Let's read these 11 verses, Psalm
16 beginning in verse 1. This is the words of our Lord
Jesus, the Son of God incarnate. This is Him speaking here, and
He's speaking in our text from verse 8 through verse 11. He's
speaking concerning His Father while He was here upon this earth,
and we'll see that. But let's read the entire Psalm.
Preserve me, O God, For in Thee do I put my trust. Now that's
wonderful when you think about Jesus Christ trusting His Father.
But He did. Sometimes we think we don't trust
very much. And Brother Larry said that,
didn't he? Sometimes our faith is weak. But you know there's
one who trusted God for us. That's a confident thought, isn't
it? O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to
Thee. But to the saints that are in
the earth, and to the excellent in whom is all my delight, their
sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God. Their
drink-offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their
names unto my lips. The Lord is the portion of mine
inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot. The
lions are falling out unto me in pleasant places. Yea, I have
a goodly heritage. I will bless the Lord who hath
given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in
the night seasons. And here begins my text. I have
set the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. Therefore
my heart is glad. and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh
also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to seek corruption.
Thou wilt show me the path of life, and thy presence is fullness
of joy. At thy right hand are pleasures
for evermore." Here is the words of the Son of God incarnate.
Here is what he spoke. The Psalms are full of the sayings
of our Lord Jesus. We find them in almost every
Psalm. We can find his sayings there.
And here he is speaking of his Father in verse 8. I have set
the Lord, I have set my Father, God my Father, always before
me. And what he means here is that
he has set his heart on God. Jesus the man set his heart on
seeking the will and the glory of His Father. What did He tell
us? I came down from heaven, not
to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And He said
about that will, He said, I have meat to eat that you know not
of. And my meat is to do the will
of Him that sent me and to finish His work." His heart was so full
of zeal, so full of warmth for the glory and the will of His
Father. And He said this, He made this
statement one day while He was preaching to the people. He said,
I do always those things that please my Father. And just before
he went to the cross, after he had finished this ministry, here
is what he said. He said, Father, I have glorified
Your name. I have lived for Your glory.
All my motives have been for Your glory. I have trusted You. I have believed You. He said,
Now I have finished the work which You gave me to do. Always,
always, I have set the Lord always before my face. Boy, what an example He is in
our daily life. And He expresses here His confidence
in the Father's love for Him, and in the Father's care for
Him, and the Father's protection for Him. Look what He says there
in verse 8. He is at My right hand. What happens when you're at somebody's
right hand? You hold them up, aren't you?
You hold them up. You say, did Jesus Christ have
to be held up? Yes. He had to be held up. The
Father held Him up. His strength, His wisdom came
from His Father. Everything He had. He upholds
Me by the right hand of His strength. He that sent Me is with Me. The Father hath not left Me alone. That's what He said. Why? He's
with Me to strengthen Me and to uphold Me. The devil knew
this, didn't he? Satan knew this. Remember when
Satan was tempting the Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness and
he took Him up on this high temple and said, cast yourself down.
Because it's written, He shall give His angels charge over you. He's protecting you. He's keeping
you lest at any time you dash your foot against a stone. Satan
knew that the Father had made him strong for himself and was
upholding him. From the time the Lord Jesus
came from His mother's womb, the Father was at His right hand
to protect Him and strengthen Him and to uphold Him. And you know this is why nobody
laid a hand on Him. Look how Satan tempted Him. Look
how people hated Him. Tried to get Him several times
and kill Him and stone Him and cast Him over the briar of the
hill. But He said, My Father is at My right hand. And what
was the conclusion of that in verse 8? I shall not be moved. Here's the confidence that He
expressed in the Father. My heart's ever upon Him. I always
seek His glory. I always do His will. And here's
the confidence He had in the Father. He's standing by my side. He's upholding me. He's keeping
me. I shall not be moved. But He wasn't, was He? He was
a nude. I mean from the time he was born.
Remember when he was born and Herod sought to kill him? And Satan hated him and tried
to kill him and man wanted to kill him? They never moved him. They never deterred him from
his purpose that he came into this world to do. Nothing deterred
him. You never see him taken prisoner
and hauled off to Rome to be tried. They couldn't do anything
with Him until He gave Himself into their hands to be crucified. The temptations of the devil
could not move Him. The hatred of man could not deter
Him. The terrors of death, the sword
of justice, and even the wrath of God upon the cross could not
move Him until He had accomplished God's eternal purpose in redeeming
His people. It's finished, he said. Oh, there
came a voice from the excellent glory and said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. What a relationship they had.
