Randy Crosby wrote that. I in
my Savior am happy and blessed in Christ. You know how many
times it says that in Scripture? Seated together in heavenly places
in Christ. He's blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Ephesians 2. Go over there. Ephesians 2. All that that means to be in
Christ. But Ephesians 2, as I said, I
was reading Psalm 113, and it talked about being raised up
from the dunghill to sit with princes. And then I thought of
Ephesians 2, verse 6. He's raised us up together. quickened us together, made us
sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now, as always,
I want to glorify our Lord. I want to praise Him. That's
what Psalm 113 told us. Praise the Lord. Okay? That's
what I want to do. And you do too. I know that.
And I want to comfort God's people. He told me, He told Isaiah, He
told every preacher, comfort you, comfort you, my people.
I'm told to approve, rebuke, correct, but I'm told I should
rather comfort. Like that message on be of good
cheer. We need it all, don't we? But
tonight should be a message of great comfort. And this one verse
does both. Glorify our God who raised us
up and made us sit together. and comforts us. You're sitting
here, aren't you? Why? The Lord brought you here. What a blessing. What a blessing.
The Lord has raised us up, made us sit together in heavenly places. And verse 7 says, He's going
to show us the ages to come. He's going to show us the exceeding
riches of His grace toward us and His kindness toward us through
Christ. He's going to show us. That the
reason we were sitting here on earth, loving His truth, loving
His gospel, is He made us to sit. You know, the Lord is my
shepherd. He maketh me to lie down. There was a time you couldn't
make me sit there. But, God. made us all to sit
here. Sit here in the heavenly place.
What a foretaste of glory divine. I love thy kingdom, Lord. Don't
you? I really do. From my heart, there's no place
I'd rather be. Nowhere I'd rather be. Nothing
I'd rather be doing. This right here. And nobody I'd
rather be doing it with. I don't do anything else with
anybody but you. That's a fact. There's no place
I'd rather be, there's nothing I'd rather be doing, and nobody
I'd rather be doing it with. I'd like to just, if I had the
capacity, just stay right here forever. And one day we will. God's people are my people, are
your people. Like Ruth said, your people,
your God's my God, and your people are my people. Where you die,
it's right. That's what all God's people
say to our Lord. His God, our God is my God. His God is my God and my people.
God's Christ. God's house. My house. My house. I wouldn't trade it,
you, for anything or anyone. No way. No way. And you know, every little flock,
there's flocks meeting together right now in Kingsport and wherever,
Fairmont. And they feel the same, don't
they? Little flocks. Little flocks. There's no perfect
church. It's filled full of sinners.
Imperfect people. But I've been in all of them,
and this is as good as it gets. It really is. It really is. I forgot that I preached on pretty
much the same subject three times in the last six months. Seriously. Last year, I preached
from Psalm 84. What a lovely place this is. I know you remember every point. What a lovely place. How amiable
are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hope. David said, I'd rather
be a doorkeeper in God's house. Just make me a doorkeeper, just
stay right there. A porter, that's what a doorkeeper,
a porter. I preached back in April on Exodus 4. I remember when Moses and Aaron
gathered the people together, gathered them together to tell
them the good news that God had looked on them and they all were
so grateful and they all bowed their heads in worship. What
a gathering, a glad gathering. And then just last week, We've
looked at Psalm 116. Saved and gathered. Saved and gathered. So, I don't
apologize for saying this again. Surely you know by now I love
you and I love God's Kingdom and you do too. Or you wouldn't
be here. You wouldn't be here. There's
an old saying, and you see signs on people's walls and wherever,
that friends and family together. I know you've seen that. I've
seen it on wherever plaques made out of wood. Friends and family
together. No, that's only true of God's
family and God's friend. Every single family on this earth
will be dissolved. Every friend on this earth who's
not a friend of God will be dissolved. But God's friends, Abraham was
called the friend of God. All of God's friends and all
of God's family will be forever. That's why this is proof now. The family, God's people, God's
church, God's house. Ruth said to Naomi, and I just
quoted, your people are my people. David said, David said, I'm a
companion of them that fear thee. David said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper.
