Those three words will make you
want to shout, will make you want to praise his name like
Brother Jean-Claude said, it is finished. Oh, wonderful. Well, Brother Norm is going to
come up and he's going to preach the gospel to us. Good morning. No worries. It's only 835 in Oregon. No worries. It's just been such a delight
to be here. I've enjoyed speaking from this pulpit, because I look
out there and I see people going, that's just like saying sickum
to a coonhound. I have greatly enjoyed your hospitality
and fellowship, your pastor. I've enjoyed getting to know
a Frenchman. It's rough, but I've enjoyed
getting to know him. And I've enjoyed hearing him
preach the gospel. And I delight in the finished
work of Christ. I don't believe there's a day
goes by that I'm not thankful for a resurrection, not only
of Jesus Christ, but for him raising me from the dead. Now
I realize I'm not as thankful as I should be, and I'm not as
thankful as I will be, but I am thankful. When that gospel came
and God used it to raise me from the spiritual dead so that I
might see Christ. I delight. I'm thankful. Would you turn with me this morning
to the book of Revelation? First of all, would you stop
with me in chapter one. This book of Revelation has a
clear title. It's in Revelation chapter one
and verse one, the revelation of Jesus Christ, who God gave
unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come
to pass. And he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant
John. I have a lot of folks that come
to me and say that word revelation, that's the apocalypse. That's
not what that word means. That word is first used in the
New Testament and I realized once again that that passage
in the New Testament in the book of Luke is a quote from the Old
Testament, the book of Isaiah. The first time this word revelation
is used in the New Testament is found in the book of Luke
chapter 2, so would you turn back there with me? Luke chapter
2 and verse 32, and we have a man that is thanking God for his
great grace and praising God for the glory of God. Here in
the book of Luke chapter 2, and there in verse 32, light to lighten the Gentiles
and the glory of thy people Israel." That's a quote from the book
of Isaiah and the word in there that is translated Revelation
in the book of Revelation chapter 1 is the word lighten. A light to lighten the Gentiles. The light of the Lord Jesus Christ
is going to be revealed to even Gentiles. Revelation means lay and bear,
making naked, a disclosure of truth and instruction. And here
we find in the book of Luke how that is so described, and it
doesn't have anything to do with apocalypse. It has something
to do with the revelation. And another thing, there's a
clear message in the book of Revelation, and that is 27 times
in this wonderful book of Revelation, the Lord Jesus Christ is called
a lamb, and he's a very successful lamb. I appreciated the message
we just heard because the gospel is successful in Christ Jesus'
completed work on the cross, and his burial, resurrection,
and ascension back to the Father, declares it to God, and we just
get the blessings from it. He is successful in that. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Revelation chapter 17 and verse 14, and we want
to read just one verse that has to do with the Lamb. Revelation
chapter 17 and verse 14, The scripture says, thee shall
make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them. We're riding on the coattails
of a successful victor, never defeated. Oh, it looked sorry
there for a little while as he's on this earth. He's walking among
dead people every day. He is in a cemetery every day. Every step of his walk on this
earth, he is in a cemetery of dead people. There are a few,
as he looks about, and he's the only one that knows, there are
a few, as he looks about, that have the light of the glory of
God and they have it in their heart because they've been raised
from the dead. But by and large, everywhere
he goes, there's dead people. Now, there's a woman at the well.
She's dead when she meets him. She's alive when she leaves.
