Thank you. I love it when I'm torn between the freaking two passages. As you know, we're going through
the book of Mark also, and we are due to begin Mark chapter
two with the refrain, and I'm going to give you four more days
to forget his message. And then he said it to me, I'll
pray for him again. Surely he wasn't exhausted. But tonight, Philippians chapter
3, Philippians chapter 3, let's read verses 15 to the end of
the chapter. Let us, therefore, as many as
be perfect, be thus minded, and in anything ye be otherwise minded. God shall reveal even this unto
you. Nevertheless, whereto or whatever
you have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind or think the same
thing. Brethren, be followers together
of me, and mark them which walk. as you have, so as you have us,
for an example. For many walk, of whom I have
told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are
the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose
God is their belly-panic, whose glory is in their shame, whose
mind earthly pain. Now, let's read, you notice that's
in parenthesis? Let's read verse 17 and then
skip down to verse 20, okay? I'll leave out the parenthesis. Brethren, these followers together
of me and Mark, David, and Walt, so as to have us for an example
for all, our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we
look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. who shall change
our foul body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue
all things unto him." Verse 20 would serve as a text tonight. This is the title of the message.
Our conversation is imperative. Now, there seems to be a misnatural
outline here. Look at verse fifteen again.
He says, Let us be thus minded. And verse sixteen says, Well,
let us walk. See that? Verse twenty talks about our
conversation. And then verse 21 is the end
of it all. So, mind, walk, conversation,
and then the end. All right, our heavenly conversation.
You see, our conversation is in heaven. What's this got to do with that? Our conversation. This is a very
often used word in Scripture. I looked it up. Our conversation
is in heaven. All the way through the New Testament,
used a few times in the Old, and Peter uses it quite often.
It's throughout his history. James used it all. Conversation. This is what the word means.
Conversation. It means your behavior as a citizen. of where it is that you live. Your behavior as a citizen of
whatever country you live in, a whole citizen, our conversation's
in heaven. All right? Our behavior is as citizens of
another country. Does that sound familiar? We
have here no continuing city. This is not This is where we're
from, but this is what we've been delivered from, and this
is not where we're going to stay. We're going to another place.
And so our conversation is in heaven. Now, we generally believe
and behave and act like where you live, right? Wherever you live or wherever
you're from. Wherever you come from, it's
how you talk, and how you act, and how you fight. Tribes, they,
you know, I think of the Berries, they'll say, Hedges, and, you
know, Bates, you know, Bates, it's the Mates, the Bates, and
the Hedges, you know, that's, uh, that's where they come from,
over there. Where do you come from? Up there in northern Virginia,
somewhere. People who talk, they act, they
behave like where they come from. If you're from the country, if
you're from a foreign hobby, that's the way you're raised,
that's how you act, right? And you act like, just like people
from up north, like Australians, you know, like the ones from
the South, from all over the country. I'm forgetting things. But this is what this thing,
your conversation is the way you behave, the way you talk.
We think of conversation as, well, it's when you're talking
or conversating, what you talk about and so forth. That holds
true, too. Wherever you're from, It's what
you, you talk about the things that you grew up with or you
disagree on with people that's part of the culture, you know,
talk about those things. When you sit down and conversate,
you say, hey, have a minute, conversation, get in the picture.
All right? Now, and that's the way it is. Those who have been born of God,
and he's just stating the fact here. He's not saying that this
is something that you need to walk around talking in some other
language. He's not saying that at all.
He's just stating the fact here, that those who have been born
of God, That's the way every talk is
going to go on, every thought is going to go on, and there's
the meaning, okay? It's not perfect at first, and
really it's never at perfect, and we'll see that until the
last verse, when he says, it's not there, we're not there. Scripture says we'll be made
neat, made thin, made perfect. You see, but there is a sense
of it. We are being molded and conformed into the image of the
heavenly. Our speech is being changed. I mean, I might, you know, be
way more secular, but we're being changed. Our speech, you know,
starts out, love, chance, accident, so forth. Now all that begins
to fade. We're talking about purpose,
and will, and sovereignty, and, you know. And your mind begins
to run a little bit drenched. It begins to look at God's Word
differently. Our conversation today, we're going to see this. All right. It's just a fact. We've just stated the fact, and
it's also exhorting us. Okay, go back. Now let's go back
to verse 15. All right? All right, verse 15. He said, now here's the outline.