David said, one thing have I desired of the Lord, and that's what
I'm seeking after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all my day. Behold the beauty of the Lord,
and inquire into his temple. That's what we're here to do.
Behold the beauty of the Lord. And our Lord himself said this. He was with his brethren. preaching, teaching them, and
his mother and his earthly brothers came to see him, expecting to
get a private audience for him to just drop what he was doing
and attend to them. And he said, he didn't even go
out there to see them. He said, who is my mother? Didn't
he? He said, who are my brothers? He said, behold, my mother and
my brother. That's who he came for, the family
of God. And I feel the same. And we've
said so many times that this is supernatural. This is the
grace of God. This is what God must do in a
human being. They say blood's thicker than
water. Well, I tell you, the blood of Christ is thicker than
blood can. It is now. To love Christ more
than earthly family, to love Christ more than this world,
that's supernatural. That's the grace of God. That's
salvation. That's what that is. Our Lord
said that. If any man loved father or mother
or husband or wife or son or daughter more than me, not my
disciple. This is what God does. He does. We love our family. We should.
Shouldn't we? Take care of them. Think about
them. Pray for them. But the worship of our Lord and
the meeting together with His people is first and foremost
in our life. Christ is our life. To the world,
home and family is life. Well, to God's people, God's
house and His family is life. To the world, job, money, possessions,
recreation gives them great pleasure. To God's people, See, this is
our vocation. Paul said, walk worthy of the
vocation wherein you come. This is our occupation. This
is our life. Worship. And this is what gives
us great pleasure. The riches, the unsearchable
riches of Christ. I've got about all the money
I need. Don't you? Sure you do. If you've got food
and rain, you've got all the money you need. I read recently,
well no, this was a few years ago, will one million dollars
be enough to retire on? Seriously. I'm worried. Come on now. Our Lord didn't
have a dollar in His pocket. The unsearchable riches of Christ,
that's enough to retire on. to the child of God. Scriptures
calls him Christian. I hate that I'm hesitant to use
that name, aren't you, John? I'm a Christian. I'm a follower
of Jesus Christ. I'm a lover of the Lord. By His
grace, I'm a lover of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what a Christian
is. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. By His grace, I believe
on the Lord. That's a Christian. A disciple of Jesus Christ. That's
a Christian. Don't you hate that the world
is just throwing that around like... But a Christian, Christ
is in them. Christ is with them. He walks with them, they walk
with Him. He talks to them, they talk to
Him. Christ is their life. It's marriage. Marriage. Two become one. Man leaves his father and mother
to cling on to his wife. Well, that's what every believer
does. That's what Christ did, to cling to his bride. And that's
what his bride does, clings to him. Again, Ruth said to Naomi,
you're not going to run me off. And that's what we say to our
Lord. The child of God, the gospel is life. Worship is life. The
child of God orders his life around this. Not an option, it's
life. Because Christ is life. We must
come and worship Him and sing these hymns and see one another.
You're my brothers and sisters. So God's people, God's family,
the life of God's people, there's no more certain proof. You know,
somebody said faith is the only evidence. Hold on a minute. Faith
is evidence, yes. But Paul said, now by the three
things, faith, hope, and love. And then what did he say? The
greatest of these is love. You can say you believe. That's
what James wrote about it. You say you believe. Well, the
devil doesn't. He said, show me. How do you
show? Love. That's what all of 1 Corinthians
13 has meant. Love. Have all faith to remove
them out. They don't have love. His heart
felt love. Love. This is the greatest. This
is what the love of God shed abroad in the heart does to every
single human being that He saved. And it's supernatural. You just can't get somebody to
choose this over the world. But God does. I don't think it was a poor trade
at all. A woman one time, not one of you, but she's not here
anymore, she met me at the back door after a message and she
said, you forgot to say what all we've given up for Christ. I said, you mean dung for pearls? That's what we gave up. Dung
for pearls. We'd give up nothing. He gave
up everything. He who was rich. We were poor.
