I'll come back with me to Hebrews
and chapter 12, to the passage that Peter read for us just then. And this is the third message
out of Hebrews chapter 12. I think there's only another
two or three messages to go before we reach the end of this study,
which we began, I think, back in, was it February, maybe even
March, I'm not sure. But anyway, here we come to this
amazing piece of scripture, amazing revelation, this amazing token
of the destiny of the children of God. Let me remind you, you
know these things, but let me remind you to set everything
in context. God created the heavens and the
earth. God did this. They were created
out of nothing. The stories of evolution and
godless philosophy are just that, they're fables, nothing better.
God created all things, and now, even now, It says in Hebrews
chapter one, the first few verses, he upholds all things. He holds it all together by the
word of his power, by the word of the power of his son, the
word of God, who created, by whom he created all things. And
in his eternal purpose, that we struggle to understand, he
permitted the fall from sinless perfection in the garden of Eden.
And he did it. that out of the whole of humanity
he might save and elect multitude to populate his eternal kingdom. These are sinners. These are
sinners deserving of the justice and condemnation of God, who
are made righteous by union with God himself in the person of
his Son. Made righteous by union with
God himself. Each one of the people that believe
him is in their own individual life set on a race. That's what
we saw in verse 1 of chapter 12. Let us run with patience
the race that is set before us. We're set on a race, a course
of life towards eternal bliss, towards that glorious kingdom
of God, qualified to be there, qualified to enter there by Christ,
by his redeeming blood. He's spoken in times past, it
says at the start of Hebrews, by the prophets, but in these
last days spoken to us by his Son. He's predestinated his people
because God is sovereign over all things. That's how we can
say by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8 verse 28, he causes
all things to work together for good to those who love God, who
are called according to his purpose, because he's predestinated. and
conformed all things for the good of his people. He's conformed
his people, predestined his people to be conformed to the image
of his Son. We're made in the image of God,
but he's predestinated his people to be conformed to the image
of his Son. He called his people in eternity. What do I mean by that? He called
them. I believe that this is what it means. He called them
with the family name of the people of God in eternity. They're mine. They're my people. He loved us
with an everlasting love. And then in time, When we were
children of wrath, even as others, under the preaching of the gospel
of grace, it pleased God to call his people in time, and he called
this one. Come, follow me. He called this
one. Listen to my voice. He justified
us by the redeeming blood of Christ, and he glorified us,
because in a very real sense, Even now, all the people of God
are seated in eternity, in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. This
life is not a race, it's not a course, verse one, the race
set before us, it's not a race or a course of progressive sanctification
as so many religious folk teach. They teach that the whole thing
here is for us to progressively become more and more holy and
more and more prepared for heaven. That is not what the scriptures
teach. I was taught it for years and
years and years and years. I was held up as an example of
someone who did err, not knowing the scriptures, for saying this.
It's not a life of progressive sanctification. It isn't. How
can it be? Look at chapter 10 and verse
14. For by one offering he, God, has perfected forever them that
are sanctified. One offering has done the perfection.
Not the works that we do. They're filthy rags in the sight
of God. Not progressive sanctification.
The one offering of God's own blood, we know it was the blood
of God, tells us that, Acts 20, 28. Own blood has perfected forever. But it is a race, it is a course
of life that we live in sinful flesh. We're illuminated by divine
truth. We're directed by light from
God on a straight path. Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path, says Psalm 119, verse 105. And there
are restraints on the way, as we saw last week. There are chastisements
from God. There are corrections to keep
us on that course, to keep us away from the world, to break
weenus off the things of this world. And just like all God's
people, Like all God's people, Hebrews 11, chapter of the gallery
of faith, like all God's people from the fall right down to the
end, we're all kept on that course. And so we're instructed to rejoice
in the chastisement of God, even though it doesn't seem pleasant
for the time, we're to rejoice in it because it's the mark of
God's loving fatherly hand upon us to bring us safely home to
heaven. So when we've run this course
that he has ordained, that is our destiny, the kingdom of God,
the heaven of God. He's ordained a straight path
for us, but we're prone to stray to the world's allurement. So
first of all, in verses 12 and 13, we have a call to keep going. Verses 12 and 13, lift up the
hands which hang down. and the feeble knees. Make a
straight path for your feet, lest that which is laying be
turned out of the way." He's quoting Old Testament scriptures.
