I invite you to turn this morning
to two texts. First of all, if you would, turn
to John chapter 6 and verse 40. John chapter 6 and verse 40. And then we'll turn to Hebrews
2. The Lord Jesus is here speaking
in this chapter and he says, and this is the will of him that
sent me. We know the Father sent the Son
into the world. We know that the Lord Jesus did
not come on his own, but he was divinely a commission, commissioned
by the Father. He was anointed by the Father
and appointed to come into this world. And he said, and this
is the will of Him. And the Lord Jesus said, I come
not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. So
he says, this is His will, that everyone which seeth the Son.
Now keep that in mind. Everyone which seeth the Son
and believeth on Him may have everlasting life. And I will
raise him up at the last day. He'll have everlasting life.
It will begin in this life. And then at the end, in the day
of the resurrection, I'll raise him up. I'm going to raise him
up out of the grave. I'm going to raise him up. And
he's going to have a glorified body and live eternally with
me. And so you keep that text in
mind, especially this phrase, that everyone which seeth the
Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life. And then
in Hebrews chapter 2 and I want to read verse 9, Paul said, but
we see Jesus. Hebrews 2.9, but we see Jesus. Maybe I'll back up and read verse
8. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet, for
in that he put it all in subjection under him, he left nothing that
is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things
put under him, but we see Jesus. But we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste
death for every son. He should taste death for every
son of the covenant. He should taste death for every
one of those chosen by God in the eternal covenant of election,
that he should taste death for every one of them. It says in Isaiah 42, verse 18,
Hear ye death, and look ye blind that ye might see. Now we recognize
that in the Holy Scriptures in the Bible, faith is placed in
opposition to the sight of the eyes, and yet it is frequently
described in the Bible as looking and seeing. It is opposed to
carnal sight because it is spiritual sight. The sight of faith, that
sight which enables an individual to see the sun, enables an individual
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to see so much of Christ
that they must believe upon Him, that sight is a spiritual sight,
a discernment which comes not of the physical body, but arises
out of that belief of the soul that's wrought in us by the Holy
Spirit. Now, beloved, I would admonish
you this morning to look you blind that you might see. I want
to talk about the best of all sights this morning that we see
Jesus. There are some of those here
this morning, some of you here this morning, that see the Lord
Jesus Christ, and there's others here that have never been enabled
by the Divine Spirit to see Him. You have been admonished by the
Word of God to look you blind that you might see, and I admonish
you this morning to do that. But I would remind you at the
outset that nowhere in the Word of God does it teach us that
anything that God tells us to do, that we can do of our own
ability, our own will, and our own strength. We know the Word
of God teaches human inability. We know it teaches that men are
not able of their own selves to believe the gospel. They're
not able to take away the veil and see the Lord Jesus Christ,
yet they're bid to do so. Now we know that in the Word
of God it's taught clear out, clear through all of the scriptures,
that man is unable to do what God commands him to do apart
from God, doing a work in his heart. And I would have you to
understand that it's not those that receive, that receive the
honor, that have the honor. God has fixed it so that in the
word, it's very clearly spelled out, That it's that one that
gives, that receives the honor. And it's God that gives the ability
for a soul to see his son and to believe on his son. It's God
that gives that ability. And you have to recognize that.
Somebody says, well, I received Christ. Well, hallelujah, praise
the Lord. That's good. I'm glad you did.
But my friend, it's not the receiver that gets the honor or the glory. It's the giver of the sight.
