I am supposing that since everybody
else has sat down, it must be my turn. If you'll open your Bibles to the third chapter of the book
of Philippians, Mike asked me what is the title of my message.
And you know, quite often I don't know what the title of my message
is until I'm done preaching it. Because sometimes I think I know
what I'm going to say, but then it ends up somewhere else. But
let's just say that I told him that the title is The Hope of
the Believer. But we might give it a longer
title this way, His Hope, His Way, His Experience, and His
End. Now, I'm not going to try to
do anything difficult to follow. I'm certainly
not going to tell you anything you haven't heard before. And
I think Sunday nights, Wednesday nights, you ought to kind of
take it easy on the people because we come together or should come
together sometimes just to plain relax under the gospel. He said
he's going to put me to rest. I'll try to see if I can't do
the same for you. Show you the way of God's rest. I appreciate
that I was sitting up there getting worried, as is my way. I always worry, well, am I going
to preach a good sermon? Sometimes I'm sitting there,
am I going to have enough to say to at least fill up 25 minutes
so they'll think they got their money's worth? That's just the
way I think. And then we sang that song, More
Love To Thee, and I was reminded of the simplicity of the gospel
and the simplicity of worship. We certainly do get our ideas
of worship tied up in what we think is supposed to happen,
and how long it should happen, and just exactly when it should
happen. And there's certainly nothing wrong with order and
all that. But doesn't it come down to this? We love Him, and
our worship should be an expression of that love and gratitude and
those things associated with it somehow or another. So I'm
going to do my best this evening to speak to you on those four
subjects, the believer's hope, his way, his experience, and
his end. And I don't know if we'll get
all four of those things before we get to the end of time, but
we'll do what we can. Now, everybody's got a hope.
And when we speak of a man's hope, we may speak of one of
two things, what he hopes for or what he hopes in. Now, for
every believer, we can say this right at the beginning, every
believer's hope is in Christ. That's it. If your hope is not
in Christ, you have a really bad hope. You have a hope that's
going to leave you disappointed. Now, he that trusts in him, he
that hopes in Christ, will not be put to shame, says the scriptures.
You know what that means? That doesn't mean that you're
never going to feel embarrassed. All of us have been in the situation
where, you know, somebody ridiculed us for our faith and we kind
of shrunk up a little bit. And it's a shame we do that,
but it is. But that's not what he's talking about when it says
we won't be put to shame. What it means is in that day,
when judgment falls on the earth, those of us who have trusted
in him, we're not going to be put to shame because our trust
will have been proven faulty. Our hope will have been proven
vain. Actually, we'll be vindicated. It's the rest of the world that's
going to be put to shame. Now, every believer hopes in Christ. But then everybody that claims
to be a believer will tell you that, too. And sometimes, if
we're going to try to discern as much as we're capable of discerning,
if we're going to try to discern who's truly a believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ and who is not, we not only have to ask,
what do you hope in? We've got to ask, well, what
are you hoping for? What are you hoping for? Now, a lot of
people say, well, I want my mansion over the hilltop. I want heaven. That's my hope is heaven. Now
they're hoping in Christ to get to heaven. Do you know that the
believer's hope is not heaven? I'm glad for it. I'm not particularly interested
in that so-called mansion over the hilltop, which so many perceive
as some colonnaded thing, you know, like beautiful Georgian. I think that's the architectural
style, you know, with the big columns up front, you know, and. big driveway that circles around
there, you know, that you don't drive on because you got somebody
that does your driving for you. And people think that's what
heaven's about, that in heaven, God's going to give us all the
things he told us to avoid here. What description? Don't be enamored
of riches. I want my golden driveway. Don't seek those things. I want
my mansion. I'm satisfied with just a cottage
below, a little silver, a little gold. But one day yonder, we'll
never more wander but walk them streets made of gold. I've got
a mansion just over the hilltop. When it says in my father's house
are many mansions, you've got to read that in Elizabethan English,
not modern English. All a mansion is is a place to
live. It's a dwelling place. That's all that the word means.
