3:20, 4:3 Topic #3 Heavenly citizenship #2

OK, well, today we're going to continue on with heavenly citizenship. And let me just go ahead here. So actually, this part, actually last week we kind of spent a lot of time just looking at some of the words for citizenship in scripture. And the core word is like the word we have politics, and so I like to think of it as heavenly politics, not earthly politics. Earthly politics are frustrating. Heavenly politics are glorious. So today I'd like to kind of just go back and review a little bit in Philippians on a couple of verses in Philippians that we talked about. in terms of citizenship and heaven. And I have the rest of the time I like to spend on what I say, other New Testament books on heavenly citizenship.

And we're going to see, I kind of traced through in this section, we're going to see, we're going to trace through a couple of words. The word heavenly places. shows up a bunch of times, about 17, 18 times in scripture. And then just the word heaven or heavens show up 20 or so times. So we're going to take maybe five verses and kind of study those in depth.

And there's some really neat things that come out of our heavenly citizenship. The fact that we are heavenly citizens and the Lord sees us that way and he blesses us that way. So we operate from heaven even though we walk on this earth. That's where we get our identity. That's like, you know, when we travel, you travel as a U.S. citizen to another country, your identity is a U.S. citizen. That's who you are. People say, oh, you're from the U.S. or you're from America or you're from here or there. Well, in this time period we're on earth and we're representing, we're citizens of heaven, we're representing our heavenly citizenship. So it's kind of, some of the truths we know from scripture in the light of heavenly citizenship are kind of cool. So we'll see that in a minute here. OK. So now let's just look at the verse that we covered much earlier this year. Conduct yourselves.

And that's that word that has kind of the core word of politics, or politomai from the Greek. basically we see to it that you recognize your responsibility as a citizen of heaven. Since we are heavenly citizens, yes we act in accordance with who we are. So we looked at that a little bit last week and then the other verse that is our citizenship is in heaven and it's a cool thing that word is, is this kind of unique word that is the idea that it exists or has a fixed location. So our citizenship has a fixed location, and then from which, or out from where, we eagerly wait, or expectantly wait, for a savior. And that's kind of cool.

I just thought, you know, I just, on Mike's study on Wednesday, I was just kind of remarking, you know, the Lord says we're waiting from heaven. And you think, well wait a minute, I'm not physically there, but our identity is there, so in a sense we're waiting from heaven. Or see another verse that talks about we're waiting, in a sense, but it just says we're waiting for the Lord's return. But this says we're waiting for heaven, and we're expectantly waiting for him, for the Savior.

That's just some really cool concepts. And like I said, some of those are, your mind kind of has to do little flips. You think, wow, I'm waiting for heaven. You think, well, maybe Miles is right. Keep looking down. Yes, honey? Sorry. You have exits, I'm sorry. Oh, do I? Where do I have it? Exists, though. That might be confusing to people. After is?

Oh, you're right. You're right. Thank you. Yeah, actually, that's also wrong in the previous handout, too. I kind of pasted that wrong. Thanks. People might get the wrong idea. It's funny. I look at that, and I wouldn't even know. I didn't even see that. Anyway, I apologize for that. Thanks, Juanita. OK.

We have a citizenship, it involves like a nation, it involves like a relationship of a governing body that we're a part of. Is heaven a place? I guess that's my question. If we're in a place looking from which we are waiting for the Savior, or are we there already in His body, and He is Heaven, and wherever He is, is Heaven. I'm trying to put that together, Roger. Well, you know, there's verses like the heavenly Jerusalem, that word heaven, and we're going to see a bunch of those here in just a minute, and I'm not sure I haven't... But this sort of separates us from the Savior, that it's from there we're looking for Him. Yeah, I know.

This verse is really kind of a unique verse, this one, you know, 1 Corinthians 3.20. It says that we're eagerly, expectantly, from, you know, out from where? From which? So is this like our condition? Well, I see that, well, I think this mostly is position.

But just like we, we're going to see that we have our All that we have in Christ is based in heaven. We're blessed in heaven, right? We're blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. So our blessing, we're in him. And where is he? He's seated at the right hand. Do you see that too? Well, there's a lot of verses that talk about heaven as being God's home. That's where he lives. That's where he dwells. If we're in him, then we are in heaven. We're with him.

