Matthew's Gospel chapter 20,
and I want you to keep your Bibles handy this morning. I want to
turn to some passages with you, but let's look first of all in
this verse. This is what I mainly want to
look at this morning. Verse 28. Matthew chapter 20
and verse 28. Even as the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life
a ransom for many." That's a wonderful statement, isn't it? That's a
wonderful declaration. I preached last night on a fearful
declaration. This is a wonderful declaration.
The Son of Man came to give his life a ransom for many. Now that's our hope, isn't it?
That's our hope of being saved here, being forgiven now, accepted
of God, being delivered from the bondage of the sin that we've
committed, and being delivered someday from the bondage of corruption
of these sinful, weak frames that we live in. And this is
our hope. We have a good hope because it's
built upon this. The Son of Man came to ransom
us. To ransom us. from our sins and
the fallen. That's what we want to look at.
But first of all, I want to consider this in its context because there's
something here very interesting. And this statement was made because
of a conversation the Lord was having with His disciples. And
it begins back here in verse 20. Look at the context. This
statement was made, and it was made in ignorance. It was made
in pride, and really it had no faith. It wasn't a request by
faith, but it was a request that was made out of ignorance. Look
at it in verse 20. There came to him the mother
of Zebedee's children with her, with her sons, James and John,
and she came worshiping him and desiring a certain thing of him,
And he said unto her, What will you that I should do unto you?
What do you want me to do for you? She said unto him, Grant
that these my two sons may sit, one on the right hand, and the
other on the left, in thy kingdom. Now that's what she was praying
for. That's what she decided. But you know that was a request
of ignorance. Our Lord told her that then.
He said in the very next verse, You know not what you ask for. That's such an ignorant request. And it was an ignorant request
because they didn't understand the nature of the Lord's kingdom. They thought the Lord was going
to set up His throne there in Jerusalem, and He was going to
throw off the Roman Empire, and He was going to reign. There
was going to be pomp. There was going to be ease. Men
were going to come and bow down to him. He was going to be the
king over this kingdom. And they said, boy, we want in
on this. We want to set one on your right
hand and one on your left. We want people to be at our beck
and command. We want people to serve us. Well,
if you have your chief friend and he's a king, then I want
in on it too, don't you? That's what they wanted. They
wanted people to serve Him and bow down to Him. But that was
an ignorant request, wasn't it? Look here in verse 25 at the
nature of His kingdom. The nature of Christ's kingdom
is not at all like the nature of the kingdoms of this world.
Look here at what He said in verse 25. Jesus called unto Him,
called his disciples, his apostles to him, and says, You know that
the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they
that are great, the kings and the presidents, they exercise
authority over them. But it shall not be so among
you. That's not the nature of my kingdom.
But whosoever will be great among you, Let Him be your minister,
and whosoever will be chief among you, let Him be your servant,
even as the Son of Man." Christ didn't come to be served,
did He? He came to serve Him. That's the nature of His Kingdom.
Even He Himself did it. I tell you, it's just amazing. I'm as amazed as Peter was. and the other apostles, when
the Son of God rose up and got him a towel, and girded his loins
with it, and got him a pan of water, and got down on his knees,
and began to wash the disciples' feet. They were amazed, and we
are too, aren't we? But that's the nature of His
kingdom. The nature of my kingdom is not for you to sit and let
people serve you. The nature of my kingdom is for
you to serve, for you to be ministers. In love, serve one another. And look in verse 22 and in verse
23. Here's the nature of His kingdom.
It wasn't going to be one of ease. It wasn't going to be one
of sitting on a throne and being secured by people guarding it. The nature of Christ exposes
you to danger. You're in the kingdom of Christ.
You're exposed to sufferings and heartaches and trials. That's the nature of His kingdom.
Look what He says in verse 22. You know not what you asked.
Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of? And to be baptized with a baptism
that I am baptized with, they say we're able. And he said,
you shall indeed drink of my cup and be baptized with a baptism
that I am baptized with. What was this cup? We've studied
it before, haven't we? Well, I tell you, it's a cup
of sorrow. He's a man of sorrow and acquainted
with grief. He was rejected of men. He was
despised of men. This world hated Him. When the
gutter hands on Him, they killed Him. The nature of Christ's kingdom
is being sometimes swallowed up, being baptized in suffering. He said Himself, He said, Your
waves and your billows have gone over me. I sink in deep mire. It's being baptized in afflictions
and sorrow. And they said, we can drink of
that cup. They had no idea what they was
talking about, did they? James said, yeah, we can drink of it.
Little did he know that he was going to stand before King Herod
and a sword was going to be stuck through his heart. King Herod
killed this man. Fox's Book of Martyrs says all
of these eleven apostles died a martyr's death. And John was
the last one And it's recorded of him that he was cooked in
boiling oil. Are you able to drink? That's
the nature of my kingdom. It's one of suffering. It's one
of trials and heartaches and temptations. If we suffer with
him, we'll also reign with him. That's the nature of it. So they were ignorant, wasn't
they? What an ignorant request. What a ignorance. Can my son
sit one on your right hand and one on your left and have at
ease and be at ease and let people serve them? Woman, you don't
know what you're asking. That's not the nature of my kingdom.
And this request was out of pride, wasn't it? Boy, how highly they
thought of themselves to think, I'm worthy to sit there Of all
people, I'm worthy to sit there in His kingdom? And every one
of them felt the same way. We're told there in verse 24
that all of them got mad. The other ten got mad at these
two fellows. They said, No, you're not worthy
to sit there. But we are. We're more worthy
than you fellows. Oh, the pride. The pride. I'll tell you one thing. If they
had If they had got there on his right hand, if the Lord Jesus
Christ had set up a kingdom and these two fellows had sat on
each side of them, I'm telling you, you talk about cruel dictators. They were nobodies now. They
were unimportant people now. What if they ruled? How proud
they were now. What if they were made rulers?
Man, brutal dictators, wasn't they? How many prayers, brothers and
sisters, do you and I pray out of ignorance and out of pride? Aren't you glad the Lord don't
answer all your prayers? That old country music song,
Thank God for Unanswered Prayer. Well, we do sometimes, don't
we? Thank God for Unanswered Prayer. Well, there's one answer.
They had a desire, but I think it takes more than just a desire
to get your prayers answered. And they sure didn't have a humble
faith. Look over here, hold this, and
look right over to your left in Matthew 7. Did you ever wonder
about this passage where the Lord was talking about, ask and
you'll receive? Seek and you shall find, mock
and it will be opened to you. Are those things unconditional? Aren't you glad they're not unconditional? What if you got everything you
asked for? What if every time you knocked
on the Lord's door, He answered? What if every time you sought
Him in prayer, you found Him and He gave you just what you
asked for? I'd be afraid to pray, wouldn't
you? I'd be afraid for other people
to pray. Somebody may be bad at me. Lord,
would you kill that sorry preacher? Man, aren't you glad that prayer's
not answered? You know something? If prayer
was answered, there'd be no city of Samaria. Because the disciples
are going to pray, Lord, we're going to call them fire out of
heaven and kill them. You know something? The Lord
Jesus Christ would have never went to the cross. If Peter got
his way, Lord, forbid that you should go to the cross. He didn't
pray. I don't want you to go to the cross. He couldn't go
to the cross. Aren't you glad that there are conditions attached
to asking and knocking and seeking? Look at what the Lord says. Look
in Matthew chapter 7. Look in verse 7. Ask, and it
shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asks receives. Why didn't they receive? They
asked. Must be a condition to them. Must have to be qualified. Everyone that seeketh findeth,
and him that knocketh, it shall be opened unto him. Or what man
is there of you, if he have a son, and his son ask him of a piece
of bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he
give him a serpent? But here's our problem, isn't
it? We ask for a servant, thinking
we're asking for a fish. Sometimes our desire is for a
stone, and we think it's for a piece of bread. These disciples
and their mother had no idea what they were asking for. But
who knows? Who does know? And here's the
secret to prayer. There's times when I've almost
got offended. I'll be honest with you, in my
ignorance, I've almost got offended with the Lord because I've gone
to Him and I've asked Him something and I've got the right opposite.
