Certain Words

Well, please turn to Luke chapter 21, where we'll be continuing through Luke as Jesus explains to the disciples what is to come.

Please stand when you have that passage. Luke 21, beginning in verse 29.

And He told them a parable, look at the fig tree and all the trees. As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near.

So also when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the certain words of Jesus Christ.

We ask that we would heed them today, that we would be encouraged by those things that are spoken here, that we would be eager to receive

His words in all measure from the scriptures, and that these things would be a great balm to the soul.

In Jesus' name, amen. Well, the

Christian life is full of all kinds of difficulties, but God has not left us unequipped.

He has given us His word. And here, Christ gives us confidence about His word with this phrase, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away, as He tells them of the coming destruction.

Now, we have addressed many different things as we have gone through this passage. The destruction that was coming on Jerusalem in A .D.

70, when Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus and the temple destroyed, and also the coming destruction.

And these things are both present here in this passage as we look at it.

Yet, one of the most important things here is simply this last statement, that heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

In verse 29, it says, and He told them a parable. This is a phrase that is unique to Luke.

When this is explained in Matthew 24 and Mark 13, it does not use this term, but Jesus speaks of it here in Luke as a parable.

It says, look at the fig tree and all the trees. So this is something that's true about the fig tree, but this is something that is also true about all trees.

As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near.

So the summer is near when the leaves come out on the trees. Now this is especially true of a fig tree, because a fig tree is late leafing.

It is toward the end of spring that the fig tree has its leaf.

And so Jesus appealing to something that they would be aware of, that all the different trees are leafing, and then the last one would be the fig tree, and then you know summer is just about here.

There's a way that nature understands what is coming in some ways better than we do.

If there is an earthquake, the animals start acting crazy before people have any idea what's going on.

Jesus is of course speaking of a destruction that is coming, of a great judgment that is coming, that is something that has signs that attend to it.

And he has spoken of these signs previously, general signs, more specific signs.

And while on one hand those signs are supernatural, coming from the hand of God, on another hand they are, they are natural in that they are the things that of course attend to this change, this judgment.

God does not bring judgment arbitrarily. He brings judgment particularly when the world is ripe for judgment.

We see this all throughout scriptures. Genesis 15, 16, it says,

God says to Abraham that his children will go into Egypt and they will not come back here until the fourth generation for the iniquity of the

Amorites is not yet complete. The idea is the people will be in Egypt for 400 years so that the

Amorites, that is the Canaanites, will continue in their sin until judgment is ripe and Joshua will go in and bring judgment.

Interestingly, Hebrews chapter 4 making the analogy between Joshua and Jesus, them both having the same name, one being the transliteration of it from Hebrew into English, the other being transliteration of Greek into English, Joshua and Jesus.

And then in Romans chapter 9 it says very much the same thing. Why is it that God is so patient towards those who are vessels of wrath?

Is he not patient towards them in order that he might greater show his mercy to his vessels of mercy?

He is waiting with much patience until that time is ripe. And that word ripe, of course,

I have chosen because it's very similar to the notion of trees and fruit and figs.

These signs have a natural attendance to the thing that they symbolize.

And in verse 31 he says, So also when you see these things taking place, know that the kingdom of God is near.

Speaks of the kingdom of God being near, that being the kingdom with greater dominion.

What does it mean for the kingdom to be here? It is for it to have power, for it to be, for it to have a greater impact on those it would impact, on contending with the enemy and on sovereignty over its own people.

He says in verse 32, and this is the most contested passage of this, most contested verse of this whole passage.

And additionally, I would guess that it is probably the most contested of the entire chapter.

And that is truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.

What is meant when he says this generation? There are several different views.

One is what is called the full preterist view. And I mentioned that last week.

Full preterism would say this really is saying that all things took place within one generation, that Jesus Christ, in fact, came back, the resurrection happened, and there is no more to be anticipated of any kind of future events.

That is full preterism. And of course, that is a heresy. Paul says repeatedly that there is a resurrection that we should be hoping for.

And that's not just because he sits on one side of AD 70, being before the destruction of the temple.

This is something that we even now, as we read his words, are supposed to hold on to that hope that there will be a resurrection when

Christ returns and raises all his people up from the dead. The next option is one that is futurist.

A futurist interpretation of any passage is one that says that this is something that has not yet happened.

Now, just to be clear, when I use the word futurist, that is something that is pure per passage.

There are some passages that you should interpret futurist. There are some passages that you shouldn't interpret futurist.

A lot of people think that it's a generic position that once you're futurist, you're a futurist on everything. That's not how these terms work.

OK, this is a term that refers particularly to an interpretation of any given passage.

So a futurist way of interpreting this passage would be that this is talking about that final end.

