R763 The Seven Blessings Part 2

We all can use some encouragement, and we'll find it today in the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilson on this edition of The Encouraging Word. We continue talking about blessings. The Seven Blessings Part 2 is what we're diving into today, but we're here for you 24-7 at 866-899-WORD and online at theencouragingword.org. Right now, let's study God's Word together.

Here's Dr. Don Wilson. Now, friends, we're in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 22, and I'm going to just ask you to put your hand right there, and I want to share with you something by way of introduction and illustration as we begin. One of the many things that I have the great privilege of doing is being asked from time to time to marry couples. You can imagine we have a lot of weddings in our church, and I'm so grateful for our ministry team and all of our ministers. We're all involved, and it's a great privilege. Part of that privilege, when a couple comes to ask me, maybe you need to know about this, when a couple comes to me and says, Pastor, we'd like to ask you to marry us, and with the joy that I have, we check our calendars, and that's always an interesting challenge, and we get everything together, and I always let them know that part of my requirements, if you please, is that we would have a number of premarital counseling sessions. Now, that means premarital means before you get married.

And you might say, well, Pastor, why do you do something like that? Because it's so important. If any of you don't know this, marriage is the most wonderful thing in the world, but it's jolly hard work.

Somebody can say amen to that. Thank you very much. It is hard, hard work, and I tell couples about to be married. I know you're in love.

I know you're not listening to a word I'm saying. I'm just jabbering my mouth off you, but I just want to impress on you somehow that marriage is just the most incredible thing. But let me tell you that it takes a lot of hard work, and God has brought you together for a lifetime. Well, there's a lot of things that we can say to one another, a lot of things I share. I tell them, I say, now folks, listen, I know because I'm the pastor of the church, you're expecting me to get out a couple of good Bible verses, read them to you, put my hand on your shoulder, pray a blessing upon you, and send you on your way, but I'm sorry to tell you that I'm not going to do that.

In fact, the very opposite is true. I take this very seriously, and we are going to get down to some very serious things. And maybe you'd prefer not to ask me to marry you because this is not a game. This is a joyful responsibility and something that I take with a great joy in my heart, but very seriously. And I tell them, I say, now, look, we're going to get down to some very serious things. And I say things to them like, look, I want you to tell me how many people do you suppose during your lifetime, God leaves you together for the next 60 years. How many people do you suppose in reality are going to come and ask you inside questions about your marriage?

How many people? We live in a great world with media. We live in what we call the sexual revolution. We see it all around the promiscuity and the availability of everything one could ever imagine. Our world has shifted and gone to such radical extremes.

Everybody claims to be an expert. And you can imagine many couples who are about to be married. They've grown up in the kind of generation that I knew nothing about. They've been exposed to things that we never even thought about. And everything is available to them and shoved down their throats.

And many of them arrive at the altar, at least subconsciously, believing that they actually are born resident experts in relationships and in understanding femininity and masculinity, understanding physical things, understanding all the things that go together to make marriage what it is, how we work, how we tick. And folks, that's just not the case. So somebody's got to talk to them.

I promise you, you go to a doctor, you're going there because you've got a medical problem and he's going to try to find an answer to your medical problem, to the problem that you're suffering with physically. But there are hardly any people that will ever come. In fact, all you hear today are frivolous jokes and lighthearted talk when it comes to marriage. People make lighthearted statements and people get close to the edge and everything is pie in the sky and everybody talks about all this stuff. There's a lot of talk going on, but I'm talking about what really goes on behind closed doors, the reality. Why am I saying this to you?

Because there is one thing among many others, and I do want to make that point very clear. There's one thing among many, many others that I talk to couples about to be married. I look at the man, for example, and I say to him, now, my friend, I want to tell you something.

I want to tell you from the heart of your pastor through the word of God that there is nothing in this world that can compare to the love of a woman. I want to tell you, and I'm speaking to this man in front of this lady, this young woman who is about to become his bride. And I say to him, I want to speak to you based upon my own experience and my own life with my own wife, Karen. I look at them, I say to them, I'm biased because I am the most blessed man that ever walked the face of the earth. To have married a woman like Karen.

But I'm going to go beyond that. I want to say to you that if you go to the word of God and if you go and speak to couples who are ecstatically happy in marriage, one of a hundred things that you will discover is that that husband loves his wife as Christ loved the church. And I'm going to say to you, my brother, my friend, that there is nothing, not a motor car you drive, not a bank balance that you have, not a foundation that you establish, not an educational degree that you acquire.

