turning your bibles to the book
of acts chapter three the book of acts chapter three there was a preacher that was
winding up a bible conference and uh... he was the last speaker
he got up to preach and uh... he told the congregation that
He said, I have so much material, he said, I hardly know where
to begin. And there was a little boy that stood up right out front
here and said, Mr. Preacher, could you begin somewhere
near the end? And I figure some of you might
be saying that this morning. You know, there's three lies
that's commonly told. One is that the check's in the
mail. The second is that I'm from the
government and I'm here to help. And the third is I'll be brief. I'd like to read beginning with
verse 1, if you would listen carefully as we read, down through
verse 21. Now Peter and John went up together
into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.
And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom
they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful,
to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. who seeing Peter
and John about to go into the temple asking alms. And Peter fastening his eyes
upon him with John said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto
them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver
and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee. in the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right
hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received
strength. And he, leaping up, stood, walked,
entered with them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising
God. And they knew that it was he
which set for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple, and they
were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto
him. And as the lame man, which was
healed, held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto
them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered,
unto the people, ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why
look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness
we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac,
and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son
Jesus, whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence
of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied
the Holy One, and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted
unto you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised
from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And his name, through
faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see
and know. Yea, the faith which is by him
hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And
now, brethren, I walk that through ignorance you did it, as did
also your rulers. But those things which God before
had showed by the mouth of all of his prophets, that Christ
should suffer, he has so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, repent ye
therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted
out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence
of the Lord. and he shall send Jesus Christ,
which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive
until the times of restitution of all things which God hath
spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world
began." Well, after the miracle upon the lame man, As the people
gather round about Peter and John, we see that they were not
at a loss for a subject upon which to address this crowd of
people. These men were full of the gospel.
The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ was precious unto Peter
and John. They believed in the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus, not as a doctrine, but they had experienced the
resurrection. They were witnesses of the resurrection. And the gospel was very precious
and very dear to their heart. It was a topic which laid near
their hearts. Beloved, if we know Christ, who
is the gospel, whatever situation or position that we may find
ourself, we always know what is the appropriate subject for
the people. We know what ought to be preached
unto the people. The gospel is always in season,
always appropriate. And if it is preached as it ought
to be, God enabling a man, in the power of the Holy Spirit,
preaching it from the heart, it will surely accomplish the
will and the purpose of Almighty God. I believe that God is purposed
to use the gospel to accomplish His purpose. So turning to the
multitude, old Peter began at once to preach the gospel without
a second's hesitation. I've often thought about how
it would be wonderful if we were ready to hit the ground running
ourselves, being on fire in the Spirit of God, ready, ready to
give an answer for the reason of the hope that is within us
with meekness and fear. Be ready. Take note how Peter
here in this portion of the Word of God turns the attention of
the people from himself and John to the Lord Jesus Christ. He
said here in verse 13, verse 12, and verse 13, he said, Why
do you look so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or
holiness we had made this man to walk? There had been a notable
miracle performed. The people ran together, thinking
that Peter and John that they had something to do with it,
and surely it was their power and their holiness that had made
this man well. Well, Paul said we preach not
ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, ourselves your servants,
for Jesus' sake. The preacher's object must be
to get the attention of the people off himself and on to the Lord
Jesus Christ. The whole power to bless men
does not lie in the servants of God, but in the Lord Jesus
Christ and in the gospel of His salvation. Peter did not beat
around the bush about it. He preached not merely the gospel
of good news, but Christ. He preached the person of Christ.
He preached Christ crucified. He preached Christ crucified
by them. Christ risen, Christ glorified
of His Father. Depend upon it, beloved, that
this is the very strength of our message. It is to be saturated
with the name and the person and the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Take Christ out of your message
and you un-gospelize the gospel. You give the people the husk
that's fit only for the swine when you take away that precious
kernel of the gospel which is the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Peter would tell them about Christ
and about nothing else but the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew this
to be the power of God unto salvation, and He would not flinch from
it, even in the presence of those who had crucified our Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, how did He put it to them?
He said you denied Him. He said you delivered Him up.