We read about the return of the Son of Man in the previous passage. This seems to be talking about the very end.

And so it has to be speaking about that. All these things, it has to be speaking about that.

And so there's different varieties of the futurist interpretation. One might say, well, this generation is just talking about this generation of worldly people or maybe this generation of Christians so that it refers to all these ages.

Two thousand plus years all fits into this generation. And maybe that's how Jesus means it.

In addition to that being a stretch of the word generation, it's also difficult to understand it that way, given that it kind of makes

Jesus's words meaningless. The disciples want to know timing. They've asked him about timing.

And if he just tells them this generation will not pass away, he's not really answering that question.

If he means that everything is going to just take place first. It doesn't.

It's tautological. He's just saying it will happen when it happens. All things that happened before will happen before.

That would be all it means. Now, there's another futurist way of interpreting this, which is that when you read this previous passage where it talks about the signs that will happen immediately preceding the coming of the

Son of Man. That it's referring to the generation that would see those signs.

And so then Jesus is saying that very quickly after you see those signs, then the

Son of Man will come and everything will be completed. The problem with that is, once again, it doesn't really answer the disciples' questions because they want to know when relative to themselves.

They don't want to know when relative to people far, far away. And then in addition, when he says all these things will take place, it's a little odd to speak of that generation having all things taking place when really it would mean that all things took place before them.

And then the last little things take place in that generation. The most direct way of understanding this passage is what is known as partial preterism.

That some of the things described in these passages did happen before or in 70, in AD 70, before later times in church history.

And I believe that is the straightforward way to take this. This generation, when he says that, he really does mean the generation that he's talking to.

This generation will not pass away until all has taken place. Now, yes, in the previous passage in verses 25 through 28, he has gone on to speak of the final judgment.

Yet the main question that Jesus was answering was about the destruction of the temple. And that is what he has described in all these previous passages.

So when he said, when the disciples asked him in verse 5, consider how this conversation came about.

And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, as for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

So Jesus specifically speaks about the destruction of the temple. And then his disciples say, teacher, when will these things be and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?

So they have asked specifically about the destruction of the temple. And Jesus answers and then connects that afterward with saying, then the time of the

Gentiles will be completed, then the Son of Man will return. And then he snaps back to answering the original question.

What will be the signs that take place before the destruction of the temple when the stones are all removed?

So very directly, when he says this generation, he means this generation. That generation did not pass away.

Remember, Jesus is saying this near the end of his ministry. He was 33 years old, roughly, at the end of his ministry.

And if everything is offset by four years, as people think it is, and that means that this is about 29,

AD 29. And from there to 70, it's only 40, 41 years.

OK, so this generation does not pass away. He is explaining that in less than a lifetime, there are people alive today hearing my words who will see all these things take place.

And indeed, there were very straightforward. Now, there still might be a little hesitance in your mind because you would ask, how is that the coming of the kingdom?

How is the destruction of the temple the coming of the kingdom? Why? Why would it not be the resurrection where he's declared to be the son of God?

Why would it not be Pentecost when the word goes out to more people? Why would it not be the persecution that happens before that sends the gospel to the

Gentiles? Why would it be any of those things? Or then the end when he comes and the kingdom is fully manifest.

Why would it not be any of those things? Well, remember Jesus' own words when he described what the coming of the kingdom would look like.

If you remember just before his triumphal entry in Luke 19, if you turn back there in Luke 19, verse 11, he gives a parable just as he is about to make his triumphal entry.

And that is this. As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near to Jerusalem and because they suppose that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.

And remember, he now speaks to them in a parable. Luke is intentionally appealing back to Jesus' other parables here.

He said, therefore, a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.

OK, so in the parable of the ten minas, which if you don't know, that's where the nobleman who's going to go get his kingdom leaves his servants in charge and asks them to be faithful.

And some of them have various levels of faithfulness. He then is going to get the kingdom.

OK, so this is what he's describing as he's about to go into Jerusalem. So there's a nobleman going away to get a kingdom and he's going to leave his people here.

What does Jesus do? He ends up departing from Jerusalem as he ascends into the heavens after the resurrection and he leaves his people.

And he goes to secure the kingdom. And it says at the end of this, in verse 27, but as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.

So he describes the securement of that kingdom as being one where all those who, when he left, when he leaves to go get the kingdom, do not serve him will be destroyed.

And that is precisely what Jesus describes in Luke chapter 21, that all the various Jews who do not serve him are destroyed.

In the temple in particular, being the sign of their continuance in an old covenant, one that does not provide salvation, not trusting in the gospel.

They have not trusted in Jesus Christ. Now, just to clarify there, when

I said the old covenant does not provide salvation, there were many in the old covenant who understood the signs that were being given, the signs of the slain lamb, etc.

