the message. Now, nobody likes worries, do
they? Nobody likes being worried. Nobody
likes to have their sleep disturbed. Have you ever had that? Have
you ever had your sleep disturbed by being worried about something?
Possibly even a nightmare. You have a nightmare. I had a
nightmare the night before last. I had a nightmare that I had
terrible cramp in my left leg. And would you believe it? I woke
up and I did have terrible cramp in my left leg. Nightmares are
not nice things, they disturb your sleep. Worries are not pleasant
things to live under. You know, we don't like being
worried about things, but do you know something? There are
good worries. There really are. There are worries
that are good. Some worries are good. There
are worries that you need to be worried about, and there's
something not right if you're not worried about them. I'll
give you the main one. concerns that you are mortal,
and that you will certainly die one day, and that you will have
to face the God of the universe and be judged for your sins.
That's what the scripture says. It's appointed to man to die
once, and then the judgment. Oh, how that must send a jolt
of fear through the heart that's sensitive to these things, to
be judged by God as a sinner, God who is holy, God who cannot
look upon sin, God who must punish the guilty, God who cannot let
the guilty go free. Most people give it no thought
whatsoever. They live as if they're going
to live forever, or they live as if the light will just be
switched off at the end, and the only thing to do is to eat,
drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die, so enjoy it while you
can. They don't have any thought about eternity. But you know,
it's a good thing to be worried. about eternity. It's a good thing
to have concerns that you need to be right with God and by nature
you're not right with God. You see, what a terrible thing
to die unreconciled to God, not at peace with God, and bear the
eternal consequences. You know, in Matthew 7, Jesus
points this out, that lots of religious people who think they've
done everything necessary to win his favour, It will come
before him and say, Lord, haven't we done all of these things in
your name? And he will say to them, depart from me, for I never
knew you. You who do evil. Why did they
do evil? Because they did not obey the
gospel of his grace as it's revealed in his word. So it's good to
be worried about your eternal soul. But do you know something?
Our text this morning, brings the most blessed comfort to the
worried soul. If you're a worried soul, our
text this morning brings the most blessed comfort to the worried
soul. It's verse 10 of Isaiah chapter
11. Isaiah chapter 11 and verse 10. And it was at the end of our
message last week, but I'm going to focus on this verse alone
this week. And we read there, And in that
day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for
an ensign of the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek,
and his rest shall be glorious. His rest shall be glorious. What
a wonderful feeling when a real worry is calmed and put away. It's a wonderful feeling when
a real worry that nags you, keeps you awake at night, wakes you
up having nightmares. What a wonderful feeling when
a real worry is calmed and put away. Now that's what this text
tells us. That that worry about your eternal
soul is put away in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the message
of this text. A gospel ensign is the first
point. A gospel ensign and then a glorious
rest. a gospel ensign, it says, and
in that day. Which day is he writing about?
Which day is Isaiah, under the inspiration of the Spirit of
God, which day is he writing about? And in that day. He's
speaking of the gospel day. Gospel? Good news. The good news
day. The good news for those worried
that they are not fit to face God. The good news for such as
them. It says, in that day there shall
be a root of Jesse. And we've already read about
him. This root of Jesse isn't a plant. This root of Jesse is
a man. The spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him, the spirit of understanding and of wisdom,
the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the
fear of the Lord, and shall make him of quick understanding in
the fear of the Lord. And he shall not judge after
this. It's a man. It's a man. This root of Jesse
is a man. He's a descendant of Jesse. Jesse,
the father of David. This descendant of Jesse, the
father of David, one after the line of David, the king of Israel,
the glorious king of Israel, the triumphant king of Israel.
