Good morning. Turn with me, if you would, to
Psalm 139. While you're turning, our pastor
and Janet are at the conference in Millsite Baptist Church today
in Cottageville, West Virginia. Frank reported yesterday they're
having wonderful services and wonderful fellowship. Speaking
of fellowship, if you weren't here or weren't able to listen
to this morning's message, Listen to that, get that from sermon
audio and listen. Speaking of wonderful fellowship,
our fellowship in Christ. They're having wonderful fellowship
and we are too. Our elder Eric Floyd is preaching
at College Grove today in College Grove, Tennessee. So we pray
for traveling mercies for both of them. Look forward to having
them home with us. Psalm 139. We'll read the first
10 verses. O Lord, thou hast searched me
and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting
and mine up-rising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou compass my path and my lying down, and art acquainted
with all my ways. For there is not a word in my
tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast
beset me behind, and before laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge
is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto
it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit?
Whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into
heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall
thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. Let's stand
together while Mike leads us in a call to worship. Great Father of glory, how rich
is thy grace! What wonderful love is displayed
in thy face! In Jesus thy image with brightness
we view, With hope to be formed in that likeness anew. O wanderer of wonders, astonished
I gaze To see in a manger the Ancient of Days From sin to release
us that yoke so long worn My God, my Creator, a woman was
born for unworthy sinners. My Lord bowed His head for unworthy
sinners. He suffered and bled. My spirit rejoices. The work is all done. My soul is redeemed. My salvation is won. Great Father of glory, how rich
is Thy grace! What wonderful love is displayed
in Thy face! In him, our beloved, we're washed
in his blood. With confidence come to the throne
of our God. Well, we're a little behind,
so I'm going to skip that first song and let's go to the second.
second song on 103, number 103. Let's sing the chorus after the
first, third, and fifth. It's a great song. One day when heaven was filled
with His praises, One day when sin was as black as could be,
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin, Dwelled among men by
example is He. Living He loved me, Dying, He
saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day He's coming, O glorious
day. One day they led Him up Calvary's
mountain, One day they nailed Him to die on the tree. Suffering anguish, despised and
rejected, Bearing our sin, our Redeemer is He. One day they left Him alone in
the garden. One day they rested from suffering
free. Angels came down for His tomb
to keep vigil. Hope of the hopeless, my Savior
is He. Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming O glorious
day! One day the grave could conceal
him no longer, One day the stone rolled away from the door. Then he arose, over death he
had conquered, Now is ascended by Lord evermore. One day the trumpet will sound
for His coming. One day the skies with His glory
will shine. Wonderful day, my beloved one's
bringing. Glorious Savior, this Jesus is
mine Living He loved me, dying He saved me Mary did carry my
sins far away Rising, He justified freely forever One day He's coming,
O glorious day Turn back with me to a Psalm
139. Psalm 139. We're going to pick back up in verse 11. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover
me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth
not from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness
and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed
my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise
thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are
thy works, that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was
not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see
my substance, yet being imperfect, and in thy book all my members
were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there
were none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts
unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they are more in number than the same.
When I awake, I'm still with you. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, I pray that
you be with us in the morning service as you were during Sunday
school, that you bless the message, bless this time of fellowship
that we have together, this time of worship, that it be right
and good and that it be honoring to you that we worship you in
spirit and in truth. I pray that you leave us not
alone, both in this service as well as throughout the week.
Father, keep us and hold us for we would leave you. Keep us and
protect us and keep us cleaving to you. Forgive our sinfulness,
our evil hearts, our evil thoughts, our desire not toward you, but rather keep
us, focus our hearts on your goodness. Scripture says, whatsoever
things are good, think on these. Father, keep our minds and our
hearts focused on you. We thank you for this time that
we have together. We don't deserve this time. We
don't deserve to even bow before you, but thank you for drawing
us, and I pray that you bless this time. remove those thoughts
of this world from our minds, that we may worship once more.