There's not a home that you live in or a place that you reside in. That can compare to the love that you receive from that woman who is your wife that God gave to you because she loves you. And some of you say to me, well, pastor, how do I do that? Some of you say, well, I've already been married a long time.

How do I do that? I'm going to tell you, but it would take a hundred hours to talk about it, what your wife wants from you is your heart. You love your wife with all of your heart. She will love you back and give you the love of a woman that you will never compare anything else in this world compared to the love of that woman who loves you and God gave to you. We live in a world today where we say, well, you know, we've got to give things, we've got to provide this, we've got to do that. All of these things are relative. But when you give your heart to that beautiful lady, I'm telling you something, guys, you will get something back that you cannot describe. I will just, I cannot describe it to you. It is so incredible.

It leaves preachers with nothing to say. There is nothing in this world that can compare to the love of a woman who loves you and you can do something about it. And it's not too late. And if you're just getting married, I'm going to tell you, your primary responsibility is to enable that female, that woman, that young lady. And your responsibility is to enable that person to become the totally fulfilled person in her spirit. And when you give yourself to her, the love that she will give back to you, you cannot describe. There is nothing like the love of a woman. Now, what does that got to do with this? Here's what it's got to do with. God tells us that when we give our hearts to him, what he gives back to us is unbelievably difficult to describe. And there is one criteria. You got to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

Any questions? In the series, sub-series that we're on, I've entitled the seven blessings because we're going to put it into a nutshell. In two verses in scripture, God tells us about seven blessings. These are the seven blessings God gives to people who love him. Every person who loves him. There's no exclusion. This is not selective.

Well, let's just read about it. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 22, but you, by the way, that's those who have given their hearts to Jesus. But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. But you, that is those who have given their hearts and lives to Jesus Christ, have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly.

Choir, hold on to your seats because you're going to be blessed today, I promise you. Number three, but you, verse 23, have come to the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. Number four, but you have come to God, the judge of all men. Number five, but you, those who have given their hearts to Jesus, have come to the spirits of righteous men made perfect.

Wow. Number six, but you, those of you that have given your hearts to Jesus, have come to Jesus Christ, the mediator of a new covenant. And number seven, you, those of you that is that have given your hearts to Jesus Christ, you have come to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Now, last week we began and we saw blessing number one, so I've got to talk about it.

It is a huge subject. Number one, here's the first blessing, write it in your heart. Number one, blessing number one, we are guaranteed a place in heaven. We looked at that in so much detail. In fact, the last two Sundays, but I've got to say what I'm about to say to you.

What did we discover, folks, about heaven? You know, I hear people all the time say, well, yes, I'm getting married. You know, I'm in love. I'm getting married.

Boy, I get married next week. Well, what about it? What about it?

I've heard people all my life say I'm going to heaven. Well, what about it? What do we, what do we not see?

What does it mean? Well, we discovered that heaven in this passage is described in three ways. Number one, it's described as Mount Zion.

We discovered that Mount Zion, the Ark of the Covenant, today defined by Mount Zion, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which is Mount Moriah. That's why Arabs and Jews and everybody have such a contentious attitude toward it because it's considered a spiritual place by Christians and pagans alike. God doesn't make accidents, you know. And God said, listen, if you went to a Jewish person at any time and said to them, excuse me, Mr. Jewish person, where is God? You know what they'd say? They'd say, well, he's right there where the Ark of the Covenant is, Mount Zion.

Well, how do you know that? Because the Torah, because the Bible teaches us that. God said, that's where I'm going to make my dwelling place.

That's where I'm going to live. So you went to a Jewish person in the Old Testament. He was trying to work for his religious faith and say to him, excuse me, but could you tell me where God is? He would say, well, he's over there in the tabernacle. He's at Mount Zion. He's where God is. Well, that's where God was.

Where is he right now? That's the second characterization in verse 22. He's in the heavenly Jerusalem.

We talked about that. First of all, Jerusalem, we know the city of God. Why heavenly Jerusalem? Why does God call this the heavenly Jerusalem? For the simple reason that at this juncture in the wait, the time that we wait between the death of Jesus Christ and our position with him in heaven, heaven where God is, is up there, the heavenly Jerusalem. We discovered that after Jesus ascended, he went up. We know that, we've gone through that.

I'm not going to keep going on after that until a later date. We know that heaven is up there. So if you were to say right now, where is God in heaven?

Where is his residing place? You've got to say he's up there. Now is God omniscient? Of course he is. Is God everywhere? Of course he is. Is God in my heart?