Here you've got the Father and here you've got the Son incarnate.
And though they're one God, they're manifested in two glorious persons,
the Father and the Son. And the Father sent the Son.
And the Son did the will of the Father, and trusted the Father,
and depended upon the Father. And the Father loved the Son,
and upheld Him, and made Him strong for Himself. Now look
at the results of this in verse 9. Look at the effect this had
upon the heart of the Lord Jesus. Therefore, my heart is glad. Therefore, my heart is glad.
Oh, when a man is committed to the Lord, and when the Lord is
committed to that man, boy, I'm telling you, that's a cause of
heart joy. That's a source of heart joy.
How was it Paul said? He said it like this, I know
whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded. that He's able to
keep that which I've committed to Him against that day. Paul
said, I've committed my soul to Him, my salvation to Him,
all that I hope to be, I've committed to Him, and He is willing and
He is able to keep me. Boy, that's wonderful, isn't
it? That's wonderful. Everything committed to the Lord,
He'll keep. And that makes the heart glad,
doesn't it? If I try to hang on to something myself, I'll
probably lose it. But everything that's committed to the Father,
He'll keep it. And that makes our hearts glad.
Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, but there
was something that made His heart glad. And you know what it was? To redeem
His people. to redeem His people. The Father
has sent me. He's upholding me. I'm doing
His will. I've committed my cause to Him.
He'll keep me until I redeem His people. And He said, this
makes me glad. The Bible says, who for the joy
that was set before Him endured the cross. The joy, the joy. His heart was glad about it.
God was glad about it. And our Lord Jesus rejoiced in
this. There was something else that
made Him glad. Do you know what made Him glad? Something made
Him glad that makes this world mad. You guys were talking about
it just a few minutes ago. But listen to this. He gloried
in His Father's sovereign will. He gloried in His Father's sovereign
prerogative. Listen to this, what He said.
That's what he means here, my glory rejoiceth. That word glory
there, Peter translates that as tongue. My tongue rejoices. And the Lord Jesus rejoiced in
words, didn't He? Our Lord never rejoiced much
in the flesh. We never read that He laughed.
But the Bible says He rejoiced in spirit and said. I thank Thee,
O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hid these
things, You have hid the gospel from the wise and prudent, and
revealed them unto babes. Why would God do that? Even so,
it seemed good in Your eyes. Those Pharisees and scribes didn't
want to hear the gospel anyway, did they? They didn't desire
to see it anyway. And He blinded them to something
that they didn't want anyway. And He revealed it unto publicans
and sinners, and that made the heart of Jesus Christ glad. Does that make your heart glad?
Does that make your heart glad? The Lord Jesus told those Pharisees
and scribes one day, He said, You believe not, because you
are not of My sheep. He wasn't ashamed of that, was
he? He wasn't ashamed of the Gospel. I tell you why you don't
believe me, he said. You're not of my sheep. I have
some sheep and my fathers gave me those sheep and they believe
me. And it's evident that you're
not of those sheep because you don't believe me. You don't believe
me. He wasn't ashamed of that, was
he? It made his heart glad. He talked about it. My tongue
rejoices. in the sovereign will and prerogative
of my Father. Now in the last part of verse
9, our Lord begins to speak of His death. We'll turn over to
Acts in just a few minutes and we'll see that. But look at the
last part of verse 9. Therefore my heart is glad, and
my tongue rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope. My flesh. You're speaking of
His death and His burial and the confidence that He has in
His Father that His Father is going to raise Him up. He says
this, in effect, when I give up the ghost and they lay me
in Joseph's tomb, my flesh is going to rest in hope of the
resurrection. I know in three days the Father
is going to raise me up. He knew He was going to raise,
didn't He? And here's the confidence that he's expressing to his father.