His descendant shall come after the flesh from him as promised
to Eve and Adam in the Garden of Eden after they fell. this
seed shall come to redeem his people from their sins this man
shall be an ensign of the people what's an ensign? what's an ensign? an ensign? it's a banner or a
flag think of a military flag you know you've all seen those
movies of battles set in array. You wouldn't
do it now in modern warfare, the weaponry is just far too
vicious. But where they were on horses
with swords and spears and bows and arrows, and they would set
themselves in an array. And where would the troops go
to? Where would the troops be? The troops would gather around
the ensign. The troops would gather around
the flag. It would be their flag, that's
where they would go, a military flag, a banner, an ensign, to
show them where to gather. You know when we watch the opening
of the Olympic Games and you have that big impressive ceremony
and all the teams come out and the teams parade under their
ensign, under their banner, under their country's flag. People march behind banners. If you watch protests going on
in London, you'll find that somebody at the head will have a banner,
an ensign, and they will march, and it's where the people gather
for the cause. Now then, it says here, there
is a man who is a banner, a man who is an ensign, a man who is
a flag under which we should gather, and he is the root of
Jesse, who was King David's father. He is the one who came, offspring
of Jesse, offspring of David and his descendants. And he's
what we read in verses one to nine last week about the Spirit
of the Lord being upon him. Him coming from such humble beginnings
to be the saviour of his people, to be the banner that they would
follow. And he's a highly qualified ensign. He's highly qualified. is filled
with the Spirit of God. He's a man who is filled with
the Spirit of God for his purposes. He's a man who judges according
to all the principles of the justice of God. He's a man who
establishes a kingdom, for he is king of kings and lord of
lords, and he is king over his kingdom, which is a kingdom of
glorious peace. All of the strife, all of the
turmoil, all of the anguish that goes on in this fallen world
His kingdom is a kingdom of peace. He is a highly qualified ensign. And as Hebrews 7.25 tells us,
He, this one that is mentioned, this one that this chapter is
all about, He is able to save to the uttermost. Do you fear
coming before God because of your sins? Do you fear that appointment
after death, that to meet God must face him in judgment. Well,
Christ is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God
by him. Those who think they can come
to God in their own strength and their own merit, he will
say, depart from me, I never knew you. But those who come
in him, where did God tell Moses to go? when he would see his
glory. He said, you shan't see my face,
the very essence of God. But he said, stand here in this
break, cleft of the rock, in this gap and the rock, and I
will cause my glory to pass by you. I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. That's the glory of God. His
grace is his glory, his chief glory. I will cause my glory
to pass by you. But he can only see it hiding
in the cleft of the rock. And the New Testament tells us,
and that rock, which we read of again and again in the wilderness
travelings of the Israelites, that rock was Christ, was symbolical
of Christ, pictured Christ. Hide here in Christ. If you hide
in Christ, you can come before the living God and he will cover
your sins and he has taken your sins away. And as you stand before
the living God in judgment, he judges you as he judges his blessed,
glorious, holy son. He judges you just the same as
him, accepted in him. He is one who will establish
the kingdom of God as a kingdom of eternal peace and acceptance
for his people. We live in a world of such strife,
of such anguish, however much mankind constantly tries to make
sure that whatever event and disaster it is, it never happens
again. Have you noticed how many inquiries
there are to make sure a thing never happens again? And all
the time there are things that need not to happen again, because
things always go wrong in this world of turmoil and anguish. But this one, this root of Jesse,
this son of God, will establish the kingdom of God as a kingdom
of eternal peace and acceptance for his people. What a glorious
prospect. What a glorious reality. He is
the only one to whom sinners must come to find peace and acceptance
with God. Why do you think it was that
the Apostle Paul said this, that he was determined to know nothing
else among you apart from Jesus Christ and him crucified? What's
the preaching at your church? What's the preaching at this
church? I trust it is. It's my ambition and my aim and
has been ever since the first day I started preaching, is to
preach Christ. is to preach nothing other than
Christ. There is no other way. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the revelation of God. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the one who has purchased and accomplished peace with God
for his people. Though they be sinners, he has
accomplished peace with God. He is the only one. There is
no other way. And if you are conscious of your
unfitness for God's heaven, as you are, then this man who is
an ensign, a banner, a flag, is the one to whom you must come
believing. You don't come with your feet,
you come believing in your heart. You believe in Him, you hear
what's said about Him, you read what the Word says about Him,
and you believe Him, you come to Him in faith, believing. Faith, which is the gift of God.
This man is the God-man, this man. This root of Jesse, he is
God revealed. The fullness of the Godhead,
we read in the New Testament, dwells in him. Philip said to
Jesus, John 14, show us the father, show us God the father. And you've
taught us lots of things. Show us God the father. And that
will suffice. And Jesus said to him, Philip, have I been so
long with you? And yet you have not known me.
