The glory of the church

[0:00] So I'm going to start off by asking about what you think of the reality of church. Sorry, I don't seem to have made this very clickable, do I? The church of Jesus Christ, that is to say the group of people arranged in communities!

[0:17] of those who believe in Jesus Christ and have their sins forgiven. What do we think of that community of people, that set of people across the world? This is an international thing, local and international.

[0:30] So let's just have a few thoughts about that. So number one, let me just stay right off. A church is not the building, it's the people. We tend to say, I went to see St Michael's Church or I passed St Peter's Church or something.

[0:48] The church, that's the name they give to the building, but actually a church is people. It's a community of people. Whatever building doesn't really matter too much.

[1:00] You might take a look at the church and say what we've got here is a group of weird losers who are insignificant to the real issues of the world.

[1:13] Now it would be hard to defend the church against having some weird people in it, because it certainly does have some weird people in it. And it would be interesting to think about whether the church of Jesus Christ has losers, because Christ was very tender towards people who were at, say, the bottom end of society and had troubles in their lives.

[1:35] And Christ certainly brought such people into his kingdom. But whether they're insignificant to the real issues of the world, I really don't think that's true.

[1:46] You could describe the church as, at some times, small and struggling, persecuted and on the verge of death.

[1:58] There would be truth in that description. But in the chapter we're looking at, we see the church through another set of spectacles. Perhaps you might say the way God sees the church.

[2:10] And here is described a group of people who are glorious, enriched, blessed beyond their wildest dreams, and actually central to the purposes of the God of the Bible in the whole world.

[2:33] The church, glorious, enriched, beautified, central to the purposes of God in the world.

[2:44] So, I haven't got a clicking plan. What a pity. Okay, a plan. So, I thought we'd look at three things. Number one, Isaiah 60, who is he talking about?

[2:55] Very important we get that right. Who is he talking about? Number two, what is he saying? So, I picked out six things that he's saying. And number three, what's the intended response?

[3:05] And the last one is just quite short. So, who is he talking about? What does he say? And what's the intended response? Okay.

[3:16] Who is he talking to? Or who is he talking about? Have you ever had the experience of walking down the street, and somebody comes towards you with their arms wide open, saying, oh, it's great to see you again.

[3:30] And you look as this person comes towards you, and you think, I haven't got the faintest idea who this person is. Perhaps it's me. And you begin to go, ah, like that.

[3:42] And the person walked straight past you, and was actually talking to the person behind you. Have you ever had that experience? And you think, oh, oh, I didn't really think that was you at all. No, no, no.

[3:53] Who is he talking to? That's very important that we don't think he's talking to us if he's really talking to the person behind us, or vice versa. So, who is this chapter addressed to?

[4:07] So, that chapter 60. In verse 10, it's a city with walls. And in verse 14, it's called the city of God, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

[4:23] So, it's a city. The name of it is Zion, Jerusalem. So, we know that much. And it is distinguished from the foreigners, the nations that come in to this city.

[4:39] Okay. Now then, second question. Let's focus this down. So, is this city a city in history? Or is it a city in eternity?

[4:50] In other words, is it a here and now city? Some part of the human time scale on this earth? Or is it something in eternity?

[5:02] Something in a different time frame altogether? And I'd like to say it's some of both. When you get to a certain age, you have bifocal lenses in your glasses.

[5:17] And they're not just for close reading and not just for distant reading. They're both. And I think you need bifocals on to read a chapter like this.

[5:27] It's got something of now and something for the distant future. So, for example, when it talks about the nations coming in, let me just try and find a verse that says that.

[5:38] So, verse 3, nations will come to your light. Seems to talk about a travelling. They were far away. Now they're close. That takes some time to do that. That must surely be part of history, mustn't it?

[5:52] Where we have nations that are far off and they travel and move and things happen. Must be something in history. But when it talks in verse 19, verse 19, the sun will be no more your light by day, nor the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light.

[6:13] And verse 20, the sun will never set again and your moon will wane no more. That's not talking about astronomy here and now, is it?

[6:26] It's looking to something beyond that. So, it's looking for something, it's trying to describe something in a creation, which is a new creation. The world to come.

[6:39] And I've used the word eschatological, which is a technical word. Eschaton, eschatos, I think, means last. Last days. In the time when God wraps up this period of history and starts another one, like Christopher Redd, behold, I am making all things new.

[7:00] Eschatological, that's what that means. So, that's looking through the distant part of the bifocals. And is it the physical city? Is he referring to all those hundreds of years ago, Jerusalem, the physical city that he lived in?