He said you desired a murderer. He's not afraid of being personal. He would touch their conscience.
He would make them feel their sin. He would make them feel,
I say, their sin. Even so, brethren, when we preach
the gospel, we must preach the truth in love as we're admonished
in the Word of God, but there must be no hedging and trimming
of the truth. accursed let him be, that takes
away from the gospel of Christ, or bates his breath, and smooths
his tongue, that he may please the unholy throne." There was
an old preacher by the name of Peter Cartwright. He was what
they called a pioneer evangelist. He preached for about 70 years
in the southern part of the United States And on one occasion he
was invited to preach in a church way down south, lower part of
Georgia. And during the song, just before
he was to get up to preach his message, the pastor leaned over
and whispered to him that Andrew Jackson had just entered the
sanctuary. And he cautioned that old man
He said, you be very careful of what you say, because we don't
want to offend this famous guest that we have here. Well, the
old preacher, knowing that the fear of man bringeth a snare,
Proverbs 29 verse 25, he was determined not to compromise
the gospel. He knew that great leaders need
the Lord just like everyone else. So he boldly proclaimed the gospel. In fact, halfway through his
sermon, he said, I understand that Andrew Jackson is in the
congregation. And he made this statement. He
said that if Andrew Jackson does not repent, and is not converted,
and does not openly confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then
he'll go to hell like all the rest of you that die in unbelief."
Well, that didn't make Andrew Jackson angry. Rather, it seized
his heart. And before he left that meeting
that morning, he had openly confessed Christ. And from that moment
on, the two became the very best of friends, because this man
was faithful in proclaiming the gospel. Andrew Jackson was the
seventh president of the United States of America. And so, beloved,
we know and Peter knew that this message that he preached was
the power of God unto salvation, and he would not flinch from
it. He's not afraid of being personal, so he boldly and earnestly
preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus. He preached it personally,
directly, to the crowd who was gathered around him. Well, what
did he say? What did he say to this group? He said, Repent ye
therefore, and be converted. In verse 19, that your sins may
be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from
the presence of the Lord. We see that he told them to repent,
therefore, Repent because you've crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. All that was prophesied of him
is fulfilled. He's been raised from the dead.
Therefore, you crucified him. You repent. You change your mind. This signifies, the literal meaning
is, you change your mind. It has been translated after
wisdom. Meaning that a person finding
out that they were wrong, rectifying their judgment. They were wrong
in what they did. And in verse 17 he said, I want
that through ignorance you did it, as also your rulers. You did it through ignorance.
Well, it's a time for them to find out they were wrong. And
it's a time for them to change their mind about what they did. Somebody said repentance is to
leave the sins we loved before and show that we in earnest grieve,
that we in earnest grieve by doing so no more. One of our
young men was asked what the word repentance means and he
said it's being sorry for your sins. Another person spoke up
and said it's being sorry enough to quit. A schoolgirl was saved
and someone asked her What were you before?" And she said, well,
a sinner. Then she was asked, well, what are you now? And she
answered, a sinner. They said, well, what's the difference?
