Good Works Are Encouraged by Your Communion with Saints in Heaven

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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Please turn your Bible to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12.

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Preaching will be on verse 1 today. That can be found on page 1008 of the pew

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Bible in front of you. Last week, the sermon title was

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Good works are encouraged by your communion with saints on earth. This week the sermon title is good works are encouraged by your communion with saints in heaven.

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Last part of that got chopped off, but that's what it's about. Last week was communion with saints on earth.

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This week communion with saints in heaven. You're gonna see how they are an encouragement to us as well.

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When you have that, please stand for the reading of God's Word. I'll read both verses 1 & 2.

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It's the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

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Amen. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your

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Word. We thank you for the communion that we have in Jesus Christ. We ask that you would bless us with a deeper understanding of this in order that we may be encouraged to the run the race set before us.

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In Jesus' name. Amen. For a very long time, it was thought that the four -minute mile was the absolute limit of how fast a human could run, that it would be impossible to get under a four -minute mile.

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This is just regarded as, you know, an impossibility. In 1954, someone actually broke the four -minute mile.

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Very soon after that, many people got the four -minute mile, right? Later that, that was in May.

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Later that year in June, another person, four -minute mile. Next year, another four -minute mile. Next year, two four -minute miles, etc.

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Breaking, breaking that barrier. And so once it was shown that it was possible, it was an encouragement to everyone else that they could do it too.

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And before that, no one tried hard enough because they didn't think it was possible. We have a race set before us.

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It does not seem possible in many ways. It is very difficult in many ways. God has blessed us with the encouragement of saints who have gone before us and run that race, demonstrating the faithfulness of God and how he will uphold us in all things.

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One of the ways of speaking of the church is the church militant and the church triumphant. The church militant is the church here on earth, is engaged in the battle.

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The church triumphant is the church in heaven that has finished their battle victoriously. It is a difficult battle.

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It's a difficult thing. And many people go about their life as part of the church triumph, er, militant, engaging in that battle with a lot of difficulty, with a lot of failure even, because they are not looking to one of the things that God has blessed them with, which is the church triumphant.

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We have a fellowship with them that has been established in Jesus Christ The union that we have with them not, with, in him not only unites us to other saints on earth, but it unites us to saints in heaven.

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And so we are to be encouraged in good works, not just by our communion with the saints on earth, as we saw from Hebrews 10 24, but also from our communion with the saints in heaven, as we see here in Hebrews 12 1.

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So, would you like us to consider this passage? Would you like us to consider the state of the dead, of those deceased saints, their union with us, and then what that implies for them as an example for us?

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So just considering this verse, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which so, which clings so closely, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

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I think it would be helpful to start with the second half of this sentence first. The second half describes what it is that the author of Hebrews is telling us to do.

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So what it is, let us also, okay, so also is important.

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This is describing us following after the example of saints departed, of the deceased saints.

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Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely.

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When it says lay aside, this is a word that frequently refers not to individual sins.

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It's a word that refers to underlying sinful nature. It's the same word that talks about putting off the old man.

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When it talks about laying aside sin, it's not talking about so much individual sins, but as a whole body of it to mortify sin within us.

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These sins are these things that transgress the law of God either by omitting things

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He has commanded us or committing things that He has forbidden to us. We are to lay aside all those things and even the heart that would desire such things.

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It's not just that that we are to lay aside. We are also to lay aside every weight, every weight that inhibits us.

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These are things that are not necessarily in themselves sinful, but in so much as they are hung on to, they would inhibit us.

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Right, there are a lot of good things in this life that can be enjoyed in different capacities by different people and different kinds of moderation, but there are things that often need to be laid aside.

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You know, riches are a very good thing. Yet Jesus called the rich young ruler to sell all his possessions.

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This was for him a weight that he needed to leave behind. Jesus called other disciples to leave behind their family.

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Family is good. It was a weight that particular people need to leave behind. He called people away from their farm work.

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Work is very good, but sometimes you need to leave it behind for the sake of the Lord. And so not just sin, but every weight that would inhibit,

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He calls us to leave behind and to do what?

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Run with endurance the race that is set before us. How do you run in this race?

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In a lot of ways, it seems like an odd thing because you cannot go about it any faster. A race, you run harder, you run faster, and you get done quicker, right?

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This is not a race that can be done any more quickly by working any harder at it. So it is a race that must be run with endurance.

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It's something that is to be dealt with patiently. And what is it, what is it that is the running harder that is doing better at the race?

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It is what we've been referring to as good works. It is sincere obedience. When Bible talks about walking, when

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Bible talks about running, walking in the truth, walking in the light, walking in love, etc. It is talking about sincere obedience.

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It is talking about good works. We are called, we are called to good works.

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Now that being the what we are supposed to do, the first half of the verse describes the why.

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It says, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, these witnesses are those who are listed in the previous chapter, speaks of from Abel all the way onward to all different different faithful believers in the

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Old Testament. It speaks of them, describes them as a cloud of witnesses. Now a lot of people, the image that is immediately conjured up in their mind is little angel figures, you know, on clouds around you, witnessing you.