You ever do that? You pray for somebody and instead
of them, the Lord saving them, they turn open and profane more
ungodly than there ever was. You say, Lord, I asked you for
a fish and you gave me a serpent. But here's the thing, see. Prayer
is determined by the will of God. If we ask anything according
to His will. If we ask and it's not His will,
we don't want it, do we? And here's the second thing.
Prayer is dependent upon our Father's wisdom. We don't know,
but He knows. He knows the difference between
the serpent and a fish. And sometimes when we think it's
a serpent, it's a fish. Sometimes when we think we're
chewing on gravel, it's not a rock at all. It's bread. Look at the
next verse. In verse 11. If you then be an
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children. If you be
an evil, I love how the Lord talks to us, don't you? He knows
it's not eternal. If you've been evil, I ain't
a sinner. The Master said you were. I'm
a pretty good fellow. The Master says you're evil.
And yet you know how to give good gifts. Look at this. How
much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things
to them that ask Him? But who is it that determines
what's good? I tell you, be thankful I don't
determine what's good. If I determined for all of us
what was good this morning, I'd have every one of us spoiled
to death. Every time I saw any of you in
any kind of conflict, I'd say, that's not good. I'd deliver
you. Every time you got in a trial,
I'd pray, Lord, deliver them. But what would that do? It would
spoil you. You'd be so weak, your faith
never would be tried. If you're sick, you know something,
that may be good. It may be good. David said, it's
good for me that I was afflicted. Now boy, that's a rock for the
flesh. That's a stone for the flesh.
But you know, it may be bread for the soul. And our Father
knows what's best for the soul, doesn't He? And He gives us what's
best. So when we pray, We pray with
the understanding. We seek His will. We seek to
pray intelligently. What's your will? Would you give
me what's best? I've prayed for this, but you
determine what I get and what you withhold from me. Your will
be done. And that's the context in which
we look this morning at our text. We're not going to have an evening
service, so I'm going to keep you a little bit this morning.
Not long, but just a little bit. Look back over here at our text
in Matthew chapter 20, in verse 28. This is the text. And boy, I tell you what, it
makes you thankful that some of these ridiculous requests
and statements were made. Because so often, somebody blooded
in, birded in, and asked something Plum done. But out of that request,
or out of a silly statement, we have such a wonderful passage
of Scripture. And here's what he said, Even
as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister,
and give his life a ransom. See the first thing here about
this verse. The Lord's death was not by accident. It was planned all along. Look what He said back over in
verse 18. We go up to Jerusalem, and the
Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests, the scribes,
and they shall condemn Him and deliver Him to the Gentiles to
maul and scourge, and they shall crucify Him, and the third day
He shall raise again. He predicted this before it ever
came to pass. You know, we've gone beyond this,
I think. This heresy that we heard for
years that Christ came to this world to reign as a king, that
because they rejected Him as a king, He had to die upon the
cross. I hope that heresy is dead, and
I hope they've buried it, and I hope nobody don't dig it up
again. Because we know why the Son of God came, don't we? The
Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for many. That's why He came. A ransom.
Look over here in Philippians chapter 2. You can let go of
Matthew. Look over in Philippians chapter
2. It goes right back to this business
of being a servant. Look here what he says in Philippians
chapter 2, in verse 5. When you see the sufferings of
Christ, it often looks at it from two different perspectives.
