Coming upon the end of our numbers
that we have been looking at, and I'll remind us that Sunday
I mentioned about us going through the book of Proverbs together,
one chapter at a time, because there's 31 books in Proverbs. So we'll start tomorrow with
Proverbs 1, and hopefully the Lord will be pleased to give
me a message based upon the number of the chapter that we land upon,
whether it be Sunday or Wednesday, I'll be able to have a message
if the Lord be pleased to do that. So it'd be good if you
have conversation with each other throughout the week to bring
up the Proverbs that you're reading and fellowship and rejoice in
what the Lord revealed to you in that. There's a lot of instruction
in Proverbs, but we're coming up on the end of the numbers.
We started at number one and um, I feel like the Lord's pleased
for us to be complete at number 12, and so that's what we're
going to be looking at tonight. Number 12. That means that we have met at least
12 Wednesdays since we got here. How much time has flown by whenever
I realized that I was taken back for a moment, but. The number
12. Represents God's church. God's
chosen God's elect his saved people. We see that in the 12
tribes of Israel very clearly. We see that in the 12 disciples
that he called. We know that it's what Christ
has accomplished. That's what 12 represents, the
salvation of his people. And that's actually what I've
titled this message tonight. What did Christ accomplish? I would
like to answer that question. What did Christ accomplished?
Now all throughout the Bible, 12 is mentioned many times, 165
times to be exact. I was joking with Al and Steve
yesterday when I was talking to them. I said, we're going
to look at every single one of them. That's not true. We're not going to.
If we look at the meaning of one time, you'll see that it's
either used just as a number to number someone such as age,
which is what the first time it was ever mentioned was it
was Seth's age. You remember Seth was the son given to Adam
and Eve after Abel had been slew by Cain. He lived 912 years. So that may not seem significant. It didn't to me anyways at the
time that I read it, but that's the first time it's mentioned
in the Bible. The second time it was a 12 year span whenever
certain kingdoms were in bondage to a king and they rebelled in
the 13th year. The third time that it's mentioned
is whenever you remember Ishmael, Abraham decided he would take
matters into his own hands to have a promised child and Sarah
gave Hagar unto Abraham, and she had a son named Ishmael.
And the Lord kept his promise unto Ishmael that he had made
to Isaac, that he would be a great nation, that he would have the
blessing of the Lord. And he had 12 sons, and they
were called the 12 princes. And the fourth time is the first
time that we really find hope looking back over history when
the number 12 is used, and that is whenever Jacob his sons, the
12 tribes of Israel are mentioned the fourth time. We know that
this is a representation of the Lord's people. As I said last
Sunday, the church didn't replace Israel. The church is Israel.
As the Bible speaks about Abraham's seed being a faith, it's not
a bloodline. And that's our hope. If it's of a bloodline, we have
no hope. Our hope is in the blood of Christ,
not in our pedigree, not in our bloodline. We see these This
number 12, as the 12 tribes of Israel, being the Lord's people
brought down to Egypt by the Lord's providence, saving the
entire nation by the hand of Joseph, their brother, in a very
unlikely scenario, how he became second overall in the land of
Egypt. The Lord brought salvation to
them during that time. They were in bondage 400 years.
The Lord's bringing them out of Egypt. And it's all a type
and picture of us, isn't it? By being sold in sin and can't,
escape being a slave and in debt to our own sin, and the Lord
bringing us out of that bondage and bringing us across the Red
Sea, parting the way to allow us to have eternal life, which
is what the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross for his people,
bringing us through this wilderness of life that we have, that we're
enduring right now, a lot of afflictions. But we also are
able to look back, as David said, surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me. And just as the children of Israel's shoes never wore
out and their clothes never wore out, and the Lord fed them manna
from heaven, the Lord provides for his people, doesn't he? That's
what we see in the number 12 is what the Lord has done for
his people. One of the most perfect examples
we have of the number 12 being the Lord's. The number of the
Lord's people is if you remember, we looked at Joshua when Joshua
brought the children of Israel across the Red Sea, Moses could
not bring the children of Israel across the Red Sea because he
was a representation of the law and the law could not redeem.
