Hebrews chapter seven. Let's start reading down here
in verse eleven. If therefore perfection were
by the Levitical priesthood, those offerings that the priests
made at the tabernacle day in and day out, and for perfection
by those priests. For under it the people received
the law. They went there and they taught
them the law, taught them the word of God, taught them what
the laws had. If therefore perfection were by the Levitical law, what
further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek
and not be called after the order of Aaron? Two different priesthoods
here now. For the priesthood being changed,
going from Aaron to Melchizedek, from the law to grace. For the
priesthood being changed, thus made of necessity, a change also
of the law. If we're going to have a new
priest, a different priest, we're going to have to have a change
of the law too. For he of whom these things are
spoken pertains to another tribe, not to Aaron's tribe, which of
no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that
our Lord came out of the tribe of Judah, a kingly tribe, of
which tribe Moses didn't say anything, spake nothing about
the priesthood. And yet, and it is far more evident
for that after the similitude of Metchezedek, there arises
another priest. Now look over in verse three
what kind of priest it's going to be. Without father, without mother,
without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of
life, but made like unto the Son of God, abided a priest continually. So that's why he's made a priest
after Melchizedek. Aaron's and them, they didn't
continue. They couldn't continue. They
had a beginning of days and an end of days. They really watched
their pedigree. They made sure that Aaron and
his first two sons, Eleazar and Phineas, and then after that,
they kept it right down the line. Very, very particular about it.
But yet there's going to be another high priest to rise. without
father, without mother, without descent, neither beginning of
days nor end of life. And then it says in verse 16,
made after the order of Nechezedek, there rises another priest who
is made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after
the power of an endless life. And that's the title of my message
today, the power of an endless life. The power of an endless
life. Our Lord often talked about His
hour. First time He mentioned it when
they were turning the water, and He turned the water into
wine, His mother came to Him at the feast. She said, They
have no wine. He said, Woman, what have I to
do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. And He said that to
His brethren, and oftentimes they'd come to lay hold on Him,
and He'd say, Mine hour is not yet come. And I want you to keep
Hebrews 7, and then I want you to look over here in John 12
with me just a moment, and let me show you what I'm talking
about. Our Lord Jesus talked about His hour, and oftentimes
He said His hour. In John 12, in verse 23, the
hour. He talked about His hour. And He said in verse 23 of John
chapter 12, And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come,
that the Son of Man should be glorified." The hour has come.
I kept talking about the hour. Now it's come. That the Son of
Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, John 12, 24.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall
lose it. If he loved his life, he'd lost it, and we'd all lost
it with him. And he hath hated his life, and
the world shall keep it unto its life eternal. If you love
Christ, and you need Christ, and you want nothing in this
world, and you find Him to be everything, and if any man serve
me, let him follow me. And where I am, where I am, not
where I'm going to be, where I am, shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will
my father honor." Now listen. Now is my soul troubled, and
now what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour,
but for this cause came I unto this hour. John 13.1. Now, before the feast of the
Passover, listen to it. when Jesus knew that His hour
was come, that He should depart out of this world unto the Father.
See, He knew His hour was come. So the hour has come. The hour
that our Lord Jesus Christ talked about. An hour, meaning that
a time was going to come, a specific time, and something would be
accomplished at that time. And the hour has come. He said
the hour has come when He should depart out of this world to go
to the Father. The hour of His death is coming.
The hour of the death, the hour of His rejection. The hour of
His being despised. The hour of Him being smitten
of God and afflicted. The hour of the judgment of God
coming on Him. The hour when He's going to tread
the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God by Himself. The hour is coming when He's
going to hang on that cross. and be ridiculed and be mocked,
be spat upon. Thomas gambled over. And I tell you, when he was hanging
on that cross, his life didn't appear to be an endless life,
did it? The hour has come, and I'm troubled. What should I say, Father? Save
me? But this is the reason I came.