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Okay? This is not what this is describing. When it speaks of a cloud of witnesses, it is not saying that they are sitting on clouds.

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It is saying that there are so many of them they are like a cloud. In Isaiah 44, 22, it speaks of our sin, our transgressions, like a cloud.

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There are just so many. They're just so dense. Like if you imagine every little particle of water being an individual sin,

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Isaiah is describing, you know, there's just so many. It's just like an overwhelming cloud. Same thing here with those faithful who have gone before.

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There are just so many of them and they are surrounding us in, if our life and walk is to be in Scripture and we are walking through the

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Scriptures, what do we find ourselves surrounded by in every page? We're surrounded by these faithful examples.

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That we are to be following after. That we are to be imitating. And how are they witnesses?

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This does not speak of them witnessing us. There's a sense in which you could say that they witness us in that, on that last day or at the end of our life when we arrive.

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You know, they will hear from us what we have done. They will be welcoming us across the finish line.

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You know, that would be a sense in which they are witnessing, but they are not watching.

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They are not observing us right now. Rather, this is speaking of them being witnesses to God's faithfulness.

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Okay, what is in question here is whether or not God is faithful to uphold His people in that court where that is being adjudicated.

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They are witnesses testifying to God's goodness. How do you know this? Well, just consider several things. Consider the fact that the whole context before has been about God's faithfulness to the faithful.

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And that whole context is reinforcing this witness. Not a phrase from the whole previous chapter was about them watching us or looking at us.

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Okay, also when it says in this verse, also, let us also lay aside every weight.

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It talks about us following in their example. Why would it be important to follow in their example if they are watching us?

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The connection would not be so immediate. Rather, the connection is immediate if they are witnesses to what happens if you do walk in the ways that God has set before you.

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If that is the case and He has upheld them, then let us also do the same. And then consider that this whole section of Scripture is bookended with the witness of Abel.

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Verse 4 of the previous chapter says, By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous,

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God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

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Abel still speaks. He is still witnessing to us today. Consider Hebrews 12, 24.

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So later on in this chapter that we're in today. To Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

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So he bookends this section by talking about Abel. Abel's blood is speaking to us. And then later he speaks of Jesus' blood, but he still mentions

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Abel's blood. It still speaks to us. It cries out for judgment on the wicked, but it also speaks to us about God's upholding the faithful.

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His blood still speaks. And so these are witnesses to God's faithfulness. These are not witnesses watching us from the sky.

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Okay, that's what it's describing. I once, I forget who it was, but it was one of the more famous Roman Catholic apologists.

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Back when I worked at Google, he came and gave a presentation at Google about why it was okay to pray to the saints.

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If that's surprising to you that there were just a lot of talks on anything that people were able to invite people to at Google, right?

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So this was like a common thing. He gave a talk, and I asked him later, like, why he thought that.

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And he pointed to this verse. He says, see, they're witnesses. And I explained some of these points that I'm explaining to you now, and he just had never, he was like, well,

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I've never heard of that before. Like, it's just right there. It's Hebrews 11, just saying that these are the witnesses.

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Abel's blood is speaking. This is the witness. So yeah, this is a

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Roman Catholic notion that they are watching us, and that should lead us to prayer.

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But yeah, these are fanciful ideas. Okay, so the state of the dead, the state of the dead.

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When you die, your body and your soul separate. But consciousness is not found in your body, though as you are conscious, your brain is engaged, et cetera.

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But that does not mean that consciousness is in your body. It is in your soul. And so those saints who have gone on, they are still conscious.

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They are immediately conscious. Consider the words that Jesus says to the criminal on the cross. This day, you will be with me in paradise.

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Likewise, the wicked immediately go into conscious torment. You see

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Lazarus and the rich man. Even if this is not a historical narrative, even if it is a parable,

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Jesus is not drawing a scene from pagan mythology.

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Okay, he is describing something that comes from a true understanding of religion, a conscious

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Lazarus, a conscious rich man in torment and one in comfort.

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Okay, they immediately go into this state. Consider Moses and Elijah, Mount of Transfiguration, right?

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They are not unconscious, they are conscious. And so those who would propose something else, some kind of soul sleep, right?

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This is what a lot of people believe. Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, right?

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They teach that there is a soul sleep, that the soul basically ceases to exist, not just that it's unconscious, but that it ceases to exist and God sort of, you know, recreates it later.

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I don't even know what the identity of that thing would be if it's not, you know, how can you be recreated later if you cease to exist?

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Would it even be you, you know? There's no soul sleep. You will remain conscious.

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You immediately go to be with the Lord. Spirit returns to God who gave it. Now, in addition to that, there's no purgatory.

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There's no secondary place for people to go. There is, there are only these two places, torment or paradise.

