That's good to see Dave and Donna
out, out and about. Let's begin our worship service
this morning with hymn number 17, Come Thou Fount of Every
Blessing. Y'all sing out, now we're a trio. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
heart to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above. Race about, I'm fixed upon it. Mount of thy redeeming love Here
I raise my Ebenezer Hither by thy help I'm come And I hope
by thy good pleasure Safely to arrive at home Jesus saw me when
a stranger, wandering from the fold of God, he to rescue me
from danger interposed his precious blood. O to grace, how great
a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like
a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord,
I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and
seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. If you have your Bibles turn
with me please to Revelation, the Revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ, chapter 22. Happy Birthday Steve. Revelation 22, I want to look
at one verse, one phrase of one verse, in verse 4 of Revelation
22. And they shall see His face,
verse 4. And they shall see His face. Let us pray. Our God and Father,
we come in the blessed name and perfect righteousness of Jesus
Christ the Lord, who loved us and gave Himself for us. We thank
You, Father, for His mercy and grace, His willingness and voluntarily
going to the cross to die in the room instead of His people
and secure their salvation. We bless You, Father, that His
work was an accomplishment, even as Elijah, and Moses stood on
the Mount of Transfiguration and spake to Him concerning the
death that He should accomplish in Jerusalem. We praise You,
Father, that His death answered Your requirement for justice
and law, that He satisfied justice and satisfied Your law, fulfilled
all righteousness, fulfilled the law in every jot and tittle, and cause it to be so you could
be just and justify them that believe on Jesus Christ. We thank
you that you have made Him to be unto His people wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. And it is all and in all for
the believer. We pray for those who are sick,
going through trials. We ask Lord your help for them.
We pray for our country and for our state and for the tribe here
at the reservation, we ask Lord you continue to bless and minister
to us. Help us Lord as we seek to preach
the Word of God that Christ might be honored and glorified and
we might worship you in spirit and in truth. We pray in the
name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Now if you were to take a survey
of ten people about their thoughts of heaven you'd probably get
at least 10 opinions on what they think it is. Every culture
has a view of the afterlife. They range from 40 virgins and
free use of what they were forbidden on earth, to a place with winged
angels flying about, to a place where watermelons are as big
as Volkswagen's or a trout as big as Moby Dick, to a state
of total self-awareness. But for the life of me, what
I know about myself, that seems to be no great thing. Well, the
return to earth is a different creature based on the kind of
person you were in a former life. And most of the problem with
this myriad of opinions is due to the fact that men and women's
concept of an afterlife are born of carnal desires informed by
what they see and enjoy on the earth. Now, I do not doubt that
with the creation of the new heaven and the new earth, that
many of the things that the believer loves here will be loved there
also. Even now, though the earth is
under the curse, the believer views it through eyes of faith
and sees it as a wonder, designated to glorify God and purpose for
the good of his people. Our Lord said, you believe in
God, you believe also in Me. I go to My Father's house, and
My Father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I prepare a place for you, I'll come again and get
you. Over in 1 Corinthians chapter
2, we read these words concerning what has not been seen, and heaven
is one of those things that has not been seen. In verse 9 of
chapter 2, it says, But as it is written, I have not seen nor
heard Neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed
them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
the deep things of God. In Colossians chapter 3. In Colossians chapter 3 verses
1-4 it says, If ye then be risen, and that word if is not conjecture,
that word if is chi in the original, it means sense. Since ye be risen
with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, and not on things of the earth. For ye are dead, and your
life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. The
symbolic manner by which heaven is described, if indeed it is
heaven that is being described, certainly paints a mental canvas
of things that are truly wondrous and amazing. Though much has
been written on the subject of heaven, most of it is conjecture.
I freely admit that I don't know a great deal about heaven. In
fact, there are but a few things that I am sure of. I know that
Christ will be there. because He's already there. He's
sitting at the right hand of God as we just read in Colossians.
