I can't imagine any believer
not loving that song. That makes me ready to start
marching. Somebody lead the way, I'll fall in behind you. Turn with me, if you would, back
to 1 Corinthians 2. I pray this will be a blessing
to us and a enjoyable way to end the day. I want to tell you how this message
came about. Last Wednesday night, after I
announced that our text was Psalm 62, I just mentioned to you as a
happy reminder that that was our brother Roy Baldwin's favorite
Psalm. The Lord, after the Lord called
him home, we looked at that psalm and the title of the message
that we looked at was a message for our brother Roy. Psalm 62. And just being there last Wednesday
night, it made me just happy to remember how much he loved
that psalm. And just, don't we just love God's people and just
thank the Lord for them, it's special. Well, because I reminded
everybody of that, Juanita called me to tell me how much it meant
to her that I would just remember him and mention his name. And
I understand that. It means a lot to me, and that
was his wife. And we started talking about
the fact that he is in glory now. This man, who in the other
building sat right there, And we knew and talked to and hugged. He is in glory now. His soul. I am a soul and you
are a soul. We are not bodies. I've said
it before and I think it's a really good illustration. You can cut
off every part of this body that's not a vital part for life and
I'm still me. If I'm missing a finger, I'm
still me. Missing an arm, I'm still me.
Missing my legs, I'm still me. I'm a soul. And His soul, His
being, His person is in glory right now. with Jesus Christ. We think about how amazing, we
read about the apostles and they walked with Christ. He's walking
with Christ. He's with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And as we were talking Juanita just kept saying over and over
again, can you imagine? Can you just imagine? Can you imagine what he's doing
right now? Can you just imagine what Roy
is doing right now? That's what our conversation
sounded like. Can you imagine what it's gonna be like? Can
you imagine what that's gonna be like? And this is what I said
to her. No, I can't. I hath not seen, ear hath not
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things that
God hath prepared for them that love him." We just literally
cannot imagine, before we even start into this message, I want
to establish, we cannot imagine. We cannot imagine. When I got
off the phone with her, I got to thinking about our conversation
and I thought, you know, Even though I truly can't imagine,
I know, I acknowledge I cannot imagine what it's going to be
like to be with Christ in glory. But even though I can't imagine
it, I would still like to try. I know I can't. But I would still
very much like to try. to imagine what it's gonna be
like. What it's gonna be like. For
that reason, 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9 is gonna be our text, and I've
titled this message, Can You Imagine? Can You Just Imagine? 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9, it says,
but as it is written, I hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him. There is nothing on
this earth that our eyes have ever seen. We've seen pictures
of exotic beaches and oceans and whatever it is you're into. Some people are not really that
into beaches and oceans, but I am. And I've seen a couple
that I have enjoyed very much, but I've seen a lot that I don't
believe I'll ever get to see in my lifetime. And they're just
breathtaking, truly breathtaking. You see majestic waterfalls. We have some of the most glorious
sunsets here in Kingsport I've ever seen. People talk about
the sunsets of these different places. We have glorious sunsets. We have seen some amazing, truly
glorious things, but there is nothing on this earth that these eyes have ever seen And there is nothing on this
earth that these ears have ever heard. Again, I have to go back to ocean
waves crashing. I love to hear the beach. Rain falling softly, just like
that, on a tin roof. That's beautiful to me. I sit
and listen to that for hours. Orchestras of moving music, you
go see a movie or something and they've hired the greatest orchestra
in the world to play the score. I love music. If it's the right
chord at the right time, it sends chills through me. I just, I
love music. There is nothing on this earth
that our eyes have ever seen. There's nothing on this earth
that our ears have ever heard. I would just say, you know, wait
till you hear the choirs of angels. But just wait till you hear the
voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, really, the actual voice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you imagine? I've thought
about it so many times. I wonder what His voice sounds
like. The book of Ezekiel and the book
of Revelation, they both say that His voice is as the sound
of many waters. It says His voice sounds like
a trumpet. It says many things. It's beautiful to hear. It's
just beautiful to hear. There's nothing on this earth
that our eyes have ever seen. And there's nothing on this earth
that our ears have ever heard. And there's nothing on this earth
that has ever entered into the heart of our imagination that
could possibly describe to us the things that God has prepared
for them that love him. I know we've all tried, but we just cannot even imagine. But I want to try, okay, just
for a minute here. As we get into this, I want us
to know before we go into it that the Lord is not speaking
here and has not done this for every single person. It's always
important that we qualify this. It's always important. Our Lord
has done this for those who love Him. Isn't that what we just
read? Verse nine, as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love Him. That's who He's speaking
to. And why do they love Him? Those who do actually love Him.
