I'm gonna start out reading from 1st John 1 to 3, if you'd please turn with me in your Bibles there. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we'll be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Amen. So this morning, we're going to be talking about the beatific vision. I had first gotten excited about this topic a few years ago when I read Grounded in Heaven by Michael Allen. I have the book here with me if anyone would like to take a look at it after this lesson. It's one of those books that I picked up I just could not put down. I would highly recommend it. If you do not know who Michael Allen is, he's a systematic theology professor at RTS. Yes? Sure. He's a systematic theology professor at RTS. He labors a lot to stress the catholicity of the reformed faith and the continuity that we all have with the patristics and others within church history, and showing that the Reformation was not something that just came out of nowhere, but the ideas have existed throughout the entire history of the church. So he wrote this book specifically to try and center eschatology once again on God specifically. show that this is a big part of reform thought. This book is not the only book I'm utilizing. I'm also utilizing Seeing God by Hans Boersma. I can pass that around after, too, if somebody would like to take a look at it. Other than that, I'm utilizing John Owen's Glory of Christ, Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Moses. And this teaching doesn't follow specifically any particular book, but are just my thoughts after reading these works. I've added a list of recommended readings as well on the back of the outline, if anybody would like to ponder this topic a little bit more. So I've named this lesson Concerning Our End, the Beatific Vision. It is particularly when we stop again and take a look at the end for which we are made, our purpose, that we are fueled once again to live life in light of that purpose. We see the goal and we press on towards the goal. Next Sunday school we're going to be discussing how this end then calls us to live in the present and what God gives us now as foretaste to stir up our souls in walking towards that end. So I'm gonna start out right now because I've, I had mentioned to a few people what the topic I was doing was on and a number of people had told me they had never heard of the beatific vision before. So I'm gonna start out basically where Michael Allen does in his book talking about why why this is something that is no longer been a part of common talk anymore, particularly in the reformed world, but in the wider Christian world. So he starts out his book talking about eschatology, recovering what the true Christian hope is. He mentions how, sorry, he mentions that a lot of Christian thinking with regards to the end times has fallen into a kind of eschatological naturalism, that because, Herman Bovink and Abraham Kuyper, for instance, and I will say right at the get-go, this isn't an issue that either of these men themselves had, but there had become so much of a focus on the new heavens and the new earth, God's restoration of the earth itself had ended up becoming the front and center that people talked about more than anything else, that specifically, The moment when we see God face to face started falling by the wayside is something to be talked about. And in a lot of ways this happened particularly because of the rise of dispensationalism. Hermann Bavink in his big dogmatic spends almost the entire end of his fourth volume going against dispensationalism because he saw it as a threat coming into the world at the time. And he talks a little bit about the beatific vision and in a number of his other works. A lot of their followers ended up speaking almost entirely about the new heavens and the new earth and the restoration of all things and not speaking so much about what our ultimate hope is, which is that we would see God. And Michael Allen also, within this section, he says that we should be careful that a lot of times it needed correction on an issue. end up becoming the main point later on, which will end up causing us a little, a number of issues down the road, which it kind of has with regards to this. This is a wide thing for us all to take heed to. When many of our forebears in the faith saw something as more important than a lot of other things, we will, we often criticize them and say they were wrong, and then 100 years down the road, we realize that they were actually a lot more right than we were, and we should have listened to them better. So we must remember, as many of the neo-Calvinists have tried to remind us, that everything that God has created is good. Earthly life is important, that everything that God has created is good. It does matter to God. We must keep things in their proper order. But what is the highest end? What is the ultimate purpose we are made for? We know, of course, the answer to this. It's in our first catechism question. What is the chief and highest end of man? Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God and to fully enjoy him forever. Yes, this is our highest end. Above all earthly ends, our portion, our purpose is for God himself. Boersman's book is well for why this doctrine has not been spoken about as much in recent times, blames the rise of medieval nominalism and how that affected things later on. I'm not gonna talk about this right now, but I just wanna throw it out there if anyone would like to, Ask me about it later after class. But, so Michael Allen and Hans Boersma as well stress in both their books that the beatific vision has been a huge focus of life within not merely the broader Catholic tradition, but especially the reformed tradition in particular. Many of the Puritans, including Isaac Ambrose, he wrote an entire book called Looking Unto Jesus that is walking towards the beatific vision. Richard Baxter and His Saints' Everlasting Rest. Thomas Watson in his Beatitudes speaks about it. And the entire end of John Owen's Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ speaks about it. So this is by no means not a big focus within our very own tradition. I hope I've made my apologetic for why this is very important to be talked about. There are many differing views between some of these men in regards to their explanations of the beatific vision, but it is something very important for us all to ponder on. Okay, so now let us turn to the topic. The beatific vision is what we are created for. It's a doctrine we've all encountered in the scriptures. This word is not in the Bible, but the concept is biblical. Beatific vision, or the Visio Dei in Latin also, is a theological term referring to when we finally see God. Many of us have probably not looked at this very specifically before, so let's start out with defining what the beatific vision is exactly. What is the beatific vision? The word beatific sounds like and is closely related to the word beatitude. Look at the beatific vision, often we'll point to the specific beatitude on the Sermon on the Mount that's speaking about our seeing God, that says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. So the beatific means blessed. Beatific is a Latin term which derives from beatificus, which means to make blessed or to make happy. Blessedness is what God is in and of himself. Paul speaks much of the blessedness of God and states that God is blessed. In 1 Corinthians 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the triune God dwells in eternal bliss and blessedness in and of himself. So the beatific vision is a vision that makes us happy. This is the vision of God. It is a participation in the blessedness of God. When we get to see God as he is, which we read earlier in 1 John 3, 2, beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. This is the hope that we look forward to. This is the immediate vision of God when we finally behold him with unveiled face, the ultimate expression of blessedness for the human being, our ultimate end. This is what we look forward to with respect to the end. There are many differing views with regards to eschatology, what will happen exactly when Christ returns to our earth. And it's certainly good to think about what the scriptures say concerning those things. But the center of our eschatology must be our desire for God. If we're merely centered upon the renewed earth and we miss God, we can easily fall into idolatry and sentimentality towards the things of the world coming back. God desires us to enjoy every good gift that's coming from him. They are his gifts to us. But we must keep the highest good, God himself, as our main focus. And in those gifts, we ought to praise God for them. As coming from his goodness, as an expression of his goodness, they ought to bring us to see his character, his perfect being, which is goodness itself. And to take joy in his gifts, particularly because they reveal more of himself to us. The works of God show us God's character. they ought to bring us to bless God more. Even in getting the gift, we look beyond the gift to the giver. Likewise, we don't praise God only because of his works, but because of who he is. David says in Psalm 27, four, one thing I have asked that the Lord of the Lord that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. We of course know that David asked for much more than this. There's plenty of it recorded in the Psalms. So why does he say this one thing have I asked? Because God was his main focus in comparison to everything else. The desire he had to behold the beauty of the Lord was his main focus, his main desire. It is the one thing his heart truly desired, so much so that he could say, one thing have I asked. This one thing superseded all his other desires because he saw God as his highest good. He saw God as his ultimate happiness. God was preeminent in his focus. So we must be sure when approaching the final things, our final end, our hope, what our heart truly desires is God himself, to see God and to have this fellowship with him. Let this prayer be ours as well as David's. Now in regards to the beatific vision, what do we mean exactly by this vision? Vision is a metaphor in some ways of the beatific vision, but it does also, which I'm going to argue in agreement with John Owen and most of the Puritans I've read on this topic, that the beatific vision is also a literal seeing with the eye. So, for instance, Thomas Aquinas and a few other medievals will say this is merely a seeing of the mind, where God enlightens our mind to see him and to understand more of him than before, which John Owen agrees with, but he says it's much more than that. The Bible speaks of this intellectual understanding, the