God's Sovereignty Over Eternity

Introduction and Passage Reading

0:01 Before we turn to the reading and preaching of the Word of God, I want to take the liberty of taking just a few moments to say three things. First of all, I want to express my sincere gratitude to Ligonier Ministries for entrusting to me the stewardship of the public ministry of the Word of God, both in these plenary sessions and in the seminars, which have been a great delight to me in that smaller context and intimate interaction. And I do sincerely express my gratitude to all of those connected with Ligonier Ministries for entrusting me with that stewardship.

0:46 And then secondly, I want to express my sincere thanks to the many of you who have spoken to me in varying settings over these few days, expressing my gratitude to you. Thank you for your support. Thank you for expressing the help that you've received in one way or another through the ministry of Trinity Pulpit Tapes. It has been both humbling and exhilarating to hear story after story from the lips of many of you of how God used this or that particular tape or series of tapes to bring about the transformation of His grace in your life.

1:23 I met a young man who's been in the ministry for some years now who pointed to a specific concept. And I'd like to thank him for his driving the journey. And I'd like to thank him for his three-day conference and series of ministries that God used to alter the whole direction of his ministry. And I do thank you for taking the time to come and to express your gratitude.

1:43 It has filled my heart with a sense of wonder that God does indeed take the weak things and the things that are not to confound the mighty and to bring to naught all that would militate against His glory. And then thirdly, of you, and that is that at the conclusion of the message this morning, if your heart is filled with some measure of gratitude for the ministry of the word, that rather than express that by clapping, that you express it by lifting up your heart in prayer to God, in thankfulness for all he has done for us in these days, and that will make a more suitable

2:23 transition into the actual conclusion of this hour, in which there will be some music leading then to a benediction. So at the conclusion of the message, I will seek to be our mouthpiece in prayer at the throne of grace, and then there will be a musical interlude leading into the final benediction. Now may I urge you, may I urge you to open your Bibles with me. To the twenty-fifth chapter of the gospel according to Matthew, the gospel of Matthew

3:01 chapter twenty-five, and follow as I read beginning with verse thirty-one to the end of the chapter. Matthew chapter twenty-five and beginning with verse thirty-one. And when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall all the angels be with him. And when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him. Then shall he sit on the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered

3:32 all the nations. And he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For

4:04 I was hungry, and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. Naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was

4:21 in prison, and you came to me. Then shall the righteous see me. Then shall the righteous see me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you, or a thirst, and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger, and take you in, or naked, and clothe

4:41 you? And when did we see you sick, or in prison, and come unto you? And the king shall answer and say unto them, Truly I say unto you, Inasmuch as you did it unto one of these my brethren, even the least, you did it unto me. And then shall he say also to them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat. I was thirsty,

5:24 and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and you did not take me in. Naked, and you did not clothe me. Sick, and in prison, and you visited me not. Then shall they also answer, saying, Lord, when

5:43 did we see you hungry, or a thirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto you? Then shall he answer them, saying, Truly I say unto you, Inasmuch as you You, inasmuch as you did it not unto one of these least, you did it not unto me. And these shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Now the closing words of this portion of God's word found in verse 46.

The Astounding Conjunction of Realities

6:27 These words spoken by love and truth incarnate, even our Lord Jesus Christ. These words contain in my judgment nothing short of one of the most astounding conjunctions of realities to be found anywhere within the compass of Holy Scripture. We find here glorious and perilous. Terrifying realities set before us in one breath of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7:06 The glorious reality is compacted into the words spoken with reference to the righteous that these shall go away into eternal life. That is, they shall actually enter upon the personal. Never. Ever-ending experience of all of the manifold blessings of the eternal state as purposed by the Father, purchased by the Son,

7:43 and as graciously applied and worked in them by the power and operations of the Holy Spirit. They shall go away into eternal life. Glorious reality. And yet you see it is set in the closest conjunction with the terrifying reality compacted into the words spoken to those identified earlier in the passage as the cursed ones.

8:16 The words these shall go away into eternal punishment. That is, they shall actually enter in. Upon personal. Never-ending.

8:34 And manifold suffering, misery, and despair. Into the very place originally prepared for the devil and his angels. But a place to which they go because they have aligned themselves with the evil one in their rebellion against the Almighty. Surely you will agree with me.

9:00 That in the compass of those few words are brought into the closest conjunction, glorious realities, eternal life, terrifying realities, eternal punishment. Now you may ask, Pastor Martin, why have you chosen to read and to expound such a portion of God's Word? And my answer is very simple. I come here as a man under authority.

