A Better Possession (Hebrews 10:34)

Stand before your throne, before the holy heart of heaven,

And it's only by your blood, and it's only for mercy,

Lord, that we are born. Don't you like me?

Know all the reasons that I see.

Jesus, may you receive the honor that you deserve.

The sun cannot compare to Christ, our shadow in your presence.

Stand before your throne, before the holy heart of heaven,

And it's only by your blood, and it's only for mercy,

Lord, that we are born. Know all the reasons that I see.

Jesus, may you receive the honor that you deserve.

It's foot flat, but your foot's sharp, so I'm not sure that's... Um, my guess is we'll never sign it for a year.

It could be it, but, um, but then again, Christmas, all the songs will be in the same key. So maybe we change the...

I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I just, I have it, like, up in F, and it's called the same thing.

There's both keys. No, that's fine. Whatever he did sound good.

No, just playing it, it was like, I've never played this band before. But it's not a problem.

All right, so I'll play it for you. Well, I have it.

This one. F, A, D, E, F, G. So it's like...

Um, we'll do the whole thing. Christmas tree in the morning

Lights in the darkness Come unclutched to answer the bell

In it's heavy, in it's heavy Demonstrates your state of sin

See the dew and the cradle Come to stay, come, come, come

Christ the Redeemer Come to stay, come, come, come indistinct chatter

Oh gracious God My source of strength

In you I live Each hour is yours

By wisdom planned Each deed empowered By sovereign hands

Renew my spirit Help me stand

Relent As day unfolds

I seek your will In all of life's demons

Good to go? Good morning? We're on. Good to see each one this morning.

I invite you to open your Bibles back to the prophet Haggai. As we wind up our study through this little prophecy.

Before we look at these final few verses. Let's commit our time to our Lord. And ask his blessing on our study this morning.

Father we do know it's a privilege. And it's by your grace that we are even able to be here today.

To gather together to study your word. And we pray that you would accomplish every divine purpose that you have for us.

Here today by your spirit through your word. And we just thank you for all you're doing in our lives.

And we just thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Well last time week number 3 we looked at God's promise of future blessing.

That was in chapter 2 verses 10 through 19. And we saw the problem which was unclean worship.

On the part of the Israelites who had returned to Judah. And then we saw the promise of undeserved blessing.

At the very end of chapter 2 verse 19. So were there any questions or thoughts you had on what we looked at last time?

Okay how about page 10. How about some questions? We saw that holiness is not communicable.

But uncleanness or defilement is. How can this principle be applied in our spiritual lives?

Any thoughts on that? Probably more ways than any of us could enumerate.

And I only gave you two lines there. So certainly there's lots of principles here. Anybody have any thoughts on that?

Okay number 2. The above principles are applied by Yahweh to his people.

Can you identify defiled or unholy worship or doctrine in the broader church?

We might call it Big Eva. Care to name names? Paul did in 1

Timothy 1 .20. And that should say 2 Timothy 2 .17 there in your notes.

Because 1 Timothy 2 only has 15 verses. So if you chased that around this week, I'm sorry. Should have been 2

Timothy 2 .17. Can you identify defiled or unholy worship in the broader church of our day?

And again I only gave you two lines. And I know I restricted your... Okay. 1

Timothy 1 .20. Paul says, Hymenaeus and Alexander. He named names. You're all so shy.

You don't want to go on the record. I understand. But we are swimming in an ocean of apostasy nowadays.

Are we not? And yeah, that would definitely be an example of unholy worship.

The above principles of holiness is not communicable but uncleanness or defilement is are applied by Yahweh to his people in chapter 2.

You remember he said after those two questions to the priest, Haggai answered and said,

So it is with this people and with this nation before me declares the Lord. And so with every work of their hands and what they offer there is unclean.

And we went back to Ezra and we saw that the first thing they did when they got back into Judah was not rebuild the temple, which is why they came back and why

Cyrus sent them back. But they got busy making the sacrificial system again.

And we basically noted that they got busy with external religious ritual and neglected the internal spiritual reality that should have been there.

That's kind of the basic dichotomy. And there was nothing wrong with what they did.

This was prescribed by law. But they neglected the best for that which was merely good.

You can see that all through contemporary evangelical churches, ministries.

Much of what they do, very good. All of that stuff is good. But if you neglect the priorities of the

Word of God, the proclamation of the Word of God, as we are commanded to do, preach the

Word, Paul told Timothy. That's a forceful command. And to teach sound doctrine in churches.

If you neglect that for more, as many would say, practical things, all good things.

Maybe they have food banks. Maybe they have health ministries. And usually those churches have all these different ministries set up.

They call them target ministries because when somebody comes in the church, they can immediately plug them in. And they get them busy doing things, and yet you can go to a church like that for months or even years and not hear anything concerning your internal spiritual condition.

And I think that's what... And that would just be the starting point.

Yeah, it was Romans 15... Romans 15...16,

verses 17 and 18. The idea that... The command by Paul to note factious or divisive people in the church, and the reason is they are leading the people astray with false doctrine and that type of thing.

And that's exactly what God, through Haggai, is rebuking the returned

Israelites for. No matter what they did, it was tainted with the sin of disobedience.

Okay? And my point here in saying care to name names, I don't have a list. I mean, only what

I kind of see and observe like you. But Paul did name names. And he specified, like,

Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. But then what did he do?

He didn't say, and I'm going to get a baseball bat. And, of course, they didn't have baseball back then. But he didn't take the vengeance on himself.

He named him, and he urged Timothy, who was pastoring churches or working with churches, avoid such a one, and then he let it go at that.

He turned them over to God, but he still named them, and he pointed out what they were doing wrong, much like he did in Romans there.

Okay? I think that's an important principle. There is not just a doctrinal issue here.

There's also a pastoral issue. And all sound doctrine is also pastoral, is it not?

Okay, number three. If the Jewish exiles responded to Haggai's first oracle favorably, and they did, returned to work on the temple, and enjoyed the presence of Yahweh, how was it that they still had to endure the chastening of God for past sins?

Can you state a principle based on Scripture that expresses this truth? Consequences for sin?

Okay, so a full statement might be, obedience today may not guarantee that there will not be consequences for past sin.

Anybody else have a thought on that? I kept thinking of the thief on the cross.

He was justly condemned and nailed to that cross for being a thief, right?

And yet he came to Christ before he died. The other thief didn't, but he did.

And we know that because Christ said, you will be with me this day in paradise. And yet he still died the death of a thief hanging on that cross.

And so that's just one example, and you can certainly think of more. In his grace and in his providence,

God may mitigate the effects of a lifestyle lived that might have been detrimental in some way, shape, or form physically, and that person comes to Christ.

But they may not be fully healed of everything, right? We know that. But that would be in the providential working of God as to whether or not he does that.

So obedience now may not stop the consequences for past sin. It guarantees salvation, but it does not guarantee other things that are oftentimes promised by some of the false teachers that we were just talking about up in 2 and 3.

Well, then number four, how is the sovereignty of God seen in the details of how he deals with the

Jews? It gets down kind of granular, right, down as to how much food do you have or how much grain do you have in that pile of grain.

So can you think of any other ways the sovereignty of God is seen in how he dealt with the

Jews or with anybody? He is sovereign, of course, and that was one of the lessons they had to learn, that even the weather patterns are controlled by God, the weather patterns that control how much crops they have and how much food they eat.

And then number five, the promise of Yahweh in 19b is an example of his pure, he says,

I will, from this day on, I will bless you. When God blesses us, is that a trophy for us, pat on the back?

That's pure what? Grace. That's what we're looking for there. And his faithfulness and his power to accomplish what he has promised he will do.

Well, then I think you mentioned 1 Samuel here, here at the bottom. This is directed to Saul, maybe one of the more famous verses from a well -known verses from 1

Samuel, but this really captures it. Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the

Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams.

For rebellion is as the sin of divination and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you for being king.

This is a great passage if someone says, well, I'm just disobeying, it's not a big deal. Well, rebellion is as a sin of divination.

I mean, something that you think might be something good that you're doing, but you're actually in rebellion against God, God calls it divination because of your disobedience.

Okay, that was week three. Any other thoughts? Yeah, Mike. Witchcraft, witchcraft.

I think that's a pretty good, yeah, I would say, yeah. I mean, divination might be a little more of a polite, a little politer.

Sometimes we run across polite translations, you know, but yeah, divination or it's witchcraft.

It's like that, doesn't say it is that, it's a simile. It says it's like that and it's how bad it is.

Okay, well, now let's turn to page 11 in your notes and we're into the last oracle of Haggai.

God's promise to Zerubbabel. This is verses 20 and 23. And I'm just going to read through it since it's only four verses.

The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the 24th day of the month. Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying,

I'm about to shake the heavens and the earth and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I'm about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms and the nations and overthrow the chariots and their riders and the horses and their riders shall go down, everyone by the sword of his brother.

On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the

Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the

Lord of hosts. Now, I wanted to, before we look at these four verses, since it's a fairly short section, to talk a little bit about this chart here.

I don't know if you have it with you, but possible time chart, and it's possible, I want to reiterate, just possible, okay?

This was not designed to be definitive, but simply to try to put down on paper what I thought was something that we could see.

And really, we're talking about hermeneutics here. We're talking a little bit about how do you interpret the word of God?

And when you run across passages like this, oftentimes you will find people that will take this, a date like this 70 -year date that we see here.

And I did run across that in some of my reading and studying, and a whole lot of other commentators are commentating on the people that do not take this as actually 70 years.

They can't quite reconcile the dates with a starting date and a stop date, and so they simply say, well, you can't take that literally.

You have to take that in a non -literal way. It doesn't really mean 70 years.

It means something other than 70 years. Well, the problem with that is, they don't tell you, well, it means 72 years, and then prove it from Scripture.

Or they don't say it means 68 and then prove that from Scripture. They simply,

I'm going to just call it a cop -out and say it's indefinite. It's indefinite. Well, what do you do with that, right?

And I don't think that's adequate for a way to deal with the word of God. Numbers are words.

Numbers are words. And these words are God's words, and all of God's words are

God -breathed and profitable, we know from the New Testament. And so are these.

And so not only that, numbers are generally in a place in the

Scriptures where they modify other words. 70 years, three days and three nights, our

Lord said, or the famous thousand years from Revelation chapter 20.