He who has seen me has seen the father. This man is the God man. He became, he who is God, the
second person of the Trinity, when he was born in Bethlehem,
made of a woman, he became man, that he might have the same flesh
and blood that we, his people, have. And he is the man between
God and man. He is the one man mediator. As Paul writes to Timothy, 1
Timothy 2.5, there is one God. not multitudes of gods, as false
religions say. There is one God and one mediator
between God and men. Who is that? The man, the God-man,
Christ Jesus. That's the one. If you would
be at peace with God, you need somebody to go between. You need
somebody to intercede. You need somebody to make peace
between you and God. That one man is Christ Jesus. He makes peace between sinners
and a holy God. so that when the question is
asked, and oh, how I pray that the question might be asked in
every heart here and every heart listening, as the Philippian
jailer cried out when Paul and Silas were there in the night,
what must I do to be saved? The answer, come to this man,
believing who he is and what he has accomplished for the putting
away of the sins of his people. Where do I need to look? Where
should I look? I'm in a dilemma. Where do I
need to look? Isaiah 45, 22. Look unto me. says God. Look unto me, says
Jehovah Jesus. God our Saviour, Jehovah Jesus,
look unto me and be ye saved. In looking, be ye saved. Just
as when Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness so
that those that were bitten of serpents and were dying of the
venom, what had they to do? What was it the word of God said
to them? Look, believing at that serpent lifted up on that pole. Look, look, believing. And we
look to Christ dying there on the cross in our place, bearing
away the penalty of our sins. We're going to remember it later
in bread and wine when we remember him, his broken body and his
shed blood, which accomplished the peace with God of his people. Because in his death, he took
away the penalty for sin. He paid it. He satisfied it. There is nothing left to pay.
The justice of God is satisfied. That's a good word. Remember
that. Look unto me, Jehovah Jesus, and be ye saved, all ye ends
of the earth. For I am God, and there is none
else. What's he saying when he says
there's none else? He means our Lord Jesus Christ is God. Truly
God. Very God of very God. True God. He is. Look by faith to Him,
believing all that God has declared concerning His having paid the
sin debt of all His people, all of His people given Him by the
Father before the foundation of the world, and be ye Saved. Saved. Saved from your sins. Saved from the consequences of
your sins. Saved from the punishment of
your sins. And by looking and believing,
be assured that His death paid your sin debt, too. By looking
and believing, you can be confident that His death paid your sin
debt, too. We're talking about this end
sign. this flag, this banner of salvation, Jehovah Nisai,
God our banner, this one who holds it, here is salvation from
sin, so that we have nothing owing, for which God will bar
you from heaven, nothing owing. You know, say you want to go
to an event, and you turn up with a ticket that's torn in
half, And they say to you, I'm sorry, you've only got half a
ticket. You need a full ticket. You haven't got a full ticket.
Therefore you cannot come into this event. And you say, well,
I have to admit that's perfectly just. I do only have half a ticket. I haven't got a full ticket.
Therefore I can't go in. But in Christ, He has paid everything
that is necessary. He has left nothing owing. The ticket is full for which
God will accept you into his heaven. You see, he says, what
can't go into heaven? Nothing that defiles, nothing
that is sinful. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
those who believe in him have nothing that defiles to keep
them out. They have the promise of everlasting
life. Whosoever believeth in him, says
John 3, 16, should not perish, but have everlasting life. Did you hear that? Whosoever,
oh, Jews only? No, whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 17, verse two, the
Father has given to Christ the power the power to give everlasting
life to those whom he will. It's entirely in his gift. This is true God and eternal
life, says John at the end of his first epistle. True God and
eternal life. You have eternal life because
of what Christ has done, because of what this banner has done.
Imagine a historical battle, as I've already said, you can
remember scenes from movies of something happening three or
four hundred years ago, where they're all arrayed in all of their finery
for the battle and it ends up a very bloody and gory scene
after a couple of hours of slaughter. It's not a pleasant thing, but
they're all assembled under their banners and they want to know,
where do we go? Look for your banner. That's
where you go. You go to the ensign. Where should
burden sinners gather? Where should burden sinners gather?
Those that have a burden of sin at the ensign, which is Christ.
He is the one to whom we should look. He, look unto me, God says. Hebrews 12, 2, looking unto Jesus,
the man, the God-man, the author and finisher of our faith. And
how do we gather here? How do we come to the end sign?
