11 verses in 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1 and beginning in verse 1 through 11. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him, that has called us to glory and virtue. whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance, patience, and to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh of these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom. of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I wonder from your own personal experience of where you are with the Lord today, and with the knowledge of Christ and the word that you have, and your understanding of the larger context of the Christian church today, perhaps other believers that you know, things going on in other ministries, perhaps other churches. What you are thinking about today, I wonder what you think is the great need of the hour. What should I preach on from that passage that I just read? I mean, there is a tremendous amount of divine gold that is deposited in this passage. Verse four. God has given exceedingly great and precious promises. The covenant-keeping God, the God who could swore by no other. So when he gave that promise to Abraham, remember he said he swore by himself. And God has given to you these promises so that you can be a partaker of the divine nature. What about verse five through verse eight? This staircase of divine virtues, these virtues that are built one upon the other, and the synthesis of them is so tremendous that if they are in you and abound, then you will have that New Testament quality written upon your very life. What about the knowledge of God? Verse two, three, five, six, eight, and implied in verse four, he speaks about the knowledge of God. In these courses talking about the true knowledge, the personal knowledge, that filial love knowledge of God. But about verse 10, you who believe in sovereign grace, you who are reformed, Give diligence to make your calling and election sure. I mean, in our day of easy believism, this is a topic that perhaps outside these walls, it's a sermon topic that's gonna be avoided, but perhaps you have heard teaching and sermons upon that. Before I announce my title and my text, I'd like to just remind you of something I said a few months ago. I forget the context. I was preaching on something. I do not recall. But I said something along the lines of, it is no trivial, and Pastor alluded to it, it is no trivial, incidental, casual, flippant thing to consider that you are a child of God. When you walk out in the world, you do so as a prince. You do so as a kingdom of priests who can worship God in spirit and in truth. To think about the immenseness of the origination of you being a Christian. In eternity past, when God purposed, he had you specifically in mind. And as he went through all of what we're going to call time and history, being the author, and he created the world, and then he was going to work out redemptive truth, and it was on display in the Old Testament, albeit prophetically, in types and shadows, and sometimes direct statements. And certainly when the Son of God became the Son of Man, the incarnation, that mystery of godliness, his earthly ministry, is atoning death, burial, resurrection, is ascension on high, is coming again, and then if we dare think about the new heavens and the new earth, eternity future. You think that you are in the midst of all that? That that's no incidental, casual, small thing that we should take for granted. I mean, Jesus said, he that overcomeeth, it is a believer, he shall inherit all things. So when I said that when you walk about in the world, my friend, you are so set apart from the world by his grace, according to his love. It's just a tremendous thought. The overcomer will inherit all things. and I will be his God and he shall be my son in the context of eternity. That is a sidebar thought. I've been thinking about something else for the past couple of months, but that thought kept reverberating in my mind as I thought about a single thought from the passage that we read. And that passage is in verse 11. that I'm gonna guess nobody thought I was gonna preach. And I have been remiss to focus on, to the degree I think God wants us to focus on, eternity future. Verse 11, to those who have like precious faith, for so an inheritance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I purposefully asked Peter not to put an outline or title in the bulletin, because I wanted all of us, myself included, to be not startled, but to realize here is something that perhaps we overlook. You know, we read this chapter in 2 Peter, we read about the promises of God, tremendous, the staircase of divine virtues, the knowledge of God, the working out of our salvation and making it sure. Then we come to verse 11, and I think the tendency could be that we almost set it aside because I haven't yet made my calling in election sure to the level that I think God wants me to or that I've heard preached about. I haven't earned it yet. I can't earn heaven anyway, right? We can never earn heaven. Jesus Christ earned it and he earned our place there and he has gifted it to us. Heaven, eternity with the sage. And we're not even gonna talk about heaven is we're just gonna simply talk about the entrance that will be ministered to you abundantly. I think this, that the Puritans used to say when we contemplate heaven, it should result in our joy being made full. It should thrill us with that joy unspeakable and full of glory. It should reinforce reality of it's no small thing. to be a Christian. We normally think, and properly so, of that relationship with Christ through the atoning death, through the redemption, and we realize it's no