Give us eyes to see Christ again. Give us a heart to worship. Forgive
our sinfulness. We pray for those that are undergoing
trial of heartache or sickness or whatever the trial may be. I pray that you be with them
in comfort as only you can. What we pray for ourselves, we
pray for the congregations that are meeting even now, all across
the globe, that you bless as you see fit. Father, give us
a heart that seeks after your will and delights in it. We pray this thankfully in Christ's
name for his sake. Amen. It's my pleasure to introduce
Gabe Stoniker after Mike's special, if you would, Gabe, come preach
the word to us. Gabe and Hannah travel from Kingsport Sovereign
Grace Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. We're thankful for you, for your
congregation, for your family. We're thankful that you're here
and for that fellowship that we have that the Lord laid on
your heart today. We're thankful for that. We're
thankful that you're here. Again, Mike Stoneman is with
the special. Come preach with us. In my darkness Jesus found me
He touched my eyes and he made me see ? Broke sin's chains that long
had bound me ? ? Gave me life and liberty ? ? O glorious love of Christ my
Lord divine ? Made him stoop to save a soul
like mine Through all my days and then in heaven above My song will silence never, I'll
worship Him forever, And praise Him for His glorious love. Oh, amazing truth to ponder Reconciled to God in him Lord of heaven, God's Son, what
wonder He became the sinner's friend. O glorious love of Christ, my
Lord divine, that made Him stoop to save a soul like mine. Through all my days and then
in heaven above, My song will silence never I'll
worship Him forever And praise Him for His glorious love And
praise Him for His glorious love Glorious love What a wonderful song. I don't
know if that line is, my soul will silence never, or my song
will silence never. But either way, we praise Him
forever. Will we ever stop crying? Thou
art worthy, for Thou was slain. Isn't that beautiful? I want to say thank you again
for having us. And I just want to say how much
I love your pastor so much. He is such a dear friend to me
and my father. And every time I talk to him,
I'm so encouraged by him. He's just such a dear, sweet,
positive brother. You have a wonderful pastor. And I'm thankful for you. Happy
for you. I love Him so much. Turn with
me if you would now to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians 2. And let's read
verses 13 to 15. And you, being dead in your sins,
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together
with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His
cross. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. Let me open this message by giving
you a few facts about the gospel. All right, here are a few absolute
facts about the gospel. Number one, the gospel is a declaration. It is a notification. It is not an offer. I'm not here to offer anybody
anything this morning. A lot of people believe that's
what the gospel is. They believe that it is an offer,
but it's not. It's not an offer. The gospel
is not a solicitation. It's not an advertisement as
something for sale. That's what a lot of people believe
the gospel is. And it turns people off because
that's what they believe the gospel is, you know, a business
owner, a guy has a store in town on the door of his store. He
puts no soliciting. Meaning don't come in here and
try to sell me something. The gospel is not a solicitation. The gospel is not a call to arms. And that's what most people think
it is. They think that it's a call to
action. You know, we get up here and
we motivate people. We're going to motivate you.
All right, now let's go. It's not a call to arms. The gospel is not a proposal
of cooperation. Now, here's the thing. If you
will do this. He will do that. That's not what
the gospel is. The gospel is not a blueprint. It's not a plan I've heard so
many times people. Talk about how many souls they've
won, and they say, you know, I laid out the plan of salvation
to them. Well, the gospel is not a plan. The gospel is a declaration. Alright, now just a moment ago,
we read verses 13 to 15, and what we read was a declaration. We read a notification. That's
the first fact. The second fact is the gospel
is good news. It is good news. There is a lot
of bad news in the truth. There's a lot. When you tell
somebody the truth of the word, here's the truth of what the
word says. There's a lot of bad news in
there. When we see the truth of our
condition, when it's revealed to a man, finally the Spirit
of God reveals to him the truth of his condition on this earth
in the flesh, that's horrible news. I didn't realize that. Bad news. When the truth of God's law is
revealed, Man sees a couple of laws in here. There are thousands
and thousands of laws in here, but man loves to post ten on
the wall, and then he looks at those ten and says, yep, I did
that, and yep, I did that, and yep, I did that. Not realizing
that everything that God demands and commands applies not only
to the deeds of the hands, but the thoughts of the mind and
the motivation of the heart. He said, if you've ever gotten
angry with anybody, you've committed murder. Well, who hadn't committed murder? So when that truth of God's law
comes in, that's, oh, that's bad news. When the truth of his judgment
on sinners like me and sinners like you is revealed to a person,
It's terrible news because most people think God's a pushover. And He's just going to sweep
it all under the rug at the end anyway. It'll be okay. It's going
to be alright. Well, when the truth of the strictness of God's
justice and God's judgment... This is a holy judge we're dealing
with. There are some judges on this
earth that criminals go stand before and they get a reputation
as being a hard, strict, by-the-book judge. No mercy. Well, when the
truth of God's judgment, that's revealed to a person,
that's terrible news. When we see these things, we
realize that there's a lot of bad news in the truth. A lot. But there is no bad news in the
Gospel. None. The gospel is nothing but
good news. All right. So it's a declaration.
