Well, I want to talk tonight about
continuing our theme about heaven, that just men made perfect. Just
men made perfect. You know, what will it be like
in heaven? We really don't know other than what we can find in
the scriptures. But I do know that we won't be
up there just standing around. And we certainly won't be floating
on clouds, playing on harps. I know that. But I do know that God's people,
what's important now, is how we get through this world into
heaven. What must be done for us here
for us to get there. And how the gospel affects us
and how we live when we're still yet in this world. And we have
to look in the scriptures for this. You know, heaven starts
here. Nobody's going there that heaven
don't start here. You know, we often talk about,
you know, well, Daniel Parks, his father was called home Sunday
morning, February 10, 91 years old. And he's home going. That's what they call home going.
Coming home, you know. We talk about people wherever
the Lord calls them home. And heaven will be the sweetest
home that we could ever possibly imagine. Everybody loves home. No place like home. But this
place will really be home. It will be home to a multitude
that no man could number. And we talk about going home.
But when to get there, from get to here to there, look what he
says back here in verse 1 of chapter 12. You see, we have a race to start. We have a race to start. And
he said here, seeing we also are encompassed with so great
a cloud of witnesses, these just men made perfectly. Lay aside,
let us lay aside every weight of the sin which do accede to
beset us. Now listen to this, let us run with patience the
race that's set before us. And listen, here's the goal,
here's the thing that the Apostle says, back over here in Hebrews
12.22. See, we've come someplace. We've
come to something. Those people came to the law
that the believers come to something else. You come out to Mount Zion.
We've come to the city of the living God. The heavenly Jerusalem. an innumerable company of angels. going to glory affects how we
live in this world. I know it affects how I live
and how I think in this world. Don't it, you? I'll tell you
a true story. True story. Greg Elmquist told
me this. His brother-in-law. Tricia's sister's husband. Sitting on his porch in Georgia.
He's either 53 or 54. I believe he told me he's 53.
sitting there with his friend on his porch, and he says, you
know, we need to really live, and really live, live it up, because
we don't know when we're going to die. And that was the last
words that man spoke. He died of a heart attack just
like that. So we're talking about living. running this coming to the just
men made perfect. And oh beloved, this says before
us what it will mean to live in heaven itself, because here
we have the identity of God's believing people. It says here,
and to the general assembly, verse 23, in the church of the
firstborn, which are written in heaven, people's names are
written there, and to God the judge of all, and listen to this,
to the spirit of just men made perfect. That's the identity
of God's people. Just men made perfect. Well, if you want to describe
one of God's people, what would you say? Just men made perfect. You want to describe people in
glory? Just men made perfect. Made perfect. And all we see
believers are heaven-born. You've got to be born from above.
And we're heaven-bound. That's what our Lord Jesus said.
So beloved, be what he's saying here, be what you are in Christ.
If these are just men made perfect, we're just men made perfect.
If they're just men made perfect there, we're just men made perfect
here. So if you're going to go there
as a just man made perfect, you're going to have to be a just man
made perfect here. Do you understand what I'm saying? And I'll tell you, beloved, it's
not going to glory. It's not about being a faithful
church-going person. Not about being a great parent. It's not about anything we do
here. It's about heaven. We're talking about heaven here.
We're talking about angels. We're talking about safe centers.
We're talking about the new covenant. We're talking about blood-bought
salvation. We've come to Jesus, the mediator
of the new covenant, and the blood is sprinkling. So you see,
we've come to heaven itself. And because of that, God help
us for it to direct our lives in this world. And it says here,
he says, just men made perfect. Now, for us to understand what
we're going to be like in glory, one aspect of heaven we've already
come to, the spirits of just men made perfect. Now, that's
exactly what everybody in glory is, just men made perfect. And one of these days, not only
is the spirit made perfect, but the body will be made perfect.
It's the spirit that returns to God until the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He resurrects our bodies. But
until, when we leave here and go there, the body don't go.
