Thank you so much. I want to
begin this evening in Philippians, the book of Philippians 1. And then we're going to go back
over to Revelation in a few minutes. But let's start at Philippians
1. I'm very thankful to see all
of you. It's good to see Donita back
with us this evening. So grateful that things are going
well with you and glad your recovery is going so
good. So delighted to see you. I endeavored this morning has set before you several things,
one of which was this. Whatever God's people are like
in heaven, we began to be on earth. There's no question about it. There's a great change that takes
place. when the Lord's children die,
when we leave this world, because we are an imperfect group in
ourselves. I know we're perfect in Christ
Jesus. I know we're justified. I know
in the eyes of God we have no sin. We're made the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. But in ourselves, we dwell in
a body of death. And all that we do, all the good
that we seek to do and seek to say, it's all polluted by the corruption
of our guilt and sin. You know, the Lord's people,
when we say we believe in salvation by grace, that doesn't mean that
we think and that we believe Since God has saved you by his
grace, then you can go out and live according to the dictates
of the world or whatever. We don't believe that. Those
of us who love the gospel, God has instilled within us a desire
to honor the Lord in our lives. And yet we recognize the fact
that we fall far short of doing that. And really, we're failures
to live up to what we want to be and what we want to do. And all of us would confess that. Lord, I would honor you more. Lord, I wish I thought more.
upon your great and glorious name. I wish the things of God
occupied more of my time and attention. And we all find ourselves
saying, Lord, I'm sorry. Lord, please forgive me. Lord,
I confess my iniquities unto you. And yet we also recognize
the fact that we do love him because he first loved us. I
do believe the gospel, don't you? I love the truth of God's
Word. I love the truth that we're saved
by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I recognize the fact
of my own pollution, my own contamination by sin. And I know that when
I leave this world, I leave all of that behind. And that'll be
a great day. You know, we look at the world
around us And we see all of the evil. We see all of the vileness. And of course we say it'll be
good to escape from all of that. But I do believe every person
who's been bought with the blood of the Lord Jesus, our greatest
desire is, Lord, deliver me from my sin. I just want to be free
from the body of death. That's what I long to be. It
is, I'm burdened by the sins around me, but I'm most burdened
with the sin in me. Don't y'all feel that way about
yourself? I'm most burdened about the sins
in me. And yet I rejoice that God has
done a work of grace in me. Because you see, I wouldn't feel
that way about my sinfulness were it not for the grace of
God to me. And nor would you. And when we leave this world,
we leave all the sinfulness down here, it's going to be gone forever. I know in the books of God, in
the records of God, there is no sin recorded against any of
His children. But in our own experience, in
our own day by day lives, we grieve and we mourn over our
sinfulness. And when we get to heaven, we'll
still be the children of the Lord. We'll still believe the
gospel. And in one way of looking at it, there's not going to be
a great change, at least not a change of desire. Every child of God will finally
get what he wants. I tell you what I want, I want
to see the Lamb of God. That's what I want. And I want
to see Him in His beauty, I want to see Him in His glory, and
I want to worship Him without the burdens of my sin. I want
to worship Him, could I put it this way, without distraction.
Without distraction. Without interruption. I try to study, Alan tries to
study, and Ron as well. Anybody who preaches the gospel,
we endeavor to study. Every once in a while there are
interruptions, a phone call, or somebody comes in and You
get distracted, or maybe just a thaw, you get distracted. And
that just happens, and it happens to each of us in our private
devotions when we're reading the Word of God. Don't you find
how easy it is to get distracted from the things of God? And I'll
tell you the way we are. This is the way I am. I can read
the newspaper. I usually in the morning get
a cup of coffee and read the newspaper, and I can just Stick
right with it. And then I pick up the Word of
God to read it, and I find distractions enter in more often. Why is that? Well, I'll tell you why that
is, because the flesh don't mind reading the newspaper. The flesh doesn't mind reading
about all the vileness that's in the world. But here's what the flesh is
still opposed to, the gospel of God's glory. And that's why
we're so easily distracted. But one of these days we're going
to be caught up to heaven and we won't have any more distractions.
