Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Well, let's hear God's Word From
First John Chapter three, just one verse
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verse I read, as I preached
a larger section last week, but want
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to spend a little time thinking about
one of these verses in particular. First
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John Three, verse two. God's
Word says this, beloved, we are
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children, or we are God's children
now, and what we will be has
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not yet appeared. But we know
that when he appears, we shall be
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like him, because we shall see
him as he is. May God bless
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his word to us. You may
be seated, if you want to understand
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the Christian mind, you've got to
understand how forward thinking it is, and
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I don't mean in kind of the
way we often talk about in political categories,
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but I mean the way we structure
our lives as Christians. We structure
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our lives, we do things because
of something that is in front of us,
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something that is very much ahead of
us. Christians live their lives according
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to a joy and a hope that
is set before them. We live our
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lives in a certain way because God
has made a promise to us about the
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future. Take today, for instance, today's Sunday Day that Christians call the
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Lord's Day. We're gathered together on
the Lord's Day because we believe that God
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has made a decision and has acted
in history. That influences our daily planners.
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Are Weekly, monthly planners. That's
an amazing thing, isn't it?
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There's lots of things that might influence
how we spend our time, but here's
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one of them. Every Sunday,
as much as we can, we gather
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together. We gather together to look
forward to heaven, to our final rest
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or, as Hebrews puts it,
our sabbath rest, this thing that was
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anticipated in the Old Testament. We
have been given in the new a final
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resting place, and so we rest
on Sundays. We avoid our earthly work
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as much as possible and we anticipate
our heavenly rest, particularly as we gather
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together and worship together as the saints. Because of this hope that is set
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before us, because of what Jesus
has done, we do things differently,
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and there's lots of other examples.
At the beginning of our lives we baptize
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our children, believing that there's a
heavenly kingdom ahead of us and ahead of
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them that requires washing to enter,
requires forgiveness of sins, requires repentance because
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of something that is yet ahead.
There's something better, there's something waiting in
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the middle of our lives. We
enjoy the blessings that God gives to us
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in wealth and honor and bodily pleasures, but we know that these all pale
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in comparison to the treasures of Heaven. So we're willing to let go good
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food, wealth achievement. Then we
might have something greater, the promises of
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glory and eternity. We let these
things go for the sake of hot something
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higher. And so you often see
Christians who suffer, who endure suffering with
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tears and struggle, but also do
so knowing that one day the Lord will
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remove all suffering, as revelation says, will wipe every tear from our eye.
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And so Christians, because of this
thing that's in front of them,
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they get down and they get depressed, they walk through the Valley of the
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shadow of death, but Christians never
fall into utter despair or final death because
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of the hope set before us.
Is Christians we run, we pray,
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we endure, we love, we
forgive, we laugh, we sing,
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we repent, we praise. This
is something of what John has in mind
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in this passage when he's talking to
us about something that is coming, this
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thing that is yet to appear,
he's giving US comfort. He wants us
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to have confidence so that on that
day we will stand and not just have
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confidence on that day, the last
day, but have confidence every day to
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move forward in the faith and in
the grace of God. But, as
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you all know, hanging on to
hope is not always easy. In addition
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to praying and laughing and singing and
praising, we also fight and we struggle
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and we sin and we doubt,
we get anxious, we get greedy,
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we get distracted. God knows this
about us. He knows your heart,
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he knows everything about you, and
so, because he loves you, he
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gives us this verse, one among
many, many verses in the Bible that
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bring us encouragement and comfort. Indeed, to the one who believes and trusts
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in Jesus Christ, all of scripture
is this way and encouragement to comfort,
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a reminder of the promise. You
see it even in the way that the
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verse starts. Beloved. It's not
a throwaway word, beloved. He calls
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you beloved because you are loved by
him. He calls you beloved because he
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has things to say to you out
of his love for you, because he
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wants to help you, because we
live in an age of grace before the
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age of glorification, and that age
of grace requires a lot of trusting,
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a lot of faith, a lot
of perseverance and striving in God. And
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so that's what this passage is about. It's about helping US along, giving
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us the encouragement we need to remember
what's it heat, what's ahead of us
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and to strive in it. So, beloved, what does God say to
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you? He says two things.
