Philippians chapter 3 has been
a great source of comfort to me. I've turned to this passage many
times for comfort and encouragement. And ever since, I try to preach
from it as often as the Lord lays it upon my heart. But in this chapter, Paul encourages
believers to rejoice in the Lord. What have we got to be sad about?
How do we get so out of place? It doesn't take much, does it? Pretty soon we're just walking
around in circles and we're grumbling and whining. My wife had a little
say and she said, do you want some cheese with that wine? Rejoice, he said. What you got
to be sad about? Rejoice, your name's written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. You can't rejoice over that.
You can't rejoice. What we got to be sad about?
What is it that's bringing us down? All you have to do is think
on Him. And you can't help but rejoice. God has appointed for us a sovereign,
eternal, omnipotent Savior. Oh, my soul! Anything less than that is not
going to do you any good. It takes a sovereign Savior to
save sinners. One who is both God and man. One who is able, as I read to
you last night, to save to the uttermost those who come unto
God by Him. He's God over all, Paul says.
Blessed, blessed forever. Rejoice in the Lord. He is the
surety. It says, These be the last word
of David, the sweet psalmist of Israel. He said, Although
it be not so with my house, yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things ensured. This is all my salvation and
all my desire, even if he don't make it to grow. It still is. What makes it sure? The surety. The surety. That covenant is
not dependent on me. It's dependent on Him. Brother Mahan went to college
seminary with this man down in Temple University down in Tennessee and down in Chattanooga. And this man wound up pastoring
a church in Ashland also. And it was a beautiful spring
morning. It had been cold, but the sun
was out, and it was warm. And Henry told his wife, he said,
I'm going to walk to church this morning. So he started out, and
he was coming down 13th Street. And this fellow was going the
opposite direction and had the same idea as he did to walk to
church that morning. And he saw Henry, and he crossed
the road. And he said, Henry Mahan. And
Henry called him by name. He said, Are you still saved? Henry said, Is God still on the
throne? Then I'm still saved. That covenant's
not dependent on me, it's dependent on Him. He's the surety of a covenant
ordered in all things, and He is the successful. I love that
word. Successful mediator between God
and men. There's a lot of wannabes. He
talked about that just a few moments ago. There's a lot of
wannabe mediators. But there's only one successful
mediator. There's only one fit to do the
job. Only one worthy to take the book.
Only one worthy to sit down, having accomplished the will
of God at his own right hand. And he said, sit there. And he
did. And it says he's expecting to
all his enemies be made his footstool. Rejoice in the Lord. Oh, my soul, what have we got
to be sad about? He alone can mediate God's eternal
purpose of grace. can mediate the love. Who else
could manifest the love of God but Christ Jesus the Lord while
you were yet enemies? Hmm? Oh, Christ died for you. Herein is love, not that you
loved Him. You didn't love God. He loved
you. and gave His Son to be the propitiation
for your sins. There's only One who could mediate
the love and the mercy and the grace. Grace and truth came by
Jesus Christ. Only One who could mediate the
kindness of God. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. Only one who could mediate peace
and reconciliation and redemption and righteousness. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord, verse 3,
for we are the circumcision. We are the true Jews, the true
sons of Abraham, which worship God in the Spirit. Is that how we worship God? God's
Spirit needs truth. And we worship Him
in spirit and truth. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus
and we have no confidence, zero confidence in the flesh. What
has your flesh ever accomplished for you but trouble? Huh? What has it ever done? It's contrary to the Spirit. The Spirit leads you to do one
thing and the flesh desires another. And these are contrary, the one
to the other. And the result is you can't do
what you want to do either way. Either way. But aren't you glad
He did it for you? He did it for you. Oh, rejoice in the Lord because
God has stripped away all our false hopes. Paul said, you think
you got things to hope in? I more. I more. It's amazing, amazing what fallen
man will hope in. Amazing. He'll take a little
medal, and he'll put Saint so-and-so's picture on there. I don't know
how in the world he knew what that saint looked like 2,000
years ago. And he'll hang it on his mirror.
And he said, I'll be safe while I'm traveling. Oh, rejoice. God stripped away
all our false hopes and our hideouts. We had hideouts when we was kids.
Kids don't ever leave the house anymore. They get out their iPhone,
and they're doing this. All my grandkids are just sitting
on the corner doing this. I said, I like throwing things
in the creek. Don't y'all ever talk to one another? But what
we did wasn't much better. We had hideouts. We'd go out
in the woods, and we'd build us a little tree house out there.
