I'm going to take my title, the
title of the message this morning, from Revelation chapter 20 and
verse 6. Now, the book of Revelations
is a book of visions. Visions that God gave His prophet
John on the Isle of Patmos. And they're figurative. These
visions use things in figure, and these figures are established
in the Old Testament Scriptures. So until you become familiar
with the figures, you're going to have all kinds of problems
understanding the book of Revelation. You're going to read it, and
it's going to start talking about scorpions and flying demons and
all kinds of things, and you're just going to get lost in the
shuffle. But these figures, as they are established with the
types and symbols of the Old Testament, set forth clearly
each vision, beginning at the coming of Christ until the end
of time, in each one of these visions. Now, this is just an
excerpt out of one of these visions here in Revelation 20, verse
6. He said, Blessed and holy is
he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such, the second
death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of
Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. Believers live
in hope of the resurrection. Let that sink in for a little
bit. We live in hope of the resurrection. That is, all that is promised
to them and for them lies beyond the grave. It's not here. It's
there. We're talking about peace. There's
not going to be any peace here. The Lord said, I didn't come
to make peace, but to set you at odds. When He calls His Son,
He sets Him apart. He's at odds with other men.
He's at odds with His own brothers and sisters, sometimes with His
own mother and father. And those who shall be your enemies,
our Lord said, shall be those of your own household. All that
the Lord has promised them and for them lies beyond the grave. Paul wrote to the Corinthians
and he said, if in this life only we have hope in Christ,
we are of all men most miserable. If this is all we have, if this
is the end of it, if we walk a few days in the light of His
glory and walk a few days in the light of the true God and
then go die like a dog, go die like an old horse, like a beast,
We are of all men most miserable. Now turn with me to Ephesians
chapter 2 and I'll do my best to show you what this means to
have part in the first resurrection. That's the blessed man. Now I
read to you in Ephesians chapter 1 that God has blessed us with
all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ according as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world."
That's the blessings that he's talking about. Now, blessed,
the blessed man, blessed is that man who has part in that first
resurrection. Now, Ephesians chapter 2, as
I said a few moments ago, is a practical application of Ephesians
chapter 1. And just hold your place here
and let me make some comments or at least one comment before
we get into this. The natural man. What am I talking
about? The natural man. I'm talking
about a man that's went astray. Am I talking about a man whose
life has led him to a life of drinking and gambling? What am I talking about? The
natural man. I'm talking about every man, woman, and child born
of Adam. Every man, woman, child, every
one of Adam's race is born a natural man. That's what the scripture
calls a natural man. The natural man, every man, woman
born of Adam's race are confined in a nature which is cursed of
God. He's not born in fellowship with
God. He's not He's not born upright. We come forth from the womb,
the Scripture said, speaking lies. We were conceived in iniquity
and brought forth in sin. David said to go astray as soon
as they'd be born. As soon as they'd be born. The
natural man is a man confined in a nature which is cursed of
God. Ephesians 2.1. Now watch this. I've already read to you God's
purpose of blessing, and now He's going to apply this. He's going to show you the exceeding
greatness of His power in you that believe. That's what He's
going to show. And you, hath He quickened, who
were dead in trespasses and sins. Now this term dead is used to
describe the spiritual condition of natural man. That's his condition. That's where he's at. He's dead
in trespassings and sin. He's not dead physically. He
can move about. He has hands and feet and eyes
and ears. He moves about. He goes about
daily routines, daily struggles. He goes about, you know, making
a living. He doesn't lay still in his bed
or stand motionless somewhere in the corner. He lives and moves
and has his being. That's the way Paul described
to those heathens in Athens when he stood there on Mars Hill.
He said, in him we live and move and have our being. We have a
being. And he's not dead mentally. He
has a mind. He can reason. He can think.
He has the capacity to do complex things, to figure things out,
design things, create things. He can split an atom. He can
transplant organs in the body. He can put a man on the moon.
He has a mind, John. He can think. We're not talking
to idiots when we talk to people. People have minds. Sometimes
we needlessly offend men. Men have minds. They can hear
what you're saying. They have the ability to reason.
