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The Promise of Christs Return

1 John 3:2; Job 19
Edmund Buss • May, 24 2026 • Video & Audio
9 Sermons
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EB
Edmund Buss • May, 24 2026
9 sermons
The sermon centers on the transformative power of faith and hope in the promise of seeing Jesus Christ as He truly is, drawing from Job's declaration of faith in his Redeemer and the apostolic vision of Christ's return. It emphasizes that this hope is not merely theoretical but rooted in a personal, loving relationship with Christ, who is both Redeemer and kinsman—intimately related to believers through grace and adoption. The preacher underscores that this future vision is not of a stranger, but of the same Jesus known through faith, whose wounds and love remain eternal, and whose return will fulfill His promise to receive His people. Even in times of spiritual dryness or doubt, the assurance of Christ's intercession and the certainty of His prayer—'Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am'—provides unshakable comfort, reminding believers that salvation rests not on fleeting emotions but on divine promise. Ultimately, the call is to fix our eyes on Christ, to live with one eye on the clouds, and to cultivate a life of praise that anticipates the eternal joy of beholding Him face to face.

In the sermon titled The Promise of Christ's Return, Edmund Buss emphasizes the theological theme of eschatological hope, focusing on the anticipation of Christ's second coming as articulated in 1 John 3:2 and the profound expression of Job's faith in Job 19. Buss argues that both the Apostle John and Job demonstrate a forward-looking perspective in faith, one that transcends present suffering and temporal struggles, anchored in the promise of seeing Christ inHis full glory. The preacher uses Job's declaration, "I know that my Redeemer liveth," to illustrate the certainty of redemption and the communal kinship believers share with Christ, reinforcing the idea that seeing Him entails both immediate relationality and ultimate fulfillment in glory. The practical significance of this hope lies in encouraging believers to maintain an eternal perspective, fostering perseverance in trials and cultivating a longing for personal communion with Christ in eternity.

Key Quotes

“We might think of Job as a book of a man suffering... yet he is still able to lift up his eyes.”

“The thought... perhaps especially with Job, is that God can give us that same sense of perspective.”

“For I know that my kinsman liveth. My kinsman liveth. There’s something very precious about that.”

“This same Jesus... is not a different one... but we shall see him fully for the first time.”

What does the Bible say about the second coming of Christ?

The Bible promises that Jesus will return in the same way He ascended into heaven, ensuring His people will see Him as He is.

The second coming of Christ is encapsulated in the promise found in Acts 1:11, where the angels inform the disciples that 'this same Jesus' who was taken up into heaven will return. This promise assures believers that Jesus will return to fulfill His covenant and bring His people into His glorious presence. His return is not just a future event, but a pivotal aspect of Christian hope, reminding us to live with our gaze fixed on Him.

Acts 1:11, John 14:3

How do we know Jesus is our Redeemer?

Jesus is recognized as our Redeemer through His atoning sacrifice and the believer's assurance of faith.

Job confidently asserts, 'For I know that my Redeemer liveth' (Job 19:25), showing a faith that looks forward to the resurrection and redemption through Christ. The term 'Redeemer' carries profound significance, implying not only the act of buying back but also the personal relationship we possess with Christ, our Kinsman. The cross of Christ signifies the ultimate price paid for our sins, and through faith, believers can claim this truth wholeheartedly—not just as a theological concept but as a personal assurance rooted in Scripture.

Job 19:25, Ephesians 1:7

Why is it important for Christians to understand the promise of seeing Jesus?

Understanding the promise of seeing Jesus is crucial as it shapes our hope and expectation for eternal life.

The promise of seeing Jesus as He is establishes the ultimate hope for believers, aligning with the declaration from 1 John 3:2, 'But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.' This knowledge transforms our earthly perspective and encourages a life that is focused on eternal truths rather than temporal circumstances. By grasping this promise, Christians are reminded of their identity in Christ and the future glory that awaits them, fostering endurance and joy in their earthly walk.

1 John 3:2, Romans 8:18

What perspective should Christians have regarding their suffering?

