Sunday Service

Requests are. I'm gonna ask if there's three psalm requests. We'll get three right there. Oh, well, it's a quick one. All right. Well, we're gonna go with we're gonna start with Johnny first for B. Then we're gonna go.

Maybe NC today 89 a oh and then Hannah. Did you have one? 98 a okay. All right, so for B 89 a and 98 a those will be our psalms for today. All right. So just a reminder to this week coming up at 730 on Wednesday.

We're gonna have the men's form. So that's at John's John's house anyway, so remember to pray for that and. Also, the youth night will also be Friday night at 715. So that's at the cubics place this week.

We had it at my place a couple weeks ago. When the cubics were away, I guess was it last. Anyways last time we had I don't remember when that was. Anyways, so the men's conference also at Trinity in Chatham, Ontario, and that's November 14th so those are the announcements that I have.

I'd ask you to stand for a silent prayer as We prepare our hearts to worship the Lord. Here the Lord calls to worship. May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. The heaven even the heavens are the Lord's but the earth he has given to the children of men.

The dead do not praise the Lord nor any who go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore praise the Lord. Let's pray. Father thank you today for your graciousness in Revealing yourself to us through the created things.

Father, we thank you that your eternal Godhead and power and glory are seen through those things and That you have revealed the truth to us of your existence. Father we pray today that as we worship you that we wouldn't Suppress the truth of you in unrighteousness by creating idols and You know things of our own imagination but we pray that We would gather together before you to worship the true and the living God as you have revealed yourself through the scriptures.

So father we thank you today that we have your revelation. We thank you that you have revealed to us What we need in order to be saved and we thank you that you have provided that salvation for us in and through your son Jesus Christ.

So father today as we gather together to worship you we come confessing our sin. We come acknowledging our unworthiness To please you in and of ourselves, but we thank you that we have your pleasure as your people father in that you have ordained for your the sacrifice of your son and then for the work of your Holy Spirit to Apply the work of your son to us and we pray that we would be looking to Christ and resting in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and that he would be our mediator and that we would be satisfied in The in the work and the righteousness that he gives us Lord so we we do.

Thank you that you have given us life and that we are able to use our lips to praise you. Father, thank you today that again. You have called us out of the world that you by your electing love Have have called us to worship you and so father We pray that you would help us even to do that in our feebleness and in our weakness.

So bless us now We pray in Christ's name Our opening psalm today that we're singing is Psalm 22 I in the book of Psalms for singing as we've been working our way through the Psalter again.

So we're at Psalm 22. I today is taken from the book of Ecclesiastes.

So we're reading from chapter 12 through from one verse 1 to 14 we're doing Ecclesiastes and our family worship, which I just started and I Don't know what it is about that book but when as soon as I start the beginning of it, it's like I want to go to the end right away because.

Yeah, because it just the way that you almost have to understand what the conclusion is in order to help frame the The rest of it, but anyways, but today we have the conclusion of it. Anyway, so we'll be reading from Ecclesiastes chapter 12 Verses 1 through 14.

So if you wish to turn there and follow along, please do. Hear now the word of the Lord. Remember now your creator in the days of your youth. Before the difficult days come and the years draw near when you say I have no pleasure in them while the Sun and the Light, I'm sorry.

Yeah while the Sun and the light the moon and the stars are not darkened and the clouds do not return after rain in The days when the keepers of the house tremble and when the strongmen bow down. When the grinder cease because there are few and those who look through the windows grow dim.

When the doors are shut in the streets and the sound of grinding is low. When one rises up at the sound of a bird and All the daughters of music are brought low. Also, they are afraid of height and terrors in the way when the almond tree blossoms the grasshopper is a burden and desire fails.

For man goes to his eternal home and the mourners go about the streets. Remember your creator. Before the silver cord is loosed or the golden bowl is broken or the pitcher shattered at the fountain or The wheel broken at the well.

Then the dust will return to the earth as it was in the spirit will return to God who gave it. Vanity of vanity says the preacher all is vanity and Moreover because the preacher was wise he still taught the people knowledge.

Yes, he pondered and sought out and set In order many Proverbs. The preacher sought to find acceptable words and what was written was upright words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails given by one shepherd and Further my son be admonished by these of making many books.

There is no end and much study is wearisome to the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments. For this is man's all for God will bring every work into judgment.

Including every secret thing whether good or evil. Sends the reading of God's Word from the book of Ecclesiastes. We're now going to continue our worship of God. Singing from the book of Psalms for singing for B.

That's our first congregational selection song for B our hearts. Congregational selection is 89 a. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father how we thank you for your mercies to us and the grace that you show us each day.

