Well, in the last two services,
the Floyd Brothers, that's a new band, the Floyd Brothers, have
sung two of my very, very favorite songs. That was outstanding,
Isaac, thank you. All right, if you would, open
your Bibles with me to Job chapter 11. Job chapter 11. I've titled the message this morning,
Can You By Searching Find Out God? This is the question that
Zophar asked in Job 11, verse seven. Canst thou by searching
find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection? It is as high as heaven. What
canst thou do deeper than hell? What canst thou know? The measure
thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. Now
this is a good question for us to consider. Can you completely
know God? Unto perfection, that's what
he means. Can you completely know everything there is to know
about God with the human mind? Now the obvious answer to that
question is no, of course not. God is so high above us, there's
no way we can know everything there is to know about God. That's
why I read to open a service from Isaiah 55, for my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith
the Lord, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so
are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts. God's nature is not our nature,
so we can't comprehend God. God is spirit, we're flesh. We're finite, very finite, aren't
we? God's infinite. We're sinful,
God is holy. How can a maggot, ever possibly
know God, know the eternal God? Well, by human logic, we can't.
We can't figure out who God is. We can't figure out what God
is like. We can't figure out how it is
that God saves sinners by human understanding. How can a holy
God ever accept a sinful man, woman like you and me? With our
human understanding, we can never understand that. We can never
comprehend it because God is too far above us. Our understanding
is dead and darkened by sin, so we can't understand God and
His holiness. Look over Romans chapter one.
If we try to figure out what God is like, we use our dead,
small mind to figure out what God's like, we will always be
wrong, always. If we try to figure out God with
our sinful imagination, we'll always make God too small, make
ourselves too big. We'll never make ourselves as
sinful as we really are, We always make ourselves too sufficient.
Romans 1 gives us a very good example of that. Romans 1 verse
18. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, is manifest to them, for God has
showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead,
so that they're without excuse. Because that when they knew God,
they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but become
vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image, made like
to corruptible man, into birds and four-footed beasts and creepy
things. Now left to our own imagination,
we make God, whom the heavens cannot contain, to be like an
animal, like a bird, or a fish, or an insect, or worse yet, like
us. Worse yet, like us. That can't
be more the opposite of who God is. But that is the very best
our corrupt minds can come up with. By our understanding, we
can never know God. Now that's true, but that is
not to say that God cannot be known. No, God can be known.
If we're gonna have eternal life, we have to know God. Isn't that
what our Lord said in his great high priestly prayer? Eternal
life is to know God, Jesus Christ whom he has sent. So somebody's
got eternal life, I know that. So God can be known. But always
be very, very careful. I don't think anybody here is
making God out to be an insect or a fish or something like that.
But be very careful not to try to make God in your mind what
you think he is or what you think he ought to be. God is who he
says he is. God is who he describes himself
the way he describes himself in his word. And the only way
we can know that is by divine revelation. We can't figure it
out. It's by divine revelation. Look back at Matthew chapter
11. We're going to turn to a few scriptures this morning, but
I want you to see these things from God's word so you know that
they're true. It's not something I'm just making up. This is what
God's word says. If we would know God, God has
to be the one to reveal himself to us. Matthew 11 verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee. O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and you've revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight. The Father has pleased
him to reveal Christ, to reveal himself, to reveal how God saves
sinners, and he does it to babes. We looked at this Wednesday night.
He does it to those who are helpless in themselves. Those who are
not, they know, I'm not smart enough to figure out God. That's
who God is pleased to reveal himself to. Now if you're here
this morning and you know God, and many of you do, you know
God. You love him, you believe him,
you trust him. If you know God, and you know how God saves sinners,
I'm telling you the only reason for it is God's been pleased
to reveal that to you. Look over a few pages at Matthew
chapter 16. We didn't figure this thing out.
We didn't figure this thing out because we've sat under the best
preachers who ever lived. We figured this out. We see this
because God revealed it to us. We didn't figure it out at all.