First, he says that you are God's
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children now. Beloved, we are
God's children now, and second, what
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we will be has no not yet
appeared. In other words, the second
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thing is that something remains to be
seen. Your God's children now, but
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what you will be finally has not
yet repeared appeared. In other words,
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we're not expecting a change in our
status. It's not as though your children
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of God now, but you are
going to be something else later, but
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meaning that your children of God now
and you will be in the future,
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but you can expect to change.
In the way that that looks, in
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the way that it appears currently,
is different. Than the way it will
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appear in the latter time, in
the age to come. Something about the
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status that you have now as a
child of God will look different in the
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future. These are the two things
that he says and he reminds us of.
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He assumes that we already know them. He says, beloved, we
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are God's children now and what we
will be has not yet appeared, but
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we know, he says that when
he appears, we shall be like him.
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This is something that you know if
you know the scriptures. And how
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do we know this? What are
the grounds for this? Well, because
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we shall see him as he is. Another truth, a thing that we
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know from the scriptures, that we
will see, as Paul says, God
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face to face. Because of this
truth, we know that things will be
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different, and because we know things
will be different, we can have a
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hope in the future about our status. That is right now. Let's think
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about each one of those that we
can impress them on our hearts and walk
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away this morning encouraged. So first, we are God's children right now.
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Yes, there's something that we're looking
forward to in the future, but it's
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connected to something that has already happened. What does it mean to be God's
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child. One one sense there's there's
two ways in which we can mean this,
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and one way we mean it in
a very general way, and that's
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not how John Uses it here.
Sometimes we speak about people, people,
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any person in the whole world who's
ever lived, as someone who is a
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child of God, namely that they
are created by him, cared for him,
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they're born by means of his will, they're carried out through life by
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His grace. Each person dies exactly
at the moment that God, the father
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appoints in this sense, God is
father of every single person who has ever
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lived and ever will lived. But
John is speaking to us as children in
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a different sense. The Bible speaks
of God's children most often in terms of
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those whom he has specially elect did
in an adoption of love, to belong
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to him and to receive an inheritance
of glory that they did not deserve out
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of all the wickedness in the world. God says, you are mine,
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I want you to belong to me
and I want to give you something beyond
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anything that you can imagine. He
adopts us. There is this language of
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adoption in the Bible in which we
are given this right to be a children
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of God. Let me read to
you a little bit from Romans Chapter Eight
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on this point. The Romans a
verse twelve, Paul writes. So then,
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brothers, we are debt ors,
not to the flesh, to live
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according to the flesh, for if
you live according to the flesh, you
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will die, but if, by
the spirit, you put to the death
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the deeds of the body, you
will live. Here's his reason for that.
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For All who are led by the
spirit of God are sons of God.
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For you did not receive the spirit
of slavery to fall back into fear,
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but you have received the spirit of
adoption as sons by whom we cry
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Abba Father. You see what he's
saying. He says that you once belong
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to a state that everyone belongs in
wickedness, slavery, fear, but you
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have been adopted out of that family
another place in scripture. We are those
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who do not belong to God,
is his children. Are called children of
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the devil of Satan. We have
been brought out of this devilish, demonic
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family, a kingdom of wickedness,
and brought into the family of God.
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We receive a new name. We
are called Christians, we become a new
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people, we are used, as
Jesus says in John Three, we are
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born again. Even we receive this
spirit of adoption because it's a family that
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we don't rightfully belong to. Our
sins and our wickedness are in righteousness,
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make us belong to somewhere else,
but God adopts us by giving us his
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spirit, through whom we cry to
him ab a father, in fact,
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Paul says, the spirit this,
that is the spirit of God. The
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Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God. And
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if children, then ares heirs of
God and fellow heirs with Christ. He
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says. This is what John is
referring to when he calls Christians, those
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in his audience here, of the
Children of God beloved. We are now
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God's children. We are God's children. Now, this eternal adoption, in
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which we have received a new name, gives us a right, Paul says,
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to an inheritance that is given to
us by Christ. Remember the passage
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I read earlier. In Philippians were
because of the work Jesus did God,
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he was highly exalted so that at
the so that at so that he might
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be given the name above every name. He was given this great kingdom,
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he was given honors and and and
a praise and adoration because of his ascension,
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and all of this, God says, is yours, fellow heirs.
