Our Bibles together to Romans
chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. We'll begin reading at verse
15. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption. Whereby we
cry Abba Father. The Spirit itself bearing witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. It's only the
Holy Spirit that can give you assurance of salvation. And if children, then heirs.
Here's the point. If children, if we're the children
of God, then we're heirs of God and join heirs with Christ. If
so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified
together. There's the goal. I want us to
think tonight about glory. And here the Lord says in verse 18,
for I reckon, and you know that word means, I am determined to
be so. By the truth of God's word, I
reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of
the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of
God, who have not yet been manifested as the sons of God. In the world
today, we look just like everybody else. One day, we're gonna look
completely different, completely different. For the creature was
made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has
subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption and to the glorious
liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. I want you
to think about that verse when we get to our text in Psalm 137. Whole creation and the believer
groaneth and travaileth in pain in hope for our redemption. But not only they, but ourselves
also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves,
grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption
of our body. These vile bodies will be translated
into incorruptible bodies. We'll see him as he is, and we
may be made like him. For we are saved by hope, but
hope that is seen is not hope. But what a man seeth, why does
he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which
we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Let's pray. Our merciful and glorious Heavenly
Father, we come into thy holy presence thanking you for the
successful, accomplished work of redemption by thy dear son. We thank you that he is our forerunner,
that he's gone before us, that he's seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high, and that he ever lives to make intercession
for us. Lord, we pray that you would
send your spirit and power, that you would reveal to our hearts
The glorious person and accomplished work give us faith to rest our
hope in Christ. Lord, we pray that you would
enable us to set our affections this hour on things above, not
on things of the earth. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 17 in the hardback timbrel, 17. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
To my heart to sing Thy praise. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon
it, mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither
by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to
arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God, He to rescue me from danger,
interposed His precious blood. O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be! Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to ponder, Lord, I feel
it, prone to leave Please be seated. Will you turn with me in God's
word to Psalm 137. Psalm 137. I've titled this message Longing
for Glory. Longing for Glory. I've heard men interpret this
psalm as a believer who is caught up in a spirit of depression. I've heard others interpret this
psalm as believers who are caught up in the sins of this world
and has lost their sight. of the hope of salvation, but
I do not believe that's at all what the Lord's telling us here.
I think he's telling us the same thing we just read in Romans
chapter 8, that the believer's heart is not in this world. Our flesh is in this world and
our flesh is attached to this world and our flesh will do everything
it can do to remain in this world, but at the same time the new
man the new man, the born of the spirit man, is seeking to
see the Lord in the fullness of his glory, which we don't
have now. We're satisfied with Christ as
our substitute, but we're not satisfied with ourselves yet.
One day we will be. In order to understand the psalm,
it's important that we understand what the Bible means by Babylon. Notice in verse one, by the rivers
of Babylon. Now in Genesis chapter 11, you
know that the scripture speaks of man being of one language
and they found a plain in the land of Shinar. And Shinar interpreted
means a land of two rivers. And of course, geographically,
Babylon is located there where the Tigris and the Euphrates
come together. But the spiritual meaning of
Babylon has something to do with the fact that there are a mixture. The word Babylon means confusion
by mixing. That's what Babylon, that's what
the word Babylon means, confusion by mixing. And we know that when
they came to the land of Shinar, which means the land of two rivers,
A river is a source of life. And here we have a picture of
the same thing that's illustrated by the fact that they're trying
to build a city and a tower up to heaven with bricks as stone
and slime as mortar. In short, Babylon is the mixing
of grace with works. That's what it is. And every
religion in this world does that. The gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace in the accomplished work and the glorious person
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only message of salvation to
be found anywhere in the world that has one river, one source,
stone for bricks and a tower that actually does reach all
the way to heaven. That's the goal. Man comes into
this world, doesn't take him long to realize that he's not
gonna live forever in this world. He's gonna die. And all men know
by nature that there is a God with whom they must do And so
every religious persuasion of the world is Babylonish. Everybody cries out to a God
for his mercy, and yet they try at the same time to earn his
mercy by something that they do, particularly by their own
will. And that's what Babylon means. And so the child of God who has
been taught by the Spirit of God to believe the gospel of
God's free grace knows that this world, everything in this world, is a mixture of error. And it's an attempt on man's
part to mix grace with works. And the scriptures are clear.