Watch and pray, said Jesus in Matthew 26 verse 41. Watch and
pray. Be careful. Watch and pray that
ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but oh, how weak is the flesh. We have weak flesh. We're to
work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is
God who works in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. So stick, as God enables us,
stick to the straight path. This is what Jeremiah 6 verse
16 says. Thus saith the Lord, stand ye
in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths. These are
the gospel paths. This is gospel truth. This is
what the people that wrote the hymns that we mostly sing, that's
what they believed, and that's what they wrote down, and that's
what inspired them to write those hymns. The old paths, where is
the good way? And walk therein, and ye shall
find rest for your souls. Did Jesus not say that? Ye shall
find rest for your souls. Rest for your souls, knowing
that we have peace with God. The people in those days said,
no, we're not going to do that. We're not going to walk in that
way. This is biblical gospel truth. And strive to live peaceably
with all men. Verse 14, follow peace with all
men. Strive to live peaceably. And
I told you that in the bulletin, there are articles. There's a
piece by Henry Mahan, which is very practical. about the steps
on the way to living at peace with all men, and follow holiness. Follow holiness. Pursue holiness,
the holiness that God requires. What holiness does God require?
Absolute perfection. What shall not enter into his
kingdom is anything that defiles, anything that corrupts. We must
have that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. And
where do we get it? It's clear. We never ever get
it by our own personal progressive sanctification. It's in the Lord.
It's in the Lord Jesus Christ. He makes his people the righteousness
of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. Beware of
falling by the wayside is what this is telling us. Beware of
being diverted by worldly sinful distractions and strife with
others. Beware of it. Verses 16 and 17. Heed the warning
of Esau, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who
for one morsel of meat salt his birthright. For ye know how that
afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was
rejected. For he found no place of repentance,
though he sought it carefully with tears. He's the example
of Esau. Steer clear of physical immorality,
which is what he did. In Hebrews 13, just at the bottom
of the next page, depending what setting of your Bible you've
got, verse 4 says, marriage is honorable in all, and the bed
undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Physical
immorality, God will judge. Look at Genesis chapter 26. Let
me turn this up for you. Genesis chapter 26. And, where
am I? Genesis chapter 26. Where have
I gone? And verse 34, Genesis 26 and
verse, Esau, Esau we read here, was 40 years old when he took
to wife, Judith, the daughter of Beeri, the Hittite, not of
the people of Israel, and Bashemath, the daughter of Elon, the Hittite.
And look what it says in verse 35. Those women, those tribes,
those peoples that Esau married into, that Esau committed adultery
with, they were a grief of mind to Isaac and to Rebekah, a grief
of mind. But it's not just physical, not
just physical adultery, not just physical immorality, but spiritual
fornication, as it's called, spiritual adultery from the true
God. He sold Christ. The story is
that he came home from hunting and Jacob was the good cook and
Jacob had prepared this delicious smelling stew and he was so hungry
he said, you can have what you want, you can have my birthright
so long as I can have a plate of that stew to satisfy my hunger
now. And Jacob sold, Esau sold his
birthright as the firstborn to Jacob. He sold it. Why? Because
he gave up eternal life. He sold Christ, basically, is
what this is meaning. He sold Christ and eternal life
for the world and its fleshly enticements. So the exhortation
here is to keep going to the end of the race. 1 Corinthians
9.24, so run that ye may obtain, says the Apostle Paul. Don Faulkner
wrote this, living by faith in the world is not easy, carrying
in our nature, as we do, an evil heart of unbelief. We're opposed
by the world, we're opposed by the flesh, this flesh that we
live in, we're opposed by the devil, and when earthly cares
and inward corruptions vex our souls, living by faith in this
world is not easy. we're to keep going. We're exhorted
to keep going and not to give up because the warning is that
there was no way back for Esau. But as Hebrews chapter six says,
when speaking about the dangers of falling away, he says to his
Hebrew readers, he said, but we are persuaded better things
of you. The end of your race of life,
the end of your course of life is coming into view with each
year that passes. However young you are, the end
of your race is coming into view. Think of the runners in a marathon,
tired and weary and aching, but the race is 90% complete. The
finishing line is ahead. So now we're given a contrast.