seeing God with our intellect. Paul says in Ephesians 118, having the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? This is a seeing that John Owen refers to as intellectual. It's a seeing of the mind. This is how God himself sees. Is it not? God is a spirit. He does not have physical eyes. God's seeing is an intellectual seeing. He sees in his unfathomable, boundless wisdom. And we use this word this way in normal discourse as well. When we're trying to see something or perceive something and somebody explains something to us, we say, ah, now we see. So seeing, but even when we see with our eyes, we're seeing and knowing the thing that it is we're seeing. We're receiving knowledge through the sense of sight. So even when we're seeing God with our physical eyes, we're seeing it and we're receiving knowledge of his glory. But of course the scripture as well holds out the hope of seeing God with our physical eyes as well. Job 19, Job says, and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall behold for my, whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold and not another. We see that the seeing by the scriptural witness cannot possibly be only a seeing of the mind. And the fact that Job says his hope is that in his flesh he shall see God, his eyes shall behold him. But when we approach this topic, it seems to pose a bit of a problem for us. We confess in our catechism that God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable. Spirits are invisible. God is invisible. How can we see someone who's invisible? The children's catechism we use here is even more explicit. It asks us the question, can you see God? The answer being, no, I can't see God, but he can always see me. Are these catechisms simply wrong? We are able to see God, right? The scriptures say as much. This is actually the line of thinking that G.C. Burkauer took that Michael Allen points out in his book. He denied God's invisibility because the biblical witness of our seeing God was so explicit. But this is not simply contained in our confessions. Our forebears, of course, thought very hard about this as well. And we see how clearly the scriptures reveal this fact as well to God about us. In 1 John 4.12, we read, no one has ever seen God. 1 John 1.18 also says no one has ever seen God as well. God tells Moses in Exodus 33.20, no one can see me and live. And perhaps the most explicit out of any of them, Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 6.16, speaking of God, that he alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one ever has seen or can see. So God is invisible in his essence, we cannot see him. This isn't merely an issue with regards to fallen humanity's inability so often to see God as he is revealing himself, but this is who God is in his being. He is a spirit, he is invisible. But we can still see that God has been preparing his people to see him. Paul tells us in Romans 1 that God's invisible attributes have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that are made. So God is already stooped down and revealing himself to us that we may see him immediately through the things that he's made. The invisible God is revealing himself through the visible creation. John Calvin called the world that God has made the theater of God's glory. God's glory shines through the things that he has made. So God has imprinted his very nature, so to speak, in the works of creation. This isn't pantheism, of course, but we see God's handiwork and his beauty manifested in those things which he has made. We see immediately through the visible creation the invisible God. But this, of course, isn't all there is. There are countless theophanies we have throughout the Bible where God is veiling his glory, but still making something of his presence known to his people through visible things. We don't entirely know what is being seen, what the object is that they're looking at in many of these contexts, and we don't wanna speculate too much, but this was in such a way, God was in a way manifesting himself to them but in such a way that none of them could have ever been said to truly see God. He appears to Abraham in the form of three men in Genesis 18. We have Jacob's wrestling with God, God's appearance to Moses in the burning bush, his appearance to him when he gives him the law on the mountain, the Ten Commandments. Then we have when Moses approaches God and asks him to see his glory. God's appearance to Joshua in the form of a man with a drawn sword when Israel was fighting against her enemies. And these are all veiled appearances of the invisible God. This is what the tabernacle and the temple of Israel were all pictures of as well. God's glory dwelt there. And the people were to go there and worship him, beholding his glory in his temple. God manifests his glory God manifests his glory, his beauty through the temple. God is omnipresent, but his special presence was dwelling amongst his people in the tabernacle. Bezalel and Aholiab needed to be filled with the spirit just for the work of constructing the tabernacle because it was to be a place where people went to see the beauty of God there and for God to dwell there. We see Solomon as well when he was having the temple built using such elaborate details to make visible God's beauty there. But we see in John 1 that Jesus himself was that to which