Will you please turn to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 9? We will read the last sentence of verse 10 and the first few words of verse 11.
Imposed until the time of setting things right.
But Christ being come.
Turn also to the Gospel according to John, John chapter 1, verse 14.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,
and we have contemplated His glory,
a glory as of an only begotten with a Father,
full of grace and truth.
John chapter 2. We will read from verse 13.
And the Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
And He found in the temple the sellers of oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting;
and having made a scourge of cords, He cast them all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen;
and He poured out the change of the money changers, and overturned the tables;
and said to the sellers of doves, “Take these things hence; make not My Father’s house a house of merchandise.”
And His disciples remembered that it is written, “The zeal of Thy house devours Me.”
The Jews therefore answered and said to Him, “What sign showest Thou to us, that Thou doest these things?”
Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
The Jews therefore said, “Forty and six years was this temple in building, and Thou wilt raise it up in three days?”
But He spoke of the temple of His body.
When therefore He was raised from among the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.
The book of Revelation, the last book—Revelation chapter 11. Just one verse, verse 19.
And the temple of God in heaven was opened,
and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple;
and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders,
and an earthquake, and great hail.
The same book, Revelation chapter 21. Just here and there, a few verses. Chapter 21, verse 10:
And he carried me away in the Spirit,
and set me upon a great and high mountain,
and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
having the glory of God.
Verse 22:
And I saw no temple in it;
for the Lord God Almighty is its temple, and the Lamb.
Chapter 22, verse 3:
And no curse shall be anymore;
and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it,
and His servants shall serve Him;
and they shall see His face,
and His name shall be on their foreheads.
And night shall not be anymore,
and no need of lamp and light of the sun;
for the Lord God shall shine upon them,
and they shall reign to the ages of ages.
Shall we have a word of prayer?
Heavenly Father, we do want to thank and praise Thee that Thou hast been so good to us. Thou hast been so merciful and so gracious. We do praise Thee for Thy presence with us, and we do believe that Thou art here now, even now, with us.
We are on holy ground. We want to remove our shoes, wait upon Thee, and say, “Lord, what hast Thou to say to us?” We want to see Jesus. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
These morning sessions, we have been fellowshipping together on the ark. We see in that ark the eternal purpose of God. That ark is a type of God’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is the eternal will of God that His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, shall have the first place in all things. He is to sum up all things in Himself. Everything shall speak of His glory. This is the position of the ark, and this is the place of our Lord Jesus.
Then we shared together on the ark in the lives of God’s people, as illustrated with the nation of Israel. Now, brothers and sisters, we find that our Lord Jesus is our ark, and He is the very center of our life together.
It is in Him that we are made one. He is our Head. We who believe in Him are His body. He is our Leader, who leads us together as God’s people through this wilderness, the world, until we arrive.
He is the only One who is able to solve not just our individual problems, but our corporate problem, if we only will just lay it at His feet. We also see that He is the One who leads us into that spiritual battle. He has already overcome, and we are in the train of His victory.
But then you find in the history of the children of Israel that they began to neglect the ark. They left the ark hidden, and they did not inquire before the ark.
But there was one man, David, a man after God’s own heart. While people did not seem to bother about the ark, the presence of God with them, he was the one whose heart was after God’s heart. He wanted to prepare a place for the ark. He brought the ark back to Zion, into the tent of David.
So that was what we have been sharing in the past three sessions. Now this morning, we would like to continue on.
David not only found the ark in the field of the woods, but David, because of his love for God, brought the ark back to Zion and put the ark in the tent of David. But even so, his heart was not satisfied.
You find in 1 Chronicles 17 that David, at that time, was living in his palace, a house of cedar. One day he told the prophet Nathan, “I live in a house of cedar, but the ark still dwells in a tent.” In other words, he felt that this was not right. So he had a desire to build God a house, a temple.
Nathan said, “Do whatever is in thy heart.” But when Nathan had left, the word of God came to Nathan. So he went back to David.
Brothers and sisters, if you read what God said to David through Nathan, I think your heart will really be touched. God said:
Since the day I delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt,
I have travelled with My people from tent to tent.
Have I ever asked any judge, anyone, to build Me a house?
