For All the Saints

Give to Mother, Son, and Holy Ghost. Alleluia. Alleluia. Please turn in the Word of God to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. It’s not been that long since we sang that hymn. I do try to space the pieces out a little more, but I titled my message this morning, For All the Saints, so it would seem a little odd if we didn’t sing the hymn that goes by the same words. Hebrews 11.

We come with our burdens, our challenges every week that passes and every week that begins with the Lord’s Day. It’s not like that eternal Sabbath. When we enter into the eternal Sabbath, it’s no more; there’s a setting aside of all the concerns and the fears and the tears and the pain. But when we come into the Lord’s Day, this Lord’s Day, this rest that it is to our hearts, we still carry the luggage of our cares. And so we need to meet with the Lord—never underestimate—gathering with God’s people to hear God’s word, to sing His praises, and how it may be the very tonic ye need in the weariness of the journey of life.

Let’s read again from verse 32 of Hebrews 11. We will close out the chapter this morning with the Lord’s help. Hebrews 11, verse 32: “What shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthah, of David also and Samuel and of the prophets.” Through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword; out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead, raised to life again; and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, the aimer over of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and in caves of the earth.

And these all, having obtained the good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” Amen.

This is the word of the eternal God, which ye are to receive, believe, and obey. And the people of God said, amen.

Let’s pray. May we never come to Thy Word in a flippant spirit. What a thing it is that we have the Word of God! We have read here of those who gave their very lives for the cause of their God, and we know that in our own history, as in recent history, there have been those who, recognizing the need for their neighbor to have the very Word of God in their hands, have been persecuted and we’ve been chased and hunted like animals and even burned and worse. Oh God, we pray that thou wilt help us, given that they gave all that they could give so that we might have the Word of God. May we never read it lightly. Help us then, even today, to come with that sober, receptive frame of mind and heart. God is speaking. Speak, Lord, for Thy servants hear. Pour out then Thy Spirit. Guide us today. Give us a word from God, preparing us to sit at the table and dine with Christ by the Spirit. We pray in our Savior’s name. Amen.

We all know, I imagine, how easy it is to set man on a pedestal, to have such views of men and to elevate them in such a way as we might then, in hindsight, deem was unhealthy. We’ve all done it. You have, I imagine. I have—had these ideas of people that go beyond necessary reverence, extending to blind allegiance. You don’t ever want to do that. Maybe some of the younger ones need to hear that spoken. Don’t ever give blind allegiance to anyone except to Christ. He is the one that requires all allegiance. And it’s not blind; you can have your eyes wide open. But there’s no fault in Him, nothing ye will find that is ever wrong. It requires blind allegiance for other men because ye need to overlook, or not see, the evident shortcomings of their lives. But for Christ, you’re going to have eyes wide open. And all ye will see are the perfections of His person and the glory of His work.

And what the Apostle Paul, as he preaches this sermon to the Hebrews, is giving argument to prioritize no one but Christ. He must have the priority. Christ then is compared in various ways—compared in terms of His person as well as His work. For example, He is compared and seen as better than the prophets in the opening chapter, as well as angels, as well as Moses in Hebrews 3. He’s better than them. He’s also better in terms of His work, in terms specifically of this book—His priesthood. He is better than Aaron. He is able to usher in a better hope (Hebrews 7:19), mediating a better covenant with better promises (Hebrews 8:6), and offering a better sacrifice (Hebrews 9:23).

And Paul’s not denigrating the past. He’s not saying that it was utterly useless—it served a purpose. But now that the substance has come, now that we have the fulfillment of all that God had promised in the coming of the Messiah, we do not turn then to the lesser. Our eyes are focused, our hope is fixed upon the one who alone can save. And it’s just one young person. It’s just one. When ye have your hopes and your dreams—and I would not tell ye to live without aspirations, but make sure ye have fixed in your heart Christ first. Always Christ first. Don’t let anything, don’t let anyone come between you and the Savior, and He will not fail you. He will not disappoint, and ye will never regret that line upon which ye draw and that stand which ye take that says, “I will not compromise for anything or anyone when it comes to my loyalty to Jesus Christ.”

