The Highest Thought in the Universe | Our Eternal Destiny in Christ

I’ll start with Revelation 1:12. And I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the middle of the lampstands, one like a Son of Man clothed in a robe reaching to the feet. And across His breast was a golden girdle. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow, and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze when it was being caused to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was like the sun, shining in its strength.

This is the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t pay too much attention to the details. Get the impression a man is trying to explain something he saw. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as a man dead, and he laid his right hand upon me, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first, the last, the living one. I was dead; behold, I’m alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and Hades.” Praise the Lord.

Now, Colossians 3:11. In that passage, we saw the Lord Jesus Christ described. This verse doesn’t quite fit, but I’ll read it. A renewal in which there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free man. But Christ is all and in all. Christ is all…and in all. Christ is all, and all that is in all is Christ. All that is in you is Christ. He is in you all, and all that you are is Christ.

1 Corinthians 15. I’m going to read verses 21- 28. For since by a man death came, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead, which we know. For as in Adam all died, so also in Christ all are going to be made alive. But each in His own order…who is the first to rise from the grave? Christ. And after that those who are Christ’s at His coming. Praise the Lord. After that comes the end when He delivers the kingdom to God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and all power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For He hath put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says “all things are put in subjection, it is evident that He is…there is an exception of those who…All things are put in subjection to Jesus Christ, but it is obvious there’s one exception to that of Him who puts all things in subjection to Him. In other words, there’s one thing that will not be in subjection to Christ. Who is it? God the Father. And then all things are subject to Him. And then the Son Himself, He’ll turn around and also will be subjected to the one who subjected all things to Christ. And in that moment, God will be all in all.

Well, this is what I was going to say. That there was nothing but God, and He started writing His autobiography the other night for us, and He told us that He created the universe and then He became something, altering Himself greatly. He became a tree. Later, He became many things in the Old Testament. Then in the New Testament, God became a man, and after He became a man and lived His life as a man, He said, “I’m going to do it again…in you.”

Brothers and sisters, I would like to exhort you to let the Lord’s life live in you. I’m not saying to let Jesus Christ live so others may see Him in you. No. I say, brothers, that God lived His life out in a human form. God can live His life out in you. Dean, you never did get practical this week. Not one, not one time. You know, I just decided this week I wasn’t going to be practical. I was just going to talk about the Lord Jesus tonight. I want you to know that Jesus Christ can become practical to you. How Gene? Well, I can give you answers to that, but I want you to know that He lives with you. If you get up tomorrow morning and start exploring the Lord Jesus Christ, you’ll make some discoveries, get with some brothers and sisters, and make some more.

We got up this morning to meet. You don’t know what it’s like to sit down with somebody like them and just share the Lord a little bit. I’ll tell you, when you’re my age, it’s different when you’re 21, and that’s the way it ought to be. Find somebody to explore the Lord with. You’ll find out how the Lord can live His life out in you.

Now then, after the Lord had lived His life out successfully as a man, God said, “I’m going to kill Him. I’m going to allow Him the loss of all things. He’s going to suffer the loss of everything. I’m going to take Him to the cross.” And living by the Lord’s life always leads you to a bloody ordeal, a crucifixion. And don’t you forget that when it happens to you. Gene Edwards warned you in the latter part of August 1972 that you’re going to end up on a cross, and you’re not going to know whether the Lord’s going to resurrect you or not, and you’re going to suffer the loss of everything.

Jesus Christ went to the cross and died and took creation with Him, and He suffered the loss of even His kingdom. And the Lord said, “I’m going to do it again…in a people.” And He’s going to do it in us; He’s going to take us to a cross. He’s going to do it again. Now, brother, He did it so that he might raise Him from the grave, much more triumphant and far greater than He ever was, even in His life on this earth. We must believe the Lord resurrects us from the dead. And I am not talking about some future event when the Lord comes.

Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that two months from now, there are going to be things that are going to be thrown at you that are going to fall far, far, far below your feet because you have not run with foot soldiers. You have run with Arthur. You’ve been promoted. You are no longer children tossed about by every wind of doctrine. You have sailed the stormy sea; no longer children.

Well, after that He raised Him from the grave, and in the autobiography of God, God has got to say, “I was once God, but now I am even greater than God. I am God that died and rose again. I have taken my greatest enemy and put Him down, and now I’m going to do it again.” And brothers, I give you this guarantee. The Lord will raise you up. I’m going to live. It’s by the Lord’s mercy that I’m going to live. I’m going to live to see common people, faces in the crowd nobody would have ever bet two cents on, to become men who the world will say they have been with Jesus because they have died and risen again.