We turn in the word to Revelation chapter 22 and then Psalm 104. Let's stand together. Revelation chapter 22, after two descriptions, one in chapter 21, of a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and earth had passed away. In chapter 21, the one who sat on the throne, verse 5, behold, I make all things new. Chapter 22, there John saw a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal. And then we read the words of our Savior in verse 12 of chapter 22. Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to give everyone according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and sexually immoral, and murderers, and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, come. And let him who hears say, come. And let him who thirsts, come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. And then to the Old Testament, Psalm 104. We will read some selections of Psalm 104, verses one and two. And then we will pick up in verse 24 to the end of the psalm. Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord my God, You are very great, You are clothed with honor and majesty, Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain. Verse 24, O Lord, how manifold are Your works, and wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions, this great and wide sea in which are innumerable teeming things, living things both small and great. There the ships sail about. There is that Leviathan which You have made to play there. These all wait for You that You may give them their food in season. What You give them, they gather in. You open Your hand, they are filled with good. You hide Your face, they are troubled. You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. You send forth your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the earth. May the glory of the Lord endure forever. May the Lord rejoice in his works. He looks on the earth and it trembles. He touches the hills and they smoke. I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditation be sweet to him. I will be glad in the Lord. May sinners be consumed from the earth, and the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord. And this is the word of the living God. We turn in the word of God to Psalm 104. Psalm 104. The Lord willing, the second last time, we have looked at a number of things from this Psalm that we'll review in a moment. If you're visiting with us, this is the fourth of five sermon series on Psalm 104. And the last one will be on the whole psalm and the main theme of the psalm under the title of Worship the King, the Worship of the King. But before we get to that, next week we consider a sobering theme in this psalm, a theme that comes up twice. Once, perhaps, you could miss it as you read by it or over it, but a second time, unmistakably, clearly. And that is in the first half of the last verse, where suddenly, after all the light and glory of this psalm, we read the following, a prayer. May sinners be consumed from the earth and the wicked be no more. I wonder how many people there are who visit national parks. America has absolutely stunningly beautiful national parks. This land, God has blessed this land with a variety of landscapes and beauty that is maybe unlike any other nation in the world. And if you've been to some of them, as Laura Lee and I and the children have been privileged to be, you know what I'm talking about. stunning vistas and landscapes of staggering beauty and glory in so many different places. Sometimes I do wonder as I'm walking through these places, I wonder how many, who passing through and standing on those overlooks, you know you can, a certain curve and there's all the parking spaces and all the people against that stone wall looking into some majestic beauty. How many people are thinking about the God who made all these things, the maker of all these things, and the one who is upholding all these things? Sometimes Laurie and I like to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway near Mount Pisgah. If you've seen Pisgah Inn, there's some Adirondack chairs on the back porch and back deck that overlook this giant valley and this great vista. And not only do you see that and you think, who made this? To God be the glory. But then you think about what's all happening there. He's feeding all His creatures. There's so much life here that I or nobody even knows about, only known to Him. Do we think like this? And the Psalm asks us to think like this. But there's a second question, perhaps a more piercing question is, do I deserve to be here? Do I deserve to be here to see this beauty and glory? What warrant do I have to enjoy and to look and to participate in such glory, beauty, and grandeur even in a fallen world? Do I have a right to be here? That's the question we're going to ask, and it's a question that you should be asking as you live in God's creation. Do I have a right to be here? Most people think, yes, of course I do, I'm here. Let's go through the flow of the psalm for a moment before we get to that statement at the end of the psalm, which I would characterize as a sort of abrupt stop. jarring in the flow of things. And we'll look at that for a moment. You know what the genre is? We looked at that every week. It's Bless the Lord O My Soul. It's a praise song. It's a psalm where the psalmist is using words to declare and magnify, to bless God, to offer to Him in words an ascription of praise and glory. It's an outbound declaration to God of His glory and praise. It's also Musical praise, I will sing to the Lord as long as I live, verse 33. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. More on that next week, but it is poetic, sung praise to ascribe blessing to God. Verse, the second half of verse one is the thesis. Oh Lord, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty. It's an inscription of praise for a God who is great and glorious, matchless in His glory. It's a great worship song. And if you were to go through this song, we'll see in a moment, it just grows like a crescendo of praise. The elements we've looked at in this crescendo of praise have been the following, the King's throne. You're clothed with majesty and honor as robes. You cover yourself with light as with a garment. You stretch out the heavens like a curtain. He lays the beams of his chambers in the waters. He makes the clouds his charity, walks on the wings of the wind. And in his attendance, the angels are those spirits, his ministers of flame and fire. The king on his throne is pictured here, and it brings to mind texts like Isaiah 66, which I've repeated many times in these sermons. Heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. God seated above, reigning above the highest heavens over all creation. And we saw the king's realm. We saw that there's an echo in this psalm of the seven days of the creation week, the six days of labor and the one day of rest. of God's making all things out of nothing. For the word of his power in the space of six days and all very good. Then we've seen the king's table that he cares for his creatures. He especially feeds them. And in his providence, he is governing and preserving all his creatures and all their actions. That's what we looked at last week. That he's not one who made and stepped away, but he's a God who made and sustains, feeds, clothes, governs, rules. He's the sustaining creator king on the throne. All of this is to prove the thesis, oh Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty. The psalm builds them thematically, doxologically, with a growing crescendo of praise. Again, it starts, O Lord, how manifold are your works, in verse 24. Then, may the glory of the Lord endure forever, verse 31. Then, I will sing to the Lord as long as I will live. Then, the end of verse 35. Bless the Lord, O my soul, praise the Lord. It's just, it's kind of like a spiritual freight train gathering momentum and glory and power as it rolls along, but, May sinners be consumed from the earth and the wicked be no more. What is that? Have you ever read this psalm and wondered, how do these two things go together? Perhaps you've heard the worship song, Bless the Lord, O My Soul. In preparing for this psalm, every time I thought about it, I started singing it, and I thought, I wonder if I'm going to sing it when I'm preaching, but I'm not going to. But you know what I'm talking about. Not many worship songs include this verse. Do they? They don't. Yet it is the last major statement in the psalm. The end is, we call it an inclusio, it's a repetition of the beginning. It's the last propositional, new propositional statement in this psalm. In a sense, it's where it ends. And if you have any spiritual sensibility or sensitivity, it's jarring and weighty. More than that, it's a sort of scorching imprecation. It's an invitation of holy divine judgment on the realm under the throne. That's what it is. So why is this happening? Why as it were, this brick wall of sobriety that we run into after all these verses of light and glory. Why? Let's study the psalm as a whole and see if we can understand why it ends here. The first thing to note is that it's actually not the first hint of judgment in the psalm. It's the second. It's the second intimation of judgment. It's not only the hand of God for blessing in the psalm. Look at verse 29. The context is, verse 27, all the creatures in creation are waiting for God's open-handed feeding, that He would hand-feed them. Verse 28, you open your hand, they are filled with good. Then verse 29 comes. You hide your face, they are troubled. You take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. Death is in the psalm. And death is in the psalm by the active hand of God in providence. Sobering. It's a note that perhaps would be easy to miss, but let's think about a few things. What was the psalmist, remember we had that image, what was he reading? In one hand he had the scroll of Genesis. In the other hand, the pen and the paper of Psalm 104. the Holy Spirit inspiring him to write. And he knew why there was death in the world. Because the Lord had said that in the day that you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die. He knew that the wages of sin is death. This indicates already before we get to the end of the psalm that this is a realm Though full of light and glory, presently under God's curse and the active judgment of God, even in His hand of providence. Second, let's study the particular language of this phrase in verse 35. We need to notice that it's a prayer. It's a prayer for specific judgment. And what does the prayer contain? A class of people, sinners or the wicked. Who are sinners? People who transgress God's moral standard. Wicked people, guilty before God. Sinners and the wicked. What is the prayer? That they be consumed from the earth, that they be no more. That they be removed from the picture of the creator king and his realm and his rule. that they be exiled. Completely cut off in Numbers 