Believers are not approaching a physical, terrifying Mount Sinai, but rather the spiritual Mount Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem, emphasizing the eternal kingdom that cannot be shaken. It contrasts the fear and inability of ancient Israel to endure God's presence with the privilege believers have to approach God through Jesus Christ, the mediator of the new covenant. The message details the New Jerusalem as the eternal dwelling place, highlighting its glorious nature, its twelve gates representing Israel's tribes, and its twelve foundations bearing the apostles' names. It concludes by urging believers to run their spiritual race with reverence and godly fear, recognizing that God is a consuming fire, and to focus on the heavenly reward rather than earthly circumstances or past failures.
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to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of the sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that you refuse not him that speaketh, for if they escape not, who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth, But now he hath promised saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, and those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Wherefore, receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace. by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. Well, we've been running a race as we saw this morning and this afternoon, and in every race there's a finish to the race, there's a prize, and there's a goal. Now, he gave us the negative and the positive in verse eighteen he said ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest we're not coming to a physical mount the mount Sinai that could have been touched it was there and yet there was a warning against touching it because God in his holiness was there and the mountain became holy.
We don't come to a literal physical mountain. So in our running of the race, we're running a spiritual race. We don't have a physical goal. We've got a spiritual goal. And that mountain in that day, when the Lord was on it, when the trumpet sounded and the voice of the words which they heard, They got so afraid at the sound of it all that they said, well, let God speak to you, Moses. We don't want to hear him speak to us. They were so fearful. And so they said, let God speak to you and whatever God says we will do.
Well, we know that Israel didn't do that and live that kind of life. They didn't do what God wanted them to do. But you can see in the physical realm, of the nervousness that would be in the physical trying to approach the spiritual. And that's what he's teaching in the rest of this portion. You get that again of the natural and the spiritual in verse twenty-seven. And this word, yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken and the things that are made. that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
So there is the physical that was created. They're going to be removed that the spiritual will stand. Because we run the race and the runner's running, he needs to keep in view then the spiritual sense doesn't. And that's what he's saying. We're not coming to an earthly mountain or an earthly city. We're coming to the spiritual one. They could not endure that which was physical, and neither can we. He says in verse twenty, For they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a spear.
So holy was that matter that man could not approach. Even an animal had to be killed if it approached or touched that mountain. And it was a terrible sight, so much so that even Moses said. In Deuteronomy, he said, He exceedingly feared and quit. And that must have been something because Moses had, at the call of God, gone up into that mountain in the midst of the fire. He went right up into the presence of God. And yet the fear... of that absolute holiness grasped even this man who stood holier than any the rest of them.
But now he changes it. He takes our eyes off of the physical goal and he brings it to the spiritual goal and the reward of a faithful race. He said, you're come, but you are come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God. unto the heavenly Jerusalem, to a innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn, who are written in heaven and to God. The judge of all and the spirits of judgment made perfect to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.
So now at the end of our race, at the end of this period here on earth, when the earth has been shaken and the spiritual is there and remains. He said, this is our race, spiritual, to a spiritual place, and that's Mount Zion, to the city of the living God. Now, in chapter eleven, we learned that Abraham looked for a city, which had foundations whose builder and maker was God. So Abraham was looking for a heavenly city that God built for a spiritual one, not for the literal one. So some people say to me, well, where are you going to spend eternity?
And I tell them, I'm going to spend it in the city of God. See, a lot of people think we're going to spend eternity in heaven, but we're not. We're going to spend it in the new Jerusalem. Now that's a heavenly city, but that's not heaven. The new Jerusalem has twelve gates. Heaven has one. The one gate to heaven is Jesus Christ. There's no other way. But when it comes to heavenly Jerusalem, there are club gates to the city. And in Revelation chapter twenty-one, he gives us the view of that city. I'm going to go into all the details of it, but I'd like to at least to take a look at it to see where our eternal dwelling place is going to be.
What the new Jerusalem is. We have to have the understanding, as I said, it is not heaven, and I say that for this reason. Chapter twenty-one and verse one, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God, out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned her husband. So on the new earth, the new Jerusalem is going to be there.
And that is going to be our home. And that is going to be the dwelling place of God the Father and Christ as well. Because he says, God is with men in verse three. Heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Neither know more death, neither sorrow nor crying. Neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.
