Christ’s Ongoing Work of Preparing His Church

Transcript

GRM 1162
06/12/2016
Christ's Ongoing Work of Preparing His Church
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

We've been a little bit out of our normal routine in studying a book of the Bible consecutively and the last couple of weeks we have talked about the work of Christ. We began by talking about the foundational facts of the Gospel—the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And we focused attention on what response is necessary to have the benefits of His death applied to us personally. The foundational issue is saving faith. You place your faith in the death and resurrection of the Son of God as payment in full for your sin. You don't trust Him in addition to other things, you trust Him alone and His finished work.

We talked about the various other expressions that could be used that are involved when you have saving faith, and sometimes they are used to represent that. Repentance is always involved in saving faith, a turning to Christ, a coming to Christ. Those kinds of expressions, all are saying the same thing. They are part of that work of saving faith. If you are going to place your faith in Christ, you would have to recognize and see yourself as God says you are—a guilty sinner. That involves then repentance of your sin, changing your mind, if you will, about how you see yourself, recognizing who Christ is and what He has done and placing your faith in Him.

So following the terms of salvation we talked about the present work of Christ. As God's children we want to have an appreciation of all God is doing for us in Christ and His work of redemption. And Christ didn't just come to earth, suffer and die on the cross to be resurrected and then ascend to heaven, take His seat at the right hand of the Father, there to wait until it was time for the Second Coming, as though everything He would do was done and now He was just waiting until it was time to return. And so we looked at what the Scripture said about His present work. He has been exalted to the right hand of the Father, He has taken his seat at the right hand. But that does not imply inactivity. The right hand is the place of honor, power, authority and He is exercising that authority even today. He is sovereign, He is at work in the world. He works with the Father and with the Spirit in carrying out the purposes and plan of God.

He is the Head of the church in a special way. The church did not come into existence until after the resurrection and ascension of Christ. In Acts 2 we have the beginning of the church, and He is the Head of the church. We looked at passages relating to that and His work in overseeing the church, in guiding and directing the church, the gifted individuals in the church, every believer having been gifted by God's grace to function in the body of Christ, the church.

Very key, He is an eternal high priest, He has made the sacrifice that only He could make. But His high priestly ministry continues on, not making repeated sacrifices. There is only one sacrifice for sin for all time. That work is finished and complete. But the application of that, the benefits of that finished work continue on, and that guarantees the security of every believer. We all sin even after we have trusted Christ and have been born again. But that doesn't mean now that we are back to zero and lost. If that were the case, then Christ would have to die again. His death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins. When we place our faith in Him, we noted, we get the benefits of that death forever and His position as an eternal high priest makes that clear. He is in the presence of the Father and He ever lives to make intercession for us. So He is there and that is the evidence and the proof and all that is required. Whenever I sin the blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing me from all sin, as we looked at in 1 John 1.

So that's His ongoing priestly ministry, that's our sanctification. You cannot understand the doctrine of sanctification, sadly for a number of years our family was part of a religious group after we were believers, and I believe these people loved the Lord, but they thought you could lose your salvation. So every time we got together they had a call for believers who had sinned and lost their salvation to come forward to the mourner's bench and get saved again. That was an awful way to live your life. I used to go to bed and say, “Lord, I know I haven't done all I should today, or I know I did what I shouldn't. Lord, forgive me one more time.” That is a failure to appreciate the wonder, the scope, and the magnificence of what God has done for us in Christ. We need to appreciate that every day and realize His work is ongoing on our behalf every day.

Then we talked about Him indwelling the believer. As I noted these are not all the things; we could do a whole series on the present work of Christ, but He is indwelling the believer today. And we left off here and I want to look at a few verses because it's important for us to be careful that we don't blur the distinction between the persons of the triune God. There are three distinct persons—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Those three persons together comprise the one true and living God. Now we only believe there is one God, but He eternally exists in three persons. Not saying this is something we will ever grasp fully, but we need to understand with clarity the fact that there is one God but there are three distinct persons. Sometimes we talk in a way that confuses them and there are times when it is not clear which person of the triune God is being talked about. But we understand He is only one person. Sometimes we have a hard time in a passage—is this talking about the Son at work, or the Father at work? Because they often do the same thing.