small thing. But there's other things in the scripture that reinforce the reality of what it means, the enormity of what it means to be in Christ. Contemplating heaven should reignite that thought that Paul had. Paul said he had a desire to depart, to be with Christ, which is far better. He didn't have a death wish, but Paramount in his mind was the reality of that place, him going there and being with his savior for eternity. Now I know in most churches today there was probably a New Year's message, and that New Year's message is going to be something like, redeem the time, because the days are evil. Or the message is going to be something along the lines of, you know, gird up the loins of your mind, get going, and those are all good. This New Year's message, if it's a New Year's message, I want to focus. on the end game. I want to focus on heaven, something that I do not always do by guessing or assuming that a lot of us don't focus or think about it as often as we should. Sort of the title of an abundant entrance, we're going to look at five things briefly. First of all, a brief explanation of our terms. Secondly, I want to talk about the fact that time is a bridge between eternity past and eternity future. Thirdly, the portal of death. Fourthly, I would like us to think about the entrance of saints gone by and our entrance into that place. And then I'll close with a couple of applications. Again, not an exposition, properly more along the lines of thoughts and encouragement and exhortation, just thinking about the entrance, the entrance that will be ministered abundantly into the everlasting kingdom, and it's the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So first of all, the terms, but before I speak briefly to the terms, I want to just set the context or the overall thought of how God has divinely constructed this entrance that you will have one day. And of course, thoughts and words just cannot paint the picture adequately enough. Let me just give you a context to give you an illustration. If I invited you over to our home tomorrow for some fellowship, a planned visit, and I sent a limousine to pick you up, and along the way I would send constant words to you, texts, emails, I just love you. I just want you to be with me. I can hardly wait till you get here. There's many other people here that are waiting for you, wanting you to be here. And as you're riding in that limousine, you see that I have orchestrated for police to make their way playing, no traffic problems, a clear path to my house. And then you get to my house and there's a red carpet rolled out for you. my family and friends, and extended family and friends that perhaps you don't know. They're there to welcome you, and they're applauding you, and they're shouting for joy. And I had an orchestra that was playing your favorite hymn. And I hired servants, let's call them angels unaware, to minister to you, to attend you coming up to the door, And they would be with you in my house, ministering to you constantly? Besides the fact that you would think, I don't deserve this, you would be overwhelmed. You would be stunned. You would be incredulous. That's a very paltry illustration of how you're going to perceive As sure as I'm standing here, you are going to be so welcome as a believer in Christ, those with like precious faith. You're going to be so welcome into it. You're just not going to believe it. You're not going to be ushered into a side door under the cover of darkness. You're not going to be in a group so you're incognito. You are going to have a divinely grand entrance that has been planned from eternity past. And your entrance is going to be commensurate with equal to the work of what Jesus Christ did to get you there to be with him for all of eternity. Jesus did say, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, that you may be also. He would not have gone through the cross work, through the lifetime of ministry, through the incarnation, through the burial in the borrowed. He wouldn't have gone through all of that. than to open a door to a broom closet and let you into some place. It's going to be equal to what he did for you. God created the world in six days. For 2,000 years, he's preparing a place for his own. Five terms, quickly, entrance. or so an entrance. You know the word Exodus. This is the word Isodos. Exodus means to leave. Isodos, entrance, to come in. It has two meanings. It is a place, like a gate, and it's the act of actually entering in. Both of those thoughts are tremendous. They're monumental. First of all, the entrance can be a place. If going into heaven was a physical place, and I believe the new heavens and the new earth will be physical, but if there was a gate of heaven that was a physical place that you could imagine, how grand, how divine, how glorious that would be. It's also the act of actually entering in. Think about the act of just walking in to the presence of the living Christ. Think about walking in with a perfect righteousness that has been given to you. Think about walking into the presence of God, realizing with a perfect mind, this is my habitat, this is my home. This was prepared for me and I belong here by grace through what Christ has done. Second term, it will be ministered unto you. Again, this is a very interesting word. When God uses this word ministering, there's multi-levels to it, many facets to it. In Corinthians it said, now he that ministers seed to the sower, also both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed zone and increase the fruits of your righteousness. It's a spiritual thing he's talking about here, but he just doesn't stop at the ministry being one-dimensional. Okay, here's some seed. But he ordained that it would be multiplied. It would have bread. There would be a multiplication, a logarithmic multiplication of God's ministry. And is that not how the Lord Jesus Christ himself was? This is a further window. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give his life for many. There's a quality of that that continues into eternity. He washed the feet of his disciples. He made himself of no reputation. He ministered. And so your entrance will be ministered. To what degree? I don't know. I mean, I could say, I have no idea what I'm talking about. How, I mean, the angels, remember Lazarus the beggar, angels came and carried him into the bosom of Abraham. But it will be ministered by God to us abundantly, abundantly. a word that means richly abounding. You will have no doubt when you tread that doorstep into heaven. It will be so abundant, you'll have no doubt as to your admission there. The gates will fling wide open. You will be adorned with every possible grace and virtue and righteousness that you need to be welcome there. Have you heard of any news stories where, let's say there was an apartment fire or a house fire, and somebody just barely made it out, and they interview this person, and their clothes are singed, and they have the smell of smoke on them, and they say something did affect them. I escaped with my life and I have nothing. You will have everything when you enter that place. He is able to do exceeding, abundantly, above all, above all that we can ask or think. Peter later, excuse me, Peter earlier had said the righteous are scarcely saved. And I'm gonna say the righteous might be scarcely saved, but they are abundantly entranced into the kingdom, into heaven. The righteous are scarcely, if the righteous are scarcely saved, but they are abundantly entranced into heaven. Next, number four, everlasting kingdom. God designed his kingdom to be everlasting, and that is a quality, it's a characteristic of that kingdom. We look around the earth today and societies and cultures and earthly kingdoms, they really have to struggle to keep going, they have to fight to keep going, and there's ebb and flow. One of the primary objects of redemption is God wanted to secure a bride for the Son of Promise. And he wanted to do so not in a temporary way, but in an eternal way. And so when he welcomes his own, what are those words he will say? Come you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world. and this kingdom is of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Those are two terms that I am shocked and amazed that Christians fight over and they try to dissect those two or bisect those two. He is forever Lord and he is forever Savior. And this is repeated in the book of Revelation when it's describing heaven. He has on his vesture, on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And he is pictured several different times on his throne and around the throne. There are those who are ascribing worship to him because he has redeemed us by his own blood unto God. out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. It is his kingdom. He built it. He purchased it. He is in his state of exaltation in that place. The Lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land. There's many names for heaven in the scripture. Paradise, Beulah Land, the land of glory, a marriage, the temple of God, the crown of life, the promised land, all those metaphors in Matthew 13. I think the name of that place that sums it up perfectly is that name that Ezekiel gave when he said, the name of that city, he's talking about heaven, the name of that city from that day shall be The Lord is there. We want a synonym for heaven, a name of heaven. The Lord is there. We can't do any better than that. That's briefly just those terms that he uses to describe just your entrance into that place. Secondly, time is a bridge between eternity past and eternity future. This is not original with me. Theologians have noted this. Time is a bridge between eternity past and eternity future. It's not a metaphor. It's reality. Here's the thought, and here's why this is important. The thought is that in eternity past, God-Purpose. In eternity past, before the mountains were brought forth, before anything happened, in eternity past, God-Purpose He designed. In eternity future, His purposes will be perfectly realized. They will be happening. They will be accomplished. They will be enjoyed by you. In eternity past, as I mentioned, one of God's chief purposes was to ordain a people for himself. According, he has chosen us in him from before the foundation of the world. He wanted a bride for the son of promise, his son. He wanted, and the relationship of perfect union and communion is is repeated often in scripture, John 17, Revelation 19, Ephesians 5, the last half of that chapter, Revelation 21, and on and on. Other realities will exist, other imagery is being used, other purposes for heaven. I want to focus just for a moment on in eternity past, God designed that his son in eternity future would have a people that is perfected in union and communion with his son for all of eternity. Now, we're thinking as humans, how do we get from eternity past, when God purposed, to eternity future when everything is realized? to get you, those people that have been marked out, to get you to that place. God inserted this bridge of time where he would begin to work out his purposes and his plans and hone and correct and fix a people for himself. And God's purposes will be realized because of everything that happens on this bridge. Creation. The Fall. All those prophecies and events in history of the Old Testament in its entirety. everything