I want to give you a little more
time at home this evening with your families, and me too. I'm going to get right into the
message. Now, once again, we take up the study of our Lord's
intimate conversation with his disciples the last night before
he went to the cross, before he died. We need to be reminded that our
Lord was about to undertake or go through the most agonizing
and excruciatingly painful, not only physically but emotionally,
experience for him. a great and awful, he was feeling
this terrible, this awful burden and weight of this heavy trial
that he was about to undergo. Yes, it was a trial for him that
he willingly went through. But he was feeling the awful
burden and weight of this heavy experience that lay before him,
going to the cross. Perhaps the reason we cannot
enter into it is because we really are ignorant of this thing of
crucifixion. It just doesn't take place now. But our Lord was facing this
ignominious death, and yet He is taking a deep interest
Terry seems to be unmindful of his own troubles. He says he
was troubled, but he seems to be unmindful of his own troubles
and his own problems, for lack of a better word, and trials. And he seems to be concerned
about these disciples, right up to the bitter end, he's concerned
about them. He's got their welfare. on his
mind. And you remember our study a
couple of weeks ago that began in chapter 13 where it says,
having loved his own, he loved him right up to then. Right up
until he, you know, he's hanging there on the cross. In excruciating pain. No sedatives,
no painkillers. Nails dripping in his hands and
his feet. terrible crown on his head, parched
with thirst, and just been brutally beaten to a pulp. And what does
he say? He looks down at Mary, and he cares for her. He says,
she needs someplace to live now. She needs somebody to take care
of her. And he says, woman, behold your
son. You go with him, and he'll take
care of her. Right up until he expired, his
life, under such pain, caring for his own. He cared for his
own. Now, in order to enter into this
scene, we must put ourselves into what the disciples must
have been going through at this time. place ourselves into their
mindset, what they must have been thinking at this time. Now,
they've been hearing Christ talk of His death, of His approaching
sufferings and His death. He told them a couple of times,
the Son of Man is going to go to Jerusalem and be delivered
to the priests, and they're going to take Him and scourge Him.
And He told them everything that was going to take place. And
they're going to crucify Him. He's going to be buried and rise
again the third day. He told them this a couple of
times, that I can recall, before it happened. And yet, they seemed perplexed
by it. You know, we read that and we
think, why can't they see that he said this was going to happen?
Why can't... They seemed perplexed by what was going on. Well, to
be sympathetic to these poor little young, these poor fishermen.
They probably thought, now he spoke in parables. He was always
speaking in parables. Lord, what are you saying? Always. They'd say, Lord, what
do you mean by this? And they were poor, simple fishermen,
like us. I mean, we were just poor, simple
people having a hard time understanding this book. And whenever Christ
spoke, they'd say, Lord, you ought to explain this to us.
And he said this to them, point blank, he was going to go and
die, but yet they seemed perplexed by it. Now they probably thought
he was speaking in a parable or something. And he says at
one place they were afraid to ask him what he meant by this.
They were afraid that he might have meant what he said, that
he was going to go die. Now they knew, they believed Christ by
this time. They believed him, they knew
him, they knew he was the Christ. They believed this. They knew
he was the Messiah. He asked him, what do you think
of Christ? You're the Christ, you're the Messiah, blessed.
God's revealed this to you, Peter, and the rest of them. They knew
that he was the Messiah, but they thought like everybody else,
like all the Jews thought, that he was going to be a conquering
Messiah, that he was going to set up a kingdom on the earth. They were just men, just like
many of our conceptions are so off base, you know. And their
hopes had just been recently raised when he rode into Jerusalem
on this donkey. It wasn't exactly probably the
entrance they wanted him to have on his donkey, but nevertheless,
he rode into Jerusalem on this donkey, and all the people started
throwing flowers and coats in his way and hollering, Hosanna
to the son of David, Hosanna. And the whole city was in an
uproar because of him, and they thought, And these poor little
fishermen, you know, had been looking around. You know, it's
coming, it's happening, you know. And then, but then, right after
that, they get up in this upper room and he says, we're going
to have dinner tonight. You go and prepare the Passover. Okay.
