All right, if you'll take your
Bibles now and turn with me to the book of Revelation. Revelation
chapter 21. Revelation chapter 21. My text will be found in verse
27. Revelation chapter 1, 21, sorry, and verse 27. The Scripture here says, "...and
there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth,
neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's book of life." I've entitled this
message, Who Shall Enter Heaven? Who Shall Enter Heaven? Up to
this point, the Lord has testified by His servant John that He shall
return and display His glory. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who came
once in humility, John declares by this revelation, He shall
return in victory and power. He shall sit upon His throne
of judgment. And all men will be judged according
to holy and righteous judgment. Strict, holy judgment. Everyone. No one misses this
judgment. And those who are found righteous,
those who are found without sin shall enter into heaven. being
judged by strict holiness, those without spot, without stain,
without sin, shall be received into heaven forever to dwell
with God. But those in whom sin is found,
those who have any mark of stain, any spot of guilt, shall be forever
cast out into eternal Damnation. You see that in verse 8 of this
chapter. In verse 8 it says, But fearful,
and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers,
and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their
part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which
is the second death. And now John has come to this
portion of Scripture which now reflects heaven. He is able to see the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven and filled
with the glory of God. There's no more need for the
sun, no more need of the moon or the stars or any light, for
God Himself dwells among His people in this holy city. And
everyone in this holy city, listen, they bring their glory into it. They themselves are holy and
without sin. This scripture here, therefore,
reflects the nature and condition of heaven. There shall in no
wise enter anything that defileth or whatsoever worketh abomination
or maketh a lie. So then the question must be
asked, how then shall any man be received into such a place?
How shall any man be received into such a holy place? The Word of God, as well as the
heart and the experience of man, tells us very plainly, all have
sinned and come short of the glory of
God. We all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. They are all together, listen,
all together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. How then shall man enter into
such a place? Isaiah declares that all our
righteousness, Now, this is the best that man has to offer, what
men consider righteous deeds. God says are as filthy rags in
his sight. He says in another place, from
the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, there is nothing
but leprous sores that have not been bound up or mollified with
one. There's nothing good in man. There is nothing but sin. Yet see here in heaven. Heaven
will be such a place that it will never be polluted. It'll
never be defiled with sin. Never defiled with iniquity.
The God of heaven is holy and just and without sin. Therefore,
all who dwell with him must of necessity be as holy as he is. Do you suppose any one of us
in this state could enter heaven right now? No, we would defile
it. We would defile it. That's why
Paul says, even of believers, that we must be changed. We must
be changed. The mortal must put on immortality,
the corruptible must put on incorruption. Why? Because heaven is a place
of incorruptible, uncorruptibleness, undefiled. And so if any man
lack holiness, lack total perfection, he must of necessity be excluded
from heaven. For there is not anything that
defiles in heaven. Isn't that what your text says?
There in no wise shall enter anything that defileth, neither
that worketh an abomination or maketh a lie. No sin. Remember in the beginning when
God made man, He made man without sin, did He not? He made Adam
without sin. But once sin entered, all of
the creation was corrupted. It was cursed. This world is
cursed. You can see it even if you go
look at our yard out there. It's full of weeds. Now, we didn't
plant any of those. Terrence, you go out there and
plant any weeds, because I didn't do that. No, they grow on their
own. Because this world is cursed. Eden was destroyed. Death entered
in. Sickness and sorrow and suffering,
hunger and thirst entered into this world because
of sin. And what entered into the heart
of man was lust, and greed, and murder, and envy. Why? Because man was defiled by sin. The moment sin entered into creation,
God in justice could not tolerate it. Justice demanded action. Justice could not and would not
tolerate sin. He said, In the day thou eatest
thereof, what's the necessity? Thou will surely die. Death was the result of sin. And the law of God shows us the
strict, holy justice of God against sin. Because the law requires
unwavering obedience and demands death for disobedience. Galatians 3, it says, For as
many as are of the works of the law are under the curse of the
law. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not
in all things written in the book of the law to do them. Behold, even the most precious
in God's sight was who? Was Christ. The Son of God being
the most precious thing in the sight of God. He said what of
Him? This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Yet when
God found sin in Him, what did He do? You see the strict justice
of God? When the sins of His people were
laid upon Christ, when He bore their sins in His own body on
the tree, God struck Him down without mercy. Awake, O sword,
the Scripture says, against My separate, against the man that
is My fellow. The Lord's sword of justice was
swift and slew even Christ. Therefore, heaven is a place
of holy and divine perfection. Thus, sin could never come into
it or defile it. It is called the holy city. The holy city. Therefore, see the solemn truth.