She's been raised from the dead. How glorious it is that we find
that very thing. Now, turn with me to my text
in the book of Revelation chapter 20, and I'd like to read verse
6. Revelation chapter 20 and verse
6. We have a book about the Lamb
of God, and this book about the Lamb of God is a light to lighten
us. I've had people come to me and
say, I can't read the book of Revelation. It's just so scary. It's a book
for the church. Enjoy it all the time. There are things, if we interpret
literally, we're going to find ourselves in a corner, and our
nose is going to be up against the wall. Don't do that. Look at this as we find it. It's
a spiritual book, just like we find the rest of the Bible, and
the Bible is spiritually discerned. That's what the truth is. All
right, Revelation chapter 20 and verse 6, and it says, blessed
and holy, blessed and holy. It's interesting to find out
that this word used here for blessed is the same word that
we find in Matthew chapter 16 and verse 17, when Jesus told
Peter, first of all, he asked, who do men say that I am? Peter
honestly answered there's a whole bunch of folks that just don't
know but some of them think you're this prophet or that prophet
or or even John come back from the dead and then he got real
pointed and he said whom do you say that I am and Peter without
question said thou art the Christ the son of the Living God and
Jesus said blessed art thou Simon Barjona for flesh and blood hath
not revealed this unto you but my father which is in heaven
Peter was blessed and Jesus said he was blessed and when Jesus
blesses that blessing is a blessing it's not something to take lightly
Peter was blessed he said blessed are you Simon Barjona what is
he doing he's identifying him as one of his children one he
is going to buy at the cross, purchase, redeem. The one that
was promised before the foundation of the world is going to be carried
out. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona. And other of his disciples
could have said the same thing, but we're thankful that Peter
spoke because he's just like the rest of us. It's not going
to be very long. He's going to be saying, I don't
even know that guy, but that guy knew him. That's what's important. Who knows us? Who knows us? It also has brought out a quote
from the book of the Psalms, lovely Psalm over there, when
David said, blessed is the man. Well, in the book of Romans,
it says, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose
sins are covered. We just cannot comprehend in
this state how blessed we are to know that our sins are covered
and God will never hold them against us again. He's been taken
out and those sins have been taken as far as the east is from
the west. buried in the deepest sea, and
all the other illustrations that God says about it, and it's summed
up in this, I have forgiven you of all your nature, your sins. Blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to
whom God will not impute sin, Romans chapter 4 verses 7 and
8, which is a quote from Psalms 32 verses 1 and 2. Our nature,
as it goes on here in the book of Revelation chapter 20 and
verse 6, is blessed and holy. Our nature, natural holiness,
is just not. That's how I'm going to sum it
up. It is just not. We are not holy by nature. We maybe pretend to. In fact,
we find a group was written to in the Old Testament and it says,
they were holier than thou. That's us in religion. You hear
that Pharisee? He's just like the whole lot
of us in our religion saying, Lord, I thank you that I'm not
like other men. And particularly this guy who
is just barely a man, but you know what that guy got to hear?
Father, forgive me. Lay all the sin. And Jesus said
that when man went down to his house rejoicing. righteous. So we're like that
Pharisee and thank God he can turn us around and we won't even
lift our eyes to heaven and we'll say we're thankful that you have
had mercy on us, you've forgiven us of all of our sins and we
go down to our house rejoicing because we've been made righteous
and righteousness in Christ. Holy is not our part. I had a
preacher one time define holy as oneness. Among the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we read in the book of Isaiah
chapter 6, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. In fact,
they are in such complete unison, we just cannot understand it.
And we're not in unison with that. We're not in oneness with
that. We don't have any holiness. And
we have to be given the holiness of God. We don't have any, but
once we have it, we're not gonna go around and become part of
the holiness movement. We're gonna thank God for our
holiness. Well, as we go back over here
into the book of Revelation, it says, blessed and holy is
he that hath part in the first resurrection. The resurrection. We are in desperate need of a
resurrection. We died in Adam. Did you know,
and I've probably said this before, but there is no question among
any place else about death except in religion. We question being dead in religion,
but nowhere else. And there is no superlative when
it comes to dead. There is no dead, debtor, and
deadest. We don't qualify things that way. In fact, the Lord,
when he came to this earth, and we have the record of him raising
three people from the dead, one was 12 years old, one was a young
man, and one was an older man, and when we find the definition,
or we find the, what's going on around, they're all dead.
Breath has left them. They're all dead. And nobody
goes around and says, well, she was not quite as dead as he was
because she just died and he's just being carried out. Nothing
is as dead as Lazarus is. He's been dead for four days.
We don't qualify it that way. We're dead. And that's how God
finds us. We died in Adam. We're animated. We have this physical animation.
But when it comes to the part that has any interest in God,
it is graveyard dead. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection. What we find throughout the scriptures
is we need to be raised from the dead. We need a resurrector
that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we
ask or think. We need someone that is able
to do what we cannot do. We can't raise, well, we can't
even Grow a millimeter. Oh, that's a new one for me.
I'm so used to the English system. I have students now trying to
teach me the metric system. It's so much simpler, I realized,
but it's not simpler than what I've learned. By thought, by
our prayers, by our interest, by our whatever, we can't even
grow a millimeter. We can't change. We can't even
put aside a cold. We can't take care of a cold.