And they were saved by virtue of understanding what those things meant. But the covenant itself did not provide salvation as the new covenant itself does, giving the blood of Christ.

And so this is how it has come about. Now, there are other parables here where he talks about the wicked tenant.

And I think as you look at those, you will realize that Jesus has repeatedly described the securing of the kingdom of heaven as one that would involve removing those tenants, as he says there in that other parable, and those false managers over his kingdom.

And that is exactly what happens in AD 70. The temple is destroyed by Titus.

All those who are false stewards of the things of God claiming to be preparing the people for the kingdom, they are all destroyed.

This is what Jesus speaks of when he says, truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.

He is simply answering the disciples question, when will the temple be destroyed?

And he answers, this is when the temple will be destroyed. And his answer is very true. I will just tell you by one way of encouragement to understand these things.

Well, I once encountered a Buddhist who, in talking with me, considered this to be his astounding argument.

There's a word I'm looking for for an argument that just is the certain case, and it's not coming to me what that idiom is.

But this was his certain case that Christians do not have the true religion is because they don't even believe their own

Bible. Jesus said all these things would take place before the generation passed away.

But Christians don't seem to believe that. And he told me this and I said, well, actually, many of us do believe that Jesus meant that that generation would not pass away.

And he was surprised by this because this was the argument he always had against all Christians. And suddenly he had to think about whether or not his assumptions that Christians didn't believe their own

Bible was really true. Continuing on here in verse 33, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Heaven and earth will pass away. Now, you've no doubt heard that phrase before. Matthew 5 in the

Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says heaven and earth will pass away, but the law does not pass away.

And here he speaks of himself that way, that his own words do not pass away. His words are more certain than the creation around you.

OK, the creation around you is not certain. When there are earthquakes, suddenly you realize maybe this earth isn't so stable.

Maybe it will pass away and it will indeed pass away. It's very easy to think of creation as being more certain than the words of Christ.

But no, Christ's words are more certain than all of creation, all of heaven and earth.

And given that this passage is happening in Luke, and I do believe that as I've mentioned previous and previous messages and also alluded to here, we need to be thinking about how

Luke presents this information, calling back to previous information he's given, like even using the word parable here, trying to draw our minds back to previous parables.

We should think back to what has been said before here.

In Luke chapter 16, Jesus said, but it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void.

That was in chapter 16, verse 17. It's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void.

Jesus likens his words to the law. He's saying heaven and earth can pass away, but the law won't.

Heaven and earth can pass away, but my words won't. His words are like the law themselves.

And how was the law given? The law was initially given, as mentioned in the announcements this morning, as we saw the catechism question, on the heart of man.

But then on top of that, God wrote it in stone with his own fingers. Given that Moses wrote the first five books of the

Bible, that means that it's very likely that the Ten Commandments are the first scripture ever written.

But the first scripture ever written was not things later penned by Moses, but the words of God that Moses included that were written and scripturated directly in stone.

The Ten Commandments, where God's moral law is summarily comprehended.

That word being written in stone shows how it is unchanging.

It is an unchanging word. And Christ's words have that very same authority.

They are more certain than all creation. Now, what is the alternative?

The alternative, of course, would be that there are things in creation that are more certain than the word, than the words of Christ.

And this is how many people go about thinking about the words of Christ. They judge them, not submitting to God as the one who has authority, not submitting to Christ as the one who is king, but rather judging them on the basis of creation.

If you think about how various apologetics books are written, they are often written with all kinds of appeals to creation in order to compel belief.

Now, it is completely appropriate to go to creation to find corroboration for the truth that God has given us.

If what God has spoken is true, you would expect the rest of his creation to corroborate that truth.

But there's a difference between confirmation and foundation. Many people go to creation as the foundation of truth and then try to build up a case for God from that.

Now, I praise God that he draws straight lines with crooked sticks and the gospel is proclaimed by all kinds of men, whether sincerely or insincerely, as Paul says.

But for those who would accept the truth on that basis, and many have accepted the truth through those means, but not on that basis.

If you accept the truth on the basis that creation seems to testify to it, then when creation doesn't seem to, your mind will suddenly change and you will be judging things with heaven and earth being the more secure truth than Christ's own words.

And that is not acceptable. You need to be judging things with this understanding.

In fact, you need to be being judged by God in his own word. Many people set themselves up as judge.

Rather, God needs to be judged. Many people go to heaven and earth to build the foundation when

Christ's word should be the foundation by which they understand heaven and earth. Now within Christianity, of course, there's something much more subtle that happens, which is that you trust the words of other men over the words of Christ.

And this seems to be a very common thing, even among the faithful. And it is hard to avoid because in some ways

God has, out of his kindness to us, made us a provision that we would have the words of men in confirmation, similar to how we would have creation as confirmation of corroboration.