It's the giver of everlasting life. It's the giver of the gift
of faith. That's the one that gets the
honor. And that's the one that gets
the glory. I reminded an individual the other day that we need to
recognize that we've got to look to God for the faith that saves
the soul. That we cannot expect that it's
going to come out of this natural heart. It does not grow on the
human dunghill. It is not native to this soil. It must come from God. It must
come down. That's what the Word of God says,
faith cometh by hearing. Hearing by the Word of God. Faith
comes and God must give that faith. All believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Believe on Him as soon as you
can. Believe on Him. You must believe on Him. If you
fail to believe on Him, you will perish forever. But believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But my friend,
when you believe on him, the honor will be given to God because
faith, saving faith, I mean faith that enables the soul to see
Christ is a gift. from God. So faith is sight in
the sense of being a clear and vivid perception, a sure and
indisputable discovery, a realizing and unquestionable discernment
of fact. Oh, when we have faith, we surely
do believe. all that is historically taught
of Christ, and also all that is wrapped up in Him spiritually
and divine. We see Jesus, for we're sure
of His presence. We have unquestionable evidence
of His existence. Now the Lord Jesus said, where
two or three are gathered together in my name, He said, there am
I in the midst of them. Now you say, well I don't see
Him. Well bodily He's not here. But beloved, He is here. He is
here. Believe me, He is here. The Lord
Jesus is here. And I've been able to see Him
this morning in the Word of God. I've been able to see Him in
the hymns. I've been able to see Him this morning in the countenance
and in those things that have been said. by my brothers and
sisters in Christ. He said, I'm there in the midst. He's walking up and down the
aisles this morning. And He's here! And I believe
it's an indisputable fact that the Lord Jesus Christ meets with
His people. Now we see Jesus, for we're sure,
were sure in our hearts of His presence and of His existence. Our soul has eyes far stronger
than the dim eyes of the body. Is that right? Well, they do.
Somebody said, well, how are you able to see that in the Bible? Well, the eye of faith is far
stronger than the dim eye that's in your body. And many, many
things you can't see even with glasses. But my friend, if you've
got the eye of faith, you'll be able to see what is in the
Word of God. You say, I just can't see that
preacher. Well, it's because God hasn't opened up your eyes.
And you haven't had the veil taken off of your eyes. And when
that happens, you'll be able to see. Oh, my friend, may you
not live out your life, your whole life, and never be able
to see what the Word of God reveals and what it has to say about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we need to see Jesus.
the best of all sights, and the only way you're ever going to
see Him is for God to give you the ability to do that. Well,
what is it to see Jesus? Well, to see Him is to trust
Him. It's to understand by faith,
through divine revelation, number one, who He is. He's the eternal
Son of God. He's the God-man. He's that one
that God has anointed and sent into this world. He came not
on a mission of His own. He came on a mission. He was
commissioned by the Father to come and save His people from
their sins. The Father gave Him a name that
signified He shall save His people from their sin. He's the Savior.
He's the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, not only is it
understanding who He is, but it understands what He did. The
Lord Jesus, when He was here, He reconciled poor sinners unto
God. All the sins of His people were
laid on Him. Isaiah chapter 53 says, It was
laid on Him, and the Lord hath made Him to be sin for us. that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world to represent this old sinner. The
Lord Jesus came into this world to take every one of my sins
upon Himself to the cursed tree in order that I might be spared
the eternal wrath of God. And why did He do it? Why did
He do it? Because He was loyal to the Father. Because he was loyal to the Father
in the eternal covenant, he had entered into a covenant with
the Father to be a representative of His people. And so he was
loyal to that covenant. Don't you see? The covenant of
grace, that eternal covenant, ordered in all things and sure,
is that covenant that was entered into by the Lord Jesus and the
Father and the Holy Spirit. And salvation depends entirely
upon these three. Now you notice I didn't mention
your name because you did not enter into the covenant. There
had to be somebody that represented you that was the one that entered
into the covenant and that representative was Christ. It was Christ. Old Adam represented us in the
garden and we all sinned and died in Adam. But in the Lord
Jesus we shall be made alive. We have been made, if we've seen
Him and believed on Him, we've been made alive. We've been born
again of the Spirit of God and we are alive. in the Lord. Well, who are the men and women
who see the Lord Jesus Christ? Who are the men and women that
know who He is, what He did, and why He did it? He did it
in order to satisfy the Father. He did it in order to propitiate
the Father. He did it in order to reconcile
us unto Himself. My friend, well, who are the
people, the men and women who see the Lord Jesus Christ? No
one sees Him by nature, as we've said already, or by natural means
and abilities. There was a lot of people in
the day of the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth. that
looked upon him. Oh, they looked upon him. They
did. They knew him as the son of Joseph and Mary. They knew
him. They looked upon him. But, my
friend, that didn't save them because it was not a spiritual
sight. It was a physical sight. Until a person is born again,
he cannot see the things of God. John 3.3, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are spiritually deserved. They're spiritually discerned.