except you be as holy as God, you shall in no wise enter heaven. You shall in no wise enter heaven. Thus we must conclude that no
man by nature, no man by works or determination can make himself
meet for heaven. No man can enter into heaven
except he be without sin. We must conclude then that no
man by nature can enter into heaven seeing we all have sinned.
So then, let me ask you this, since we have all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God, and heaven is a holy place
wherewith God in strict holiness demands that everybody there
be holy, Is heaven a barren place? No. Matter of fact, if you go through
the book of Revelation, you'll see many places. Go over, flip
with me a couple of places. Go to Revelation 5. Revelation
5 and look at verse 11. It says, And I beheld and heard
the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beast
and the elders. And listen, this is in heaven. Notice this. And
the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of
thousands. It seemed like you had to make
up a number, couldn't even come up with a number, didn't know
what a Googleplex is or something. I mean, there's just no number
that you can number it. And they said, With a loud voice
worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and
wisdom and strength and honor and blessing. In Revelation 14,
you'll see it later, 144,000, which is a picture of what? Of
all the elect. It is a large number, an inexhaustible,
uncountable number, is what that number represents. And in chapter
19, in verse 1, look at this, And after these things I saw
a great voice of what? much people, much people in heaven
saying, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and honor and power
unto the Lord our God. So then we see then that heaven
is holy. Man is full of sin. By no means
he can enter into heaven in the condition he's in. And yet we
see this, that heaven is full. How is this? How is this? So then we see that we who by
nature are sinners, now we are truly sinners, guilty of transgression
against God, may be numbered among the multitude of sinless,
righteous, and holy citizens of heaven. Let me ask you this. Is there
any hope then for sinners? Yes. Yes. So who then shall enter
into heaven? We see heaven is a place of holiness. We see that there is a multitude
of people and there these people are obviously taken from among
the sinful race of Adam. So then who are these people?
Who are these people? Look back at your text, go back
to your text and see who these people are. It's very plain who
they are. He said nobody's going to enter
in that defiles or makes an abomination or makes a lie. But here's who's
going to inhabit heaven. They which are written in the
Lamb's book of life. That is who will occupy heaven. Those who are written in the
Lamb's book of life. Behold, hear the hope. Here is
hope that God has written in a book. the names of those who
shall inhabit his city. God has written in sovereign
election all those who shall inherit the kingdom of God. It is in this book that God has
written the names of all those He has chosen to inherit this
place called heaven. And these alone were chosen of
the Father to be holy and without blame. Why? Because no one in
heaven has any sin. These who are written in this
book were chosen to be holy. Therefore, when they enter into
this city, they shall be what? Holy. They shall be holy. Now, why shall they be holy?
Because God ordained that they should be holy. God purposed
in this book to write the names of those who should be holy.
and these alone shall be holy. But also we see this, that no
one who is not written in this book shall enter heaven. You
got that? If your name is not written in
this book, you shall in no wise enter heaven. Why? The Scriptures are clear, only
those whose names are written in this book. They're the ones who shall be
citizens of heaven. In fact, we can clearly see the
reason. The reason they will not enter
is not because of God's election. People hate the election of God.
They say, well, you know, it's not fair and blah, blah, blah.