Through His power we became rich. He was rich. We became poor. For who? Dung dwellers. Why is the scripture called,
you know, this world is a dung heap. Why is it called that?
Because everything goes out in the drain. Everything turns to
dung. And we're like dung heap shovelers. I used to love to muck out the
stalls. I got Mindy ready to ride. I
got her horse all ready to ride, you know, and all I did was shovel
manure. I kind of liked that. You know why? I thought, this
is where I belong. That's where I belong. I always
thought of that. The poorest people on earth were
those who had to shovel. You know what? For rich people. That's what they were down in
the depths. Can you imagine the awful stench and the dung heap? Raises up the poor from the dung
heap. That's just what this world is.
Dying, stinking refuse. Everything in it turns to fertilizer. Including us. And He raises us up to sit in heaven with grace.
Go to Ephesians 2 now. Ephesians chapter 2. And go back
and read Hannah's prayer again if you haven't read it in a while.
It's a real blessing. 1 Samuel 2. As I said, David
copied Psalm 113 from Hannah's prayer. He may have known Hannah. You know, Samuel's mother, I
don't know how long she lived, but David may have met her. I'm
sure that Samuel told him about that prayer. Let me tell you,
David, about a prayer my mother got made. And Samuel said, I'm
going to write this down. And David said, I will tell you.
In a psalm. And then Paul copied it. Ephesians
chapter 2, look at verse 1. Now here's you, Hathee Quicken,
who were dead and trespassed in sin, and you. Is that you?
You were dead? You know to be dead is you have
no sight, you can't see. You can't see yourself, you can't
see God in anything. You can't see God's hand, you
can't see God's blessing, you can't see yourself. It always
reminds me of the way I was dressed when I was, you know, a teenager
in the early twenties. I didn't have a clue I looked
so bad. I thought I looked pretty cool. Can't see yourself, can't see
what you're doing. Like the prodigal son down in
that hog pen, he couldn't see. He didn't know. Couldn't smell. Couldn't smell, couldn't hear.
That's what makes dead. Were you ever dead? Dead means
stinking. And if you're dead, you can't
smell yourself. Right? Isn't that something that you
really can't smell your own body odor? That's a good illustration
of it. Well, you can smell other people. I went in, took me into
the emergency room, and I sat in the waiting area there. I sat down beside this fellow,
and I had to get up. He was awful. He couldn't stand
to sit. His wife or whoever was sitting
beside him, she couldn't either. She was just like him. That's
the world. God says about the world, stinketh.
And there was a time. I smell pretty good. I look pretty
good. I'm fine. I think I'm something. I ain't
nothing. And you who were dead in trespassing. Trespassing. You ever trespassed? You ever seen any sign, no trespassing?
You know, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. This
belongs to the Lord. If you walk on it without His
permission, if you use it without giving Him thanks, without acknowledging
Him, you're trespassing. I think I'll take this. I'll
buy this. Hold on now. You better seek
the will of the Lord on this. It belongs to Him. And if you
get it, it's borrowed. You don't own it. You're all
a bunch of trespassers on it. Trespassers. who were dead in
trespasses and sins. Sins. What sins? Well, if we
haven't done it, we've thought it. Every one of us. That's right now. Admit it. If
you're alive, you admit it. People dead in religion, they
don't admit that. Oh no, I've done some bad things,
but not that bad. It's because of the grace of
God that that is. My dad said one time, most people mistake
the grace of God for personal holiness. Most people mistake the grace
of God for the personal holiness that they've kept themselves
from this and that and the other. Oh, no. We're kept by the power
of God. Kept from everything. That's
right. Peter's the one that wrote that.