Now I believe in this chapter you have two views of the same city. and two different periods. This view from here through verse eight is the eternal view. It is a new heaven and a new earth. And so we're taken all the way to eternity. But in verse nine, it takes us back to the angels that have the seven bowls of the seven last plagues. That takes us to the end of the tribulation time, doesn't it? Because the seven angels that had the seven bowls, they were poured out at the end of the tribulation period.
So now from there on, the view that He's given us is a millennial view of the city. It's not going to change, but that's the view that's given from these angels that hold the seven last plagues. There are two views you can grasp here, both that is one and the same talking about the eternal view. Or that you can see that the first nine are the eternal view. And then he brings us to the millennial day. Now in Isaiah four, I think you have spoken as God making a cover in the time of storm for his people.
And here you get the view of the new Jerusalem as it's suspended over the earth. Now it comes down in verse nine, he doesn't say it comes down, but it shows it descending. Verse ten, he carried me away to spirit to a great high mountain, showed me the great city, the Holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. Whereas back in the previous verse we read, it was coming down in verse two of chapter twenty one.
There is a distinct difference in the language. One says it's descending, the other says it comes down. And so it seems that in the millennial day, in the book of Isaiah chapter four, that the thing that is going to be the cover in a time of storm and a shadow in a daytime for them is the new Jerusalem. As it is there, For Israel, he says in verse four, When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, when is that? When will he have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion? Don't be at the end of a tribulation period, isn't it?
He says, I will write my law upon their hearts. No man is going to have to say to his neighbor, know the Lord for all shall know him because they enter the millennial day they're all cleansed from sin there's not no there's not going to be any unbeliever that enters in the millennial period they'll all be children of God everyone they'll have sinful natures because they're still in the physical state so as they first go into the millennial period they're his he cleanses Israel he said and have purged the blood of Jerusalem from its midst by the spirit of justice and the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies a cloud and a smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night.
For upon all the glories shall be a defense. And listen, there shall be a tabernacle, for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covered from the storm and rain. In that day, God is going to have that place where he rains from. Now Peter says that if we suffer with him, we will rain with him. So we do have a raining place in the millennial day because that is where he's going to rain over the earth. Now in the book of Revelation and Revelation twenty-two or twenty-one, he describes that city, the new Jerusalem.
And in verse eleven, having the glory of God, or light was like a stone, most precious, even a jasper stone, clear as crystal, and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates. And the gates, twelve angels, and the names written on the gates, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates, and the wall of the city at twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the land. And he had talked with me at a golden reed to measure the city, and its gates of it, and the wall, and the city lie at four squares.
Its length is as large as its breadth, and he measured the city with a reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and breadth and height are equal. So when we look at the city, it's fifteen hundred miles in a cube. Fifteen hundred miles long, fifteen hundred wide, and fifteen hundred high. Now that kind of blows our mind to think of a city like that, but that's what he's described here, and he says, There are twelve gates in the city, and every gate's a pearl. Now in heaven, as I said, there's only one gate. But in this city, there are twelve gates, and it has to be a pearl with the name of a tribe of Israel on it.
Why do you think God put, I'll pick on you two brethren, why do you think God put the name of an Israelite tribe on each gate? Must have some reason for it. If you can remember what the entrance is, it's an access, isn't it? So how do we get to God? He says salvation is of what? The Lord. He also says salvation is someone else's. Of the Jew, right? Because he was the Jew. And so... The only way we come to the Lord is through himself because he was a Jew.
So we're looking nationally at Israel. So he represents the whole nation all the way around the city. The name of an Israelite on each gate. But now when it comes to the foundation of the city, they don't have the name of the Israelite on them. They have the name of the Apostles. Because that is going to be the home primarily of the church of the firstborn. That's a great reason. And so the apostles are partially a foundation of the church. In one sense, there's only one foundation. That's the Lord Jesus that men can build. But in the other sense, the apostles and the prophets form the foundation of it.
I think if I remember right, it's in the book of Ephesians chapter one, where he speaks of... a holy habitation of God through the Spirit. It's in chapter two, verse nineteen. Now therefore you're no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of what? The apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. So now when we take that to the new Jerusalem, We've got the name of the Apostles on every stone.
Now they're all precious stone that are there as the foundation of the New Jerusalem. But each one has the name of an apostle and in their various characteristics are represented in the colors. And in the colors there's a wall around about this city and the wall We're told it's clear as Jasper. And Jasper being a clear stone is going to pick up the light with Christ in the middle of the city. That light goes out to the wall, goes down, and picks up the light of those foundation stones. And so it's going to be a glorious city.