One, as our example. He gave us an example that we
should follow His steps. He was a servant. We should be
a servant. That's what he tells us here
in verse 5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and
took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of man. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even
the death of the cross, the Son of Man. Isn't that a wonderful
name for the Son of God? And there's a reason that He
calls Himself often the Son of Man, because as the Son of God,
He could never die. He couldn't have stayed in heaven
and said, I'll suffer up here and I'll die up here and redeem
my people. He can't die. He's God. He cannot die. But as the Son
of Man who was born of a woman, who became the servant of His
people, the servant of God, He can both suffer, He can bleed,
and He can die. Now, why is that important? Why is it important, as Brother
Glenn said this morning, that He be the Son of Man as well
as the Son of God? These two glorious people and
one person because God is full of merit. He's full of worth. But you know something? He can't
atone. Why? He can't suffer. He can't die. He can't shed any blood. But
Jesus, the Son of Man, born of a woman, He can atone because
He's full of merit. He's full of worth. He's full
of goodness and power. And as man, He can suffer. He can die. He can bear our sins
upon the cross in His body. The Son of Man. If we don't have
a Savior who is both God and man, we don't have a ransom. Because for a ransom to be effectual,
it's got to be able to atone for sin. It's got to put away
sin. And only Jesus Christ, the Son
of Man, the Son of God, can do it. He gave His life. The Son of Man gave His life. Boy, He gave everything, didn't
He? You know, when they offered the lamb back down there in Exodus
12, they were told not to let anything of it remain until the
morning. What they didn't eat had to be
consumed with fire. Nothing was to remain of that
lamb until the morning. And that's the way Jesus Christ
did it. Upon the cross, He gave His life. He gave His whole life. He gave His soul in an offering
for sin. He gave that. Whatever the soul
consists of, Christ gave His soul in an offering for sin.
But He gave His body, didn't He? We're told that He gave His
back to the smithers. He gave His cheeks to those that
plucked off the hair. He gave His hands and He gave
His feet to the nails to be pierced. He gave His side to that spear
that pierced Him. Gave His ears to the mocking.
Gave His eyes to the jeering of the crowd. He gave everything. There was nothing left. of Jesus
Christ that He did not give. He gave Himself. He gave His
life a ransom. He gave His life a ransom. What
does ransom mean? The Son of Man, the Son of God,
gave His life and He gave it for a ransom. There was a purpose
in His death. It wasn't haphazard now. It wasn't that he just came down
here and said, I'm going to die. He had a purpose in his death.
It was a ransom, and what is a ransom? The definition for
ransom, one of them is to pay a price for freedom. To pay a price for freedom. It used to be when soldiers went
off to war and they got captured by the enemy, their country would
send a ransom price and they would release their soldiers.
A ransom price. But a ransom price means more
than just a price. It means something that loosens. It's not just a price. It means
something that's loosened. This is important, isn't it?
When we hear the world talking today, when we hear religion
talking about ransom, here's the way they present to us the
ransom. Christ paid the ransom. He paid the price to God for
the sins of everybody without exception, and that's all. That's it. He went up into heaven,
and there's nothing else He does. The price has been paid, and
now we're waiting and hoping that somebody will take advantage
of this ransom, this price that's been paid. But you know, when
the scripture talks about ransom, it never talks about anything
like that. When it talks about ransom, it
not only talks about the price, but it talks about the release
of those for whom the ransom was paid. Now, you take your
Bibles and you mark these. I want to show them to you. Look
over to begin with in Job chapter 33. Ransom. A ransom price. But it's not just the price. The Father set the price of the
ransom. The Son paid the price of the
ransom. The Father accepted that ransom
and said, I'm pleased with it. I'm satisfied with it. And now
God the Holy Spirit is delivering those captives for whom the ransom
is paid. Now, look what He said in Job
chapter 33. And start all the way back up here in verse 14. Job chapter 33 verse 14. God speaks once, yea, twice,
yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the
night, when deep sleep falls upon them, and slumbering upon
their bed. Then he opens the ear of men,
and seals their instruction, that he may withdraw man from
his purpose, and hide pride from him. Man is going to hell. And
that's his purpose, and he's proud about it, and God's going
to stop him. He keepeth back his soul from
the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword, the sword of justice.
He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude
of his bones with strong pain, so that his life of poor bread,
and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away that
it cannot be seen, and his bones that are not seen stick out.
Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the
destroyers. If there be a messenger with
him, an interpreter, a mediator, one among a thousand, to show
unto man his uprightness, then is God gracious unto him, and
the Lord sends this message. deliver him from going down to
the pit. Why? I have found a ransom for
him. Now, a man doesn't go to hell
because a ransom wasn't made. A man goes to hell to pay for
his sin, does he not? The soul that sinneth it shall
die. But listen to this. Every last soul for whom a ransom
has been made He is going to be delivered from going down
to the pit. I mean, here was these fellows right on the verge.
They were on their sick bed. They were dying. Their bones
were sticking through their skin. They were ready for the grave
and ready for the pit. But the Lord said, deliver them.
That thief on the cross, ready to step off into a lost eternity,
deliver him. Why? I found a ransom. What is
it? My Son, the Son of Man, who gave
His life a ransom. There won't be one soul in hell
for whom Christ died. You know how we know that? It
tells us right here. Deliver Him from going down to
the pit. I've found a ransom. I gave my life a ransom for many. And I'm telling you what, there
ain't no one of those many going to perish. There's a friend of mine that
I graduated high school with. He's a free-will Baptist preacher,
and he invited me back to preach. I preached for him one time,
and some of them got up and ran out. They didn't walk out. They
ran out. And that's the statement I made. Here's the statement
I made. I said, you'll never see a soul in hell with the devil's
hands clutched around his neck, holding him up as a trophy, and
saying, I got one of them. The Lord Jesus bore his sin. The Lord Jesus paid a ransom
for this man, and I got him anyway. They tell us that some of those
soldiers that they used to pay ransom for, they'd kill them
anyway. They wouldn't let them go. It
ain't so with this ransom, bud. You deliver him. That's the sovereign
God speaking. Where the words of the King is,
there's power. You deliver him. You deliver
Him. You may have some children you've
been praying for. Have some loved ones you've been praying for.
And I'm telling you, it may seem like there's no hope for them. Just
like that thief on the cross. Probably a lot of people left
there that day and said, boy, those two thieves, they're in
hell. Not one of them. Not one of them. Why? Ransom. Ransom. Look in Isaiah chapter
35. Isaiah chapter 35, along the
same lines. Isaiah chapter 35. You read this
chapter, and boy, he's speaking, beginning in verse 1, down through
verse 8. Boy, he is talking about some
wonderful things that's going to take place, about the desert
breaking out with streams of water and blooming, and a wonderful
place to live. Wonderful things are coming.
Verse 7, he said, I say a thirty-five. The parched ground shall become
a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water, in the habitation
of dragons and jackals, where each lay there shall be grass
with reeds and bushes. And an highway shall be there
in a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean
shall not pass on it, but it shall be for those the wayfaring
men, though fools, shall not err therein." No lion is going
to be there. No ravenous beast shall go up
thereon. It shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk therein, and look at this, and the ransomed
of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting
joy upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness
and sorrow and Zion shall flee away." Who's going to return
the ransom? All the Father gives to me. He's going to come to me. The
Father has given Him to me and I've paid a ransom for it. And
I'm telling you there's coming a day when He's going to return
to me. He's going to come with weeping.
He's going to come repenting. He's going to come believing.
And He's coming to me. I have blotted out, He said,
as a thick cloud your sin. Therefore, return unto Me, for
I have redeemed you. I've ransomed you. Every ransomed
sinner is going to return to the Lord Jesus Christ. And boy, that will help you preach
the gospel to everybody. Because if you run upon one someplace
that this ransom has been paid for, he's going to be released.
Whoever's holding him captive is going to free him and let
him go. Listen to this passage in Zechariah chapter 9. Listen
to this, verse 11 and 12. This is the father speaking to
the son. As for thee also, my son, by the blood of your covenant,
I have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit wherein is no
water." And then he says to them, turn you to the stronghold, you
prisoners of hope, today I declare that I will render double unto
thee. They were prisoners of sin. Slaves to the devil. But the
Lord said, I have sent them out. By the blood of your covenant,
I've sent them out." And then he says to them, flee out of
this place. Get out of this place. I've redeemed
you. I've offered a ransom for you.