I come for this cause. And as our Lord Jesus hung there
bleeding, suffering, dying, his life looked like anything but
an endless life. He saved others. Why can't you save yourself? He's calling for Elijah. Let's
wait and see if Elijah will come. Oh, when he hung there, it didn't
look like anything like an endless life. Bless His name. Those who know, those who know,
have been given eyes to see, can understand that our Lord
Jesus Christ reached all the way back to an endless pass.
I mean, our Lord Jesus Christ is He which was, which is, and
which is to come. Now, it may look like His eye
was set there and it was as if that. But not only did his life
reach back into an endless past, but it also reaches into an endless
future. And just like I read to you this
morning, the Arianic Levitical priesthood was after the power
of a passing law. The law had to pass away. And
their priesthood, it consisted of a carnal commandment. They
had everything they had to do had to do with the flesh. But
our Lord's priesthood, the true Melchizedek, was after the power
of an endless life. Again there in Hebrews 7 and
verse 3, talking about the power of an endless life without father,
without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days
nor end of life. You see, those priests could
not continue by reason of death. And the law passed away and there
was change when Christ came to be our great high priest. Because
the law was fulfilled. There was an end to it. There
was a fulfillment of it. There was a fulfillment of it
as a covenant, a fulfillment of it as a curse, a fulfillment
of it as a commandment. But Christ They want to say it
was made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after
the power of an endless life. That our Lord Jesus Christ is
a life forevermore, and He has an endless life. An endless life. As far as time will be, Christ
will have life. But what I want us to see is
not so much the endlessness of His life, but the power of His
endless life. The power of His life. The power
of his life, even though it seemed like he was crucified in weakness,
but he was raised in power. I want us to see the power of
his endless life, the power of it. Here's the first thing about
the power of his life. The power of his life, this endless
life, this great high priesthood of ours, the power of his life
is the only one that gives life. He's got the power, and he's
the only one that can give life to anybody. Now I'm talking about
life, this endless life, eternal life. And over in John, John
chapter 5 and verse 21, you know, people say that you get life
and there's many, many ways to get to Christ. There are many,
many ways to get to heaven. Preachers are nowadays, they're
telling folks, you know, if folks have a, you know, if they're
seeking God somewhere in the middle of Africa or seeking God
somewhere in the jungles of of Brazil or someplace like that,
as long as they're sincere and seeking after Him, they'll find
Him and God will save them eventually. That's not true. There's nothing
too bad. Our Lord Jesus Christ didn't
come into this world to make a half a dozen ways to get to
God. He said, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.
If you don't have life from God, you don't get it from me. And
that's what our Lord Jesus said here in John 5.21. For as the
father raises up the dead, God has life in himself, evens and
quickeneth them, gives them life. He even told the Son, listen
to this, quickeneth whom He will. He gives life to whom He will.
You go through the Scriptures. He didn't give life to everybody.
Who did He give life to? Dead people. Three dead people in the scriptures.
He gave life to all three of them. The young girl at 12 years
old, Jairus' daughter. The widowed man's son is laying
already in his casket on his way to the graveyard. And Lazarus
is already in the grave and been covered up for four days. And
he said, come forth, touch the beard. I tell you, he's the only
one that's got life. And listen to what he says down in verse
25. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God. Dead who? Dead sinners, dead
in trespasses and sins, people who have no life, shall hear
the voice of the Son of God, and listen to this, those that
hear, what happens to them? They live. They live. And look in verse 26. For as the Father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. And I'll tell you something,
in him was life, and the life was the life of men. Men must
have life given to them. One thing they can't do, they
cannot create life. Only Christ can create life. Only Christ can give life. And
I'm telling you, when a man's dead and he's lifeless, the only
place he can get a life is for Christ to create life in him.
And that's what the new birth is. Christ creating life in you. Christ giving you a new heart,
giving you a new mind, giving you a new will, giving you new
understanding. Everything about you. All things
are passed away, behold, all things become new. And that's
what he must do. Only Christ can give life. And
you can't get it by working, you can't get it by marriage,
you can't get it because you deserve it. If you have life,
only Christ gives you that life. And the only people that know
Christ can give them life is those He's already given it to.