We pray O Lord that you would help us to be filled with your spirit that we may indeed give praise to you in all of life. We praise you that you are our creator and that you have given us everything that we have in this world.

We praise you O Lord for the many blessings and enjoyments that we have the beautiful creation the things that you have made. We see the trees at this time of year with all their colors and all of these things that you marvelously designed.

Into the creation we praise you for the mountains and the seas and for the sky and the stars. And the moon and Sun and all of the things that you have have given to us to enjoy. We thank you even more for the relationships that you have given us that you did not make us to dwell alone.

We were not isolated beings who were to live in isolation of others. But you made us to be families and to be all of one family all of one people that are brought forth Lord from the first man and woman and We praise you O Lord for the marvelous way that you established families and marriage and instituted all of these things for us.

That we may be able to enjoy one another's company better. You've also put us into specific nations and peoples and you've given us different places and boundaries where we live. And we thank you Lord for the for the great joy that there is in Living together and serving together and making covenants with one another and living in harmony in those covenants.

Oh father, the design is so good. And and we thank you that we enjoy the the blessings of it. But we also pray that you would have mercy on us. Oh Lord, we know that because of our sin that we have made a spoil.

We've spoiled many of these things. But we thank you that your work goes on with us and that you're patient with us. That you teach us your way O Lord and you continue to Establish us in your grace who have come to you through Jesus Christ.

Thank you that you have redeemed us and that we can be renewed and restored To the way that you have appointed for us to live in all of these relationships. We do pray that you would help us Lord with our everyday lives with the very common things that we do every day.

We pray that we would do our work as hardly unto the Lord that we would do it as unto you and That we would not just do it for what people see or rewards that we would get in this world. But we would do it Lord with an eye to pleasing you and to truly doing good to the people that we serve in our work.

Whether we're doing work for pay or work That is other kind of work is volunteer or in the home or or whatever kind it is. We pray that you would be glorified through it. We pray then that when we Produce and obtain various resources that we would use them Oh Lord in a way that is also pleasing to you that you would guard us from from greed and from pride and all the other things that can again spoil and ruin your Your creation as it is intended to be in our lives as they are intended to be.

We pray Lord that we would truly care for each other and serve one another in The ways that you have given us help us to care for one another souls as well to be concerned about how Each other are doing truly how we're doing and that we would minister to one another according to need.

Father give us wisdom in doing that help us to be Sensitive to be able to tell when others are in need and to reach out to them and to help them. And we pray that you would help us to do so from from your word of truth on the basis of your truth.

That we would be able to bring helpful things to the people that we speak to. We also pray for those who do not know you Oh Lord. That we would be able to bring the gospel to them. That in our everyday lives that we would live in such a way that people would see that we love Christ.

They would see that we are trusting in him and that they would ask us even and we would be able to speak to them. And tell them of what our hope is. Lord we thank you that you can cause us to shine as light.

We you've made us to be the light of the world and we pray that this would be the case with us both individually and together corporately. And father we thank you for the people that you have brought into your kingdom who are Recently out of your kingdom and now are in your kingdom.

We praise you so much Lord for the salvation that you bestow. We pray for those that we're endeavoring to show the way. That they would hear and that they would receive the truth and that they would come to believe help us to be be wise and persevering in our prayers and in our efforts.

Lord then we think about one of the everyday things we do too is our worship of you as the Living God. We do pray that we would worship you in spirit and truth. We pray father that we would understand who you are and that our worship would be more than just an Education thing where we're just learning stuff.

But it would be where we realize that we're learning about you and that we would respond to you and the things that we learn. That we would have joy in who you are in our living relationship with you and communion with you.

Father that we would receive of your fullness. That you would be pleased Lord to Minister to us when we come before your face. That you would bring things that are good to us. Opening our hearts Lord bringing the truth to us so that we might adore you.

For you are worthy of all adoration and praise and honor. May we see your majesty. May we see your beauty. May we see the glory of your works your power. Your your mighty hand. Oh Lord help us to behold your glory and We pray in our worship that we would also lift up prayers to you that would be pleasing in your sight and That through Christ you would hear our prayers and be pleased to answer them.

We pray especially Lord that you would forgive us for our sins and Cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness that we may be able to serve you with a clear conscience. Help us to be convicted of our sin that we may confess it in order that that we may indeed Come to you and be cleansed.

Thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ who is our The atonement for our sins by his work on the cross and thank you for the Holy Spirit Who works in us to bring us conviction of sin and such? Oh Lord help us in all of these things in our everyday lives.

