We'll open your Bibles with me
this morning to John chapter 20. John chapter 20. John chapter
20. Read these first 18 verses. The first day of the week, and
the first day of the week for the Jews was Sunday, what we
call our Sunday. Their Sabbath was Saturday. Saturday. So the first day of
the week First day of the week for us is Monday. First day of
the week for them was Sunday. The first day of the week cometh
Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark under the sepulcher,
and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher. Then she
runneth and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciples whom
Jesus loved, and saith unto them, they have taken away the Lord
out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid
him. Peter therefore went forth and that other disciple and came
to the sepulcher. So they ran both together and
the other disciple did outrun Peter and came first to the sepulcher. And he stooping down and looking
in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. Then come a Simon Peter following
him and went into the sepulcher and seeth the linen clothes lie.
and the napkin that was about his head, not lined with the
linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went
in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulcher,
and he saw and believed. For as yet they knew not the
scriptures that he must rise again from the dead. Then the
disciples went away again unto their own home, but Mary stood
without at the sepulcher weeping. And as she wept, she stooped
down and looked into the sepulcher, and seeth two angels in white
sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where
the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman,
why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because
they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have
laid him. And when she had thus said, She
turned herself back and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it
was Jesus. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing
him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne
him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take
him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary, She
turned herself and saith unto him, Rabboni, which is to say,
master. Jesus saith unto her, touch me
not, for I'm not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren
and say unto them, I ascend unto my father and your father and
to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told
the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken
these things unto her. With me in John chapter 20, if
you will. I want you to look there in verse
17 with me. I want to talk about the ascension
of Christ. John 20 and verse 17, the ascension
of Christ. Jesus saith unto her, talking
to Mary, touch me not, for I'm not yet ascended to my father,
but go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my father
and your father and to my God and your God. You know, we all
have buried people And whether it's right or wrong, I don't
know. But we go and we take care of the graves and keep them,
flowers on them and plant flowers on them and visit them. And all
of us does it. We have people that we love and
we respect them and we love what's happened, you know, and we miss
them, but we also have a good hope for them. We also have a
good hope for them. And we do that. And it's hard
to ignore the places where people we love is. Well, that's what
happens here. Mary and the disciples loved
the Lord Jesus Christ. And they went to where he was
buried. They went to where he was buried. They went to, you
know, their hearts were breaking. Their souls were hurting. They
were afraid. They was weeping. They had a
terrible time. And that's what they were doing.
They was going in the same manner you and I would go. to the tomb
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ had died. They took up
the body, took his body. And it says down there in verse
40 of chapter 19, then took they the body of Jesus, rounded in
linen clothes with spices as the manner of the Jews to bury,
to bury. And all stood about when that
happened, and they done like we do. They stood and wept. They
was sorry, they was hurting, their hearts were broken. And
they stood about and they wept. But early, early Saturday morning,
before daylight, Mary, she went to the tomb. She no doubt was
bringing flowers, bringing spices. She wanted to go in and see the
body of the Lord Jesus Christ. She wanted to go. And she got
there, and you know, they'd put a stone on it so that they wouldn't,
they'd say, well, in case they come, steal his body away. She
saw the stone rolled away, and she ran back real quick, and
she told Peter, and she told John, she says that the Lord
Jesus, the stone's rolled away, and he's not in there. And so
here they come, they come running to the tomb, and they got there,
and they started looking around. They started looking around.
Simon Peter got down and he looked in there, and looked in there,
and looked in there, and looked in there, and there wasn't nobody
in there. He came out and then John done it. That disciple,
it says that they saw that that other disciple got down on his
hands and he went in there. And they saw the clothes that
they had wrapped the body of our Lord Jesus Christ in. They
saw the napkin that they had laid over his face. And they
looked there and they looked around and looked around and
then it says in verse 10, then went the disciples away home
again. They said, he's not here. So
they just went back to the house. They went home. They went home.
And Mary, she looked down in again. Verse 11, Mary stood without
at the sepulcher. They all went home. Peter and
John went back to their house. But Mary stood without at the
sepulcher weeping. I mean, she was crying. She was
crying. This is the same Mary. that sat
at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ weeping, and washed his
feet with her tears, and dried them with the hairs of her head.
