Turn with me, if you will, to
Matthew chapter 17. Matthew, the 17th chapter. Peter, James, and John, as you
will recall, were with the Lord Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration,
and there they saw the Savior transfigured. Now, we don't really
know what that means other than that they saw him revealed in
his dignity and majesty and glory as God himself. They saw the
Savior's face transfigured before them. John said, we beheld his
glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth. And then suddenly Moses and Elijah
appeared standing on the mount right there face to face with
the Lord Jesus Christ, talking to him about his death, which
he should accomplish at Jerusalem in just a few days. Well, Peter,
James, and John were awestruck. I would be too. I can understand
that. I would be astonished, wouldn't
you? Here's Moses and Elijah been dead for hundreds of years,
standing face to face with the Lord Jesus. They see them and
hear them speak to the Lord concerning his death. Well, when Peter saw
that and heard Moses and Elijah, he blurted out. He said, Lord,
it's good for us to be here. Let's make three tabernacles.
If you will, let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one
for Moses, and one for Elijah. And while he spoke, before he
got done saying what was on his mind, a cloud overshadowed them. And Moses and Elijah were seen
no more. God just seemed to snuff them
out. God in a cloud took them away
as quickly and as suddenly as he had brought them to appear
on the mouth of transfiguration. And when Moses and Elijah had
been snuffed out by the hand of God, behold, a voice spoke
out of the cloud, which said, this is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased Hear ye him. Now, Moses and Elijah were not
removed by accident. They were removed for a reason.
They had appeared for a reason and they were removed for a reason.
They had appeared to speak to the Lord in the presence of Peter,
James, and John so that they would declare in their presence
the object of their ministries while they lived on this earth.
Moses and Elijah always spoke of Christ and their writings,
their prophecies, their works pointed to that time when Christ
would come and and accomplish his death at Jerusalem. That's
what they spoke to him of. Now, the Lord took them out of
the way. He took them out of the picture
here on the Mount of Transfiguration for the simple reason that the
old covenant was now vanishing away. And the dawn of a new day
and a new covenant had come. When the Lord said, this is my
beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. He was
saying to Peter, James, John, and to you and to me. He was
saying Moses and Elijah have been fulfilled right now. Moses
and Elijah have been satisfied right now. The Lord Jesus Christ
is that one of whom Moses spake, that one of whom the prophets
spoke as well. So Moses and Elijah have nothing
more to say. They have nothing more to do.
All that they said and all that they did was for the preparation
of and in anticipation of the coming of my beloved son, who's
now come. So you hear him, hear ye him. He is telling us that Moses and
Elijah, that is the law and the prophets, have no other function
but to bring us unto Christ. Oh, I would to God, everybody,
everybody who hears this tape would hear those words. The law
and the prophets have no other function than to bring us to
Jesus Christ in faith. That's their purpose. The law
was not given to be a code of moral conduct over which politicians
should wrangle. The law was not given to be a
code of moral and ethical conduct over which churches should fuss
and fight. The prophets were not given to give us a key to
interpret the movements of God in history and anticipate what
God's gonna do in the future. The law and the prophets were
given by God to point to and direct our hearts to and identify
Jesus Christ the Messiah when he should come and accomplish
death for us at Calvary. The law and the prophets were
given to teach us faith in Christ the Lord. At Sinai, you'll remember,
the people were forbidden to make any approach to the presence
of God. Do you ever wonder why it was
written back in Exodus, when God called Moses up to the mount,
he said, now you put a fence around his mount. He said, you
mark off the boundaries of the mountain, and if so much as a
beast should touch the mountain, let him be put to death. Why? Why, God was saying, nobody can
now approach unto Me. When God appeared to give His
law, He says, the law can never allow a man to come to Me. The law could never bring sinners
to Christ. Far from bringing us to Christ,
the law set a barrier to keep us away from Christ. It set a
barrier to keep us away from God, as he's revealed in the
Old Testament Scriptures. What the law could not do, in
that it was weak through the flesh. That is, the law could
not bring us to God, but Jesus Christ has brought us to God
by his obedience and by his death. The law forbade men from even
trying to approach the holy, holy, holy Lord God. Let me see
if I can... I want you to see this. In the
tabernacle and later in the temple. He had the outer court. service
in the tabernacle in the temple. There the priest did their daily
functions. But behind the veil stood the
mercy seat over the Ark of the Covenant where only the high
priest could come once a year and there was the revelation
and manifestation of God's glory. But that place of God's glory
was secluded from everybody by a huge, heavy, heavy, Nobody
could come. Nobody could come to God. Nobody
could approach God. The only one who could come was
the representative high priest who was a picture of Christ himself,
and he only once a year, and then only with the blood which
God had specified. So the high priest representing
Christ is the only one who can go behind the veil and find acceptance
with God, really. Only one. He represented the
people and he made atonement for the people, but he's the
only one who could go into that place called the Holy of Holies.