And when those words are in syntactic relationship like that, you have to understand them in relationship that they are in the sentence as God has put them there that way, okay?

In other words, if you say 70 years doesn't mean 70 years, well, maybe years doesn't mean years. Maybe it's 70 orange orchards or something.

Now, those folks would say, what are you talking about? How can you say that? Well, if it's an indefinite number, or if it's indefinite, maybe it's an indefinite number of vineyards.

They would say to me, what are you talking about? Look at the text. What does the text say? And I'm going to say, oh no, we've already moved way beyond going by what the text says.

According to you, it's not, we don't take it for what it says, okay? So you see you have a real problem interpretively there with their consistency and trying to understand what they say.

So I ran across an article, it's on the bottom of page three there. It's Dr. Talbert. He was basically dealing with the same thing.

You know, is 70 really 70? And so I read through his article, and he basically approached it from a couple of ways in his understanding of it, and I think he's right on with it.

Basically, if you can't fit the timing together, one of the things may be you're starting at a different point in time and then ending at a different point in time.

If you start with 586 and then end it the night of the handwriting on the wall when the

Babylonian Empire came to an end in 539, you get about 47 years, okay? And so basically, he walked through these various aspects of the 70 years.

And also, remember that the Jews don't reckon time exactly like we do. Any part of a day is considered a day, and any part of a year is considered a year.

So there's a difference there as well. So I just wanted to, for the sake of seeing if I could sort of illustrate it, chart it, and certainly you can see that the 70 years can easily fit into the information we have in Scripture.

You can take it for what it says, okay? And I just wanted to point out, I didn't know if anybody had worked through this timeline on page two, but remember in Haggai at the end of, in that last section we looked at, he specifically notes the date at the end of 19.

From this day on, I will bless you. And so this writer, Mr. J.

Sidlow Baxter, back in 1960, he figured this all out from that date, calculated it all out, and he calculated it out down to the day, he says here.

So I haven't personally worked through that, but I thought that should be included in the mix here, and if you're really good with a computer or calculator, you can work that out.

What I did want to look at real quick, though, was if you have your Bibles, turn to Jeremiah chapter 25.

We're gonna get back to Haggai here, but Jeremiah 25. Jeremiah is prophesying.

He's banging away at the nation of Judah. He prophesies their sin, he predicts their captivity, and he also predicts their return.

But in Jeremiah 25, this is 605 B .C. We know that because it's the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

And he gives this condemnation of their sin in part, but when you get down to verse nine, he says,

Behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against the land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations.

I will devote them to destruction and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.

Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstone and the light of the lamp.

And then, verse 11, this whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years.

Then, after 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation.

That's a prophecy of Daniel chapter five, and that night that he is going to punish that nation.

Now, if you look at Jeremiah 29, mentioned to one of the fellows earlier that I've spent more time in Jeremiah and the study of Haggai than I have in Haggai, but it's background, and I think it's very helpful.

So in chapter 29, now we're up to 597 B .C. And here's what

I find absolutely fascinating. Verse one of 29, these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles.

Remember, there had been a series of deportations up to Babylon, 900 plus miles away. Two of the people that were there were the prophets,

Daniel and Ezekiel. They're up there. So a letter is written to the priest, the prophets, and all the people whom

Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. And he just talks about how the letter got there.

So they're getting the prophecy of Jeremiah up there in Babylon. Now, look at verse 10.

For thus says the Lord, when 70 years are completed for, and it could also be at Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

And here's that famous T -shirt. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the

Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a future and a hope. Now, verse 12, then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you.

Okay, got that? Now, let's look at Daniel chapter five. Daniel's up in Babylon.

He's been there since at least 605. And when you look at Daniel chapter five, you're 70 years ahead all the way to 539.

Okay, so Daniel chapter five. It's the famous passage of the feast, the pagan feast where they're using the chalices of the temple of Jerusalem to get drunk and to have their pagan orgy feast.

King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand.

Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines might drink from them.

So this is all going on. And the handwriting on the wall occurs.

Now look at verse 26. They called Daniel to interpret it because their own magicians can't figure it out.

Look what he says. Now Daniel, remember, he received the letter and he understands the prophecy from Jeremiah.

But here's what the handwriting on the wall says. Verse 26 of chapter five. This is the interpretation of the matter.

Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.

Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and been found wanting. Peres, your kingdom is divided, given to the

Medes and the Persians. Then Belshazzar gave the command and Daniel was clothed with purple. A chain of gold was put around his neck and a proclamation was made about him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

That very night, okay, God's timing is precise and he knows what he's talking about when he tells people these things.

That very night, Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed and Darius the Mede received the kingdom being about 62 years old.

That very night, the entire city of Babylon went down in one night, which is incredibly unusual because as we mentioned,

I think, last time, the way they did it was they stopped up the Euphrates River which ran underneath a big gate through the town and when that river dropped down, they just swarmed up the middle of that river and they were right in town.

They took that city from the inside out in one night, just like that. What did God say? You've been numbered, your days are numbered and this is it, it's over.

That's in fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy. But here's also what's interesting. Now look at Daniel chapter nine.

Daniel chapter nine, we also have a time stamp that tells you this is exactly that same year.

In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus by descent a Mede who was made king over the realm of the

Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that according to the word of the

Lord to Jeremiah the prophet must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years.

So when it comes to interpretation, we get our rules of interpretation from Scripture. Scripture comes with its own rules of interpretation and one of them is how did the prophets interpret the word of God?

Be a good example for us to follow, whether we want to take it literally or not. You can add to that, we won't do that today, but how did the apostles interpret it?

How did Jesus interpret the Old Testament? So on. The Bible comes with its own rules of interpretation. It's not for us to try to figure out what our interpretation is going to be and then impose it upon us.

But how did Daniel interpret Jeremiah's prophecy that was sent to him by letter that he is reading?

Very literally, right? And he recognized it for what it is. According to the word of the

Lord to Jeremiah the prophet must pass before the end of desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years.

Now, going back to chapter 29 of Jeremiah, you remember what else it said? What's going to happen right when

Babylon falls? Part of the t -shirt thing? What are you going to do?

Pray. It said you will pray. It's the very next thing Daniel does. He knows we're going back.

We're going back to Jerusalem. 70 years are over. Babylon has been destroyed. We're going to head back, but we're not ready to go back.

We're not ready to go back and resume the worship of Yahweh yet. Then I turned my face to the

Lord God, seeking Him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

I prayed, and then what follows is this long, beautiful prayer of repentance on the part of the people. And there you have not only the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy, but you also have a picture of the sovereignty of God who calls him back, who tells him he's going to do that, but you also have the responsibility of man to pray, right?

He just read in the prophecy, we're going back, but he doesn't say, get packed up, let's go.

He still prays and calls his people to repentance. So there's much more we could do with that.

There's lots of parts and pieces to this puzzle, but I think that's probably enough for now. Do you have any thoughts or comments on that?

Indefinite, it's an indefinite period of time, that kind of thing, that's probably the most common. It does not fit their theology.

They have a presupposed theological system that they are using as a hermeneutic, and nothing gets through it but their system.

Instead of exegeting the text and adjusting their theology, they have a preexisting theology, and they impose it on the text.

That's how it happens. They're good people, they're smart people. They're not stupid. They're highly educated, very smart people, but they have a preexisting system.

And when you do that, and you can do that with any system. Anybody can do that. You have to be very careful. And you have to let each text make its contribution to your system.

You're done talking with them then. I would be. I mean, once you get to there.

I mean, if they don't want to, there's nothing you can say that's going to make it. Yeah, you can talk about, think those cowboys will get another coach?

I don't know, maybe they will. Because you bump up against that and it's, where do you go?

Okay, anybody else have any thoughts on that? Interpretation is very, very important.

It's critical. It's going to determine everything you think about the Word of God. It really will. Well, let's spend the rest of our time looking at these last several verses in Haggai that I just read through.

The first thing, once again, we're going to see the promise of judgment. The Word of Yahweh came to Haggai a second time, and very interestingly, it's the second time on the same day.

So there's four oracles, and the last two are both given on the same day, as in, same as in verse 10.

But this time, in comparison to the other three, it's very narrowly directed to Zerubbabel.

Okay? This is really important to see. In all of the vast movement of nations and warfare and temples up and down in the whole nine yards, there's something very important going on here, and that is

God is preserving and protecting the seed line of the

Messianic seed line, the Davidic line, as he promised in the Abrahamic covenant, that there would be a seed line.

And so what he says is directed directly to Zerubbabel alone, which indicates that this message is a

Messianic or a royal prediction. There are two blanks there, alone, and it is a royal prediction.

Pardon me. Right, it's

Messianic. Zerubbabel is important, but he's the governor, he's the civil governor, and in that regard, he's somewhat of a picture of Christ, but he is certainly not

Messianic in any way other than he's in the seed line, as we're going to see. And then, like verse 6, future universal divine judgment is pictured here.

This is reminiscent of what he said before. I am about to shake the heavens and the earth and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms.

I'm about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations and overthrow the chariots and the riders and the horses, and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother.

Universal divine judgment with that massive earthquake that's going to take place.

Revelation 16, 18, you find the bold judgments being poured out on the earth, and it says that a great earthquake, such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake.

Earthquakes happen now. They happen all the time. Some of them extremely severe and damaging and take a lot of life, but when that happens, it's going to be absolutely cataclysmic.

That's what he's talking about. So we're looking into the future here. This is eschatological from Zerubbabel's perspective, and it's also from our perspective as well.

This has not happened yet, so it is in the future. It will also include, it will be universal divine judgment, and it will include the overthrow of the throne.

This is singular in Hebrew. Some of your translations may have plural, the thrones of kingdoms. It's actually singular, and it may be,

I don't think I would arm wrestle anybody over this, but it may be a reference to a single throne in control of multiple kingdoms, which very well could happen in the future.

Remember when Satan tempted Christ, one of the things he tempted him with was, I'll give you all the kingdoms.

Now, it could have been lying, but we also know that Satan is the god of this evil age. He's the prince of the power of the air and so on.

Also, Revelation 16 .10 might be a reference to look at as well, but he's going to overthrow these kingdoms, and these kingdoms are apparently

Gentile kingdoms. There will be a cataclysmic judgment, including the earthquake and so on.

And then we have the promise of Messiah. This is where it all culminates.