If these Hebrews remained under any illusion that in order to be like their heroes they needed to return to the ceremonies—the apostles set that aside—they were greatly mistaken. And I think that threat was certainly there. We’ve seen that as we’ve progressed and the argument is being built and there seem to be some other arguments that were coming in and infiltrating and affecting their thinking, polluting their minds, and the apostles are laying siege against the falsehoods. And the answer always—though there are particular aspects of the argument and we’ve seen it—is always getting us back to Christ. Why would ye elevate anyone or anything above God sending His Son, made flesh, offering Himself without spot onto God through the eternal Spirit? So, the goal then to live as those who are elevated, such as we have in Hebrews 11, is not to go back to rituals, but to rest in the Redeemer. The saints were not perfected—even the Old Testament saints were not perfected through the tabernacle or through the priests who served them, but by trusting in the one promised. It’s all about the promise. It’s all about the one who fulfills the promise. Everything is tied into Him who was promised and all that He purchased for us. So now that Christ has come, it would be a denial of everything if we turn back, if we went back to anything that may be offered or put as a possible substitute.

So I know the specifics of the book of Hebrews is not a threat to ye in terms of the context. Ye’re not Jewish. We’re not thinking about going back to the temple and so on. But at the same time, there are other things that people go back to—things that they think are better. They think sin is better. They think popularity with the world is better. They think obtaining riches at any cost is better. They think popularity is better. There are many things that people are persuaded are better, and for a time what they do—and this is what’s very deceiving—for a time ye don’t say they’re better, and ye don’t even… There’s a way in which ye can navigate and straddle, in which you’re saying, “No, Christ is better.” I just have an interest over here. I’m just pursuing this thing. It’s not affecting me spiritually, but it’s like many things—it’s so gradual, and then happens all at once at the end. That’s what apostasy is like. It’s just gradually creeping in and affecting and turning your heart away. You’re staying there in the church and you’re still doing all the right things, but in your heart it is being moved away. Before ye know it, you’re like many who have gone before ye—not in the church. They’re not professing Christ. They have no interest in putting Him first. They’re gone.

As we come then to the end, the close of this chapter—as I said, I’ve entitled this message, For All the Saints—because the Apostle, in verses 39 and 40, is showing that the Old Testament saints, if I could just summarize the sense of it here, did not receive their eternal inheritance. They received not the promise. But we’re divinely appointed to wait until the redemptive work of the Messiah was accomplished, the new covenant was brought in, so that then ultimately together those living under the administration of the old covenant and those living under the administration of the new covenant would enter into resurrected glory together. God having provided some better thing for us—living now—so that they, going back to the Old Testament saints, without us, would not be made perfect. It is as if the imagining is that they’ve gone before and they’ve been perfected and entered their resurrected glory. They’re saying, “No, no, they didn’t receive the promise because God had appointed some better thing for us here and now, that they without us should not be made perfect.” That they would not enter into it until all of us can come and enter into it together.

And so, in this text, we have a tremendous theological implication concerning the unity of all saints in all ages—that every single person who belongs to God is truly, in spirit, the Lord’s, and is going to experience something in a unified way—the ultimate glory, the perfected resurrection, and the entering into our resurrected glory to our eternal habitations. And there’s some that are waiting— they’re waiting for that. And in one sense, I guess ye could say we’re waiting for that too, in another sense, but it’s all going to happen at once.

And ye think about this: that God then has this distinct, unified plan for all chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world—wherever they’ve come from, whatever age in which they have lived, however they may look, whatever their connections, however long they have lived—we’ll all be perfected, brought to completion together. And what a wonderful thing and prospect this is. It’s going to be a great day. It’s going to be some day when we all are made like unto His glorious body and changed in a moment and a twinkling of an eye at the last trump. And everything is just remade. Oh, can’t even begin to imagine it.