14.33, the verb used here is for the cutting off of a wicked people. The prayer is that in the realm of the king, no one who is in this class, sinners or wicked, would continue to rest or find their home. None. Now let's ramp up the intensity of this a little bit because you could be holding this at arm's length, but if you read the whole Bible, the Bible says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And when you feel the weight of this, you realize that rapidly at this abrupt stop, the tone has changed. We're in the minor key. And the weight of the word is calling for holy divine retribution against a certain class of what appear to be interlopers in the throne room of God. Third, first we looked at the first intimation in the psalm that might give us a clue that this was coming. Second, the words themselves and what they mean. Third, three realities that maybe better help us understand why this came to the mind of the psalmist here. I already intimated some of them earlier, but let's go through them. The reality is, the first reality, who is the king on the throne? Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty. May the glory of the Lord endure forever, verse 31. May the Lord rejoice in his works. The holy king who rules with power, he looks on the earth and it trembles, he touches the hills and they smoke. We do well to turn over to Isaiah 6. Isaiah saw the same throne in the year that King Uzziah died. I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. The train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim, each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Same language as Psalm 104. The whole earth is full of His glory. And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out. The house was filled with smoke, trembling in smoke." Same language as Psalm 104. So I said, here's Isaiah's consciousness. Listen. Woe is me. I'm undone. Because I'm a man of unclean lips, I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. There's something here in Psalm 104. My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Woe is me, a man of unclean lips. I dwell in a people of unclean lips. This is the same reaction. A holy King on the throne. If you read Revelation 4 and 5, we went there in the past weeks. Holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. The One who created all things. And by His will, He created, they exist and were created. The Creator, King on His throne. Here's the instinctive reaction of the sensitive heart. You see the glory of the King. Second reality. Present state of the realm. Two cues in the text down. Death and judgment. Death and sin are mentioned. The realm, there's something wrong. There is something wrong. I was just thinking last night, actually, about the death of my nephew, ten years old, in January. You can't possibly have any spiritual sensibility at all and go to a funeral of anyone, let alone a child, and not know that there's something profoundly broken and wrong, that the wages of sin is death, and the lump in your throat and the heaving sobs and the tears that flow Everyone knows there's something wrong. Our consciences testify, reality testify that God's original design for communion between God and men in a sanctuary called Eden to be extended to the whole earth Because of Adam's fall into sin and our continued rebellion, the good creation has been polluted, the curse of God has fallen, the judgment of God exists, and we can read that he takes away our breath. We die and return to their dust. Moses meditated on that very thing. Psalm 90, you can read it this afternoon. A whole meditation on this. And why is this? Because the unholy cannot live in the presence of the holy and not be consumed. Which is why after the fall, what happened? Very important to remember, what happens after the fall? An exile from the garden. A cherubim, an agent with a flaming sword, look at verse 4, who makes his angels spirits, his ministers a flame of fire, guards the way to the tree of life. May sinners be consumed from the earth and the wicked be no more, could be the title over that picture. Holy God estranged from sinful humanity. Reality number three maybe is a surprise to you. I want you to think about the theology of the tabernacle and the temple. When the Israelites made the tabernacle and then the temple, what was happening? What was happening? When the temple was made in the Holy of Holies, there were carved pomegranates. There was a picture of an olive tree. There was cherubim. guarding the way to the Holy of Holies. There was a picture of a garden of God where the dwelling place of God was with men. God tabernacled with his people where he declared his holiness and he did rend the heavens as it were and come down to his people. What had to happen before that place was inhabited by the glory cloud? It had to be purified. And the priests had to be purified. And it had to be holy. A picture of holiness. A beachhead of holiness with holy priests and holy times and holy space. And what? The throne of God, the tabernacle of God is with men. And I want you to remember what happened when Nadab and Abihu decided, we're going in on our own terms. What happened? They died. Flaming cherubim sword fell. Why? If you go back to Leviticus chapter 10, the text tells us it's because God is holy. By those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy before all the people, I must be glorified. The only one who could enter was what? The high priest with