Sermon: Order of Salvation: Glorification

the flip open to Revelation tonight and Revelation chapter

using a Pew Bible there. It's on page 1041.

Frankly just want to read the whole chapter. But what I'm going to do is just read these final verses versus 22 through 27.

Just give us a little glimpse of. What Glory looks like?

Chapter 21 verses 22 through 27. This is the holy inherent sufficient word of God. Let's pray right before we read it here.

Father we do pray your blessing upon this word as it's red. We pray for our meditations tonight. They might be filled with thoughts of you and what is to come. And we might find that. You're caught up in different ways in our minds and our hearts and our affections. The truth of what is to come? In Christ's name we pray amen. Revelation 21 verses 22 through

and I saw no temple in the city. Which Temple is the Lord God the almighty and the lamb? The city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light. It's a lamb is the Lamb. By its light will the Nations walk in the kings of the earth will bring their Glory into it. Its Gates will never be shut by day. There will be no night there. Will bring into it the glory and the honor of the Nations. Nothing unclean will ever enter it.

Or anyone who does what is detestable or foals? But only those who are written in the Lambs Book of Life. The grass withers flower Fades word of God is forever. Speak to God. amen

We've been walking through over these weeks. The order of Salvation or what is called the orders the order saludis in the Latin? And we've gone through each of these different elements in the order of salvation. Had said this week is the final this morning Pastor Kevin rightfully sahu, there's not there's one more week that we're doing I forgot because tonight what we're looking at as glorification next week. He will look at Union with

Christ which in many ways overseas. The entire is kind of the unifying Factor over the entire order of Salvation and glorification. Is that last final chain in the great order of salvation? But do something a little different tonight. I just preached on Heaven from Hebrews in the morning Services just a few weeks ago. And so but we won't do that again tonight. I want to just walk through with you less a sermon just more of kind of a lecture thinking through

glorification together and I want to think through eight different. characteristics or marks of glorification this evening together first glorification as we think about it as a Doctrine glorification is final and it is complete. It's final and complete. Jesus in John 14 in one of those great discourses that he has there in the Gospel of John and John 14:3 he says and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and we'll take you to myself there

where I am. You may be also He's telling the disciples. I'm coming again and notice what he says that he's going to take them. And what is it that he's going to take them to did you catch it. He says I'm going to take you to myself. That's a great promise there of of John 14. He's going to take us to himself. We could of course say that we are with Christ now. He is promised to be with us even now. He says that to the disciples are some

of his final words before he ascends to the right hand of the father. He says lo I Am With You Always even to the very end of the age He will say in the gospels. He will say we're two of you are gathered together in my name there. I am among you so in a very real sense even as Linda pointed out tonight. He said that I and the father shall send to you the spirit. He's with us by his Spirit. He is with us and present with us.

Course it is. Also true that when we die, the scriptures are clear. When we die we go to be with him. Jesus said to that Thief upon the cross today you shall be with me in Paradise. Paul will say to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord when we die we go to be with him. When you die as a Christian there is wonderful blessing. However, when we speak of glorification, that's not what we're speaking of. It is not that moment that you die and you

go to be with the Lord. It is a wonderful transformation that happens for the Christian when we die. However, it is not glorification. There is a coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. That will utter in the final and complete fulfillment of this promise to be with us and we be with him. It's final and complete. That's glorification.

Does that great day that we wait for? final and complete day second glorification means that we no longer suffer from sin or from the consequences of sin. Again, it's true to be absent from the body is to be present the Lord we will know perfect. Peace. We will know perfect Joy the very single moment. We close our eyes and death our last breath here. We will have our first sight there and yet there will be a waiting with anticipation for

the day that we shall be clothed again with our resurrected bodies and we will dwell with Christ forever as resurrected bodies reunited to our souls glorified body Soul beings with him. We're waiting for that day even upon death. As John Murray said the Redemption which Christ is secured for his people is redemption. Not only from sin. But also from all its consequences death is the wages of sin and the death of Believers does not deliver them

from death. That is we're not simply soul.

When you and I die and our body is put into the grave and then our our souls go to be with Christ. They're naked. In many ways. It's an abomination. Our soul was never meant to exist apart from our body. God created US Body and Soul one being That's our person. When you speak of Jason alopoulos, you're speaking of body and soul. The fact that yours and my body returns to the dust from which it was drawn forth is an Abomination the fact that our soul would

go naked anywhere. It's an abomination. So we're waiting for that day when Christ returns and when our bodies are raised from the grave in their glorified State and our souls are reunited to our bodies forevermore. It is then that the Christian is fully as Paul says in Romans 8:29 fully conform to the image of Christ. We are glorified body and soul before resurrected Savior for all of eternity as Paul says in the eighth chapter of Romans. We are waiting for the adoption the