He's going to raise me up. I'm not going to stay dead. As
Jonah was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth,
even so must the Son of Man. Or three days and three nights
in that whale's belly, the Son of Man must be three days and
three nights in the heart of the earth. Now I want you to
look with me over to Acts. Here in verse 10, before you
go over there, look in verse 10. Look what he says in Psalm
16 in verse 10 before you turn to Acts 2. Thou will not leave
my soul in hell. That word hell there is the state
of the dead. It's not torment. Sometimes it
means torment. Most of the time it means the
state of the dead. Sometimes it means literally
the grave. Here it means the state of the dead. Neither will
you suffer your Holy One to see corruption." If I was writing
this today, I'd say something like this. You'll not leave my
soul in the state of the dead, and you'll not leave my body
in the grave to decay. Now, I want you to turn over
in Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2, over in the New Testament,
and look in verse 22. You'll find this on page 1182,
Acts chapter 2. And look here, let's read this. You'll find our text quoted in
this chapter. Peter quoted this concerning
the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Look in 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 yourselves also know. Him
being delivered by the determinate counsel, and for knowledge 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 was not possible that he should beholden of it. And here's why. For David spake concerning him. This wasn't David speaking, this
was Christ speaking. I foresaw the Lord always before
my face. We just read that in Psalm 16.
For He is on my right hand that I should not be moved. Therefore
did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad. Moreover also my flesh
shall rest in hope. Why? Because thou wilt not leave
my soul in the state of the dead, neither wilt thou suffer thy
holy one to seek corruption. Thou hast made known unto me
the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy
with thy countenance. Then, brethren, let me freely
speak to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and
buried, and his grave, his sepulcher, is with us unto this day. Therefore
being a prophet, and knowing that God has sworn with an oath
to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh,
he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he seeing this
before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in the state of the dead, neither his flesh did see
corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up,
whereof we are all witnesses, Therefore, being by the right
hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Spirit, He has shed forth this which you now see
and hear." The resurrection of Christ. When
He laid down in that tomb, He laid down with this hope. You
are going to raise me up. That was a confidence He had
in the Father. You are going to raise me up. My body and soul
is separated. The Lord Jesus ascended to Paradise,
didn't He? This day you will be with Me
in Paradise. And three days later, He joined His soul with His body
and He raised up. It was seen 40 days. And then
He ascended back to the Father. And Peter says here, He sat down
at the right hand of God. He is exalted there. tells us like this in the book
of Acts. While they beheld him, he was taken up, and a cloud
received him out of their sight. Now this is so important. Luke
24, he ends the gospel like this. And it came to pass, while he
blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven
in his glorified humanity. Mark says it like this. After
the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven,
and sat down at the right hand of God." And Peter tells us like
this, he has gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God,
principalities and powers being made subject to him. And listen
to Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 13, it tells us this, that Jesus
Christ and His humanity has been seated at the right hand of God,
that holy place, the place of power and honor, at the invitation
of His Father. Listen to this verse. Which of
the angels saith He at any time, Saith thou on my right hand,
until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Everything. has been given unto the hands
and care of Jesus Christ. The Father raised Him from the
dead the third day, showed Him to many witnesses before He had
chosen, took Him up to heaven and said, My Son, set down here
and reign and accomplish My purpose, rule the nations in Your providence,
save Your people, call them and at the end, bring them up to
my house where they'll be with me forever." That's a wonderful thought, isn't
it? He has been enthroned in his offices as prophet, priest,
and king. And while you and I are here
this morning in this lowly world that seems so out of control,
Jesus is reigning. He is reigning, fulfilling and
accomplishing the purpose of God. And the Bible says He must
reign until He hath put all His enemies under His feet. And the
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And He is going to
assign every man his long home. The righteous, He is going to
say, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom.
To the wicked, He is going to say, Depart from me into everlasting
punishment. He is going to reign. He is there
in heaven now reigning at the right hand of His Father. Now
look back over my text again. That is what He is saying here
in my text. My flesh shall rest in hope. In hope of the what?
The resurrection. You will not leave my soul in
the place of the dead. Neither will you suffer my body
to decay. It never did decay, did it? Somebody
said He raised it on the third day so it wouldn't decay. You
know what they tell us about the body? As soon as you die,
it begins the process of decay. Not in three days, but immediately.