Matthew 16, verse 13. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, whom do
men say that I, the son of Manningham? And they said, well, some say
thou art John the Baptist. Some Elias and other Jeremiah
are one of the prophets. The best they come up with is
you're somebody from the past. And he said unto them, but whom
say ye that I am? Now this is the issue. Who is
the Lord Jesus Christ? Who is he? What's he like? Simon
Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the
living God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven,
a fisherman, who as far as we can gather had very little education
at all, knew God. He knew the Lord Jesus Christ
because the Father was pleased to reveal it to him. And this
revelation, it's supernatural. I say it's supernatural, this
is something only God can do and it can't be done with human
help. Can't be. Look at Ephesians chapter three.
God revealing himself To one of his sinful creatures is an
absolute mystery to the natural mind, because only God can perform
it. And he does it through preaching. He does it through a way that
the human mind would never come up with. God's pleased to reveal
himself and reveal his son by one maggot preaching to another
maggot. Now, we never would have come up with that on our own,
but that's the way God does it. Look here at Ephesians 3 verse
2. If you've heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is
given me to you, or this isn't just given to me for myself,
Paul said, it's for you. How that by revelation, he made
known unto me the mystery. Well, for years, Paul knew the
law. He knew the ceremonies. He knew all the morality thing.
He didn't know God. Now he does. He says it's by
revelation. Wasn't by education. Paul had
the best education money could buy at that time. It wasn't by
education, it was by revelation. Whereby, when you read, you may
understand my knowledge of the mystery of Christ. I understand
this because God's revealed it to me, which in other ages was
not made known unto the sons of men, as is now revealed on
his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles
should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his
promise in Christ by the gospel, whereof I was made a minister
according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by
the effectual working of His power. Unto me, whom less than
the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make
all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the
beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things
by Jesus Christ. To the intent that now unto the
principalities and powers and heavenly places might be known
by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal
purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, how
is Jew or Gentile, how is any person ever going to understand
the mystery of how it is God saves sinners? How? It's through
the preaching of Christ. God sends a preacher. How did
the Ethiopian eunuch know what he was reading? He knew that
Isaiah was talking about somebody, some man, but he didn't know
who. God had to send Philip to him to tell him, didn't he? How'd
you come to know Christ? God sent you a preacher, didn't
he, to tell you about Christ? And even now, speaking to believers,
even now, you've heard the gospel, you know, many, many, many times,
you've read God's word many times, and how often have you said this
or thought this? You've read a passage of scripture,
or probably more likely you've heard somebody preach from it,
and you say, I never saw that before. I've heard somebody preach
from that so many times. It's been a blessing before,
but I never saw that before. What happened? God revealed it
to you. And he did it through preaching.
He did it from his word. So as the Lord enables us now,
we preach Christ. I mean, as best we can, we preach
Christ. We teach the scriptures verse
by verse. You know why? Because I want
you to know what God's word says. It's so important to me that
you know what God's word says. It's my responsibility to teach
you the word. And if you don't know what God's
word says, I feel responsible for it. But that's as far as
I can go. Try and teach your head. So you've
heard it, so you know what God's word says. So somebody stands
up here and says, this is what God's saying. That's as far as
I can go. I can't make you believe it.
I can't make you love it. I do my best to tell you about
Christ, tell you who he is, point you to him. I can't make you
believe him. I can't make you love him. Because salvation is
not education. It's not education. Our dead
minds can't be educated into knowing and believing and loving
spiritual truths because they're dead. Salvation, knowing God,
believing God, loving God, trusting Christ, that can only come by
God's revelation to the heart. And every one of us here has
seen that happen. Just think about two people sitting
in the same congregation week after week after week, maybe
year after year after year. They hear the same messages preached,
they hear the same They hear the same scripture readings.
They sing the same songs. They hear the same prayers. They
both hear the same preachers. One of them sees religion. One of them sees true doctrinal
statements. One of them loves Christ and
believes Christ. What's the difference? God is
pleased to reveal himself to them. It's the only difference. But if God's gonna reveal himself
to the hearts of his people, I'm telling you, he does it through
preaching, through the preaching of Christ. And I know that's
the truth, that it's dependent on God's revelation to us. I
know that's true, because this truth puts man where he belongs.
