Whatever God ordains is right,
His holy will abideth. I will be still, whatever He
does, And follow where He guideth. He is my God, though dark or
low. He holds me that I shall not
fall. Wherefore to Him I leave it all. He holds me that I shall not
fall. Whatever my God ordains is right,
He never will deceive me. He leads me by the proper path,
I know He will not leave me. I take contempt What He hath
said, His hands can turn my grief away. And patiently I wait His
day, His hands can turn my grief away. What am I, God? Ordains is right. Though now this cup I'm drinking
may bitter seem to my faint heart, I take it all unshrinking. Why, God is true. But a new sweet comfort yet shall
fill my heart, And pain and sorrow shall depart. Sweet comfort yet shall fill
my heart. Whate'er my God ordains is right,
Here shall my stand be taken. Though sorrow, need, or death
be mine, Yet I am not forsaken. My Father's care is right, me
there. He holds me there. I shall not fall. Wherefore to Him I leave it all. He holds me there. I shall not fall. He is my God. dark my road. He holds me there, I shall not
fall. Wherefore to him I leave it all. He holds me there, I shall not Seldom do we need comfort more
than when a loved one dies. So my question was, in preparing
for this, is how do we do that? Where do we find comfort when
hearts are breaking? When someone who was so precious
to his friends and family loved ones is gone from us, what could
possibly make that okay? And I believe I have the answer
from the word of God. I'll tell you this, if you could
see Mark right now, if you could see him right now, where he is,
what he's doing, and who he's with, You'd be absolutely fine
with him not being here. Absolutely fine. You'd still
miss him, but you'd be happy. You'd be so happy for him. By
God's grace, through faith, I believe we can see that. I believe we
can see where Mark is. If the Lord is pleased, to meet
with us today and to speak to us through his word. I believe
we can see that. Let's look at verse one. I saw
a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. Now
this is future for us. We're still living on the old
earth. This earth is old and tired and evil. Let's just be
honest. This earth is an evil place because
of us. It's full of evil people. For Mark though, there's no old
heaven or earth anymore. This don't exist for him anymore.
The cares of this world are a burden to believers that are here. They
even, we read that they choke out, the cares of this world
choke out the seed of God's word in the case of many, but not
for Mark. He knows nothing of that now.
The first creation, The one we live on is under the curse of
God because of our sin, but not the new one. He has made a new
heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And that's
future for us, but not for him. The first creation groaneth and
travaileth because of sin and rebellion and all manner of evil
perpetrated by men, but not the new one. Not where Mark is. Look at verse two, and I, John,
saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. Where Mark lives
now, it's pictured as a city, it's a population of people.
God has populated this new heaven with a people. A people that
he chose from the foundation of the world, a people that says
that he's loved with an everlasting love. You look that word up in
the Hebrew, it means without beginning or end. His love is
boundless for his people. And every citizen of that place
is the chosen. Think about what a bride is.
The bride, as a bride adorned for her husband, chosen. loved
from all eternity. Think about it. God said a man
will leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife,
and they twain shall be one flesh. He chose her, he loved her, he
laid hold of her, he made himself one with her. The one person
out of all the earth, that's for me, is sitting right over
there. That's who we are to Christ. Every one of us is the one person
in all the earth that's his. When that says that that shepherd
had a hundred sheep and he lost one of them, you know who that
is? Don't worry about who the 99 are, which one are you? That's
the question. Every one of his people are that
one sheep. Every one of his people are his
bride, chosen, loved, joined unto. All of God's sheep are that one
lost one that he went and found and laid on his shoulder and
brought home rejoicing, saying, come and rejoice with me. I found
my sheep, which was lost. Mark was loved with an everlasting
love by the Lord Jesus Christ, his husband, chosen to be always
with Christ. He was provided for by Christ
before he was ever born until the day he died and until this
day, protected by Christ, cherished by Christ, made one with Christ. That's where he is now, the bride. They come down from God adorned,
it says. For it's God that makes us fit
to be married to his son. Adorned, we have to be adorned,
with what? Listen to Ezekiel 16, eight.