But that will be just a continuation of what we endeavored to do on
earth. We'll just do it perfectly. And
I think that's what's being said here in Philippians chapter 1
and verse 6. Philippians chapter 1 and verse
6, being confident of this very thing. And the apostle, he had a confidence,
and I do too. That, what is your confidence?
That he which hath begun a good work in you, He began the work. I didn't begin
it. I didn't start it. I didn't have
anything to do with it. I was in false religion and was
quite content preaching a gospel that was not good news really
at all because it left things to be finished by each of us. He did the work. And He did the
work in us. This is what Paul says, He which
hath begun a good work in you, He will perform it. He will perfect
it. He will accomplish it. He will
finish it. He will complete it. Unto the
day of Jesus Christ. That is the last day when this
age is over and Christ Jesus comes back for us. You see, whatever the saints
of God are in heaven's glory, they began to be on earth. Yeah. Oh, we'll continue to live in
heaven, but that life, it began on earth when God dealt with
us in his effectual saving grace. We were born of the Spirit, we
were quickened, we were made alive due to the Gospel being
set before us. James says, of His own will begat
He us with the Word of Truth. Let me show you this verse. Brother
Allen read to us from John chapter 10. Look at John 11, and we'll
be back in John 11, the Lord willing, Wednesday night. in
our study, and we'll even get into these verses that I'm going
to read to you now. But look at John 11. I'll just
make a couple of comments on this. John 11, look at verse
25, and this is when the Lord Jesus, He goes to Bethany. Lazarus has been dead four days. Martha meets Him. And Jesus says to Martha in chapter
11 verse 25, Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and
the life. I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead. Yet shall he live. Now look at
verse 26. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Note the order. Whosoever liveth and believeth. It doesn't say whosoever believeth
and liveth. Belief is not the reason for
life. But rather life is the reason
for believing. Isn't that right? What's got
to come first? Life's got to come first. We
can't believe. Listen, I earnestly compel you
to believe the gospel and I have a responsibility to do that and
you have a responsibility to believe the gospel. But though
you have the great responsibility to acknowledge this is the truth,
and you have a responsibility to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ,
you lost the ability to do that in Adam's transgression. And therefore you can't do that
which God commands you to do. And you know that makes some
people angry. It made David Brainerd angry. That's one of the things
he mentioned. He said, God requires me to do
that which I have no ability to do. Oh, how humbling that
is! I can't do what God tells me
to do. Therefore, he must make me alive. He's got to regenerate me. He's got to quicken me. It's
what the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, ye must be
born again. Well, how can I be born again?
I wish somebody would write a book on how to be born again. Oh,
multitudes of books have been written on how to be born again,
and they're all wrong. Because it's the Spirit of God
who mysteriously and miraculously uses the Word of Truth. And He puts that seed within
us. And in a manner way beyond our
understanding, all of a sudden, the dead are made to live. He that liveth and believeth
on me, shall never die. That's what the Savior said.