They have all those things. He's not dead mentally and he's
not dead morally. He has a conscience. He has a
conscience. Man has a conscience. He knows
enough about himself and his nature to know that he needs
laws and rules and regulations to restrain him. There's no civilization
on earth that's ever been found that didn't have laws and rules
and regulations to govern themselves by. Even the tribes in Africa. All of them. They all have rules.
Why? Because their conscience shows
them their need of it. Their need of it. He understands
the need of teaching and enforcing some type of moral standard. But man is dead spiritually. He's dead spiritually. He cannot
reason spiritually. You can't reason with him. He
reasons naturally about spiritual things. And that's what gets
him in trouble. That's what leaves him confused.
And that's what leads him astray and makes him such a candidate
for deceit. Well, what does it mean, he's
dead? It means, first of all, that
he's been cut off from the fellowship and blessings of God. He's not
walking with God. Men talk about walking with God.
You know, God just right here. He's ready. He's got his arms
out and all this kind of... No, no, no, no, no. He's not
walking with God. He's walking contrary to God. You know what God told Adam?
Get out! Ain't that what He said? Get
out! God put Adam out of His garden. Put him out. It means that he's
been cut off from the fellowship and blessings of God. Romans
5.12 says, by one man, sin entered into the world. That is, through
Adam, sin entered into the world, and death, spiritual death, by
sin, and so death, the spiritual death, passed upon all men, and
the evidence is that all have sinned. He goes on in that chapter to
explain what he's talking about there. He says in verse 18 of
Romans chapter 5, by the offense of one, judgment came upon all
men to condemnation. That's what we're talking about.
A nature condemned of God. That's how he's born. He's under
the condemnation of God. Verse 19, Romans chapter 5, by
one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. Sinners left
in their cursed state to do what comes natural to it. To follow
after its lusts and pleasures. To choose after its ungodly goals
and be motivated by all of its unholy principles. And then in
verse 21 he tells us that this sin reigns unto death. It reigns unto death. That is,
if God does not intervene, it will continue on, that man will,
as he is, all the way to judgment. All the way to judgment. He is
dead judicially, being condemned in Adam. He is dead spiritually,
being confined to a nature that knows nothing of God or godliness. And he is dead in trespasses
and sins. Now men think that the death
that's here described in the scriptures is talking about gross
immorality. They think it's talking about
uncivilized behavior, but I want you to listen here because Paul
sets it forth in plain language here in Ephesians 2. Listen to
how Paul describes it. Ephesians 2.2. Wherein... Now what's he talking about?
He's talking about those who are dead in trespasses and sin.
Wherein in this state of depravity and spiritual death before God's
quickening, He said, you walked according to the course of this
world. There is a course. What course?
The course of this nature, the course of this world, the course
of the multitude, the course of every unregenerate man. You
walk just like everybody else. That's what he's telling you
here. Before your conversion, you walk like everybody else.
Not so much in detail, but in principle and motive. You thought
like they thought. You lived like they lived. You
walked according to the course of this world. According, watch
this now, to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Now, Peter was
a man who knew firsthand something about the shifting of Satan in
this world, the presence of Satan. Our Lord turned and looked at
him and said, get thee behind me, Satan. And that was it. Don't you know Peter must have
wondered what in the world is he talking about when he put
his finger right in his face and said, get thee behind me,
Satan. He knew first-hand about the sifting of Satan. Lord, they
might leave you, but I'm not. I won't leave you. I know. I
know my heart. If anybody knows my heart, I
know my heart. I'm not going to leave you. They
might all go, but I'm not. I'll stay here and die. The Lord
said, before the cock crow, you're going to deny me three times.
Three times. He said, Satan hath desired to
sift thee like wheat. But I prayed for you, that your
faith fail not. And Peter, one who knew firsthand
the sifting of Satan, he said, be sober and be vigilant, because
your adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking
whom he may devour. Both He and His fallen companions
move about to and fro in the earth influencing, enticing,
and luring away fallen men to do their bidding. Their goal
is not so much the souls of men as it is to embarrass. It is
to embarrass. It is to cause frustration, to
discredit the Lord by causing damage or destruction to His
eternal purpose of grace in Christ. And you have to go back and do
some studying about old Satan. I think it's back in Isaiah 14
where it talks about his fall, or Isaiah 28, somewhere along
in there. It talks about the fall of Satan. How art thou fallen,
O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou fallen? Because
you said in your heart, I'll be like the Most High. The Lord
had made known something of His purpose of grace in the heavens. And this purpose of Christ becoming
a man and redeeming His people. And Satan said, oh no. No, a man's not going to sit.
