to thee who shall be a man of
rest." Solomon, he was the type of Christ. "'Come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'" Rest
for what? Rest for your soul to come to
me. "'I will give him rest from all
of his enemies round about, for his name shall be Solomon. And
I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. He shall
build a house for my name. He shall be my son. and I will
be his father, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over
Israel forever." That is certainly a type of the Lord Jesus. Now,
my son, the Lord be with thee, and prosper thou, and build the
house of the Lord thy God, as he hath said of thee. This is the temple. Only the
Lord give thee wisdom and understanding. and give thee charge concerning
Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God. Then shalt thou prosper. If thou
takest heed to fulfill the statutes and judgments which the Lord
charged Moses with concerning Israel, be strong, be of good
courage, dread not, nor be dismayed. Now behold, in my trouble In my trouble I have prepared
for the house of the Lord," this is David talking, "...a hundred
thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of
silver, and brass and iron," and he says, I've got so much
of it, I'm giving it to the Lord to build this temple that I don't
even know the weight of it, "...for it is in abundance." timber also,
and stones have I prepared. I've got the material. I can't
build it. I can't build it. God has ordained you, Solomon,
to this great and glorious privilege of building this temple. I'm
going to provide the materials that thou mayest add thereto.
Moreover, there are workmen with thee in abundance, healers and
workers of stone and timber. and all manners of cunning men
for every manner of work. Of the gold, the silver, and
the brass, and the iron, there is no number, just without number. Arise, therefore, and be doing,
and the Lord be with thee." Arise and be doing, and the Lord be
with thee. David also commanded all the
princes of Israel to help Solomon His son, and David said this,
David said to all the children of Israel now, Is not the Lord
your God with you? Hath he not given you rest on
every side? Two questions. For he hath given
the inhabitants of the land into mine hands. And the land is subdued
before the Lord and before His people. He answers the questions.
The Lord has given you rest. He has given the inhabitants
of the land to you. They have been subdued. Is not
the Lord God on your side? Verse 19 is my text. I just want
to talk to you for a little bit here this morning about that
19th verse. Now, in light of this, in light of this, you know
what we are going to do. going to build a temple. Solomon's
going to build a temple. David's got the material. The
Lord God's with you. All these enemies have been subdued. God's on your side, and God's
given you rest. Now, you people, set your heart
and your soul to seek the Lord, your God, Arise, therefore, build
ye the sanctuary of the Lord God, to bring the ark of the
covenant of the Lord, and the holy vessels of God into the
house that is to be built in the name of the Lord." Well, primarily now, this is to be
directed, this admonition here is to be directed to those that
are already saved. They're saved. They're Christians. They're believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, I say it's to be directed
to those that are already saved. But, of course, I think you can
use this and direct it to the unconverted and still not just
make a pretext out of it. Because I know that people outside
of the Lord Jesus did no interest in God. They can't call upon
God. I know that. And they can't seek Him. In a
sense, they can't. So primarily here he's talking
to people who can seek the Lord. No one can seek the Lord apart
from the Spirit of God, apart from the fact that He's been
regenerated and quickened and brought into submission to the
will of God. And Jesus is His captain. And the Lord Jesus is
His Savior. Now listen, what are they to
seek here? Number one, what are they to
seek? All right, now set your heart and your soul to do what? To seek the Lord your God. Number
one, they are to seek the Lord your God. Well, how do I do that? All right, you do, you seek the
Lord your God by, number one, by seeking to obey Him in everything. That's how you seek the Lord.
You can't tell me that you're seeking the Lord if you're disobedient
to Him. To seek the Lord, you've got to be obedient unto God in
everything. Let it be your study to test
everything we do by the Word of God. If we're doing something
here and asking you to do it, If it's not taught in the Word
of God, let's not do it. But if it's taught in the Word
of God, let's do it without questioning, without murmuring, without complaining. Let's bow to it and delight in
doing it. You remember the Apostle Paul
mentioned over there in the seventh chapter of the book of Romans,
he said, I delight in the law of God. I delight in it. I delight
in it. He said, I know that I can't
I can't fulfill it in its completeness. I know that. But he said, I do
delight in it. And you ought to delight in it.