Just say Mary. And she stooped down, and as
she wept, she's still weeping, she stooped down and looked again
into that grave, and this time, she sees something, something
she never saw before. She knew Christ wasn't there,
but she saw two angels in white sitting, one where the head of
our Lord Jesus laid, and the other at the feet of where our
Lord Jesus laid. And they say unto her, woman,
why in the world are you crying? Why in the world are you crying?
And she is sitting where our Lord was. And oh my, she said
this, she said, woman, they ask her in verse 13, why weepest
thou? She said, because I'm crying, I'm weeping, because they have
taken away, now listen to what she says, my Lord, even in death
at the tomb, she says, my Lord, my Lord. They have taken away
the body of my Lord, and I don't know where they took him. I don't
know where they took him. And oh my. This does something
for you every time I say it. And when she just said this,
she turned and saw Jesus standing, and she didn't know it was the
Lord. She didn't know. She is so heartbroken, weeping
so hard, and her eyes were filled with so many tears, she didn't
recognize the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh my. And then the Lord
Jesus asked her, woman, why are you crying so? Why are you weeping
so? Who are you looking for? Who
are you looking for? And she thought, well, he's the
gardener, takes care of here, the garden here in Gethsemane
and where these tombs are, takes care of these things. And she
says, sir, if you have carried his body from here and put it
someplace else, tell me where you laid him. And listen to what
she says, I'll take him away. Oh my, the Lord Jesus Christ
spoke to her. And you know what he said? He
said, my sheep, I know them, I know them. I call him by name,
I call him by name. And he said, Mary. She knew immediately
the voice of her Lord Jesus. She knew immediately. And she
reached out to embrace him. She reached out to embrace him.
And she was gonna embrace him and do like she did when she
was in Simon the leper's house. And oh my, but our Lord said
unto her, She said, Jesus saith unto her, don't touch me, touch
me not, touch me not. For I'm not yet ascended to my
father, but go to my brethren. Now listen, oh listen, just go
to my brethren. Don't go to anybody else, go
to my brethren. Not ashamed to call us brothers.
And go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my father
and your father, my God and your God. And oh my. And I tell you, let me tell you
just, let me say just a few things about this. And the first thing
we have to deal with is the importance, the blessedness of the resurrection
and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a blessing it
is. Now you keep John 20 and look with me over in 1 Corinthians
15. You know the importance of the resurrection and ascension
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's look at, this is a foundation
truth, the resurrection of Christ. Now next week, you know, this
is what they call Palm Sunday. This is supposed to have been
the Sunday that Christ rode into Jerusalem, you know, and rode
in there and they put the palms in front of Him. And then He's
crucified, rose up the next Sunday morning. So next Sunday, everybody's,
you know, it's Easter Sunday and everybody'll, talk about
the resurrection of Christ, or they're talking about something
about him, but anyway, this is a foundation truth. This is a
foundation truth. You know, the resurrection of
Christ. If Christ be not risen, we're without hope. Ain't that
what he says in verse 13? Look with me now. But if there
be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? If people don't rise again from
the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ is not risen,
then our preaching is vain, because we preach that he rose again
from the dead. And not only that, but you believe
that he rose again from the dead, and then your faith is vain. It don't mean anything. And not
only that, but if we preach that Jesus Christ rose again from
the dead, we're found to be lying on God, false witnesses, because
we've testified of God. We said God done this, that he
raised up Christ. And then if we say God raised
him up, then he's not raised up, then we're just lying on
God. And then he goes on to say in verse 16, if the dead rise
not, then Christ is not raised. then they which also are fallen
asleep, went to rest in Christ, are perished. And this is the
condition we're in. If in this life only, only for
this life, not for the afterlife, not for eternity, not to go with
good hope in Christ, to go spend eternity with him and the resurrection
from the dead. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, then we're of all men most miserably deceived. That's what he's saying, miserably
deceived. And that's why he says, you know,
he says, by the Spirit of holiness, he is declared to be the Son
of God by the resurrection from the dead. Now he said, and our
Lord says, touch me not, because I sinned to my father and your
father, to my God and your God. Let me say a few things about
this. If Christ had not ascended to the Father, Christ is raised
from the dead and Christ had not offended to the Father. You
know what we would not have? We would not have an advocate
with the Father. We wouldn't have an advocate.