This is really where it all points, 2 .23. On that day, declares the Lord of hosts,

I will take you, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the

Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the

Lord of hosts. He will make you like a signet ring, because what he's doing is he's looking at Zerubbabel, he's actually looking at the entire line of people.

This is pretty common in Hebrew thought and the way they saw things. They could look at a man, and when you look at that man, you could talk about his generations were in his loins, so to speak.

Abraham is spoken of that way. So this is a look into the future. Zerubbabel is his servant, and he's also been chosen by God to be a part of this seed line.

The signet ring was the symbol of divine election and authority. It was even used by kings and people to transact business.

It could be worn on the hand. It could also be worn around the neck on a string. The fourth and final oracle prophesied the future judgment and destruction of the

Gentile nations, that even in Haggai's day were occupying the land, and the signet ring is the symbol of divine election and authority.

It had been removed from Zerubbabel's grandfather Jehoiachin, in other words, his right to be any kind of a ruler, because of his sin and perverse leadership of God's people.

Let's go back to Jeremiah 22 -24, and we're going to see this curse.

We talked before about how there was all these kings ruling, and most of them were wicked.

They were evil. They rebelled against God. They led God's people away from God through idolatry and so on.

But in Jeremiah 22, starting in verse 24, we have

God's condemnation of this man named Coniah. He started out being, you can see him named as Jehoiachin or even as Jeconiah.

But in verse 24 of Jeremiah 22, it says, As I live, declares the

Lord, though Coniah, the son of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of the

Chaldeans. And that's exactly what happened. And notice he went from being

Jehoiachin or Jeconiah to just simply Coniah. Names are important in the

Bible. God took his name off the front end of his name. Yahweh was no longer part of his name because he was now going to be condemned.

He's under a curse. And not only him, but his entire progeny. Here's where it gets very interesting.

Look at verse 30. Thus says the Lord, write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.

Well, that creates a problem because this man is in the seed line of Messiah. So how in the world is his descendant going to be qualified to be the king of Israel, Messiah, when he's under a curse?

All of his descendants will be. Well, this curse that God made, and of course he knows what he's doing, several centuries before the birth of Christ, this curse guarantees that none of these men would ever be able to usurp the throne, right?

Because they're not qualified, and everybody would know it from this. It also guarantees the virgin conception of Jesus Christ.

Okay? And it's absolutely fascinating to me because it looks like the seed line is finished, except it's not, because God has it all in control.

Let's look at Matthew chapter 1. We can see how this comes into play centuries later.

Matthew chapter 1. Matthew opens up the New Testament by saying the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

And what does he do? He looks back in time, and he just really is kind of a connect the dots. He knows

Christ. He witnessed personally. He's one of the disciples, one of the apostles. He saw his ministry.

He saw his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. And now he's writing his gospel account.

And the first thing he does, he wants to connect him to Abraham and the Abrahamic covenant. And he does this by saying he's the son of David, the son of Abraham.

And then he starts with Abraham, and he walks right down through the genealogy. Now, there's another curse early on in the genealogy.

We won't talk about it, but the previous curse up in verse 3 started on Perez, the son of Judah and Tamar.

And if you want to do a little research on that, that's Deuteronomy 23 .2. It's the law that says a child of an illicit relationship is not qualified to enter the sanctuary of God until the 10th generation.

So you can go ahead and do the count yourself from Perez all the way down to verse 6, and it says David the king, and David is number 10 in that part of the genealogy.

But then it says all of this people are in the line from Abraham all the way down to Christ are named, and it repeatedly says the father of, the father of, the father of.

And we get down to verse 11, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah, there he is, or Coniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon, and after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, there's our guy.

Coniah was his grandfather. And so from Coniah on down, every single one of these people is under a curse.

And then it goes on down from Zerubbabel, the father of Abiud and so on, the father of, the father of.

Then you get to verse 16. And Jacob, the father of Joseph, but notice what's not there.

Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called

Christ. It doesn't say he's the father of Jesus. Jesus was a virgin conceived and therefore a virgin born, and yet Joseph was his father, he was in the family, so he had legal title to the throne, but he did not inherit the sin curse through Joseph.

And so there you have, from the Old Testament all the way into the New Testament, all the way through to here, validation of the virgin conception of Christ.

Another little detail here, little grammatical thing. The word

Joseph and the word husband nouns are both in the masculine gender.

Mary is in a feminine gender, and that little word of whom, it's just a little indefinite pronoun.

Number one, it's singular, of whom. Generally your parents, you would talk about them plural, right?

My parents are, but it doesn't, that is singular, of whom, and the reference is Mary, not

Joseph. It's also feminine, okay? It's only reference to her, not

Joseph. Just a little detail, and of course Matthew goes on and explains further of the virgin conception of Jesus Christ.

So even though the curse was on that line, God knew exactly what he was doing, and it demanded the virgin conception of Christ, okay?

In fulfillment of the promise, part of which is there at the bottom, in those days and at that time

I will cause a righteous branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness.

Where? In the land. That's again Jeremiah 33. In that prophecy that has all the condemnation, there's these repeated promises that even though there will be cursing, even though there will be chastening, even though you will be in captivity in the land,

I still will fulfill my promises through Abraham and bring you back to the land and bless you with a righteous branch to sit on the throne of David.

And that's exactly what he did. Do you have any thoughts or comments from what we've just seen from Haggai?

Well, how about some practical principles from page 12? See, I'm not going to ask any more questions.

The highest priority for the believer in Yahweh is to worship him. We saw that. Number two,

Yahweh told the returned Israelites to consider your ways multiple times. Think deeply about your life and about how you're living.

For the Christian, if considering our ways reveals sin in our lives, we are to confess it, turn from it in repentance, and obey

God's revealed will in Scripture. Number three, though it is an ancient principle, disobedience to God's revealed word still yields

God's judgment, chastening, and it could be a range of things.

You're not necessarily going to burst into flames, right? It could just be that life doesn't go like it should.

They didn't get quite as much crops as they thought in the land. They should have been blessed in the land, and yet they didn't get quite as much.

So it sort of could be a range. God does exercise the right to actually terminate someone's life, however, right?

Clearly, he did that with Belshazzar, the knight of the hand running on the wall. And also, obedience to God's revealed word still yields

God's blessings. Yeah, and when we are chastened for disobedience, that's our fault.

But when God blesses us for obedience, do we get a trophy? No, we still give

God the glory for that, right? That's him working in us to produce that obedience. Well, then number four, dwelling on past glory may hinder present work.

Remember the old guys, the ancient guys? That's not big enough. That's not good enough. And from a prof of a generation, a couple generations ago,

Prof Hendricks, comparison is carnal. It's always good to remember that. Comparison is carnal, particularly, and I think primarily he was talking about if we compare ourselves with other people.

Comparison is carnal. That should put a big bucket of cold water on our trying to compare ourselves with other people, unless it's

Jesus Christ, right? Number five, holiness does not rub off, but defilement does.

Six, there you go. Good application of it, yeah. I mean, that whole principle,

I mean, for a year and a half now, we've been dealing with a pandemic. Health can't be communicated.

I can't go someplace and get health. I can get a virus in a lot of different ways.

That's communicable, but health is not. Well then, number six,

God has fulfilled his promises in the past and is currently fulfilling his promises in the present.

We can trust him to fulfill all of his promises concerning the future in his time.

And again, a reminder from Haggai, when he says, I will, I will, I will, I will, and there's other passages in scripture where he says that.

We can take him at his word. The integrity of God is at stake when he says,

I will, then we can take him at his word that he will. And number seven, perhaps the most important one.

Jesus Christ will return to this earth. He will judge the nations. He will rule on the

Davidic throne. He will bring peace and perfect justice to this planet. You like the idea of justice?

Kind of an in thing now, you know? Hey, hey, ho, ho. If it's not just, then

I won't go, right? You got a sign? Get your sign out, you know?

What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now. Really? Are you sure you want?

I hear that. I just, I almost cringe, you know? I wanna get in my car and make sure I'm 100 miles away.

There will be justice, you know? Paul asks that question in Rome. It's a rhetorical question. Is there injustice with God?

May it never be, he says. No, every sin will be dealt with, past, present, future.

In God's economy, there will be justice. But here's what really counts. If you have never trusted him, turn from your sins and repentance and trust him for salvation.

That'd be the application, right? Everything else, academic, if you're not saved.

God wants to do the first work, the internal spiritual reality, before he does anything else.

So that'd be the application for you. If you've never trusted Christ, turn from your sins.

Make a rational act of the will. Turn from your sin and repentance and trust him for salvation.

Okay? If you have no other thoughts or questions, let's pray.

Our Father, thank you for our time and your word today. And now, Father, as we gather to worship you, we pray that you would be blessed and you would be glorified.

Give strength and encouragement to those who lead us today. Help us to be attentive to your word as it is preached.

We pray that you would accomplish all of your purposes in every life here and do it all for your glory.

In Jesus' name, amen. ♪ Jesus, friend of sinners ♪

Crowned for his reward for me ♪ Bruce, my treasure ♪

He is my emigre ♪

He took my place, my soul to save ♪ I am his forever sinner ♪

Such a story ♪

Such a story ♪ Redeeming love has been ♪ The silence forever ♪

Not death nor life ♪ Not death nor life ♪

Never separating me ♪

Brother ♪ The silence forever

Sing it again. ♪ The silence forever ♪

The silence forever ♪ See the death ♪

Today arise ♪ See the risen ♪

Hangs upon the ship ♪

Finished ♪

Jesus Christ ♪ Who but Christ ♪

Had dared to dream ♪ Steeped in gold ♪

The cup of heaven No one else could do it. ♪ And with tender ♪

Russian veils ♪ And piercing steel ♪ Screamed for us ♪

The Lord signed my blood ♪

Signed to all ♪ Test the eyes ♪

Of the fiendish ♪ Sacrifice ♪

Slave ♪ Jesus Christ ♪

We praise ♪ Grant us grace ♪

In the sky ♪

Bargain still ♪ All is good ♪ Grant us grace ♪

To sing your praise ♪ Round your throne ♪ Through endless days ♪

Jesus Christ ♪

Alas! ♪ And did my Savior bleed ♪

And did my Sovereign die ♪

Would he ♪

For such a ♪ As I ♪

Was it for Christ ♪ That I ♪

He grow a tree ♪

Of amazing ♪ North and ♪

Of Sing that verse again because it's a new melody.