And that would be our position. That's our position. That's how... This sort of talks about that we are... that from there we're waiting for... Well, haven't we all always said, you know, we said a lot at Holly Hills, we said we base our condition on our position. We look to our position and we conduct our lives based on our position.

Okay, I'm just asking. I know, and I'm not sure I have an answer. That's an interesting question. Would some of it potentially have to do with the fact that we exist in time and whereas The fact that eventually we will be, conditionally we will be in heaven with the Savior. Right now there's a separation, our condition and our position are separate. But we still are, in God's view, we're already heavenly citizens residing with Him. It's all present.

I was wondering too, at least on that Philippians 3.20, because 21 talks about changing our bio-body. So maybe we look for the Savior so that we're completed at that point. Well, we're going to see some verses here, very shortly here, that talk about we're waiting for the Savior's return and He's going to take us safely, bring us to Himself. So our condition and position are going to match. I think this describes a positional aspect, but it seems like we're waiting from there. We see ourselves, even though we're here on this earth, we see ourselves waiting in heaven. kind of a mind-boggling thing.

That's why I don't understand that. It's hard to grasp that, and that's what we're trying to do right now. Anything else? I know that was my question. Yeah, no, I agree. That point reminds me of 1 John 3, 2. It just says, Beloved, we are God's children now. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. So that's a particular point in time. When we meet the Lord physically, then we will be changed.

Right. Well, let's go on and maybe we'll shed some more light on this. Maybe. It's a very interesting verse. I mean, even when we covered it. I think Bob actually covered it. But anyway, it's an astounding verse, I find. Because it forces us to say, and I think it forces us to say, God looks at the whole picture. He sees us completing Christ. And he says, in my perspective, you're waiting from heaven. Because that's where your citizenship is.

I don't know. Maybe. All right. So let's go on. So what I want to do here is I want to look at, I think I have five verses I want to look at. Three of them are in Ephesians. So the first verse is that, let's go back. Actually, I thought it would be good. Let's go back and just read Ephesians starting in verse. Ephesians 1. starting in verse 15, and kind of get the context here for this. And could someone read Ephesians 1, 15 through 20?

Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus, the Father of glory, in the knowledge of Him. The eyes of your understanding haven't been enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.

Thanks Roy. Okay, so I want to start with this and now I want to kind of transition to our position seated with him, which actually occurs in chapter 2. So this verse says, speaking of Christ here, it says that By the strength of His might, He brought about in Christ, God the Father is in view here, it says here, and these are in accordance with the strength of His might, the Father's might, which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. He raised them from the dead and seated them at his right hand in heavenly places. And if you notice, I don't have it italicized, but most places, most places, the word places is italicized.

So it's been supplied. So it's just heavenlies, in the heavenlies. And places, it just means, you know, to help us out there, heavenly places. But it's literally the heavenlies. So, several things here. He raised him. He seated him. You know, there's a verse in Mark that talks about he was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

So that's, and that's the place of, actually that's one of the questions I have here. So let's just look at, there's that verse, and I'm going to ask some questions about here in a second. And then here's the verse a little bit later on. It talks about the believer and it says, but God, And I kind of skipped some parts of it. God made us alive, God's performing the action, made us alive with Christ, by grace you've been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And again, that's in the heavenlies. In the heavenlies, right. And once again, places as in supplies. It's not there, it's just in the heavenlies.

So what does it mean to be seated? I think it's just kind of nice to review it. So it says Christ was seated. He was seated at the Father's right hand. It says we're seated. So what is that concept of being seated? What is that about? I've always looked at this as being given authority, being given a position as a right hand man. Exactly. More than a physical sitting down. Right, exactly.

It's a place, you know, there's a bunch of verses, and we don't have to look at them, that talk about that the right hand of the Father is a place of honor and power. So, what's interesting is that the Son is set at the right hand, and that we're going to be seated with Him. I mean, that's, you know, just some of the implications here, Donna.

So, seated has to do with a finished work also? Well, you know, what's interesting is here, it's not something Where in here do you see, what part did Christ have in his seating? What part did we have in our seating? The literal translation is, to cause to sit down, is the literal translation of seated. So Christ was caused to sit down by the Father's action, and it says that And we're part of this picture. This is the wonderful identification truth. So Christ didn't come alone. I mean this is just mind-boggling. He didn't come alone.