9:29 I come here as a man under authority. I come here as a man under authority. I come here as a man under authority. I come here as a man under authority.

9:31 And I have been asked in this last session to take up a strand of the theme of the sovereignty of God entitled, God's Sovereignty Over Eternity. And in the instructions I received from those who plan and carefully seek to integrate the various strands of ministry, I was instructed, and I'm thankful for that instruction, that in addressing the sovereignty of God, the subject of God's sovereignty over eternity, I should attempt to point your minds to those portions of the Word of God

10:12 which do set before us the glorious reality of consummate joy in the presence of Christ going away into eternal life, while at the same time being true to the whole counsel of God's Word and underscoring the terrible reality, the terrifying reality, that there is indeed a place of eternal punishment into which men shall be sent by Him who is incarnate love and incarnate truth. Now with the passage read in your hearing open before us, I want you to consider with me in the time allotted,

The Identity of the Sovereign Judge

10:56 first of all, the identity of the Sovereign who will determine each man's eternal destiny. The identity of the Sovereign who will determine each man's eternal destiny. The paragraph closes with that destiny unfolding before us and speaks of some going away into eternal punishment and others, the words going away understood, going away into eternal life. And the question that presses in upon us is this, who in all the universe has the right to fix,

11:40 to determine, to seal, to execute men's eternal destinies? And according to our passage, the identity of the Sovereign who will determine each man's eternal destiny is made very clear. Notice how the passage opens, verse 31. But when the Son of Man shall come in His glory and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory and before Him shall be gathered all the nations.

12:22 The identity of the Sovereign who disposes of men in their eternal destiny is none other than that one who describes Himself here, first of all, as the Son of Man. That official messianic title which our Lord Jesus most frequently used with reference to Himself. And when we think of Son of Man, so often we think of the Lord Jesus in the period of His humiliation. But this very term, Son of Man, as it comes to us in the 7th chapter of the book of Daniel,

13:02 points not to the Lord Jesus in the period of His humiliation, but in the period and in the exercise of His rights that are His in the period of His exaltation. And as you have opportunity, I commend to you that passage in Daniel chapter 7. But then our Lord does something that is very unusual when speaking of Himself throughout all of the Gospel records. Twice in this passage He refers to Himself as the King.

13:37 Verse 34, Then shall the King say, The Son of Man who comes in His glory, who sits upon the throne of His glory, describes Himself as the King. In verse 34, and again in verse 40, And the King shall answer and say unto them. So it would appear that in the consciousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, the exercise of His prerogatives as the sovereign who will determine each man's eternal destiny

14:21 was a unique and paramount manifestation of His rightful kingship over the universe and over all who dwell in it. It is the Son of Man not coming in weakness and humiliation, but the Son of Man coming in the entourage of all of the angels with Him, sitting on the throne of His glory, sitting as the King of the universe. And it is the King who shall speak to the righteous, and it is the King who shall speak to the wicked.

15:05 And so the identity of the sovereign who will determine each man's eternal destiny is clearly set before us. It will be none other than our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And the teaching of this passage, is in perfect agreement with what we call the analogy of scripture. For you remember in John chapter 5, Jesus said that it is the will of the Father that men give equal honor to the Son, the same kind of honor that they give to the Father.

15:41 And in conjunction with that honor, that the Father has given to the Son all of the rights and prerogatives of executing judgment. And that an hour was coming in which all that were in the graves would hear the voice of the Son of God, and they would come forth, some to the resurrection of life, and some to a resurrection of judgment. Again in Acts chapter 10, when the Apostle Peter is preaching in the household of Cornelius, he makes it very clear that this note of Christ exercising His kingly rights as the judge of the universe, was an integral part of the gospel

16:25 that he was commissioned to preach. In Acts chapter 10, we read in verse 42, and he charged us to preach unto the people and to testify that this is He who is ordained of God to be the judge of the living and the dead. And then he goes on to say that in this same one there is preached, the remission of sins. And this was the emphasis of the Apostle Paul.

16:57 You remember that in his sermon on, in the Areopagus in the city of Athens, that he brought his sermon to a conclusion by saying, the times of this ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness and He has given witness unto all men in that He raised Him from the dead. And so with the analogy of scripture buttressing the clear teaching of this passage, the identity of the sovereign who will determine each man's eternal destiny

17:42 is unequivocally clear. Now what does that say to you and to me? It says that among us, it says that a moment is coming in your life history, a moment in my life history, when we shall together encounter the King upon His throne, the Son of Man in His glory. He is the appointed judge of the world.