Just the spirit goes. And the Spirit goes there in
the presence of God and where Christ is, and that Spirit is
made perfect in the sight of God. But, beloved, that's not... In one of these days, we're going
to have this body changed. But I want us to look at this
made perfect. Made perfect. Just men. Now,
just men believe, beloved, people that have been declared righteous
in the Lord Jesus Christ, completely sanctified in Christ, glorified
in Christ, to whom He's already glorified. And, beloved, this
passing from here to heaven, the believer is perfected in
his soul, and there's nothing, God help us, nothing to defile
our bodies or souls when we go to glory. But now let me tell
you something. We've already been changed. We've
already been changed. God's done a great work in the
heart of all of his elect, of all his people. You know, the
Scriptures tells us that God has already taken out that heart
of stone and put in a heart of flesh. That God gave us a new
spirit, that God cleansed us from all the filthiness of our
flesh. That everyone that's in Christ is a new creation. Old
things have passed away, behold, all things come new. And you
take what people call the best Christians. Now, I'll tell you,
they're far, far from perfect. And if we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth's not in us. And how
often do we feel the need to be delivered from this body of
death and say, Oh, wretched man that I am. And when we talk about
going to glory, that'll be the final deliverance. when we will
be through with this body, and Paul called it a body of death,
body of death. You feel the body of death and
the strength of sin sometimes. And, oh beloved, this final transformation
will take place one of these days when we step from here into
glory. But I tell you what, right now,
Paul here, he shows the difference between our present and future
states. But I tell you, look over here
with me in 2 Corinthians 3.18, just a moment. We have a perfected
nature. A perfected nature. That's what
we're going to have when we get to glory. These just men made
perfect. A perfected nature. Look what
he said here in 2 Corinthians 3.18. Do you remember, this is
about Moses. He came down off that mountain.
And the glory of God was on his face. And he had to put a veil
over his face so that they would see that glory, that reflected
glory of God in his face. But look what he says, but we
all with open face, believers don't have a veil over their
face anymore. They don't have a veil over their
face. God took that away in Christ. And we behold us in a glass,
like in a mirror. The glory of the Lord, as we
look into the mirror, into the Word, and we're looking at Christ,
and we behold the Lord in a glass, the glory of the Lord. It's just
a reflection that we see, an image that we see, some glory
that we see. But we're going to be changed
into that same image that we're looking at. From that glory that
we see now, to the glory that being just like Him, one of these
days we shall be. And the Spirit of the Lord will
do this for us. So you see, with Moses, he concealed
the reflected glory of God, but we have the glory of Christ on
us, and we see the glory of Christ, and we're looking at the glory
of Christ, and the glory of Christ is in us even now. I tried to
say that Sunday morning when he said, Father, I give him the
glory wherewith thou hast given me. How can that be? How can He give us the glory
that God gave to Christ? Well, everything that Christ
does for His people, He does it for His own glory. When He saves us, He saves us
for His glory. When He keeps us, He keeps us
for His glory. When He teaches us, He teaches
us for His glory. When He chastises us, He chastises
us for His glory. When He takes us to glory completely,
it will be strictly for His own glory. And, oh beloved, we're
going, the day's coming when we'll be taken from seeing that
glory of Christ to actually being in the glory of Christ and having
the glory of Christ. We'll be made just like Him and
seen as He is. We'll have a perfected nature
there. And, oh my, can you imagine what it'd be like to have a perfect
nature? You meet folks here who think they got it. But, oh my,
not only do we have a perfected nature, The spirit of just men
made perfect. So we're going to have perfect
behavior. How well have you behaved today?
Huh? How well have you behaved today?
How well have I behaved today? Because I've behaved perfectly?
Huh? God already regards us as clean
and completely forgiven. No sin charged to our account.