I know that the law of God was never given to save me. I know
that. But because I know that does not bring a dishonor or
disrespect out of my heart towards the law of God because I love
the law of God. I delight in the law of God.
I delight in it. It can't save me. Only Jesus,
the fulfillment of that law, can save me. But I delight in
it. And we ought to delight in the
law. We ought to delight in being obedient to everything that God
says. That's one way, see. So we ought
to let that be our study, to test everything we do by the
Word of God. not willfully, sin, by omission
or commission. That is by failing to do that which we know
to do. Let's not know to do something
and then avoid that. But if we know to do it, if we
know to do it, let's do it, let's comply with it. He that knoweth
to do good, and doeth it not. He that knows to do good. Now
listen, this is serious. This is serious business. And
I could go down along here and I could number things that...
I could number thing after thing after thing after thing that
we know to do. And many times we don't do it.
And we just slop it off. It don't mean anything. I'm telling
you, he that knoweth to do good. You know how to do good and doeth
it not. It's what? It's sin! And what nailed our Savior to
a tree? Huh? What is it that God hates beyond
everything else? He hates sin. And you mean to
tell me that you and I deliberately and willfully and plan and choose
to sin against God when we know better? Huh? What does He say? He says here to seek the Lord
your God. Seek Him. How are we to seek
Him? To obey. to be in obedience to
that which is written. He that carelessly offends in
small matters shall fall little by little." If you offend in
these little things, if these little things throw you, if you
offend there, then it may Your destruction may be as slow as
a snail's pace, but I'll guarantee you it's inevitable. It's inevitable. It'll catch you. You see, great
catastrophes in moral life do not come upon us suddenly, but
by slow degrees. They just inch by inch, inch
by inch, inch by inch. That is, the wheels grind slowly,
but they grind surely. You see, the dry rot, you know
what dry rot is? The dry rot enters the under
timbers of human character and when it has silently done its
work, you know what happens? The house falls down. That's
what happens. That's the reason you see people
that that appear to be religious all their life, or maybe for
30 years. Maybe they've started in this
religious business when they're 16, 17, 18. Maybe there's a preacher.
They started young and they went for 10, 20, 30, 40 years, and
all at once, all at once, you were shocked to hear of the terrible
calamity, what had happened to them. You're shocked. You say, oh, how did that happen?
I'll tell you how it happened. It just didn't come. It just
didn't come suddenly, like a flash of lightning, but it was happening
slow but sure. The dry rot had entered in under
the timbers of that house of character, and when that dry
rot suddenly or silently began to eat meat, and suddenly, when
it ate the whole core of the log of human character, it collapsed. I built a room on my house, and
after about two years, I noticed right in the front of the fireplace,
it started to give out. It started to give in. I put
my foot down on it and put a little weight on it, and it started
to bounce and shake. So I told Glenn about it. I said,
Glenn, I got some problems here. Glenn said, look, I believe you
got termites. I said, oh no, I couldn't have
termites. Yeah, he said, I believe that's what you got. I said,
we'll have to take this rug up, we'll have to take this floor
off. And we did, and when we did, there was nothing there
but a pile of sawdust. Just ate them two-by-fours, just
ate them two-by-sixes, It just made a shell out of them. It did. It took two years for
it to do it. But it did it. You see, rot, rot, a silent rot. What are these people to seek?
What are you and I to seek this morning? We are to seek the Lord.
How do we do it? By obeying what He tells us here
in the Bible. He that knoweth to do good. And
doeth it not? We think we know so much, don't
we? We think we know so much. Well, it won't hurt me. I don't
need to give up my money. There's plenty of people down
there that give money to church. I don't need to give anything.
I don't need to give anything. Well, I don't need to. There's plenty of people down
there that that fella can preach to. I don't need to be there.
