Adversity - 3

Please open your Bibles again to Romans chapter 5.

The thing that we are pursuing this week is the God's surprising servants things that God uses that we have a tendency to underestimate her underappreciated or maybe even not recognize it all.

And so yesterday morning we look at how God uses quiet subtle judgments like the mall like dry rot to bring about most of his judgment and then last night we thought about unconscious influence. We don't think about that. All that much, but God uses it very powerfully and tonight we are going to consider what the word of God teaches us about how he uses adversity, adversity, being things that we would rather not go through so some kind of suffering such as the sickness kind of sadness, the loss of a loved one.

The vaccination that may attend a work situation that is causing you anxiety financial distress family troubles.

All of these fall into the category of adversity and God can use all of them to accomplish. Purposes is a painful things that we would rather not undergo an God uses them. First of all to bring us to the Lord Jesus Christ and then he uses them to accomplish sanctification and there is a young man in our church who suffers from severe peripheral neuropathy. He can't feel anything from his knees down and this leaves him liable to sustain injuries in his feet and his lower legs if he backs up against a stove with his calf that he doesn't know what he's not feeling pain.

We don't think of pain as being a blessing from God, but it really is that the Lord uses pain to help us to know what what something that were doing that we need to stop doing and for something that is going wrong that we need to fix and I think that one of the one of the downsides of all of the antidepressant medicines that are being utilized today.

I think over utilized is that sadness is a kind of pain that is meant to make us stop doing the thing that is making a sad and so is possible to alleviate the sadness without stopping doing the thing that makes you said. I realize that there are persons who have chemical imbalances and I don't want to make anyone feel guilty about taking medication.

If you need to take it, but I think most of us would agree that is way over prescribed and I think one of the one of the bad effects of the over prescription of antidepressant drugs is that people are able to continue in destructive behaviors because they have alleviated the pain that otherwise would make them stop doing the destructive behavior. So in this text of Scripture.

Tonight were going to say first of all how that pain drives us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Adversity drives us to the Lord Jesus Christ in the first place and then will say secondly how that the Lord uses adversity to accomplish our sanctification, then, in this text of Scripture.

There also appears the logic or the hope that we have that God is going to bring this process of sanctification to completion.

So there's the logic of hope and then this text concludes with the crown.

The crowning work of salvation, the crown that crown salvation is what I mean by that ultimately the crown of salvation is that we are led to rejoice in God. Justification is a great blessing. Sanctification is a great blessing and the other blessings that are mentioned in this but more than all of that is rejoicing in God himself.

And so let's see what the Lord has to say for us in this passage of Scripture.

The pastor read it. Just a few minutes ago and so I'm not going to read all 11 verses now instead just handle it a bit at a time as we go through it and the first thing that will see as we direct our attention to verse one is that it is implied that it is adversity that drives us to Jesus Christ in the first place. Look at verse one therefore, since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So the fact that we now have peace with God means that at one time we did not have peace with God, and the fact that we have embraced Jesus Christ as he is freely offered to us in the gospel indicates that we became unhappy with the situation of being separated from God, not the Baptist catechism asked the question about the fall where what were the effects of the fall is essentially the question that is asked and then the answer is the sin of the that we through the fall. We have become sinful and we have become miserable would become sinful and we become miserable, very helpful for us to think about those as two different things. Tonight and so where inconsistent sinfulness of that estate wherein two men fell I answer that question and secondly where inconsistent misery and so recognizing the sinfulness into which the fall brought all of mankind and feeling the misery are the essential components of adversity that drive us to Jesus Christ seeking peace with God. So the sinfulness of that estate wherein two men fell consists in two parts.

There's Original Sin. And then there is actual sin.

So Original Sin is called Original Sin because you originate with and it consists of three basic components so Original Sin is the guilt of Adam's first sin. That's the first component. The lack of original righteousness and the corruption of our whole nature. So let me explain those three things.

Those are.

That's the kind of sin that we are born with is called Original Sin because we originate with it as soon as we are conceived. We are conceived in the center and we are a sinner who is held responsible for the sin that our first representative hated committed.

