In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of using one's talents and fulfilling God's purpose in life. He warns that if one fails to do so, both God and Christ will be extremely disappointed. The consequences of not using one's talents are not only personal loss but also the loss of the people one was created to serve. The speaker also highlights the brevity of life and encourages the audience to make the most of their time on earth. He references the Bible verse about a new heaven and earth and shares personal childhood memories of the ocean. Overall, the sermon emphasizes the urgency of living a purposeful life and serving others.

I think we're in the 24th chapter of Matthew. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, bless the bed I lie upon. Alright, we left off last Sunday night at 14, Matthew 24, 14. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come. Now, would somebody like to tell me what the gospel of the kingdom is? It is literally allowing Christ to come in and be strictly the ruler. Emily is suggesting has an internal aspect which is the most important aspect. And then there's an external kingdom. How do we know that? You'll see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sit down in the kingdom and you yourselves cast out. So the external kingdom is a manifestation and the product of the internal kingdom. And the internal kingdom is God in Christ in the saints governing the nations. That's the internal kingdom of God. God in Christ in the saints governing the nations. And it will have an external form but that's the heart of it. Now, when John came preaching the kingdom of God is at hand and Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God is at hand and Paul was preaching the kingdom and Jesus gave parables about the kingdom. Do you think they were stressing the internal or the external? The kingdom of God is like a grain the internal kingdom. Okay? So it says this shall be preached in all the world. Now, what have we changed the gospel of the kingdom into? What have we changed it into? Going to heaven which is neither the internal kingdom nor the external kingdom. Neither one. Now, what passage of scripture do we use to point out that we're going to go to heaven when we die? Of course Paul was speaking about himself actually. We don't know if we all qualify or not. But actually the expression go to heaven does not appear in the New Testament. Not once. Now, why do you suppose that what was behind the change of the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom to the preaching of going to heaven? What do you suppose was behind that? And how does Jesus said this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God? So heaven, there's nothing in the New Testament that I know of to suggest that heaven has anything to do with eternal life. Yes? And by the way there is a heaven. Actually a better term for it probably would be paradise. Because when you get into the New Testament heaven is often heavens plural. Though it doesn't show up in the English translation. Because there are heavens which are spiritual planes and the highest heaven, the third heaven is the one we are interested in. But when Paul referred to it he referred to it as paradise. How such a one was caught up into paradise. And it's believed that heaven the word paradise is a Persian word it is believed somewhat obscure meaning garden. And of course that makes us think of Eden. So in our blood stream runs a memory of Eden the garden. That's why we like gardens. Freud was wrong on that one. The reason we like gardens is because that's in our blood stream because that's where we were created. And when we think of heaven what we think of is paradise. It's a garden like it was in the beginning. So we're not actually thinking so much about a place as an environment. Because the heavens are environments but we're not after the environment I mean heaven is a place. We're not after the place as much as we think we are because it's not like we picture. We don't have too much said about what heaven is like in the New Testament but we see seas of glass four headed creatures and not much else. Saints under the altar of God crying how long, how long before you avenge our blood. So much of what Don't let me forget to pray for you guys. You tore yourself away from your dog and got here so it's got a new pup. So to honor that we'll pray over it. Because they're going to be moving up to Point Mugu because John's in the Air Force. Okay. Navy. Navy Air Force. Okay. Sorry Chief and Commander Bill. The Navy's out of here. Okay. So we're not interested in the place because once we got there Satan much prefers the earth as we can tell from the book of Job. And what we want is that original paradise where everything was bliss and peaceful and God's presence was there and food was no problem. Lodging was no problem. There were no problems. And we remember that. You know the idea of paradise is nothing new to us. We were created in paradise and it's in our blood and we want to go back there and God put a firmament or a heaven to divide where we are from paradise. He moved paradise to a place invisible to us until he could establish his kingdom and his kingdom. The reason why we lost paradise was because there was no kingdom. There was no wall. There was no government. There was no rule of Christ within us. There was no rod of iron. There was no moral law. There was nothing and when you have those conditions you cannot hold paradise because sin will spring up and there is nothing to control it. And so we don't want to just get back into paradise. We had that and we lost it. What we want to do is get back into a situation that we can hold. Does that make sense to you? If we went back, if all the people in Christendom that are saved by grace were brought into paradise, they'd lose it because they have not, many of them come under the discipline of Jesus Christ. And so the important thing is not to go to paradise as much as we all want it and of course the older we get the more we want it but that's not the important thing. The important thing is to become so filled with Jesus Christ that we always do God's will. And when that happens to us we will always be in paradise and we can always hold paradise. Whereas the person who is dwelling in sin is always in hell and always will be in hell and grace will never change that. The purpose of grace is obviously, if you think about it is not to bring sin into paradise. That would be to destroy paradise. The purpose of grace is to change us into the moral image of Jesus Christ and finally into his bodily image so that we can rule with him the nations that God saves in a paradisiac environment. Does that make sense to you? Because see God is going to save nations you remember in Matthew 25 the sheep nations. It's not talking about the church that's talking about nations that were kind to Christ's brothers and God will save them and the kingdom you'll notice in Matthew 25 was prepared for them for the sheep nations. I don't know if you can find that in a hurry it's one chapter up about verse 35 to 40 somewhere in there. Enter into the kingdom prepared for you but who has the keys of the kingdom? Jesus who gave them to Peter. Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and I will give you the keys of the kingdom. So the kingdom and the authority and the power belong to Jesus Christ and his church and they will rule forever over all of God's creatures including the angels and the inhabitants of the earth. And then God will at the hands of the church restore paradise on the earth and maintain it. But our inheritance is secondarily paradise. Primarily it is yes, yes primarily it is no, secondarily it is the nations thirdly it is paradise primarily it is God. The inheritance of the priesthood always is God. And so God is our first inheritance. The nations are second in importance. Paradise is third. And we will have all of them But the nations will not have God to the same extent that we do because we are the royal priesthood like the sons of Aaron and therefore as God said to Aaron I am your inheritance and God is our inheritance and that is the best inheritance of all. So we see then the king will say to those on his right hand I notice in verse 32 all the nations will be gathered before him. Now the church is not part of those nations. That's the nations of the earth. Come you who are blessed by my father take your inheritance the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. And then you'll notice in verse 40 the king will reply I tell you the truth whatever you did to one of the least of these brothers of mine And where is the scripture that tells who Christ's brothers are? There are two main ones. Come on kids. One of them is Romans 8.28 and 29. You all know that by memory. For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God to the called according to his purpose for whom he did foreknow he also did predestine to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. That's not talking about the nations. That's talking about God's elect his Israel, his holy priesthood. If there were no nations over whom would we serve as priests? And whom would we govern? So until you understand the difference between God's elect, his Israel whether Jewish or Gentile matters not. For we are all one in Christ and we are the one seed of Abraham and the promise to Abraham is concerning the seed Jesus Christ and those who are his the promise to Abraham is come on in thy seed which is Christ and those who are of Christ Galatians 3 shall all the nations be blessed in thy seed which is Christ and those who belong to him shall the nations be blessed Can you see the difference between the seed and the nations? You can also see it in Romans 8.28 and 29 because God does not predestine people to be saved. God is willing that all should be saved. God predestines his priesthood those who are called to be the brothers of Jesus Christ. Now you'll see that same thing in Micah 5 verse 3 I believe that when she who prevails has brought forth then the remnant of his brothers shall return to the children of Israel. Then again you'll find in Hebrews the second chapter another main discussion of the brothers is he was made how does it go in Hebrews 2 10 and 11 in bringing many sons verse 11 both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family so Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers now that's the priesthood because we see in Hebrews chapter 3 therefore holy brothers therefore holy brothers that's Hebrews 3 verse 1 now when you get back to Hebrews 3 therefore holy brothers those are members of the royal priesthood the church, the saints the kingdom of God now back to Matthew 25 if you look at it in this light you see the nations being blessed provided they did what? well let's see what they did Matthew 25 let's see what they did the king will say to the nations on his right now it may not be nations there's a big hassle about the Greek term autous there and it could be from autous and I don't want to go into that but the point is it may actually be referring to individuals from the nations rather than nations now the Greek will permit that because of a funny way that autous is used in the Greek so it's possible that the lord is looking at all the nations and then gathering some out rather than a nation per se which answers a lot of questions without raising others that I know of except that God does bless nations God does bless nations he's going to bless our nation after he punishes it if I'm hearing correctly but that being as it may this is not referring to people becoming Christians you don't see them accepting Christ here doing the four steps of salvation what are they doing well let's see they are giving Christ something to eat they are giving Christ something to drink they are taking him in they are clothing him they are looking after him when he Christ is sick so much for if you have faith you'll never be sick that stunned Emily I don't think you ever thought of that did you I was sick and you looked after me I was in prison and you came to visit me do you see anything there about accepting Christ how many see anything there about accepting Christ that's what you get I know you have to work so you couldn't come huh no no they are not being believed in being baptized in water don't get it confused now this is only talking about charitable works toward whom the brothers of Jesus Christ see when you when we see scroll up a little bit or down as the case may be I want to go to about verse 45 I want to go where it says inasmuch as you did it to my brothers you did it to me 40 now Emily it wasn't Christ who was sick it was one of his brothers but he said when you did it to them you did it to me I was sick because they were sick so when his brothers are sick he's sick now when it says inasmuch whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine in the King James it sounds like a nominative of address I have to talk to you after Larry if you have a minute and Brian you've got to get something for your dad too it's important in the King James it sounds like a nominative of address listen inasmuch as you did it unto the least of these my brothers it sounds like he's calling the nations his brothers in the King James it sounds like that's a nominative of address if you said unto the least of these my brothers I'm speaking to you my brothers inasmuch as you did it to the least of these my brothers you did it to me but the NIV has it the way it's supposed to be it's not a nominative of address at all he's not calling the nations his brothers I'm going to see that rather he's talking about the nations doing good to his brothers such as Rahab did and it follows the scriptures you remember if you give a cup of cold water to a prophet you receive a prophet's reward it doesn't make you a prophet but you get a prophet's reward and whatever we do whatever the nations do to assist God's witnesses the brothers of the Lord Jesus Christ is the same as doing it to him and on that basis they will not be brought into the priesthood but they will be they will receive the kingdom which is the priesthood that's the kingdom prepared for them that will rule them and bless them and govern them and that is fulfilled in thy seed shall the nations of the earth be blessed now if you don't understand that you cannot possibly understand the kingdom of God it will be like today where there's no understanding of the kingdom of God there's only one group of saved people and that's the church and that's the kingdom and that's everybody and everybody else is in the lake of fire there are actually two groups of saved people two groups who do not go into punishment one is the church and one is the nations that inherit the kingdom that make sense to you? otherwise if the saints are a royal