Watch out now. Watch out. Quit preaching now. Quit preaching. If you ain't
preaching now, you're just causing trouble now, preacher. Why don't
you talk about Jesus a little bit? Why don't you talk about
the glory of the cross a little bit? Why don't you just quit
this business now? Listen, this will disturb you. This will disturb
you. Because this will challenge the
very foundation that you're standing on. He that knows to do good
and doeth it not, I don't need to do these things. You better
need to do these things. You better start watching, you
better start praying, because I'm telling you, as sure as I'm
standing here, as sure as God is God, that this decay of carelessness
will secretly and silently gnaw your innards out, and one day
down you'll go. That's right. One day you'll
just fall flat. And it'll be a shock and a surprise
to everybody. But there'll be a few that won't
be shocked or surprised because they'll say, well, it had to
be going on for a long time. It had to be. They wasn't watching. They wasn't praying. They wasn't
obeying. What does it mean when the Bible
says, resist the devil and he'll flee from you? What's that mean? Paul told those
people, he said, resist him. Well, resist the devil now. I'm
talking about the devil. Resist him. That indicates that
there's something, that there's going to have to be some watchfulness
on my part. Huh? The Bible didn't say anything
about God going to resist the devil for me, but he said resist
the devil. So if I'm going to resist him,
I'm going to have to be alert, I'm going to have to be watching.
He's sly, he's slick. You know what he wants to do?
You know what the devil's chief end and purpose is? Not to destroy
the Lord Jesus Christ. He tried that. He tried that
and our Lord Jesus Christ was a victor over him, over sin,
over death, over health and the grave, and the devil knows where
he's going. He's not trying to defeat the
Lord Jesus Christ. He tried that. You know what
He's trying to do? He's trying to get you to miss
Christ. And if He can get you to miss
Christ, that's the fulfillment of His desire and His object,
is to get you to miss Him. If He can get you to be religious,
That's well and good. He wants you to be religious.
Because if you're religious, nine times out of ten, you'll
miss Christ. He wants you to be careless.
He wants you to take that attitude that you don't need to obey all
these things. You don't need to be faithful.
You don't need that. You know yourself. that you and
your wife gets along good, and your family is good, and your
neighbors think well. I've got a pretty good foundation
here, preacher. Now, wait a minute. He wants you to believe that.
You see, what you're doing, you're being independent of the Lord
Jesus and dependent of yourself. You're trusting in yourself.
And the devil, That's what I'm saying about resisting the devil,
but know who the devil is. Know where he's at. Know how
he lurks. Know how cunning and divisive
and tricky he is. He's the devil. He doesn't come
around with a red uniform and a pitchfork. You'd avoid him.
But you see, he's a wolf in sheep's clothing. He appears to be what
he's not. He'll allow you to sleep. So
you see what I'm saying then, don't you? It's the sly, secret
rock that's been going on. That's the real destroyer. That's
the real destroyer. So watch and pray. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord in everything. And when he's talking about seeking
the Lord, he means Verse 19, he means the
whole being, the whole man. Look at that now. Now set your
heart and your soul to seek the Lord. Every thought, every movement
of the whole man is going one direction. What direction is
that? Seeking the Lord, seeking the Lord. Seek the Lord in private. Seek
the Lord in public. Seek the Lord at home. Seek the Lord in your business.
Seek the Lord in all places, in all circumstances, and at
all times. Seek the Lord. For me, to live
is Christ, body, soul, and spirit. Seek the Lord. My main business
in this life is to seek the Lord. That's our attitude. I talked
around a young man here just the other evening, And then he
thought he was real sick. He thought something the matter
with him. And he got worried just that quick. Just that quick
he got worried. And it didn't appear to be too
much, but it scared him. Scared him. And I said, well,
what's the matter? Well, he said, there's something
the matter with me and they're not telling me. I know there's something
the matter with me. Well, I said, I don't think so. I don't think
there's anything the matter with you. I know there are. I know there
are. I have a problem here with my blood. I know there's something
there. And he was scared he wouldn't
say another word. And as soon as the nurse came in, he started
questioning the nurse. When are they coming back? Does
anything matter with me? You know what his problem was?