It makes us completely dependent on God to do all the saving.
It makes salvation of the Lord. It's of the Lord's will, of the
Lord's purpose, and the Lord's application. It's all of the
Lord. So this revelation of Christ,
now it comes from the preaching of Christ. And I would say that
the best way for someone to know God, to know what God's like,
to know the Lord Jesus Christ, to know what he's like, is to
hear specifically the preaching of Christ crucified. The preaching of Christ crucified
is not just to say that Jesus of Nazareth died on a cross 2,000
years ago. The preaching of Christ crucified
is to tell how that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures. Preaching Christ crucified is to preach why did
Christ die? Why did the Son of God in the
flesh die? He died for the sins of his people.
He died to satisfy God's justice. Preaching Christ crucified is
to tell what Christ accomplished when he died. When my body finally
dies, that will accomplish nothing. It'll accomplish nothing but
sorrow for my family left behind. But when Christ died, he accomplished
something. Remember there on the Mount of
Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appeared unto the Lord, and they
spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. When Christ died, he accomplished
something. He accomplished the eternal justification of everybody
that the Father gave him to save. To preach Christ crucified is
to preach the Lord Jesus Christ as the successful, victorious
savior of sinners. Whoever it is he died for, they're
redeemed. They're saved. He's successful
and he'll not lose one. And that's the very reason, if
you're a sinner, you should come to him begging for mercy. Because
he's able to save. That's why you come to him. So
like I say, the best way I can think of for us to know God is
to go to Calvary, Christ crucified. All of the attributes of God
are seen most clearly at Calvary. Let me give you a few things
that I see here. At Calvary, I see the eternality
of God. Look back at Acts chapter two.
I see the eternality of God at the cross. Because at the cross,
I see God's eternal purpose of redemption being accomplished
through the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ.
That's God's eternal purpose being carried out. Now, the only
way we can know that is if God's pleased to reveal that to us.
And He is pleased to reveal that to us through preaching, through
the preaching of Christ crucified. That's what Peter did. Look here
at Acts 2, verse 22. You men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by
miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst
of you, as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, not by your will, the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by
wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up,
having loosed the pains of death, because it's not possible that
he should be holding of it. Peter tells him, you fellas didn't
cook this plant up. You didn't finally set a trap
that took Jesus of Nazareth and got him crucified. That was the
determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. That's why God raised
him from the dead. Look over a page of Acts chapter
four. Peter knew how to beat this drum. Look what he says
in Acts four, verse 26. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ for of a troop against thy holy child, Jesus,
whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, who
the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done." You know, those men, they're both Jews and Romans. They did exactly what their wicked
hearts wanted to do. but it's like they took the Old
Testament scriptures and used it like a script in a play and
said, what am I supposed to do next? I go stage left, I go stage
right, I say this, you say this. They did it exactly like God
determined before to be done. And we would never have known
that the cross is God's eternal purpose of redemption being carried
out unless somebody came and preached Christ crucified to
us that told us from the scriptures how that he died. Why did he
die? What did he accomplish in his
death? Why was he resurrected from the
dead? Christ crucified is God's eternal will and purpose being
carried out. All right, second at Calvary,
I see this. I see God is holy. As he suffered
on the cross, the Savior cried, my God, my God. Now, oftentimes,
he referred to God as his father, didn't he? Here, he calls him
my God. My God, the one who stands in
judgment of him, the one who is punishing him. My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me, he said. Now, this is a mystery that can
only be revealed. Our pea brains would never figure
this out. At Calvary, God pursued God. God's always won, yet God forsook
God. At Calvary, God who is won turned
his back on God. Now you know why he did that?
Because God's holy. God must be holy. Now we read
in other places about the holiness of God. Isaiah saw those angels
flying about his throne crying, holy, holy, holy. Now I believe that. Don't you,
when you hear those angels crying, holy, holy, I believe God's holy.
