Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 314. 314. ? I am thine, O Lord ? I have heard
thy voice ? And it told thy love to me ? But I long to rise in
the arms of faith ? And be closer drawn to thee To be nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. To be nearer, nearer, nearer, I will be nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed
Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Thou be nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to Thy precious beating ? The pure delight of a single
hour ? ? That before thy throne I stand ? ? Did I kneel in prayer
and with thee my God ? ? I commune as friend to thee ? ? Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord ? ? To the cross where Thou hast died ? ? Draw
me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord ? ? To Thy precious place
? There are gifts of love that
I cannot know till I cross a narrow sea. There are heights of joy
that I may not reach till I reach nearer nearer Be seated. We'll sing chorus
26, page 26 in our course books. Come ye sinners poor and needy,
weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you,
full of pity, love, and power. Verse 2. Come ye thirsty, come
and welcome, God's free bounty glorify. True belief and True repentance,
every grace that brings you nigh. Verse three. Let not conscience
make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness He requireth
is to fill your need of Him. Come ye weary, heavy laden, Lost
and ruined by the fall, If you tarry till you're better, you
will never come at all. I will arise and go to Jesus. He will embrace me in his arms. ? In the arms of my dear Savior
? ? Oh, there are 10,000 charms ? Can we turn to Psalm 86? Psalm 86. Bow down thine ear,
O Lord, hear me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my soul,
for I am holy, O thou my God. Thou save thy servant that trusteth
in thee. Be merciful unto me, O Lord,
for I cry unto thee daily. Rejoice the soul of thy servant,
for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For thou, Lord, art
good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all of
them that call upon thee. Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer
and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of
my trouble, I will call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me.
Among the gods, there is none like unto thee, O Lord. Neither
are there any works like unto thy works. All nations whom thou
hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall
glorify thy name. For thou art great and dost wondrous
things. Thou art God alone. Teach me
thy way, O Lord. I will walk in thy truth. Unite
my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord, my
God, with all my heart and will glorify thy name forevermore.
For great is thy mercy toward me, and thou hast delivered my
soul from the lowest hell. O God, the proud are risen against
me. and the assemblies of violent
men have sought after my soul and have not set thee before
them. But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious,
long-suffering and plenteous in mercy and truth. O turn unto
me and have mercy upon me. Give thy strength unto thy servant
and save the son of thy handmaid. Show me a token for good that
they which hate me may see it and be ashamed. because thou,
Lord, has opened me and comforted me. Almighty God, our King and our
Savior, we come to you and we thank you, Lord, for this day.
We thank you for that message this morning, Lord. We ask that
you'd be pitiful to the congregation, those that are sick. Lord, we
ask that you'd be pitiful to our families that don't know
you, Lord, that don't need you. Lord, please give them a need
for you. Lord, we thank you for your mercy every day. Thank you
for your grace. Lord, we ask all these things
in Christ's name. Amen. Hymn number 355. 355. From every stormy wind that blows,
from every swelling tide of woes, there is a calm It is found beneath the mercy
seat. There is a place where Jesus
sits. ? The oil of gladness on my face
? ? I place it all beside your sweet name ? ? It is the blood-bought
mercy ? There is a scene where spirits
flit with friends. Hope's fellowship with friends. Oh, sundered far by faith they
meet, around uncommon mercy. Ah, whither could we flee for
aid, when, tempted by air, so led this man? Or how the hosts of El defeat
As suffering saints go? ? Sing, sing ? ? Of their unequal wings ? ? Three
soar and sin at sin's ? ? Lowest lowborn ? And then comes down
our souls to grieve While glory crowns the mercy Colossians chapter 3, Colossians
chapter 3. I preached from here last Sunday
evening, Christ Our Life. Tonight I want to talk about
a hidden life, a hidden life. Read these first four verses.