The law could not save as we as we heard Sunday, Joshua could,
his name in Hebrew is the same Greek word, Jesus. It's the exact
same word. So we see the Lord Jesus bringing
his people across the Jordan River, parting the waters, and
he tells the priests, the 12 priests, he says, take 12 stones
and bring them across the Jordan, in the midst of Jordan, and set
them up as a memorial. And we see a picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ bringing his people, the 12 tribes, the church across
the Jordan River, the river of death. That's what Jordan represents.
presenting us as perfectly righteous unto the Father. Twelve is also used in the tabernacle.
We've been looking at the tabernacle for some time now and the priesthood
and different things. The tabernacle had twelve unleavened
cakes in the temple that were to be changed out each Sunday
if they were not eaten by the priest by then. Well, that's
a representation of the Lord feeding His people, isn't it?
And it being unleavened means that it couldn't be mixed with
any works. It couldn't be mixed with any sin whatsoever. It said
a little leaven leveled the whole lump, which is a type of us putting
our hands to the work, causing the dough to rise, causing it
to be more appealing to the flesh. But the Lord established it had
to be unleavened cakes, and there were 12 of them. The Lord will
sustain His people is what He's telling us in that. We see that
there's 12 stones on the priest's breastplate. As he entered into
the holy place one time a year, he had 12 stones. What is that
a type of? Is it not our high priest that
had us near into his heart being pressed in him? Our sin, the
12, the Lord's people bearing our sin in his own body when
he entered in that which is in the veil, that is to say his
flesh and the Lord poured out his wrath upon his son. We were
in him and he was overshadowing us and he stood in our stead
and he wrought victory for his people. I'm also reminded of the 12 baskets
of fragments after feeding the 5000 that the Lord did. He fed
5000 with five loaves and two small fishes and he tells the
disciples to go take up the fragments and it says none. There was nothing
lost nothing me and I was talking about that yesterday. There was
nothing. lost. What is the Lord telling
us in that? All the fragments, all of the
Lord's people are going to be filled. Just those empty vessels
that we have mentioned recently are going to be filled to the
brim with the bread of life. The five is the number of graces
we've already seen. Two is the spirit and the word.
It's the water and the word. It's the blood and the spirit.
We know that those all harmonize together perfectly, don't they?
In the salvation of the Lord's people. That's exactly what he's
saying in the five loaves and the two small fishes filled up
every one of his elect with himself. He fills up His people and brings
them unto Himself in His time. Nothing was lost when they gathered
into these baskets. Nothing. And the Lord will not
lose one of His elect. Everyone that He died for, He
will call in His time. He's already saved them. He will
call them in His time. So what did Christ accomplish?
That's the question tonight. What did Christ accomplish? What
did He accomplish? He accomplished everything He
set out to do. He accomplished the salvation
of his elect. He accomplished the satisfaction
of the father. He satisfied his father. He accomplished
redemption. Redemption of his people. He
successfully saved his people from their sin. He accomplished
holiness being imputed. Unto us righteousness being imparted
unto us. He accomplished that for his
people. Christ successfully redeemed his 12. He successfully redeemed
his elect. He didn't try. He successfully
accomplished it. Men do not believe that Christ
accomplished salvation, they don't. They believe that he made
a way, but Christ said I am the way, didn't he? Men say, well,
he made a way, but you have to do your part. If there's one
thing that we have to do one thing, then Christ did not successfully
redeem. One thing, if he left one open-ended
string of any type or sort, something that I have to mend up, whether
it's a confession I make of my own doing. Understand that when
we confess, it's because faith has been given to us by Christ.
So everything that he requires, he's produced and he bestows
and we do it. We do it unto him. Why? Because
he accomplished our salvation. That's what Christ accomplished. We know the truth, don't we?
That we're not trying to be saved. We're clinging and praying, Lord,
save me, certainly, but it's not that we're trying to get
saved by something we do. Our hope is in that we were saved
from the foundation of the world by what Christ has done. We know
that the Ethiopian cannot change the color of their skin or the
leopard their spots. We know this, don't we? made
to know this. Matthew chapter five tells us
Christ was speaking to his disciples and he said, neither shall thou
swear by thy head because thou canst not make one hair white
or black. You can't make one hair white
or black. Now, somebody would argue, well, I can get a dye
kit and I don't know if some of y'all noticed, but I've actually
gotten gray hair since I moved up here. More so than I did,
my wife says I had a little bit before. I don't know if that's
true or not, but anyways, I can go to the store and I can get
a dye kit and I can dye my hair a color. Well, that's what men
do in religion, isn't it? They dye their hair whatever color
that they think God's going to be pleased with. But at the end
of it all, down at the root is the problem, isn't it? It's seeing
that's what men try to do there. It's dying their hair every Sunday,
every Wednesday. They're trying to look presentable
under the Lord. The Lord said I'm going to disannul your covenant.