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Well, you might say, well, I didn't do anything to deserve that.
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Christ did it. Well, that's
exactly right. If you say that
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and you understand that that's what the
scriptures are saying, then you have understood
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the Gospel, you've understood the good
news that God has brought into the world,
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that, though you didn't do anything
to deserve this adoption, God has
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given it to you through Christ.
Amazing, isn't it? Well, there's
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so much more that we can say
about this. As those who are adopted,
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we are made fit for this family, as those who are being reborn,
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a process that begins inwardly, in
our in all inwardly and which are
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mys, are remade, our hearts, are wills and eventually your bodies.
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To Paul says in First Corinthians fifteen
that what is sown and dishonor will be
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raised in honor, speaking about being
buried into the earth and raising in the
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resurrection. What is sown is fleshly
will be raised as spiritual, not spiritual
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meaning incorporeal or without body, but
spiritual as in remade by the Holy Spirit
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of a spiritual order of the new
age. John goes on in verse three
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here of our chapter and says everyone
who thus hopes in him purifies himself as
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he is pure. We begin a
change, we begin a process of purification,
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of glorification, of sanctification. We
are sanctified, we are made pure,
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as he has made pure, as
sons of God, we become people
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who are made and being made in
the image of him. We become like
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the way children, earthly children,
do with their earthly fathers. They they
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love what they love, they hate
what they hate, and it's like that
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with us. It's like that with
us in God, and in a way
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will even come to look like in
not by US becoming deified gods, but
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in him becoming a glorified man,
and us in him. There will be
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something of a family resemblance when Jesus
becomes man and takes on an incarnate body
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and is glorified in that body,
and we are promised to be glorified in
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him and through him, there will
be a way in which we will look
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like each other we won't look like
God in his essence, for God is
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a spirit and cannot be seen,
but we will look like him in his
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incarnation. Again, not in US
sort of transforming ourselves into some sort of
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new kind of creature, but by
God becoming us and glorifying us in him,
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we become like him, even in
a physical way. Let me make
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it, perhaps a somewhat of a
silly argument yet even further. For this
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I'm it said that even dogs and
their masters come to look like one another
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when they spend enough time, and
you know this is true, right.
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You've seen people like this. Or, take a more serious example, a
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couple that is lived their whole lives
together. Is it not true that they
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start to look like each other a
little bit? It's hard to say why.
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It seems somewhat impossible. Maybe it's
in the mannerisms, maybe it's in
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their gait, maybe it's in the
way they talk. But our bodies are
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very much attached to our minds and
our hearts and our wills. We are
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whole people and when God saves us
and makes us into his image, we
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take on his characteristics. It's an
amazing thing to be adopted as God's children.
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And finally it again to draw from
the Apostle Paul. We are given
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this inheritance as children of God,
this great, this lovely, this beautiful
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kingdom described in revelation in these fantastic
terms, with be decked in jewels and
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angels singing and streets paved with gold
and all the rest, a land that's
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described and foreshadowed in earthly form,
and the land of Canaan. Take every
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image in the Old Testament of the
land of Canaan to the highest degree,
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land flowing with milk and honey,
peace and prosperity, of fruitfulness, of
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every kind of womb and grain and
all the rest. Take it to the
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highest degree and you might begin to
partially understand with the new heavens and the
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new earth will be alike, this
Kingdom of God, this dominion of happiness
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that will be ours, and God
himself is the center of it all,
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the lights by which all of the
Kingdom is illuminated, the thing which we
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all desire, the source of all
blessing and happiness. This is what it
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means to be a child of God, to be given this kind of inheritance.
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Beloved, we are God's children.
Now, John says, this is
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something we have right now. We
have God right now. Do we not?
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That highest chief, the highest,
most important, the chief of all
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blessings, the source of all blessings, the one through whom all blessing comes?
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Do you not have him right now
as your heavenly father? You Do,
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and as a Christian. Do you
not have new life right now,
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having been born again? Do you
not have victory right now over Satan,
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over evil? Do you not have
love and protection? You Do, and
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also supply and riches and community and
worship and grace and glory. It belongs
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to you. But of course there
is something yet to come, something that
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he has not yet appeared. I
think of it kind of like being at
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your own birthday party with your eyes
closed and a present placed before you.