Of course he is. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. But God tells us that heaven is a definitive place. It is described as a place. In fact, God even takes the heavenly Jerusalem further than that. And he says, heavens, not only a place, but it's defined by virtue of a city.

It is a city. You might say to me, pastor, now, where do I go? Look, if I was to die today, I'm going to tell you what will happen. The angels will come and get me. The Bible says that. Will transport me up into heaven, to the heavenly Jerusalem.

Now this is an interesting word. I'm going to ask you to go in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 5. Let's look there very quickly. Revelation, the book of Revelation in chapter 5. I love to hear those pages all over the sanctuary, the rustle of pages. Someone said to me, it sounds like the rustle of angels' wings. Well, I think heaven is going to be a wonderful place where we hear the rustle of angels' wings and we participate together in praising God in such a significant way.

But I want to show you some interesting things here. Number one, our participation in the heavenly choir means that we will attend him. Revelation chapter 5 verse 11. Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels numbering thousands upon thousands and 10,000 times 10,000. By the way, you might be interested to note here that effort, that paltry effort to try and describe the number of angels speaks to the infinite number that is indefinable. It means that no words, no human vocabulary can be constructed in such a way to try to express the vastness of those who gather around the throne of God.

They are numbered like the sand of the sea throughout the ages. And the Bible tells us that what they were doing is they encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. And in our study of Revelation, we looked at that. And by the way, you pray with me, folks, because I've had so many people ask me to go back to the book of Revelation. I'm not saying I'm going to do this, but I'm actually praying about possibly preaching through Revelation on Sunday mornings in the near future.

And it's an incredible study together. But I want you to notice something. Don't turn there right now because we don't have time. But Daniel 7 and verse 10 uses this exact words. The prophet says this. He says thousands upon thousands of angels will attend him. Now that word there is a word that we use in our concept of true servanthood to tend to somebody. It means to prostrate yourself before somebody and give to them everything. It implies that the act of worship that we will be engaged in will be of singular significance, of singular purpose. And our hearts and our souls, our minds, that everything that we have, that we will be void of distraction when we tend to he, to the one who is seated upon the throne. And it goes on here, it says in a loud voice. And I've heard people say, man, when you come to church, you need to quieten down. Brother, you better start practicing. I don't know, by the way, how you can preach the word of God about all these things and be about the business of articulate snoring at the same time.

It just doesn't happen. If you can scream and shout at a football game, how much more so when we stand before the throne of God? And the word says in verse 12, in a loud voice, they sang worthy is the lamb. Now, why the lamb?

Well, we know that. I worked with sheep in Africa, 44,000 of them at one time. You want to go and every festival like Christmas or whatever, we would go and slaughter sheep.

Very common practice. I mean, you do that to get the meat and so on. You go and get a sheep and to slaughter a sheep is an interesting thing because it'll try and get away from you a little bit. You grab it on the back, turn it on its back.

And the moment you turn it on its back, it becomes totally and completely compliant. And the way you slaughter a sheep is that you cut its throat. Now, I know that sounds awful, but it is the most humane way. It's painless. That's how you prepare sheep.

That's the way you do it. And the interesting thing about a sheep is that a sheep, a lamb will not say a word. It doesn't fight. It doesn't say stop it.

It doesn't try and get away. It just says, go ahead, make my day. Why don't you just kill me for supper? It really does, folks. Now, the Bible says that Jesus went to the cross as a lamb went to the slaughter.

He opened not his mouth. And you see here, this is singularly significant because the sacrifice of Jesus was so significant. Here was the lamb of God whom the Bible tells us had the capacity to call what? 10,000 angels. Colonel Bramhall is a battalion commander.

Just come back from Afghanistan. You talk about a battalion of men and you say, wow, what a wonderful thing. But I say with all the respect to our military commanders, listen, folks, even 10,000 angels, just a drop in the bucket. What God was saying is, listen, you know, God could have called 10,000 angels if he wanted to. Do you not suppose that Jesus Christ could have just spoken and they would have fallen out of their seats? Do you not suppose that Jesus Christ, the lamb of God in that garden of Gethsemane, could have just says, you're out of here.

And those men would have fallen down and died left and right. But the Bible says he went like a lamb. And you see, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the magnificence of the son of the living God who offered himself as a sacrifice for us.

Even though he, being man, knew no sin himself. Does it make any sense that these angels? The Bible says they gained to sing in a loud voice worthy as the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom, strength and honor and glory and praise. And I heard every other creature in the heaven, watch this, in heaven and on earth, under the earth, on the sea.