Well, I'll tell you why I see it, why I see it in action. God must be holy. He turned his
back on his son, his beloved son, the son in whom he's well
pleased. He turned his back on his son
because his son was made sin. He took away all of his loving
presence, took it away from his son, and gave his son his wrath,
because Christ had been made sin for his people, and God's
holy. He can't look on sin. He can't
and he won't accept sin, never. He won't have any mercy on sin. He must give it justice, even
when that sin's found on his son. I don't know about you parents,
but I expect you're like me. I cut my children a lot of slack. I mean, I cut them a lot of slack.
If they got in trouble and I was the judge, I mean, they'd go
scot-free if I possibly could. They sure would get off as light
as I could. Not God. Not God the Father. He poured
out all of the wrath of the eternal Godhead on his son. Because his
son was made sin. That's God's holiness. And God's
holiness has to be revealed to us. Or else we'll think God's
just gonna accept the best I can do. I mean, I know I'm not perfect,
but God'll accept the best I can do. Will he? Look to the cross
and find out. You can find out otherwise, but
God's holy. The third thing I see at Calvary
is this. God is just. God is just. You know, people
like to argue. I saw it again this week. People
like to argue. Who is it that put Jesus to death?
Was it the Jews or the Romans? You know, I want to jump in there
and tell you, you're both wrong. It wasn't the Jews or the Romans.
It was the Father. The Father put His Son to death. He told us about Zechariah 13,
verse 7. He said, awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against
the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the
shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. The father said,
awake, O sword, the sword of justice, against my shepherd,
the shepherd that I sent to get my people, against the man that
is my fellow. Now who else can be the fellow
of the father but the son? The father is the one who plunged
the sword of justice into the heart of his son. And it pleased
him to do it. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It pleased God's justice to slaughter
his son. When the father put the son to
death, he was just and right to do it. You see, the father
never would have put his son to the cursed death on the tree
unless the son deserved it. The son deserved to be crucified. You know why? He'd been made
sin for his people. He became guilty of all of the
sin of all of his people without ever committing a sin, without
ever having a sin nature. There's a mystery in it. How
can the Lord Jesus Christ be the sinless substitute, the sinless
sacrifice, and yet be made guilty of sin? I had no idea. that can
only be believed by revelation. Even when you believe it, you
don't understand it. It's just so. The father made his son sin
for his people, and then he gave him justice. He gave him everything
that that sin deserves. See, that's why the father turns
back on the son. He can't look on sin. That's
why the son died. Because death, that's what sin
deserves. All of God's elect deserve eternal
death. They deserve the wrath of God.
If you believe Christ, you know why that wrath won't fall on
you? You know why you'll never die? Spiritually, eternally,
you know why you'll never die? Christ already did for you. Because God's just. You see,
if God punished Christ for your sin, he'll never punish you for
it. If the father punished his son
for your sin, you don't have to fear standing before God in
judgment and ever fear hearing him say, depart from me, I never
need you. Never. Because justice is already satisfied.
Now that can only be understood. That can only be believed and
loved by the revelation. The revelation through the preaching
of Christ crucified. Otherwise, here's what we'll
think. We'll think something like this. Christ died as an
example. Christ died as an example that
we ought to be nice to folks. Or we'll think God put an innocent
man to death so he can let the guilty go free. Let me tell you
something. If the father put an innocent
man to death and let the guilty go free, he's an unjust judge.
And he's not. At Calvary, we seek God's justice. Fourthly, and this is very, very
closely tied to his justice, at Calvary, I see God's merciful. One of the things that I love
about God's salvation is the justice of it. When God saves
a sinner, it's just. God's salvation is just. Everything
about it, it's just and right. God would never take away the
salvation of any of his people, anyone. He will never take salvation
away from anyone that he sent Christ to die for because that
would be unjust. The father gave his son strict,
exact justice for the sin of his people at Calvary. I mean,
he gave him absolutely everything, every drop of justice that sin
deserves. God is so holy. He's so wise,
he's so good, that that sacrifice, when he gave Christ everything
that sin deserves, that made it right for God to show mercy
to sinners. See, God is both just and merciful. He must do both perfectly at
the same time, because they're both attributes of God. They
must both be perfect. The only way God can be just
and still be merciful is if Christ the substitute satisfied God's
justice for you, so that it's right for God to be merciful
to his people. God chose a people, a sinful
people to save, and he made it right for him to be merciful
to them. Isn't that wonderful? That is
just so wonderful. God's merciful because he satisfied
his own justice himself. Now that can only be understood
by revelation. And you see that revealed most
clearly at Calvary can only be understood by revelation. Otherwise,
what we'll think, just like what Paul said in Romans 1, we'll
think God's like us. You know, when we're merciful
to somebody, what do we do? We just ignore their sin. We
just ignore the thing that they did, and we just don't bring
it up, and we don't punish them for it, and we say that's merciful.
