All women, including pre-born baby girls, are created in the image of God. Discover the true war on women. www.godloveswomen.com That is www.godloveswomen.com Oh Sovereign Lord, By faith, O Lord, we see what happened in the wilderness when your son, Jesus, was being tested for 40 days. At the end of the 40 days, being so hungry, and then Satan presenting him with a temptation, saying to him, if you are the Son of God, just turn these stones into bread. And we praise you, O Lord, for the great thrust of the sword from the greatest swordsman who ever lived. When your son Jesus said, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And then, O Father, by faith we hear what happened when Satan tried to use your word and twist it. And Satan himself said, it is written. And tried to tempt your holy son to cast himself down, to test you, to see if the angels would hold him up so that his foot would not strike against the stone. But we praise you, O Father, that your Son, Jesus, responded again, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And then the third time, it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. And O blessed Father, we pray this, that the ministry of the Son of God in our hearts would teach us to fight the battle this way. Oh Lord, when Satan tries to twist the scriptures, or deceive us, or tempt us to sin against you, we pray that by your Holy Spirit, you give us the grace to say every time, it is written to trust in your Holy Word. Please increase our faith in your word because your word is your promise and your promise is true because your character, oh Father, is true. You are not a man that you should lie. Your word is perfect and true and trustworthy. And I pray, oh Lord, for every precious person in this room I pray that each one of your sons and daughters this coming year will trust in your word, will hope in your word, and will remain steadfast and persevering in your word. Oh, thank you for the gift of all the precious promises that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for the washing of our sins through his infinitely precious blood. In Jesus' name, amen. The book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 25. We'll begin with verses one through five. This is the word of the Lord. Oh Lord, you are my God. I will exalt you. I will praise your name for you have done wonderful things. Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. For you have made a city of ruin, a fortified city of ruin, a palace of foreigners to be a city no more. It will never be rebuilt. Therefore, the strong people will glorify you. The city of the terrifying nations will fear you, for you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, for the blast of the terrifying ones is as a storm against the wall. You'll reduce the noise of aliens as heat in a dry place, as heat in the shadow of a cloud. The song of the terrifying ones will be diminished. Thus far, the reading of God's Holy Word. God is exceedingly faithful. In His faithfulness to His people, He has done many mighty miracles on their behalf. And therefore his counsels of old are exceedingly faithful. Every word of prophecy which he has given of old, he ever so faithfully shall fulfill. Since God is exceedingly faithful, that means his promises are completely trustworthy. There's not a jot or stroke from the word of God that will fall to the ground. Since the Lord is faithful, he will see to it that all kings and princes of the earth bow down and pay homage to his chosen yet despised Messiah, the man of sorrows, Jesus of Nazareth. And also those who are saved from the coming wrath and instead made heirs to the coming of the new heavens and the new earth shall only bless themselves by the God of faithfulness. and swear by the God of faithfulness. For it's not their own righteousness, but rather it's the Lord's faithfulness that has saved them. What shall we say then when life becomes terrible or terrifying? When terrifying enemies and terrible disasters fall upon us, what shall we say? When the bright rays of heaven All of God's precious promises about heaven are obscured by the smog of smoke-puffed Sodom and the terrible storm clouds of sword-wielding Babylon. How shall we endure when the blackness of death, even the death of one so near to our hearts, shrouds our hearts in grief and unspeakable pain? How can we still cling to the hope of heaven? We must believe that God is exceedingly faithful. As his children, we must count his counsels of old as being exceedingly faithful. Hebrews 10, 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. He is faithful. Oh, hurting Christian, terrified by the fierceness of this cruel world, this death shadow world, you yourself must study the faithful promises of God concerning heaven. A sheep breeder studies his sheep very carefully because he knows he has to know each one of them very well. That's his job. And so his sheep are his securities for his temporal future. And similarly, a merchant who sells fine pearls studies his pearls in minute detail, knowing all of their peculiar qualities and differences, because they are his securities for his future. How much more then should the Christian study the faithful promises of the Lord concerning heaven? Because they concern his own everlasting state. Therefore, O afflicted Christian, search the scriptures for truths about heaven. And also pray to the Father through Jesus Christ and ask him to grant you the Spirit's wisdom and revelation concerning all of the glories of heaven. And then, if you would be so mighty of faith, humbly receive the worst of your sufferings and the worst of your tribulations as your best instructors in the practice of being heavenly-minded, of heavenly-mindedness. Because the God of Israel, who throughout the Old and New Testaments has spoken such great and sweeping promises concerning heaven, is exceedingly