We were co-raised, that word raised up together is actually the idea of co-raised, and we're co-seated. So when the Father set the Son at His right hand, we were there as part of that, and that's what's so incredibly wonderful about being identified with Christ. It's just, you think, well wait a minute, the Father's given the Son special a special place of honor and privilege, and we're there with him. I mean, it's just, you know, that's why going through this is just, you know, you think, wow, heavenly citizenship is incredible. It's really, that's what it's all about.

When we say position, then, the concept in mind is, it's a place. But in reality, it's more than that. I know. And that's why the word places, I don't know if that helps or not. Because you tend to think of a place. We're back to this place thing again here. But it's actually a person, right?

We're in Christ. Right. We're in Christ. We're with a person. So that place is in the heavenlies, which is probably the better way to look at it. In the heavenlies. We're with Christ, seated at the right hand. And we're there now. And we're there now. And that's back to this thing about time.

And that's what we say our position in Christ, right? Okay, so some of these questions are... When were we raised up and when were we seated? It shouldn't be hard for Holly Hillites, right? When we trusted in Christ, that became real to us. Obviously that happened 2,000 years ago, but for us, for the believer, that's when we believe it. It wouldn't be before the foundation of the world.

Well, I was just saying what I was trying to say, and you're right. You're right. And that's true. I probably am misspeaking there. We were with Christ, but it is not... So he's taken us outside of time. Yes. He's taken us into himself. Right. In the environment that is without time. Which we can't comprehend. Right. But we're there. We're there.

And it happened before the... You know, you think, well, in time I'm not a believer yet. But we were with him when he was seated with Christ in the heavenlies. That's kind of... It's kind of the way our kids ask, you know. Where was I before you had me? We have an answer.

It took us a while to figure out how to phrase it, but you were in God's mind. And that there's an eternality of trust that has to exist there in the mind of the child. And we're not much different in that case. I mean, you're right, we don't get eternality, but that's who our Savior is and that's who we're in. Yeah, I know. And these concepts are heavenly. It's just, you know, your mind starts...

Well, that's what the Lord Jesus said. I give unto them eternal life. I am come to unite and have eternal life. And I always like to ask, when does eternal life begin? It's present time. It's right now. Right now. And that's a cool thing, right? I give you, you have it right now. And that's what's wonderful. It's not like I'm waiting for eternal life. I have it. And that's what this is all about too, seated with him in heaven. It's not like we have everlasting life. It's eternal life. Okay. What are two important aspects of our seating? This is just me looking at it. So what do you think? Can you try to read Roger's mind here?

Maybe not. It's in the blue. It's in the blue, yeah. It's in the blue. Raised up and seated maybe. Raised up is in the blue. Well, I was just looking at the two cool things here. It says we're seated with and placed in. I thought that was kind of neat. We're with and we're in. You think, well that seems, with seems like we're like side by, if I'm with Gail, I'm walking with Gail or next to Gail. But then it says we're in Christ.

So I don't know, it's kind of. That seems to be like a holy, I mean that's such a different religion or proximity to a god or anything, you can have conversation with, and it's intimacy that doesn't exist in any other analogy at all. It's just different. It's totally different. It's totally heavenly and totally, you know, comprehension-wise it's just, wow, how can that be? I'm that intimate with the Lord. I'm in Him. But I'm with him in the sense that we're going to hang out. We're going to fellowship.

For the sake of the recording, it might be good to just say that in Corinthians we're told that the Holy Spirit has done this. He's identified us as his body permanently. And that's what we're talking about here, right? Well, this is the core of what we call positional identification truth. This is the core of that. And it's just so wonderful. It's all wrapped up in our heavenly relationship with our Savior. It's also interesting how other belief systems have you in things.

You know, you're one with a tree, but you're not with. I know. There's not a fellowship. That's what it ends up being. It's like it's just your drop of water in the shoreless ocean, and you don't exist any longer. You're just part of it all. So they kind of grab hold of this oneness concept, but they don't understand the width. Well, they don't have a width. It's empty there. It's void.

And the cool thing is that this is a person. This is a person. And that's what's so wonderful. It's not like this is some, I'm floating around in the heavenlies or whatever. It's not at all. We're with a person. And that's what makes it wonderful. So getting back to my question. So the heavenlies is wherever Christ is. I'm not trying to put you on the spot. No, no, no, no. I'm trying to think through it like, you know. It would seem that way. I hate to answer it. We're not totally thinking through it.