It isn't telling you in architectural style. And I'll tell you this. I don't care where I am or what
I live in in heaven, as long as Christ there is going to be
a good place. And if Christ isn't there, I also don't care what
kind of mansion you build me. I don't want to be there. Is
that so? Is that how you feel about it?
You see, for the believer, his hope is not only in Christ. You know what he hopes for? Christ. Listen to Paul. He said, verse
eight, Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things. Now, he's not saying, you know,
that I suffered the loss of all these things because Jesus needed
me to do that. And so I did it for him. He's
saying this. I freely gave up all those things
because I couldn't have them in Christ too. He's not saying I did this as
a favor to Christ. He said, I gave up these things
because I could not, and we'll get into what they are. He said,
I gave up these things because I couldn't hold on to them and
have Christ. And when I look at Christ on
one side and those things, it's a no brainer. It's a no brainer. He says, And I do count them
but done that I may win Christ." Now that is the believer's hope
that they may win Christ. Now let's, that word win is going
to throw us off if we aren't careful to understand it simply
means to gain. And he doesn't mean there that we are in a contest
with anybody else to see who can get there first. As though,
you know, we all, you know, the hundred up like a marathon, you
know, everybody takes off at once, but only the first 50 are
going to get the prize. The race, if you want to call
it a race, or relate it to a race, and Paul does sometimes relate
the life of faith as to a race, it's not that you got there ahead
of anybody else, it's simply that you ran it and finished
it. And he said that I may win Christ,
that in the end I may have Him. And do you realize that's all
that Paul wanted? Everything he was doing was about
this, that I may win Christ, that I may be found in him, not
having a righteousness of my own which is of the law, but
that which is through faith of Christ, a righteousness which
is of God by faith, that I may know him. Now, that I may win
Christ. If I have Christ, I have everything
that's in him. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in him. I think it was Baxter or somebody
else. It's had this rather famous sermon. And one of the statements in
that sermon was that everything that God has for the sinner is
in Christ. He is the depository, the treasury
of all God's blessings. Now, he that has Christ has all
the blessings. He may not have experienced them
all yet. You say, well, what do you mean?
Well, look at this. And we're going to see the believers
in. And brethren, we look at these bodies. Aren't you glad
we're getting a better one? But I'll tell you where that
better one is. It's in Christ. I want the forgiveness of sins.
Well, I know where it is. It's in Christ. I want redemption.
It's in Christ. But I want Christ's person and
I want everything that's in him and that comes with him. That
is the hope of the believer. And he itemizes some of these
things that come by Christ, that I may win Christ and be found
in him. Now, I want you to understand,
brethren, no matter I say brethren, I assume everybody here is brethren.
But if you're not, this next statement applies to you anyway.
You are going to be found. No question about that. People
try to hide from God. Do you know that religion is,
for the most part, the attempt of men to hide from God. You say that doesn't make any
sense at all. Well, if you were a criminal
and the posse was after you, where would be the best place
to hide? In the posse. If you could. I mean, you know, if some crime
had come in and they said, well, we've got to go find whoever
did this. You go, yeah, let's go look for him. They aren't
going to turn and look at you. And men think by religion, and
particularly the more self-righteous religion that's out there looking
for sinners to condemn them, that they are going to hide from
God. And you know the reason they
can get away with that? It's because God isn't looking for
them right now. And they are lulled into the
false sense of security. I'll not be found. After all,
Everything's okay. Nothing's happened yet. Didn't
they say that concerning Noah, the preacher of righteousness
for 120 years? And they said, where's the promise
of his coming? Noah, you've been telling us
a long time, God's going to come and wipe the world out of the
flood. I don't see nothing happening. Must be okay. He won't find me. The flood came and swept them
all away. All of us will be found. Where
will you be found? The issue is not if, only where. Paul didn't doubt that he'd be
found. He just said, I want to be found in Christ. Because if I'm found there, everything's
OK. I want to be found there not
having my own righteousness, which is of the law. That's where
everybody tries to hide. Oh, God help your soul if he
finds you hiding in the law. But that's where a lot of people
are hiding. He said, I want to have that
righteousness, which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. Now, some say that that righteousness,
where it says it's through the faith of Christ, that that actually
means the faithfulness of Christ. And you know something? It works.