Come to John 14:18, Jesus is preparing His disciples for His departure. This is the last evening with them, at the end of this evening He will be betrayed and then crucified. He has some promises to give to them. Verse 16 He said, “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper that He may be with you forever.” Note He makes a distinction here, He's talking about the Spirit of truth in verse 17, the Holy Spirit. They are distinct. He is another Helper and “He will be in you.” The end of verse 17, “He abides with you but He is going to take up residence within you.” But then Jesus also promises in verse 18, “I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.” Now we sometimes read this in the context and say, Jesus is talking about the fact I will come to you in the Holy Spirit. In other words the Holy Spirit's coming is the same as My coming. But I don't think we can go there because Jesus is not the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not Jesus. And neither of them are the Father. So when He says I will come to you, I take it He is promising that He Himself personally will come to them.

Verse 20, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father and you in Me and I in you.” There is a clarity and distinction of persons here. The Father is distinct from the Son but the Son is in the Father, Christ is in us and we are in Him. That's a key distinction. “I am in My Father, you in Me and I in you.” So we are talking about distinct persons here—the Father, the Son and the believer. We don't blur them all and say you can talk about them as being the same. They are not. I am not Christ, but Christ is in me and I am in Christ. I am not the Father, Christ is not the Father, but Christ is in the Father and we are in Christ and Christ is in us. We see a distinction of the persons and we want to keep that clear.

You'll also note here, Christ is in us and we are in Christ. This gets to the doctrine of abiding, we'll see that in a moment. There is a lot of confusion among Christians about what it means to abide in Christ. That is simply another way of saying you have a relationship with Christ—you abide in Him and He abides in you; it is a mutual abiding. If you don't abide in Christ, He doesn't abide in you; if He doesn't abide in you and you don't abide in Him, you don't belong to Him. There is no relationship there. So sometimes we talk about the doctrine of abiding as the higher life, the higher Christian life and when Christians are walking in harmony with God then they are abiding in Him. And when they are out of harmony with Him they are out of a relationship. That's not true, you are always abiding in Him; He is always abiding in us. But you see here the mutual abiding.

Down in verse 23, “Jesus said, if anyone loves Me he will keep My word.” Now note this, “My Father will love him and We will come to him and make our abode with him.” Can't make the “we” here just one of them. My Father will love him and We will come; My Father and I will come and make our abode with that believer. Important to see. It's not just the Holy Spirit who dwells in the believer, the Father also dwells in the believer, the Son also dwells in the believer. Now it's true the focal point in our day is on the work of the Holy Spirit, there is more prominence given to that, but we ought to understand that Christ dwells in the believer. We think He is in heaven and here I am. He promised He would never leave us nor forsake us, He has taken up residence within us. So even though He has left with His physical presence, as God He has taken up residence in the life of the believer.

Look in John 15:4, I take it this is a statement of fact. “You abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in Me and I in him.” Can never come a time when Christ doesn't abide in a person and he is still a saved person. This is denoting the relationship we have with Christ. He abides in us, we abide in Him; He is the vine, we are the branches. Verse 5, “He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. And if anyone doesn't abide in Christ,” that means Christ doesn't abide in them. They are discarded as worthless. Important for us to understand what Jesus is saying here. Some commentators go into all kinds of gymnastics of how we are talking about fellowship here, and the branches belong to Him. But they don't belong to Him, they have no relationship with Him, there is no life going on. It's like you go out and take artificial flowers on a tree or a plant, there is no connection. There is no life. That's what he is saying here, branches that have no fruit have no connection, no life connection. Because if I abide in you and you abide in Me, His life is in us, as we will see.

Go over to John 17, Jesus' high priestly prayer to the Father. “I in them and You in Me,” Jesus saying to the Father. You see we have been brought into a relationship of intimacy with the eternal triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and we dwell in them and they dwell in us. And that's why verse 23 says, “that they may be perfected in unity.” The end of verse 22, “that they may be one as we are one,” we are bound in that relationship. And since each of us as believers are bound in that unbreakable relationship with the living God, we are bound in a relationship with one another so we could be perfected in unity because it is “God at work in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

Come over to Galatians 2, Paul writing in verse 20, “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live,” I hope you underline this in your Bible if you haven't already, “but Christ lives in me.” Christ lives in me; well, he means the Holy Spirit. Then we begin to blur the distinction between the persons of the trinity and we move toward being unitarian. Christ is not the Father, Christ is not the Holy Spirit, Christ is a distinct person, fully God as is the Father and as is the Spirit. Together they comprise the one true God. “Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” That's that ongoing work of sanctification, because He lives in us. It is His character, His power that is being produced in and through us. We'll be talking about that in our study this evening in 2 Peter 1.