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Roman Catholicism teaches that there is a purgatory. They would point to various verses in the

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Bible, but these are desperate attempts that are hardly worth going through at all. One of them, I think the most popular one is

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First Corinthians three, where it talks about being saved even as if through fire, right, it says nothing of purgatory.

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There's, you have to be motivated to find it there to say that that relates at all, right?

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It's coming from somewhere else, if you believe that. It's coming from extra biblical ideas that are not revealed from God.

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Okay, so they are conscious of, they're conscious of themselves. They're also conscious of us.

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They are aware of us, okay? They have a love for us, a concern for us.

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They pray for us. It says in Revelation 6, 10, they cried out with a loud voice, speaking of the martyrs under the altar.

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Oh, sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?

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No, they're aware enough of what's going on on the earth that they know that the vengeance hasn't happened yet, right?

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They care about the people of God and they enjoy their situation with a greater understanding of the faith than they had before.

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1 Corinthians 13, 12 says, for now we see it in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, then

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I shall know fully even as I have been fully known, okay?

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Now, all that being said, they do not know us. They do not observe us in detail, okay?

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They might receive some revelation from God or maybe even immediately through the angels to know something of us, but they are not omniscient.

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They're not watching us. They are ignorant of details. They are not privy to details.

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Isaiah 63, 16 says, Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. Abraham does not know who you are, right?

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This is not something that he's not watching from a cloud, right? Now, like I said, the only sense in which they can be called witnesses is in that they are aware of us in general terms through whatever

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God has revealed to them and we will one day arrive across the finish line.

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They are there waiting for us, applauding those who come in, okay? They celebrate.

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That is the extent to which they can be called, the extent to which they can be called witnesses.

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All right, let's talk about the vocabulary of saints. I've spoken of the deceased as saints.

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It's pretty typical vocabulary around this church. At the same time, it is unusual for some people to hear.

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They're not used to thinking of the living as saints. They're not used to thinking of all dead believers as saints.

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If you were to read a Roman Catholic Bible, there would be very few places where it uses the word saint.

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Consider that in the next chapter, it says at the very end, greet all your leaders and all the saints.

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This is speaking of the living. In a Roman Catholic Bible, it would not say saints there. It would just say holy ones or something like that.

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That is what a saint is. A saint is a holy one. But in Roman Catholicism, saints are reserved for just those in heaven.

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It is not those on earth. It's not those in purgatory. So it's not even all dead believers, but it's just those in heaven.

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Now, you might be wondering at this point, well, how do they know? If there's also purgatory, how do they know which ones are in heaven?

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Well, the answer is the Roman Catholic process of canonization typically involves that someone has prayed to the saint after they departed.

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Of course, they're not using the word saint at this point because they don't know, right? Someone has prayed to the dead after they departed and two miracles, at least two miracles, have been done through prayers.

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Now, 2 Thessalonians 2 .9 says that these are false signs and wonders. Okay, they're not true miracles.

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They are wicked deceptions. But this is what happens. So when you go around here, you know, and you see

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San Jose or Santa Clara, San Francisco, you know, San, Santa, that refers to saints.

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And you can go around, you can see these things and you can think, I don't know who Clara was, but I know that after she died, she could be a sister.

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She could be not, I don't know. But after she died, two people, you know, at least two times people prayed to her and there was some false sign and wonder that the devil did.

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So you can now have those thoughts as you're going around and you see all the signs that say San Tomas, et cetera, right?

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This is what, yeah, this is what Roman Catholicism has for the process of canonization.

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Canonization meaning, you know, making the rule of what, who it is that should be called a saint. Getting written down, you know, in the book of saints.

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The book that God speaks of is one written in heaven. He has placed our names in there. The Holy Spirit who has worked in the hearts of any who believe their names are written in that book.

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They have been canonized. They are the saints. So this is where the language of sainthood comes from. It is simply holiness.

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It is holiness. God has made us holy as a beginning and as a process we are continuing in.

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He has perfected their holiness, right? So that describes, yeah, that describes sainthood.

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Now let's consider union. The nature of union with Christ because we are united with Christ as we've spoken of in previous weeks and they are united in Christ also by the

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Spirit. That means that we are united to them just as we are united to each other like we talked about last week, right?

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So this is, there's a transitive property here. If any, there's any people who remember their math classes like the transitive property of equality, right?

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If A equals B and B equals C, then A equals C, right? Two plus two equals four and four equals two times two then two plus two equals two times two.

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Same thing here. If you are united to Christ and Christ is united to them, then you are united to them, okay?

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We are united together with the saints in heaven and that has implications for us that we will cover.

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This is something that persists even past our own death. It's not just that we are united right now because we will continue to be united in Christ because there is no death that can separate us from Christ.

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We will continue to be united with them in our death.

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And in fact, that union will be perfected and completed there because it is there that we will be made perfect.

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We will not have any more indwelling sin that keeps us from love.

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So here, our fellowship is imperfect. There, it will be perfect. It will be an enjoyable thing. And because of this, it is something that is to be pursued in this life.

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There are many who have desired to have this future communion that's known as communion in glory, but not the communion here on earth.

