Alright, if you'll turn back
with me now to 1 Corinthians 15. I want to say some things
this morning. Actually, on two subjects. I
began, and my primary subject was the second resurrection of
Christ. This is the last day. This day
when the saints will be called out of the tomb. And those that
are alive and remain will be caught up with Him to meet Him
in the air. And those eternal blessings and things that go
along with that resurrection. And for the most part, I don't
hear much said on the subject. Though the apostles had a lot
to say about it. But all I hear them talk about
anymore is all the mysteries that surround it. They talk about
the 70 weeks, and they talk about great tribulation and the coming
of the Antichrist, and they talk about all these things. They're
just all together taken up in these mysteries. And then I remember
that natural man is blind to Christ. He doesn't see Christ
in these things. He doesn't see the very promise
of God, the very reason these things are given, the very heart
of these things. He's blind to them. He doesn't
see them. And all he can see is the mysteries. He just goes
around and he sees these things and he speculates about them. And folks are interested in them.
And they talk about that thousand-year reign and the millennium and
whether Christ is going to come before this time or in the middle
of this time or at the end of this time and the rapture. And they talk about all these
things. You've been there and you've heard them and turned
your TV on Boy, somebody, I could go downtown Magnolia and take
me out a big billboard and say on the 29th of April, I'm going
to preach on the rapture. You couldn't hold the cars in
the parking lot. This place would be full. They'd
run out here wanting to hear what you had to say. But these
things that I'm about to tell you this morning, they wouldn't
cross the road to hear them because they can't see them. And they
don't see any glory in them. Preachers in our day, they make
much about these things. and the seasons and the signs,
and they talk about the Antichrist and all those things, and they
speculate about the millennium. But this event from the very
first days of the Apostle, they were shrouded with stuff like
this. Over in, I think it's 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul said, now don't be troubled. He said, I know there's people
coming and telling you that Christ is at hand and He's going to
appear right now, but it ain't going to happen. Before that day comes, there's
going to come a great falling away. A great falling away. And that old man of sin, he's
going to reveal himself for what he is. For what he is. And we're going to talk about
that here in just a little bit. But this world in general has
very little knowledge about God. I took my title, and this is
the second part of my subject, and it almost got to be the first
part, so you just have to kind of bear with me through the message
here this morning. But this just jumped out at me
down here in verse 51. He said, Behold! He talked to
them about the sun and the moon and the difference between celestial
bodies And I could kind of see after scratching your head when
I was reading through those things a while ago there, stars and
the moon and all these things and times and seasons and grains
of wheat and corn and what on earth is he talking about? Well,
Paul gets done saying all those things. He gets down here and
it's just like he just can't wait any more. He just says,
Behold! Like Moses said to them there
before the sea, he said, Stand still. I'm getting ready to show
you something. I'm getting ready to show you
something. And Paul says, Behold, he said, I show you a mystery.
Do we understand that God is a mystery? Is He mysterious to
you? I tell you, I sit in my study
sometimes, and I look at these things, and I was telling Tony
and Darlene back there a while ago, the deeper you get in these
things, the bigger they get. I ain't making any headway. I'm
telling you, I'm like the apostles. I rode all night and I maybe
got a furlong. That's all the farther I could
go. It gets bigger and bigger and bigger and after a while
you just stand in awe of it. You don't even know what to say
about it. I do it for a lot of times. I'm just at a total loss.
I don't know how to describe these things. They're so far...
David said, your ways is high. He said, I can't attain to them. I can't get up on that level.
I love to look at them. I'm glad when they said to me,
let's go into the house of the Lord. But oh, when he starts
to unfold his ways and his character and he's great mistress of God,
we just stand back and the scope of it is so enormous, so eternal,
we just stand back in awe. And I believe that's what worship
is. I believe that's what it is. I believe we come in and
we begin to talk about these things and we begin to discuss
these things and to show you what I believe God's given me
to show you during the week. And we start to look at these
things. Man, our hearts just raise up in worship. How good
are these things? How gracious are these things?
as large as His mercy and His grace and His purpose and His
character. I can't fathom them. Let me read
you something over here in Ecclesiastes 6. And I'm convinced of this.
