The lesson this morning is going
to be taken from Luke chapter 10, verses 17 through 20. Luke chapter 10, verses 17 through
20. Let's read these verses together. And the 70 returned. You remember he had set out another
70, he says, an additional 70, besides the disciples. And he'd
sent them out to preach, and they went out, went to the places
where he instructed them to go. And now the 70 returned again
with joy. They were rejoicing. And they
said, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld
Satan as lightning fall from heaven. You saw a few demons, and they had to submit to your
preaching, and you're rejoicing in that. He said, I saw Satan
fall from heaven like lightning. But you never heard him preach
that. You never heard tell of him rejoicing
in that. Behold, he said, I give unto
you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over the power
of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means
hurt you, nothing. Notwithstanding, in this, rejoice
not. Rejoice not that the spirits
are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are
written in heaven. I titled the message this morning,
Rejoice in This. You want to rejoice? Here's something
to rejoice in. And the believer has much to
rejoice in. My soul, I don't, really and
truly, believers should never be melancholy. They ought to
rejoice all the time. We have much to rejoice in. The
scripture said, if God be for us, who can be against us? I
can rejoice in that, can't you? If God be for us. My soul, you
think about that. Think about what that means.
if God's for you. If God, the eternal living and
true God, be for us, how? Well, he's for us in his eternal
purpose of grace. Everything that God determined
to do before the foundation of the world, he's doing for you. I know He's bestowing His glory
and declaring His glory, but He's doing it through your salvation.
He's for you. In His eternal purpose of grace.
And He's for us in His provision in Christ. He's for us. You think about
that. For the believer. In all His
provision in Christ. And He's for us in His holy condensation. from glory. He's coming down
and being robed in human flesh. He's for us in His life, death,
and resurrection. He didn't need to live under
the law. He's the lawgiver. He's God. He didn't need to be justified. In Him was no sin. And He didn't gain anything by
reigning in glory. He already reigned. He was God. You see what I'm saying? All
these things had to do with us. He lived for us. He died for
us. He was raised for us. His present
reigning glory is for you. And He's for us in daily providence. Boy, I tell you, it don't take
me long. I'll whine about something and
I'll go look in the mirror Goes all over me. Why? Why you? He's orchestrating things, arranging
things, causing things to come to pass for your good and his
glory. And we whine about it. We whine
about it because we can't see it. Can't see it. We fill our heads full of news. And people may get mad at me
and say, well, you're just an ostrich. You're going to stick
your head in the sand. No, I just don't want all that junk in my
head. I don't want it in my head. I know who's on the throne. He's for us in the gospel ministry. He's for us in the giving of
the Spirit of God. He's for us in providing for
us a whole race of creatures whose sole duty is to watch over
us, angels. ministering spirit sent forth
to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. And he's
for us in his present intercession and glory. You see what he's
talking about here? If God be for you, if God be
for you, who can be against you? We've got much to rejoice in. God has set us apart from all
others, blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, Angels stand before your heavenly father ready to
be dispatched at his will. Ready to come to your aid. And
God loves his people, rejoice in that. Not that we love God,
but that he loved us. That he loved us. God loves his
people. And considered in the light of
our fickle passions that we call love, This word love has little
impact on the minds and hearts of men. We talk about the love
of God all the time, but it doesn't have the impact on us. But in the light of God's holy
character, and in the light of who we are, fallen men, you think
about that. In the light of God's holy character
and the truth about who we are, this attribute shines like the
sun, God's love. He loved us and gave himself
for us. And in our Lord's high priestly
prayer, listen to this. He said, I in them and thou in
me, that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may
know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast
loved me. You wanna talk about love? God
loves his people with the same degree that he loves his son. You can't come up there to that,
can you? All we can do is stand here and look up and rejoice,
rejoice. God's love for his people is
the same as his love for his son. He that spared not his own
son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with
him also freely give us all things? And then he said, herein is love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. What brought Him here? Love. Love. When we were yet without strength
and due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Scarcely for a righteous man,
Paul said, will one die, yet peradventure maybe even find
somebody to die for a good man. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
What's he commending there? His love. His love. We rejoice in these things. We
rejoice in the person and work of Christ. He loved God with
all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. And in that love did all things
that God commanded him to do. He exalted the law and made it
honorable. He satisfied divine justice.
He wrought out a perfect righteousness. He enabled God to be just in
his justification of sinners. You think about that. Believers
rejoice in the ministry. They rejoice in the ministry.