Look over in Colossians 1. These are truths that can only be understood by the revelation God gives. Look at verse 26, Paul wants to, the end of verse 25, “fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God, which is the mystery which has been hidden from past ages and generations, now has been manifested to the saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles.” And what is this mystery that is now revealed with a fullness never before seen? “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” With the coming of the Son of God, the provision of redemption through His death and subsequent resurrection now He resides in us in the fullness of God's power and provision is being realized. And that's why we have the hope of glory. Christ is in us, glory is sure for us; Christ's unchanging presence is a guarantee of our future glory.

Paul put it in writing to the Philippians in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.” Sometimes you can talk about the Holy Spirit working in you, sometimes you can talk about Christ working in you, but they are distinct persons. And obviously their work overlaps, but the persons are still distinct, even though at times they do the same work. They are all three persons involved in creation, but that doesn't mean there is only one person. Important to keep the persons clear and distinct.

Now with that sort of as an elaboration of what it means to have Christ in dwelling in us, and that is what He is doing today. That's why there is never any excuse for me to fail. I'm not saying I never fail, but there are never any excuses for me to fail because the provision is adequate. The triune God dwells in me, He dwells in you, every believer. He never fails. When I stumble and fail it is because I try to do what I cannot do in my own strength rather than the strength He willingly provides. I never forgot what one of my professors in Bible College said, a professor who has preached here on occasion. This was way back in Philadelphia in the 1960s, before many of you had entered this life. But he said, you never have to sin. You never have to sin as God's child. I never have to sin. The sad thing is sometimes we do, and that ought to be a sad thing for us. But the glory of it is, Christ dwells in us. I'm not lost when I sin. Why? Because His work is ongoing.

He is preparing also, His present work, something we touched on, a bride. He is the head of the body, the church. Another picture is He is preparing the church as His bride. Back up to Ephesians 5. One of the things Christ is presently doing is He is preparing a bride, which denotes something of the unique and special relationship the church has with Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament Israel is pictured as the wife of Jehovah, God the Father. In the New Testament the church is pictured as the bride and future wife of Christ. In Ephesians 5, we touched on this when we talked about Christ's ongoing work of sanctification, but it pictures Christ in a relationship with the church as a husband with his wife. And so verse 23, “The husband is the head of the wife as Christ also is the head of the church.” He is the Savior of the body. “As the church is subject to Christ, so wives should be to their husbands in everything. And husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and He gave Himself up for her.” The focal point of His redemption in sacrificing Himself so that we could come to salvation in Him and thus comprise the church. “So that He might sanctify her,” verse 26, “having cleansed her with the washing of water with the Word.” There is that cleansing and there is that ongoing sanctification. That's what He is doing today, that further preparation of us so that “He might present,” verse 27, “to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing. But that she would be holy and blameless.” Then he is back, “so husbands also ought to love their wives,” the sacrifice for what is good and best for them. That's what Christ does for the church, verse 29, “B
ecause we are members of His body.” Verse 32, “This mystery is great but I'm speaking with reference to Christ and the church.” But this has application to the physical relationship of husband and wife as he concludes.

So the picture here is of Christ functioning with the church as a husband and wife are to function in their relationship together. And it's for the sanctification of the church and the preparing of that time when, verse 27, “He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.” Naturally flowing out of that initial work He did in giving Himself up for her, that work of maturing and developing so that we become more and more what we should be.

The picture in Scripture is of the Oriental wedding, as many of you are aware. Back up to 2 Corinthians 11 and note what Paul says in verse 2. “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am concerned,” as he goes on, that during this betrothal period you might be found to be unfaithful. And the danger is there are other suitors who have come in, if you will. False apostles teaching a corrupt doctrine, a corrupt life. So note what Paul says here, “I have betrothed you to Christ.” And in the biblical times and the pattern of the wedding with the betrothal a commitment was made between the man and the woman, or between the boy and the girl. It could be done at a younger age. Now that was a binding relationship, a contractual relationship, if you will. We sometimes compare it to our engagement, but it is much more binding. It could only be broken by a divorce. Remember Joseph and Mary when they were betrothed together, but before they had come together she was found with child and Joseph was minded to put her away, use the word there for divorce. It could only be broken by divorce. So it's a binding relationship. Paul said that happened to the Corinthians when he was used to bring them to Christ. He betrothed them to Christ, he brought them into that binding relationship with Christ.