And, you know, well, if my name's written on there, I just might
as well give up. Listen, you're not going to go to hell because
of election. You're going to hell because of your sin. You'll go to hell because of
sin, because you worshipped the beast. Go to Revelation 17. And the beast, I've done this
in many other messages, the beast that has risen out of the water
is the anti-Christian governments or the world. You follow after
the world. You serve the world. You serve
the flesh. And so look what it says, the
beast that thou sawest which was and is not shall ascend out
of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. And they that
dwell on earth shall wonder. They shall wonder, they shall
worship, they shall follow, they shall obey whose names are not
written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when
they beheld the beast that was and is not and yet is. The election of God is not for
the damnation of men, but rather the salvation of men. God's election
is for the salvation of men. It is for the salvation of those
names who are written in this book. You see, when Adam sinned,
All of his race became depraved. All of us were born into sin.
All of us were born dead in trespasses and sin and can by no means of
the flesh save ourselves. This was true of everyone. Those
whose names were written in the book and those whose names were
not written in the book, we all bear the same condition. We all bear the same guilt of
our father. We all have the same nature.
None of us escape nature. So then there in nature, there
is no difference between those whose names are written and those
whose names are not written. There is no difference. We all together, the scripture
says, are unprofitable. We are all unrighteous. We are
all wicked. We all by nature hate God and
will not come to Christ. even because we all cannot come
to Christ. I'm going to show it to you.
Look at your nature and look at my nature. Look at 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Look at verse 14. I'm going to show you the will of man,
the wisdom of man, and the ability of man in this verse. But the natural man, that's all
us by nature, the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God. This has to do with will. I'm
preaching the things of the Spirit of God. You know why men won't
receive them? Because he will not receive them. You will not by nature receive
these things. For they are foolishness unto
him. That's why that's worldly wisdom. These things I'm talking about,
men don't have any interest in. Why? They're foolishness. He's
talking about fairy tales and heaven and hell. I don't believe
that. It's foolishness. You won't receive
it because of your wisdom. To you, it's foolish. But here
it has to do with ability. Neither can he know them. You
won't know them You think they're foolish, and let me tell you
why. Because you cannot know them. Why? Because you're spiritually
judged, condemned. That's us by nature. Those written
in the book and those not, same nature, same. Go to Romans chapter
8. Romans chapter 8 says basically
the same thing. Listen to this. Romans chapter
8 and verse 7. For the carnal mind, that's the
natural mind, listen, is enmity against God. That's just a fact,
Paul says, that's just so. The natural mind is enmity against
God. What's the proof of this, Paul?
For it is not subject to the law of God." There's the will
again. If I were to read the law of God, you will hate it.
Now there are men who try to obey it, but in their heart they
hate it. You want to sin. So no matter
if you stop yourself from sinning, inside you hate it. You will not subject yourself
to the law of God. Listen, here's the ability. Neither indeed can they. You
can't. Friends, this is a hopeless condition,
isn't it? Therefore, all God has to do,
if he wants you to go to hell, all he has to do is leave you
alone. What does he have to do? If God
desires you go to hell, All He has to do is give you what you
want. This is the heart of man. Psalm 2 and verse 2. The kings
of the earth have set themselves and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His Christ. That's man. That's you and me. We take counsel
together. If somebody's got an idiotic
thought, you know what they want? They want somebody else to agree
with this idiotic thought. And when you got two of them
together, they think because both of them have idiotic thoughts,
they think that both of them are correct. They said, well,
I got this other guy, believe me. Who cares? They take counsel
against God. And what is their counsel? Let
us break their bands asunder and cast their cords from us.
I will not have Christ to rule over me. That's our that's our
nature. The fool has said in his heart,
no God, no God. Therefore, man, what do they
do? They set up the gods of their
own imagination, the images and idols of their own making, the
works of their own hands. We all, like the Pharisees, go
about to establish our own righteousness that cannot save us, that cannot
make us fit for heaven. And yet they still strive. Men
still strive to make themselves holy. When God says you have
an incurable disease, you cannot make yourself fit for heaven.