Why does he talk about all of them and all that is in them? Because this prophetic word was looking forward to the city of the living God that had come down from heaven. And all separation was removed and all of creation bowed down forever and worshiped the lamb.

It's amazing, it's amazing. We will attend him. Number two, we will stand before him. Hope none of us think we'll ever sit in the presence of a righteous God. Number three, we will sing praises to him.

That's what this text tells us. That's what we're going to do as we participate in the heavenly choir. And number four, we will worship him. In Revelation chapter 19, the angel of the Lord comes to John and gives him instructions. And in verse 10 of chapter 19, John says, at this I fell at his feet to worship him at the feet of the angel.

But he said to me, do not do it. Have you ever wondered why we do not have anything in this sanctuary that we bow down and worship? We don't do anything. We don't venerate anybody. We don't bow down and worship anything other than Jesus Christ.

Why? Because he said, thou shalt have no other gods before me. I am the Lord your God.

It is expressly forbidden. And most of all, even the angels, the angel said, do not do this. I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus Christ.

You need to worship God for the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy. It is the very utterance of all that is, all that was and all that ever will be. Guess what, folks? I'm going to receive blessings which I am already receiving. My place in heaven and my full and complete participation in the heavenly choir. How about you?

Do you know that? You know that we've got five blessings to go and our cup runneth over. I'll be perfectly honest with you.

I'll be perfectly honest with you. If we just drew a line right there, said God's got two blessings, would it be worth it? Boy, that's worth it.

But there's so much more. You know, when you come up and stand before God and God's people and say, I promise to love you, honor and cherish you. You give your heart to that woman. My friend, you love her as Christ loved the church.

The love of that woman will be the greatest blessing you've ever had. I say this with all the love in my heart. I love this church.

I love the ministry team. I love going places, love preaching. I even love my children. But if you took it all away from me, I'd rather be with my wife than anybody else in the world.

Because I know what it's like to be loved by a woman. It puts me in perspective. It helps me never to get out of line. It compels me never to put value in things that are just temporary. I tell you, my whole world can collapse around me. But when you got the love of a woman who loves you, under Jesus Christ, you got everything.

Now folks, listen to this. This country could blow apart. You and I could get desperately ill. Our loved one could go on to the heavenly Jerusalem and leave us lonely by ourselves. We can suffer disappointments, hardships. But I can tell you something. Nobody in this world will ever take away the blessings that God has given you.

Can't touch them. I really think that's why in the old days, there were some people who went so gladly to their death as martyrs. I really believe that because they just believe this.

I really believe that. Some of you might look at me today and say, you know, pastor, here I've been married 10 years and 15 and 20 and 30, 40 years. You know, things are just not quite in line. Can I tell you something? Would you please listen? Just listen to this. I promise you, you can go to wonderful counselors and come and see me and brother Sal Barone.

And so we've got just precious people, friends, and can listen to your pastor speaking and preaching and so on. But listen to me. It's not too late for you. You can put back in place some of these issues. You can go back to the drawing board.

I tell you what, you'll win her heart back. I've met very few women in my life as a pastor who rub their hands together and say, whoop-de-doo. You know, I get to get out of this and do it all over again. And who cares if my children have to live over here and I have to live.

I haven't met a wife and a mother who just joyfully jumps up and down and celebrates. Folks, listen to me. God has got a requirement of us that we give our hearts to him.

And he said, love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. Now that's jolly hard to do. I don't know about you.

It's the old part that I have a problem with. I mean, it is tough, man. I can't tell you how many times I just mess up. But you know that he forgives me and he restores me. I don't know how many times he's done that. The greatest thing he does for me is he guarantees me these blessings.

He tells me I want all of you. You can do something about it. Some of you might say, well, pastor, you know, I haven't even got out the front door yet. I haven't given my heart to Jesus.

You need to do it. I believe God has been speaking to my heart these days. I'm going to be a lot more direct, folks, when it's coming down to giving your heart to Jesus. Because you don't give your heart to Jesus. None of this is relevant. There's funerals going on all over the place. People getting up saying he was mayor of this and he was member of that and belonged to this club and gave his money to that and chairman of this and was good this and good that. But none of it, folks, none of it has any meaning unless you've given your heart to Jesus. Those are just good earthly things. It's been a great week. I hope you'll join us over the weekend. Look for theencouragingword.org on television stations near you or discover more at theencouragingword.org.