the tabernacle pointed to. In John 1.14, we read, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. When we read that section there that says God dwelt among us, the Greek term is eskenoson. It literally means to tabernacle or to pitch a tent. So, it's setting for the idea which Christ himself would of course say later in his ministry that he was the temple, the true tabernacle, to be destroyed that would then be raised up three days later. He is the greater temple to which the old temple pointed to because of the union of his two natures, deity and manhood. He was the true temple where the glory of God dwelt and would remain to dwell forever. The fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily, as Paul tells us. The focus is no longer on seeing God in his temple, but seeing God as he has revealed himself in Christ. Let's take a look quickly at the passage in Exodus I alluded to a few minutes ago. In Exodus 33, Moses said, please show me your glory. And he said, I will make known, I will make all my goodness pass before you. and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But, he said, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. But, he said, and the Lord said, behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock. And while the glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen. Gregor M. Nyssa in his book, The Life of Moses, while contemplating this passage, points out that we already see in this cleft of the rock a type of Christ. We have numerous allusions all over the Old Testament that Paul tells us later are a rock that points to Christ. When Peter gave his confession of the Messiah, Jesus told him that his confession of who he was was the rock upon which his church would be built. And in this rock, we see a picture of Christ. We see God through the face of Jesus Christ. And this is already an Old Testament allusion to this fact. So Christ reveals God to us being himself God. Paul tells us in Colossians 115 that Christ is the image of the invisible God. God himself took on human flesh and we are able to see God now through the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has explained the father to us, told us of himself and has revealed and brought his spirit to us. As John one tells us that the one that was in the bosom of the father, the son has made him known. You'll notice that there's many passages contained all over the Old Testament that speak of our seeing God and the desire to see God. Pretty much every single New Testament reference, you don't see the terminology of seeing God, you see the terminology of seeing Jesus Christ face to face. Because he is the manifestation of God for us. He illuminates our eyes in order that we may see him, both the eyes of our intellect and our human eyes. We see through Jesus Christ even now by the eyes of faith. Of course, seeing Jesus in his earthly ministry due to sin did not see him for who he was. They didn't recognize him for who he truly was. His divinity was veiled much more than it is even now as we behold him by faith. As he teaches us by his spirit through the scriptures, and even more so than when we finally see him as he is. Sorry, and even more so when we finally see him as he is. We see now with the eyes of faith. We do not truly see with the eyes of understanding as we will see then, although we do in part now. But we see much more than those who walked with Christ saw. Jesus said in John 16, in the Upper Room Discourse, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. So Christ had perfected the spirit in his human flesh. He poured it upon his people in a much greater measure than it had been previously. He's united us to himself through his taking on human flesh and has taken the veil from our eyes, enabling us to see him more clearly as he's revealed himself, particularly in the Old Testament scriptures. We see him mostly through reading the scriptures now. And on the Emmaus Road, Jesus chastised two of his disciples, telling them, oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. this being prior to Pentecost, but now having this fresh outpouring of the spirit, Paul says about us in 2nd Corinthians 3, since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened, for to this day, when they read the Old Covenant, That same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yet to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. So the light has already come in greater measure in the world to enlighten our minds so that we can see Christ much more clearly as he has revealed himself to us in the scriptures. Paul rhetorically uses this very glorious language to stress how much more amazing the new covenant is that it has now been partially fulfilled, awaiting its final fulfillment later in comparison to the old covenant. He says earlier in the same chapter, Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters of stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because Sorry, I lost my spot. Because the glory that surpasses it, for if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. But when Paul explains the glory that we're now experiencing in comparison for what we will then see at the end, he says in 1 Corinthians 13, instead of using the language of our eyes being unveiled, He says, for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, but these