Didn't the person of Christ take on humanity for purposes of existing in time so that we could understand and we could grab hold of But because he is both God and man, he's still uniquely different. And so our mind, it comes to a point where there's the eternal factor again. And Christ is eternal, but yet he also was born, and he died, and he went to heaven.

He's a real man today. That's right. He's a real man today. And so it's a new form, right? You've got God, and you've got man, and then you've got the God-man. Right. when you say, wherever Christ is, there's heaven, well, it would seem to me that that wasn't the case until he took the form of the God-man at the right hand of the Father. And it all has time and place. I mean, time and place are very important to the creature and to God's plan. Take the Millennial Kingdom. He's going to be on earth in the Millennial Kingdom and we're going to be with him.

So in that sense, that's why I've been hedging. It's just a thought that when we think of that we are in Christ Jesus and he said whosoever has seen me has seen the Father. Was it Nicodemus? Philip, I don't remember, in the Gospels. But he also says that he's dwelling in us and that it is Galatians 2.20 says that he is living his life in us right now.

And that's the condition right now, that we have. That's not talking position, that's position, but condition. That's who we really are. And so he seated us at the right hand of the father in him, and he is in us. I'm wrestling No, it's an excellent question. Let's go on. The next verse is the third verse in Ephesians.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Once again, the places have been supplied, just in the heavenlies. So we kind of talked about where we are, so now we're going to talk about how we're blessed, if you will.

So what kind of blessings are spoken of here? Is this talking about me getting a new car? Spiritual blessings, right? I may have an old beat up car, but spiritually I may be just fine. Some of these questions are pretty, how many spiritual blessings are we receiving?

Every. And every is that word pas, P-A-S in Greek, which means all, if you translate all or none, None excluded. Of the type of spiritual blessings, he didn't say, I'll hold one of these spiritual blessings back for you here. And when you're really, really good, I'll give it to you.

No, we get them all, which is just another amazing thing. Whether we understand it is another question. And we probably don't when we first believe. We don't understand that we have all spiritual blessings. We're just excited about being saved. Where is the location of our spiritual blessings?

All this is pretty straight. So once again, the focus is, it's in the heavenlies, right? And it's in the heavenlies, and it's in Christ. Fourth one. Why are these spiritual blessings in Christ? In some cases, I'm not sure I have exactly... We are born again as spiritual creations. Exactly. We're spiritual beings now. Right.

It wouldn't make any sense for them to be someplace else, right? It's not like, well, there's a bunch of blessings over here, outside the Savior. I mean, it wouldn't make sense. You know, I'm reminded in this of a little phrase that you hear quite often where people say, well God isn't going to ask anything of us, that he won't give us what we need to do it, that kind of an idea.

But he's already given us everything that we could ever need. So I guess it comes down to believing that, trusting in it, and letting him do his work through us, instead of looking around for what is God going to give me to handle this situation in my life. It seems like we always tie it to the earth. We don't tie it to physical things.

Am I healthy, wealthy, and wise? Or whatever. But we are mortal. Well, what's cool is, these are not places that are going to be corruption, right? What's cool is, all these blessings are not on the terra firma. And yet, he is dealing with the nation of Israel in a physical way. Exactly. And so there's a parallel ministry of God here. Right. Absolutely.

These are things that are true of the church, the body of Christ. And that's a distinction that people don't want to make or for whatever reason. They want to combine Israel and the church and make them the same. That's why Burns has been almost two years now talking about law and grace, trying to show us the difference between the nation of Israel and the church. God is the same God, but he's operated differently with those two bodies of people.

And then the last one, how should this change our prayer life? Sometimes as a young believer, Lord, please bless me with, you know, you think, well, wait a minute, I've been blessed with every spiritual blessing. Why am I asking Him to be blessed? I already am. And that's a revolutionary concept. When you get a hold of that, that will change so much. Well, that's what Paul was praying in Ephesians. That's his prayer. It is not that we will have eyes open, but that because your eyes are already open, you may see these things. That's his prayer. He goes through, you're right. That's his prayer, that you may realize all these wonderful things that you have in Christ. And that's what our Christian life is about, really.

Aren't we constantly doing that? Isn't that how we're growing? We're realizing what we have. We haven't got to it yet. There's a verse here that I said, well, I didn't realize this little connection. I'm going to get to it here. Two more to go? Actually, a few more to go. Better move along here. Sorry to be talking to myself here. Anything else on this one? We're going to move on here. Next verse.