If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection
on things above, not on things on the earth, for you are dead,
and here's the subject, and your life is hid with Christ in God. A life hidden. Safest place to
hide from God is in God. You know, if you're hidden with
Christ and Christ is in God, that's a pretty safe hiding place,
ain't it? And then look what it goes on
to say, When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall
you also appear with Him in glory. You know, beloved, the essence,
the very essence of Christianity is not a creed. I've got the
London Confession of Faith, 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith,
I've got the Philadelphia Confession of Faith in there, and they're
all very good, very, very good, but the essence of Christianity
is not a creed, not a system of doctrine. People are quick
to tell you what they believe, But they don't know whom they
believe. And we believe in a person. And
it's not a particular mode of worship either. Not a particular
mode of worship. But Christianity is a life. And
it's the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's real life. I mean real life. Life that You know, we, when I talk about
life of Christ, you're talking about life, real life, genuine
life, good life, blessed life, glorious life. Oh, everything
about it's right and good. But oh, let me give you, you
know, when our Lord Jesus Christ stood before Lazarus' grave,
And when he was coming to get there, Martha met him and said,
Lord, if you would have been here, my brother hadn't died.
And our Lord says, Martha, your brother shall rise again. She
said, I know he will, Lord, I know he will. He'll rise again in
the resurrection at the last day. You know what our Lord told
her? He said, I'm the resurrection.
You're waiting for a day. I'm the resurrection. You're
waiting for a time. I'm the resurrection. And he
that were dead, believeth in me, shall live. And he raised
Lazarus from the dead, just to show you, I'm the resurrection
and I'm the life. If you know Christ, you resurrected.
If you know Christ, you got life. And let me give you a few things
here about life hidden life in Christ. First of all, there in
verse 3, it says, It is a life from the dead, you are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ. You know, the Scriptures tell
us we were DEAD in trespasses and sins, and here are the things
we were dead to. We were dead to God, dead to
Christ, dead to spiritual things, and you know, if you I don't
care how much you love somebody, if they're dead, you can lay
all kinds of burdens on them, you can hit them, you can lay
blocks on them, you can do all kinds of things to them and they
can't feel it. But we got life from the dead, we're dead to
God, dead to Christ, dead to spiritual things. We had no faith,
we had no hope, we had no life, we had no response to God's love,
No felt need of mercy. Had none of those things. None
of those things. But oh, look what it said. And
you know, that's what I, the next life is, is that, listen
dear, up here in verse, next point about this hidden life
is up here in verse one. It says, it's a resurrect, if
you then be risen with Christ. So it was a dead life, and now
if you then be RISEN with Christ, Christ is RISEN, and you're RISEN
with Him, and when you're RISEN with Christ, it's a new life. You know, John says this, We
know we pass from death unto life. Everybody knows what it
is to die, but Christ takes dead people and gives them life, and
here we are, He said, We have a resurrected life, and we're
RISEN with Christ. It's a new life. It's a life
that never existed in us before until Christ gave us that life.
We were dead to God. We were dead to spiritual things.
Now we're alive. Now we're alive to God. Now we're
alive to God through Christ. And this resurrected life, when
we talk about the life of Christ, Christ in you is the hope of
glory. This LIFE of being RISEN with
Christ, it tells us TOGETHER, and Ephesians 2, TOGETHER we
are RISEN with Him, TOGETHER we are BURIED with Him, TOGETHER
we are RAISED with Him, TOGETHER we sit at the right hand of God. So this LIFE, this resurrected
life, it s a new life. Oh, what a new life it is! I
want to show you something over here. You keep Colossians and
look in Romans chapter 6 with me. Romans chapter 6. Oh, listen, I... When you're talking about, you
know, we're going to have a resurrected life, but we've already been
raised from the dead. We've already been resurrected
once. And that's why He said, Blessed
and holy is he who hath a part in the first resurrection. You
know what the first resurrection is? Resurrection with Christ.
The body's what's going to be resurrected. But if you're not
risen with Christ here, and quickened together with Christ here, and
have life from Christ here, you won't have no life there either.
