A Place / Perfection of Soul and Body

In this part of the sermon: He then introduces passages that point to this present earth, renewed and renovated, as the place called heaven, highlighting the apparent contradiction with previous texts.

The world is pictured as a woman in travail, groaning and longing for its true birth into the liberty of the sons of God, illustrating its desire to be delivered from the curse.

And here is the picture of this world having come under the curse, and longing to be released and delivered from that curse in conjunction with the final installment of redemptive privilege with respect to the children of God. That comes, of course, at the return of the Son of Man. The return of Christ, when at his return he summons dead believers out of their graves, living believers are transformed in the moment, and they come into the full possession of redemptive privilege in their glorified bodies. And according to this passage, the whole creation in that same complex of events will be de...

13:29 - 14:49 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Well, there is no contradiction, but there is a beautiful synthesis.

John is shown a 'bride' but sees a city coming down from heaven, illustrating that the perfected church (the bride) will descend to earth as the New Jerusalem.

He says, Come. I'm going to show you a beautiful bride. And then he takes John and carries him away. And what does he see?

18:54 - 19:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Fix your mind upon the great reality of heaven as a place of righteousness to find joy amidst present sin.

The earth is described as having soaked up blood and supported tyrants, blasphemers, and revelers, to highlight the profound transformation it will undergo when permeated with righteousness.

This very globe, and I love to think of it in these terms, this very earth that has soaked up the blood of multitudes upon battlefields. This very earth where the sod is stained with innocent blood. This very earth that supports the footstep of the tyrant and the lecher and the murderer and the thief and the tyrant. This very earth that supports the revel activity of the multitudes of the unconverted.

21:44 - 22:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Fix your mind upon the great reality of heaven as a place of righteousness to find joy amidst present sin.

He uses the examples of a busy freeway with cussing drivers and a smoke-filled, cursing office to illustrate the pervasive sin in the world and contrast it with the future state where only righteousness will occupy every square inch.

This very earth in which Almighty God is denied. This very air that surrounds us that men breathe into their lungs that they might force some of that air up over the larynx and speak words of blasphemy and denial of God that this and its total life support system will be renovated by the fire of judgment at the return of Christ and when He's through every particle, every atom of this earth and its support will be permeated with nothing but righteousness. It will be the new heavens and the newer righteousness and righteousness alone has its home. You want to get shouting happy driving down a bu...

22:20 - 23:41 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Heaven is a state of the personal perfection of soul and body.

He materializes the soul into a collection of atoms to illustrate the thoroughness with which God will scour every last remnant of sin from it, making it perfectly sanctified.

and in the deepest recesses of the soul we are delivered from the clutches of the devil and the principle of living for self and for sin. We are given the gift of the Holy Spirit and in these souls of ours God implants what the Bible calls a down payment of a completed redemption and within our hearts we have a longing to be here and now what we one day shall be by the grace of God. We shall have souls with all of the faculties of the soul the intellectual the physical the thinking faculties the affectional the feeling faculties the volitional the willing faculties and all the mysterious facul...

26:49 - 28:17 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin then addresses the perfection of the body, explaining that God made humans as body-soul entities. He expounds on Christ's return, the resurrection of believers' bodies, and…

He recounts the silly notion among the Thessalonian church that living believers would have special privilege over dead believers, which Paul addresses in 1 Thessalonians 4.

A holy man body soul. A holy woman body soul. And so heaven will realize for us not merely bless God not merely the perfection of the soul but the perfection of the body as well. And according to 1 Thessalonians 4.14 this will be brought about at the return of the Lord Jesus. Look at the passage familiar to many of you that we as elders are constantly reminding ourselves that we have those of you who are very new to the Christian faith and some of the text that some of us received almost as it were at our mother's breasts are as new as tomorrow morning's sunrise to some of you. 1 Thessalonians...

30:07 - 31:05 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin then addresses the perfection of the body, explaining that God made humans as body-soul entities. He expounds on Christ's return, the resurrection of believers' bodies, and…

He describes Christ's post-resurrection body, able to pass through walls, prepare food, appear and disappear, and ascend, to help listeners imagine the nature of their own future glorified bodies.

Gird up the loins of your mind and think what kind of body will we have? What kind of body is that body like that our Lord now has subsequent to his resurrection? That body in which he moved freely in and out amongst his disciples for forty days subsequent to the resurrection. That body that could pass through walls and yet had substance and could prepare a lovely fish breakfast by a seashore.

33:34 - 34:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: When, O God, when will I have a body that can serve the soul that has known the touch of your grace?

He uses the analogy of desiring a thousand tongues to sing God's praises or a thousand legs to serve, but being limited by a weary body, to illustrate the frustration of a renewed soul in a fallen body.

if you had a thousand voices you couldn't say enough of His praise and yet when you begin to attempt to carry out the impulses of that renewed soul throbbing under the impulses of grace it isn't long before you're very conscious you don't serve Christ as the angels do you don't serve God you don't pray confession in the spirit baptism this embodied spirits you try to pray for an hour and what happens weariness comes over your body and when you would do good and when that heart and soul throbbing with longing for communion with Christ sets itself to engage Christ in earnest fervent prayer it is...

39:51 - 41:17 Read in full sermon

Driving home: When, O God, when will I have a body that can serve the soul that has known the touch of your grace?

He shares his personal experience of feeling his soul burst under the pressure of truth while preaching, yet his mortal frame (lungs, larynx, etc.) being insufficient to express it fully, illustrating the limitations of the present body.

You come sometimes into a gathering like this, and God, by the gracious operations of the Spirit, gives you such a felt taste of the reality of Christ. You say as you sit there, O Lord Jesus, Sin will never be attractive to me again. With such a sight of your glory, sin will be seen in all of its sordid and ugly reality, and I will be nerved in every fiber, every pore of my being to resist it. Ten minutes later, some appetite, ultimately rooted in the soul, but finding a powerful channel through a physical passion, begins to appeal, and within an hour you've succumbed and bloodied your conscie...

41:18 - 42:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Turn from your sins, pride, and self-righteousness, and run to the Lord Jesus for salvation, appealed to by the loveliness of heaven.

He quotes Bunyan's perceptive comment from Pilgrim's Progress, where a pilgrim finds his most vigorous spiritual state when thinking of his destination, to encourage believers to meditate on heaven.

I appeal to you in Christ's name, turn from your sin, run to the Lord Jesus. Who, as we heard this morning by His work on behalf of sinners received by faith, is able to bring you amongst the number of those who are marked for heaven. People say derisively of us, ha, you Christians, with your pie-in-the-sky, by-and-by religion. My friend, that's some wonderful pie that's waiting out there. You can call it pie-in-the-sky, by-and-by. But if having a perfectionist, if having a perfectionist, if having a perfectionist, if having a perfectionist soul joined to a perfected body in a perfected heaven...

48:15 - 49:25 Read in full sermon