We go where Christ is preached. If there's a church that you
can get to, you go to it. You need to go to it. Do not
make any excuses for not going to it. The thing you need to
do above all else is go to the place where Christ is preached
and his people assemble. But if you physically, as many
in these days are in this situation, cannot, you're too far away,
the transport links are not reliable, you can't You can't depend upon
it. If you cannot, then in these days, bless God for this, that
where so many churches have been corrupted by false doctrine and
false teaching and have become basically outlets for the kingdom
of Antichrist, then use these means. Use the means of the internet.
there are plenty of preachers online in these days. I think
it's an absolutely glorious thing that when to the world the church
as it was 40 years ago is just not functioning, it's lying dead
in the streets and yet for God to keep his people, who would
have imagined 40 years ago that what we're doing now with people
in different countries watching with us live at this very moment
And we're able to do that, and we thank God for it. But how
do we go to the banner? We go where Christ is preached.
Where Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner, is lifted up. Christ,
if he'd be lifted up, he draws his people to him. And we heed
the call to come. The Scriptures are full of calls
to His people to come. We heed it, we take notice of
it, we listen to it, we pay attention, we obey the call. When we hear
Jesus say, come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest, we come to that banner which is
Christ. In Revelation 22, just a few
verses before the end of the Bible, we listen and we hear
the Spirit and the bride say, come, and let him that hear us
say, come, and let him that is a thirst. Are you thirsty to
be right with God and accepted of God? Are you thirsty for the
waters of eternal life? Do you want to be God's child?
Whosoever will, whosoever wants this, let him take of the water
of life. How much is it going to cost
you? How much is it going to cost? Let him take of the water
of life. Do you know what it says? Freely. Freely. Who is able to come? Look in the verse. To it shall
the Gentiles seek. When was this written? This was
written seven or eight hundred years before Christ came. Wasn't
it just for the Jews? Shouldn't this scripture just
say, to it the Jews shall seek, because the Gentiles, we don't
care about them. No. This very word says the Gentiles,
the non-Jews, the rest of the world shall seek. It was Old
Testament days. Israel alone had the knowledge
of God's salvation. But in these days, in that day,
in these gospel days, There is no barrier of ethnicity, which
race you're from, which nationality you are. There is no difference.
Did we not see that a week or two back? Romans 10 verse 12,
there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, no difference,
no difference. In terms of reckoning with God,
there is no difference. There isn't a salvation for Jews
and one for Greeks, for Gentiles, for non-Jews. No, there is no
difference. He is our peace, Ephesians 2.14. He, Christ, is our peace for
all of us who has made both Jews and Gentiles one and has broken
down the middle wall of partition between us. We know all about
breaking down of walls. We've had a wall broken down
in this last week between our kitchen and our dining room.
And whereas there was no talking to one another. If one was in
the dining room and one was in the kitchen, there was no talking
to one another. We were separated. Those who were dining were separated
from those who were cooking. But now that's not the case,
or it will be when it's all finished, because we've taken down the
middle wall of petition. And it's open, it's one space.
This is what it's saying about what Christ has done. Gentiles
shall seek to it. We are Gentiles, the majority
of you listening, though I hope not exclusively, I hope there
are some of Jewish descent that might be listening to this, but
the majority are Gentiles and we are bidden to come and the
way is open for all who are weary and thirsty and burdened. To
do what? To come and obtain peace and
rest at the one ensign, the one flag, the one banner. In that day there shall be a
root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign for the people,
of the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek. There it is, there it is, the
way is open, the door is open, to come and obtain peace and
rest. For, as Peter said to the crowds,
In Jerusalem, in the early days, after Christ had gone back to
heaven, there is none other name under heaven given among men,
no other. Oh, well, I think I can get there
by believing in this or that or the other thing. No, no, no.
There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved and being saved and his rest shall be glorious. If you come to him, you will
find rest for your souls and the rest that you will find will
be a glorious rest. Christ's glorious rest. You know, when you've been working
hard, Is there not a tremendous feeling in the relieving of a
burden, having a burden taken off you, whether it's a burden
which is a physical load on your back. I think I told you a few
weeks ago about that experience as a teenager, carrying a very
heavy pack, 50 or 60 pounds for several miles up a mountainside.
When I took the pack off my back, it was like walking on the moon.
It was like bouncing, like a, like a, you know, you see the
little lambs frolicking in the spring and jumping up and down.