I know that He resides there as our sovereign substitute because
He's presented throughout the book of Revelation as the Lamb
upon the throne. I know that spiritual place is
a place of constant worship and praise and thanksgiving. If you
don't like to worship God here, heaven is not the place for you.
It's that simple. I know that His church will be
there. He died for them and everyone for whom He died will be there
with Him. His travail, according to Scripture, knew no miscarriage.
I know that the focus of faith here will be the focus of sight
there. I know that no unclean thing
will be there. It will be a place where there
is no sorrow and no tears and no sickness. Heaven will be a
place of unbridled joy and unqualified health and unending praise. In
our passage of Scripture we see what has been called by many
the doctrine of reduction. Now the doctrine of reduction
is to take a great number of things and bring them down to
one singular thing. And that singular thing is here. It is found in the believer's
view. The singular thing that will
qualify it to bear the name Heaven is that the believer is found
in verse 4 saying, His face. That's it. You want to know what
heaven is? You want to know what heaven
is all about? You know what we'll spend eternity
doing? It's about that singular phrase, they shall see His face.
This is undiluted heaven, with undimmed eye, without sin to
cloud their vision. They shall see His face. They shall see His face. Scripture
says, No man shall see God's face and live, yet these ever-living
ones shall see His face. That's the promise. God is invisible
spirit. We know that. And these shall
see His face. Jesus Christ is the image of
the invisible God according to Colossians 1. Moses was only
allowed to see the hinder parts of God. For God put him in the
cleft of the rock and said, You can see my hinderbarks, but you
cannot see my face. And what he was saying there
was that you can see what I've done, but you can't see what
I'm doing. And that's a good thing to remember as we're going
through what we're going through now. You don't know what God's
doing with this. We have no idea what God is doing. We can know
what He's done. He sent His Son to die in the
room instead of sinners. to redeem them. We know that.
And we can spend our life trying to plumb the depths of that beautiful
and true thing. But we don't know what He's doing
right now. What's going to be the outcome of this? I have no idea.
But I know this. I know two things about this
whole situation. First of all, it will redound
to the glory of God. And secondly, it will be good
for every one of His people. It will be good for us. It may
not feel good, but I've often said this. Providence Often doesn't
feel good, but it always is good. It always is good, but sometimes
it's painful. Sometimes it's painful. Here
it says, they shall see the face of God. How shall they see the
face of God? They'll see it as they look at
the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on the throne. The scripture
says, as God has commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
He has shined the light in our hearts to reveal the glory of
God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. they shall see his face. To those who seek earthly pleasures
in this place, or presume to think that there will be a hierarchy
based on their meritorious works, if they are there at all, they
will meet with severe disappointment. Since there is no disappointment
in heaven there, I guess there will be elsewhere. Only a sinner
who has been saved by sovereign grace, who has tasted the sweetness
of God's mercy and bathed in the refreshing fountains of forgiveness,
can rejoice in such a singular thing It's what I want. It's what every believer wants.
To see His face. For all His spiritual life, the
believer has longed for this glad hour, for the sight of the
Lamb King of this city whose Builder and Maker is God. And
for the years of His new life, he has viewed His unseen Savior
one way. By believing what God has said
about Him by faith. Voraciously feeding on every
descriptive word that He found in Holy Writ. It is His earthly
sojourn. He has traveled long distances
to hear others speak of His beloved Savior. He has never grown tired
of the mention of His name. He loves the old, old story and
asks men to tell it to Him once again. His goal and His aim,
His vocation and His avocation, His most treasured desire is
to be found in the presence of Jesus Christ. And here the promise
is, they shall see His face. Behold, He cometh. And they shall
see His face. They shall see His face. This
phrase begins with the plural noun they. Who are they? They shall see His face. They
are the elect. They are the church, the sheep,
the bride, those given to Christ, those for whom He died, those
whom He redeemed by His blood. Those to whom God has made Him
to be righteousness, wisdom, and sanctification. Those who
have been conformed to His image. They are the saved, blood brought,
or blood bought. And we know this because they
see His face. This is a description of those
who know God. They are predestined to be like
Christ, according to Romans 28, 29, whom He did predestinate. Then He also called, but it first
says they are predestinated to be conformed to the image of
Jesus Christ, who is the firstborn among many brethren. They are
the chosen ones, according to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
4. Blessed be the name of the Father,
who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, according as He has
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy without blame before Him, in love, having predestinated
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ and to Himself.