We're just before God. We've been washed. We've been
sanctified. We've been justified by the Spirit
of God and the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that
Christ dwells in us, which is the hope of glory. And our Lord
Jesus said, but yet, he said, Father, sanctify them through
thy truth. Thy word is truth. So while we're
living in this world, we stand before God holy and complete
without sin, but still yet we're in this flesh and there's not
a bit of holiness in us that you could find by our deeds whatsoever. And there's none of our behavior
that has any holiness attached to it. But one of these days,
bless His holy name, our personal behavior, how we act in this
world, will be brought to perfection. Brought to perfection. There'll
never be a word that'll ever bother you again. And it won't
be because of any effort that we've done. Do you know every
day, every day, how many times a day do we sin in thought? How
many times a day do we sin in word? How many times a day do
we sin in deed? And us doing some time in some
kind of a purgatory someplace, that's not going to change the
thing. But our Lord Jesus Christ, who justified His people on this
earth and makes them perfectly holy, when He takes us to glory,
our behavior will become perfect, fully and finally. And look what
He said over here in Revelation 21, 27. I'll tell you, you know, it grieves
me. I don't know about you all, but my behavior and how I act
and react to things grieves me to no end. Why can't I deal with things
better than I deal with them? Why do I let things upset me?
Why do I let things that people say, things they do, the way
I react to people? Oh, my. I'm perfectly holy as
far as God's concerned, but what about my behavior? Huh? Oh, my. He's going to take us to glory
just like that. Look what he said here in Revelation
21, 27. This is what I'm talking about. And thou shalt in no wise enter
into it anything that defiles, neither work an abomination,
or makes a lie. I mean, you know. There ain't
nobody going there. When we get there, our behavior,
oh my. We tell people all the time,
we tell our kids to behave yourself. Behave yourself. And we tell
ourselves all the time, God, if you'll help me, I won't do
that again. I won't act that way again. I won't let that upset
me again. And we say, Lord, give me grace. But one of these days, our behavior,
our behavior, how we treat, how we act, and how we behave ourselves
to be perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Whatever it is that
upsets you now will never upset you again. Your behavior that bothers you
so now will never bother you again. Now, all my perfected
behavior Perfected nature? Oh my, then we're going to have
not only perfected behavior, but we're going to have perfect
bodies. You know, one evidence that we're
so corrupt and our bodies is under the sentence of the curse
is because of the corruption of our bodies. And death, how
our death works on our physical bodies. Now, you know, a lot of us been
together a long, long, long, long time. Started out black-headed
and got gray-headed. Started out young, now we're
old. Started out strong, now we're
getting weak. Start out knowing everything,
and the longer we've lived, the more we realize we don't know
anything. But oh, bless His holy name.
His body is corrupt, and death is working in it. But because
of that, it shows us that we need redemption. And the resurrection
promises us a radically, radically Look with me over in 1 Corinthians
15. Oh my, we're talking about perfection.
Body's perfect. We're just men are made perfect.
Well, not only is the spirit going to be made perfect, but
our body, nature's going to be made perfect. Body's going to
be made perfect. Behavior's going to be made perfect.
But look what he says here. Oh my. In verse 42. So also is the resurrection of
the dead. Sown in corruption. Sown in corruption. Oh, you put a seed in the ground,
it rots. Put this body in the ground,
it's going to change. But it's raised in incorruption.
How to change? From corruption to incorruption. What's this? It's sown in design.
This body has just fell apart. There was a time that it had
honor to it. There was a time that it had some strength to
it. There was a time that it had some glory to it. There was
a time that it had some strength to it. There was a time that
it had some beauty to it. There was a time that it had
some youth to it. There was a time when it was full of, you know,
just little children just running here and yonder. But this soul
in dishonor, it just fell apart. This soul in dishonor, but it's
raised in glory! Sown in weakness. Raised in power. Sown in natural body. Oh my,
it's the natural body going into the ground. But it's raised a
spiritual body. You see, there's the natural
body and the spiritual body. And look what it says down here
in verse 49. As we have borne the image of
the earthy, we bore Adam's image, we shall also bear the image
of the heavenly. As we bore the image of our Father
Adam, we're going to bear the image of our Father, our Savior,
our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what David said, I'll
see your face in righteousness and only be satisfied when I
wake in your likeness. Let me tell you something else,
Delilah. When we go in where the Spirit
of just men made perfect, that's our goal. We're going through
this life. And we want to, I don't want to miss Christ, I don't
want to miss glory. And I want to go, but there we'll
not only have perfect nature, perfect bodies, but we'll also
have a perfect enjoyment there. I've told people, I don't know
how many times over the years, I wish everybody enjoyed living
as much as I did. Enjoyed life as much as I did.