But here’s what the text is emphasizing: Those believers back there didn’t have some great advantage that we need to pine after, nor did they look for things that are of this world. They had faith—saving faith—and by faith they lived. And so it is for us; we have this faith and we then live on. Again, in the next chapter, verse 2, we are to look on unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.

So, let’s look at this with the Lord’s help. We’ll see first, anticipation for Old Testament saints, realization for New Testament saints, and perfection for all saints. Those are the three heads.

So first, anticipation for Old Testament saints. There, at the end of verse 39—I’m looking at the end because we looked at the opening part last time—“received not the promise.” A number of things here in their anticipation as they look forward: First, their anticipation was evidence of real faith. Their anticipation was evidence of real faith. These believers lived and died without the fulfillment of what is being spoken of here. They believed, and they kept on believing, no matter what. And their lives proved that genuine faith does not rest on sight or timing. The faith itself—its vitality—comes from its purpose, which is to join us to Christ. And so even if we don’t see it, and even if we don’t have all the fulfillment of it, yet it is no lesser. We take God at His word. We believe His promise.

Back to verse 13 of chapter 11, these all died in faith, not having received the promises. And the idea there of the plural—there were certain things given to them, to the patriarchs—they didn’t see it all come to pass, but having seen them afar off, were persuaded of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Their faith was vibrant, real; they anticipated it right to the end that God would fulfill His word. They were persuaded. Persuaded. They persevered—looking forward, anticipating, looking for the day. Abraham, who in John 8 Jesus said rejoiced to see my day, sought and was glad. There was anticipation in his heart; he could see even though there wasn’t tangible evidence—because faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And so, because they possessed this faith, this anticipation in their hearts toward what God had promised, they obtained a good report. I just want to underline that—not to rehash what we’ve looked at—but these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise. And so tied to the good report is the fact that they kept looking for the promise, even though it didn’t come to fruition in their own time. They continued to believe; they bore witness; they testified of it. They embraced it, and they publicly declared, “We’re pilgrims on the earth. This isn’t the last place. This isn’t the final abode. We’re looking for something more.” And they were very clear about that.

Psalm 119, verse 49, records: “Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.” And so there’s a sense in which God’s Word gives hope, and we take it and we believe it. And, beloved, the first priority here is that all is bound up in Christ. Now ye can, in one sense, look at other things—other promises—and as ye consider that God promises to give thy daily bread, I think there’s a practical side to that: that He will provide thy daily needs, and we depend on Him to give what we need. There are other expressions of hope in God’s Word regarding other things, but the fundamental promise—the thing that is rock solid and true of every child of God—is those promises tied up in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

And so we take the Word relating to Him. What do we say to our children when they ask, “How do I know that I can be saved? How do I know that God will save me?” And what do ye say to them? Ye say, “Because He has promised it.” He has promised it. His whole character is bound up in His Word. Again, we read it in the Psalm: God is good. Thou art good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy. And we see it in 1 John, verse 1, that He is faithful and just. Faithful—what does that mean? He can be depended upon. Ye young people, ye can depend upon God to save you. Ye’re not coming to twist His arm or to give Him a good idea; ye’re coming to say, “I’ll take ye at Thy word, God.” And He is faithful; ye can depend on Him. And He is just—and that takes it even further in what it means. When ye say someone’s just, ye say he does the right thing all the time. He’s a just man; He always does that which is right. And so when ye think about the sinner coming to God, His faithfulness means ye can depend on Him, and He is just. It is not merely that He said something to me, so that I can look at Him and see pity in His eyes; nay, He is just. In other words, through the gospel—because Jesus Christ died the just for the unjust, and offered Himself as a substitute for sinners—He is just. It is the right thing for God to forgive the penitent sinner. He’s bound by His own word, and by the covenant of promise. And what He said, “I will forgive those who come believing in My Son,” ye could say He is bound. So He’s faithful, ye can depend on Him. And it’s just; it’s the right thing for God to save thee if ye confess all that thou must. Listen—what do I have to do, preacher? Confess thy sins. Confess them. What does it mean to confess? What does it mean to confess? Say the same thing as best as ye can. Say the same thing about thy sin that God says about it. That’s what confession is. Ye’re not going to reframe it thyself; ye’re not going to say, “I did bad things. I made a few mistakes.” No—use God’s word. This is wicked; this is sinful; this is damning. Thy righteousness, thy good things are as filthy rags in the sight of an incomprehensibly holy God. Say those things: “I’m lost, I’m wicked, I am undone, I am hell-deserving because of my sin.” Say the same thing God says. And if ye can do that, if ye can humble thyself to say the same thing God says about thy sin—He is faithful and just to forgive thy sin and cleanse thee from all unrighteousness. Ye don’t have to doubt; that’s the thing we look for and believe in, and rightly anticipate. Ye will stand before God someday, and what is thy hope? Jesus Christ—the sufficiency of what He has done. Oh, never weary of it; never stray from it; never grow dull of hearing about it.