John said it like this, if any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father. You know what an advocate is?
An advocate's a lawyer. An advocate is somebody that
takes another man's case. And we haven't not, if Christ
not offended, we don't have an advocate with the Father. But
we have an advocate with the Father. Who is He? Jesus Christ
the righteous. And beloved, I'm telling you,
we need an advocate. We need somebody to stand in
God's presence for us every single moment of every day. And I tell
you, here's the thing about it, the only cases he takes, you
know, lots and lots of criminals has got off because they've got
good lawyers, good lawyers. My dad was put in prison one
time because he run out of money. And the lawyer said, you ain't
got no money, I can't do nothing for you. He run out of money,
so he had to go to jail. And if you got the money, you
can stay out of jail. But I'll tell you what, here's
the thing about it. The Lord Jesus Christ will not,
as an advocate, take nobody but the worst cases and cases that,
first of all, you got to go before the judge and say, I'm guilty.
That's the first thing you got to do. And when you say I'm guilty,
you know what he'll do? He'll go in front of the Father
and he'll present the evidence that your guilt is gone. What's
the evidence? Here's my body. See the nail
prints in it? See the rib inside? See the blood
that was shed? So you see, he don't say nothing
about us. He says everything about himself.
And if he be not ascended, we don't have an advocate with the
Father. And if he be not ascended, if our Lord Jesus Christ be not
ascended, we have no high priest. We have no high priest. But now,
Jesus is not entered into that holy places made with hands,
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God
our Savior. And you know, if we didn't have
a high priest, we wouldn't have an atonement. We wouldn't have
one there that took his own blood into that holy place. And oh,
our high priest is touched with the feelings of our infirmity.
And here's another thing, if Christ had not ascended to the
Father, the Holy Spirit wouldn't have come. The Holy Spirit would
not have come. Our Lord Jesus said, I go away,
but I'm not gonna leave you comfortless. I'll send another comforter.
The Holy Spirit said, he, he will take the things of mine
and show them unto you. And I tell you what, beloved,
the Holy Spirit, He takes the place of Christ on this earth.
He's the one who speaks of Christ. He's the one that teaches of
Christ. He's the one that reveals Christ. He's the one who comforts
us. He's the one who inspires us
to pray. He's the one who enables us to
believe. And that if He be not ascended,
you know what else? There'd be no place prepared
for us. There'd be no place prepared for us. Our Lord Jesus Christ
said, I go to prepare a place for you. Where did he go to prepare
a place for us? At the cross. And then as our
forerunner, he entered into heaven itself to appear in the presence
of God for us. And if he be not ascended, if
he has not ascended, touch me not, I ascend to my father and
your father. If he had not ascended, he's
not the prophet. Christ is not the one the prophet
spoke of. And he himself says, you know,
He told his disciples when he opened their understanding, all
things that the prophets, the Psalms had spoken concerning
Moses and the prophets and the Psalms spoke concerning himself. But here's our problem. We have
a problem. All of us do. We're like Mary.
We're like Mary. She saw Christ and immediately
she wanted to reach back. Immediately she wanted to touch
him. Christ said, touch me not. We are such earth brown creatures.
We hold to the flesh, we're like Mary, we hold to the flesh what
we can touch, what we can see, what we can feel, rather than
what we claim to believe. That's the way we are. And I
tell you, beloved, one thing I know, and I believe you'll
agree with me, turn loose of things on this earth, turn loose
of them, let them go, let them go. I tell you what, hold loosely.
I shouldn't say turn loose, just hold them loosely. Hold them
very, very loosely. If you hold too tight, God's
got ways of opening them hands and taking things right out of
them. He's got ways of doing that. Look with me over in Colossians
3. Look in Colossians 3. You know, that's Mary, that's
why our Lord says, touch me not. You know, I'm a risen Savior. Now everything's by faith, you
know, you get to see me. I don't want you to touch me."