He was afraid. He was afraid of eternity. That's it. I analyzed that real
quick. I knew I was afraid. I knew I
was afraid. He had never... He knew it. He
knew that his whole mind, body, soul, and spirit wasn't going
one direction. He knew that. He knew that he
didn't have anything to cling to. He knew that if it came down,
if they came in there and said, well, listen, you've got problems.
He knew it was too late then. He knew that. Listen, the doctor
comes in and tells you that you're going to die. It's too late then
to call the preacher. Call the preacher and he can read the
scriptures to you and people can talk to you and 99 times
out of 100 you'll just be religious, that's all. You may say, oh yes,
I believe, I believe. Preacher, I'll do whatever you
say. You say I've got to believe this? Yeah, but I believe it.
You say I've got to be baptized? I don't want to be baptized.
Oh, you want some money? Preacher, I'll give it to you.
You know what you're doing? You're scared to death. You're scared
to death. Too late then, too late then.
It's now! What does he say? When are you
to seek the Lord with your whole heart and your whole soul? Three
letters there. The first, NOW! Better do it
now. If I've got to anybody this morning,
do it now. Right now. Set, right now, your
heart to seeking the Lord. Right now. Not tomorrow. Not
next week. Not, I'll wait until the 17th
and 18th and 19th of April. They're going to have a big meeting
at this church. I'll do something right now. So take thine ease. Eat, drink,
and be merry. What he said. Do it now. Now. You enter into that door now
or you'll stand in all probability on the outside shivering the
rest of your life. Alright, how are we to seek the
Lord? I told you how we used to seek the Lord. Obeying Him
in that which is revealed. Don't argue with God. Don't argue
with Him. Just obey. An obedient son doesn't
argue with his father. If his father says, go out there
and burn that trash, he doesn't say, why should I burn it? He
picks up the waste paper basket or whatever it is and he goes
out and burns it. If his father says, Go out and
get a bucket of coal. He doesn't say, well, we've got
two buckets on the porch, or we've got a bucket already. He
just gets the bucket and goes out. That's what an obedient
son does. That's what I'm trying to talk
about. That's what I'm trying to get across. Obedient, compliance
with the will, the wishes, the desires of our Heavenly Father,
whatever they are. All right, how are we to do it? Second
place, we're to do it by building up the temple. That's the way
it is to do it here. Put everything you've got into
this thing. Put everything you've got into
it. Set your heart and soul to seek
the Lord. Seek the Lord with all your being,
body, mind, soul, and spirit. Seek the Lord, the whole man.
Go in wonder. Seek the Lord. Say like Paul,
I'm separated under the gospel of God. For me lives Christ. That's all I think of, all I
want to do. I want to be of a help to others.
I want others to be of the mind that I am in this matter. All
right, how am I going to do it? All right. Arise, therefore,
and build ye the sanctuary of the Lord God. What do I mean
by that? I mean this, that the main business
in the life of a believer is for what? Is the glory of God. Don't miss that. That's our main
business, to glorify God. Whatever we do, glorify God. Now listen, and the second thing
that ought to be our life's business here in this world, while we're
being useful to our generation, and certainly useful in the ministry
of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, is to build up that spiritual
temple, to build up the church. This church here is the body
of Christ. That's right, this is the body
of Christ. We may not act like it sometimes, and we may not
look like it, but this church, unless we've all been deceived,
unless we've all been deceived lock, stock, and barrel, this
church is the body of Christ. He's the head of the church,
which is His body. Now what are we to do? Our main
business of the life of the believer then is to build up this church,
this spiritual temple. It's not to be left half a dozen.
That's not what he's saying, and that's not what the Bible
teaches, even in the New Testament about building up the holy temple,
building up the church. Well, I'll just leave it to the
preacher and four or five good men. They'll take care of it.
Two or three women. They'll take care of it. I don't
need it." That's not what he's saying. He says, David also commanded
all the princes of Israel to help Solomon, his son, save. All of them. And it's all of
us. Every one of us. You've got a
responsibility unto God and unto this body to build it up. You
can't build it up if you're not here. Can you? You say, Preacher,
I wish you wouldn't talk that way. I wish I wouldn't have to
talk that way. I wish I wouldn't have to say these things. I wish
that I could just say, well, I'm going to preach to you the
gospel this morning. I'm going to tell you about the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I didn't have to say these
other things, but I got to. If I'm going to be faithful to
Him, I got to tell you. I got to tell you that you can't build
up the temple of the Lord Jesus Christ if you don't put anybody
in that offering box. If you don't put your carcass
in one of these seats when it comes Wednesday and Sunday morning,
you're not doing it. You're not doing it. Watch and
pray. You're not setting your heart
and your soul. You're not seeking the Lord.