three, but the greatest of these is love. So as we see Christ now by faith, we can see that we see much, much more than anybody in the old covenant could see, so much so that we can be said to have the veil removed from our eyes. But we've not had the veil removed from our eyes in the sense that we are seeing the beauty of God that we are actually going to see at the end. So now we anticipate much greater glory. When we die, we'll be brought immediately into the presence of Christ in order that we may behold his glory. But even this is not the finality of the beatific vision. At this point, there's a little bit of a dispute between a number of people within church history. Some people will say we don't get the beatific vision until the final resurrection, and some others will say that we get it after we die. I think it's perfectly proper to speak of both, but I'll explain that in a minute. This, the reason why there's this dispute particularly is because a number of the texts that speak, proof texts that are used to speak about the beatific vision are very clearly talking about the resurrection. So, in Psalm 17, 15, David says, David says, as for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. And the awakening that David is speaking of there is usually seen as an allusion to the resurrection of the dead, that he's looking forward to beholding the Lord's face when he awakes. And the passage that I'd spoken of earlier from Job, he says that in his flesh, he will see God. But I become convinced that it's proper to speak of both as the beatific vision. As long as we admit that there is a human being is made, God made us as both body and soul. So we are still lacking something in heaven when we're awaiting the final resurrection of the body. We are not fully complete until we're united with our bodies. But the big difference between when we die and we go before the presence of Christ in our souls as our souls will be perfectly sanctified and we'll have no more sin. So we'll be able to see Christ in our souls and all of his glory without sin. So it will far surpass any of the glories that we have in this life right now when we die. But our complete humanity must have its completion in fellowship with God. Gregory of Nyssa actually, he doesn't see the beatific vision so much as something to look forward to, although he does, but he explains it more so of something that because we're in the now and the not yet right now, we really do participate to some extent by faith now in what we will have to a much greater extent later. So when we see God through faith now, we're getting glimpses of the beatific vision, and that's to fuel us forward to continue walking towards that end. I'll talk about this a lot more next week when we discuss walking toward the beatific vision and what it calls us to. But now I want us to take a look at what is the full final consummation of the beatific vision, our true hope in this life, is of course when we're finally raised again and we see the face of Jesus Christ, not simply in our souls, in our intellect, but with our physical eyes, we get to see God because we're transformed into his likeness with no more sin. So we are going to see God through Christ. No longer will his deity be veiled to us, but as John tells us in 1 John 3, 2, we shall see him as he is. We shall see his glory. Because of the hypostatic union of the God-man, we shall behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ because we shall be resurrected in spiritual bodies, will be given spiritual eyes. Our eyes and our mind shall be transformed to behold the essence of God through Jesus Christ. To see Jesus in all his glory is to behold the very essence of God, but not to ever comprehend that. Christ will mediate the invisible God to us through his person being himself God. He will cease being the mediator, though. We'll no longer need Christ to pray for us before the Father, because we'll be perfectly sanctified. He's gonna, as 1 Corinthians 15 says, he delivers the kingdom over to the Father, but he will still be the one that is visible through whom we see God. But we can never move beyond Christ. Think of it like the transfiguration, but it will not only be for a moment, it will never end, and there'll be no holding back, and our eyes will be fully transformed to see it. There'll be no more sin, no more sadness or grief distracting us from his face any longer. We'll not run in fear or dread to a sight of his holiness, but we'll marvel at it. Jesus prayed for us in John 17, 13, that we would have his very joy fulfilled in us. This is the joy that Christ has in union with the Father and the Holy Spirit that he's already had for all eternity. He has called us into this fellowship through union with him. When our spiritual eyes see Christ and behold his glory, we're not merely beholding the glory of Jesus Christ as a human being, but we are seeing his deity shining forth through his person. We can be said to see God. Through his humanity, our eyes are transformed by the Spirit once again, that we may see him as he is. That's what the passage in 1 John 3 says, that we'll see him as he is, we'll see God. And if we are seeing the Son's divinity revealed to us, we are seeing the triune God's glory through Jesus Christ. God cannot be separated. Remember what Jesus said to Philip when he asked Jesus to show