In three days, usually you can smell people, can't you? That's
what they said about Lazarus. He's been dead three days. He's
smelling. He's smelling. The Lord Jesus
could not decay. Why? His body was holy. You will not suffer your Holy
One. The reason your body decays and
mine, we're not holy. We have worms and it's going
to eat us, don't we, when we die. We've got it. Look what he says now about his
resurrection in Psalm 16, verse 11. This is a wonderful thought,
the way he puts this. Look how he puts his resurrection
from the dead. Thou will show me the path of
life. This is the way He speaks of
the resurrection. Thou wilt show me the path of the life. There
was a path from the dead to the land of the living. And the Father
revealed that path experientially to His Son. I am He that is alive
and I was dead, but now I am alive forevermore. He found the
path from death to life. from the grave to heaven. You
know, you and I are going to die too, aren't we? You and I
are going to die too. They're going to bury us pretty
soon. But you know something, if you're in Christ this morning,
there's a path back from death to the land of the living. And
you'll find it. You'll walk in it. And you'll
come out of the grave. Because God will reveal it to
you. He'll show it to you and He'll bring you out of the grave. And now our Lord makes this statement
concerning the Father's presence in heaven. Here in verse 11 He
uses these two little short phrases to describe what's it like in
the Father's presence for Jesus Christ and His glorified humanity.
He uses these two little terms. He says in the last portion there
of verse 11, in thy presence, is fullness of joy. That's the first way. Not only joy, but fullness of
joy. And that by right hand there
are pleasures for evermore. By this we conclude that Jesus
in His humanity, in His human nature, is not only experiencing
joy, but the fullness of it. This word fullness denotes completeness,
having within its limits all that it can contain. There is
room for nothing else. Fullness of joy. Christ's joy
is to the greatest amount or degree. It's whole, it's complete,
it's entire. It's not partial or defective. This was the joy set before Him
when He went to the cross. And when the Father raised Him
and set Him on His right hand, He said, My Father, I've experienced
something that I've never experienced in my humanity, the fullness
of joy. The fullness of joy. You know, joy is something that's
caused When you read the Scriptures, and I think you'll study that
word, you'll realize you just don't have joy for no reason.
It's caused. The Scripture says when Mary
came to Elizabeth and John the Baptist was in his mother's belly,
he heard the voice of Mary. And when he heard the voice,
it caused the babe to leap for joy. Joy is caused. What was it that caused the joy
of our Lord Jesus when He sat down by His Father? His Father's
presence. His Father's presence. His Father's
presence. In your presence is fullness
of joy. Joy has to do with gratification,
the fulfillment of desire, a possession of what one loves. It's a gladness. exultation of spirit, the delight
and satisfaction of the mind, the happiness of the soul, fullness
of joy in thy presence. And then he describes something
else like this, and there are pleasures forevermore. At thy right hand there are pleasures
forevermore. This word evermore means perpetual
pleasure. Continual pleasures without intermission
are ended. Not just without ending, without
intermission. Perpetual pleasure. And what
are these pleasures? My goodness, I can't tell. I
can try to, you know, rattle around a little bit about it,
but who can know? the depths of these pleasures
that Jesus the man is experiencing at His Father's right hand. But
brothers and sisters, I know this much. I know this much. He created angels. The angels
are the creation of God's Son, and He delights in them. He don't
need them, but He created them, and He delights in them. He loves
the presence of His angels. They are around Him all the time,
worshipping and praising Him. He delights in that and that
gives Him pleasure. I'll tell you something else
that gives Him pleasure. He redeemed His people. And they are there in His presence.
There are multitudes in His presence right now. Some of them are still
spirits. The spirits of just men made
perfect, but He's got a bunch of people there in glorified
bodies. When He raised from the dead and ascended back, many
came from the grave and went back to heaven with Him. He delights
in them. He takes pleasure in them in
His presence. He takes delight in His success. If hope deferred makes the heart
sick, complete success must give it great pleasure. And Jesus
is a successful Savior. He lives to see the fruit of
the travail of His soul. It gives Him great satisfaction.
He's calling His people out of sin one by one. And every time
He calls one, He rejoices over that one as a shepherd rejoices
over his sheep that was lost and found. They are said to be
His delight. And He joys over them with singing. It gives Him great pleasure to
reveal Himself and His saving grace to them. He delights to
keep them by His power and finally bring them to heaven at last,
that place that He's prepared for them. Who can describe this
pleasure? And He says it has no intermission.
No ending. Pleasures forevermore. I conclude
from these two statements alone, and there's many others that
we could look at, that heaven is not a place of boredom. It's not a place of boredom.