And she answered them and said, I was a sinner, running after
sin, but now I'm one running from it. And I believe God's
people are. They have a holy war going on
in them, having the divine nature of God implanted in them. And
there's a holy war in them. Repentance is a discovery of
what we are by nature. And what we are by nature determines
what we're doing. You see, a man is not a thief
because he steals a watermelon. He steals a watermelon because
he's a thief. He's born that way. He's born
in sin. And I believe to discover one's
depravity or one's sinful and wicked nature to mourn over it
by the grace of God and by the repentance granted by the
Spirit of God, granted by God, is for that individual to know
what he is. Is it in fact a change of mind
that is so very deep and practical, makes the person love what once
they hated and hate what once they loved? Conversion, he also
says, repent and convert, be converted. It means a turning
around, a turning from, and a turning to, turning from their sin, a
turning to what is right, to holiness, from the world to heaven,
from self to Christ, a complete turning. When the prodigal was
feeding the swine, and on a sudden began to consider and to come
to himself, I believe that was repentance. When he set out and
he left the forecountry and went to the Father's house, that to
me was conversion. I will say this, that repentance
and conversion are the work of the Holy Spirit of God. Repentance
is not the act of the will of the natural man. There never
was any genuine repentance in this world, which was not the
work of the Holy Spirit. For this purpose, our Lord Jesus
Christ, according to Acts 5.31, has gone on high. Him hath God
exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and Savior, for to
give repentance to Israel, I believe that's the Israel of God. That's
all of the elect. and forgiveness of sin. All true
conversion, then, is the work of the Holy Ghost. We may rightly
pray in the words of the prophet, Turn thou us, and we shall be
turned, for until God turns us, turn we never shall. Here is
a true gospel summons. True belief and true repentance,
every grace which brings us nigh without money, come to Jesus
Christ and buy. Well, someone might object saying,
you tell us out of one side of your mouth that we ought to repent,
and then you tell us out of the other side of your mouth that's
the gift of the Holy Spirit. Well, that's correct. You are
listening. I believe that it is indeed the
duty of all men to repent and to turn. God commanded it in
Acts chapter 17 and verse 30. In the times of this ignorance,
God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
God has commanded you to do it. Now you say, I don't see how
you telling a sinner to repent should in any way be likely to
make them do so. Well, I don't either, but I know
it does. I know it does. I do not know
why a poor, weak creature as myself saying to a lost sinner,
believe and live, should lead them to believe, but it does.
And the Holy Spirit blesses it, and they do, and they have believed
and are saved. God calls his people out. God
has chosen through the foolishness of preaching to save and to believe. And if we cannot see how, if
we see the fact, we'll be content, I think, to bless God for it,
that He does save those that He calls. We tell men to repent
and believe, not because they have power in them to do so,
for we know that men by nature are dead in sin. Not that we
believe there's any power in our voice, for our preaching
is less than nothing apart from God. We must have that blessing,
that blessing of the Holy Spirit. I heard this story one time,
I thought it was a blessed story. Back in the days of Mark Twain,
there was a preacher that came to his town, and he was a very
fluent speaker and very eloquent, and so he immediately got a a
good reputation in town for being an outstanding preacher and orator. And so Mark Twain heard about
his skills and so he wanted to go and listen. So he attended
and sure enough the preacher lived up to his reputation and
Mr. Twain listened and when the service
was over while the preacher went to the back And Mr. Twain went out, and at the door,
as he shook hands with him, he said, I've got a book at home
that's got every word of that sermon in it. Every word of that
sermon you preached this morning, I've got a book at home that's
got that in it. And that preacher said, well, I can't see how that
could be. I don't understand how in the world that could be.
And so he said, well, if you be in your office tomorrow, I'll
send that book around. And so the next morning at 8
o'clock, there was a young man that came around to the preacher's
office and handed him the book. The preacher being, you know,
very anxious to find out what that book was about, he took
the book and unwrapped it, and it was a Webster's Dictionary. He opened the cover of the book
and looked in it, and Mr. Twain had written, just words,
just words, just words, that's all your sermon was, was just
words. Well, beloved, listen, Paul said
that the kingdom of God is not word, not in word, but in the
power of God. Paul said that when he preached
the gospel to the Thessalonians, they heard the gospel, he said,
not as the word of man, but as it was indeed the word of God.