I'm convinced that since I was a child, I look back on those
things, and I believe this world has been influenced by an oversimplification
of gospel truth. I think religion has just so
oversimplified it. It's just A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, God
loves you, Christ died for you, come down here and accept Jesus
as your personal Savior and go to hell. And it's just so simple
that there's nobody in awe of it. There's nobody who fears
God. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. Why? Because they've been deceived.
There wasn't any fear before. before Israel there in front
of Elijah until the fire come down. Then they feared. Then they feared. They fell on
their faces and worshipped God, he said, when the fire come down.
And I don't know what else to do except to just declare the
gospel and wait on God's fire to fall. But let me read you
something over here in Ecclesiastes chapter 6. I like to read this
for myself. But here in Ecclesiastes 6, verse
1, he said, Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God,
and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools.
For they consider not that they do evil. Never enters their mind. Never enters their mind that
they are doing evil. And let not thine heart be hasty to utter
anything before God. How quick I am! Somebody say
something, boy, I'm right on it, ain't you? I jump right on
it. Let not your heart be hasty to
utter anything before God. Why? Because He's in heaven.
You're down here. He sitteth upon the circle of
the earth, and He considers all inhabitants of it as grasshoppers.
I'm just a grasshopper. He's God. He's God. Therefore, let my word be few.
For a dream cometh through a multitude of business, and a fool's voice
is known by a multitude of words." And these things we gather here
to hear are not things this world knows anything about. Natural
men don't know anything. I could preach to them until
I fell over, and they wouldn't understand one thing about what
I'm saying. So when you tell them these things,
don't get angry with them. Don't get upset. Don't just stomp
away and part company with them. Be patient with them. How much
did you know before God opened your heart? Huh? You were right
there. You were right there kicking
and fighting and you wasn't going to have no part of it until the
fire comes. Then God builds a fire in you
and you're willing to listen in. Behold, he said, stop what
you're doing. Stop what you're thinking. Just
stand still and listen. He said this was a great mystery. And over a lot of years, I've
come to know this, that this oversimplification of the gospel,
it leaves us in this frame of mind, that effect. We're surrounded by it. My wife
didn't go. She didn't attend church like
I did. She was raised in a home. Her daddy was a Catholic, and
her mother was a Trinity Lutheran. And I think her father went a
lot, but she didn't, and her mother didn't go at all. So she
didn't go much. She didn't have all that experience
of religion that I had. But still, she was affected by
it because we go to school with people who do. And we listen
to them, and we've got friends, and they react and act and so
on. And they're affected by it, and
you're affected by it and don't know it. You just don't know
it. And we do these things, and a
happy second later, I'm thinking, well, why did I say that? Why
do I do that? Why did I react that way? Well,
that's why. That's why. But these men in the Old Testament,
they didn't act like that. They had an awe of God and a
reverence for God. And I don't see it. I just don't
see it in this world anymore. These things are mysteries, and
everything concerning God is a mystery. Everything. Everything. You see, we think, well, you
know, you start to talk to somebody and the subject of election will
come up. And in their mind, they think
the only difference between them and you is this doctrine of election.
Everything is a mystery. So you go to the next subject,
and now you're talking about sovereignty. Well, all of a sudden,
that's a mystery. And then you start talking to
them about a limited atonement, and then that's a mystery. Well,
what do you mean? He didn't die for everybody?
No, he didn't die for everybody. Well, where did you come up with
that? Well, that's what the Word of God says. And then that's a mystery. And then the next thing, you
come down to the end of it, the whole thing is a mystery. It's
all a mystery. It's all a mystery. Listen to
this over here in 1 Timothy. Turn with me over there, 1 Timothy
chapter 3. Let me give you just a few examples
of what I'm talking about when I say these things are a mystery.
Paul said, Behold, I'm going to show you a mystery. This is
something you don't know, and I'm going to declare it to you.
And by the grace of God, God may say it to you. You might
understand the mystery and you'll be able to tell somebody. But
right now, he says, I'm going to tell you. So he said, just
stand still. He said, I've got something to
say. I've got something to say. Look here over in 1 Timothy 3,
verse 16. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God-likeness. This thing of coming
to know God, this thing of who God is and what God is doing. Great is the mystery of godliness. Think about these things. Listen
to them. Here is the first one. God was manifest in the flesh. Now, David said, Lord, and he
was serious and he meant it in a good way, but he said, You
know, he looked at that old tabernacle, that old tent, and that thing
had been moved from one end of that wilderness to the other.