Colossians 1, 3-5 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love which you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in the heavens, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel.

Some of these questions are, how certain is hope? Absolutely. Absolutely. If God is the source of that, if this is Roger's hope, you've got a problem. It's the hope that the Broncos win. Well, Roger, you know. In God's hope, it's an absolute certainty. What's interesting is here, hope is almost like a commodity. Look at this. Because the hope laid up for you in heaven.

It's like we're putting nuts up in the... And it's interesting is that... Let's go on here. What does laid up imply? It's already there. Okay. What's interesting is this is in the present tense. So I take that to be that it's not complete. And I think that's because of the hope. If it has been laid up, obviously all that we are in Christ, our eternal security is there. But this is almost speaking of something a little bit different. And let me offer a verse here. Let's look at 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy 4. Someone read 2 Timothy 4.

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Is that the right verse? Yes, that's exactly the right verse. And before that it says, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. In the future there is laid out for me, the same word, a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day.

So this sort of brings an idea of crowns. So I was wondering, I'm not sure I have, possibly, because this is present tense, talking about the things that we do as we walk and abide with the Lord. He's living his life through us and the things that we do, we'll get crowns for the things that we trust the Lord and we did in his strength. Could this be speaking of the fact that that's what's being laid out, the works that we do in his power?

Just a thought. I actually didn't spend a lot of time going down that path. But the fact that got me on that was the fact that it's in the present tense. And usually that means it's continually going on. Is it present tense here in Timothy 2? I'm not sure of that. I don't know. It's translated the same way. Yeah, it is. Like it's passive and past. I don't know. I didn't check it.

What's the tense in 1 Timothy 4.8? What's the tense in the future that is laid out for me? I don't have mine either. Zodiatis says it's present indicative middle. That's the same tense as this one. So, if it's present tense, it's being laid up.

So that's interesting. And that kind of goes in with the crowns, the crowns of righteousness. So I don't know, that's interesting. This is just one of the main things I kind of came across here, that this is ongoing. Well, I've already got, obviously I have all that I am in Christ is laid up for me in a sense, and my salvation is laid up for me. It's secure.

But this is kind of speaking in a different Well, when I just translated it there, it sounds like it's passive, but it isn't passive according to what she said in the middle. Which means, it is laying up, the hope is laying up for you in heaven. Who's the actor? Because the hope is laying up for you in heaven.

Interesting. Yeah, it is. Alright, we're not going to have a whole lot of time. All these questions you're going to have. Why is it important that hope is in heaven? This is sort of like the answer to this question. I always think of hope as like a certain confidence, a security, and there isn't any of that in this. No, there's not. Nope, absolutely not. It would have to be in heaven. To be godly hope, it would have to be in heaven. Yeah, our focus is on this spiritual. Okay, this is the one that just kind of struck me. How can we have love for all the saints? The answer is in this verse. So what do you think? Just look up. It's in blue. The answer is in blue. Actually, another little thing, because can be translated on the count of. Because can be translated on the count of.

So how can we have love for all the saints according to this verse? Just in the interest of time here. Because hope is sent in men for faith. we're believing, I mean, the confident faith in the heavenlies. Well let me just tell you my idea here and see what you think. Basically it says here that first of all, since we heard of your, so Paul's saying here, he's talking about the Colossians, he says in verse 4, since we heard, heard of the Colossians' faith in Christ Jesus, so they came to salvation, and the love which you have for all the saints because of or on account of the hope laid up for you in heaven. So what kind of struck me was that because it's secured that we have this hope that we have this absolute certain we have in heaven, we can, we are free, it frees us to love, to love the saints.

And I kind of twisted, this is kind of flipped around a little bit. Wow, isn't that interesting? And I think that's true of so many things that we have. Because of who we are in Christ, that frees us to really look at the important things, to love the brethren, to be self-sacrificing, to not worry about so many things, not worry about what tomorrow holds, because I know who I am. So I thought it was kind of an interesting thing, at least it hit me, that how can we love all the saints And that can be a difficult thing. Sometimes there's friction among believers. And the Lord says, you know, you look at basically the hope I have in heaven, I'm sure that I don't need to squabble down here.