But their anticipation was for eternal inheritance. Not only was it evidence of real faith, but it was for eternal inheritance. What they longed for—what is it, “received not the promises”? There is a reference to the plurality of promises, various things are mentioned here; but what they’re longing for is an everlasting glory. Back in verse 10, concerning Abraham, he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God—something promised that was to come, not present in Canaan. Look at verse 14: “they seek a country.” What country? What are they looking for? They’re seeking not a new land or trying to move to another country in this world. Truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to return; but now they desire a better country that is heavenly. There it is explicitly stated. Wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city. He’s not ashamed of those who are looking for, anticipating, this eternal inheritance—a heavenly country. And that’s what these believers looked for, expecting that—as they lived out their days in their context—some lived a kind of desert wandering existence, some in city-states, some in agrarian life—but they were looking for something beyond Canaan, beyond anything material in this world. They were looking for a promise that they did not receive in their lifetime. Eternal inheritance.

If ye go to the next chapter, Hebrews 12, just for a second, look at verse 28. We’ll get there, God willing, in due course. Hebrews 12:28: “Wherefore, receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” Receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved—again, there’s something beyond the material aspect of this life. And they lived looking for it, anticipating it, not having received it.

I think Psalm 17 captures something of this longing, at least in a narrow sense, where David says, “‘As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.’” It’s not happening here. And Job, in Job 19, speaks of, “‘In my flesh shall I see God.’” He’s looking for something yet future—and it’s named then explicitly back in chapter 9. Go to Hebrews 9:15: What is it they’re looking for? For this cause, Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive [the promise]. This is through Christ, not through all that they have done, not through all the sacrifices and ceremony, but through Christ—even those old covenant believers receive the promise of eternal inheritance. It’s all bound up. Yes, it’s bound up in the personal work of Jesus Christ, of course, but it’s not something fulfilled here and now which, by putting our trust in Him, we get. We have it promised. ‘Tis a real thing, and our hands, so to speak, are upon it by faith. But there is an eternal inheritance, beloved—something awaiting those who believe. So we await something that is still to come. And these believers, they’re the same—they look forward amidst all the circumstances of their life. They received not the promise.

All right, I hope that’s clear—that whatever they succeeded in doing, whatever they accomplished, and again, if ye think of all the saints that were mentioned (we have some from verse 32 who do these great feats, have these great battles, and succeed, and see miraculous things occur that cannot be described or explained by man, and yet there are others who suffer and are willing to go through their suffering)—ye see it again in verse 35. In our eyes, so we so want to be in the first company, don’t we? We want to be Gideon, Samson, David—we want to be these great heroes and say, “I subdued kingdoms, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. There’s me; that’s what I did.”

Now what we ought to have is these valiant fights and turning the enemy to flight. That’s what we want. But look, these precious, oh how precious they are—anonymous to many men, yet not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. There’s the promise. They’re looking forward, and they’re willing to hinge everything on that bet, as it were. Ye cannot buy me in any fashion to give up this promise and eternal inheritance. Are ye going there? Do ye have this hope? And even to believers—are we living so blinded to what is laid up for us, blinded by all the freedom and prosperity and lavish ways in which we live—that it has blinded us to what is yet in store?