And if we'd get a hold of them, we could take some magazines
we wasn't supposed to be looking at. cigarettes off of somebody,
one or two, and we'd get them back there, and whatever else
we was forbidden to do, and we'd get up in that treehouse, and
we was safe. Nobody could see us. We could
do anything we wanted to do. And we'd sit up there and talk
to each other like a bunch of drunken sailors on Saturday night. That's the mind of man. Now, you better listen to me. A man can put his arm around
his wife, and he can walk down the sidewalk, and he can commit
adultery with somebody on the other side, and that woman won't
know it, and his wife won't know it, because he's up here in his
hideout. And in that hideout, he can convince
himself that God can't see him. Read the book of Isaiah. See
what it says. You say, He can't see us. He don't know what we're doing.
Oh, my soul. God has stripped away all our
false hopes and torn down our hideouts. We felt like we could
do anything we wanted to do. And that's just the mind of men.
That's the natural mind of men. He can do all of these things. And just in the same way, he
can build a refuge in his mind and a religious refuge, a hiding
place from God. But Paul said the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal. We're not going to get posters
and march down Main Street. We're not going to get the moral
majority. Our weapons are not carnal. We
already learned without him we can do nothing. Our weapons are
spiritual and are mighty through God to the pulling down of the
hideout. Huh? Casting down those imaginations and bringing every thought in
subjection to Him. You can't do it. I can't do it. I don't care how much I study.
I don't care how well I prepare. I don't care how good my illustrations
are, I can't accomplish anything apart from His Spirit entering
into that heart and mind and slaying that sinner. If He don't
do that, I've got nothing for Him. So that all these things in which
Paul trusted, when he saw the reality of it, he took it out
to the dung heap. And he said, I'm putting it with
the rest of the garbage. And he threw it away. Oh, he said down in verse 7,
look at this, Philippians 3, 7, But what things were gained
to me, those I counted lost for Christ. He let go of his national religion
His self-righteous standing, his religious accreditations,
his religious titles, his pharisaical dress with the broad phylacteries,
he threw it all on the dung heap. I won't be needing that anymore. We had an old seafood restaurant
down in Louisiana years ago. Y'all know Brother Stoniker,
Marvin Stoniker, well, his dad owned this seafood restaurant.
And they had seafood all you could eat. You'd go over there
on a Friday and Saturday night. And they just, oh, I don't know
how many thousand people came into that thing over a weekend.
And we were in there one night, and my favorite and everybody
else's was these little half ears of corn with a stick in
them. You see them in a lot of restaurants and cafeterias, and
they're sitting there in a pan of butter. Well, I don't know
what they put in that butter, but that corn, I told Kathy when
we moved back down to Arkansas, I said, you reckon Stoniker's
restaurant's still open? She said, let's go see. So we
drove three hours down there. It was still open, and Marvin's
brother was running the restaurant. And we went in, and they still
had those little ears of corn. And as soon as I smelled them,
I could taste them. But this little old kid, he was
about two years old. And they was eating dinner. And
he got that little ear of corn out of that butter, and he was
chewing on that. And he chewed all the corn off
of it. And then he was sucking on the cob, and he had a hold
of it. And everybody had already eaten. They was ready to go home.
But he had butter all over him. They had to clean him up and
get his coat on. It was wintertime. And he was
sitting there, and they go to get that corn. Man, he'd grab
that thing. Now son, man, he'd just squall. And they threatened him, and
they did everything. And that little kid just stood
there, he was shaking all over. He was holding that corn, and
Kathy and I was watching. And finally, Marvin's dad come
over. And he said, I see you're having
a little trouble. He said, I think maybe I can
help you if you let me. They said, we've tried everything
we know what to do. He pulled out a Hershey bar.
That little kid dropped that here a coin, and he reached for
that Hershey bar. When you going to take your stuff
out and throw it on the dung heap? When you see something
better. That's when you're going to do
it. That's what Paul's talking about all through here, something
better. It's better than walking aisles,
and it's better than listening to garbage. It's better than
impulse hopes. It's better than your dedications
and rededications. It's better. Nothing's better
than Christ. That's why Paul said what he
said. They're not a better Jesus. Oh, what things were gained to
me. He said, those I counted lost for Christ. Like the merchant
who found the pearl, his whole collection he cast aside. He said, I have to have that
pearl. I have to have it. The rest of it was just for loss.