We're going to have a living inside of a rainbow, if we want to put it that way. Because all around us is going to be the grandeur of those colors. Do you ever take? and look under a light at the colors of an emerald and a ruby and some of these stones and they're just so gorgeous, the colors that are there, some of the colors of the sapphire. And those colors are going to be in the walls of that city. But he says now in the book of Hebrews that we come not to the literal city but we come to the spiritual city. the new Jerusalem.
And so as we see that city, my how blessed it is to be there. We're going to enjoy it. It's going to be immense. And it says there's a street of gold in it. That's kind of hard to fathom. One street in a city that's fifteen hundred miles in a cube. But if we remember, we're physical and we can't yet see the spiritual dimension. I think in that day we'll have understanding of it. But at any rate, he said, first of all, the runner, finish in that race, we come to the spiritual. We are come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
Now he says we come to innumerable company of angels. In that city, there's going to be a countless number of angels. Now angels... are not they do not multiply like humans do we're taught that angels are sexless and that angels are eternal well they don't die they're created spiritual beings they got different realms you read of archangels you read of seraphim you read of cherubim you read of angels that are ministering spirits sent to minister to them that are heirs of salvation in Book of Hebrews chapter one.
So that's kind of interesting, you know, to think that every one of us have angels that minister to us. They minister to those who are heirs of salvation. And we wonder in our lifetime, you know, how many times angels might have delivered us from a premature destruction as far as the body is concerned. And I can think of so many times in my life that it had nearly ended. God in his providence spared me and began when I was very young. But at any rate, angels are someone who minister to those that are heirs of salvation.
So when you get to heaven, it's going to be to the new Jerusalem. Well, it'll be in heaven too because they minister to the Lord. For instance, here was Satan. mentioning different degrees of angels. I think that Lucifer, who was an angel of light, undoubtedly was part and parcel of the throne of God. Remember in Ezekiel when he said that he was a covering cherub, the cherub that covereth in Ezekiel twenty-eight. Now remember in the tabernacle when You had the mercy seat, and over that mercy seat there were two angels facing each other like this, and looking down on that mercy seat of gold.
They were angelic beings that covered. That's what they were. So in that imagery, when he spoke of Satan, of being a covering, anointed cherub that cover it, I see him as one that was that close to the throne of God. You know, sometimes people say to us, well, how come God didn't just wipe him out? Why did God ever allow him to do what he did do? Well, as I said this morning, I think that God accomplished more through allowing him to carry on what he did because God got through Christ the eternal beings that were going to be men and yet absolutely perfect men who would never be.
fall and never fail. Lucifer failed. God didn't bind him right then because God had a plan to work out. And there's a balance of evil and good in this. And men had a chance to choose because he gave him a free will. So Satan himself was an angelic being. But he's not going to be in that heavenly city. Not going to be there. Right now Satan has access to God's throne, just as he did in Job's day. He can go before God, and he's the accuser of the brethren. Remember, he's not thrown out of heaven until we get to the book of Revelation, chapter twelve.
It is there that Michael and his angels have a war with the devil and his angels, and the devil's camp out of heaven. And it is then when he's cast out of heaven that he comes to this earth that he's going to take his full wrath out on the nation of Israel. He's going to pursue him, but God said he's going to spare the woman because she's going to find a hiding place in the wilderness. And so he's going to protect the remnant of Israel until he ends when he delivers them completely. So when we get to go to that heavenly city, We're going to see that innumerable company of angels. But it's to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn.
That is what that city primarily is for. He calls it in the book of Revelation as of a bride adorned for her husband. So we get the sense. Now some people feel rather strongly about this and they say the city is the bride and not the church. Well, the Lord says that the bride here is going to be in that city. It's a city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and it's the church of the firstborn is going to be in it, the same as the angels. So we're going to be in that city because we're the church of the firstborn. The firstborn is Christ.
He's the first begotten from among the dead. And that is in preeminence. And so when we look at it then, We're part and parcel of that church, the heavenly city. And so we come to that place, the church of the firstborn. But then he says, they're written in heaven. Now we've always struggled over this thing of being written in heaven because in the book of Revelation he speaks of blotting some people's name out of the book of life, doesn't he? He said he blot their name out of the book. Moses said, well, Lord, blot my name out of the book that you have written.