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The present is yours, it belongs
to yours. It's right there, but
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you can't see it because the blindfold
hasn't been taken off yet. We have
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these things right now. Jesus Christ
didn't make salvation merely possible. He accomplished
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redemption on the Cross. He ascended
into the high and heavenly places as a
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victorious king. He rules and reigns
right now over US and over all the
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world as a victorious king, but
we can't quite see it. The scriptures
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testify to it, testify this to
us. It has not yet appeared,
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and so there is a way in
which we are yet waiting to fully possessed
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or comprehended, in a way that
we are waiting for that day when God
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says open. So there is something
still ahead, the revealing of Christ and
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his kingdom, a way in which
it will appear. A new heaven and
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New Earth, resurrection of our bodies, the final banishment and vanquishing and defanging
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of all unrighteousness, the Angelic Human
Union where, all together, all God's
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creatures and every every creature in heaven
and on the Earth and under the earth
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will praise God. This is what
I mean when I say the Christian is
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a forward thinking person. Right the
Christian mind can't get this out of its
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head. The Christian heart is a
heart that longs for this day and maybe
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even cries for it sometimes. The
Christian will is the will that steadfastly endures
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everything, anything for the sake of
the hope that is set before us for
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receiving this crown and reward. And
how will we receive this reward. How
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do we know? Because we have
been promised that when he appears, we
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will be like him. We,
like Jesus, will be robed in glory,
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immortal, righteous, made fit for
the consummated, Eternal Kingdom of God.
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The Psalm, psalm of teen,
says who will ascend God's Holy Hill?
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Him who does not all these things. You can go read the list.
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It describes a person who is righteous, who is holy, one who
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is fit to belong to that kingdom. God is making us fit. We
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are. We will be made a
people ready for Zion, and at that
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time we will see him as he
is, not as he will be,
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not as he was, but as
he is and will forever be. Now,
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some streams of Christian thinking like to
think that when it says we will
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see God as he is, that
we will somehow see God in his essence,
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that will he see him sort of
stripped of all the barriers between the
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infinite and the finite. But this
isn't true. We will never know God
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as he knows himself. This is
not what God is saying, this is
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not how we ought to imagine it. It's also impossible, even though we
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will obtain a glory and an immortality. We will mate, remain finite creatures.
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We will not become God, as
both the Eastern Church and the Protestants
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of rightly affirmed, it is impossible
to see God in himself. It is
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impossible to know God in his essence. We are finite, he is infinite.
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The vision of God is indeed a
blessing, but don't hope that one
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day you'll finally get to see God
in the nude. God comes to us
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in Jesus Christ, in the word. That's how we come to know him.
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It's how the world came into existence, when God said let there be
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light, and it's how new life
comes to existence when the light of the
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gospel of Jesus Christ shines in the
darkness of the world and the world and
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the darkness does not overcome it.
This luminous, beatific vision of God is
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a blessing, but it's because he
comes to us in this way, in
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a saving way, in a way
in which he takes on all of the
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obligations of the Covenant that he has
made with us and fulfills them and gives
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us his righteousness. It's not just
that Jesus became a man. The humanity
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is outlifted up. It's because he
became a man and went to the Cross
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and died and justified all who are
in are in him. So this means
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that seeing God is not an intellectual
assent into the mystery is of God.
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Seeing God is seeing Jesus, Him
who saved us. Of course, it's
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more than just seeing Jesus, it's
being drawn by his spirit into a union
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of love with him. But before
we end, I want you to remember
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that these two things that John Talks
about, the fact that we are children
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of God and that we are waiting
for something to appear the now in the
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later. I want to finish by
reminding you that these two things can never
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be separated. If you are not
a child of God before he returns,
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you will not be a child of
God after. And, on the other
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hand, go on the flip side
of that, if you are a child
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before his return, you will be
a child after. Seeing God in this
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way, this consummated, glorious way, is not something for a few select
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saints, as some people have suggested. We don't get to God by sending
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up ascending some kind of spiritual ladder, either through mystical practices or through righteous
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acts. Know, we ascend to
God by means of him and descending to
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us and then raising us up with
him, it's coloss and says, into
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the heavenly places. Our confidence in
the future is based on His grace,
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on his condescension, on his coming
to us, not in our works,
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moving up to him. And this
means that, because we are children of
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God now, the promise, in
the hope of the future is for sure
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and we can have, as John
says, confidence in it. So where
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does this hope come from, this
hope of Heaven? On what basis do
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we change and restructure and do everything
different in our lives? This is a
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very important question. Let me tell
you. Let me imagine with you just
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a quick story. Imagine you're eighteen
and your father tells you that when you
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turn forty, you are going to
receive a billion dollars, billion dollars from
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a fund set up by some mysterious
but loving relative. Would you worry if
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you knew that in just a few
years you were going to receive a billion
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dollars? Would you get all stressed
out about student loans? Probably not.