Christians should view their suffering through the lens of hope in Christ's future glory and the promise of redemption.

Suffering can often cloud our vision, much like Job’s own experiences conveyed. Yet in his darkest moments, Job lifted his eyes to the promise of his Redeemer (Job 19:25). Similarly, Christians are called to maintain a perspective that transcends current trials by recalling the hope of their future with Christ. Our sufferings are temporary and light compared to the eternal glory that awaits us (Romans 8:18). Therefore, afflictions are not meaningless; they are instruments in God's hands to mold us more into the image of Christ, reinforcing our longing for His return and ultimate restoration.

Job 19:25, Romans 8:18

Sermon Transcript

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I want to begin just by talking about really the perspective in John's life that this reveals. He was looking beyond the things that were occupying him at this time. He was looking beyond those to that time when after death or if the Lord had been to come for the second time before his death, when he would see Jesus as he is. And these words in this verse express that perspective, as it were, in his life.

And before we sort of come to the sort of nitty gritty of the text, I do just want to try to consider that for a moment. Personally speaking, there have been a few reminders recently in my life of that need to lift our eyes up and to look into the distance, as it were. It might seem strange to say it, but one of them was a text that I preached from myself a few weeks back. I have to confess it is possible to preach from something and then what we preach is so often can be driven out of our mind and quite wrongly of course but then there have been other reminders since then and at Oakington we had James came to preach to us last Wednesday and He finished the sermon there by speaking about living, as he put it, with one eye on the clouds, looking for the second coming of the Lord Jesus. So there have been those reminders for me of that need for that perspective in our lives, not to be, as it were, always looking at those things that are close to us, that we can see clearly as we think, but in fact are transient and in terms of eternity are insignificantly small. instead of looking to the reward that is set before all of the Lord's people.

I'm not sure reward is the right word, but forgive me for that. That promise that we shall see the Lord Jesus without anything in between, without anything to cloud our sight without any guilt of our sins, with our sins being removed, being pure and perfect and able to perceive Him and to know Him as He is, to feast our eyes and to drink in, as it were, the reality of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, that we shall see Him as He is. One of the reasons why I read that passage in Job is because of that perspective. We often think of Job as a book of a man suffering, suffering in a way that he felt was unjust, that God had dealt hardly with him and he wanted to plead his cause with God.

And in that passage that we read together in the early part of chapter 19, his agony is expressed, isn't it, in so many ways. broken in pieces with the words of his so-called friends. That if he has gone wrong, he's gone wrong himself. Then the core of his misery, that it's not man that's done this, but God has overthrown him. And God then has shut him in. He has shut himself away in one sense as well. So he's not able to get an answer from God. This is his misery, really.

And then a very, I felt very affecting passage where he speaks about how all of those, all of the people that were around him have changed so much because of all that's happened to Job, his relatives, even his servants. He says, my maids count me as a stranger. And then his servant, possibly slave, It says that he called him in verse 16, and he didn't even bother to answer Job. So despised was Job, even in the eyes of his servant. And then verse 17, my breath is strange to my wife.

That word breath, although it does really mean voice, the use of the word breath really speaks of that intimacy, doesn't it? And that intimacy with his wife has been lost, even though he entreated her, because of the children that they had had together. All this paints that picture, doesn't it, of the misery of Job. But in this, perhaps one of the darkest passages, the midnight passage, if you like, thinking of the subject this morning, in this, yet he is still able to lift up his eyes. And those words that begin really in verse 23, they're well known. But may we not be too quick to take them out of the context of where they were. I know it is amazing that Job should write these so long before the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He does not write as someone who was familiar with the account in the New Testament. He hadn't read what we read this evening in that first epistle of John. also to come back to that thought of the midnight that he was in, that time of great darkness that he was in, and the certainty of this. He didn't even say, I hope that my Redeemer liveth.

I hope that I shall see him for myself. We sometimes say that, don't we, with much less cause. But he said, I know, and I know that he shall stand, and I know that I shall see him for myself. I know mine eyes shall behold, and not another. Job had that perspective, didn't he? And may the Lord, he is the only one that can do it, give us that perspective.