If we go that way, it's OK. The righteousness we have is
through the faithfulness of Christ. But the next phrase clears it
up when it says the righteousness which is of God and by faith. It's very simply this. Every man knows that in order
to be accepted by God, you must be righteous. Both the law and
the gospel declare that. The big difference is is where
does that righteousness come from? Now, under the law, we
are called on to render a righteousness to God, from us to Him. The gospel turns it right around.
In the gospel, God gives to us a righteousness. And brethren, that's a whole
difference between the law and the gospel, really. The law says,
produce a righteousness. The gospel says, receive one. And Paul says, I've had that
righteousness which comes by the law. I don't want it. I want the one that comes from
God, where it says, righteousness of God. And whenever you read,
as far as I know, whenever you read that phrase, righteousness
of God, you know, the righteousness which is of God, the word actually
means from Him, from Him, the law to Him, the gospel from Him. Now, that's good news for sinners,
isn't it? I'm no longer called on to produce
one. Now, if you're like me, you have pride to produce one.
And when you couldn't produce the one according to God's standards,
you made up some of your own standards or took on some other
church's standards. Everybody knows they can't keep
the Ten Commandments perfectly. So nearly everyone comes up with
some kind of law of their own, some version of the law of their
own, or they try to pick just what parts of the Ten Commandments
they're going to keep. There's one church in our town
in particular that is so big on the Sabbath. And you won't
find the upstanding members of that church doing anything on
Sunday. And they will look down their
long noses at people who may go to the restaurant on Sundays
or their kids are out riding their bikes on Sundays and all
this. Why? They pick the one thing
that they can do right, or at least they think they are, and
seemingly the other nine are insignificant. Rather than only two ways of
righteousness, Moses describes that righteousness which is of
the law. Blessed is the man who does all things written in the
law continually, not some of the things once in a while, not
even all of the things once in a while, or some of the things
all the time, but all of it all the time. And that's the way
you render a righteousness to God. Paul says, don't want to
go that route anymore. I want that righteousness which
comes from God. It is through faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he says that I may know Him. Paul, don't you know Christ? Yes, I do. Well, why would you
say that I may know Him? Because I don't know Him completely.
I know my wife. I've known her for Bless her
heart, going on 34 years she's had to put up with me. Or 33
and a half. I met her in the fall of 76 and
haven't left her alone since. I want to know her more. I want
to know her better. I have no intention of going
anywhere else. I want to know Christ. In fact, is it not your
greatest frustration that you don't know Him any better than
you do. That your views of Him are so foggy and fuzzy. Oh, that I might know Him. That I may know Him. And He kind
of itemizes that. And the power of His resurrection. The world loves power. And the world's religion will
look at that and say, if you believe Christ, God will give
you power. And they think it's power to heal, power to get rich,
power to name it, claim it, all that kind of nonsense. Do you
know what the power of the resurrection is? The resurrection of Christ brings
about the resurrection of us. It first brings about the resurrection
of our dead hearts, called the new birth, and will in due time
bring about the resurrection of our bodies. But the power
of the resurrection is the ability to know Christ, for He is known
spiritually. God is spirit, and they which
worship Him must worship Him in spirit. They which are to
know Him must know Him in spirit. Paul is saying, I want all that
Christ's resurrection accomplished to be accomplished in me. What did His resurrection accomplish?