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Something to consider. This union connects us not just in our spirits, but remember, even the body.

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Even the body is connected. To Jesus Christ. That is what guarantees the resurrection of the dead.

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First Corinthians 6 .15 says, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Okay, so your body is united to Christ.

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That means that there is a union, not just with them in heaven, but even between us and their bodies on earth.

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That demands some kind of respect, not veneration, not worshiping or anything, but even a respect for their bodies as they lie on earth, as there is a union between us and them.

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Bible speaks of this union in glory. It says, and thou shall go to thy fathers in peace.

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Thou shall be buried in a good old age. Genesis 15 .15, going to thy fathers.

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It's not just talking about the body, right? It's talking about joining together in glory.

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Okay, all right, so let's talk about communion. Remember, union is that bond we have.

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Communion is the things shared in that bond. Okay, so the communion that we have with the saints in heaven.

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First of all, salvation. One faith, one Lord, one baptism, et cetera. Right, we've spoken of that before.

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We have a communion in all those graces. Salvation we receive is the same salvation they receive.

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Our God is their God, right? These are all shared.

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So it's not just salvation. It's also a concern, a shared concern with one another.

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They are concerned for us. They pray for us. We have an honor, a respect for them.

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Once again, not veneration, not worshiping. That does not, it does not entail prayer for anything other than,

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I mean, what would you pray for them for? Once again, you know, if there's no purgatory, you can't spring them out of purgatory.

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All you can do to pray for them would be that the Lord's return would be hastened as a prayer for us as well.

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Okay, so they don't need to be prayed for, you know, beyond that prayer, which is for the whole kingdom, right?

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But there's a mutual shared concern. There's also a communion in worship. There's a communion in worship.

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And later on in this chapter in Hebrews 12, it says in verses 22 to 23, but you have come to Mount Zion, this is describing worship, the gathered church at Zion, and to the city of the living

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God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels and festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.

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Right, the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, that refers to other believers that are not necessarily here in this place.

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So in our worship, there's a special union. There's special communion that we have with other believers, not even here.

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And then on top of that, we have a communion in that worship with the saints in heaven.

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So we are to, when we gather, there is an anticipation of that last day when we are all gathered together, when all the angels, when all the saints are gathered in one physical place, there is, if you've ever heard of the already, not yet, there's an already to that, that even now, like it describes here in Hebrews 12, there's a communion of us, saints on earth, saints in heaven, saints not in this place, angels,

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Jesus Christ himself, that we are to be considered gathered together in a anticipatory way, even right now as we are worshiping.

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Okay, so there's a communion in worship. Now, there are also false communions, going back to Roman Catholic ideas.

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Okay, first of all, there's the false communion of speech, right? We are not, they do not speak to us.

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We do not speak to them. That is not a communion that we share at this time, right?

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And I would say, it's not just, first of all, it would be unproductive because what could they do with that speech, right?

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They can't hear you, so why would you speak to them? But secondly, it is actively an abomination to God.

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Deuteronomy 18, 10 through 12 says, there shall not be found among you anyone who burns his sons or his daughters as an offering, anyone who practices divinations or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead.

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For whoever does these things is an abomination to God. What is necromancy? It's speaking to the dead. One who inquires of the dead is a necromancer.

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You might be familiar with the notion in entertainment where it's some kind of warlord who uses dark magic or something like that, but anyone who speaks to the dead is engaging in necromancy.

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Doesn't matter if it's your Roman Catholic little granny or something, it is still, that is still an abomination to the

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Lord. So do not speak to the dead, do not pray to the dead, okay?

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There is also a false communion in merit. This is another Roman Catholic idea that we commune in our good works in such a way that because they would believe that you can go beyond what

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God has required, that those saints in heaven have built up more good works than they need and so they can share some of that with us to make up what we lack, all right?

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That is a false communion because God has required perfection. You cannot go above what he requires.

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No one accomplishes all that he requires. Rather it is

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Christ who has accomplished that for us. That is why we can meet his mark for salvation is because he has,

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Christ has accomplished all for us. So yeah, shun those false communions, right?

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And there is an excellent communion that is to be had in glory. It is perfected, we will be made perfect, we will enjoy fellowship with them and it is something that is to be pursued in this life.

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Consider Balaam. Balaam was a man who desired that communion in glory but did not pursue it here on this earth.

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It says in Numbers 3 .10, this is Balaam speaking. Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel?

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Let me die the death of the upright and let my end be like his. Now he wanted to die the death of the upright.

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He wanted to be united with Jacob, et cetera, right? But he did not pursue that in this world.

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He actively worked against the communion of the saints on earth, even though he spoke of desiring communion with the saints in heaven.

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So it is with us. There are so many who want that communion in glory but in this world, they despise the communion of the saints.

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They think it's, they either treat the churches as merely a man -made institution and not something

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Christ has instituted. They speak lowly of gathering with the body. They have little desire to love and give to one another.