You know, a guilty man appears before the judge and the judge
gives him a light sentence because the family's all been pleading,
the lawyer's been pleading, now be merciful. He's guilty, he's
been found guilty. We've already had that part of
the trial, he's guilty. Now this is a sentencing phase, just be
merciful. And the judge is merciful and
gives him a light sentence. That's what we think mercy is.
God is not merciful to you and me because he lords our sin.
He's merciful to us because it's right for him to do it. He satisfied
justice for us. Then at Calvary, fifthly, I see
this. I see God loves sinners. Now everyone says God is love,
don't they? Everybody says that. But now,
and that's true. That's a true statement. God
is love. But what does God is love mean? You know, people want
to say God is love And they just take that statement out of scripture,
they pluck it out of scripture, and they don't compare it with
the rest of scripture. They don't make it stand up to the rest
of scripture. They say, this is what that means to me. You
know, the word of God is never what it means to me. The word
of God is what it means, what it means according to the rest
of scripture. But they take that statement out of scripture and
they say, well, that means God loves everybody without exception. Now just think about that for
a minute. Even the human mind can see that's not true. If God
loves everyone, without exception, and he still sends people to
hell, what does God's love have to
do with anyone? I mean, there's people in hell
right now. Right now, there's people in hell. If God loves
them the same way that he loves the apostle Peter, what does
God's love mean? Not one blessed thing. That makes
God's love meaningless and useless. But the preaching of Christ crucified,
that reveals what God is love means. It means God loves sinners. It means God loves his elect.
How do I know that? By revelation, look at first
John. First John chapter four. It's by the revelation through
the preaching of Christ crucified. Here, Peter tells us something
that happened because of Christ, that's revealed because of Christ
crucified. First John four, verse 10. Well,
verse nine. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us because the God sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love. Here's love, here's the definition
of it, here's the picture of it. Not that we love God, but
that he loved us. And here's how I know God loved
his people. He sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now I look at that verse, I have to shake my head and wonder,
God must really love sinners. The scene at the cross is unimaginable agony. It's bloody, bloody, bloody torture. It's such a demonstration of
man's hatred against God. The Savior hung there, didn't
even look like a man. His visage was marred more than
anybody else they ever crucified. And beyond that, far beyond that,
he made his soul in offering for sin. The sight is so horrible,
God turned the sun on to keep us from sinning. The father did that to his son. He must really love sinners.
Huh? He must really love sinners if
he did that to his son to make it right for him to be merciful
to sinners. Oh, and I'll tell you the only
way we'll see how God loves sinners is by going to Calvary and finding
out who it is that Christ died for. This weekend, my wife and
I have had our grandson along, just the two of us for a few
days. Gary, I'm plum stupid. I mean
that emotional, sappy love that I feel for that kid makes me
act a fool. Don't ever confuse that with
God's love. I mean, I use that in illustration
and I, it doesn't belong in the same
area code with God's love for his people. God loved his people
so much, he sacrificed his son. That's love. That's love. And here's comfort. That's been
revealed to you. Here's comfort for you. If God
loved you so much, he sacrificed his son for you. He'll never
not love you. Never. Then sixth at Calvary,
I see this. God forgives these. on purpose. At Calvary, Christ wasn't just
trying to save somebody. He died to save somebody, specifically
from their sin. He called those people his sheep.
And I want to tell you, he got the job done. He got the job
done because his precious blood was shed as a sacrifice for sin. All of the sin of all of God's
elect, it's forgiven. It's forgiven because the blood
of Christ took that sin away. Ephesians 1, 7, in whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of his grace. You know why God forgives sin?