If it is of works, it can no longer be of grace. Otherwise,
works is not works. If it's of grace, it can no longer
be of works. Otherwise, grace is not grace.
You cannot mix the two. And yet, that's what everybody
does. Only by the revelation of the Spirit of God will a sinner
come to trust Christ alone for all their salvation. Everything
else, everything else is Babylon. Turn with me to Mark chapter
13. Mark chapter 13. The child of God is grieved in
spirit by not only this Babylonian world in which we live, but he's
grieved in spirit by what we just sang. He's prone to wander. He's prone to leave the God that
he loves. He has to be reminded constantly
of who Christ is and what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished,
lest he find himself placing his hope in something other than
Christ. And so he's grieved in spirit
by his own sin and by the sins of this world, which rob Christ
of his glory in salvation. Look at Mark chapter 13 at verse 14. And when you shall
see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet
standing where it ought not. Now abomination is a foul thing.
And desolation is that which has been cut off. And so the
Lord, and look what else he says in this verse. Let him that readeth
understand. I always had a problem with that,
because I thought, well, was Daniel speaking about what happened
in 150 BC when the Syrians came and they sacrificed a pig on
the altar of God? Was he talking about the destruction
of Jerusalem that took place in 70 AD? No. No. Let him who has understanding
understand what the abomination of desolation is. The abomination
of desolation is that which stands where it ought not. Now what
stands where it ought not? What stands where it ought not?
Man's will and man's works. That's what stands where it ought
not. That's the abomination of desolation. That's what That's
what is defiled in the sight of God. Anything that would substitute
Christ for our salvation or add to Christ or take away from Christ
is the abomination of desolation. It is something that stands where
it ought not. It's Babylon. It is Babylon. It's everything that's seen in
the building of that city of Babel. It's the confusion of
speech that God gave to all men when he destroyed that city and
they scattered about, all speaking a different language, unable
to hear one another and unable to understand. Well, isn't that,
that's such a clear picture of man-made religion, isn't it?
It's a mixture, it's a mixture of grace with works. It's adding to what the Lord
Jesus Christ did. That's what Babylon is. And we
are grieved to live in Babylon. And we are here by the two rivers
of Babylon and we're grieved more More than the hypocrisy
and the Pharisaical spirit of works religion, we're grieved
more by the hypocrisy and the recovering Pharisee that exists
in our own flesh. That's what we are. And so we're
groaning for the redemption of this vile body. We're groaning
for that day when the corruptible will be made incorruptible and
the mortal will be made immortal. We'll see him as he is. That's
what this psalm's all about. So we have to understand Babylon
is not just the sinful world. Babylon's where we live. How
long were the children of Israel in Babylon? Exactly 70 years. Exactly 70 years. What does God
say the life of a man on this earth is? Three score and 10,
70 years. And why were they sent to Babylon?
Well, let me show you that from the scriptures. Before we do,
let me turn to one more passage of scripture, Revelation chapter
18. Revelation chapter 18. Verse one, and after these things,
I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power
and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily
with a strong voice saying, Babylon, the great is fallen. Now this
is the destruction of this world and all the religious systems
and error that's in this world. Babylon the great has fallen,
has fallen, and has become the habitation of devils, the hold
of every foul spirit, the cage of every unclean and hateful
bird. And all nations have drunk of
the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of
the earth have committed fornication with her. And the merchants of
the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from
heaven saying, come out of her, my people. that you be not partakers
of her sins and that you receive not of her plagues. And we rejoice
to hear the Lord say that to us, don't we? Come out of her,
my people. Oh Lord, I've gotten too caught
up. In, you know, when the children
of Israel went to Babylon, when they came back 70 years later,
some of them stayed. They didn't all leave. It wasn't
like when they came out of Egypt. When they came out of Egypt,
not a hoof, the scripture says, was left behind. But a lot of
the, a lot of the Jews stayed in Babylon. They had, after 70
years, they had set up businesses. They had, you know, made their
homes. They had intermarried and they
just, they just stayed there. And It wasn't but the faithful
ones that came back. Came back to rebuild the temple.