He's like the man who found the treasure. He was walking along,
and man, he looked over there, and somebody had buried treasure
in that field. And something had happened, a
little high water or something had washed that topsoil off and
there was diamonds and gold and crowns and treasure everywhere. He didn't look all around and
try to get some treasure. He went down to the courthouse
and he said, I want to buy that field. Huh? You know when you're going to
buy this field, When you see the treasure, you're going to
buy everything in it, lock, stock, and barrel. I want to feel. There might be treasure from
one end of it to the other. I don't know. But I found it
here. If I found it there, I might
find it over there. Oh, what things were gained to
me. Those things I counted lost for
Christ. Counted them lost. Yea, doubtless,
I look at this. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the
loss of all things. And I go around mourning. No,
that ain't what he said. He said, For whom I suffered
the loss of all things, and do count them but double, that I
might win Christ. Huh? We didn't stop there. And this
is the title of my message tonight. And be found in Him. When Paul found out who he was,
that was the end of playing church. We loved to watch the national
game. We loved to play church. We loved
to dress up and come down and have the bake sales and recognize
the oldest and the youngest mother. We loved playing church. We loved
to get the music, get swaying with the music. There is no spirit
there, so they make one of their own. Oh, that I might win Christ and
be found in Him. Lord willing, I want to show
you four things here tonight that I hope will encourage you
and establish you and cause you to rejoice in Christ. First of
all, to be found in Christ, I must be in Christ. You can't find
what ain't there. I have to be in Christ. You can't
find something that's not there. You can only be found in Christ
if you're in Christ. Well, how does a sinner get in
Christ? Turn with me to I Corinthians
chapter 1. And I hope when I'm done that
you won't find any gray area anywhere. I don't like gray areas.
I like black and white. And this may come as a shock
to some of you, but you cannot get into Christ. I can't believe you said that,
Preacher. Well, let me say it again. You cannot Get into Christ. You can be found in Christ, but
you can't get into Christ. You can't get saved, you can't
make Jesus your personal Savior, and you certainly can't make
Him your Lord. He's your Lord if you don't know
Him. He's your Lord. You can go out to the cemetery.
I can preach to them in the cemetery because He is Lord of the dead
and the living. He is Lord. God made Him Lord. And He is your Lord. And even
the devils in hell are going to bow their knees at that day
and confess Jesus to be Lord to the glory of God the Father.
He is Lord. He is what He is and we are what
we are. What? Preacher, how does a sinner
get in Christ? I Corinthians 1.30. But of Him. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about God. Am I reading that right? But
of Him. I want you to read it. Don't just say, well, I'll take
your word for it. No, I want you to see it. Of
Him. Are you in Christ Jesus. Did I misread something? That's
what that says, ain't it? Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us. We can't make Him. God made Him
for us, to us. who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, that according
as it is written, he that gloweth, let him glow in the Lord. Flip forward a few pages to Ephesians
chapter 1. Only God can put a man in Christ. And if God didn't put you in
Him, you'll never be found in Him. Now watch this, Ephesians 1a.
And you already know, you ought to be able to quote those first
few verses. Blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ according as He has
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, wherein we are accepted in the
Beloved. And he goes all down the list and states the doctrine
of Christ. And then down in verse 8, he
said, wherein, in these things that I have just told you, wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and proof, having
made known unto us the mystery of His will, His redemptive will, according to His good pleasure,
which He has purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times He might gather together in one all things."
Now what's this in Christ? What's He going to gather? Everything
that's in Christ. both which are in heaven, which
are on earth, even in him in whom also we have obtained an
inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted
in Christ." Who first trusted in Christ? God the Father. He created this world, and He said He looked on it,
and behold, it was good. Now let me tell you something
about good. When God says good, only God
is good. There's none good but God. That's
what it says. Well, what's His measurement
of good Himself? And he looked on his creation,
everything, the fish, the ocean. He looked on everything. He said,
behold, it's good. It's good. Now, wait a minute. Did he not know that Adam was
going to eat of that fruit? and the whole of humanity was
going to fall under condemnation? Did he not know that? Did he not know that in just
a few generations that every thought of the imagination of
man was going to only be evil continually? Did he not know
that? Did he not know that he'd have
to cause a flood to cover everything and wipe everything out except
what he determined to put in that ark? Did he not know that
in just a few more generations that Babylon, the men were going
to get together and they're going to be so taken up? with their
own evil imaginations that they were going to build a building
into heaven. They were going to build something
that they could go up the stairway and walk right into glory. Did he not know that in a few
more generations, Israel, his people, were going to turn their
back on him? Deny everything that he ever
wrote? Did he not know that when his
son appeared in this world that they were going to despise him? They weren't going to listen
to him. They were going to reject him. Give us Barabbas. Crucify him. Crucify him. Did
he not know that in a short time after that, that Antichrist's
religion was going to rear up its ugly head in the world and
fill every street corner from here to yonder? Did God not know
that when He looked on His creation? Then how on earth could He look
on it and say it's good? Because He put it in His Son. That's right. And anything in His Son is good. That's what Paul's talking about
over here. Who first trusted in Christ. Well, what did he
trust to his son? Everything that is. Everything
that is. Oh, now you're beginning to see
a little bit about what Paul's talking about. Oh, that I might
win Christ and be found in Him. Come to know Him. Lay hold of
Him. Be found in Him. And I'm going to tell you something.