Of good news. And here's the third fact. The
gospel is all about Christ. Period. It's all about Christ, men and
women. hear the word gospel and they,
you know, go to these gospel singings and they gospel this
and gospel that and they're trying to figure out what is the gospel
really? And how do I play into it? What's my role here? Well,
I don't have one. But we're talking about the gospel.
The gospel only involves Christ. It's all about Christ. If we are going to talk about
the gospel, we have to be talking about Christ. We have to be talking
about who He is. We have to talk about what He
did. And we have to talk about why
He did it. Does it involve us? Yes. But it doesn't involve us. It only involves Him. It's all
about Him. So if we are not declaring declaring
the good news of Christ. We're not declaring the gospel.
Now, let's read these three verses again with that in mind, OK?
Colossians 2 verse 13, it says, and you. Being dead in your sins. And the uncircumcision of your
flesh, that's the truth. There's the truth. Verse 13 goes
on to say, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven
you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out
of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it." That's the gospel. That is the gospel. That declaration
is the gospel. Now let's just break that down
and declare it in a way that we can understand it. And then
we'll be done. Verse 13 says, and you being dead." What does he mean by that? We
all got up this morning and put our clothes on and got breakfast
and got in our car. What does he mean, and you being
dead? Well, he's not talking about
being dead physically. He's not talking about being
dead mentally. He's not talking about being
dead emotionally. He's talking about being dead
spiritually. Turn back just a few pages to
Ephesians 2. The Apostle Paul is writing to
God's people here. And He said in Ephesians 2 verse
1, And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of this world. He said you were dead in trespasses
and sins, but you walked. You walked according to the course
of this world. You were dead, but you walked. according to
the course of this world. You lived in the world. You were
physically alive in the world. But spiritually speaking, you
walked, it goes on to say in verse two, according to the prince
of the power of the air. The spirit. That now worketh
in the children of disobedience, and that's the condition that
every man and woman is in in the flesh, that's what we're
born into all of us. Me included. We're all born into
this spiritually dead condition. Verse 3 says, Among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past, in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. That was all of us. There's no
room to say, well, I'm not like them. That was all of us. Verse four says. But God right
now, up until this point, he's been talking about us. Now he's
going to talk about Christ. Up until this point, he's been
declaring the horrible news of the truth. Now he's going to
give us the good news of the gospel. Verse four says, but God, this
is who he is. Who is rich in mercy. Who know
what God is like? He is rich in mercy. For his
great love wherewith he loved us. This is what he did. Verse five. Even when we were
dead in sins, he quickened us together with Christ. By grace,
you are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's who he is
and that's what he did. Now, this is why he did it. Verse
seven, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches
of his grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. That's the gospel. That's what he meant in chapter
1 verse 3 when it said, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. So here's the truth about every
man and woman on this earth. Here's the horrible, shocking
truth. Here's the truth about every
man and woman in this room. Let's bring it close to home,
not just on the earth. Let's talk about those of us
in this room. In our flesh, we're dead. In our flesh, all that
we can do is dead things. That's all we can do. Men stand
up and say, now what are you going to do for Jesus? All we can do is dead things.
Here are some of the things that we can do. In our condition,
these are some of the things that we can do. We can rot. A dead thing can do that. We
can stink. That's something a dead thing
can do. We can be vile and repulsive. corrupted, decayed, diseased. Dead things can do that. We can
do no good thing before God, no profitable thing before God.
Those are the kind of things that we can do if we're dead.