within the New Testament, the earthly ministry of Christ, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, the sending of the Holy Spirit, the declaration of his word, the gospel going into all the world, the recovery and the restoration and the salvation of people like you. All of these are done on this bridge called time, where God gets the maximum amount of glory. People are able to see his wisdom and his providence and ascribe all of the glory to him. That's the thought. Between eternity past, we're thinking about going into heaven and eternity future. We have this bridge of time. where he accomplishes all of this stuff so that when you get to that threshold, you go in. It's perfect. It's complete. He did it. Why is it important? I'll mention that in one of my applications. Fourthly, the portal of death. The concept of death for the believer is twofold. It is a going out and a simultaneous going in. The same event is looked at from both sides. It is a departure and an arrival. Paul uses, the New Testament uses this word, my decease, my exodus, If you recall the message from the Transfiguration of Christ, where Christ talked about his deceased, it was an exodus. When you think of the exodus of the children of Israel, you understand that they departed from the land of bondage. And again, the entrance, isodus, is entering in both the place and the manner. In the New Testament, when the Bible talks about death, what's interesting to me is it uses terms like sleep, rest, a departure, a seed sown, or the putting off of an apparel to put another one on. It speaks about death in this way as opposed to something super terrible or a harsh reality. The world often will speak about death in this way as a rest or a passing away because they are afraid of the reality of death. They don't know what is on the other side. They've dug their roots into the world. This is the best they can get. This is what they have. So death is king of terror. They are afraid of death. And so they try to put a spin on it, or they try to paint heaven with some unbiblical caricature of what heaven's like. But again, the Bible says, it's like a sleep. Because for you, my friend, It is a sleep, it is a rest, it is a departure, it is an arrival with a believer who understands that place. Again, this word decease Paul uses, again, it's a combination of these two, leaving but arriving. Somebody said this, There is not a pinpoint of space. There is not one millionth part of a second of time intervening between the two of when you leave this place and you go to the next. There's no long journey to be taken between the moment you die and the moment you wake up in paradise. Your soul is not going to try to fly through the darkened universe, get to the end of the universe to appear in heaven. The same step that you will take to leave this earth, you're stepping right in. Presence of God. There is this immediacy. Remember the thief on the cross today. That will be with me in paradise. Again, another writer, there is a moment in the life of every believing soul in the which there is a strange mingling where the lights of earth dim as the lights of heaven brilliantly surround you. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And as I alluded to already, The exodus is from this sin-cursed world. And yet when you arrive there, you are royalty. You've inherited all things. You are there with God. Whatever we leave in this life, whatever blessings, good things that God has given us richly to enjoy, positive things, parts of our life, Would you not agree with me that there is, for all of us, the bondage of the flesh, some deep, sad senses that we are limited so much in this world. We're confined by society, by culture, by things we have to do. There's afflictions and trials, vanity and vexation of spirit, anxiety, uneasiness, We have to depend upon this material world for our food and our clothing and our shelter. When you go there, all of those will drop away. And you will walk into that place with royalty. You will have inherited all things. You've been faithful, Jesus said. Remember that foretaste of, he said, be a ruler over 10 cities. when we shared the message on your long journey several years ago, but I made the comment when the exodus happened, what led the procession of the Israelites was Joseph's dead bones. And if Joseph's dead bones can convey the Israelites into the promised land, how much more the living Christ, who has gone up with a shout, Open up, you gates of heaven, and the King of glory will come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. And in the same way we have shared in his death, we share in his resurrection, we will share in his ascension. He has gone before us. He has entered within the veil for us, that we might be a partaker. Some people will leave this earth, dragging their feet, casting in an anchor to hold on. Because sadly, this is all they know. A great career. OK, I can admit that. Yeah, that was a great career. Or maybe they had prosperity. Maybe they had lots of friends. Socially, they were just so vibrant and vital. OK, fine. But do those things count for eternity? Loose the anchor from the world, and throw your anchor behind the veil of Christ, and you will have true eternal life. Life, capital L-I-F-E, with Him. Fifthly, I'd like to speak about, so this is kind of the way I think I'm thinking about an entrance into that heavenly place, and I'm thinking, okay, how did some of the former saints enter heaven? And I thought through a bunch of them. I'd like to give you one from the scripture, one from church history. But what I really began to see and apprehend was all those things in this life that we feel are shortcomings, where the scripture says God makes up for that which is lacking, that when you get there, my friend, there will be a super abounding filling up of all that which was lacking. It's gonna shock you. You're gonna be amazed. Like those in the Psalms, when the Lord turned away the captivity of Zion, and they said, we were like those that dream. You can look back on your life, was I dreaming? Was that real? It was so short. It was like a shadow, a lot of shadows intersecting each other. This is real life. Can you identify with the prophet Isaiah? Isaiah, who sought to share the word, preach the word, evangelize, disciple. And he has to say what? Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? earlier when he saw the Lord high and lifted up in the days of Uzziah, and the Lord calls out from after he saw the Lord high and lifted up, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And he said, here am I, send me. And God said, go and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see indeed, but do not perceive. Make this heart of the people fat, make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and they convert and be healed. Oh, boy, that's a dead end ministry. I can't do that. What's the purpose? I think when Isaiah was entranced into heaven, he saw, he will continue to see that there were people there that he had given up on. I dare say, you will see people in heaven that you've given up on. Isaiah saw not just Israel, but every tribe, nation, kindred, and tongue. And he saw the reality of though some plants and some water and some plow and some fertilize God does give the increase because it's his work. He's the husband of the spiritual vineyard. And Isaiah saw whatever was lacking, God made up. And he will see that when he asked the question, Lord, who is believed in my report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Everybody who reads Isaiah 53 revealed to them And the whole book of Isaiah, if you've been blessed by the book of Isaiah, like I have, you will be able to tell him on that day, I believe the report. And brother, I was blessed, super naturally, I was blessed, finally. Everything that we sense is lacking, God makes up. Maybe you can identify with Daniel Rowland, Church history. Daniel Rowland was a foremost figure in the Welsh-Calvinistic Methodist revival, 1700s. One day, Pastor Rowland was supposed to speak at his own church, fairly large church. The service started. Pastor Rowland was not there. The church progressed through the singing, the prayers, the hymn singing, the scripture reading, And as they were getting to the point of where he was supposed to be there to preach, one of the deacons went to the parsonage next door to make sure Daniel was going to come and preach. And as he's approaching the parsonage, on the other side of the door, he hears Daniel Roland is arguing with this individual who had promised to come to church with him. And now it sounded like he wasn't going to, but the deacon said, He was really being persuasive. He was raising his voice. And it seems like he was begging and arguing. And I think that the deacon came back and he told the church, I think he'll be here shortly. And 10 or so minutes later, Pastor Roland came in and he preached. And the word among the church after that service was that the individual, Daniel, wanted to get to go to church with him. showed up. The Lord showed up. He was arguing for the presence of God, begging, pleading, like Moses, who said, Lord, if you're not going with us, don't lead us, don't take us. Have you ever sought to want to know not in a charismatic vision, dream type way, but the reality of the Holy Spirit giving you heart compressions that he's there. You ever struggled for the presence of God to know it? Have you ever been like Job? Job said, where can I find him? Or the Shunammite in the Song of Solomon, who goes out about the streets at night. Have you seen the one whom my soul loves? The heaven is like brass. I don't think he's hearing me. In heaven, there'll be no striving to know the presence of God. There'll be no loneliness because of a lack of his presence. Remember the name of the city. The Lord is there. I think your entrance John Bunyan tried to, in his Pilgrim Progress, tried to paint a little bit of what that would be like. Excuse me for reading a little bit, but it's hopeful and pilgrim arriving at the gate of heaven. And he writes this, that the shining men, that is angels who had attended his passing from this life to the next, they called at the gate. the gate of heaven. Some looked over the gate. To it, he knocked Moses and Elijah. And it was said, lo, these pilgrims are come from the city of destruction because of the great love that they bear to the king of this place. And every man gave forward his certificate that they had received at the beginning of their journey. The certificate was a token of the Holy Spirit that they were, in fact, truly saved. They had this life precious faith. And they therefore carried these certificates to the king. When he read them, he said, where are the men? And it was answered, they are standing at the gates. And the king commanded to open the gate wide that the righteous nation, which keepeth the truth, may enter in. He goes on, now I saw in my dream that these two men went in at the gate and lo, as soon as they entered, they were transfigured. They had raiment put upon them that shone like gold. And they were met with those who had harps and crowns, and they gave them to them, the harps to praise with and the crowns in the token of honor. And then I heard in my dream that the bells of heaven rang for joy, and they said to them, enter ye into the joy of your Lord. And