SPEAKER_00 2:18

It's good to be here today. It's good to see everyone. We um we're happy to be here. I I like that song right there, Brother Demont, because it it ends with that the people of God are are our best friends. And that's that's something that we should hold dear to. And uh just to let you know, I know that I talked to Brother Trey this morning. Uh he has a new hip. And so ask you to keep him in your prayers. And he said that he would love to be here today. Anyways, uh what's on my mind today is uh it's been on my mind all week. Uh we've in my life, Brother Ron, I've I've stood by beds of people that pass away. And uh if we didn't have hope, and we didn't have uh the understanding that God is real, and God is on his throne in heaven. Uh if someone passes away, we don't have that hope, uh, then we're of men most miserable. But we have that hope. That's the good news today. We have that hope. And and uh I've come close, maybe not as close as I thought I was, I guess, to that maybe I wouldn't wake up from surgery. But I had a hope that I would wake up, and I did. But the thing is, is that death goes further than just here. When when we go to a funeral, we see the person that we love so very dearly in the casket, and and and oh, we're gonna miss them and we're gonna love them, and and we remember people of old that has passed away, that that we remember, and we we if we didn't have that hope, what a miserable funeral that would be, Brother Brian, to not have hope that there's somewhere better today. Psalms 116 says this. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. It's a precious thing for the Lord for someone to pass away. As uh the Lord talked to Job over there, he told Job a bunch of things about what he didn't really know. And where was you, Job, when I created the world? And he talked about the snowflake that he the Lord sees in the snowflake, and and in death, the Lord sees uh, we see death on this side, but but the Lord can see on the other side, and that's that's where they're at, my friend. That's that's the good news about the the gospel of Jesus Christ is that that when death occurs, that it doesn't stop right there. And I'm I'm so very thankful that we believe that in our in our life. As a primitive Baptist, I'm thankful that that we believe uh that there's something else out there further than what we have here today. Thinking about the the greater scheme of all that we believe, if it wasn't for Jesus passing away, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. What greater death to meditate on than Jesus? He was his saint. He was the saints of all saints. He passed away, my friends, just like we do. We die. The only difference in Jesus was he was able to give up the ghost and die. We can't do that. We can't just give up the ghost and say, Lord take me and the Lord take him. We can't do that. But the Lord was special. Never a man spake like this man. This man was sinless, impeccable in all of his ways, and he died for us. It says in Luke chapter 23, talking about that great day. You know, the the world calls the day of all days the last day that we're gonna live, my friends. They call that doomsday, but we call it the day of all days when people are gonna raise from the grave. But listen to what he says right here. And the sun was darkened, and the veil was of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus, and when Jesus had uh cried with a loud voice and said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. He was justified to do that. We're the only one that my friends that'll ever live on this earth, ever in time, that can be able to say, Lord, I am worthy to die. I'm worthy to die. I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave up the ghost. He died. He died a death that accomplished more than all the Elect family of God when they died could achieve. He was impeccable in all of his ways. He died a death that took away the sins of all the Elect family of God, from Adam at the very beginning all the way to the end of time. Jesus Christ died for our sins and paid the price. Precious, my friends. That's why in Isaiah, I believe, in Isaiah 53, it says that it pleased the Lord to bruise him. My friends, I want you to know if he didn't have the confidence and the love for Jesus Christ, knowing that Jesus was going to be able to pay for those sins, Brother Michael, it wouldn't have pleased him, but it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Why? Because God knew that Jesus was going to be victorious over grave sin and death, my friends, in all of his ways. I want you to know I'm thankful that Jesus gave up the ghost and died. They said, if thou be the Christ, you've saved others, save yourself and come down off of the cross. I want you to know, my friends, he couldn't do that. Why? Because he had to die. He had to die. I believe that's why when he was in the garden over there, my friends, and he was praying to God, and it says that he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. I want you to know Jesus knew. Why did he know that, Brother Brian? Because he was omniscient, omnipresent, and all-knowing of everything that was going to happen. I want you to know, my friends, Jesus could see in his life where he was headed to that cross. He was, he had to go and die on the cross. My friends, I want you to know that's why when Abraham took Isaac up on the mount over there and he said God will provide himself a sacrifice, Brother Ron Abraham, had the confidence that God was going to take care of him and Isaac. Why did he know that? He said, Me and the lad are going to come back down off of the mountain, my friends. And I want you to know, if you just read the New Testament, you'll say that Abraham sacrificed Isaac, because that's what the New Testament says, that Abraham sacrificed Isaac. But we know, my friends, that Jesus, that God, whenever Abraham, his was his hand was going down, they stayed that knife. My friends, and I want you to know that when he did that, he looked over and