Consider Christ Jesus

Hebrews 3 verse 1, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession, consider Christ Jesus. Now, there are many verses
in the Bible that I could have used for my text on this subject. Consider Christ Jesus. For Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, with power, and Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, with perfection,
is the theme of this book. Jesus Christ the Son of God with
power and Jesus Christ the Son of Man with perfection is the
theme of the Word of God. He said Moses wrote of me. Turn
to Acts chapter 10 verse 43. Now this is a verse of scripture
that is one of those key Bible verses. It unlocks the whole
Word of God. To grasp it, to understand it,
to enter into its meaning. Look at it. Acts 10, verse 43. To him give all the prophets
witness. That's what it's all about. Moses
wrote of me. Abraham saw my day. Isaiah's
message is the gospel of Jesus Christ. To him, to Christ, give
all the prophets witness. that through his name whosoever
believeth in him should receive remission of sins. To him give
all the prophets witness." Not just Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
Paul, and James, but all the prophets. They give witness to
Christ. Our Lord said to the Pharisees,
You search the scriptures, and they did. They were students
of the scriptures. He said, You search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have life. You won't find life in
the scriptures, you find life in him about whom the scripture
is written, the living word of God. You search the scriptures,
in them you think you have life, but they are they which testify
of me. I am come that you might have
life and that you might have it more abundantly. Christ is
the theme. Christ is supreme. and sweeter
he glows, and glory he bestows, bright as the sun ever he glows."
Christ is the theme. He's the theme of the Word of
God, he's the theme of this universe, he's the theme of God's glory.
Christ Jesus. Consider Christ Jesus. Now then,
I have eight points in this message But I'm not going to keep you
a long time, I'm going to be brief. Usually if a preacher
says, I've got eight points, that's enough to frighten anybody
out of any more concentration. But I want you to listen to these.
These eight points are eight of the most important things
that we shall ever deal with from this pulpit. I'm going to
consider Christ Jesus And I want you to notice eight things. They're
important. Now, first of all, we're going
to consider the creating Christ. The creating Christ. In John
17, listen to Christ here in his priestly prayer. In John
chapter 17, this is the priestly prayer of Christ. This is our
Lord himself talking to his Father. John 17. In the garden of Gethsemane,
just before he went to the cross. And he says in John 17, 5, And
now, Father, and now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own
self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, that is, with the Father. And the
Word was God, equal with the Father. and all things were made
by him and without him was not anything made that was made.
Jesus Christ is the creator of all things. If you turn to the
book of Colossians chapter 1, now I know there are a lot of
people who have trouble with the Trinity. I don't have any
trouble with the Trinity because I don't, by natural wisdom and
fallible foolish understanding, try to dissect the Trinity or
understand the Trinity, by faith I accept the Trinity, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Throughout the Word, our Lord
Jesus Christ, in the four Gospels, talked about his Father. He said,
As my Father sent me, even so send I you. He said, I will pray
the Father, and he will send you another Comforter, who is
the Spirit of truth, and he shall take the things of thine and
show them to you. He said, Go ye into all the world,
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. At the baptism of the Lord Jesus
Christ, when he came up straightway out of the water, the Father
spoke from heaven. Christ didn't speak, the Father
spoke. And the Father said, This is
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And the Holy Spirit,
John said, I bear record that the Holy Spirit descended upon
him in the form of a dove. The Lord Jesus Christ was here
in the flesh, the Holy Spirit came upon him, and the Father
attested or witnessed to his deity and his glory, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And when God created man before
the worlds, Before the angels, before all things, back when
only God existed, he said, let us, plural, let us make man,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So don't wrestle with these things,
and don't be engulfed in error, and don't think you're giving
Christ glory when you talk about Jesus only. When you talk about
there is no Father, there is no Spirit, Jesus Christ is Father,
is Holy Spirit, is Son. No, that's not true, and I can't
explain it. I don't profess to have the ability
to explain it. I'm not God. God understands
me, but I don't understand God. I believe God. Now I see through
a glass dimly, darkly, but then I shall know even as I am known.