I heard also the men themselves that they sang with a loud voice, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, to him that sittheth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And John Bunyan goes on and said, now just as the gates were opened to let the men in, I looked in after them. And behold, the city shone like the sun. The streets were paved with gold. And there were many who had crowns and harps. praising God, palms in their hand, and also those that had wings, that cried out without intermission, saying, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. As unbelievable as it sounds, as unworthy as you are, because of God's eternal purpose and what Christ has done for you, and entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let me close with two brief applications. I left out the two-part ending of John Bunyan's description of those who were entering in. When John Bunyan perceived and tried to describe what he thought the scripture was saying about heaven, what he saw when that gate was opened, he then writes, after the gates were opened, he gives that brief description. He goes on to say, and then they shut the gate, which when I saw that, I wished myself among them. I wished I could be there right now. My friend, do you have thoughts of heaven? Do you have thoughts of that eternal blessing? Should we not contemplate and meditate upon the immortality of our souls in that place, the very purpose for which we have been designed? Nowadays, there's just so much focus and enforcing upon how Christianity affects our present life. And it does, and it should. But I think we largely forget the end. We largely forget the reality of where we are going. For the saying, he's so heavenly minded, he's of no earthly good. I think that's a false statement. I think we need to be heavenly minded. That is where we're going. That's where our inheritance is. That's where we've cast our lot. And the Puritans used to say, when we're heavenly minded, we actually become more diligent. The practical affairs and all those things that we should be doing. We should be like the psalmist who had before him that tremendous thought, as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be as satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. When I wake up from this life and I wake up in the next. Let's contemplate heaven. Let's contemplate the entrance. If you extrapolate from the, just simply from the entrance to the reality of heaven, It'll take a lifetime to do that. You're going to fall so far short of understanding what God has prepared for those who love him. Second application. Remember when we were talking about this bridge of time, I gave you a thought and then I was going to say now why it's important. The bridge of time was eternity past. God purposes everything. Eternity future is when everything will be realized. And God so perfectly designed this bridge of time to work out all of these things in the right sequence and the right time so that we see his wisdom. He gets the greatest honor and glory to it that he can accomplish. And so that he can work in you to get you to the point that when you leave this life, you're ready for the next. Brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall not fall. The prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus is so precious. You have to give your calling and election sure. If death is a departure from the bondage of this life and the entrance is into this royal kingdom, You can't do so without the fruits that show all along this bridge of time that we're all walking on, that he has been working in you to willing to do of his good pleasure to get you to that point for all of eternity. Or as our pastor alluded to in the communion time, there can be no entrance in the hereafter unless there has been a habitual entering into the holy place by the blood of Jesus Christ while we were on earth. You're not going to enter there simply because you die here. And so the other part of that closing part of Pilgrim's Progress, there was a third individual named Ignorant who followed at a distance. And John Bunyan describes that he came up after Pilgrim and Hopeful went in and they asked him for his certificate. The reality was he saved. And if you know the story, it says he fumbled around and he could not find it. And so they take him and they turn him away from that place. And John Bunyan says this, this is striking. Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gate of heaven, just as there was a way to hell from the city of destruction." We're so familiar with that passage where Jesus says, I never knew you. Depart from me. Again, we must give diligence to make our calling and election sure, and so that there will be an entrant minister to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Give diligence, but friend, give diligence with your eye on the bright horizon of heaven. Give diligence, not focusing on your works, give diligence with your eye to the entrance, an eye to heaven, an eye to Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank you this morning to consider very briefly a topic that is of eternal How can we speak about it? What can we say? Father, we ask that you would give to us a renewed sense and desire to think about what you have prepared for those who love you. We could hardly contain it. Oh, we pray, Lord, that you would purpose within us to do this very thing, because Lord, I said it would make us more diligent, more holy, more filled with joy. Thank you for this service this morning, the brethren, the desires, the prayers, the scriptures, the communion. We truly are blessed people of all the people. Thank you, in Jesus' name.