Turn together to Isaiah 64 and
verse 4. My subject this evening is things
seen and things revealed. Isaiah 64 and verse 4. Since the beginning of the world,
men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye
seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that
waiteth for him. While some things can be seen
and are known by nature, there are many things that can be and
are known only by divine revelation. The philosopher Aristotle wrote
about the physical world, and when he did, he wrote a treatise
called Physics. Later, he wrote a second volume
called Metaphysics, in which he discussed things beyond the
physical realm, things that no eye can see, things that no ear
can hear, things that no hand can feel. He recognized, as all
men must, that there are some that there is an unseen world
that can never be felt, discerned, or known by the natural senses. It just can't be understood by
natural things. Now this is not anything deep,
profound, or mysterious. It's just a matter of fact. Let
me illustrate it for you. We can examine a man's brain,
but not his thoughts, not his mind. We can measure the impulses
of the nervous system. We can trace it out and measure
it in the human body, but not the thoughts of a man's mind.
We can dissect a cadaver, and we can cut it apart and identify
all the parts, but never can we dissect a man's soul. We can
describe and categorize the organs of the human body. We can make
pictures of them, replicas of them, even substitutes for them.
We can transplant them from one body to another, but we can never
categorize, picture, transplant, or make a substitute for the
conscience of man. Those things are simply beyond
the realm of the physical. There is another world, a world
beyond the realm of sight and sound, time and sense, which
has absolutely nothing to do with this physical world. In
reality, there is no similarity between the two. In this physical
world, everything is temporary. Everything is vanishing. Everything
is decaying. Everything is dying. Everything
is passing away. Nothing's substantial. Nothing's
lasted. But in the world to come, everything's
eternal. Everything's permanent. Everything
is unchanging. Everything continues exactly
as it is, without change, forever. Forever. That ought to make the
world to come more important than the present, if ever we
understand it. We are rapidly passing, every
one of us, through this world of time and sense, through this
brief state of existence that we call time, into a world where
everything is eternal. Now, I pray that God, the Holy
Spirit, will enable me to describe to you some things that are seen,
naturally understood, naturally perceived, and things that are
revealed. I want to just talk to you about
those two things. I'll be very brief this evening,
but this is a message of confidence, very important. I want you to
hear it. First, I want to show you four facts that cannot be
denied. I'm not so foolish as to imagine
that everyone will acknowledge these four things. I know they
do not. I know that most people refuse to acknowledge these things.
Some of you may not acknowledge them. But these are four facts
seen and known by all men without exception. There is not a man
living, not a man who has ever lived, nor one who shall live,
who does not know these things, and then is in most beings. must acknowledge them. There's
not a man living who in the quiet, lonely hours of the night, when
he considers the prospect of death and eternity, who is not
thoroughly convinced of these four things. Every man living.
No matter how much he cries and says, I don't believe it. No
matter how much he beats himself some way and says, don't believe
it, these things are not so. Every human being acknowledges
in his heart these four things to be so. First, we are, every
one of us, living immortal souls. Man is more than flesh and blood.
Man is something more than an animal. You know that as well
as I do. Everybody knows that. Our bodies
are nothing more than houses, temporary houses for our souls.
You have an undying soul, and so do I. More accurately stated,
we are undying souls. God created man a living soul. And we shall have these souls
forever, either in an everlasting state of bliss or in an everlasting
state of torment. That's not a spiritual truth.
That's just a fact stamped on the conscience of man. Every
man knows it. Try to escape it. Try to deny
it if you want to. Try to suppress it. But it's
something that every man recognizes and knows, and when the chips
are down, you'll hear him say it. When the chips are down,
you'll hear him say it. I recognize this fact is explained
in the Scriptures. It is explained in the scriptures
so that you can have some understanding by divine revelation what it
is that causes your conscience to aggravate you and torment
you, what it is that causes your conscience to look out for eternity
and have an eternal consciousness, a consciousness that is of eternal
things. The scriptures explain it to
you, but it's stamped on your heart by creation. God fixed
it so you can't escape it. God fixed it, so you cannot forget
the fact that you're an undying soul. Secondly, we live in a
world created by God Almighty. Now again, this is not a matter
of theological persuasion. This is not even a matter of
spiritual knowledge. It doesn't take reading Genesis
1 and 2 to discover the creative power of God. That's not where
it comes from. It is explained in Genesis 1
and 2. It is explained in John chapter 1. It's explained in
various passages of Scripture. But the fact of creation, every
human being recognizes. Every human being. You say, Pastor,
I know lots of folks who deny it. I didn't say they didn't
deny it, I said they recognize it. I didn't say they said, oh
no, we don't believe in creation. I said they recognize it in their
souls, and those who say I don't believe it are liars and deceivers.