He says, Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus mine."
Now, the word perfect, you know that doesn't mean without sin. You know that doesn't mean that. It means plethora. That's the
word, plethora, of complete in Christ. Those who look to Christ
and Christ alone to be perfect, that is, Now what's he talking about? Well, he'd just been telling
us how that he himself, verse 8, look at it. Well, verses 1
through 7, he's talking about how Sarah rises to Israel. I
was talking to one of our ladies earlier, and she was a Methodist
years ago, and she was talking about how ignorant and how self-righteous
she was. She has a relative now who is
just exactly where she used to be, and she can't get anything
through to the woman. She cannot make her see the truth. But she knows because she was
there too. She thought she could see what
she was doing. Thought she knew what she was
doing. Thought she was a good Christian, but she was self-righteous.
And Paul is recounting his self-righteous days of religion. And he relapsed
it up. And it's, and them that are,
those who Christ has revealed himself to and has some knowledge
of the gospel, they, Mary does mind it. They, they project all
that has to be. They do. Even myself, growing
up under the truth, I didn't know anything until Christ revealed
himself. All right, and now, and Paul
says, and we need to think of all that as loss, because it's
of no value what's left of it. That pasture is of no value what's
left of it. We've got to be as a little child
and learn all that we can. That's what the new community
is. All right, verse eight, now he says, I count all things loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. All things, Paul came to the
conclusion, as a believer, that everything's lost compared to
Christ, no matter what it is. Paul counted all things lost.
And don't make of any things again. Think of everything as
temporary. Vanity, wood, hay, stubble, flesh,
there's no lasting joy in it. If you become mature, the older
you get, the more mature you'll be. And to think, you need to
be less sanitary. You see, the older we get, the
more... Paul said, But I became a man,
and I'm a good way to accomplish things. That's what he's saying.
Man, he's perfect, and he does things. He can do all kinds of
things. Well, there's nothing compared
to Christ. He's perfect. He's perfect. Think like that. And you think on everything as
it is. Don't over-get it. There's two
of us. Think of things like they are
thoughts. Right now, verses 9 and 10, He
said that, I want to win Christ and be found in Him, not having
my own righteousness. Oh, He does my things. And many
of us know the truth. He does my things. Receive all your righteousness
that's given to you by heaven. The best prayer you could pray.
God, God, God accepts us as one. God accepts us as one. Not
for our sincerity, not for our obedience, but for the obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the blood and righteousness of
Christ. That's what he says here, verse
9. I don't want to have my own righteousness, which is of the
law, But that which is through the
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God, and I tell you,
that I may know Him, we looked at this last week here in the
program, that I might know Him. I want to know what it means,
the power of resurrection, the power of a resurrected life.