All of God's elect that God put in Him, He's going to find in
Him. He's going to find them right
where He put them in Christ. Alright, here's the next thing. to hope to be found in Christ
suggests to me that somebody's looking. Somebody's going to find you. Somebody's looking. Isn't that
what they're talking about? God didn't create this world.
and then turn it over to chance and circumstance and evolution
and whatever else men can dream up. He didn't judge this world
in Adam and hope some poor sinner would feel sorry for Jesus, let
Him come in and reform his life. No, Scripture said He joined
us with Christ in an eternal union, quickened us together
with Him. That's what it says in Ephesians
chapter 2. You were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others, but God, who is rich in mercy for
His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in
sin, quickened us together with Christ. Put us in an eternal
union with His Son. Oh, but that wasn't the end of
it. He quickened us together with
Christ. And we were buried with Him. And we were raised with Him.
And we ascended on that cloud with Him right into glory. And
we sat down with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Why did He save us that way?
That in the ages to come... Is that including this one? Oh,
you better believe it. In the ages to come, He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. It's not of yourselves. Oh, but it's of Him. It's of him. Not only is somebody looking,
but somebody who can see everything that is, is looking. Huh? You remember the account of Ozakius? Little short feller, tax collector.
Rockin' as he can be. Cheats you out of your ID. They
heard the Lord was coming. The miracle worker. Never a man's
fake lie. I want to see him. Oh, Zacchaeus,
he climbed up there. Lord come over. Had to be a crowd
everywhere he went. It was a pressing crowd. And
he stopped and looked up and he said, Zacchaeus, come down. I'm going to have supper with
you today. Old Zacchaeus, he shinnied down
that tree and the Lord went home. He said
when Christ entered that door, he said this day salvation is
coming to this house. It's coming to this house. For the Son of Man is come to seek
and to save that which was lost. He that has eyes to see and ears
to hear, his ears is open to their cry, he comes to seek. There's a wonderful story over
there in John 1. It goes along with what I'm saying
tonight. In John 1.43, he tells us that
Jesus went into Galilee and find us Philip. I don't think he had to look
too hard, do you? He knew where Philip was. Went
right to him. Went right to him. Philip didn't
find the Lord. The Lord found him. Didn't he? That's what he said. He went into Galilee and found
us Philip. But then Philip, in the very
next verse, went and found Nathanael and said, I found the Lord. You find him when he finds you.
That's right. And Nathanael said to Christ,
whence knowest thou me? Jesus said, before Philip called
you, I saw you under the fig tree. You reckon there's ever a time
when he doesn't have his eyes over the righteous? From the beginning of all eternity,
you think there was a half a second that he didn't have his eyes
on the righteous? He said, my eyes is always over
the righteous. He saw us before He called us. Christ said, I stood up from
everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth was. When
there was no depths, I was brought forth. When there was no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills were brought forth. While as yet He had not made
the earth nor the fields nor the highest part of the dust
of the world. When He prepared the heavens,
I was there. When He set a compass upon the
face of the deep, I was there. When He gave the sea its decree
that it could come so far and come no further, I was there.
When He appointed the foundations of the earth, now listen to this,
then was I by Him as one brought up with Him, and I was daily
His delight. rejoicing always before Him. And my delights were with the
sons of men." That's before the world was. David said, He knew me before
I was curiously wrought in the bowels of the earth. He knew
me. He knew me. There's one whose purpose from
the beginning is to find his people and there never been a
time that he couldn't see them. The father saw the prodigal,
didn't he? Where'd he see him? Far off. Far off. He knew where he was all along. I know that because I know God. And this is a story illustrating
God and how He saved sinners. He knew where He was. He knew
how He was. He knew what He was. And in His purpose, He's going
to draw Him back. This boy down in a hog pen, and
he's sitting there jealous of the hogs. I would feign and eat
the husk from the corn. I'd have got down like a hog
in the mud and chewed on the old husk off the corn. That's what God found me in the
hog pit. Wanting more. What began your journey back?