They turn to the law knowing they don't know the purpose of
the law at all. They think the law can save them
somehow. But the law is only meant to
shut us up. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 3, verse 19, Now
we know what things the law saith, that saith to them that are under
the law for this purpose, that every mouth may be stopped, and
the whole world become guilty before God. That's the purpose
of the law. Never intended to save you. Never
intended to save you. And had God not before the world
began chose some by sovereign free grace If had He not purposed,
decreed to save a people, then heaven would be an empty place.
Heaven would have been an empty place had God not, in sovereign
election, written these names in this book. Isaiah said, Had God not left
a remnant, we should have all been as Sodom and Like unto Gomorrah. But God I'm so thankful for that,
those two words in Ephesians, but God who is rich in mercy. But God, not for our sakes, but
for His own glory and praise, made a covenant. He purposed
to save some of these worthless, defiled,
and sinful race. God in sovereign love set his
heart upon a chosen people and determined that they should be
holy. And it is these and these alone
who will enter heaven, whose names are written in the Lamb's
book of life." So then we see that heaven is
a holy place. We see that we all by nature are sinful, and
only those whose names are written by the sovereign election of
grace, only those shall inherit heaven. If you do not inherit
heaven, that will be your own fault. It will be because of
your own sin. So then the question I have is
this, that I got to ask myself, is my name there? Is there any other question that
matters? Is my name written in that book
of life? Is my name in the Lamb's book
of life? If not, I must be damned. Of sovereign justice, I must
be damned. Why? Because I'm guilty. I'm
guilty. Now, if my name is written in
this book, it was written there, I want
you to know this, if your name is written in this book, it must
have been written before the world began. It must have been
written before the world began by God. I just quoted that over
in Revelation 17. He said, Those that wandered
after the Lamb, whose names were not written in the book of life,
went from the foundation of the world. I see then the salvation of these
who was not accidental, was not accidental, but it was planned
and purposed of God even before there was sin. Or in another place, it says
of Christ that He was as a lamb slain. When? Before the foundation
of the world. Now, why would a lamb need to
be slain when there was no sin at that time? Because God had
already determined to save these by His blood. And we know that God has made,
with these elect, an everlasting covenant. A covenant. That's what it is to be written
in this book. Those whose names are written
in this book, God has made with them a covenant. Not a covenant
contingent upon them in any measure, but rather a one-sided covenant. I like God's covenant. They're
one-sided. We make covenants among equals,
right? I mean, if you're selling a house
and I want to buy a house, we covenant together. You got something
I need, I got something you need, and we exchange making... Not
the way that works with God. No. God made a covenant with
Adam, it was all one-sided. God never asked Adam his opinion
about this covenant. Never asked if he would enter
into this covenant. God made a covenant with Adam,
and Adam failed. and the result of that was catastrophic
to the whole race of man. Yet God has made a covenant with
these elect, and it is a one-sided covenant. God made this covenant,
and this covenant is full of promises based on the success
not of those whose names are written in. It's based on the
success of a surety So those whose names are written in this
book, they're going to go to heaven based on the success of another. That's why they're going to heaven,
based on the success of assurity. I love this picture. Go to 2
Samuel. 2 Samuel. David tells us plainly this on
his deathbed. David here in 2 Samuel chapter
23 and verse 5, he's on his deathbed. And in the previous chapters,
he says, he said, God told me this. God says he that rule over
men must be a just and fear God. He shall be as a light in the
morning. He shall be a sun as the sun rises, even a morning
without clouds, as tender grass springing up out of the earth,
as clear and shining rain. He said, that's how you should
be. God said, this is what you should be. But David has to confess
something and he confesses this. Although my house is not like
that. Although my house be not so with
God, he confesses his sin. Although I am full of sin, although
I am full of wickedness and my hands are full of blood, my flesh
has been full of lust. Although I have sinned and my
house be not so with God, but David's hope was not in what
he had done, but in a covenant. Although my
house be not so with God, listen, yet God, the author of this covenant,
hath made with me an everlasting covenant. God, this was his hope,
God made with me an everlasting covenant. My house is full of
sin. But this is my hope, that God
hath made with me an everlasting covenant. How foolish is it for
men to try to enter in covenant with God? That's religion, isn't
it? Religion is, well, God, if you
will do this, then I will do this. Well, God, you did all that you
could do. Now then, I guess the rest is
up to me. So I'm making a covenant, I swear
I'll do what you want me to. You know, God says something
to those kind of people in Isaiah. He said, you scornful men, you
said we have made a covenant with death and with hell we are
in agreement. When that overflowing spirit
shall come, it shall not come upon us. Why? We've made a covenant. I've made my peace with God.