And we find ourselves getting caught up with Babylon, don't
we? Second Chronicles chapter 36.
Turn with me there. Second Chronicles chapter 36. Why were the children of Israel sent to Babylon? Second Chronicles chapter 36
at verse 20, and them that had escaped
from the sword carried he away to Babylon. where they were servants
to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia,
to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah. until
the land had enjoyed her sabbaths. For as long as she lay desolate,
she kept sabbath to fulfill three score and ten years. Now the
Levitical law, God required the children of Israel to let the
land lay fallow the seventh year. So they could cultivate the land
six years, and on the seventh year, they had to not cultivate
it, and God promised them. He said, on the sixth year, I'll
give you three years' worth of crops on the sixth year. That'll
cover the sixth year, that'll cover the seventh year, and that'll
cover the eighth year while that crop's growing. And they never
did it. They did not let the land rest
on the Sabbath. And then the Lord said, every
seven times seven years, which is the 49th year, there's to
be the year of Jubilee. And that's when whatever land
was sold during those 49 years, went back to its original owners,
all slaves were set free and all debt was canceled. And when
the Lord came, hey, look with me to Luke chapter four. They didn't practice the year
of Jubilee. Why? Because those who were in
charge of leading the nation would have had to cancel the
debts that people owed them. They would have had to let the
slaves go that they owned. They would have had to return
the land that they had gotten over the years back to its original
owner. And so they never acknowledged the Sabbath year or the year
of Jubilee. Look at Luke chapter 4. When the Lord went to Nazareth
and In verse 18, he opened the scriptures to the book of Isaiah.
In Isaiah 61, he said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has
sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives and the recovery of sight to the blind, to set at
liberty to them that are bruised. Everything that the Sabbath was
supposed to accomplish. The Lord Jesus said, I've come
to do that. And look at verse 19, and to
preach. You see that term acceptable
year? That's the year of Jubilee. And to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord, the year of Jubilee. The children of Israel
were sent into Babylonian captivity because they refused to acknowledge
the days and the years of rest that God had given them to observe. Now what were those days of rest
all about? Well, turn with me to Hebrews chapter four. It's what the Lord said, I'm
gonna send you into Babylon for 70 years because you have not,
in fulfillment, in fulfillment to Jeremiah's prophecy. God raised up the prophet Jeremiah
and told him, God's gonna do this because you did not observe
the Sabbath. Now, what's it about? What's
it about? You know, not planting crops
on the seventh year, is that what the Sabbath was all about?
Look at Hebrews chapter four. Verse five, and in this place
again, if they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore it
remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it
was first preached entered not in because of unbelief. Again,
he limited a certain day, saying to David, today, after so long
a time, as it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden
not your heart. For if, and you know Jesus and
Joshua is the same name, and it was the Lord Jesus Christ
that was leading Joshua, but the picture here is that of Joshua
bringing the children across the Jordan into the promised
land. And so he says, he says, for if Joshua had given them
rest, Then he would not afterwards have spoken of another day. There
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. There's still
a rest that remains for the people of God. For he that is entered
into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did
from his. Let us labor therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. What are we laboring for, brethren?
What is the rest that we're looking? We're resting our hope in Christ
right now. He's our Sabbath. And faith acknowledges all those
Old Testament pictures of Sabbath rest. But we're not entered into
our full rest yet. That's what the psalm that we're
gonna look at in a moment is all about. It's the children
of Israel exiled to this land of Babylon for 70 years because
they refused to acknowledge Christ as the only hope of their salvation. They refused to rest the hope
of their salvation in the promises of God. And we live in a world
that, well, they have bricks for stone. They have slime for
mortar. They're trying to build a tower
up to God. It's located in the land of the two rivers. They're
looking to do two different sources for the hope of their salvation.