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And so they do not pursue it in this life and they will not enjoy it in the next because that is not, if God has united us to them, he has also united us to each other.

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You cannot have one without the other. They are a packaged deal. All the union in Christ, it's a transitive property, like I said.

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It's not something that you can piecewise disassemble. It is like, it's like clay, right?

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You imagine if you made a mug and you were to put the handle on, you know, the clay has to be wet while you are putting it on.

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If you like barely assemble it and then fire it, then it gets hard and there's no way you can ever get that handle stuck to the mug, right?

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Now is the time for seeking Christ. Now is the time to be joined together through the blood of Christ Now is the time to desire the good things that God has given.

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Okay, all right. So that is the communion, the communion of the saints.

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Now, what does this imply for us? Okay, if he has been faithful to them, if they have all the same blessings that we have and that we enjoy, then this is true for us as well.

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His faithfulness to them is the same faithfulness he extends to us. Their example is not just, you can't just say, oh, this is a different time.

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This is a different place. God works differently. He is immutable. That union between us is the same union, that communion between us.

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It's the same salvation. It's the same grace. It's the same fellowship. This means that all his faithfulness to them implies a faithfulness to us.

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And we cannot, by whatever circumstances that are different, write them off as not being meaningful examples for us.

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So we are supposed to follow their example. And moreover, God has given them to us as a cloud of witnesses in such a way that we should be very grateful for what he has done, right?

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We should look at this and we should say, wow, he has recorded all these things for us to enjoy what he has said about the saints.

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And by enjoy, I don't just mean feel joyful. I mean to take use of and make use of, right?

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So that we would learn from their mistakes, learn from their triumphs, witness

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God's faithfulness, be more convinced of it, right? We should be grateful.

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God has put many people through incredible trials, especially when we look at the word of God.

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A lot of it for their sake, but in many ways, primarily for yours.

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You think about Job. Okay, yes, God had a good plan for Job at the end, but can you honestly say at that final estimation that Job benefited more from his own suffering than everyone who came after him and read about his suffering?

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Job went through all that suffering in part for you, not as a substitute like Christ has.

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Hear what I'm saying. But God has decided that he would undergo all these trials at a very early time in history, incredible, difficult trials for the benefits of all those who would come before.

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Job's suffering was for your benefit. And this is true with many of the saints that you see here.

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Even things barely recorded. You know, it talked in Hebrews 11 about people being sawn in two.

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Do you know who that's referring to? Tradition says that it's Isaiah, right? We don't even have that recorded beyond that little snippet in Hebrews 11.

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Isaiah was sawn in two. You benefit from that with a quarter of a verse or whatever it is, and that should not be taken lightly.

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A man was sawn in two in part, if not to a great degree for your benefit so that you would know what kind of trials you should be prepared to endure so that you should know

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God's faithfulness through trials, et cetera. These are all things that are, yeah, are for you.

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Yes, for them. Yes, for the glory of the kingdom, but in part for the glory of the kingdom so that you would be sufficiently encouraged.

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There is a gratitude that is owed for all these things that he has chosen to permit his own people whom he loves to endure such things, in part for your sake.

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Consider, I want to read a bunch of verses here. This first set of verses explain that God records these things for us.

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Romans 5, excuse me, Romans 15, 4. For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

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Okay, all the things written in the former days are for our encouragement. Okay, that includes the narrative, it includes the people. James 5, 10 through 11.

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As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

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Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job. You have seen the purpose of the

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Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. These are his purposes in recording these things.

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1 Corinthians 10, 6. Now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did, describing the

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Israelites in the wilderness who fell in the wilderness. So it's not just the saints that God gives as an example.

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He hands over some to incredibly difficult judgments, incredibly harsh judgments, not harsher than they deserve, but harsher than he might otherwise give for our benefit.

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Once again, that we might not desire evil as they did. Hebrews 6, 12.

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These verses are gonna talk about the duty to imitate, the duty to imitate the believers in ages past.

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Hebrews 6, 12. We should be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

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Hebrews 13, 7. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

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And we're called to imitate them. When it says leaders, sometimes elsewhere in Hebrews, it's talking about the living ones.

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Here it says the outcome of their way of life. So it's suggesting the dead ones, right? Remember them. Remember that they finished the race well.

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Remember how God upheld them all the way to the end. This is supposed to be an encouragement to you.

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Philippians 3, 17. Brothers join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.

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Paul's telling them to, telling the Philippians to imitate him. Now that's while he's living, but this does not cease to be true.

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We should still look at Paul's life and imitate him. He is an example for our imitation and as much as he imitates

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Christ. And then we are told in more or less words, it is right to remember and honor dead believers.

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Colossians 3, 1 through 2. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.

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Where Christ is seated, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. What are one of the things that are above?

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Is it not the saints in heaven? That's one of the things above. Think about their finished race. Proverbs 10, 7.

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The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot. Luke 1, 48.

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This is Mary speaking. The mother of Jesus. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.

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All generations calling her blessed. We are called to remember her. We're called to remember others.