Redemption of our body again, John Murray said it will God is not the god of the dead but of the living and therefore nothing short of Resurrection to the full enjoyment of God can constitute the glory to which the Living God will lead his redeem. bodies so beings before him that's glorification. third glorification is experienced corporately even as we experience it individually. When you and I die in Christ. In that very moment as I

die when I die if I die in the next three minutes. My I will go to heaven that is right. My soul immediately go to heaven and be with Christ immediately. But you won't. I am you're not. Unless you die with me in the next three minutes. But what happens in glorification is that it's not just an individual thing. It is corporately experience even as it is individually experience when Christ returns upon the clouds with the angels and the archangels and the trumpet

Blues the dead are raised and those still living are caught up in the air and it is then that glorification is realized as a whole we all in Christ experience this together in that instant. none before the other All together we will all be finally and completely transformed and we will know by experience or complete and utter triumph over The Last Enemy death. It no longer holds our body. fourth our bodies will be free from decay.

And our souls free from disobedience. No longer show our bodies suffer deteriorate and have pain and struggle with weakness and failing. beginning of Revelation 21 points that out I shall no longer be tears. And neither shall our souls suffer from Temptation or folly or sin. We shall be perfected in body and spirit. We shall be like him. if glorification marks the reality that not only shall we be transformed in that moment?

But the entire Cosmos will be transformed in that moment. It shall be a renewed heavens and earth. Heaven shall truly be upon Earth you get this picture if we had read all of Revelation 21, you see the New Jerusalem descending down from heaven and as a sins it it places itself upon this Earth this Earth is renewed. It is remade it is truly Heaven upon Earth and it is here in heaven upon Earth in this renewed creation that we shall dwell forever

with him.

Sin does not have the final say. It doesn't get to ruin this place. He remakes it and transforms it.

We often sing that wonderful line and Joy to the World this time of year no more. Let sins and Sorrows grow nor Thorns infest the ground. He came comes to make His blessings flow for as the curse is found. Or as the curse is found. That's what happens in glorification. His grace reaches out across the entire landscape of Earth. There is not a corner of this place that is not transformed. As far as the curses found throughout not

only the Earth but all the cosmo. banished

six the greatest of all gifts awaits us and glorification and that we shall see God. This has been the great pursuit of every Christian. In fact, we could say it is a great pursuit of all of our religion. Imagine what that site will be when we see Christ clothed in his human in our human nature sitting in glory with the angels that are before Stone sane is praise and there is an angel over there that is singing There's an angel over there that is prostrate before him and there

is that one that is hovering above him and you and I with our glorified bodies with our glorified I Will be gazing upon him and all of his Beauty and all of his Wonder.

You know, we find God beautiful here when we just get. a taste of him in the scriptures and in prayer and in the sacrament and there is Paul says we won't look through a mere dimly lit anymore. We'll look upon Him face to face. We'll see him as he is.

Imagine what it will be like

Thing about that. I always think about the disciples when Jesus Takes John and James and Peter up on the mountain Transfiguration and there that Glory of his that has been shrouded. That he's chosen to hide from mankind as he's walking the face of the Earth. So they're not overwhelmed. He gives them a glance of that. of that glory on the Mount of transfiguration and Peter who's so struck by But just that moment of seeing Christ

in his glory before him transfigured in that moment Peter can't help himself and he is just blurts out. How about we set up three tents. Jesus he just wants to camp out on this mount for all of eternity with what he's that takes an awful lot to want to camp out for all of eternity. He just gets a glimp.

But you and I shall see is the full glory of God in the face of Christ Shining.

Thomas Watson the Puritan wrote about what we call this beatific Vision he said There will be glory Beyond hyperbole. If the sun were 10,000 times brighter than it is, it could not so much a shadow out this Glory. In the Heavenly Horizon We Shall Behold Beauty in its first magnitude and highest elevation there. We shall see the king in his glory o lights or but eclipses compared with the Glorious vision. We shall have.

And we see him it will not be from a distance. It will be as we're told here in revelation 22 just a very next chapter verse 4 we shall see him face to face. His name will be on our foreheads. Meaning his character will be our character in verse 5 of chapter 2. We're told 22 we're told that we will reign because he reigns we will be seated upon his throne with him. This is not the distance Christ.

I love how John says it in first John 3:2 that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. You remember throughout the Old Testament the the saints were never given a glimpse of of God and and then you have this moment where Moses gets a glimpse of God. But he's only allowed to see his back.