And here we are with two natures having the same struggle within
that we have in this world. Isn't that our experience? And we're groaning for the day
when this vile body shall be redeemed. And we've not yet fully
enter into his rest. And we're laboring now. We're
laboring in faith. We're fighting the good fight,
as Paul said. We're struggling with this old
man, and we're And we're longing for that day when we'll be delivered
from all the unbelief that's in us and that's in this world. This is what this psalm is all
about. Oh, if we could have If we could
have perfect faith, that's what distinguished the Lord Jesus
from us. His faith was perfect. If we
could have perfect faith, but the child of God is always crying,
Lord, I do believe, oh, help thou my unbelief. Lord, this
old man, he's always, my sin is ever before me. Lord, I'm
in Babylon. I've got Babylon in me. I'm longing for that day. Oh,
what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we
shall see him as he is and be made like him. That's the longing
of the believer soul to be delivered from Babylon. It's where we live. It's who we are. It's the two
natures that we have. Second thing that's important
to understand this psalm is to understand what the scripture
means by Zion. Turn back with me to our text. By the rivers of Babylon, there
we sat down. Yea, we wept when we remembered
Zion. Zion is also referred to as Jerusalem,
the city of peace, also referred to as the city of David. What
is Zion? What is the city of Jerusalem?
Abraham looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder
and maker was God. And he wandered. He was a stranger
in the land, wasn't he? And he was our father by the
faith. He's the father of the faithful. So we're just like
Abraham. We live in a strange land. We're foreigners in this
land, as Abraham was. We're looking for that city. Turn to me to Revelation chapter
21. Oh, I want. Scripture says they that have
this hope. This hope. Purify themselves. This is the I made this statement
recently. I I said. You've heard it said
I'm sure in accusation against. Preaching on heaven. that, well,
you know, that person's so heavenly-minded they're no earthly good. And
that's so far from the truth. The more heavenly-minded you
and I can be, day by day, the more earthly good we'll be to
our family, our friends, in service to God. Look at Revelation chapter 21.
This is the conclusion. How many times we read this in
the scriptures? And I saw a new heaven, verse
one, and a new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away and there was no more sea, no
more turbulence, no more separation. That's what the sea represents.
The way of the Lord is through the seas and the seas are difficult
places. I reckon that the sufferings
of this world are not to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed
in us. And I, John, saw the holy city,
new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, "'for the former things are passed away.' And
he that sat upon the throne said, "'Behold, I make all things new.'
And he said unto me, "'Write, for these words are true and
faithful, "'for I am the Alpha and the Omega, "'the beginning
and the end.'" Salvations of the Lord. The Alpha, the first
letter of the alphabet, the Omega, the last letter of the alphabet.
The Lord said, I'm everything from election, in the covenant
of grace, before the foundation of the world, through redemption,
through regeneration, through sanctification, all the way to
glorification. I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end. I've done it all. This is, This
is the only message that's not of Babylon. You see, Babylon
is a mixture. It's mixing the grace of God
and the glory of God and the accomplished work of Christ with
something that man does. And as I said, it doesn't even
have to be Christianity. Every pagan religion of this
world is Babylonish. So this is what You know, sometimes
we refer to the church as Zion or the church as Jerusalem. Oh,
it's such a faint, such a faint picture of it, isn't it? It's
such a frail type and it's such an imperfect type. It is the
closest, it's the only place where we can come to hear about
how it is a man can be right with God. It's the only place. It's the only place that the
Lord is going to teach a sinner how to get to heaven. The only place. But this is not heaven. It's the one place we can come.
and get some reprieve from the conflicts of this world and have
fellowship with like-minded believers who are rejoicing in Christ.
And it's the place where we can hear about Christ and be reminded
of this spirit of Babylon that we all struggle with and the
world of Babylon that we all live in. And it's the place where
we comfort one another. We comfort one another. with
these words. Isn't that what the Lord said?
Turn with me to that passage of scripture in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Verse 14, and if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. That's the goal. The goal is
to be with the Lord. Why did the Lord come? Why did
he save us from our sins? You know, I listened to most
preaching today and it's all about Well, minding the things of the
flesh, they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the
flesh. It's all about, you know, how to, how to be a better person,
how to live a better life, how to have happiness, how to have
peace, how to have joy. The gospel is all about how to
get to heaven. It's what it's about. That's
our, that's the goal. Look what he says, verse 15.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which
are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not
prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with the shout and with the voice of the archangel
and the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds. to meet the Lord in the air,
and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort
ye one another with these words. Are those words comforting to
you, brethren? That the Lord Jesus Christ is our forerunner,
has gone, and he's gone into glory, and he's taking with him
the names of those that he lived and died for. And he's seated
at the right hand of the majesty on high, and he's alive, and
he intercedes for us, and he's promised us eternal life. Eternal life. I asked the question
Sunday. I said, if you were lying on
your deathbed, what would be important to you? Because that's
what's important right now. What would be important to you?