the shedding of blood carrying the names of the people of God into the holy of holies. Fourth thing, the clear biblical view of the final state, fourth reality to think about. First, who is the king? Second, what happened in this creation? Third, the picture of the temple, which is in the mind of the Old Testament saint. Fourth, a clear biblical view of the final state. The realm of the king, typologically purified in the tabernacle, will be purified. This world will be purified of all sin and pollution. In Revelation chapter 22, which you just read a moment ago, if you go back there, there's a picture of a garden, and the tree of life, and the river of the water of life, clear as crystal proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. And there there shall be no more curse. And this is after the new heavens and the new earth, Revelation chapter 4. Behold, I make all things new. But the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it, and servants shall serve him. They shall see his face, his name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there. The Lord God gives them light. They shall reign forever and ever. And then what we read earlier, verse 14. Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city, but outside, not in, out. are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices the lie. Outside, there's gardens in the scriptures, Eden, Gethsemane, and then the final garden of heaven, the new creation. Remember from a few weeks ago, Galatians chapter 5. A list of sins. Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. It's the same sense here. I go to another text that echoes the same sense of holiness and majesty. 2 Peter chapter 3. The world willfully forgets that God judged the world. Peter says, but God's gonna do it again. But the heavens and the earth, 2 Peter 3, 7, which are now preserved by the same word, preserving providence, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Then, verse 10, 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. The elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up, a purification by fire. The coming day of judgment. is clearly testified in the scriptures, intimated in Psalm 104, and the psalmist cannot look at the king and his realm without thinking about the need for purity. May sinners be consumed from the earth and the wicked be no more. Our God, the writer of the Hebrews says, is a consuming fire. Ultimately, the psalmist understands the purpose of the king on the throne. To purify and restore his creation. To purge moral evil. And he is praying the same prayer that we read at the end of the scriptures. Back to Revelation chapter 22. I want you to see how this picture is linked to a prayer. Outside, blessed are those who do his commandments. They have a right to the tree of life. Outside are the sexually immoral, murderers and idolaters. And the Spirit and the bride say, come. And let him who hears says, come. And let him who thirsts, come. And whoever desires, let him take up the water of life freely. What are they praying for? Who to come? Behold, Jesus said, I am coming quickly to give everyone according to his work. Psalm 104 anticipates this theology. What are some implications of this prayer? Number one. Things to take to heart. I plead with you, take them to heart. This is a, thinking about this, praying about this sermon all week, actually for weeks now. These are some of the weightiest things I can ever talk to anybody about. Lesson number one, there's a mortal danger of enjoying creation for creation's sake, without submitting to the King. To love the creature rather than the creator. To worship the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Romans 1.25. It's interesting, isn't it, that so often some of the very most beautiful places, even in our own nation, are also synonymous with debauchery and rebellion. How many of you have been to Provincetown, Massachusetts? Key West, Florida? San Francisco? I often wondered, so much natural beauty, and at the same time, so much rebellion. Same place. So it is with the natural heart. Listen, if you aren't living an unbelieving and wicked life, the psalm tells you that your time here is very short. Look at the text again. Verse 29, either God will take away your breath, you're going to die and return to the dust, Hebrews chapter 9 said it's appointed for man once to die and then the judgment. Or, the great final judgment of the Lamb. May sinners be consumed from the earth, the wicked be no more. One of those two you're going to witness. I don't know which one first. But the text says that sinners and the wicked do not belong here. So why are so many people still living here without repentance? Paul explains that to us in Romans. Romans chapter 2. When he describes something about the beautiful character of God, the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering. And that the goodness of God is intended to lead you to repentance. He gives you time to repent. Why are you breathing and living? If you're living in rebellion against the Lord, it's because of His forbearance. And I would call you to repent of your sins. Jonathan Edwards said this, to live in God's creation. and not lift your eyes from the created things to the glory of God the Creator. It's like being amazed that a candle was lit on a dark night, but being oblivious to the rising of the sun. That's our natural tendency. The Bible repeatedly and unmistakably says the King will purify His creation