I want to know the fellowship of this suffering, or that is,
this consolation that comes because of suffering. What that is, we
don't. And to be made conformable under
His death, as Paul said, I crucify the world, the world is crucified. Be thus sent, he said. We need to be yearning for that. We don't get by anything until
I attain unto the resurrection of the dead. And I'm not there
yet, verse 12. I'm not already there, or perfect. See that? You see how he said,
I'm not perfect. So the word perfect on down there
means mature, but He says here, I haven't attained yet, neither
were already perfect, that is, absolutely completely without
sin, but I follow after. This is what I do. I'm a follower
of Christ. I want to apprehend, lay hold
of, that for which I'm apprehended of Christ Jesus. Rather, I count
on myself to have apprehended, no sir. But this is one thing
I do. You remember when the Lord said
to David, the Lord said, speak my face, what David said, in
your face I'll speak. This is one thing I do. David
said, one thing that I desire from the Lord, and that's what
I'm going to say again. This one thing I do. This is the one
thing, this is an equal thing, my marriage. The Lord said, He's
chosen the best time. This is one thing, a beautiful
thing, and it'll not be taken from you. Just one thing you
do and you want, it'll not be taken from you. But you don't. Forgetting those things which
are behind, reaching forth unto those things which are before,
what things are before? Away from Him. Remember, over
in Colossians, where he said, uh, you set your affection on
things that don't go to Christ Jesus. So we don't. I pray, that's verse 14, I pray
supporting a martyr for the prize of the high quality of God in
Christ Jesus. The kingdom of heaven, remember this? Our Lord
said, the kingdom of heaven is something with violence, and
the violence has to come to us. Whatever it is that you really
want, we go after it. You'll really go after whatever
it is that you love, you really want, you'll go after it till
you get it. People will wait, go to great
lengths to get something that they really want. But if you're
really after Christ, you'll not rest until you have it. That's
what Paul said. That's a pressing matter. Read
on. So, verse fifty, here's what I say to you. See, let us therefore,
as many as people have this knowledge and are perfect, be thus minded. And if in anything, verse 15,
if in anything, if you are sidetracked at some point, and we all are,
we all do, we all revert back to good children, we all sin
grievously, we all get It's a favorite thing of mine for a long time,
but we all get bent out of shape, and fall, and feel like we take
one step forward, two steps back. Remember, it says, if in anything
you'd be otherwise minded, here's the good news. God said, we'll
be able to do something about it. How? You come here and get it. He's coming here, this is where
He reveals Himself to you, through His Word. This is the life. This
is how He reveals Himself to you. Like David, remember David,
it's all said in 3rd Kings. She got all out of shape, David,
because of the wicked world and so happy and prosperous and no
trouble and sorrow like he had. He said, my religion's in vain. Remember that? It's all in the
center of the church. They don't seem to have trouble
about that. A lot of God's trouble. All of God's people have nothing
to trouble. He said, I thought about this
as a painful thing to say. Then I went into the center of
the church. That is, I went into the house
of Job. I heard the word of Job and read it and said it. Absolutely. Half of that is true. He said,
I will speak as a beast. And it all changed. The Lord
revealed unto him, there it is, back in the first line, I am
being weaned. It's a painful thing for a child
who is being weaned. Some of you weaned animals, horses,
chickens. It's a sad thing. We weaned a
beautiful baby antelope. And oh, it's heartbreaking, isn't
it? Separating the mother and the
child. Oh, that baby's twin is crying as the mother does. Or
you mothers. Remember when you send that child
to kindergarten? I don't even forget it. I'll never forget it. It was
a traumatic day of our lives, wasn't it? To turn our child,
our only child, whom we loved, over to this. It really is. This weaning process
is painful. It's not easy. It's not easy. And our weaning, this
weaning process, is a lifetime. It's a lifelong thing, and God
uses various things according to His wisdom, or according to
how He chooses for each one of us, according to His wisdom,
and even His children individually, whatever they need in particular. Well, so Paul says, God shall
be a listener to you in time. Verse 16, nevertheless, Where
to? You've already attained. Let
us walk by the same rule. Let's mind the same thing. That
is, whatever you have learned, whatever
you have learned, you need to walk according to the light that
you have. Walk according to the light that you have. Like I said,
we get discouraged by our failures. One step forward, two steps back,
or maybe even five steps. But I remind you of John Newton's,
oh, I think it was Newton who said, I'm not what I want to
be. I'm not what I want to be. And I'm sure not what I'm going
to be. But thank God, I can't say from
the heart, I'm not ready. So he said, walk in the light
and you're given. Now, what you heard from Paul,
Paul, Paul wasn't, he said he'd be a perfect friend to everybody. You'd think if anybody would
arrive, Paul would have it. He was sitting in a jail where
he was captured as a liar. He was sitting in a jail. The bathroom was his seat. He said, I'm from Tim. He said, no, I'm from Gary. He
said, I'm not from Gary again. So if those sounds impossible,
let's endeavor to put it into practice. Paul was just a man.