He hasn't been bored since he's been back there. The Son of God
who knew heaven and was there before He came to earth knew
what it was like then. He came to this earth and experienced
the sorrows and grief of this world, and now He's back in heaven
in our humanity. And He is suited in every way. Because of His knowledge and
personal experience and deep feelings, He's capable of describing
the joys and pleasures of heaven. And how does He describe it?
It's being full, full of joy and uninterrupted and everlasting
pleasures. I'm willing for one, brothers
and sisters, just to take Him at His Word. I'll just take Him
at His Word. Heaven is not a place of boredom.
Somebody said, well, we get bored there after a million years,
ten million years. He's never got bored. He says, I've found pleasures
here that's indescribable, and joys that has filled my soul
and my spirit and my humanity. And listen to this, as it is
with the head, it must be with the body. If Jesus Christ is
experiencing this as the head, will not His body, the church,
experience this also? If the Father's presence is the
fullest of Christ's joy, can it be any less for us when we
are there in His presence? I know what the Bible says about
it. Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and
to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with
exceeding joy. Is Christ full of joy? Every
member of his body will experience that joy also. I'm not saying
to the degree that he experiences it, but I know this, all the
saints will be as full as they can be filled with joy. There
will be no capacity for anything else, exceeding joy. Do we not read of the joy that's
unspeakable and full of glory? Our Lord told about a parable
on the Day of Judgment, and this is what He said to His children.
Well done, thou good and faithful servant! Thou hast been faithful
over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many
things. Enter thou unto the joy of the
Lord. I don't think for a minute that
Jesus Christ is experiencing all these pleasures and that
He will keep it all to Himself. We're heirs of God and joint
heirs with Jesus Christ. And what He's experiencing, His
saints will experience. If He is filled with joy, they
will be filled with joy. If He has unceasing pleasures,
they will have unceasing pleasures. And the cause of His pleasures
and joy will be the same cause of ours, His presence. is present. David continues on
in the 17th chapter. Look here what he says. He picks
up on this theme that the Lord Jesus applied to himself and
now David's going to pick up on it and he uses some of the
same words to describe his own resurrection as the Lord Jesus
did to describe his. Look in Psalms chapter 17 and
verse 15. He's speaking of the wicked and
how they would meet an awful end. And he said, I don't want
to be like that. I don't want to be like them.
I don't want to experience their end. And he says in verse 15,
But as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I
shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. If you just look at this verse
closely, it looks so much like what we've been reading here.
The Lord Jesus said, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. Thou
wilt show me the path of life. And David says, When I awake. Christ said, You're going to
raise me. David said, You're going to awaken me. Resurrection. David and Christ both speaking
of the resurrection. Thou wilt show me the paths of
life. And he said also, I will behold
thy face in righteousness. And that's the same word that
the Lord Jesus, in thy presence. You know those two words are
the same thing. The face and thy presence. And Peter calls
it the countenance. In thy presence, beholding your
face, seeing your countenance will satisfy me. And this word
satisfied is the very same word that used fullness in chapter
16 verse 11. In thy presence is fullness of
joy. Most of the places in the scripture,
in the Old Testament, this word satisfied is rendered full or
fullness. And what David is saying here,
when I behold your face in righteousness, I shall be fully. and eternally
satisfied. And what's the cause of David's
joy? What's the cause of his satisfaction?
What makes it so complete? The face of his Lord and Redeemer. I shall behold thy face in righteousness. That's the source of his satisfaction.
Just as the source of Jesus' joy was His Father's presence,
David said, My source of satisfaction is seeing Your face, Your countenance,
seeing Your gleaming eyes, seeing Your smiling face, hearing Your
voice. Thy presence, Thy presence, Thy
presence. Oh, we've got so little of His
presence. At least we apprehend so little,
don't we? Apprehend so little. The disciples
loved the Lord Jesus so much. They coveted His presence so
much. They were so loath to leave His presence. He said, I'm going
away. And Peter said, I'm going with
you. He said, Peter, you can't follow me now. Peter said, I'll
die before I leave your presence. Don't you feel that way? Though
we know His presence to such a little degree, yet we covet
it so much that we'd rather die than to be without it. I've often
made this statement, I'd rather be in hell with it than to be
in heaven without it. Moses said, Lord, if you don't
go up with us, don't carry me up with you. If we value His
presence to that extent here when we know so little of it,
what will it do for our souls yonder when we are in His immediate
presence, when we behold His face and His countenance lights
upon us? When Paul was speaking of the
resurrection of our bodies, he says it like this. He said, we
shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Comfort one another with these
words. What will it be to be in His
presence? Comfort, rest, delight, joy,
satisfaction. What will it mean to behold the
face of Christ? David says here, it will mean
that I am in your likeness. I'm in your likeness. I shall
behold thy face. What does that mean to you, David?