Now I know in part, and I prophesy in part. I preach what I understand. I preach what God revealed. I
preach what I know, and that's all I can preach. The secret
things belong to God, the revealed things belong to us. God's given
us what he wants us to know. In order to understand God, I'd
have to be God. But I believe God, and I know
that the scripture teaches me that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
one in three and three in one. And it says here in Colossians
1, verse 16, And speaking of Christ, because
in the verses before it says in verse 14, we have redemption
through his blood, we have the forgiveness of sin, he is the
image of the invisible God, he's the firstborn of every creature,
and verse 16 says, by him were all things created that are in
heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible. the things we
see Christ made, the things we don't see. I don't see the angels,
they're here, but he made them. I don't see demon spirits, fallen
angels, but they're here, he made them. He's talking about
all things. I don't see the force of gravity,
it's here, he made it. I don't see the atoms, they're
here, he made them, visible and invisible, whether they be or
dominion. Satan has a dominion, but all
power is of God. He gave him his dominion. Or
principalities, or power, all things were created by him. And
you underscore the next three words, and for him. and for him. And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist. It says in Hebrews 1, God, who
at sundry times and in divers manners spake to us by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, by whom he
made the worlds. By whom he made the worlds. God the Father hath spoken to
us by the prophets, and he hath in these last days spoken to
us by his Son, and by his Son he made the worlds. Our Lord
created all things. He is the creating Christ. And
in the last chapter of this book, John said, Thou art worthy, O
Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for thou hast created
all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." Consider
the creating Christ. And then secondly, turn to Luke
2. Consider the cradle Christ, the
Christ of the cradle, Luke 2. This is an amazing, astounding
miracle. First of all, we've considered
the creating Christ, that heaven of heavens won't contain him.
That's what Solomon said. How much less this temple that
we're building? How can we contain Christ in
a building when the heavens of heavens won't contain him? The
earth is his footstool. But yet you think of this now.
Look at Luke 2, verse 11. "...unto you is born this day
in the city of a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this
shall be a sign unto you, ye shall find the babe, wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." God, who made all
things, God by whose power the world came into being, God who
hung the stars in space and put the moon and sun in place, God
in human flesh, God the Ancient of Days becomes an Infant of
Days? That's what's said. He who made man was made in the
likeness of men. He who created the angels was
made a little lower than the angels. He who said before, Abraham
was, I am, was born two thousand years after Abraham. He who was
David's Lord becomes David's son. He who was Abraham's Savior
and Sovereign becomes Abraham's seed. He who was rich infinitely
rich. The old black preacher said,
he doesn't need to put a brand upon the cattle, for they're
all his, the cattle of a thousand hills. He was rich, infinitely
rich in wisdom, in power, in possessions. He became poor,
the poorest of all. Christ was made flesh. He shall
find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger
cradle. That's the Ancient of Days. When
was Christ made flesh? Well, it says in Galatians 4,
He was made flesh in the fulness of time, in God's own time, in
the fulness of God's own time, when God purposed it. How was
He made flesh? born of a woman. That's right,
just like you were born. The midwife delivered him just
like you were delivered. Why was he made flesh? That he
might redeem those born under the law. That's why he was made
flesh. Thirdly, turn to Mark 1. I'm
going to be true to my promise. I'm going to move right along
because I want you to consider Christ Jesus. Mark chapter In
the first chapter of Mark, verse 32, I want you to consider the
healing Christ. Mark 1, verse 32. And it even,
that is, in the evening, when the sun did set, they brought
unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed
with devils. And all the city was gathered
together at the door, and he healed many that were sick of
different diseases, and cast out many devils, and suffered
not the devils to speak, because they knew him. Christ met blind
men and gave them sight. Christ met dumb men and made
them speak. Christ met crippled men and made
them walk. Christ met deaf men and made
them hear for the first time. Christ met crazy men and made
them sane. Christ met lepers and cleansed
them. Christ never met a human need
that he could not supply, and he never met a storm that he
could not calm. And I strongly resent these professional
religious hucksters who go up and down the country and have
healing services, who imply that we who do not
have that type of service do not believe in the healing power
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the same yesterday, today, and forever. There is absolutely
nothing that he cannot do. There are some things he will
not do, but there is nothing that he cannot do. And our Lord
has worked in different ways, in different dispensations. While
he was here on the earth, one of the sons that he was the Messiah
was his power to heal. For one day, John the Baptist,
being cast in prison, discouraged, despondent, sent some men to
Christ, and when they came to Christ, they said, John wants
to know if you are the Christ or should we look for another. And our Lord sent these men back
to John, and he said, You go back to John and you tell him
that the blind see and the deaf hear, and the lame walk and the
dead are raised. That's one of the That's one
of the proofs that I am the Messiah. For Nicodemus said no man could
do these miracles except God be with him. Now John the Baptist
did no miracle. And then when our Lord went back
to glory, he gave to the disciples these miracle powers as credentials. They had the Old Testament, but
they did not have the New Testament. They were the writers of the
New Testament. If you turn to the book of Hebrews, I'll show
you a scripture here that explains what I'm talking about in the
book of Hebrews. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave to
his disciples the power to heal. He gave them the power even to
raise the dead. And these miracles, these signs,
if you look at Hebrews 2 verse 4. Now verse 3 says, How shall
we escape? if we neglect so great salvation,
which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed
unto us by them that heard him." That's Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
James. God also bearing their witness. They had to have a witness that
they were of God. They had to have credentials
that they represented God. They had to have these signs
to prove to the people to whom they ministered that they were
of God. I don't need those signs. And neither does any true minister
of the gospel do that. We have the completed Word of
God. We have not only the Old Testament,
which is the New Testament concealed, but we have the New Testament,
which is the Old Testament revealed. We have God's Word complete.