And the Lord said, no. He that has sinned against me, his name, will I blot out of the book. So I've come to the conclusion through the years that there are two books. We read of one as the book of life that every man's name would be written in when he's born into this scene. But then we read of the Lamb's book of life. The book of life of the Lamb. It's described as in the book of Revelation. And so that is where the church at a firstborn has their name written in. Now man can be born and live with his name in the book of life, but the day he comes to rejection of Christ, his name is blotted out.
Very simple. His name can be taken from him. He has life here as long as he lives and his opportunities over. when the Lord blocked his name out of the book. Now I believe that can be done in a man's life as he lives here. You know, when he said my spirit will not always strive with a man, there's a time in men's life where God would strive. You see, some men who just get so hard when people have continually witnessed to them, they just get hardened in the way and they won't hear. And then their life is snuffed out. I've known men in my life that their lives were cut out very quickly. And apparently God was all through, what is striving with them.
So their names are blotted out of the book of life, but they never had their name in the land's book of life. Because our name isn't in the land's book of life, though we put our trust in the Lord Jesus. So as a runner in the race, in order to qualify, I got to have my name in that book, or I'm not in the race. Because the race is spiritual, not physical. Oh, we go through the physical here. but it's a spiritual race for him. And we come to a spiritual reward to the Lord himself and to Christ-likeness in this city, which is spiritual. Oh, he says, whose names are written in heaven.
That's what the New Jerusalem's for, for the bride of Christ, whose names are written in heaven. But then he says, and to the spirit of just men made perfect. Now you remember I touched on a verse, I know this morning or this afternoon, when it said in a previous chapter, chapter eleven, verse forty, for having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. And so here they have been made perfect, see, through Christ, the better sacrifice that offers a better hope.
And so when we view them in the city, they're going to be there. Spirits of just men made perfect, made perfect through Christ. They couldn't have been made perfect without the church, without the work that Christ died purchasing the church. They wouldn't have been made perfect without that, without his work. And so they're going to be in that city. Now the Lord has said, when he was here, they're going to come from the east. in the West and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom. So that means in that city, I'm going to be able to have fellowship with some of these Old Testament patriarchs.
People often say, well, you're going to know your relatives. Well, I think that if I'm going to be able to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, I'm going to have to know who they are. And I can further that in a point. Remember on the Mount of Transfiguration, who was there with the Lord on that Mount? Moses and Elijah. Who were the men that the Lord took up the Mount with him? Peter, James, and John. How come Peter, James, and John knew Moses and Elijah when they had never seen him? See? Remember, they were in the glory there. And so we're going to recognize those in the glory. We're going to know him.
We're going to be able to sit down and to rest and have fellowship with one another in the kingdom. We're going to fellowship with Christ, but we're going to enjoy the members of his church and those that are in his kingdom in his spiritual sense as well. So as we run the race and we look forward, we've got some problems with Jacob and what he did, we're going to find out why did it. Maybe not worrying so much at a problem, but to see how God works in Jacob's life. I think that we're going to see God's full plan in a way that we never saw before. Because he says it's through the ages to come that he's going to reveal the riches of his grace to him.
And the ages to come. That's going to be pretty blessed that in those ages we learn of him. But then that's not always in the city. He said whose names are written into heaven, the judge of all, and to God, the judge of all. Skip Tim. He's going to be there. Now, I don't know how he will be there. I don't know how God's going to be there. He says, God is a spirit. They that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. He said, God fills the universe. Some people think they're going to see the Father in heaven. I don't know as I will see the Father as the Father because of His Spirit filling the universe.
God was manifest in the form of Jesus Christ. I do know we're going to see Him. Now, He does say in the book of Revelation something about that throne, if you want to look at Revelation He showed me a pure river, a water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. You'll notice the throne is of God and the Lamb is one throne.
And then he says, In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river there was a tree of life. which bore twelve men our fruits and yielded our fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were the healing of the nations. There are going to be nations eternally. Israel was an earthly people. He made earthly promises to Israel. And so Israel is an eternal nation. He says in Isaiah sixty-six as he ends the book, their name will remain. And here he says then there shall be no more curse, But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it again as that one throne.
But in the conjunction and it brings us the throne of God and of the Lamb. And his servant shall serve him. And now it says, and they shall see his face. Doesn't say they shall see their faces, does it? It says they shall see his face. And the antecedent is the Lamb. not the Father, it's the Lamb. So I think eternally I'll be content with that. Because he said, well, he was here, I and the Father are one. He that has seen me has seen the Father. I don't have a struggle with that. But the important thing is to know that God, the Father, is there.