You know, we run, did it and everything. They all met together
and they were abuzz and maybe excited about what was going
to go, what had been going on in their entrance into Jerusalem
and what he was going to do next, you know. And then he said, then they heard
him say he was troubled. They said, one of you are going
to deny me, betray me. And then he said to Peter, Peter,
you are going to deny me. All of you, another place it
says, he said, all of you shall be offended at me this day. You
see what they're going through? They're perplexed, and by now,
and they heard him talking about leaving them. I'm going, he said,
I'm leaving, I'm going to a place you can't come with me. And by now, they were just perplexed,
confused, totally confused, much like we are most of the time.
Totally confused about what's going on with me, about themselves,
about the kingdom of God, the Messiah. And especially Peter,
you know, that he'd just been told he was going to deny Christ.
What do you think he thought? Am I a goner? Am I lost? What's going to happen here?
And they were troubled and confused and sorrowful and just ready
to... Look at verse 1 of chapter 14.
Right after he said, Peter, you're going to deny me. You're going
to deny that you ever even knew me. But he says, let not your
heart be troubled. Don't be troubled. And he says
this thus, too, Viola, we're confused most of the time.
We're confused about ourselves. Do I know this love? Here's a
point I long to know. Oft it causes me anxious thought
and trouble and sorrow. Do I love the Lord or no? I want
to decide this thing. Do I or not? Don't be troubled. Don't be troubled. But they were troubled. They
were troubled. Their master, their Lord, their
friend, their companion, the one that they depended on for
three and a half years now, the one like babies. They were like
little children depending totally upon the Lord for their food,
for their clothing, for their drink, for answers to their questions. They were like little bitty babies
following Him around. What now, Lord? What now? He'd send them off and something,
you know, they'd try to cast out a devil or something. They'd
come running back with their tail between their legs. Lord, why
couldn't I? Oh, you little thing. And you have to tend to them
like children, you know. Like little puppy dogs all around
them, you know. Big beasts. He attended to them
for these three and a half years, and he says, I'm leaving. Anyway,
they were trouble. They were trouble. He was leaving.
And that's just like a little child, you know, watching its
mother leave, and they're deeply troubled. Deeply troubled. It's not going far. Well, what's Christ going to
say to comfort these troubled? He says, don't be troubled. What's
he going to say to comfort them? Look at it, verse 1. He says, don't be troubled. You believe
in God. You notice there's not a question
mark there, is there? Barbara, he says, don't be troubled. You believe in God. Now, why'd
he say it like this? He said, do you believe in God?
Well, you ought to believe on me. That's not what he said.
You believe in God. You do. Why? Because he came
to reveal the Father. That's the purpose of Christ's
coming. He came. Did I come to show you the Father? I came to reveal the Father to
you." That was his earthly mission, to declare God to men, to declare
the Father. And he taught them concerning
the Father. He had shown them the Father.
He had given them faith in the Father and understanding of the
Father. He had given them everything
they had, and he knew that they believed. Very weakly, very weakly,
but they did. And sure, there's great comfort
to be had here. I see it in you. Henry, Rick, I see it in you. Charles, you believe in God. I know you do. I can tell. You give every evidence of believing
in God. Yeah, you do. You believe. Some of you believe in God. Yeah,
you do. You believe in him. You believe
that he's the great and sovereign God who created all things, and
he sustains all things, and he controls all things, and he does
all things for our good concerning us. You believe that, Jeanette.
I know you do, don't you? You're shaking your head. Well, Christ said, Believe also
me. You believe in God. Well, believe
also in me. Trust in me. You trust this. This word faith is best translated
trust. You trust that God is the one
who cares for you. God is the one who provides for
you. And in the end, God is one that's going to receive you.