priesthood it would make no sense if there was no one to govern and serve as a priest you'd have no kingdom you'd just have a mess of everybody up in heaven playing harps, there'd be no sense to anything there'd be no sense to the long torturous ways in which God trains us and works on our worldliness works on the lust of our flesh works on our self will works on our trust and faith and courage and everything else. The reason for this is to bless the nations the kingdom prepared for you, for the nations you are the kingdom you're being dealt with night and day in order to serve those people properly Emily? There's a scripture in Revelation 1 verse 6 that says and he, speaking of Jesus you have made us to be a kingdom exactly right there we are the kingdom of God the rule of God the kingdom of God is God in Christ in the saints governing the nations, the saved nations the sheep nations simple as that that's the internal kingdom but the internal kingdom will have an external form and where do we see that in the Bible? Revelation 21 and 22 it's the new Jerusalem that's the kingdom of God that's the glorified Christian church let's take a look for a moment at Revelation 21 and you'll see it will all make perfect sense to you now whereas before it's kind of a muddle because if you don't keep the church and the nations apart in your mind, Revelation 21 and 22 won't make a great deal of sense yes, commander the definition you gave about the internal kingdom having a component of ruined nations I always external are really one because the external without the internal would be nothing and the internal without the external would not be visible or available or approachable to people they've got to have something to see, but the life of it and the rule of it and the holiness of it comes from the internal and each member of that kingdom is greater than the greatest of the prophets because none of the prophets had his inner transfigured by having Christ formed in him and then God and Christ inhabiting the Christ that's been formed in him they had nothing like that, they had the spirit of God as we tell it in the Psalms of David the spirit of God was in David but he was never born again he never had Christ formed in him, he probably does by now but he didn't at the time he wrote the Psalms yes it could rule the nations today if God brings you into a situation where say as a missionary where you're ministering to people who are not of the church now I don't know, we're in the church age and people that get saved today get saved to be brought into the church I'm not sure that there are people saved today who are not in the church, and this is brought out in Acts 2 where it says I don't know something about it it was added to them everyone that was saved or something like that so I wouldn't care to do that I actually think the distinction will come when Christ appears with his saints but we cannot rule the nations until first we are being ruled and that's why the word to the overcomer because there will be a lot of people in the church as I understand who will not be on the forefront of ruling it's kind of like today there's things that operate within the church and then there's the external testimony of the church which is we all have different gifts but these gifts are to minister to the body everything that we receive prophecy, teaching, everything is all to build up the body it's not for the world then, but the entire church is a light to the world the entire church is the light of the world once Christ calls you God gives you to Christ and he calls you out, you are no longer of the world you are, just as Jesus said, just as I am not of the world you are not of the world he says I do not pray for the world I pray for those whom you have given me because they belong to you then when he gets down in John 17, 21-23 he says that we all may be one in him that the world may believe so the purpose of bringing the church to the perfection that God insists on is for the benefit of the world and that's why we have the cart before the horse you know I don't want to say too much about this because people repeat it wrong and they misunderstand me and everything else, and they say you're against evangelism etc. and so on, ad nauseam but you know we've had, because I certainly am in favor of people getting saved and I've had good friends who are personal workers and evangelists and so we're not in any way taking away the need for evangelism ok, people by no means people have been saved under my ministry but my ministry is largely to the maturing saints but I've noticed in two major attacks on this church both of them have been people who have been saying we shouldn't be sitting here, we should be out getting people saved both of them and I was telling Audrey on the way down see that message is different from what I preach I don't preach that you should be out getting people saved I don't see that in the epistles it's traditional, it's nowhere in any epistles any of that flavor that you should be getting out the flavor is on your growth in holiness and the knowledge of the Lord and we have to go by the Bible we can't go by what we think is right or our traditions or anything else we have to go by the word and so the two attacks I was telling Audrey on the way down something clicked in my mind I think that Satan would far prefer that we spend our time thinking about going out and getting people saved than he would attending to the development of Christ in us and I'm going to tell you why I said thinking about going out and getting people saved because I've been in a lot of churches obviously in my half century of serving the Lord and I've heard minister after minister talk about going out and getting people saved but you notice what was evident they never did it themselves and they would vocalize this they would say we're not supposed to do that it's the sheep that reproduce sheep and I've noticed that the people who beat on me about that thing are not doing it themselves I've noticed that what it creates in the church is a feeling of guilt because only about 5% of the people have the grace and the calling as Emily has for example to actually do personal work and evangelize and the other 95% agree to it, believe it but they can't do it because they don't have the grace and the calling to do it so they sit there guilty and that's all I've seen come out of it is confusion it's not in the epistles and it doesn't work out in practice and I tried it when I was a very young Christian I told you the humorous anecdotes the things that happened to me is I tried to force myself to do something which was not God at all it was just me trying to be obedient and I've had some interesting experiences along that line pastors that sent me and Jack I had a friend named Jack out in Chula Vista to fasting for 3 or 4 days I never advocate young men fasting but we were young and we were fasting and we were famished and we were passing out tracks on Sunday afternoon in Chula Vista and everything and we passed the biggest restaurant in town and there was the pastor with all of his family I said, Jack, let's go get a piece of pie but you know that spirit has attacked me and attacked me and attacked me and attacked me and it's not God I haven't said too much about it because people, they love Brother Thompson doesn't believe in evangelism that's what they get out of it they don't do anything about it they just like