You say, Pastor, you think? You can't dare say that about
men. Why not? Men and women who dare to stand
in defiance of God are men and women who do not deserve respectability. Men and women who stand in defiance
of God Almighty, in defiance of what they know in their hearts,
are liars. Liars of the worst kind, for
they attempt to deceive themselves. Every human being in the world
knows that this planet upon which we live was created by the hands
of God. Creation is a fact, a fact that
every man's inmost being forces him to acknowledge. In the privacy
of his soul, he recognizes somebody made this world. This thing didn't
just pop up out of nowhere. Those who pretend to deny it
are deceivers of their own hearts. This planet called Earth is like
nothing else in God's creation. I don't have any objection, I
have some interest, even, in watching the scientists and astronomers
search the spaces. If they keep it up, we're going
to have more garbage out there than we got down here. But they
keep searching the spaces, searching for life. Been searching for
life all of my life. From my youth up, I remember
talking about going to the moon, don't you? They put us in life
on the moon. Got to the moon, didn't find
any. So they gave that up, now they're going to Mars. They're
sending satellites after Mars. Maybe we can find life on Mars.
They've given that up now. And they're going to Saturn.
Maybe, maybe in Saturn we can find some light. Some light other
than this planet Earth. Light other than here upon the
Earth. And so they keep searching, searching, searching for life.
In the name of science, in the name of intelligence, in the
name of scientific investigation, They're looking for life where
there's no air, no atmosphere, and no water. I wouldn't go fishing
like that, would you? I wouldn't go hunting like that.
But scientists, in an attempt to suppress what God has stamped
on their hearts, keep searching for life somewhere else. But
this earth is unlike anything else. This earth was created
by God. and created by God to be the
habitation of human life. I sometimes think maybe the Lord
God just threw those extra balls out into the universe to tease
fellas who refused to bow to his word. I think sometimes maybe
he just threw them out there and said, y'all go ahead and
play with them. Just go ahead and play with them. You're absolute
fools. The fact is, God's creative power,
every man observes it. every day. Every man observes
it every day. Let me show you. Turn to Romans
chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. So evident, so manifest is God's
creative power that even the heathen who refuse to acknowledge
that which is revealed in creation are themselves damned by their
rebellion against natural light. Look what it says here. Romans
1 verse 18, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness. And let me tell you what that
means. That doesn't mean they hold it like we hold the truth.
That's not it. They hold down the truth. The
word is, they suppress the truth in unrighteousness, so that when
you know something is so, you've all experienced it, you're confronted
with something you don't want to face up to. You're confronted
with something that maybe is embarrassing or distasteful to
you, and you know doggone good and well it's so, but you say
no, no, no, no, no, and you hold down the truth. That's the way
man holds the truth. of divine creation stamped on
his heart. He suppresses it. He holds it
in unrighteousness and in rebellion. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest not to him, but in him. For the invisible
things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal
power in Godhead. So they're without excuse. Without
excuse. Every man gets up in the morning
and sees the sun. Even those who have no eyes with
which to see, they feel the warmth of the sun's rays, even on the
coldest day there is. Every human being observes God's
creation and the creative power of God day and night, day and
night, day and night. He observes God's creative power
in himself. Now, be those things as they
may. This planet is also unique. and
stands apart from all others, if for no other reason, because
the Lord Jesus Christ lived here. He came into this earth to fulfill
all righteousness. He walked upon this earth in
obedience to God as a man. He lived as a representative
man upon this earth where he had a people whom he came to
represent. He died upon this earth. This
earth drank up Emmanuel's blood. He ascended back to the Father
from this earth, and he's coming again to this earth. That sets
it apart from all others. Thirdly, we are each of us. Some of you are going to be suspicious
now. You're going to think, I don't know what I'm talking about.
You're young, strong, Your bodies are still developing.