We believe it's the result of being made alive. And that life
of glory is the life of grace. It's the life of grace and the
life begun right at regeneration. See if you can grasp this. The
life that begins when the Lord says live. Ezekiel 16. That infant cast out. The Lord
says, that's the way you were, cast out in your pollution. And
I passed by your way, it was a time of love. And I said, live! Live! When God said live, He
gave you a life that will never ever die. And you know what? It's exactly the same life you'll
still have in glory. Isn't that so? That's what kind
of life it is. I give unto them everlasting
life. That's what the Savior said. You see that life which men have
in heaven, it comes to us. It comes to them, whoever's in
heaven. The life that came to them, it came in regeneration
on earth. Let's be very careful right here. The reason our sins are forgiven,
the reason we go to heaven, the reason we enter into the life
of everlasting light, the reason for this is not to be found in
being born again. Though that is necessary. The life of God enters into the
soul as a result of the work of Christ Jesus on the cross. I know regeneration is necessary. You've got to be born again. But that's not what put our guilt
away. That's not what put our sins
away. That's not what made us to be the righteousness of God. We're made the righteousness
of God because the Lord Jesus loved us and gave Himself for
us. That's the reason we're made
the righteousness of God. I guess what I'm endeavoring
to say is don't ever set up a rival to the substitutionary cross
death of the Lord Jesus Christ, not even the work of the Holy
Spirit. That's right. Don't even put
the work of the Holy Spirit up as a rival to what Christ did. Your faith, as necessary as it
is according to the purpose of God, Your faith didn't make things
right with God. I do believe in repentance because
the Bible teaches it. John the Baptist came preaching
repentance. Our Lord Jesus came preaching
repentance. All the apostles came preaching
repentance. The apostles said there in Acts
chapter 20, He said to the Ephesian elders, He said, I preached repentance
toward God in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But neither your
repentance nor your faith took care of your sin debt. Christ
did. Christ did. And though God must do a work
in you, He must begin a work in you which He will finish. It isn't that work within you
which God always looks at, it's the work of Christ Jesus for
you that is His blood. His blood. Don't miss that. If you forget everything else
I've said tonight, I believe that's worth remembering. Because in our day, There's an emphasis on what the
Lord does in you, and there should be. And I'm not saying that it
isn't necessary for the Lord to do a work within you, because
I began by reading Philippians chapter 1, verse 6. He who hath
begun a work in you will finish it. So I'm not denying the necessity
of God doing something within you, but that's not what God
looks at, what He does within you. It's what's already been
done for you by Christ Jesus. I hope that's clear. You see, everything arises from
and springs forth from the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And having said that, we know
that the children of God, upon death, the soul departs the body
and enters into the very presence of the Lord. And though there
will be a change, though it will mean the laying aside of the
body of our sinfulness, it won't mean a different attitude toward
the gospel. You see, whatever you think about
the Lord Jesus, whatever you believe about Him, When you die,
when you get right up to death's door, whatever you believe or
don't believe, when you pass through death, that's not going
to change that. If you die in faith, faith will
be perfected. Faith will be exchanged for sight,
right? Hope will be exchanged for reality. will keep love. You love the
gospel here, you'll love the gospel in eternity. But if you
die, not believing Christ Jesus, it's not going to be a change
for you when you go through the portals of death. You're still
going to be an unbeliever, right? That's not going to change anything.
If you hate God when you die, you'll hate God forever. You die despising the name of
the Lord Jesus or you die thinking that your works, your works and
your will put you in good standing with God. That's what you don't
think forever. And nobody goes to glory believing
that. Read again Matthew chapter 7.
Those people, during their lifetime, they did all these things for
the Lord, and then they die, and they wind up in hell, and
I guess they must think, there's been a mistake made. We ought
not be down here. And then they go to the judgment,
and the Lord says, many will say to me at the judgment, hey,
they've been in hell already. And they go to the judgment and
say, Lord, there's been a great mistake, because we did all of
these things in your name. And he said, then I'll profess
to them, I don't know you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. They didn't love the gospel in
life. They're not gonna love the gospel after death. Let's
put it this way. Go to Revelation, last chapter
of the book of Revelation. It's like this, as the tree falls,
There's where she's going to lie. Forever. Forever. Revelation 22, verse
11. 22, 11. He that is unjust, he
dies. Let him be unjust still. That's
not going to change. He which is filthy, let him be
filthy still. There's not going to be a reversal
of that. He who is righteous, he's not going to be more righteous
than heaven. Just let him be righteous still. He that is justified, let him
be justified still. Did you know even though you
have this body of sinfulness, you're not going to be any more
justified in heaven by God Almighty than you are right now? Isn't
that astounding? So I don't understand how that
can be. It's because God looks at you,
views you as he always has in your covenant head, Christ Jesus. And you're righteous in him.