to talk about Brother Thompson I have to be very careful what I say yes Larry last week in one of the classes they were laughing about how many people that they had gone up to and after a conversation found out that they were already sick and evangelists that were truly that and they're led of the spirit they don't go around testifying to everybody they move in the spirit they know the spirit of God so the rest of this, this proselyting thing really comes against a person who is teaching the saints and I believe the reason for that is Satan knows as long as he keeps us at the baby he wouldn't care if everybody in the world was safe as long as they were a spiritual baby because they make no threat to his kingdom you don't threaten Satan's kingdom until it's Jesus Christ working in you that's what scares Satan is that we'll quit our own works and allow Christ to work because he's terrified of Jesus Christ but as far as the programs of the church they mean nothing to Satan that's all tied into the heaven thing it would do God no good, the earth no good if everybody in the world went to heaven that is not going to do anything the job is to overcome sin that is the task before us and once that happens you automatically get paradise because paradise always follows righteousness so does eternal life everything depends on righteousness and when you don't have that you have nothing so the bible says nothing like going to the directions the bible says that God gave all these gifts for the building up of the saints into the stature of the fullness of Christ oh well I didn't mean to say that it'll get me in Dutch I'm sure but I couldn't help noticing coming down the attacks we've had have been this one thing but it has not been people who are fruitful in fact one fellow was really hot on this a couple years ago and he wanted to go out in the neighborhood here and knock on doors and get people saved I said tremendous, we'll back you up 100% back you up 100% his response was well I'm too busy to do it, you've got to do it I said stand here that's exactly what he said yep like the pastor in Chula Vista he's too hungry to fast and pass out tracks well help him Lord now when you see here the difference between you can see here, I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea now I was raised the front room of our house was windows on three sides when you looked out all you could see was ocean and guess where the kids spent all their time in the summer not in the winter, it was too cold but in the summer you could see the three masters schooners coming down from New London carrying, they told me I was never on one of those schooners but they told me they were carrying a wood pole from New London but I used to go out when I was a boy and row out and then I'd tie up to one of the oyster men and they'd take a rope and I'd crawl up there and ride around there and watch them dredge up the oysters and that's Indian, I can't imagine a world without a sea that's not very good to me so I take this to mean like it says in Revelation 13 that Antichrist came out of the sea and we know that's not out of the ocean that's talking about out of the mass of mankind so I think what God is saying here is that because his kingdom is ruling mankind there will be no more mass of people who do not have a portion of Christ who can be moved by a demagogue moved by the winds of ambitious people but everyone will be precious to God everyone will have a portion of Christ I think when the Lord said some 30, some 60, some 100 I'm just tossing this out I'm not going to make a new doctrine about this He meant the 30, those who have Christ 34 will be the nations 60 fold will be the church that never made it to the full ranks of overcoming and 100 fold will be those who represent the most holy place the tabernacle which represents the church was divided into the courtyard which I think represents the saved nations the holy place which I think represents the greater part of the church and then the smaller, most holy I think represents those that have pressed through to a 100 fold relationship with God, now I'm not going to make a big doctrine out of that, but I'll just put that out as it seems to fit the types I know Brother Clarty might be interested in that, alright so I think no longer any sea there will be no longer any mass of mankind I mean to picture an earth with no sea is just not for me but God knows, maybe make a plan especially for me if that's what it means alright, I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem see now the issue that we're talking about is what that city is alright, what do you think that city is? that city is the church, how do we know? it's described by verse 9, come I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb well we know the wife of the lamb is the church so that's what the external kingdom will look like that's how it will look on the outside, and the things that it mentions, the precious stones the foundation, the walls, the street of gold are all symbolic of the character formed in the internal kingdom we know that because in a city that large listen, that city is a cube, 1,500 miles on the side well, 1,500 miles deep, don't think too much about it that's what, two thirds of the way across the United States, 1,500 miles wide, well that's a big city, I mean that would take up a good part of the United States, but 1,500 miles high oh you're not talking about anything our planet could stand because our planet would lose its orbit with a weight of gold 1,500 miles high, I don't believe and the engineers might calculate that out but I don't believe, if you figure 1,500 miles high and even 1% of it is gold in the interest of seeing how much tonnage that is it would be very significant yes both symbolic and physical what God is actually saying is symbolic, it's obvious because it only mentions one street, the street is gold, well in a city that large obviously there's more than one street but there's only one way of Christ one divine way it's that kind of thing and it's interesting that all the precious stones that adorn, not the city the foundation of the wall, not even the wall, the foundation of the wall, has 12 foundations with this chrysoprase and lapis lazuli and amethyst and all the rest of these precious stones, all speak of character that is wrought in us some are red, some are yellow, some are brown speaking of the earth, that the earth we will always be human but it will be a transcendent humanity and so the brown shows up the blue of heaven shows up, the purple of Christ's majesty shows up, all these things are symbolic, well they'd be real I believe they will be, but see what is, the internal kingdom is what is important without that, you could have 10,000 golden cities, it wouldn't mean anything wouldn't mean a thing what's important about it is the people that everyone sees the face of God, doesn't need teaching because the end of the new covenant according to Hebrews 8 I believe it is, they shall not teach any man anymore because they shall all know me from the least to the greatest and they see the face of God whoa, and the throne of God is in them, and the river flows, the Holy Spirit is like a river where the nations can come and drink and the saints are trees of life see all this is symbolic now how much of it will be apparent to the eye I'm not here to say but I personally believe it will have a literal form I believe that, yes so