I've signed a contract with God. God says your covenant shall
be disannulled. And when death and hell come
through, it will overflow you. Why? The bed is shorter than
a man can stretch himself on and the covering narrow. Your
offering is not enough and your righteousness cannot cover you.
I don't care what kind of covenant you make with God. If you've
made your peace with God, you have no peace with God. But what is the covenant of the
elect? David says this, it is ordered, ordained, purposed by
God. It is ordered in what? All the You see all things necessary
for the salvation of these whose names are written in heaven.
It is ordered, ordained. All things are ordained of God. And what? There's there's no what ifs. There's no. Oh, but no, everything
is ordered. All things are sure in this covenant. Behold that God has laid the
foundation stone for His church, which is Jesus Christ. Christ
is the foundation upon which all the souls of the elect are
built. See how God, in a covenant of
grace, purposed to make His elect fit for heaven? It's this. He
gave them to Christ. Everyone whose name is written
in that book, He gave them to Christ. He trusted Christ for
the salvation of all whose name is written in that book. In fact,
rather than that just trust, He put them in union with Christ. You see, we are in union with
Him. So our soul either stands or
falls. With his success or failure,
we are in union with Christ. He gave us to Christ, the father
trusted him with the salvation of all his elect. That it should be done for them
as their representative, as their representative. And I want you
to see that none of the elect, none of the elect were worthy
of such election. None of them were worthy. None
of them could merit such a covenant. Yet in order to display the riches
of His grace, God, according to the good pleasure of His will,
took them from the same lump of fallen man. I told you there's
no difference, didn't I? There's no difference between
those whose names are written and those whose names are not. We
were all taken from the same lump. And to display his grace,
God made his elect vessels of mercy. He made them fit for heaven,
that holy place. You know it well, go to Ephesians
1 and see all of this come together in Ephesians 1 and see if it's
not so. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, He blesses God the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, who had blessed us with
all spiritual blessing, all those promises in the covenant, promises
of heaven, promises of righteousness, promises of holiness, forgiveness
of sin, all spiritual blessing in heavenly places, where are
those blessings found? In Christ. According as He had
chosen us, where? In Christ. When? Before the foundation
of the world. For what purpose? That we should
be fit for heaven. Holy. and without blame. Now, that's the purpose of God.
That's the will of God, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him. Now, what's His motivation? Was
it because we merit it? No, it was His love. In love. His free, sovereign love, in
love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children.
How should we be holy? How should we be without blame?
How should we be as adopted children? By Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ. According to the good pleasure
of His will. To what end? To the praise of
the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved, the Father purposed that his elect be holy by Jesus
Christ. And now what? Christ has come. Christ has come as the representative,
taken the nature of man so he is a qualified representative
of his elect, so that he might be a faithful high priest. He
was taken from among men, whereby he might represent the elect
who themselves are men. God, in love for His elect, could
never excuse our sins. Therefore, to satisfy His justice,
He sent Christ to redeem His people. He made Christ to be
the propitiation for our sins. So then, upon the cross, see how God has made us holy. We who knew no holiness and only
sin. God has made you righteous. How? Through the death of His
Son. Through the offering of Christ.