Well, everything in the Gospel, actually. It was God's symbol
or God's token of His approval of the work that the Lord Jesus
Christ did. His acceptance of the sacrifice.
That's why we're really hesitant to tell people to accept Christ.
And the reason is he was never offered to us. He was never put
up for our approval or disapproval. He offered himself to God. How do we know that God accepted
his offer? God raised him from the dead
and realized, too, that his resurrection was merely the beginning of his
glorification at the right hand of God. He just made a 40 day
stop on the way. When God raised him from the
tomb, it was the beginning of the process of raising him to
his right hand. The resurrection of Christ and
the exaltation of Christ are not two separate things. The
resurrection of Christ is the beginning of the exaltation of
Christ. He just had a few more things
to say before he left for good. And so he came out of the tomb,
walked around for forty days, and then went on to the Father's
right hand. There expecting that all his enemies will be made
a footstool for his feet, and all of his friends would be with
him where he is, that they may behold his glory. The power of
his resurrection. The power of his resurrection
is the ability of God to invade the dead heart of a man and make
it alive without the man's permission. When the Lord Jesus Christ raised Lazarus from the dead,
did he offer life to Lazarus? It would be pretty silly to offer
life to a dead man, wouldn't it? That's what they think that
God does to dead sinners. propose something to them. Lazarus,
you're dead. Your body's already pretty well
rotten. You smell pretty bad. But you know, you come out here
and I'll fix you up. No, that's not the way God works.
Lazarus, come forth. And by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, that same power Paul says, that was at
work in Jesus Christ to raise him from the dead, I believe
this is in Ephesians, is at work in us to raise us from the dead. Paul says, I want the full experience
of that. And he said, and the fellowship
of his suffering being made conformable unto his death. Now that word
fellowship means to have in common. Now we look at that and is Paul
saying he wants to be crucified? Is Paul saying he wants to suffer
the way the Lord suffered? No. I don't ever want to suffer
like Christ did. And the very reason that Christ
suffered as he did is so that I wouldn't. But I sure want to
share in what it accomplished. And I want to share not only
what it accomplished in my salvation, I want to share what it accomplished
in Him. What's that? His exaltation. His submission. Paul says, I
want to be submissive like Christ was unto death. And we're not
going to be exalted to the same measure that Christ is. But Paul
says we are seated with Him. in the heavenly places. Now why
is he seated there? Because of his sufferings. Wherefore
God hath highly exalted him. Why? Because he became submissive,
obedient to death, even the death of the cross, being made conformable
unto his death, being made like him in his death, utterly, completely
submissive and trusting. When you look at the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ, that event of the crucifixion, and what
our brother read there in Psalm 22 as a prophetic description
of it, you will find the greatest display of human submission and
faith there ever was. Here is a man, the Lord Jesus,
and man he was and man he is and man he shall ever be. Here
is a man who deserved the glory of God. Here is a man who by
his works earned all the blessings of heaven. Does he chart his
own course and demand his rights? No, he became a servant with
no rights and submitted his case to God for God to dispose of
it as he will. What were the last words, very
near the last words of the Lord Jesus Christ, Father, into your
hands, I commit my spirit. Now he had just received from
his Father, from his God, unspeakable wrath. And yet, such was his faith.
He says, I commit myself to you. Isn't it something that with
such small trials as you and I face, we want to hold our lives
to ourselves and say, not as you will, but as I will. Paul says, I want to be like
Christ in His death. I want to say, Lord, whether
living or dying, I am yours. Whether comfortable or miserable,
I am yours. And that comes only in Christ. Now, for the believer, I said,
his hope is not only in Christ, it is for Christ and all those
things that come with him. But what is his way? And by that,
what I mean is, how does he do that? Well, exactly the opposite way
that most of Christianity, or so-called Christianity, would
say. We gain Christ by giving up everything
else. Paul had something to boast in,
and there were men who always came in after Paul and boasted
themselves above Paul. Because Paul, being the sort
of fellow he was, and it was mentioned in the Bible class
this morning, traditional description of him are of a short, bow-legged,
bald, weepy-eyed man. You didn't want to look at him.