It was accompanied with the power of God. And we believe that we
don't believe there's any power in the sinner, and we don't command
them to repent and believe the gospel because we believe that
they're able to do it. We command them to because God
told us to command them. And that's exactly why we do
it. Not that we believe there's any power in our voice or in
our preaching, but God has a power by which he is able to convert
a sinner, by which he is able to deliver a poor sinner from
the bondage of his sin. Spurgeon said the gospel is the
mysterious engine by which God converts the hearts of men And
while we bid the dry bones live, the Spirit makes them live. The
Spirit of God makes them live. When the deaf are told to hear,
the Spirit gives them ears to hear. When the blind are told
to see, the Spirit gives them eyes to see. When the impotent
man was told, you remember in the scripture, to stretch out
his hand, there was a divine power that went with the command,
and the hand is stretched out, and the hand is restored. I believe
the power is in the command of the scripture. The power lies
not in the sinner, not in the preacher, but in the Holy Spirit,
which works effectually with the gospel by divine decree,
so that when the truth is preached, the elect of God are made alive
by it, their souls are saved, and God is glorified. So we must
go on preaching the gospel, as Donnie said, preaching it boldly,
Leave the results with God. God has promised to make His
gospel the power unto salvation, and so shall it be to the world's
end. God will have His people. God
will draw His people out of the world. God will enable His people
to repent. I believe that God must give
a man the disposition to repent. Now, you don't have the disposition
by nature to repent. And you can be commanded and
told to repent until the preacher is blue in the face and you die
in your sin. And you still will never be able
to do it until repentance is granted unto you by God. Until He gives you a disposition
where you will be able to take sides with God against yourself. and you'll be able to say God's
right and I'm wrong. I'm everything God said I was,
God's everything He said He was, and I take sides with Him. I
don't understand it all, but I take sides with God against
myself. I believe God is right. So we
need to repent, be converted, and he went on to say that your
sins be blotted out. I believe in eternal justification
as much as anybody in this building. There's some primitive Baptist
blood that runs in my veins. I had two great-uncles that were
primitive Baptists, but I don't believe some of the things the
primitive Baptists believe. They believe that there's, they
believe election is salvation, and it's not. Election is unto
salvation. And I think that's necessary
for us to understand and distinguish that we don't have the authority,
and they believe that there are some people that are the elect
that never experience the grace of God in time. They're never
given a disposition whereby they will repent. It's never given
to them. Well, you see, that's contrary
to what the Word of God teaches. A man must have a work of grace
in his heart. somewhere between the cradle
and the grave. God must give you this disposition
that we talked about. Mr. Brainerd, the preacher to
the Indians up in New York State, he died when he was 29 years
old, I understand, and when he was lost, he heard the preacher
say, you must repent. Repent. A text there in Luke
13, which Jesus said, except you repent, you'll all likewise
perish. And so he heard this sermon,
and he knew he had to repent, but he couldn't. He didn't have
the ability to. It made him mad. It made him
so mad that he began to seek God and finally broke down and
asked God to give him the disposition to repent. And of course the
Lord did, graciously. give him the disposition to repent. Well, there was a good reason
why Peter told these fellas to repent. Because they had literally
put Christ to death. This was literally true. They
had a part in Christ's execution. And I believe this is spiritually
true of us. Every sin that we commit In the
essence of it, it is a killing, as it were, of God. It is a saying
that we, we would go into the God business ourselves, and we
would pull God down off the throne and get up there ourselves. Hear
me. Every time you do what God would
have you not to do, as a lost sinner, you do an effect so far
as you can pull God down off His throne. You disown the authority
which belongs to the Godhead. You do intent so far as you can
kill God. This is the very drift of sin.
Sin is a God-killing thing. Every violation of the law is
treason in its essence. It is rebellion against His sovereign
throne. When our Lord Jesus Christ was
nailed to the tree by sinners, Sin only did back literally and
openly what all sin really does in a spiritual sense. The offenses of yours, you thought
they were just little offenses, but you've been trying to stab
God in the back. I've heard your preacher say
years ago that men are trying to stick a butcher knife in God's
back. and kill him and drag him down off the throne. Well, every
sin says, let there be no God. Let there be no God. Well, I
think these fellows ought to repent. Do you think they ought
to? They killed Christ? Well, what about you? You're
here today and you lost a sinner and your sin is against God. All sin is against God and you
are trying to kill God. That's exactly what, that's the
indictment. against you repent your sin you
would kill God what a hell above ground would this world be if
you and I got our way by nature if everybody got his way by nature what moral chaos what din of
beast this world would be if you can really believe this morning
that though you did not personally nail Christ to the cross, nor
plait the crown of thorns and put it on his head, nor stand
and mock him there, yet that every sin is a real crucifixion
of Christ, and a mockery of Christ, and a slaughter of Christ, this
is abundant reason for you to feel the obligation and the responsibility
to repent and turn from your sin. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ
is the Prince of Life and Glory. He's the King of Angels, the
one adored by seraphs, yet despised of men who shed his blood, repent
or perish. Well, you said we'll not have
this man. Take him away. Not this man,
but Barabbas. Give us Barabbas. You'll take
this murderous world, this killing sin of yours, But this blessed
Savior, the Son of God, take Him away. Don't want anything
to do with Him. Don't want anything to do with
Him. Well, Peter said that when you repent and convert, your
sins will be blotted out. Now I said a few minutes ago,
I believe in eternal justification. And I believe that what everybody's
preached here The message they preached that we were in Christ,
chosen in Him, as Donnie said, from the foundation of the world.