Now we we Americans who espouse democracy are especially uncomfortable with the idea that we have to suffer the consequences of what someone else did. And there even verses of scripture in the Bible that would lead us to protest against that.

Example supposed to stop saying the father ate the sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on age.

Every person is going to be responsible for his own sin.

There is a sense in which that is true. I'm not going to be condemned for the sins of my parents there.

I may suffer consequences of the sins of my parents sometimes God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation but generally speaking I'm going to be held accountable for the sins that I've committed or at least I would have been until the Lord Jesus Christ. Undertook my accountant and paid my debt that was due. If you are if you're not in fellowship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ and you are accountable for your sins but you also are suffering the consequences of a sin that was committed by the first representative head of the human race.

The first man. It was created Adam, no we we ought to be careful that we don't protest too stringently against this arrangement because the offer of deliverance from our sin is given to us on the exact same principle. Where's we are accountant sinners because of the disobedience of one man and now we are accounted righteous because of the obedience of one man, the Lord Jesus Christ is the first time that you thought thoroughly about that are begun to think about it it's explained more fully in this very chapter.

I don't plan to go into it anymore deeply, but the one element of our sinfulness is that we we are held accountable for the guilt of the human race that was committed when the human race was encapsulated in one person. So the sinfulness of that estate wherein two men fell consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the lack of original righteousness.

So I told you two times that Original Sin's means that we originate with sin. The lack of original righteousness mean that we don't originate with righteousness and that is something for which we are culpable. We were created to be righteous, and so the fact that we don't have righteousness is a problem. It is a sin. It's an element of Original Sin we have the lack of original righteous in the third component of Original Sin is the corruption of our whole nature.

So every aspect of the human human psyche. Every aspect of the spiritual part of human beings has been adversely affected by sin, so that given enough time, and given the opportunity. Every human being who is conceived is going to sin because we have a corrupt nature know when the Holy Spirit brings conviction to us. We may not understand all of that thoroughly, especially if you just saved as a little child all you may know is that you're going to go to hell because God is unhappy with that fear of going to hell is the sort of is the sort of unhappiness that makes us look for a remedy and makes us eager to hear the remedy that is offered to us in Jesus Christ. Well, not only do we have Original Sin, but we also have actual sin as soon as we are capable of doing so and it's very very young. I'm so thankful that little children in the in the tomb in the womb limited in the cradle is what I'm trying to say do not know how to opera operate automatic weapons, because I'm quite confident that they would use the and so it doesn't take long for a child with a corrupt nature to demonstrate that she or he is going to actually sin and do things that are disobedient to the Lord all that Original Sin and that actual sin separates us from God and if we are functioning properly and that only happens through the work of the Holy Spirit makes us unhappy. And so it looked. It makes us look to God for a remedy makes us open to hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed will sinfulness is not our only problem we also suffer from misery that has come about as a result of sin well all mankind bother fall in here the elements of that misery all mankind bother fall lost communion with God. So were no longer in fellowship with him that contributes to our misery because we were made to have fellowship with him and we persistently feel the lack of it and try to fill it up with a thousand different things and until the Holy Spirit does a work of grace in our hearts we search throughout the universe for someplace where we can set our feet where God is not in its only when we find an earthen error in heaven or hell that such might nowhere be.

We could not flee from the anywhere then we fled to the and so it's we lost communion with God were under his wrath and curse were living in a world that is cursed by sin.

Even after you have been born again, we still have to deal with the curse that God has put on this world. As a result of sin we ourselves have been delivered from the curse of sin were going to go to heaven when we die as long as we live on this earth were going have to deal with the kind of unhappy things that happen here because this world is under God's wrath and curse. As a result of God's wrath and curse were made liable to all miseries in this life to death itself and to the pains of hell forever. And so when we become conscious of the fact that we are we are sinners and we are guilty before God and our our misery is as a result of our sin and we look to God for the remedy. God preaches to us, the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit issues. The effectual call and effectual calling is the work of God's spirit whereby convincing us of our sin and misery and lightning our minds in the knowledge of Christ and renewing our wills.

He persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us gospel but it's misery. It's adversity. The adversity of sin and the misery from sin that drives us to Jesus Christ in the first place.

Looking for peace with God. And so that's that's all implied in this statement is explained more fully in chapters 1 through four, but it's all it's all summarizing this statement in verse one therefore, since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God, not justification is an act of God's free grace and in justification he does two things for us. First of all, he pardons all of our sins and the second thing is, he accepts us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. So these. These are two indispensable components of justification.

All of our sins are pardoned and we are credited with a perfect righteousness the righteousness of Jesus Christ brought out during the days of his humanity on earth he still he still has a human nature now during the days of his humanity on earth.

He wrought out this perfect righteousness which he did not need for himself and so in his in his bequest to his elect. He gives us is perfect righteousness and this perfect justification is received by faith alone, so it's not it's not because of any works that we do it because that way stop working. Faith implies a stopping of work and we believe what God has said, especially because God has said it, and with the intention of obeying him fully, so faith in Jesus Christ as a saving grace whereby we receive interest upon him alone for salvation as he is offered to us in the gospel and so it's misery. It's adversity that drives us to God, eager to embrace this salvation that is offered to us in Jesus Christ. No limit tell you a little story that I'm going to use for an illustration and this is probably going to cause you parents some problems later on I will be gone a couple days so don't ask me about it. Ask your new youth pastor about so I grew up in a community where fighting was pretty common, and so up until the time that I was converted at age 14 I did a lot of fighting and I don't think I ever started a fight and this was a community kind of a Hatfield McCoy type community where boys come to try to prove their manhood by fighting and so there was a lot of fighting, so the tell you about a fight that happened when I was in the second is the last day of second and it was a fight with the with a boy in my neighborhood who had been who had been aggravating me in picking on me at the bus stop. All you know this. This kid was a year and 1/2, two years older than I was, but we had played together. We had been friends and I think it was just because he wanted to show off in front of the older boys at the bus stop that he started aggravating me in picking on me for the last day of second grade. I'd had enough and so I beat him up and and I beat him up good and there was a neighbor lady who was watching out the window. We watched and that we would cut.

We waited for the bus in front of her house.

I learned later that she called my parents and she said that Jimmy just beat up Junior but don't punish them.

Been watching out the window and Junior's been picking on him all year Junior had it coming to so I appreciate that. I like a person who would call my parents like that, but but anyway, here's here's the thing. The aggravation finally led it came to a head and there was a fight and then it was over. That's what happened in those days to get in a fight with someone you're not gonna get you not want to get suspended, you wouldn't get taken to court or anything like that is like you thought. And then it was over. I will not be surprised if the boy came to my house the next afternoon and we played because we we remain friends for the next several years and had to beat him up every once in a while just kind of remind him of what happened, but we were friends we were friends. After that didn't always happen that way. Sometimes you got in a fight with someone that just it just had to happen and and it was over with but you didn't become friends after that. But in many cases it happened that way. And in this particular fight that I'm telling about.

We became friends not use that as an illustration for what comes next in this text that you're waiting to hear that. So let's look at what it says here in Romans chapter 5.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So the record has been cleared. We no longer have these accusations against us, but are we going to be friends now verse two through him through Jesus we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. God is not mad at you anymore. You're not mad at God anymore. You're not so afraid of God that you want to stay away from him.

You're attracted to God. You want to be with him and that also is through Jesus Christ and the work that he did so justification is primarily a legal transaction where pardoned from all of our sins were accepted as righteous in his sight, but our friends, verse two says yeah were friends. Through him we have where we are is standing in a state of grace.

We don't deserve to be here. That's why it's a state of grace, but we are here we are standing here because of the Lord Jesus Christ and because this relationship has been amended because our sins have been forgiven. Then we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God that makes us think well if God has been so kind and gracious to us as to partners of all of our sins to credit us with the perfect righteousness and he now identifies himself as our father, and he loves us, not just because of Jesus, but because we love Jesus. I think he's going to carry this through all the way to heaven we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And so it is adversity that drives us to Christ in the first place, and gives us this piece that we have with God and the hope that we have that this is going to continue into eternity. Now let's move on and see secondly how that is also adversity that prepares us to live happily when we get there. The greatest evidence that you're going to go to heaven is not that you prayed a prayer sometime or even that you hold orthodox doctrine.