[7:19] And I want to say it certainly starts there because Isaiah's whole concern is for the city that he lives in, what it should have been, what it was, and how God will put that all right.

[7:34] So, surely his vision is of what the earthly Zion ought to have been, and in some sense one day will be, but there'll be a transformation to get to that point.

[7:47] It will be a city on a new earth when there's a new heaven and a new earth. It is not heaven because the city comes down, doesn't it?

[7:59] Now is the dwelling God who's with men. So, there's something tangible and physical about the city, which is probably what I was going to ask next. Does this city exist now?

[8:14] And the Bible would say, yes, this city exists now, but in an incomplete form, it exists, but not on earth.

[8:26] I'll quote a few quotes on this at the moment. But our citizenship, the city that we belong to, says the New Testament, our citizenship is in heaven at the moment, and we've yet to find that that city becomes part of the new heaven and the new earth.

[8:46] Here's the quote from Galatians 4, where Paul says, the present city of Jerusalem is in slavery with her children.

[8:57] That's the city that he saw those 2,000 years ago. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. So, that's what he's talking about.

[9:12] That's the city that he's talking about. Those are the people he's talking to. Let's move on to what does he say about the city. Now, as you read the chapter, have the chapter read, you'll see there's a whole collage of things that are said.

[9:28] I'll come to that in a moment. I need to put it into context. What he says follows on from. What does it follow on from? Chapter 60 follows on from chapter 59.

[9:41] Chapter 59, the Lord says, unless I intervene, you're all going to be stuck in darkness and unrighteousness and sin, but I'm going to intervene.

[9:54] The Lord looked and was displeased. Displeased, there was no justice, there was no man, he was appalled, there was no intercessor, so his own arm worked salvation for him.

[10:06] So, this chapter follows on from a radical, powerful intervention by the Lord. Chapter 59 mentioned the Redeemer. The Redeemer will come, the one who will change everything, the one who will redeem everything, the one who will heal everything.

[10:22] And it goes on in the next chapters to talk about the anointed one. The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

[10:34] So, there's an anointed one coming, the Messiah of whom we were singing. And if you wanted to go on further in Isaiah, you would find another section where this intervention is described, chapter 63, verse 1, somebody who is speaking in righteousness and mighty to save.

[10:55] So, this city is the result of this intervention from the Lord. It's produced by the Lord's saving intervention. It is not produced by human beings gradually climbing a ladder or human beings achieving something that was in themselves.

[11:14] It's achieved by the Lord saying, you lot can't get anywhere, can you? I'll do it for you. Okay. Now's the collage. What does he say about this city?

[11:25] So, I'll do it in one big rush. We'll take it to pieces in a moment. So, he says lots of things. So, for example, in 2, he says, what does he say? All sorts of things there.

[11:35] What have I put? Glory. Yes, the nations will see your glory. So, I've got a lot about glory. Verse 4 says, oh, is that what I meant?

[11:48] I think not. Let's click and see what happens. Nations coming in. So, I've got quite a few nations coming in. Loads of them, actually. What verse did I really mean?

[11:59] Oh, I'm on the wrong chapter, that's why. Yes, verse 5. Thank you. Yeah, nations coming in. And it was in verse 3, wasn't it? Nations will come to your light. So, there's lots of things about nations.

[12:10] What does it have from verse 6? Oh, yes. Herds of camels. Have I got any camels? Yes. Lots of camels. Herds of camels. Authorised version says, herds of camels will cover thee, which I always think is a wonderful promise to claim personally.

[12:25] No, it's just a joke, really. Verse 6. Herds of camels will cover your land, says the translation in the NIV.

[12:36] We've got lots of camels. Verse 9. What sort of things have we got in verse 9? Silver and gold. So, I put some gold bullion. And we've got ships coming from afar. Verse 9.

[12:47] So, I've got some ships there. Have I got two ships? Yes. And what else have we got? More gold bullion. Verse 11. Your gates will always stand open. I don't know whether I've got gates.

[12:59] Well, they're open already. There's kings coming. Have I got some kings? No, I haven't. I've got some money coming in. Which is the verse about money coming in? 12.

[13:10] 12. 11. Silver and gold. Silver and gold. Yes. The wealth of the nations. Verse 11. The nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish or be utterly ruined.

[13:23] That's verse 12. So, have I got anything about that? I've got kings, camels. Yeah, the nations that won't serve you. So, there are enemies that cringe and have to bow down.