We're given a contrast of what the end is not, and what it gloriously
is. So let's look at those two things
in the time that we have with us this morning. The first point
is this. In verses 18 to 21, we're told
that the end, the objective, is not Sinai. Sinai, where the
law of God was given to Moses and the Israelites on their wilderness
wanderings. The end is not Sinai. You see, the Hebrew Christians,
the Hebrew believers, the Jewish believers, that Paul was writing
this letter primarily to, had hankered after a return to Old
Testament religion. Let's go back to the temple and
to the priests and the sacrifices, as was given to Moses. That would
be the right way to get right with God. Let's go back to the
law of God and the strict observance. But the Holy Spirit has shown
in this epistle, by what Paul has written to them in this epistle,
he's shown that all of it, all of those types that they hankered
to go back to were fulfilled by Christ. The law was our schoolmaster
to Christ. Our schoolmaster is that which
corrects us. Those of you that are at school
will know that schoolmasters and mistresses are constantly
trying to correct your behavior and point you in a particular
direction. The law was our schoolmaster, not for its own self, but that
we might go to Christ. But as Galatians 3.25 says, after
that faith is come, We are no longer under a schoolmaster. We're no longer under that which
drives us to Christ. We're no longer under it. Sinai
isn't the believer's journey. It's not the journey now, nor
is it the end of the journey. Because it demanded, it demanded,
that holy perfect law of God demands what we as sinners in
the flesh can never accomplish. And this is acknowledged by the
apostle Peter at the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 and verse
10. Peter says this, they were talking
about should we Gentiles were coming into the Church of God.
Gentiles, without any Jewish heritage, were believing the
Gospel, and there were many there who said, we have to teach them
that they must obey the law of Moses, they must be circumcised,
they must keep the Sabbath strictly, they must do this and that and
the other, they must avoid these meets, they must not do these
things. And should we tell them that
they have to do all of those things? And Paul was adamant
that they shouldn't, absolutely adamant. And in verse 10, Peter
says this, now therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke, a
burden, a pressing down upon the neck of the disciples, these
Gentile disciples, a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were
able to bear. Peter's saying this, our ancestors,
our Jewish ancestors couldn't keep this law. any more than
we could keep it. So why are you trying to put
it as a burden on the neck of new believers? No, it's not our
way to eternal life. It's not our route. It's not
our destiny. In Romans chapter 6 and verse
14, it's amazing, you know, Don Faulkner always used to say that
verses of Scripture, generally speaking, mean exactly what they
appear to mean when you first read them. So it says in Romans
6 and verse 14, Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye
are not under the law, but under grace. Oh, how religion hates
that verse! and how they wriggle and squirm
and write their books to try and say, he didn't really mean
you're not under law, but under grace. He really meant that we're
under an obligation, da, da, da, da, da, da, and so they will
go on. What does it say? It says, you're not under law,
but under grace. Chapter seven of the same epistle,
Romans, verse four, wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become
dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married
to another. even to him who is raised from
the dead, and that we should bring forth fruit unto God. We're
dead to that relationship with that law. Romans 10 and verse
4, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. Sinai is not the journey and
it is not the end. Most Orthodox Christianity would
bring us under its terror. They talk about that law of Moses
being the believer's rule of life. and they have it backed
up by the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith. I defy anybody to look
through the New Testament epistles, which is full of instruction
about how we should live in the light of gospel truth, and find
me anywhere where the apostle, the writer of the epistle, appeals
to the law of Moses to accomplish the right behaviour. We're never
told that we shouldn't kill because the law says thou shalt not kill.