♪ Alas! ♪ And did my Savior bleed ♪

And did my Sovereign ♪

Would he ♪ Defold that ♪ Sacred head ♪

For such a ♪ Word ♪

Was it for Christ ♪ That I ♪

He ♪

Well might the sun ♪ In darkness hide ♪

And shine his glory ♪ Today ♪

When Christ the mighty ♪ Maker died ♪

Nature said ♪

Bust my ♪ My ♪ Hushing face ♪

While his ♪ Dear cross ♪ Appears ♪

Dissolve my ♪ Heart ♪ In painful ♪

Nest ♪ With winter ♪

But drops ♪ Of grief ♪ And every pain ♪

Again ♪

Hear myself ♪

Awake ♪ Dissolve that ♪

Of glass ♪ And did my ♪ Savior bleed ♪

And did my ♪ Sovereign die ♪

Is he ♪ Is he ♪ Gracious ♪ I know ♪ Yes it's love ♪

Beyond ♪ Dear cross ♪

I have not done ♪ No list of ♪ Persues I pursue ♪

No list of ♪ Those I sell ♪

A place with you ♪ Oh God in me ♪

I am ♪

It is not in me ♪

No uncovert ♪ Or typical song ♪

No recitation ♪ Of the truth ♪

Can justify ♪ A single wrong ♪ My righteousness ♪

Is Jesus' life ♪ My death was paid ♪ By Jesus' death ♪

My weary load ♪ Was bought by ♪ No separation ♪

From the world ♪ No work ♪

Can cleanse my conscience ♪ And mind ♪

But Jesus died ♪ And rose again ♪ The power is overthrown ♪

My God is merciful ♪ To me ♪ And merciful ♪

In Christ ♪ My righteousness ♪ My righteousness ♪ Is Jesus' life ♪

My death was paid ♪ By Jesus' death ♪ My weary load ♪

Was bought by Him ♪ And He alone ♪

Stricken, slitten ♪ And afflicted ♪

See Him lying ♪ On the tree ♪ Tears of Christ ♪

I have rejected ♪ As my soul ♪

Tis He, tis He ♪ Tears of all ♪ Expected profit ♪

They did sum ♪ And they did thaw ♪

I have sung ♪ God has spoken ♪ Tis the true ♪

And faithful word ♪

Till He's insulting ♪

His distress ♪ Many hands were ♪

Posed to save ♪ But the deepest ♪

Stroke that pierced Him ♪ Was the stroke ♪ That justice gave ♪

He who thinketh ♪ Of sin but blithely ♪

Not supposedly ♪ It's nature rightly ♪

Here it's guiltfully ♪ Estimated ♪ Mark the sacrifice ♪

Avoided ♪ See who begs ♪ The awful load ♪

Tis the word ♪ The Lord's anointed ♪

Son of man ♪ Son of God ♪

Here we have ♪ A firm foundation ♪

Here the refuge ♪ Of the Lord ♪

Christ the rock ♪ Of our salvation ♪

Is the name ♪ The only name we boast in ♪

And the ♪ Sacrifice ♪

To cancel guilt ♪ None shall ever ♪

Be confounded ♪ Who on him ♪ None shall ever ♪

Be confounded ♪ When the fear ♪

By faith ♪ Will fail ♪ Christ will ♪ When the tempter ♪

Will prevail ♪ I could ♪

For my love ♪ Is often cruel ♪

He must go ♪

He will ♪

He will hold me fast ♪ Those he saves ♪

Are his delight ♪ Christ will hold me fast ♪

Precious in his holy sight ♪

He will hold me fast ♪ He'll not let my soul be lost ♪

His promises shall last ♪ Bought by him ♪

At such a cost ♪ He will hold me fast ♪

He will hold me fast ♪

He will hold me fast ♪

Those he stole ♪ He will hold me fast ♪

He'll not let my soul be lost ♪

Justice has been satisfied ♪

He will hold me fast ♪

He will hold me fast ♪

He'll not let my soul be lost ♪ Justice has been satisfied ♪ When he's gone ♪

He will be gone ♪

He will ♪

He will hold ♪ For as he stole ♪

He will hold me fast ♪

Hold me fast ♪ Dear refuge of my weary soul ♪

On thee when suffered ♪

On to thee ♪

Thy rights now receive thy praise ♪

Most heavenly ♪ Heir of sovereign grace ♪

Attends a mourner's prayer

Yes, it does. ♪

To grieve my sorrow ♪

Mercy's seat is open still ♪

Here let my soul retreat ♪

Mercy's seat is open still ♪

Here let my soul retreat ♪

With love ♪

Eternal God ♪ Unchanging ♪ Mysterious and unknown ♪

Honest love ♪ Unfailing ♪ In grace and mercy strong ♪

Bright seraphim ♪ In ceaseless fun ♪

Around your glorious throne ♪ They raise their voices ♪

Day and night ♪ In praise to you ♪

Lord we are weak ♪ And our sin is heavy ♪

His pleasure is our heart ♪ Rise up oh

Lord ♪ And ye will flee ♪ Before our sovereign

God ♪

In the Lord Yeah, test it.

Well good morning, and welcome to Kootenai Church. This morning we're gonna do the call to worship.

We're gonna sing the doxology. So would you all please stand this morning? And we're gonna get started.

And we welcome you here. Okay, here we go. ♪

Praise God from whom ♪ All blessings flow ♪

Praise him all creatures ♪ Here below ♪

Praise him above ♪ The heavenly host ♪

Praise Father, Son, ♪ And Holy Ghost ♪

How firm a foundation ♪

These saints of the Lord ♪ Is laid for your faith ♪

In his excellent word ♪ What more can he say ♪

Than to you he hath said ♪ To you who for refuge ♪

To Jesus have fled ♪ Fear not I am with thee ♪

Oh be not dismayed ♪ For I am your God ♪ And will still give thee aid ♪

I'll strengthen thee ♪ Help thee and cause thee to stand ♪

Upheld by my righteous ♪ Omnipotent hand ♪

When through fiery trials ♪ Thy pathway shall light ♪

My grace of sufficiency ♪ Shall be thy supply ♪

The flame shall not hurt thee ♪ I only design ♪

Thy dross to consume ♪ And thy gold to refine ♪

The soul that on Jesus ♪ Hath leaned for repose ♪

I will not, I will not ♪ Desert to his foes ♪

That soul who all hell ♪ Should endeavor to take ♪

I'll never, no never ♪ No never forsake

Amen. ♪ Immortal, invisible ♪

God only wise ♪ Enlightened, accessible ♪ Hidden from our eyes ♪

Most blessed, most glorious ♪ The ancient of days ♪

Almighty, victorious ♪ Thy great name we praise ♪

Unresting, unhasting ♪ And silent as night ♪

Not wanting or wasting ♪ You rule us in night ♪ Your justice like mountains ♪

High soaring above ♪ Your clouds which are fountains ♪ Of goodness and love ♪

Most holy, most glorious ♪ The ancient of days ♪

Almighty, victorious ♪

Your great name we praise ♪

All life comes from you Lord ♪ To both great and small ♪

In a life you live Lord ♪ The true life of all ♪ We blossom and flourish ♪

But quickly grow frail ♪ We wither and perish ♪ But you never fail ♪

Great Father of glory ♪ Pure Father of light ♪ Your angels adore you ♪

Availing their sight ♪ All praise we will render ♪ Oh Father of grace ♪

Till one day in splendor ♪ We see face to face ♪

Most holy, most glorious ♪ The ancient of days ♪

Almighty, victorious ♪ Your great name we praise ♪

Most holy, most glorious ♪ The ancient of days ♪

Almighty, victorious ♪ Your great name we praise

Well, good morning.

Just a few announcements this morning. A few of them about upcoming events, but before I get to that, this morning

I was made aware of a need in our congregation, and so if we have any able -bodied men who would be able to help out to meet this need, it would be much appreciated.

This morning, Dave Lynch was at work doing something, and something happened. A rod of some sort or a handle struck him in the face and thinks might have broken his jaw.

So he was at the hospital this morning. We are having that looked at to see if he needs to be sucking dinner through a straw for the next several weeks or if he's going to be okay.

But he texted and asked if it would be possible if there were some able -bodied men to give him a hand with some projects at his house this afternoon.

They were time -sensitive projects that he needed to have done, a little bit of electrical, a little bit of plumbing, and a little bit of pouring concrete.

He has some work being done on Tuesday that he needs to be prepared for. So if you're able to give him a hand, talk with Melody, his wife

Melody. Melody, raise your hand and give everybody an indication of where you are at, and she will arrange that.

I asked him how many men and how long, and he says probably just a couple of guys, and not very long at all, just a couple of little things that need to be done to get him ready.

So September 1st, which is this week, we have a midweek Bible study starting. Membership class is

October 16th and 23rd. We will have two of those because of the number of people who are signed up for that, and it won't be in our normal location back here.

We'll have it out here in the sanctuary. And men's fellowship is tomorrow night, so men, remember that if you'd like to be here for that.

And that starts at 6 o 'clock, and then coming up in September, the 26th, I think it is, is an evangelism training course.

That's gonna be taught by Peter Hammond, who does an excellent job of sharing the gospel with people using the law before gospel, way of the master style.

He's gonna be leading that, training people how to share the gospel one -on -one and maybe even do a little bit of open -air preaching.

And then that doesn't mean that you're signing up to do open -air preaching, by the way. Just calm down, don't let that scare you away.

But it will be a good opportunity to do some evangelism training and get more comfortable in sharing the gospel.

And then there is no choir practice today, and the choir has been postponed for, well, indefinitely for a while.

And there'll be an announcement later on, I think, for some personal issues for some people involved in the choir. So please turn now, if you will, to Psalm 37.

And again, if you'd like to help out with Dave's projects this afternoon, talk to Melody.

Psalm 37. We're gonna read together this entire psalm, all 40 verses.

And I wanna give you a bit of an introduction to this psalm before we read it so that you can know kind of what it is to expect, and you'll be able to see the themes in this psalm as they come up in the

Scripture reading. So just a couple brief statements regarding the psalm itself. There are two psalms that deal with the problem of the prosperity of the wicked.

Psalm 73 wrestles through the issue of the prosperity of the wicked.