Even when he told Thomas, he says, touch me. See, Thomas never
touched him. He never touched him, he never
reached out his finger. He said, I ain't gonna believe
unless I put my finger in the nail prints. And if I stick my
hand in that side that I saw that was ripping open with that
spear, I'm not gonna believe. And I, Lord Jesus, reached out
his hand and Thomas never touched it. All he did was fall on his
face and cry out, my Lord and my God. But oh my, let's hold
loosely to these things. Let's don't be like Mary. And I'll tell you what, we are
so clean to things of this earth. But he said in verse one, if
you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.
Who's above? Christ is above. God is above. Eternity's above. Our eternal
hope's above. Where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things of this earth. You know, we need the
attitude that Simon had, or Simeon had, when they brought the Lord
Jesus Christ in. Mary, her and Joseph brought
him in to do after the manner of the law. There's a lot of
old people in there, and Simeon, as a just man, he was looking
for the consolation of Israel. Well, he happened to see him
that day, and he was, he seen Mary holding that child, eight
days old, and she went, he went over and took that child out
of her hands and held him and looked into his face, eight days
old, and looked into that infant's face, and he said, Lord! Let
now thy servant depart in peace. I have seen thy salvation. Now, and I've seen enough. That's
what he's saying. I've seen enough. And beloved,
I see, oh my, wouldn't that be wonderful if we could hold loosely
to things like that? And listen personally to what
the Lord Jesus Christ said here. And I hope it'll strengthen our
faith and our blessed expectation. of eternity. He said, I sinned,
back over here in verse 17 of John 20. I sinned unto my father
and to your father, to my God and your God. You know, our Lord
Jesus Christ, let's look at this together over in Ephesians four.
You know, look with me in Ephesians four. This is, you know, I sinned
to my father and your father. This is the thing. We have the
same Father. He's the God and Father of our
Lord. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our Father. The
God of our Lord Jesus Christ is our God, is what he's saying.
And he said in verse nine, the man, now he that ascended, now
he that went up, what is it? But that he also had to descend.
He had to come down before he'd go back up. And where did he
descend to? To the lower parts of the earth.
And he that descended, he that descended, he that came down
to the lowest parts of this earth and dealt with the lowest of
the earth, ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill
all things. The man Jesus of Nazareth, born
of a woman, lived on this earth, lived in a body, lived in a body
that could weep, live in a body that could feel, live in a body
that had to eat, lived in a body that got tired, lived in a body,
tempted as we are, yet he was without sin. This same Jesus
of Nazareth, he died and he arose and after he arose, he went right
back up to where he came from. He came from there and he said
he went back to there. He told his disciples in Luke
24, Luke 24. Let's look at this in Luke 24
in verse 36. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ,
I sinned. I'm so thankful that we have
somebody that went up for us, that went up and did for us and
represents us before God. But he had to arise from the
dead to ascend, to go up. And oh, look what he said here
in verse 36. Oh, they was all scared and Jesus stood in the
midst of them and spake and saith unto them, peace be unto you. But oh my, they were frightened. What were they scared of? And
they supposed that they seen spirit, that Christ was just
a spirit. And he said unto them, why are
you troubled? Then why do thoughts arise in
your heart? And then look what he said. Behold my hands, look at my feet,
that it is I myself. Handle me and see, if you will,
because the spirit don't have flesh and bones as you see me
have. Our Lord Jesus Christ still was
in a body when he rose from the dead. I tell you what, here's
something for us to look forward to. I'm gonna die, you're gonna
die. I'm gonna die, you're gonna die.