That we might be able to walk with you. Oh Lord to have communion with you in this world. And then we look forward to the time when we will go to be with you forever and we pray that you would bless us as we prepare for that that we would be ready to meet you as our maker and That when that day comes Lord that we would be welcomed into your Habitation that we may be able to serve you there even better.

For that is a glorious thing that we would know you and serve you in that place. Thank you Lord now. Please bless the word as we receive it today in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Well, we're continuing our catechism study and over the past ten weeks or so We've been looking at the benefits that we have in Jesus Christ if we have been effectually called Justification adoption and sanctification are the primary benefits.

Then also assurance of God's love peace of conscience joy in the Holy Spirit increase of grace and perseverance there into the end are the additional benefits that we have and I've emphasized that these are Benefits that you have now in this world.

They're not ones that you have to wait for in the future. These are things that we can enjoy right now if we're believers who trust in Jesus Christ. But this week we're gonna be we're gonna be looking at the benefits that we have to wait for the ones that are yet future to us and These are the benefits that God has promised to us and that we can be sure of in his promise.

Not because we have them in our hand now. Well, it's very important to recognize all that we have in this life through Jesus Christ and to rejoice in those things. We err greatly if we only look at the benefits that we have in this life.

Paul even goes so far as to say of himself as an apostle that if in this life only we have hope. Then we're fools for following Christ. He says there's no no reason to follow him. We can see this even with Abraham the model of all believers.

He was promised an inheritance. That he will not even get fully until the resurrection of Christ it's still ahead of him now, and he was 2 ,000 years before Jesus came and Yet he served God you see. Why did he leave the comforts of home in obedience to go and to serve God all those years if?

His reward was only in this life. If you think about it all the blessings we have in this life are Blessings only if they flow into. The full and complete blessing that God has promised us that is yet to come the eternal blessings.

We are in a sense like a seed that grows into a plant. But that plant does not really Blossom until we receive our in eternal inheritance. What good is it to be justified if you never receive the eternal?

Inheritance that belongs to those who are justified those who are righteous if you never get to come before God and see his glory. Is one who is made perfect in Jesus Christ? What what would be the point of being justified?

What good is it to be adopted if you never get to come into the Father's house? To the place that Jesus has prepared for you where you can live in full communion with God is his child. What good is it to be sanctified if that?

Sanctification is not completed with perfection and glory if it never reaches its goal. You still have all kinds of sin if you never shake off all the sin that continues to darken your mind and to chill your affection for God and For and your love for other people and make you ugly and defiled.

What what good would it be the blessings of this life are blessings only? Because of where they lead they have a destination. What good does it do if you're traveling to see your relatives and you go along the road and you never get to the place Where you were headed?

They they lead us into the very presence of God in eternity. To the beautific vision where we behold the glory of our God and if they didn't really lead us there, then those blessings are all lies and We're deceived.

It's like a farmer getting fake corn seed and He sows it in the ground and the corn plant comes up. It's very excited as he anticipates. He takes care of it waters fertilizes does all the things. But no corn ever grows the actual corn itself never comes.

There was a promise. There was hope there were steps along the way. But you never got what you were really seeking. Perfect communion with God in paradise. What would be the point? So for the next couple of weeks, we will look at the benefits that God will give us in the future.

This week. We'll look at the blessing we attain in the that mysterious time between death and the resurrection at the end it's sometimes called the intermediate state. And we don't know a lot about it.

But we do know something about it. We know what we're told in the word. We can't know about it unless we're told but there are things that we're told so we need to look at those things and To receive those things not to speculate about the things we don't know.

So this week we'll look at the intermediate state and next week. We'll look at the final state. What is ours at the resurrection and beyond? So let's begin by confessing together. Question 37 of the shorter catechism question 37.

What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death? The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness and Do immediately pass into glory and their bodies being still united to Christ.

Do rest in their graves till the resurrection? For our scripture reading that is associated with this and we had Ecclesiastes of course already in Ecclesiastes 12. But I have 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and I'll be reading the first 11 verses.

2nd Corinthians 5 starting in verse 1. For we know that if our earthly house this tent is destroyed. We have a building from God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. For in this we grown earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation.

Which is from heaven if indeed having been clothed we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent grown being burdened not because we want to be unclothed. But further clothed that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

Now he who has prepared us for this very thing is God who also has given us the spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident knowing that while we're at home in the body We are absent from the Lord.

For we walk by faith not by sight. We are confident. Yes, well, please rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim whether present or absent to be well pleasing to him.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body According to what he has done whether good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men.

But we are well known to God and I trust are well known in your consciences. And may the Lord be pleased to add his blessing to that the reading of his word. Let's begin by looking at what happens when we die.