Isaiah said, We all like sheep have gone astray. We turned everyone
to His own way. But even in that condition, the
Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Now, why would He
do that? It pleased the Lord to bruise
him, to put him to grief. And when thou shalt see his soul,
and make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper
in his hand, he shall see of the travail of his soul, and
shall be what? Satisfied. He shall be satisfied. When Christ died for our sins,
was God satisfied? Did God say it's enough? Was
his blood sufficient? See, this is the blood of the
new covenant. It speaks better things than
that of Abel. Abel's blood cried for vengeance. What does Christ's
blood cry for? Mercy. Cries for mercy. And by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Do you see how then the elect
are made holy? They are made holy by the transference
of their guilt. God took our guilt and Christ
bore it. It's an amazing and astounding
thing. He who knew no sin. When he was hanging there, he
still knew no sin. He felt no sin, He thought no
sin, He did no sin. Yet, He was made sin. It was
a transaction of God. He bare our sins in His own body
on the tree, therefore He suffered in His body on the tree. In His
soul, He bore our suffering. The justice of God. What's the
result of this? Eternal redemption. Go to Hebrews. Look at His victory.
Look at the victory of Jesus Christ for those whose names
are written in this book, Hebrews chapter 9. And look at verse
12. Neither by the blood of goats
or calves, but by His own blood He entered in... How many times? Once into the holy place. And what did He get? He obtained
eternal redemption. for us, whose names are written
in the Lamb's book of life. He obtained eternal redemption
for us, for all those whose names are written in that book. Look
at chapter 10 and look at verse 10. By the witch will, by the
will of God, we are sanctified. We are made holy. How? Through the offering of the body
of Christ. How many times? Once. I like
that word once. Trace that through Romans 9 and
10. Once, once, as opposed to those
priests who did often and still did nothing. He said, for every
priest stand a daily ministering off in the same time, the same
sacrifices, never take away sin. But this man, after he'd offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, he did what? He sat down, finished
the work, completed the work. expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. From henceforth, expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And now, having Jesus Christ,
having pleased God by his perfect obedience, by his having satisfied
the justice of God through his death. What's the proof? Tell
me the proof that God accepted his work. He died, didn't he? Well, every man dies. How do
I know that that man was accepted as my representative? What's
my hope? That this is not all a sham.
God raised him from the dead and not that, you know, there
are several people that raised from the dead. What else? And
sat him on the right hand of God. It's His rightful place. God set Him on the throne. For
what purpose? Why is Christ seated on the throne
as a man right now in heaven? For this purpose, that He should
apply salvation to everyone He accomplished it for. That's what
He's doing right now. Right now, tonight, that's exactly
what He's doing. He's moving all things to save
His people. When you're confused about what's
going on, recognize that. He's moving all things to save
His people. I don't care what it is. That's
His main purpose, is to save His people. How do you know John
17? That's His prayer. Over in John 17, Jesus in His high priestly prayer
said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son. Now, why is
he going to glorify the son? Because of his perfect obedience
and his perfect sacrifice. He says, now glorify me. You ever heard a man say that
to God? That's the only man ever could say that to God. Glorify
me. He was worthy of that being glorified.
Glorify me. Glorify thy son. For what purpose? That the son may glorify thee.
Now, how is the Son going to glorify Him? Well, He says, Thou
hast given Him power over all flesh. This is how He glorifies
His people. He glorifies God, right here. He gives eternal life to as many
as Thou hast given Him. In that covenant of grace, those
whose names are written in the book of the Lamb's book of life,
given to Christ, He says, glorify Me because I saved them. Now,
you're going to give me all power in heaven and earth to do what?