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And this is a good for us, not just a duty because, oh, we have to honor them, but rather it is an encouragement for us that we might run our race well.

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And so consider all the implications for your life. First is to pursue that communion in glory by pursuing this communion in grace.

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Communion in grace being here, the communion that we experience here in this world, as opposed to the communion that we will experience after we die, right?

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Communion in grace versus communion in glory. Pursue that communion in glory. If you do not know Jesus Christ, if you've not repented, you do not have union with Christ.

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The Holy Spirit has not worked in you. Turn, repent, believe. Christ, he is an excellent

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God. He gives so many good benefits. If you turn to him, he will grant you all the wonderful joys that I've spoken of today.

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And he will, all these things that right now are not for your benefit, you might apply as some kind of moral example to your life and experience some small worldly benefit, but ultimately they will be of no benefit for you if you end like the

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Israelites who perished in the wilderness did, desiring evil, right? This is something where you should, yeah, you cannot benefit in a full way apart from union with Christ.

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Turn to him, repent your sins. If you already have trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, become more like him.

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It is through likeness with him, through the Holy Spirit working in us, transforming us, making us more like his image, that we become more like each other and that communion is more experienced.

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We are truly united with the saints in heaven, but as they have been made perfect like him, the degree to which we are not made perfect is the degree to which we do not enjoy and experience the communion with them as well as we could.

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So the more you become like Jesus, the more you can experience that communion, not just with the saints on earth, but even with the saints in heaven.

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And build up this communion as you experience it here in this world, communion in love.

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You should love your brothers. This relationship that you have with them is not one that lasts just a lifetime.

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It will continue forever. You know, a lot of times people say about difficult social situations, it's like, oh, does it matter?

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I'm never gonna see him again. Okay, you can't say that with brothers and sisters. You'll be stuck with them forever, forever.

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Now, they will forgive you for whatever it is because they'll be made perfect and forgiving. But you should, yeah, you should build up that love with them now.

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Okay, now, avoid any kind of false communion with the dead, okay? Avoid speaking with the dead.

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Do not pray to the dead. There's no reason to pray to the dead. That is an abomination. But there are ways that people speak to the dead that are wrong as well.

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And I will say this with one caveat. There is a place for a poetic figure of speech, speaking to the dead as a way of memorializing them.

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For example, consider this verse. 2 Samuel 1, 26. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan.

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Very pleasant have you been to me. Your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women.

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This is after Jonathan has died. David, in a poem, is memorializing him with this one verse that turns and, you know, in a figure speaks to him.

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But the way a lot of people end up speaking to the dead, you know, they go to the graveside and they pour out their heart to the dead, right?

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They're replacing God as a source of comfort with the dead as a source of comfort. They speak of the dead as though they are watching and have some kind of comforting presence for them, right?

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And I see people do this online too. You know, they'll make posts on social media, just like writing posts that are deceased that they love them and miss them so much, right?

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And this is kind of like a source of comfort to them, not memorializing them in poetry or anything, but as an exercise in, once again, you know, replacing

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God as their source of comfort with the dead. Okay, this is necromancy.

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This is necromancy. You wouldn't usually think to use that word, but that is what it is. If you're replacing

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God as your source of comfort with the dead, even if, and I know a lot of people who do this would say, oh, I know they can't really hear me.

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Some of them do believe that they can, right? But some would say, oh, I know they don't really. It's like, why are you going through this exercise?

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And this is inappropriate the way you are doing it. Yeah, do not engage in that. And do not worship or venerate the dead.

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Now, I'm not just talking about the strict Roman Catholic practices.

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I know that this is a pretty international crowd we've got here, and a lot of you have family where if you go there, there is a pressure to, you know, either put food out before a picture of a family member, right?

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Some kind of offering, you know, there's a lot of different cultural ways of worshiping the dead. Do not be pressured by that.

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There are many temptations, but let them all be external. Do not let your heartstrings feel tugged. This does not benefit the dead at all.

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This is not an appropriate way of honoring them, putting out little sacrifices and food for them. All right, now, how ought we to appreciate that witness of the saints departed, of the saints in heaven?

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First of all, understand the context that we are seeing them as examples of someone that Christ was working in.

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Consider just the next verse here. It says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. So it says we're surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses.

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We're not supposed to be looking to the great cloud of witnesses. It's because we are surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses.

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We are to be looking not to them, but to Jesus, okay? Paul says, imitate me as I imitate

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Christ. He doesn't just say imitate me. That's an important qualification. Okay, so these, they are calls to, their witness is to look to Jesus, okay?

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Their witness is not to look to them. Now you have to observe the words about them in order to understand the way that they are an example.

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But ultimately, they should be redirecting our eyes to Christ and if they are not doing that, then this is, yeah, it's idolatrous.

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So yeah, first understand that this witness is pointing to Christ, right?

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I mean, the last two verses of the previous chapter would be helpful here. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised.

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Since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. What is that thing that was promised to them that they didn't receive, but we have received?