[13:35] Have I finished? 17 and 18. 17 is more about wealth, gold, silver. 18 was praise.

[13:48] I don't think I had anything for praise. Oh, I've got more kings. Yeah, I'll finish that. Right. Okay. Looks as though I haven't done this clicking properly at all. Never mind. So, let's break that down into six items.

[14:02] Six themes that are dotted around. First theme is light. 60 verse 1. Arise, shine, for your light has come.

[14:14] Verse 3. Nations will come to your light. Verse 19. The sun will no more be your light by day, nor the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.

[14:32] And verse 20. Your sun will never set again your moon will wane no more, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. So, there's a lot about light.

[14:43] So, let's just pick on that thought of light. It's an attractive light. It's a light, a brightness that brings people in. Does it not say that in verse 3?

[14:55] Nations will come to your light. light. So, here is Zion, bright, shining, splendid, and the nations say, I want some of that.

[15:06] That is the place to be, and the nations are attracted in to the light. light. The New Testament picks this up for Christian people.

[15:20] You might not have made the connection, but let's make that connection. So, in the beginning of Colossians, he says, to Christian people who belong to Jesus Christ, the Father has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

[15:35] and he has rescued you from the dominion of darkness. So, you're not anymore in the darkness that surrounds the nations who don't know God.

[15:47] You've been brought into the light. And Ephesians 5, verse 8, picks up this theme of light. It says, once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

[16:00] And he quotes this, changes it around a little bit, but he says, Christian people, you're light. Don't live lives of darkness. Don't live like you used to live.

[16:11] Don't live like the nations live. Live lives of light. And get up. Don't be asleep. Arise, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

[16:24] There's a song that says that from Ephesians, isn't there? I won't try and sing it. If you want to adjust your bifocals to the long distance, we had that in the book of Revelation, didn't we?

[16:38] That the eternal city, the celestial city, the glory of God gives it light, and the lamp is its lamp. So, number one, light. Let's look at number two.

[16:49] Oh, we've got some light. Click. Glory. Glory. Glory. 60, verse 1, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.

[17:03] And I think it's got glory somewhere else. Let's just click on and see. Verse 19. End of verse 19. Your God will be your glory.

[17:19] And glory is a great theme. I feel myself a little incapable of explaining it to you to do it suitable justice. But it has the connotation of weightiness.

[17:32] Kabod. The grandeur. The weightiness of God. The power of his presence and his reality. And he says that this is exactly the problem with human beings that they completely lack that.

[17:47] They've exchanged God's glory for a lie. They don't have God's glory. They have shame instead. But here, wonderfully, this city has the glory of God upon it.

[18:04] The glory of God is a theme that runs through the Bible. You get it with Moses when he said to the Lord, show me your glory.

[18:17] Do you remember? And the Lord said, well, if I were to show you your glory, you'd just burst because it's so big. But what I can do is if you hide in a rock, I'll shield you with my hand.

[18:29] You'll just see my back. I'll just see a bit of my glory because my glory is so great. There was Moses and the glory of God. There was the tabernacle where the glory of God descended and God was seen in sort of smoke or cloud.

[18:50] When Solomon's temple was commissioned, they were asking God to come in a place filled with smoke, cloud, so they couldn't see. In Isaiah's vision, he saw the Lord high and lifted up and his glory filled the temple.

[19:09] temple. This glory is upon the city. It's exactly what old Jerusalem was not.

[19:20] It's exactly what the nations exchanged for a lie. But, says the apostle Paul, here's the thing about being a Christian. We used to be covered in shame, but now we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

[19:41] We taste glory. We have a hope of glory. There is something glorious about God's people even now.

[20:01] Says Paul, the ministry I have is a glorious gospel. The message of salvation and redemption in Christ Jesus is a glorious message.

[20:17] Number two was glory. Number three, oh dear, I didn't do this very well, did I? The grafting in of the nations. Number three, the grafting in of the nations. So, here's a mysterious thing.

[20:30] I think as Paul's readers read it, they would have thought, how is that going to happen? Just can't see how that will happen, but he says, this is what's going to happen. The nations will come, verse three, the nations will come to your light.

[20:43] Verse 12, the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish, it will be utterly ruined. There's something quite Abrahamic about that.

[20:54] Do you remember the promise to Abraham? I will bless those who bless you, those who curse you, I will curse. Do you remember that?

[21:08] Abraham was put in that key position, you get the same sort of thing here. The national kingdom that will not serve you will perish, it will be utterly ruined. The nations comfort and feed the people of God.