Now the marriage is not yet consummated and formalized. There could be years that would go on before that might happen. During that time they were to live as those devoted only to the one that they were betrothed to. But they did not have a relationship together, that was yet future. So that's the period of time we are in. We have placed our faith in Christ that has happened in the church age since Acts 2. And Christ is, if you will, forming His bride down to this present day. Everyone who places their faith in Christ is added to the bride of Christ, and His work then accomplished in cleansing and redeeming them. Now it's an ongoing work of sanctification and cleansing them purifying them, that we grow, mature, and our conduct and life become more conformed to the beauty of His character.

Now in biblical times they continued to live apart, the bride lived in her parents' home, the husband lived in his parents' home. But he was responsible during that time to be preparing a place there for his future wife. That had already been arranged, the commitment was made, so they were bound. But he was preparing a place, and usually at his father's place. Maybe he had worked and a certain portion had been given to him for making a place of residence and so on. This is what Jesus is talking about.

Come back to John 14. So the first stage in the marriage, and we're talking about biblical times, was the formal commitment. And the parallel in the church, that's when you placed your faith in Christ, you became part of the body of Christ. The second step would be when it came time for the marriage to be formalized and consummated. Then the bridegroom would leave his father's house and come to the bride's house and get his bride to take her back to his father's house and the place he had prepared there. So in John 14:1, “Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am there you may be also.” I mean, that's been the goal. So that just follows the picture of the second step that He has been in His Father's house, preparing the place where His bride would be brought, and the marriage would be, if you will, formalized and consummated. That's the promise there.

That's what will happen at the Rapture of the church when Christ comes in the air to get His bride to bring her to His Father's house. Just two passages, 1 Corinthians 15:51, Paul says, “I tell you a mystery.” Remember a mystery is something that has not before been revealed, we saw that in Colossians 1. It is expressed in Ephesians 3, it is expressed in Romans 16. It explains what a mystery is, I can't understand why some commentators and theologians are giving a definition of mystery and they just ignore what the Bible says a mystery is. It is something that hadn't been revealed before. Now Christ in you the hope of glory was a mystery that hadn't been revealed before, we saw that in Colossians 1. Here is more to that mystery. “I tell you a mystery, we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.” Not all believers are going to undergo physical death, but all believers are going to undergo a physical transformation. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. This perishable must put on the imperishable, the mortal must put on immortality.” This is the coming of the bridegroom to get His bride. This was pictured by Jesus in the parable that He told of the ten virgins, five were ready for the coming of the bridegroom, five were not, picturing that same pattern of a wedding. Everything had been arranged, now it was the time for the formalizing, but some were not prepared and it would be followed by the wedding feast we'll talk about in a moment.

I Corinthians 15 talked about what will happen to those who are alive when Christ comes for His bride, the church, which is comprised of all those who believed in Him from Acts 2 down to this event. Don't blend Israel and the church, they are two distinct entities. The Jews who believe today become part of the church, the bride of Christ.

In 1 Thessalonians 4 you get the other side. 1 Corinthians 15 were those alive at the coming of Christ, 1 Thessalonians 4 talks about those who have died. Verse 13, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord that those who are alive and remain shall not go before those who have fallen asleep. The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trumpet of God, the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord.” Here we have the arrival of the bridegroom. There is an order, the bride comprised of all believers in the church age. When He descends a shout is given of the coming of the bridegroom, the dead bodies of believers come out of the grave, and they are reunited in those bodies which are glorified. An instant following, those who are alive undergo a transformation and together will meet the Lord in the air, just as His bride. And then He will take them to His Father's house where He has prepared a place for them.

