 The Spirit's work in the New Covenant is unmistakable to those who are His beneficiaries. For the scripture says, No more shall each man teach his neighbor and every man his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know Me. Let me ask you a question. Do you recall in times of biblical meditation how your soul takes in more than it ever has before of a revelation of God or His salvation through Christ crucified? And then in your great great weakness you stop reluctantly like a cup which overflows and can receive no more. Are you acquainted with this reality? The subject of eternity is like this. Tonight we're going to look in the scriptures on eternity. That's the topic. JC Riles says, eternity is one of the most solemn heart-searching subjects and is one which the wisest can take in only a little. But we must take it in because God's word reveals much of it to us and we're accountable for what God gives us. Tonight we'll start rightly with our eternal God and His nature. Then we will move to the temporality of this world and life, then to the two eternal destinations of all people and last we'll look at the necessity to believe in the mediator of eternal life, Christ Jesus. Given that this series that we've been going through is on practical religion, I hope to incorporate application throughout the sermon and trust that God will give the increase. So once again, one God, two world, three, two destinations, and four Christ. With such an other subject separate from us in many ways, compared to our finitude, let us start with God and His nature revealed in His word. The eternal book is from God and it, the very first verse starts off in the beginning, God. So this is the next, the first section. The Jews once questioned Jesus, you are not yet 50 years old and have you seen Abraham? Jesus replied and partially quoted Exodus 314 with reference to himself. Before Abraham was, I am revealing his eternal nature. Let's go and look at that verse that he partially quoted in Exodus, Exodus 314. Starting at 13, then Moses said to God, indeed when I come to the children of Israel and say to them that God of your fathers has sent me to you and they say to me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. In context, God has come down and has fulfilled and going to fulfill his covenant, his promise to Abraham and deliver the children of Israel from 400 years of bondage they've been in, 430. And Moses is reluctant. Later on he says they want, what if they don't believe me? He says I'm not eloquent of speech. So even though Moses knows that he's going to be used to be deliverer for the people, he doesn't want to fulfill the mission as God's calling him to. And one of the things he's concerned about here is what if I go to the people who have been in bondage for 400 years and I say the God of your fathers has sent me to you and they say, what is his name? I think Moses is concerned about the people's doubt in God's faithfulness to fulfill his word or his doubt or their doubt in that Moses knows him. So he asked what his name is and it helps to know the context. That's why I mentioned it because God reveals this name that we reference and Jesus even quotes multiple times in the New Testament with reference to I am the good shepherd. I am the light. Well, he says here, tell them I am has sent me to you. I am who I am. That's in context of the fulfillment of this temporal salvation. If the people are going to doubt that God is going to fulfill his promise to Abraham who it was made 400 years, God says I don't change. I am who I am. I am separate. I am not like man. My word will not be broken and my faithfulness will be fulfilled. This shows that many things, but it shows God's unchanging eternal nature. And if you pay attention to that when you study the Bible, you'll see that God often brings his eternal nature into bearing on his salvation or judgment. Let's look at Isaiah 40 28 and we're just looking at a couple verses to establish the nature of God. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 28. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. If you look at 27, why do you say, oh Jacob and speak, oh Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord and my just claim is passed over by my God? So the people here are doubting about the justice of God in delivering you. And that's when he responds, have you not known? Have you not heard the everlasting God, the Lord? This name reveals that God is everlasting. And think with me, what does that mean? Some philosophers and even theologians reject the idea that God is uniquely eternal and outside of time. In other words, some people think of God's eternal nature as only in terms of time that God exists within it and only within it though that time is unending. That's true. God does work within time, but he is not bound by it. What helps to refute that thinking is that to think of the other attributes of God. For example, the Bible says in Psalm 147, 4, and 5 that his understanding is infinite. He's omniscient. If he was bounded by time and eternal and only within time, then he could not be omniscient knowing all things at once. His very thought processes would have to be bound by that time. So the other attributes of God reveal that