They are those who are called on purpose. One thing everyone
needs to understand, and one of the basic things you will
learn if you ever learn anything about the God of this Scripture,
is that He does everything on purpose. Nothing slips up on
Him. Nothing occurs to Him. He said
all these things in order before the foundation of the world.
It says He declared the end from the beginning. I don't mean He
separated the two. That means in the beginning He declared
how this thing was going to end. Now you who are believers in
the Lord Jesus Christ, it also gives you great pleasure because
we've read the end of the story. We know how the story is. Don't
be full of despair. We know how the story ends. It's
going to end gratefully with you seeing His face and never
being sick and never being sorrowful and never having to shed another
tear. Because you'll see His face. And that's on purpose. God, Paul told Timothy, God who
has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose in grace, which
was given us in Jesus Christ before the world began. 1st Timothy
or 2nd Timothy 2.9. They are the ones who are accepted.
People spend their lives trying to be accepted in this world.
They get upset when people don't accept them. Well those in Christ
are accepted according to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 6. They are
accepted in the Beloved according to the purpose of His grace. They are also those who love
His appearing. Paul said there is a crown awaiting those who
love His appearing. who love His appearing. From
Adam to the last of the elect brought safely home, here's the
language and here's the words of promise from God. They shall
see His face. We're going to see His face. I wonder what that's like. I
wonder what that's like. Everyone who has died in faith,
who have existed in this world, leaving their bodies behind,
shall see His face. What will it mean to see His
face? I don't know much about it, though I long for it to be. I know that when I see His face,
everything will be changed. Our Lord said that in 1 Corinthians
15. We will be changed. We will be changed. What's that
change? Well, it will be a spiritual change. We know that. Paul spent
a lot of time in the book of 1 Corinthians dealing with the
matter. Some people didn't believe in
the resurrection, but he sought out to show that indeed Christ
was raised from the dead. And one of the things He says,
what you don't understand is that in a twinkling of an eye,
we're going to be changed. Now we're going into the grave,
and our body is going to decay. And we're going to return to
the dust. And then we'll be resurrected. How does that work? Well, we'll
be changed. We'll be changed, that's clear. Why will we be
changed? Because we'll see His face. We'll
see His face. Jacob, bless his heart. I'm thankful
Jacob's in the Bible. God is the God of Jacob, and
I'm glad he's there. Jacob was not a nice fella. Jacob
was a supplanter. That's what his name means. In
fact, when the Hebrew said his name, it was almost like coughing
up something. They would say, Jacob, Jacob. He tried to get on the good side
of Esau. He was afraid of Esau, although God had chosen him and
told him that the promises were going to be made in him. He was
afraid of Esau, and so when he found out he was going to meet
Esau, he sent tons of wealth to Esau. And then, instead of
waiting how Esau would respond to it, he went into total despair. went out into the dark place
and the dark woods, groaning and moaning about all the things
that was going wrong with him. And he crossed across this stream.
And he called that stream Jabok. And that means poured out. I'm
just poured out. Ain't nothing left of me. I've
got nothing. I am nothing. I'm poured out.