What I'm trying to say is that Paul was just a man. Yet, God's
grace is sufficient. God gave him a double portion
there. Gave him a double portion. God's
grace is sufficient for whatever we go through. It'll be there
when we need it. But walk according to the light
that you have. And let this mind be of you. Let us mind the same
thing. Now, brethren, verse seventeen. And this is what Paul said, verse
17, "...rather be followers together of me." Turn over to 1 Corinthians
11. 1 Corinthians 11. Now, Paul says this several times,
follow me. I, you know, Paul, you know Paul was not saved. look to me, trust me, be like
me. You know he's not saying that. But Paul said in another place,
in my place, well, I know it was a thing. Paul said in another
place, I have all that which is good I have. That which I
would not, I do. That which I would do, I do not. I find along the
way, I'm an old wretched man that I am. But he said, don't
follow me. So you know he's going to say,
I want you to do just like this. Now, the point is he wants me
to cry. But here's the thing. Verse 1,
1 Corinthians 11, Be ye followers of me, even as I also shall follow
you. There's the key. You can follow
a man who's following Christ, if it's obvious he's following
Christ. You can listen to a man, and that's the only man you should
listen to. It's the man who's obviously
appointed you to Christ. Not himself. Paul was appointed
himself. And remember another place Paul
said, And in 1 Corinthians 1, chapter 1, they were all fighting.
Some said, we're a cause. We're a cause. We're a season.
We're a beauty. We're a game. We're a tribe. Paul said, who is Paul? You remember
that? He said, who's Paul? Paul wasn't
crucified for you. He said, don't look to him, Dana.
So Paul wasn't born again, he said. And all he's saying here
is, you can follow a man who's following right. The Lord uses
men. He does. He speaks through men.
You hear from the Lord like you hear from a man. That's just
the way it is. Who has the size of a small thing
to call in? The Lord speaks through men.
I've heard the gospel through a man. you heard the gospel through
him, and you heard the gospel through him, and you heard the
gospel through him. Anybody here, there's nobody
in here who heard the gospel who didn't hear it through a man. The fact,
the Lord does this for many reasons, many reasons, too many to remember
or name right now, but one is his humbleness. You know, I sit and listen to
him, I'm wondering why he does it. And Paul said, When God does
speak to you, he's powerfully through the man, you'll know
it's God, because he's just an earthen vessel. You'll hear this
coal winder speak like an angel from heaven. You'll hear a fisherman,
they heard a fisherman like Peter speak like an angel come down
from heaven. And even the Pharisees said,
where did you get this part? Our Lord himself was a simple
carpenter. They would say, in fact, that
he promised, she said, and that we might sit under the preaching
of man of that day for a while. That's where we got the message,
that's where we're going to continue to get the message. So we won't
despise the preaching, despise not prophesying, that's what
that is. And other reasons, many, many reasons. And you'll hear,
because it's a congregation of people, no sheep's out there
by himself, and they have an undershelter. Well, so Paul says,
be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. And then go back
to the text. We can follow somebody who's
following Christ. And it's generally obvious. You can follow a man if you know
he knows where he's going. You know? I told you this story
before we used to laugh. We were down in Mexico, and now
downtown Mexico is indescribable. It's just, you can't believe
it. It's chaos, it's mass confusion,
it's walls of all people, little narrow streets, cars, bicycles,
citizens, you don't know what everything looks like, you don't
know where you're at. When we were walking downtown,
and all those people were like, building everything. We were
down in town, Walter, Dave, Cody, myself, Todd and I, Dad, Mom,
Mindy, several others. My dad used to be a leader. He was out in front walking.
He was out walking in front of us. Todd and I were right behind
him talking. Dad was walking, and all of a
sudden, he shot us in the back of the head. He turned around
and said, He said, I'm just like one of
those Armenian preachers. He said, I'm leaving, and I don't
know where in the heck I'm going. He said, Walter, get out of here.