I mean, this body's what's gonna be resurrected. This heart has
to be resurrected. The mind, the will, everything
about us has to be made new. And I've said this so many times
over the years, that when God saves a man, He brings into existence
a man that never was there before. You know, He brings into existence
a man that never existed before. You remember what it was not
to have a spiritual mind? You know what it was to be a
legalist? You know what it was to be religious? You know what
it was to be a fundamentalist? You know what it was to believe
a Bible? But did you know what it was to become something you
never was? To become a new creature and
have a new heart. You know, the scriptures tells
that God takes out the stony heart and puts in a heart of
stone. God said, we walk in newness of life. And that's what he said. Look here in Romans 6, 2 with
me. Or verse 1, to get this set up. that what shall we say then,
shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? That's what
Paul was saying. Well, if grace reigns through
righteousness, well, listen, if we're saved by grace and grace
reigns through, well, we're gonna just keep on sinning that grace
may abound, just abound in us because of it. Paul said, God
forbid, God forbid. Whoa, what a statement. How shall
we that are dead to sin, dead to it, live any longer therein. Where did we die? In Christ. How did we die? In Christ when
He died to sin. And that's what He goes on to
say. And how are you going to live any longer there in sin? You know, Shirley and I was talking
about this, I guess it was yesterday afternoon. I was telling her,
I said, People say you've got to quit living in sin. Preachers
tell you you've got to quit living in sin. Well, how do you do that? How do you do that? You know
when you go quit living in sin? When you get away from you. Now
I'm telling you, we're not living in open rebellion. But when that's
what we are, but that's why I said we're dead to sin. And that's
what Christ says about we're dead to it. How did we die to
it? When Christ died to it. When Christ died for it. Then
now listen to what he goes on to say. So many of us as were
baptized into Jesus Christ, how was we baptized into Jesus Christ? Not by water, this is not talking
about water here. This is talking about the Spirit
immersing us, putting us into the body of Christ. And look
what he goes on to say. We were baptized into Jesus Christ
and were baptized into his death. So with everything that he'd
done, we was immersed in it, we was put in it, we was regarded
as being in him. So we re dead to sin, we re dead
to the law, and we re dead to the world. Look what He said
down here, and I think it s in verse 8. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe we shall also live with Him. That s just risen with
Christ. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, He ain't
gonna die anymore. Death hath no more dominion over
Him. For in that He died, He died
unto sin one time. But in that He lives, He lives
unto God. Likewise, likewise, as this happened
to Christ, and this is the way Christ was, reckon yourselves
to be dead unto sin, but alive unto Christ. Alive unto Christ. Oh, my, and let me tell you something,
we didn t raise ourselves from the dead, that s for sure. We
didn t raise ourselves from the dead, there s no way. I was watching,
we was watching this documentary the other day about Mormons,
about Mormons, and the prophet, the main prophet, the guy that
s supposed to be the main piston rod in, it s like the Pope, They
had been taught all their lives, all these people from the time
they were little kids until they get grown, that when this prophet
dies, he's going to come back NEW! He's going to come back
just like he was when he was young! Well, imagine the SHOCK
when he died and he didn't come back! When He died, He was dead. And those folks were so confused,
they were so upset, they just, well listen, one thing about
our Savior, He ain't gonna die. He's already died, died to sin. And because He rose from the
dead, we're risen with Him. Oh, we didn't raise ourselves.
You know that old hymn we sang, you know, it took a miracle. to put the stars in place. It took a miracle to hang the
world in space. But when He saved my soul, cleansed
and made me whole, it took a miracle of love and grace. And that's
why it took a miracle. And that's what happened for
us. You know, and what it is, this resurrected life with Christ,
it's the life of Christ Himself. It's the life of Christ himself.
And when I talk about eternal life, I'm talking about the quality
of it. The quality of it. The moment
we become believers, we have eternal life. The moment, the
moment, just like that, we got it. Now, I lived before. I lived for years before. But when God and His sovereign
mercy saved me and gave me eternal life, my life improved a million
times over. I mean, I got some quality of
life, some enjoyable life, some blessed life. And when you got
Christ, it gives a quality of life that you never had before.