Christ said, trust me. I am God's main thing. Believe me, I'm God. And we'll see you later on down
here how he said to Philip, say, show us God. He said, look at
me, look at me. But he says, I'm God and I'm
a man. And this is our great, Roberta,
this is our, this is our consolation. This is our comfort. This is
all our hope that there's a man at the right hand of the Father
who is touched with a feeling of our infirmities. And he says,
don't be troubled. I go to the Father, me, a man
up there, flesh, sitting at the right end of God, me. And you
know what? He's called an advocate, a mediator. He's called a close brother,
a friend that sticks, Jimmy's a friend that sticks closer than
a brother. Your brother may forsake you,
not this one. He said, I'll never, never, never. Never. And he carries all weight
with the Father. He's got all influence with the
Heavenly Father. There was a story, I read a story
one time back in the Civil War, of a soldier who, you may have
heard this, but I'll tell it again. There was a soldier back
in the Civil War who had received word that his father He was an
only child, and he received word that his father had passed away,
and he was stationed somewhere around Washington or something.
And his father had passed away. He was an only son, and he wanted
to go home. He was just a young boy, and
he wanted to go home to console his mother. They were poor, and
he needed to go home to take care of his mother. He had no
other family to take care of her. To be discharged from the
Army took a tremendous act. As a matter of fact, the only
one that could discharge him was the President of the United
States. At least the President had to give the order to somebody
to let him go. So one day he went to the White
House hoping that He could get in to see the President. He tried
all avenues and couldn't get in. And he was sitting outside
of the gate to the White House. And he sat down on the curb there
and began weeping with his head in his hands. He couldn't get
in. He couldn't go home. He was ready
to be shipped out. And he began weeping. The President
was his only hope. But he couldn't get in. And a
little while later, a little while later, a little boy, a
little boy walked up and said, Mr., why are you crying? And he looked up to the little
boy and said, I told him a story. I need to go home. My dad died,
my mother. And by herself, I just need to
go home, and the president's the only one that'll let me in.
And you can see these guards here at the gate. There's guards
at the front door. I just can't get in to see. And
the little boy said, Don't. Don't worry. Quit crying. I said,
Come with me. So the fella got up, and they
walked up to the gate, and there were two guards standing there,
two sentries with their rifles, you know. And when the boy walked
up, they just And they walked through that gate. And the soldier
was incredulous there. And they walked down the front
steps and came up to those big white double doors of that white
house, two guards standing there with guns like this. When the
boy walked up, good morning, and they walked
through those double gates and walked down the hall and there
was the Oval Office. There's a guard standing there
at the door. And when this boy walked up with
his soldier behind him, good morning, that little boy reached
up, grabbed a knob, walked on in, walked past the secretary,
walked right on into that Oval Office and said, Dad, somebody
wants to see you. The Son of God is at the right
hand of the Father. A man, just like you and me. Shall we look? Just like you
and me. A man. He may have looked just
like you, but he wasn't much to look at. Or me. I'll conclude myself there. But
he was a man, nevertheless. And he's at the right hand of
the Father, and he carries all weight, all influence with the
Father. The Father delights to do. what
the son wants, delights to honor his son and his son's request. Well, look at verse 2. He says, you believe in God?
Believe in me. I am God. Verse 2, he says, in
my father's house, in my father's house, I like that old song of
what I can remember of it, come and go with me to my father's
house, where there is joy, joy, joy. In my father's house are
many mansions," he said. Now, there is something comforting
and quieting and secure about the old home place. Let me get
a little sentimental here. I know people abuse this, but
nevertheless, this is the same sense and vein in which our Lord
is speaking to his disciples. I don't say this to all men.
I don't say this publicly on the radio, that you're going
to meet Mom in heaven, that sort of thing. That's not what I'm
talking about here. But nevertheless, he says, in my Father's home, my Father's got a house. Father's home. secure and comforting about the
old home place, you know, home. Just the word sounds good, doesn't
it? Home. When I was a boy, we used to
take trips down to Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama, every year, twice a
year, summertime and at Christmas time, to my granddaddy's house,
Granddaddy Freeze. And it wasn't much, the place
wasn't very big, it was just a little, little one-story brick
house, about the size of Joe and Nancy's house. It wasn't
very big. There wasn't anything special about it. The yard was
pretty small, on a pretty busy street, pretty busy neighborhood.