I'm going to sit there. I'm going to sit there. Boy,
he was gone. He was gone. Both he and his fallen companions,
they move about to and fro in the earth. And they influence
and entice and lure away fallen men to do their bidding. And
they do it to discredit the Lord. They do it to try to frustrate
His work. And He knows, it goes to say
in Revelation, He knows His time is short. His time is short. He is desperate. He wants to cause the birth of
Christ's church to be a miscarriage. And like Pharaoh, his type, back
in Exodus 1, old Pharaoh said to the midwives, he said, now
when you go down there and you're helping those Jewish women having
childbirth, he said, all the males, soon as you know it's
a male, you kill it. You cause a miscarriage. A miscarriage. That's what Satan's after. That's
what he does. That's his main purpose in false
religion, is to cause a miscarriage of God's church. And this is
how natural men live out their days, being influenced, intimidated,
and deceived by Satan. They walk according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. The Lord said to His servant
John, to the church, He said, I know the blasphemy of them
which say they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue
of Satan. That's what he calls false religion. And Satan's primary way of controlling
the walk and the lives of men and women on the earth is by
way of false religion. He makes you to believe it's
okay, it's alright. Isn't that what they tell you?
I've walked the aisles, I've done all these things, I've been
there and done that. I've walked down the aisles and
I've had those men to put their arms around me and me weeping
and crying and having those experiences of religion and put their arm
around me and said, everything's going to be okay. Huh? That's how Satan works. That's
what he does. He makes you to believe it's
okay. You're never going to seek God
as long as you think everything's okay. Everybody that sought God
in the scriptures, every last one of them that he pictures
in time of these sick folks and lepers and all these men, they
all desperate. They all knew their need. They
all had nowhere else to go. And they were all convinced of
His ability to meet their need. And they went to Him. That's
all they knew. That's all they knew. But you'll never seek Him
without a need. And you'll never have a need
as long as you think everything's all right. That's his way of controlling
folks. He finds some tragedy in their
lives, some incident that stirs the conscience in them and gives
them whatever it is that they think they need, whatever appeals
to their nature to make them feel good again and believe that
they're reconciled to God. He gives them experiences, decisionism,
moral reform, aisle walking, church membership, ordinances,
praying through. Satan's got something for everybody. He's got something for everybody. Anything but Christ. And anything
but grace. Huh? Well, I believe man's saved by
grace, but... No, you don't believe in grace,
because there's no but in grace. There's no but. Satan rules over fallen men because
he knows how to satisfy what their nature lusts after. Man, natural man, is confined
in a nature cursed of God. And Satan knows that. And he
knows more about human nature than anybody except God. He knows
what appeals to it. Satan's been around a long time.
Now listen to this, Ephesians 2, 3. We're talking about those
dead in trespasses and sin. The natural man. Confined. He's in a prison cell of his
own nature. Locked up with chains of darkness
and ignorance. among whom also we all had our
tenor of life, our conversation, our ways, our behavior, however
you want to interpret it, in times past, in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and, now listen, and were by nature the children of wrath
even as others." Now that's where God found His people, children
of wrath. Unable to help themselves. Natural
man has no hope and is without God in the world. That's what
Paul reminds them there in Ephesians 2. He said, you remember that
you were Gentiles, don't you? You didn't have any promise.
You didn't have any covenants. You didn't have any prophets.
You didn't have a Bible. And God found you and He brought
you to Christ. And He broke down that middle
wall of petition, and He brought you to see yourself in Him. You
didn't have any Christ. You was without God and without
Christ in the world. Natural man can never change.
He can never alter the course that he travels. He can never
reverse his life or dig his way out of the pit. He's dead in
trespasses and sins, and he is by nature the children of wrath. He's a child of wrath. Now, can I take my place with
such a man? Can I see myself in hell, in
that cursed man? Can I find myself there? Can
I see myself helpless and hopeless, a slave to my own nature, a slave
to the devil, a religious pawn, one that Satan He takes you captive,
the Scripture said, at His will. He can just come around and get
you, John, you're gone. Come around and lay hold on me,
Winston, you're right in the middle of reading the Bible,
all of a sudden you're way over here somewhere. I'll take you captive
at His will. Can you take your place with
such a man? Can I see myself lying with that
paralyzed man, knowing something about this spiritual water, but
having no way to get into it? Can I take my place with him?