Ain't that right? I mean, we really start living
when we know the quality of our life. You know, you think about the
quality of life you have because of Christ. And I tell you, it's a new life.
It's even life from the dead. I tell you what, we're not gonna
enter into life when we die. No, no, no, no, when this body
goes to rest in the dirt, goes back to the dust and goes back
to the grave, listen, I'm not gonna have any more life than
I've got in Christ right now than when I put you, when I put
in the grave because eternal life's in Christ and I'll be
with you eternity with Him, because it's the quality of it. That's
what makes heaven so glorious because of the quality of it. And that's why hell's so bad,
because there's no quality of life in hell. There's no goodness
in life in hell. There's no enjoyment in life
in hell. But you look at your own life,
look at the quality of life you have. The things you enjoy, the
things you delight in, the things you love, the people you love,
and the places you go. Oh, bless his holy name. And
I tell you what, let me tell you another thing about this
hidden life in Christ. It's a life lived on heavenly
things. That's what makes it so good.
Look here in verse one again. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above. Why you wanna seek things above?
Because that's where Christ is. Everything we get, it comes from
above. It has to come down. It has to
come to where we are. We can't go where it's at. It's
gotta come to us. Ain't that right? If you, you
know, seek those things which are above. Set your affection
on things which are above. Oh my. Our life comes from above. When our Lord Jesus Christ told
Nicodemus, you must be born again, you must be born from above. From above. And oh my. And I tell you what, since our
life is from above, the only way it can be sustained is from
above. Nourished by things from above.
Where's faith come from? Comes from above. Where's grace come from? Comes
from above. Where's the righteousness of
Christ come from? Comes from above. Where's Christ at? He sits above, sits on his throne. Where's peace come from? We sung
that song, peace, peace, wonderful peace. Sweep over my soul, oh,
wonderful, wonderful peace. And I tell you, peace comes from
above. Life comes from above, and everything
we got comes from above, and the only thing that'll sustain
our life is what we get from there. Huh? That's the only way we're gonna
have it. You know, some people can't live
without certain medications. Some people can't live, you know,
somebody has a transplant. They have to take anti-rejection
drugs for the rest of their life, have their blood tested so often.
And then there's people that, a diabetic, he can't live without
insulin. And there's people that can't,
you know, got heart trouble, they gotta have heart medicine.
People with high blood pressure, they have to have medicine to
live. And they have to have certain treatments without life support. Well, let me tell you something.
We live on life support. We live on life support. Don't
we? Whose life is it? Oh, listen,
say, boy. He read tonight, I'm poor and
needy, oh Lord. Oh my, Lord, I can't live without
you. You got to support my life. And
I'll tell you, not only my spiritual life, but he has to support my
natural life. If I get anything in this natural
life, he's got to be the one to give it to. I can honestly
tell you, I can honestly tell you that everything I've got
in this world, God gave it to me. Everything I've got. He gave me a wife, a beautiful
wife, a loving wife, a kind wife, a generous wife, and gave me
a beautiful home, put some money in my pocket that I can pay my
bills. I mean, and I got to, listen,
I crawled in a bed, and I almost had to climb in it, that thing's
so big and soft. Oh, you just sink in it about
like that. I'm telling you, your life is good, but I wouldn't
enjoy it nothing without God, without Christ. It'd just be
things. But oh my, when God gives it
to you, and God gives it to you, and you understand where it all
comes from, then that gives some preciousness to it, some glory
to it, and some love in it. Don't it? Oh, we live on life
support. We can't live on our own. They
say, that fella can't live on his own. Well, we can't. We live
on life support. Oh, we live on Christ, our life
from above. And oh, we need many, many, many
things to live. And everything we get comes from
above where our Lord is. And the scriptures tells us he
gives us all things freely. And then look what else it says
there. Not only if you seek those things which are above. In verse
two, set your affection on things above. Set your affections. And you know, when you talk about
affections, or affection, he's talking about the mind. You know,
your heart and your mind is interchangeable in the scriptures. But he's talking
about set your affections, set your mind, set everything about
you on high. You know what, our Lord, if you
want to know what spiritual arithmetic is, you know what number one
is in spiritual arithmetic? Of course, it's Christ. He is
our life. But God, you know what our Lord said? Seek ye first. What? Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness. That's the first thing he said
to do. How you gonna do that? Set your affection up there.