It had a little kind of a lean-to for a garage in the back. There
just wasn't much to it at all. But I just thought that was the
greatest place there ever was. Why? It was granddad's. It was granddaddy's house. And my cousin and I, we'd find
things to do, mostly meanness, but throw rocks at people's trash
cans and whatever. But it was granddad. And boy,
I looked so forward to going down to granddad's. There wasn't
nothing there, but I wanted to go. I was so excited. Granddad. And you know, if your parents
are still living in the old home place, You'll probably always
call it home. I've heard you call it. I've
heard, I think, Henry say, we're going home this week. Home. You'll
always call it home. And your room, if the room that
you stayed in is still there, it's still your room. My room
back in Ashland is still my Paul's room. It doesn't look much like
what it did when I lived there, but sometimes I go rummaging
through the drawers. And my mom has left most of that
junk in those drawers. I guess in remembrance of me,
but it's my room. But you know, the scripture says
a believer is a stranger and a sojourner here in this world.
A stranger and a sojourner. And I kind of think we're kind
of like young people who first start out and we're living in
pitiful little apartments. little efficiencies, you know.
Somebody else owns them. We're struggling the skin of
our teeth trying to get by, trying to make it, trying to make ends
meet. And every now and then, during the preaching of the gospel,
the fellowship of the saints, the worship of God, we go home. We go home. Get a little taste. You know, you go home during
the Christmas or whatever. You go home and you just get
filled up. filled with food and love and money. Here, son, who
was it the other day that was telling me, Lewis, saying Phil
gives him money. He doesn't need money. Here,
son, you're going to need this. Thanks. Food and love and money. Well, in a sense, I believe this
is the way Christ is appealing to his disciples. And he says, in my father's house
are many mansions, many abodes, many abodes. Now, this word mansion, I'm really unsure of exactly
what he means there, but it will work both ways. Look up at verse
23. Verse 23, this is the same exact
word in the Greek that's used there for mansions. Right here
in verse 23, Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love
me, he'll keep my words and my father will love him. And we
will come unto him and make our abode. That's the exact same
word right there, abode. The word is monad in the Greek,
abode. And he says, I believe now, I
believe that Christ is saying here, in my father's house are
many reservations. There are many reservations.
There are many, many places, not necessarily houses to live
in. You know, this is what Rick and
I were talking about. This is what people are all taking
up with. Well, how big my mansion is going to be, you know. That's
not the sense here at all. The word mansion there is not
talking about some great and glorious beautiful place to live. He's talking about a reservation,
a boat. You have a place. You have a
place to dwell. He said, in my father's house.
It's my dad's house. My father's house. He lives there. I live there. And you've got
a place to live there, Ted. There's plenty of room, he said.
Plenty of room. You've got you a place, Ted.
Uh-huh. Any mansion. He said, if it weren't
so, I would have told you. He said, I always speak the truth,
always. Now, turn over with me to Revelation
chapter 4. Revelation chapter 4. Now, we
can only conjecture or guess or surmise from what we're reading
here concerning the kingdom of heaven. We don't know much about
heaven. Nobody does. Paul, the apostle,
went there, and when he came back, he said, I saw things.
He said, I can't, it's not lawful, I can't utter it, I don't know
how to describe it. We don't have anything here to
go by, he said. Well, we can only surmise what
heaven is like from what we read here. Like many great kingdoms
now, I'm convinced of this. Our God is king. King, high and holy, lifted up. We don't know anything about
a kingdom. We see something of the pomp
and the show of the British monarchy or royal rule. We see something
of that. We see their splendor and all
that they go through, their pageantry and all. But this is God we're
talking about here. King of kings and high and lofty. Now, you know, you know, that
there are great and glorious things to be seen in this kingdom
of God. Great and glorious, indescribable
things to be seen. Things. And perhaps the temple,
back in the Old Testament, the temple was a picture of some
of this glory and this grandeur. But look at Revelation chapter
4, verse 1. There's some pictures here of
heaven described to us. Says, After this I looked, and
behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which
I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said,
Come up hither, and I'll show you things which must be hereafter.
And immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne
was set in heaven, and one sat on that throne, and he that sat
was to look upon like a jasper in a sardine stone. And there
was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like an emerald. And around about the throne were
four-and-twenty seats. And upon those seats I saw the
four-and-twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, and
they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne
proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices And there were seven
lamps of fire burning before the throne, which were the seven
spirits of God. And before the throne there was
a sea of glass like unto crystal. In the midst of the throne, round
about the throne, were beasts, four beasts full of eyes, behind
and before. And the first beast was like
a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast
had a face as a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle,
and the four beasts had six wings about them, and they were full
of eyes within, and they rest not night and day, saying, Holy,
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is to come. Now look down at chapter 5, verse
6. And I beheld, and he said, and
lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and of
the midst of the elders, stood a lamb, as it had been slain." having seven horns and seven
eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the
earth. Now look over at chapter 7, verse
9. And after this, verse 9 of chapter
7, After this I beheld in low a great multitude, which no man
could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and
tongues, stood before that throne, and before that Lamb clothed
with white robes. And there before the throne,
and serve him night and day in his temple, and he sits on the
throne, and shall dwell with them, and they hunger no more,
and thirst no more. And the sun shall not light on
them, nor any heat for the lamb which is in the midst of the
throne shall feed them, and lead them unto living fountains of
waters. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes." Now look over at Revelation 21. Revelation
21, here is a glorious description of eternity, of heaven. Revelation
21, verse 10, he says, He carried me away in the Spirit to a great
and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the whole
of Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. having the
glory of God, her light was like unto a stone most precious, like
a jasper stone." He's talking about a crystal cathedral. This
was clear as crystal. It had a wall great and high
and twelve gates, and the gates, twelve angels and names written
on them. And on down through here, he
talks about this city. Verse 19, "...the foundations
of the wall were garnished with all manner of precious stones,
jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emeralds and so forth, sardonyx
and sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, all the precious stones
and so forth. Now, hold your place right there
and turn back to the text there in John 14. Now, to be sure,
based upon that description, there are glorious and great
things to be beautiful things to be seen. We just read this
description of these walls, of this holy Jerusalem, this city,
beautiful, adorned with jewels and so forth. But Christ said
here, in my Father's house are many dwellings, many reservations. And he says, if it were not so,
I would have told you. But he said, verse 2, To prepare a place for you. A place. Does anybody here remember
that study we did back in sometime ago from Deuteronomy, where it
says, there shall be a place that the Lord God has chosen
to put his name there. You remember that study back
in Deuteronomy? Anybody? A place where the Lord God has
chosen to put his name there. Now, Terry, there's many reservations. You got one? I got one. There's
only one place to live. Where is our abiding place? Who
is our abiding place? He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. There's one abiding place, one
dwelling. To be sure, this has a spiritual
understanding to it. But one dwelling for all people. One house. He is our abode. In Him we live and move and have
our being. in him. Christ said there over
in chapter 15, verse 4, Abide in me. Abode, abide in me. You're talking about a mansion.
You're talking about a wonderful place to live. Abide in me, and
I in you. Now, look back at Revelation
21, verse 22. Look at it. Verse 22, and John
said, I saw no temple therein. I didn't see a temple. For the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb are the temple of the earth." The tabernacle of God dwelled
among men, right? And men, like you and I, we dwell
in the tabernacle of God in Christ. We dwell in Him. We abide in
Him and I in you. Look at verse 22 of Revelation.
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,
proceeding..." Where did that water of life come from? Out
of the throne of God, not of the Lamb. See that? It came out
of the throne. That's from the throne, and that's
from the Lamb. He is the water of life. Christ is the water
of life. He is the water of life. Look down at verse 6. He said,
well, look at verse five. There shall be no night there.
