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Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 676 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text -- Brother Thomas: Let's go to Psalms 89. This is a Psalm...beginning in verse 27...now this is the way God deals with sin. Verse 27 down through 36, "Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth." Who is His firstborn? -- Congregation: Christ. -- Brother Thomas: Christ, that's right. That's the firstborn. He refers to that in Hebrews chapter 1, where He said to him, "...Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee..." I believe He begot Him, don't you? ( congregational amens ). And then He refers to another...again, He says when He brings the firstborn into the world, He saith unto Him. So He was the firstborn. But, when He brought Him into the world, that's not where He begot Him. He was around a long time. In fact he...now, don't ask me where God put Him. I was thinking the other day about God and about the universe. Do you know how big this universe is? Yeah, it's pretty good size. ( laughter ). You know how long you could travel and never reach the end of it? Well you could travel longer than Methuselah lived. He lived about 969 years old, Methuselah. You could travel that long and never reach the outer edge of this universe. God made it all--made it all through His Son Jesus Christ. ( congregational amens ). Can you imagine that? He made it and He put it out here in space. This world is out here in the universe. It's just part of it and all the other stars and your planets, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, every one of 'em. They're all just hanging on nothing. Now you think you can do that, you try it. ( laughter ). That's God. He hangs it out here on nothing, and He says stay there. He even brings His host--heavenly host out, and He calls 'em by name. Then He says here, "My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him." That's with Christ. The thing is, we need to realize that the covenant that God has with Christ, the everlasting covenant, is ours too. ( congregational amens ). We partake of it in Christ. Verse 29, "His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven." We're His seed. We're Christ's seed. "If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgements; If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me." Now of course the greater David was Christ. We know that. And that's wonderful isn't it? ( congregational amens ). His seed...I do not expect His seed...that's why we need the Word of God. We don't need pleasing platitudes. We don't need philosophical sayings. We don't need some genius or some person who's noted for all of his wise sayings. What we need is the Word of God, and here it is. This is in 1st Peter chapter 1, verse 18, "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again..."--Now, listen to this--"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." ( congregational amens ). See the seed of Christ is incorruptible. It can't be corrupted. That's what it means. And He'll make that seed to endure forever. What can be any greater than that? Now I want to give you some scripture from Hebrews chapter 3, verse 7, "Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways." Now that's those who came out of Egypt with Moses, and they wandered around out there 40 years. They never went into the Promised Land. That's a type of what he's referring to right here, see? So verse 11 says, "So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Now the problem is not what you don't do, necessarily, but it's...they never entered into His rest. It's His rest and that's what He's concerned about. I don't believe there's any kind of life that we receive, except everlasting life. I don't believe it's piecemeal. You receive Christ, you receive His life--it's eternal life--one that'll never end. Not only that, you receive His advocacy. He becomes our advocate. You know what I mean? He stands at the right hand of the Majesty on high to intercede for you, and you, and you, and me. And it's not because you're a good boy or girl. It's because you need it. ( congregational amens ). He doesn't intercede for you because you're walking perfect. How many of you are perfect here? I'm afraid you're not perfect. That's why we need a Savior. ( congregational amens ). You know in the Old Testament they had a scapegoat and that goat...the sinner come and laid his hands on him, and then they turned him loose. He went out into the wilderness. And Jesus became our scapegoat. Our sins were placed upon Him. He who knew no sin, became sin for us, "...that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." He bore in His body our sins, your sins, my sins, "...on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes..."--we won't be healed, we--"...were healed." ( congregational amens ). God does not see you in the future tense as being healed at some date. He says you as being healed then! You can praise God for that. ( congregational praise ). You were healed! When He cried on that cross, "It is finished," and He gave up the ghost, our sins were paid for. ( congregational amens ). Now, even that old thief there that was on one side of Him...the other one on the other side, he said, Lord, if you be the Christ, the son of God, come off that cross, save yourself and save us. And this other thief, he had a different attitude. He said, he doesn't deserve that. We deserve what we're getting. Then he said, "...Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." And Jesus said, "...To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." ( congregational amens ). That day...and the very second, less than a second, that you leave this body, you go to be with Him. I sometimes can't wait, can't you? ( congregational amens ). And this is what the scripture means here in the 4th chapter of Hebrews. It says, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Now I'm gonna to say just a few things about some of this temptation. You know I don't have to do this, but I think it'd be good. Could He be tempted with the desire to make money and make that the god of his life? He could. Could He be tempted to serve His self, rather than the Father? He could. Could He be tempted with the opposite sex? Yes, He could. He was tempted in all points, like as we are. He could be tempted just like you can. So that's why you can go to Him, 'cause He understands what you're going through. He understands what you are going through, and what you have gone through and He's sympathetic towards you. So He can be touched with your infirmities. All of us are just about made out of the same pile of mud. We're made out of it. We're dust. Now getting back to this 'rest' here...that word is used because that's exactly what it is. It's when you reach the place in your quest, in your desire...and I want to say this. You're not gonna do that unless God works in you. In the 6th chapter of John, Jesus says, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him..." That means you can't come unless the Father draws you. Now if He quits drawing you, you're out. And yet, He says in that same chapter, "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." That's wonderful, too, isn't it? ( congregational amens ). There's no misses--God is faithful and He won't miss. "For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." Now let me say this. People, before Christ came, were saved by the same grace. They looked forward to the cross. And they were saved upon the merit of what Jesus did on that cross then just like we are today. We look back to the cross. They looked forward to it and we look back to it. But the same cross, the same sacrifice, paid for our sins or made an atonement for our sins. And the rest that He speaks of here is a result that comes as a result of your faith. And God gives you faith. Let me quote that scripture again. Paul says, "I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Every one of you that are saved, you're saved because you have Christ in you. ( congregational amens ). You're saved because Christ never leaves you. He never forsakes you. He's with you always. And the fact that He came in, when He comes in, He brings His rest! That's a witness. If you don't have that witness, well you need to seek Him. There's something wrong. That's what He brings. It's a direct result of Jesus Christ coming into your heart. That's why it says over here in the 4th chapter of Hebrews, "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." See? Just joining the church is nothing. That don't mean a thing. But, if you realize that Jesus Christ paid your sin debt, He died in your stead--they vicariously put your sins upon Him! Your sins! Your sins were placed upon Jesus! And when He went up that Golgotha's hill, they crowned Him with thorns. They beat Him over the head with a reed. They gave Him that cross and He went up Golgotha's hill. He was going up there to bear your sins in His body on that tree, and there died in your stead! And when He died, your sins were paid for. ( congregational amens ). And the result of that is peace! Rest comes into your heart...peace that passes all understanding. It's not a peace that this world can give. It don't have it. This world is a troubled world. "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." That's not so with us. But there's no rest to the wicked. That's why this world has to have so many gimmicks and so much things to entertain 'em. That's why they have to have dope. That's the very root cause of cigarettes, nicotine, alcohol, dope...all these things that men take. It stupefies their mind and puts 'em in a state where they don't know what they're doing. We don't want to be like that, 'cause He gives us a sound mind. Praise God! ( congregational praise ). And He'll teach you His way. He'll teach you His ways. You'll learn to walk with Him. All right, boys, come up here and let's sing a song. I'm gonna give an invitation. I don't know. I had thought about some of the things that Dean said here. I don't want you to come forward just to be coming forward. I have no desire for that. But, there's a lot of people here tonight. Some people can be shook up and they'll come up a dozen times. I don't want that. If you're not sure you're saved, I've did my best to show you that Jesus Christ paid your sin debt. ( congregational amens ). And you don't have to pay it, 'cause it's been paid for. But when you except Him as your Savior, then your sins are gone. Let's stand. Now while these boys sing over here, and in here, and here and over here, if there's a man, woman, boy or girl that's here tonight, are not sure...you shouldn't mind this, what is it to step out the aisle and come forward before these people, as a witness that you're not ashamed of Jesus Christ, and that you own Him, you acknowledge Him, you confess Him? If the trumpet was sounding...and that's what He says there in 1st Corinthians 15, "Behold...we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound..." And it's gonna sound. ( congregational amens ). It's gonna sound one of these days. It may be while you're living. I believe it will. I don't believe that I'll be dead before the Lord comes. And if He comes, you'd be glad to lift your hands to Him, wouldn't you? ( congregational amens ). What about doing it tonight? Everybody here tonight who wants Jesus Christ to take him with Him when He comes, you come forward down here. I want to pray for you. All right go ahead fellas. 
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