the goal is as Jesus said, if you see me you see the Father, our goal is to say if you see me you see Jesus, yes and in another sense too, yes absolutely, and if you see us you see the city, because you remember in Revelation 3 12 it says I will write on him the name of the city of my God and again in Isaiah 61 it says the nations shall refer to them these are the priests of God and the nations will serve us, you see that also in Isaiah 60, the kingdom and nation that will not serve you will perish we will be priests of God, yes the scripture up here is verse 10, it says carry me away in the spirit of course we're seen in the spirit there will be people within the kingdom that will see in the spirit nations say let us beat our spears and our plowshares and our swords and our pruning hooks and we'll go up to Zion and he will teach us of his ways so there will be something they can see alright, now let's take a look at this I saw her coming down out of heaven prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband, evidently she's prepared by others whereas in the first form of the church in Revelation 19 she prepares herself but this is speaking of the entire church which according to my, as I see it the reason for the thousand year kingdom age is so the whole church can be ready for Christ and at the beginning there will only be a first roots, this first resurrection this holy priesthood that comes at the next coming of Jesus that has to be attained that's not just for everybody that's a member of the church that has to be attained like Paul says, I'm leaving everything that I may attain the resurrection from the dead so I say, have you ever wondered why the thousand year period, have you ever wondered about that why would the Lord come, then there would be a thousand years, and then the new Jerusalem why the thousand years have you ever wondered, because at the end of it there's another rebellion against God have you ever wondered why yes, I think because most Christians when they die are nowhere prepared for this kind of glory and I think that they will be prepared in the spirit realm and I think that's the main purpose, but otherwise what purpose is it why not just bring it all down when the Lord comes why put a thousand years in there and it really fits in the last chapter of the Song of Solomon where it says, speaking of the bride where it says we have a little sister and she's immature, she cannot bear fruit what do we do for her, well it says if she's at least a door we'll build on her a battlement of silver and if she's just a gate that swings in and out, we'll enclose her in planks of cedar and this is talking about the different levels of the church, and then the bride herself speaks and says, but I am I'm a wall, I'm all these things, and I found favor in his sight so there's scripture and also where Jesus said in Luke I'll walk the first day, and the second day, and the third day I will be perfected, and so I see that as two thousand years of the church age and then because of church, most Christians who die you think of the Christians of history you think of the dear Catholic saints who knew nothing except matins and vespers and couldn't even understand the mass and yet they loved God and they did what they were taught, there could be a lot of Christians that God has called, who are certainly not top flight overcomers they've never experienced that, but God wants them in his church, and they've got to be made ready, and I think that's why it says, instead of saying as it does in 19 she made herself ready, here it says she's prepared as a bride which when you're talking about a royal wedding ordinarily the bride is made ready by servants okay, but not the first groups, Revelation 19 they are clothed in their own righteous works maybe they better see that Revelation 19.8 because these are two different appearances of the bride, separated by a thousand years, this is the first appearance the bride has made herself ready do you see that? in a royal preparation the bride doesn't make herself ready this speaks of a more rugged group in fact this is the army of the Lord and then it tells you what that white raiment is that they wear on the horseback it's the stance for the righteous acts of the saints, their godly behavior that has come from Christ being formed in them that's their white raiment, and these are the ones as you see in verse 15, if you go on from here that follow Christ on the stallions of war, clothed in the white garment that they have attained by achieving righteousness through Jesus Christ, not just imputed righteousness but an actual moral change to where they have become new creatures now that resurrection there has to be attained, and it's attained, it's available to every Christian, we're not talking about super saints that dropped out of heaven, we're just talking about people like you and me that make a decision either I'm going to give everything or I'm going to fiddle and that's what Christians do, they hedge and they're afraid, and then they back out and then they enter in, and then they get impatient, and then they're filled with doubts and fears, and they fiddle around like this all their life and at the end of their life they don't know the difference between Noah's Ark and the Ark of the Covenant, they just haven't got it together with God and their attitude, well someday I'm going to do it, but let me tell you there's no salvation in the future that way, today is the day of salvation, because you don't know how long you're going to live, and God's not going to fool around with you, and you're not going to get another chance, so you don't think that because he's going to work on his pride for a thousand years that's not mean you can fiddle around and then it doesn't work that way, if you, if God calls you in this life, you know what's expected of you, and you do not do it, there'll never be another chance you have proven to be unworthy of the kingdom I don't say you'll go into the lake of fire, but they're not going to send out the pom-pom girls when you die, I'll tell you that, because you've wasted the Lord's talents and the end of that is the outer darkness and I don't know whether that's eternal or temporary or what it is, it's not the lake of fire apparently, but I don't want to be there do you? How many here want to be in the lake of fire? How many want to be in the outer darkness, seeing the light seeing the distance, the glory of God and the children playing around the Lamb and hear the wonderful music and see all the glory, and you can't go there, and that's what you get if you don't use your talent cool, way cool okay that's what we're about, Emily that's what we're about with our books and booklets and leaflets and audio tapes and videotapes and the internet and the daily essay and all the rest I know that, that's what I say that's what we're about yeah, thank God what is our essays up to now, Brian? about 42 oh good, I got it off the dime it was on 465 for a couple of months okay, but see that you have to multiply that by 3 because almost everybody that's talked to me, prints out the daily essay and passes it out to at least 2 people so you figure that's going out every morning 7 days a week and when you begin to multiply that out it gets phenomenal and we're up now to averaging about I'd say averaging around 120 on the internet hits a day sometimes that goes up to 200 or 220 but I'd say conservatively it