Now the Lord Jesus, so to speak, came down from the mount. He
came down from Mount Sinai and he took down the fence. He not
only took down the fence, but he went in to the temple and
he laid hold of that thick, thick veil and tore it down. And by
his blood, having fulfilled the law, having satisfied justice,
he has opened up a way for sinners to come to God. And he brings
sinners unto the Lord God. So when the Lord Jesus stands
on the mount here, Moses and Elijah are taken out of the way
so that all barriers, all hindrances to that approach of sinners to
God had been taken out of the way. And now through Jesus Christ,
God Almighty says, here's my beloved son, in whom I am well
pleased, you hear him and hearing him come to me. When the disciples
saw Christ in his glory and they heard the father speak from heaven,
They fell on their faces and the scripture says they were
sore afraid. They fell on their faces because
they realized they were in the presence, the awesome, awesome
presence of the glory of God. And they were terrified by it.
Now that's always what happens when a sinner realizes who he
is before the holy Lord God. When Job heard God and saw him
for himself, He said, I repent in sackcloth and ashes. When
Moses stood before the presence of God, God spoke and said, take
off your shoes. The place where you stand is
holy ground. Isaiah saw the Lord in his glory
and he said, oh, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. All
the way through the scriptures, when men were made to recognize
who God is and what and who they were, they fell on their faces
before him in utter abhorrence of themselves and in total reverence
for the Lord God. And then after they fell on their
face before him, terrified by the glory that they saw standing
in front of them, we read in the scriptures in verse seven,
Jesus came. They could not come to him. They
dare not come to him. He came to them and he touched
them. And he said, arise and be not
afraid. Don't Don't be afraid because
the God whose glory you have seen has come to you in human
flesh and he's come to save all that the father gave him in the
covenant of grace. Arise, be not afraid. Now listen
to this. And when they had lifted up their
eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. Now that's my subject this
evening. Jesus only. When the law had
been honored and silenced, they looked up to see him by whose
obedience the law would be fully satisfied, and they saw none
but Jesus only. And when you're made to understand
like these, that all the prophets have been fulfilled and you look
up to see him who is the fulfillment of all the prophets as well as
the law, you will see none save Jesus only. Now I realize that
you folks have come here this evening from a hard day of toil
and labor and you're physically tired. I'm aware of that. I appreciate
you being here. Some of you perhaps have come
with some heavy burdens and cares on your heart. I don't know.
But I want this evening to simply call your attention away from
the cares of this world and the toil of the day and the difficulties
that you may have to face tomorrow. And I pray that God will invigorate
your minds and your bodies just a little bit and give me your
attention. And you focus your attention. Focus your attention
if you can. Ask God the Holy Spirit to help
you now to think of nothing but Jesus Christ. Nothing but him. I promise you, I promise you,
if God will enable you to focus your attention on him and to
hear what's said about him in his word, as we'll look at it
this evening, you'll walk out of here refreshed. I promise
you, you will. I want to show you five things concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ. First, hear this and hear it
well. Jesus only is our savior. Jesus only. Now that may seem
simplistic to you, but I know you hear it all the time from
me, from Lindsay, Ron, anybody else who preaches here, but turn
back to Matthew one, Matthew chapter one, verse 21. Let's look at two or three scriptures
here. She shall bring forth the son
and thou shall call his name Jesus. That's the New Testament
word, the Greek word for Joshua, same word. The word means deliverer,
redeemer, or savior. Thou shalt call his name Savior,
for he shall save his people from their sins. The Lord Jesus
Christ alone, by himself, shall save his people from their sins. That's what his name signifies.
In Acts chapter 4 in verse 12, the Apostle Peter standing before
the Sanhedrin says, There is none other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. If you would be saved,
you must be saved through Jesus Christ the Lord. There is no
other Savior. Now look at 1 Corinthians chapter
1. First Corinthians chapter one. I quote this text of scripture
about as often as I do any. I quote it because it contains
the message that must be heard and understood and believed.
And because it contains the one message that this generation
is altogether ignorant of. The Apostle Paul says, but of
him, that is of God, by God's decree, by God's election, by
God's grace, by God's power, are you in Christ Jesus? Now that's what it is to be saved.