faithful. He shall bring every promise to its literal, glorious fulfillment. However, before we can see the glories of heaven, we must first, in Isaiah 25, foresee the downfall of the enemies of the church. That is, before we can see Mount Zion, the city of God, raised up to its future heavenly heights, we must first witness another city, the city of man, being brought down to the very dust under the righteous wrath of God. Isaiah 25, verse 2, for you have made a city a ruin. a fortified city, a ruin, a palace of foreigners to be a city no more. It will never be rebuilt. This is Sodom and Nineveh and Rome and Babylon all at once. This is the evil city that represents the wicked spiritual city that constitutes the city of man. It is a city raised up in rebellion against God, building towers into the clouds and doing everything in its power to exalt man and to expunge the knowledge of God from the earth. In the language of the prophet Isaiah, this is Moab. The bitter enemy of Israel, who has sought to terrify Israel even unto death, but which in God's righteous vengeance shall be brought down to the ground. Isaiah 25, 10 through 12, for on this mountain, the hand of the Lord will rest and Moab shall be trampled down under him as straw is trampled down in the refuse heap and he will spread out his hands in their midst as a swimmer reaches out to swim and he will bring down their pride together with the trickery of their hands, the fortress of the high fort on your walls, he will cause to bow low, bring down and strike to the ground down to the dust. The city of man lifts itself up in horrendous human pride, yet God's judgment will be just, taking the city that lifted itself up and bringing it down even to the dust. Isaiah 26 5 through 6 for he lays low those who dwell on high the lofty city he brings it down he brings it down to the ground he strikes it down to the dust the fool shall tread it down the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy we must foresee this the coming leveling of the city of man to the ground before we can foresee the glories of heaven because those who dwell in the city of man The terrifying ones who persecute and terrify God's elect must be removed from the earth before heaven can come down to the earth. Isaiah 25, three through five. Therefore, the strong people will glorify you. The city of the terrifying nations will fear you, for you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, for the blast of the terrifying ones is as a storm against the wall. You will reduce the noise of aliens as heat in a dry place, as heat in the shadow of a cloud. The song of the terrifying ones will be diminished. Heaven, through heaven's king, cannot reign upon the earth until the terrifying ones of the city of man are expunged from the earth. These are they who have terrified the people of God ever since Cain slew Abel, and since Lamech avenged himself 77 fold. These are the giant Canaanites, the Anakim, who terrified the people of Israel by their great stride and giant stature, and whose cities were great and fortified up to heaven. These also are the coming enemies of Israel, the ruthless Babylonians, upon whom or through whom this looting and burning of Jerusalem will take place. This will happen long after the prophet Isaiah has come and gone. And these Babylonians are the ones who shall take Israel's infants and dash them against the rocks. The terrifying ones are the ones who lie in wait to catch the helpless, who seek the life of the innocent, who murder the pre-born, who build altars to false gods and who envy the righteous with such evil hatred as to seek to put all true Christians to death. It is these ones who have no fear of God before their eyes, who must be punished for their crimes and banished into the everlasting torment of hell before heaven can come down to earth. Isaiah 13, 11, I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will halt the arrogance of the proud and will lay low the haughtiness of, here they are, the terrifying ones. And Isaiah 29, verse five, moreover, the multitude of your foes shall be like fine dust and the multitude of, and here they are again, the terrifying ones. like chaff that passes away, yes, it shall be in an instant, suddenly. What is the blessed hope of the righteous? Does it not include the downfall of the wicked, the bringing down of Moab, the fall of the city of man, and so the just destruction and punishment, even conscious unending punishment in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone of the terrifying ones who have terrified the righteous. Revelation 11, 18, the nations were angry and your wrath has come and the time of the dead that they should be judged, that you should reward your servants, the prophets and the saints and those who fear your name small and great and should destroy those who destroy the earth. The biblical prophecies concerning the last days are both comforting to God's elect and terrifying to God's enemies. For these prophecies foretell the day when those who terrified the righteous by way of their predatory oppressions and heartless persecutions will themselves be terrified in hell and that forever. So in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, when Christian is being entertained by the Lord's maidservants who live in that palace beautiful, The whole company of saints together finds in the records of that house the prophecies of the Lord concerning the last days. They read them together. And these prophecies are given both to comfort the pilgrims and to terrify the wicked. Here they are in Pilgrim's Progress, the way Bunyan recorded it. They then read again in another part of the records of the house. where it was showed how willing their Lord was to receive into his favor any, even any, though they in time past had offered great affronts to his person and proceedings. Here also were several