In other words, even though God did not allow David to build Him a house because David was a man of war and had shed much blood, yet you will find that God’s heart was deeply touched.
He wanted to dwell among His people permanently. He wanted a house. Yet He would not say it. He wanted His people to say it, to desire it. He waited and waited, and His people never said it.
His people were concerned with their own houses, but they allowed the ark to stay in a tent. It was David, a man after God’s own heart. He knew God wanted to have a permanent home among His people, not a temporary one.
So that desire of David so touched God’s heart. Even though David was not allowed to build the temple, yet we do find in 1 Chronicles 28 that it was to David that God, by His Spirit, showed the pattern of the temple.
He put it down in writing, with the hand of God upon him. Not only that, because of his love for God’s house, you find how he set apart and offered gold, silver, and materials for the building of that house. It shows that David’s heart was really toward God.
Then, of course, we remember Solomon, who inherited the kingdom. We mentioned yesterday morning that after he ascended to the throne, he also loved God. So he went to Gibeon, where the tabernacle and the great altar were, and he went with his people and offered many sacrifices.
That night, God appeared to him in a dream. I believe you all know that story, because even from our childhood we heard about this. God said, “You can ask anything you want—riches, the lives of your enemies, whatever you want.”
Solomon said, “Give me a hearing heart, a heart that can hear Thee, that I may judge Thy people rightly.” God was so pleased.
Because God appeared to him, you remember, he returned to Jerusalem. Immediately, he went before the ark, because the ark was in the tent of David. There he offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
So, brothers and sisters, it takes vision to go to the ark instead of going to the tabernacle. We cannot dwell on it again this morning, but anyway, you find that, by the grace of God, Solomon built the temple.
When he built the temple, he also built the utensils, the vessels, and the furniture in the temple, all according to the pattern that God had given to David.
Now, if you read 2 Chronicles, you will find that he built a huge brazen altar. It was many times larger than the one that Moses built. Instead of just a laver, he built a brazen sea and ten lavers.
Instead of just one golden lampstand in the holy place, he built ten. Instead of one table of showbread, he built ten tables of showbread.
But he built only one golden altar of incense, and he did not build the ark and the mercy seat.
So, brothers and sisters, here you find that in that temple everything was enlarged, multiplied, increased, and reproduced. Yet the ark was never rebuilt. It cannot be rebuilt; it cannot be reproduced. There is only one ark.
In a spiritual sense, our appreciation of the works of Christ may increase, and should increase. Yet Christ Himself is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is perfection. You cannot make any increase in Him.
The essence of the glory of God in His Son remains the same. Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is the only One. He is the only Saviour. He is the only Lord. He is the only Head, the only King, the only Son of God, Son of Man, God-man, Emmanuel. You cannot improve on Him.
You also find that after everything was built, Solomon went to Zion and brought the ark out of the tent of David into the temple. With that, he also brought the tent of meeting and everything in it into the temple.
The glory of God came upon the house. Wonderful! When he offered, fire came down from heaven and burned the offering, and the glory of God filled that house to the extent that all the priests had to retreat. All had to bow down and worship.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is something I have been praying all these years: that one day the glory of God will so fill His house that all services will be stopped. There will be nothing but worship.
Wonderful days. But unfortunately, such normal conditions did not last long. Very soon, you find that the children of Israel began to sin against God. Even Solomon began to worship idols.
Throughout the history of the nation of Israel, for about four hundred years, you find that the temple was there, the ark was there, and the glory was there on the mercy seat. Yet, at the same time, the spiritual condition of the children of Israel was the very opposite of everything that the temple stood for and everything that the ark represented.
God was patient with them. He sent prophet after prophet, early in the morning, from day to evening. He sent prophets to them, trying to recall them back to Himself. But unfortunately, they would not return.
So finally, after about four hundred years, Jerusalem was destroyed. The people were taken into Babylonian captivity.
If you read the record, you find that they not only destroyed the temple, but they broke up the pillars standing before the temple—the brass pillars. They broke up the brazen sea, took the utensils and the things in the temple, and brought all these into captivity to Babylon.
But strangely, the Bible never mentions what happened to the ark. The temple was destroyed. Whatever was not destroyed in the temple was taken into Babylon. But the ark was missing. The ark disappeared.