You say, me? But preacher, you don't know
me. No, I don't know you, but I know me. At least a little
bit about me. And the word says, let him be
righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy, still, just ride on, ride on. Well, go to Revelation 14. Those who don't enjoy worship,
who get nothing out of a worship service, who don't love the message
of God's free and sovereign grace, who don't have a taste for the
salvation of God by the sacrifice of Christ, They could never be
happy in heaven. They just couldn't be. They'd
be miserable, wouldn't they? They'd be miserable. Because
that's all we're going to do in heaven. We're going to honor
the Lamb of God. There's a verse in the book of
Revelation. John saw in the midst of the
very throne of God, he saw the Lamb. He's right there in the
middle. You remember back in Revelation
chapter 4, John heard a voice that says, Come up hither, I'll
show you things that must come to pass. And the first thing
he saw was the throne of God. And then he saw the Lamb in the
midst of the throne. And you know what? The people
of God, those who've been studying the Lamb of God, who've rejoiced
in His sacrifice, who delight to hear Him proclaim. When we read, there is a Lamb
in the midst of heaven, that just absolutely thrills us when
we say, I want to be there. I want to see Him. I want to
know Him more fully. I want to worship Him without
any distraction of sin, the Lamb of God. The very thought of being
with Christ Jesus in glory is just, it's exciting to the people
of God. And it makes death more bearable. Because we know death, death
is not the enemy of God's people. It is a friend who, in essence,
comes to us and says, the master says, it's time to go home. Well, there's nothing frightening
about that. It's time to go see the master. It's like somebody coming and
knocking on the door of the bride saying, time to go see the bridegroom. Oh, really? All the joy of seeing Christ
Jesus. And John, when he hears here
in Revelation chapter 14, He sees the Lamb of God and then
He sees all these people with Him. He sees the followers of
the Lamb. The followers of the Lamb. And
they're singing a new song. A new song. You know that they're
said to be a new creation? These people are a new creation? In Isaiah 62 it's said that they
have a new name. They have a new name. A holy
city. Isn't that what a name for us?
I mean, we're like an unholy city by nature. And yet the Lord
says, that's your name. Now your name is a holy city.
In fact, your name is the same name as the Lord, your righteousness,
the Lord, our righteousness. That's our name. We got a new
name. We're a new creation. We have a new name and we sing
a new song. The new song, the words are found
in Revelation 5 verse 9, worthy is the lamb that was slain. That's
the new song. They sung as it were a new song,
where? Before the throne of God. They're
standing before the throne of God. And they're not frightened. They're not scared. They're not
shaking. They're not fearful that the
Lord will send them away. They stand right before the throne
of God and sing to the Lord. They stand before the four beasts,
preachers of the gospel, who communicated the truth to them. The elders, this is Old Testament
saints and New Testament saints, and no man can learn that song.
You can't learn this song. You've got to be taught it. You've got to be taught it. And
it's reserved, the instruction is reserved for a special group
of people. 144,000, that's God's name for
His elect. Now there are some things you
can pick up, books you can pick up and study and pretty much
get a grasp on whatever the subject is, but you can't do that with
the gospel. You can't learn that song. You'll
be taught that song by the Lord Himself. And I'll tell you, if
He ever teaches you that song, you'll know the words. Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain. That's what you'll be singing. 144,000 which were redeemed from
the earth. Watch it. These are not they
which are defiled with women. Now what does that mean? They weren't seduced by the great
harlot. False religion. This doesn't
refer to sexual purity or being celibate. What John is talking
about is that these people have been preserved from climbing
in the bed with the great harlot Babylon. False religion. This is a scriptural metaphor.
For those who have not turned aside from the gospel to worship
idols. They've not fallen prey to false
religion. That's why Paul said in 2 Corinthians
11 in verse 2, he desired to present those people as chaste
virgins under Christ. You see, nobody is worthy of
the love of your soul. but Christ Jesus. And if you give the love of your
soul to a false Jesus or to an idol, you're a fornicator. You're not pure. You've defiled
yourself. See, grace has made us pure.
Grace has made us holy before the Lord. We're reserved by sovereign
grace for the bridegroom, because he's the one entitled to the
love of our souls. And I'll tell you something else
about these people. It says they were redeemed from
the earth, end of verse 3, and I'll get to that again. But in
verse 4, they were not defiled with women for they are virgins.