God has not left men to themselves, but has ordained means to recover
his banished. What if God just left you to
yourself? Larry, you'd still be over there in that church.
Huh? I would, too. I would, too. I've
been saying things that my dad used to say. Well, it was good
enough for my dad, and it's good enough for me. It wasn't good, period. Wasn't
nothing good about it. Paul tells us something of the
universal deceit of Antichrist in the last days, the working
of Satan in the minds and hearts of people, with all power and
signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth.
But Paul said, we're bound to give thanks always to God for
you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. because God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our
gospel. We rejoice in the ministry. We
rejoice in him. Oh, how we ought to rejoice that
God's willing to send men in these wicked times to preach
an all-sufficient Savior to dying sinners. And I tell you, if you
ever do, you'll cry just like Paul said, the prophet said,
how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of
peace. And that's how you'll see it
too. You'll see them being sin of God. This is God's gift to
you. Somebody to come and tell you
the truth. He said, this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into this
world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. And believers rejoiced
that seated at the right hand of God is one who's appointed
as their surety. When David said the last words
of David, he said, although it be not so with my house, yet
hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things
and sure. And he said, this is all my salvation
and all my desire. You know what made that covenant
sure? The surety. Christ is our surety. He's the
covenant head of his people. He's our surety. He said, all power in heaven
and earth given unto me. Now you go preach. You go preach. It ain't on you. It ain't about
your gifts. It's about me. All power given
unto me. Now you go preach. All the promises,
he said, of God in him are yea, and amen. And there's nothing
that God requires of us that Christ has not fulfilled. Christ
is a son over his own house, whose house are we if we hold
fast the confidence, now listen, and the rejoicing of the hope
firm unto the end, Hebrews 3.6. And then Paul said this, I preached
on it not too long ago, rejoice in the Lord always. And he said
again, I say, rejoice. Believer has much to rejoice
in. But there are things we ought
not rejoice in. These men had gone out and exercised
the gifts given to them by the Lord, thus doing what the Lord
sent them to do. But they didn't come back rejoicing
in the souls that were saved. They came back rejoicing in the
power that they had. And God wasn't glorified in that.
And He said, in these things, rejoice not. Rejoice not. They seemed to have forgotten
that those powers were given to them to save sinners and not
to glorify themselves. In Paul's letter to the Corinthians,
he pointed out that though preaching is the ordained means by which
faith is given to chosen sinners, yet we're just earthen vessels
into which these treasures are put. And preachers are not preachers
because of something special in them. They're sinners, the
same as other men, but set apart by God as servants. And Paul
said, in these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred
to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you might learn in
us not to think of men above that which is written, that no
one of you be puffed up for one against another. They were bragging
on whose ministry they were saved, bragging, well, I'm of Apollos.
And the other one said, well, I'm of Paul, and so on. And it's
easy when everything's going good and things are opening up
and God seems to be blessing to get overconfident in yourself
and for pride to rear its ugly head. It don't take much. It
don't take much. And our Lord told them, he said,
you saw the submission of demons to your gospel. What would that
have to do with me today? I'll tell you what it has to
do. A man comes in here, he's raised in religion. He thinks
he knows the truth. He's convinced that he knows
the truth. He's just coming in here to see what everything's
about. But he comes in, and you preach the gospel to him, and
that antichrist religion has to submit itself to the truth
if he's one of God's own. That gospel's gonna come unto
him in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in truth. And he's
gonna know the difference. He's gonna see the difference.
Same thing here, when he's talking about those demons being cast
out, it's the same thing. It's the same thing. We walk
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. He said, you saw the submission
of demons to your gospel. He said, I saw Satan. Personally,
I was looking at him when he was cast out of heaven and fell
like lightning. But he didn't rejoice in it.
He didn't rejoice in it. You suppose God chose preachers
to show off their gifts and display their talents? No. He chose these weak vessels
to show that the excellency of the power is not of us, but of
God, you can read about it in 2 Corinthians 4. But there's some things we do
rejoice in. He said rejoice, not that the
spirits are subject to you, rejoice in this, your names are written
in heaven. They're written in heaven. Turn
with me to Revelation chapter 20. I'm gonna kind of work backwards
through the book of Revelations. I want you to see these. The
importance of what he's saying here. This is John, he's on the Isle
of Patmos. And he's caught up in the spirit.