We can't diet brethren. We can't die to make DYE. We can't present ourselves pleasing
unto the Lord. He needs. He demands perfection. He demands perfection. Christ
said, be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, which is
in heaven is perfect. Now, how can we be perfect? We
must be found in the precious Lamb of God, not having a righteousness,
which is our own righteousness of the law, but His righteousness
bestowed upon us from the foundation of the world because of His works
of righteousness, because of what He did, because of what
He accomplished. And that's exactly what He accomplished.
Christ did it all. I would like you to see that
in Romans 5. Already had you turn there, I believe. Romans 5. In verse 6. When did the Lord accomplish
all of this? When did He do this for His people? It tells us in
verse 6 of Romans 5. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die Yet pure adventure for a
good man. Some would even dare to die.
But God committed his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Brethren, he did it whenever
we were without strength without strength. As a matter of fact,
he says that his strength is made perfect in our weakness. Now does that mean we need to
become weaker in order for his strength to be made perfect?
No, it means whenever you see yourself as the weakest when
you see yourself, the chiefest of center, then you'll realize
his strength is perfect in his redemption. What he accomplished,
it's perfect. Ezekiel 22 says, can thy heart
endure or can thy hands be strong in the days that I shall deal
with thee? Can your heart endure or your hands be strong in the
day that the Lord will deal with you? He said, I, the Lord have
spoken it and will do it. Your strength is found in the
Lord Jesus Christ alone, isn't it? Your heart can endure, but
his heart endured the full wrath of God. That's our hope that
whenever he died, I died and he accomplished salvation. That's
what we're preaching about tonight. He endured. When did he do this?
When we were yet without strength, when we were yet sinners. God
commended his love toward us. You know what that word commended
means? It means band together. It means to prove. It means to
establish. But God proved his love towards
us. God established his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were sinners. And the good news in verse nine
says much more than being now justified. He commended his love,
he accomplished salvation, and now we're justified. Do we see
that? Justified doesn't mean just as if I'd never sinned.
Justified means you never sinned one time. It's gone. Your sin
as far as the east is from the west. He put them away. He will
not remember them anymore, the scripture says, because they
are not there. They're gone right now. Right now, there's no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Right now, you've been justified
by God's grace. Right now. We have been justified by his
blood. We shall be saved from the wrath through him. Now he
says his blood right here, but if you look in verse one, it
says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. If you'll turn back to Chapter
3 in verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God being freely justified, justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So what is he? What is he telling us? Well,
he says in verse 25, whom God hath set forth to be of propitiation
through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for
the remission of sin that are passed through the forbearance
of God. He's telling us that we have a threefold justification.
We have been justified by his blood, we have been justified
freely by his grace, and we have been justified by the faith of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a threefold justification.
Isn't that glorious? Men will sit and argue which
one is the one that does the justifying. It's God that justifies,
and we just believe it. We can't explain it, but we've
been justified by His blood, by His shedding of blood, what
He did. We've been justified freely by His grace, for by grace
you are saved through faith. We've been justified by the faith
of Christ bestowed upon each elect sinner from the foundation
of the world. We have a threefold justification.
Isn't that glorious? Everything that was needed. We couldn't supply the blood.
We couldn't supply the faith, and we certainly couldn't do
anything to merit grace. Therefore, it wouldn't be grace,
would it? He provided everything needed for the salvation of his
people. That's what he accomplished.
The salvation of his people. Back over to chapter 5 in verse
10. For if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only
so, but we also joy in God through our Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom
we have now received the atonement, by whom we have now received
the atonement. That word atonement I'm finding
in my ledger is reconciliation. We've been reconciled back to
God. When did that happen? Right now. He says right now,
this moment, right now, this moment, we have received the
atonement. The Lord's not waiting on us
to do anything, is he? The Lord's not trying to get us to produce
something or say something, and then we receive the atonement.
He says right now. Right now is that, We've received the atonement. Right now. This is what Christ
accomplished. He fulfilled the covenant of
grace before the foundation of the world, giving us salvation.