The Activity of the Sovereign: Universal Convocation and Infallible Separation

18:16 Now having considered the identity of the sovereign, who will determine each man's eternal destiny, consider with me in the second place what this passage sets before us with respect to the activity of the sovereign by which He will determine each man's eternal destiny. Having considered his identity, the passage goes on to unfold in at least five broad strokes. The activity of the sovereign by which He will determine each man's eternal destiny.

19:00 And the first activity I am describing with these words, there will be a universal convocation. There will be a universal convocation. Look at the language of the text. When the Son of Man is seated upon the throne of His glory, verse 32, before Him shall be gathered all the nations.

19:27 Before Him shall be gathered all of the nations. And for an extended commentary on this universal convocation, we can turn to a passage such as Revelation chapter 20, verses 10 through 15, where in graphic language, John describes this, this gathering of the nations, the dead, small and great, in the presence of the great King and the appointed judge of the world. Gathered by His own activity in which He will speak to all that are in the graves and shall summon them to stand

20:10 before the bar of His judgment. But the second activity that is highlighted in the passage, there will not only be a universal convocation, but there will be an infallible separation. Look at verse 32b and verse 33. Having gathered the nations before Him, we read, He shall separate them, one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

20:42 And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. He shall separate, He shall set. Here in vivid language is described an infallible separation. He will not merely separate those that have the appearance of sheep from those that are goats, but because He knows the secrets of men, the secrets of men's hearts.

21:20 And the Lord knows those who are truly His. With an infallible knowledge He will mark out all of His sheep and set them upon His right hand. And all of the goats, those who may have learned by imitation to make the sounds of a sheep, and by some kind of alchemy may have even learned how to grow wool that looked like a sheep from a goat's hair. But in their nature they are goats.

21:52 They are not His sheep. He will infallibly separate them, setting the sheep on His right hand and the goats on His left hand. He shall separate them. He shall set them.

The Activity of the Sovereign: Irrevocable Declaration

22:11 So the activity of the Sovereign by which He is determining each man's eternal destiny begins with the universal convocation. Then it leads to an infallible separation. And then thirdly, there is highlighted in our text what I am calling an irrevocable declaration. An irrevocable declaration.

22:38 Look at verse 34. Then shall the King say, Now the focus is not upon His activity of separating and setting, but upon His speaking. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And in verse 41, Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire

23:20 which is prepared for the devil and his angels. Here is an irrevocable, an irreversible declaration made by the regal authority of the King. And once He has made His declaration, there is no appeal system to a higher court. There is no way to get off on technicalities.

23:49 When the King seated upon His throne in all of the splendor and glory of His kingship manifested to the entire moral universe, when He has made the separation and then makes this declaration, Come, you blessed, depart, you cursed, the eternal destinies are forever fixed, irrevocably fixed by the declaration of the King. It's a sobering thing for me to look out upon your faces, to look at the instrumentalists

24:34 to my left and those who have been singing to my right, to have looked myself in the mirror this morning and to realize that you, every one of you, and I, as truly as now my vocables are registering upon your ears, or in the case of these who are being ministered to in sign language, registers upon the eye and then is translated into the mind, into the concepts that are being proclaimed, we shall hear the irrevocable declaration of the Sovereign Lord and there will only be two. Come, ye blessed,

25:19 depart, you cursed, depart, you cursed, and your ears that hear my voice will hear one of those two irrevocable declarations. Those words will not be spoken to the beast of the field. Those words will not be spoken to the sparkling diamond-like glittering stars that are above us. They will not be spoken

26:01 to the whales that ply the seas. As I have meditated in preparation for this message today, the words that have haunted me are these. It is a solemn thing to have been created a human being. It is a solemn thing to have been created a human being with a indestructible existence that God thinks so much of that which He made in His image that though the image has been marred in the fall, God, if I may say it reverently,

26:45 will go to the trouble of resurrecting even the wicked dead and reuniting and constituting body and spirit as one entity. That is their identity as human beings. And in that identity they will live forever. Having heard either the words come, you blessed, or depart, you cursed, there will be an irrevocable declaration.

The Activity of the Sovereign: Demonstrable Vindication

27:16 But then in the fourth place, the activity by which the sovereign fixes the eternal destiny of all men is described in terms of what I am calling again just as a memory aid a demonstrable vindication. Following the universal convocation, the infallible separation, the irrevocable declaration, there will be a demonstrable vindication. No sooner does He say to the righteous or to the sheep on His right hand, verse 34, come, you blessed, but we read in verse 35, for I was hungry and you gave Me to eat.