other histories of many other famous things, all of which Christian had a view, as of things both ancient and modern, together with prophecies and predictions of things that have their certain accomplishment both to the dread and amazement of enemies and the comfort and solace of pilgrims. Oh, dear Christian, do you oftentimes find yourself perplexed over the question of why you yourself are being besieged by great terrors of spiritual attack and societal persecution or even physical sufferings in the body while so many other people around you including many who attend church in one form or another, are not assaulted by such things at all. Why do the terrifying ones, the soldiers of Satan, seem to target you and not others? Why do so many people around you laugh now and fill their bellies now and have others speak well of them now? Well, you are made to weep now, to go hungry now, and to be spoken of as evil now for the sake of the Son of Man. Oh, precious Christian, remember that you, having been redeemed by the shepherd of your soul, are now one of his sheep. For the Lord's sake, you are killed all day long, like a lamb for the slaughter. And this explains why the persecutions of Satan are terrifying you throughout your days, even while so many others around you are not being so terrified. For lions are not terrified by other lions, and wolves are not terrified by other wolves. That is to say, those who make peace with Islam are not persecuted by the Muslims. And those who give plaudits to the public schools are not persecuted by the public schoolers. And those who shirk the biblical language of homosexuality as being abominable to God are not harassed by the hate speech police. and those who turn a blind eye to the global plague of birth control and its genocidal offspring, the global abortion holocaust, are not terrified by the murderous threats of the violent disciples of Margaret Sanger. Instead, it is only the sheep that are terrified by the lions and by the wolves. The wolf in sheep's clothing is not terrified when other wolves arrive to devour the flock because he's a wolf in sheep's clothing. Why would he be scared? But rather, it's only the true sheep of the shepherd who are made to feel the dangers of the wolves, of the terrors. And therefore, oh, Christian, your suffering for the gospel is a mark of your salvation. Since it proves you to be an authentic sheep, in Christ's redeemed flock. And this is what makes the prophecy of the coming destruction of the terrifying ones of earth actually very precious to you. For when the Lord comes in the fullness of his glory with the holy angels, those who have been terrifying you, and that unrepentantly, even though you have loved them as your enemies and prayed for their repentance, shall be judged by him whose judgment it is to bring his divine vengeance upon their heads. And the city, that blasphemous city of man, which persecuted you and cast you into prison, shall be brought down, even thrown into the deepest abyss of the sea. Revelation 18.21, then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea saying, thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down and shall not be found anymore. Thus before heaven can come down to earth, one city which is the city of man must be thrown down. The terrifying ones who terrify the righteous with their persecutions must first be destroyed by the judgments of the Lord. Then once that happens, another city, which is the city of Mount Zion, shall be raised up. So first is the destruction and then the rebuilding, the new heavens and the new earth. So the sequence is clear. The city of man shall be brought down and then the city of God atop the mountain of the Lord shall be raised up. Isaiah 25, verse six, and on this mountain, so see, the city of God shall be raised up on a high mountain, or as a high mountain, and on this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the leaves. Why is heaven foretold here as a city, the city of Zion, resting on a mountain? Why a mountain? Why is it Mount Zion and not Zion on the plain? Well, in the Bible, a mountain is a picture of security. Atop a mountain, a city's citizens are protected from invading enemies. This year I'm reading about the Waldensians, who lived back in the 1300s, 1400s, 1500s, and were extremely persecuted, but they built their homes in the mountains, and the mountains protected them from a lot of the persecution. The mountain is a fortress, a rock of refuge, and so God's city, the city of Zion, shall be, as Isaiah says, on this mountain, since it shall be an eternal safe house for God's previously persecuted people. Isaiah 25, verse four, for you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat. For the blast of the terrifying ones is as a storm against the wall. And Psalm 48, one through three, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God on his holy mountain. beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great king. God is in her palaces. He is known as her refuge. So what then will heaven be like? What shall happen once the city of our God, Mount Zion, is raised up on God's holy mountain? Well, after the city of man has been brought down to the dust, things will change. And so what will it look like? What will it be like for those who are chosen to dwell in the city of God? Well, the prophet Isaiah says that on that mountain, in that city, there should be a most wondrous feast prepared for God's elect. A feast. Isaiah 25 verse 6, And on this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast. of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the leaves. Lot brought the angels of God out of the danger of the open square in Sodom and brought them into his own house where he prepared a feast for them. Yet in a much, much, much greater Fashioned the Lord Jesus will bring us out of the danger of this present world and into his