In the death of his own son. He lived perfectly and he died
in our stead. And we died in him. That's our
hope. When he died, I died. That's why he says there is now.
Therefore I I know I say that verse a lot. Romans chapter 8
verse one. I love that verse. Therefore,
because of everything he did, that's what therefore means in
the light of everything I've just said, is now therefore no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. He brought us safely across Jordan. He's already justified us. He's
already sanctified us, and he's already glorified us. I don't
understand that, but that's what he tells us in the same chapter,
Romans 8. This is what Christ accomplished.
Now I realize that was a very long introduction to Revelation
chapter 21, but it's necessary for us to appreciate what the
Lord accomplished and what we see in Revelation 21. Turn with
me there if you will, please. We've already seen that this
is the Holy City, New Jerusalem coming down from heaven prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband. Now let's read verse 9 through
14. And there came unto me one of
the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven
last plagues and talked with me saying, come hither and I
will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me
away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed
me that great city, the Holy Jerusalem, descending out of
heaven from God, having the glory of God and her light was like
unto a most precious, even Her light was likened to a stone
most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal, and
hath a wall great and high, and hath twelve gates, and at the
gates twelve angels, and the names written thereon, which
are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. On
the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south
three gates, and on the west three gates. and the wall of
the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the
twelve apostles of the Lamb." First thing we notice, brethren,
here, is this is the Lamb's wife. This
is the holy city. This is New Jerusalem, and we
see her light that is shining forth. It's shining forth as
a precious jasper stone, clear as crystal. I'll tell you some
information I found out looking up some of these stones that's
mentioned here. Jasper is a color red, a very crimson red. So what
is the Lord saying there? The light that she shines forth
is by the blood of Christ alone, isn't it? That's exactly what
he's telling us in that Jasper stone. That's the light, that's
all we can produce. See, the moon does not produce
its own light, does it? It just reflects the sun. And
that is exactly the light that the Lord, that was given to us
for that example, isn't it? We can't produce light. But yet
light is found in everyone of the elect of God because he has
placed it in there and it shines forth this crystal clear. Blood
red. We also see that there's 12 gates.
There's 12 tribes that represents the church, doesn't it? That's
all of this is the bride of Christ. All of this is the holy city.
And someone says, is this a city or is this the bride? The answer
is yes. The Lord's trying to, we have to understand we're looking
through a glass darkly and John is trying to write what he's
seeing. And by the vine, the Lord gave
him the ability to write what he saw. But you and I don't understand
what all these things mean. And we're not going to try to
not only decipher everything as most men do or debate. That's the word we would say.
We're not going to debate what all this means. I'm going to declare unto
you by the Lord's grace exactly what he showed me to tell you.
I know that that Jasper has to represent the blood of Christ
and that's all we can produce. But we see here that this is
a city as well as being representation of the bride of Christ. 12 gates,
12 tribes. And look in verse 13. on the
east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three
gates, and on the west three gates. What's the Lord telling
us there? He's saying he's gonna gather from all corners of the
earth, the north, south, east, and west. The wind will blow,
whether so ever it listeth, and bring in his elect. The wind
will blow. Remember, we looked at that on
the number four. The north wind, the south wind,
the east wind, and the west wind. However the Lord chooses to blow,
he's gonna blow, and he's gonna bring us through the gate. And
Christ is the gate, isn't he? Christ is the gate. This is the Holy Spirit gathering
his elect. He told his disciples go into
all the world, preach the gospel to every creature that nobody
said. The men go forth. We have a blessed hope, brethren,
and knowing that it's every tribe, every nation, every trunk and
every kindred is going to be represented in this glorious
Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's no respecter of person.
If you're going to come to Christ, it's going to have to be on His
merits alone and not ours. It's not color. It's not creed.
It's not language. It's not nationality has nothing
to do with us. It's completely based upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he's telling us here.
In verse 14, the wall of the city
had 12 foundations and in them the names of the 12 apostles
of the Lamb. What is the Lord saying in this?
The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord
knows them that are His. These 12 apostles, what did they
declare? They declared it is finished.