A lot of people will say things that go beyond what I'm trying to say here. A lot of people will say that whenever you study any passage, you must go to the words of scripture before you would ever read.

And you must spend a lot of time meditating on it before you would ever read a commentary. Things like that.

I find some of these formulas to be well -intentioned but misguided because consider how the word is given in the

Bible. Often it is given through preaching first and then the people are expected to, like the

Bereans, afterward go search the scriptures to see whether these things are true. I don't think there's a problem in the timeline of things if you end up hearing others explain the word of God and then go to the word of God after, as long as the word of God at the end of the day is the foundation.

There will be this cycle going to the word of God, going to those those things that God has in his kindness and his condescension to us given as confirmations of the word and then going back to the word.

The question isn't really what comes first in time. The question is which comes first in authority.

Is it the words of man or is it the words of God? And it has to be the words of Christ.

They are the ultimate authority that we must be going to. Many people will think that they are acknowledging the words of Christ because those authority figures they hear from will invoke the words of Christ so often.

But apart from judging those things ultimately by the word of Christ, they are failing to do so.

And you can see this all over the place. This is especially true in cults. Many different cults will speak about the

Bible in such high ways that you would think that they really know the Bible well.

But when you look into it, you find out that they're really just trusting their authorities, over trusting the

Bible. You can see this with Jehovah's Witnesses. There's one cult

I have in the past spent a lot of time with, which is the Iglesia Ni Cristo. And they will speak so highly of the word of God.

But they do not believe that you can understand it apart from a minister explaining it to you. So they typically do not actually read the

Bible themselves. But they speak so much about how they love the word of God. And this is a very, it's a very ironic thing.

An analogy I've made before is that it's like someone going to Comic Con and cosplaying as a character from Star Wars and talking about how much they love

Star Wars and someone asks them which their favorite movie is and they don't actually know because they haven't watched any of the movies.

They just like the idea of Star Wars. This is how a lot of people go about the

Bible. They go about it with a lot of fanfare, but not actually going to the source text itself to love the word of God.

And that's how you must go about it. Real Christianity is not trusting other things that are proxies for the word of God.

It is trusting the word of Christ himself. Jesus said in John 10, 27, that my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

This is what it means to be Christ's sheep, to hear his words and follow him.

Not to hear somebody else's words and follow, but in as much as someone is speaking

God's words, hearing those words and that man trusting the authority of Christ rather than the authority of man.

And this is so pervasive. I ask you to guard your own soul, to ask yourself, why is it that you believe this truth?

That if, ask yourself some questions. If all others said that this were false, but the word said that this were true, would

I believe it? How much would I be willing to heed others? Now, there is a rightness, once again, to seeking confirmation from others.

There's a rightness to not having the arrogance to think that the Holy Spirit is leading no one else.

But often, in fact, very frequently, the Holy Spirit leading everyone else does not necessarily mean that the

Holy Spirit is leading everyone in the same way in this generation. Often, his truth is preserved in different generations to be restored by later generations.

So, do not just ask yourself, what do the people around me think? That's the same mistake that the super apostles were making.

Paul had said in chapter 10 that they measure themselves by themselves. Don't just ask yourself, what do other supposed servants of Christ think?

Ask, what are the words and what would make me question these truths?

Ask yourself those things to see where your heart really is. Is it truly in the word of Christ or is it in some proxy for the word of Christ?

Now, if Christ's word is certain, and this is the passage that he has given us here today, that means that his kingdom is certain.

Now, his kingdom is certain in various kinds of ways. And I've already mentioned that it might be surprising to hear of the coming of his kingdom being that particular event that happened in the year 70, the destruction of the temple, given that so many other places it speaks of the kingdom coming in other ways.

I don't think there's a problem with speaking of the kingdom coming at different times in different ways because it becomes more manifest.

Its dominion increases in different ways, different times. Jesus had said in Luke 17, verse 20,

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, look, here it is or there.

For behold, the kingdom of kingdom of God is in the midst of you. So he already acknowledges that there's a sense of which the kingdom is already there, not even before the coming of which he speaks of in this later chapter.

So, yes, the kingdom already existed. Jesus is sending his disciples out and they're speaking of the good news of the kingdom being near, of Satan being conquered.

The kingdom comes at the resurrection when Jesus is declared to be the son of God. They see it in a great measure in the transfiguration that is soon to happen, where they witness

Christ with a taste of his glory. And it comes at the ascension, comes at these various times, and eventually it will come in its fullest manifestation.

But it is likewise the case that it comes at Jerusalem when the temple is destroyed in order that God's purpose in having a kingdom that is not composed of a physical people so much that is a particular nation or a particular ethnicity, but going out to all the

Gentiles, that becoming fully manifest in the destruction of the temple that it is designed to go out to the whole world.