when the Bible speaks of God's everlasting nature, his eternal nature, yes, it has to do with his duration, but it's more than that. It shows that he's super over eternity. He exists outside of it, time, I mean, and he works within time. God is unbound by time. He is the only one uncaused. We can say that we have an eternal salvation and we're going to live forever. But what we can't say is that we don't have a cause. That we're uncaused. We are caused. I was created. You were created. We can't say we're independent, but God is not caused and he is independent, completely free. He is holy. He is the ancient of days, the Alpha and the Omega. He is the everlasting God. And your worship to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit should rise with this knowledge. And what God is as eternal, he is in his other attributes. God is not only righteous. He is eternally righteous. He's not just just. He's eternally just and he is eternally merciful and gracious to those whom he shows mercy. His love is an everlasting love in time and supremely over time and outside of time. Knowing God by faith makes all the following points in the sermon more real to the believer. We're moving to the next part of the message. Unlike God, this world and our lives are passing away. Let's turn to 1st John chapter 2 verse 17. And the world is passing away in the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. And then let's turn back to your left to 2nd Peter chapter 3. Should be one or two pages. Chapter 3 verses 10 through 13. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God. Because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Think about these truths. This world is passing away in the lust of it. It is not eternal. It is not permanent. It will not last. It's temporal. Ovito, Orlando, Florida, the United States, the earth, and all that is in it is passing away. We live, in another example, we live in one of the theme park capitals of the world. All the entertainment of this world can offer is going to pass away and it's temporary. Second Corinthians 4.18 says, We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Let me ask you, has this world and its value system been becoming your love? Have you grown all too comfortable with getting the world and all its careless playing and have picked up a growing disregard for God and his word? Spiritually speaking, have you moved out of the tents of a pilgrim and into the palaces of pleasure as a world dweller? Brothers and sisters, you know God is not mocked, nor will he deny himself. Don't let this world and all its idolatry become your idolatry. It's going to pass away and the lust of it. It is like a morning fog soon to be carried away by the daybreak. Perhaps some will say to me, well, every creature is of God and is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving. Yes, beloved, I agree with you for those who are wise with their time and resources. Amen. But those who are not likely not wise, remember, not everything in this earth is a creature from God, but rather much is from the wicked one. And as for those things which are from God, they were never given so that you can make them an idol, nor were they given so that you could justify the neglecting of the will of God such as diligent Bible study, fervent prayer, loving the brethren, submitting to your elders, and making disciples. For the Spirit says in 2 Peter, Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God? Let's look at 1 Peter chapter one. The world, the earth, the lust of it is passing away and so are you. We have a flesh that's passing away. Let's read chapter one verse 24. Because all flesh is as grass, and the glory of man is as the flower of the grass. The grass withers and its flower falls away. Though you will receive a self same resurrection body, your flesh today is not eternal. It is not permanent, it will not last. It is temporal. From dust you came and to dust you will return. People who have yet to receive the mercy of God in Christ and turn from their sins, they have a great fear of death. I once worked at a company and moved to another company, but it was a small place and I knew them. So I was very excited because I was going to have my baptism and I wanted them to come and witness the work of God. So I went there and the owner, he wasn't converted and it was a small company and his daughter worked there and some other family members. So I went to talk to him and while I was encouraging him to come to the baptism, his daughter came and she was in her 20s I think and was entering into the conversation with us. And I noticed that he wasn't very interested, but she seemed to be. So I focused my attention on her and the conversation quickly went evangelical. I just started preaching to her and I was preaching to her about death. And as soon as I got on that topic, her dad, the owner of the company said, Brian, stop. And it really kind of caught me off guard. So I stopped and then he told his daughter to go back to work. And when she left, he said, I don't want her thinking about death. There was some death in there and their family. But the point was death has a great power over people and it is a reality that's inescapable. We're passing away and you need to look at it. This is the world's attitude towards death. Run from it. Act like it won't happen to you and don't talk about it. Inoculate yourself against it with mind altering drugs. Try to overcome it with help and medicine. But death comes without partiality. This life, as you know it, is temporary. You know what I believe is a good application of this verse. This may seem morbid. Take your family or go alone, but go to a local cemetery. For the Bible says in Psalm 90, the days of our lives are 70 years and if by reason of strength they are 80 years. Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow. For it is soon cut off and we fly away. Who knows the power of your anger? For as the fear of you, so is your wrath. So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Go to a cemetery one afternoon. Read the names of some of the people in their ages. Count the tombstones in sight and get down on your knees before Almighty God and ask your Heavenly Father to teach you something that you want to learn better, that is to number your days in light of eternity so that you may gain a heart of wisdom. This brings us to the next part of the message. After you pass away, there are only two eternal places and states that you will be or go. Either it's the kingdom of God or everlasting fire. Let's turn to Matthew 25. In Matthew 25, we're going to start at 31 and I'm not going to read the whole section, just the parts relative to the sermon. This is Jesus foretelling the final judgment. And he says in verse 31, when the Son of man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, there he will sit on the throne of his glory and all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right hand, come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom of God, the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And if you just get down to verse 41, then he will say to those on his left hand, depart from me, you cursed into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And then if you look at verse 46, and these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. There's no other category outside of these two categories for where you're going to go when you die. Granted, this is after the great white throne judgment, and there is somewhere that is not the same as after this, because this is after resurrection and the new heavens and the new earth. But once you leave this life, it's irrevocable. There's no changing it. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 5. I want to talk real briefly about the two different. I don't know if you've ever thought this through or heard what I'm about to say, but I want you to please think with me through in these texts. You've just read about the judgment in this eternal kingdom of God and the eternal punishment. In 2 Corinthians 5, 8, it says, We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. So if you are walking by faith today and you're born again, if you die tonight, you're present with the Lord. But you haven't been eternal, you haven't reached the great white throne judgment. You leave your body behind. You're not in the new heavens and the new earth. So what I've heard that called that stage is the intermediate period of heaven. And then the eternal or the one that endures through eternity is the eternal new heavens and new earth after the judgment. Also at the judgment, everyone receives, that everybody has already received their resurrected bodies. So I'm just trying to give you a picture of reality, according to the word of God, about what comes after from the perspective of heaven. If you died today, you won't have your resurrected body, but you will be in paradise with the Lord until your body is resurrected. And one day you will dwell in new heavens and the new earth. People often ask, or I've heard people ask, what it will be like if they died and went to be with the Lord today. Well, this intermediate state is not as emphasized in as the eternal state in the Bible, but you will be removed from all sin and you will be with the Lord never to be taken away from him. S. Lewis Johnson has an analogy. There was a doctor, he was a traveling doctor. He would go to homes and stuff. And he met this man who was on his deathbed, but it was slow. It took months for him to pass away. And he ministered to him as a medical doctor. But this medical doctor was also a Christian. And he began not only to minister to him as a patient, but as a lost man. And over the months, the man actually, God used his preaching to convert him. And when he came close for him to die, he was concerned because he didn't know what heaven was going to be like. So he asked the doctor, because he didn't know many who would know an answer to his question, what's heaven going to be like? And this man was wealthy. So the doctor smiled and he said, ask your maid to open the front door to your house, which was down in another room. And she opened the door and he whistled. And in comes running his trusty dog. And the patient had never knew he had a dog. But the medical doctor always took it with him wherever he went. He was this beloved pet. And he knew him very well. And the dog, when he heard that whistle as distinct, he came running into the foyer, immediately