[21:23] Verse 16, you will drink the milk of nations, you will be nursed at royal breasts. The nations build the walls of Zion, verse 10.

[21:36] Foreigners will rebuild your walls, the kings will serve you. They bring in resources, they bring in timber. Verse 17, instead of bronze I will bring you gold and silver in place of iron, instead of wood I will bring you iron in place of stones.

[21:53] So there's things being brought in by the nations. How can they do this? How does this happen? You see, they remain nations.

[22:05] They don't become Jews. They're different to Jews. There's Jews and the nations. And yet the nations come in and are part of what God's doing.

[22:16] How does that work? How can he do that? They come acknowledging that as Jesus himself said, salvation is from the Jews. that's the place where God revealed himself.

[22:31] That's the nation to whom he revealed himself. Those are the people who have the word of God. Those are the people who have the worship of God. Those are the people who have the giving of the law and all the other things.

[22:42] The adoption of sons, as Paul says. They have that. But when the nations come in, could it possibly be that they come in on an equal footing?

[22:56] Could it possibly be that they come in with the same privileges? Could that possibly be? And the brilliant step change in the New Testament when Jesus comes, he says, I've done something so powerful, so stupendous that nations can come in and be as much part of the people of God as the people who by their genetics ought to be the people of God.

[23:27] And this is what he says in Ephesians. I've been given a ministry, he says, to proclaim something that wasn't known beforehand.

[23:38] That's what he means by mystery. And the mystery is that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members of one body, sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

[23:53] That's an amazing thing. Here's number three, the grafting in of the nations. The nations come in and are as much part of the kingdom and the promises and the family and the city as the people to whom you would think it exclusively belonged.

[24:12] Number three, the grafting in of the nations. Oh, I've got some nations. number four, oh dear, number four, the fruitfulness of children. So that's another theme that crops up.

[24:25] Previously, Zion was barren and childless and unfruitful. It's one of the things that's said, she's barren, childless, unfruitful.

[24:36] It's a sad thing, it's a sad picture to ascribe to this city of God as being barren, unfruitful, childless.

[24:47] And yet here, it says of Zion, you will have many children. You will have many children. Verse four, lift up your eyes and look about you.

[24:58] All assemble and come to you. Your sons come from afar and your daughters are carried on the arm. Then you will look and be radiant. Your heart will throb and swell with joy.

[25:09] Look, not barren, not childless, but a huge number of offspring. Does it say the same thing in verse eight?

[25:23] Who are these that fly along like clouds, like doves to their nest? So we imagine ourselves on the seashore and we see white movement. Looks like, is it birds flocking across?

[25:35] Look, there's whole loads of them. What are these white things moving so quickly across the ocean? And as you see, actually they're the sails of boats. And where have these boats come from? The furthest possible place from Tarshish.

[25:47] And what do these boats have on board? They're full of the children of Zion. Who are these that fly along like clouds, like doves to their nest? Surely the islands look to me.

[25:58] In the lead are the ships of Tarshish, bringing your sons from afar. So here's the children. Tarshish, Tarshish being the most wild, distant, exotic place that you could think of, Timbuktu or something like that.

[26:19] And the New Testament will pick up on this, the idea of being children of the city, of belonging. And the Apostle Paul will say this whole theme of the barren woman having children, and cities having children, they're linked up.

[26:38] So he will say to Christian people, you remember Abraham's wife, Sarah, that she was barren, she couldn't have children, and God made a promise, this time next year you'll have a child.

[26:54] And it was so ridiculous that Sarah laughed, you remember, how could that possibly be? And God says you laughed, and she said no I didn't, you did.

[27:06] Ha, I heard you. And Abraham and Sarah both get a ha put into their names, and he becomes Abraham and Sarah. And their child is called Yitzhak, which means?

[27:22] Laughter. Thank you. So there's a wonderful, it's not sort of a mocking laughter, it's a how good this is, this is almost too good to be true laughter.

[27:33] And Paul says that's the way Christians are. You have become part of the family. You could almost laugh at the brilliance of the way God does this, and the way he just brings people into his kingdom to become sons and daughters.

[27:53] Paul says we are not children of the slave woman, but children of the free woman. We're like Yitzhak, Isaac. Our mother is the Jerusalem which is above, which is free.

[28:09] And I think, let's just take that thought of the children, the people born into this kingdom. Amazing, the dignity they have.

[28:23] Who are you? I'm a member of this kingdom. How did you get here? No idea, it's just amazing. And the freedom that they're brought into, we're born of promise, not born into slavery, but born into freedom.