And kingdom, certain in that way, and it is certain as it will come again. 1

Corinthians 15 verse 24 says, Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom of God, the

Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet.

So it's interesting because he speaks about him reigning until he fully reigns, essentially. There is an already and a not yet, if you have heard that phrase before.

There's something inaugurated, but not yet manifested. And what you see in the destruction of Jerusalem such that the kingdom is evident is a microcosm of the great judgment that is to happen such that the kingdom would be fully manifest.

He says, For he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Eventually, death itself will be destroyed, and the resurrection where no one will anymore die.

For God has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted who put all things and subjected under him.

When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

So this describes the Son being both

God and human, both God and man, serving the

Father because as man, it is his duty to serve God, but then he leads his people in serving

God. And he has all things under his feet.

Every last enemy destroyed at that final day, at the resurrection, death itself will be destroyed.

This is the promise of the gospel. These things are true, and they are certainly true.

It is certainly true that Christ is returning. And it is also certainly true that if you trust in him today, he forgives your sins and you have eternal life.

Notice that when it speaks of the word of Christ, it is speaking of something that is particularly redemptive.

God gave a message before Christ that is his law, his judgments, the fact that we must stand before him in judgment.

Now, the gospel was in various ways symbolized by the law, yet it does not come in its fullness until Christ, where the

God's purpose is made fully manifest. Hebrews 1, 1 through 2 says that for at many times in many places,

God to the fathers through the prophets spoke, but now in these last days, he has spoken through his son.

In these last days, he has spoken through his son. There's a difference between the many ways and the many prophets and Christ.

Even though Christ speaks through his apostles, Hebrews is giving you a contrast to make you think about the way the revelation was coming.

We have all these different prophets and the prophets were quite various. Some had very different modes of speech.

Some were giving a lot of signs. Like, for example, Ezekiel had all kinds of interesting sign revelations where he's doing all sorts of things, laying on the ground, digging through walls, all sorts of things to explain

God's word to people. Others are just stating it directly. Others are receiving visions in interesting ways.

All different things, even angels coming to people. But in the last days, all those different things that are somewhat vague and a little confused in our reception of them without clarity from the

New Testament are all concentrated and focused and clarified through that magnifying glass, through that lens that is

Jesus Christ, that he comes and he gives revelation in a way that gives the gospel.

Hebrews chapter 2 continues to explain that, that what is being contrasted there is the law and the gospel.

John 1 17 says that the law came through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Now, on one hand, that is not, once again, this is not saying that there was no understanding of the gospel beforehand.

Galatians 3 says that God preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham. Yet the fullness of the gospel, the truth of that gospel, meaning that that thing that all the symbols were pointing to, that full thing was not made known until Christ Jesus.

And this is a certain word. If you doubt whether or not

Christ's sacrifice on the cross is enough to forgive your sins, do not doubt.

His words are more perfect than anything in creation.

They are more certain than anything in creation. If you doubt that his words, when he says that he sanctifies, that he builds up his body, that he transforms, that his spirit makes people more like him.

If you doubt his words, even as spoken through the apostles, those words are likewise his words. If you doubt his words and you think that creation is more certain, you will have a hard time when things reverse themselves and creation passes away, heaven and earth passes away.

Turn to Jesus Christ. There is no reason to doubt. There is no reason to think that you have to get your life together first before you would come to him.

If you wait until your life is together before you come to him, if you think that your understanding of this is a little better than his understanding because you think you know how things work based on your understanding of society, etc.,

you are not coming to him on the right basis. You are coming to him on the basis of the authority of men, even if that authority is your own authority.

Come to him on his authority. Come with a certainty that his words are certain. And this likewise, as already indicated, does not just mean the certainty of the kingdom.

It means the certainty of the judgment that brings his kingdom. That is a judgment that we have seen a number of times already.

In Luke chapter 16, once again, we think about how Luke is connecting this to earlier things he has written.

This is the value in part of having multiple gospels. Okay, having Matthew, Mark, and Luke, gospels that talk about very similar things, there's a few advantages of having it that way.

One is that you're able to compare them, but two is that you are able to see these things in different lights as the different apostles, as the different gospel authors make allusions to earlier parts that others don't.

Here, when you think of heaven and earth passing away, etc., as you're reading Luke, what should your mind go to?

It should go to Luke chapter 16. He says, the law and the prophets were until John. Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached and everyone forces his way into it.

But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void.

So what is the contrast that he makes here? What has happened? Well, the

Pharisees, Jesus is welcoming the tax collectors and the sinners. The poor and the wealthy and the outwardly righteous are not a fan of this.

And Jesus makes this contrast. He says, the law and the prophets were until John.

Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached. Okay, so he's comparing law and gospel. And the law here means multiple things, but it also means those things which foreshadow the gospel.

But he's comparing that to himself. He says, now everyone forces his way into it.

Now there is an inbreaking into the kingdom of heaven where those who don't seem to belong are making their way in.

That is the good news, that those who do not belong have found a way in. And what is the contrast to that?

But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away for one dot of the law to become void.

And so on one hand, he speaks of the gospel. He speaks of the fact that people are able to enter that kingdom who do not apparently belong.

The sinners, the tax collectors through the blood of Jesus Christ. This is not explained yet, but it will be as Jesus dies on the cross through the forgiveness of sins.

He is coming in and he is healing and he is symbolizing that with his miracles. They are welcome.

And then what does he contrast that with? Those who want to come to him on the basis of their own works, on the basis of their own righteousness.

The Pharisees, the scribes, they come to him this way and he says, it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law.

How do they want to get to him? Through the law. But the dots of the law that they are hoping that they can bypass as he goes on to explain their interesting workarounds for divorce and remarriage and things like that.

They're hoping that they can get there on the basis of mostly the law, but sort of having easy little wiggle rooms for parts and pieces of it.

This is no way to get to God. This is no way to enter into the kingdom. They think they can enter into the kingdom that way, but there is a certain judgment for all who think that they can enter the kingdom through some measure other than Jesus Christ himself, his gospel, which he has given.

Break into that kingdom like the sinners and the tax collectors by the mercy of Jesus Christ, not by your own outward righteousness.

He will wash you. He will cleanse you. He will transform you. But it is not by your washing and cleansing yourself or transforming yourself that you would ever be let in because you would need a little dot changed here, a little thing changed there of the law in order for that to work.

And none of that will change. The law is certain. But then Jesus says his words, his kingdom is also certain.

Those go hand in hand. The kingdom and the judgment that clears the kingdom of all its enemies, all those around it who think that they think that they belong on their own basis, but don't.

All those destroyed, that is a certain judgment. And it is a judgment that is displayed at Jerusalem as all those

Jews who think that they have a right by virtue of being children of Abraham, by blood, but not by faith.

That judgment is made known there. And it is finally will be made known on that last day when those who think that they have some standing in the world will all be destroyed as God's people are saved from the gathering forces around them.

This is a terrifying thing, yet at the same time, it is good news for God's people.

Because if you have trusted in him, then that judgment, that destruction is not just something that's for somebody else that you're not a part of anymore.

It is still for you because it is for your protection that God destroys all those enemies.

But should you be found on the opposite side of that, thinking that you can come to God on your own merit, thinking that you are right by some other means, and maybe you don't, maybe you aren't even thinking about God in particular.

Maybe your standard of being right is something else, you know, some just standard of goodness that you have, and you haven't even put into categories what it is that you're trying to accomplish.

But if you have some sense of your own standing that is not found in Jesus Christ, you will be destroyed.

Tremble at the threatenings of scripture because his words are certain, but rejoice at the promises of scripture because his words are certain.

His gospel is certain. Turn to him if you have not trusted in him.

Likewise, dwell on his words. These words of Christ, because they are certain, they are meant to be carved into your soul.

To have words written on the heart is better than to have words externally written on stone.

But part of the difficulty of having them written on the heart is they are not always as fixed as they should be.

Thank God by the work of the Spirit, he ensures that whoever's heart he writes those things onto, they are there for good.

Yet we waver and we doubt as we deal with that inward corruption.

Colossians 3 .16 says, Let the words of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart to God.

This is an activity that you should be doing, is not just looking at the end of that verse where it talks about singing.

Yes, you should be singing, but let the words of Christ dwell in your heart richly and be sharing those words with one another.

It is by dwelling on those words that it will have the effect that Christ would have for you, which is for your encouragement, for your perseverance, for your joy.

How is it that you're supposed to be able to, with thankfulness in your heart to God, sing by the word of Christ dwelling in you richly?

People go about their life depressed, discouraged by the things of, by the things around them, by the tasks they've been called to, by the difficulties, by the calamities that befall them.

You don't need to. You can let the word of Christ dwell in you richly and that can handle all that.

That doesn't mean there wouldn't be appropriate times of mourning, but there can be a joy that pervades it all.

If you find yourself joyless, know that what is lacking is the word of Christ dwelling in you richly.

Find the word of Christ that would answer this situation and permit it to dwell in you richly.

This is likewise the true source for Christian unity. Why is it that Christian unity is lacking?

As we looked at in 2 Corinthians, it is because there are loyalties, implicit loyalties that end up competing with the word of Christ through his apostles.

The words of more oppressive, impressive men or other things that end up capturing our confidence more than Christ himself.