And I want you to seek the Lord. I'm not saying this is going
to get you saved. I'm saying that this is the way to save
people They have themselves. This is the way they do. Well, I said it's not left to
just a half a dozen people, but it's our life's business, all
of it. The preacher, they say, well, the preacher, let him do
his best here. We've got a few brothers and
a few sisters, and let him do his best, and the rest can be
excused. Oh, no, that's not what it's
saying. All of us ought to want to be involved in what? The glorious privilege of serving
the Lord. Though I know that in my place,
I get a lot of compliments. I know that. A lot of folks come
around to me. Not only here, but wherever I
go, people come around. Pat you on the back. And of course,
it gets a lot of things. It's not compliments too, But
here's what I'm saying to you, even if you don't get a compliment,
even if no one ever comes along, no one ever comes along and says,
well, I sure appreciate your service, if you never get that.
And I hope that I never overlook you. I hope that. I hope that
I can come around and say, well, I appreciate your faithfulness,
and I appreciate your prayers, and I appreciate your sacrifice
that you make. I hope I'm able to say that.
But if you never get that, just keep on keeping on. Because after
all, we're not serving the Lord to please men anyhow. I know
these things help. I know they're encouraging to
us. But if we don't get them, if we don't get them, let's just
keep on, keep on, keep on. Why? Because we're complying
with what He told us. See, we're seeking the Lord with
our hearts and our souls. We're seeking the Lord God. We're
doing so by obeying. We're doing so by building up
the temple of God, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
doing it. And brethren, It may be that
by the grace of God, when we come down to die, we'll not have
to look over at the nurse and say, well, is there something
terrible about her with me? We can look at her and look up
into her face and say, I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid. I'm not
afraid because my Lord, He bore in His own body my penalty. I'm
not afraid. I rest in Him. Oh, this is a
glorious privilege that we have of serving the Lord. Oh, my. The older I get, the more I become
absorbed with this, that it is a privilege. I heard a fellow
preach not so long ago, and he made this statement. He said that when Adam rebelled
against God in the Garden of Eden, you know what Adam did?
He ran out there in the woods and hid. And it says, as the
custom was, God came down. in the cool of the day to have
fellowship with this creation. It says that God came down and
said that God could have walked on by. God, when He came down,
He could have kept on walking. He could have kept on walking
and left old Adam out there in the woods. But He stopped. But He stopped. And He said,
Adam, where art thou? I'm so glad He stopped on you.
I'm so glad He stopped. This is a privilege. What does
it profit a man if you have everything and miss this? What would it
profit a man if a fellow called you up today when you got home
and said, You just won two million dollars. You can take two million
dollars, but you get to give up Christianity. What would two
million dollars mean? You'd say, Well, keep your two
million dollars, buddy. It don't mean anything a lot
of what I have. I have the Lord. I know the Lord.
I know Him. It don't mean anything. Oh, let's
all, everything that we do, let it be done with a single eye
to God's glory. How are we to seek? Well, I talked
about that. Set your heart and soul. How
do you live? Paul said, for me to live is
Christ. All of you, all of you. Now listen
to this. A man never does a thing well unless his heart sends him. Now, you can't do what I've been
talking about if your heart's not in it. You can comply to
some external commands, but if your heart is not in it, you
won't do it well. You'll just be going through
the motions. A man never does anything well unless his heart's
in it, that is, body and soul. If a man out here is building
a house, And his heart's in it. I'll guarantee you that when
he builds that house, it'll be a better house than a house that
some contractors built for him because his sweat's in it. His
lifeblood's in it. His heart and his soul's in it. Every hour that he can put, that
he can take aside, he puts into that building of that house.