He receives them not. The natural man can hear. The
natural man can look. The natural man can do these
things. He has the ability in the flesh
to do it, but he has not the ability to lay aside that state
of nature and receive the Lord Jesus Christ in his own soul. Natural men and women may know
many historical facts about Christ. They may even rejoice in many
historical facts, but they do not know Him. But no one can
by nature see, savingly know, or intimately know, That is know,
K-N-O-W, the Lord Jesus Christ as John 17 and verse 3 says,
and this is life eternal that they might know, that's intimately
know that there might be a union form between the Lord Jesus Christ
and the true God and ourselves. The only true God whom God has
sent into the world. Now the only people in this world
who see Christ are those to whom He is revealed. Now, this, of
course, makes people sometimes uncomfortable when we say that
the only people who see Christ are those to whom He is revealed.
Now you say, that makes me uncomfortable. Well, it may make you uncomfortable,
but somebody said, if I just get a hold of the right books
and if I get a hold of the right teacher, I'll see Christ. Well,
my friend, He must be revealed to you. He must be revealed to
you. There was an occasion, Matthew
chapter 16, where the Lord Jesus asked the disciples, he says
to them, who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? Well,
they began to tell him, some says you're Jeremias. the prophet,
or you're someone else, and so on. And he said to them, well,
whom do you say that I am? And Peter, being the spokesman
for the disciples, it's a very familiar portion of Scripture,
he being the spokesman said, thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God, you're the anointed one of God. You're the
one that came down from God on a mission, that is to bring in
everlasting righteousness and to put away the sins of your
people. Oh yes, we know who you are, Barabbas Christ, the son
of the living God. And Jesus said to him, Simon,
Son of Barjona, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you. You
couldn't have got a teacher any place that could have so taught
you that you would have known that, that you would have come
to that conclusion. There ain't no man alive that
can ever teach you really truthfully that Jesus is the Son of God
from heaven and he's the Savior and he's the Savior of your own
soul. Now he can tell you that in words, but until it's revealed
to your own heart. my friend you'll not know and
he said Simon son of Barjona flesh and blood didn't reveal
it to you but my father in heaven but my father in heaven he revealed
it to you and he's in the business of doing that and he knows how
he's revealed his son to countless myriads of souls has he not yes
he has generations and generations God has revealed his son to their
heart God was revealing his son to the hearts of men and women
before, before Jesus ever came into this world. He revealed
him through the prophets. He revealed him through Old Testament
scriptures. He's been revealing Him. He knows
how to reveal Him. Oh, my friend, my friend, listen
to me this morning. Why don't you begin to seek the
One who can reveal Him, can make Him known? You say, Preacher,
I want to talk to you. Well, you can talk to me if you
want to until you're blue in the face. But you're not going
to know Christ until the Father reveals Him unto you. And so
begin to seek Him. That's His specialty, don't you
see? I mean, He's the One that can do it. so that whenever he's
finished with your soul, you'll know, you'll know of a certainty
who he is. And some of you have been listening
and listening and listening for years, and hearing this one and
that one, and someone else. My friend, seek Him, whose specialty
it is to reveal His Son unto your heart. Oh, that we would
do that. So then, That's exactly how this
thing stands this morning. Well, who do we see? Who do we
see? Well, our text says we see Jesus. Well, how blessed the One who
came to save us from our sins. He's now seated at the right
hand of God. He's been exalted to glory at
the right hand of the Father. Well, we see Him. We see Him
all through the Word of God. But let us regard this sight
of Jesus this morning as a compensation. Now, I'll not be able to preach
very long to you, but if you listen carefully, I'll try to
say some things that I believe the Lord has laid on my heart,
things that I ought to say. First of all, we regard the side
of Jesus, and he talks about how that man, in verse 8, thou
put all things in subjection under his feet, and man was put
in the garden, you know, and everything as it were turned
over to him. But the only one that truly can
rule over all things is the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. But now
we see, not yet, all things perfectly and completely being ruled over
by the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe He will be King of
kings and Lord of lords. I do, I believe that. And I believe
He's seated at the right hand of the Fathers, we just said.