Do not be led astray by such things, but you can have great companionship with others in the word of God.

If it dwells in you richly, it will unite you with one another. One verse has captured my attention a bit lately.

That is Psalm 119 verse 63. That verse says that I am a companion with those who fear you.

I love those who keep your precepts. There is a fellowship that happens in the word of God that is deeper than other kinds of fellowship.

It is interesting how I see people go about looking for Christian fellowship because a lot of times they are looking at it in the categories that the world would look for fellowship.

When they describe a church as having good fellowship, they're thinking, does it match the demographics I care about?

You know, maybe it's a cultural thing that you're looking for. Maybe it is people your age.

Maybe it is people who share the same occupation that you do and the interests you do.

And then you end up calling that good fellowship. But that is not the kind of unity that God gives through his gospel.

Now, I don't want to discount any of that. There is a reality to all of it. And even the Bible confirms that older women should be teaching younger women.

And so there's a good fellowship that happens in being women. But that is women centered around the word of God in that passage.

It is not disconnected from that. Do not let your interest in other kinds of things compete with a sense of Christian fellowship.

You know, we see that especially as people come to small churches, even like our own.

A lot of people will evaluate small churches and the fellowship that they would find there just by, is it the demographics that I'm looking for?

Well, no, this other church that is much larger has the demographics I'm looking for. Look instead, when you are looking for Christian fellowship, look for the word of God, look for those who really care about it.

Not just those who say they really care about it. Look for those who are willing to stand alone when the time comes to stand alone.

Look for those who are willing to, who are actually in it, loving it, dwelling on it, not just trusting others as proxies for it.

And you will find a sweeter fellowship than one you have ever found before.

That is part of the joy of the gospel. God has promised that you will lose, you will lose family and relatives over the gospel.

And one of the most interesting things I find is that can be true even within Christianity.

That you will end up losing, as you go deeper in the word of God, you will often find that it creates friction with those who are less in the word of God.

Both those ostensibly in the faith and to the shame of many, to great sadness.

It is also the case that those within the word of God who do not seek the word of God, do not find that same fellowship and it ends up creating friction.

But you can have a deeper and sweeter fellowship. You can have many more in this life, as Jesus tells

Peter, many more in this life, meaning family, in a deeper, sweeter family as you go deeper in the word of God.

Now, with that, think about how ongoing you should be seeking the kingdom of God.

In chapter 11, Luke said that you should be praying for the kingdom, that you should be praying your kingdom come.

Pray for God's kingdom. Pray for it now, according to our traditional categories, what we have in our catechism, for example.

It calls that the kingdom of grace. That's the kingdom now, as it exists, this kingdom of grace, where sinners are being welcomed in graciously.

Pray for the defeat of the kingdom of the enemy, and you can pray for the arrival of that final kingdom, that kingdom of glory.

That is where it's all made manifest. Okay, those are categories for you to think about, the kingdom of grace, kingdom of glory.

It's the same kingdom, just in different modes and different stages. Be praying for that kingdom, and then be seeking that kingdom.

That means not only praying, but also doing. What good is the one who just prays and doesn't do, as it says repeatedly in scripture, including

James chapter 2? Seek the kingdom of heaven. There are all kinds of opportunities that you have to hear the words of Christ and to be doers of them.

These are opportunities to enjoy the goodness of the kingdom. A lot of people think of such things as when they see that contrast between law and gospel.

A lot of times they think of those things as heavy burdens. No, having been forgiven of your sins, those things are great joys when there are opportunities to serve the kingdom, to serve the kingdom.

If Christ's words are certain, it means that when he promises that he will build up the body until that last day, until it is fully mature and perfected, and the temple is completely built,

Ephesians 4, including what the apostle Peter says about the temple.

These things are certain words, and you should operate with an expectation of certainty.

When it says that the temple will be built and the kingdom will expand, you should evangelize with certainty.

You should share the gospel with certainty that those words do not return void. Yes, not every person you speak the gospel to will believe, but every word that is spoken in the name of Christ has its intended effect.

Now, as Peter says, some of that intended effect is so that on the day when the kingdom is manifest, it comes in greater glory because those words and the disobedience toward them will shine in contrast to the kingdom's obedience to it.

But remember, every word that you speak, whether it is heeded or not, will have its intended effect, and anticipate that the kingdom will grow, that many of the words will have their intended effect as you share the gospel with others.

Do not, as you tell this truth to others, do not tell it resting on your own authority, resting on your own power of persuasion, but knowing that the battle belongs to the

Lord, that Christ's words are certain about his kingdom. Heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will not pass away.

And know that as it applies to maturity, that when he speaks of the kingdom growing mature, both each individual growing in more maturity, and the kingdom in general growing in more maturity, anticipate that.