I don't know. That's something that came out. When you think that we're all God's creation. Exactly. It's easy to look at each other. I remember a person, I think it was a guy named Pastor Steele, I listened to when I first, he was a pastor in California. He's going to be with the Lord.

I like to look at other believers, even the ones I have difficulty with, as if Christ died for them specifically. I know he did, but you look at them in that perspective. you know, to back off and to ease out, not to be so uptight. My relationship, well Christ died for them, wow! He died for me too, and he died for everybody. In fact, he died for all mankind. But by looking at the person that you may have difficulty with as Christ died for them, that helped him to not, you know, to relax. And I think that's what it's saying, looking at your hope laid up for you in heaven, you can relax about those things, even though they may be difficult.

The context of the gospel is is there present too. I mean, the belief in Christ and then the word of truth and the gospel itself, it's that message of love laying down for life. You know, even for a friend in the sense of loving a brother, that sacrificial love of the gospel is present in our sacrificial love for a fellow believer. It's the context of it.

And there's a contrast between the law and grace also. The law says, love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your strength, and one another as you love yourself. But Christ said, new commandment I give unto you, love one another of the same kind that says, as I have loved you. I know. Right.

And that's sort of the same, you look at the hope you have and you say, well my relation with my brother, it's okay. I have another verse in 1 John 3 it says everyone who has his hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure. So there is a purifying effect or our motives become right when we have our hope fixed properly. Two more verses.

1 Thessalonians 9 and 10 For they themselves report about us what kind of reception we have with you, and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, that is, Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.

First question, what two aspects of the believer's life are mentioned here? So first of all, they came to salvation. It says, and you turn to God from idols. So I look at that as they're saved. And then the first one is you're serving to serve a living and true God.

So that's our walk. And secondly, we're to wait for his son from heaven. So two things. We're serving and we're waiting. I thought that was kind of interesting. So we're serving and we're waiting. So you turn to God from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven.

So a question I asked here, and you can't know it unless you look up the words, what does the weight in this verse, how does the weight in this verse compare with the eagerly weight of Philippians 3.20? They're different Greek words, I'll just read you what they're, so what's interesting, this word, this weight here is the idea of, is this word meno? I think Roy knows what minnow is.

It's the word for abide. So this word here, it's the idea that you're abiding and you're abiding with the Lord and waiting for his return. So abiding is like abide with me, abide in me. So it's been translated waiting with a patient and confident expectation.

Now the eagerly wait, Philippians 3.20, is more the looking looking expectantly for his return. So there's a slight difference, or close, but a slight difference here.

Why is it important to know that we will be rescued from the wrath that comes? So I was looking here just kind of thinking about the fact that people kind of get, we're getting a little here about the end times kind of stuff I think. Are we going to get all upset about the wrath to come? This says, to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us.

Actually the word rescue is kind of an interesting word. It's the idea to be drawn to himself. So he wants to draw us to himself. That's the idea of rescue here, to draw to himself. And there's a verse in 2 Peter, it says, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation. The same word, to draw to himself. for that one?

That was 2 Peter 2.9.

I'm reading in Romans and it seems to me that in Romans it says, here it is, Romans 5.9, much more than being now justified by his blood, pronounced righteous by his offering. we shall be saved from wrath through him. Same idea? Right, right.

Oh, that's Romans 5.9. Okay, good. Okay, so we're going to see a little bit more about rescue here in the next verse.

Okay, 2 Timothy 4.18. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom to be to him to be the glory forever and ever. Amen. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Excuse me.

Okay, and actually I like what Weiss did down here because he puts in for this word rescue, it's the same rescue that we had in the previous verse. He puts in the kind of literal translation, the Lord will draw me to himself away from every pernicious work speaking about the devil's pernicious work, opposed to that which is good, and will keep me safe and sound for his kingdom, the heavenly one, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. And I was thinking here, that literal translation, how does the Lord rescue me from every evil deed? We have the world, the flesh, and the devil are impacting us as a believer. And what does the Lord want?

He wants us to hang out with Him, to abide with Him, to walk with Him, to fellowship with Him. That's His rescuing plan, if you will. We can be drawn away from the Lord. We can lose fellowship with Him. So it seemed to me that kind of fit. This verse is kind of telling us He wants us to draw us to Himself, to abide with Him, to walk with Him.

And that will keep us from every evil deed. It's interesting that there's a rescuing that is positional when we're saved. I just got it as a cross-referencing. Matthew 27 talks about, He trusts in God, let God rescue him now. So there's this rescuing that takes place the moment we believe and we're positionally identified with Him.