But we have no authority in the Word of God. There's not one
statement of Scripture anywhere in the Bible that tells us to
tell an unregenerate person that their sins are blotted out. Not
until God is pleased to work repentance and faith in their
hearts. I believe that regeneration is
the cause of repentance and faith. It's the cause of it, not the
effects of it. And so God must work this work
in your heart. And when He does it, then, my
friend, it's a joy to tell you your sins are blotted out. But
I don't have any authority to do that. I don't know who the
elect of God are. I don't know who they are, and
I can't tell them. I can't tell you today that your
sins are blotted out. I can't tell you that. But if
you're truly born of the Spirit of God, I can tell you, your
sins are put away. Now this blotting out, in that
day and time, there was, I understand that there was a, they had tablets
of wax, and they made uh... marks in this wax that recorded
the dates of people when their debts were took away the bloody
end of the stylus and the pencil they just flattened down the
wax and the account entirely disappeared they were blotted
out that was blotting out now he that is able to repent His
pardon is through the precious blood of Christ so entirely forgiven
that there's no record of his sin left. That sin is forever
put away. That sin is all gone. It's gone
forever. Gone forever. And you see his
regeneration and his subsequent repentance and faith is evidence
that God had put those sins away like Donnie said. before the
foundation of the world, they were put away. They were put
away in the lamb slaying from the foundation of the world.
The marks and the wax has been leveled. There is no record left. Now do you expect for God to
do this for you without repentance on your part? Do you expect Him
to? Do you expect Him somewhere or
another to send a messenger to you to tell you that your sin
has been blotted out? Do you expect Him to do that
before you are able to repent? Before you're able to take sides
with God against yourself and agree that you're what God said
you was, a lost, dead sinner? Do you expect that? Well, my
friend, the dignity of His throne demands that there be some work of grace
in your heart and that you come to the attitude and to the mind.
It's like Scott was saying earlier. Give full consent of your will
coming to that place. And that's what people do in
regeneration when they're made willing by the power of God. That's what happens. We're not
talking about wringing something out of somebody or slipping somebody
into the kingdom of God like with a shoespoon. No, we're not
talking about that. We're talking about God by His
power, His Holy Spirit. Donnie talked about the effectual
call. Nobody gets into the family of
God until the Spirit of God comes and draws them and teaches them
to the Lord Jesus Christ. But I believe that except this
work of grace take place in the heart, and there is this disposition
granted by God, I think we have no way of giving any kind of
encouragement to these people that are rebels against God.
The proud and haughty Pharaoh, who says, Who is the Lord that
I should obey Him? There is nothing but eternal
destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of
His power. He that confesseth, the Bible
says, and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy of God. There
must be a divorce between us and sin, or there cannot be a
marriage between us and Christ. And I believe that. I believe
that. I don't think any man hugs his sin to his bosom and goes
to heaven. I believe, as we said earlier,
there must be a holy war going on in a man's heart. And we try
to get people, and I asked myself the question one time, well,
how can we get people to live right in our day? How can we
do that? Well, my friend, if they've regenerated
the Spirit of God, that takes care of that. But people that
are not saved, they're rebels. And that's exactly what you might
as well, that's what you're to expect from his rebellion. Recently we had a fellow, he's
about 50 years old, that come to me one Sunday morning and
been a member of the church for five years. And he said, I got
a problem. I said, you got a problem? He
said, yes I have. And I said, well, Glenn, what
is it? And so he said, well, go over
here and I'll talk to you. Went over there and he said,
I just believe that I've just been regenerated. I just believe
that I've been born again. And I said, well, bless God,
you don't have a problem. You don't have problem one. I
said, we just give glory to God for it. That's fine. Of course,
I knew all along. I felt I knew all along that
that was his problem. They just needed to be born of
the Spirit of God. He needed that God do a work
in his heart. He needed that God would grant repentance, true
repentance to his heart. And when that happened, I'll
tell you, he was changed. God made a difference. Even the
songs in the songbook, he said, I'm alive. These things are alive. I mean, there's something to
this. The Word of God, he said, I can't get enough of it. I'm
just reading and reading and reading the Word of God. Well,
that's the difference. Some people won't open their
Bibles all week long. They have no interest. But they
say, well, I just want the preacher to encourage me. I'll tell you
what, we're not going to encourage you if there's no evidence of
the new birth. He who goes on in his iniquity,
hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, that without remedy.