Ask him. I won't deny you. Okay, then. Okay, then. You're going to wonder, Simon
Peter, if you're a child of God or not. You hath he quickened, made alive,
who were dead in trespass and sin. Verse 2, in time past you
walked according to the course of this world, prince of the
power of the air, blind followers, blind following the blind. You
read that article in Sunday's Bulletin. I was just, you know,
it's been in the news for these people, Scaly Mount Everest. Why? I'll tell you why. So they can
say they did. But they died. And that's man trying to do this
and do that to brag on it. The lofty looks of man going
to be brought down. What a fool. What a fool. Blind? That was me. Following
my buddy's peer pressure, they call it. I wasn't a follower,
I was a ringleader. Do you see why this two word
is two word? But God is salvation. And you. And you, and you, and you, and
you. Blindly following the blind, weren't you? Walk in according to the course
of this world. What's the course of this world? There is a way
that seems right, it hasn't gone in. For everybody outside of
Christ is going to end in destruction, perishing like people outside
the ark. They're going to perish. Salvation will be in Christ. The course of this world is destruction
according to the prince of the power of the air. That's the
one who has captive everybody in this world except God's people. And he had them captive. But
bless God, I was stronger than he came through the preaching
of the Gospel and took captivity captive. That was us, wasn't it? Children
of disobedience. Disobedience. You know what we
come from the womb saying? No. Don't. You don't have to. The rest of
your life, you're going to try to tell those kids, don't say
no. Say, yes, ma'am. Say, thank you. I, me, my. Self-will. Children of disobedience. Because
we don't like authority. Why is that? We don't like God
as the ultimate authority. That's a fact, isn't it? Rebels. Rebels. Children of disobedience. Verse 3, among whom we also all
had our conversation, our life and time passed in the lust of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh. If it feels good,
do it. If it pleases me, no matter the
cost, and of the mind, this is what
I think. This is what I think. What do
you think about it? Well, I think, well, it's wrong.
Whatever you think, it's wrong. I thought, there's an old preacher
preached a message one time, the title of it was, It Ain't
Like You Thought It Was. Well, I thought, that's what
Naaman said, that he came riding up on his high horse and the
prophet wouldn't even come out to speak to him. Naaman thought,
well, he'll be glad to see me. I've got lots of money, and I
can do something for his little church. And the prophet would not come
see him. He sent his servant out there. You tell him to go
down and dip in that muddy Jordan seven times. Don't get out of
that muddy Jordan until you've got mud running out your ears.
Strip! And Naaman said, well, I thought. I thought I saw. No, you're not.
You're nothing. I thought I had something, you
have nothing. You got all that armor on, you got all that, you
know, treasury, but you're a leper. I thought it ain't like you thought
it was. Desires of the flesh and of the
mind. You know that we made us, well I'm getting to that. We're
by nature the children of wrath. Even as others. I see it all
the time. You see it all the time. These
sullen, brooding teenagers. Mad at the world. Like everybody
owes them something. They don't like anybody. They
love themselves. They don't like anybody. Mad. Why? Who are they
mad at? They've never done anything for
anybody. They've never earned one penny.
They've never contributed one dollar to the payment of the
house or the food or anything. Everything's been provided for
them. Everything's been provided for them. Who they got a right
to be mad at? Brooding. Make me happy. I don't like you. I don't like
this world. Buddy, and that's every one of us toward God. What
do we got a right to be mad at? Well, we've got a right to murmur
and complain about it. Everything's been given us. What
do we have we haven't received? You see my salvation is up in
the Lord. This was us. That was me. By God. I read this the other day, John.
It's like the first time I ever read it in my life. And you,
look at you, look at where He found you. Don't ever forget
the pit you were digged in. And if God didn't keep you, you'd
go right back to it. In fact, the children of Israel,
our whole story of Exodus is three days out, John, three days
out, they all wanted to go back. To what? Slime pits? Have you forgotten the pit from
which you were dug? A little bit of trouble will
come along. But God is rich in mercy. Salvation is by mercy. Salvation
is us not getting what we deserve. That's what mercy means. Grace
means getting what you don't deserve. Mercy means not getting
what you deserve. Mercy means kindness. It means
kindness. Everything God has done for us
has been kind. And we've been unkind. To him,
to others, haven't we? Mercy. Salvation by mercy. And
it's sovereign mercy. Mercy, by definition, is sovereign.