There are so many things, aren't there, in this life that can, as it were, ensnare our attention so that we, it might be troubles and it might be sorrows like Job, but sometimes it can be other things as well. Challenges perhaps, sometimes it is things that we like to get our teeth into and we can get too involved in things like that. It can be natural interest and so on. So many things, I believe, that can take away that right perspective.

The Apostle Paul said, didn't he, about running that race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, looking unto the finishing post. And I'm sure that many of us at school, I can remember that at school, being told that don't look down, don't look and see what the other runners are doing, but keep looking at the finishing post and focus on that. And then you go faster.

So may the Lord give us that same sense of perspective. And I hope you will not mind if I say this, if the Lord could do it for Job, he can also do it for us. And the thought might be, I don't have that sense of perspective. But the Lord, it isn't in ourselves, but the Lord can give that sense of perspective. The Lord can lift our eyes up. The Lord is the one that draws our gaze, as it were, unto him. And may he do so. But there was another reason why I read this passage, that passage from Job. And first of all, it is this word redeemer. For I know that my redeemer liveth. Now, redeemer, the word redeem means to buy back.

So it is in the days of pawn shops, if you took something to the pawnbroker, he would give you a certain amount of money. It was still, as it were, reserved for you. But in the event of you not being able to buy it back, he was then free to sell it to somebody else. And if you then had sufficient money, you could go back and redeem your property. You could buy it back from him with the money he'd given you to start with, plus his charges for doing so. That is to redeem something, it is to buy it back.

And Job said, I know that my redeemer liveth. But what I hadn't realized was that there's another meaning for this word, redeemer. And that word is kinsman. If you just turn briefly to the lovely book of Ruth, you'll see that in there we have, in a lot of places, the word kinsman, especially in connection with Boaz and perhaps especially chapter four, or chapter three, verse 12. Boaz says to Ruth, now it is true that I am thy near kinsman. That word kinsman there, used twice in that verse, is the word redeemer.

So it could have been translated that I am thy near redeemer, albeit there's a redeemer nearer than I. And then in verse, in chapter four, when Boaz sits down in the gate and then the the kinsman in chapter 1 verse 1 that's again that's the Redeemer it could have been translated Redeemer whom Boaz spoke he comes and he the The kinsman speaks, or Boaz says to him, buy it before the inhabitants and before the elders of my people.

If they will redeem it, redeem it. That's again that same word. If they will not redeem it, then tell me that I may know. For there's none to redeem it beside thee, and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it. And then in verse six, there's the irony really. It says, the kinsman, or it's the same word, redeemer said, I cannot redeem it. The redeemer said, I cannot redeem it. He was not a type of Christ. But the Boaz, who was the kinsman, who was the redeemer, he did redeem that land for Ruth. And he did also buy, as it were, the rights to marry Ruth. He was Ruth's redeemer, as well as her kinsman.

That to me was, put another light, as it were, on this verse in Job. For I know, and I'm going to use the other word, not because I'm criticising the translators, but just to make the point. For I know that my kinsman liveth. My kinsman liveth. There's something very precious about that, isn't there?

We are able to think of the Lord Jesus Christ, not just as our Redeemer, but as our kinsman. And of course, it is right, because the Lord Jesus Christ is our brother. If we are brought to be a son or a daughter, if you like, of God, then we are an adopted son. As Jesus Christ is the son, we are a fellow heir with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is indeed our kinsman. And to me, that was a very sweet thought, really, because there are those ties of family, aren't there?

If we fall out with a stranger, then there's nothing really to bring us back together again. But you know how it is, I think, perhaps especially when we're younger. They grow up in a family with brothers and sisters and we fall out. But deep underneath, there's that love and love for them. And although we might be really cross at the time when we're young with our brother or our sister, then after a while, there's something inside that wants to make up with them. And that's that love, isn't it? It's because we are kinsmen, because we are related. There is that family love that there is underneath. Coming back to Job, I think that's a very lovely thought.