We can't take care of a wart. And then people say we can take
care of our spiritual needs. They're fooling. We're dead in
trespasses and sins. There is no way. Religion says
by enough invitation. Have you ever had the just as
I am war out with you? Oh my goodness. And people believe
that by getting people emotionally involved, they can get something
done. But if we realize that they're
dead, that's not going to do it. Enough shaming. I was shamed from the pulpit
that I hadn't come forward yet. And enough fear that most of
the teaching on hell is nothing more than to scare people into
heaven. And it doesn't work because we're
dead in trespasses and sin. And by enough pleading, oh, by
pleading and pleading, all of the things that are happening
in the religious world since Cain and all the way this way,
there's none of those things that are effectual because we're
dead. But the scriptures say, blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. That
is a description that God illustrates and shares with Nicodemus when
he said, you must be born again. I've shared a number of times
that when I'm around most preachers, they drop nuggets in my lap.
They may not even know about it. I was visiting over there
in the house the other day, and a brother says, Nicodemus looked
at everything horizontal and Jesus was looking at everything
vertical. I says, that's it. Nicodemus said, how can I be
born again? Must I enter my mother's womb?
He's looking at everything from a horizontal position, and that
means from this world. He can't get above it by his
nature. Jesus is talking about a vertical.
You must be born from above. You must be born again. You must
be born from God. How many of us have ever had
a battery in our car go dead? Oh, yes, and at the most unkind
time. We go out in the morning, we've
left our lights on, and we go out in the morning and we're
late and we're, or it doesn't even do anything because we left
it on too long. How many of us raise the lid or the hood of
our car and get over there and put our hands on it and say,
please, have enough energy to start this car? We don't do it because we know
it's no good. It won't work. What do we have
to do? We have to reach out from the
outside and hook up something to that battery to give it a
charge. We have to be, have a outside
from the inside. The battery is horizontal. We
need to get something from the outside. My friends, we got shorted
out in the garden. We lost every ounce of our battery. There is nothing left. It is
deader than a mackerel. There's nothing that we can do
to start it. And by God's wonderful grace,
he brings along the regenerator. And he sends down his great grace
of energy, and we're raised from the dead. Now, we're going to
go through this life and we're going to come to the point where
the battery of our life runs out and we die physically. But
that battery he gave to us from a spiritual standpoint will never
lose what has been given. And we will be in heaven that
instant praising God and someday, And people are saying, oh, we
got to have all these things happen before that happens. You
know what has to happen before that happens? The last lost sheep
has to be found. And when that's over, it will
be over. We won't need any other temples
or buildings or all these other things that are being talked
about. The thing that must happen, and it will happen in God's good
time, What must happen is that last lost sheep must be found. Now that last lost sheep may
have been born already, or it may be in 10 generations, we
don't know, but that's the key to Christ coming back. I was
sent an email one time and says, they're just about ready to put
those barcodes in our back of our hands or our forehead, and
when that happens, Jesus will come back. And I says, if that's
gonna bring Jesus back, put me in the line. People are so stupid. The fall made us just ignoramuses. We fall for anything. We'll avoid
everything that's spiritual and everything that's holy and everything
that is good and we'll avoid God and we'll avoid God's gospel
and we'll just avoid everything. But we'll fall for the stupidest
things in this world and think we're doing God a service. The father raises up the dead
is what we find in John chapter 5 verse 21. In Romans chapter
4, even God who quickeneth the dead and you being dead in Colossians. But would you turn with me back
to the book of Ecclesiastes? The book of Ecclesiastes and
I put in my notes page 748. The book of Ecclesiastes chapter
8. The book of Ecclesiastes chapter
eight, and we read here in verse eight. Ecclesiastes eight, verse
eight, it says, there is no man that hath power over the spirit
to retain the spirit. Whoa, and that's Old Testament. Neither hath he power in the
day of death. And there is no discharge in
that war, neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given
to it. There is no man hath power over the spirit to retain the
spirit. We find in fact that the Lord
says there's a point in time for man to die and you're not
going to pass it and you're not going to go before it. It's an
appointed time. But we also find here, as well
as all the other scriptures, that no man is able to do anything
about it after we've died. Adam's fig leaves. I was just talking back there
about thorns and thistles and things that we have as a result
of the fall. Can you imagine what it was like
to put fig leaves on your body? Those are rough, stickery leaves,
sticky, and they made aprons of fig leaves and sewed them
together with the idea that they would be accepted before an almighty
God that was just now at this time of day preparing to come
down and visit with his creation. But when they heard the voice
of his steps, they hid themselves because they knew they were naked.