If according to God's holy word, we are being dead in our sins
and the uncircumcision of our flesh. If that's the case, then
that's all we can do. Here's the bad news of the truth,
okay? That's who we are and that's
all we can do. Now, who is Christ and what can
He do? Better yet, better news, what
has He done? Who is Christ and what has He
done? Well, if you go with me back
to Colossians 2, Verse 13 says, and you being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, had he quickened
together with him. That means made alive. That means
to reanimate. It means to regenerate, quicken,
regenerate. Christ is our life. He's our life. He's all life. But He is our
life. He is our life. When the Lord
Jesus Christ created Adam from the dust of the ground, and that's
who created Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. He made him to be a living
soul. What that means is he made something
that was perfectly united to himself. To say that Adam was
a living soul, it means he was perfectly united with Christ. Adam was alive because of his
union with Christ. That's the reason when Adam sinned,
he was cast out of his union with Christ. He was cast out
of the garden. Yes. But more importantly, he
was cast out of his union with Christ. And the moment he lost
union with Christ, he spiritually died. He kept walking. But he
spiritually died. To be joined together with Christ
is life. We're here to learn about eternal
life. Well, to be joined together with Christ is life and to be
separated from that union with Christ is dead. That's what spiritual
death is. Physical death. Is the souls
separation from this body? That's what physical death is.
Spiritual death is the souls separation from God. That's what
Arthur Pink said, and he got it right. Physical death is the
soul separation from the body. Spiritual death is the soul's
separation from God. In order for life to come back
to God's people, and in order for them to be quickened again,
they all had to be brought back to a vitally joined union with
Christ. Just like a branch that's cut
off of a tree. If it has any hope of living
again, it has to be grafted back into the tree. become united
again with the tree. That's the only hope of life. Well, what did it take for God's
people who were dead in their sins to be joined back together
with Christ? What did it take? What did he
have to do to accomplish that union again? Verse 13, here in
Colossians 2, verse 13, it says, And you being dead in your sins,
and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." Death cannot
be joined to life. It cannot be joined to life.
Nobody has ever been half dead. That's something that we, you
know, he's half dead. Nothing has ever been half dead.
You're either dead or you're alive. One of the two. Darkness
cannot be joined to light. Sin cannot be joined to sinlessness. It just cannot be. It all had
to be put away. Completely put away. So that's
what Christ did. Verse 14 says, He blotted out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His
cross. Our union with Him was lost because
of sin against His commandment to us. He said, in the day you
eat of that fruit, you're going to die. And we died because of
breaking that commandment. Sin against His ordinance. This is what the ordinance has
to say to us. Because of that sin, this is what God's holy
ordinance now has to say to us. You don't stack up anymore. You
don't hold up. You're found lacking. That's
what King Belshazzar, he saw that writing on the wall. And
that's what it said to him. You are weighed in the balances
and you've come up short. You've sinned against God. And
the wages of sin is debt. That's the truth. That's just
the truth. But here's the gospel. There
is one that can redeem you. Now, if we ever get a hold of
the truth, it will make the gospel glorious
to us. Some who have never seen this
before, they think, how can you do this? How can you go back
service after service after service and hear the same message How
can you sit there and hear a man who will stand up and say, you
are a sinner in your flesh and in your works and in everything
that you do and everything that you are? And then preach this
one hope. Of salvation in the death and
the work and the blood of Christ, how can you just hear that over
and over and over and over? If God ever reveals the truth
of what we really are. The gospel, it'll become glorious. It'll become life. It will become
everything. And you try to tell a child of
God something other than the gospel, and that's when a fight
breaks out. We want to hear that. You tell
us that same old story. One more time. Our union with
Christ, it was lost because of that sin. And he said, you're
found lacking. But here is the good news of
the gospel. There is one, one who can redeem you. There is
one thing that can bring remission from your sin. A person gets
a disease of some kind and they treat it and they remove that
disease and then it's said that person is in remission. In remission
from the disease. That means they're free from
it. It's been removed from them. Well, God said there is one thing
that can bring remission from your sin. There is one thing
that can remove it and set you free from it. This is what that one thing is.
Sinless blood. That's what the one thing is.