Why did the wicked prosper? And the psalmist, Asaph, answers that question in Psalm 73 by looking at the prosperity of the wicked itself and showing that it is short -lived, the prosperity of the wicked is short -lived, and that prosperity is actually a preparation for their judgment.

Those are two things to keep in mind. It's short -lived, and it prepares them for their judgment. The other psalm that deals with the problem of the prosperity of the wicked is

Psalm 37, which we're about to read. Psalm 73 and Psalm 37. Interestingly, they're obviously kind of opposites with the numbers, and so it's easy to remember them that way, but it's also easy to remember them in this way, that Psalm 37 deals with the same issue, but from a bit of a different perspective.

Psalm 37 answers the problem of the prosperity of the wicked by showing that it is actually the righteous who are prosperous, but it is not a present blessing, it is a future blessing, and it is an eternal prosperity that the righteous enjoy, and it is not at all a preparation for judgment, but it is, in fact,

God's infinite blessing upon them, but that our prosperity is yet future. So it deals with the same question from two different perspectives, one looking at the temporary versus the permanent nature of these prosperities and who it is that actually is prospering.

Psalm 37 really is a description of the prosperity of the righteous because the psalmist takes our focus off of what the wicked are enjoying and puts it on what the righteous are going to be enjoying.

So Psalm 37 is really the prosperity of the righteous. In fact, when we are done with the book of Hebrews, I'm gonna preach through Psalm 37 several weeks through this psalm in preparation for writing a book which will be titled

The Prosperity of the Righteous, kind of a contrary, another book on that very issue like Psalm, like The Prosperity of the

Wicked is with Psalm 73. So Psalm 37, all that for introduction. What I want you to watch for is the permanent and lasting nature of what the righteous are promised in this psalm.

Psalm 37. Do not fret because of evildoers. Do not be envious toward wrongdoers, for they will wither quickly like the grass and fade like the green herb.

Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the

Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him and He will do it.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the

Lord and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret because of Him who prospers in His way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.

Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret, it leads only to evildoing, for evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the

Lord, they will inherit the land. Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more, and you will look carefully for his place, and he will not be there, but the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for He sees

His day is coming. The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow to cast down the afflicted and the needy to slay those who are upright in conduct.

Their sword will enter their own heart and their bows will be broken. Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many wicked.

For the arms of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord sustains the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the blameless and their inheritance will be forever.

They will not be ashamed in the time of evil and in the days of famine they will have abundance. But the wicked will perish and the enemies of the

Lord will be like the glory of the pastors. They vanish like smoke. They vanish away. The wicked borrows and does not pay back, but the righteous is gracious and gives.

For those blessed of Him will inherit the land, but those cursed by Him will be cut off. The steps of a man are established by the

Lord and He delights in His way. When He falls, He will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the one who holds

His hand. I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or His descendants begging bread.

All day long He is gracious and lends, and His descendants are a blessing. Depart from evil and do good so you will abide forever.

For the Lord loves justice and does not forsake His godly ones. They are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked will be cut off.

The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever. The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom and His tongue speaks justice.

The law of His God is in His heart. His steps do not slip. The wicked spies upon the righteous and seeks to kill

Him. The Lord will not leave Him in His hand or let Him be condemned when He is judged. Wait for the Lord and keep

His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.

I have seen a wicked, violent man spreading himself like a luxuriant tree in its native soil.

Then he passed away, and, lo, he was no more. I sought for him, but he could not be found. Mark the blameless man and behold the upright, for the man of peace will have a posterity, but transgressors will be altogether destroyed.

The posterity of the wicked will be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their strength in time of trouble.

The Lord helps them and delivers them. He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in Him.

You stand with me as we pray. Bow our heads.

Our Father, the promises of Your Word are so rich and abundant toward those who are

Yours. We thank You that our hope is in what Your Word has described as the future of all the righteous, that we will inherit the land, we will see our posterity and our prosperity in Your eternal and future blessings.

We thank You that this world is not the end of the story. We thank You that there will come a day when the wicked will be judged, when all things will be made right, when sin will be dealt with in its every last measure.

Everything will be accounted for. Truth and righteousness will prevail and we long for that day when we shall see

You and we will behold our God and we will see You with our eyes. We will behold

You with our very own eyes and resurrected bodies on this earth, in a new heavens and a new earth, recreated, resurrected.

This is our hope. This is our inheritance. This is the blessing that belongs to those who are Yours. So we praise

You for that. We ask that You would fix our hearts and our minds entirely upon those blessings, those future realities.

We pray that You would give us grace to rightly respond to all that is going on around us in this world, to see it biblically from Your vantage point, to know that the prosperity and the triumph of the wicked is short.

It is short -lived and ultimately it will bring about the purposes that You have determined for this world and for Your people.

So we thank You that You can and will be glorified in Your church and through us. We pray that You would unite our hearts together in love and affection, in unity and in commitment to the truth, that You would be honored here amongst us as we worship

You and as we pray and as we praise You. May You be glorified in Your church, in Your people and through Your people, both now and forever, we pray.

In Christ's name. Amen. The sun cannot compare to the glory of Your love.

There is no shadow in Your presence. No mortal man would dare to stand before Your throne, before the

Holy One of Heaven. And it's only by Your blood and it's only through Your mercy

Lord, I come. I bring an offering of worship to my

King. No one on earth deserves the praises that I seek.

Jesus, may You receive the honor that You're due.

Oh Lord, I bring an offering to You.

The sun cannot compare to the glory of Your love.

There is no shadow in Your presence. No mortal man would dare to stand before Your throne, before the

Holy One of Heaven. It's only by Your blood and it's only through Your mercy

Lord, I come. I bring an offering of worship to my

King. No one on earth deserves the praises that I seek.

Jesus, may You receive the honor that You're due.

Oh Lord, I bring an offering of worship to my

King. No one on earth deserves the praises that I seek.

Jesus, may You receive the honor that You're due.

Oh Lord, I bring an offering to You.

In Colossians chapter 1, verses 24 through 27, it says, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for Your sake, and I fill up what is lacking of Christ's afflictions in my flesh on behalf of His body, which is the

Church, of which I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God given to me for You, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the

Word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom

God willed to make known. What is the riches of His glory of this mystery among the

Gentiles, which is Christ in You, the hope of glory? We're going to conclude this morning singing with a song,

Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery. Come behold the wondrous mystery in the dawning of the

King. Hear the theme of heaven's praises, rope and trail humanity.

In our longing, in our darkness, now the light of life has come.

Look to Christ who condescended, took on flesh to ransom us.

Come behold the wondrous mystery. He the perfect Son of Man, in His living, in His suffering, never traced nor stained of sin.

See the true and better Adam come to save the hellbound man.

Christ the great and sure fulfillment of the law in Him we stand.

Come behold the wondrous mystery, Christ the

Lord upon the tree. In the stead of ruined sinners hangs the

Lamb in victory. See the price of our redemption, see the

Father's plan unfold, bringing many sons to glory, grace unmeasured, love untold.

Come behold the wondrous mystery, slain by death the

God of life, but no grave could ever restrain

Him. Praise the Lord, He is alive. What a foretaste of deliverance, how unwavering our hope.

Christ in power resurrected, as He will be when

He comes. What a foretaste of deliverance, how unwavering our hope.

Christ in power resurrected, as He will be when

He comes. Turn now if you will please to Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews chapter 10. We're gonna read together beginning at verse 32, we'll read through the end of the chapter, verse 39,

Hebrews 10. But remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay, but my righteous one shall live by faith.

And if He shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in Him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

Bow our heads. Our Father, we now ask Your blessing upon our time of study. In Your Word, we have sung to You and expressed the sentiments of our hearts.

And now we come to Your Word and we ask that we might hear Your voice in the pages of Scripture, that we may understand this text, understand it rightly, that we may be able to see in the passage what

You would have for us in our own day, in our own lives, be able to apply Your Word to our lives. And we pray that You would use

Your Word to create in us a strong resolve, a hope, and a heart and mind that is sober and ready for action and fixed upon the coming revelation of the

Lord Jesus Christ and all the glory that will attend to that, that it belongs to those who are Yours by faith in Your Son, in whose name we pray.

Amen. In the last few weeks, we've been looking at the realities of Christian persecution, the hostility of the world, the inevitability of that, and how unbelievers treat those who are unbelievers, sorry, how unbelievers treat those who are believers.

And we have been calling this the reproach of faith, seeing that those who bear the reproach of faith will receive the reward of faith.

And we are called to not only receive that reproach and to embrace it, but also to do so with a certain joy and happiness.

And that seems completely counterintuitive, doesn't it? It seems counterintuitive to suggest to somebody that you could endure the hostility of the world and receive their reproach and endure tribulations and the seizure of your property and becoming a public spectacle and to share with those who are treated in that way and to be imprisoned and yet to respond with grace and with humility, but also with an outward expression of joy and delight and even happiness in the midst of those circumstances.

That is counterintuitive, and yet it is the very response that is often implored upon us through Scripture.

When Scripture tells us how to respond to these things, it says we are to do so with joy. The book of Philippians is a study in this bizarre response to outward persecution and stress.

The Apostle Paul, suffering imprisonment in the city of Rome, wrote the book of Philippians and one of the main themes of that book is joy and rejoicing.

You see it all the way through that book. And then when you understand the context in which Paul was writing and what he was experiencing under house arrest, facing a trial before Nero, possible execution for what they said were crimes against the state, even in the midst of that,

Paul writes this letter that is brimming and overflowing with references to joy and rejoicing.

And that is to be an example, that is an example for how we are to respond to the world's hostility to suffering and affliction, even the kind that is described here in Hebrews chapter 10.

Now you might say, how is that possible to do that? How is it that Christians can respond to the seizure of their property, trials and tribulations, being made a public spectacle, suffering and enduring the reproaches of a hostile world that hates the truth and hates the light, how can we endure that and do so with joy?

You might think at first glance that the way to do that is to ignore your circumstances, to pretend that reality is not reality, to just put it out of your mind and say to yourself,

I control what I think about and so I'm not going to think about any of the bad things that are happening, I'm not going to think about any of the difficulties that I'm facing,

I'm just going to ignore this and I'm just going to pretend that real isn't real and that my present is really not as bad as it is.

Or I'll just deny that it's actually happening, kind of live with my fingers in my ears and my fingers over my eyes all at the same time, however you might do that, you maybe need four hands to accomplish that, but hear no evil, see no evil, be aware of no evil, deny all evil, and that if I could just put it out of my mind and deny it and pretend that it's not existing and just make my mind think that reality is different than it is, if I can do that and not have it anywhere in my mind, then

I can have joy. Well, that's not the response that Scripture commands us to have. We're nowhere told to pretend that reality isn't real and we're nowhere told to put it out of our mind or to not think about it or to deny that it actually is happening at all.

We're not commanded to do any of that. In fact, it is quite the opposite. The author of Hebrews says, remember the former days when you endured a great conflict of suffering.

Instead, this is so counterintuitive. We are to remember it, to fix our mind upon it, to mull it over in our mind, to remember it, to count it out as it were one by one, and consider the great conflict of sufferings that you have endured.

Scripture's answer is not to deny the times are getting tough. Scripture's answer is to be aware of the tough times and then to handle it appropriately.

And that's what we're looking at here in Hebrews chapter 10. We are to live our lives in joy, receiving from the world whatever the world is going to bring against the church and to do so with joy and with happiness and with delight, accepting it as it were from a deep sense of joy within our own hearts and our own minds and that not because we are ignoring what is going on around us, but instead because we are fixing our eyes and our hearts and our minds upon realities that are yet future, not our present, but our future.

So joy comes not from denying what is going on right now, but from remembering what is going to go on in the future of which you and I are predestined and absolutely secured participants in that glory.

And since that is going to happen, and since we have our part and our portion in that future, we are to fix our minds and our hearts upon the future.

That's where joy comes from, not by ignoring the present, but by remembering the future. That's what the author of Hebrews says in chapter 10.

You are to remember those trials and afflictions. Be aware of that. Here's all that you endured.

Then you get down to verse 34. You showed sympathy to the prisoners. You accepted joyfully the seizure of your property.

Where does that joy come from? It comes from knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.

That's the source of the joy. In fact, this idea of reward is a theme that comes all the way through the end of chapter 10 and all the way through chapter 11 as well.

This reward that is coming to those who are the righteous. You see it in verse 34. You have a better possession and a lasting one.

Verse 35, you have a great reward. Verse 36, you will receive what was promised. Verse 39, you have faith to the preserving of your soul.

These are the rewards that come to the righteous. And then all the way through chapter 11, that's one of the main themes.

This person endured in faith because he looked forward to this. This person endured in faith because he looked forward to this.

Over and over again through chapter 11, it is the reward that is ahead of them that allowed Abraham and Noah and Moses to endure the hostility that was set before them in hopes of receiving that reward that was promised.

The author is constantly putting our minds not necessarily off of what we are enduring now, but fixing our hope in our mind of what is sure to enjoy in the future.

That's the idea. We have looked last week at these two different groups of sufferers. Those who had endured the reproaches and faced the hostility, endured the tribulations, and had been imprisoned.

And then there were those who shared with those who were so treated. So there's two different groups. Today we look at verse 34 a little bit more about what they endured, the seizure of their properties, and then why it is that they endured it.

So today we're going to look at what they suffered, the seizure of their property, how they suffered it with joy, and then why were they able to endure that with joy?

Because they had, they knew they had for themselves a better possession and a lasting one. So what is it that they suffered?

The seizure of their property. This is an intriguing glimpse, this statement, this passage is an intriguing glimpse into the life of the

New Testament church. I wish there were more detail given here, don't you? You endured, you accepted joyfully the seizure of your property.

What property was seized? What precipitated this? At what point did this happen?

Who was responsible for it? Were they plundered by religious authorities in Jerusalem, the

Sadducees and the Pharisees and the High Priest, or were they plundered by Roman authorities, Roman soldiers?

Did this order come down from the civil magistrates of the Roman authorities or the religious magistrates of the

Jewish authorities in the city of Jerusalem and the land of Israel? Was it their religious community that did this, their former

Jews who they once had worshipped with in the temple, who now that they had become Christians, those people turned them in, or was this their own family members that were responsible for plundering their property?

And what was plundered? The means of making the income itself? Is this the result of them losing their jobs and so their stream of income seized up?

Did this happen on multiple occasions or was this a one -time thing? Somebody came in and just took all of their possessions and that was it, or was this something where they were just held out to public scorn and mockery and time after time people just came and took whatever it is that they possessed?

I wish I could have answers to all of those questions. It really is an intriguing glimpse into what our early

Christian brothers endured. How often did this happen? How severe?

What was the results of this? How many people did this happen? The language that is used here, the word translated seizure, gives us some idea of what was going on.

The language is telling. It's a graphic description and even a violent word that is used here. It suggests something coming in and grabbing something suddenly.

So the English word seizure or having your possessions seized is an apt description. That's a good translation of that.

It describes a violent grasping, a violent, greedy grasping of their possessions.

The word is only used three times in the New Testament, once here and twice in two of the Gospels where they're used in parallel passages.

I'll read to you one of the passages. It's Matthew 23 verse 25. That gives you a vivid picture of what's being described here, right?

It is to have something taken by force, threat, or violence. It is the plunder, the taking of the booty, the robbery of the wrapping of somebody's possessions.

It is a violent, greedy, sudden seizure of their possessions, which tells us that whatever went on here was unrighteous, unjust, and unlawful.

And even if the government should make it legal to seize someone's possessions, that doesn't make it right, nor does it make it lawful, nor does it make it righteous.

It still can be unjust, and it still can be, though legal in man's law, illegal in terms of God's law, because it can still be unjust and unrighteous and wicked for a civil magistrate to do something like that.

So maybe this happened at the hands of their family members or their former friends. Maybe this happened at the hands of civil magistrates.

If they did that, then of course this is the unlawful and unrighteous and illegal seizing of their possessions.

But notice that this happened because they were believers. Their possessions were not seized because of a bad investment.

Their possessions were not lost because of a stock market downturn or hyperinflation due to the fact that the government back then spent more money than has ever been devised by God or man, and so it resulted in the lessening of all of the value of their earthly possessions.

Not that. It's not the downturn in the economy or the unwise use of their resources that caused this.

They were targeted because they were Christians. This is a targeted, unlawful, illegal, unjust, violent abuse of these people and their lawful possessions.

In the history of mankind, we have seen this over and over again where some classes of humanity are treated as less than human and less than protected by the law.

We do this all the time. We've done it in our past as a nation with black people where we treated them as property.

We did that 150, 200 years ago. Today, it's happening to white people in South Africa where they and their possessions and their persons are not treated equally before the law, and they have become targets.

It's slowly turning that way in our own culture where just being white makes you guilty of something even if you aren't guilty of anything.

Just the fact that you have white skin makes you guilty of that. Just the fact that you're a man makes you guilty of whatever offense.

The unborn are not given any kind of classification as human beings in our day, and so the unborn are treated in the same way that blacks were treated prior to the

Civil War. We always have this ability in humanity to take a class of people and treat them as second -hand citizens, deprive them of their white rights and target them and seize what does not belong to us.

We've done it over and over again. All of humanity has done it, not just the United States. This is the story of human history in every nation, every culture, on every continent that has ever existed.

Wherever you have two people existing in the same place at the same time, this happens.

It's just the story of humanity. We're not any more guilty of that today than we ever have been, but we are guilty of that today, just like every nation on Earth is guilty of the same thing today.

This is a group of people that was targeted Christians, and they were targeted merely because they professed a faith and belief in Jesus Christ, and so they had their property seized.

The word for property here describes the base means of living, so here we get some idea of what it is that was taken.

This is not their Bernie Sanders third house on a lake somewhere. They're not saying, well, we had our second home seized, or we lost our fifth car, and we're down to four flat -screen

TVs now instead of five. It wasn't anything like that. This describes their means of living, the base and elemental aspects of their possession.

They had their food taken. They had their drinks taken. They had their clothing taken. Their houses were seized.

These people were left destitute without anything. These are not ancillary possessions that they had somehow given up or had taken away from them.

This is the base elements of their living, the base elements of their provision, what they needed to exist, so this results in them being made absolutely destitute and exposed to everything because of what was taken from them, so it wasn't part of their possessions.

They were rendered destitute and exposed because of it. That was the seizure of their property, the violent taking of their basic staples for living.

How did they respond to that? Well, of course, they took up arms and revolted.

You see that in verse 35. You don't see that at all, do you? What did they do? They accepted joyfully, and by accepted, we don't mean that there was an offer and they volunteered for this.

Right? Like, hey, anybody want to be plundered here this week? Have your possessions seized? Oh, call on me,

Mr. Cotta. It wasn't anything like that. It's not that they accepted it, they volunteered for it, like they had a choice in it.

None of that. This came to them. This volunteered them themselves. They had this happen to them.

They didn't ask for it. It's not something that was offered to them that they chose. It was outside of their control.

They didn't vote for this. They didn't want this to happen, but when it happened, they accepted it, not in terms of yeah,

I want this to happen to me, and I'm gladly embracing this, but the way in which they received these events that were outside of their control, they received it with joy.

They did so joyfully. That describes gladness, a joy, and a great happiness. See, this is what is so counterintuitive to us, isn't it?

To have all of that taken away from you, and yet to respond with joy, happiness, and gladness.

You're going to understand how they were able to do that here in just a moment, but this is how they responded. I'm tempted at this point to take a little bit of an excursus and talk about the biblical doctrine and teaching on the subject of joy, but I think that probably most of you are familiar enough with that, but I won't do that.

I would just simply remind you of a couple of things. First, joy is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, meaning this is something that is produced inside the heart of a believer, and an unbeliever has no capacity to respond in this way.

An unbeliever has no ability to experience the type of joy that we are describing here inside of their own being when something like this happens to them.

Unbelievers do not have that capacity. Second, it is not situationally dependent. We can have joy in all things and in all circumstances, regardless of situations or our circumstances, because circumstances do not create this joy, and if circumstances do not create this joy, then circumstances cannot take this joy.

This joy is something that transcends circumstances, so it's not situationally dependent. It is, in fact, truth dependent, meaning that this joy comes from me having an abiding and right and proper understanding of a number of things.

First of all, myself and what is true of me, or you, understanding this and what is true of you. So joy comes from me knowing that all of my sins are forgiven.

All the weight of my transgression has been laid upon another and I bear none of its sin, none of that shame, none of that guilt anymore, and that this is not just something that is true of me temporarily or provisionally, it is something that is true of me eternally, and it can never be reversed.