I believe that. But my friend, listen to me this
morning. We see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus.
We do see him. We see him. And I want you to
see that this is a, regard this sight of Christ as a compensation
for not seeing yet all things put under the God-man. And this
text here brings that out. Now, we see, we have some, we
have some, a strong desire, and there is a strong desire in the
Lord's people to see all things put under the Lord Jesus Christ. A strong desire, I say. We do
not as yet see Jesus acknowledged as King of Kings. Now, I can
get up here and say that the Word of God teaches He's King
of kings and Lord of lords, but we do not see that yet. We do
not see that as yet. By all mankind, and this grieves
and troubles us, that all mankind does not see him as king of kings
and lord of lords. We are very jealous for the crown
rights of King Jesus. We want that he be crowned with
glory and that he be crowned with honor in every corner of
the earth by every man. We want every knee to bow. and
every tongue to confess Jesus Christ to be Lord to the glory
of God the Father. And the only compensation I've
got for not seeing it right now is the fact that I do see Jesus. I do see Him and see Him by the
eye of faith. He is to many unknown. Jesus
said to the Pharisees, He said, you've not known me or my Father. You've not known me or my father. Now what an indictment against
a generation of religious people. You've not known me or my father. Now you see, the scripture plainly
spells it out, and we've told you this morning that you've
got to know him. You must know it. But he said, you don't know
me. You don't know my father. By multitudes, the Lord Jesus
is rejected and despised. Rejected and despised. And just
a few regard him with reverence and love. Most regard him with
just blasphemy, idolatry, superstition, and unbelief. It prevails on
every side in this old world. The Lord Jesus, in a sense, is
still being wounded in the house of his so-called friends. There
are many, many people in this world, religious people, that
put a knife in the back of the Lord Jesus Christ this morning
by denying his word, by denying his truth, by speaking of him
as if he was a man, and instead of the God that he is, the sovereign
God of the universe. the mediator between God and
man, the sovereign. But says Paul, we see Jesus,
and this sight compensates for all others, for we see him now
no longer made a little lower than the angels and tasting the
bitterness of death, but he's crowned with glory and honor
by the Father and by his people, by his true people. We see him
no more after the flesh in shame and anguish. We see his work
accomplished. He said, It is finished. We see his victory. We see it
by faith. We see his victory. It is complete. His empire is secure. He sits on no precarious throne
nor bars leave to be. Our God has won a victory. The
Lord Jesus will not fail or be discouraged. We see him as victor. We see him as the one who's overcome. He sits as a priest upon the
throne at the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till
his enemies are made His footstool. Brethren, look at the compensation.
We see Jesus, and in Him we see our former unhappy condition
forever, forever ended. Hallelujah. We were fallen in
Adam, but we see Jesus, our ruin retrieved, our ruin retrieved
by the second Adam. The Lord from heaven. How wonderful
it is that everything we lost in the first Adam has been restored
in the second. It's been restored in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so when you see him, if you
ever see him, you'll see an end to your unhappy condition. You'll
see an end to your sin. You'll see an end of the wrath
that's due your sin. The legal covenant, the law frowned
upon us, and it must! because we're all by nature lawbreakers. We've broken every law that God
Almighty ever broke. When you break one law, you've
broke them all, my friend. Don't begin to talk about how
you've done this and how you've done that. Scripture says one
infraction, one of the commandments, you've broke them all. The new
covenant smiles upon us as we see it, ordered in all things,
ensure in the Lord Jesus Christ, who's the head over all things,
to the church. Sin once doomed us to eternal
despair. It did. Every one of us here
in this room that has a ray of hope this morning because of
Christ in the gospel. There was a time when we were
doomed to eternal despair, children of wrath even as others. But
now he has put away sin. And he put it away by the sacrifice
of himself. The debt no longer burdens us. Isn't that wonderful? The debt
no longer burdens us. us, for in the eternal glories
we see Jesus who paid it all. He paid it all once for all.