Know that as you fight sin, as you fight temptation, that you are not just at the mercy of things around you, always a victim, but that through the power of the gospel, you can overcome.

So many people think that their only hope would be to turn to worldly solutions in order to change their environment.

How many people struggling with joylessness, with anxiety, et cetera, think that the solution cannot exist unless their environment changes, or their body changes, or whatever the case may be.

And yet, we have a guarantee that if we are using all the means that God gives us to detach ourselves from wrong circumstances, et cetera, so not saying neglect the means that God will give you to fight sin, but that even amidst difficult circumstances, he always provides the way of escape.

And he will give you the maturity, he will give you the transformation, such that you can always defeat sin.

Never go into these battles hopelessly. And as you exhort others, as you see others who are struggling in sin, and you come alongside of them, don't do that with a hopelessness, thinking that there's no way that this person is going to change.

Because then that is disbelieving in Christ's words about the spirit that he sends to transform people.

Trust in the Holy Spirit. Believe in the Holy Spirit. You should, yeah, you should believe.

I find it interesting, I get in conversations with some who have more charismatic understandings of the faith, who will describe their faith as believing in the

Holy Spirit, and they expect that to be a common understanding, that they believe in the Spirit, and they expect me to accept that as something contrary to what

I believe, which would be not believing in the Holy Spirit, I guess. But then when it comes to very practical matters of the

Spirit's work, Spirit's work in other individuals, I find often that it doesn't matter whether or not you believe in a lot of outward signs, et cetera.

A lot of times a real hopelessness sets into people where they're not trusting the words of Christ, that he will, by his

Spirit, transform the body to become more mature. Trust in the words of Christ even as you speak to others.

And this is true in particular cases where you're talking to individuals, but it's true with the church at large.

It's true with as you see the body. Now there are ebbs and flows and difficulties that enter the body, but if you have in mind, and many people do as they read

Matthew 24 and Luke 21, a lot of wrong ideas set in where they see difficult things coming, and they think things are going to get worse and worse and worse and worse, and that means, therefore, that the church is going to decline and decline and decline and decline.

That is not what is being said. Yes, there will be difficulties, but the promise for the church is that despite that increasing, despite the increasing tares, to use another parable, there will be increasing wheat, that those both grow at the same time and the church will grow.

The church will become more mature. I won't go into details, but there are certain things in the church at large that greatly distress me and make me wonder how can it be that this is such a pervasive problem in the church right now.

I mean, some of these are related to our conference that we're going to be doing, but I think how are these things such pervasive problems in the church right now, but I am persuaded based on Ephesians 4 that speaks of Christ maturing his body until that last day, that the greater of these at least, and I have the kind of confidence as much as one can have without knowing things perfectly, so I don't claim a 100 % confidence of my own understanding of these details of what shape history will take, but I am confident that the

Lord will remove every major blemish on his church like that before the final day.

Now, sin will always exist even within the body. There will always be corruption, but I am fighting these things.

I am trying to stand for the truth with the understanding that the body as a whole will grow in maturity until that final day, knowing that these battles will be won, and if you find yourself convicted by the words of Christ on any particular thing, and you have good reason to be convicted by the words of Christ, and it's not just being misguided, then know that you can have assurance that that truth will have its proper effect on the body because this is what

Christ says. His words will not pass away. They will accomplish their purposes, and in all this,

I want you to have great hope. When Christ says that heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will not pass away, what he is not saying is merely that his words are more certain than creation.

He is not merely saying that heaven and earth could, in theory, pass away, but my words will not pass away.

They will pass away. Heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will not pass away.

Revelation 21 .1 says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

This new Jerusalem is speaking of the church. It is speaking of the city of God. This is how it's described elsewhere in Hebrews 12 and many other places.

This is the church. The heavens and the earth will indeed pass away, but Christ's words will not pass away.

There will be a new heaven. There will be a new earth, and there will be a bride who has been made white, white through the mediation of Jesus Christ as he offers up her sacrifices to the

Father. And she has that white dress, which Revelation calls the righteous deeds of the saints.

Trust the words of Christ. Trust the words of Christ for forgiveness of sins, for sanctification, for the growth of the body in general, and for that ultimate day when the kingdom is made fully manifest and the world falls under its judgment.

Turn away from sin because the world will be judged and turn to Jesus Christ because he welcomes all into the kingdom who trust in him.

Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the words of Christ. We thank you that they are certain.

And we ask that we would dwell on this certainty, that it would be etched in our hearts as it might be etched in stone, not externally as it was etched on the wall, but internally in us, graven deeply.

May you engrave it more deeply as we hear your words each week and each day as we go to them.

May we trust these words. May we trust the work of Christ that he does through his spirit. In Jesus' name.