Now when I passed by you, God says to his people, I looked
upon you, behold, your time was the time of love. And I spread
my skirt over you and covered your nakedness. Yea, I swear
unto you and entered into a covenant with you, saith the Lord God,
and you became mine, mine. Then washed I thee with water,
yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed
thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered
work, and shod thee with badger skin, and I girded thee about
with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee
also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and
a chain on thy neck, and I put a jewel on thy forehead, and
earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus was
thou decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen
and silk, embroidered work. Thou didst eat fine flour and
honey and oil, thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper
into a kingdom, and thy renown went forth among the heathen
for thy beauty. And here's what all of that represents,
all those beautiful adornments. Here's what it all represents.
For it was perfect. Your beauty was perfect through
my comeliness. Mark is just like the Lord Jesus
Christ right now. And so he is beautiful beyond
imagination. Perfect, perfect, glorious. That's what this means. A bride
adorned, a bride adorned by God with what? With his glory, with
his beauty, with his righteousness, with his atoning blood. White,
he's washed his robe and made it white in the blood of the
lamb. And then verse three, 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. God himself. God himself will be with them. God told Moses, Moses asked the
Lord, I beseech you, show me your glory. And God told Moses,
you can't see me and live. So I'm just gonna show you a
glimpse. I'm just gonna give you a glimpse of my glory. Do
you remember what God said as he showed Moses his glory? In
Exodus 33, 18, let me read it to you. And he said, Moses said
to God, I beseech thee, show me your glory. And he said, I
will make all my goodness pass before you. And I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before you. And I will be gracious. to whom I will be gracious. That's
the glory of God. He saves sinners. He saves whoever
he wants to save. A lot of people talk about a God
that can't save you unless you let him. Saul of Tarsus didn't
let him. I didn't let him. He saved me
anyway. That's how he saves sinners.
He saves them anyway. That's the God of this book. I will show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. And he said, you can't see my
face for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said,
listen to this. Here's our Lord Jesus Christ.
Behold, there is a place by me and thou shalt stand up on a
rock and it shall come to pass while my glory passeth by that
I will put thee in a cliff of the rock and will cover thee
with my hand while I pass by. What we see of God in this life
is wonderful. He sets us upon the rock of ages
as he did Moses. By faith, we're set upon a rock. The Lord Jesus Christ, the one
foundation other than which no man can lay, and he covers us
with the right hand of his majesty, and he's gracious to us by the
precious blood of his cross, and by faith in his blood, from
there, from Christ our Redeemer, where God put us, of God are
we in Christ, who has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption, and from there, from the cliff of the rock, we
see the very glory of God. as much as a sinner can, but
then, where Mark is. The very glory of God face to
face. Listen to the way the Apostle
Paul spoke of it in 1 Corinthians 13 11. When I was a child, I
spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought
as a child. But when I became a man, I put
away childish things. That's a comparison that he's
making to what? He's saying, I used to be a child,
I thought like a child. I saw things a different way
than I do now. When I'm a man, now I'm a man,
I see things differently. I understand things better. And listen to what he's comparing
that to. For now, we see through a glass darkly. Moses, you can
see me, but not Not my face. You can't see all of me. You
can't see me as I am now. It'll kill you. I'll show you
what I can. And the Lord has shown us much
of what he can of his glory. Now we see through a glass darkly,
but then face to face. That's where Mark is. Bless God,
that's where Mark is. Verse four, 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. How beautiful this is. Look at
this with me. When the Lord heals, when he
fixes, He doesn't just treat the symptoms. He cures the cause. He doesn't just wipe tears away.
He wipes death away. He doesn't just wipe the tears
away. He wipes sorrow away. I could
wipe your tears right now from your face. That'd be a tender
gesture of love. It might mean something to you.