It was that sort of feeling. It was such a feeling of elation,
of having that burden taken off. And the same is true psychologically,
with work pressures and worries of life and concerns about financial
debt. and all of these things, to have
the burden relieved, to have the burden taken off you, to
have a rest from that burden, is a blissful thing. The bliss of rest after effort,
when you're absolutely tired out, being able to relax and
let your body recover, is a blissful feeling. Now here we read that
Christ, the root of Jesse, the man from humble beginnings who
is God, who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation. Being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself and was obedient, obedient unto death, even the
death of the shameful cross. This one, this one, this Lord
Jesus Christ, this root of Jesse, this man who is God has established
a glorious rest, a glorious, his rest, is glorious. His rest. In what ways is this a glorious
rest? Firstly, think about this. The rest that Christ himself
entered into. His rest. It's Christ's rest.
He entered into a rest. The rest that he entered into
before time The Trinity, the tri-unity, the three persons
of the one Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, covenanted in
unity to justly justify the people of God's sovereign choice. I
choose my words carefully, to justly justify. He didn't violate
his own justice, his own strict justice, in justifying people
who were sinners, because he did it by virtue, by means of
a substitute. To justly justify the people
of God's choice. And he rested in that determination. Listen to this, Zephaniah chapter
3, 17. The Lord thy God, in the midst
of these mighty, He will save. Do you see, again and again we
read in scripture, the purpose of God is to save his people
from their sins. Call his name Jesus, said the
angel to Joseph, for he shall save his people from their sins.
He will save. He, God, will rejoice over you,
believer, with joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing.
What's it saying? that God, having determined to
save His people, rests in that purpose. In other words, from
eternity, the purpose of God, to accomplish all His purposes,
can never be thwarted, can never be frustrated, can never be changed. It is certain to be fulfilled
in eternal glory. Every last one of the people
that the Father gave to the Son before the beginning of time
and said, here is your bride, here is your people, here are
the ones that you must go and redeem from the curse of the
law, by you yourself being made a curse for them. These ones,
every single one of them, will go to heaven, will be accepted
in heaven. Not one of them shall be missing
from heaven. It couldn't possibly happen God
does not get frustrated. The world's view, religion's
view, even Christianity's view of God is that he's sitting on
the sidelines of this world in awful frustration because of
the stubbornness of people and how he keeps trying to make us
all be nice to one another and how frustrated God gets with
us because we don't do what he wants us to do. Not a bit of
it. God is accomplishing his eternal purposes. When Christ
died, He had accomplished those purposes. He finished. That's
why he said, it is finished. The work of justification was
finished when he died. When he laid in the tomb, in
a sense, he rested because he had accomplished his work. Satan
was defeated. He rested. Satan was disarmed
because what Christ had done took away from his people every
avenue that Satan had for bringing accusations against them that
they were not qualified to be in heaven. He was unable to bring
any charges. He was disarmed. He was bound.
And so Christ rested. He rested in the accomplishment
of it. Listen to what Hebrews 10 says, verses 12 and 14. But
this man, our Lord Jesus Christ, this root of Jesse, this end
sign of the people, this man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, not repeated ones, not perpetually going on,
one sacrifice, in the middle of time, one sacrifice for sins
forever, sat down. Why sat down? Rested. the work
was finished. He sat down on the right hand
of God, for by one offering, his offering, the offering of
his body, the shedding of his blood to the justice of God,
that one offering to the offended justice of God, by that one offering
he has perfected forever. them that are sanctified, them
that are set apart in him. What does that mean for you who
believe the gospel? This is what it means. Do you
read the words? Where do you get your doctrine from? From
what somebody tells you or from this book? This is what it means.
You stand perfect before God. You stand perfect. Just meditate,
think on it. You stand perfect before God.
Believing in Jesus and all that he has done you have nothing
that God will use to stop you getting into heaven. Did you
hear me? I'll say it again. Believing in Jesus and all that
he has done, you have nothing that God will use to say you
can't come into heaven like that, because he's taken it all away.
Having saved his people, having borne the curse of the law in
their place, on the cursed tree, on the cross of Calvary, that
cursed shameful death, having borne the curse, the curse of
the law, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them, never
ever failing, absolutely perfectly in every respect. That is the
requirement of divine justice. Cursed is everyone that doesn't
do that. So therefore, by nature, we're all cursed. But Christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the law. He's paid the penalty.