Enjoyed living. And everybody wants to enjoy
life. But not everybody agrees to what enjoy means. But I do
know this. When God sends trials, and God
sends disappointments, God sends illnesses, and we have betrayals,
and we run out of money, and we just go through the same thing
over and over and over and over again. very loved ones, and we
go through the things of this life, there's times that life's
not very enjoyable. I mean, the joy is taken right
out of you. Huh? I mean, you know, you'll
be going through life, you'll be enjoying things pretty good.
Somebody give you a phone call, or something like that, and your
whole world just... Joy is gone like that. A child
calls you. Just boom, your life, the world
changes just like that. But oh, beloved, but the worst
of all is death itself. But death is
that last, last thing that we have to go to. That last thing
we have to go to. Between those who love the Lord
Jesus Christ, and listen to me, the perfect enjoyment of God
forevermore. You know, we enjoy a lot down
here, but all to go somewhere where enjoyment is perfect. Enjoyment is perfect. And oh, beloved, you know what
our Lord Jesus Christ said? He says that every believer,
when he leaves this world, he'll hear that voice, enter into the
joy of the Lord. And enter into the joy of the
Lord we will. And let me show you something else we'll have.
Spirits have just been made perfect. We'll have perfected relationships.
Perfected relationships. What I mean by that is, if everyone
loved everyone else perfectly, they'd be heaven on earth, wouldn't
they? Perfect relationships. A lot
of folks, you know, they see the faults of others. They see
the faults of others. In all, where does wars and fighting
come from but from within? From your desires of your pleasure,
warring your members? And we have these struggles in
this life, and troubles with relationships, trouble with marriages,
trouble with kids, trouble with one another. A dear preacher
friend of mine told me today, said, Boy, there's so much going
on in our congregation right now, people at odds with one
another. People upset with one another. He said, there's so much distraction,
things that the devil does to distract us from the gospel. He said, so much going on. And
where do these wars come from? Where do these struggles come
from? Where do these hindrance in relationships come from? They
come from within. Warring the members in your mind,
and then warring against other people. That all beloved heaven
will send in to all strife. All strife. No more tears will
ever come from another soul's eyes. And all the broken relationships
that you've had in this world. A man told me today, he said, His wife's father died. She said
she regrets that she didn't spend more time with him, do more for
him. Regrets. I have no... I didn't have a
relationship with my mother and father. Don't have very little
with my brothers, sisters. Very, very little. So there's
no broken relationships there. But there's relationships that's
broken in this world. between brothers and sisters,
mothers and daughters, fathers and sons. And all these broken
relationships would just be no more of them. And freedom from
sin means freedom to be holy. And oh, when we're perfected
in our godliness, that means we'll have perfect relationships.
All the family feuds, all the personality clashes, All the
controversies over doctrines, they'll all just vanish forever.
There will be every soul that you've ever known and all the
faults you've ever had or seen in somebody else, they'll all
be gone. And every truth that you ever wondered about, you'll
be persuaded of it. And this one thing I know for
sure, we'll love one another perfectly. Perfect relationships. Huh? Oh, my. We'll truly then rejoice in the
unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. And then last of all,
we'll have a perfect, perfect fellowship with God. Now, you
know, if we're going to have a relationship with God here,
God's got to make the initiative. God's got to make the first move.
God's got to come to us and save us by His grace. He's got to
break in on us. He's got to make us willing in
the day of His power. He's got to make Christ real
to us. He's got to make us need Christ, and got to make us see
our sin, make us understand how desperately we need Him. And
He comes, and He Himself establishes this fellowship, establishes
this relationship. We don't come and make a relationship
with God. God comes and makes the relationship
with us. And that's why He says, the pleasure
of the Lord will prosper in the Lord's hands, and God shall see
the travail of His soul and be satisfied. And everything that
could hinder a man's relationship and fellowship with God was removed
at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord said that
He will present to Himself a glorious church without spot, without
blemish, perfect before Him. And beloved, and when we get
to glory, we fellowship with God here. But you imagine what
it will be like when we get there. We fellowship with God here.