[28:38] It's a very deep reality about the Christian life. It's a life where we are set free. And it's an amazing privilege. It's not a privilege to say to God as Jesus taught us to pray, our Father, Father.

[28:59] By the spirit of adoption, we can say to the Lord God Almighty, Abba, Father. That was number four, the fruitfulness of children.

[29:11] Number five, click. Oh, those are the ships. The service of the nations. The service of the nations.

[29:22] Well, we've touched on this already, but let's make it a little theme on its own. The nations bring their wealth into Zion. So, verse five, the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, the riches of the nations will come.

[29:38] Verse six, that's the promise of the herds of camels will cover you, and from Sheba will come bearing golden incense, proclaiming the praise of the Lord.

[29:50] So, I've got verse seven, all Kedar's flocks will be gathered to you. The rams of Nebaioth will serve you. They will be accepted as offerings on my altar. I will adorn my glorious temple.

[30:02] That was verse, trying to get myself up to speed here, that was verse nine, was it? No, that was verse seven, verse nine. The ships from Tarshish bring your sons, but they also bring their silver and gold.

[30:18] Verse eleven, your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut day or night, so that men may bring you the wealth of the nations, their kings led in triumphal possession.

[30:30] Verse thirteen, the glory of Lebanon will come to you, the pine, the fir and the cypress together, to adorn the place of my sanctuary. Verse sixteen is the bit about the nations feeding with milk, and verse seventeen was this upgrade of all the building materials from bronze to gold, from silver to iron, from wood to, et cetera, et cetera.

[30:54] And the city is enriched by the achievements of the nations. I'm sure the original readers would have thought, how is that going to happen? Really? Well, you could get some inklings, couldn't you?

[31:05] Because when the temple was first built in the time of Solomon, where did they get their wood from? Yeah, I think they did it from Lebanon. They got it from, it was Hiram, king of Tyre, wasn't it?

[31:19] So the nations brought wealth in then. But there's something that's more to it than that. Do you remember when Jesus was born?

[31:32] You get another little echo of this. When Jesus was born, who came to see him? Where did they come from and what did they bring? Kings.

[31:44] From afar. What did they bring? Gift. Gift. Gift. gold, frankincense, and myrrh, wasn't it? Well, it's a little foretaste of this, isn't it?

[31:56] The kings will come and bring you gold. Does it say incense? It certainly says gold. And I wonder whether in the early days of the church, that wasn't the motivation for Paul, who said we've got some largely Jewish churches like the church in Jerusalem.

[32:16] And we've also got some churches that are significantly Gentile churches. They contain Jewish people who've come to faith in Christ, but they also contain people who are previously idol worshippers who have come to faith in Christ.

[32:33] And I would like, says Paul, I think it's really important, says Paul, that the Gentile churches express their solidarity with the largely Jewish churches and support them financially.

[32:44] Do you remember that? That Paul said they have financial needs. There's a famine over there. We need to get a gift together. He actually broke off some of his previous plans to make sure this happened.

[32:59] We will take a financial gift to the largely Jewish believers because this is what's prophesied, that the nations will bring in their wealth wealth.

[33:12] And maybe you're doing that today. Maybe most of us here are from an international background.

[33:24] That includes English people because English people are international. International compared with Jewish people. The Jewish people are the home people. Everybody else is international.

[33:37] If you give money money to the cause of Jesus Christ, you are a fulfilment of this passage. And I hope if you're a Christian, you do give money to the cause of Jesus Christ, because that's what we do.

[33:54] The Lord is Lord of everything, and that includes not only our time and energy, but our wallet. And if you haven't sorted out that the Lord has control over your wallet, please, when you go home, get that sorted out, like with a standing order or something like that, because this is what's prophesied.

[34:12] The nations bring their wealth into the city. And if you move the bifocals to the long distance again, we have that what was read in Revelation, that the kings of the earth bring their splendour into the city.

[34:28] So the final celestial city has contributions from all the different nations. I love this thought. I'll repeat it to you again. So the Germans bring something German into the city.

[34:41] And the Chinese bring something Chinese into the city. And the Welsh bring something Welsh into the city. And the Italians bring something Italian into the city.

[34:52] And we could speculate what that might be. What do the Italians bring into the city of God, the eschatological city? Emotion.

[35:04] Pizza. What do the Germans bring into the eschatological city? Yeah, probably a bit of organisation.

[35:15] And I always think Bach, they'll bring the music of Bach. and the Welsh will bring singing because that's the Welsh sing.