That sin and that shame, that guilt can never be put upon me. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, and that I am secure in that position, that no matter what happens in this world, even if everything is taken from me,

I can still be joyful because I know that eternally all of my sins have also been taken from me, and that can give me joy.

So I have joy because I know of something that is true of me, that I have been redeemed, that I am a child of God, that I am under His hand, that I am sealed by the

Holy Spirit, that I have been justified, that I am being sanctified, and that I will most certainly be glorified.

And because I know all of that, I can have joy in the midst of any of those kinds of afflictions. It is because joy comes from knowing something that is true of my situation, that it is under the control and the administration of a sovereign

God. And that before you had ever lived even one day in this earth, every last detail of every last one of your days was written out for you in a book,

Psalm 139. And God mapped out and He knew the content and the events of all of your days before there was yet one of them, because He knit you together in your mother's womb.

And if I can remember that, I can accept joyfully the seizure of my property, because I know that the seizure of my property does not take

God by surprise, does it? Well, that seizure of my property happens to be the content of one of my days, which was written for me before there was even yet one of them.

So if it's in His book, and He has ordained this, and God has ordained whatsoever things shall come to pass, and if He is sovereign, and He is providentially working out

His own will, and He has promised that everything that happens to us and everything that happens around us and everything that happens during our lives works out for the glory of His name and the good of His people, if I can remember that, then

I can have joy in the midst of circumstance. I can have joy because I remember the truth, I remember what is true about the future, the truth about the future, that there is a reward, that the wicked will be punished, the righteous will be rewarded, truth will be vindicated, and every wrong that is ever done to a child of God will be punished, either upon Christ on the cross, because He bears the sin of those who wrong us and then later repent, they're

His child, or it will be born in hell for all of eternity on the back and on the head of the one who commits that wrong.

But because I know what the future holds, I can have joy in the midst of those circumstances, because my joy is not circumstance dependent, situation dependent, it's truth dependent.

It comes from understanding what is true regarding me, regarding God, regarding the future, regarding all things that happen and come to pass.

This is why Acts 5 .41, after they suffered for the faith, it says, they went out of their way from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.

James 1 .2, count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. Jesus said, Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great. Jesus didn't say rejoice and be glad because the suffering is fun.

He didn't say rejoice and be glad because it really doesn't hurt, just pretend that it doesn't. He doesn't say that. He says rejoice and be glad because your reward in heaven is great.

Look past the moment of suffering, the seizure of your property, the horrible things that are happening. You look past that to the future and understand,

I have in heaven a reward that is great. And if I have in heaven a reward that is great, I can rejoice, not in the suffering, but in the midst of the suffering because I'm rejoicing in something else that suffering cannot take away, namely my better and lasting possession.

This signals to the world that something about you is different when you respond this way to their trials and tribulations, to their reproaches.

It tells the world something's different about this person. We go kill this group of people and they respond a certain way, but when we go over here and we try and do this to Christians, their response is entirely different.

That's entirely different because unbelievers don't have the ability to respond the way that we do. We can do this because we have the fruit of the

Holy Spirit. We can do this because we have an eternal inheritance. We can do this because we, of all people on the face of the planet, have the ability to look past this world and fix our minds and our hopes on the world that is to come.

But if this world is all that you have, I feel sorry for you, for one, but if this world is all that you have, then when somebody comes in and they takes this from you, then you're going to respond appropriately.

You're going to respond as if, well, you're going to respond as if this world is all you have. And if you live for this life, then when you lose it, that is going to be a hard loss because if this life is all you have, then

I can understand why you would be upset if somebody took it from you. But if you know that you have a better possession, then you also know that when you lose this world's possessions, it cannot faze you because you have a better possession and a lasting one.

You see, what produces the joy is not the affliction and the suffering itself. It's not the persecution. What produces the joy is not the pain.

People who receive joy out of pain need to have their head read. That's not what produces joy in us.

What produces joy in us in the midst of the pain is understanding what is yet future.

Knowing the truth about these things. They were not joyful because someone seized their possessions. They were joyful because they had possessions that no one could seize.

That's the source of their joy. They weren't happy. They didn't stand by and applaud the seizure of their possessions.

They weren't happy just in that. They were happy because they understood that they have a better possession and a lasting one.

That's the end of verse 34. We aren't joyful because we endure suffering. We're joyful because we know that in spite of the suffering that God is working through the suffering an eternal weight of glory that is not worthy to be compared with anything that happens to us in this world.

If I can keep my mind and my heart fixed upon that reality, then suffering cannot take any of that from me.

We aren't joyful that the wicked are triumphant now. We're joyful in the way that Psalm 37 describes joy, which we read earlier.

For evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. Yet a little while, and the wicked man will be no more, and you will look carefully for his place, and he will not be there.

But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity. When you know that, when you can believe that, when you can see that with the eye of faith and know it to be true, you can have joy when all of your earthly possessions are seized.

Because you can say to yourself, this fool's taken everything that belongs to me. Oh, well. One of these days,

I'm going to dwell in the land. I'm going to delight myself in abundant prosperity. I'm going to enjoy the land.

I'm going to dwell in it. I'm going to abide in it with the saints of old. I will have all of that, and none of those things can be taken from me by the wicked.

None of them. Now, why were they joyful? They were joyful because you see it says they knew that they had for themselves a better possession and a lasting one.

Now, there's a bit of an interpretive issue that we need to deal with here in this text and a bit of a translation issue that I want to bring up and make you aware of in the text.

It's because there is a textual variant in the New Testament manuscript, so I'm going to get to that here in just a moment. There are a couple of different translations.

So, as I read in the NASB, if you had a different translation like a King James, New King James or ESV, you might have noticed that they phrased the translation a little bit differently.

Here are the various ways that it's translated. The King James says, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and enduring substance.

Knowing in yourselves. The New King James says, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

One you know in yourselves, one you know for yourself or you have for yourself. The NASB says, knowing that you have for yourselves and the

ESV, the English Standard says, knew that you yourselves had a better possession. So, this all boils down to what is the significance of this textual variant and what is the use of the word yourself there mean?

What is it amplifying or modifying? And so, there are a number of different ways of understanding it in terms of interpreting it.

There is a textual variant, as I said, and what I mean by that is, and you look at all the Greek New Testaments that have come down to us from which we make our

English translation, there are some differences at this point in the wording of the manuscript. Some words that are there that are not in other manuscripts, some words maybe that are not there that are in other manuscripts.

So, there's a variant here, and all the variant means is that somewhere along the line, somebody probably either incidentally skipped a word or added one for clarification, and that has come down to us.

So, the translation is going to be determined by which of those Greek texts you think most accurately reflects the original.

And that's why we have a variety of translations. Now, it can be interpreted a couple of different ways, and here are some ways that it could be understood.

You possess for yourselves. So, that would emphasize that this is your possession. In other words, you possess this.

You yourself possess this. Not that this belongs to your brothers and sisters in Christ, but you possess for yourselves, emphasizing you are the one who possesses it.

Or you yourselves possess, restating it as the one who that is what you possess.

You have this massive thing for yourselves. Or, you yourselves know you have, which emphasizes the reality of what they knew to be true.

In other words, the author would be saying, look, you know this. You yourself know this. Simply reminding them of what they in themselves know to be true.

Or a fourth option is that you possess in yourself this great reward. This is the way

I think that John Owen took it, and it's with great fear and trepidation that I disagree with John Owen on almost anything.

But at this point, I think I feel like I have to. I don't think that what is being described here is an inward something that we have in ourselves, which is the great reward of the better possession.

You have in yourselves a better possession. That means that I would look into my faith, my assurance, what's in my heart, what

I know to be true, my knowledge of these things, something inside my heart. That would be my better possession. I don't think that that is what the author is describing here.

However we understand it, the translation might differ, the interpretation would vary a little bit.

The point of the passage, it doesn't matter how you translate it, the point of the passage is the same. Namely, that you possess something that cannot be taken away from you by the enemies of Christ.

That's the point. Whether it's in yourself, whether you yourselves know this, whether it's emphasizing the possession, your knowledge of the possession, your hope for the possession, whatever it is, the point is the same.

You possess something that cannot be taken away from you by the enemies of Christ. I don't think it's something subjective.

I think it's something objective, something outside of us, something that is yet future, something that belongs to all Christians, something upon which we can set our hope that is yet future to us.

I think that that's what's being described. I think that that's what's being described because in chapter 11, example after example is given to us, not of an inward knowing or an inward awareness that is their better possession, but something outside of them, external to them, that was their better possession.

We'll get to that here in just a moment. They have a better possession. Hold on one second. Very sorry, still working on my voice.

They have a better possession. This idea of better is something that is all the way through the book of Hebrews. We've seen this comparison, right, between the things in the

Old Covenant and things in the New Covenant. We've seen that Jesus Christ is a better high priest, belonging to a better priesthood who made a better sacrifice, offering a better blood and provides for us better intercession, securing us in a better covenant, built upon better promises, providing us a better rest.

That's just a few of the betters in the book of Hebrews. Well, here's another better. You have a better possession.

And this one, a lasting one. Better in comparison to what has been seized. You have endured the seizing of your property, but you do this because you know that you have property, you have a possession that is yet better than anything that they have or can take away from you.

And I think that this possession, and this is the key, what is the possession, what is the better possession? I don't think it's any one thing like, well, you have heaven, or you have

Jesus, or you have a crown, or you have a reward. I don't think it's any one thing.

I think that what the author is signifying here is an all -encompassing description of everything that the righteous will inherit.

An all -encompassing description of everything that the righteous will inherit. So this is an objective future reality.

It is not a sense, or a feeling, or an inner faith, or an inner assurance. It is something outside of us.

It is something that we currently possess, but listen, we have not yet received all of it.

We've received some of it. It's ours, just as certain as God is God. It is ours. It belongs to us.

It has been secured for us by the work of another, so it is guaranteed to be ours.

It is guaranteed that we possess it even now, though we have not entered into it and received it just yet.

What is being described here? It is an all -encompassing term to describe everything that the righteous will inherit.

Let's begin with what I think is probably foremost on the mind of the author here in the immediate context, and I say this because of chapter 11.

I think that he is describing here, at least in part, the kingdom promises of the Old Testament.