The Lord Jesus Christ isn't just his Redeemer, he's also his brother, his kinsman. For I know that my kinsman liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon this earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Again, the Lord Jesus Christ, his Redeemer, but also his kinsman. And that to me is quite important, especially as we consider this thought that we shall see him as he is. Because everything really depends upon this.

Have we already seen? Have we already known? Do we already know the Lord Jesus Christ? If we do not know him, That thought of we shall see him as he is must be a frightening thought. We shall see him then and we shall come and we shall be given that knowledge. That knowledge will come that we have been mistaken. We will see him as he is. We will see him as a God of righteousness and a God of judgment. And that will be the first and the last time that we see him. When John was writing that we shall see him as he is, in the same way as Job was writing, he was looking for that person that he knew already to see him again, to see him again. That is, as I said, that is so important, isn't it?

So do we know the Lord Jesus Christ as we have this a thought before us this evening of the second coming of the Lord Jesus or what will happen after our death. Do we already know the Lord Jesus Christ? I'm not asking do we know him fully, but have we had those glimpses as it were by faith of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Job had, hadn't he? He not only knew him as his Redeemer. Incredible and amazing to think, isn't it? How did Job know this? Well, he'd been taught by the Holy Spirit. But Job knew not only that Jesus would pay the price for his sins, that death on the cross, Job saw that by faith. Job, like Isaiah, believed that Jesus Christ had been put to death. for his transgressions, wounded for his transgressions and bruised for his iniquities. And that with the stripes of the Lord Jesus, Job was healed. He had seen that by faith.

An amazing thought, isn't it? It is thought that Job is perhaps one of the oldest books in the Bible. Perhaps Job was contemporary with Abraham. So going right back really into the earlier parts of time. But Job saw that, he'd been shown that by the Holy Spirit.

But he didn't just know the theory, as it were. He didn't just have that faith. He also, I believe, had that knowledge. He'd had those glimpses, as it were, by faith of the Lord Jesus Christ as his kinsman, as his kinsman, as his relative, as his brother, as one who loved him.

And that is really what it comes down to, isn't it? The love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we know that? One of the ways that we know that is, as John says in another place in his epistle, we love him because he first loved us. And I don't know, I have to leave this with you, and it is a question for myself as well.

These words tonight that we've read as a text, if nothing else, we shall see him as he is. What happens in your heart when we think about those words? When we consider those words, we shall see him as he is. Is there something in your heart, as it were, that lifts up that thought of seeing the Lord Jesus Christ? To see him as he is, that promise of every obstacle, everything taken away, every veil, as it were, taken away, so that we can see him as he is.

Is there that desire? And that if there is, it is because there is that love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that that hope and that expectation within, that desire to see him as he truly is. If there is, it is because there is that love of him. And if there is that love of him, I believe it is because there will be that, we have been given that evidence, that token that he loves us. Do you have that this evening? And do I have that this evening? To see the Lord Jesus Christ, to look forward to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that, I believe, is something else that there is in this Job chapter 19. I don't think I've ever mentioned or ever thought or realized this before, really, is what I mean to say. I don't think I've heard anyone else speak of it either. But it did strike me that it isn't just Job's faith that we see here. It's also Job's longing, isn't it?

His longing. to see the Lord Jesus, to see his Redeemer. For I know that my Redeemer liveth. When that burst out of Job, in that time, that midnight in his soul, that time of great darkness and perhaps bitterness, it showed really that he was longing to see the Lord Jesus Christ.

That, as it were, was what, if you like, kept him going. That he would one day be able to see the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew that Jesus was alive. And he knew that one day he would see him, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold and not another. The way he dwells on that, it's almost like he's relishing, as it were, he's looking forward to that wonderful prospect of being able to see the Lord Jesus Christ with his own eyes, with nothing in between. And it is his love of Jesus, his love of the Jesus who hadn't yet been born, who hadn't yet died before the New Testament was written, before the epistles of Paul and of John and the other apostles had been written, before any of this, long before any of this.