Well, I believe that repentance and conversion will be regarded
as a very precious thing in the future. He says, when the times
of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Well,
this may, some people think this is a very difficult passage.
I don't, maybe I haven't got it figured out. I don't know,
but the way I figure it out makes me feel pretty good. And so,
I think what it means is this, that he that can, and you listen
to the language, he that can repent, and is converted shall
enjoy the blotting out of sin in that season of sweet peace
which always follows pardon. Always follows it. There's joy. And Brother Shepard last night
was talking about young married folks and a smile on their face.
Well, I tell you what, I've seen a few people that the Lord has
done something in, they got a smile on their face too. And they got
some peace. and they're rejoicing and they're
glad in the Lord and that always follows a pardon. There's the
hills breaking forth in song and the trees clapping their
hands that the people of God experience when their sins have
been blotted out, when their sins have been put away. Among
the various happiest parts of human life are the hours immediately
following being regenerated. being saved. When the prisoner
first gets out of jail, when he first gets out, when the chains
of sin fall off, when the sick get out of the hospital, when
the hungry man gets his first meal, oh beloved, if we only
knew the bliss of being forgiven, if we only knew the bliss of
our sin being blotted out, we would know something about what
Peter is talking about here about these times of refreshing coming
from the presence of the Lord. And then I also think that he
could be talking here about the second coming of Christ. Because
here in verse 20 he says, And he shall send Jesus Christ, which
before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive
until the times of restitution of all things which God has spoken
by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
Well, I met a fellow the other day out at Fairfield, Montana,
and he said, What's the word? I talked to him several times,
and I said, This is the word. I'm not looking for a hole in
the ground. I'm looking for one in the sky. That's what I'm looking
for. See, I believe in the second
coming of Christ. I believe the Lord's coming back. I believe
He is. I don't think you can believe
what the Word of God says and not believe that. I believe He's
coming. He that shall come will come,
and shall not tarry. He's coming. He's coming back.
Well, we live in this world, but we're anxious. That's the
hope of the child of God. And you know, the more we learn
about this life, I was telling Brother Fred a while ago, that
the longest life in this world is nothing more than a lingering
death. That's all it is. All it is. And you know, it's wonderful
to be able to look up, look up, and to believe in that glorious
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, he's seated at the
right hand of God now. And the brethren were talking
the other night about how that we were in Him when He suffered.
We were in Him before He came into this world. And we're in
Him when He suffered. We were in Him when He was crucified. In Him when He was raised from
the dead. I don't think they went on and said we were in Him
already seated at the right hand of God. And that's where we are.
Already there. Already there. In reality, spiritually
speaking, that's where we are. Well, Christ is in heaven, and
he's going to be there until the times of the restitution
of all things. I don't understand that, but God knows what it's
all about. And I don't know much about these
various theories. I've read them on the end times,
but I kind of believe in the pan out theory. I believe it's
all going to pan out all right in the end. That's what I believe.
Because God's in control. He's on the throne. And it's
all going to pan out. It's going to be exactly how
God said it was. Well, I just am thankful I had
an opportunity to speak to you today. I'm nervous. My nerves, I have a lot of trouble
with my nerves. And sometimes I have a very difficult
time breaking loose from them. May the Lord bless His Word.