We don't need proofs. We don't need signs. All we need is the word of God.
But God bearing their witness, how? With signs and wonders and
diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to
his will. Now that famous passage in Mark
16 is true. It's not true of me, it's not
true of you, it's true of the people to whom he spoke these
words, and of whom he spoke these words. He said in Mark 16, you
go into all the world and preach the gospel, Mark 16, verse 16,
he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth
not shall be damned. And these signs, my friends,
Tongues, the Bible says plainly, are not assigned to believers,
but to unbelievers. That's what it says. Tongues
are not assigned to a believer, but to an unbeliever. That's
why these signs were given. To convince men that Paul was
a servant of God. To convince men that John was
a servant of God. To convince men that Peter was
a servant of God. How are you convinced that I'm
the servant of God? Not by me raising dead people
or healing sick people. I may have a demon spirit and
do that. That's right. Moses cast down
his rod and it became a snake, and these false witch doctors
of Egypt did the same thing. Moses brought a miracle to pass,
they did the same thing. Don't you know that Satan has
power? It was Satan who afflicted Job. It was Satan who brought
the winds that destroyed the house that slew his sons. It
was Satan who sent the Sabeans and others down to take away
his cattle. God gave him permission to do it, but Satan did it. Don't
you know that Satan has the power to afflict you or to take away
the affliction? If the demon spirits can possess
you, they can leave you. If the demon spirits can throw
you into a fit, they can go away and you can stand up. If Satan
can bend your body and cripple it, he can also go away and straighten
it up. So I don't prove to you that
I'm a servant of God by coming here and saying, I never met
you before, I've never seen you before, we've never talked before,
but you've got a tumor. That's not proof. What is the
proof that I'm a servant of God? If I speak according to this
book. That's what it says, if they speak not according to the
scriptures, it's because there's no light in them. Now, James
and John and Peter and Paul and these other men have these signs,
and it says here in Mark 16, and these signs shall follow
them. In my name shall they cast out devils. They shall speak
with new tongues, language they never learned. take up serpents. Paul reached in the fire. You
remember, reached to get a piece of wood to put on the fire, and
one of those, I guess it was a coral snake or something latched
on to him, a viper, a poisonous reptile latched on to him. Paul
just shook him off into the fire. And everybody stood back and
waited on Paul to drop dead. He was supposed to drop dead
in about 30 seconds, but he didn't. And they said, it's no ordinary
man. And they listened to him. If
they drink any deadly thing and it hurt them, they lay hands
on the sick, they shall recover. Now then, we don't have these
miracles and don't need them. But, now don't you misunderstand
me, Christ still heals. And it says if you'll turn to
the book of James, he's the same, he's no different yesterday,
today and forever. If you'll turn to the book of
James, I'll show you something here in James chapter 5. Now
here's the way God deals with his people's sicknesses. It says,
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless
his holy name, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, and healeth
thy diseases. Healeth thy diseases. But now
here's the process, and here's the way to do it. In James 5,
verse 14, is any sick among you, let him go to a tent meeting
where some charlatan, some quack, some religious huckster, is dressed
in lace clothes, wearing diamond rings, driving a double air-conditioned
Cadillac, living in a fourteen-room mansion, is there passing washtubs,
taking up offerings and taking people by the head and shaking
them until they feel some kind of strange power. That's not
what it says. It says, If any sick among you,
let him call for the elders of the Church. and let them pray over him, anointing
him with oil in the name of the Lord. Well, man, do you believe
in that? I do that. Every time any sick
person calls for me or the elders of this Church, I keep a bottle
of oil in my desk. I believe the word of God, and
we anoint that person with oil. But they call for I'm not going
to buy a tent and a bunch of seats and run up and down this
country trying to find somebody that wants me to show off my
religion. They can call for the elders of the church like God's