Your minds are still developing. Your lives, you're planning for
life out in front of you and making anticipation of what you're
going to do with your life. Let me tell you something. We are, each of us, dying creatures. Dying creatures. I've been talking about his plans.
He's going to school. Good thing to do. plan for the
future when you do plan to meet God. We're dying creatures. We're dying creatures. There's
no escaping the reality of death. Everything in the world is dying.
Even the stars burn out. The day is coming at God's appointment
when our sun, our star, shall burn out, and this earth shall
collapse in a ball of fire under the hand of God's judgment. Everything
we see, everything we touch, everything we hear, everything
we taste, everything we smell, everything we feel, shall soon
perish. Everything. In social ways. I've never been to a town where
they didn't have a graveyard either. I've never seen a mortician
go out of business. A mortician goes out of business,
he's got to be a bad businessman because folks are constantly
dying. There's no possibility, no possibility that that's going
to diminish or decrease in any way. Men and women are dying
every day. You are. Bobby Estes, you may
take your last breath before I get done, and I may. At God's
appointed time, you're going to die. young or old, strong
or weak, healthy or ill, it doesn't matter. At God's appointed time,
when God has ordained that you take your last breath, you're
leaving this world. And then our immortal souls will
go out into eternity to meet God in judgment. This, too, all men recognize.
There is a moral sensitivity stamped upon the human race that
simply cannot be erased. There has never been a nation,
a tribe, a family, or even a solitary individual so degenerate, so
degraded in all of history, that it has absolutely no code of
conduct by which it lives. No moral, ethical principle which
governs and determines his life, and governs and determines his
thoughts and perceptions of right and wrong. Now, what they think
to be right, we may look at and say, that's mighty strange. What
they think to be wrong, we may look at and say, that's a strange
kind of morality. But everywhere in human history,
men and women live by a code of moral conduct, because God
has stamped upon every man this sensitivity of eternity, of righteousness
and of judgment. I don't normally read the paper
during the day. Today I happened to be flipping
through while Sheba was getting the dinner dishes over, and I
turned into the parade and looked and asked Marilyn. She's a smart
cookie. And the first question asked,
they said, where do you get your code of morality or code of ethics? I forgot which way they stated
it. And she responded by saying most people get their code of
conduct, their code of morality, their code of ethics from religion. But I don't. That makes a conflicting
code. And she said I get mine from
history. That's exactly what I'm telling
you. Everybody in history has one. Everybody. There are no
exceptions. Deny the Bible if you want to.
Deny the truth of God's Word if you want to. Deny the reality
of Holy Scripture if you want to. I'm telling you, you can't
find a place in history, no matter how barbaric the man is, where
there's a man living who has no code of conduct. No such thing. Because God has stamped it on
his heart. Every man knows that one day
he must meet God. In some form, in some shape,
in some fashion, he must meet God, his Creator, and give account
of himself in judgment, and the basis of judgment will be righteousness. He may not understand what righteousness
is. He certainly doesn't. He may
not perceive righteousness as it's revealed in the Scriptures.
Man by nature does not. But he knows that God is, and
God demands righteousness, and he must meet God. The Apostle
Paul testifies to this fact. Turn over to Romans chapter 2.
Romans chapter 2. The scriptures again explain
that this is not something you have to look at the Bible for.
Just read your history books. Go search out the tribes of history. Search out the nations of history.
No matter how much they deny God, men always have some kind
of code of moral conduct. Here in Romans chapter 2 and
verse Verse 14, Paul says, when the Gentiles, now this is what
he's talking about. He's talking about you and I,
and our great, great, great, great ancestors way back yonder.
Gentiles who worshiped stumps and rocks. Gentiles who worshiped
Zeus, like Gentiles do today, worshiped Orion, and Thyses,
and Thyses, and all that nonsense. Gentiles, idol worshipers, who
had no knowledge of God. No understanding of, no revelation
from God, no word from God. But the Gentiles, which have
not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law.
These, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which
show the work of the law, look at it now, written in their hearts. The conscience also bearing the
witness. So every man knows it's wrong to steal another man's
wife or his dog. Every man knows by nature it's
wrong to take another man's life. Man by nature understands that
there is a distinction between animal life and human life. Man
by nature. Man by nature. Nowhere in history
except in our perverted intelligent society will we protect the lives
of dogs and despise the lives of human beings. But man by nature
understands that the life of a dog is irrelevant and insignificant
in comparison to the life of a man. It's stamped on his heart. It's written on his heart by
nature, by the hand of God. Everyone in the world, you too,
knows in his heart of hearts that there is a place of eternal
bliss. And there is a place of eternal
woe. Now these things are known, understood
to some degree, seen by all men. They are things of natural revelation. They are facts that simply cannot
be denied by any honest human being. But there's another world,
a spiritual world, a world that can't be seen and can't be known
by nature. It can't be proved by science,
understood by intelligence, or grasped by logic. This world
in which all things are known only by divine revelation is
the kingdom of God and the things of the Spirit. Look in John chapter
3. Let me show you. John chapter
3. Nicodemus was a well-trained,
well-educated, smart fellow. He was a A leader of the Pharisees,
a teacher of the Pharisees, a rabbi in Israel. And he said, we know. And the Lord Jesus said, Nicodemus,
you don't know anything. The things you're talking about
now, they're out of your league, buddy. You've overstepped the
bounds of your possibility of understanding things. You don't
know anything. Jesus said unto him, verse 3,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he
can not see the kingdom of God. That doesn't mean he can't see
it physically, because the kingdom of God is not physical to be
seen. That means he can't understand it. He can't perceive it. He
can't get hold of it. He can't grasp it. We don't. Nicodemus saith unto him, How
can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? That's the question of a smart
aleck who's stumped. He just stumped. Nicodemus said,
you mean I don't know anything? Well, how's a man going to be
born again? He's going to crawl back up into
his mother's belly and be born? And the Lord Jesus answered him
according to his folly. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, born naturally
and spiritually, naturally and supernaturally, born physically
and born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That
which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of
the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
you must be born again. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter
2. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, the
Apostle Paul picks up on this statement in Isaiah, and he gives
us a further explanation of Isaiah's doctrine. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9. As it is written, I have not
seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God
hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the Spirit of man, which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth
no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the
Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God,
which things also We speak not in the words which man's wisdom
teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual
things with spiritual. But the natural man, the man
who is just like Nicodemus, natural man, religious but lost, educated
but ignorant, the natural man, receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know
them. because they're spiritually discerned.
But he that is spiritual, he judges everything. That word
means he discerns everything. He sees everything with the eye
of the mind of Christ. He discerns all things. Look
at it now. Yet he himself is judged or discerned
of no man. No man understands it. The world
knoweth us not, because it knew him not. For who hath known the
mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the
mind of Christ. So secondly, I want to show you
four facts that can be known only by divine revelation. Just
as all who are born naturally have a natural sense of the things
of the natural world, so all who are born of the Spirit, all
who are taught of God, have the mind of Christ, know these four
things by divine revelation." If you're born of God, you understand
exactly what I'm saying. And those who deny these things
simply are not born of God and have not been taught of God.
First, God Almighty created us in His image. and created all
things, us included, for a specific purpose, His glory. Now, understand
this, God made you for His glory. And God's not going to miss His
object. You're going to glorify Him one way or another. The Lord
hath made all things for Himself, yea, even the wicked, for the
day of judgment. He works all things at the counsel
of His own will, to the praise of His glory. That's what the
scripture says. Everything that is, has been,
or shall be, was created by God for His glory. Everything made
for a purpose. We were created in God's image. That means that we were created
in the image of Jesus Christ, who was to come. Created upright,
walking upon the earth. as a man. That means that we
were created unlike any other thing on the earth. Human beings
with intellect, emotion, and will, which no animal ever gets. I don't care how much they try
to talk about Flipper communicating with Flipper, or dog barking
to dog, animals don't have intellect, emotion, and will. Animals do
not have the capability of rationalizing things and working things out. Animals act by instinct. Men
act by intellect, emotion, and will. When men and women understand
the fact that they are created in the image of God, then there
is a sense of the sanctity of human life. And when men and
women lose that sense, The reality that we are created in the image
of God, there is no sanctity of life. Then society starts