To be saved is not to be in the church. To be saved is to be
in Christ Jesus. Who of God? is made unto you,
that is God by his imputed work of grace to us and God by imparting
his grace to us as well, has made Christ to be our wisdom
and our righteousness and our sanctification and our redemption
and there's a reason for it. That according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. It is the object
and purpose of God. That we who glory should glory
in him. That we who trust in him should
trust in him alone, boast of him alone, and give praise to
him alone. Now in this matter of salvation,
Jesus Christ stands entirely alone. We put no trust, no confidence
in the flesh, no trust, no confidence in ourselves, not in anything
we do, not in anything we experience, not in anything we feel, but
in Jesus Christ alone. The scriptures are so abundantly
clear. Now, I hope you can honestly
say this. We trust Christ alone. Do you? No confidence in the
flesh. If any man be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. If you be circumcised, Paul says
you've fallen from grace. Now that simply means, to put
it in language we understand, if you do anything to gain, to
maintain, or to improve God's favor other than trust Jesus
Christ, you miss Christ altogether. So there's no mixture of grace
and works. There's no adding of anything
to the finished work of Christ. There's no putting of our works
with his works, but rather we trust Jesus Christ alone for
all our acceptance with God. Now, God requires certain things
of us. He demands that we have a perfect record of righteousness. The record books of heaven by
which we shall be judged must contain only a record of righteousness
on our behalf. The Lord Jesus Christ, the son
of God, has come into this world and he has, by his obedience
to God, established righteousness for us. Turn to Hebrews chapter
12. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
14. Now I have selected this verse
with regard to this thing of righteousness because this is
the verse that is most commonly misused and misinterpreted when
we start talking about pursuing righteousness. The apostle says,
follow peace with all being and holiness without which no man
shall see the Lord. Brother Lindsay asked God in
his prayer just a little bit ago, to teach us to live honorably,
Christ-like in this world. Let that desire never ever fade
or languish. Seek to follow his path and his
example of righteousness. But that's not what this text
is talking about. This text is talking about righteousness,
not that you can work out, not that you can perform for yourself,
not a righteousness by which you hope to find yourself constantly
improving until at last you're accepted with God. Oh, no. This
text is saying pursue that one righteousness without which no
man shall see the Lord. That's not your righteousness.
That's Christ the Lord, our righteousness. Now see to it, children of God,
don't ever presume that somehow you're able to pick up some aspect
of your merit, some aspect of your doing, some aspect of your
experience and say, this will give me now, along with Christ
Jesus, peace with God. Oh, no, no, no. You constantly
shake off your righteousness. Constantly say no to your righteousness. They're just filthy rags and
pursue Christ alone the Lord our righteousness Make sure you
have him you say well, I've already got him I know if you believe
you do Paul did too and he said I forget those things which are
behind I Forget the Damascus Road experience. I forget what
I've experienced when I was translated to the third heaven You mean
Paul you didn't you don't have any confidence in that none at
all none at all and I reach forth to those things which are before.
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus. That is, I seek him as though
I had never had any experience whatsoever of his grace. I continue
seeking him, continue looking to him, continue following him. We were talking a little bit
ago, Mark, about this matter of perseverance. That's the secret of perseverance.
That's the secret of it. The secret of perseverance is
that every day we pursue Christ. Every day we look for Christ. Every day we reach out for Christ. Every day we follow Christ. We
trust Him. Trust Him alone. Not only for
righteousness, but for redemption as well. God demands that we
have a righteous record, but in order that we have a righteous
record, our sins must be paid for and blotted out from the
book of God, and Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And that simply means this. The
Lord Jesus, by his blood, has erased from the record book of
heaven our transgressions. He's blotted out as a thick cloud
our transgressions and our sins. So that God says in that day,
I'll look for the sins of Judah and for the transgressions of
Jacob, and they shall not be found. The Lord Jesus, by redeeming
us, has paid our debt to the justice of God. But there is
more. We must also have a righteous
nature. Something got to be done within
us. There's got to be a marvelous transformation take place or
we can't enter into glory. It's not enough that we have
a right record with God. We must be right with God ourselves. And in regeneration, the Lord
Jesus Christ is brought to us by the Spirit of God and planted
in us by God the Holy Spirit so that Christ is formed in you
and he makes us righteous in our inmost being. And one day,
these bodies of flesh, we will drop. And when we have dropped
these bodies of flesh, we shall stand before God in the perfection
of holiness in our nature. And then Christ will come again
and redeem us and bring us at last up to glory. And it's all
his work. All his work. Well, how on this
earth will we hold on and hold out and persevere to the end?