When we take the Bible literally, just as it is, there is a beautiful harmony to it. Now we are not done with the picture because when the bride is taken, there is the formalizing of the marriage. That's what will happen when the bride is taken to heaven. Now following the bride being taken to heaven after meeting Christ, there is the judgment of the church. Remember the church must be presented before Him without spot, wrinkle, holy, blameless. Colossians 1 says presented before the Father in that condition also. So there is a judgment that takes place. It's a judgment for rewards, it is not a judgment that determines eternal destiny. That has been settled. All those who are part of the bride of Christ who have been called to meet Him in the air are His, but there are going to be rewards given out for faithfulness because Christ is the judge of all. “Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess” to Jesus Christ, even believers, Romans 14, will give an account to the Lord. Paul told the Corinthians that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and there will be rewards given out and worthless things will be consumed and be no more.

Come over to Revelation 19, pick up the picture of the bride again. We see Scripture has carried this through. First step in the marriage, the betrothal, that binding commitment, we entered into that relationship with Christ when we came to place our faith in Him, when we were saved, born again. We were brought into that relationship with Christ. Second step that is ongoing, His work of preparing that bride is going on now, get her in suitable condition, the ongoing work of sanctification. The second major step is when He comes from heaven, the Father's house, to get the bride to take her to the place He has prepared for her in the Father's house. As we come to Revelation 19 we are ready for the third step which is the marriage supper, the celebration.

Revelation 19:7, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him for the marriage of the Lamb has come.” You could translate it the marriage of the Lamb has occurred, because the formal marriage has taken place. The bride has made herself ready and she is clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. That's why I say that when the church is called, the bride of Christ into His presence, there is before anything else the refining, the final purifying and cleansing, if you will, in the judgment where we are judged for what we have done. This was Paul's concern, I have betrothed to Christ, I am afraid you will not be faithful to Him as you need to be in the carrying out of what they are doing, how they are conducting themselves in their doctrine, in their conduct. There will be a dealing with those things. We must all appear before the bema seat of Christ as believers. Paul tells the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5, be judged for what has been done. Paul says we know the fear of the Lord, we are persuading men. That is an awesome time. I'm not afraid of being sentenced to hell but there ought to be a proper fear, reverence, recognizing the seriousness of not having been as faithful as I should. I will stand before Him and He will evaluate even the motives that I have, Paul said.

But here that has all now been done and we are ready for all the guests to join. Remember in that parable of the ten virgins? Who is going into the wedding feast? That's where we have to here now. Verse 9, “Then He said to me, write, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” We are now ready for the marriage supper which is the celebration, those who had been joined together in a binding relationship commitment some time ago. In biblical times it could have been when they were very young, parents entering into that agreement. The picture there. Then the bridegroom came and got his bride and that relationship is now formalized and consummated, if you will. Now we are ready for the celebration. And where are we here? We are ready for Christ to return to earth. Why do they say blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb? Because the bride is going to return with Christ to earth, and what is going to happen? There is going to be a judgment. And remember Christ is the One who is an authority in all the judgments of Scripture because in John 5 Jesus said, the Father has committed all judgment into the hands of the Son. And when He returns with His bride, there will be a judgment of all the living peoples on the earth to sift out those who are going into the coming millennium and those who will be excluded.

Now what is happening, from the Rapture of the church to the Second Coming of Christ there has been a period of seven years and on the earth during those seven years it has been a time of tribulation and suffering and trial. But many people have been saved during those seven years. We've done this study in our studies on prophecy. When Christ returns it will be to sift out who has come to believe and who has not. Those who have not are cast into outer darkness, fire which burns with brimstone. Matthew 25, the judgment of the sheep and the goats. Then we have the wedding feast. That's really the first stage of the eternal kingdom, the millennium. They are blessed who have been welcomed into the marriage supper of the Lamb in celebration of the bride of Christ. What a unique place we have in the plan of God, to be the bride of Christ and called into that relationship with Him. That's the future.

That's what Christ is doing today, preparing us for that time, as His people, as His church. He might come today and all that is going to be done will be done, we will be called to meet Him in the air, taken to appear before Him for that judgment and evaluation and rewarding. And then we will subsequently enter that seven-year tribulation and return with Him. And so that's where Revelation 19 goes.

Verse 11, the heavens open and Christ descends and we come with Him. And then you have the thousand-year kingdom in Revelation 20 which is the first phase of the eternal kingdom. Some people say you take the Bible literally but not prophecy in the Bible literally. I can never understand that, and once you open the door to that you will open the door to all kinds of corruption. It says six times in the first seven verses that this period of time lasts a thousand years. The kingdom is eternal, the first phase of that eternal kingdom is a thousand years.