Set your affection up there. You know, and David said it like
this, or Solomon said it like this, keep your heart with all
diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. And look
in Romans 8, 5 with me. I want you to see this. You know, this affection thing is, It has to do more with our mind
and our understanding. And oh my, look what he said
here in verse five. Set your affection, seek those
things that are above, and then you know your affection on things
above. on things above. And look what He says here now
in verse 5, For they that are after the flesh, those who live
by the flesh, live by their old fallen nature, do mind the things,
mind, have affection for the things of the flesh. Boy, but
listen to this, but they that are after the Spirit, and that
s capitalized, that the Spirit s given life to, they re after
the things of the Spirit. We want the things of the Spirit
of God. We want God to teach us. We don't want the things
of this old flesh. We don't, we really don't. And
let me give you another one here right quick. Not only a life lived on heavenly
things, oh my, things above, things above. But also, back
over here in Colossians, it's a substitutionary life. Christ our life. Christ our life. And that's a
substitutionary life. What does that mean? Our Lord
Jesus Christ, how did he become our life? Well, he had to live
first. He had to live himself first.
And there's two things to our Lord's suffering. There's the active suffering
of our Lord Jesus Christ and the passive suffering of our
Lord Jesus Christ. The ACTIVE suffering of our Lord
Jesus Christ is when he ACTUALLY, ACTUALLY obeyed God in our room
instead, obeyed God's holy law, and then he Passively, actively He lived
for us, ACTIVELY He died for our sins, but PASSIVELY He submitted
Himself to God, PASSIVELY He submitted Himself to sin. So
our Lord Jesus Christ, He died for us to put our sin away, and
I NEVER, EVER get tired of saying that, NEVER get tired of saying
that, that He died to put our sin away. He died to satisfy
God's holy justice, and He now lives for us, lives for us to
give us His life and everything that flows from it. Now how much,
what flows from Christ's life? What flows from Christ's life?
Everything that you possibly could need in this life, everything,
everything. You know, I wanna show you something
in 1 John 5, 20. First John 520. I want you to
see this over here at First John. Right before, you know, just
a little couple of books right before Revelation. Look in First
John 520 with me. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ
was judged for us on the cross. A fellow, a dear friend of mine, God's teaching him a gospel.