We do not know where it was. You know, people are very curious, and we have imaginations. So throughout the centuries, people have tried to figure out where it was and how it disappeared. There are good theories, but only theories. We are not going into that.
So the ark just disappeared—no ark.
After seventy years of captivity, in the mercy of God, a remnant of those in captivity returned to Jerusalem.
During those seventy years of captivity, they were able to build their houses in the land of captivity. They were able to build up their businesses in the land of captivity. I think they became quite comfortable and well-to-do.
Furthermore, they were even allowed to worship God. As a matter of fact, by captivity they were cured of their desire to worship idols. So they wanted to worship God.
Babylonia and the following empire seemed to be pretty lenient with them in this religious matter. So they allowed those in captivity to worship God. But there was no temple.
That was the time when they invented that marvellous, ingenious system of synagogues. If you had ten Jewish men, you could have a synagogue.
So you find synagogues spread all over the land of captivity. You did not need to travel a long distance to Jerusalem; it could be just next door.
Not only that, if you were not too happy with your friends or neighbours, well, you could get another nine persons and organize another synagogue to your liking. So there were synagogues of labour unions and synagogues of this and that. You know, it was very, very convenient.
In the synagogue they could read the Torah, the five books of Moses. They even read the prophets. They sang the Psalms, and they were very free to exhort one another.
They had everything. But what? They could not offer sacrifice, because sacrifices could only be offered in Jerusalem, in the temple.
Now, brothers and sisters, here you find these people in captivity were religious. They had everything to satisfy their religious desire. But unfortunately, without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. The most important thing was missing.
Yes, they were contented. So when King Cyrus gave the royal decree that all who were of God’s people were allowed to go back to Jerusalem to build God a house, this fell on deaf ears.
Only a few, a remnant whose spirit was stirred by God, only a few, treasured the name of God and the testimony of God more than their own interests. They were willing to forsake everything, face the danger of the journey, and go back to Jerusalem, a ruined place, to build the house of God.
In other words, they were people who wanted to live for God and not for themselves. So they went back, and in great difficulties they finally rebuilt the temple.
Of course, it could not be compared with the temple built by Solomon. Not only that, but even with the so-called second temple, four major things were missing.
In other words, the high priest did not have the Urim and Thummim on the breastplate, that breastplate of judgment, by which to know the mind of God.
These four things were lacking in the second temple. But even so, God graciously considered this as His house. He still put His name there.
But again, even with a remnant, you find that very soon they began to commit sin against God. God sent His prophets to warn them. The last prophet was Malachi, and there in Malachi you find that God had a controversy with His people.
After the voice of Malachi, for four hundred years, God was again silent.
During those four hundred years, the temple was there, the priests were there, the services were going on, and the festivals were kept. Outwardly, they were religious people, but really their hearts were far from God. So God just could not speak to them.
But thank God, the days of the shadow were to be ended. Christ had come.
In the fullness of time, Christ came into this world, born of woman, born under the law, that He might deliver us from the curse of the law and that we might receive sonship.
There you find, in the mercy of God, the history of the ark. As you look back, the history of the ark is wonderful, and yet it was but a type, a shadow. God was preparing for the day when the reality should come, and the reality is Christ.
Actually, you find that the ark, in reality, reappeared in the Person of Jesus. The Word became flesh, tabernacled among men, full of grace and truth.
On the one hand, you find the second temple in Jerusalem, built by the remnant and enlarged and beautified by King Herod. Forty-six years were spent rebuilding it and enlarging it. It was adorned with gifts and beautiful stones. It was the pride of the nation.
Even the disciples of our Lord Jesus, at the last minute when they left Jerusalem with our Lord, looked back to the temple and showed the Lord its stones. “Look at the stones—wonderful!” And the Lord said, “Not one stone will be left upon another.”
There was a temple there. There was an elaborate priesthood and service there. People looked to the temple and depended upon the temple. They thought that was their glory, their salvation, their everything. But there was no glory there.
On the other hand, there was a baby born in Bethlehem, in a manger: the Holy One, God manifested in flesh. He grew up in Nazareth. As the prophet Isaiah said, He was like a root out of dry ground.