hugging trees and kissing frogs and killing babies. There's no
sense of the sanctity of life. the teaching of the scripture
with regard to creation and a society that holds human life to be something
that is honorable and sanctified and set apart because man is
created in the image of God. Therefore, you don't dare take
a man's life. To take his life is to attempt
to take God's life. This is where the argument folks
talk about all of this This argument concerning euthanasia and concerning
abortion and doing away with children that maybe are deformed
or handicapped, you don't want to bring them into the world,
we'll just kill them. All of that argument is based
upon a denial of creation. Men and women who understand
we're created in the image of God, preserve life as being inviolably
precious, something that cannot be destroyed by our hands. For
to do so is to fight against God. So, boy, that's outdated. I've been outdated since I came
into this world, and I'll go out that way. But I'm telling
you it's truth. And you can look all around you and see it. You
can look all around you and see it. One of the most redundant,
silly, foolish, haunted aspects of this intelligent generation
in which we live. You watch politicians and entertainers
and folks stand and talk about legalizing abortion. And I'm
not about to get involved in the abortion bandwagon, but they
talk about legalizing abortion. And then at the same time, turn
around and they want to destroy a whole community for the sake
of saving some fish that might be extinct next hundred thousand
years, some time or another. It's utter nonsense. It's utter
nonsense. We're living in a world totally
perverted because men have failed to recognize this that can only
be truly understood by divine revelation, and it is revealed
here in Holy Scripture so that all men can see it. If you read
and see what God says, God created man in his own image and after
his own likeness. He called it humane. He's putting
the dog out of his misery. But then when a man takes the
life of an ailing person who's dying of some disease, we turn
and call that murder? No, sir, we do not. God does. God does. Well, pastor, don't
you think it's reasonable? I wish you would bear your reason
in this book. We do not have the right to think
anything apart from the revelation of this book. Man's created in
the image of God. We don't take human life, not
our own and not somebody else's. That means to do so is to deny
that God Almighty is the ruler of human life. He gives and He
takes away as He pleases. We are not accidents and productions
of blind evolution. You and I were created by the
finger of God and the breath of God. created to serve a specific
purpose, and our purpose for existence is and ought to be
the glory of our Creator, our God. Now, you young people, listen
to me. Your pastor's not an idiot. I'm
not a dummy. I've done a little reading. I
know a little bit about what goes on. But you're being taught
and bombarded every day. I mean, from the time they start
watching The Muppets to the time they go to their grave. Folks
are being bombarded every day and taught by teachers, by news
media, and by the entertainment industry, and by the political
philosophy of the age that you're nothing but animals. Animals
without purpose. Animals without meaning. You're
being taught that you're the products of millions of years.
a blind, mindless evolution. What a degrading, debasing thing
evolution is. When our young people are taught
that they are nothing but animals, we ought not be surprised to
find them acting like animals. Animals don't have any moral
conduct. Animals have no code of ethics. Animals don't think a thing on
earth about shacking it up in my birthday. Animals don't think
a thing on this earth about obligations and responsibilities. Animals
have no sense of right and wrong. Animals are folks, are creatures
that simply live in this world, that's all. But you're not that
way. We're not animals. We're folks
who've been given a God-consciousness stamped upon our minds and upon
our hearts, a sense of right and wrong. so that we have regard
for that which is right. We have regard for life, and
we have regard for ourselves, because we recognize we're put
here for a purpose. We're put here for a purpose.
Don't fall for the great lie of the age. Evolution's a joke. When I hear the wise acres of
the world talk as though evolution's an assumed fact, and they do.
I mean, they just, they talk about, you know, a hundred billion
years ago like it's yesterday. And they talk about the Grand
Canyon, that great chasm being formed by a great, great climactic
thing that took place, oh, maybe a couple of billion years ago,
like they read that in a history book somewhere. They talk about
the evolution of the various species of animal life. You ever
watch the Discovery Channel? I do every time I get in a motel
somewhere you get a chance to. I love to watch it. I love to
watch the orderly process of God's creation. I love to watch
how God has set everything in its order. Watch bees, what they're
like. You watch them. And listen to
the idiot talk about how that developed over a period of millions
of years of evolutionary process. You studying nursing, Jennifer,
you get your anatomy book out when you get home. Just open
it up and look at the human body. Look at the veins. all the various nerves and muscles
that just developed the ability for me to open my eyes, look
at you, and see what you're wearing. And folks, that just, you know,
it was just a matter of gradually developing what we needed to
exist in the world. If we use that kind of logic
for anything else, they'd throw us all in a nut house. They'd
throw us in a—they'd laugh at us. And this is what I do with
the evolutionary science of our day. I laugh at it. You say,
well, how are you going to disprove it? Here I am. That's proof enough
it ain't so. That's proof enough it's not
so. You watch Mr. Bartley go over there and develop
some of his lovely cabinets and kitchenware He looked at that
thing, and he asked him, he said, Boy, how did that develop? How
did you make those doors like that, those intricate details
in there? How did that get to be like that?