He's been preaching the gospel. teaching my gospel, he called
me the other day and asked me what I thought of what the meaning
of II Corinthians 5.10 was, and II Corinthians 5.10 says this,
that we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to
give an account of the things done in this body. He says, Now
what does that mean? I said, Well, I said, We're all
going to appear there, but we've already been judged, so we ain't
going to appear there for judgment. And not only that, we're going
to appear before Christ, who was our judge. He's already given
account for the things done in this body, because He's already
suffered for our sins in His body on the tree. Do you understand
that? So when we get there, you know
who's going to be our judge? The one who died for us. Who's
going to be the one we give an account to? The one that died
for us. Who's going to be on the throne
making the judgments? The one that died for us. And
I'll tell you, I'm going to go a step further and I'll say,
the scripture says that we're going to judge the world. I believe
that when we get there at the judgment seat of Christ and everybody's
there and they're going to give an account of the things done
in this body. Well, I just got through telling
you that Christ is our life. and we're dead to sin and dead
to the world, so here we are. THAT IF CHRIST WAS JUDGED FOR
OUR SINS, HOW IN THE WORLD CAN WE BE JUDGED AGAIN? IF CHRIST
BORE OUR SINS IN HIS OWN BODY, AND WE'RE DEAD TO SIN, AND WE'RE
NO LONGER IN THE FLESH BUT IN THE SPIRIT, HOW IN THE WORLD
ARE WE GOING TO BE JUDGED? I GET OFF ON THINGS SOMETIMES,
BUT LISTEN, HERE'S THE THING ABOUT IT, WHEN WE STAND THERE
AT THE JUDGEMENT SEAT, THE ONLY THING THAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN
AT THE JUDGEMENT SEAT, CHRIST IS GOING TO SAY, EVERY ONE OF
THESE PEOPLE, BELIEVE ME, These folks right here trusted Me. They believed Me. There's My sheep. They trusted
Me. Their life come from Me. Everything they got, I gave it
to them. And every one of us is going
to sit there and say, Yes, Amen. And the rest of the world is
going to have to stand there and watch us. That's how we judge
the world. Christ is going to say, These
folks believed Me. You didn't. These folks trusted
me, you didn't. I died for these and they believed
it, you didn't. They trusted me in all their
life, they trusted me when it come to die, they trusted me
for a resurrection. They trusted me, they believed
me. And that's the way I think it's
gonna happen. How is he gonna judge us? And
old Billy R. said, boy, I know it couldn't
be that. I know it couldn't be we all
have to be there and give an account. He said, I didn't know
exactly what it meant, but I know we didn't have to do that. He
said, that sounds good to me. But oh, he was just, we're over
in 1 John. Didn't I have this in 1 John
5.20? I let it go. I was going to read that. I'm running rabbits, Joe! 1 John 5, 20, talking about Christ. And we know, we know that the
Son of God has come and has given us an understanding. He's come,
and listen to this, given to us an understanding. Why did
He give us an understanding? Well, we know He's come, give
us an understanding that we may know Him. That's the first thing,
Him. And who is Him? That is true.
And we are in Him. That is true. Even in His Son,
Jesus Christ, then talking about Christ, this is the true God
and eternal life. Huh? He was judged on the cross for
us, now we're justified by His life. Oh my, He's the vine, we're
the branches. He's the head, and oh my, we're
the fullness of His body, filled with His fullness. I tell you,
you know, you take Christ away from any doctrine, You take Christ
away from any doctrine, it's like taking a beautiful flower
and cutting the top off of it, and it's gonna die. You separate
election, take the election, separate it from Christ, being
chosen in Christ. Just take election as a bare
doctrine, and take Christ out of it. And just an old dead flower.
But when you got Christ, and Christ gives life to everything
in the scriptures, don't you see? All right, and then let
me give you this one. Here's my last one. A hidden
life in Christ. It's a secure life. Back over
here in Colossians. It's a secure life. Look what
he says. Your life is hid with Christ
in God. You know our Lord, when He said,
He said, Father, I thank you that you've hid these things
from the wide and prudent. And when something hids from
somebody, that means it's secret. They don't know anything about
it. They can't find it. They don't know where it's at.
And when you're hid somewhere, something's hid, you can't find
it. And that's what Christ is. Our
life is hidden with Christ. Hidden with Him. Where's that
at? In God. Huh? Now we can play hide and
go seek and be found, but if you hide... Saints can't find
us. Law can't find us. Justice can't
find us. Death can't find us. HELL CAN'T
FIND US! SIN CAN'T FIND US! NOTHING CAN
FIND US, BECAUSE OUR LIFE IS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD! HUH? OH MY, IT'S A MYSTERIOUS LIFE!