And there he met with Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, and
wrestled with Him all night long. And God put his hip out of joy
and he had a different walk the rest of his life. But when he
came back, crossed that same stream, he didn't call it J-Bach,
he said it's Penua. And that means I've seen the
face of God. Everything changes when you see
the face of Jesus Christ. I know this is the heart longing
and confidence of every believer. who was tortured in this world,
who lived his last days in horror, sick and wounded, lost everything,
though God did return him double for all he had. He said to those
of his accusers, those friends who are forgers of lies and friends
of no value, he said, I know my Redeemer liveth. And I'm going
to see Him with my own eyes. Though this body is ate up with
a bunch of worms, I'm going to see Christ with my own eyes.
That's all I want. That's all I need. That's all
I long for. And I know from that passage
that though I am changed, I will still be me without sin. Me. I know the reason that I
will see His face. I will see His face because of
His perfect accomplishment on Calvary Street. In that great
transaction, He made all His people like Himself. Like Himself
before God. The last word of the predestinating
glory in Romans chapter 8 and verse 30 is that, Then He also
glorified. Then He also glorified. But over in 1 John, a very interesting
phrase in 1 John 4, verse 17, what happened on the cross was
that Jesus Christ removed all possibility of judgment from
His people. All possibility is gone. Now if you have trials
and troubles in your life and you have the cross for you to
bear, but remember this, there is no judgment in that cross,
there is no judgment in that trial, there is no judgment in
that sorrow. There was no judgment there, because Jesus Christ bore
our judgment. I know preachers like to say,
well, when I get to judgment and when I stand before God,
I'm gonna come out smelling like sulfur. No, you're not if you're
a child of God. In fact, you're not gonna be judged out of the
books. Your name's gonna be called out of the roll, according to
Romans 22. Or Romans 20, not Romans, Revelation
20. Your name's gonna be called out of another book. Those who will perish and end
up with hell and the lake of fire are those who are judged
out of the books. But it says those who are written in the
Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world, their
names are just going to be called. And if you go to glory and you
stand before God at the judgment, He's not going to say that. We're
going to look at your life and look at your work and see how you
did. He's not going to say that. He's going to say, Come. Now
good and faithful servant, well done. That's what He's going
to say to every one of His children. So the child of God doesn't fear
the judgment. That's what 1 John said. John
said in his epistle of 1 John. He said in verse 17 of chapter
4, Herein is our love made perfect. How is that? That we may have
boldness in the day of judgment. Boldness in the day of judgment. because as He is, that is, as
Christ is, so are we in the world right now. We are as Christ is
in the world at this moment. First John chapter 3 and verse
2 says this, Beloved, now We are the sons of God. And it doth
not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him
as He is. They shall see His face. Now,
I have no idea what that amazing thing entails, but I sure do
like the sound of it, and I am enamored with its prospect. And
finally, when I see His face, I will be perfectly satisfied.
I've been momentarily satisfied a few times in this world, and
so have you. Some things you've done, the
choice of your wife, your choice of your husband, these things
satisfied you for a time. They will prove satisfactory
for a while, but they don't satisfy the soul, satisfy the mind, satisfy
the heart fully, because so much of this life is fraught with
sorrow and Personally, and I know every child of God suffers this,
I am constantly warring with demons of my own carnal nature. I love so poorly and hate so
freely. I know providence is always good,
but often find myself railing against it. Nothing in this world
satisfies, but when I see His face, I'll be satisfied. That's what
David said in Psalm 17. Psalm 17, verse 15, it says, As for me,
I will behold thy face in righteousness, and I shall be satisfied when
I awaken thy likeness. I shall be satisfied. Completely
satisfied. For now these spoken of here,
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, Look through a glass darkly.
But then, face to face, though we are tried and we fall, though
we falter and we fail every day, we do not despair. God has given
us His Word and by His Spirit we are privileged to meditate
and ponder and chew the cud concerning the glory of that day and that
place, that pure, holy place where one day They shall see
His face. We used to sing an old song.
When by His grace, we shall look on His face. Oh, that will be
glory. Be glory for me. They shall see
His face. Father, cause us to appreciate
this promise. Take it to our hearts and minds.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen.