The Security of the Church

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI…

I wonder if you’ve ever seen a intense tragedy, maybe on the news, on the internet, on, on social media somewhere, and you see whether it’s a flood, or you see a hurricane, or you see an invading army, and you’re tempted to think to yourself, you know, will anyone survive? Will anyone get out? Will anyone be okay? Maybe you’ve experienced something like that yourself when you’re stuck in a tragedy. It’s, it’s a fearful thing. You know, you can sympathize with Ezekiel. In Ezekiel chapter 9, Ezekiel has a vision, and he sees the wrath of God being poured out in the temple of God, and people dying. And Ezekiel cries out to God, “Will you destroy all the remnant of Israel in the outpouring of your wrath upon Jerusalem?” You understand his sympathy, right? He sees people dying everywhere, in the temple and in Jerusalem, and his heart is broken. Why? ‘Cause he’s concerned for the people of God. Will any be left? Will any be okay?

Or maybe you can think of Abraham. Do you remember the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis? And the Lord says that he’s gonna go and wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah. What does Abraham say? Abraham says, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Far be it for you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fear as the wicked. Far be that from you. Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do what is just?” And he goes, “Lord, what about the righteous people? Are you gonna pour your wrath out upon them too?”

And, you know, when y- when you walk through Revelation chapter 6, one of the thoughts that comes to mind is, what about the Church? You know, in, in the 4 seal, the 4 first seals, we saw this reality of God’s judgment upon this world being unleashed in, in the here and now, in death and plague and famine, and then we saw that terrible vision in the 6th seal of the outpouring of the wrath of God, and yet there’s no real mention of the Church. We hear of the persecuted Church, but what about the rest of them? A- are they just consumed in the Lamb’s wrath as, as his wrath is poured out upon the world? What about the Church of Jesus Christ?

And chapter 7 answers that question. Is the Church going to be okay? Is the Church safe? Is the Church secure? And John’s vision shifts. He sees the 6 seals open, and it’s almost like time then backpedals a little bit as, as John maybe considers to himself, “Well, what’s happening to the Church during these things?” And we see a vision of 4 angels, and the first thing we see in this vision in chapter 7 is the Church being sealed by Christ, the security of ch- the Church in the sealing of Christ.

And John looks and he sees 4 angels, doesn’t he? They’re standing at the edge of the world. And it says, “He stands at the corners of the world,” which means everything, right? He, he’s not saying that the Earth is either flat or a square, but he’s saying the 4 corners. In other words, everything. They’re standing at the edge of creation, and they’re holding back a wind which blows. Now, because it blows, we might be tempted to think it’s a nice breeze. You know, we’ve got a hot, stuffy, muggy day like this, and we think a lovely breeze is quite refreshing. Well, don’t hold back the breeze, angels. Let it blow. But no, that’s not the type of breeze. It’s a hurricane. It’s a whirlwind. It’s a cyclone. It’s the type of whirlwind or cyclone that you see often in the States, in the windy States, where, where whole towns get flattened by cyclones. That’s the type of wind. It’s the wind that causes what’s mentioned in chapter 6, verse 13, the shaking of fruit as the wind blows and as things are flattened around it, and these angels are holding it back.

Why are they holding it back? Well, because the, the time of God’s judgment hasn’t come yet. Now, you, you realize the implication of this. Last week we talked about the fact that God’s unwilling to judge the Earth until all of his elect are saved, right? Well, the, the counter of that is that God is, is desirous to pour out his wrath upon sinful humanity. You see, the holiness of God when it interacts with sinfulness only has one reaction. It’s like a chemical reaction, and the chemical reaction is God’s wrath. God’s holiness expresses itself against sinfulness with wrath. And he is ready to do so, in a sense, one might say, but in the vision, the angels are holding it back. The angels are guarding, they’re safeguarding the earth.

And as they’re restraining the judgment of God, all of a sudden, another angel turns up. He comes out of the east, we’re told, from the rising of the sun. It’s a reference to Malachi 4:2, the sun of righteousness. Not S-O-N, but S-U-N. Remember, the sun of righteousness which comes up the, in the east with what? With healing in its wings. And so from the east, from the rising of the sun of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ, comes this angel.

And what does this angel declare? Well, this angel comes forth, and he declares, “Keep on holding. Don’t let it go. Don’t let the wind go, angels. I’ve got work to do.” He comes forth with a seal in his hand, and he says, “Don’t let the wrath of God come forth until I have sealed all of the people of God.”

Now, children, you might be wondering what is meant by a seal. It’s not the animal. You know, the those things? It’s not one of them. A, a seal is something you use to close or authenticate something. So, if you have a letter and you need to shut the letter, you use a seal. And what you do is, I’ve got one of these at home, some of the parents here and people in the church get letters from me sometimes. And I seal those letters. I put some wax on the paper, and I’ve got the stamp, and I push the stamp into it, and it’s got a little marking with words and a picture. And everybody knows that if they get a letter with the wax seal on it, it’s from me, because no one else has one of these wax seals. Oh, well, I’m assuming, ’cause it was custom-made, that no one else has one. And so, it’s a special letter from Pastor Logan.

And, and this is what’s being communicated. This angel’s going to go forth with the seal of God, and he’s going to stamp it on people’s foreheads so that everybody knows that this person, this child is a child of God. This person is a person of God’s choosing. right. And it communicates 2 primary things. 1, it communicates ownership. This one is God’s. The other thing it communicates is that this is an authentic, real person of God. Hmm, this seal is talked about in other parts of the New Testament. It’s called the Seal of Adoption. The Holy Spirit comes, and he is the seal of adoption. The Spirit himself is the seal that declares that you and I are children of God, brothers and sisters.

And so, the picture we’re being given here is Christ sending forth his spirit to do the work of salvation in order to seal every elect child of God for eternity. To set them apart, to put the stamp of God upon them, so that none of them would miss out. Why? Well, because if, if there were people that weren’t stamped with the seal of God, then they would bear the wrath of God. But because God chooses them, elects them in love, Ephesians 1, and seals them for eternal life by his spirit, Ephesians 1, they are set aside for salvation.

And the wrath being held back is held back so that this angel, this spirit of God in the Gospel might do the work of God to bring about the salvation of God’s people, which is the flip, isn’t it? It’s the flip side of the winds being held back. On one hand, and you have to understand, God is far more complex than we as human beings. On one hand, God has to have his wrath restrained towards sinful humanity. And on the other hand, he willingly restrains his wrath because he loves his people, and because he is desirous to save every one of his people before his wrath is poured out.

But who does he save? Who does Who are these people that are sealed? We’re told, 144,000 of them from the sons of Israel. Well, who are these? Well, you might say, “It’s very easy.” They’re Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin. That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? Well, we gotta ask the question, is this literal or is this symbolic?

We remember, don’t we? One of the rules of interpretation for the Book of Revelation is that you should assume everything is symbolic unless it’s clearly stated otherwise. Now, you, you do need to pay attention to the fact that 144,000 isn’t very many people, firstly, so the number needs to be symbolic unless you run into the problem of, I think it’s the 7th Day Adventists who got past the 144,000 and then had to reinterpret their book. It was reasonably problematic. The other thing you have to recognize is that it says, “144,000 from every tribe,” and yet there’s 2 tribes missing from the list. Did you notice that? Where’s Dan? Where’s Efraim? See, ’cause you remember that normally, Levi wasn’t counted and Joseph wasn’t in the list, because Joseph’s 2 sons were in the list instead.

This is clearly symbolic, and it’s confirmed that it’s symbolic when you go through to Revelation 14, and the same number is used, 144,000 of God’s people that are saved, redeemed, washed, made clean, and yet there’s no mention of Israel. This is a symbolic number, a symbolic representation of the redeemed of God. Do you see? Because, uh, there’s not only 144,000 that receive the wonderful gift of the sealing of God’s salvation, and meanwhile everyone else misses out. No, it’s a symbol of those that God graciously saves and seals.

And the next section, which we’ll consider shortly, gives us another image of that same group of people. And I think what this first vision shows us, this church being sealed by Christ, is it teaches us that, that God holds back his wrath while God works out his salvation on this earth. And I think firstly that that should encourage us not to be afraid, not to be afraid that we’ll miss out or that others will miss out, because God will not send his wrath one minute too early or one minute late.

Well, the other thing I think it teaches us is that today is the day of salvation. Uh, because if the judgment hasn’t come then obviously all the elect are not saved, right? Which logically means that the door’s still open. And if you’re here and you’re an unbeliever, that means there’s the opportunity to be saved. You could be one of the elect. Maybe you are one of the elect and you’re just yet to put your faith. Maybe you’re the last. I mean, wouldn’t that be striking? If all of a sudden one of the people in this room said, “I believe in Christ,” and they put their faith in Christ and they were the last one, and the trumpet sounded and Christ came back. Well, it’s gonna happen one day. It’d be very special to be the last one.

But I think this is also a reminder for, for us as believers that the harvest field is ripe. You see, if Christ does not return, that means there’s still sinners out there that need to be saved. There’s work to be done. We have the joy of having the Gideons with us, and don’t we love to watch John and Carol giving out Bibles and telling us stories of how they do it. We have the joy of one of their Bibles leading to Doug’s salvation, that we’ve talked about often. But what are the rest of us doing? I mean, it’s wonderful to witness other people doing the work of the Lord, but what are we doing? What am I doing in service of the King? What am I doing to seek to lead my little ones to the Lord, to lead my family to the Lord, to lead my neighbors to the Lord, my work colleagues? There are elect to be saved, and so we should have confidence to do the work of the Lord. Because if there are elect, then people will get saved, and so we can have bold confidence.

People say, “Ah, you believe in the sovereignty of God. That means you can be lazy, because God will do the work of salvation.” We say, “Nonsense.” It drives us to passion, because we believe God will do the work, and so we labor with zeal. We labor with might, knowing that he is sovereign over eternal life. And so we see this sovereign sealing of the Lord.

And the next thing we see, in verses 9 through 12, is the church and its security being saved by Christ. The picture fast-forwards, you understand. You see the first section there was focused on the here and now, just like the seals, right? The 6 seals started with the here and now, and then progressed through to the end. And so now, this part of the vision does the same thing. It starts in the here and now with the Church of Christ being sealed and the wrath of God being held back, and then we fast-forward to the end.

And so after this, John looked, and behold, a great multitude, no- a number that no one could number, every nation, tribe, people, language, standing before the throne. It’s the culmination of the sealing work. All the elect are saved. Everyone’s there. Everyone that’s sealed has received the gift. Judgment is finished, and what’s missing? The wicked. There’s no evil there, is there? There’s no mention of sinners. There’s no mention of sin. There’s no mention of judgment anymore, because that’s past. That’s happened. It’s finished. Evil is done away with, and now we glimpse what we call the Church victorious, gathered in the presence of the Lamb.

And see them standing there, fiercely, note, from every people group, every tribe. You know, there’s only one way to hasten Christ’s return. Of course, you know that we can’t hasten Christ’s return, because it’s a fixed day, but if there was a way to hasten his return, the only way would be to reach every people group with the Gospel, and save every elect child of God. And so here we have a picture of every elect person from every people group, every tribe. It’s a beautiful gathering, people from Africa, from Asia, from Oceania, from the Americas, from Europe, people from every continent under the sun all gathered together in the presence of God, but look what they’re dressed in. They’re dressed in white robes, white robes, because they have washed themselves, verse 11, in the blood of the Lamb.

What’s it a picture of? It’s a picture of the righteousness of Christ, isn’t it? D- don’t you hate your ongoing struggle with sin? Doesn’t it tire you that you get up in the morning and think to yourself, “Today, I’m living for Jesus,” and then, husbands, you mistreat your wife with a cutting word? Or mothers, you lose it at your children, or children, you disrespect your father or mother, or we, uh, go to work and we slander someone at work, and so quickly, we sin again. Doesn’t it tire you? And yet, here we see the saints no longer struggling with sin, no longer marred by fall or curse, but robed in the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, washed completely clean. They have come to Christ, been washed by Christ, and their garments will never be dirtied again. That’s what eternity will be.

But the second thing they have is not just white robes. They’re holding something. Did you, did you see what they’re holding? Can you see it? It’s a palm branch. You might go, “Well, why a palm branch?” Well, you have to transport yourself back to the Old Testament. You remember the Tabernacles, the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths? Israel, once a year, was to celebrate and remember, commemorate, the wilderness wandering. They were to remember what God had done in preserving them through the wilderness and taking them to the Promised Land, and the way they did that is they would build booths in Jerusalem, and they would all basically stay in shacks. And they would have palm branches, and it was the sign that God had carried them through the wilderness and brought them safely home to the Promised Land.

And of course, I’m sure you can work out the connection here, right? Why do they have palm branches? They’re giving thanks to God. Why? Because in spite of the suffering, the misery, the pain, the persecution, the hardships, the barren wasteland of a wilderness that this world is, filled with sin and opposition, God has safely brought them home.