Probably wore out as many times as they went in and pitched it
and tore it down and all them things. I can just picture that
old tent kind of getting dilapidated and sewn up and repaired. And he looked at it and he said,
Lord, I'm going to build you a house. God said, the heaven of heavens
can't contain me, David. How are you going to build me
a house? How are you going to build God a house? The universe
dwells in God. David came to know this. He said
later on in the Psalms, he said, If I take the wings of the morning
and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, behold, thou art
there. You're there waiting on me. The heaven of heavens can't
contain Him. As far as you can see, I don't
care what kind of telescope you've got They're sending out all these
space probes and things. When they get out as far as they
can get, and they look out a little further, they still haven't found
the end of God. And this whole thing dwells in
Him. It dwells in Him. And yet in
the body, He said, of this man dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead body. Is that a mystery? Boy, I look
at that, and the longer I look at it, What can you say about that?
I can't say anything. I can just stand back and look
at it in awe and just keep repeating it. The Word was made flesh. This eternal Word that stood
in the beginning was made flesh and walked among us. Walked among us. Whoa, what a
mystery. God was manifest in the flesh, and listen to this.
Here's the second one. He said he's justified in the
Spirit. Satan, the father of lies, the master of sin, the
first sinner, he came to the Lord in the wilderness. He came
to that man in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt, and for
forty days he examined him by trial. And he couldn't find one
thing in him. How long would it take him to
find something in you? About ten seconds. He had me buried. He examined him for forty days. He couldn't find one thing to
exploit. He couldn't find one thing to
trick him with. One thing to deceive him with.
One thing to tempt him by. Why? Because he was without sin. I'm declared to be without sin.
He was without sin. They couldn't find any sin in
him because there wasn't any. They couldn't find any deceit
in him because there wasn't any. He was tempted in all points
like as we are, yet without sin. He was justified in the Spirit. He said, if you don't believe
anything I say, he told those Jews, he said, you better believe
me for what I'm doing. You better take a look for which
of the good works that I've done or you're going to stone me.
That's what he said. Oh, we're not going to stone
you for what you did. We're going to stone you for what you said. Perfect in wisdom. Perfect in
understanding. Perfect in affection. perfect
in his office as a representative and a substitute. Nobody could
find any fault in him. The Jews couldn't. They had to
make stuff up on him. They couldn't find anything.
They took him to Pilate. He said, I found no fault in
this just man. Nobody could find anything wrong
with him. He was justified of God in the Spirit. He was God. And he couldn't be tempted with
evil, he couldn't be tempted with lies, he couldn't be tempted
with money, he couldn't be tempted with power. He said, you worship me, I'll
give you all the kingdoms of the world. That didn't faze him.
He just looked at him and laughed. Justified in the Spirit. Listen
to this, a scene of angels. What a mystery. seen of angels. And I want you to think about
this. He was seen of the good angels and the bad angels, both
of them. And both of them knew who he was. He approached old
Legion, and those demons come out of Legion, and they said,
We know you who thou art, the Holy One of Israel. Why hast
thou come before thy time to torment us? They knew he was
sovereign. They said, Allow us to go into
those swine. They couldn't go anywhere without
his direction, without his permission. Listen to this. Preach to the
Gentiles. Well, there was nothing when I was a young man that disturbed
me more than reading the Old Testament than reading the New
Testament. I'd read in the Old Testament, and here's all these
Canaanites and Hittites and Amorites and Jebusites and all these ites
over there, and they all had this land. Had it for centuries. It was their home. They look
just like I live over here in Taylor. That's my home. And God
sent Israel in there and said, kill every one of them. Cast
them out. That's your home. Why would God
take your home away from you? He sent them in there. Brooded
them out. He said, don't marry them. Don't
have anything to do with them. Don't follow after their gods.