His heart and soul's in that house, brother. No painter, someone
said this, no painter has attained to excellence unless he has mixed
his colors, not only with his brain, but with the lifeblood
of his heart. And when he does that, he's got
a masterpiece. Success does not come to heartless
efforts. Nothing is good by accident. It takes work. It takes sweat. It takes blood. It takes doing. It takes dying. ever became holy by chance. Just not that way. We can come
and sit on our rear ends and listen to what we want to and
get up and get out of here and all that business, but that won't
bring it about. No man ever becomes holy by chance. There must be what? A resolve. Listen to me. That prodigal son
would still have been a prodigal son unless There was a resolve
in his heart, and he acted upon the resolution. You say, well,
you're preaching works. No, I'm not. No, I'm not. If
you've got a resolve in your heart, God gives it to you. He
gives everything. He just didn't work it up. There
must be a resolve, a resolution, a desire, a panting, a pining
after obedience to God, or we'll never have it. We'll never have
it. If there's no panting after it,
pining after it, a desire for it, you'll never have it. If
there's no desire, if there's no desire, a pining, a mourning
after, a determination to be saved, you'll never be saved.
And when you're saved, it won't be by your desire, it won't be
by your obedience, it'll be by the grace of God. And after you
come and fall before Him and make a few steps, you'll look
back and you'll say, Bless God! He gave me that desire! I was
dead in trespasses and in sins. He gave me the resolve. He gave
me the resolution. It was Him that did it. Unto
Him be all honor and glory and praise. Do you see what I'm saying? Oh, many seem to serve only with
the brain or the intellect, and they go jogging along. Now listen,
I'll quit. I'll leave you to go for a minute.
They seem to be serving the Lord, and it's with the brain, it's
with the intellect. And that's where it's at. And
I'll tell you why I know that. Because they just go, you can
see them in their jogging clothes, they just go jogging along. And
this is what happens. This is what happens. The first
stone in the road upsets them. They're jogging along, you know.
Real religious, real religious. I've been real religious for
a long time. But the first stone, the first
stone thrown out in the road throws them. It just upsets them. And that's all that wound them
up. That wound them up. What happened? Well, it had to
be that they were just serving the Lord. They learned a doctrine.
They learned a doctrine. The Bible doesn't say, set your
heart upon learning a doctrine. You can learn election. You can
learn election. There's no problem learning the
doctrine of election. All you've got to do is just
open up the first chapter of the book of Ephesians and read
that verse where it says, According as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, you've got election. No problem
there, Fred. Anybody that can read, anybody
that can read can believe the doctrine of election. He can
understand the doctrine of election. Anybody can read. It doesn't
say, set your heart upon learning the doctrine. It says, set your
heart and soul upon seeking the Lord. Not upon a doctrine, but
upon a person. And that's the reason I know
that. I've seen, and I know it happens every day, people just
go, they've got their jogging clothes on, and they're just
jogging down the road. Just go on, lickety-split, and the first
thing you know, they stumble over a rock, down they go, and
that's where they're at. Because they got it right here
and they ain't got it here. If we ever get it right here,
we're going to endure to the end if we ever get it here. But it's got to be got there.
My son, give me thine heart. That's where it's got to be. When we come, let's bring our
hearts as well as our brains. Let's have the whole man present.
Our motto is what? All for Jesus. All for Jesus. All for Jesus. My doing, my singing, my praying,
my preaching, my visiting, my talk, my thought, it's all for
who? It's all for Jesus. All for Jesus. Well, a preacher,
he can't take everything away from me. I've got to have something.
You won't need anything if you've got Him. See? Nothing else matters
if you've got Him. Well, you can give up sucking
your thumb if you've got Him. You'll quit wetting the bed if
you've got something better. See what I'm talking about? If
you've got something better. And he's better. He's better. What do they say of him in heaven? What do you think of him right
now? What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? You better answer
this. You better have the same attitude
as these fellas had over there in... Let me see if I can find
it. In the book of the Revelation,
in the 5th chapter, look at this now. I want you to see what these
people... Let me start out by saying this.