Give them what I bought them. I've purchased eternal life for
them. Now then, make me all powerful that I should give them eternal
life. That he by sovereign power should
quicken every elect soul to life. And what is this life? This is
eternal life. Do I have eternal life? I don't
know, do you? Here's eternal life, that they
may know thee. The only true God in Jesus Christ. Do you know God and Jesus Christ,
whom he has sent? In other words, do you believe
on the Son of God? Faith in Christ, friends, is
the only evidence of our election and redemption. People are looking for evidence,
aren't you? I know we do, even we that believe. We still try
to look around, try to find some evidence. We look in the mirror
and say, is there any evidence? Nope, none there. We start looking
at what we've done, what we're doing, how we're doing. Is there
any evidence in that? No. Because all you do is still
mixed with what? Sin. You won't find any holiness
in what you do. You long to be holy. You desire
to do good. But none of that is evidence.
What's the evidence? Do you believe? And believing on the Son of God
is no small thing. As men make it to be small. It's
simple to understand. That's not something you is too
complex for you to understand. I'm just telling you by nature,
it's impossible for you to do except God give you faith. I know I got to go fast, but
I'm coming to an end, but back over in that Ephesians. Ephesians chapter one and verse
18, he says, the eyes of your understanding be enlightened.
that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what
is the riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints,
and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe. Don't you see the exceeding greatness
of His power in what? In your faith? And you have been
quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. And what's the evidence?
For by grace you are saved through what? Faith. and that not of yourself. It is a gift of God. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Have you been quickened by the
power of God to believe on Christ? How can you know if you're one
of these elect? Do you believe? I like the way
it was put in Revelation 5, that picture. John, you see, he sees
the book that we're talking about in the hand of God, and it's
sealed. John then began to weep. You
know why? Is my name there? It's sealed. Is my name there? He begins to weep because there's
no man found worthy to open the book or loose the seals thereof.
And then a preacher comes along and he says, why are you weeping?
He said, don't worry, the Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed
to open the book and loose the seals thereof. That's the message we preach,
isn't it? Behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God hath
what? prevailed. What we tell men, look to the
Lamb of God, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved, period. Believe. Believe. Oh, the Lamb of God in the midst
of the throne hath prevailed. And I like that. He took the
I mean, that's just something. You see it in the books and the
hand of God, and He grabbed it. He took it. It was His right.
He earned it. He inherited it. And you know
what? When they saw Him, what did those
elders do? What does the elect do when they see Christ? They
fall down on their faces and they worship Him, saying, worthy
is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. who was slain
and has redeemed us to God out of every kindred, tongue, tribe,
and people. They believed and worshipped
the Lamb of God. So then, do you believe? That's exactly what David did. And back in that text in 2 Samuel
23, in verse 5, he says, that covenant is ordered in all things
and sure, for this is all my salvation. and all my desire. Is Christ all your salvation? That's faith. What does faith
generate? How do you know if your faith
is real? Faith worketh by what? Love. Faith is the evidence of our
salvation. What's the evidence of your faith? Love. love to
Christ and love to His people, love for His gospel, loving to
see others come to worship Him. These are things that those that
believe do. We love, we love God and we love
each other. We love this gospel and we desire
others to come. We desire the Lord to work in
the heart of others that they should believe and they should
come and be made fit. You know I'm made fit for heaven? By looking at it, you won't see
it. You're not going to look at this and see anything fit
for heaven here. Christ hath made me fit. Christ
hath given me a nature that is fit. And one day, we will inherit
what He has purchased for us. a sinless, undefiled place called
heaven. Can you imagine, just for a moment,
a place where there is no sorrow, where there is no guilt, there
is no shame, there is no weeping, there is no sadness, There is
altogether peace and joy forever. That is our home, friends. Weeping endureth for a night. Joy cometh in the morning. Why,
He has made us fit for such a holy place. Isn't it worthy then to give
Him praise? Isn't it just reasonable? Is it reasonable to serve Him?
Reasonable to love Him? It is. Our Father in Heaven dismisses
with Your blessing. Father, pour out Your Spirit
to us. Help us to see the great and wonderful things that Christ
has done. Help us to see the eternal covenant
that You have made that Christ has accomplished. and the Spirit
is now imparted. I pray that you would keep us
and set our eyes upon Christ. Help us to love one another and
serve you as we should. I pray this in Christ's name.