And what the apostle was saying is saying look you are going to get to see God face to face in the person of Christ.

to see him in All His glory so you get this picture here in Revelation 21 of this light emanating from God that shall illumine the new heavens and the new Earth. There's no longer the need for a son. There's no longer the need for a moon. It is an old consume in an old Revealing Light. We shall know him as he is and we will not be consumed by that light. We won't be consumed by it because it's refracted. as we see in verse 23

It's refracted through the lamb. Who is the Lamb? the Lord Jesus Christ

and is by virtue of our Union with Christ Our Eternal mediator that the very glory of God shall shine upon us and we shall dwell with God and not be consumed.

don't know and said it beautifully and so I'm just going to quote this long quote from buckle down for this What he says? And the vision which we shall have above. The whole Glory of Christ will be at once and always represented unto us. And we shall be enabled in one act of the light of Glory to comprehend it. Here indeed. We are at a loss. Our minds and understandings fail us in their contemplations. It will not yet enter into our hearts to

conceive. What is the beauty what is the glory of this complete representation of Christ unto us? To have at once all the glory of what he is. What he was in his outward State and condition what he did and suffered what he is exalted unto his love and condensation condensation is Mystical Union with the church and the communication of himself unto it and the recapitulation of all things in him and the glory of God, even the father in his

wisdom righteousness. Grace love goodness power shining forth eternally in him in what he is has done and does all presented unto us in one View. All comprehended by us at once. Is that which a present we cannot conceive? We long for it. pant after it and have some foretaste of it. Namely of that state and season we're in our whole souls and all their powers and faculties shall constantly inseparably eternally cleave by love unto the whole Christ in

the sight of the glory of his person and Grace until they are watered dissolved and inebriated in the Walters of life and the rivers of pleasure that are above forever more.

This is why the psalmist says one thing have I asked of the Lord. That shall I seek after that. I may dwell in the house of the Lord engaze upon his Beauty.

one thing he wants

seven

Glorification he makes his home with us forever.

This is the great loss in the garden. when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden the great laws that all mankind suffer Is that God no longer makes his home? That's why they are cast out of the garden and they are forced to flee East of Eden. Adam and Eve who walked in the cool of the day with God who enjoyed his immediate unfettered. access to him and he dwelt with them and they dwelt with him. They lost it. And so it's the great promise that we see throughout the scriptures where

God says. I am your God and you shall be my people the great covenantal promise that weaves this way all the way through the scriptures is kind of the Scarlet threat. I am your God, you are my people and the great promise at the end of that is that I will dwell with you. Why because I'm yours in your mind. What was lost in the garden? Is restored and even superseded. And you get all of these little Shadows of it throughout the

Old Testament scriptures where there's this continual unfolding that look this is what I do with my people. I dwell with them as they dwell with me. and so you have where there will be the Tabernacle and so there God will descend upon the Tabernacle and dwell with his people. And then later where it will be the temple and he makes this kind of semi-permanent home where he's dwelling among his people. You will have that Pillar of Fire by night and

that cloud by day where he shows that he is going forward with his people. And you will go on and you will have the priests and the prophets and the Kings who are all signs of the fact that God is dwelling among his people. And then finally as we see Jesus comes in the New Testament and we're told that he is Emmanuel that is God With Us. He is with his people. But then he says this was pointed out earlier tonight in John 14. I must go to the father. So that what I can

send the helper to be with you why so that Spirit May dwell with you and dwell with his people. But the great promise is fully realized here in Revelation 21. Where the new City Jerusalem descends out of the sky that is the people of God and as the people of God come upon the Earth and in this transformed place, we're told that God comes and the great promises realize where he says and I will make my home among them forever.

There it's realized.

There's nothing that's able to come in there. That's unclean or defiled or sinful. Why because he's there. There's not sorrow there. There's not deterioration there. There's not tears there. They're not paying their why because he's there.

And we just get to dwell with. And he dwells with us forever. He makes his home with us.

It's the great promise.

To realized in glorification how long for that?

finally

glorification is a guaranteed promise.

To promise that will be realized.

It's the final link What is often because the golden chain of Salvation if you go through Romans 8 there you will see this kind of. Golden chain lay down those who are cold or Justified and those who are Justified are Sanctified and on we go. and that final chain in the order of Salvation is glorification. And it's a Golden Chain. It's a chain in which not one link of the chain can be broken. So those who are called are glorified.

Promised it can't be taking away. There is not the devil there is not sin. There is not death there is not hell that can break that chain. And so it's promised to God's people. You shall be? glorified guarantee

That's him says I found a friend of such a friend. He loved me air. I new him. He drew me with the chords of love and thus he bound me to him. And round my hearts to closely twine those ties which not conceiver. Brian his he is mine. forever and forever

it's given. To you if you are in Christ. Not a matter of if it's just a matter of wind you shall be glory.

We pray for us. We'll close this thing tonight.

Father we are thankful for the great gift. We have the promise of glorification.

Jehovah's to rest in that promise belong for the realization of that promise.

Forgive us that we are so weak and feeble and frail that we get so caught up.

the things of this world We live as if today is all that there is.

Forgive us as so often. We doubt your promise.

Give us. Then our longing for glories who tepid?

Pray that you would give us greater sights of what awaits. We pray that you would stir our hearts and our affections with the truth of what is to come. And may we live for? They shape us all the days of our life. Thank you for being such a gracious God. And give you praise and glory and want to Forever. Christ's name we pray. amen