and only those rightly related to Him will live with Him. the danger of enjoying creation for creation's sake. Number two, we're in the wonder and glory of the work of Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of the temple. He is that first and only beachhead of holiness, as it were, in history, in a sin-corrupted world. He is the one who has come to save sinners. Remember if the temple and the tabernacle were symbolic of God's condescending mercy and that the tabernacle of God was with men and that God would bring salvation through the shedding of blood. That's the old, that's the Mosaic Covenant's basic message. There's redemption in life and forgiveness with God. Run to Him. Jesus is the fulfillment of the temple. You remember when the When the temple was violated, I already talked about Nadab and Abihu, this even extended to its symbols, Uzzah and the Ark, or the Ark of the Philistines, God came down in judgment. You remember our Lord Jesus, when He came, what did He come to do? In John chapter 2, it's interesting, He came, and one of the first things we read in John's Gospel is that, what did He do? He cleansed the temple. And the crowds got angry with Him. He said, show us a sign that you were able to do these things. And he said, I will show you a sign. The sign will be this, that I will tear down this temple and raise it up again in three days. And everyone said, well it took 46 years to make this temple. But John tells us he was referring to the temple of his body, that he would die and rise again. that He would overcome and pay for sin and rise as the beginning of the new creation. That He came as the beginning of the only hope of holiness and restoration of the world as a true man, a second Adam to live in a polluted world. And not only that, to go to the cross to be the sin bearer voluntarily in order that sin would be no more. And what did we do? We crucified the only man who ever had the rights to live in the temple of God. We put him to death. And then the miracle is through him God was reconciling the world to himself. And the one who fulfilled the temple rose again from the dead. A third thing, a focus. It's very clear from the text that God's holy will is to cleanse the fallen world. to cleanse it in one of two ways. Let's pull some lines together. One of two inevitable ways. And here they are. God will either remove sin from the sinner or He will remove the sinner from His presence. God will either remove sin from the sinner or the sinner from His presence. There's no other way. This is what the psalmist understood as he looked over the realm of the king. May sinners be consumed from the earth and the wicked be no more. At the end there will be no sin. This isn't actually new to Psalm 104. This is actually the beginning note of this book called the Psalms. Psalm 1, the ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinner in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Psalm 37. Psalmist understands the same thing. Any believer in all history understands the same thing. But the wicked shall perish. The enemies of the Lord, like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish into smoke. They shall vanish away. That's verse 20. Verse 28 of Psalm 37, For the Lord loves justice and does not forsake His saints. They are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off. Verse 38, But the transgressors shall be destroyed together. The future of the wicked shall be cut off. The temple of God will be purified. Way number one is to remove the sinner. And for those who insist on holding on to their sins and reject the Lord Jesus Christ, listen to me. Back to the question, do I deserve to be here? The scriptures say, no, we don't. And the text says that sinners will be consumed from the earth and the wicked will be no more. They will be removed from his presence. We read this from Revelation 21 and 22, and we read also that, and you can keep reading rather, in Revelation 19 and 22, verse 12, that Jesus will be the, he's not only the savior of sinners, he'll be the agent of the purification. There is a coming judgment. And what is the psalmist really praying? He's praying even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus, with a view towards his holy judgments. The cosmos will be purified, restored, renewed, and purged. What's interesting is if we keep tracing this theme in the Scriptures, there's two things in Leviticus chapter 18. What does God warn Israel? That if you continue in sin, there's interesting language, the land itself will vomit you out. Leviticus 18. Or Romans chapter 8, the whole creation groans and travails for the day of its redemption when the curse will be lifted and sin will be no more. The creation itself is longing for the day of its release and purification. This is why the psalmist instinctively proclaims after he sees the throne of God, the creation of God, and the providence of God. After surveying the cosmos from the throne to the depths of the sea, he prays for God's judgment. I want to address you, my unbelieving friend. If you're here and you have not cast yourself in faith on Jesus Christ, you might enjoy some more sunsets. But the Word says you have no future in God's temple apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ. Jesus came into the world to save sinners. The Thessalonian church understood that they believed in Jesus who saved them from the wrath to come. So they turned from their idols to the living God. And I call