It's up to the person that's showing it. God said, I will
be merciful to whom I will be merciful. Nobody deserves a chance
to be saved. Salvation is by mercy. Sovereign
mercy. Everybody deserves to be cast
out of God's presence, to die. That's the wages we've earned.
That's what we deserve. But God, so rich in mercy, delights
to show mercy, loves to not give what we deserve, to spare the
guilty. And all it takes is, Lord have
mercy. I'm sorry. Completely wipe out the whole,
every hand-eyed and ordinance against them. Clean slate. All sins completely forgotten. Good night, our Lord. How would he be merciful to me?
He's rich in mercy. He's not going to run out of
mercy. You know how long it's going to endure? Somebody say
it. Forever. Till the end of time. God is rich in mercy for His
great love wherewith He loved us. Who? These dead ones, even when we
were dead and trespassing, these rebels against God. You know an old saying that he
has a face that only a mother could love. You've heard that.
Only a mother could love that. But only God could love sinners. Even when we're dead and trespassing
in sin, Great love were with thee, loved us. See, it's not
that we loved God. Here it is love. It's not that
we loved Him, but He loved us. And sent His Son to be propitiation. By His stripes, He beat, had
them beat His Son with a whip, so that Barabbas could go free.
Who? John, Jesus. Who? For the Son
of God, the Son of God took His place. Huh? Oh, that's amazing. Amazing. We were dead. His great
love, wherewith he loved us, verse 5, even when we were dead
in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ, raised us up. Oh,
it's by grace. You see, it's by grace that we're
saved. Turn to Colossians 2. And this
is the same thing. Colossians chapter 2. Raised
us up together. You know, this is, he's talking
about being crucified with Christ, buried with Him, risen with Him.
Look at it. Colossians 2. Colossians 2, and we've talked
about circumcision before, that Christ took our sins in His body
on the tree and condemned sin in the flesh, which circumcision
is a type of. Verse 12, He's buried with Him
in baptism, wherein also we are risen with Him through the faith
of the operation of God, faith given us, the work of God, who
hath raised Him from the dead, and you being dead in your sin,
the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with
Christ, having forgiven you." Forgiven. Forgiven. All trespass. Blotting out the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary
to it. Took it out of the way and mailed
it to the crowd. Paid in full. Isn't that something? Look, go back to the text now.
Quickened us together with Christ. We're crucified with Christ.
We're buried with Christ. He put our sins away. We're risen
with Christ. And look, it's by grace, isn't
it? By grace. And verse 6, this is our text.
And He's raised us up together. Raised us up together. And made us sit together in heavenly
places. You know, every single child of God is born of God.
It's not of blood, not of the will of flesh, not of the will
of man, but they're born of God. And they're all taught of God.
They shall be all taught of God, John 6, 45. Every man that has
heard and learned of the Father comes to Christ. They're taught
of God that Christ is all. Christ is the love of God, the
mercy of God, the grace of God to them. Christ is their righteousness. Christ is their everything. Christ
is their wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. Christ
is their mediator, their covenant head, their substitute, their
satisfactory. Christ is all. They're all taught
of God. You see, they're raised up together, meaning like children
in a family, they're all taught together, raised up together.
This is a good meaning for them. He's going to someday raise us
all up together to be with Christ in heaven. But this is a play
on the word here. There were four of us kids. We
were all raised by the same parent. That's what we call it, being
raised. Right? They all taught the same thing
by the same father and the same mother, called for it. So are
God's people. They're raised up together. They
cut their teeth on the sincere milk of the Word. They eat the
Gospel, Christ's Body and His Blood. They're raised up together. Just like Quicken together. Raised
up together. And made us sit Made us sit. Like I said, there was a time
I did not want to sit in here. My parents made me sit there.