Sinless blood. It has to be sinless blood. This is the reason why you cannot
redeem yourself. This is the reason why people
think, well, I need to redeem myself. Sinless blood is inside
you. I mean, sinful blood is inside
you. All right. You cannot redeem
yourself because it is blood that makes remission for the
soul. God said it has to be without spot. It has to be without blemish. And all of us are infected with
sinful blood. You cannot redeem yourself. There is only one place where
we can find sinless blood in Emmanuel's names. That's the
only place. Look with me if you would. First
John chapter one. 1 John 1, verse 7. It says, If we walk in the light
as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ
His Son cleanseth us from all sin. What cleanses us? The blood of Jesus Christ. the
blood of Christ alone. That's it. Not His blood in my
decision. Not His blood in my turning over
a new lamb for Him. Rededicating my heart. It's His
blood alone. Revelation 1 verse 5 says, unto
Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. Every offense that the law had
against us, every time the law said, this is what you've done,
and it's going to take blood to pay the debt of it." Every
time Christ said, here it is. Every offense. He blotted out,
He covered with sinless blood every single ordinance that was
on record against His people. Do you ever go back into your
mind, to the past, to things that you've done and you knew
you shouldn't have done it? You ever go back into there and
you have that regret, thinking, won't that go away? Why is that
still lingering in my mind 30 years later? Oh, I wish I hadn't
done that. Right? It's like a worm that
died not. Right? Every single sin that
you have committed and I have committed and all of His people
have committed. Every single individual sin has
been covered in the spotless blood of Jesus Christ. Blotted
out. Every single one of them. Every soul that Christ blotted
out all those sins for, they have a record. Everything that
we did was on record. God's holy justice and judgment
was writing down every ordinance against us. And Christ came with
His own blood and blotted all of it out. And now when you look
at our record, all you see is a big red page. Blood, blood,
blood, blood, blood. That means every child of God
in Christ has a brand new record. A brand spanking new record. He took that old record of every
soul the Father gave to Him. and He nailed that old record
to His cross. He laid that old record on Himself
and then He nailed Himself to His cross. My sin, oh the bliss
of this glorious thought. We just heard that played a moment
ago. Alright? My sin. I'm talking about Gabe
Stoniker's sin. You all have your own sin to
worry about. I have my own sin to worry about.
My sin Oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not
in part, not just from that moment when the Lord finally revealed
Himself to me. Not in part, but the whole. Not
just the sins that I have committed up to this point and now I better
straighten up and fly right or I'm going to get a record again.
Okay, I wiped that record out, now don't do it again. Well,
guess what I've done? You know that 30 years ago? my sin not in part, but the whole. From the moment I was conceived
to the moment I leave this earth. All of it was nailed to the cross. And I bear it no more. Praise
the Lord. Praise the Lord all my soul.
Those soldiers did not nail our Lord to the cross. He nailed himself to the cross. Those soldiers were the pawns,
they were just the means of carrying out His command. He said, I will never leave you, I'll never
forsake you. And the reason is because He
took everything that we were, all of our days on this earth,
with Him to that cross. He nailed it all to that cross
and He put it all away. Every bit of it. If you go back to our text, go
back to Colossians 2. I'll wrap it up. Colossians 2. The first time I saw this was
so glorious to me. Verse 13, it says, And you being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened
together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way Nailing it to His
cross. His cross. He took my sin and my sorrow.
He made them His very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and He suffered and died alone. He made every bit of it His own.
Even the cross, that was His own. There's a poem and these are
some of the first lines in that poem. He borrowed the bed to
lay his head. He borrowed the bread when the
crowd he fed. He borrowed a room on the way
to the tomb. He borrowed the cave for him
a grave. But the crown that he wore and
the cross that he bore Those were His own. He took my sin
and made them His own. In that moment, verse 15 says,
having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them. And if you have a center
margin in your Bible, you'll see those last two words translate,
in Himself. triumphing over them in Himself,
in His sacrifice on the cross. The moment He blotted out every
ordinance against His people, He overthrew every principality
and power that His people were held captive to. In that moment,
He led captivity, the captors of His people, those who held
His people captive. In that moment, He led captivity, And what that means is He won
the victory. If we want to see that victory, all we have to
do is look to Christ. If we want to see the victory
over our sin, all we have to do is look to Christ. If we want
to be assured that the battle is over, and the victory is won,
and our freedom is secured, all we have to do is look to the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to the Lamb of God. Every
time we see Christ crucified, we see Him triumphing over them
in Himself. Every time. He brought that battle
into Himself and He won. That's the declaration of the
good news of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for His people.
Now, a moment ago, we just sang a song And I want to read the
words to you in that song, because those verses declare the gospel. This glorious news of the gospel.