You know, our Lord Jesus, when He was off and Lazarus was sick,
He waited four days to come over there. And then when He got there,
Martha ran out in bed and says, Master, if you would have been
here, Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn't
even have died. He just wouldn't have died. Oh yeah, he would
have. Then he says, Martha, I tell
you, your brother's going to live again. Oh Lord, I know he
is. I know that. I know there's going
to be a resurrection. And I know he'll live again on
the last day, at the last day. And our Lord Jesus Christ said,
Martha, Martha, Martha, don't you know that I'm the life? Don't
you know that I'm the resurrection? And if a man believes in Me,
he's already resurrected, he's already got life. I'm the life, I'm the resurrection.
It's by faith in Me that you're quickened from the dead. It's
by what I do for you that you're raised from the dead. And to
show you that I do, that life is come forth. Oh my, if God ever gives you
life, you know the first thing you do? You get out of the grave. You know what the second thing
happens? They start taking off the grave clothes, because grave
clothes are evidence of death, and you can't have no evidence
of death if you know Christ. You've got to just keep taking
them off, taking them off. Huh? And all you who were dead
in trespasses and sins hath thee quickened. And let me tell you
about the life that He gives us, because He has the power
of an endless life, and His life is endless, and He has the power
to give life. The life that He gives us is an endless life,
an everlasting life. It's the very life of God in
us, Christ in us, the hope of glory. Now, I'm going to go by
the way of the grave, it looks like. But that doesn't mean,
you know, when you put a person in the ground, all you're doing
is putting flesh in the ground. But that person who knows Christ,
he's going straight into the presence of Christ. And tell
what our Lord Jesus Christ said. He says, you know, He said, not
that the he that believeth on me and the he that serves me
shall be with me where I am. Where's he at? Sitting at the
right hand of God. Where you going? Right there
with you. And I'll tell you what else.
In other words, the power of his life gives life, but the power
of his life gives peace. Oh, what a wonderful thing peace
is. And you know what? The first
thing, there's four ways that He gives us peace. First thing
He does, He gives us peace with God. Peace with God. Preachers have said to you, as
I remember years ago when I'd come down there, everybody's
talking about, make you peace with God. Make you peace with
God. Christ is the only one that can make peace with God. He It
pleased the Father that in Him all foolish should dwell, and
that He, by the blood of His cross, by the blood of His cross,
He reconciled us, things in heaven, things in earth, and things under,
He reconciled all of us under God by the blood of His cross.
You see, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with
God. Peace with God. God's not angry. And listen,
there was a time, and we were enemies in our mind by wicked
words, aliens from God. And the Scriptures tell us that
we have this enmity in our heart toward God. And all you've got
to do is know that there's enmity in your heart against God. Just
remember when you first started to be heard about God's sovereignty,
God's electing grace, that God didn't love everybody, that Christ
didn't die for everybody. And your enmity started rising
up in your heart. You say, now, wait a minute.
I don't know if I believe that or not, but that enmity was there.
And what God does is through the blood of the cross of His
blessed Son, He comes to us and He kills that enmity, slays that
enmity, puts that enmity out of your heart, and puts peace
in your heart, and He makes you understand that He's not angry
with you. And you understand, beloved, you throw up your hands
and surrender. So He gives us peace. Peace with
God. God Himself right now is at peace
with me. He's not with peace in there.
There's no peace, says my God, to the wicked. And not only does
He give us peace with God, but now listen to this. This is what
I love. He gives us peace of conscience. Look in Hebrews 9,
just a moment. He gives us peace of conscience.
I'll tell you, that's something that's priceless right here.
You remember when you didn't have no peace of conscience?
Whenever you're all the time trying to satisfy your own conscience,
by praying, by studying, by giving, by testifying, by jumping up
and hollering and, you know, making everybody think it's all
right, doing everything you possibly could to have peace of conscience,
and yet your conscience was never satisfied. But I tell you, Christ
gave us peace of conscience. Look what he said in Hebrews
9.12. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood. That's what those priests offered
every day. Those were the carnal ordinances.