word says, and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord in
the prayer of faith. Faith. I believe and you believe. I believe and you believe. Not
apart from the gospel, the prayer of faith. shall save the sick,
and the Lord raise him up, the healing Christ. For in the fourth place, I want
you to consider the Prophet Christ Jesus. I have people who come
to me and they say, Prove to me there's a God. Show me God. I can't do it. Put me in touch with God. I can't
do it. God to me. I can't do it. But I know who can. Christ can,
and Christ did. John Philip says, Show us the
Father, and he said, Philip, have I been so long time with
you and you don't know me? He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. Christ can show you God. I and
my Father are one. No man has seen the Father at
any time save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal
him. Preacher, what shall I do that
I might work the works of God? Christ answered that question.
He said, These are the works of God that you believe on him
whom God has sent. The works that I do are not my
works, but the works of him that sent me. The words that I speak
are not my words, but the words of him that sent me. Christ is
that prophet. Moses says, one of these days
God shall raise up a prophet from among you, from among the
brethren. Him you shall hear. And when
Christ came, the Heavenly Father said, This is my Son, hear ye
Him. My friend, not only consider
Christ Jesus, but become a student of Christ Jesus. become a disciple
of Christ Jesus, become a learner of Christ Jesus. Quit studying
men and start studying Christ. Quit following men and begin
to follow Christ. Quit putting your confidence
in the flesh and put it in Christ. Consider Christ Jesus. And then
in the fifth place, consider the despised Christ, the hated
Christ, the criticized Christ. Scripture says he was despised
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
They called him a blasphemer. They said, for a good work we
stone thee not, but for blasphemy. I had a friend one time, a preacher
friend, who got some kind of traffic ticket, I forgot what
kind it was, I forgot what he did, but he got some kind of
traffic ticket, and he was supposed to appear in court on a certain
date. He was pastor of First Baptist Church in a town in the
South. And he laid that thing down and forgot it. Well, they
sent word for him to, the court passed, you know, sent word for
him to come down, and he went down and appeared before the
judge. And the judge said, Reverend, I'm surprised at you. He said,
You realize I could find you for contempt of court. And the pastor looked at him
and said, Your Honor, there are a lot of things about me that
are not commendable. But I want you to believe with
all my heart I don't hold your court in contempt. That would
be one of the worst charges that you could possibly bring against
me, that I had contempt for the law. that I had contempt for
that very thing which I preach and which I believe. Authority. I don't believe me. And he said,
I almost cried. Hold your court in contempt. This is what they charged Christ
with. Contempt of God's court. They said, You're a blasphemer.
You're a blasphemer. They called him a wine-bibber.
They called him a glutton. They said, you keep bad company.
You run around with publicans and sinners. They charged him
with insanity. They said, you're beside yourself.
They called him a liar. They said, you bear witness of
yourself and your record's not true. They accused him of being
in league with Satan. Believe it, with Satan. They
said, you cast out devils by the power of the devil. They
assembled false witnesses against him and accused him of treason. There is no crime, there is no
accusation that they could think up that they did not bring against
Jesus Christ. Man of sorrows, what a name! For the Son of God who came ruined
sinners to reclaim, hallelujah, what a Savior! and scoffing rude,
in my place condemned he stood, and sealed my pardon with his
blood." Hallelujah, what a Savior! Luke 23, verse 33. I want you to consider in the
next place the crucified Christ. Now, right here, stay with me
a moment. In Luke 23, verse 33, it says, to the place which is called
Calvary, there they crucified him. They
crucified him. There's nobody here, nobody,
nobody in this country that can imagine what a cross meant 1900
years ago. Nobody can imagine what a cross
meant, death by crucifixion. Death by hanging, someone said,
was a merciful thing compared to the cross. Yea, even death
by stoning was a merciful act compared to death by crucifixion.