And what are they doing? Well, they’re singing a song. Salvation belongs to our God. Salvation belongs to our God, who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever, amen.

Why? Why are they singing? Why are they praising? Because it’s the joy of heaven, it’s the delight of heaven, to give thanks to God for the redemption of His people. Jesus tells us that, right? Remember the words He says? He says when one of these is saved, when one lamb is saved, when one person is saved, what does, what do the angels in heaven do? They rejoice. They rejoice at the salvation of one sinner. Now, if that’s true of one sinner, what must the eternal chorus look like when the whole host of captives has been gathered in? I mean, you can’t express it with written words, can you? Whatever John saw was infinitely greater and bigger than what we read on the pages, but brothers and sisters, one day, we’ll take part in it. One day, we’ll be singing the song.

This is not just a hypothetical statement of truth. This is the reality that we will enter into at the fulfillment of the work of God. And this shows us, doesn’t it, that God’s salvation is perfectly accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, for his people, for the glory of God.

Now, there’s an obvious lesson for us in that, isn’t it? Well, if we’re gonna be worshiping him then, what should we be doing now? We should be worshiping him now, right? If praise and glory and worship and honor is our theme in heaven, let it be our theme today. Brothers and sisters, let your face not be the face of a moping cynic. Yes, there are days filled with sorrow in this life, but let us, like Paul, be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, because we have a salvation that can never be taken away from us.

It’s one of the things I love about reading of the martyrs, reading of men going up to the thatched wood to be burnt, singing the songs of God, where the, the sound of their singing is louder than the crackling of the wood. Why? Because they have something that can’t be taken. “You can take our lives,” they would say, “but you can never take our, uh, our life, you can never take our salvation away. We are safe and secure in the arms of our Lord.”

I think the other thing this reminds us is, that there’s only one hope of salvation. Brothers and sisters, do you see Buddha in the picture? Do you see Hinduism? Do you see Islam? Do you see atheism? Do you see works? But what is the only hope? Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb, not to our god, our lamb, and all the other ways that people embraced with all of their heart. And it’s a, that’s a view in the Church, I hope you know. I had to study this mumbo jumbo when I was at Laidlaw College. It was in- sickening. They had a whole class on what’s called the inclusivity of Christ, which means that you can be saved by any religion you want, as long as you adhere to its tenets well. And Christ will save you through those religions. And Jesus says, “I am the only way.” Oh, yes, that means he is the way through Islam. I don’t see Islam in the picture, brothers and sisters. Jesus is the only name given under heaven and earth by which men may be saved. There is no other hope. And yet, he is a sure hope. And so, we have assurance of eternal life and comfort when we face death. And we can share that same hope with others.

And so, we’re safe and secure in eternity, aren’t we? And we see one more picture. The scene continues. In verse 13 to 17, we see the Church being sheltered, or s- or shepherded or comforted by Christ. It’s probably one of the most precious sections in Revelation. It’s one I’ve turned to often, and I’m sure many of you have.

You know, the wilderness walk has end- ended, right? They’ve got their palm branches. They’ve entered glory. Their wilderness journey is finished. And yet, brothers and sisters, what’s life like under the sun? Life under the sun is hard. It’s filled with pain. It’s filled with grief. It’s filled with sorrow. People betray you. People hurt you. People change. You grieve the loss of those you love. You have to say goodbye to ones that you care for. On and on, the sorrow goes, and brothers and sisters, I hope you realize we may enter into glory, but that doesn’t mean the fact that our pains are immediately forgotten.

And you need to understand what I mean by that. What I mean by that is we enter into the, into the glory of the presence of the Lamb out of the reality of the wilderness, and yet God knows and God comforts and God shepherds and God shelters. And we’re s- given that picture here. The God of salvation is the God of comfort.

The angel asks the question, “Do you know who these are?” It’s interesting, because the word in Greek is actually, the angel reply, uh, the elder replied, so one of the elders replied to me. You might say, “Well, yeah, but John didn’t say anything. Why is he replying?” I’m imagining it’s probably the look on John’s face. He’s probably looking at the host with one of those looks of, like, what on Earth is going on, or what in heaven is going on, I should say. And one of the elders comes forth and says, “Hey, do you know who these people are?” Which is a little bit unfair on poor old John, isn’t it? And John says the most logical thing you should say in a situation like that. “Well, good sir, you know better than I do. Why don’t you tell me?” And he does.