He's paid the price. That's what redeem means. That's
what redemption means. He's paid the price of that penalty
by his own death on the cross, by coming in the same flesh and
blood as the children, as his bride, as his people. coming
in that same flesh, and that flesh being broken, that body
being broken, that blood being shed, which we're going to remember
in a moment, in the breaking of bread and the sharing of wine,
to remember Him, to remember what it took to accomplish peace
with God. And having done that, He will
most surely take every last one of them to His glorious heaven.
Oh my friend, if you're in Christ, Never ever fear being barred
from heaven, for Christ has done all. So the rest is Christ's,
his own. And then it's the rest of his
people. It's his people's rest. As I
said, there's a wonderful feeling in resting when a burden has
been lifted off you, isn't there? Tremendous feeling in resting. when that burden's been lifted
off you. When you hear the promises of God in the Bible to you as
a sinner who is justly condemned, you have to admit, if you know
anything about the nature of God and anything about the nature
of yourself, you know God is perfectly just in condemning
you. That Jesus Christ has taken on
Him everything that would send you to hell. He's taken it. Everything
that would cause God to send you to hell, He has taken it
on Himself. and paid its debt to the full,
he's paid his penalty to the full, and now God finds nothing
in you to keep you from him. How glorious is that rest, is
it not? What a wonderful knowledge to
know that Christ has taken everything that would keep me from his presence.
Oh, what a blessing, David knew this. The sweet Psalmist of Israel,
he knew this. He said, in Psalm 4, verse 8,
listen to this, I will both lay me down in peace and sleep. Oh,
isn't that nice? To be able to lie down in peace
and go to sleep. Why? For thou, Lord, only makest
me dwell in safety. Has Christ, by what he has done,
caused you to dwell in safety from the justice of God? Then
you can lie down in peace and sleep. Oh, the comfort of knowing
that He paid for every sin with His precious blood, my sin not
in part, the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part,
but the whole was nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. Oh, the blessing of
knowing that divine justice is satisfied. Enough, it says, enough,
no more needed, nothing is owing. Nothing. This is a glorious rest,
is it not? Have you experienced it? As we
grow older in this life, some of you are very young, others
of you are much older. And as we approach death, as
our lives go on, do you know something? It really is true.
Who knows how long any of us are going to live. But do you
know the older you get, obviously, the nearer to the end of your
life you get. There are very, very few people
live to the age of 100. There are very relatively few
that live to the age of 90, and so on. So the older you get,
the nearer you are to leaving this life. But you know, for
the child of God... There's a heavenly homesickness
that increases. You know, Don Faulkner's latest
book is called Going Home. What does it mean? Going home.
It means going to heaven. For the child of God, heaven
is our home. I have a home in glory land that
outshines the sun. We used to sing in a chorus.
There's a heavenly homesickness as we approach death. There's
a rest, a glorious rest. His rest is glorious. What a
comfort as you grow older to know I'm nearer and nearer to
that day. Oh, yes, there's many, many things
to do here and now. There's people to love and to
be with and to enjoy. Yes, there are all these things.
In many ways, it's needful for us to stay. But as Paul said,
to depart and be with Christ, that is far better. And you know,
our lives are in His hands, and at exactly the right time He
will take us, if we're His, to be with Him. And then finally,
a communion rest. Hebrews 4 verse 3, we which have
believed do enter into rest. We which believe. Have you believed? Have you entered in the rest
of the gospel of grace in Christ? The basis of that rest is the
broken body and the shed blood. of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the knowledge of our union with Him, resting, resting, gloriously
resting in the knowledge that we are married to Him by eternal
union, that we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone, that
we are resting in the certainty of His return. Because when we
read of the Lord's Supper, it says, This do in remembrance
of me. And as you do, you do show the
Lord's death for how long? Till he come. For he surely is
coming again. He's coming again to end this
world. He's coming again to end this
kingdom of Satan. He's coming again to establish
the kingdom of God in unrivaled majesty and glory and peace and
harmony. He's coming again to do all of
these things. And his rest is glorious. His rest is glorious. Do you
know when you have experienced this rest, this glorious rest,
which is under the ensign of the one who is the Lord Jesus
Christ, you know how rich you are. Whatever else you might
have in this life, you know how rich you are. And as you look
around at those who do not believe in their deafness to spiritual
things, their blindness to spiritual things, you see how poverty stricken
they are, for they have nothing that's of any value. Jesus said,
lay up for yourselves not treasures upon earth where moth and rust
corrupt, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Amen.