Secondly, then, realization for New Testament saints. There was anticipation for Old Testament saints—they received not the promise. But there’s realization for New Testament saints, because verse 40 continues, “God having provided some better thing for us.” Now ye need to see the distinction here, between these all, or them, and us. The apostle is pulling in his audience, standing there with them—and there are those and there are us. Them and us. These all and us. Or as it goes on in verse 48, they and us. Ye need to see that distinction. And the “us” then are those living now, living here; and they experience a realization—something comes in their time, something that pivots.

We’ve seen this already—we’ve seen the ushering in of the new covenant. We’ve looked at that. We can’t rehash all of that, but I wanted to note a couple of things here. First, it’s something that was always planned. It was always planned—God having provided. Interesting word. I almost missed it; and I was looking down at the original. I thought, “interesting, not used anywhere else.” And that, of course, makes it a little more difficult to really close in on what it means. But ye can get some idea. When ye think about “provided,” ye think of something like a provision—a giving of what ye need. But it is far more an idea of being planned and purposed. The provision is something that fits with a sense of providence—that’s the idea: provided, providence, God governing, God leading, God orchestrating, God bringing to pass what He always intended to do.

And so they didn’t receive the promise—not because God forgot or said, “Oops, got caught out there, wasn’t paying attention,” or because something else happened in the affairs of this world that He had to pivot and change His ways. No, it wasn’t plan B; it wasn’t a change in any regard. He always had planned, or providentially purposed, some better thing before these other believers would obtain the promise. And so here we have our God revealed to have always had in His mind what has unfolded. It’s not really believed in many places today, but there may still be remnants of it—the idea that He came on His own; Jesus, and His own received Him not. And since the initial plan was for Him to come to the Jew, then when He was rejected there’s a moving of the pieces, a reorienting of the plan. And so now—well, it’s gonna go to the Gentiles. We’ll have this new age; we’ll spend some time gathering in the Gentiles. Then we’ll close that up and resume the purpose with the Jew. I’m not here to get into any eschatological distinctions—and there are different views across this congregation, I know—but what ye see is the language here does not allow for anything but that God always had in His mind what has happened. So we read of it everywhere in God’s Word—He knows exactly what He is doing. “The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent.” Nothing—even the rejection of Israel—will change the plan or how it would work out. It’s all intentional. And ye see the apostle wrestle with that without getting sidetracked; ye see him dealing with this mystery of how the Gentiles will come in. It was unknown, but now it’s revealed. The gospel is going to go to the ends of the earth following the coming of the Son of God. But in what He did in His life and death, He was delivered up, Acts 2:23, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Why? Because that’s what God had planned—God having provided, God intending, God planning a better thing. In this time, in this period, those of us living now—so the others must wait—and that better thing, of course, is the everlasting covenant, coming into a little more of a revelation through the new covenant, recognizing all that we have through the coming of the Messiah. And so here we’ve dealt with that back in chapter eight and following, looking at all of this, the ushering in of greater confidence—a more full ministry of the Holy Spirit here and now. But it’s not all about here and now; again, it’s future—it’s all tied up in what’s laid up in the future, and that’s where it’s heading. So it’s something that was always planned, and it’s something that is truly better. That’s what it says: God provided some better thing for us. And the better thing isn’t a different gospel—it ain’t a different message; it isn’t a new way of salvation. It is not as though they were saved by keeping the law back there and they were saved by believing in Jesus Christ. They always were looking to Him. Always, always—He was always the hope of the people of God. Now, they didn’t see as clearly as we see now. There were details they didn’t understand, but that didn’t make any difference in terms of where their hope was. There is a progressive, and I say that carefully, a progressive unfolding of this. Where, okay, it’s the seed of the woman, but that doesn’t tell me that He is Jewish, He is born in Bethlehem—those things aren’t there. But the seed of the woman gives some details: He’s gonna have human nature, and He’s gonna be the deliverer—the seed of the woman. And when I discover, for example, that He is, that He is of Abraham, or of David’s line, and He is of the tribe of Judah, it doesn’t negate or change what I learned earlier; that still stays—He’s the seed of the woman. But there’s further insight built upon it, yet it doesn’t change anything that was previously revealed. And so I learned, yes, He’s from David. Oh, look, He’s specifically of the tribe of Judah. He used to be born in Bethlehem. And all it does is shed more light. And so when He finally comes, there’s even more light. It’s like all the lights come on. Ye know, little candles have been put out through the prophecies and through the Old Testament—little candles that shed a little more light. And then, when He comes, and He speaks, and He dies, and He rises from the dead, and the apostles take up the ministry, it’s like a flood of light that comes on. And that’s what we’re living in. God had planned something better, that through Christ there would be this current period that brings about greater understanding and a fuller ministry of the Holy Spirit. So we live then under a better administration, right? The shadows have given way to the substance—and so on. We are living now. And so we, us—we are living, right? Christ has died; He’s risen again; He is reigning. This is better. So that’s the realization for New Testament saints—us. And it’s not just, I think, when ye read “us,” ye are not to read that as if it were only the apostle or the writer of Hebrews and those whom he addressed; no, “us” means us living now—ye, all of us here in this period.