They need no candle, neither light of the sun for the Lord.
What are we going to need with a house? Huh? Stan, are we not? No, everyone
gets tired or sleepy. Huh? We're never going to get
tired or sleepy. Rick and I were talking about
this. Why would we want to be in the house anyway when everything
else is going on outside? Huh? Why? I mean, it'd be a fool
to be indoors when the excitement, when he's out there. No, he's
always everywhere. He's the omnipresent one. He's
always everywhere with his people all the time. Verse 6, verse
5, there's no night there, don't need a candle, light of the sun,
the Lord God gives them light. And they'll reign forever and
ever. And he said unto me, Now listen, pay attention to these
two words. We'll turn back to John 14 here in a second. He
said, now these sayings are faithful and true. What Christ is saying,
if it weren't so, I wouldn't have told you. It's true. It
is. It's faithful and true. And the
Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his
servants the things which must shortly be done. And look at
verse 7. He says, Behold, I come quickly. Now turn back to this. the text, John 14. He said, These
things are faithful and true. It's the last time I'll have
you turn, OK? He said, These things are faithful
and true. And he said, Behold, I come quickly. Now look at the
text here, verse two again. Christ said, In my Father's house
is a place to live. Where? In me. In me. You're going to abide in me and
I in you. Yeah, you are. That's what he
said when he prayed to the Father. And he said, now, if it weren't
so, I wouldn't have told you. It's faithful and true. The same
one that's talking here is the one that we saw that vision of
on Wednesday night, the eyes as a flame of fire. The same
one that's talking here except in the body of a man. If it weren't
so, I wouldn't have told you. I'm telling you now. And he says,
now, I go to prepare you a place. Nancy, he's gone to prepare Nancy
Potts a place. A reservation. What did he do?
How did he get this thing? He went to the cross. That's
what he's talking about. He said, I go to the cross to
prepare a place for you. How is our place in heaven secure? Not by our works. We studied
it this morning. Not by anything we do, but by
what Christ is about to do. He said, I've got to go. He set
his face toward Jerusalem and said, I've got to go there. Why? Joe, we wouldn't have a place.
He's got to go work. He's got to go build. Build this
salvation. Work out this salvation for us
by dying, by living. He'd already lived, man. Now
he was going to go and die and pay the penalty for the broken
law that we had broken. And then he was going to go back
to the Father and say, Father, now receive these. Receive these
people for my sake, because of what I've done. Give them a reservoir.
Give them a place. Give them what's covered to me."
And the Father says, be delighted to. Be delighted to. Here's a place for us. Here's
a place here. Here's a place for her. Here's a place. Many. They're all there. All there. Reservation. Now look at it.
Remember what he said back there in Revelation? He said, if I
go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again. That's what
he said there in Revelation 22, wasn't it? I'm coming quickly. I've gone, I've got it all together
now, and I'm coming back to get you. I'll take you back there.
I'll come again. If I go and prepare a place for
you, I'll come again. I'll come again and receive you
unto myself. See that? That's just what we've
been talking about. He is our abiding place. Come
again and receive you into my..." This is a mystery. Great is the
mystery of godliness. This thing, this thing of heaven,
this thing of eternal life, it's a mystery. It's a glorious mystery. But somehow, Barbara, somehow
this is what it's talking about. We dwell in Him. And it just
can't be described. We receive it by faith. But this
is it. And people in this world are all taken up with with houses
and streets. And I said this one time, I believe
perhaps that he talks about streets of gold, yes, for the beauty
of it all, but perhaps to show our disdain for those things.
We'll walk on gold. Now, oh, we wear it all over
ourselves, you know, display it. Then, what's gold? We'll just walk on it like asphalt,
you know, gold. You know, we'll have our eyes
on him. We won't even look down. We always
say, well, he's a beautiful street. Walk toward him. Streets of gold
and pearly gates, you know, that's part of the beauty of the place.