How he's going to be there, in what manner? I do not know. But he's going to be there in his presence and his power. And so, God, the judge of all. And yet, as God is the judge of all, is God the one who judges? In the end. Who does the judgment? Who judges in the end? Who can commit all judgment to the Son? That's right. John, verse twenty-third of the day. He's committed all judgment under the Son. Father is the judge and authority, but he's committed that authority to the son.
And so the son is the one who's going to sit on the Vima, and the son is the one who's going to sit on the great white throne. But yet we read of God, the judge of all here. It shows us the close unity of father and son. So God, the judge of all, is going to be in that city in the new Jerusalem. And then he says, Ah, Spirit of just men made perfect are there. And then to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than able. So he is going to be there. And he is going to be the glory of the city.
Go back to Revelation chapter twenty-one and see what he says about the glory that's in this city. In verse twenty-two, I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. You notice again that conjunction that ties the two of them together. But the Lamb is there as the temple of the city. The city had no need of the sun nor of the moon to shine in it. For the glory of God did light it, and the Lamb...
is the lamp of it. So the light of that city is going to be from the Lamb, the one that even while he was here said, I'm the light of the world. And before he came, when John the evangelist is writing about his coming, he says he's the light, enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world. And so when we see him as the light, he's going to be the light of the eternal city. And he says, and the nation of them our save shall walk in the light of it. The nations are going to enjoy the light of that city. And he said, the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it.
In the millennial day, the kings of the earth that are here are going to bow to one sovereign king as the one who sits on the throne of David and the one who reigns from the new Jerusalem. That's the Lord himself. He is the authority, but eternally there is the nations of Israel and the nations that have been saved. They are going to bow to him. He says, The gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there. It shall bring their glory and honor of the nations into it. There shall in no way enter into it anything that defiles it. Neither he that worketh abomination or makeeth a lie, but they who are written in whose book of life?
Those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. See, it isn't just the plain book now, a book of life. It's a Lamb's book of life. Those are those that are in the city. So when we view our race as to a heavenly city where the Lord Jesus is and where God God is going to be, where innumerable angels are going to be, where the spirits of just men made perfect are going to be, and are going to be a blessed time. And now as we viewed the runner running toward that, he leaves a warning. He leaves a warning in the rest of it.
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For they if they escape not, who refuse him that spoke on earth, Much more shall we not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. But now he hath promised saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word yet once more signified the removing of those things that are shaken as of those things that are made. that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
What's he saying? He's saying here that there is a voice that God has spoken through. How did this book begin? In Hebrew. If you remember, it says, God has spoken unto us in these last days in His Son. So now as the whole book progresses, And we come approaching the end of the book. He says he speaks. And he said, don't forsake the voice that's spoken. Don't refuse him that speak it. Because if they didn't escape on this earth from his judgment, how shall we not escape if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven?
The Lord Jesus is God's revelation of himself. The Lord Jesus is God's final word. There's no word behind him, beyond him. There is no prophetic message to be found today. There is no extra revelation in the world today. He's been the last word. And so that which is natural is going to be done away with, that's what he said. And that which is spiritual, it is there. So he says, Wherefore receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved? Let's have grace. And I think here he means not only the deeds of grace, but the state of grace, that we might walk according to the grace that he's given to us.
He said, Wherefore, having received a kingdom which cannot be moved, let's have grace, the grace to run the race and the grace in the way that we run, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Now in the book of Proverbs, he starts out by saying, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But then he takes us to the fear of the Lord, the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is understanding His holiness and reverence.
The fear of the Lord is brought down to a reverential trust. And as we run the race for him, that's the way we need to run. But he does close it with a rather solemn thought. As we run, we need it to do with humility. But then he said, Our God is a consuming fire. Someone has said, If God is not your kindling flame, He will be your consuming fire. In other words, if our heart has not been touched, with God himself to a kindling flame through his spirit, then God is going to be our consuming fire.
Now the Old Testament says our God is a jealous God and a consuming fire. That says something to the Christian today. If you tie that together with this, he said we ought to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Now a jealous God would be a God who was concerned that the love of his people would be fully for him and him alone. You find a jealous husband, he's a man that's fearful of his wife looking at other men or other men looking at her. And when it comes to the sense of a jealous God, God, because of his work for Israel and his provision for Israel, had every right to be jealous.