It was hymn number 103, and this is what they said. One day when heaven was filled
with His praises, This is what glory was like before we sinners
were created and fell. Heaven was filled with His praises. Now down here on this earth,
one day when sin was as black as could be, Jesus came forth to be born of
a virgin, dwelt among men, my example is He. One day they led
Him up Calvary's mountain. One day they nailed Him to die
on the tree. Suffering anguish, despised and
rejected, bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He." Why did Christ
come? To put away the sin of His people.
Did He do it? Yes, He did. He didn't try. He
did it. It's finished. You don't have
to do anything. This is not a call to arms. This
is a call to rest. Alright? Here's the declaration
now. Rest. Lay back. Go to sleep. I love how our Lord said, sleep
on. I'll have people come up to me
sometimes and say, I'm so sorry, my eyes were heavy, I was tired.
I say, as the Lord said, sleep on. It's okay. It's okay. Everybody can just go to sleep.
Rest. Rest in Christ. One day, they
left Him alone in the garden. One day, He rested from suffering
free. Angels came down over His tomb
to keep vigil. Hope of the hopeless. Outside of Christ, there's no
hope for man. I'm hopeless. Hope of the hopeless. My Savior
is He. This is one of my favorite lines
in a song. One day the grave could conceal
Him no longer. One day the stone rolled away
from the door. Then He arose, over death He
had conquered. Now is ascended my Lord evermore. The word Lord means, if you look
up the definition, it means Sovereign. One day the trumpet will sound
for His coming. And it's going to be a great
day. It's going to be a great day. You'll hear it in Ashland.
We'll hear it in Kingsport. The whole world will hear it.
The trump shall resound. And we'll hear it and all of
God's people are going to be as He is. As He is, so are we
in this world. And the way He left this world
is while He was blessing His people. Gravity let go of Him. And He ascended into the air,
into the clouds. And that's exactly how all of His people are leaving
this earth. Whoever lives and believes in Him will never die.
If we lay this old man down for a moment, before that happens,
we will reenter these bodies. The dead in Christ shall rise
first. All those generations, this is
going to be elbow to elbow. Trumpet shall resound. Nobody's
going to miss it. Everybody's going to hear it.
The Lord shall descend. There He is. The moment our eyes
make contact with Him, we'll be changed. We'll be just like
Him. And we're going to rise to meet
Him in the air. And so we'll ever be with Him.
It's good news, isn't it? He arose over death, He had conquered,
now is ascended, my Lord, evermore. One day the trumpet will sound
for His coming. One day the skies with His glory
will shine. Wonderful day my beloved one's
bringing. Glorious Savior, this Jesus is
mine. Living, He loved me. Dying, He
saved me. Buried, He carried my sin far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. one day he's coming. That's glorious news. All right. Thank you. I can say with the apostles,
didn't our hearts burn within us? Didn't our hearts just burn
within us? Thank you, Gabe. That was a blessing. Thank you. Before Mike sings,
Brother Dan, do you mind coming and dismissing us in prayer? Our Heavenly Father, we are so,
so thankful for this morning. Lord, we praise our Lord Jesus
Christ. who became man, who lived the
perfect life, that we might be made perfect in him, who took
our sin and put it away on the tree, that it exists no more,
that we might come before your holy throne. Call me, our Father,
to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, thank you for
not leaving us alone, proclaiming a word from thee
to the hearts of your people. I pray that you would continue
to bless as we go forth, that we might live in this sinful
world, telling fellow sinners the good news of salvation in
our Lord Jesus Christ, that we might declare the gospel I pray
that you would continue to bless Gabe and his family. Give them
traveling mercies. Bring our pastor home to us.
We ask all these things and give thanks in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. Stand and sing 141. 141. Look ye, saints, the sight is
glorious, See the man of sorrows now, From the fight return victorious,
Every knee to him shall bow. Brown him, Brown him, Brown's
become the victor's brow. Crown the Saviour, angels crown
Him Pitch the trophies Jesus brings In the seat of power enthrone
Him While the bolt of heaven rings Crown Him, crown Him Crown
the Saviour, King of kings Winners in derision crowned him A king
thus the saviors claimed Saints and angels proud around him His
title, praise His name. Crown Him, crown Him, spread
abroad the fame. Hark, those bursts of acclamation! Hark, those loud triumphant chords! Jesus takes the highest station,
O what joy the sight affords! Crown Him, crown Him, King of
kings and lords!