And the spirit, if you will, just pull the shades up a little
bit and let him look into glory and see what our Lord's doing
in our age. All the way to the end of time.
and he writes about it. And he said here in verse 11,
Revelation 20, I saw a great white throne, and him that sat
on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place
for them. Verse 12, and I saw the dead,
small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened,
And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And
the dead were judged out of those things which were written in
the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the
dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead
which were in them, and they were judged every man according
to his works. Now listen, verse 15. And whosoever
was not found written in the book of life was cast into the
lake of fire. I don't care what he did. I don't care what he said. I don't care where he went. I don't care how much sacrifice
he made. If his name was not written in
the book of life, he was cast into hell. cast into hell. Now let me tell you what this
thing of works is all about. Everybody's gonna be judged according
to their works. But I was judged if I'm a believer
in Christ. That's my works. And he said
when he sees the believer coming into glory, he said, well done
by a good and faithful servant. Huh? Is there anybody here who
thinks God could look at you right now in your own righteousness
and say that, well done, thy good and faithful? No. No. The only way you can say that
is through His righteousness. Through Him, a perfectly obedient,
a perfectly honored God, exalted, honored the law, satisfied divine
justice. He looks in that book and He
sees my name and He sees under my name Perfect righteousness,
perfect righteousness. And we're judged according to
our works. But everybody not found written in the book of
life, he don't have that righteousness. He don't have that righteousness.
He don't want it. He don't want it. He's satisfied
with his own. Revelation 17, eight. The beast
that thou sawest was, and is not, and shall ascend out of
the bottomless pit, and go into perdition. And they that dwell
on the earth shall wonder. They're going to wonder after
him. Just wow. You've heard them on these TV
evangelists, how they just wow, wow, oh wow. And they just praise
him and all that. The whole world, he said, they're
going to wonder. whose names were not written
in the book of life from the foundation of the world. They're
not going to be deceived. They're not going to be filled
with wonder when they see the multitude strolling into those
big cathedrals. When antichrist religion shall
nearly cover the globe, all that dwell upon the earth shall worship
him, now listen, whose names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb, slain before the foundation of the world.
You want rejoicings up there, rejoice in me. Your name is written
in heaven. Boy, that makes everything else
just take a back seat now. Everything else takes a back
seat to that. The Book of Life is a term he
uses to teach his sovereign election of a people. And you think what
a disaster it'd be if he didn't. There would have been no man
except Adam. And he'd have wiped this whole
race out when Adam's in. But he chose a people. He chose
a people. Consider man's nature and his
utter hatred of God, his mind enmity against God. Where would
he be if God simply left him to himself? Man has a free will. He has the right to choose. You
better hope that ain't so. Because I can tell you what you're
going to choose. You're going to choose you. You're
going to choose you. Their names are written in heaven,
and their names have to do with them being heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ. They're written in heaven. And
all whose names are recorded by God shall be saved and not
one lost. He's long-suffering to usward,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And Christ is their federal head, their covenant surety, their
savior, redeemer, and intercessor. And everything God has for sinners
is in Him. But oh, how do we know if our
name's written in God's book? Christ looked at these men and
told them that their name was written. How do you and I know
if our name's written there? I could have confidence if I
just knew my name was written there. How do we know if our name's
written in God's book? Well, he says in John 6, 37,
all that the Father hath given me shall come to me. Where do they go? They go to
Christ. They go to Christ. And that's what reveals their
election. When a man embraces Christ, when
he sees Christ for who he is, he sees what he's done, He sees
what God's done for him in Christ, he sees Christ raised and himself
justified in that resurrection, and he sees him seated at the
right hand of God, his surety. He said, all that the Father
has given me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. He said, he that hath the Son
hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
God's election is our security and everything else flows from
God's electing love. Read Romans chapter nine and
read what it has to do with Jacob. He said, these two, having neither
done good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, it was said to their mother, who was still pregnant
with the child. It was said to her, the elder's
gonna serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. I made provision for Jacob. Made
provision for Jacob. And he's gonna stand for all
times that the election, he's gonna talk about election, he's
gonna talk about Jacob. What do you call Israel? Sons
of Jacob. Huh? Rejoice in this, your names are
written in heaven. Heaven where moth and rust cannot
corrupt or destroy. In heaven where the living God
abides. In heaven where our Lord has
gone to prepare a place for us. In heaven where the enemy cannot
come. May the Lord be pleased today
to send us home rejoicing. Rejoicing in that precious day. Looking forward to that day when
we see him as he is and can truly rejoice. Rejoice with all of
our hearts, soul, mind, and strength.