But by his own blood, he entered in once to the holy place, having
obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and
goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled the unclean, he went
out and sprinkled the unclean, and that sanctified the flesh. made the flesh acceptable for
another year. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without
spot to God, listen to it, purge your conscience from dead works. Everything we did before we come
to faith in Christ was a dead work. Every prayer we prayed,
every offering we made, every deed we did, everything we did,
every testimony we gave, everything we did was a dead work. And now
He purged our conscience, so now we can come to a living God
and worship Him. And I tell you, the blood of
sprinkling is upon us. What blood of sprinkling? The
blood of the sprinkling of Christ. And our Lord Jesus entered into
the veil with His own blood, and that blood speaks. And you
know what the first thing it says? It says, satisfaction. When He entered into that holy
place with His own blood, the first thing it said was satisfaction.
You know, God had to be satisfied Himself before He could do anything
for anybody. That was the first and primary
purpose that Christ came into this world, is to honor and satisfy
His Father. That's the first thing. He said,
Father, I've come to honor you. I delight to do thy will, O God,
I delight to do thy will. And because sacrifice and burnt
offerings thou wouldst not, a body hast thou prepared for me. A
body to do what? A body to suffer in. A body to
obey in. A body to die in. A body to be
buried in. A body to be raised from the
dead again. And so satisfaction, He renders
satisfaction to the justice of God that tells the soul that
sin of this shall die, to the truth of God, to the wrath of
God, to the holiness of God. And so he satisfied God. And
then, not only that, but he put sin away. But who did he put
sin away for? Because he went there to put
sin away. He put sin away not for himself.
He had no sin of his own. He was without sin. So when He
went to put away sin, whose sins did He put away? Did He put away
all men's? No. Did He put away some of the
sins of some men? Well, then nobody would be saved.
But did He put away all the sins of all of His people? Well, then
if He did that, His death was a substitutionary death too.
And whoever he stood in the place of as a lamb slain, whoever he
died for, whoever he took the place of, I tell you something,
those sins were put away. God was satisfied for those people
and those people alone. Don't you believe that? I believe
that. So he gave a speech of conscience.
And then, beloved, let me tell you something else. He himself
is our peace. Paul said, He is our peace. He
is our peace. What's our peace with God, Christ?
What's our peace of conscience, Christ? When you sin, does your
conscience bother you? Do you start trying to make amends
for your sin, or do you go to Christ? You see, He's our peace. He's
our peace. You know when God said, Peace
on earth, goodwill toward men, you know who He's talking about?
Us. I'm going to have, there's going
to be peace on earth for those that I died for. And I've got
goodwill towards those that I died for. And there's going to be
peace for them. And let me tell you something
else how there's peace. Peace by surrender. I surrender. I've laid down my arms, I'm stacking
my arms. Lord, I give up. I've got no
more enmity against you. I surrender to you. You've got
all the power. You've got all the authority. You've got all
the rights. And I give up. I'm not going to fight you anymore.
I'm going to love you. I'm going to worship you. I'm
going to honor you. I give up badly. You know, I thought this
morning, the last time that we had a war that we won, and all
of our enemies surrendered, was World War II. Everybody surrendered. The Japanese surrendered, the
Germans surrendered, the Italians surrendered. They all surrendered. They all—I mean, the powers that
be came, and they wrote down, we surrender, we give up. The Japanese not even supposed
to have an army. Then we went to Korea. still got a demarcation between
the two of them. North Korea, South Korea. Then
we went to Vietnam, walked out of there defeated
with our tail between our legs. Went to Iraq, went to Afghanistan,
300-something Marines killed in Lebanon, Beirut. Back in the
1980s, ships attacked We have not had peace and honor
in this country when we fought a war since 1945, with all the
wars we fought. But one war I ain't never going
to fight again, and that's a war with God. I surrender, and God
gets all the honor. Sign away my life to Him, and
I give up. I surrender. It's a war angle, because I can't
win that war. I found that out a long time
ago. And let me tell you, not only does the power of His life
give us life, not only does the power of His life give us peace,
but the power of His endless life is a sustaining power. You
know, it's one thing to have the life of Christ, but how in
the world is this life going to continue? How's it going to
be sustained? You know, we know by our physical
life that this life is ebbing out of us quickly. But the power
of His endless life is a sustaining power. It's one thing to have
life, but to have that life to continue, to sustain that power
of the life of God in you, the life of Christ in you. And how's
it done, our Lord Jesus Christ said, because I live, you're
going to live. He said, they come to Him and
said, if you've been to Christ, just tell us plainly. He said,
I've told you, but you're not of my sheep. And He says, you
know what? My sheep hear my voice, and that's
the reason you don't know me. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and you know what I do for them? I give, I give
unto them eternal life. And you know what? They, those
sheep that I give eternal life, they ain't never gonna perish. For the Father which gave him
me is greater than all, and they shall never perish."
