back into glory, he was exalted, exalted. Scripture says, in that day of
judgment, His enemies will cry out for the rocks to fall upon
them in order to hide them from the face of the lamb. They didn't
go to Bezer. They didn't go to Ramoth. They
didn't go to that city of exaltation. They trusted in themselves. They
exalted themselves. And when he shows his face, there'll
be nothing but fear. Oh, flee to Christ. He's the
exalted one. He's the exalted one. He's the
great savior. And we are great sinners. The sixth and last city is the
city of Golan. And Golan translated means rejoicing,
rejoicing. In all of these things, His holiness,
His broad shoulders, the fellowship that we're able to have with
God, a strong remote fortress, and His exaltation gives us reason
to rejoice so that we can rejoice, rejoice in the Lord. And again,
I say rejoice. Oh, what hope, what joy, what
comfort, what peace. The afflictions of the heart
are moved The eyes of understanding are
enlightened. The desire of our will is for
his glory. Our affections, our affections
are moved in love and in hope. Rejoicing. And I want to close
by reading Revelation chapter five, if you'll turn with me
there in your Bibles. Revelation chapter five. Are you in trouble? I know you are. I know you are. Just like I am. No question about that. Do you
know you are? In a trouble that only Christ
can meet. Revelation chapter five, verse
nine, and they sung a new song saying, thou art worthy to take
the book and open the seals thereof for thou was slain and has redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and
people and nation. Job put it like this, men who
are born of woman are a few days and full of trouble. Full of
trouble. Now God says that. He didn't
say believers are full of trouble. He said
men, a man born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble.
Oh, what a day of rejoicing it's going to be when we're in His
presence and we're able to worship Him as we would now if we could,
to see Him in the fullness of His glory and to join our voices
with that heavenly song and say, Thou art worthy. Thou art worthy. And he has made us, he has made
us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne and the beast of the
elders and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands
of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that
was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory. and blessings and every creature
which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and
such as they're in the sea and all that are in them heard I
say in blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that
sitteth upon the throne and unto the lamb forever and forever. We see in part now and we rejoice
in faith. But then, then, We'll see him in the fullness
of his glory and be made like him. There's no faith in heaven.
No faith in heaven. Faith is going to be your, your,
your sight. You don't have to believe in
something that you can see. There's no hope in heaven. We
hope for that, which we've not yet experienced, but our experience
is going to take away hope. And so faith, hope, and charity,
the greatest of these is love. Why? Because that's all we're
gonna have in heaven. All we're gonna have, perfect,
perfect, sinless love. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is our city of refuge, a very present help in time of trouble.