There'd be only one thing important to you. I mean, you've got moments
left in this world. You're drawing your last breath.
What's the only thing that's important to you? going to heaven, being with the
Lord, having your sins forgiven, being right with God, having
eternal life. That's the only thing. Nothing
else matters. What you've accomplished, what
you haven't accomplished, what you've done, what you haven't
done, what you've accumulated, what you haven't accumulated,
none of that's going to matter. None of it's going to matter.
There's only one thing that's going to matter. When I open
my eyes, am I going to be with the Lord? That's it. That's the only thing
really that ever matters, isn't it? I mean, other things matter,
but that's the one thing that matters the most. That's it. Turn back with me to our Psalm,
Psalm 136. Look at verse 137. We hanged
our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. These are
weeping willows. What an appropriate picture.
We're not able to sing the songs of Zion here like we will there. The men of this world want to
know what we believe. You can't enter into it. Look at verse three. For they
that carried us away captive required of us a song, and they
that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, sing us one of
the songs of Zion. Oh, we struggle to sing these
songs. The world can't enter into our
hope, our faith, How shall we sing the Lord's song? That word
strange land is among a strange people. We're strangers in this
world. Everything about this world is
contrary to that which we hold precious. This world hates God. The evidence of that is that
they are looking to something other than Christ for salvation. They've robbed Christ of his
glory. Look at verse five. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning. If I forget where I'm
going, if I forget what the Lord has done in preparing a place
for me. He said, I go and prepare a place
for you and I will come again. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. For in my Father's house
are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go and prepare a place for you, and I will come again. If I go, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, so that where I am, there you may be
also. Oh, the Lord would keep us mine. Look what the psalmist
says. If I do not remember thee, verse
six, remember who? Jerusalem. Heaven. Lord, when I lose sight of what
you've done for me and what you've prepared for me and where I'm
headed, when I lose sight of that, Lord, If I forget thee,
O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. And if I
do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of
my mouth. And if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Lord, this This Babylon that
we live in and this struggle with the old man, the wars against
my spirit, makes me lose sight of where
I'm going. When I look to God, look to Christ,
look to his word, It really is my cheap joy. Nothing. Nothing in this world is able
to satisfy. My soul. When I find my hope
in Christ. Then. I began to long for glory. The Lord saved us. that we would
be with him in glory. When the Lord said, Did you not
know that I must be about my father's business? His father's
business was to make us fit for heaven. When the Lord hung his head on
Calvary's cross and said, It is finished. Father, into thy
hands I commend my spirit. What was finished? everything
that was necessary in order to make us able to go to heaven.
That's what was finished. Our goal is heaven. Our life is in Christ and he's
in the heavens. And one day, sooner than we think,
we'll be with him in glory. Turn with me to Revelation chapter
22. Here's how God concludes his
word for us. Revelation 22. And he showed
me a. What was Babylon? Shinar is a
land of two rivers. A river is a source of life. The men of this world and our
old man is looking to Christ plus something else for our hope. And here the Lord brings us back
to that one river, one river. He showed me a pure river of
the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne
of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of
it, on either side of the river, was there the tree of life."
You see, we're on one side of the river now. The Lord's going
to take us across to the other side. And the same tree of life
that sustains us now is the tree of life that we'll see in the
fullness of his glory in that day. On the other side, there was
the tree of life which bear 12 manner of fruits and yielded
her fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for the
healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse,
but the throne of God and of the lamb shall be in it and his
servants shall serve him and they shall see his face and his
name shall be in their foreheads." There'll be no more night there.