came to the direction he heard the noise and came running into the room and jumped up on the doctor's lap. And the doctor looked at the patient and he said, I can't tell you a lot about it. But like this dog knows me, I know who's there. And that's what is a great hope for us. Is that when we die, we go to be with the Lord. Then after being resurrected, sometime later, you will be judged by Christ. And he will vindicate God's name in your judgment in finding you righteous in his sight. And no one will be able to bring a charge against you. Because God did not spare his own son, but had delivered him up for you. Then you will enter, as it says in Revelation 21, the new heavens and the new earth forever and ever. Brethren in application, be comforted in your hearts by these truths. It says that 1 Thessalonians 4 that to be comforted, comforted the faint hearted. This is a truth that if you're walking by faith and born again believer that you should not be faint hearted, but you should set your hope on these things. You're going to be with God. You're going to be in the presence and with Christ. You're going to be with all the holy angels. All the saints made perfect and no longer will you fight against one sin. You won't even be tempted to sin. Your love to God will have freedom. But on the other hand, there is hell and an eternal lake of fire. Let's go back to Matthew, Matthew 25 verse 41. Then he will say to those on his left hand, on the left hand, depart from me. You cursed into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Let's look at 2 Peter also 2 4. So you saw there in Matthew 25 that those people are cast in or go to the place prepared for the devil and his angels. It's called eternal punishment. That happens after the great white throne judgment. But before that, like people who have died and gone to hell now, they're not yet at the judge that judgment and they're not yet in that place. But they are in torment. Luke 16 is another text that we could go to to talk about that. But in 2 Peter, you can see here more about this intermediate state. But there were also false prophets. I'm sorry. Let's read verse 4. 2 Peter 2 4. For if God did not spare the angels who sin but cast them down to hell, that's not the lake of fire. He cast them down to hell. Later in Revelation are these the devil, the angels and all those not written. That's when there's the lake of fire and delivered into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment. We kind of have us like that in our own legal system. When somebody is commits a murder they're awaiting their judgment. They're putting a death row or maybe not death row, a holding cell. Death row is the wrong example. A holding cell. We're not wanting to take any seriousness away from this. This is where many fallen angels are and those who have died and are waiting the judgment. They're in God's holding cell where they're in torment and did not spare the ancient world but say no, I won't read the rest. We must address this because God's word reveals much of it. Think of the tenderness of Jesus who is gentle and meek to all those who come to him. It is he who spoke much on destruction. We must allow our minds to meditate on hell for God reveals it so clearly to us. John Murray asked, why do people so often resist the thought of God's wrath? I know we don't want that. I know no one wants that. Even the sinless Lord Jesus Christ did not want that in Gethsemane. But why do we resist the thought of it? I think he hit the nail on the head with his answer. He said, it's not because is it not because we do not wish to entertain the terror which conviction involves and we do not wish to be placed under the necessity of fashioning thought and like in terms of this reality. We don't want our minds and our lives to be fashioned with this reality. We don't like to think about it. I know when we ask people where nobody wants to talk about hell, but the one who sent his son into the world has revealed it much of it. It is not callous. It is not hard hearted. And if it's in God's word, how serious do you think it is? It's a shame. We don't weep more for the people we know that aren't saved. To read this reality, let me ask you, is hell and the eternal lake of fire a reality or not? Yes or no? People reject God's graciousness, but it's a sober revelation on this and they deny it. I find that much of it stems from their perception of God and sin. JC Riles said this. He said, low inadequate views of the unutterable vileness and filthiness of sin and of the unutterable purity of the eternal God are fertile sources of error about man's future state. The reason why I said that is because there are many people who reject the reality of what the Bible teaches about hell. They say they're soul sleep. They say, hell, there's a purgatory. You can get out. They say, I'll get saved after I die. Does the Bible though not use the same language for the eternality of heaven as it does for hell? Does it not use the same figures of speech for heaven as it uses it for hell in the duration of them? In that passage in Matthew 25, he says everlasting, the eternal kingdom and everlasting punishment right there together. The duration of heaven and hell rise together and they fall together. Why