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Is it not Jesus Christ, right? Jesus Christ, they did not receive the thing that was promised. They were looking forward to him and they didn't receive him, but we have received him.

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So this is, this was what they were looking forward to. This is the example that they have set, is looking forward to Jesus, looking to the thing promised.

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We get to look back and then forward at his future coming. We get to, yeah, we are in a very privileged position where we have the

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New Testament. We have the revelation of Jesus Christ, et cetera. All right, so that is how you are supposed to be doing it.

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Now consider the source of where you should be learning about sea saints.

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First of all, it's scripture, right? There is so much written in scripture about this, about ages past.

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I always wondered, when I was a kid, I really thought the Bible was supposed to be some kind of like textbook or like a rule book.

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And I wondered why it was not written in a more systematic way and why there were so many narratives. Like, I understand why you would have

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Genesis 1 and 2, that kind of thing to explain what happened, but I never understood why there would be so much narrative when it was really, you know, like,

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I just wanted doctrines and practices written down. And there was very little of that, just lots of narrative.

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But that is there in order that you would understand doctrine and practice more fully so that you would have a well -rounded understanding and a experiential even understanding of it in a way that communicates well to humans who learn by experience.

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If you ever met an older saint who just constantly pulls out examples from the Old Testament, it's like, oh yeah, that's when

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Jehoshaphat was standing on the cliffs of Ziz, or, you know, something fairly obscure to you, right?

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It's like, man, how do they know all this stuff? You should know it too, right? It is a, there is a lot in the

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Bible. If you are unfamiliar with any section of biblical history, don't think of that as unimportant. You know, this passage is telling you it's important.

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You should go learn it. You should go learn it. There is, I was leading a Bible study at one time, and one lady came, and we were talking about Hebrews 11.

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And I was just kind of doing a quiz on the last portion of this that says, some, yeah, some refused to accept release, some were tortured, some were resurrected.

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Women received back their dead by resurrection, et cetera. Right, and I was saying, all right, does anybody know who this is? And this one lady seemed very embarrassed that she didn't know any of it, right?

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She didn't know who, she didn't know who Samson was. She didn't know who David was. And she had, she claimed to have been a believer for a number of years.

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And part of me felt bad that I didn't mean to ask these questions about who's Samson to embarrass anyone.

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I thought this was fairly well known. She was embarrassed, but later I looked back at that, and like, you know, maybe her embarrassment is right.

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You know, maybe we should, like maybe that should just be embarrassing for a believer to not know the story from the

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Bible, including some of the more, ones we consider more obscure. One of the very easy ways to correct this beyond just your own

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Bible reading is right now in our prayer meetings, we are going through 2 Chronicles.

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2 Chronicles is going to go through some of the most neglected parts of biblical history.

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That is a, and we're going through it at a pace that is conducive to retaining it.

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So this would be a great opportunity if you are able to come out on Wednesday nights, come out on Wednesday nights, learn about 2

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Chronicles. Beyond that, there's also history.

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These saints in ages past, while their record in scripture is of special value because that's the inspired word of God, it is still the case that God has given us other saints in heaven and records of them throughout history that can benefit us.

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We can still see God's faithfulness and saints in the early church, saints during the Reformation, et cetera.

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These are things that are worth reading. As I was studying for this message, this message, I noticed at least one, if not multiple of the authors

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I was reading were lamenting that, and this is in the 1600s, people writing, they're lamenting that people had ceased to read

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Fox's book Martyrs, that this is something that should be more read. And I know

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I've read some of it, but I've read very little of it. And I thought, man, maybe that is a great treasure that I'm neglecting is, you know, there are very good compilations of martyrs that we should be taking advantage of, not reading as though they were scripture, but to neglect some gift like that, that God has permitted difficulties to happen in his church, in part that we might benefit from them and then we not benefit from them, that would be a real shame.

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So yeah, I've begun going through more of Fox's book of Martyrs. I would encourage you to not treat history as tertiary, right?

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Obviously it's secondary to the Bible, but that's it, still value it, still value it.

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Okay, so then the result of all this, like I said, should be gratitude. There should be a gratitude to God for having recorded these things.

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There should be a gratitude to God for having permitted people to go through such difficulties for our sake.

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There should be a gratitude to God for his preservation of them, for his faithfulness to them.

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And then there should be a gratitude to God for the communion that we have in Jesus Christ. You know, this is all a blessing of salvation that we would have this union and communion.

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There should be a gratitude to God for the communion that we have in Jesus Christ. Consider these words in 1

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Samuel 18, 18. And David said to Saul, who am I and who are my relatives?

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My father's clan in Israel that I should be son -in -law to the king. Now that really is worth considering.

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Some of these people were great men. Like God really worked through them and did incredible, wonderful things. The fact that we would be united together with them, that we'd be brothers -in -law to kings, this is incredible that he has brought us together in this way.

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This all warrants significant gratitude. Then of course, the other result is the one that you see here in this passage.