The Father. He drove me. I don't know how. I don't know how. I don't know
how to tell you how. I just know He did. I know He
did because He arranges everything that happens in time. And He
did it from all eternity. Oh, the Father had something
else in mind. The father had made provision
for him. He was his heir. The father had
the seal of his love ready to slide on his finger. The father
had clean garments ready for him, royal garments. The father had a stall-fitted calf
all fattened up and ready for the feast, and the table was
set, and the maids were all lined up. And when the Son of Man said
He came to seek and to save that which was lost, He didn't mean
that they were lost to Him. He was lost to them. He knew exactly what... I must
need to go through some of that. Huh? How come? Oh, there's a
rotten old woman over there. She's been married so many times
she can't keep count of it. Now I'm going to go over there
and save her soul. God's not lost. We are. On the darkest night and the
worst storm they'd ever seen, the Lord came to the disciples
walking on the water, in the middle of the sea, in
the middle of the storm. You reckon they knew where they
were? The question has never been what
sinners are going to do with Him, but what's He going to do
with me? Oh, that I might win Christ and
be found in Him. Well, what does a sinner learn when
the Lord finds him? What is it about being found
in Christ that becomes his treasured hope? that becomes something
that will cause him to just weed out everything. He'll just throw
it out the back door. Things he's cherished, things
he's hung on to, jobs and people and family and I could go on
and on. What is it that throws those
things away and draws that man? What is it about being found
in Christ that becomes a treasured hope? To be found in Him. Are you listening? Not having my own righteousness. Oh, my soul. Larry, if he finds
me in Christ, I'm as good as God. When he got done with his reconciliation,
he told us what we were. And some of you, he said, all
the list that he read out fits me to a T. Bits me to a tee. Oh, my soul. You don't want to be found wearing
that old putrid garment. No. You don't want to be found
wearing that old unclean rag. Those whom God has put in Christ
shall be found not having their own righteousness which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ the faithfulness
of Christ. That's what he's talking about
there, the faithfulness of Christ. His obedience, His sacrifice,
His devotion, His sincerity. And it comes through the faith
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. That faithfulness comes to you
through faith. What happens in the mind and
heart of a sinner when Christ reveals Himself to him? He wants
to be found in Christ. Huh? He wants to be found in
Christ. And then secondly, verse 10,
he said, Oh, that I might know Him. Well, he never wanted to
know Him before. He wanted to make up things about
Him before. Poor little Jesus boy. I feel so sorry for him.
I can picture him right now walking back and forth across the banisters
of heaven and he's wringing his hands and crying his eyes out. He didn't want no part of a sovereign
Savior then. He didn't want no part of the
one mediator within. He didn't want any part of that
sovereign grace. Now, all of a sudden, he wants
to know him. You give that word a little study,
and you're going to find out that ain't just knowledge. That's
like when a man knows his wife. Intimately, I want to know him. You know what he's talking about?
You know what happens when a man and a woman, they become one
flesh. That's what Paul's talking about. Oh, I want to be one with
Him. I want to know Him. I don't want some old mechanical
knowledge. I want to know Him. In my heart, in my soul, I want
to know Him. And I want to know the power
of His resurrection. What on earth is that, preacher?
It's the power of a satisfied God. Ain't nothing gonna get raised
up until God's satisfied. But when God's satisfied, ain't
nothing gonna hold that body down. That old Negro spiritual,
if that's what he meant, he was right on the money. Ain't nothing
gonna hold that body down. It's coming out of that tongue.
They sealed it up. They put soldiers out in front
of it. They said, if anybody messes with that stone, you're
going to the cross. You better not touch that stone.
I'm giving you a charge, a holy charge, before this Roman government,
and that stone better not move. That's just how easy it is. when God raises you from the
dead. And he's gone. You study Paul,
old Saul of Tarsus. Oh, my soul, how he hated God. Oh, his family history. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin.