Don't compromise anything for them. And then all of a sudden, You
get over into the New Testament, and salvation basically is being
preached to the Gentiles. And then listen to this. It was
described, you see, throughout the Old Testament, the Gentiles
were despised. They were treated as evil, as
aliens from Israel, strangers to the covenant. described by
Paul in Ephesians 2.12 as having no hope without God in the world. Gentiles, evil. And yet in the
New Testament, the Old Testament scriptures are quoted as the
fundamental reasons for the Gentiles being called and establishing
their election. And it goes back to the book
of Hosea. Listen to this. This is coming
right out of Romans chapter 9 where Paul establishes salvation by
the free and sovereign grace of God and the purpose of God
according to election and so on. You are well acquainted with
Romans chapter 9. But look down here in verse 23.
Paul said that he might make known the riches of his glory
on the vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared unto glory,
even us whom he hath called not of the Jews, but also of the
Gentiles. As he saith in Hosea, I will
call them my people, which were not my people, and her beloved,
which was not beloved. And it will come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, You are not my people,
there shall they be called the children of the living God."
He was preached to the Gentiles. Is that a mystery? Isn't that a phenomenon? It is
to me. I just stand and look at it in
awe. And it's in perfect harmony with
the Scriptures from cover to cover. Preached unto the Gentiles. Listen
to this. He believed on in the world.
Here's something I'd like for you to stand up and preach to
me for a while. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul declares the
utter inability of natural man to believe. It's on there. Back there where he's talking
about the necessity of a preacher. He said, in the wisdom of God,
the world by wisdom knew not God. Now, you can't be a believer
and not know God. Huh? Now, come on. You can't do it, can you? And
then he goes over here in chapter 2 and he said, I'm seeing as
a preacher, but I declare the wisdom of God in a mystery. And
it's a hidden wisdom even the princes of this world didn't
know, because if they'd known it, they wouldn't have crucified
the Lord of Glory. And then listen to this, he says,
As it is written, I have not seen or heard, never entered
into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them
that love him. Down in verse 14, the natural
man, he receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. A foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. Absolute, total inability of man to believe, and yet all
through the scriptures man is commanded to believe, and you've
got a cloud of witnesses who did. Is that not a mystery? He was believed on in the world.
I tell you, we've been taught so long and been hammered so
long and brainwashed so long with this thing about man's decisions
and man's ability and man's potential. There's no potential in him.
God just does what He does. He does it in you and He does
it for you. And He does it when it pleases
Him. And He can take that old dead, dry sinner and He can bring
him to Christ and create faith in him. And that man will believe
just like God didn't bring him. In his heart, he knows he believes. Peter said, We believe. Help
thou our unbelief. Can you explain that? It's a mystery. It's a mystery. We won't reach out and get a...
You can't get a hold on it. It has to get a hold of you.
Yeah, that's right. It has to get a hold of you. Commanded of God to believe. I find that mysterious. And then
it says he was received up into glory. They killed him on the
cross, jammed a spear in his side, made double sure he was
dead. And then they took him down,
washed him down, wrapped him up in linen, carried him down
Winston, and laid him on that cold slab in that cave, and rolled
that stone up on the door and sealed it shut. And three days
went by, and on the morning of the third day, he sat up and
unwound the linen. He wasn't in a hurry. He folded
it all up nice and neat. You read the account. It was
laying folded right there. He wasn't in a hurry. Rolled
that stone. Walked out. Walked out. Appeared, I read it to you a
while ago, appeared to over 500 brethren at one time. Walked among them. He took fish
and ate it. Drank wine with them. He told
Thomas, he said, run your hand right here in my side if you
don't believe. Stick your fingers in the holes in my hand. I'm
real. This is a real body. Real flesh. That same body they took down,
laid on that slab. I'm standing right here in front
of you right now. Right now. Reach out and touch me. Reach
out and touch me. And then they watched him, and
he walked out, and it said he just ascended. Ascended right
into glory. Right into glory. Received up
into glory. There's a man, flesh and blood,
bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh, seated at the right hand
of God. There's a man in glory, John,
the first man, a man in glory, flesh and bones, seated at the
right hand of God. You know, strawberries are one
of my favorite fruits. I used to love, we had a little
garden up there in Kentucky, and I'd go out there in the spring.