I'm just like one of those Armenian preachers. I'm leaving, and I
don't know where I'm going. Walter, you can follow a man
who knows where he's going. We were out in front of Sand
Puff the other night, and it was dark. You ever been on the
lake in the dark? Huh? If you don't know anything
about the lake, you better not read it. You'll get lost. Admiral Harris was at the helm,
and Dave and I were back in the back, just, you know, Greg and
I are in the dock at that time, just looking and talking, and
there they were, Dick and Sam. Sam, there's the spotlight. But
we didn't know where we were going. Remember? I didn't think I could run around.
Shit got, oh, tight. He said, where are you going? Oh! It's obvious Paul's preaching,
everything Paul preaches, was to point me in one direction.
Right? That's the reason he said, 1
Corinthians 2. Verse 2 is, he said, I'm determined not to know
anything about you, except Jesus Christ in Him crucified. He said, that's what I've come to
do, I've come to preach Christ in Him crucified. Who was it that said, come by
with us, we'll do you good? Was that Moses, his father-in-law?
I think it might have been Moses. Come with us. But more than that,
Paul was lying. Paul was, he lied. He didn't
lie. Look at the next verse. He says, Mark then, verse seventeen, Mark
then was called. Now he's called like this. He
had us for an example. He sent us in. He said, probably,
but no other government. Maybe he didn't do Peter, and
then John, and Matthew, Montgomery, Ruth, Henry, Titus. There's other
people. That's not so. Mark, you marked
the man that sat in this poor bed. Mark him well. He followed
his man. I wouldn't have a man sitting
in this poor bed that wouldn't be a good pastor to you, because
you couldn't sit and listen to him. A man you can follow, a
man you can trust, yes. Well, so he says in verse 18,
where many walk, now all this is in parenthesis, Many walk,
oh there's so many, so few who seem to walk right and true preachers,
but there are many who walk of whom I have told you often, Paul
Warren often, and you know I apologize quite often for bringing up modern
religion and blasting modern religion and modern preachers
and so forth. I do apologize, Officer, but that doesn't mean
you apologize. But he looks like a friendly
boy. He's not too bad a boy. He must be a shooter. Now, Officer, I've told you often,
if you decree to protest, When I say 466, you'll hear constant
warnings. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, all
of them, Mosiah, every one of them. Their whole prophecies
were filled with warnings about these false prophets. Paul said,
now here is the attitude which I ought to have. Verse 18, Paul says, I tell you,
now you're weak. I wish, you know, I might get
you mad when I think about yourself. And really, I am mad at myself,
so don't be sad for the people that follow me. I feel sorry for all the people
that have been led astray by these unarmed men. And there
may be some of these fellows who are just murderers. But most of them are crooks. But Paul said, I'll tell you
now, a week over this, that they're enemies of the cross of Christ.
Though they talk about the cross, though they preach Jesus, they're
enemies of the cross. Verse 19, therein is description in a way
which seems right, and it's the broad way, and it's the way that
many, and most, are going there. It's the broad way in which the
whole world of religion is happening. Broad way, wide gate, wide open
religion, that receives anything, everybody. At the end, there's
a way that seems right, but at the end, it's destruction. Straight is the gate, and narrow
is the way that leads us in front of the light, and confused there
beings of time. How do you want to find it? By
the man that's preaching out straight and narrow. The very end is destruction.
Recall verse 19, it's obvious their God is their belly. It
should be obvious to us that all this junk and wealth stuff,
all men, if John said this, they are of the world, and they speak
of the world. They speak of things that the
world wouldn't like to hear about. You want to have your bank account
filled up, don't you? You want to have your arthritis
cured, don't you, huh? You want to have a good job,
you want to have a new car, you don't want to have any trouble,
do you? Well, no, don't play that. Well, then, leave home
with me, okay? I'll send you your money, okay? There's God
in their belly. Read on. There's glories in their
shame. They glory in what they ought
to be ashamed of. The mission today is to shame
the men who glory in it. It's a shame. It's a shame. They're blessing
in God. They're bringing Christ down.