Why do they love Him? because He loved them first. That's the reason why. Our loving
Him, and again, I'll qualify by saying
this, people think they love the Lord God until they find
out who the Lord God really is, and then they say, well, no,
I don't love that God at all. But whom the Lord loves, He puts a heart in them to love
Christ for who He is. In all of His glory, God Almighty
seated on His throne. And our loving Him is only the
evidence of the fact that He truly loved us first. If we love God, not the God we
made up in our mind, but God, it means He loved us first. And we don't love Him so that
He'll save us. We love Him because He already
saved us. We're not worthy of his love. We're not worthy of
his salvation. But because of his goodness and
his mercy and his compassion on unworthy, unlovable sinners
like us, he loved us and he saved us in spite of us. And our text right here shows
us that very clearly. This is quoting Isaiah 64. What
we just read is a quote from Isaiah 64 and that tells us that
very thing. Turn with me over there if you
would to Isaiah 64. Verse 1 says, O that thou wouldest
rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains
might flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth
The fire causeth the waters to boil to make thy name known to
thine adversaries that the nations may tremble at thy presence.
When the Lord comes back, he's coming back in flaming fire,
taking vengeance on sin. And our only hope is that Christ,
when he came here to bear that fire and that vengeance, He came
to bear all of that fire and vengeance that had to come down.
He came to bear it for His people. And our only hope is that when
He came and did that, we were included. Verse 3 says, When thou didst
terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the
mountains flowed down at thy presence. Verse 4 is, what our
text is quoting. For since the beginning of the
world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither
hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for
him that waiteth for him. If you have a center margin,
it says, I hath not seen a God beside
thee which doeth so for him. No man has seen a God who will
do such wonderful things for such unworthy sinners. You're
gonna come down in your fire and your vengeance and you're
gonna melt everything. The heavens are gonna melt, the
earth is gonna melt, everything's gonna melt. And how glorious
is it? Man can't even see the glory
of what you have done. Verse five, thou meetest him
that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness. Those that remember thee in thy
ways, behold, thou art wroth for we have sinned. In those
is continuance and we shall be saved. We're sinners who you
saved. Verse six says, but we are all
as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. We do all fade as a leaf and
our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. What he's
saying is we haven't done anything to deserve glory. We're gonna
talk about how glorious it is and how wonderful it is. We have
done nothing to deserve it. All of our righteousnesses are
filthy rags. They all deserve to be burned
up. Verse seven, there is none that calleth upon thy name that
stirreth up himself to take hold of thee, for thou hast hid thy
face from us and has consumed us because of our iniquities.