I'm going to awaken his likeness. John said, ìDonít you appear
what we shall be, but we know when He shall appear, we shall
be like Him, like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.î Brother, Jesus Christ has never
been bored since He got back to heaven, and you wonít be either. There will be no boredom in heaven.
Continue, pleasure, satisfaction. Oh, David says here, this is
my hope. Ask for me. Ask for me. Ask for me. I shall behold thy
face. Well, David scoot over, because
that's my hope too. You're a great king, and I'm
just a peasant. But I'm born of grace. I'm a
child of grace, and this is my hope too. This is what's going
to satisfy me, to see His face and to awake in His likeness. One more Scripture. You can leave
Psalms and turn over to Revelation. This is New Testament doctrine
David's speaking about. Look over here in Revelation
chapter 22. Revelation chapter 22. It's about seeing His face. I
shall behold Your face. Look what David says here in Revelation 22. He's talking about
heaven, that place. And he says in verse 3, Revelation
22, 3, And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of
God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall
serve Him. There'll be no more curse. No
more curse. And he says in verse 5, And there
shall be no night there, and they don't need a candle, neither
the light of the sun. For the Lord their God giveth
them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. And he said
in 21-23, The Lamb is the light. What's our whole problem, brothers
and sisters in this world? Why aren't we satisfied? Well,
John hits on it right here. We're under a curse. This world
is cursed. Adam sinned and it plunged the
entire human race under condemnation and a curse. And we're still
suffering that today, aren't we? What's wrong with us? We're not getting better. We're
getting worse. Look at us physically. This body is cursed. And it's
going to die. It's going to rot. But there's
coming a day there will be no more curse. At the resurrection,
the cursed shall be annihilated. No more curse. And what's wrong
with us? Darkness. We're living in a world
of darkness. We have a blessed gospel of life.
Nobody wants to hear it hardly. Why? They love darkness rather
than light. Let's just be honest about it.
And what's wrong with our minds? Why do we have such trouble getting
our hands, our minds, wrapped around these spiritual truths?
And when we get them, we forget it so quickly. Darkness, isn't
it? Darkness within us. Spiritual
darkness. There's coming a day, this darkness
is going to be annihilated. There's going to be nothing but
light. But right in the midst of these two verses, look in
verse 4, "...and they shall see His That's what's going to do
away with that curse. That's what's going to take all
the darkness out of our mind and out of this universe. He's
coming again. He's going to show us the path
of life. He's going to reunite our souls
with our bodies. We're going to be raised in His
likeness. And the curse is going to be
dispelled. And darkness will be dispelled.
And we'll be just like Him. And we'll say with David, now
I'm satisfied. There'll be no interruptions
in my satisfaction. Eternal, unending satisfaction. Well, I tell you, I remember
what it's like to see His face before He saved me. I remember
that. Can you imagine when Adam and
Eve sinned and saw they were naked? They were so ashamed.
They ran and hid among the trees of the garden. The Lord came
walking in the cool of the day and he hollered at him, Adam,
who are you? Can't you see Adam peeping out
behind that tree and he saw the face of the Lord and he thought,
oh no, he knows what we've done. Oh no, we're in trouble. Look
at his face. Oh, oh, look at his face. He's angry. We've sinned. We've offended him. Look at his
face. I've felt that way before. Oh, but this is a different face
here. This is His redeeming face. This is the face of God in Christ,
our Redeemer. And boy, when you see His face
here, you're going to say, oh my, I'm saved. I'm saved at last. I'm full of joy. and comfort
and satisfaction. Heaven won't be a boring place,
brothers and sisters. And this is what will keep boredom
down and eliminate it and annihilate it. His presence. His presence. In His presence, there's fullness
of joy. At His right hand, there's pleasure
forevermore. Oh, I want to go to heaven, don't
you? Ain't but one way to get there, and that's through Jesus
Christ. That's through Jesus Christ. Let's pray.