At the end of that thousand years all sin will have been dealt with, the wicked will have been cast into hell. You have the last judgment of Scripture in Revelation 20:11-15, people cast into the lake of fire. That will burn forever and ever and ever. Just as we the bride of Christ have a glory that will never, ever end, so those who do not believe, they will have a suffering that will not end. I just can't believe God would do that. You know things aren't real because we believe them or don't believe them, they are real. We either believe the truth or we don't believe the truth. God cannot lie. We understand what God has done for us, what He continues to do in and for us, we ought to rejoice every day. We are destined for glory.

What we see unfolding in the world and the turmoil, on the news this morning 20 people killed, the terrorist thing in Florida. We say what's happening? What's going to happen? And we don't know who we are going to vote for in the next election and . . . Everything is under control. God dwells in you as a believer, He dwells in me as a believer. We are about His work, we don't expect the world to improve itself. God says it is not going to, it's getting worse and worse and worse, but we are fine. We sang about the God who is our rock, it's true. We are secure in Him.

You understand after the first thousand years when the final dealing with sin is completed, we move into the eternal phase of the kingdom. And as we've noted the kingdom goes on forever, there are going to be nations, people, I take it in physical bodies, who have trusted Christ during that thousand years and will go into the eternal phase of the kingdom in their physical bodies. Believers who went into the kingdom, into the thousand years in their physical bodies will still be alive. I think Scripture indicates that people won't be dying unless Christ intervenes because of sin. And that's why it is said someone who dies at only a hundred years of age will be recognized as one who is under the curse of God, because they are considered just a child, but they were judged.

Look in Revelation 22. “He showed me a river of water of life clear as crystal, coming out from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” See God and the Lamb, the deity of Christ clearly here sharing with the Father. “In the middle of the street on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit in every month.” You see here we are in eternity, we have the tree of life. What does the tree of life remind you of? Genesis 2, everything was great but Adam sinned. And the fruit of the twelve months, we still have cycles going on of months, twelve months. We are in eternity. We sometimes get the idea we'll be in eternity and I guess we'll just be floating around with the angels. No, we're going to be going on in a kingdom which is eternal.

“The leaves of the trees were for the healing,” or literally the health, “of the nations.” The health of the nations, there are nations. They can come up to the New Jerusalem, freely partake of the tree of life, indicating that they have eternal life. Similar to Adam and Eve. You know if they hadn't disobeyed God, eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and subsequently eaten of the tree of life, they would still be living today. Children would still be being born today, there just would have never been any sin. Do you know what we do? We pick up at the end of Revelation, the devil and sin cannot frustrate the purpose and plan of God, as it would have been if sin had never entered in. By the grace of God, Christ has intervened and provided redemption.

The sad thing to this day is with all that God has done there are still people who aren't saved. They say, I have my beliefs. Read the last chapter. They had a horse race this weekend, I'm not into horse racing but I saw in the paper that they did another horse race. You know in different parts of the world with the time somebody had a video of it and this person is going in to bet on the horse that came in last, you say, no, no. The race has been run, it's over, we have it. Don't bother me, I'm going to bet, I know my thinking is as good as yours. Well, you can bet on what you want, but you lose. Here God said, here is how it's all going to come out. God wins and all that belonged to Him by His grace share in His victory. But make no mistake, God is just as clear, there is no hope outside of the provision God has made in Christ. There will not be one person who has ever been saved any other way than the way that God has provided through faith in His provision. And keep that in mind, you can attend this church, you don't get saved by attending this church. What I hope you will hear is the message that will save you if you will believe it. Christ died for your sins, He was raised from the dead. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the greatness of our salvation. Thank You, Lord, that Your work on our behalf continues, Jesus Christ continues the work of bringing to completion what He accomplished with His death and resurrection, calling individuals to salvation, of purifying, cleansing, maturing, preparing the people that are His bride. Some day He will come to call to meet Him in the air, to take them to the glories of heaven, Lord, in preparation, ultimate realization of the time when we will return to earth with Him to enter into a kingdom that will never end. Thank You for so great salvation. Lord, thank You for the privilege of telling others. I pray for any who are here today who don't know that Savior, that this might be a day of salvation for them. We pray in Christ's name, amen.