Can I take my place with the leper? Desperate, alienated from
God, alienated from worship, alienated from the house of Israel.
Falling down before the one man who can do something about my
cave. Falling down and saying, Lord, if you will. No, God is
not obligated to call you at all. If He calls you, He will
call you by His grace. And I'll guarantee you when He
does, you'll sing about His grace for eternity. Can I take my place with the
leper? Can I lie there with him in his filth and in his curse
and dead while he lives? Shut up to mercy, shut up to
grace, and shut up to Christ. It takes an act of God to be
saved. That's what I'm telling you.
I can't save anybody. I can stand up here and talk,
and read, and quote the Bible, and do all these things, and
find good illustrations, and find good types, and figures,
and pictures, and preach, and pile scripture up around you
like cordwood. But unless God does something
in your heart, you're a goner. You're as sure for hell as if
you was already there. Nothing's going to change. Nothing's
going to alter your course. Quench your thirst, set your
goal, make your determination. You're not going to do anything
unless God rescues you from where you are. What you're going to
do is flounder around until Satan deceives you and draws you into
some kind of religion. You know, atheism is a religion. Sure it is. If that's what appeals
to you, he'll give you that. He'll let you wander around that
for a while. Whatever appeals to you, he could care less as
long as it ain't Christ. Look here in verse 4, Ephesians
chapter 2. Maybe this is what I ought to
title the message. But God. Huh? That's where it's at. But God. who is rich in mercy, for his
great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, hath, that is, already accomplished this, hath quickened
us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved. Ain't that what
that says? And hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This
is the first resurrection right here. God raised us up with Him. He came as a representative man. There's no other reason for God
to come and appear in human flesh except as a representative man. He came into this world as a
representative man, and everything He did, He did as a representative. God gave Him power over all flesh,
John 17, 2, that He should give eternal life to as many as the
Father has given Him. I manifested Thy name unto the
men which Thou gavest Me out of the world. I have given unto
them the words thou gavest me. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine. While I was with them, I kept them which thou gavest
me. I sanctified them through thy name, and for their sakes
I sanctify myself. And I will, Father, that they
also which thou hast given me be with me where I am, and that
they might behold my glory which thou hast given me." That sounds
like a lection to me, don't it to you? Those religious Jews who would
not believe the gospel were given over to themselves and Satan
to believe a lie and be damned. But it says of the Gentiles who
said, we'll hear you again. We won't hear this again. We're
excited about this. We find hope in this. We want
you to preach to us. And you know what it says? As
many as were ordained unto eternal life believed. Isn't that something? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly, I told you. I told you, and I told you, and
I told you. But you believe not because you're
not of my sheep." Now, ain't that what he said? All those
chosen in Christ and predestinated to be sons were blessed in that
election of God. And when His substitutionary
work was complete, when He had by His obedience honored and
exalted the law, When he had by his suffering and death satisfied
divine justice, he cried, it is finished. Ain't that what
he said? It's finished. And they took him down from that
cursed tree and laid him in a borrowed tomb. And on the third day, early
in the morning, the angels came down and rolled back the great
stone. And our victorious Savior walked out. He folded his gray
clothes neatly and laid them on the slab and walked out. He
walked out, and He appeared to His disciples. He appeared to
the apostles. He appeared to over 500 brethren
at one time. He appeared to men chosen beforehand
to see Him. And He appeared to those who
knew Him. And He ate with them, and He drank with them. And they
walked out with Him. And He stepped up on a cloud
and the angels, and He ascended into glory on that cloud. And
it said he sat down at the right hand of God. And all that he
came as a representative for went up with him and sat down
with him at the right hand of God. And I tell you, bless your
heart, if you didn't come out with him, you'll never see life.
Not just the way it is. You'll never see life. All for
whom He came and lived and suffered and died were quickened together
with Him, raised up together with Him, made to sit together
with Him, so that, see it here in Ephesians 2, 7, that in the
ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace
in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus, that One who represented
us. There was a kindness in that.