WHO'S IT MYSTERIOUS TO? TO THE WORLD! THEY DON'T KNOW
NOTHING ABOUT HID WITH CHRIST! THEY KNOW HOW TO LIVE, THEY KNOW
HOW TO DRESS, THEY KNOW HOW TO ATTEND CHURCH, THEY KNOW HOW
TO WEAR ALL KINDS OF Idolatry and things like that, but oh
my the world don't know this is mysterious. This is we're
hid with Christ and all hid with Christ We're hid from all in
this world that could possibly ever harm us I'll tell you something
else. It's here to show its secrecy,
huh? secrecy There's there's people
that this that's a in these organizations, and they got to keep everything
secret, you know. Got secret handshakes, and got
secret meetings, and secret words, and all that. The only thing
secret about us, and the world don't know nothing about it,
is we're hid with God, we're hid with Christ in God, and that's
secret. Nobody but us knows where we're
hid, and God, God and Christ, and we know where we're hid,
God, Christ, and us, we know we're hid. That's a good hiding place, ain't
it? Oh, I could get out behind this
pulpit and you couldn't see me at all. I'd be hid from your
view. Well, our life here with God
in Christ. God sees us and Christ sees us.
And he said, I want you to hide. I want to hide you here. Oh,
rock of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Oh my. And it's here to show
us the security of it. Who can get in Christ and who
can get in God and get us out of that hiding place. Huh? Who can do that? Who can do that?
Just like Noah was shut up in the ark, we're shut up in Christ, and
as long as Christ is on His throne, as long as God's ruling this
world, we're as safe and secure as we could ever possibly be.
There's nothing, nowhere in the world could be any more sure
or any safer than that place right there. Huh? Oh, my. We're as safe and secure as Christ
in God and God in Christ. Oh, I got another one. I just
turned my thing over and found another one. I thought that was
my last one. Let me show you this. This is
wonderful. I just turned over and seen it. Look in verse 4, we have a life
yet to be manifested. When Christ our life shall appear. And oh my, He shall appear. He
shall appear. One of these days, bless His
name, He's gonna appear. And then look what's gonna happen.
You're gonna also appear with Him. There comes the Lord, I'm coming
with Him. He just appeared, I'm appearing with Him. Then shall ye also appear with
him. In what? In glory. In glory. The scriptures tells us, I've
taken too long, the scriptures tells us, you know that when
Christ shall descend with a shout, the trump of God shall sound
and Christ shall descend with a shout, with the voice of an
archangel, the dead in Christ shall arise. and then which which
are alive and remain shall be caught up with them TOGETHER
FOREVER to meet the LORD in the air." When Christ appears, I
don't know how you're going to do it, but every one of them
is going to appear with Him. And you know, you think about
that, a multitude that no man can name, a multitude that nobody
can, and not all the peoples ever lived on the earth, God
said there's a multitude that no man, 10,000 times, 10,000
thousands. And every one of them for whom
Christ died is gonna appear with him at the same time. That's
how big he is. That's how glorious he is. That's
how mighty he is. That he can appear and every
one of us appear with him at the same time. If one or two
of us appeared with him, that'd be something. But for everybody
that ever lived to appear with him, when he appears, You imagine the glory of Christ,
that he could do that. I pull a little brain, can't
get that candy, but it's sure enjoyable to talk about, ain't
it? It's enjoyable to mention. It's
a blessed thing to mention. Well, that's a hidden life. Our Father, oh Lord Jesus, our
Master. You said you call me Master and
Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. And Lord, you're our
Master, you're our Lord. We acknowledge that. We're like
Thomas, my Lord and my God. Oh, blessed be your name. Your gospel's
so encouraging, so comforting. And Lord, this blessed life you
give us in Christ, glorious life, this abundant life, life lived in
Christ, by Christ, through Christ our Lord. Thank you for hiding
us, hiding us from sin, hiding us from judgment, hiding us from
the wrath of God, hiding us from the justice of God, hiding us
from all things that could possibly harm us. Thank you for hiding
us, Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, Lord, thank you for hiding
us in your Father, hiding us in God. And oh, Lord, thank you
for this blessed hiding place. We thank you in Christ our Lord.
Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will
grow strangely dim. in the light of His glory and
grace. And it really does. See you Wednesday,
God willing.