But David said, I want to go to behold
his beauty, didn't he? I want to go and inquire in his
temple and behold the beauty of the Lord. That's the one I
want to see. Move aside, Abraham. And we'll talk later. Move aside,
Peter. We'll talk about this later.
I want to talk to you, yes, but I've got to see him. I want to
see him face to face. And the scripture says the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven, not a messenger, not an angel
like he did at first when he first came, but the Lord himself
shall descend with a shout as the archangel. The archangel
will bring a shout. As the voice of a trumpet, here
he comes with a voice that's never been heard before. Here
he comes! Here he comes! Says, as the voice of a trumpet.
You ever heard somebody whistle for their dog, somebody that
could do it real loud? If I could do it, I'd do it right now. I've
seen ladies do this, even, just piercing whistle, you know, just
pierce your ears, but dogs come running, you know. Where do you
hear this trumpet? He's coming, and every eye shall
behold Him. Every eye shall behold Him. And it says, the dead in Christ
shall rise first. The graves are going to open
up. Oh, it sounds like a fairytale, doesn't it? Sounds foolish, doesn't
it? But it's so. The graves are going
to open up, and the dead in Christ shall rise. Then we which are
alive, if we're alive when he comes and remains, will be caught
up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
That's what the process of longing for says. Why? Because Christ has gone
to the cross, and by doing that, by going to the cross and paying
our sin debt, Living this life and going to the cross to pay
our sin debt, bear our sins, our punishment, and take them
away. And he made us a reservation. It's all set. Secured. Stamped and locked forever. Your portion, Barbara Ross, Charles
Ross, Virgie Jones, Ellen Faith, your portion in heaven is secure
because of what he did. because of what Christ did. Ralph Barnard used to tell this
story. Barnard, if you've ever heard
him on tape, he wasn't much of a singer, although he'd sing
that song, A Sinner Like Me. Anybody that's ever heard that
tape of his, God's Bloodhound, you've heard it. Crinkling Boy, she'd sing that
song, A Sinner Like Me, and it was a blessing. But he always
wanted, he loved to hear people sing. He always had people sing.
And he always wanted to sing well, but he couldn't, but he
tried. But he said he had a dream one time. He said he had a dream. He said he went to heaven, and
when he got there, he was standing outside this big, vast room where
a lot of people Well, a great, vast throng of people were in
there. And he heard this beautiful choir singing. Beautiful choir. Just as he said, the music, the
melody, the harmony was just unlike anything he'd ever heard.
He says, oh, it was so beautiful. And he walked closer and he got
in there in the midst of all those people and he thought,
oh, I'd like to get in on that choir. A vast choir singing these
beautiful songs. Oh, I'd like to sing like that.
I'd like to get in on that singing. He was rejoicing over this thing.
It says he looked up there on one of the top rows and there
was a chair. An empty chair. You know what's coming up. He worked
his way up through this vast throng of people. It took him
a while to get there. All the music was so beautiful.
He wanted to sing with this choir. He worked his way up through
there, walked up this long stairway, and made his way down the aisle. He got to that chair and said, That sounds like so much sentimentality
down there, but it's true. It's true. It's true. I don't
care how people abuse that sort of thing. It's true. It's true.
In my father's house are many places. And Christ said, I go
to prepare a place for you, Sherry Anderson, for you. You're going
to go up there and there's going to be a name on a chair. No,
you're not going to be seated. You're going to be standing.
But there's a reservation for you to stand. and all the trust
in Christ. Yeah, there is. We have his word
on it. We just read it, didn't we? We
just read it. Don't be troubled. I know how troubled you are at
times, he said, but don't be troubled. You believe in God. Yeah, you do. I gave you that
faith. Believe also in me. Now, in my Father's house, there
are many places. Don't worry, there's room. There's room, and
I'm going to prepare a place for you, going to the crowd,
to secure it. And where I am, you may be also. And then I'm going to come again
and get you, take you back with me. And we'll dwell together
forever. Forever. Stand with me and I'll
dismiss as anything.