They were dead before God. The lights had gone out. Darkness
had fallen. There was nothing in this world
that they could do to retract it. God had said, the day you
eat, you shall surely die. And when they ate, they surely
did die. Now, blessed and holy is he that
hath part in the first resurrection. That is, when God comes in his
mercy and grace, After preaching the gospel and he has an appointed
time for us to hear the gospel, he will come with his power and
raise his people from that deadness and make them alive in Christ
Jesus. There is a wonderful illustration
in the scriptures about this very thing. Jesus Christ did
it physically, but we can see in this the wonderful pictures
of him doing it spiritually. Would you turn with me to the
book of John chapter 11? Here is that account that you've
read so often, I'm sure. You've heard preached on so often,
I'm sure. But I would like to go here one
more time when Jesus Christ is notified that there is a man
that's sick by the name of Lazarus. Lazarus is his friend, that's
what he even says. Do you think that Adam was God's
enemy? No. He was his creation. and notification
comes. Did God step down there in the
middle of that and stop everything that was going on with that serpent
and Eve? No. Jesus Christ gets word that
his friend is sick. What does he do? He spends two
more days where he is. Now we have him demonstrated
in times that he healed a person and he didn't even go see them.
We have him healing people and he went to see them. We have
him doing all of these things. Jesus Christ is all powerful.
He's Lord of lords and King of kings. He could have raised Lazarus
from his illness from where he was, but he chose not to because
it was not his purpose to do that. He could have prevented
what happened in the garden, but he chose, it was not in his
purpose. This is what he had decreed to
be done. He had a lamb slain from the
foundation of the world and it was going to be used. We have
Lazarus sick, word comes, he's died. And both of those sisters
say, if you'd have been here, if you'd have been here, if you'd
have been here, he got there at the right time. This man is
going to demonstrate what God does for us spiritually when
he said, blessed and holy is he that had part in the first
resurrection. When I give the new birth, blessed and holy is
that person because I made him blessed and I made him holy.
I've raised him to newness of life in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ
comes here in chapter 11, and there in verse 1, the scriptures
share this, and it says, a certain man was sick named
Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and his sister Martha.
And this, it was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment
and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
Therefore, his sister sinned unto him, saying, Lord, behold,
he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said,
this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that
the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Well, he sticks around
for two days. Lazarus dies. There's no qualification about
that. Is he as dead as someone else? Is he deader than others? Is he the deadest person that's
ever been? We don't have superlatives when it comes to that. But we
have this about Lazarus. He's dead. No argument. There's no argument from Mary.
There's no argument from Martha. And if given the opportunity,
there would have been no argument for Lazarus. After the fact,
he said, I was dead. Well, Jesus goes over there and
there's a lot of conversation about him going over there because
he's going through some places where people don't like him.
Well, they still don't like him in this world. He's not welcome. He must make us willing in the
day of his power. Then we like him. We love him. We adore him. We hold him up.
We admire him. As it goes over here in chapter,
11 verse 34, and Jesus said, where have you
laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, behold how
he loved him. And some of them said, could
not this man which opened the eyes of the blind have caused
that even this man should not have died? Jesus therefore again, groaning
in himself, cometh to the grave. It was a cave and a stone lay
upon it. And Jesus said, take away the
stone. Martha said, the sister of him
that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time it's too late. It's just too late. Decomposition
has set in. He stinketh. Don't get downwind. It's terrible. It's too late. When does a person
send away his day of grace? When he dies. If a person is not saved at that
time, there is no second chance. A man came to me and said his
daughter used to think she believed the gospel, or she said she did,
and now she's just gone astray. Has she sinned away her day of
grace? And I simply said, has she dead? He said, no. And I
said, no, then she hasn't. We just pray to God that he will
come along in his good time and cause her to hear the gospel,
and she'll be saved, and we'll rejoice together. Don't give
up hope while there's the time of hope. But once they passed
into the grave, my parents both passed off into the grave, I
have no hope for them. They had no interest in the gospel.
They only had interest in religion. And they weren't very good even
at that. Martha said, if you'd have been
here, Martha said, it's too late. Jesus said in verse 40, I said
unto, not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest
see the glory of God. You know, sometimes I find people,
preachers in particular, commentaries, get after people because they
didn't have faith. And then we realize where all
our faith comes from. If it's not revealed to us, we
are not going to have any. If we don't have belief given
to us, we're not going to have any. He's the Alpha and Omega. He is the beginning and the end.