[35:29] The service of the nations. camels and gold and money and that's it. Six, this is the final part of this collage.

[35:44] The picture contains the ruin of the enemies. It's a very positive picture about the glory of Zion but it does touch on and include that not everybody is a member of Zion.

[35:55] Not everybody belongs to Zion. the ruin of her enemies. So there's some enemies that are having to bow down. It's that Abraham thing, those who curse you will be cursed or those who curse you will be lightly esteemed.

[36:13] And you get it in verse 10. Well the foreigners will rebuild your walls, things like that. verse 12 particularly, the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish.

[36:28] It will be utterly ruined. Verse 14, the sons of your oppressors will come bowing down before you and all who despise you will bow down at your feet.

[36:41] In another part of Isaiah it says this, every knee will bow and every tongue confess. Ah, well that's what it says.

[36:54] Yes, it has this thought of willingly people will come and say yes, this is where I've always wanted to be. This is what I've always wanted to see, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[37:09] And they will come willingly. But there will be other people who come unwillingly and will say I was wrong all these years. you are the Lord.

[37:21] This is salvation. I opposed you all my lifetime. It's too late now to change and I was wrong. We'll confess willingly or unwillingly and the tweak on this that the New Testament does is it says Isaiah focuses that on the Lord God and the New Testament focuses it on Jesus.

[37:51] Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So those were the six things.

[38:05] They were the light of God, the glory of God, the grafting in of the nations, the fruitfulness of children, the service of the nations and the ruin of her enemies. And I wanted to say three things about the response to this.

[38:19] But before I do it, I would just say, isn't it a remarkable chapter? I don't know whether I've succeeded in bringing across any of what it says, but what it says is amazing. It's full of power and positiveness and things that you think are too good to be true, too marvellous to describe.

[38:38] But that's what the chapter is all about. And what is our response to be? Three things. Number one, inspiration. This is surely meant to inspire us as to the building of God's city.

[38:57] The Lord says it will be built, the building of it is a great thing, and the final completion of it will be glorious and wonderful.

[39:08] It's a glorious project. makes grand designs look like a TV programme. Which it is.

[39:19] This is a much better building project. And we can be involved in it. This is what we're involved in as we sit here, in building one another up, in building the kingdom, and as we are brave enough to testify about Jesus Christ to the people around us, and as we pray for the spreading of God's word, we are part of this building project.

[39:45] And it's there to inspire us. This is a great thing to be involved with. Secondly, expectancy about the future of God's city.

[39:58] The vision is meant not only to inspire us to get on with the work now, but to look forward with expectancy to what's in the future. So I didn't look up the exact quote, but John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress Part Two.

[40:19] I think maybe this is his wife speaking. So let's say she. And she sees the celestial city and she says, I've always wanted to be here.

[40:34] Even though it was a difficult journey at times, yet it's abundantly worth it to be here in the celestial city, to see the things I've only heard about, to experience what was only talked about.

[40:52] And the hope of this has been within my heart like a burning coal, says the pilgrim, and now I'm here. we need to cultivate that expectancy about the city.

[41:06] That's where we're headed. The Puritan Richard Baxter encouraged his parishioners to think about heaven.

[41:18] What was the name of the book? Saints of Lasting Rest. And it was said of Richard Baxter that heaven was in him before he was in heaven because he made it his practice to meditate on the glories that were yet to come and have that as a real factor in the way he lived his life.

[41:38] Expectancy. Thirdly, dignity. Dignity about God's city now. In a moment we'll sing this song, Saviour if of Zion's city I through grace amember am.

[41:50] Let the world derive pride or pity I will glory in your name. Fading of the worldling's treasures all his boasted pomp and show, solid joys and lasting treasures none but Zion's children know.

[42:06] We have a dignity to be Christian people if that's what we are. Arise, shine, for your light has come, begins the chapter.

[42:20] And Christians we're complex beings, it's a complex thing being a Christian. But please don't think of yourself as nothing but a failure, nothing but a loser, nothing but a castaway.

[42:35] We might have been all those things. Maybe a truth about us in ourselves, but let's think of ourselves as redeemed. redeemed. In ourselves we are failures but we've been redeemed.

[42:50] In ourselves we might be losers but we've been losers who by God's grace have been given glory. Castaways, well maybe that's what we were but these castaways that were lost have now been found and been brought into the palace of the king.

[43:10] And that should enable us to live day by day with dignity, integrity, gladness before God.

[43:24] I'm done. We'll sing. Glorious things of you are spoken, Zion city of our God. It's number 570.