He was not attractive, and something was wrong with his eyes. And can you imagine that in the
pulpit, you know? You just kind of say, why don't
you just send me a CD? Not a DVD, CD. But he did not strike. I can't
think of the word now, but you just weren't impressed with him
when you saw him. You weren't impressed with him when you heard
his voice. He said, my speech is crude by the standards of
the sophisticated group. And there were always men who
would come in behind him who were bigger, more handsome, and
more eloquent, and would try to take his place. And they would impress people
with what they are. And Paul says, if anybody might
have confidence in the flesh, this is verse 4, he said, look,
you want to have a flesh contest? I'll beat you. I won't beat you
in appearance. You're prettier than me. I won't
beat you in oratory, because you can talk better than me.
But I'll tell you what, I was circumcised on the eighth day.
You want to boast in it? I'm exactly according to the
law. Of the stock of Israel, the chosen
people of God. Of the tribe of Benjamin, the
most zealous of all the tribes of Israel. I was a Hebrew of
the Hebrews. Meaning one of two things, he
might have been saying, I was one of the best of the Hebrews.
You know, just like when it says Lord of lords, it not only means
that the Lord is Lord over all lords, but of all the lords,
he is the best of them. And Paul might have been saying,
you know, of all the Hebrews, I was the best kind there was.
Or he might have been saying, I'm not like you God-fearing
Gentiles. I'm a Jew and I can show you
my ancestry clear back to Abraham. And there's nothing but Jewish
blood in me. It could be either. As touching the law, a Pharisee. Now, in our day, none of us would
want to boast in being one, even though every one of us is one
by nature. But Paul said, you that want
to boast about your righteousness, I'll win. I'll win concerning zeal. You
think you're zealous? I persecuted the church. I remember
Brother Mahan making a statement. You might say I'd die for my
faith. Paul would kill for his. Touching the righteousness which
is in the law blameless. This guy had a pretty good pedigree
if you ask me. Except for that persecution part. But from his
viewpoint. But what things were gained to
me. I counted loss for Christ. There came a day when he realized
that everything he had counted gain to that point was not really
gain at all, but loss. He says, Yea, doubtless, and
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I have suffered the
loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win
Christ. I have heard people in the religion
I was brought up in, you know, they were big on giving testimonies
and a watch night service, you know, when they have what they
call the watch night service on New Year's Eve. You know, we
have church till midnight. And as it got late and everybody
was kind of emotional and everything, the floor was open for people
to stand up and give testimonies. It's amazing. When I look back
on how many people stand up and brag on themselves. Of course,
they'd always start out with, I'd like to thank the Lord, just
like the Pharisee did. I thank you, God. I'd like to
thank the Lord that, you know, this year I was able to sacrifice
this for God and that for God, you know, give up this for God.
And they would act like they had really done something good.
That their sacrifices for God had been such a, I mean, they
really gave something up. Paul says, I gave up all this
stuff and I didn't cry over the loss of it. In fact, I count
it to be dung. Now, that word dung actually
just meant any kind of garbage. They didn't have garbage pickup
like you and I do. They just took it out. And in
Jerusalem, they took it to the Valley of Hinnom. And just all
that stuff, whether it be the leftovers of a butchered animal
or Were you, as they say in our area, mucked out the stables?