would average 120 over the last couple of months and that's a day you're talking about over 3000 hits a month and some of these people are pastors and movers and this is not talking about the tapes that go out this is just the internet and the essays so we're working as hard as we can and preaching 3 times a week most of the churches in our division all except our church and one other have a Sunday night service the rest of them do not have Sunday night services so we're going as hard as we can go because I know, because the Lord spoke to me clearly I want my people to know and in that context when he said that it was that your resurrection will be affected by the way you live now sure and the Lord said I want my people to know that so if we all do our best a lot of the people in this church are working either proofreading or someone like Eddie, I don't know where he's ever gets the time from but he does so much and others in here, Mark Overton keeps the computers going and there's others in here Larry sends out stuff locally and abroad I know I'll miss people here because everyone Tim goes up there and works the thing up there and then Brian up there I guess half the church or more is actively involved in getting the word out here at least half the people that come to church are actively involved in one thing or another so as soon as somebody's been here long enough we know they're going to be steady and we've had a chance to kind of know about where they're going we think they're ready, we give them some kind of a task because we've got a big job going on here I mean most of the church has never heard of this stuff never heard of it so we've got a responsibility to who much is given and should much be required alright, so no they don't realize there's any attaining they think when Jesus comes everybody that's going to be saved will be raised and at the end of the thousand years they all go into the lake of fire that's what's taught, every one of them even though the bible doesn't teach that it says if your name was not found written in the book of life you go into the lake of fire in spite of that, they say, that's only a mock judgment, everybody will go into the lake of fire the evangelicals have doctrines that are absolutely against the scripture flat out against it unbelievable back to Revelation 21 verse 2 do I see a hand here is there a question? I don't want to run roughshod over God's dear saints I'll catch it if I do that alright there we go, right through Revelation alright now, what has come from heaven peoples what has come from heaven what does the scripture say has come from heaven what does it say has come from heaven nope, you don't got it yet you're right, but you're not giving me the answer I want you're all correct, but you're not giving me the answer I want that's the fact I'm going to have to tell you the dwelling of God the dwelling of God that's what the church is it's the dwelling place of God that's what we're being made God has no house what house will you build me that's in Isaiah 66 and in Acts 7 what house will you build me where's the place of my rest here you know John 14 that's it it's the dwelling place of God that's why see, if Christ were to be with us that would be one thing but because we are being made the house of God the demands on us are absolutely total there's not one aspect of our personality that goes unsupervised because this is the dwelling place of God God cannot live with the peoples on the earth that He has created because it doesn't work look at Sinai one big 4th of July great God dwelling with people on top of the mountain if anybody comes near here you get speared God loves people and so He came down in person tremendous success wasn't it they all stood in line to betray Him finally crucified Him God, they crucified God that's the success God has in living with people tremendous all the religious jealousy flares up just like it would today if He came down today the same thing would happen so, God wants to live among people He made them and He loves them so He's making a house and guess what? you're it! you're a living stone and once you're called to be a living stone in God's house you have no other calling that's it, that's it for you whatever you do, whether you fly airplanes or lay bricks is quite immaterial what is material is that you let God make you ready to serve people who haven't even been born yet and God knows them all every one of them in advance, He knows what they're going to need and you're being made in a specific way when you receive Christ and let Him be born in you, you become a new creation it's never been before and there never will be again you are totally unique once you and Jesus come together into one whole that's never been the like before and God can use you with certain kinds of people but you see if you don't permit God to make you bread for people even if you're not cast into the fire you go into eternity you're going to be a naked spirit no inheritance, nothing saved by fire, all rewards burned away and you are not going to be a happy camper when you look around and see the inheritance of people all that could have been yours and God gave it to someone else and believe me, there's scripture for that not only was the guy put in the outer darkness but they took it to his talent and gave it to another guy so when you don't fulfill God's purpose in your life God and Christ are extremely disappointed extremely disappointed they lose you lose and the people that you were created to serve lose, everybody loses and you've only got one chance and that's this life and I'm here to tell you it's brief you get older, boy it seems like yesterday and you're thinking about 40 years ago kind of telescopes on you life is brief I know when you're working it out I remember when I was 12 I never thought I'd get to be 18 it seemed like eternity trying to make 18 I just went down and got my driver's license and it seems like I just got the thing and it was 4 years ago really? when I get it again I'll be 79 that's a challenging thought peril on the highway now the dwelling place of God Stephen said by the Holy Spirit what house will you build me? this is it in my father's house there are many rooms this is it I'm going to prepare a place for you he went to the cross sprinkled his blood before the mercy seat in heaven he made a place for us to be a part of the house of God so he had to prepare God and he had to prepare us 2 Corinthians 5 talks about him preparing us for the house from heaven alright, now the dwelling of God is with whom? now comes the $64 question wake up, I'm not through yet who are the men? who are the men? we decided who the dwelling of God is who are the men? what I'm trying to show of course the saved nations what I'm trying to show you is that the church is one thing obviously when it says the dwelling of God is with men, he's not talking about men who are lost that's why we say saved nations or saved people and the earth will be full of them that's our inheritance that's Christ's inheritance we are co-heirs with him there's nothing worth inheriting except people you think what I would like when we die we'll be able to go to the stars we'll be able to see all these wonders oh lord, wonders you know how long that would interest you? certainly not more than 100 years and you'd be saying I'm sick of this you look at one planet you've seen them all I can swim around in the water like