him the Father. He said, have I been with you so long, Philip, and you still don't know me? If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. He said concerning himself, I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. To see the Son is to see the Father, and the Spirit as well. Remember, Paul tells us that all the fullness of God dwells in him bodily. We'll behold the glory of the triune God in the face of Jesus Christ, and it will be amazing. But can we get bored with seeing God? Is that just the end? Gregory of Nyssa actually has this amazing concept called epictasis, which is a Greek word coming from that verse where Paul says he's forgetting what lies behind him and straining forward to the upward call of God. It's a word for the straining forward. So he had been dwelling on the insatiability of man's desires. Man, we desire something, we take it, we get it, we just keep desiring more and more. And that's actually given to us by God. We just write, we place it on the wrong object very often when we're coveting things. This desire of ours will be fulfilled throughout all eternity. in our delighting in the being of God. God is still incomprehensible. We'll never be able to see all there is of God. Remember earlier, we had quoted 1 Timothy, where Paul says that no one ever has seen or can see. This is the true sense in which we can't ever see God. We see some of God, but we cannot ever see all there is to see of God. And contrary to this being a reason to despair, that we can't ever get to the bottom of God, It's actually something for us to glory in because once the beatific vision reaches its point of finality and we're in our resurrected bodies, there will be more and more glories ever revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ. There won't ever be a lack there. The second we see something and we desire more, we'll see more and we'll see more. And the second we desire more, it'll immediately be fulfilled again. So God will show us more of his glory in Christ, and in turn, we'll desire more. And no sooner than we desire more, we'll see more. He will show us more of himself, but we're still full. We're not lacking anything anymore. A friend of mine that I was talking to about this, he likes to describe it in the form of a bucket that's filled with water. It's completely full, but it keeps expanding. So it never stops being full. But it just, the bucket itself keeps being bigger, remaining full. And that's kind of what, his way of explaining what it will be like. Because we can never lack that fullness anymore. We are complete, but we continue to see more glory. I made this discovery while I was looking through this that I was very delighted to know that this is not simply an early church father doctrine. Thomas Watson, uses this exact same concept in his work on the Beatitudes. He says, for the divine essence being infinite, there shall be every moment new and fresh delight springing forth from God into the glorified soul. The soul shall not so desire God, but it shall be full, nor shall it be so full, but it shall still. So sweet will God be that the more the saints behold God, the more they will be ravished with desire and delight. And I was very happy to see this, because it's very comforting to me every time I see something from our Reformed fathers, and they're just recovering early church doctrine. As well, corporately as the church will be singing his praises, every single person will see the glory of Christ. This is not, yes. And then when we look up again, there's new things. And then we bow down and worship again. And then we look up and there's new things. So it never ends. There's always something new. That's a great way of expressing it. I thought when I heard her say that, I thought, wow, that's really good to think of it that way. Yeah. Amen. Yes. Amen. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to talk about this more next week, but one of the, John Owen talks about it in his meditations on the glory of Christ and how we, we just, we go to prayer, we dwell on the scriptures and we see something of the glory of God in the face of Christ as we're seeking him. But unfortunately, we have to go back into our lives, and we have to keep that in remembrance while we're walking through the world, and not just allow ourselves to get distracted from that, which is incredibly hard, and we fall into sin so often, and our minds get distracted from God. We do truly get glimpses of that We get to participate in that now as we meditate on how God has revealed himself to us in the scriptures Any Okay as well corporately as the church will be singing his praises so I'm I It's going to be a lot better for us. This is not simply a me and God alone vision. This is something the entire church is going to be beholding. And we even know in this life we see something amazing and we want to bring other people to see it. And we're all going to be delighting seeing this in the presence of everyone else for all eternity. The entire church is going to be corporately singing the praises of Christ as we are beholding his face. He'll be the object no longer of our faith, but of our very sight. Whatever caused sadness for us will have passed away. God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Our hearts will be filled with an expressible, inexhaustible joy. And the light