“These are those,” verse 14, “These are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation.” And you’ve probably heard the phrase before, the Great Tribulation. What, what is meant by that? It’s important to understand, it’s It’s a reference to 2 passages in the Bible. It’s a reference to Matthew 24, which is a reference to Daniel 12. John is primarily using Daniel 12 here, I think, but it doesn’t make a great deal of difference. The point is the same. There is a great tribulation spoken of in the Book of Daniel, which is prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the first time, and then in Matthew 24, there is a speaking of a great tribulation before the return of Christ a second time.

Well, so what’s being spoken of here? Well, the answer is, well, yes. You need to understand the word great tribulation, and tribulation is used many times in the Bible. Paul uses tribulation, the word tribulation, 25 times, if I remember rightly. 25 times, and 21 of those is referring to today. Tribulation today. It’s a little bit like when John the Apostle speaks of Antichrist. He speak, he can speak of antichrists, a-antichrist, they’re everywhere, and he can speak of the Antichrist, the particular Antichrist who comes at the end. And the same is true of great tribulations, because let’s be honest. For us, it doesn’t feel very much like a great tribulation, does it? We go to work and we come home again.

Now, go to Nigeria. Ask the believers there, “Does it feel like the Great Tribulation?” Yes. I told you last week about the gentleman that my good friend met who had his tongue cut out. Well, they strapped him to an iron, strapped him to an iron chair in the middle of the sun and they left him there for a week. In Africa. Ask him, “Does it feel like the Great Tribulation?” “Oh, yeah, it does.” And you need to understand, there are great tribulations and there is the Great Tribulation. And what John’s telling us is that whether they’ve come out of the Great Tribulation itself or the great tribulations, guess what? They all come out with sorrow, don’t they? They all come out with heartache. They all come out with pain. And each and every one of them receives comfort and solace from the Lord Himself.

Now, if, if the Lord is going to comfort those who lay down their lives and die, we can argue from the greater to the lesser, can’t we? Yeah. If he can comfort the most sorely oppressed and sorely harassed believer in all of history, it’s an easy thing for Him to provide comfort and solace to you and I, isn’t it?

And look at the beautiful picture. Look what he provides them with. He welcomes them to serve in His temple, right in His very presence. He welcomes them to be sheltered under Him. The, the picture, it’s, it’s an interesting phraseology in the Greek. It’s, it’s the picture of God saying, “I’m going to live over the top of you. I’m going to dwell over top of you.” In other words, “You will have a perpetual protection of me over you, like a constant cloud of safety and security.” They’ll hunger no more, they’ll neither thirst. They won’t need anything provided, because God will provide for them. No more struck by heat. As soon as I read that, I thought of this man sitting in the sun for a week. Never will sun strike you again. Why? Because the Lamb is in the midst of them. He’s in the midst of the throne, which means He’s in the midst of them, because the people of God are centered around the throne of God, and the Lamb Himself guides them to where they need.

And the most tender verse that I cannot tell you how many times I have used for the care of saints and the care of my own soul, “God will wipe away every tear of their eyes.” I tell you, this past week, there were many tears in our household as we farewelled a baby, one whom we loved. Uh, 4 of us said goodbye. Josella, myself, and 2 girls, we stood on the deck. And the social workers took, turned up, and they took this child to go to her mother’s cousin. And we stood on the deck, and as they drove out, we broke down and we wept. And we wept, and we wept, and then we went inside and we wept. And the next day we wept. And the next day we wept. And we came to prayer meeting, and we’re so grateful for the prayers of the saints, but it made us weep more. I had tears coming down my face as I heard you all praying for us on Wednesday night.

And God says, “I will wipe away every tear.” Ah, we may have different reasons to weep. Maybe you weep over the loss of a child. Maybe you weep over the lost loved one. Maybe it’s the mother who never confessed Christ. Maybe it’s the, the uncle who hates the Church and has died. Maybe it’s a sibling. Maybe it’s the pain of betrayal. Maybe it’s the friend who’s forsaken you. Maybe it’s physical ailments, pain. All of us have reasons to weep. All of us have tears, though they be of a different hue. And yet, every single tear is wiped away by the fatherly hand Isn’t it a beautiful gift? I just love it. This image of the Father kneeling down on his knees, anthropomorphically, taking his handkerchief and just wiping away the tear that runs down your face. Such is the tender compassion of God.