a fish and I'm sick of that I can fly through the air and I'm sick of that and I can eat without getting fat and I'm sick of that there was a poet that said something very significant all that interests man is man we get bemused with our computers and other things but the truth is the only thing worth inheriting is people yeah well anyway having been persecuted in that city we'll flee to another the dwelling of God is with men Emily has a question about that I don't see it it says only the pure of heart will see God I don't see him dwelling it's just go by what it says now if you look at what it says the bride is dwelling who is the dwelling place of God beyond all if you want to see if the bride is the dwelling place of God who is the bride? well it depends on what you mean by overcomer that can get traditional fast you've got to have a verse for what you mean now check out Brian are you up there? is beep up there? oh what a shame alright check out Ephesians 2 around verse 19 let's take a look at that well what you're saying Emily is that nobody gets any of the good stuff unless they have been a victorious Christian and they cannot live with God until they overcome they will live with God through the priesthood and the priesthood have overcome okay now we're on the same page alright now let's look at here now notice this, this is Ephesians 19 I just got through talking about the one new man of Jews and Gentiles made one through the cross now you are no longer foreigners and aliens, that means you are no longer held off from Judaism this is talking to Gentiles but we're now fellow citizens with God's people that's the Jews and members of God's household, that which was a Jewish household and now has Jews and Gentiles all eating matzo balls, alright now look built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, that's the Gentile Apostles and the Jewish Prophets with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building it's a building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord that is the church and in him you two are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit the dwelling that's alright I'll never say anything against overcoming God in whom God is dwelling do you see that? and so the efforts Andrew, I'll send this to you, you'll be pastoring some day, undoubtedly everything that's done in the church must in some way or another contribute to the preparation of the saints as the habitation of God and when that isn't taking place we're not on the track because God's purpose in His church is to create for Himself a place where He can live peaceably peaceably now you can't remember He says I stand at the door and knock if any man open the door I will come in to him and will dwell with him and I will dine with him and he with me now dining is the customary way of having fellowship with people and the point is the Lord is not coming in to us to drive us into service He's not coming in to us He could have said I will come in to him and together we will go out and break the yoke and I want to give you something to do like He says in the Song of Solomon the first chapter, go out and feed the kids but this is the message to Laodicea, the message to the end time, it's now first in the kingdom okay I will come in to him and will dine with him and he with me, that speaks of fellowship reminds us of the Song of Solomon chapter 2, He fed me at His banqueting table, His banner over me was love and so when you're eating you're not out working unless you're a type A personality and are heading toward a heart attack you're not eating and working at the same time I found that out the hard way you've got to take better care of your body than that, and when you eat you relax, you think happy thoughts and pleasantly converse with people, you're not in a frenzy and so Jesus did not say behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone open the door I will come in to him and drive him mercilessly He said I will dine with him and he with me, you know that is written to the church of Laodicea the church of the people, the church energized and directed by human talent the church of today let's get our gifts and go out and save all the poor and the needy of the world that's the church that Jesus addressed He said will you stop for one minute and listen to me and open up and we'll just eat together, quiet yourself down, I don't want to get indigestion now the Lord cannot find rest in you and me until through Him we have overcome our love of the world and our trust in the world for survival and security that's the basis of worldliness is looking to the world for survival and security the more stuff I have the more secure I am, the more likely to survive, that's why all this Y2K thing is worldly people who are making sure that they're going to survive and have security they're far more concerned about the condition of their stomach than they are their soul they're not worried about losing their soul it's losing security and survival in the world, is that right? oh man, the computers break up, what am I going to do? that's a sign of worldliness well, think about it, and don't judge your brother that causes God unrest see, how can He rest with a thing like that? every time the Dow goes up, you're happy and God is pleased every time it goes down, you're sorry and God is grieved in a nice way now, the next thing that God looks for is the animal drives in your personality which may be gross and bestial or they may be high-flying in the realm of Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms but they all add up to one thing, which is lust whether it's romantic and exotic or whether it's bestial, the bottom line is the brown girls, if you've read C.S. Lewis in the Pilgrim's Regress, the brown girls are always with you, but they take on many, many forms it's our animal lust as well as other passionate things like anger and out of that comes profanity fear and all kinds of things how can God find rest in that? He can't find rest in that so, that means we have to get through Jesus, we have to get those things under control and eventually out of us, if God's ever going to have a dwelling place in us, is that right? but the biggest problem is self-will, and that's the issue today, will you lay down your life for Jesus or not? see, you can go on and do all kinds of ministry and not lay down your life for Jesus it's on all the time that's why ministers fight with each other because they're not moving in the spirit of God, you can minister for your own glory, it's the easiest thing in the world it has more class than say digging a sewer line being a minister it's a minister and it can be nothing but big, fat flesh, so the self-will that thing in there, your right to be yourself to be in control, which is buzzed today, to be in control to govern your life, to go where you want to do what you want that is to die so what's left? Jesus that, you can't move past the Pentecostal experience into Tabernacles until you settle that question, is who is lord of your life? and it can't be monkey business I mean, you've got to get down before God, you've got to verbalize it and tell the Lord, you are the Lord whether I die or live it's up to you if I ever get what I want it's up to you my treasures are in heaven I'm a living dead man, I'm here Lord to do your will and nothing else and I mean it from your toenails because if there's anything you hold back you cannot