Only by Christ. Only by Christ. Sometimes we
get a little arrogant. I do. God, forgive me. God forgive
me. I see folks waver, and I see folks fall,
and I see folks turn back, and I pity them, and at the same
time, I get a little disgusted. Why don't you just put your hand
to the plow and go for things? Go for God's glory. Why don't
you just stay with it? And God keeps reminding me the
only reason I stay with is because He stays with me. The only reason
I persevere is because He holds me by His grace. And the only
reason you do is the same. Turn back to Jeremiah chapter
32. Jeremiah chapter 32. And verse 38. After he has gathered us, this
is what God promises he will do. And they shall be my people
and I will be their God. And I'll give them one heart
in one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them
and for their children after them. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do
them good. Oh, thank God for his grace.
So many times we get to looking within, and we think that because
of our sin, because of our coldness, because of our indifference,
because of our apathy, well, God'll cast us away now. God'll
cast us away now. But Lindsey, your sin didn't
keep Him from loving you to start with. And His love for you was
pitched on you when He knew full well what you'd be and do. And
there's nothing that you, if you're in Christ, and I'm telling
you there's nothing you can do, nothing you can say that will
cause Him to turn away from you to do you good. Nothing. Nothing. Now if that makes you
want licentiousness. If that makes you crave to go
out and live in some ungodly manner, I'm afraid you simply
don't understand the grace of God. Oh my soul, God's goodness
is that which constrains us to continue following Him. He says,
I will not turn away from them to do them good, and I will put
my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me. They shall not depart from me.
Malachi chapter 3 verse 16, it is written, he hateth putting
away. He hateth putting away and he
won't do what he hates. God will never put away his own.
Now either Christ alone is my savior. I mean, without my feelings,
without my works, without my emotions, without my doing anything
or being anything, either Christ alone is my Savior or I have
no Savior. Either He is completely the Savior
of my soul or He does not save my soul at all. If so much as
the will to be saved depends upon me, I cannot be saved for
He said, you will not come to me. If after having been saved
for 50 years or 75 years, I should at last be brought to the very
threshold of heaven, and the Lord God should say, now reach
back and drag your heel across the threshold, I'd fall into
hell. Salvation is of the Lord, altogether
of the Lord. It's His doing. By the grace
of God, I am what I am. I've been preaching this for
27 years. and I'm more thoroughly convinced
of it now than I've ever been. By the grace of God, I am what
I am, nothing else, nothing else. Secondly, turn to 1 Peter, or
2 Peter rather, chapter one, 2 Peter chapter one. Jesus only is our Lord and our
master. Listen to verse two. Grace and
peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God
and of Jesus our Lord. Now I'm fully aware that Jesus
Christ is the Lord of the universe. He's the monarch of all things. He is the king of all men. so that all men are under his
dominion, like it or not. All men are ruled by him and
controlled by him, absolutely. He controls the actions of the
wicked as well as he controls the actions of the righteous.
I have no question whatsoever about that. But with regard to
God's saints, Christ Jesus is our Lord because we voluntarily
submit to him as our Lord and master. This is what the apostle
means in 1 Corinthians 12, and in verse 3 where it says, no
man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now, anybody
can say Jesus is Lord. You hear nuts on TV talk Jesus
is Lord all the time from every walk of life. But I'm telling
you, nobody in his heart acknowledges Christ as his Lord, so that he
willingly submits to Christ as his Lord, but by the Spirit of
God. We are, by nature, rebels against God. Jim Meador, by nature,
hates God. That's our nature. That's what
the scripture says. By nature, we are enmity against
God. Not at enmity, but enmity itself. So that all men, by nature, live
and walk with a fist in God's face, demanding their rights
before God. But when God the Holy Spirit
comes and reveals our sin, and God's grace in Jesus Christ,
the believer says, you take over. You take over. We surrender our
life to him. We surrender our life to him.