you to do the same. Consider the glory of His creation. Consider the magnitude of His forbearance and patience. Consider the graciousness of Jesus Christ who came to cleanse and pardon. And run to Him. The second category, if there's any professing Christians here at Covenant who are currently playing with sin, sins that you have played with for years and years and years and are unwilling to give up after perhaps counsel, instruction, and discipline. Put your love of sin and the things of the world into the psalm and understand that there's a direct incompatibility between life in the realm of the King and a love of sin and the things of the world. Why do you still insist on lugging that weight along? William Grinnell, in his Christian's Complete Armor, says this, God not only is keeping an account of your sins, but also the mercies that you have received, and you will be accountable for both of them. You have to understand, none of that, the sexual immorality, the hatred and the murder, belongs here and will be purified. None of the drunkenness or drug use or abuse or anger belongs. And you are morally culpable for it all. Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So the text tells you, repent. Run to Jesus, the forgiver of sins. The one who has the power to pardon, cleanse, sanctify, and purify. And leave those sins behind. He transforms sinners by the power of the gospel. This is the second way, and we'll stop here. He subdues us to himself. As a king, the catechism has this great language Christ as King rules. And one of the ways He graciously rules is He takes rebels and He subdues rebels to Himself. Transforms us by the power of the Gospel. He converts us. To use that word we should use more often, the great doctrine of conversion. Giving us the gifts of repentance and faith that we might turn from sin to Jesus Christ. Remember what He did. Enters this corrupt world in order to be the sin bearer. on the cross. The gospel says repent and believe. The gospel says by union with Christ, the Holy One of Israel, you have a place in the kingdom of God. A place in the cosmos, a place under the throne, a place to enjoy the beauty and glory of all God's works, a place to worship Him forever. You have the Holy Spirit who's sanctifying you, as it were, progressively wringing out of you by word and the power of the Spirit all that is not pleasing to God. Until that final moment promised by faith in Jesus Christ, through faith in Jesus Christ, glorification. What's glorification? It is that final act of God to make you fit to live in His presence forever. It's the answer to the sobriety of the text. May sinners be consumed from the earth and the wicked be no more. Lord Jesus, have mercy. Pardon, cleanse, and call me. Bring me home. There's an urgency. There's an urgency in this text. I want you to imagine if you knew that there was only one way to freedom and it was through a long, dark cave. And you could see the little light at the end of the tunnel. But that exit was narrow, like the narrow gate and the narrow way that Jesus describes. And you saw hordes of humanity going in, marching along, believing that they were going to make it through. But all of them caring to use Pilgrim's Progress language, a burden of sin. Not just caring, but holding on to it, loving it. Unwilling to let it go. Finding themselves, at the end, unable to enter into freedom. thinking they had a warrant to be there. Like the tens of thousands that live in this world, the millions that live in this world and think, it's all fine. I'll be in heaven one day. There's no place for sin in the realm of the King. The Christian says, yes, Lord, I submit. The Christian says, yes, Lord, I trust Jesus Christ as the only way, the truth, and the life. The Christian says, I understand now. The only way I can enjoy all of your gifts and any of your beauty and glory is through his finished work, and so I enjoy them. And then we wonder and we wait. Jesus said, I've gone to my father's house in which there are many mansions. I'll prepare a place for you in a perfected cosmos where sin and sighing and tears will flee away. And you will ever be with the Lord. It's a sober call to turn from yourself in love and faith and to think with the awe and wonder that the gospel promises that I can have a home under the throne forever as a perfected sinner of my Father. Let us pray. Lord our God, we ask that you would grant us grace to heed your word. Lord, this abrupt stop that comes in this psalm comes often. Lord, what has come to us this morning is an abrupt stop in life. Calling us again to fresh and new repentance, faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. A new thankfulness for your patient forbearance with us. Lord, a new call to the unconverted to flee to Jesus Christ for refuge and a home and a place and glory forever. But as we pray, even now, we lift up our voices. As Your Word says, the Spirit and the Bride say, come. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Come to make all things new. Come to purify Your temple, O God. Come to bring us to our final home. And Lord, we long to see many more. Make us ready to tell the world of the hope that there is in one man, the God-man Jesus Christ, or that there will be a time when you will remove all that is sinful, wrong, and polluted from this world. But in Him, there's life and glory. And we pray in His name. Amen. So now, with God's blessing, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.