We hear people, I list obituaries several times a week, and every
time I see a hearse, I know somebody is hurting, somebody is troubled,
somebody is weeping, and somebody's loved one is on their way to
the graveyard. Every time I see one, I think
of that. And I think of the people that what they're gonna go through
because of that right there. And I'm gonna do that one of
these days. But I'm also gonna sin too. He said, I said, I'm gonna go
where he's at. Oh, he said, and Adam? I die,
we all die, but in Christ, we're all made alive. As I bore the
image of the earthly, we bore the image of Adam, the image
of this old flesh, the image of this fallen nature, and the
image of our father, this old earthly body, I'm gonna also
bear the image of the heavenly one of these blessed days. Oh
my. Our Lord Jesus Christ, over here
in John 19.25, look what it said. Oh my, our Lord Jesus loved his
people. Loved his people, and look what
he says now. John 19.25, and oh, and Adam. Now our Lord Jesus Christ, he
loved his people. And he told them there in John
19.25, now that stood by the cross of Jesus his mother. and his mother's sister, his
aunt, after the flesh, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary
Magdalene, this woman. And when Jesus therefore saw
his mother and the disciples standing by whom he loved, he
saith unto his mother, Woman, behold your son. Oh my, he takes
care of his people. And I'll tell you, boy, he said,
she said, that's what he says, you know, I'm leaving here, but
I'm leaving you with somebody else. Where did our Lord Jesus
Christ ascend from? I'm gonna tell you, look back
over here in Luke 24. Where did our Lord ascend from?
He ascended. I ascend, he said. Where did
he ascend from? Luke 24, 50, look at this with
me. Where did he ascend from? Now
he's, you know, you remember our Lord Jesus Christ went into
the Garden of Gethsemane. It was in the Garden of Gethsemane,
the same garden where Mount Olivet was. He went into that garden
and there where he wrestled and prayed till his whip become his
great drops of blood. Sweat, tears, and tears just
fell into the dust. Prayed for over an hour. He went
off and prayed and he told his disciples, watch with me for
just one hour. And he came back and they were
asleep. And he said, couldn't you just watch one hour? And
he went off and started praying again. So he prayed and he prayed
and he prayed that night, tears falling on the ground, sweat
falling on the ground and all that. And now, now he stands
on that same place where he struggled and said, Father, if it be thy
will, let this cup pass from me. But now he stood on that
same mountain where he fought with and wrestled that night
before they come and took him out of the garden. And he stood
at that same place, and listen to what he said. And he led them
out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed
them. And it came to pass while he blessed them, he was pardoned
from them, and carried up into heaven. Carried up into heaven. Oh my. And there our Lord is in the
garden. Now he's on Mount Olivet, standing. Ah. And he says, from
here, I'm going there. From this body, to the spiritual
man. From this flesh, to a heavenly
man. From this sinful place, to a
sinless place. And that's where we're gonna
go. From this veil of tears, to inside the veil. And we are
such materialists, earthly creatures. You know what? I heard a fellow
say one time, he was talking about how we like to see our
name, see our name here, yonder and everywhere, like to see our
name in places, see them on books, see them on mailboxes, you know,
see them on lots of things. We'd like to see our names here
and there, protect everything we got. But I heard a fellow
say one time, we'd like to put our name on the cesspool wall. And that's what this world is.
We'd like to keep our name on the cesspool wall. But one of
these days, whatever name we had, whatever recognition we
had, whatever attainment we had, we're going to leave it all behind.
Oh, my. You know, I heard a fellow that,
well, Todd Novich, who it was, He's in the hospital. Oh, this
has been way over 20 years ago, 25, and thought he was going
to die. He thought he was going to die.
They finally figured out what he had, and we was in a meeting
over in Cherokee, North Carolina. And Henry came in, and Henry
was so down, so down. He said, I'll probably never
see Todd alive again. He was hurt. He watched that
boy grow up and loved him. He was already preaching. And
you know what Todd said when he thought he was going to die?
I'm going to tell you exactly what he said. I've heard him
say this several times. When he thought he was going into
eternity and he wasn't afraid, he was looking forward to it.
He said, this is one thing I'm thankful for, that I had a pastor
that cared more that I know the name of Christ and who Christ
is and what he did than he did about his own name. Because that's
all that's going to matter when it comes time to leave this world.
Do I know Christ? Do I know Christ? Oh boy, ain't
that something? That's all that matters if I
tell you about Him. And how He ascended, how He ascended. Oh my. What place did He go to? He said, I go to my Father. And what is He saying there?