There's no sin to be angry about. The blood of Christ took it away.
Then seventh at Calvary, I see this, that Christ in his death
justified his people. Look at Romans chapter five. Now the sacrifice of Christ made
his people to have no sin. Justification is not just as
if I'd never sinned. To be justified means I have
never sinned. That's how powerful and effective
the blood of Christ is. Romans five verse six. For when
we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. for scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet perventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God committeth his love toward
us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified
by his blood, we should be saved from wrath through him. The blood
of Christ made people who are ungodly by nature to be sinless
by nature. That's how powerful the blood
of Christ is. And the only way that can be
believed, the only way you can rest in that, it's got to be
revealed. The blood of Christ, what his
blood means has to be revealed to us through the preaching of
Christ crucified. Then here's the last thing, eighth. At Calvary,
I see why Christ is coming again. I don't want anyone here to miscomfort
for the hearts of believers. Christ is coming back. Remember
in Acts 2, we read it earlier, Peter said God raised up Christ
from the dead because it's not possible that death could hold
him. You know why Christ didn't stay dead? Because the sin that
was charged to him is gone, put away by his precious blood. The
only reason for death is sin. Well, there was no sin left on
him. His sacrifice put it away. He couldn't stay dead. He had
to rise again. Look at John chapter 14. Christ is risen. He's risen from the grave, and
that means he's coming again. John 14, verse one. Let not your
heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many mansions, as many dwelling
places. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go, he's going
to the cross, to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself
that where I am, there ye may be also. Christ crucified. He suffered
and died on the cross to prepare a place for a people and to prepare
a people for the place. and he's ascending back to glory.
Ever living, making intercession for his people. Pleading this
blood, pleading his suffering, pleading his death for his people.
Now there he sits on the throne of glory. And you know what he's
waiting on? He's just waiting on that last sheep to be brought
in. And I don't know if it'll be
immediately, but at some point after that, he's going to wrap
this thing up. I mean it. trumpet in a blast. He's going to come again and
every eye shall see him. And you know why it is he's coming
back personally? He's coming back personally to
make sure he has every last one that the father gave him. He's
going to gather them together with him and take him to glory
where we will ever be with him. One more scripture, Hebrews chapter
nine. When Christ returns, gathers His people together to
be with Him, we're not going to be like we are now. And the earth, the heaven, wherever
it is that we live in this new creation, it's not going to be
like it is now either. Hebrews 9, you know, let me say
this, heaven is not just a continuation of this here on earth. Heaven's
not even just a continuation of the hobbies that we enjoy.
It's not hunting and fishing and, you know, whatever you like. No, it's not that at all. Look
what the writer of the Hebrews tells us in verse 28 of Hebrews
9. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and
unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without
sin unto salvation. When Christ returns, he's gonna
be without sin, isn't he? Well, of course he is, because
he put the sin of his people away by a sacrifice. And when
he returns, his people are going to be without sin too. When we
see him, we should be like him. We'll be without sin, body and
soul in a creation without sin. Because Christ put it all away. And because of his death, because
of what God is like through the sacrifice of his son, his people,
will be with him forever, seeing his glory. Isn't that
what he prayed, that we might be with him where he is and see
his glory? That's what we'll have, because
that's what God's like. And he can do that because of
the sacrifice of his son. I hope that's been a blessing
to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. How we thank you for this sweet revelation of
our Lord Jesus Christ, found only in your word, found only
through the preaching of Christ. And Father, I pray that you would
get glory to your name through this preaching this morning.
Father, get glory, show your glory, your redemptive glory
to each heart here this morning. Father, show that glory to those
who are here this morning that as of yet, they don't believe
you. They don't know Father, reveal yourself to them in mercy
and grace, I pray. And Father, for those believers
that are here, they believe you, they know you, they love you.
Father, bless and comfort and encourage their hearts by revealing
the glory of Christ our Savior to their hearts, to encourage
us to continue going on in this journey that you've called us
to here below. Father, it's in Christ's name and for his sake,
for the glory of his name, we pray. All right, Sean.