Right now we groan. We groan because there's so much
darkness and we look through a glass darkly now and we just
see a very faint image of who he is and what he's prepared
for us. Eye has not seen, nor has ear
heard, nor has it entered into the imagination of man the things
that he's prepared for us. We can't even begin to conceive
of what he's done. And here in Babylon, here in
Babylon, we groan. We groan. David said in Psalm 17, As for
me, I will behold his face in righteousness and then I shall
be satisfied when I awake in his likeness. That's the only
time we're going to be satisfied right now. Psalm 137 is our is
our mirth. It's our groaning. It's our it's
our. It's our desire. to be delivered
from Babylon and be able to go to Jerusalem and worship God
as we ought. Psalm 16 verse 11 says, that
will show me the path of life in thy presence, in thy presence
is the fullness of joy. Right now, we don't know anything
about the fullness of joy. We rejoice in the Lord, and we
rest in him, and we're satisfied with him as our advocate with
the Father. But the fullness of joy? No, we don't know anything
about it. Thou will show me the path of
life, and in thy presence is the fullness of joy. At thy right
hand, at thy right hand, there are pleasures evermore, evermore,
forever. Nothing but pleasure. This world is not our home. We're strangers in a foreign
land, just like the children of Israel were exiled to Babylon.
And it's all because of sin. And the culmination of sin is
seen in the violation of the Sabbath. not trusting Christ
alone, not resting. There is a rest still for you. We labor to enter into that rest. We've not gotten there yet. In
the meantime, we're gonna find ourselves just like the children
of Israel by the two rivers of Babylon, bemoaning our state
and waiting for that day waiting for that day when we'll see him
in the fullness of his glory. There's a passage of scripture
I wanted us to look at. I think it's in 1 Peter chapter four. 1 Peter chapter
four. Verse 17, for the time has come,
a judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first begin with us,
what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
Now in this whole passage, he's talking about the sufferings
that we have in this life. And that's the judgment that
he speaks of. We're struggling in this world,
longing to be made perfect in Christ and longing to be satisfied
in him. And he said, what he's saying
here in this passage is that for the believer, this world
is bad as it's ever gonna be, ever gonna be. We have such a
hope, longing, for delivered from all of this, this vile body
being made incorruptible, seeing him in the fullness of his glory.
And in contrast to that, for the unbeliever, this world's
the best they're ever going to have it. Ever going to have it. And verse 18, and if the righteous
scarcely be saved, Job said, I'm delivered by the
skin of my teeth. You feel that way sometimes?
If the righteous scarcely be saved. Lord, I'm just, I'm just
lay, I'm struggling to labor into this rest. I'm, I'm, I'm
wrestling with this old man and with this world that I'm living
in. And, and, and, and Lord, I'm, I, it's a, this, this walk
of faith is a, it's a, it's a difficult walk. It's a narrow walk. And
if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly
and the sinner appear? Wherefore, let them that suffer
according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls
to him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator. In closing, turn over just a
couple of pages to 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. Verse 1, behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we, that we should
be called the sons of God. Oh, what favor, what love. It's
the first cause of our salvation. He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. Therefore, the world knoweth
us not because it knew him not. That's the world we live in.
The world doesn't understand what we believe. They don't believe
what we believe. They hate the Christ that we
love. They've got a gospel that's mixed
with works and grace. And we've got a gospel that's,
if the eye be single, the whole body should be full of light.
But we've got a single hope. We've got a one river flowing
clear as crystal from the throne of God. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, right now. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Oh. Oh, what a day that'll be. See
him as he is. Yeah. You know, most preaching
is just. It's it's not. It's not looking
in hope. To the fullness of our salvation,
it's just trying to figure out how to how to maneuver and how
to get by in this world. And look what the next verse
says, And every man that hath this hope purifieth himself,
even as he is pure. That's what I meant when I said
the more heavenly minded we are, the more earthly good will be. So would that psalmist say, if
I forget Jerusalem, if I forget heaven, let my tongue cleave
to my mouth. Let my right hand lose its cunning. If it's not
my chief joy, my chief joy. Somebody said, well, that's my
happy place. Well, some place on earth, you
know, we enjoy things in this world. There's no question about
that. But may God set our affections not on the things of this world,
but on things above, where Christ is seated as the successful sovereign
savior of sinners. Our Heavenly Father, we pray
that you would forgive us for having gotten so caught up in this world in which
we live. And we thank you for reminding
us once again tonight of that holy city, that new Jerusalem
that comes down from heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ is
seated upon his throne and where the tabernacle of God will be
with men and he will be our God and we will be His people. Lord, give us a longing for that
place. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. 291, let's stand together, 291.