He paid it all. A sight of Jesus kills each guilty
fear. It silences each threat of conscience,
and it gives peace to the troubled heart. When you see Jesus, my
friend, that's the end of your guilt. That's the end of it,
if you ever see him. The guilt is gone because you
see the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who stood between you
and a holy God and answered for your sin. There remains nothing
of all the past to cause a dread of punishment. or arouse a fear
of final desertion. For Christ that died ever liveth
to make intercession for us, to represent us before God. Tell me if you can, why is it
that the Lord Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us if
there is a fear, one iota of fear, to be in the hearts of
God's people of final desertion? Why does he ever live to make
intercession? It is because the salvation which
God has given to us is an eternal salvation. It's everlasting life. Open your ears, ye deaf, and
listen to what is being said. Okay, now then, the same is true
of the present. We have no dread, no fear of
the present, for we see our present condition to be blessed by virtue
of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. We see not as yet our
nature made perfect. No, we do not. And cleansed from
every tendency to sin, rather we groan, being burdened because
of the sin which dwelleth in us, the old man which lusts and
rebels against the blessed dominion of grace, we might be cast down
in despair were it not, were it not that we see Jesus. We
would be if it were not for the fact we see Him. There ain't
anything good in us. Oh, Paul said, in my flesh there
dwelleth no good thing, no good thing, no good thing. And I know you're still looking
for some good stuff in you, but you ain't going to find it. And
as I told a dear brother yesterday, the more holy you get, the more
close you get to God, the more you come to understanding the
truth about yourself and God, the more corrupt you'll see yourself.
Oh, there's no good thing, no good thing in this body of flesh.
No, no, no, no. But the Lord reveals to us what
we are in a state of nature in order that we'll love Christ
more supremely. that we'll love Him with all
of our hearts. You see, He's all of our hope, and we would
despair. Don't look within, friend. Quit
looking inside. Oh, you don't look inside. You
look away from yourself. You look to Christ, and you keep
your eyes on Him, and you'll not despair. You'll despair if
you look at yourself and think on yourself all the time. And I know that most religionists,
you know, they like to think that they got a few good things
to look at, They can just look and look, you know, they're sanctified
and they've been made to a degree holy, they say, and that they're
just, you know, they're just barely close to being sinless,
and they're almost perfect. Well, my friend, those people
are getting further away from God every day they live. The
closer you get to God, the more you're going to loathe yourself. The more you're going to see
what you really are. And you're going to quit running around,
you know, talking about yourself. And you're going to quit looking
inside, because the sight is not pleasant to the eye. And
certainly, the more you see, the more you want to not see
what's inside. And so, praise God, the despair
is gone, because we see Jesus. We see the Lord Jesus. And see
that in Him, we're not what the flesh would argue us to be. That's
one of the most profound statements that ever come out of the mouth
of this preacher. Now, I want you to listen to
that again. And we see in Him, Now, and this ought to be said
every Sunday, that a true believer that is in Jesus Christ by faith,
that has been put by God in Christ Jesus, 1 Corinthians 1 and verse
30, you've been made wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
unto us. Of God are you in Christ Jesus. And if you be in Christ
Jesus, You are not what your flesh would argue that you are. Now friend, this is very important
that you see this. You'll never really get on true
shouting ground until you see that you're not what your flesh
argues you to be. Now your flesh, it knows what
you are, but it argues you to be that, and in Christ You're
not that. You're not that. Why is it that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God? You tell
me why it is that this old body of mine's got to go through the
sieve of the worms in order to have, for it to be glorified
and to have resurrection. But you tell me why it has to
do that. Let me tell you why. I'll tell you why. It don't bother
me to tell you because I've seen on the other side of this thing
It's because this flesh, and corrupt, can't anything be in
the presence of God that's an abomination. This flesh, this
old body is filthy. This old body is corrupt, this
old nature is contrary to God. And I realize some of you maybe
never heard any preacher ever say that before. But this body
is sinful and is corrupt. And it'll argue all the time
that that's what you are. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
in Him, We stand robed in garments white as snow. Oh, we're married
to the Lord, the Lamb, whose beauties we cannot explain, nor
half His glory show. My friend, let me tell you, we're
in Christ, and we stand complete in Him, perfect in Christ Jesus,
in Christ Jesus. Our sins are gone, hallelujah. They're gone, and they're gone
forever, and we stand accepted in the Beloved. And that's where
we really are. And we have His comeliness, comeliness
upon us. His beauty, we have it upon us. Now isn't that glorious? Now
isn't that just like our blessed Lord? Isn't that just like Him? Well, you know, I think it was
Fanny Crosby, who somebody, she was taken to somebody who tried
to show her, tried to explain to her, sign language, no not
sign language, but tried to, in different ways, try to convey
to her the thought of the Savior and the truth about Him. And
when it finally did dawn on her soul by the revelation of the
Spirit of God that there was a Jesus, she said, you know,
I imagined that there was one like this, one like this, But
I never could figure it out. Never could understand it until
the light was turned on. There's one like that, beloved.