I'm going home. I'm going home. He said, I'm
going back to my Father's home. That's what He says. He said,
I'm going to my Father's home. You know what it's called? It's
called the third heaven. The third heaven. There's the
first heaven, we see it. And then there's a heaven beyond
that that we can't see. And then there's a heaven beyond
that where these spaceships and all that kind of stuff, they
go so far out there. But there's a third heaven out
there that God calls, that's where he dwells. Paul said he
is called up to the third heaven. That's a place, he said, and
I saw things that I can't tell you about. There's no way in
the world I could tell you what I saw and what I experienced.
I come back from there and I can't tell you. I just can't do it. And it's called the third heaven. And then it's not only called
the third heaven, the place he ascended, my father, but he called
it the father's house. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, in
my father's house, David Plager's got a message on that. Listen
to it one of these days. In my father's house. My father's
house. I can't never go to my father's
house because my father's gone. Most of you all can't go to your
father's house because your father's gone. But it's always wonderful
to visit your father's house. If he's got a comfortable house,
he was raised in a nice home, a good home, a loving father
and a loving mother, I'm gonna go over to my daddy's house.
I'm gonna go visit my father's house. Our Lord Jesus Christ
said, my father, my heavenly father, my father that sent me
here, he's got a house. And not only in that house, one
house. He said inside that house, there's
lots of mansions in it. Did you ever think about that?
One house, and it's so big that it's got mansion after mansion
after mansion in it. And you know what? We're gonna
dwell in the Father's house where He is, and we're gonna have a
special dwelling place inside God's house. That's where our
Lord said, I'm going. And you know what else is called
this place where He ascended? It's called paradise. He told
that thief, he told that thief that day on the cross, he says,
today, today, not tomorrow, not 2000 years from now, today, thou
shalt be with me in paradise, paradise, paradise. And not only
that, beloved, that place where he ascended, is the place where
he was before. He said, I'm gonna, I came from
above and I ascend back to where I came from. That's where I go.
And not only that, but it's called within the veil. The place where
he ascended is called within the veil. He entered behind the
veil. You know, in the temple, in the
tabernacle, they had two veils. And the priest went in one veil,
and they offered the sacrifices there. But there was a veil.
And behind that veil, there was a mercy seat, a golden mercy
seat. With them two gold cheraphims,
it was like this, and their wings touched one another. And under
that was the Ark of the Covenant, overlaid in gold. And only one
person was allowed to go in there, behind that veil. And that was
the high priest once every year. But I, Lord Jesus Christ, when
he, he took that veil and ripped it from top to bottom, and throwed
it wide open. And you know where the veil's
at now? His flesh sat at the right hand of God. And we get
to go behind the veil. That's why Paul said, I reckon,
I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, and some
of you are suffering at this present time, I know some of
you are suffering at this present time. You're suffering with the
vanity of this world and the vexation of this world. You're
suffering with the body of this world. You're suffering with
heartaches and trials of this world right now. Right now. But I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory that shall be revealed in us. Because no matter what
we suffer, it's just that. Just that. And oh, we groan to
be clothed upon with that house from heaven. What a day that'll
be when the Savior I shall see. I shall look on His face, the
one who saved me by His grace. He'll take me by the hand, lead
me to that promised land. What a day, what a glorious,
glorious day that will be. I sing it. Well, how did our
Lord Jesus Christ ascend? He ascended, look at Hebrews
16. I mean, excuse me, Hebrews 6,
there ain't no 16. Look at Hebrews 6. How did he
ascend? He ascended as our forerunner.
And he ascended as the fruit, the first fruits. And the first
fruits, that means that there's gonna be a harvest. But oh, look
what he said here in verse 17, Hebrews 6. Look what God says about this
thing. We're in God willing, God willing more abundantly to
show under the airs of promise, that's us, the immutability of
His of his counsel, the unchangeableness of his will and his promise,
he showed how immutable it was. He swore and confirmed it by
an oath. And this is the oath that by
two immutable things, here's the first one, it's impossible
for God to lie, absolutely impossible, that we might have a strong consolation
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us. And not only that, the second
thing is this strong consolation. That's immutable. And that hope
is set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul. Don't this make your soul steadfast? Don't it make your soul solid? Don't it make your soul, no,
your anchor's not in this world. Your anchor's up there. Your
anchor's in Christ. You've pitched, you've drove
down your stake in Christ. And he goes on to say this. which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul. This makes our soul
steadfast and strong in all the storms of life that comes along.