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Would you take more risks? Would
you try to start more businesses? Would
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you be more generous than you otherwise
might be. Yeah, you, probably
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he would. But of course that
all depends on a measure of certainty that
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that's going to happen. But Your
Dad's not just blowing hot air, but
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actually is telling you the truth.
So let's think about this in terms of
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reality. We're not talking about a
billion dollars. We're talking about eternal life,
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the state of your soul forever.
Where will you be? Heaven or
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Hell? Will you enjoy all the
blessings of the light and life of God
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or not? Well, if you
think you will, then what is your
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basis for that hope? Are you
simply leaping into the dark and hoping that
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it'll work out? Don't be foolish. Are you hoping in this glorious future
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on the basis of your spiritual prowess? Are you hoping that if you strive
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hard enough, you might get into
heaven? If so, don't kid yourselves.
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The holiest of holy people have not
obtained everlasting happiness this way. Moses
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saw the face of God, but
he didn't even make it into the promised
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land. Paul says he counts all
of his righteousness as like filthy rags.
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If that's the case for men like
Paul and Moses. What makes you think
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that somehow you're an exception to the
rule that even the Apostle Paul couldn't meet?
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Paul says he was caught up into
the highest heaven. Paul received revelations
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from God. Paul was a holy
man who did amazing and mighty works.
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Paul says he counts all that he
does, even the works done in the
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Holy Spirit, as useless in maintaining
a righteousness only he can have. Only
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the only thing that qualifies him is
the Righteousness of Christ. Perhaps you think
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the what wealth of this world will
just spill over into the next? Again,
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why? If a fortune in this
world can be lost in an instant
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for any number of reasons, why
not in the next, especially when God
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has said we can't take into the
next world what we have here. Beloved,
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there is only one reason for certainty, and it is the word of
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God that is given to us,
the promise of the Gospel, the promise
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of justification on the Cross, a
right to an inheritance, a legal right
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that you have that is based on
something God has done. These promises are
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not empty promises, because they have
been guaranteed by the very blood of Jesus.
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The promises of Sanctification, the promises
of union, the promises of glorification,
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of Heaven of all the rest,
are not empty promises. There promises
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that have been written in blood by
the very son of God, who says,
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if you believe on him, you
will have eternal life. So our
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hope in heaven is not a fool's
errand it's not pie in the sky wishful
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thinking. It is a guarantee.
We're simply waiting for our eyes to be
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opened, for it all to be
revealed. That's it. This promise has
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been fulfilled on the Cross and the
promise has not been paused. It is
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being fulfilled even as I speak,
even in my speaking. The ascended king
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rules over us now through his word
and spirit. Beloved, in your trials
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and your suffering, in your waiting, in your longing, remember this,
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that you are God's child now,
through faith in Christ and the work that
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he has done, and that when
he appears, you will be like him.
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You will see him as he is, as he is right now.
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All that is hidden will be revealed. And so right now, as he
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makes this promise to you, it
is if, or rather it is that
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he holds you close and he makes
you this promise and by his spirit,
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he he's testifies to your spirit that
you are sons of God and you can
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call to him Aba father. And
one day, when the Lord Jesus returns,
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he will be visible to us,
a stunning sight, a radiant,
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glorious, victorious King Riding With Power
and might into this world. And when
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he appears, we shall be like
him, immortal, righteous, filled with
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glory. In the luminous light of
God's God's blessing, our bodies will shine.
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We will see him, his kingdom
and the church purified, not as
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we imagine, not as we remember, but we will see him as he
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is. Hope for that day,
Hope and God through Jesus Christ. Let's
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pray