28:01 I was thirsty and you gave Me to drink. And without any intention of humor I must pause to take just a sip of water. I was a stranger and you took Me in. And He begins to speak to them in terms of certain activities.

28:25 And then when He comes to deal with the wicked, having said to them, depart from Me, verse 42 and following shows a relationship between the declaration and the pattern of their lives. For I was hungry and you did not give Me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink. Now what is the passage teaching?

28:47 Is it teaching us that men's eternal destiny is determined by whether or not they do good things to people in need? Now if that's the meaning of the passage, then it turns the entire message of the Bible on its ear. For the teaching of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is that if any of the fallen sons and daughters of Adam ever attain to eternal life, it will be on the grounds or the basis of God's grace, God's grace having provided in the righteousness of another a title to heaven

29:30 which will obligate God to receive into His presence all who possess that righteousness. The Scriptures everywhere teach us that by grace are we saved, through faith and that not of ourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works that no man should glory. By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight.

29:57 The Scriptures clearly teach us that the righteousness that gains acceptance with God is fabricated entirely upon the loom of the perfect life and the substitutionary death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And there is not a particle of the thread of our own doings in that righteousness that gains acceptance with God. Well then, what is our Lord doing here when He says, For I was hungry and you did this. I was hungry and you did not do this.

30:33 Well, you see the essence of the teaching of this passage is simply this. Our Lord is vindicating the justness, the rightness of the separation and the declaration that He has made. When He has identified some as sheep and set them on His right hand, others as goats and set them on His left hand. When He says, Come, you blessed.

31:05 Depart, you cursed. He is manifesting in these words that they are indeed true sheep. That which made them sheep was not what they did. It is what Christ Himself had done for them and what God had purposed on their behalf when He chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world.

31:32 But all who are brought to true faith have a faith that works, a faith that is active, particularly in its attachment to the person of Christ. And did you notice when I read the passage how I sought to underscore how that's where the emphasis lies? Look at verse 35 again. I was hungry and you gave me to eat.

32:01 I was thirsty and you gave me to drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. And with reference to His condemnation of the goats, the wicked, the cursed ones, He says, with reference to me, there was indifference to me. You see, the central issue in this demonstrative vindication of the judgment that is made is the issue of their relationship to Jesus Christ.

32:31 Inasmuch as you've done it unto the least of these, my little ones, you did it unto me. Your union with me by faith was real. And being united to me, really and truly, not just notionally or nominally or by mere external profession, it bound you to all of my people. And all who are bound to me and are bound to my people will manifest their love to me, the living head, by the way they relate to the members of my body.

33:03 Isn't that what John says? If we say we love God and we do not love our brother, how can we love a God whom we've not seen if we do not love our brethren whom we do see? And what is taught here is taught in other passages, in other language, under other images. But again and again we are told that though we are not saved on the basis of our works, in the day of judgment the sentence that goes forth will be a judgment according to our works, according to our deeds, according to our thoughts.

The Activity of the Sovereign: Eternal Implementation and the Doctrine of Hell

33:43 Because our deeds and words and thoughts will be the open manifestation of the true state and character of our hearts and of our relationship or non-relationship to Jesus Christ. But then very quickly notice the fifth and final element in the activity of the sovereign who determines the eternal destinies of all men. From the universal convocation, the separation, the declaration, the vindication, there will follow, and God help me to say the words, with something of the weight

34:27 with which they ought to be said, there will follow an eternal implementation. An eternal implementation. When the king says, come ye blessed, will anything happen? Our text says, the righteous shall go into eternal life.

34:54 And when he says, depart you cursed, will anything really happen? Our text says, these shall go away into eternal punishment. There will follow an eternal implementation of the disposition of the sovereign on the throne. That declaration will be followed by implementation.

35:30 And because the text focuses first of all, upon the implementation of the declaration with respect to the wicked, I want to be true to the text and direct your attention for a few moments to the sobering biblical doctrine of the eternal punishment of the wicked. These shall go into eternal punishment. And when one turns to the scriptures and in particular to the language of our Lord Jesus, especially in the gospel of Matthew, though in other portions of the synoptic gospels

36:15 and in John as well, it is from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ that the most vivid, the most graphic, the most frightening terms with respect to the reality of eternal punishment are to be found. The scriptures make it clear that the punishment of hell will involve both soul and body. Matthew 10, 28. Be not afraid of those who kill the body and after this have no more that they can do, but fear him who can destroy both soul and body.