I can't wipe away the reason you're crying. But he does, he
does. He doesn't just wipe away tears,
he wipes away pain for the former things. He removes all of the reasons,
not only the tears that you might be shedding today, but he wipes
away all of the tears that we've ever shed. All of them. They may be dry now, but they
still may be there. The cause, the hurt, the sorrow,
the pain. He wipes away every tear we've
ever shed and all of the reason for it. No more of this, what we're doing
today. No more death. We will never
say goodbye. ever again. First Corinthians
1551, behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. And we shall be
changed, for this corruptible must put on incorruption. and
this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory. No more death. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. And
the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that ever caused us
to weep is a former thing where Mark is. Verse five, 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. What a blessing
that the Lord told John, write these things down. And now we're
reading them this morning. This is our comfort. This is
the anchor for our soul and rightly so. When we are changed and everything
that's caused by our sin is gone. When he does something, when
the Lord does something, it says he makes all things new. When
he does it, it's all the way done. When he does it, it can't
be undone. And when he does it, he gets
all the glory for it. Let's give it to him. We can't
even do that without his grace, can we? We can't even glorify
him unless he's gracious to us. What does new mean to us? New, he makes everything new. What does that mean? Well, here's
part of it. Philippians 3.20, for our conversation
is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior. the Lord
Jesus Christ. We look for the one that Mark
looked for and has now found eternally. We look for the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it
may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. That's new. That's new. We're not much like
him now, are we? But then we will be, we'll be
all the way like him. He shall change our vile body
and fashion it like into his glorious body according to the
working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Because of his power, we're gonna
be changed. That's where Mark is. And he
said unto me, verse six in our text, it is done. It's not done
until he says it's done. I've longed for it to be done
at times. Sometimes I still do. It's not
done until he says it's done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. I will give unto him that is
thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely. The history of man began in a
place where one thing was forbidden, something we didn't need, and
yet we took it because we were sin waiting to happen. When it is done, we will be in
a place where we're just like the Son of God, where we cannot
sin. where nothing is forbidden, where
we only have one need, and he's ours freely, freely. Christ is the fountain. He's
the water of life. And all of the temporal things
that we thirsted for in this world, those are former things. Those are former things. We have
one craving there where Mark is. In verse seven, he that overcometh
shall inherit all things, and I'll be his God, and he shall
be my son. Maybe you're thinking, isn't
he our God now? Are we not his sons, those of
us who know the Lord Jesus Christ? Yeah, but here's the difference
between now and then. First John 3.1. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be. There's a lot we don't know.
But we know that when he shall appear, we'll be like him. for we shall see him as he is. That makes him our God and we
his sons in a whole new sense. If we're in Christ, if we've
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, we can't be any more his than
we are right now. We can't be any more his. But we can sure know it a lot
better. We can experience it much, much better than we do
now. It's not so much as we look at
this that Mark is in a better place. That's what people like to say.
Well, they're in a better place. Our loved one's in a better place.
That's really not the point. When I say where Mark is, what
I really mean is who Mark is with. Listen to Philippians 121 in
closing. For me to live right now is Christ. Is that honestly true of you?
For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Well, preacher,
you say Christ is so wonderful. If what we're doing now is Christ,
then how does it get better than that? More Christ. To live is Christ and to die
is more Christ. More than we experience now,
more than we can possibly know him now in this body of death. For me to live is Christ and
to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this
is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose I don't know. For I am in a straight betwixt
two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ. That's where Mark is. He's not
in a better place. It's not about that. He's with
Christ, which is far better. Amen. May God bless us today
as we worship. him on this occasion and thank
him for the time that we did have
with our brother and look forward to when we'll be with him and
there won't be any time. All right, come on up. How tedious and tasteless the
hours when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet prospects, sweet burdens,
sweet vows have all lost their sweetness to me. The midsummer sun shines but
dim, the fields turn in vain to look gay. But when I am happy
in him, December's as pleasant as May. His name yields the richest
perfume, And sweeter than music His voice. His presence disperses
my gloom, And makes all within me rejoice. I should, were He always, thus
not have Nothing to wish or to fear, No mortal so happy as I
My summer would last all the year Content with beholding His
face My all to His pleasure resigned No changes of season or place
Would make any change in my mind While blessed with a sense of
His love A palace of joy would appear And prisons would palaces
prove if Jesus would dwell with me there My Lord, if indeed I
am thine, Love of my son and my soul, Say, why do I languish
in pain? And why are my winters so long? O drive these dark clouds from
the sky Thy soul-cheering presence restore Or take me unto the on
high Where winter and clouds are known