Now, I'm going to quit. But I want you to get this. I
want you to hear this. Now, if you want to know a man,
if you want to know a man's true character, where do you go to
find out? You go to the preacher? You're
making a mistake. You go to the deacon? You're
making a mistake. Where do you go to find out a man's true character? I'll tell you where you go. Go
to his home and ask his wife and his children. They'll tell
you. If they're truthful, they'll tell you the truth about him.
They'll tell you really what kind of a fellow he is. If you
want to know a woman, you go and ask her husband and their
children what kind of a person she is. If they're honest, Albert,
they'll tell you. They'll tell you. That is, if
you go where people know you best, to your wife, and say,
well, just what kind of fella is he? If you really want to
know. That's how you can find out,
Clyde, right there. Now, if you want to know what
people think of the Lord Jesus Christ, you go where they know
Him best. We don't know Him best. We just
look into a mirror darkly. We just get a glimpse. But you
go where they know Him best. Now, where do they know Him best
at? Where is that? You go to His home. Where is
He at? He is yonder there. He is the fullness, the embodiment
of the Eternal, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when the angels When the angels view Him, what
do they say about Him? The angels have known the Lord
Jesus Christ ever since they were created. How old are the
angels? I don't know, but they have been there a long time. They are the offshoot of God's
power. God created them angels. Them
angels have been observing the Lord Jesus Christ since the time
that they were conceived or made by God Himself. What did they
say? Look at that 11th verse. It says,
And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about
the throne, and the beast, and the elders. And the number of
them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,
innumerable company of angels that was created by God, who
have been observing the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to
know a person, go to where people know him best. Go to his home. Our Lord Jesus Christ's home
is in glory. And this is what the angel says
about him. And they know. Verse 12 says, And saying with
a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. To receive power,
and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature," now notice
this now, "...and every creature which is in heaven, and on the
earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, all that
are in him, heard I say," this is what they are going to say
one day, This is what they are going to say one day, all that
is on the earth, all that is under the earth, and all that
is in the sea. This is what they are going to say one day. They
are going to say, Blessing and honor and glory and power be
unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever. Turn back over now into that
5th chapter again. In the 8th verse it says, The
beast and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb.
The four and twenty elders are representative of all the redeemed
that have died and went to glory. When you die, you know where
you go when you die? You go to be with the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's where you go. Your body goes to the grave,
but your soul goes to God who made it. That's where it goes.
When you die, when you die, your soul leaves your body and goes
to be with God who gave it. Now, these redeemed, the four
and twenty elders, they're representative of all the redeemed in heaven.
What did they say about the Lord Jesus Christ? They've been there
all these thousands of years. What did they say about Him?
All right, verse number 9 says, And they sung a new song. And
what was the theme of their song? The theme of their song was,
Thou art worthy. Why is he so worthy? Why did
they say he was so worthy? Here it is. Thou art worthy to
open the book, and open the seals thereof. Why is it? Because thou
wast slain, because he died, the just dying for the unjust,
and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood. out of every kindred
and tongue and people and nation. And what have you done for us?
You've made us," what? Look at the next verse, "...and
have made us unto our God." I don't look like a king, do I? You don't
look like one either. But I'll tell you this, if you're
a believer, God has made you, by and through His Son, by His
Son dying, His Son redeeming us. God has made us kings and
priests. And what shall we do? We shall
reign on the earth. That's what he says. Listen, when a man comes to you
with some funny-looking garments on, funny-looking clothes, and
he says, I'm a priest. If you're the poorest child upon
the earth, and you're a child of grace, you can say, well,
I am too. You can say, I'm a priest too.
God made me a priest. Well, you see what I'm talking
about this morning? Set your whole heart, body, mind,
and soul upon seeking the Lord. Seeking the Lord. Watch and pray. He's worthy, isn't He? He's worthy.
He's worthy. He's worthy. It's what they think
of Him up there. They say He's worthy. I say He's
worthy. Let me live. God help me to live. God help
me to live. among the people, publicly and
privately, like I really believe he's worthy. Let's stand. We'll
be dismissed.