36:54 In Gehenna, Christ said that there is a fear of God that has a direct linkage to the conviction. That creatures made in the image of God will one day be punished, destroyed soul and body. In Gehenna, the punishment of hell involves soul and body. Secondly, the punishment of hell will be proportionate to light and privilege.

37:26 Luke chapter 12, 47 and 48. He who knew his Lord's will indeed it not shall be beaten with many stones and many stripes. He who knew not his Lord's will and did it not shall be beaten with few stripes for to whom much is given of him is much required. Matthew chapter 11, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon and for Sodom in the day of judgment than for the cities of Bethsaida and those who had seen the mighty works of our Lord Jesus.

37:59 The punishment of hell will not only be that of soul and body but will be proportionate to the light and privileges received. And it is this third dominant emphasis of scripture that is under vicious attack in our day. By a false sentimentalism or by a pseudo-Christian compassion that is nothing but carnal sentimentalism, the punishment of hell will be conscious, unending, non-terminated sin. The punishment of hell will be suffering.

38:41 Would to God I never had to utter those words. But if I am to be true to my commission to preach the word, I can say nothing else. The punishment of hell will be conscious, unending, non-terminated suffering. Jesus uses the imagery in Mark chapter 9.

39:04 It is the place where the worm never dies Why? When the worm has consumed the carcass on which it feeds and consumes the energy derived from it, the worm dies. It has no more food on which to feed. And when the fire has no more combustionable material to consume, it becomes embers and smoke and dies out.

39:30 But with respect to hell, our Lord said in this most graphic imagery, it is the place where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched because the soul and body and conscience of those who are cast into it will never be sent back into nothingness. They will have an eternal existence upheld by the power of God to be the recipient.

40:00 You will notice that our Lord in this passage says that when he speaks to the goats, to the wicked, he will say, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. There are not two hells, one for the devil and his angels and another for men and women cast into hell. And when we turn to the book of the Revelation and we read that the devil is cast into hell, we read that he has no rest day nor night.

40:43 And in Revelation 14.10 we are told that the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever and they have no rest day nor night. I can only say because he said it better than I in the words of A.A. Hodges.

41:03 Answering those who in his day tried to cut off the right angles and the sobering reality of this doctrine, he said this, More than all of this, we should recognize the superficiality and essential cruelty of that mock charity which makes so many professed theological reformers disguise from sinners or explain away the real facts as to the attitude of the Word of God on this subject of eternal punishment. Even if mistakes should be made in the way of rendering the aspect of scriptural teaching

41:42 more menacing than it really is, while it might give unnecessary pain for the present, it could not betray souls to an unexpected danger in the world to come. But there is no more deadly injury, no more wanton cruelty, which any man can perpetrate upon a fellow creature than that which the theological reformer is in danger of when, against the clearest, mere meaning of God's Word, the unanimous judgment of Christ's Church, he softens the emphasis of warning

42:22 and ensures the incorrigible sinner that it is not, after all, so certain that he must die the second death of eternal pain and of shame. And in our day there has been a tragic defection among men known for their sterling evangelicalism and in no one get able to break it!" it's a biblical stance in so many other areas. and I want in this connection to commend with all my heart a book written by a professor at Covenant College, Robert Petersen, Hell on Trial, the Case for Eternal Punishment.

43:01 It is the finest book I have in all of my personal librarian that I have ever read on the subject, bringing into sharp focus the biblical issues, and dealing with contemporary departures and he names such men as Philip Hughes no longer in this present world and John Stott who has openly espoused in a rather tentative but nonetheless open way the doctrine of ultimate annihilation and he addresses others by name documents their departure from historic orthodoxy and lovingly and graciously calls them to repentance

43:43 God's sovereignty over eternity what a solemn thing because according to our passage there will follow that irrevocable declaration and the demonstrable vindication this eternal implementation these shall you go away into eternal punishment I have not indulged flights of fancy I have not gone beyond the clear explicit teaching of the word of God but my friends sitting here today

44:24 if you've treated lightly the whole issue of whether or not you have a vital union with Jesus Christ whether or not you have truly been born of the spirit of God and brought to true evangelical life repentance and faith in Christ please I beg you don't let your experience be an eternal exegesis of these words eternal punishment in the name of the God of heaven I beg you by all of the

45:05 terrors of the language which only points to a more terrible reality Give yourself no rest until you are certain that he will say to you, Come, you blessed one. Come, you blessed.