own house Where he has gone ahead of us to prepare a feast for us and the Old Covenant Israel was invited to attend all of the Temporal feasts in fact Israel was commanded to attend all of the temporal feasts of God at Jerusalem, even the feasts of Passover and Pentecost and Tabernacles. Those were the feasts of Israel. Yet in the new covenant, God has invited us into the kingdom of heaven wherein he has arranged a marriage for his son and prepared his dinner and killed the oxen and fattened calf and made all things ready for the wedding. The invitation of the gospel then is an invitation to the great wedding feast of the Lamb. Revelation 19 verse 9, then he said to me, write, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are the true sayings of God. Yet once the city of God is exalted above all the other mountains of the earth, such that Mount Zion stands alone, the high city of the high king of heaven there will not only be great feasting there also according to the Prophet Isaiah shall be the abolition of death itself these are really precious verses Isaiah 25 verses 7 through 8 and he will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. The rebuke of his people he will take away from all the earth for the Lord has spoken. Here is heaven. This is how God depicts it for us. Here is what the prophet Isaiah, by the supernatural revelation of the Holy Spirit, foresees. On that mountain, that is on Mount Zion, there shall be no more death. And this is hope indeed. This is heaven indeed. Heaven will be heaven because the abolition of death will bring about one of the greatest promises in all of Scripture. God will abolish death in heaven. But why is this? Why is the destruction of death itself such a precious promise, one of the greatest promises in all of Scripture? Well, is this not because death has been our enemy from the beginning of human sin? Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And so in that day when he ate from it, he surely died. Death is so horrible because its gates have not been revealed to us and its shadowy doors have been seen by none of those who dwell in the land of the living. In death, says David, there's no remembrance of God. And in the grave, there is none to render thanksgiving unto God. Yet death has a hold upon us all because all have sinned and all have fallen short of the glory of God. So what man then can live and not see death? Who can deliver his life from the power of the grave? As Solomon observes, no mortal man has power in the day of death. And so we weep. and weep and weep. For we are all like grass that flourishes in the morning and yet withers and is cut down in the evening. And our dearest loved ones ever so quickly finish their years like a sigh. Yet the gospel is that God has made a way to abolish death. This is the gospel. Our Lord Jesus poured out his soul unto death, even death on a cross. And so the victory cry of the gospel is, oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, Hades, where is your victory? It is our savior, Jesus Christ, who has, according to Second Timothy 110, abolished death. and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. It is a biblical truism that, according to 1 Corinthians 15.26, the last enemy that will be destroyed is death. It is an exceedingly faithful promise of God that he will destroy death. For the Apostle John foresees the day when, according to Revelation 20.14, death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. God Himself, who shall accomplish it for those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose, He shall finish this. He shall wipe away our tears, and God will bring it to a finish. Revelation 21, verse 4, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death nor sorrow. nor crying, there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. There was no death in the Garden of Eden prior to Adam's sin. In Eden, the wolf and the lamb fed together, and the lion ate straw like the ox. Yet sin unleashed death not only upon the animal world, such that wolves now devour lambs and lions now tear their prey with bloodshed, but also upon the human world, such that all humans die. Yet Christ our Lord became a partaker with us of flesh and blood, so that through death He might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, Satan himself. By taking death and his own body on the tree, Christ released us from the fear of death. since we previously had been subjected to the bondage of death. O Beloved Church of the Risen Christ, we have many terrifying enemies in this world, but death is the most terrifying of them all. It severs the body from the spirit. It creates such a seemingly permanent separation between husband and wife, between father and son, and between mother and daughter. Yet one of the great gospel doctrines, O precious church, is that God hates death. Christ was crucified in order to crucify death on behalf of all those who fear him. He bore death for us, taking its sting, and then rose again. Therefore God says of heaven, on this mountain, no more tears, sorrow, crying, or pain. For on this mountain, no more death. What then shall be the loud cry? of the saints once we see the city of man brought down to the dust and the city of Mount Zion raised up to its glorious heights. Heaven is going to be loud. There are going to be shouts of joy in heaven. Once God debases Babylon, even casting her into the sea and raises up Jerusalem such that she sits exalted on His holy mountain, what shall be the blaring shout all the Saints as they had 25 verse 9 and it will be said in that day behold this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us this is the Lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation we wait for heaven to come quickly by waiting for God to come quickly Once we see Jesus, our God, coming on the clouds of heaven, then we will know that heaven