They're making man a God and God a man. that we can, well,
read on, do mind-earthly things. Mind-earthly things. But he says,
now, I'll come to see you. See, that was in grace. Many,
oh, there's so many, and crooks, and all, watching a child born. We don't know about their truth,
we don't know about what they're talking about, if they're pointing
to themselves, if they're pointing to this world, to the future
now. Our conversation is serious.
Our speech, our conduct, our goal, our aim is in heaven. Spiritual conversation. Read on. Our conversation is
in heaven, from which, that is, in heaven, we look for the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says, going back now, he
says, I want to win Christ, I want to be found in Him, I want to
know Him, follow Him, and You follow me. So I look to Him,
and I wait on Him. You mind the same thing. That's
who we're looking for. We're looking for Christ and
nothing else. We're looking for forgiveness of sins. We're looking
for an increase of faith. We're looking for this world
again. We're looking for a place of peace and love. That's what we're looking forward
to. That's what we've got to look forward to. That's our conversation. You see? That's what we ought
to be. So, it's just fact. It's fact. Believers get together, it's
not normal, and they're talking about the things of God. And, uh, that's what they
want to do. Don't you like to talk about
what you like? Don't you talk about the things and the ones
you love? You get around the barrier right now and it won't
be 10 minutes. You better start talking about
it. What's your name? Their new drug name. You can
get around the price of whatever and it won't be an awkward conversation. But at least it will be something. That's what our conversation
is in heaven, that's who we're looking for, who we're waiting
on. Now look at this, this is the end of the dog, this is glory. He said, Christ the Lord shall
change our vile body. He shall change, shall change
our vile body. Paul said, you remember back
there in 1 Corinthians, Revenant showed you the mystery. We shall
all be changed. He says, we shall all be changed.
Now, he does not give fear of what we shall be. But we know that when He appears,
we shall be changed. At the moment, when He's in the
life, we change. Now, we looked at it in 1 Corinthians
15, but we still don't understand this. A spiritual body? What do we know about that? He
says, and I was talking to someone about this before the service,
he says, our Bible body. That's him. He called this body
a Bible body. Now, and you've heard me say
that there's nothing wrong with this body except for sin, right? God created man in the same kind
of body as you have man, except, well, as we said, it came somehow. that he was a flesh and blood
and bones man, just like you're looking at on me. I'm a much
more beautiful man. There's nothing intrinsically
wrong or sinful about flesh. You know what I'm saying? Sin is not in things. I've always
said there's nothing that goes in it. But yet all this about He says that because in Romans
7 he said, in my flesh there are no good things. The old man
and the flesh seem like they just don't match. That's what
the old man appeals to, the flesh. That's what the old man tempts,
the flesh. He can't touch the good man. But this spiritual man doesn't
have anything? This is a mystery. I'm thinking things to be wonderful,
but I'm crying. Anyway, the old man haunts the
flesh. The old man tempts the flesh.
The old nature, the flesh and the old heart seem like they're
one. And because of sin, this body, this body, yes, this flesh
is dying, it's decaying. Like a man for a second. If you
went one day, two days, three days without a bath, you would,
you'd know why he says, I don't like it. Just 30 minutes
after we wash ourselves, we begin to sin. Sin, somehow or another, has
changed this, what used to be incorrect and beautiful. You ever thought about this?
Our Lord had no sin. I bet it didn't have bad breath,
body odor, and it's body didn't decay. You ever thought about
that? The sin is in us, and we're just,
it's a vile, it's a stinking, corrupt body, and it's going
to be put in a grave, and it's going to rot until it doesn't
exist. That's why it's all over the
Bible, you see it? It's not the body itself, it's
something that sin has done to us. All right, read on. But we're
going to change our Bible body that it may be fashioned like
unto His glorious body. So now, this body, this man you
see, look at that right there, Paul naming. This body, if I am put in the
ground and I am dead for a hundred years and it goes back to absolute
action, it does. There's nothing left in my body.
If God is going to lay this body, it's going to be me. It's all that God's going
to lay for me. That's the reason we'll know
each other in the cross. We'll know. They knew Moses.