The Eternal Implementation: The Glory of Eternal Life

45:24 Enter the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And now I can only, in the couple of minutes that remain to me, try to point to the broad strokes of that eternal implementation that will follow when the righteous enter into the full consummate glory of eternal life. What will heaven be like? I'm sure if we were to distribute a sheet of paper to all of us and I were to ask you to write down what are the questions about heaven that most press in upon your mind when you contemplate heaven.

46:08 And there is so much concerning the glory of that place and of that state which is veiled. But surely much is made clear enough to excite us and make us a heavenly-minded people if the root of the matter is in us. It will be, first of all, a life in which all who enter it will experience the perfect glorification of their entire redeemed humanity. The soul will not have the slightest taint of sin.

46:40 We will have bodies according to the apostle-fashioned rules. We will be like unto the body of his glory. And one of the things that excites me most about heaven is this. There are times when my body surges with energy and strength, but my soul is one clod of dullness and indifference to God.

47:02 Other times when my spirit yearns after God and longs to serve Him and honor Him and praise Him, and yet this body is weak and dull and lifeless, and tired and weary. This is the glory of heaven, to have a spirit purged from every last vestige of sin so that in all of the faculties of the inner person God will be loved supremely with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength. And then that soul will have a body ready to come to the service of all of its sanctified yearnings. That's going to be heaven.

47:43 This idea of sitting half-asleep, and drowsy-eyed on a clod plunked in a harp, that doesn't excite me.

47:52 But to think of loving God with an unsinning heart, as McShane expressed it. And then the unsinning heart having a glorified body, surging with the very life of immortality to serve our God. It will be a life in which all who enter it will experience unwearied service, joined to perennial rest, to rest and refreshment. You say it sounds like a contradiction, but the Bible says, Blest are the dead who die in the Lord, and they rest from their labors.

48:28 Yet the Scriptures tell us that they shall follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes, and they shall serve Him day and night in His temple. And yet heaven is likened unto rest. So all I can do is try to say it will be the glorious experience of unwearied service, joined to perennial rest and refreshment. But blessed be God above all else, it will be the life of perfected, unbroken communion with God and with the Lamb.

49:03 It says they shall see His face. Jesus said that where I am, there you may be also. His high priestly prayer, Father, I will that those whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may behold me, behold my glory. And surely in the heart of every true child of God, when he reads 1 John 3, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him.

49:33 We shall see Him as He is. And then it will be the life, not only lived in these ways, but with unbroken communion with all of the redeemed of all ages. When all of our doctrinal differences and all of our moral and ethical conflicts will be forever past. And you see, heaven is not likened in rural settings, but it's the city of God.

50:09 There will be a great multitude whom no man can number out of every kindred, tribe and tongue and nation. And when we think of all of the clashes and all of the distresses that come to the best of God's people here and now, what will it be? To be amongst the innumerable company of His redeemed in perfect communion with God and in unbroken fellowship with all of His redeemed. Surely that's enough to make us sit loose to anything in this present world and to cry out even so come Lord Jesus.

Conclusion: Are You His Sheep?

50:49 These shall go away into eternal life. I come around full circle to where we began. God's sovereignty over eternity. Our passage has identified the sovereign who will determine your eternal destiny and mine.

51:10 We have looked at the five activities that are highlighted in this passage, which will constitute the process by which the sovereign will determine your destiny and mine. Amen. Amen. For your destiny and mine.

51:29 I close with this question. Knowing an hour is coming when I will give account for the stewardship of this hour and I want to say with Paul I am clear from the blood of all men, I ask you, Are you his sheep? Are you his sheep? You say, Well, how can I know?

51:55 Jesus gives an answer. He says in John 10, sheep are hearing my voice and i know them and they are following me and i give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish and no one shall pluck them out of my hand you see you discover you are the sheep of christ not by penetrating the mysteries of god's electing decrees but by having the marks of his sheep and what are they the open ear and the willing foot my sheep are hearing my voice when i speak in scripture that's the end of the issue for them their hearts have

52:37 been brought subject to me and i speak in my word my sheep are hearing not they heard when i said come unto me and they made a decision raised a hand walked an aisle prayed the prayer no they are hearing my voice the prevailing disposition of their hearts is one of loving obedience to christ out of gratitude for his mercy and saving grace but they not only hear what they hear translates into action they are following me not perfectly but purposefully are you hearing are you following he says i give

53:20 to them eternal life may god grant that we shall make our calling and election sure you as we all move to that hour when our eternal destiny shall be forever fixed