Finally then, perfection for all saints—what’s it all leading up to? They are delayed—I say delayed, but they are not seeing the fulfillment of the promise, those Old Testament saints. There’s this period for us in which they, without us, should not be made perfect. The word “perfect” means completion, or maturity, or fulfillment. It’s used back in chapter 7, verse 19 (“the law made nothing perfect”), meaning it didn’t complete, didn’t do what man needed. It’s also used to describe our justification in chapter 10, verse 14, “for by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” So it’s a sense of accomplishment—something either has been fulfilled or it has not. And here ye see that there is this delay, this waiting for the promise, as far as man sees it. It hasn’t happened. The Old Testament saints did not experience that promise—waiting for all saints to be made perfect. It’s the eschatological perfection of the saints. Some theologians refer to an intermediate state—a time when, if ye were to die right now or thy loved ones who have gone before ye, their bodies are put in the ground and they exist in a disembodied fashion, right? Now, some have this idea of soul sleep and so on. But even some will say the Jews didn’t believe in an afterlife—crazy things. No, they did; they did. It’s not a fully developed doctrine, not as developed as it is when the resurrection and the life comes and it becomes more clear. But it’s there.

I’ll just take a moment to show ye: go to Psalm 73—Psalm of Asaph. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating amid all the talk about the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Well, there are differences, but do not exaggerate them. And as Asaph, of course, laments the day in which he lives, and he struggles, and the prosperity of the wicked affects him, he gets clear thinking, in verse 17, when he comes into the sanctuary of God. Then he understood their end—“Surely thou didst set them in slippery places,” and so on. He gets oriented properly when he comes to worship. But know what he says also as part of his hope and encouragement. In verse 24, “thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.” Now, there’s that word “receive”; it’s used but a few times in the Old Testament, and it’s very specific. It talks of Enoch, who’s received; it talks of Elijah, as well—being taken, the verb there, as well as in the case of Elijah, being taken. And here ye have him using the same verb, saying, “I’m taken to glory. I’m living my life under Thy counsel, and afterward, when all is done, I’ll be taken to glory.” But he is there without his body. And he’s waiting, as they all do—they wait for this final consummation when we’re all made perfect.