Thank God his people were consumed in Christ. You consumed us because
of our iniquities in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse eight says,
but now, O Lord, thou art our father. We are the clay. And thou our potter, and we all
are the work of thy hands. He said, we're so unworthy, but
our hope is in the fact that you've done glorious things for
us in spite of us. And that's who's gonna be in
glory with Christ. All who have received his goodness,
his kindness, his mercy through his work of salvation. Paul said,
I was crucified with Him. I was crucified with Him. I was
buried with Him. I was raised with Him to walk
in newness of life. That's who's going to be with
Christ in glory, the redeemed of the Lord. Those who He covered
in His blood. chosen of the Father, redeemed
of the Son, called of the Spirit, the recipients, okay, the recipients
of His work. Now, if that's us, we cannot
possibly imagine the eternal things that God has prepared
for us, meaning what it's gonna be like to be with Him. Just
what it's gonna be like. I wanna read some verses here
to just try. We're gonna try to imagine what
life in glory with Christ is gonna be like, all right? Turn
with me to Luke 23. We're just gonna go through some scriptures here. Luke 23, verse 39, it says, And one of the malefactors which
were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself
and us. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? And we indeed justly, what he's
saying is we're sinners and we deserve this. For we receive
the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done nothing
amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said
unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in
Paradise. He called it paradise. Now we've
already mentioned beaches and oceans and things like that.
The stuff that we normally call paradise. What we know on this
earth to be paradise is actually a cesspool tainted by and filled
with sin. What my flesh is so drawn to
and is so in love with is sin. It's rotten. It's decaying. It's sin. The paradise that God
lives in. The Apostle Paul was caught up
there one time. The third heaven, he called it
paradise. And he said, I heard things that
are not even possible for a man's mouth to utter. Knowing that, I'm not going to
try to utter anything to describe God's paradise. Other than to
say the glory of God's paradise is indescribable. It so far surpasses
any words that could be said. It so far surpasses. The beauty is indescribable. The peace and the rest is indescribable. The joy is indescribable. David said, to be there is to
behold His beauty. He said, one thing have I desired.
I just want to be there to behold the beauty of the Lord. in His
paradise with Him, when we see Him in His paradise, we're gonna
see the full display of His beauty. He will keep nothing from us.
The beauty of God, we will see the full display of the glory
of God. We will see the full display
of the majesty of God. And it's gonna be so breathtaking,
we'll never get over it. We don't know anything here that
we don't get over. But there it's gonna be so breathtaking
for all of eternity, we will never get over it. That initial
shocking wow factor that we experienced, there's an initial wow. That'll
never end. That will never end. That's how
glorious it's gonna be. Only it's gonna be infinitely
more than I just pitifully tried to describe it. It's just glorious. Turn with me to John 17. John 17 verse 9, our Lord said,
I pray for them. I pray not for the world. but for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine." He's praying this not for the
entire world, but for his people who will be called up to glory
with him. Now look at verse 24. He said, Father, I will that
they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory. which thou hast given me, for
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. He said, Father,
this is my desire. And whatever is Christ's desire,
that's how it's gonna be. He said, I want them to be with
me where I am. In glory, there will never be
a time that we're not with him. Never a time. He said, I'll never
leave you and I'll never forsake you. That's not a figure of speech
with him. He won't. He will not. There is never a time that he
is not with us right now. It's just now we see through
a glass darkly. Then we're going to see face
to face. And we'll know the reality of
the fact that He will never leave us. He will never leave our side. He'll never cause us to leave
His side. Never. He'll never take His eyes off
of us. We'll never be separated from Him for all of eternity. Not even when he comes back to
gather the remaining people from this earth. I love the thought
of that. He said, Colossians 3 tells us, 1 Thessalonians 4,
they both say, we're all coming back with him. When he comes
to get his people, we're all coming with him. Wherever he
goes, we're gonna be with him. Wherever he is, where I am, they
may be with me also. Turn with me now to Romans 8. Let's see if the Lord will let
us enter into this like we never have before. Romans 8, verse
16, it says, The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit
that we are the children of God. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
called the Son of God. And the Spirit of God bears witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. Verse 17 says,
And if children, then heirs. Do we know what that word really
means? Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
Him, that we may be also glorified together. Joint heirs with Him. Can we imagine? Look right here
at verse 32. It says, He that spared not His
own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Him also freely give us all things. Along with the Father
giving Christ to us, we have been given to Christ and Christ
has been given to us. And along with the Father giving
Christ to us, He is going to give us everything else that
heaven has to offer. If He gave us the absolute most
valuable thing that heaven has, which is His precious Son, He
will give us everything that heaven has. The glorious Kingdom of God,
that's not going to be a place for us to just look at and admire,
you know, like we're visitors. That's sometimes how we say it.