We talk with the Lord here. We sit down in front of Him and
talk with Him here. We talk with Him in His Word.
We talk with Him in prayer. We hear of Him in the Gospel.
And we have fellowship with Him. And oh, beloved, but there we'll
have a full knowledge of the Lord. Do you know what it said
in 1 Corinthians 13, 12? It says that we shall know even
as we know. That means that we'll know Him
like He knows us. We'll know Him. We'll know Him. We'll know Him even as we've
known Him. And there we'll see, as we've seen last week in Revelations
22-4, that we'll see Jesus face-to-face. And our communion with Him will
be visible. It'll be perfect, and everything
will be made new. But look here in Hebrews 12.
Let me show you some things, and then I'll quit. You know, we're not there yet. We've come unto the new Jerusalem. We've come to the city of the
living God. We've come to an innumerable company of angels.
We've come to the spirits of just men made perfect, whose
names are written in heaven. We've come to a mediator, the
Lord Jesus Christ. We've come to the sprinkling
of that blood. Everything that we need, except
we're not there where those fellows are perfect. They're spirits
of just men made perfect. So, beloved, for us to go, again,
there in the last part of verse 1 of chapter 12, let's therefore
run with patience. We'll run with patience. Run
with endurance. That word patient means the same
word as endurance. Patience don't mean just wait. It means to Go on in spite of
all obstacles. Wait with patience, and your
patience possess you, you soul. You don't just sit down and twiddle
your thumbs. You just keep on, you keep on
patiently running. I've been running for years,
and I know there's times that I'll say, boy, I just don't know
if I can, but I always can eke out another five minutes. I can
always eke out another half a mile. I can always, you know, And you
just have to be patient. If you're going to go six miles,
you've got to start that first one and do the first, the second,
the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth. And that's why
you patiently do that. You ain't going to get to that
six miles just like that. And that's why He says we're
not going to get to glory unless we endure and patiently go through
this life. And then look what it says, looking
unto Jesus. who brought us to saving faith.
He's the one who brought us to saving faith. He finishes our
faith. And oh, look down in verse 15,
and here's another thing to look at. Looking diligently, looking
diligently, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, and looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace
of God, fall short of the grace of God. Oh, look diligently. Oh, not lest you fall short of
the grace of God. And oh, beloved, in verse 25,
look what it says here. See that ye refuse not him that
speaks. Don't refuse the voice of God.
Don't refuse him that speaks. I mean, beloved, we've got a
good ways before we get there. Good time before we get there.
Lots going to happen between here and there. And look what
it says here down there. And oh, beloved, see that we
don't refuse him that speaks because it says in verse 29,
our God is a consuming fire. So, beloved, we've come to the
spirits of just men made perfect. Church of the firstborn. Judge
of all. Spirits of just men made perfect. And they're made perfect in our
perfection. Oh, my, this perfect nature that
we're going to have, this destination we're going to, this perfect
relationship, perfect behavior, perfect enjoyment of God, perfect
fellowship with God. Oh, what a day. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord. I pray that you'd be pleased
to meet the needs of the hearts of your people here. Lord, we have much, much, much
to look forward to. Oh, what a glorious future we
have. But yet, Lord, we have to run. We have to labor. We have to
be patient. We have to look to you. Lord, we haven't arrived yet.
We're like Paul. We have not arrived yet. We haven't apprehended what we're
apprehended for. So, Lord Jesus, we look to you.
Looking to you. And help us, Lord Jesus, that
we don't seem to come short. Don't let anybody in this building
by your blessed grace come short. Don't let them fail of the grace
of God. May all of us, may all of us by your blessed grace wait for that glorious resurrection
when all things are made new and we dwell in the presence
of our Lord in that new heaven and new earth forever and ever. Amen. Amen. I'll see you Sunday
morning, God willing.