Never perish. Oh, my. There's lots of things. That's why to sustain this life.
There's lots of things to destroy this life. There's lots of things
that's against this life of Christ. Sins against this life of Christ. Oh, sins sometimes. I laid in
bed the other night, and this is I woke up and I thought, you
know when I was praying, I said, Lord, You know what I am? My name is sin. Sin is what I
am. Sin is what I do. That's my name. That's what I am. And I'm Lord of it. Despise it. It's an awful thing. Why is it, Paul said, it's sin
that dwelleth in me? Oh, wretched man that I am, who's
going to save me from this body of death? Sin would try to step
out this life of Christ, and then there's the devil himself
who comes and says, you know that there ain't nothing to you.
You know that you're a hypocrite. You know that there's nothing
to it. You know that you're just fooling
everybody. And then the world out here with
all of its enticement, the world with its power, the world with
its baubles, the world with its vanity, the world with its silver,
the world with its gold, the world with its religion, and
oh, the worst enemy, I'll tell you, that wants to destroy this
life itself, self-righteousness, self-esteem, self-confidence,
self, self, self. Oh, God, do labor self. Oh, slay self, kill self. And then false preachers come
along and then we have this awful flash. So how is this life going
to be sustained? You know what our Lord Jesus
made a promise. He said, all that the Father
gives me, They're going to come to me. And Him that cometh to
me, I will never, ever cast them out. Never. Never. You know what? Not only will I never cast them
out, but He said, I'll raise them up at the last day. I might
lose one of them, and I'll raise them up at the last day. And He promised that they shall
never perish if we have eternal life. And secondly, he not only
has promised us, but he's got the power to sustain it, the
power to keep his promise. He said, all power in heaven
and earth is given unto thee. And he said, I'll go with you
all the way, even unto the end of the world. In other words,
he promised, and not only has he got the power, but he has
the will to do it. It's his will to keep us. Father, of all that you've given
me, I've not lost one of them. And Father, I will, I will, that those that God has given
me be with me where I am, that they may behold your glory and
the glory that I had before the world was. You don't get to see
that. You know why? Because Christ
said, I will. Now let me tell you something
else that sustains it. You know, He has to sustain it.
You know, everybody in here that's been a believer very long knows
that if you've got the life of Christ in you, He has to be the
one to keep it alive. He has to be the one to keep
it. You know, as this heart pumps blood, He has to keep that spiritual
heart pumping. He has to keep that spiritual
life going. He has to keep that faith alive. He has to keep that
repentance alive. He has to keep that desire alive.
He has to keep that understanding alive. He's got to keep that
will alive. He's got to keep that desire
after him alive. He's got to keep your understanding
alive. He's got to give everything that he gave you in life. He's
got to keep that alive. He said, oh, there's a smoking
flash. Looks like my face is about to
go out. Do you know what Christ will do? He'll blow on it. Come back again. You think, boy, I'm going to
fire him back on now. No, he'll blow on it. He'll get it going
back. Oh, no, he's not going to let
you. For not only is it sustaining, but oh, bless his name, it's
a comfort-giving power. The power of his life is a comfort-giving
power. And what I mean, beloved, and
you look with this at me, in 2 Corinthians 1, It's a comfort
to live with and to live by. In 2 Corinthians chapter 1, you're
talking about it's a comfort-giving power. This power of Christ's
endless life, it gives us comfort, and it gives us a comfort-giving
power. Oh, the comfort, the power of
Christ and His life gives us. Comfort to live with, a comfort
to live by. Look what our Lord said here
in verse 3. said Corinthians 1. Blessed be
God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies
and the God of all comfort. Now listen to this, who comforts
us in all our tribulations. Boy, we have some tribulations
sometimes. We have some trials. God turns
our little old worlds upside down. We sang that song this morning,
Oh, I don't know what I have the misters in front of my eyes.