There are two things. Our body is destroyed and our spirit returns to God. We read of those two things in Ecclesiastes 12 7 speaking of death. It says then the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit Will return to God who gave it.

Let's look at these two things first that at death the body is destroyed returns to dust. Paul refers to this in 2nd Corinthians 5 when he refers to our bodies as our earthly house or tent. He calls the body a house or a tent.

Because our body is in a sense where our spirit lives. Until our body is destroyed. You can see how he speaks of this in 2nd Corinthians 5 1 he says for we know that if our earthly house this tent is Destroyed we have a building from God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.

He is writing to encourage us about the coming resurrection. He is telling us that even though these bodies that we have now are being destroyed. We have a building that God is going to give us by divine power not a building made by human hands, but a building that God will call into being a Body a new body a renewed body that is eternal.

Next week we'll get into this more because we're looking at the resurrection and I'll show you That these new bodies that Paul speaks about here will be our present bodies whatever is left of them and however God does it remade into bodies that will not die.

They're Restored by God himself now. I'll get into that next week, but for now I just want you to consider that what you already know that these bodies that we have now are going to be destroyed. Of Course we observe that this is what happens to the dead a person's body wears out and they die and Then the body begins to return to the dust from which it was taken it decomposes.

When God first created the human race he warned us that if we ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil then we would die and So after we did eat he came to us and he said Genesis 3 19 said to Adam and the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.

For out of it you were taken. For dust you are into dust you shall return. This is the destruction of our body that Paul is referring to in our text in first Corinthians. This is a great humiliation for us because God made us to have dominion over The earth from which we were made to control the earth for his glory to harvest and cultivate it in ways that would be glorious and beneficial for all of us but when we broke from him we became oppressors and Exploiters.

So God took away much of the control that we had of the earth if you gave someone Total control over the earth and everything in it. You would have a tyrant because of our fallen nature. He made us weak.

He subjected us to sickness. We are certainly mindful of this at the present time, aren't we? There's there, you know, we have sicknesses. It's been a lot just this this past week. He's changed things so that now we must bear with droughts and storms and injuries.

We just heard of the the explosion that we were praying about this. Today Paul speaks of how we groan in the bodies that we have now. Yet with hope in verse 2. He says in this in this body. We groan. It's what we do.

Certainly we do. We get hurt we get sick. We get tired. We spend lots of time and money trying to keep our bodies going. But it's a losing battle. Nobody will keep their body going. There's people there.

They're trying to now. But they try to preserve themselves in a computer or something. But it's not really God's already taking care of that problem in another way. That's far better. We don't need to do that.

Even people with the most beautiful robust bodies all end up with their bodies being destroyed. Many don't even make it from their mother's womb. Many are racked with infirmities in this life. So yes, we groan in these bodies.

But as Christians this does not mean that we should want to be freed from having a body at all. Which is the conclusion that some? Philosophers come to when they use their own mind instead of receiving revelation from God as so so we groan in these bodies as Christians, but it doesn't mean we want to have nobody as Paul says our hope is not to be unclothed or To change it to a more literal to have our bodies taken away.

But clothed with what with new bodies. Paul was writing to the Greeks, and it was general understanding among them That there could be no paradise unless you became a spirit without a body. But Paul says oh, no that is not our final.

Hope our Final hope is that we will have renewed bodies that will not ever be destroyed. You can see how he describes this in verse 2 through 4. For in this This body we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed.

With our habitation with our body which is from heaven if indeed having been clothed. We shall not be found naked. Naked would be to not have a body anymore. Just be a spirit. For we who are in this tent groan being burdened.

Not because we want to be unclothed. But further clothed you could say better clothed. That mortality may be swallowed up by life, and that's the difference that the body that is mortal would be made immortal.

That's the big change so our goal is not to be disembodied to have no body. But rather to be given bodies that will never be destroyed. Nevertheless there is a time When our spirit is separated altogether from our body and.

The Spirit Is Separated from the Body

This is the second thing that happens to us when we die. Our body returns to the dust and our spirit returns to God who gave it. So it is separated they go to different places. Again, this is what it says in Ecclesiastes 12 7.

James describes death in this way in James 2 26. When he says the body without the spirit is dead. That's a simple definition of death a physical death the body and the spirit are separated from each other.

This is what happens your spirit or your soul. You can use either term. Leaves your body the life Goes out of your body. Is a very unnatural thing. It happens it was brought on us to us because of our sin.

It happens when our bodies wear out on us. This is something you can observe of course when you see the body of a person who has died. What happens? The body's still there. But it's worn out the spirit has gone out of the body.