I'd go out long before they were ready, but I just loved strawberries,
and I'd go out there and look. And after a while, you'd see
some of them little white blooms coming on, you know, and then
that little green berry, and I'd watch that thing every day.
And pretty soon, one berry would appear, and I'd grab that thing,
you know. But I'd look, and there's all
them blooms. And I knew, I had one in my hand. But I've seen
all them balloons. I know there's going to be more
to follow. Ain't that what he's talking about? There's a man
in glory. And if there's one, all that's
in him, all that's in that seat, every last one of them, they're
going to be there. They're going to be there. Received
up into glory. Mysteries. Great, profound mysteries. But there's another mystery here
before us he's talking about. He said, Behold, I'm going to
show you a mystery. And then think about this. I
don't want to move on yet. Did you know sin is a mystery?
It's a mystery. I never knew anything about sin,
did you? Sin is a mystery. You know it's called in Scripture
the mystery of iniquity? It's a mystery. It's a mystery. And I know that most people,
and I was right there with them. I don't mean to pick on folks
and act like I never did do that. I did exactly that. I used to
accuse Henry Mahan of sitting outside the church picking in
on women. He'd quote me word for word sometimes on his TV
broadcast. He knew exactly where I was coming
from. And folks saying, I know what they say. They say sin is
what men do. And I don't have a problem with
that. It is what we do. And it's in everything we do.
And I think that's where we've got the disagreement. It ain't
just in something. It's in everything we do. It's
in everything we think. It's in everything we feel. Because
everything we do and feel and think is because of what we are.
All a sinner can do is sin. Over here in Ephesians 2, in
verse 3, he said, Among whom we all had our behavior, in times
past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature, by nature, that's
where they missed it, the children of wrath even as others. It's
that nature. And the only thing a sinner can
do is sin. That old leper, he had leprosy.
All he could do was stand there and rot. That's all he could
do. He couldn't do anything else. He was forbidden to go worship.
He was forbidden to go to fellowship. He was forbidden to go to the
priest. He was outside the camp, had no part in it. All he could
do is lay out there, cover his mouth, tell everybody he was
unclean, and rot. That's all he could do. And I'm
telling you apart from God, that's all you can do, and it's all
I can do. We're sinned because we're sinners. By one man, sin
entered into the world, death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men. How do I know that? They wouldn't
sin, John. I told you Christ didn't have
any sin. They couldn't tempt Him with sin. There wasn't any
sin in Him. But we sin because we're full of it. And this mystery of iniquity
is called in Scripture the spirit of Antichrist. Now, here's where
I want you to listen to me. And this is where folks miss
it. We're talking about the mystery of iniquity. And you'll find
that Scripture over in 2 Thessalonians 2. And those folks were talking
about this second coming of Christ, and it was going to come right
then. And he said, oh, no. Oh, no. He said, it's not going
to come until there comes first a great falling away and this
man of sin be revealed. That old man of sin that's in
you, he's going to reveal himself in his true character and his
true deceit. How's he going to do it? Religion.
Religion. There's going to come a falling
away. Nobody's going to fall away if they're not deceived.
Huh? They've got to be deceived. And
you can listen to it, and he talks about it, how they come
in lying wonders. They come with all unrighteousness,
distorting the Scriptures and saying all these things. You
can read it for yourself over there. But the spirit of antichrist,
what that means is it's opposed to Christ. That's what it means.
When you want to examine religion, Just look at it in the light
of how they feel about Christ. It's anti-Christ. It's not anti-works. They do good works. A lot of
those things our Lord said you need to do what these Pharisees
do, some of the things. They were good things. But it's opposed to his suretyship,
his mediation as the one mediator between God and men. It's opposed
to his lordship. It's opposed to his righteousness.
It's opposed to his teaching as a prophet. It's opposed to
his intercession as our high priest and advocate before God.
It's opposed to his preeminence in creation and salvation. And
it's opposed to his person and work in that he's the one substitute,
the one righteousness, the one God appointed by whom he'll judge
this world in righteousness. He is the plumb line that they
talked about, that righteous man. that plumb line. They're opposed to those things.