It stays right there with Christ. Both sure, this is sure and steadfast. And listen to this, that entered
within the veil, and here's what he was. He ascended as our forerunner. Whether the forerunner is entered,
for us entered. Oh, if he's forerunning, he said,
there's somebody coming after me. That's like John said, there's
someone coming after me. I'm not he, there's one coming
after me. Where the forerunners for us entered, even Jesus made
a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. How did
he ascend? As our forerunner. How did he ascend? He ascended
in a human body. He ascended in a human body.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, he said, touch me, you look at me. I don't
know what kind of body it was, but it was a body that was seen,
and it was a body that could eat. He sat down with his disciples,
and they gave him honey, and they gave him fish, honeycomb
and fish, and he sat there and ate in their presence. Do you
reckon we'll eat in heaven? Well, he said, we're gonna have
a feast at the marriage supper of the lamb. We eat pretty good
down here on Christ, don't we? You imagine what he's gonna feed
us with when we get there. He'd go feed us. He ain't. And when he stood there on that
mountain and those angels stood there looking at him and those
men stood there, you know, they looked at him going up. And those
angels says, you men of Israel, why in the world are you looking
up? This same Jesus who you see ascending, he gonna come back. Same way he left. He gonna come
back the same way he left. He went up in a human body. And
I'll tell you something else, he went up victoriously. Let's
look together in Psalm 68 and I'll be done. Psalm 68. You know, oh our Lord Jesus,
he ascended. Oh my, what a blessing for us.
That means we got an advocate. That means we got a high priest.
That means we got an atonement. That means that we gonna go.
He was our forerunner. And he rose up with a shout.
And look what it said here in verse 17. Psalm 68. The chariots of God are 20,000,
even thousands of angels. The Lord is among them as in
Sinai in the holy place. Now listen to this. Thou hast
ascended on high. Oh, you ascended on high. And
what did he do when he'd done that? He led captivity captives.
What does that mean? That means everything that held
us captive, sin, death, Adam, the flesh, everything that held
us captive, he took it captive. He took sin captive. He took
death captive. He conquered death. He conquered
hell. He conquered everything that was, he took everything,
he left captivity captive. And you know what he done? He
took it away. Everything that held us captive, he held it captive. And look what he says. And then
you received gifts for men. Oh, grace, mercy, life, And oh,
listen to this, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord,
ah, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord,
who daily loatheth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.
And listen to this, he that is our God is the God of salvation.
And here's what you see, and unto God the Lord belong the
issues of death, the Lord be on the issues of death. I'll
tell you something, because the ascended is our forerunner. It
ensures our salvation here, and it certainly ensures our salvation
there. And I tell you, Mary stood there
weeping, and the Lord Jesus said, touch me not. I send to my father
and your father, to my God and your God. And I tell you one
thing, Mary went someplace where there ain't never no more tears.
She wept and wept and wept while she's down here. But she ain't
never wept another tear after she's gone to be with Christ.
And we'll weep a lot of tears here, but we're going someplace
where they never, they're not allowed. Have no, we'll have
nothing to cry about. What a day. Oh my goodness, what
a day. What a day. What a day. What a day. Our Father, our blessed, blessed
Savior, Lord, we're overwhelmed, just absolutely overwhelmed with
you, with you, who you are, what you did. Oh, you did it for us,
us, oh, the lowest of the low. And Lord, you're ascended, and
there you sit right now, being touched with the feelings of
our infirmities. And Lord, we thank you. Oh, blessed
be your name for this blessed, glorious hope that you've given
us. Oh, what a glorious hope, what
a blessed expectation we have. Lord, bless these dear saints.
Bless your holy name, Lord Jesus. Amen.