These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
They're followers of the Lamb. They're His sheep. You know,
we're so often said to be the Lord's sheep. He's said to be
the shepherd. But you know, he's not ashamed
to identify with us. You know, the scripture says
he takes up the lambs in his arms. And yet he takes that title for
himself. He's the lamb. He's not ashamed
to associate himself with us. And these are they which follow
the Lamb, whithersoever he goeth." We're followers of the Lamb.
We're not followers of false prophets. We're followers of
the Lamb. We follow Him. We follow Him into the waters
of baptism. We follow Him to worship the
Father. Was there ever a man more dependent
upon the Heavenly Father than Christ Jesus? We want to follow
Him there, don't we? That's what I want to do. I want
to follow Him there. And one of these days, we're
going to follow Him into the house of God above. That's where
He's gone. Follow Him to paradise. They
follow the Lamb. Bear in mind, whenever you see
the Lamb, you're to remember this is the one great sacrifice
for sin. We follow Him as our substitute.
We follow Him as our sin-bearer. We follow Him as our sin-remover. We follow Him as our Savior.
We follow Him as our Sovereign. Rest assured that where the doctrine
of substitution and satisfaction leads you, you can safely follow. That bears repeating. Wherever
the doctrine of substitution and satisfaction leads you, you
can follow safely. You don't have to worry about
anything because the gospel will never lead you astray. They follow the Lamb. Others
follow Jesus as a great philosopher. Others follow Him as an example. Others follow Him as a moral
reformer. Others follow Him as a religious
teacher. Others follow Him, as I read
not too long ago in a magazine, as a rebel against organized
government. But we follow Him as the Lamb. The Lamb as the suffering, bleeding,
dying, justifying, saving Lamb. We follow Him. We follow Him. And these are redeemed. The last
statement toward the end of verse number four. These were redeemed
from among men. It's the second time in two verses
redemption is mentioned. We've been bought with a price,
the blood of Christ Jesus. He says, then, being the firstfruits
unto God. In the Old Testament, the firstfruits
always belonged to the Lord. The firstfruits were separated
from the rest of the harvest. We've been separated by God for
Himself, for His glory. He made that separation in old
eternity, in the covenant of grace, where His property bought
and paid for. And then it says this. He's describing
these people who follow the Lamb. He says in verse 5, And in their
mouth was found no guile. They're not deceivers. They're
not hypocrites. They speak the truth. We speak
the truth and we love the truth. Because we love Him who is the
truth. And here's the last thing. Boy, this is a blessing to my
poor soul. For they are without fault before
the throne of God. What a glorious description of
the followers of the Lamb. No fault. No fault. The all-seeing eyes of God, which
pierce through all hypocrisy, The Scripture says in Hebrews
chapter 4, all things are naked and open before the eyes of Him
with whom we have to do. And God looks us over. Over in
Psalm 14, God came down and looked upon all of humanity and said,
none good, no not one. They've all gone astray. They're
all stinking. That's what God said. They're
all stinking. None good, no not one. But in Christ Jesus, as God looks
at us, He says, no fault. No fault. Do you mean I don't
have any faults? Oh, in yourself you do. But somebody
took care of all of them. Somebody paid your debt. Let
me give you one last reference. Jude. A little book of Jude, just got
one chapter. Last two verses, Jude 24 and
25. Now unto him that is able to keep you from
falling, and he will keep us from falling. Because if any
of the Lord's sheep could have fallen away, we'd all be gone,
wouldn't we? We'd all be gone. But He keeps
us from falling. He's got a vested interest in
us. He bought us. We're His property. He's not
gonna, of all that thou hast given me, He said, I'll lose
nothing. I raised it up the last day,
He said. Now unto you is able to keep you from falling and
to present you faultless. Where? Before the presence of His glory. How's He gonna do it? With exceeding
joy. He's gonna be joyful and we will
be too. To the only wise God, our Savior,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Amen. Flawless. Can it be? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. It's true. It's true. Delight yourself in the Lord.
Bask in the warmth of His grace and of His love.