he saw a ram stuck in a thicket, didn't he? I want you to know that, my friends, that was Jesus Christ. We were Isaac in that picture. We were justified to die, but I want you to know it wouldn't take away any sins. But that ram was a sacrifice. And Abraham, and Abraham took that ram and sacrificed that ram instead. But you know what? Jesus got on the cross, brother Ron, and he looked around, there wasn't a ram stuck in a thicket. He was the ram. He was the ram. Remember what John the Baptist said over there when he was baptizing, and Jesus walked up on the bank over there. It says John looked up and he saw Jesus walking toward him and he said, Behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God. Aren't you thankful, my friends, that God has a son that was perfect in all of his ways, without spot, without blemish. Old Pilate tried to find some fault with Jesus. He tried to find in every way something wrong with Jesus, but it just couldn't happen. He couldn't find anything wrong with him. Why? Because he was sinless. That's hard for us to imagine for someone to be sinless, but that's who Jesus was. He was sinless. Let's go over to Acts chapter 7. What a great story this is about John the Baptist. He's sorry, Stephen. I was in the wrong book, wasn't it? Stephen over there, he hit the high points of the gospel and he preached Jesus Christ and him crucified. But I want you to know, my friends, he saw something there that was far greater than anything man could have ever done to him. You know, he when he preached the gospel, it says that they were so mad at him that they gnashed on him with their teeth. Have you ever preached the gospel, you ministers out there, and someone wanted to gnash on you with their teeth? I've never been in that situation before, but I want you to know Stephen could have stopped right there and just didn't preach anymore, and they probably wouldn't have killed him. But he kept on, didn't he? He kept on preaching. John, uh, Acts chapter 7 says this. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfast into heaven and saw the glory of God, Jesus standing on the right hand of God. You know, I've thought about this text a lot and and in my few years of trying this to preach the gospel. Just this one text right here is something that gives me hope someday when that day may come. It's gonna come. I don't know when, but it's gonna come. That when I draw, and you draw your last breath. When you pass away, one of my good friends in Walksaichi, uh he walked with me at graduation. His name was Noel Kyre. He passed away the other day in his sleep. Just went to sleep one day, and same age as me. It's pretty close to home, doesn't it, Brother Brian? When people start passing away your age. But he went to sleep and he didn't wake up. I I just wonder when I do draw my last breath, whatever day that may be, that I'm able to look up into heaven and see Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Not Peter with a big book at the gate, me having to go up there and justify myself. You know, you hear something long enough in the world, people will start believing it. But that's not gospel. The gospel is that when someone passes away, wherever they may be in life, they'll look into heaven and see Jesus standing. Not sitting. However, you need Jesus, he's there. If you need Jesus to be the righteous God, the finisher of all things, then he's sitting at the right hand of God. If you need Jesus to be standing at the right hand of God, making intercessions for you, he's standing. At this point, he was standing for Stephen. And it says this standing at the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord. Just furious. It's amazing what the gospel will do in this world. You want people to leave you alone in the world? Start talking about the Lord. This guy at work, I used to work at Harris County, whenever we were standing around some people there, and he said, Watch this. He started talking about the Lord with me, and we looked up and they were all gone. They were all gone. He says, then and cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. This man Saul was, he says that he was the chief of sinners. Now, he might have been. He might have been as bad as it gets. I tell you what, we're we're pretty good at being bad too. So I think I think that's just a statement, is that I think we all could say that. Romans chapter 5 says, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. So we're all in God's eyes ungodly. So Paul was just stating that he was a sinner in all ways. It didn't bother him a bit for them to pick up stones. Matter of fact, he he found pleasure in them stoning Stephen. But listen to what it says. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. It's hard to understand how it could be precious to the Lord, but I want you to know, my friends, their sins have been paid for by the great Father Jesus Christ. And that's why it's precious to the Lord for the death of his saints. And it was precious for the Lord, for Stephen to be passed away here this day. He knelt down and cried with a loud voice. Here's grace, my friends, here's mercy that Stephen was fixing to show. Even in times of oppression, even in times of being stoned, he showed something there that was greater than everybody there could understand. It says, and they he says, and he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, lay not this sin to their charge. It takes grace for that, brother Brian, brother Ron, to be fixing to be stoned. And here he is showing the love of Jesus Christ. Lay this sin not to them. Just don't don't forgive them for it. I know why they're stoning me. I know why they're putting me to death because I'm crying aloud and spare not in preaching the gospel. Would we do that? Would we do that? Are we strong enough in our Christian walk in our belief in Jesus Christ to stand up and be accounted and people holding big old round potato rock, bull rock, whatever you want to call them, that's what we call them in it, Bobby. Bull