And I thought, just as soon as I'm able, I ain't going to sit
there. I was one of those sullen young
teenagers. I've been made to sit there too long, and I'm out
of here, just as soon as I can. So what happened? I tried to
kill myself. I don't mean suicide. I mean,
the way it seemed right to me, I'm going to go this way, and
I ended up in all of them. It's only the grace of God I
look back so many times, He spared my life. Dead in sin, as good as dead
physically, by God. Sunday's Bulletin, I forget who,
John Bunyan. He said, I am the prodigal. He said, and God was, God wasn't
going to cast me out. In fact, before I got there,
he was having the calf ready and the robe ready and everybody
ready to start shouting. For me? That's amazing grace. Amazing grace. Made us sit, he
maketh me to lie down. I was that demoniac that nobody
could tame, you know that? I was the one, that demoniac,
living among the dead, nobody could tame but God. And Christ
came, and you know what they found that demoniac doing when
they came looking for him? Sitting. Sitting in a pew, in the church
house, hearing the gospel preached, and smiling. Only God can do
that. Only God can do that. Made me
sit. And now that He's made me sit,
I don't want to get up. Steve, I don't want to go. I
don't want to leave. Do I have to leave? Do we have to quit? I see some of you hanging around.
Dad used to say, if the food's good, people will hang around
afterward. Do we have to go? I remember
saying that about going to church. Do I have to go? Now, I don't
want to leave. Do I have to leave? Do you? Yeah, we got to. I just look
forward to the next time I come. Is that you? Really? Is it? I hope if I reach 98 years old
that the only two places I go is church and Walmart. She doesn't
even go to Walmart anymore. She delights to come here. I hope that's me. I hope I die
in the faith. Die in the faith. Oh, He's made
us sit together in heavenly places. Heavenly places. Isn't this a
heavenly place? You know what we all are? We're
all a bunch of Mephibosheths. Do you think Mephibosheth ever
got over where he was sitting? He thought, I should have been
dead. Should have killed me like all my brothers. David killed
every one of his brothers. But because of a covenant for
somebody else's sake, he said, go get Mephibosheth. Fetch him!
Why? He's going to sit with me at
my right hand forever as one of the King's sons. And Mephibosheth
never got over that. Nothing and nobody could lure
him away from that place. Oh no, I've got it good right
here, Mephibosheth. This is where I want to be. This
is where I don't deserve to be, but this is where I want to be.
Thank you. In Matthew 8, our Lord said this,
and I'll close. Matthew 8, the Lord said this.
If you want to turn, you can. Turn now. Turn, Matthew 8. This is what our Lord said. In
the end, it's going to happen. Matthew chapter 8, verse 10, we talked about the centurion and his faith. He said, Verily I say unto you,
I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. I say unto
you that many shall come from the east and west, shall sit
down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
They'll sit with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and David. And that's us. Many shall come
from the west. We're from the west. Many shall
come. All that the Father giveth me
shall come unto me. And we're going to sit down with them all
in glory and do what we're doing now. Worshipping the King. And we don't know who we're going
to sit beside. We're all seated in Christ. But
you're going to Bring us in. John, you sit right here. You
sit beside a fellow, and the fellow says, good to see you,
John. And you're going to say, good to see you, Abraham. Yeah. We're going to know as we've
been told. Some woman, a beautiful woman like you, Robin, is going
to say, hello, Robin. And you're going to say, hello,
Rahab. That's right. You're going to sit down. Well,
hello, Sarah. Well, hello, Mary Magdalene. I've been looking forward to
seeing you, Sarah. I've been looking forward to seeing you,
Mary. And on and on it goes. Hello, Mike. Good to see you.
Hello, thief on the cross. They don't know His name. It
doesn't matter, does it? All that matters is where He is now.
Who knew Him? Remember Him. Many are going
to sit down in a heavenly place, in the heavenlies, all because
of Jesus Christ. And we'll never want to want
to get up. And you know what? We don't have to. We don't have
to leave. Okay, stand with me.