Death by crucifixion was a lingering death which took hours and hours
and hours, and yea, even sometimes days. It began back under in the soldier's
hall, where the victim was scourged. That's thirty-nine lashes across
the back with a leather whip, with stone and steel and glass
in the end of the leather prongs, or the leather lashes. Sometimes
when a victim was scourged, pieces of meat and flesh were thrown
all the way over against the opposite wall. You could see
the ribs sticking out. Then they took them out and either
tied them or nailed them to a cross and left them to hang there between
heaven and earth until they died. It was a shameful, suffering
death. And those are the two things
about the cross. Two horrible facts were present
every time a man was crucified. It was a shameful thing. And
it was a suffering thing. It says, he thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross, even. And despising the shame, he endured
the cross, the shame. In that cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, I see God's ultimate, infinite, everlasting immutable
love for sinners. Can you see it? God loves sinners. For God so loved that he gave
his Son. God so loved. Greater love hath
no man than this, than this, death by crucifixion. In the
cross I see God's hatred for sin. God spared not his own son,
spared him not the shame, spared him not the agony, spared him
not the suffering, spared him not the separation because of sin. I see the justice
of God satisfied. I see the debt of sin fully paid. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. He purchased for me an everlasting
inheritance by his death. There was a young lady back in
a foreign country years ago when, and I suppose there are places
today where people are forbidden to worship God according to the
scripture, but back years ago at this particular country it
was a prison offense to assemble and worship Jesus Christ. She
was on her way to the meeting where the people of God were
assembled. hiding for fear of the soldiers,
and a soldier stopped her on the street. And he said, Where
are you going? Well, she couldn't lie. She's
going to church. But she told him she's going
to church, she'd go to jail instead. So she said, My elder brother
died. And down at my friend's house,
they're having the reading of the will, and I'm going down
to see what he left me. And the soldier said, Well, I
hope you get a whole lot. Goodbye. Yes, sir, that's right. My elder brother, the Lord Jesus
Christ, has died, and this is the reading of the will. And
I'm sure pleased with what he left me. This last will and testament
His last will and testament. He left me, and considering the
seventh place, the risen Christ. The scripture says, you know,
when the woman came to the tomb that day, he died and he was buried, put in
that tomb, a borrowed tomb, a tomb in which a man had never lain.
And the woman came to the tomb that morning to anoint his body
or to pay respect, and the angels met And they said, Why are you
looking for the living among the dead? He's not here. He's not here. When Joseph died, the scripture
says, being 110 years old, they embalmed him and put him in a
coffin in Egypt, and his body is still there. After all these
years, it's still there. But when these women came to
the tomb seeking the crucified Christ, the angel said, he's
not here, he's risen. My friend Paul said, if Christ
be not risen, you yet in your sins. That's how important the
resurrection of Christ is. If Christ be not risen, there
is no resurrection of the dead. If Christ be not risen, Paul
continued, we're false witnesses of God. If Christ be not risen,
you and I are of all men what? Most miserable. But up from the
grave he arose with a mighty triumph over his foes. He arose
a victor over the dark domain, and he lives forever. with his
saints to reign. He arose. He arose. Hallelujah. He arose. And he said two things about
my resurrection. Number one, it is evident in
his resurrection that the Father has accepted his sacrifice. If
the Father had not been well pleased with his sacrifice, he
would never have raised him. And secondly, it is evident in
his resurrection that those who believe on him shall also be
raised. Because I live, ye shall live.
Everything I have is in Christ. I was chosen in him. God's patience
and longsuffering were given to me because of Christ. I died
in him, I was crucified in him, I obeyed the law in him, I was
buried, and when he arose, I arose. And today I'm seated with him,"
Paul said in Ephesians 1, in the heavenlies. Everything I
have is in Christ. Now, if it stops at the grave,
that's where I'll stop. But he didn't stop at the grave,
he arose. And that is the ultimate glory of the Christian religion. Someone was asking me last night
about the people who believed in and worshiped and followed
Buddha. Buddha's dead and you can visit his sepulchre. The
people who worship, follow, believe in Mohammed, he's dead, you can
go right to his sepulchre. The people who worship and follow
and believe in Confucius, he's dead, you can go to his sepulchre.