There's one that can take an old corrupt sinner. I mean an
old dead dog sinner. I mean a wiggling maggot of the
dust. Can take him and just make him perfect. Make him complete. Give him a standing. That's where
he's perfect before God. That's right. I'm telling you
the truth. Sure enough. Truth, He can make you spotless
before Him. To where when He looks at you,
He can't find no fault with you. He can't find you, He'll fix
you up so that when He looks at you, you won't be able to
see nothing. Nothing. Except the right righteousness
of His own Son. That's all He'll be able to see.
Now, hallelujah, isn't that, that's just, that's wonderful.
Praise the Lord. I said that ought to be said
every Sunday, and it ought to be, till this generation begins
to hear it, until believers begin, oh, till believers begin to praise
the Lord and say, hallelujah, amen, until they do. Well, Billy
Sunday said, you couldn't get a hallelujah out of most Christians
if you run them through a ringer. And it's true, it's true, that
believers need to get on shouting ground, they need to know what
the Word of God says. Well, He represents us, truthfully,
and he said we're justified. He said, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again. We're adopted by the Father,
we're raised up together, made to sit together in heavenly places
in the Lord Jesus. Why all of that if he's going
to finally condemn us because of what's in our flesh? He ain't
going to do that. No, no. Now we see self and blush. We see self and are ashamed and
dismayed, but we see Jesus and his joy is in us and our joy
is full. Think of it, brother and sister.
The next time you're up on the dunghill, the dunghill of self-loathing,
lift up your eyes and see where he is in whom your life is hid. H-I-D. Your life is hid. See Jesus and know that as he
is, so are we. before the infinite majesty.
You're not condemned because He's enthroned. That's where
He is, and we're in Him. Don't tell me about this condemnation
thing. Don't tell me you'll be lost
after you're saved. I'm in Him. My salvation is in Him. You're
not despised nor abhorred. Somebody said, well, I just feel
that I ought to be. Well, you're not. Not in Christ. For He is beloved, and He is
exalted, and as I've said, and it cannot be said too much, we're
in Him. Beloved, that means all the difference
between heaven and hell, salvation and damnation, in Him. You're not in jeopardy of perishing,
nor in danger of being cast away, for He dwells eternally in the
bosom of the Lord God Almighty. What a vision, what a sight we
have when we see Jesus, and see ourselves complete in Him, perfect
Next, such a sight effectually clears our earthly future of
all apprehension. I'm just about ready to close.
It is true we may yet be sorely tempted, and the battle be hard. Many a sore trials may await
us in this world, and more of now than I ever thought there
would be. Is that the way it is with you? But we see Jesus
triumphant, and by this sign we grasp the victory. Listen
to me, we shall either overcome in the Lord Jesus Christ, or
we shall be overcome by the world, the flesh, and the devil. Our
Lord Jesus said in John chapter 16 and verse 33, I'd like for
you to look at this verse of scripture with me. John chapter
16 and verse 33. Jesus said, These things I have
spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world
you'll have trouble. In the world you'll have trouble,
you shall have tribulation. Trouble! But be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world. Now why? I ask this now, maybe
I'm, you know, I've told you before, I'm not as smart as some
people and I'm not as dumb as others, but I want to ask you
this question. Why would the Lord Jesus say,
be of good cheer, to his disciples, I've overcome the world, if he
didn't mean I've overcome it for you. You've overcome it in
me. If he didn't mean that, what
did he mean? Why would he say, be of good
cheer? I have overcome the world. What
about me? What about you? Well, but now,
if he said, be of good cheer, you know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to latch hold of that. I'm going to latch hold of that.