I spent a good portion of my youth in utter rebellion against
God and all authority. And when first I heard the claims
of Christ and first began to hear men teaching that which
was the truth of the gospel of God's grace. The problem, the
reason why I did not immediately accept Christ Jesus as Savior
was not that I didn't want to go to heaven. That wasn't the
problem. That wasn't the issue. It was not that I was just one
of those people who didn't have any regard for eternity or my
immortal soul. That wasn't the issue. The issue
was I did not want Jesus Christ to rule my life. And that's the
issue with all men. But when the believer, when a
man or woman is made to believe on Christ, true faith voluntarily
surrenders all things to the rule of Christ. And the believer
takes up his cross daily and follows Christ. He loses his
life to Christ. I don't know how to state that
any more clearly or any more decisively than our Lord Jesus
stated it. I sat down and wrote to Jennifer
and Christy earlier this week. You'll be getting a letter. She
graduates this week and I encouraged her as I tried to everyone I
have contact with, but especially young folks as they begin to
seek their way in this world. In all things, honor Christ. Follow Christ. Commit your life
to Christ. Don't let anything interfere
with that. And I want to tell you something. When all is said and done, when
all is said and done, when the final wash comes out, believers
do. They do, they just surrender
to Christ. Now, God may in his wisdom and grace take you through
thick and thin, and he may take you through deep, deep, dark,
dark trials and difficulties, but if you're his, You will,
in the tenor of your life, surrender your life to Christ. That's what
believers do. Isn't that right, Bobby? They
just do. Grace causes us to bow. We surrender gladly to the dominion
of the Son of God so that His will becomes our rule. True faith
trusts Christ and His providential rule of everything so the believer
looks to Christ and says, Thy will be done. Thy will be done.
and true faith is obedient to Christ as Lord. The church and
kingdom of God is not a kingdom of rebels. The church and kingdom
of God is a kingdom under the rule of Christ by the voluntary
consent of every heart so that we are willingly obedient to
his word Walk before Christ as our only
Lord and Savior. And thirdly, Jesus only is our
rule of life. Let me show you two texts. Turn
to John chapter 13. John chapter 13. We who believe are not slaves
under the dominion of the law. I've been trying to preached
this since I was just a young man, and I've had constant butting
of heads over this issue, but I'm telling you nothing on this
earth is more comforting, more delighting, more blessed to God's
saints than the proper understanding of the fact that we are not under
the law. We're just not under the law. We're not slaves, and
God doesn't treat us like slaves. We're children, children walking
in the path of our elder brother. And because we love him, we seek
to honor his name. Now we just do. If you love him,
you seek to honor him. And if you don't seek to honor
him, it's because you don't love him and you don't know him. Look
what our Lord says here now in John chapter 13 and verse 15. He has just washed his disciples'
feet. That is, he has just served a very basic elementary need
of his disciples. Their feet were dirty. On those
dusty hot days, men walk and walk and walk for miles and miles
and miles. It was a customary practice of
a hospitable and generous guest to provide for the washing of
his guest's feet. And the Lord Jesus comes to his
disciples and washes their feet. when your feet are tired and
achy, nothing on this earth more refreshing, nothing more relaxing,
nothing more comforting, and nothing that anyone by nature
is less likely to do than wash your feet. But our Lord Jesus
washed his disciples' feet. And listen to what he said. I've
given you an example. that you should do as I've done
to you. Go do what I've done. What's
that mean? Go serve each other. Go meet
one another's needs. You go and follow my example. Now, our rule of life is not
the Ten Commandments, but the whole revealed will of God in
Holy Scripture. And it's summarized in two things.
It's summarized in two things. Turn to 1 John chapter 3. First
John chapter three, if I could, I'm reluctant to talk about summarizing
scripture, but I guess it's all right. Our Lord said all the
law and the prophets are fulfilled in two things, didn't he? He
said, love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.
He said that fulfills the whole law and the prophets. All right,
here in first John chapter three, And verse 23, John, by the spirit
of God, through divine inspiration, gives us the summary of all that
God commands. This is his commandment. Number
one, that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. I keep praying, God, teach me. Teach me to trust you. Oh, teach
me to trust you. Teach me to believe Christ. I mean, believe him. I do. I believe him. I do trust him. But I have to say, Lord, I believe
help thou my unbelief. But nothing more honors the Lord
our God than simply trusting his son. Nothing, nothing more
honors him. Nothing more dishonors him than
a lack of faith in his son. And secondly, he says, and love
one another as he gave us commandment. Oh, God, teach us to love each
other. Teach us to love each other. Teach us to bridle our tongues
and bridle our thoughts. Entertain only good thoughts
of our brethren, good thoughts of one another. If we could learn
to think good things about each other, we'd only say good things
about each other. Learn to bridle your tongue by bridling your
thoughts and do good to one another. Forgive, be kind and gracious
and generous, thoughtful, caring one of another. That's what it
is to love each other. Lay down your life for one another. Now, preach or talk to yourself.