But Christ died, you can't go to his sepulchre. You're wasting
your time buying tickets to go to the Holy Land, to go over
and stand and gape at the sepulchre. He arose. He's not there. There's no power in those rocks,
and there's no power in that hole. The power is in Christ.
And if you have to go over to an unholy land to feel holy,
something's wrong with you. If you have to go over and stand
and look at relics and look at symbols and look at shrines to
feel the presence of God, you don't know the God of the Bible.
He says, Lo, I'm with you always. He's here. He's here. But this
world, you know what this world wants, and you're a human being
and I am too. I'd like to see the Lord, I sure
would. I'd like to touch something he
touched. give people something to hold,
something to hear, something to see, something to feel, something
to touch, and they become idolaters. That's the reason the Lord won't
leave us any relics. Old Hezekiah took that brazen
serpent that Moses lifted up, and he ground it to powder, and
he told the people, that's nothing but a piece of brass. He destroyed
There's no ark today for people to worship, and there's no cross
for people to worship, and there's no tomb for people to worship,
because God wouldn't let those things exist. He destroyed them,
because he knows you and me. We sit around and keep a lock
of hair from one of our children, worship it and hang on to it
and keep it in a scrapbook and all that sort of stuff, because
we worship relics, memories, living the past. We need to walk
with Christ right now, live in Christ right now, talk with Christ
right now. He's the risen Christ! And then
last of all, and I close, turn to Acts 1, verse 9. He's the coming Christ. Acts 1, verse 9. And when he
had spoken these things to his disciples while they beheld,
he was taken And a cloud received him out of their sight, and while
they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, the whole
two men in white apparel stood by them and said, Ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This saying, Jesus which is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye
have seen go into heaven." I'm not going to buy any farmhouse and organize a vigil to go out
and wait on the Lord. I don't know when he's coming,
and any man who says he knows when Christ is coming displays
himself as a fool. Scripture says, No man knoweth
the day nor the hour when the Son of Man cometh, no, not even
the angels. You call up Gabriel this morning
and ask him when the Lord is coming, he'd say, I don't know.
But the Father knows. And that day is set when the
last sheep is brought in, when the purpose of God is fulfilled,
when the Lamb's book of life is totally complete with every
redeemed child of God, he'll come. And I'll tell you this. And you don't know, and nobody
else knows, about the advents and events and tribulations and
all these things that are going to occur. Don't waste your time
arguing them. But one thing's true, the Lord's
coming. He's coming from heaven, that's what it says. He's coming
in the same way he went away. They stood and watched him go,
we'll watch him come. He's coming to this earth. And
when he comes, there's going to be a new heaven and a new
earth. When he comes, the dead in Christ are going to rise.
When he comes, there's going to be a new heaven and a new
earth. The old things are all, the old
heaven and the old earth shall pass away. But there's going
to be a new heaven. And the people of God shall reign
with him eternally. And those who do not know him
shall be eternally separated from him. And that's all you
need to know about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He may come today, he may come tomorrow, it may be 500 years
from now. I don't know, and you don't either.
But that's not going to make me love him any less because
he's not coming for 500 years. That's not going to make me any
less enthusiastic for his word and for himself and for his glory. If he doesn't come for 500 years,
that'll be all right, too. But if he comes tomorrow, that'll
be all right. But he's coming back. He's coming back. Oh, Satan is so deceitful and
so subtle. He takes the minds of men and
gets them sidetracked. Gets them playing with toys.
Gets them stacking blocks and knocking them down. Gets them
sidetracked and arguing on this issue and that issue and the
other issue. You see how we do these things?
Consider Christ Jesus. That's your goal. That's your
object of faith and study. That's the object of glory, Christ
Jesus. Our Father, bless the Word. How
grateful we are that Thou hast not left us to our own imagination,
and left us to the logic and traditions of natural wisdom,
but Thou hast given us Thy Word. Let us not be sidetracked. Turn
our eyes on Christ, set our affections on things above, where He is
seated at Thy right hand. Fill our hearts with those things
that are important, those things regarding our living Lord. Teach
us, make us willing students, humble students. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen.

Consider Christ Jesus

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Consider Christ Jesus

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