And then he makes them prisoners of hope. You used to be prisoners
of sin and the devil, but now you're the prisoners of hope.
Which one of you does it be? It's a lot better to be a prisoner
of hope than a prisoner of sin and Satan. And the bondage to
that. Listen to Isaiah 31 and verse
10 and 11. Hear the word of the Lord, O
ye nations. Hear this. Now listen to this.
This is important. When the Lord says, Hear something,
hear something. If you want to read this, you can go ahead and
turn over to Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 10 and 11. But this
is what it says. Hear the word of the Lord, O
ye nations, and declare it in the islands for all. and say,
here's the gospel now. If a man wants to know if he's
preaching the gospel, here's what he's told to say. He that
scattered Israel shall gather him. He scattered them in the
fall, didn't he? That's when his sheep were scattered.
He that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a
shepherd doeth his flock For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob,
and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than
he." Now, that's the gospel, brothers and sisters. There's
a ransom price that's been paid, and it's a costly price. It's
a precious price. But I'm telling you, it's effectual.
It's effectual. And the Lord says, you declare
this. I scattered spiritual Israel, just like I scattered natural
Israel. But I'm going to gather them
because I've made a ransom for them. I've made a ransom. This is Psalms chapter 49, verse
6 and 8. I can't have you turning to all
these. I'll keep you too long. This is what David said in Psalms
49, 6. They that trust in their will. and boast themselves in
the multitude of their riches. None of them can by any means
redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him. For the ransom, for the redemption
of the soul is precious. It's costly. And it ceases forever. There's just one ransom that's
ever been paid that God accepted. And then it ceased. There is
no more offering. Even Christ will never offer
Himself again. It ceases because God is satisfied. Nothing else is required. The
Son of Man gave His life, a ransom for many, the redemption of the
soul. And our souls have been redeemed,
haven't they? They've been redeemed from the slavery market of sin
and the servant of devil and the curse of the law. Our souls
have been redeemed. But you know something? We don't
stop there. Because redemption doesn't stop there. Christ did
more than just redeem our souls. That's the vital part right now. But aren't you glad that He's
redeemed the whole man? He's redeemed the body. Our physical
bodies. He's offered a ransom for our
physical bodies as well as the soul. And you and I live in hope
of this. This is the hope that we have. The resurrection, the redemption
of the body. Now why is that important? The
body is a vital part of us, isn't it? We're made up of soul and
we're made up of body. And these poor bodies suffered
Because sin entered into them and they're cursed and they grow
old and full of pain and they die and they decay. And that's
the most discouraging thing in the world for a believer because
he loves his body. Don't you love your body? No
man ever yet hated his flesh, but he nourishes it and cherishes
it. I tell you, to be sick, That's
not a natural thing. God never made us sick. Man, He made us strong, didn't
He? Back there in the garden, Adam
didn't know what a headache was. He didn't know what arthritis
was, Steve. He never had any pain in his
body. He had never grown old. That's the way God made us. Never,
never to suffer, have any pain, no tears. We're not like that
now, are we? But here's our hope that we will
be. There's coming a time when there'll
be no sorrow, there'll be no tears, there'll be no headaches,
there'll be no pains in this body. It will even be more glorious
than it was when God made it back there in the Garden of Eden,
because it's going to be changed. It's going to be fashioned. lack
unto the glorious body of Jesus Christ the Lord." We forget this. We don't even learn this in our
hearts. We should be concerned about
our souls, but we're so overwhelmed with concern about our souls,
we've forgotten about our poor bodies. We don't seem to live
in the hope of a resurrection, of the redeeming of these bodies.