God teach me to give up my privileges, and my opportunities, and my
wants, and my desires for the good of Babi and Judaeus. Teach
me to do that. Oh, God, teach me to do that.
That's what it is to love one another. It's to lay down your
life for one another. Fourthly, Jesus only is all I
hope before our God. Colossians 127. Christ in you
is the hope of glory. Christ in you. I heard Brother Mahan tell a
story one time we were preaching somewhere. He said a little girl
asked her daddy on the way home from church said, Daddy, how
big is Jesus? He said, well, I don't know.
Why do you ask? He said, she said, well, Do you reckon he's the size of
you are or any other man?" He said, well, I guess he's a normal-sized
man of any other fellow. He said, well, why do you ask?
He said, well, the Sunday school teacher said today that Jesus
is in me. He said, if he was in me, wouldn't
he stick out? And he said, I expect he would.
And if he's in you, he'll stick out. You don't have to wear a
button saying, I love Jesus, everybody will know. You don't
have to wear a bumper sticker saying, I love Jesus. Honk if you love him. Everybody
knows he'll stick out. And if he sticks out in you,
he's the hope of glory. Only Christ. Our assurance and
peace is Christ. Christ alone. is our acceptance
with God. Christ alone makes intercession
with the Father on our behalf. Christ alone is able to present
me faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. But in Christ Jesus, I have confidence
that he shall do just that. He will present me holy and without
blame, without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish. before
the presence of God's glory. And bold shall I stand in that
great day, for who ought to my charge shall lay, while through
Christ's blood absolved I am from sin's tremendous guilt and
blame. Once more, turn to Psalm 75.
I'm sorry, Psalm 73 and verse 25. Jesus only is our reward
in heaven. In heaven's eternal glory, I
want nothing. I hope for nothing but Jesus
only. He's the crown I seek and the
beauty I desire. And he said, I'll be to you a
crown of glory and a diadem of beauty. Now look here in Psalm
73, David said, whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is
none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My heart and my
flesh faileth. I wrote to Brother Alan Rowe
yesterday evening down in Australia and told him that Hap had been
called to glory. And I said, it won't be long for you and
me either. Soon we shall follow it. My heart
and my flesh faileth. No need to weep over that. That's
the way it ought to be. This heart and flesh supposed
to fail. But God is the strength of my heart. and my portion forever. Now here's a sampling of the
prospect before us. Soon we shall be with Christ. With him face to face. And when
we're with him, we shall see his face. And when we see him, we shall
be like him. Now we've talked about that a
good bit recently, but listen to this. When we see him, we will be fully satisfied with
him. Fully satisfied. There'll be
no weeping, no pain, no sorrow, no crying. There'll be nothing to cause
us pain, weeping, sorrow, crying, because we'll be fully satisfied,
fully satisfied with Him. Now, I don't know how to describe
that, except maybe to give a terribly carnal, earthly illustration
of it, but you sit down to one of these dinners these ladies
put on downstairs, and you come in just so hungry, and You sit
there and eat for about 30, 35 minutes, and before long, you're
so satisfied. And somebody comes along and
says, would you like to have one more piece of chocolate cake?
You say, I just don't want another bite. I don't want another bite. The only problem with that, with
that satisfaction, comes a little bit of pain. Oh, but when we
see He, and we are with Him, There will be nothing, nothing,
nothing that we want. Can you hear that? Nothing, nothing. For he is all we want. He's all,
we'll be fully satisfied with him. And there's something even
better than that. The scripture says, he shall
see us the travail of his soul and he, the son of God, shall be
fully satisfied with us. Oh, imagine that. Imagine that. I have never, I have never yet
I have never yet done anything with which I was absolutely satisfied. Have you? Never. Just in a purely
physical sense, I've never written an article, I've never made anything,
I've never done anything with which I was absolutely satisfied.
But when Jesus Christ gets done with me, and lands me in heaven's
glory, conformed perfectly to his image, the Son of God will
look on me and be perfectly satisfied. Satisfied in my presence. Satisfied with my praise. Satisfied
with me. through His beauty that He shall
have put upon me. Amen. Amen. Now then, listen to what Paul
says. I'll send you home with this.
In the light of these things, in the light of this blessed,
blessed, glorious Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, He says, if ye then be risen
with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection, not
affections, your affection, set your heart singularly on things
above, not on things on the earth, for you're dead. You're dead. and your life is healed with
Christ in God. Amen.