ETERNITY NOW 

   PART TWO

ETERNAL LIFE-----NOW

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud
voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying,
"Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power
belong to our God, for his judgments are true
and just; he has judged the great harlot who
corrupted the earth with her fornication, and
he has avenged on her the blood of his servants."

Once more they cried, "Hallelujah! The smoke
from her goes up for ever and ever." And the
twenty-four elders and the four living creatures
fell down and worshiped God who is seated on the
throne, saying, "Amen. Hallelujah!" And from
the throne came a voice crying, "Praise our God,
all you his servants, you who fear him, small
and great."

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a
great multitude, like the sound of many waters
and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying,

"Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the
Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and
give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb
has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen,
bright and pure"--- for the fine linen is the
righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, "Write this: Blessed
are those who are invited to the marriage supper
of the Lamb."                        Revelation 19:1-9a

What we're looking at in the above passage is a picture of

final judgment. We tend to think of judgment as something

negative. But God's judgment is never negative, it's always

positive. It's God giving to each soul the destiny it's chosen

for itself.

- Judgment is righting wrong.

- Judgment is separating evil from good.

- And final judgment is the eternal outworking
  of the choices we have made on our journey

    through time.

So, Lazarus the beggar is carried by the angels into
Abraham's bosom. And the rich man begins to experience
the flames of Hades.

In each case each one receives the very best that
Eternity can give it on the basis of the choices that it
made on its journey through time.

So, the rich man knew every time he passed that beggar at
his gate without giving him a second thought that in
doing this he was choosing the way of death ... he knew....
just as you and I know every time we harden our heart
against our fellow man. And the beggar lying at this
gate covered with sores with nobody to show him mercy but
the dogs, also knew that God had not forgotten him.         That
somehow, one day, he would be

- by the judgment of God,

lifted out of his misery and taken into a place of peace
and rest .... he knew.

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud
voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying,
"Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power
belong to our God, for his judgments are true
and just; he has  judged the great harlot who
corrupted the earth with her fornication, and
he has avenged on her the blood of his servants."

Once more they cried, "Hallelujah! The smoke

from her goes up for ever and ever."

And so the City of this world goes up in smoke. The
system of this world is judged. The god of this world is
judged. And the hearts that gave themselves over to the
god of this world are judged. And the Bride of the Lamb
has made herself ready. Her members, those people of God
who, in fact, gave themselves utterly to the way of the
Lamb are now assembled at the wedding feast.

But what we need to see is that the Eternity which will
then receive us into the habitation of heaven or hell is
not something waiting for us on the other side of death.

Eternity is not something that we will begin to experience
when the Messiah comes and vindicates the name of God
on this earth .... Eternity is here now. Eternity per­meates

and charges and watches over and judges every second of

time. Judgment---holy, righteous, awesome, perfect, un-mistaking

judgment, burns in the room where you read this, breathes over

our souls, shines through every second of this present life.

My sheep listen to my voice, and I know
them, and they follow me; and I give them
eternal life, and they shall never perish,
and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.

Now if  we listen to the voice of the Shepherd, know
that he knows us, follow him ... when does he give us
eternal life? After we die? If we listen, really listen to

his voice, know that he knows us and follow                                                   .
him, we step into God's glorious, blazing, blessed,
wonderful, shining Eternity—now!

The kingdom of God is like treasure
hidden in a field, which a man found
and covered up; then in his joy he
goes and sells all that he has and buys
that field.         Matthew 13:44

What is the treasure? The treasure is Eternity. The
man gets hold of this treasure, he finds it there,
lifts it up,
looks at it, and
he sees the living God judging the earth.

It is interesting to notice that that parable is sand­wiched

in Matthew 13 between two parables of judgment.

 
The Son of man will send his angels, and

they will gather out of his kingdom all
causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw
them into the furnace of fire; there men
will weep and gnash their teeth. Then the
righteous will shine like the sun in the
kingdom of their Father.

Matthew 13:41-43

And then come the parables of the treasure in the field

and the pearl of great price. And then another parable

of judgment.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net

which was thrown into the sea and gathered

fish of every kind; when it was full, men

drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the

good into vessels but threw away the bad.

Matthew 13:47-48

Looking at this treasure the man who has found it sees
that life is not absurd, haphazard, random chance as it
always seemed to him to be, but that God is even now

judging .... he's in charge. And seeing this, in tremendous
joy he sells all that he has to get in there and live
under God's judgment. For God's judgment is life .... it
separates that sin from me, that evil from me, and lifts
me up into his presence.

John the Baptist sits in prison bitterly disappointed
because the Jesus he had announced as the Messiah isn't
acting like the Messiah. He's not bringing the kind of
kingdom John the Baptist is looking for. And so John
sends two of his followers to Jesus to ask him, "Are you
the one who is to come, or should we look for somebody
else." Jesus responds, "Go back to John and tell him
again the things you see and hear .... the blind receive
their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf
hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news
preached to them." What are these things? They are
Eternity breaking through the crust of time!