And I—well, it defies description what awaits us. This is all tied into the promise of being perfected and finally entering into an eternal inheritance. And so I will leave ye very briefly with the idea of the perfection of all saints. First, the necessity of the wait: the Old Testament saints had to wait; they received not the promise—they’re waiting for it. But they are all part of the one big plan. Remember what Jesus said in John 10, “there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” He’s not conducting different plans with different people groups—there’s one fold, one shepherd. In Romans 11, Paul talks about the olive tree—and all are grafted in; there’s one tree because there’s one people. I know that offends some, but God has one plan—one purpose—with men, and He is working it all out. And while we live in different time periods and under different administrations in terms of the outworking of truths (ye might have been Abraham, a patriarch, and ye didn’t have the tabernacle, or ye might have been David and had the temple, or rather the tabernacle and anticipated building a temple), all these things are different details. But the heart of it—the heart—is that they’re part of one people.

And so Paul writes in Ephesians 2, speaking of Jew and Gentile, using the phrase “one new man.” He says that they are one body; he says together they are “the household of God.” Jew and Gentile—they’re all these unified bodies, one new man, one body, the whole household of God. And therefore they’re all waiting for the same thing.

Again, regarding your eschatological view in terms of the timing of Christ’s return—whatever way ye see it all panning out—the key, what I want ye to see from this text this morning (because this is where we’re focusing), is that there is one great plan always in the mind and heart of God. And as time unfolds and different experiences occur, with all the different aspects we have revealed, there is going to be a great culmination. In that one final great act, it is saying, “We’re all saved the same way. Our hope was the same, and the answer for us was the same.” And so ye have the unity of the common glory. Unity. We are very different—each of us here in this room, we’re different. We sit and talk with one another and realize our likes and dislikes with regard to food, with regard to the weather; some of ye think, “Spring, great; summer’s coming—love the heat.” And others, “Oh no, here it comes, thank God for the air conditioning,” you know. And ye do—we all have our differences. And ye marry, and ye find upon marriage that ye have differences—even with regard to temperature, as ye well know. And then we’re gonna be united with people from different languages, different cultures, and backgrounds. And if ye put all of us in a room right now, and we had to interact and talk about political views and discuss various things about economics, we might find we are butting heads a lot—a lot. Never mind. I mean, ye look: Americans can’t all agree; our neighbours can’t all agree; family members can’t all agree. And yet ye see, among all these differences, why would ye not have a king? I mean, really, why would ye not have a king? They won’t understand. All these different things—caused by the passage of time, different contexts, and experiences—would not work out if there were no unity. But thank God. Thank God; otherwise heaven would not be heaven. There is going to be a perfection of us, and there is going to be harmony there. Yes—going back to what I prayed earlier, and the strife between the herdsmen of Lot and Abraham—and Abraham comes with his wisdom: “Why are we striving? We be brethren.” And that’s going to make sense more than ever someday.

And we are perfected—we are made like unto Him whom we love. And, Christian, let me lay this before ye just before we close. Ye are to anticipate it. We cannot close Hebrews 11 without realizing this was the focus of the Old Testament saints. They received not the promise, but they looked for it. They weren’t looking for here—they weren’t looking for luxury. They weren’t looking for power here and now. They weren’t looking for success and notoriety in this world. They were willing to sacrifice it, even if they were born into royalty. Oh yes, that’s what Moses had. He had access to the wealth of Egypt, and he did not want any of it, because there was something greater—something more significant, something more valuable, something more lasting. And it would be a tragedy for us to get to the end of Hebrews 11 and not, by God’s grace, cultivate in our hearts—ye and me—the anticipation for something better. It’s an amazing thing what an ear brush with death does to people. It can give ye clarity like ye’ve never had in your life. Let it not be that ye require a brush with death to realize what really matters.

Let’s bow together in prayer. In just a moment, we will sit at this table that is designated the Lord’s Table. Those who sit and participate are the Lord’s people. Let me encourage ye then—I trust there is no strife; I trust there is no animosity—but that ye come to this table through the peace of the cross and maintaining the peace of the brethren. There’s a great day waiting. “Lord, help us to look for a day when we will assemble with an innumerable multitude, when we’re changed and transformed, when all that is promised in Christ—though we know our sins are forgiven now, we still battle the world, the flesh, and the devil—will exercise no more power. Praise God. We look then for that day. Until then, keep us looking onto Jesus.” We pray in His name. Amen. Amen.