Job, through faith and through the Holy Spirit, loved the Lord Jesus Christ and was looking for him. And I think of him in those times of darkness, that bright hope, as it were, still within his soul, that longing to see the Lord Jesus Christ. We shall see him as he is.

Now, I wanted to just speak a little then about some words that we find in the Acts of the Apostles and the chapter one. And just three words there. In this first chapter we have first of all the account of the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus said to his disciples in verse seven, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power.

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And then we read, When he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, Behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, two angels or messengers of God, which also said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which has taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

I just wanted to speak a little bit about those lines. And first of all, these three words, this same Jesus, this same Jesus, when there is that promise that we shall see him as he is. This is not like Zacchaeus, as it were, to see the face of someone for the first time. It is not to meet a stranger and to see what he looks like, as it were. Not if we already know the Lord Jesus. It is to meet the one that we have already become acquainted with.

And these words, this same Jesus, I believe are very precious here. This same Jesus. There's material in these words for many, many sermons, aren't there? If we were to look through just the New Testament and to look at the behaviour, the attributes, the love, the compassion, the pity, the healing, the willingness, the way that the Lord Jesus Christ receives sinners and eats with them, his faithfulness to his disciples, even after they had forsaken him and fled. We could go, it's been many, many hours, if you like, looking at that.

And it is that same Jesus, that same Jesus, which is in heaven. And the blessing of that is that it is that same Jesus that you and I know if we have been brought to know the Lord Jesus. It is that same Jesus. Think of Jesus that when he was after he had risen again from the dead and when he appeared unto the disciples and we read that he showed them his hands. and his feet and said that it is I to show them the wounds in his hands and in his feet as the evidence that it was him.

And then we read that after 40 days he ascended up into heaven. I don't know what would have happened to those wounds in about the 40 days, whether they would have healed or, I just don't know. But I believe that those, I don't think the mark of those wounds will ever go from the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ or would ever have gone, because he says, doesn't he, in Isaiah, you are graven on the palms of my hands. And something that's engraved cannot be rubbed out, changed or altered.

And it is with those same hands that the Lord Jesus will come again. Those hands that are on the palms of his hands will be the names, as it were, figuratively speaking, of all of the Lord's people. And if we are the Lord's, it will be your name and my name engraved on those palms. And it will be the Lord Jesus Christ when we see him again, either after our death or if he comes again before that for the second time, it will be that same Jesus that we see with our names on the palms of his hands.

That, this same Jesus. It will be those same hands that touched that leper, that were moved with compassion and touched that leper when he came to the Lord Jesus and said, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me whole. It'll be those same hands. It'll be those same fingers. that touched the eyes of that blind man to help him to see, it will be those same fingers that he comes back with. The ones that perhaps we have been brought to love through the Bible, but also through, I believe, our own experience, our own testimony of what the Lord has done for us.

It'll be this same Jesus. It won't be a different one. It won't be a changed Jesus. It'll be this same Jesus. Now, in some ways, it's hard to imagine, isn't it? Jesus coming in all his glory but still this same Jesus but it will be it will be this same Jesus and that is why it is different for the Lord's people than it is for those who do not yet know the Lord or those who do not do not know the Lord those who are not the Lord's people for the Lord's people it will be seeing fully for the first time one that they have come to love, one that has won their heart as it were, one who has melted their heart, one to whom they have begun to praise and to thank. And that's really all we can begin to do here below. But it is that promise of seeing him fully with nothing in between, as the Apostle Paul said, face to face.

But for those who do not know him, it will be a stranger. It will be the same Jesus, but it will be that same Jesus that they rejected on earth. It will be that same Jesus that comes that they see for the first time and realize fully the enormity of the error and their sin that they have made. This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Now, I hope that I am not misreading this or putting reading too much into it but this thought of the Lord Jesus coming again in like manner. I understand that Stephen was taught in the Sunday school this morning and I was thinking about him in connection with this and of course at the end of Stephen's sermon which was rejected by the those in the temple. It was rejected by them. And indeed, they then took him outside and stoned him. But while he was even while he was being stoned, he looked up into heaven. He looked up steadfastly into heaven. And what did he see there?

He saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and Jesus standing to receive Stephen. standing to receive him, because we read of him sitting on the right hand of God everywhere else, standing up to receive him. And Stephen saw that and think what that would have been for him. Now, again, we could talk about perspectives there. Again, forgive the hypocrisy in doing so, but there was so much, how horribly, naturally speaking, the situation, how awful the situation that Stephen was in. being stoned to his death.

But he was given that grace and that faith and that hope and that love to look beyond that, to look into heaven and to see Jesus standing to receive him. I'm sure that, as Stephen said, his last words were, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. But I'm sure. And before that, he said, Lord, Jesus, receive my spirit. But I'm sure that in his mind, he was looking, looking forward, as it were, to being with the Lord Jesus, that one that he could see, the heavens opened, that he could see him by faith. Now, I believe that Stephen looked up and saw that same Jesus standing ready to receive him. saw him in his glory, the glory at the right hand of God. But that's the wonder, that same Jesus, that same Jesus that had worked in his heart, that had given him that faith.

Perhaps, presumably, I've always assumed that Stephen would have known of the Lord Jesus while he was on the earth and met him. I don't know if we are directly told that or not, but that's always been my assumption. He would have known him, but more importantly, he knew him by faith. And that faith that he was given, it was that, through that faith, that he'd come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, that love in his heart.

And then he looked up and saw that glorious foretaste of what it would be like in heaven to see Jesus as he is. To see him as he is. and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. Even so, this same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

I also think of those words spoken in John 14. Words of much comfort, aren't they? At the beginning of that chapter, where Jesus says, in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, the word if there really should be read in our minds as, and as or because, as I go and prepare a place for you, because I'm going to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also.

Well, there perhaps the Lord Jesus is speaking of his second coming. But I believe also it is true. I personally find this very comforting thought that individually, if we die before the Lord comes for the second time, here is a promise that the Lord Jesus will not leave us to die alone, not leave us, as it were, to try and summon up our religion and our faith and our trust in him. But the Lord Jesus will come to receive us unto himself so that there could be no slip as it were at the last moment. The Lord Jesus, I love that expression really of what the Lord says here. I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also.

And that was his prayer to his father, wasn't it, in John chapter 17, Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou hast loved me before the foundation of the world. And Jesus there, speaking, isn't he? There's that promise, that certainty that all of the Lord's people will be brought to be with the Lord Jesus, and there they may behold my glory."

So when the Lord Jesus was on this earth, his glory was veiled, wasn't it? He came in the form of a man, but just to illustrate this really, if you think of what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration, And Mark chapter nine, Jesus led Peter and James and John into a high mountain apart by themselves. He was transfigured before them. They had that glimpse of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, his true glory, as we will see him in heaven if we are his.

And he's described as his raiment became shining. exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them. More white than anything, whiter than any shirt here tonight, whiter than the walls, whiter than snow even, whiter than anything that we know of. Nothing, not a whiteness that can be achieved by man. And that was a picture of his glory, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what do we read about them? Peter didn't know what he was saying. He was sore afraid. And then the cloud came that overshadowed them. And God saying, this is my beloved son, hear him. But we do read this, don't we?

They saw no man anymore save Jesus, only with themselves. Just, I believe, a glimpse of heaven. Sometimes we may consider, well, we know relatives and other people in heaven. I don't know the answer to that, but I believe that it will be for us. Whatever the truth of that is, it will be that we see no man save Jesus. To see him as he is. We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Now I just wanted to say this, in connection with that promise, well really with that prayer, expressed in John chapter 17, Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. That is the prayer of the Lord Jesus to his father. But when God speaks, says what his will is, then there is nothing that can prevent that will from becoming into reality. There's nothing that can prevent it happening. That is a promise, isn't it? That every single one of the Lord's people will be brought to be into glory and to see Jesus as he is.