overcome Satan he'll get you on that point he'll get a hold of that thing and play with it, and you'll go down it has to be a clean shot you have to turn your back on trusting in the world you're in it, but not of it you have to get the victory over every lust and passion in your flesh and soul because they kind of work together and they feel good but you've got to put them under your feet and you can, through the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is not the warm fuzzies he's very cold and he's not at all empathetic with human passions Jesus understands human passions but the Holy Spirit does not he is not what the church thinks he is he's a spirit that comes out from God and he's interested in righteousness and making you a part of the wife of the Lamb that's what he was sent to do was to prepare the bride for the Lamb and he has no patience with the flesh so you want to when you feel the warm passions come on you you know somebody holds up a dirty picture or something yell Jesus Jesus do that a few times see what happens it'll put the chill on the grapefruit I'm telling you it really will you wonder what happened to all your passions but it takes an absolute determination to serve Jesus now this is what Emily is talking about and my observation of church people is that at least in our soft American culture you don't find too many victorious saints in the average church you always it seems to me find some but not too many I don't know whether the challenge has never been presented or our culture is too soft or what the reason is but people get up to a Pentecostal level they speak in tongues, they prophesy, they love God they love to go to the aglow meetings and the full gospel of Christianity fellowship and everything but they stop there they just stop there and that's not what you call the overcomer now you may be overcoming each day to bring you up to that point but there's a point past that you have to accept Jesus as your personal Lord you have to get down and mean business and say Lord my life is over for me to live as Christ and to die as gain and you have to mean that literally to be magnified in my life whether by my life or my death and you have to mean that and that means everything goes career, vocation that doesn't mean you won't be like Daniel the third ruler of the kingdom or something that's up to God if he wants to curse you with politics or be chairman of the joint chiefs so you have one headache after another that's up to God yes John what happens is you take your place on the cross with Christ as a conscious act and it should happen in water baptism but it doesn't always do that it's kind of we all know that you can't be saved by kind of working at it we would never put up with that you can't slide into it and the same thing is true with reckoning yourself dead with Christ the same thing is true you can't glide into it what you have to do is to make that decision once and for all hard and every day then John God begins to make that a reality and he does that by bringing you through the sufferings of Christ so that you conform to his death now I know just saying that like that sounds very gloomy and nothing that any red blooded young person would be interested in at all so God does not start you off at some thing like you were entering a nunnery for example and you had to sleep on the cement floor you're taken out of your warm three bedroom home and suddenly brought into a nunnery he doesn't do that ordinarily he only gives you some simple thing to do each day as you get older and stronger God can give you sterner stuff but you're able to handle it and through all of this the joy level is kept constant it's a compensating thing something like a gyroscope on a compass no matter how the ship rocks there's always Isabel Kuhn talked about another 50 year old woman tramping through the jungles of North Vietnam South Vietnam and then she came back and it was very hard for her a middle aged woman like that and she came back to the mission compound where there were showers and everything and she said that the joy she had was the same in the jungle as it was in the mission compound because as the creature comforts came up the compensation of God came down so it was always level, no matter how hard it got, there was always such a compensation that she was trudging through these places, no showers no amenities of any kind but God's joy was so overwhelming so that's it so when I'm saying this about being conformed to his death don't get pictured something that you're going to be broken on the rack or something it's just the same as you've always lived the difference is you've told the Lord your first Lord your first, and then you have to seal that every day by praying and reading your Bible because other things will come up, our culture is extremely seductive and attractive with everything from computers to new vitamins and you name it, it'll come up in our culture, something to fascinate you and that's what you have to watch out for you'll be much better off in a primitive culture that's why it's hard for the rich to enter the kingdom too much seductive attractions but you can do it, but like Jesus said, with God all things are possible he said, a rich enters like a camel trying to go through the eye of a needle but with God it is possible they said, who can be saved? with God it is possible so God doesn't want your life to be gloomy doesn't want you to be in misery or picturing that you're some tortured ascetic he's only asking you to make a clean shot I had to do it with music your first Lord if I never play the piano again, you're first and he still is first, if I never played again it wouldn't bother me, and that's whisper but at one time it was a God see, when God gets a hold of these things and puts them under your feet whether it's the lust of your flesh or a boyfriend you shouldn't have, and you know you shouldn't have but oh God, I'll die let God have it, and six months from now you say, will I ever see him yeah, he does that he puts out the bonfires, but you've got to mean business with God you've got to tell him, Lord I'm yours, and tell him every day and then you work it out, okay let's stand hallelujah hallelujah praise the Lord we rejoice in Jesus because he always gives us joy he gives us joy in prison he gives us joy in paradise he gives us joy Jesus gives us joy on the cross he gives us joy and peace that the world knows nothing about Jesus gives us these things and he never fails hallelujah, and so we're always well off in him, no matter what the crisis is, he has it praise his name oh people, make a little Pentecostal noise, praise his name hallelujah glory to God or Nazarene noise, hallelujah I know when the Nazarenes, when they made noise, it was a long time ago but they used to, because blessed be your name oh, you are the one Lord, you are the one, oh hallelujah, Jesus Jesus because because blessed be your name Lord, blessed be your name Lord, oh God is great oh yes, he is the Lord he is the Lord of glory, hallelujah hallelujah, and every knee bows, and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, oh hallelujah Lord, oh hallelujah blessed is the Lord the Lord of glory out of the ivory palaces you come Lord, for your bride in raiment of needlework, oh hallelujah, so we forget our Father's house, we forget everything Lord, because you have called us to yourself, thank you Jesus, thank you Lord, thank you