He should have been their total God that they looked nowhere for any other. But I see what our heart is in this. They saw all the plagues he brought on Egypt. They saw him open a red sea and walk through. They saw him sweeten the waters at Bittermara. They saw him send the manna from heaven. They saw him bring water out of the rock. Feed him and give him drink for forty years. But before we go to the full forty years, he takes him even with the battle of Amalek.
He gave him victory. And then they go to Sinai. And they say, all that the Lord says we will do. And before Moses comes back the second time, come back down with the written tablet, what have they got? idol. Isn't that amazing? They had all the power of the living God, and they turned to an idolatrous thing they learned in Egypt, the worship of the cat. See, in a study of the progress of things, the Egyptians knew of the most high God. And they turned from a worship from the most high God to taken a calf and put it in heaven, a multi-breasted calf.
Because they saw God as one who provided, but they wanted to see it in a physical sense. So they put a multi-breasted calf in the heavens. And then because they wanted it like a man, they put a man's head on it. But then they brought it out of the heavens and they put it to earth and they made creatures like that and bowed down and worshipped it. You see where they digress? Now we see what he did for Israel, but my how much more he did for us. He took his son and he crucified for us. He gave us life through his son. Now because we can appreciate the life he's given, we have his spirit.
Then he has every right for all of my love. The things of the race that we begin with that hinder, those are to be set aside. the sin that besets us. Set aside that we might run the race faithfully, that we might serve him. Acceptably was reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. But with you, our progression is toward him, our deliverance is from him, and our likeness is going to be like him one day. But a race As we run it, it's going to be, in the end, rewarded with a reward that's spiritual, the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, an eternal home in the heavens.
Well, Harold, it looks like a tape ran out and I gave it a full load. I switched it over on the other side. You got another forty-five minutes. Maybe some of you ask some question. Did I raise something in your mind that puzzles you a bit? Did I understand you that saying it won't be in heaven, but in the New Jerusalem? That's right. I'm going to heaven when I die, but eternally my home is the New Jerusalem.
it comes down from God out of heaven. And God is going to tabernacle with men. That's going to be heaven on earth. In the eternal sense that God was meant. We were talking the other morning this was a little off the subject, but the illness that she thought we understand all the things we don't understand now, you know, things that happen, why do they happen and so on. Do you think that's true? Will we know everything then? Well, he says we shall know even as we're known.
And I believe at the judgment seat of Christ, I'll put it in this way, we think of adverse things. Okay, we'll pick two brethren that are at odds with one another, all right? Things have been difficult going with them. When we get to the judgment seat of Christ, If I know as unknown, then I won't have to turn to you and say, see, Harold, I was right. Because I'm going to see it with my eyes if I was wrong. And you're going to see it with your eyes, only they're the eyes of the Lord, because we're going to see as he sees. We're going to know as he knows. So there are not going to be the differences. See, some people think, oh boy, that Bemis is going to be a long, drawn-out process. All these problems got to be straightened up.
I don't believe it for a minute. I don't believe it for a minute. Because for number one, we all, he deals with us all at the same time now, doesn't he? Whether you're here or in Africa. We all pray to him, he hears us all. So what's the difference in that time? Because he is omnipresent, he can deal with us all in a moment. He's going to judge our works, what we've done. And so that's going to be taken care of. just in a brief time. Now, to talk about circumstances, other than that, whether, you know, it should have been this way or that way, and what God's pattern was for our lives.
I think we're going to know fully then what the pattern was, yeah. Well, my explanation was, I wonder, won't matter to us then. The details of the things here won't matter. I don't think so. No, no. But God does have a pattern. You know, we see on the surface here, it's just like a piece of carpet that's woven with different colors. You see the pattern on one side, and the other side, all you see is the thread. And we don't see the fullness of the pattern yet. But we will one day. We're going to see when He stood in and helped us when we couldn't go.
But as you say, it isn't going to matter to us then. The race is over. The thing that will matter in the race is the reward for the race. Paul said, and this is something that I think we have to keep in mind, Paul said, forgetting those things that are behind. I pressed toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. So I think we need to forget our successes as well as our failures, you know. Some people want to keep a record of all the good that they thought they did. Well, that's as bad as the man being burdened down by his failures.