And he said, Well, I tell you, I decided a while back I'd cut
some trees down, and I stacked them up in my backyard. And life
and I just left them alone. And we came back a million years
later, and there they were. There they were. They just, they just showed up
because they decided they'd be cabinets and hang on the wall
and look pretty. You say, Prince, you're being
facetious. Not near as much as the idiot who says you just sprung
out of nothing. You just kind of evolved out
of nothing. what degrading teaching evolution
is. God tells us plainly who we are,
where we came from, and where we're going. Secondly, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, has redeemed the people
for himself. The Lord God in his great love,
mercy, and grace sent his Son into the world to redeem and
save his people from their sins by the sacrifice of himself.
And he's done it. He's done it perfectly. He's
done it effectually. He's done it fully. He's done
it forever. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. When God the Holy Spirit comes,
In saving power and effectual grace, to convince sinners of
their need of Christ and bring them to Christ by effectual power,
he convinces them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
He takes the things of Christ and shows them to you so that
he convinces you of your sin. I can't do that, but he can.
He does. He convinces you of Christ's
righteousness. He fulfilled all righteousness.
And he convinces you of judgment finished by the sacrifice of
Christ. And if ever you become convinced
of your sin, and his righteousness, and the satisfaction of justice
by his blood, you're a believer. I mean, if ever really in your
soul you become convinced of it. Thirdly, by the miracle of
the new birth, by his sovereign regenerating grace and power,
God the Holy Spirit makes us new creatures in Christ. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things have passed away,
and behold, all things have become new. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
6 for a moment. Know you not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor cathechists,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit
the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But, O glorious intervention, but
you who were unrighteous, adulterers, fornicators, effeminate, abusers
of yourselves with mankind, thieves, covetous drunkards, revilers,
extortioners, you! We are washed. We are sanctified. But we are justified. in the
name of the Lord Jesus. It's called grace. Marvelous, infinite,
matchless, free grace. Grace changes things. Grace changes
man. Grace makes us new creatures
in Christ. We who were once the enemies
of God and the servants of sin, are now reconciled to God and
the voluntary servants of righteousness because of his grace. One last
thing. The Lord God has prepared a kingdom
for his elect and he will see to it that every chosen, redeemed,
called sinner enters into, inherits, and possesses that kingdom. Turn
to Psalm 84. Psalm 84, verse 11. We'll back up to verse 9. Behold,
our God, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed. For a day in thy courts is better
than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell in the courts of wickedness.
For the Lord our God, he is a sun and a shield. The Lord will give
grace and glory. He who gives grace gives glory
to the same people. No good thing will he withhold
from them that walketh upright there. O Lord of hosts, blessed
is the man that trusteth in thee." We don't know a great deal about
what awaits us in that kingdom prepared for us, but this much
we know. Christ is there. Sin is not. Life is there. Death is not. Joy is there. Sorrow is not. Worship is there. Weeping is
not. The Lord our God will bring us
into the kingdom that he's prepared for us at the time appointed
from eternity. Either by death or by the resurrection
glory at the last day. And frankly, it doesn't matter
which way he does it, as long as he brings us home. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me, our master said. For in
my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself
that where I am, there you may be also. Now I've been talking
to you about things seen and things revealed. I have no question everybody
here is totally aware that we are undying souls. Everybody
here is totally aware that we are God's creatures. That soon
we must leave this world and meet God in judgment. I pray
that God has taught you by his grace and by his spirit that
you were created for his glory and given your heart to seek
his glory. That Jesus Christ has redeemed your soul and put
away your sin. That God the Holy Spirit has
made you a new creature in Christ. And that the Lord God has a kingdom
prepared for you, to which soon you must enter. Where are you
going to spend eternity? You're going to spend it somewhere.
Where? This one thing have I desired.
This one thing I seek after. By God's grace, this one thing
I shall have through Jesus Christ the Lord. Out dwell in the house
of the Lord. What about you?