No. Not at all. It's love that is the motivation
in the Christian's life. No. So, emphatically, this is
not the goal of faith in Christ now. eternally. It isn't. Christ has fulfilled
its every just demand. He has redeemed us from its curse. Cursed is everyone, says Galatians
3.10, who does not continue in all things written in the book
of the law to do them, and then read on two or three more verses
to verse 13, but Christ has redeemed us from that curse, that curse
of sin, that curse of the law. How did he redeem us? How did
he pay the purchase price to release us from the bondage of
that curse of the law? Answer, he became the curse for
us and bore it in our place as the substitute. God's righteous
demands expressed in the law are fulfilled in Christ. Because
again, I'm going back to Romans, chapter 8. Now, Romans, chapter
8, verses 3 and 4. For what the law could not do... See, the law is perfect, holy,
good. He says that in chapter 7. But
what it could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
what could it not do? Answer? He couldn't save us from
our sins, because we cannot keep it. The law was weak through
the flesh. The flesh is not capable, as
Peter the Apostle said. We couldn't keep it. Our fathers
couldn't keep it. The law couldn't do it. The law
can't save you. Do this and live. You can't,
because you're weak through the flesh. But what the law couldn't
do, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,
and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us. Oh! The righteous objective
of the law is fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh,
trying to obey it in the strength of the flesh, which we can't
do because the flesh is weak, but after the Spirit, by the
Spirit of God, through what Christ has accomplished. Faith accomplishes
what the flesh and the law and works cannot do. It's accomplished
in us, the believer, by faith. The terror of the law, and we
read it in Exodus right at the start, they were terrified. Moses
said, I fear greatly the terror of the law, the justice of God,
because the justice of God is absolutely strict and unmerciful
and unbending. God's justice is perfect. The
only reason God can be merciful to sinners is because of what
Christ has done. The terror and the burden of
the law is removed. under Christ's easy yoke. What
did he say? Take my yoke upon you for my
burden is easy and my yoke is light. We are as completely free
on this journey to the end of this life. We are as completely
free from the Mosaic law as was Abraham. Hebrew Christians, Jewish
Christians, looking back to Abraham, Abraham was not under this law.
It hadn't been given. It wasn't given for 400 odd years
after Abraham. Isaac wasn't under this law.
Jacob wasn't under this law, because it hadn't been given.
Sinai is not where we are now, nor where we're heading, despite
The determination of so much Orthodox Christianity, Reformed
Christianity, trying to teach us that that's the case. We are
not under law, but we're under grace. The end is not Mount Sinai. The end of the journey, the path
that we're on, is not at Mount Sinai. We're not on that route. The end is Mount Zion. Mount Zion. Look at verses 22
to 24. You're not come there, he says,
verse 18. You're not come to Mount Sinai.
You're not come there, but, verse 22, but you are come to Mount
Zion. You might wonder why sometimes
it's spelled S and other times it's spelled Z. I think it's
just the difference between the Hebrew language in which it was
first written in the Old Testament and the Greek. So it's the same
thing. You are come to Mount Zion, Mount
Zion, God's blessed kingdom. The believer's race, the believer's
course of life. Run the race set before us, looking
unto Jesus. That course of life for a believer
culminates not in Mount Sinai, but in Mount Zion. in God's blessed
kingdom, in the city of God. We've read quite a bit about
that, haven't we? Abraham sought a city, he looked
for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is not
man, but God, God's city. The heavenly Jerusalem that we
see in Revelation 21, verse one, coming down out of heaven as
a bride prepared for her husband. Jerusalem, that name, I know
it's in the news a lot at the moment, the pile of stones in
the Middle East, What that symbolized when it was the place where God
was worshipped on all the earth, that means God's peace, Jerusalem. Salem, peace. It's God's peace. Look where we've come. You have
come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels. You can try
to count them, but you won't be able to. These creatures,
angels, who are ministering spirits, we've been told that in the early
chapters of Hebrews. They're ministering spirits.
Oh, we know so little about them. I know that, we know so little
about them. But if we believe God's word,
they're doing the bidding of God. for the benefit of his church,
for the accomplishment of that great assembly gathered in heaven.
The angels without number, they're doing God's will in guiding and
carrying every saint to glory. If we could see what that young
man saw with Elisha when the Assyrians were surrounding them
in 2 Kings chapter 6, And he was terrified and he said, oh
my master, to Elisha, he said, we're done for, we're finished.
We're about to be killed. Look at the great army of Assyria
all around us. And Elisha said, oh Lord. open
his eyes that he might see the company of angels that surrounds
us. And the Lord opened his eyes
of faith to see, to see, to perceive that whilst there was an army
of Assyrians there, there was a much greater army. of much
more powerful angelic beings, doing the will of God to preserve
them. And so it is for each of us.