Now, the reason I wanted to say that really, or just to dwell on that for a moment, is that it doesn't matter. Perhaps I shouldn't say that, but bear with me. It doesn't make any difference, rather, as to how we feel about this. There may be those times, as it were, when we do not feel, as it were, that love in our hearts, as we should do, when our hearts are hard, our hearts are cold and dark, when we are taken up with the things of this world, and even sometimes we don't want to be prized away from them.

That's how bad we can become. Not alone in that, David said, the Lord is the good shepherd, he restoreth my soul. We need that restoration, don't we, from time to time. And it might be that we go through those periods coming to those times of darkness and of coldness and we don't feel any of the warmth and the love and the blessing of what it is to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can perhaps become despondent and begin to doubt and to think, does this prove that I'm not really a child of God? Where is the joy and the warmth and the Delight that I knew, perhaps first of all, when the Lord first blessed me, where is all that gone? But it makes no difference to the will expressed here of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think, as I so often do, of something old Mr. Ralph Warboys used to say when I went to Okington and when I was younger, And he often said it at the communion service, to quote those words from the Passover, God saying, when I see the blood, I will pass over.

And really in that context, because the people who were in the house, sheltering and safe, wholly safe under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you like, represented by that lamb, they could not see it. They couldn't see the evidence for themselves. They couldn't see the blood on the outside of the house. If they could have seen it, they would have been outside the house. They wouldn't have been shouting under it.

And that's important because it shows us, doesn't it, that that protection, as it were, of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is by faith, not by sight. I wonder if we sometimes lose sight, pardon me, putting it that way, of how important that is. But we're looking perhaps for those tokens and those evidences, and the Lord does give those, but it's not the full sight. It's not the full proof, as it were, because it is by faith and not by sight. That's why our chapels don't have any religious symbols in them. That's why we don't have idols in them or images of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Apart from that, it was directly against God's law. But part of that is because the whole point is that it is by faith, not by sight. And when the Lord ordained the tabernacle and the temple, but there was no representation of him there. His presence filled the place, filled the tabernacle and filled the temple. But there was no representation. It was by faith and not by sight. And it is still the same.

And may that be a comfort when there are those times when we perhaps look at ourselves and it's often not a good idea. We look at ourselves to try and find that grain of faith, like looking for one grain of sand in a whole heap of dirt, impossible to find. We try and do that, perhaps we look at ourselves.

Instead, we should be looking by faith at the Lord Jesus Christ and to come to the promises that he has given and to come to this. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. Now that's something to rest on, isn't it? There's no excuse for our hardness or our coldness of heart, but There is not an evidence that we are not one of the Lord's people. Oh, may the Lord give us that faith to believe it. Father, I will, that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. Well, may the Lord then give us that right perspective.

And may there be those times in our life when we are able to look up, to look up towards the end, which is, we shall see him as he is. Amen. Let's sing our final hymn together. Hymns for worship number 132. 132. Fill thou my life, O Lord my God, in every part which frames. My whole being may proclaim thy being and thy ways. Hymns for worship 132, tune 212.

Thou my life, O Lord my God, in every part with praise, that thy whole being may proclaim thy being and thy praise. not for the lip of praise alone, nor in the praising heart. I ask but for a life made up of praise in every heart. Praise in the common things of life, its goings out and in. Praise in its duty and its deed, however small they seem. fill every part of me with praise.

Let all my being speak of thee and of thy love, O Lord, for though I be and weak. Who shalt thou hold from even me, Receive the glory due? And so shall I begin on earth The song forever new. Who shall no part of day or night Of sacredness be free? But all my life in every step Be fellowship with thee.

Dear Lord, we do pray indeed that thou wouldst give us lives of praise unto thee, especially where we have been brought to know by faith that salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord we would thank and praise thee this evening as well for the freedom from interruption from the music next door and thank thee for the peace and answer to prayer. Our Lord do bless then all that has been from thee this evening and forgive and take from our minds everything else. The grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.
Broadcaster:
Ebenezer Baptist Chapel
Theology:
#Eschatology #Justification #Faith
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