I mean, I've got something in this too. He said, be of good
cheer. I've overcome the world and in
me you have too. And I told you, you're either
going to overcome in Him, there's no other way to do it my friend,
or you're going to be overcome by the world of flesh and the
devil. Eventually, that world will get you. It's going to get
you. You say, well I think I can work
my way around. I can find a way through this.
No you can't. It'll get you. I'm telling you,
it'll get you. It'll get you. Been smarter people
than you, didn't make it. I'm telling you, the only people
that ever overcome the world are those who are in Christ Jesus.
And that's the way we do it. But we see Jesus as overcoming
the world. We see Him triumphant. We shall
perhaps yet have pain, poverty, slander, persecution, and yet
none of these things move us. Because we see Jesus exalting,
and all these things are under his power, all under his control. Romans 8.28, Amy. Death is at
times terrible in prospect, is it not? You ever thought about
dying? You ever thought about it? Well, one fellow said the
only way he'd get any peace about death is that when he's alive, death's not
there. And when he dies, He's not there. He's not going to
be there. Well, there's an element of truth in that. Death is terrible
in prospect, but its terror ceases when we see Jesus, who has passed
safely through the sepulcher, vanquished death, and left an
open passage to immortality to all his own. The biggest fact
about Joseph's tomb, and you know the Lord Jesus was buried,
in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb. The biggest fact about Joseph's
tomb was that it was really no tomb at all. You see it was just
a room for a transient. Jesus just stopped there a night
or two on his way back to glory. He just gone right through the
tomb the Lord Jesus has. So we need to see Jesus, don't
we? In death's prospect We see the pains, the groans, the suffering,
the dying. See them indeed exaggerated,
magnified by our fears. We die a thousand deaths, fear
in one. And the only cure for the alarm is the sight of him
who said, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall
never die. Believest thou this? That's the
only cure. We've got to see Jesus. See him
in this world. See where he is, where he's exalted,
to right hand of the Father. Well, you know, nothing else
will do. I heard a story about a Christian,
a couple of Christians and an atheist that were floating down
a river. And they didn't know anything
about it, the river. And all the way down, the atheist
was spouting off the mouth about, wasn't no God, and talking about
the Bible, how erroneous the Bible was and all that. And directly here comes a falls
that they didn't know existed. And they were going to go over
the falls and vote. And the Christian happened to look up and he saw
the atheist praying of all things. And he said, what are you doing?
What are you praying? You're an atheist. You said you
was an atheist. He said, well, atheism will do to float the
river with, but atheism won't do to go over the falls with. It won't do to go over the falls
with. And my friend, there ain't nothing that will do to go over
into the pit except the Lord Jesus. But we see Jesus. I told a story here one time
a few years back about, there was a preacher And he wasn't
much of a, he wasn't preaching the gospel. And his people, they,
somebody wrote him a note and put it on his Bible in the pulpit
stand. And on that note he said, Sir,
we would see Jesus. And the preacher got upset about
it, and began to look at his preaching, and repented, got
right with the Lord, and began to preach the gospel. And after
a little while they found another piece of paper on his Bible that
said the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. I trust
this morning that we've seen Him, that we see Jesus. You keep
looking to God that He'll show you His Son. There's glories,
glories, glories in Him. And you'll see it. You'll see
it as He reveals Him to you. Religion ain't enough. Religion
is empty. You've got to see him. Father,
in the name of Jesus, bless this congregation, how we love these
people. We love every one of these dear
friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and these dear lost
ones. Lord, we would do what we could,
but you know we're limited. You know we couldn't save anybody.
We don't have the ability to give life to a nat. My Lord,
we would pray unto Thee, and we know You're a God that quickens
the dead, so give life today, show one of these poor sinners
the Lord Jesus. And we'll give You the praise,
and we'll give You all the glory, as they will, in Jesus' name. Amen.