would Jesus mean anything else than eternity here? In Matthew 25 that is. Wouldn't it be deceptive for him to say that punishment is everlasting if man would just go to sleep and never awake again? Or if eternal punishment was anything short of eternal? God by his general call reveals this for your good, dear ones. If it were not so terrible, this language would not be here. If people only knew the chasm of destruction that is now awaiting them, like the rich man in Luke 16, five minutes after he died, he was in torment and he's been that way since. Everyone here will be in one eternal place or another in 120 years. Where will you be? Moving to the last part of the message, your only hope is repentant faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and the new covenant. Unless you repent, you, unless you repent, you will likewise perish. This next part is an exhortation for you to believe in the mediator of eternal life, Christ Jesus. Let's look at John 3.16. I'm going to start at 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And let's look at John 17.3. This is Jesus's high priestly prayer. And he says in verse three, and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. We all start out the same in Adam. There's not a person that started out any different. Everybody starts out guilty. Everybody starts out condemned. Everybody's conceived in sin and polluted Psalm 51. By nature, everybody is in a settled rebellion against God. Romans 8.7. Sin loving and light hating John 3. Spiritually dead Ephesians 2. Everyone is from birth the same, but not everybody stays this way. How does anyone get eternal life and end up in heaven? Last verse. Let's look at Hebrews 9. And then I'll just reference verbally the John 3 and 17 in closing. I'll just reference it now. And John 3 you could see. How do they get it? It's by the means of faith. They must believe. You must believe. If you say you're already believing, you must continue believing. And no, I'm not trying to subvert your assurance. But there is a healthy tension in the Bible if you want to call it that, of security and the not yet. And you must persevere. This not yet is not hypothetical. As a believer, you must continue to persevere. Yes, God will preserve you. They're both true. But if you're not in Christ, believe in him. You're in a healthy church. You're hearing the Word of God. You're seeing the new covenant being fulfilled among people just like you. Why would you be so foolish and jeopardize eternity and not believe in him? Because it's so clear that he was sent that he might save the world. He might save you if you believe in him. Hebrews 9 11. And I'll read through 15. And notice how eternity fits in here. Think about eternity and the work of Jesus Christ as we read this. But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands. That is not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And for this reason, he is the mediator of the new covenant and by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant that those who were called may receive the promise of the internal inheritance. There is an incalculable, incomprehensible hope in the work that Jesus Christ has accomplished. We, those who go to heaven will never track it down. And when he as high priest and as the sacrificed entered the tabernacle not made with hands, he offered a sacrifice of his own blood and as a substitute for his people and obtained eternal redemption because he was offered up through the eternal spirit. So God who is unutterably pure is satisfied with his work because he is God the Son and we in closing can have and should have a clean conscience by faith because of this eternal worthy work on our behalf. We should no longer be living in dead works but have a clean conscience and we should be living to serve God because of this redemption. That is if you're in Christ, if you're not, look at what God has done. You'll never know what Christ suffered. Even if you went to hell and you were there, you wouldn't know what he suffered. But he has suffered it and he offers you eternal life. God, we're no, I'm no different than anybody else. I need a savior. I'm a wicked man but transferred into the kingdom of his beloved son and he offers that to you. Believe that. That's the word of God. If you repent and believe in this, if you believe in Christ, he says eternal life is that you might know him. The only true God in Jesus Christ whom he sent. Seek him out and if you're a believer, don't waste your life. Look at the eternity that we've been talking about. Look at what's coming. Let your life be set on that. Set your life on that and know God. The more you know him, the more you're going to praise him when you get to heaven and not regret. I'm not saying that everybody's going to regret but you want, there are going to be a lot of people I believe that will wish at some point when they realize that they worship and serve God more. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. I pray that these truths would affect your people, that they would carry them with them and live in light of them. O Holy Spirit, your work is unstoppable. It is glorious work among us and make us live in your sight, not grieving unto you but pleasing unto you. Amen.