that shines in the city of God will be the lamb. As we read earlier, through God's light is how we see light. The light is Jesus Christ. He's the lamb that will shine in the holy city through which we're able to see God. And I have this quote in here from Johann Gerhard. He was a Lutheran, Lutheran scholastic from the 17th century. This is in his meditations, sacred meditations. He has a specific one on the beatific vision. He says, to see God, ah, that will surpass what is all the joys of the earth. To gaze on the face of Christ, to live with Christ, to hear the voice of Christ, will far exceed the most ardent desires of our hearts. O Lord Jesus, thou most blessed spouse in my soul, when wilt thou bring my soul into thy royal palace as thine honored bride? What can I want there that thou will not supply? What more can we desire or look for when God himself shall be all in all? Oh, that will be as beauty to my sight, honey to my taste, music to my ear, balm to my nostrils, and a flower to my touch. God will then be all in all to thy soul. What is here dark and mysterious, even to the most learned in the church, will then be plain and clear even to the smallest children. Christ in his blessed and glorified humanity shall there be present with us. and with sweetest voice shall disclose the hidden mysteries of our salvation. Sweet shall be his voice, and comely his countenance. Grace is poured into his lips, and he is crowned with glory and honor. We'll all delight more in knowing him as his bride, corporately as the church, because all our sin will be gone. And we'll no longer have any need or worry that any knowledge that we receive won't immediately sink down into our hearts. Every bit of knowledge we receive of God will immediately bring out in praise from us towards him. We'll no longer ever get a glimpse of Christ like we do when we so often read the scriptures that won't that will have our hearts feeling unmoved. We'll see him and we'll immediately feel his presence. We'll immediately feel the joy that he has for us in seeing him. We've spoken of the sight of the eyes and our minds, but these are metaphors in some ways and they don't, none of these things we've spoken of can fully capture the reality of what it will be like then. We have the words that God's given us, but human words fail to express the beauties, the glories that will be revealed to us then. Our entire being will be satisfied in the presence of God for all eternity. He can never be exhausted. The glories of God that will continually be revealed to us in the face of Christ cannot ever end. It'll truly be amazing and awe-inspiring, and that great John Newton hymn, Amazing Grace, expresses this point very well. When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. This is what Christ purchased for us. He took on human flesh to bring us near to God and to clear away all the sin that kept us away from him. His point wasn't just to get rid of our sin, it was so we could be reconciled to him again, so we could have fellowship with him again. All the benefits we have in this life is forgiving and justifying us, is simply to bring us to this end, to clear away all the barriers that stand between us, and our beholding of his face, our communion with God, and to transform our lowly bodies to be like a spiritual body, so we would reflect the image we desire to see in us. We'll be fully transformed into that image, being able to see him as he is. What we are to be, we don't fully know, as John 1, 1 John, One, sorry, John tells us in 1 John 3, 2, beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. We'll finally know to a more full extent than ever before what it truly means to be partakers of the divine nature. As Peter says, we have already become sharers in. We'll be the sons of God. We already are the sons of God, but we are awaiting that full adoption that has not happened yet, as Romans 8 tells us, that the sons of God await. Verse 23, Romans 8, verse 23, and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly, as we await eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. We'll be godly. God-like in the sense that we'll reflect his holiness in a full extent that we have never seen in this life. And we'll be truly said to be the sons of God. And we still await this final consummation. And I just have a few points of practical application for the end of this. So we ought to make sure to set aside time to consider our end. It's to ponder it, to think of why we are pressing forward. This is the hope set before us for why we live the lives we live right now. We must reorient ourselves to this goal, and we do that through pondering our end. Point two, 1 John 3, 2, as we've read a number of times already, we read that everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who desires to see God will purify himself in this life in waiting to see him. How can we say that we long to see him, that we have this hope of his in us, that we shall be like him if we're not striving to reflect that image in holiness now? The writer of Hebrews tells us as well to pursue the holiness without which no one will see God. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. We will not see God if we are not pursuing him and those things that he has called us to now. It makes no sense that we would desire to see the image that we were created in, the image of Christ. It makes no sense that we would desire to see that image and not reflect that image as much as we can now. To see God in Christ in sin is actually to bring dread upon ourselves. Even John at the beginning of Revelation, when he sees Christ in his glory, He's lived such a long life of holiness and he still fell before him in dread. As we get glimpses of Christ in this life now, we want to make sure that we're growing in holiness and in desire for him. Point three, we must very intentionally set our affections upon God himself in this life. We want to see him, we ought to pursue the knowledge we can have of him in the here and the now. We want to meditate upon who God is, We want to learn as much about Christ as we can so that we're stirred up more for what we're going to be doing for all eternity. Point, application four. Our eyes are made to behold the very beauty of God in Christ. So in this life, we ought to not set our eyes upon vain, useless, lustful things. We ought to guard our eyes and make sure that They're not looking at things they ought not to look at. Our eyes are created for the very purpose of beholding the beauty of God in the face of Christ. They're not made for looking at defiling things. And likewise, point five, our mind as well was made to contemplate God, to perceive his glory. This is the eternal end we are made for. It's what we will be doing for all eternity. So then how are we to take our minds and dwell upon useless, wicked, lustful things, anything that our minds do not need to be dwelling on? Our minds are made to contemplate God, to know God and to know his glory. Okay, any questions or comments? Yes. Yeah, I'm gonna be talking about this a lot more next week, but one of the things particularly that Michael Allen talks about in his book as well is that when we have God set before our eyes, we are able to see the world in its right perspective. And this is actually particularly why so much of the stuff in the world, when that's what's being focused on, it loses its meaning. Like we see a tree outside, like it's just a tree, that tree was created by God. If you just see trees, if you just see the creation and its meaning is supposed to be found in itself and not in its creator, the things start to lose their meaning. Nothing in the world has any meaning apart from its manifesting God's glory, its creation by God. So in enjoying the things of the world, the right perspective is to keep God highest in our perspective. So we're not making those things as an idol, but we're enjoying them as God's good gifts. Yes. Yes. That's actually another thing that I have after the first section that I'm talking about next week as well. It's just like the Sabbath is really our It is our heaven on earth right now walking towards that end. We come here, we see the preached word. Christ is showing himself to us to see him in the preached word. He does that in the sacraments as the signs he's given to point to himself for us as well. And the Lord's Supper is really anticipating the marriage supper of the lamb when we drink with him for all eternity. All of these things are just, our baptism is a sign of our union that will be much greater when we are in heaven. And as long as we're viewing everything in this world as leading us to God, we're able to view it rightly. There's so much in the scriptures and in hymns as well, dwelling upon the beauty of God in the creation he's made. The only thing that's bad in creation is the sin that causes us to treat it in an idolatrous manner so often. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. But I was talking to a fellow from that church a while ago, and just talking about situation. And I mentioned the fact that we were talking about this guy. I said, I think that thing is an idol to him. And he didn't have a concept of what an idol was. It was blank. He didn't see that in this world, you can create idols. Yeah. Yeah. of stuff that you're talking about today. Yeah, it's scary that we can so easily turn everything into an idol, good things. I mean, we had been talking about the other day of the Song of Solomon, what's the, well, me and Elder Harris have been talking about what the correct way to read the Song of Solomon is, but there's, There's been this idea with many people that because most of the church fathers and the Puritans and the reformers all saw it as a picture of Christ and his church, that that has a lessening view of marriage. If marriage is pointing to this thing that's greater, it actually has more meaning, not less meaning. Any other questions or comments? Okay, let's end with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning, for bringing us into your house. We pray for the rest of our Sabbath today that you would bless us with more of yourself, that you would reveal yourself to us through your word, which you've given us. We pray that you would make our hearts anxious in anticipation for this glory that we are to behold the end of our lives, we pray that you would stir our hearts up more for this throughout the entire day as we ponder the things that you have to speak to us. We pray that your spirit would be at work amongst us, both in the preached word and in our hearts, that we would accept and be enabled to live in accordance with this word. We pray for all these things in Jesus' name, amen.