They're anti-Christ. And the position of a person
with the spirit of anti-Christ is a person who is so possessed
with worldly religion that he's blind to the Word of God. He's
what the old preachers called gospel-hardened. He just heard
these things and heard these lies and he believes them and
he's satisfied and he blots out everything else. That's where
those Jews were at. They didn't have a doubt in their mind that
they weren't children of God. And they weren't. They didn't
have a doubt in their mind that they weren't righteous men. They'd
fight you over their righteousness. But Paul said they're going about
trying to establish a righteousness because they don't know the true
righteousness of God. That's that spirit of Antichrist.
It's that spirit of religion that deceives. And I'm not going
to pick on any one particular, but come with me to Matthew 6.
This is important. You know, the Lord used such
things that we can understand if we just slow up, look at them,
listen to them, find out what He's talking about. He could
talk to a 12-year-old if we just understood that language that
He spoke back then and were familiar with the things that He used.
But here's what I want to show you here in Matthew 6, verse
22. He said, ìThe light of the body
is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light.î Now, let me just tell
you what heís talking about. In the original, that word ìlightî
means ìcandleî. Thatís the original meaning of
the word ìcandleî. Somebody substituted it for ìlightî,
and ìlightî will work, but youíll get a better understanding if
you just stick with the original. Itís ìcandleî. And hereís what
heís saying. You come in here to a dark room, and there's a
table out here in the middle of it. And you go in here, and
you take one candle, and you light it, and you stick it out
there on the table. You've got one source of light in the room,
one candle. The whole room gets full of the
light of that one candle. Everything you see in that room,
you see by the light of that candle. You see it by the light
of that candle. And we go into this room, and
this is what we see. Now, listen, verse 23. But if
thine eye, that source of light, that one candle, be evil, thy
whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is
in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! If you only
have one candle and it's evil, and all you can see is by the
light of that candle, how good is that darkness? You don't have
any light. What you thought was light is
darkness. Ain't that what he's saying there? And if the very things that you
think is light, those very concepts and ideas and imaginations that
you thought all them years that you knew, things you really thought
you knew, if that be darkness, where's the end of the darkness?
Huh? There's no end to it. You just
thought you was confused on a point. Mystery. I'm telling you, iniquity
is a mystery. It goes farther than what the
eye can see. The depths of it, you can't even
plumb the depths. Look at the Son of God. His visage
marred more than any man up there. People hated His guts, but there
wasn't one thing in Him they could find wrong with Him. What's causing all this to happen?
This darkness and this depth of sin and God's judgment against
it. And we don't know anything about
it. We thought it was that watermelon we stole, you know. How great is this darkness? Now,
I've used all my time just about to get to this point, but I want
to give you some things here. Salvation is not a fire escape.
It's a new creation. It's a resurrection of nature.
It's a new man, and we'll never really experience the total reality
of this change until that final day when he resurrects that body
and we sit there with no sin and no darkness and nothing there
but the candle of God. Then you'll know something about
glory. Then we'll know, Paul said, as we are known. Then we'll
know something about it. Sit there in those glorified
bodies, fully redeemed, fully restored without sin, unblameable,
unreprovable, spotless before the presence of His glory. And
let me give you just four things here just briefly. I'm just going
to state them and move on, maybe give you a Scripture along with
them. I want to give you four things here about the certainty,
the absolute certainty of this resurrection. And there are many
more things. I could go on all through this
chapter. Paul talks about creation. He talks about the old shriveled
up grain of corn. You throw it in the ground. If
you go dig it up the next day or the day after that, that thing
looks like it's rotted. And that's what he said. You
throw it down there in the ground, it's got to die. But in it is something
that God put in it, and it's going to come back out. It's
going to produce life. That life is in it. It belongs
to Him, and He's put everything in it that it needs. But here's
what I want you to see. Here's the first thing. The absolute
certainty of this final resurrection is because of the predestinating
purpose of God. Now, don't you listen to this. In Romans 8.28, He talks about
all things working together. Just as you look at them, sometimes
they don't look that way, do they? But all these things. They're working together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose. What purpose? What purpose? What's He doing
there? All these things working together, all these events and
advents and all these catastrophes and sorrows and pains and sufferings
and all these things are all working together. The crucifixion,
the rising and falling of nations, we can't even see until it's
All these things, working together, working together for good to
them that love God, but called according to His purpose. Verse
29, For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Ephesians 1.11, In Christ we
have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will. God, sovereign God, almighty,
irresistible, unchangeable God. And this God has predestinated,
predetermined that in that day you will stand before Him in
those robes of white. Perfect. Not one flaw. If Satan were to examine you
then, as he did Christ, he would find the same thing. No flaw. Nothing to exploit. Just like
Christ standing before the throne. Predetermined. Everybody he put
in Christ, blessed in Christ, will one day stand in the presence
with the attitude and spirit of Christ and the very nature
of God. And it begins right here. But look at this secondly. The
Word of God declares it. You don't have to take my word
on this. The Word of God declares it. Listen to this. 1 Thessalonians
4. He said, But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning
them which are asleep, that ye shall not, even as others which
had no hope. For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. They're just asleep. They're
never called dead. He said they're asleep. He's just asleep. He told about
Lazarus. There he was down at the tomb.