Whatever it was, it all went in the Valley of Hinnom. It was
worthless. And nobody ever wept over the loss of it. Paul's not
saying, look at me, I gave up such great things for Christ. He's saying, I gave up stuff
and I'm glad it's gone. Who of you ever wept on the way
to carrying your garbage can out to the curb? Whoever lovingly
set the garbage can out by the side of the street for the garbage
man to pick up and open up said, Oh, I remember those green beans. And look, that's the diaper I
just changed the other day. I'll have to let it go. Get it
out of here. I don't want it. And Paul took
all that pedigree. Here's how he would gain Christ,
not by trying to increase his righteousness, not by trying
to become more religious and have a better pedigree, but by
taking that filthy, rotten, stinking pedigree, setting it on the curb
and say, take it away. I want nothing to do with it. That's the believer's way. His hope in Christ or hope for
Christ will move him to do that. And brethren, that's why it can't
be done apart from a work of grace. Did Paul do this willingly? Sort
of. Sort of. But he didn't do it
willingly until the glorious Christ stopped him dead in his
way. of racking up more dung. And when he saw Christ, it was
then that everything else looked like dung. Now, we can go out
and tell men that their best deeds are just sin, and we'll
be telling them the truth when we do, but they're never going
to believe it until they see Christ. It is in comparison to
him that we realize that all we have, the best we have, is
nothing but filthy rags, nothing but dung, nothing but garbage,
fit to be thrown away and never wept over the loss of. Only Christ
can make you do that. Only His glories can make your
glories look awful. That's His way. But what's His
experience? is to be, to win Christ, to be like Christ, to
know Christ. But what's his experience right
now? Paul says, Brethren, verse 12, not as though I had already
attained, either were already perfect. For your comfort, child
of God, let me tell you something. Do not be surprised. That when
we speak in such idealistic terms of our hope in and for Christ,
and our willingness to call our righteousness done, don't get
all upset with yourself over the fact that you really don't
do that very well. That you still get rather proud
of what you do. Say, I'm not proud. Well, now you're
not only proud, you're a liar about it. Let's face it. Pride is not one of our problems.
It is man. That is man. If you wanted to
define man, it's a proud creature. He has no right to it. I think
it was Mark Twain that said man is the only animal that has the
ability to blush and the only one that has a reason. And that's
true. We've got nothing to be proud
of, but we're proud anyway. We may be even proud of the fact
that we don't have pride. We are proud of the fact that
we're not self-righteous. We're a mess, aren't we? And
Paul admitted to it. I'm a mess. He said, these are
the things I want, but I'm not telling you I've got them yet.
I'm not telling you that. Yeah, I've counted these things,
but done, you know, but every day I got to take the garbage
out to the curb. I couldn't do that just one time
and never think about it again. Have you ever noticed that? The garbage piles up every day. We get angry at those that don't
believe like us, as though we have a right to be their judges.
And by that, I realize we discern between truth and error. But
I'm talking about, I mean, you turn on the TV and I'll tell
you, it is nauseating what you find there about religion. But
brethren, let us not for a moment I think that God looks with favor
on us because we're not like them. Because we are like them. He just won't let us act quite
like them. I don't trust in my own righteousness.
That was a boast right there. I had a fellow in our church one
time with an angry face saying, well, at least I know I'm a sinner.
And I should have said, I really don't think you're clear on the
subject yet. Or you wouldn't have said it that way because
he was upset at someone else that he thought didn't think he was
a sinner. And I could tell you stories
about me, but then you wouldn't ask me to preach again. But anyway, we're not perfect. Verse 13, Brethren, I count not
myself to have apprehended or to lay hold of it yet. But this
one thing I do, and this is The experience of the believer. This
is what he's doing. Forgetting those things which are behind.
You say, well, what things are behind? Everything behind. Oh,
you're talking about his past life and unbelief. No, even what
happened up to that point in his life of belief. Do you know
what's happened up to now doesn't matter anymore? Do you believe
that? What's happened up till now doesn't
matter anymore. The believer is always to be
looking ahead. He's not to be looking back at
what he might count as victories or failures. Because quite frankly,
whether it was victory or failure, it's insignificant. Is it going
to change what you do? You say, yeah, but brother, preacher,
I've done some things that are so horrible. OK, does that mean
you're not going to press on to Christ anymore? Well, preacher, you know, I did
some good things. Well, I'll argue the point with
you, but afterwards, but let's just pretend you did. Is that
going to mean that you're no longer going to press on Christ
because you figured you don't need to press on to Him anymore?