But because there's this condition, that's what hope and eagerness and waiting, those are all conditional attitudes that are based on our position in Him. And everything implies that That's good. Actually, what you see in here, you'll see parts that are speaking about our position, and then there's things directed to our condition, that he wants us to, in our Christian walk, he wants to rescue us in the sense of saying, come walk with me, come fellowship with me, hang out with me, is how Malloy would say, hang out with me, And that evil deed, that won't attract you. You won't have a problem with that, as you walk with me.

That's the person doing it. I was thinking it was evil affecting you. Evil from the outside. But you're saying it's from you. You not doing the evil deed. Well, let's see. You may have got it wrong. No, I mean, I don't know why I'm talking it that way. So that's our evil deeds, you're saying. He will keep us from that if we're focused on him, you're saying. Right. The Lord will rescue me from every... What were you saying again? I was thinking it was evil... Is it your evil deed or is it the evil deed of the world? Oh, okay.

One of the things that really jumps as his new creation and it is not that we are absorbed into him and become nothing, but he is definitely taking us as an entity, as a being into his heavenly rule. That we are positioned there is a fact, but our condition as an entity is a new creation that he thought of us in eternity past and gave us life. existence, if you will, in his body, as part of him. But we're still part of him, not him, but we're an entity with him. That I think speaks to what you mentioned earlier, that in religion, that speaks of God, it's like we're being swallowed up and we don't exist anymore.

But in Christ's rule, That is interesting, isn't it? That's what this verse says, doesn't it? Yep, it does. And the last one, why is it important to know the Lord will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom? I think it reduces fears. Exactly. I think this is all about kind of saying, I saw, this is like the We talk about sometimes the word salvation or God's salvation has like three aspects.

I was saved from the penalty of sin. I'm being saved right now as I walk from the power of sin and I will be saved from the presence of sin. This is speaking here of He wants to rescue me in my condition as I walk on this earth from every evil deed. And then he wants to bring me to complete salvation. He brings me safely to himself and I've completed his word called salvation.

Past, present, and future. In that context, Paul is going through persecution for the gospel. And he talked about being rescued out of the lion's mouth in the previous verse. And so his hope is built on The Lord stands with me here and strengthened me to proclaim this message to the Gentiles. This is where I'm headed. This is where my hope is. And so, I think, to Vaughn's point earlier, I think this has to do with being in the presence of evil, but having this hope and the safety of being rescued to a new place with the person of Christ.

I really like the safe and sound part. Like you say to your kids, you're going to be safe and sound with me. Don't worry. Dad, it's, oh, I don't know. It's OK. You'll be safe and sound. We'll be fine. And the kids say, OK. They're so trusting. OK. It's just neat. All right. All right.

Well, what I was going to do, you could go through and just, I was going to write down kind of one-liners, just about our heavenly, you know, with the idea of heavenly, and write down each of these points through all the, you know, the lesson here. Kind of write that down.

It's a closing chart, but I, time didn't permit. When I tell you, I spent too much time already. My time expands the days I have available. So if I have one day, it's one day. If I have three days, it's three days. He said, Roger, what's going on here? So I need to be mindful that I, you know.

Roger, I'm reminded of Hebrews 11, 1, where it says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And it's so easy in this life, for me at least, to feel like heaven and all of that is kind of nebulous and pie in the sky and all that, as people used to say.

It's not a reality and we don't really know what it is. But this is saying that there's, and I haven't looked up these two words, substance and evidence, to see what they mean in a brief, but it has the idea, I think, of real. actually existing. And the evidence, of course, of these unseen things is in the word. It's the only place it's revealed at all. But it's a reality, an actual thing. And if the sky could split open, we could see that. But we can't. That's not happening. But it's true anyway. You can't see it. Already?

Well, thank you. Thanks for all the good thoughts and participation and corrections. I appreciate that. OK, let's close. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for this day, Lord. Thank you for the blessings we have, Father. Thank you that we can know what You provided for us about our heavenly relation to You and our heavenly seating with You and just so much that we're to base our Christian life upon and that's to motivate and to cause us to be at rest and at peace about our daily walk with our brothers and sisters in Christ and about our future going to be with You, Lord. We thank You for Your marvelous Word. In Christ's name, Amen.