The greatest evidence that you're going to go to heaven is that you are even now being made into a person who's going to enjoy living there. You didn't used to be that kind of person I didn't. I remember when I was a little boy. I asked my parents what was heaven going to be like and they said well I think the be singing there and probably here preaching will certainly going to worship the Lord and I thought church. Heaven is church that never ends well. I've been a whole lot of church services that would still make me say that heaven is going to Charlotte to be there, but the idea of being with God's people understanding God of having fellowship with God. Those are all attractive things to me now and they wouldn't have been when I asked that question and if you were old enough to remember when you were converted, and you can probably also remember when you thought I don't do that it I remember talking to a boy in college one time about his need for Christ and he said Jim you don't understand everything that I love to do is sin, most people are not that forthright about it, but that's actually true of everyone before their converted what we what we really love to do are things that God would say you can't do that in heaven you not have that kind of friend group in heaven, you're going to be with Christians in heaven if we come to with Christians, you know, this is the way that we felt at that time. You're going to be in the presence of Jesus Christ. But now you changed and if and if that still sounds unpleasant to you then you just haven't been converted and so the greatest evidence that you're going to go to heaven is that you are now being made into the kind of person who's going to enjoy the delights of heaven, but in the Lord uses adversity as one of the primary tools to accomplish that in our lives. See how how it works your beginning in verse three. Not only that, but will rejoice in our sufferings. Now there's a reason that we rejoice in our sufferings, so this is not just masochistic you and we enjoy going through pain we rejoice in our sufferings, here's the reason why knowing that suffering produces endurance. Or you may have a translation that says patients were to be translated either way.

I think that patience is the better translation because mere endurance could be that you are just gritting your teeth and putting up with patients on the other hand, says I'm putting up with this, but it is not knocking me out of sorts. I'm putting on putting up with this. I don't I don't like it you had to be patient with stuff that you like so is suffering creating you the ability to see the big picture patients, I think, is the fundamental element of maturity. I think that maturity is the capacity for practicing delayed gratification little kids don't have it and so they they wanted to be right now. Some some adults never get it. And so if they don't get their way right away than they become angry or they become pouty and lash out and complain, and so on.

But patient on the other hand, says I don't like this, but I see the big picture in the big picture for the Christian is God is in control of this vexing situation and God is using it for good.

And so I think that patience is a better word than endurance. But we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces patience and patience produces character, that's what I was talking about last night and I preached the same sermon today at the tri-state fellowship character is who you really are the real you, not necessarily the natural you, but the user that has come in to ascendancy since the Lord Jesus Christ did his work of grace and the Holy Spirit gave you the new birth and so suffering produces patience, patience produces character, it turned you into the kind of person that God wants you to be, and character produces hope. Now how does that work. It's because of what I said earlier in different words what I said it a few minutes ago was that the greatest evidence that you're going to heaven is that you are even now being transformed into a person who will enjoy living there.

This is saying the same thing. If you see that change in your character that causes you to have hope that your conversion was real. In second Peter chapter 1, I went over this last night and this afternoon the Lord leads us through a series of eight virtues that we are to seek to cultivate in our lives and then he says this is the way that you make your calling and your election should we we sometimes struggle with was my conversion genuine was the calling real and so sometimes we try to remember what was I sincere when I said that what was I feeling in and for some of you it was when you were little kids and you can't remember it all and you're just kind of uneasy about all I've got good news for you is that you don't have to go back to that moment, and figure out if you are sincere then if the Lord save you then. Then he began creating in you a character that changes some of you and that and that character that changes is the way that you make your calling and your election sure you can look back into eternity past until did God choose me was I elect. What if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that is changing you into a person who rejoices in suffering because suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character, then you should have hope, and hope character produces hope as I'm sure that your pastors do the same thing that we do in our church when someone applies for membership than we interviewed to make sure that they really are converted and especially if someone has grown up in a Christian home. I hear this testimony over and over again. It is in fact my testimony and saw just use myself as an example, I was about six years old when I confessed faith in Jesus Christ. My dad was a careful pastor and so he asked me all the right questions, and I was a well taught child and I gave all the right answers. And so I was baptized when I was six years old when you're 678 years old. It's fairly easy to look like a Christian. If you're not too ornery of a child and work. You can hide it fairly well but anyway, about the time that I went to junior high school in the seventh grade just about to turn 12 I began being confronted with temptations that really gave me opportunities in like I had not had before, and I took advantage of those opportunities and I began to sin as much as I dare and so through the seventh grade the eighth grade in the ninth grade.