I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. It's dark at
night, but He makes no mistakes. He makes no mistakes. And He
said, Here is God who comforts us in all our tribulations. Oh,
the comfort. The only way you can know that
He comforts you in tribulations is to have those tribulations.
And He comforts you. He really, truly comforts you. And then look what else He says.
And He does this to comfort us in our tribulation that we may
be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the same
comfort that God comforted us with. Now let me give you, let
me tell you something. Whenever somebody has been comforted
in their tribulation, God's comforting. You know what the first thing
they start doing? Whenever they see other people in trouble,
they want to start comforting them the same way that God comforted
them. And you can only comfort, folks, If you've been in trouble
yourself. And you can only do something
for somebody if you've been where they've been. And I tell you, everybody's experienced
that. When you're going through troubles,
people have been there to be a comfort for you, to be a strength
for you, to be a help for you, with words, with cards, with
love, with kindness, with meals and whatever. Because that's
what God gives us comfort for. That we may turn around and give
comfort to somebody else, the same way God comforted us. Oh,
ain't that wonderful? Ain't that wonderful? The comfort
that He gives us. And let me tell you, not only
does He give us comfort to live by and live with, and that's
why Paul said, the grace of Christ is sufficient. I know it's sufficient.
He gives us comfort for our past. He gives us comfort for our past.
Oh, my. God forgives, and not only does
He forgive, but bless His name, He forgives. Remember David Hedgeson
was preaching, and he says, you know, he said, I forgive, but
I remember where you live. But listen, God, He gives us
comfort for our past. All our sins are gone. I said,
He forgives us of every sin that we ever did, and not only that,
but He forgets them. Just forgets them. And then He
gives us comfort for our present. Gives us comfort right now. He
said, He's Jesus Christ, the same today, yesterday, and forever. And He controls everything in
this world for our good. And I'll tell you what the end
of life is. It's good. If we know Christ
will come to me and never go be with whatever happened in
this world and go be with Christ, that's good. Whatever we're going
through that makes us trust Christ, that's good. Whatever we're going
through that makes us need Christ, that's good. Whatever we're going
through that makes us fall on our face and say, Oh God, be
our strength, be our comfort, be our strength, uphold me. That's
good. Whatever makes us need Christ
is good. And I'll say something else that
gives us comfort for our future. You know what Job said? I know
my Redeemer lives, and that He shall stand upon the earth in
the latter days, and I shall see Him for myself with my own
eyes. So we have great comfort for
the future. Y'all remember, Years and years
ago, it didn't make sense to me, but it made sense to them.
Henry Mahan and the song leader at 13th Street for years, Ronnie
Lewis, they wouldn't watch a ball game until they knew what, who
won it, what the end was. They wouldn't even watch it,
because it was too stressful for them. They got so involved
in it, so they would wait until the game was completely over,
and then they'd record it, and they'd say, watch it, because
they'd know who won or who lost. I'll tell you something. I've
seen the end of the game. I know who wins. I know what the future is. I
know what the end of this... There comes one who rides out
on a white horse, and his name is the Word of God, and he's
got on his thigh the Word of God, and he's got
a sharp sword in his hand, and he goes forth conquering and
conquering. And I tell you, he's going to
win this thing. And all nations and all people are going to be
defeated. And then it says, therefore in
his head are many, many, many crowns. Huh? Oh, my. We know the ending of the story.