There was no comeliness, no lordliness in Him for us to admire Him. He had never been to school—that is, to rabbinical school—never trained in that way. Hidden in Nazareth for thirty years.
And yet, He is the true temple, because the glory of God rested in Him.
The first time in His ministry that He went to Jerusalem, He went to the temple. He saw that in the temple area there were merchants selling oxen, sheep, goats, doves, and money changers.
Now, of course, all these were done for convenience’ sake. The children of Israel were scattered all over the world, and when they came to worship God at the temple, they had to pay tribute money. But the temple money had to be the sanctuary money, so they had to exchange their money.
Also, they could not bring sheep and bullocks and travel a long distance. So they had to come and buy these sacrifices. If they bought somewhere else, or even if they brought their own, they might not pass the inspection of the priest.
Probably the priests, because of their own interest, were especially careful in inspecting those that people brought on their own. They would never pass them. So the only way was to buy whatever had already been declared kosher.
Through the years, for convenience’ sake, and of course also for some interest, these things went on in the temple area—very noisy bargaining and so forth. This had been going on for years and years, and nobody seemed to care.
Everybody took it that this was the normal thing to do, the convenient way to do things. They did not realize what a contradiction it was. All these things were supposedly for worship.
But when Christ came into the temple, He could not bear it. You remember how He made a scourge, drove out all the oxen and sheep, overturned the tables of the money changers, and told those who sold doves to take them away.
The Lord said, “Make not My Father’s house a house of merchandise,” a bazaar. The zeal of the Lord had devoured Him.
Here was the temple—not a real one—and even that temple was degraded to be a house of merchandise.
At the end of our Lord’s ministry, you find that He did it a second time. The second time was even worse, because it was a house of prayer, and yet it had become a den of robbers.
What a contrast! Here was a Man, the true temple.
So they questioned the Lord, saying, “Now give us a sign. By what authority can You do such things, cleansing the temple?” The Lord said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
They said, “This temple was forty-six years in building. How can You do it in three days?” But He referred to His own body.
In other words, here the Lord was telling the people, “You look at this temple as if this is the dwelling place of God. It is not. Here is the real temple of God. I am the real temple. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among men, full of grace and truth.”
The glory of God was upon Him. “We beheld His glory, even as the glory of an only begotten with a Father.”
Brothers and sisters, yet you find that the people of God at that time treasured that earthly temple and rejected the true One. They considered that earthly temple as the pride of the nation, and they considered Christ as an impostor. They got rid of Him.
But thank God, He was raised from the dead. By His death, He accomplished the work that God had sent Him to do. He finished the work of redemption.
Because of what He had done, you find that God today has a mercy seat. God now can show mercy to us. It is because our Lord Jesus has died for us.
After forty days, He ascended to heaven. But ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the one hundred and twenty disciples, and they were baptized by one Spirit into one body.
Formerly, the Lord came and took a human body from the womb of Mary and lived in that body thirty-three years. Now He has ascended into heaven, but He has taken upon Himself another body, a corporate body, a body composed of all those who believe in Him and who are His.
He dwells in that body by His Spirit.
So now, in the beginning of the book of Acts, you find that on the one hand the earthly temple was still there and the services were going on. But the glory was not there. God was not there. The presence of the Lord was not there.
On the other hand, instead of one Person on earth who was the real temple of God and the real ark of God, there was a group of people, a corporate body, that became the temple of God. The Lord dwelt in their midst.
Where two or three are gathered together unto My name,
there am I in the midst of them.
If you read the book of Acts, you find how glorious the church was. They all centred upon Christ. They persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in prayers, and in the breaking of bread. They loved one another. They were all one. Their testimony was so powerful. The glory of God was there.
As Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians, chapter 14, when people came in, they said, “God is indeed among you.”
But of course, the enemy, who hated Christ, hated the church of God. He tried every means to destroy Christ. He could not; he was defeated and destroyed instead. Now he is trying to destroy the church by all kinds of means.
Strangely, in the beginning of church history, all those who formed the church in Jerusalem were Jews. Even though they were Hellenistic Jews and Hebrew Jews, yet they were all Jews—Jews who lived in the promised land and Jews who sojourned in the dispersion.