Rest your heart, David, he put you in Christ, and we see Christ,
and we see him come as a man, as my representative, lived under
that law that I couldn't keep one single jot or tittle of it.
He lived under it and served it and obeyed it and honored
it and exalted it for me. For me. That's my hope. That's
my righteousness. I'll tell you, if you've got
some other righteousness, it's yours. It's yours, and God ain't
going to have it. He'll spit on your righteousness.
So that 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 is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Knowing our part in the first
resurrection is by way of a spiritual resurrection. God pulls you out
of that cursed nature. He creates in you a new man,
and that new man is an obedient man. He's a broken man, an obedient
man. He's a man of faith. He's a man
broken before God. God broke him. God told him the
truth. He understands. This is an understanding
man. While I hath not seen or ear
heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath given us in Christ. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. That new birth can only be known
by the imparting of a new man, a submissive man, a broken man,
a repenting man. He came into the world and the
world was made by Him. That's what it tells us over
in John chapter 1. And the world knew Him not. And He came unto
His own, His own people, those that He'd separated and delivered
and showed Himself to in type and figure and all the All of
those things that we've been reading and studying in the Old
Testament. He came unto His own and His own received Him not.
They didn't receive Him. But to as many as received Him,
to them gave He power, the right and privilege to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name, now listen, which
were born. Not of the blood, not of blood,
that is not of Abraham's descent, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. They were born. That's why
they believe. My friend, this is the only way
you'll ever discover your part in the first resurrection is
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to rest in Him. It's to believe on the name of
the Son of God. It's to see the glory of God's
mercy and grace to sinners in Him. To see how God can still
be God and justify filthy man, cursed man, sinful man. It's to see and believe that
everything God has for sinners is in His Son. And to embrace
Him and rejoice in Him. And to rest in Him. and to love
Him. It's to trust Him wholly, completely. It's to hand over yourself to
Him. And to discover in Him a treasure
so glorious that everything in this world loses its sparkle,
loses its glitter. This man is a blessed man. He's blessed. He don't have anything
here. But all what he has there, he's
blessed. He's blessed. Take it all away
here. Job, why don't you just curse God and die? You're sitting
down there in the ash heap with your bulls, and all your children's
gone, and all your wealth's gone, all your cattle's gone, your
reputation's gone, and your friends are sitting over here, don't
even know what to say. Why don't you just curse God
and die? He said, you talk like some of those foolish women.
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed. Blessed,
he said, be the name of the Lord. Huh? God was the only one in that
whole outfit that knew who was blessed. He told Satan walking up and
down through the land. The Lord said, have you considered
my servant Job? There's not a man like him in
all the earth. He's blessed. He's blessed because
God put him in Christ and Christ stood as his surety. Christ lived
that life he was required to live and died that death he was
doomed to die. He's blessed because Christ suffered
his humiliation and bore his shame and guilt before God. He's
blessed because God hid his life in Christ and raised him up from
the dead and preserved him in the Savior. He's blessed because
God sent him a preacher to tell him the truth and drew him to
him and crossed their paths. And because God in the day of
his power made him willing to hear. That's the blessed man. He's blessed. Oh, death can't
hurt him now. Judgment can't touch him now.
Religion can't deceive him now. Satan can't pluck him out of
the Lord's hand. He's blessed. He that believeth
on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And he that liveth
and believeth on me will never die." That's the blessed man. With man dead, sinful, depraved
man, and all of his philosophy, and all of his worldly wisdom,
and all of those things that he has. Our Lord said it's impossible. It's impossible. But with God,
all things are possible. And if I had time to tell you
one more time before I close my eyes in death, if I had one
message, one thing to tell you, just had time for one sentence
to get it out, here's what I'd tell you. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Because blessed is that man who
has part in that first resurrection. From henceforth and forevermore,
that second death has no power on him. You know what it says
about this spiritual death and hell and Satan and all those
things in Revelation chapter 20? You read down there the next
to the last verse in Revelation chapter 20. It said, "...and
death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." This is the
second death. Have no power on that blessed
man, because he stands in Christ. Oh, God help you to stand in
him this morning. Thank you.