He's asleep. He's asleep. Well, if he's just asleep, he'll
do well. No, he's dead, but he's asleep. He's asleep. Oh, listen. This we say unto
you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God and the deity
in Christ will rise first. They are coming out of the tomb,
just like Lazarus. Oh, God give me a heart to believe
and a spirit of submission to rest and rely on the Word of
God. Abraham believed God. He said, My word will not return
unto me void. All right, look at this. Here's
the third thing. It's the purpose of God to bring it to pass. It's
the Word of God that declares it to us by promise. And it's
the experience of regeneration. And it's the earnest of the promise.
Isn't that what he says? It's the down payment. Regeneration
is the down payment. It's the earnest. You talk about
that resurrection, and you think about that resurrection, and
you wonder what it's going to be like. We got just a little
taste of it. Just a taste. I never had an
interest for the Gospel, an interest for God. I didn't have any love
in my heart for Him. You know, we sang about it all
the time. Jesus loves me. This I know. I didn't have any
love for God. I didn't know who God was. And
then when I found out who He was, I sure enough didn't love
Him. I was angry. Upset. Enmity. All those things against God. And He puts that love in there.
He puts that faith in there. He puts that obedience in there.
He puts all those things in there. That's regeneration. You didn't
have that before. You didn't have that. You didn't
work that up. You didn't go in a corner somewhere
and sweep that up. It wasn't there. God put it there.
What if He put it there and He tells you that this is just a
down payment? What's it going to be when the
whole thing stands there? That's something to look forward
to, isn't it? He said, For as many as are led
by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God, led by the Word
of God, led to Christ, the source of all wisdom and understanding,
led to the gospel, the means of your effectual calling, led
to submission, to bow to the authority of Christ. led to receive
salvation as the gift of God's grace, led to see my sin revealed,
all these mysteries unraveled. Well, you not receive the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption
whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness
with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then
heirs, heirs of God, join heirs with Christ, if so be that we
suffer with him, that we be also glorified together." Down payment. That's what it is. Regeneration. Calls you out of darkness. No
interest, no love, no affection, nothing. Calls you out of darkness
into that light. Called out of rebellion to submission.
Called out of sin into godliness. Called to see what others. He
said, I thank Thee, Heavenly Father, that Thou hast hid these
things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto me. Even
so, Father, for sorting good in Thy sight. But the real security of this
promise is when God brought Christ out of the tomb. How do I know
He's going to raise me? How can I go down, lay down in
that cold box one day and not just have a heart attack thinking
about it? How can I go down there and submit myself willingly to
death the way Christ did? How can I do that? Because He
knew He was coming out of the grave, didn't He? He knew it. How do I know it? I know it because
He did come out of the grave. And I tell you, if God accepted
him then, He accepts him now. Because He's seated up there
in honor and glory, giving a name above every name that every knee
is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess. That name.
And they're going to do it to the glory of God. That's my assurance. That's my hope. And I look forward
to that. He told Martha, she said, I know
He's going to rise up in the last resurrection. He said, Martha,
I am the resurrection. You're looking at the resurrection.
And if we see Him, we see the resurrection. If we love Him,
we'll love that resurrection. We'll look forward to it. Because
in that resurrection, you're going to be called up to Him.
To Him. It's all in Him.