I began living a double life. There was a way that I would talk when I was at school there was a way that wouldn't talk that way. Use bad words at school. Not bad words, there was there were things that I would talk about with my friends. Things that we would try to do when we had opportunity that I wouldn't do at home and probably everybody at church except the kids who went to school with me thought dimming is a good boy good Christian boy but I wasn't. I wasn't sure of that yet. It took me several years. I was thankfully the Lord save me after my ninth grade year and I got my life changed, and after about three years.

As I was reflecting on the question, is my baptism legitimate. I came to the conclusion know my baptism is not legitimate because I was not converted when I was saved not use myself as an example, but I hear that kind testimony all the time when I'm interviewing people who have grown up in Christian homes.

I live like the devil all through high school and then when I was in college I got under the influence of campus Crusade or Baptist student life ministries or something and then that's when I began living for the Lord and saw last people. So what makes you think that you are converted back there when you were six or seven years old.

Here's the answer that I get 99% of the time. All those years that I was living sinfully.

I knew that what I was doing was wrong. That's it. I knew that what I was doing was wrong, and so I'll say during those years.

Did you voluntarily read your Bible did you pray only when I got in trouble I did you go to church.

I quit going to church. As soon as my parents stopped making me and then I will say all the evidence point to the fact that you are not really converted just simply knowing that what you're doing is wrong is not grounds to conduct good to conclude that your converted and sometimes I'll even bring it into the modern dance. I suppose you were the pastor of this church and someone wanted to join and they and you said all we are so welcome will be looking forward to seeing you next Sunday and the person says next Sunday.

I'm planning on coming to church, you thought you said you wanted to we have and I'm not going to attend well lot. I guess we can count on you supporting the church with your tithes and offerings crazy to give money to this church. I just I just don't want to go ahead so I appreciate if you just baptized and get it over with. Sadly there are some people who would baptize such a person but those who try to practice integrity would say no, you're not converted were not going to baptize you. I know that I know that I'm a sinner and I need to be baptized know that's not enough to conclude that your converted and yet there are many many people who say what I think that I was converted because all those years that I was living in sin.

I knew that what I was doing was wrong.

That's not sufficient grounds to conclude that your converted maybe that maybe the Lord is speaking to you through that and you're like me you were baptized before you were converted, how do you know your converted now because your character has changed.

Tribulation worketh patience. Patients experience character. Character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us. Look at the reason that is given in verse five. Hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us that this is a this is a linguistic construction that allows up to interpretation. Does this mean that the love that God has for us has been made clear to us and he's poured that love into our hearts or does it mean that now there is a love for God that has been instilled in us. It can be either one.

I think that it means that there is now been a love for God has been instilled in us a passage that concludes with here's here's the reason you have hope and hope is not going to disappoint you, because you have been turned into someone who loves God and so this is adversity and it brings us to a confident assurance that we're going to enjoy the glory of God because now we love God, but to help us out there is further explanation that gives us the logic of this hope gnomic point of this logic to you before I read these verses. There are two lines of reasoning that the Lord gives to us in the verses that I'm just about to read the first line of reasoning is this. If God love you and Christ died for you when you were his enemy.

Now that you love him, isn't he going to continue to be nice to you. That's one line of reasoning used to be an enemy. Now you're not an limit enemy you love him you been reconciled to this, it makes sense that he's going to stop loving you now that he's not going to finish the job that he started a new that's one line of reasoning.