He is the author and finisher of our faith. Religion doesn't
want him to be the author. They say, well, he's done all
he can do and now it's up to you. So religion takes away the
authorship of God, of Christ. they take away the omega ship. Well, since he saved me, now
it's up to me to get spiritual, it's up to me to get holy, it's
up to me to get sanctified, get promoted in some way, I'll get
there. This idea, he's the author and the finisher of our faith
and he will not have anything else. He's got a copyright on
it and he's not allowing any infringements upon his copyright. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. He is the Alpha and Omega. He's
the beginning and the ending. He is the first cause of all
things. He's the first cause of our faith.
He will be the ending cause. We'll not need faith when we
see him face to face. Oh, those words. Jesus gets down here. Verse 42, verse 41, and they
took away the stone where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted
up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard
me. And I knew that thou hearest
me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said
unto it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me almost
all the scriptures given for that reason. It's in the mind
of God before the foundation of the world and we have it,
so I thank thee. You always do what I ask, but
I want the people to hear it now. And then when he had spoken,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. Irresistible grace was exercised. A man that's dead and called
by Almighty God is going to come out of the tomb, going to be
raised. What's that? And he that was
dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and
his face was bound with a napkin. And Jesus said, Loose him and
let him go. The Lord Jesus stepped up to
that grave just like he does to every one of his lost sheep.
He steps up to the grave. We're in the graveyard. And he
steps up through the preaching of the gospel, plants the seed,
and God, his Holy Spirit, comes and raises us out of the dead. He gives us a regeneration. He takes what was dead and gives
life. We're made alive in Christ Jesus. And here we find that that That
verse of scripture over in the book of Revelation chapter 20
said, blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection
for on such the second death hath no power. And we find out
over there in the book of Revelation that they were cast into the
lake of fire and that is the second death. God has taken that
on himself. He took our second death on the
cross. He took all the justice and punishment
that was due us. He took it. It's no longer ours. And then it tells us over there
in the book of Revelation chapter 20, verse six, this hath no power
over us, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall
reign with him a thousand years. It's so wonderful to find out
that once he saves us, we get to reign with him. reign with him, to be heirs of
God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, to be part of his great
reign. Someone said he's going to reign
a thousand years and the other preacher said that's not long
enough. He's reigned from eternity to eternity and we will reign
with him and it goes also says in that passage of scripture
in the book of Revelation chapter 20 and verse 6, We shall be priests
of God and shall reign with him. Brought out in the book of Revelation
that we're king priests of the Lord when he saves us by his
grace. We go from absolutely despising
the gospel to realizing this is our life. He is our life. He's our lifeblood. We depend
on that bread, that manna from heaven. We depend upon Christ
for all our sustenance, that he takes all what we thought
we had to have and he becomes all of that. And he has every
vitamin and mineral that we ever need from a spiritual standpoint,
for he is all in, in all. But they shall be priests of
Christ and shall reign with him. You know that word thousands
confused a lot of people. I'm not going to get into it,
but I know this. There's another place in the New Testament that
word is used twice. A day with the Lord is a thousand
years and a thousand years is the day. So I'm just going to
leave it at that. The Lord Jesus Christ is going
to reign and reign and reign. He's sitting on a throne. He's
the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is reigning. He will
reign. He will always reign. And all
his people will always reign with him. They will be before
him saying, worthy is the lamb that was slain, thanking him
and saying, I am blessed. And I'm only holy because of
the first resurrection. Jesus Christ came one day to
my tomb. Nobody else had ever dropped
by. And those who did said, well, if you could get out of that
mess, I could help you. Jesus Christ came by one day
and spoke, called irresistibly, and we came forth. bound hand
and foot with our old grave clothes, and we're thankful for those
who will, in their good time and by the grace of God, will
say, you know, let's look at this verse of scripture, and
we say, oh my goodness, oh my goodness. That grave clothes
falls off. Someone else says, we say something
kind of foolish, and they say, oh, let's look at this verse
of scripture, and we say, oh my goodness, now the grave clothes
falls off. And throughout this life, grave
clothes are going to be taken off. And then when we get in
his presence, a robe of righteousness. Come unto me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me. That's what Jesus said. Thank
God for his resurrection, his resurrection, And as a result
of it, the resurrection of all his people, it takes the same
power that it took to raise Jesus from the tomb to raise you spiritually
from the spiritual debt.