Because of this, in the eyes of the Roman Empire, they considered this Way as another sect of Judaism.
Judaism at that time was protected by the Roman Empire. In other words, it had a legal standing before the Roman Empire. So, in the beginning, the world did not know what the church was, because it was made up mostly of Jews. Therefore, they thought it was just another sect of Judaism, and it was protected by Roman law.
It was not until the gospel began to spread and came to Antioch—you remember Acts 11—that most of the believers were Gentiles.
So the world began to wonder who these people were. If they were purely Jews, you could say it was just a sect of Judaism. But now there were many Gentiles, and especially in Antioch, most were Gentiles.
It was then that the disciples were called Christians, beginning in Antioch. In other words, they thought, “These people are not like Judaism, another Judaism. They seem to centre upon one Person—Christ.”
They talked about Him, gathered around Him, prayed to Him, preached Him, and lived for Him. Christ was everything to these people. They were different from everybody else. They were different from the nations and even different from the Jews.
So they said, “Who are they?” Well, they are Christ-men. They are Christians—Christ-men. That is what it means.
But even then, the biggest problem with Paul as he was preaching the gospel was the Judaizers.
Those Jewish people who believed in the Lord Jesus followed Paul wherever he went. They told people, “Now, you believe in the Lord Jesus, fine, but you need to be circumcised. You need to keep the law.”
Even after that great council in Jerusalem to settle this matter of whether the Gentiles needed to keep the law, you find that though it was settled there, the conflict continued.
Even when Paul was in prison in Rome, you find in writing the letter to the Philippians that he said some people preached out of pretext, and they increased his suffering. These were the Judaizers, trying to change the church into something else.
In AD 64, Nero burned the city of Rome. The Roman people murmured, and in order to find a scapegoat, Nero blamed the Christians. He said that it was the Christians who had burned the city.
From that day on, persecution from the Roman Empire began to come upon the believers.
We know the letter to the Hebrews. Even though we do not know who wrote that letter, there are different theories. Some say it was Paul; some say it could not have been Paul. Some say it may have been Silas, Apollos, or somebody else. We do not know.
Yet we know that the letter to the Hebrews was written before the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70.
When persecution began, there was a temptation for those Hebrew believers to return to Judaism. They were no longer protected by Roman law, and yet Judaism was protected. There was security there. So there was the temptation of returning to Judaism. It was for this reason that the letter to the Hebrews was written.
The enemy always tries to shift our eyes away from Christ to something else. If he can succeed in doing that, he destroys us for sure.
So you find that he was trying to divert the eyes of these believers from seeing Christ into seeing what was in Judaism.
So he said:
Holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling,
consider Jesus,
the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.
In other words, he was trying to tell the people, “Set your eyes upon the Lord Jesus.” If you only see Him, you will find that He is far superior to everything.
He is far superior to the prophets. God spoke through the prophets to our fathers in many ways and in many portions, but He has spoken in the Son—fully, finally, completely.
The Lord Jesus is better than the angels. The angels were created to worship Him. He is the Son, the Heir of all.
He is far superior to Moses. Moses was but a servant, faithful in God’s house, but He is the Owner of the house, the Lord over the house.
He is far superior to Aaron, because His priestly ministry is after the order of Melchizedek, of eternal life.
He is far superior to the goats and the offerings, because He is the Lamb of God. He is far superior to the earthly tabernacle, because He is the heavenly reality.
You find that He is the new covenant, far better than the old covenant. So, when those Hebrew believers were tempted to return to Judaism, the writer—or the Holy Spirit—was trying to direct their eyes to Jesus.
A vision of Christ would keep them in the way of God.
Brothers and sisters, even today the enemy seems to have succeeded in Judaizing Christianity.
In Judaism, there are four big things:
Now, brothers and sisters, has not the enemy succeeded in Judaizing Christianity?
Instead of worshipping God in spirit and truth, now we look to a place of worship. That is where we go.
Instead of the law of the Spirit of life in us, we look to outward rules and regulations.
Instead of the universal priesthood of believers—we all are priests—we allow a certain class to stand between us and God, to do all the spiritual services for us.