The body just lies there. It has no life in it. It is a body without a spirit because the spirit has returned to God. Paul refers to this in verse 8 when he says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

So our body is lying in the grave rotting and our spirit goes to God, right? Present with the Lord. Again though this is not the final state is the transitional state. From the time that when people die now until the time when we're resurrected when Christ returns.

The Bible speaks of our spirit leaving our bodies to be with God when we die quite frequently. For example when the body of Stephen the first martyr was destroyed. He called on the name of the Lord before he died as he was dying and he said Lord Jesus Receive my spirit.

He knew that his spirit was going to be with God. His body was still there laying on the in the dirt and when Jesus died we're told in John 19 30 that he did what he gave up his spirit and He told the thief on the cross beside him in Luke 23 43.

Assuredly I say to you today You will be with me in paradise, but their bodies were still on the cross that day. Jesus put in the tomb that day. What did he mean today? Jesus Spirit and that thief they went together.

That was something to think about isn't it? Can you imagine going to glory with Jesus in the same time? The his Jesus body and the thief's body were on the cross together and Then their spirits Went to God together.

So you see what happens when a person dies his body is separated from his spirit and the body is destroyed, but For believers dying brings us into a situation That is far better Than the situation we have now.

Believers Go to Be with Christ

Death is not a demotion for the believer. But as a promotion, let me show you how this is. So first our situation is better because we're free of these dying bodies. As we have seen in 2nd Corinthians 5 4 we grown in these bodies.

There are bodies that are subject to illness injury weakness and just fall apart and die. Even our brains don't work as well as they should sometimes they have serious disorder. So it is a great blessing to be free from these earthly bodies.

Just think what a great relief it was for Jesus and the thief on the cross that I mentioned a moment ago. When they were hanging on the cross with their lacerated backs and all their bones being pulled and they're The terrible nails pulling on their nerves and their bones and their their hands and feet dislocated joints to be finally free.

To soar away from those ruined bodies and to take flight as with wings to forever be free From that pain and that weariness. That they endured that thirst that they endured on the cross. That is what you have to look forward to if you die in the Lord.

But I must warn you that if you're not in Christ If you do not come to him to save you. Then though you are released from this body. You will be raised up with another body of death from which you will never be released.

Do not fight against the Lord's call and you will not go from here. To a better place, but to a worse place. Come to Jesus then and be restored forever so you can be free of the body of death forever.

It's the only way you can be free from the body of death forever is through Jesus Christ. Now, let me show you a second way that it will be far better for us when we die. Secondly, our situation will be far better because our spirit will go to be with Christ if we're believers and 2nd Corinthians 5 Paul explains that as long as we're in these present bodies We are absent from the Lord.

It's not interesting verse 6 he says while we're at home in the body while we're still here we are absent from the Lord. So as long as we remain in these bodies We're not with the Lord. Now, I hope you realize what Paul means.

Of course, he does not mean that God is not with us in any way whatsoever at this time. Jesus told us when he departed from this world that he would send his spirit and that the Holy Spirit would always be with us.

So God is with us in that spiritual way. And he told us that he himself would always be with us. To help us and to bless us and to give us grace until the end of the age and he is. But when Paul what Paul means is that we're not with him to the extent that we will be when we go to paradise and Are in what we would call his immediate presence.

It's not mediated through other things or other challenge. We're before him. He explains what he means in verse 7 when he says that now we walk by faith and not by sight. So the implication is then we will see now.

We only are told of him in other words. We're only with the Lord spiritually now. We're not before his glorious throne. Beholding him with our eyes hearing his voice. That will be a most wonderful change when that happens.

Paul tells you that when you die when your spirit leaves your body, it will be far better. Because then you will be in the Lord's presence in in this way that I just described in actual before him. Because of this hope in verse 8 Paul says we're confident.

Yes, well pleased to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord so it's better to be absent from the body and present with the Lord, even when you don't have a body a Restored body yet before the resurrection.

That's better than what we have here. We can hardly fathom what it will be like to see the Lord face to face in this matter in this manner. To be in his glorious presence. But we know for sure that it will be far better than it is now in Philippians 1 23.

Paul speaks of his death as Departing to be with Christ and he says that he has a desire To depart and be with Christ, which is he says far better. So he himself uses those words that it is far better.

Not just a little bit better. It's far better. That's pretty encouraging, isn't it? And it will be to know him is the highest good to behold his joy. His glory is the greatest joy. We will do that as never before when we depart from this body and go to be with him and There is one more marvelous thing that will happen our joy at the death.