Each of these things is judgment coming down into the
realm of time. Judgment on sickness,

   on sin,
   on death,
   on injustice,

                                on the mercilessness of the
great harlot ..... and the poor have the good news preached
to them. And the good news is that the harlot is judged…
that God's in control.

And when Jesus the Lamb hangs on that cross, this is

eternity breaking through into time .... it's judgment.
As Jesus dies on that cross, the Father's judgment
comes down into this world .... judgment against the
prince of this world Satan .... judgment against human
sin.... judgment against the curse of death. No wonder
there was an earthquake and the veil of the temple

was torn in two from top to bottom and the graves were
opened!

When three days later the Son of God rose from the
dead, stepped out into the morning air in an incorruptible
body, this was Eternity again breaking into
time bringing divine, awesome, holy, final judgment
on the human race.

And when fifty days after the resurrection the Holy
Spirit is poured out on the church on Pentecost, this
is Eternity invading time ... the Holy Spirit brings
Eternity right down into our midst. This is God pour-­
ing out on this earth a life which will be this earth's
final Judgment.

And when he (the Spirit) has come he will
convict the world of sin, of righteousness,
of judgment. Of sin because they believe
not on me. Of righteousness because I go
to the Father and you will see me no more.
Of judgment because the prince of this world
is judged.               John 16:8-11

My sheep listen to my voice and I know them
and they follow me; and I give to them
eternal life, and they shall never perish,
and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.

Now the one who spoke those words is among us.......
The same Spirit that visited the church on Pentecost
is among us..... and he still speaks. If we listen

to his voice, know that he knows us, and follow him...
he gives us eternal life. We have it and we know
that we have it. We don't wait until we die to get

it, we get it now.

So, what is eternal life? Eternal life is the judgment
of God coming down into our midst and separating us from
our sin and our death and our blindness .... lifting us up
into two things:

Eternal life is to know God.... really to
know God.

Eternal life is to live in God's nature.

l. Eternal life is to know God.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the
hour has come; glorify thy Son that the Son
may glorify thee, since thou hast given him
power over all flesh, to give eternal life to
all whom thou hast given him. And this is
eternal life, that they know thee the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

John 17:1-3

To know God.... really know him .... not just knowing things
about him.... his attributes,

his characteristics, but to know him.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall

see God.                                   Matthew 5:8

If your eye is single, your whole body is full of light.

When the light comes on inside us and our whole body is

full of light we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus,

we see the hideousness of our own sin, and

we are lifted up into life. With the eyes of our heart

we see God ... love him ... listen to him—talk to him...

worship him ... walk with him.

Abraham could haggle over whether or not Sodom should be

saved ... down to ten righteous men ... because God was his

friend. He knew God. He had eternal life by the power

of the blood which was yet to be shed for him.

Stephen could walk into the jaws of death without fear

or bitterness because he knew God ... he had eternal
life.

Mary Magdalene...when the light of God came on in her
heart she saw God, she saw the hideousness of her sin
and easily turned around into a totally new life...
she knew God, she had eternal life.

My sheep listen to my voice, and I know
them and they follow me; and I give them
eternal life.

When we gather at the table of our Lord. He gives us
his body to eat, his blood to drink. He gives us eternal life.

He comes down into our midst with judg­ment.

- He judges our sin....

- He judges our blindness...

and he causes us to know. And when we know, we have
eternal life.

2.  Eternal life is to live the nature of God.... not
     just talk about God's nature, but to live it.

Beloved, let us love one another; for love

is of God, and he who loves is born of God
and knows God. He who does not love does
not know God; for God is love.

I John 4:7-8

Agape love.... self-giving love .... mercy love....holy,
pure love.

To live in God's love is to spend our lives giving.
The purpose of life is no longer to see how much we
can accumulate or how much we can achieve, but to
give ... to give of ourselves in the situations in which
we find ourselves. Simple down-to-earth giving,
giving, giving.

In this the love of God was made manifest
among us, that God sent his only Son into
the world, so that we might live through
him.                                    I John 4:9

And to live through him means that we live in his nature.
We begin to do the same things he's doing. In him we
begin to give.

To live in God's love is to lay down our lives.... pour
ourselves out, not in big dramatic acts but in the
simple circumstances of every day.... to die to ourselves,
to lay down our lives for each other.

In this is love, not that we loved God but
that he loved us and sent his Son to be the
expiation for our sins.

I John 4:10

He was the expiation for our sins by dying.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought
to love one another.            I John 4:11

My sheep listen to my voice and I know them
and they follow me; and I give to them
eternal life and they shall never perish, and
no one can snatch them out of my hand.

When we leave the Lord's table, we go forth
into that world to live eternal life. To live the life
of Eternity that not only waits for us at the end, but
shines upon us and burns within us right now. To go out
there and love each other,

our neighbor, and even
our enemy.

And as we do this, the divine, holy, clean, saving,
healing, judgment of God goes with us wherever we go.
And,

- the blind receive their sight,
- the lame walk,

- lepers are cleansed,
- the deaf hear,

- the dead are raised,

- the poor have the good news preached to them....

that the harlot is already judged and that God is on the
throne.

My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them
and they follow me, and I give them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. And no one
shall snatch them out of my hand.