The second line of reasoning is God forgave you in the first place because of the bloodied death of his son and as precious as that is there something that God considers even more precious.

And that's the life of his son if he forgave you of your sins because of the death of his son, isn't he going to finish the job because of this thing that he values even more. The resurrected life of his son. Let's see how this is explained in these verses 464 while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person just almost never hear that, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die okay. We hear of occasionally, but what about this God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us here. The implications of that. This is the logic. This is the logic of hope. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. You see the comparison contrast, there we were saved by his blood, how much more will be saved through him. The same ideas repeated in the next verse for it while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled.

In contrast, enemies, we shall be set would be saved by his life. So this is this is the reason why we have Christian hope, I believe, is a subdivision of faith.

Faith is believing what God has said, especially when the only reason for believing it is because God has said it and you believe it with the intention of obeying him. So faith is not fundamentally strong optimism.

Faith is believing what God has said it might.

It may lead to strong optimism. Fundamentally, faith is believing what God has said, with the intention of obeying him.

I think that hope is a subcategory of faith, hope, is believing what God has said regarding attractive promises for the future. So God makes promises about the future that we find attractive. We believe those promises and similar to faith, which believes with the intention of obeying we cooperate when we hope we cooperate with the means that God has appointed for the accomplishment of this so there several parallels there. Let me go over that again faith is believing what God has said regarding past, present and future hope similar, is believing what God has said about attractive promises he is made regarding the future faith embeds in it the idea that we are going to obey him were going to obey what he says because faith without works is dead. So saving faith includes with the idea that were going to obey him. Also hope that saves us hope it fills us with with joyful anticipation with optimism embeds in it the idea that we are going to cooperate with the things that he has appointed for the accomplishment of the salvation that is underway and part of that is through suffering. Even our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ was made perfect through suffering is what it says in the book of Hebrews chapter 2.

Therefore, since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that through death he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil and free those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery for Shirley is not angels he helps but Abraham's descendents therefore he had to be made like his brothers and every be made like his brothers in every way, so that through suffering. He might be made perfect and accomplish the goal that accomplish the salvation that was appointed to him as the Messiah Jesus as a human had to undergo suffering later on in the book of Hebrews. It says concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through suffering and once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all those who obey him, and it says concerning him that he he was. He was heard because of his reference submission turned that one so I think that's in Hebrews chapter 5.

Let me I'm not remembering exactly how that passage goes so Hebrews chapter 5, beginning in verse seven. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears to him who is able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reference. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him being designated designated by God. A high priest after the order of milk is that when you read that Jesus was made perfect, it doesn't mean that he was ever sinful, but it means that he was not yet qualified to do the work of the Messiah in order to become qualified. He had to pass the tests that were put upon him like the test when the set when Satan tempted him in the wilderness. Our first representative hit was subjected to temptation from Satan, and he succumbed to temptation and plunge the entire race into sin and misery are second representative hit the Lord Jesus Christ was also subjected to the temptation of Satan, but he resisted and through his obedience. He brought out a perfect righteousness that he communicates to all those who have faith in him that it was accomplished through his cooperation with suffering God surprising servant of adversity was at work, even in the life of Jesus and it's at work in our lives as well. This section concludes in verse 11 with the crown of salvation more than that. We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation that we have seen some precious blessings in this passage. What a great blessing as justification.

What a great blessing it is to be standing in a state of grace and fellowship with the Lord. What a great blessing it is to know that God is sanctifying in our sufferings for the purification of our characters and that through this we have an assurance of heaven, but there's something even better than all that today Pastor David Morris quoted a a him him book was written by Anna, our cousin and our cousin compiled another hymn that is also in your hymnbook the sands of time are sinking.

She compiled it from the sayings of Samuel Rutherford and one of the stanzas that almost always appears in hymn books is this one. She writes about all of God's saints going to heaven being clothed in perfect righteousness at the marriage of the Lamb to hear what she writes the bride eyes, not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face.

I will not gaze in glory but on my King of grace not on the crown he giveth, but on his pierced hands. The Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel's land, and that's the love that has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he is given to us and as a result we don't just rejoice in the gifts that he gives. We rejoice in God himself