So that gives us great comfort. And then the power The power
of His life, let me tell you this, and you know this by experience
too, the power of His life satisfies the soul. The power of Christ's
life satisfies us, satisfies our soul. It says in Hebrews
7.25, He said, He is able to save to the uttermost, now listen,
see if He ever lives to make intercession for us. He told that woman at the well,
said if you knew, knew the gift of God, you would ask of Him,
and He would give you a drink of water, everlasting water,
that you would never ever thirst again. Now let me tell you something,
when a soul has Christ, it doesn't want anything more. Once you
have Christ, you're not looking for anybody else. You're not
looking for anything more in religion. You're not looking
for anything else in yourself. You don't need anything else.
You're not looking for anything anymore. When you've got Christ,
we're complete in Him who is the head of all principalities
and powers. Well, you know, Christ satisfies us. Now, we're not
satisfied with ourselves, but we're satisfied with Him. We
become monomaniacs. What do I mean by that? This
one thing I do. Pressing toward the mark. I want
to know Christ. I want to win Christ. I want
to be found in Christ. And it's simple. Christ made
the way so simple. There's just one way, He said.
You can't be mistaken about the way to go. Can you? Can't be mistaken. And Paul said,
this one thing I do. And that's what we do. You know,
we, we, we, we, the only thing we hunger after now is Christ.
And we only hunger and thirst after Him. We don't hunger and
thirst after anything else in this world. He's all we need. That's why they said, will you
also go away, Lord, to whom shall we go? You've got the words of
everlasting life. And they talk about that fella,
and I've heard different people say about it. I said, this one
fella, you know, he just keeps plugging the same note, the same
note. I said, why are you through that? He said, you know, you
fellas run your finger all over the board. He said, I don't need
to run over. I found the note. I said, I'm going to stick with
that one. And that's what we are. We're just one note. We
got one note we keep plugging over. If you make an uncertain
sound, he's going to prepare himself to the battle. I'll tell
you one thing, we got one note, and that note's Christ. We're
going to pluck on that note until somebody finally hears that music.
And they'll say, well, I hear it. Oh, listen. What's that note? What's that note? Oh, that's
the prettiest note I've ever heard. And it just rings in your
heart, and it rings in your soul, and it rings in your... Everything
about you rings in your mind, that blessed name of Christ. Oh, make some sweet music to
you here. Lord evermore, give us this bread. Give us this bread. And let me close with this last
one. Not only does His life give us
life, His power comforts us, satisfies
us, sustains us. But His power, the power of His
endless life, gives us such a blessed, blessed hope, such a blessed
hope. Look over in I Timothy 1 with
me. Oh, what a blessed hope. I'd hate to live in this world
without hope. But, oh, my, not only do I have
a hope, but I have a blessed hope, blessed hope, blessed of
God, blessed of the Spirit, to my heart, blessed to my understanding,
blessed to me from the scriptures. So blessed hope. Second Timothy. I'm sorry. No,
it's the First Timothy. I don't know it. Oh, yeah, First Timothy one.
I'm sorry. I wouldn't Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ,
our hope. Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. Oh, his life is endless. And
he's able to take an endless care of his own. Look over in
verse 16 of 2 Thessalonians 2.16. If you've got 1 Timothy, 2 Thessalonians,
probably the page right next to you. On your left. Look what it says in verse 16.
Now, Lord Jesus Christ himself. I love that phrase. The Lord
Jesus Christ himself. And God, even our Father, which
hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation, and
good hope through grace. He which began a good hope in
you shall sustain it, shall finish it. Our hope is sure because
it's Christ. Our hope is steadfast because
it's Christ. Our hope is strong because it's
Christ. Not because we're sure, not because we're steadfast,
not because we're strong, but because He is. Paul said, I'm
persuaded that whatsoever I've committed unto Him against that
day, He's able to keep it. And I tell you, one of the hopes
that we have is one of these days being changed into His glorious
image. David said, I'll be satisfied
when I awaken your likeness. Paul says, you know, we're going
to be so This thing here is going to be sown in corruption, raised
in incorruption. Sown in weakness, raised in power. Sown moral, raised immoral. Yes? Oh, my. What did I say? What a power
is in this life. What a power. What a power.