You know, sometimes we can get so caught up in the majesty and the holiness of God and His judgments and decrees that we forget He is a tender god, abounding in steadfast love and mercy and compassion. And so I think this teaches us that God’s salvation is not just taking us to heaven. It is a full-bodied salvation. It is not just making us live forever. It is a removal of all of the effects of a cursed and fallen world so that we dwell in harmony and joy and peace with Him forever.

Do you have heartaches, brother and sisters? Do you have pains upon your heart that weigh you down with misery today and overwhelm your soul, and maybe no one else knows them? God is working a salvation in your life to totally renew you so that you will spend eternity sorrowless, not sorrowful, burdenless, not burdened, rejoyful, rejoicing and never sorrowing, rather than sorrowful and always rejoicing. That day is coming. And so, brothers and sisters, you should have hope to walk through all of your pain, hope in the face of misery, hope in the face of comfort, hope in the face of relational conflict, pain, misery, betrayal, and everything else that comes.

But I think it also reminds us not to look to this world for consolation. Brothers and sisters, earthly counselors are a great joy and delight, aren’t they? It’s a wonder to have a friend who bears up with us in our pain, a friend to come alongside us and point us to the Word of God, and to sit with us and weep with us and hug us. But ult- ultimately, the only true and lasting solace is found in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking to the great high priest, who is able to sympathize with us in our weakness, who was made just like us so that he might sympathize with us, so that he might care for us.

So look to the Lord Jesus Christ for your comfort and nowhere else. And brothers and sisters, when you care for one another, when you care for one another, and, and when, when your elder comes to you, the only comfort that we should offer one another is Christ. Now, what good will I do you if I come to you and offer you the stoic sayings of this world? You know, “There, there. Make some lemonade out of the lemons.” Oh, I mean, what else does the world have to offer you? Buck up. It’ll get better. You go to a pagan psychologist, you’ll find out how depressing they are. They’ve got no good to offer you.

Brothers and sisters, let us go to one another with Christ and say, “I’ve found a friend, oh, such a friend, who loved me ere I knew him. He drew me with the cords of love and fastly bound me to him. Let me take you to a friend, a friend of sinners, who delights to offer you all the comfort you need. Come, sit with me. I’ll show you his face. I’ll show you the palms of his hands. I’ll show you the tears upon his cheek. I’ll show you the pierced side and the crown of thorns upon his head, because he so loves you.” This is our hope.

And it all ends in maybe what you might think as being rather anti-climatic. Chapter 8 verse 1, “The Lamb opens the 7th seal, and there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” And we think, “Is that the end?” Do you get these 6 seals, the 7th seal finally comes and we just get, “It’s quiet for half an hour”? What, what kind of ending to the story is that?

Well, as with most things in the Revelation, there’s about 88 different opinions of what this means. Brothers and sisters, I think it’s quite easily understood when you’ve been through intense suffering, when you’ve been through intense periods of trial and the pressure of the constant oppression of self-doubt, self-affliction, the attacks of enemies and everything that goes with it. You know what I’m talking about if you’ve been a sufferer, the inner turmoil of the soul that rages within, the voices that never stop, and you never sleep and you never have peace because the sound never stops.

But when peace comes, there is a quietness and a stillness, and what we’re being given a picture of here is utter peace, complete rest. There is no longer yelling. There is no longer the sounds of evil, the cries of death, the shouts of enemies. There is just stillness. Why? Because God has finally brought the Sabbath rest to these It’s the true Sabbath.

You know, I’ve often reflected, driving to church on the Lord’s Day or, or sitting in my house and I hear someone mowing their lawn on the Sabbath. I don’t know about you, it bugs me, it irritates me. I’m trying to enjoy my day of rest and someone’s mowing their lawn. You know, one day we’ll sit in glory and no one will mow their lawn on the Sabbath. Everyone will rest in peace, perfect peace together. We’re given the picture of that, because this is where Christ is taking us.

Do you long for peace? Do you long for quiet? Long for rest in a haven far away, for a holiday at the beach where you can just switch off the mind and the stresses of this life? He’s doing it. Look to a rest to come, brothers and sisters. And while you wait, sing with the hymn writer. You remember that wonderful hymn, A Debter to Mercy Alone? There’s this great line in the end where he says, “Yes, I to the end shall endure, as sure as the earnest is given. More happy,” he says of the saints in heaven, “More happy that no more secure the glorified saints in heaven.”

You realize you are just as secure now as our forebears in the presence of the Lamb. And so be of good cheer and look forward to the day of the Lord’s appearing.

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