Neither one of them are going to go too far. Because if I look at my successes, then I'm going to be satisfied and pretty soon I'll sit down and start thinking of all the good. And if I look at my failures, it becomes such a way that I won't do anything anyhow. So either way isn't good. We need to press toward the mark. That's the runner running for the goal. So I think you're right. Lots of things are not going to matter. Better off to forgive them. And if there are some that do matter, as I say, we're going to see if he sees them. Well, I could surely see that...
The judgment of Christ wouldn't be a long-drawn-out thing. As you said, God can speak to one in Africa and one in this country and all at the same time. That's going to be a long-drawn-out watergate court case. Or choosing a judge for the high courts, huh? Oh, brother. No, there won't be any so-called justice like that. I think that the judgment seat is going to take place as we meet them in the air, too. I don't believe the judgment seat of Christ is going to wait until we get to heaven, and for the whole seven years that it's going to be going on, as some people see.
And I do not believe that's for this reason, besides what I told you. In a book of Revelation in chapter twenty-two, he says, Behold, I come quickly, and I think it's verse twelve, and my reward is with me. So when we meet him in the air, his reward is with him. So the judgment seat of Christ, as far as I can see, is going to be there. Luke fourteen, fourteen gives us another view of the recompense of his reward that is going to be there. He says in verse twelve, then said he also unto them that date him when thou give us the dinner or a supper call not your friends nor thy brethren neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors lest they also bid thee again and recompense made to them and a recompense be made to thee but when thou give us the feast call the poor and the maim and the lame and the blind and listen and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompense thee For thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
So that's the rapture. That's when I come quickly and my reward is with me. So I see, you know, that his bride is prepared there. All these matters of the reward or the loss are settled right there. His bride has been made ready. So it's going to be you know, everything taken care of. That the resurrection of the just, that's when we're going to be recompensed. Some people who think they have a file will wind up with very little, and some people who thought they had very little may well wind up with much.
It's a cup of cold water given my name, When I was in prison, you visited me. Hungary, you fed me naked, you clothed me. Those are the things that God appreciates that are done for the brethren. And he wants us to have that special love for the household of faith. Fellowship with one another is really fellowship with Christ, isn't it? Because when we share in that fellowship where you're part of the body of Christ and I'm part of the body of Christ. We share that fellowship.
You think in the tribulation time, you know, in Matthew twenty-five when he speaks of gathering the sheep from the goats at the end of the tribulation period, you have the sheep and the goats brought before them. And he says to the sheep to enter into the kingdom. So when I was in prison, you visited me and so on. And they said, Lord, when were you in prison and we visited you? And he said, for as much as you did that unto these, the least of my brethren, you did it unto me. And I don't have any question that this is what's going to be done to the hundred and forty-four thousand in that day as there is missionaries and the other people minister to them as they're taking prisoners and things.
They're going to minister to those who stand for God in that day. And he said, so you've ministered unto me. And unto the other ones, we read that he cast them alive into the lake that burned it with fire and brimstone. Not going to be a passage of death for them. It's going to be from here to here after in a lake of fire. That's what he said. Prepare for the devil and his angels. That's for those that have survived the tribulation and they're not going into the millennial day. They're going to be judged right there. So all those that remain in the millennial day will be those who will serve Him.
Thus we give the Lord thanks. Thank you, Father, for... This time this evening, in your word, we know that you gave the word and great was the company that published it. We pray, Father, that the word in these days, these last days especially, would become the more precious to us, as we would find strength for the runner in view of the goal, a prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, that we might stretch forth, as Paul said, reaching and pressing toward that goal, that we might be like the Lord Jesus, knowing that one day we're going to have an eternal home in heaven, one that is the new Jerusalem, and the presence of God, the judge of all, and the presence of the Lord Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, the head of the church, and the bridegroom of the bride.
We look forward to that day. We know that here we may never meet again. on this scene, but we know that we'll be together hereafter forever as we worship and serve the land. We certainly praise thee for him, Father. We begin this day with the praise of the land. And surely as we draw to a close again, we desire to bring our worship and our adoration to a God who indeed is a consuming fire. Dear holiness protects us as well as it would bring judgment if we turned from it. And so, Father, we do rejoice in a holy God who gave a son to make unholy men holy.
That one day we could be with him, indeed, forever. Let this assembly, Lord, encourage your heart in these days, give him an increase of number and increase of spiritual things. We pray for some that are in difficult straits that You may minister to them physically and spiritually as well. We just bring our thanksgiving in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.