rock, having them big old rocks, and you know that if you proclaim Jesus Christ as the Savior of all the Elect family of God, you preach predestination to these people, they'd be even madder about it. But I want you to know, my friends, that Stephen stood his ground and he didn't say anything else except lay this sin not to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. He fell asleep. What a time precious in the sight. You say, well, he was dead. That body was dead. That body died. But where did he go? That spirit went back to heaven where it came from. Just like that, I'll tell you what, that thief over there, Brother Ron, whenever he said, Father, remember me when you enter into your kingdom, he was a saint too, my friends. That man on that cross, he was a criminal. He had done many crimes, but I want you to know there was a change in that man on that cross there. He said, Father, when you enter into your kingdom, remember me. Just remember me. He wasn't asking for a whole lot, just remember me. But the Lord had far greater things for him. Precious in the sight of the Lord. For the dead. He says, Today, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. And then Jesus died. The man that he had confidence in that was gonna take him to heaven. I want you to know, my friends, Jesus died. How do you think we would have felt in that moment? Like those two men on the road of Mayus? We would have felt just like them. We would have said, Well, he said he was Jesus. He said he was the Savior. They said he was gonna save all. The family of God, but now he's dead. That's how we would have felt if we're truthful with ourselves. But I want you to know, my friends, when that thief died, when he drew, when that saint drew his last breath on that cross, I believe he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God, making intercessions for him, saying, Come on in. You're welcome. You're welcome. That's the only way he was. He wasn't baptized. He didn't join the church. He didn't do any of these things. But I'll tell you what, Jesus said, Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. What a great feeling that is to me to know that Jesus is our intercessor. He's the one that's going to bring us home someday. And we have hope in that. Whenever I preach a funeral, my boss from my old job at Harris County, she called me one day and she said, Would you preach my mom's funeral? Didn't ever meet the lady, didn't ever know her, who she was. I said, Yes. Why are you asking me to do this? She said, Well, the funeral home has a rental preacher. And he wants$500. How much do you charge? I said, Nothing. She said, What? Nothing. I don't charge anything. So I went and I preached her funeral. For me, it's not hard to preach someone's funeral. Because I have hope in Jesus Christ. And that's what I preached that day. I don't know that lady. She might have been the meanest woman in Houston. I don't know. But I'll tell you what, I knew I was on safe ground if I preached Jesus Christ and him crucified. And whenever she died, she saw him standing at the right hand of God. I want you to know it makes preaching a lot easier, Brother Brun, if we don't have to say, well, if you want Jesus, just accept him and come up to the front and give your heart to the Lord. I want you to know, my friends, if you know who Jesus is, you're already born again and you're already a child of God. That doesn't make you a child of God. So preaching the gospel that we preach, Brother Cody, is far easier than to preach something to say you have to do something in order to get something. Jesus Christ says, when you were dead in your trespasses and in your sins, I died for you anyways. I died for you anyways. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1 says this, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins. So we were dead, but through Jesus Christ, we're alive. We're alive. Remember what I read in Acts chapter 7? It says there was a young man there, and they all threw their coats over there at his feet. He changed Brother Michael. He was a different person. In 2 Timothy chapter 3 or chapter 4. He was a far different person than he was that day in Acts chapter 7. I just opened both of these waters. So they're both used. This man saw, he told King Agrippa that he found pleasure in killing people that proclaim Jesus Christ and him crucified. But here in 2 Timothy chapter 4, he's telling the young man Timothy, there's something far greater out there. And I just imagine, you know, when you're born again, when you're regenerated, you don't get just zapped with a pen and you forget everything that you've ever done in your life. Matter of fact, when you're born again and you're a child of God and the Lord opens your mind, it brings all those things that we did do in our past, Brother Ron. It brings them all to the forefront. And Paul, listen to what he says in the fourth chapter of 2 Timothy. I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead and his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word, begin season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. In other words, be ready to tell someone what you believe. Be ready to tell them about your Jesus, about your Jesus. We were pulling up to the church at Gough Coast the other day. And whenever we got on the ground there, Morgan looked up and she said, Look, Paw Paul, my church. I want you to know that. The whole car was excited when she said that. That's something good, my friends. It's not the church, but it's her church. That's what Paul's saying here. This is your gospel. Preach the word. Be in season and out of season. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. He's talking about us. Talking about us that if we're not careful and we're not, we don't keep the church exactly. That's why Brother Mike, being the pastor here, he's pretty stout on some things. Some things just can't come in here, Brother Mike. You're going to stand against that. He's a Mosley. I know, I know how he is. He's going to be strong on that. There's things that have come into our churches over the years, my friends, that the church and the ministers have had to stand against and say, we will not endure those things in the church. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it separates people. But the church is far more important than our personal feelings. But listen to what he says. They shall turn away their ears and shall, and shall be turned unto fables. We like to be entertained, don't we? We do that. We enjoy things in our life. But the gospel can't be an entertainment. The gospel has to be something more serious in our life. More serious. He says, but watch thou in all things. Endure afflictions. Do the work of the evangelists. Make foolproof of thy ministry. He's talking to everybody. He may be talking to Timothy about his ministry, but it affects us all. This Bible was written to us. It was written to us. Young, old, middle-aged, it doesn't matter. This is good for everybody. It's good for everybody. Now listen to him. For I am now ready to be offered. And the time of my departure is at hand. Precious in the sight of the Lord. Paul is a different man than he was over there. The gospel has become something to him that is great. He probably looks back with shame knowing that he stood there and just left them stone Stephen. Because now you read in the gospel, I can't turn to it right now, but it tells you some things that Paul went through. Left in the sea, stoned, whipped. If we saw Paul's back right now, it would be all scarred up from being whipped. But I'll tell you what, my friends, he learned to be a child of God. He learned to be a follower, an ambassador of Jesus Christ. He says, I have fought a good fight. I fought a good fight. We've all fought a good fight. Us older ones, Brother Cody, I say that now I'm 62. Us older ones, our fight has been something that we we've endured in our life. You young ones, you'll have battles in your life that you'll have to endure. When you get older, you get older, you'll look back and you'll say, you know what, that brother Jeff, he wasn't wrong. My battles, my battles are different than what he went through. Me and Brother Roby, we, we, Brother Stan, we, me and your battles, they're different than they were. We raised in different places and different situations, different battles. But I want you to know, my friends, we all have something in common. We all have something in common. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. That must be a good feeling, huh? To know that you've you've endured all these things. You was on that road. He he uh he tells about that about that um situation on the road of Maeus. Uh the road to my mind just went blank. Damascus. Thank you. Anyway, he he rehearses that story over and over about what a day that was, brighter than the noonday sun, that the Lord came and Saul saw, why persecutest thou me? And what did he say? Lord, what will thou have me to do? Immediately, immediately. Now he's come to the end of his road. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. If we all look up, we have the same faith. We have the same following in our life. Our faith, Brother Cody, is knit together. It binds together, and is closer, the closer we get, the more that it binds together. And I want you to know, my friends, that someday, I don't know what that day will be like, but I know that someday we're gonna see Jesus in all of his glory. I've thought about that a whole lot, about what that day is gonna look like when Jesus and God and the Holy Ghost, 1 Thessalonians says, and God Himself is gonna come down. The Trinity Godhead is gonna come together, my friends, in one and in all authority, and they're gonna be able to do something precious in the sight of the Lord, and God is the death of his saints. But I want you to know, my friends, it's gonna be a precious day when God comes back and gathers us all up and binds us up, Brother Brian, and we're all gonna be incorruptible and undefiled. We're gonna be glorified. I don't know what glorification feels like, but I know it probably feels pretty good to be glorified in his spirit, my friends. No more politics, no more sin, no more drama, no more problems. I want you to know, no more beatles, none of those things, but we're gonna be glorified with God. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, and the trumpet shall sound, and all the people over all the world is gonna hear that trumpet. What a trumpet that must be. How loud and how effective it's gonna be when he draws that trumpet, it says the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall raise incorruptible, and shall be made, and shall be changed. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. How fast is that? It's already done. I want you to know, my friends, all the elect family of God and the non-elect are gonna raise to. But they're gonna go their way. And the elect family of God is gonna look up, Brother Ron, and they're gonna see the God of all gods coming down. They're not gonna have to come back down and set up a kingdom. My friends, I want you to know we're gonna be up there with him. What did Job say in Job? He'll call and I'll answer. He'll call and I'll answer. Oh, what a day that's gonna be when we're all changed. So precious in the sight of God is the death of his saints, but it doesn't stop there. There's something far greater for us as people of God because we know that there's a heaven and there's a God up there reigning with all of his glory and all of his power. And he takes care of us every day. Oh, there's lots of things happening in this world today. But there's one thing that's always stood the test of time. I've done a little research on the Civil War. Whenever the Civil War was going on, there was great battles, being, people being dying on both sides, the north and the south. But you know what stayed steady? The church. The church. It stayed constant. Why? Because people went to church. People needed to go to church. Today