Finally, you find that we even look to earthly things instead of all the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Christianity has been Judaized.
The reason is that when you do not see the Lord, when your eyes are away from the ark, brothers and sisters, all these things are very captivating.
Now, how about the Gentiles? The enemy had to work upon them too. The letter to the Colossians was written mainly to Gentiles.
Their problem was this: instead of seeing that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily, and that we are complete in Him, they thought that Christ was not sufficient.
So they had to go to philosophy. They had to go to asceticism. They had to go to legalism. They had to go to the human mind. In other words, they humanized the church.
Do we not have the same problem today? We find that Christianity is humanized. Instead of being a heavenly Body, it is manufactured. Everything is according to man.
Now why? How do you solve that problem? In Colossians, you find: Look upon Christ. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him. Hold on to Him. Hold fast the Head, and you will be delivered from this humanized situation.
So, brothers and sisters, what do we need today? Our need today is a renewed, fresh vision of the Lord Jesus.
We need to see the Lord Jesus as God sees Him.
If we only see Jesus, we will be delivered from being Judaized or humanized, and the church will become pure and holy.
We say the ark disappeared. But when you read the book of Revelation, strangely, in Revelation 11:19, you find that suddenly heaven opens, the temple in heaven appears, and the ark of the covenant appears. There were lightnings and thunders, and so forth.
Even though the ark disappeared on earth, we do not know where it went. But the ark in heaven is always there. Even though the temple on earth may be destroyed, the temple in heaven is always there.
Now remember one thing: Revelation contains many visions. That is revelation. Revelation is a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Revelation is prophetic, it is true. But Revelation is not just telling us what is going to happen upon this earth. That is not Revelation. Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ that God has given to Him to show to His people.
So the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. In Revelation, you find many visions. It begins with a vision: the vision of One who is like the Son of Man.
You find that it is this vision that governs, or judges, the seven churches. The seven churches began to shift their vision away from the vision of the Son of Man. They were occupied with many good things, and also many bad things too. But they lost sight of the vision of Jesus Christ.
So the call to the churches is to repent, to return to the vision of Jesus Christ that is given to them, because the church is a vessel of the testimony of Jesus.
But then in Revelation 11, when the temple in heaven was seen and the ark of the covenant was seen, was it a physical thing? Was there a physical temple in heaven, a physical ark built of acacia wood overlaid with gold?
Remember, it is a vision—symbolic. It shows that no matter what happens on earth, God’s purpose remains unchanged.
He wants a temple. He wants an ark. He wants to dwell among His people. It was always there. It is always there. It cannot be destroyed.
At the very last, you find God gave John a vision that what God purposed in the beginning is going to be publicly manifested. It is not that God is not there; He is always there.
Brothers and sisters, the ark is always there in heaven, and the ark is always there in the hearts of God’s people who love Him.
All of this is awaiting public manifestation, and God is working toward it. There is judgment—lightning, thunder, and so forth. Yet eventually, you find the holy city, the New Jerusalem, the bride of the Lamb, a city full of the glory of God.
There is no temple, because God and the Lamb are the temple. Do you see the mercy there? Yes, the throne of God and of the Lamb is there, and all those who are His are all there, reigning with Him forever.
So, brothers and sisters, even though what we see on earth is very depressing, yet if you see that heavenly vision, you will find that it has not changed. It will be publicly manifested.
The thing is, how are we responding to the heavenly vision? Paul said, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” Because of this, he fought such a good fight, kept the faith, and finished his course.
There was a crown of righteousness waiting for him—not just for him, but for all who loved the appearing of the Lord.
So, brothers and sisters, may we answer, “Lord, give us the vision of Christ.” If our vision has become dim, ask the Lord to renew it.
May we have a living, fresh, powerful vision of the Lord, and be faithful. That is all that God requires of us today.
Shall we pray?
Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee for Thy Son. We thank Thee for being so gracious to us these days, being with us.
Lord, our prayer is that our vision may not grow dim. In spite of everything on earth, in spite of all the opposition and the wiles of the enemy, Lord, keep our hearts upon Thee.
But we see Jesus, crowned with glory and honour. O Lord, do keep us faithful to Thee, that we may finish our course, keep the faith, and fight a good fight. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.