They declared the finished work of Christ, and that is the foundation
for the bride, is it not? If we don't have a gospel, if
we don't have that declaration that Christ died and saved His
people from their sin, then we have no hope, do we? We have
to have that foundation before we do anything else, and that
is the foundation that this city is built upon. This is the foundation
whereby we are made fit subjects in his kingdom. We are made fit
for him. Now look down in verse 18. The
building of the wall of it was of Jasper. In the city was pure
gold like into clear glass. The wall of this city is that
same crimson red. What is the Lord saying? He has
hedged us about by nothing less than the blood of the land. The
Lord hedges his people and give us a covering. Give us a covering,
his blood, his righteousness. Do you know what gold represents
in the scripture? Represents purity or perfection in the Lord's
eyes. That's what was overlaid on the mercy seat, we remember?
That's what was put in the temple for all the candlestick. Everything that was given in
the temple was to be overlaid with gold. It represents the
Lord's righteousness. It represents the Lord's covering,
the Lord's perfection. And that's what the whole city,
the entire city it says is made out of is gold. I've often heard men speak of
this. People speak of streets of gold
in heaven. You ever heard that before? Why
did the Lord call? Why did the Lord even mention
streets of gold to us? And I'm sure you've probably
heard this before by somebody else, but. The value of gold
compared to Christ is less than pavement, isn't it? It's less
than pavement. That's how. valuable Christ is. He takes the most valuable thing
and perhaps at this time gold would have probably been the
standard for the most valuable mineral, valuable metal, whatever,
right? I would assume that to be the case. He's saying it's
just pavement in his eyes. He's put it down for you to walk
on. He's put it down for his people to walk on. Isn't that
glorious? For your feet, having your feet shod. Verse 19. through 21, we're gonna
read these three. The foundations of the wall of
the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones.
The first foundation was jasper, and the second, sapphire, the
third, chalcedony, the fourth, an emerald, the fifth, sardonyx,
and the sixth, sardius, and the seventh, chrysolite, the eighth,
beryl, the ninth, topaz, the 10th, chrysoprasus, the 11th,
adjacent, and the 12th, an amethyst. And the 12 gates were 12 pearls.
Every several gate was one pearl, and the street of the city was
pure gold, as it were transparent glass. Now, I'm not going to
spiritualize every one of these stones. As I begin to look them
up, I found much controversial men debating over it, but the
Lord, I believe, gave me the meaning for these stones. It
probably isn't for us to understand the vast depths of all this,
but what I do know is, is these are the same 12 stones that that
priest wore whenever he entered in to the holy place. I do know
that these 12 stones represent every stone probably at that
time that was dug up from the earth. Everyone that they had
known about, everyone that was considered a precious gem. So
what is he saying? He's saying, I have adorned thee
with precious stones. I have robed thee in my righteousness. I have put a ring on your finger.
I have withheld nothing of my goodness from you. I have given
you everything as my people. I've given you everything by
my Son, the Lord Jesus Christ." That is what Christ accomplished. We're also made to see that there
is nothing man-made there except for one thing, the nail prints
in his hands and in his feet. That's the only thing man-made
there. And we know that it wasn't just the nail prints that brought
our salvation, but it was the sacrifice of himself. And it
was the wrath of God that was poured out upon him, making his
soul an offering for sin. And the Lord was so satisfied
with his son that he's given us every precious stone, every
precious gift. He's adorned us, overlaid us
in pure gold, washed us in the blood of Christ. Remember, we're
still talking about the bride of Christ here. This is who this
represents. This is what he did for his people. This is what
he accomplished. Verse 22, and I saw no temple therein for the
Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the
city had no need of the sun, neither the moon, to shine in
it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the
light thereof. The Lord God Almighty and the
Lamb are the temple. Is this not what the Lord has
done for his people? He's given us no other desire
to worship except for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb in
our heart. Christ the Lamb is the light
of this city. Is he not the light of your life? Do you have any other light source
besides him? I mean, spiritually speaking,
sure you have the sun, but that's a representation of Christ in
and of itself, isn't it? We just mentioned that. He is
our light source. He is that which brings life
by his light. I wanna tell us this, not by
way of being controversial, but very clear on this subject. Heaven
is not a place, it is a person. Think about that. Heaven is not
a place. We're not excited to go to mansions where we will
get to do humanitarian things. We will be in spirit at that
time. Heaven is a place of complete worship of God for what he has
done. Heaven is a person, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, I might sound like I'm talking
out of both sides of my mouth, but I'm not. This represents
a city. And this represents a bride at
the same time. Do we see that? Heaven is a person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And what did Paul say? Oh, that
I might be found in him, in him, not having my own righteousness. Heaven is being conformed to
his image. Heaven is being conformed to
his image. When you are completely conformed,
to the image of the Lord, you will be found in heaven. Do we
see that? This new Jerusalem is Christ's
bride. It represents Christ's work, what he accomplished for
his people. Heaven is a place of rest where
there really is no rest because there's no work to be done. You
can't, you'll never grow weary. Do we see that? It'll be an eternal
rest for sure, but understand it's silly to kind of even say
that because we're not resting We're just in Him. We're not
trying to work and then rest. In order, humans have to work
in order to be tired. Well, some of us, some of us
just tired all the time, right? But you understand what I'm saying?