We'll show up and we'll see God's house and we'll admire God's
heaven and And I say this fearfully and carefully, but according
to his word, it will be ours. Does that make sense? It will be ours. He talks about
an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven
for you. That inheritance is Christ. and
everything the Father has given to Christ. And the Father has
made us, His children, to be joint heirs with Christ. And He's not going to make us
feel like we're guests in a borrowed home. It'll be ours with Him. We're going to feel at home. I wonder what it's going to be
like. We're going to feel at home. That's what it's going
to feel like. Turn with me to Ephesians 6. This just makes me smile. Ephesians
6 verse 9, You masters do the same things unto them, forbearing
threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven. Okay? Your master is in heaven,
neither is there respect of persons with him. Our Lord is right now
in heaven and there is no respect of persons with him. What that means is our brother
Roy Baldwin is right now getting just as much attention from the
Lord God as Moses is. There's no respect of persons. Our brother, that precious brother,
Bill Silva, who passed away, the Lord called home from rescue
recently. He is sitting just as close to
the Savior as King David is. There's no respective persons. What's it like to be there with
him? No one is above. No one is beneath. There's no
respective person. Whether you've been there for
six minutes or 6,000 years, everybody gets Christ. Everybody gets all
things in Christ. All of His love, all of His attention,
all of His favor is fixed on every single one of His people
at all times. He explained that to me. Undivided
one-on-one attention at all times. Revelation 3 says we are going
to walk worthily with Him in righteousness." Let me repeat
that one. We are going to walk worthily
with Him wherever He goes in righteousness. It says we're
going to eat with Him. We're going to drink with Him.
It says, We're gonna sit in His throne with Him. We're always
thinking about standing before the throne of God, and we should.
God is holy. He's a just God. He will by no
means clear the guilty. He must punish sin, but in the
blood of Jesus Christ, for Christ's sake, being joint heirs with
Him, we are going to sit in the throne with Him, seated with
Him, the throne of God Almighty. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? And Revelation 14 says we are
gonna have the Father's name written in our foreheads. What
is the Father's name? There's only one name given among
men whereby we must be saved, the Lord Jesus Christ. All the
fullness of the Godhead dwells in him. But what that means is
we're going to know God. We're going to have the Father's
name written in our foreheads. We are going to truly know God. We're going to know God as he
is in his fullness. Really, is there any wonder why
Paul said, I am so ready to depart and to go be with Christ? It's
far better. It is so, so much better. Well,
go with me back to 1 Corinthians 2. I'll finish with this. 1 Corinthians 2. And I'll go ahead and tell you,
I'm going to say this twice. We cannot truly imagine what life
with Christ is going to be like. But we can believe it. We cannot imagine it, but we
can believe it. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9 says, As
it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them
that love Him, but God hath revealed them to us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him?
That means how do you know what my will is and my desire is unless
I tell you? Only I know what I will and desire. And he's saying, what man knoweth
the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him?
Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the
spirit, which is of God, that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not
in the words, which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy
Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. That means
we're not just saying the words of man. These are the words of
God. This is true and faithful. He said, write it down, verily,
verily. This is so. Verse 14, But the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. That has to be revealed
by God. But he that is spiritual judgeth
all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath
known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have
the mind of Christ. We do. Can we imagine? With the mind of Christ, we can.
We can imagine, we can believe, we can look to, we can hope in,
we can wait for the things that God has prepared for every soul
in Christ. It'll be here before we know
it. It's gonna be here before we know it. And then we'll know as we have
been known how glorious it'll be. All right, Brother Eddie.