Oh, how he gloryed in that. On the eighth day I was circumcised
according to the law. He could go back as touching
the law. He said I was blameless. You
think you're going to get somebody that steeped in religion to turn
loose of that junk? God can. It's gone. It's gone. It's the power. The power of
His resurrection is the power of a satisfied God. It's the
power of a God reconciled. God's not your enemy. He's your
Father. Ain't that the first thing He
does when the Spirit of God comes in? Huh? Father. It's the power of one ready to
save, ready to bless. You think the father of the prodigal
wasn't ready to bless? That's the only thing on his
mind he wanted to bless that boy. What is this power of the resurrection? It's the power of a debt fully
paid. Fully paid. entered in by His own blood one
time, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Paul said to the Ephesians, you
might know, oh, he said that you might know what is the exceeding
greatness of His power to us that believe according to the
working of His mighty power which He brought in Christ when He
raised Him from the dead. And listen to this. He came unto
his own, and his own received him not. He come into the world,
they didn't want anything to do with him. But to as many as
received him. And I'll tell you why they did
here in just a minute. But to as many as received him, to them
gave he power. Isn't that what that says? To
save your sons of God. That ain't what it says. to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on his name which were born, not of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of
God. Raised to walk in newness of
life, And I'll wind this up. There was a man, and I'm not
really sure what age he was in. I'm wanting to say sometime in
the 1800s. Larry's pretty sharp on this
kind of thing. Old Roland Hill. That was 1800s,
wasn't it? He's an old English preacher
of days gone by. And as the story goes, he had
a drink. And he said, as I was sleeping,
he said, I dreamed that I was carried by the Spirit of God.
Come down, swept me right out of my bed, just like he did old
Ezekiel. And he took me up into a high
mountain. And he set me down on the side.
And he said, I looked, and as far as you could see one way,
and as far as you could see the other way, there was a great
valley. Great valley. And he said it was shoulder to
shoulder with people. And up on the mountain slopes,
and all around him, and as far as he could see, there were just
people. Some of them were dressed in
ancient clothing, and some of them were dressed in modern clothing,
and there was people everywhere. There were blacks, and whites,
and yellows, and reds, and people from every tribe, kindred, nation,
tongue under heaven. Just as far as you could see,
there was people. And he said, I really didn't know what to
expect about heaven. He said, I didn't know if I was
in heaven or what was going on. He said, but I was here. And
so he said, everybody was sitting down and looking around. And
he said, I spied a kind of a comfortable looking rock over there. So he
said, I just went over and sat down. And he said, I looked. And he said, over in the center
of the valley, almost a foggy-like smoke rising
up, and it was dimly lit. There was a light in that smoke. And he said, I sat there for
a little while and began to be a little more comfortable with
the situation, and he said, all of a sudden, it sounded like
thunder. It came out of that fog and came
out where that light was, and it called a man's name. And he said, I looked all around,
everybody was looking around, and over yonder this fellow got
up and walked over there toward where that smoke was and that
light. And the boys come back and thundered
again and read off a list of charges. And it went on for a
long time and he just read and read and read and read. And the
man was just standing there looking at the smoke and listening to
the voice. And he was just white. And when
the voice stopped, everybody was just looking around each
other. And he said, when the voice come back, it said, bind
him hand and foot and cast him into hell. Boy, things got serious then.
And he began to look around. It was quiet for a few minutes.
And the voice come back. And he called another. And another
came up. And he stood before that foggy
looking smoke. He just kind of walked like he
was walking into the fog. And he'd stand there. And that
light was all around him. And the voice come. And it again
read off all these charges. It said, bind him. Bind him hand
and foot. Cast him into outer darkness
where there's weeping and wailing and gnashing at you. And he said
this was repeated over and over and over. And he was just looking
all around, and of course he was frightened, but he said,
I got to thinking, you know, I've been a faithful minister
all my life. And I've even written some books.
And I lived a pretty good life. I did as best I could do. I did. And he said, I kind of assured
myself. And he said, I sat there on the
rock. And he said, had a little bit of comfort. And he said,
then that voice come. Roland Hill. Oh, he said, I couldn't. All
the blood just drained from my body, and I was trembling so
that I couldn't hardly walk. Oh, he said, I come up on that
pole, dreading to hear what was coming next. And he said, all
of a sudden, from behind me, I heard a voice. Oh, he said,
it was like the voice of an angel. He said, here I am. Here I am. I'm rolling here. I was rolling here when my father
chose him and me before the foundation of the world. I was rolling here when I was
made under the law of no reputation. and rod out for him a perfect
wreck.