When he goes into chapter 11, what are the examples that he gives? Abraham, chapter 11, verse 10.

Abraham was looking for a city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Look at chapter 11.

Read with me verses 13 through 16. Chapter 11. All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them, and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have opportunity to return.

But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their

God, for He has prepared a city for them. What are we looking for? It's the thing described in Psalm chapter 37.

The righteous will inherit the land. The righteous will dwell in the land forever. The righteous receive the land.

The righteous will abide in the land over and over again. The prosperity of the righteous is the fulfillment of all the

Old Testament promises regarding the land and the people of Israel living in that land. And now we as Gentiles incorporated into the new covenant by a better blood built upon better promises, we get grafted into that.

We get to enjoy all of those eschatological blessings as well. Chapter 11 verse 22.

Joseph, by faith, commanded that his bones be taken up out of Egypt into what? Into the land. Why? Because he knew that someday he would be resurrected and he would dwell in the land.

That was his hope. Moses looked to the reward, the bringing in of the land and receiving the land. So he spurned all the treasures of Egypt.

Chapter 11 verse 26. Psalm 37 describes the righteous inheriting the land. There is a kingdom to come.

We will dwell in that kingdom for a thousand years on this earth and then all into eternity in an everlasting kingdom that will never come to an end.

First, the earthly description of that in Revelation 20 will fulfill all of those Old Testament promises given in the

Old Testament to the Jewish nation regarding their dwelling in the land. It will fulfill all the promises of Psalm 37 that the righteous will inherit the land.

We are to look at that kingdom promise and realize we get brought into that. That glory of that paradise, that kingdom that will be in this world where truth and righteousness will rule and reign for all of that time.

We get to enjoy that. We get to be there for the substance of that. We're not going to be just spectators of that.

We get to be participants in that earthly kingdom and that earthly glory. We possess the kingdom and that's not it.

Because after that thousand years is up, there is an entire eternity of blessing and grace that is opened up to us and it becomes ours when all of this world is burnt up and there is a new heavens and a new earth created and then that heavenly city comes down whose architect and maker is

God, a city that has foundations, a heavenly city. We get to dwell in that as well. That is the glory that awaits us.

That is our inheritance. Peter describes it this way, 1 Peter 1 Blessed be the God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for his salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Peter is writing to suffering Christians who are facing hostility opposition and persecution for the faith and he says to them you have been born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ to a living hope so that you will obtain an inheritance and here is how he describes our inheritance.

It is imperishable, it is undefiled, it will not fade away and it is reserved in heaven for you.

And at that point the readers of Peter's epistle could have thought to themselves well it is kept in heaven for me but I am facing hostility and opposition and persecution here on earth.

What is the guarantee that I will ever see that thing that is reserved in heaven for me? I could say to you look I have a cheesecake reserved for you at my house but if you are never able to get to my house because I don't give you the directions,

I keep it a secret so that I can eat it all myself but you are never able to get to my house and take possession of that cheesecake then what good does it do for me to reserve it there for you?

Well Peter says you are protected by the power of God. You want to know what guarantees that you will see your inheritance?

The same power of God that saves you and causes you to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that same power keeps you so that you cannot be lost so that you will ultimately receive the inheritance that is reserved in heaven.

It is the same power of God that keeps my inheritance there reserved for me is the same power of God that keeps me so that I cannot fall away, that I cannot be lost and I will ultimately receive that inheritance.

A glorious picture. Persecution can't keep that from happening to me. Hostility of the world can't keep that from happening to me, receiving that inheritance.

1 Peter 5 1 Peter says I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness the sufferings of Christ and partake also of the glory that is to be revealed.

Acts 20 verse 32 Paul says I commend you to God to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Paul describes Jesus' commission to him in Acts 26 18 this way that he was to go to the Gentiles to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me.

Notice the emphasis on inheritance. Ephesians 1 says that we have been given every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1 11 says we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to his purpose who works all things after the counsel of his will.

Colossians 1 12 we give thanks to the father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints. Colossians 3 24 knowing from the

Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. What is the better possession?

It is everything that the righteous look forward to enjoying. All of it. It's an all encompassing term to describe the blessings of the land, the blessings of the kingdom, the blessings of the king, the blessings of salvation, the spiritual blessings that were given in Christ, the inheritance that is kept for us while we're being kept for the inheritance.

It's all of that. Everything that is yet future, everything that comes to the righteous is this better possession. We get all of it.

Salvation, forgiveness, a preserved soul, the gift of faith, the gift of repentance, justification, sanctification, glorification, being conformed to the image of Christ, the reward for your faithful service, your admittance into heaven, eternity in the presence of God to enjoy pleasures at his right hand forevermore, eternal joy, eternal comfort, eternal rest, glorified bodies, your participation in the resurrection to life, the thousand year reign and rule of Christ in this earth with his glorified saints in a paradise, your service to him in that kingdom, your rewards for your service to him in that kingdom, ultimately the new heavens and the new earth, all things are yours.

Truth and triumph and righteousness and every good thing that is to come is secured for you in Jesus Christ.

It is preserved for you by Jesus Christ and he is keeping and preserving you for all of that inheritance.

That's what you get. That's what your future holds. That is better than anything that this world has to offer.

And listen, if the world takes everything from us, all they're taking is monopoly money.

That's all they're taking. They're taking nothing of any lasting value. They're taking nothing of any eternal nature.

They can't take anything that is going to be here for any length of time at all. It's all going to be burned up.

You can actually sit back and laugh at the fools for taking all of your stuff and think to yourself, you're just taking everything that's going to be burned up.

If a thief broke into your house and stole your flat screen TV and he's walking out laughing at you, you could be laughing at him if you knew in fact that that flat screen

TV didn't work. You're taking something that is of no value. You accepted joyfully the seizure of the property knowing you have a better possession.

Yeah, you're just taking funny money. You're just taking monopoly money, you're taking possessions, all that's going to be burned up. It doesn't work.

Guess what? The righteous inherit the land. We get all of it.

Everything that belongs to our God and to our Christ, we will possess. We possess it now.

We just haven't entered into the realization of it yet. It is certain, it is lasting, it is reserved in heaven for us and your glorification is already reserved.

Your glorification is already secured. You might say, but Jim, you say this is true.

There is this inheritance there. I don't possess it now. I don't see it now. It's described for me in Scripture.

It's talked about in Scripture. I live here and now. I have people right now that they hate me, that wish

I were dead for the cause of Christ because I stand for the cause of Christ. I have people right now that reject me. I'm suffering things right now, probably going to suffer some things in the future.

You're just describing these things. Everything you've said for the last 45 minutes is just words. It's just words describing that inheritance.

I haven't actually possessed any of it right now. I'm not in a kingdom. Truth and righteousness are not reigning right now.

So what do I do with this right now? This is why, it's almost as if the author might even anticipate that objection from someone, which is why in chapter 11, verse 1, he says that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

You see, most of the stuff that I've described to you that I just listed off to you here is stuff that you can't see. It's things you hope for, things you've set your affections on, but it's not something that you can see.

In Hebrews 11, 1 says faith, saving faith takes those things that we cannot see, those things that we hope for, and treats them as if I possess them now.

Sees them as if they're in my possession and I am enjoying them now. It is the eye of faith that looks forward to those things, the future reward, and says,

I can have my emotions and my affections and my desires and my response to things in this life informed and molded and shaped by those future realities because I know by faith that those things are certain and assured.

Yes, I only hope for them. Yes, I cannot see them now, but by the eye of faith, I see them as if they are actually there and real, and I will treat them as such.

And therefore, all of my way of responding to the hostility of the world comes as a result of treating all of those things that I cannot see as if I could actually see them because that is what faith does.

Faith gives you the eyes to see your future eternal reward as if it is just as real and present now as it will be 10 ,000 years from now when you have received it in full.

This is why Peter says in 1 Peter 1, verse 13, Therefore, prepare your minds for action.

Keep sober in spirit. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Fix your hope completely on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Just a few verses from Psalm 37. Depart from evil and do good, so you will abide forever. For the

Lord loves justice and does not forsake his godly ones. They are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked will be cut off.

The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever. Wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land.

When the wicked are cut off, you will see it, but transgressors will be altogether destroyed. The posterity of the wicked will be cut off, but the salvation of the righteous is from the

Lord. He is their strength in time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them. He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him.

You will inherit the land and the righteous will dwell in it forever. That is his promise. Faith is the assurance of those things that we hope for and the conviction of what we do not yet see.

Have that assurance of things hoped for and that conviction of things you don't see, and you'll accept joyfully whatever

God has appointed for you. Let's pray. Father, we rejoice in your goodness to us, in your promises and in your word and in your truth.

We know that one day the righteous will rule in this world. We know that one day all of the nations and all of the kingdoms of this world will belong to our

God and to his Christ and he will rule them with a rod of iron. It will be truth.

It will be righteousness. It will be justice. We long for that. We know that while we are in this world and the wicked prosper and the wicked enjoy their triumph now, we know that it is short -lived and we pray that you would fix our minds and our hearts upon these things.

Help us to remember what is ours in Jesus Christ, what is yet future. Help us to see them as if they actually are even right now our possessions, for they are ours.

They do belong to us even though we have not experienced them yet. We know that they are secure and we know that we are secure in Christ and there is nothing that can thwart your purposes for us.

So give us grace to fix our hope entirely on the grace that is to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ and thus to be sober -minded and alert and ready for action.

We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Would you please stand and sing with us as we close out the service this morning?

It is well. When peace like a river attendeth my way

When sorrows like sea pillows roll

Whatever my lot

Thou has taught me to say It is well

It is well With my soul It is well

With my soul It is well

It is well With my soul

Though Satan should buffet

Though trials should come Let this blessed assurance control

That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate

And hath shed his own blood for my soul

It is well It is well

With my soul It is well

It is well It is well With my soul

My sin O the bliss of this glorious thought

My sin not in part but the whole

It's nailed to the cross and I bear it no more

Praise the Lord Praise the Lord O my soul

It is well It is well With my soul

It is well It is well

It is well my soul And Lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll

The trump shall resound and the

Lord shall descend even so It is well with my soul

It is well It is well

With my soul My soul It is well

It is well With my soul

Let's sing that acapella It is well It is well

With my soul Sing it out

It is well It is well

With my soul May the grace of our

Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit brothers Amen. Have a great week.