we have church every Sunday. Back then they only had church once or twice a month. They look forward to it. For the run, we should look forward to go to church. Why? Because that's the place that God has given us, my friends, to give him all the praise and glory. To thank him every week that he's taken us through another week. Another week. We get to sing praises to God. We get to pray to God. We get to stand or sit and listen to someone preach the gospel. Preach the good news of God. That he came and he died. He's the great saint. Of that text right there in Psalms, that's Jesus. That was a precious death for us because it took away all the sins of all the elect of God. One time. Go to Hebrews and it'll tell you that he died one time, Brother Michael, and it took away sins forever and ever. Thank you for your kind attention. I hope the Lord's giving you something to think about and pray for one another.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

Certainly thankful to have that truth preached to us about that our deaths are precious because of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, that his death absolutely was precious in the eyes of God the Father because it wrought about his pleasure and his uh satisfaction of his law. We will soon be um, I guess it's next Sunday. I don't keep a good calendar, but I believe that uh we will recognize uh uh a holiday that I'm thankful this country still readily admits. Whether everybody understands the full ramifications of it or not, um when we celebrate Easter, we will be recognizing not that the Lord didn't stay dead, that our Lord that died on the cross, that as it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, now is the Lord risen indeed, and has become the first fruits of them that slept. For by man came death, by also man came the resurrection of the dead. We are going to be thankful, I trust we are thankful every day that we have a risen Savior. Now he couldn't have risen from the dead had he not died. Our salvation was wrought by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, but because he successfully defeated death, hell, and the grave, he rose from the dead, and we in him will rise too. And then one of my favorite verses that just cast away all fear of that end of time. When people, Brother Jeff mentioned that some are afraid of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you, we should not have any fear about that great day. That day is not going to be one of doom and gloom, but it's one of rejoicing and salvation and redemption because it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom. He's not coming down to set up a kingdom, he established a kingdom when he sat on his throne at the right hand of God, having risen from the dead, conquering all um, uh conquering and all his enemies, but he hasn't put them all down yet. In 1 Corinthians 15, it says that he must reign till he hath put down all enemies, and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. He has conquered it. The actual destruction of it is a what we're waiting for that. But he is seated at the throne. He's on a throne right now. That throne is visible inside Zion. We mentioned in Psalm 122 that uh within thy gates, it says, There are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of David. That's where Christ is seated right now. His kingdom exists right now in this world, and it is found in the hearts of every one of his children that he is born again. But it is visible in this world only in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a place where we can go in and be in the presence of our Lord and on his throne. And it's the place where we can feel the peace that comes from a conquering king set on his throne. It's a place where we can put aside everything else until that great day when he shall have delivered up. Notice the past tense of that. When the end comes, we're already gone. He's already delivered it up. Now there won't be anyone left behind. This idea of a left behind theory, we can leave that behind because when he has delivered, when the end comes, he will have delivered up the kingdom. And we will be gathered around the throne of God forevermore, rejoicing, body, soul, and spirit, in the victorious Savior, Jesus Christ. Forevermore. Well, it says, uh, so shall we ever be with the Lord. I tell you, that's why we can say, wherefore, comfort one another with these words. These are comforting words. When we have the death of a loved one, that we have to mourn and lay down in the grave, that that's not their final resting place. That is their temporary resting place until the Lord comes and he calls and they answer. And we are all gathered together, so shall we ever be with the Lord? Till then, till then, we have a place to go in. We have a place to see him on his throne. We have a place to feel the peace of Zion, to pray for one another, lift up one another, and encourage one another and comfort one another with these words. So as we uh dismiss from this service, we'll sing a hymn. We have opportunity to give our right hand of fellowship to Brother Jeff and to one another, to um show our love and appreciation for one another. We do that with a handshake. It's semi-formal. Well, we don't have any direct any directions for you. You you'll figure it out. Um, but this is an opportunity, though it's not the only opportunity. This is an opportunity if you wish to join with any church represented here by professing your faith or um either in baptism or with uh moving uh from another church of life, faith, and order, this is a great time to do it. It's not the only time to do it. Um, you can join with the church at any time you feel led by the Spirit to do so. But if you feel that desire, just let someone know, and you watch the way that the The church will just work around it. We'll make it hap- we'll make it happen. Okay? We'll stand and sing a hymn. Do we have a number? 115. If you'd like to stand, we'll sing number 115. And brother Owen, if you'll start that up.