That's why we're so worried about getting old. That's why we're
so down-faced as Christians. That's why we live as, man, we're
going to die and that's it. We hope we'll fly up to heaven
and be with the Lord forever. What about these? Don't you love
your members? We do, don't we? Look here in
Hosea. Look here at what Christ gave
himself a ransom for. Look at Hosea chapter 13. If you go to Daniel, it's the
very next book to your right. Look in chapter 13. Well, this
was really to a great extent, a mystery
through the Old Testament, the mystery of how this resurrection
was going to come to pass. Paul said in 1 Corinthians, I'll
show you a mystery. And it's a mystery in how it
was going to take place. The Old Testament taught the
resurrection. David said, I'm going to see
Him. Job said, in my flesh I'll see
Him. But how is that going to happen? Paul said, I'm going
to tell you how it's going to happen. I'm going to reveal this
mystery to you in the twinkling of an eye. Kodak told us back
in the 1960s, I think it was, that was one hundred, one eleventh
hundredth hundredth of a second. That's how long it takes to blink
your eye. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, Jesus Christ our Savior will descend from heaven and
the dead Those that have died and their bodies have decayed
in one eleven hundredth of a second. That body that's rotting, decayed,
is going to come up from the dust. And this bowel body that's
yet alive is going to be changed and both those bodies are going
to be fashioned like unto His glorious body. That corruptible
will put on incorruption, and this mortal will put on immortality. And then shall be brought to
pass the saying, Death is swallowed up in victory. Now that's going to happen. That's
going to happen. And it's impossible for it not
to happen. Because a ransom has been paid
for that body. You're bought with a price. What
was he talking about? Your whole person. You're bought
with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
spirit, in your soul, and in your body. Now here, let me say this to
you. Here's why we ought to love our bodies. If we're going to
wear our bodies out, brothers and sisters, let's wear it out
in the service of the Lord. Let's be careful about abusing
our bodies. Let's be careful about saying
these bodies are worth nothing. I tell you, they cost the Son
of God everything He had. He loves your body. Cherish your body. Don't abuse
your body. Take care of your body. One thing, if nothing else has
helped me going down to the nursing home, is leaving there and thinking,
I don't want to be found in that wheelchair when I get 30. And
by God's help and God's grace, I'm not going to be found there
if I can have it. I'm going to eat better. I'm
going to exercise better. I'm going to take care of myself.
Why? Because I've been bought with
a price. My body is the temple of God. It's the temple of the Holy Spirit. And I'd say, therefore, we should
value, we should care and cherish these bodies. Look at what he says in Hosea
chapter 14, 13 and verse 14. Look at this. I love this passage.
He ransomed our souls. But look here what else He ransomed
us from. I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be your plagues. O grave, I will be your destruction. And repentance shall be hid from
my eyes. I will never change my Mind. I told you about going up to
the graveyard one day when I was walking around preaching to everybody.
I was. I was preaching out loud. I got
to preaching. If the neighbors had been outside, they probably
thought, boy, that Crabtree, he's done. But what I was telling
them was, get out of the graves. Get out. Get out. I was just
preaching to them, calling their names. I knew a bunch of them,
and some of them I never knew, but calling their names. Won't
you get out? And then I told them why they
don't get up. I ain't got no power to raise them. But you
wait until the Son of Man, the Son of God speaks. You wait until
He says, get up. They that are in the grave shall
hear His voice, and they shall come forth. And I'm telling you,
every child of God who has laid his dying head down upon His
pillar, and flew to be with Christ in His Spirit, and left His body
here to be buried and decayed, the grave will not hold Him when
the Son of Man speaks and redeems that body." And bud, that is a gospel hope,
and nothing else but the gospel gives you a hope like that. Hindus talk about reincarnation.
Coming back as a cow or something. Don't want to eat a cow, maybe
eat my cousin. Now we're going to come back.
But you know who we're going to be like? The Son of God. The
Son of God. Ain't religion stupid? They come
back as a dog or a rat or something. The Lord says, I'm going to bring
you back from the grave and you're going to look just like me. Forever. And forever we'll be with the
Lord. Oh, what a ransom. What a costly
ransom. What a precious ransom. The Son of God. The Son of Man. Oh, we bless Him, don't we? We pray. We can't get over it,
can we? We can't get over Him. God bless His message. Let's
pray.