Are you a child of God this morning? Are you a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ with the hope of heaven? There's this multitude
of angels who we will spend eternity in the company of, but even now
they're doing the will of God, bringing each one to heaven,
to the kingdom of God. an innumerable company of angels,
to the General Assembly, this is where we've come, this is
where we're coming, this is our destiny, the General Assembly
and Church of the firstborn. You know, this thing of firstborn
in Old Testament Israel culture, the firstborn was a very privileged
position. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the firstborn of the kingdom of God, all of his people, each
and every single one, are the firstborn in Jesus Christ, with
all the privileges. We're heirs of God, and joint
heirs with Christ. This is the church of the firstborn.
How do we know who's in and who's not? They're written in heaven. They're written in heaven. In
what? We read it again and again in the scriptures. They're written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. Those whose names are in the
Lamb's Book of Life. Oh, of all the things that you
might desire in this world, of all the things that you might
seek and put value on, oh, to have your name written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. Your name written in heaven.
as a child of God, a member of his family, redeemed by the Son
of God, made the righteousness of God in him, and you'll come
to heaven, yes, to the General Assembly in heaven, all the people
whose names are written there, and you come, verse 23, to God,
the judge of all, to God, the righteous judge. How many times
does God say, in the scriptures, I shall be their God and they
shall be my people. God and his people in perfect
union. We were placed in that union
before the beginning of time. We were not placed in that union
when we decided to follow Jesus, not at all. The scripture's quite
clear. As Jesus said to those Pharisees,
You believe not. You're not of my sheep, otherwise
you would believe. If you were of my sheep, you
would believe. I know I'm not quoting that quite right, but
it's not that believing makes you a sheep. Belief is the proof
that you are a sheep. The company of justified, perfected,
redeemed saints. And look, verse 24, and to Jesus,
we come to Jesus, to Jesus. that our God is manifested to
his people as the man Christ Jesus. We come to our Savior
Jesus, for that's what his name means. Jesus shall save his people
from their sins. Jesus at whose knees the doubting
Thomas fell when he saw his wicked unbelief, and he saw and touched
the wounds in the side and the hands of Jesus. And his cry was,
my Lord and my God. To Jesus, my God. This is where
we come. To Jesus, my Savior God. To Jesus, my Jehovah Jesus. You know, it's Jehovah, Jireh,
Jehovah, Nisai, Jehovah, all the different names of God, but
all the most blessed is Jehovah Jesus. My Jehovah Jesus, my God. God who is my Lord. Jesus said to them, you call
me Lord and rightly so, for so I am. I am your Lord. To my Lord,
to my master, you call me master. So I am, I am your master. But
he also said he was my brother, my brother. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
our God, our almighty God manifest as a man is my brother. Not only
that, he said this, you are my friends. You are my friends. I show you all my secrets. He
shows you all the things that are hidden from the natural man
in his unregenerate state. He shows us the things of heaven. He shows us the things of eternity. He reveals his secrets to us.
John 15, you can read that. I call you no longer servants,
but I call you my friends. He is my go-between. with God. I am a sinner, I need a go-between,
I need a mediator. There is one God and there is
one mediator between God and man. The man, Christ Jesus, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he is the one who applies
all the blessings of the new covenant. The eternal covenant
of grace. The new covenant is actually
the oldest covenant. It's the eternal covenant of
grace. And he applies all the blessings of that covenant. Salvation,
forgiveness of sins, eternal life, the bliss of fellowship
with God. He applies them all to God's
elect multitude. And it's all mediated by his
blood. for his blood is what has accomplished
propitiation. You know what propitiation means?
The turning away of the just anger of God. What has turned
away, what causes the just anger of God is sin. The soul that
sins it shall die. What has mediated that wrath,
that anger, that just anger? What has brought about propitiation,
the turning away of that anger? It is the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, our God, who purchased His church with His own blood.