You want to rest. What I'm trying to say is in
heaven, all the work is finished. So that's all there is, is rest.
But really, there's no, there's no, well, I think I'm speaking
in circles. There's nothing to rest from
because there's no work to be done. There's no sin. There's
no. There's nothing to rest from
because everything's been provided for you. He's. I hope that makes
sense. What is our Lord telling us?
Is this just a beautiful city where sickness and sorrow cannot
enter and tears are dried and I've you ever heard of the song?
I've got a mansion just over the hilltop. Is that what this
is all about? No, certainly not. God is declaring unto us. By
visual aid by faith. what we are, what we are in his
accomplished salvation. He hath saved his people from
their sin. He laid the foundations by the
preaching of his gospel. He is the door on every side
whereby we come unto him. He adorned his people, his elect,
with his precious gifts his precious stones, his righteousness, his
wisdom, his sanctification and redemption to us by God. Now, if you look up the fruit
of the Spirit, you'll find that there's eight fruits of the Spirit.
And if you. Add righteousness, wisdom, sanctification
and redemption to those eight, you'll get the number 12. That's
what he's done for his people. When you stand before him because
of what he's done for his people, when you stand before him, You
will not hang your head and beg for mercy. Do you know why? Because
you have been conformed to his image. Is that not what he said?
When I awake in thy likeness, to be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. But it says as soon as you see
him, We shall be made like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
What sin would you be begging to be put away? It's already
been put away. When you get there, you will see that you are in
Him. You will not hang your head in sorrow. Why? Because He's
taken away sorrow. He's wiped the tears from all
eyes at that moment. Do we see that? There's nothing
to cry about. He finished the work. He finished
it. You'll not wish that you've lived
better? Because you've been conformed
to his image, you lived a perfect life in his eyes. Perfect life. Will be made like him. Will be
resting completely in what Christ accomplished. All sorrow gone.
All sorrow gone, all sin gone. Standing having Christ is our
robe and our crown are his righteousness alone. Made perfectly righteous. Did you know you already are
in his eyes and the way God sees it is the way that it is, isn't
it? You're already perfectly righteous in his eyes and the
way God sees it is the way it really is. This is why we will, with the
four and 20 elders, that's the, that's the representation of
the church as well. Do you know the Jehovah witness got hung
up on the 144,000 that's mentioned in this, this, uh, this book
and they were talking about that's the number that the Lord That's
exactly how many is going to be going to heaven. Well, that's
just a representation. 12 times 12 is 144, is it not? That's a representation of the
finished work of Christ and his people. That's the representation
of the elect of God. This is why throughout the ceaseless
ages, we will eternally worship and yet we'll never go tired
of it. Did you know when you see his face, you will never get
tired of seeing his face? I don't know how often my wife
gets tired of seeing my face, but I'm sure she gets frustrated
with me and don't want to see my face. You'll never get tired
of looking at him. Isn't that glorious? We'll just
stare and worship forever and never get tired of it. Rule. Men say spend eternity. That's a oxymoron, isn't it?
You can't spend eternity. We can be in eternity, but you
can't spend it up. There's no way it's forever and ever and
ever. Continually looking. And never
wanting to stop looking. Declaring the half has not been
told. That's what we're going to do forever. He gets all the
glory in it because he accomplished our salvation. That's what he
accomplished. Our salvation, the salvation of his people.
Father, thank you. Bless your word according to
your will. Calls us to rest knowing that you are heaven, knowing
that it is finished. It's in Christ's name we pray.
Amen.