They knew Elijah. They knew Samuel when they saw
him. But it's going to be as likened unto His glorious body,
all right? Our Lord Himself. You remember
when our Lord rose from the grave, they didn't recognize Him at
first. They didn't recognize Him at
first. Until the Lord revealed Himself to them, opened their
eyes, and they knew it was Him. They knew it. It's me, it's I, it's not it's
me, it's not another, it's me. It's the same Jesus. It's the
same Jesus. And it's the same Joe, and it's
the same Ellen, and it's the same Virgin, and it's the same
Linda, and it's the same whoever's gone. It's the same Becky, it's
the same Joyce, it's the same whoever's gone, you're going
to know them. But they're going to leave. They can't. That's the reason we're all going
to be like Him. It's not that we're all going
to look at the same face, but we're going to be like Him in
His glorious body. We're going to be us. Because each one of us will say
unto him that delivered us from our sin, yes me, John Davis is
going to thank God for delivering John Davis from his sin. We're
going to know one thing. We're going to know one thing. Remember John on the Isle of
Ephesus, an angel, he thought it was an angel talking to him. He fell at his feet to worship
him. He said he was so beautiful. And the man said, you know, I
don't know if you're a president of Congress. He didn't know who
he was. He was one of the greats. It
was Nathaniel, Zekiel, Mosaic, you know. But he wouldn't have known him
if he saw him anyway. He didn't know what a man who looks like
that. Anyway, it's going to be us. We're going to be changed
like under his glorious body. How is this going to pass? I
don't understand. Well, verse 21, according to
the working of his mighty power, whereby he is able even to subdue
all things unto himself. Now, if that verse has ever given
you problems, turn to 1 Corinthians 15 and I'll quickly read it. It says, 1 Corinthians 15, turn
quickly. He says he's able to subdue all
things on their face. Now, in context, remember, you've got to keep this in context. I've always looked at that verse
like, Lord, you said you're able to subdue all things. Why don't
you subdue this thing? Why don't you get rid of it?
You said your angels would do all things. Would you please
get rid of it? Does that sound familiar? Paul asked the Son three times.
He kept asking, Lord, when are you going to do something? He
wouldn't do it. He said, I am ready to do it. So in context, he's not
talking about, say, for sin. He's talking about Well, look
at it. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 27. Verse 26. The last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under
Christ's feet. And when he says, all things
are put under, you know, it's clear. The man tells us he is
accepted. He's a king. He's Lord of all. And when all things shall be
subdued unto him, then shall the Son also be subdued unto
God. Now that's because it can't be
him like that. So what he's saying is, when
this corruption shall put on him corruption, when every one
of us shall be changed like that of
his, because he's able. You see, here's the mystery.
Paul said in Ephesians 1, he's going to gather it together. He's going
to all of that. You see what I mean? And it's not all that. It's a great mystery. He's going
to gather the dust from the whole wilderness. He's going to bathe
his bodies in it. He's going to bathe them in the
dust first. And all these dead saints, their
bodies will be dead and bound. They'll be the same people. Glorious
bodies. No pain, no sin, no suffering,
no tears, no sorrows. Glorious bodies. Eat and drink,
tell and give, laugh, rejoice, never cry, never sorrow. Do you enjoy one another? Do you enjoy this? And then if you can just not
do this, you can not do that. Men, this is a poor thing. It's
already enough. All right. Let's stand. Our Father,
we have spoken things to one another. We don't know the half. The half
has never been told. This is still a mystery, though
you don't reveal much of it to us. Though we don't understand,
we believe. We do believe and are sure that
Trump shall stand when the dead are crucified, and we wait for
that That's great, that's a great change. When our change shall
come, we wait. I'm anxious to wait. Until then, let us be dust-minded
as Paul. And I'll think that Paul's, we
might win a prize to be found in him, know him, press, forget
him, reject him. I'll do that. Make us disciples. Save us from this unforward generation
with Christ, Christ as the Savior.