Romans 3, 24 and 25, speaking of Him, whom God, Christ Jesus,
whom God has set forth to be a propitiation. He is the turning
away of the anger. How? Through faith in His blood. Through faith in His blood. You'll
come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. You'll come
to the blood of sprinkling. The blood of sprinkling, as the
priest would sprinkle the blood in the temple. He would sprinkle
the blood on the people. A covering for all the church
of God. And it's blood that speaks. The
blood of sprinkling that speaks. It speaks better things than
that of Abel. Again, look at the little article
by Don Faulkner. The difference between the blood
of Christ and the blood of Abel. Abel's blood, you know, Abel
was the second son of Adam and Eve, and Abel was slain, his
blood was shed by Cain. Cain rose up in anger because
his own works were not accepted by God. but Abel's lamb looking
to Christ and its shed blood was accepted. Abel was accepted,
Cain was rejected, and Cain rose up in anger and killed his brother,
shed his brother's blood, and his blood cries out from the
ground. His blood cries out what for?
His blood cries out for revenge from the ground. His blood cries
out for vengeance because he's committed that dreadful sin.
But Christ's blood cries out in heaven for the forgiveness
of sin. Christ's blood cries out in heaven
that these people of God, this multitude chosen in him before
the foundation of the world, might be clothed with the righteousness
of God in him. It's eternal redemption that
he's obtained. Hebrews 9, let me remind you,
Hebrews 9 and verse 12. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, He entered in once, not repeatedly,
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Do you know that He's obtained
eternal redemption for you? Oh, what a blessed thing it is
to know that, to know that you are in Him, that you are made
that holiness that God must have. Pursue holiness, follow holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord. Because of that blood,
you are made the righteousness of God in him. He was made sin
for you. He took your sin and bore it
on the cursed tree that you, if you're in him, if you're trusting
him, might be made the righteousness of God in him. Oh, how much better
is that blood. How much better does that blood
speak in the courts of divine justice, to hear Christ's blood
speak in that court, to hear it silence condemnation for me. There is now therefore, Romans
8, verse 1, there is now, who shall deliver me from this body
of death? There is therefore now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh,
but according to the Spirit. To hear that blood shut Satan's
accusing mouth. Satan is the accuser of the brethren,
says Revelation 12. And he accuses the brethren in
the courts of divine justice, but his blood has shut Satan's
mouth. It's silenced him. He's got nothing
he can say. All that God can now say to the
people under that Propitiation of that blood is come ye blessed
of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. This is where we have come. We're
still running the race if we're living in this flesh, but we're
as good as there. It's guaranteed by the person
of God. It's guaranteed. Titus chapter
one, verse two, little phrases, but they contain such gems of
powerful truth in the hope of eternal life, which God, that
cannot lie. Ah, there you go. God can't lie. God has promised it before the
world began, the hope of eternal life. This is the certain eternal
destiny of all God's people, of all who have the faith of
God's elect, of all who don't necessarily understand all things,
but surely believe all that God has revealed. We say, let God
be true and every man, including me, a liar. I'll believe what
God has said. Precept by precept, line upon
line, the cloud of witnesses of Hebrews 11, and all saints
since have left this earthly life, for their race was run. They've left this earthly life.
They've left this land of the dying. You know, people say,
oh, you're still in the land of the living. No, it's the land
of the dying. They've left this land of the
dying, and they're now enjoying the eternal bliss in the land
of the living for eternity, as will all God's people in his
perfect time. Although we struggle to comprehend
it, as I said earlier, as believers we're already there. Let me just
read this to you, in Ephesians chapter two. And verse four,
but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved, and hath raised
us up together and, listen, made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, that in ages to come he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness toward us. The implication of
that is that In a mysterious way, in eternity, all the people
of God are already there. We're already there, it's just
that we have yet to leave this life. Often we feel overwhelmed
in the flesh, in this life. The chastisements of God can
be hard to bear at times for our eternal good. But let me
read these verses, and with this I'm closing. 2 Corinthians chapter
4 and verse 14. Let this be a comfort. Meditate
on these things. This is what Paul says. knowing
that He which raised up the Lord Jesus, that's God, that God which
raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and
shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many
redound to the glory of God, for which cause we faint not.
But though our outward man perish, isn't it, every day, Yet the
inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction,
the chastisements of God, which is but for a moment while we're
still running this race, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, they're of time, they're just
for a while. But the things which are not
seen the destiny, Mount Zion, they're eternal. Amen.