That's Paul's point. Forgetting what's behind. The
past is of no significance. The only past events that have
any significance to you and me is that Jesus Christ was born,
lived perfectly, died as a substitute and ascended to the right hand
of God. Nothing else matters. Forgetting what's behind. and reaching forth unto those
things which are ahead. I neither mourn nor rejoice in
the past. I reach for what is yet ahead. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." He said,
I'm a runner in a race and I've only got one thing in my sight. And that's the mark. By that
mark, he means the tape, the end of the race. See, that's
all that occupies me. I want to get to Him. I don't
know whether the race is going to last another day or another
20 years. That's in God's hands how long
I live and how long I run. It doesn't matter how long I've
already run or whether I've run well or run poorly. I'm just
looking ahead, looking unto him, the author and finisher of our
faith. Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, mature, let
us be like this. Let us have this same attitude. And to whatever we have already
attained, verse 16, let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind
the same thing. In other words, whatever progress
we've made, let's Let's not be tempted to go back. If we've
learned something, if we've come more to terms with the wickedness
of our righteousness, don't go back. Try not to go back to being
impressed with your own righteousness. Don't go backwards. Just keep
going forward. Now, let's skip over that. That's his hope to
be like Christ. Here's his way to deny all of
his own goodness. Here's his experience. Not doing
so well. I mean, I'm not reaching that
ideal yet. I've not got there yet. But here's his end. Verse 20, For our conversation
is in heaven, that is, our life is in heaven, from whence also
we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change
our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue
all things unto himself. Now, the first thing I want you
to notice is this. That at the coming of the Lord,
the only change it talks about happening is the change of our
bodies. This morning I said believers
don't have spiritual problems. And they don't. Because there's
nothing wrong with their spirit. It's frustrated because it's
in this body of flesh. It's a frustrating experience
for your spirit because it's shares a single consciousness
with your flesh expressed through this brain that doesn't work
so well. But with the spirit, there is no problem. All God's
going to do is fix the body. And when he does, the whole man
shall be like Christ. Your inner man, if you have experienced
a new birth, your inner man is already like Christ. There is another nature, a nature
of spirit. and it is without flaw. It comes from the hand of God
in the new birth, and God doesn't make flawed things. He hasn't done a thing to that
body of yours, and that's why it keeps getting older and keeps
having more pains, and finally one of these days they'll dig
a hole and put it where it belongs. But the time will come when our
beloved will come. And he'll say, that's long enough.
Up out of there. And you say, well, it'll just be a pile of
dirt. That's already what it is. It's just more organized
than most dirt. That's all. But the organization
of your body is falling apart. But he'll reorganize it. He'll
fix it. To where it's no longer subject to death. To where it
no longer desires those things it should not desire. It will
be a brain that works right. and cooperates with what your
spirit keeps telling it. And we who have seen Him only
with the eyes of faith, because that's the only eyes we can see
right now, will see Him with these eyes. What did Job say? I know that my Redeemer lives.
And though as pertains to my flesh, worms are going to eat
this body, In my flesh I will see God with my own eyes, not
by the eyes of another." He means it's not just going to be a report
anymore. It's not going to be that somebody
else saw him and told me about it. I'm going to see him. That will be the fulfillment
of our hope, and it will be the answer to our Lord's prayer who
said, I would that those that you have given me would be with
me where I am, that they may behold my glory." Not just behold it as we do in
preaching and believing, but actually see, actually with these
arms embrace the one who you've longed to embrace for a long
time. That's the believer's hope, and
that is the believer's end. When the worldling comes to the
end, everything he hoped for is lost. When the believer comes
to his end, everything he hoped for is gained. The Lord bless
you.