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Let us also lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

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We should be laying aside sin. We should be putting off the old man, putting on the new man. We should practice getting rid of anything that hinders you.

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Look in your life, anything that eats up your time in ways that are not conducive to a godly life. God has put good things in this life for us to enjoy.

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I'm not saying there's nothing that you can enjoy, but anything that is taking away from what is actually conducive to a godly life, whether or not be in and of itself sin, practice laying it aside and do that more and more and you'll be able to lay greater and greater things aside and you'll be more and more fit for holy uses in God's kingdom.

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Also, think about that one day, should the Lord tarry, you will also be one of these saints in heaven.

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Think about the example that you will be leaving behind to others. Leave behind an excellent example.

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God will be faithful. He will uphold you. He will make you a good example. Once again, should you not quench the spirit, if you follow after him, he will uphold you.

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He will make you that good example. Consider what the implications are for even the way you would be memorialized, even the way you would be buried.

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In the Bible, in Amos 2 .1, it says that Moab was judged because he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom.

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So, speaking of essentially cremation, this is something that desecrates a body rather than honors it.

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Remember, if we have a union to the bodies, not just the souls, saints in heaven, there are implications for us, how you would be memorialized.

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Consider how you would be memorialized for others. But then also consider even the place where you would be buried.

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There was an excellent quote I read that I think is going to be pretty challenging because you have not, this is not, it was challenging me because it's something

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I had not really heard before, but it talks about not just the mode of burial, but even the place of burial, that if we have a communion with one another, we should desire that our bodies even lie with one another in death.

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Consider this, this is by, this is from a sermon by John Smith, who is an Anglican, not, this is not the famous John Smith that later became a

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Baptist, this is a different one. Speaks about the union, or the communion of the saints, that one of their communions is in desire for each other, desire that they may be buried and lie together in the grave, that they may rise together in glory and happiness.

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We see Genesis 23, that Abraham might have buried Sarah where she was dead, when she was dead, and the best of the sepulchers of the heathen people, but he bought a piece of ground for them to bury her in, or from them to bury her in.

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In Genesis 49, 29, Jacob gave a charge to his sons concerning the place of his burial, saying,

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I am gathered unto my people, bury me with my fathers in the cave, that is, in the fathers of Ephron the Hittite, and the cave, that is, in the field of Machpelah, besides Mamre, and the land of Canaan, which

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Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite, for possession to bury in. There they laid

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Abraham and Sarah, and there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah, and let me lie amongst

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God's saints. So first Kings 30, 31, the old prophet said, when I am dead, bury me also in the sepulcher, wherein the man of God is buried, lay my bones by his bones, my body by his body, et cetera.

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So it is the desire of saints to lie together in the grave, to have their ashes mingled together, and their dust never separated, so that they may rise to eternal glory together.

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Some think it is no matter where a man is buried when he is dead, and indeed, all is one in regard of salvation.

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But a man would be loath, loath means he would loathe it, would be loath to rise with the whoremasters, drunkards, thieves, and villains.

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Therefore, he would be loath to lie amongst them. It's quite the quote, and with a lot of scriptural examples as well.

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So consider how you would be memorialized to. God has given those in ages past, those saints in heaven, as a gift for us.

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We are a gift to each other, but they are also a gift to us, and they are to be enjoyed with gratitude.

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They are to be studied and honored, and their example is to be followed. They are an encouragement to you in good works, that God is faithful in all that he calls you to.

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It is said that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, but consider also that those who ignore history are doomed to not repeat the good portions of it.

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Many of these have left good portions for us to repeat, and if we do not study that history, we will not repeat the good that they have done.

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We will not repeat their triumphs, but we will land in failures. When I was,

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I ran cross country when I was in high school, and, you know, varsity would run first, and then when I was on JV, you know, we would run after, and they would, and a lot of times the varsity team would relay things about the course.

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They'd say, oh yeah, this part, it's really wet and slippery, so watch out there, et cetera, right? And they would tell us all these things.

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I remember one time relaying all this, and at the end, a guy said, but at the end, it's just a race, just run hard.

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And it strikes me here because this is, while this is a race, it is not a simple race, like cross country is.

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It's a much more complex and difficult race, and it is worth studying much more deeply than handing off a few remarks about how wet certain parts of the path are.

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Study it well. God has given his word as a gift to you, not just to read as words of any other page, but to connect you in some meaningful way to the saints in heaven, which he has given you communion with in Jesus Christ.

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This is a wonderful blessing that we have through the wonderful gift that God has given in his son.

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Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the wonderful gift that you have given of union in Jesus Christ.

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We pray that you would help us to appreciate this more and more, and that you would assist us as we study your word, and the saints of ages past, what they have done, and your faithfulness to them.

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We pray that we would likewise have regard for those even outside your word as well who have acted faithfully and to whom you have been faithful.

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We pray that we would not lay aside the examples that you have given for our benefit, but instead being informed by them and looking to Jesus, we would lay aside every sin and weight that so easily entangles us.