is coming down to earth at last because heaven is where God is. It is the Lord in him alone that makes heaven so heavenly. The gospel then is not merely that God will come and save us. The gospel is not merely that God has saved us from our sins. It is even more that God himself will come to us to dwell with us such that we will be his people forever and he will be our God forever. The gospel is the announcement that our God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God coming to save us from the wicked. It is the glad tidings shouted from a high mountain that the Lord our God will come with a strong hand and his arm shall rule for him and his reward shall be before him and with him and his recompense will be in front of him. The gospel says to the church that the Lord will come with fire and with his chariots like a whirlwind to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire. So there are many today who claim to be waiting for the inheritance of heaven. And yet that claim must be tested by this question. For what or whom are you waiting? False believers wait for a heaven that is less than biblical, a Christ who is less than three times holy, and a diminished God who is in reality an idol. True believers, by contrast, are those who wait for heaven by waiting for the Lord of Scripture. They wait silently for God alone, for their expectation is from him. Isaiah 26, eight through nine. Yes, in the way of your judgments, O Lord, we have waited for you. The desire of our soul is for your name and for the remembrance of you. With my soul, I have desired you in the night. Yes, by my spirit within me, I will seek you early. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. And Isaiah 33, verse 2, O Lord, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Be their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. And again, Lamentations 3, 24 through 25. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him. and to the soul who seeks Him. O Christian, are you waiting for the Lord Himself and nothing else and no other? Are all of your yearnings for heaven centered upon the beatific vision of seeing Christ your God in all of His heavenly glory face to face? Are you waiting for something other than God? Or do you eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God from heaven, who delivers you from the wrath to come? Is your first love the love of His appearing? Even as He came the first time to bear the sins of many, are you eagerly waiting for Him to appear a second time apart from sin for our final salvation? Shall He not come with the clouds? such that every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth mourn because of him? Is not your greatest joy, the joy above all other joys, caught up in the hope that one day you will join the countless multitude of saints in heaven, singing as loudly as the sound of many waters and as powerfully as the sound of mighty thunderings? Alleluia! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. Oh, beloved Christian, heaven is where God is. And where God is, there is perfect joy. We have we have been made through Christ. But we have also been made for Christ. Our everlasting felicity depends upon this one thing, whether or not we shall be near to Christ in our everlasting state. That should be the cry of every Christian soul. I want to be near to Christ in my everlasting state. He alone is the fountain of life, and in His light alone we see light. And therefore, heaven is the place where souls shall feast upon the glory of Christ, beholding His glory which never loses its brightness and never diminishes in majesty. The wine of Christ in heaven is that which never tastes bland, but instead is perpetually sweet and pleasant. The bread of Christ at the wedding feast of heaven is that which warms the body and brings joy to the eyes without ever losing its flavor. For at what point in the everlasting future will the saints in heaven be able to say that the pleasantries of heaven have worn thin, or that the music of heaven has become worn out and dull? If the infinite glory of the infinite God is the fountainhead of all of the rushing rivers of joy that permeate the city of Mount Zion, then how can those rivers ever run dry? Seeing as God's infinite glory cannot ever be depleted, not even by a single milliliter. We then are waiting for God alone. Our vindication will not come and our souls will not be satisfied until we see God coming for us to rescue us. True children by definition are those who long to be with their father. A true bride by definition is she who yearns to be with her bridegroom. God is our father. and Christ is our Bridegroom. Therefore, we long to be with God, and we yearn to be with Christ. Heaven, then, can only come when we see Him as He is. And when He does come for us, revealing to us the fullness of His salvation, then we shall rejoice with joy unspeakable. And it will be said in that day, according to Isaiah 25, verse 9, Behold, this is our God. We have waited for Him and He will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for Him. We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation forever and ever. the feast never ending, world without end. So as we now close and approach this holy table of the Lord, we come thanking our God and Father for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which he has set us free from the bondage of death so that in heaven death shall be abolished. Before we come, here's the doxology. Praise be to God, our Father, who shall vindicate our just cause and bring down the city of the terrifying ones to the dust of the earth. Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ, who by His death on the cross shall abolish death forever, wiping away every tear from our eyes. And praise be to the Holy Spirit, who teaches us to wait for God alone, since heaven is where He is. Amen.