Bible Conference Wednesday PM (Day4)

I'm thankful he answers prayer.

Amen.

Ms.

Cindy, you okay?

Didn't hurt too bad.

All right.

Just making sure.

All right.

Well, it's good to have Brother Stewart with us tonight.

And some of y'all now are gonna ask her afterwards what was

going on.

But anyway, and Brother Stewart, we appreciate you and leading

the seminary, the North Seminary, and some students here

in the auditorium tonight, some members of our church.

And I appreciate him, Appreciate him as he studies the

Bible.

One of the things I love about Brother Stewart, and he said to me

years ago, he said, if I can.

If I can learn it, and what I've learned in 30 or 40 years, I

can put in a student in three or four years, how much further along

is the student?

And so I appreciate his willingness and his.

I appreciate his energy at his aged condition.

And God's just been so good.

And I again, appreciate your friendship.

Come on, preach to us.

All right.

Amen.

Acts Chapter one.

And I looked out the clock last night and it said a little bit

over eight.

I thought, oh, no, I had two more things to squeeze in.

My friendship of 40 years was on the line and whatever.

And he's still talking to me today.

So, you know, you're in somebody else's pulpit, somebody

else's flock.

Acts, chapter one.

Acts Chapter one.

We could talk forever.

This church is very special and it has studied so many gaps.

And you have such an investment in the seminary and you'll

have such great rewards.

This is the kind of church you want to be a member of because it's

doing so much.

And because you're a member, you have a part in it.

This is a classic New Testament church.

Here we are 2000 years later, and this is one of those churches

that's still on track.

And thank God, there's many others.

We don't want to get the Elijah syndrome.

I'm the only one.

God says no, I got a few other thousand out there.

But we need a whole lot more churches and whole lot churches like

this.

All right?

There are two areas that really don't get the attention they

should.

It's because what precedes them, what comes after it, is so

big.

And that's the barrel of Christ.

And then the Ascension.

What a life.

Christ lived 33 and a half years.

And John said, if everything was written down, that should be

written down, the world couldn't contain the books.

And by the way, there's more books being written now than there

ever was before.

And the world's not full yet.

I.

Speaking of age, I am now, old enough to know Brother Cox, I'm not

gonna get to read everything I wanted to read.

You know, I was at Victory.

I was doing a lot of writing, a lot of packaging and stuff and

whatever, and went out to the seminar.

I thought, man, I'm gonna really be able to write some books

now.

I don't write.

Cause I think I'm a great writer.

I just feel strongly some things gotta get out there and thank

God for other good men and other writers.

One of the reasons you train people in doctrine so they can read

what other people write.

If they don't write, you just overlook it and go on.

You want to get grounded so you can read stuff and sift out the

good and the bad.

Spurgeon talked about that, et cetera.

And you know what I've been doing?

I write curriculum, I write curriculum.

I write curriculum.

I write charts.

And so God's in charge.

I guess the world doesn't need my books.

But anyway, we need preachers.

We need properly trained priests and their wives.

And I tell the students all the time, as Brother Crawford was

saying, I want them to be way ahead of where I was when I graduated.

I want them a running start far beyond what I had.

I thank God for the many teachers I had.

One of them that really affected me from a distance and indirectly

was Art Wilson.

I heard Art Wilson preach certain things I had never heard

anybody else preach.

And then I went and checked it out.

He's right on the money.

Well, the life of Christ is fantastic.

And the death of Christ on the cross, that is the most dramatic

expression of God's wrath.

I think the second would have to be Noah's flood.

Now, Noah's flood will be replaced by the tribulation period

about the end times after the millennial kingdom, when God makes

a new heaven and a new earth and so forth.

But the Noah's flood was a big deal.

We've talked on that.

So you have the life of Christ, you have the death of Christ,

you have the burial of Christ, and you have the resurrection.

I mean, the death and the resurrection.

That burial gets squeezed out.

That burial is extremely important.

And once you realize it, you go from Genesis to Revelation.

It's all through the Bible.

One of the greatest illustrations of how important the

burial is is Jonah in the belly of the whale.

Now, I'm not going to go into details, but the whale couldn't keep

him.

He couldn't stay in the well.

Christ couldn't stay in the grave.

Christ is the one that compared himself to Jonah in the

well, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of

the whale, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth.

So you talk about drama.

The first submarine I've ever heard of is Jonas.

Well, well, it was.

Was it underneath the water is the water known as marine.

That's not original with me.

Okay.

And then you have the Resurrection.

Wow.

But then you have the Ascension.

And this is what we've been building for.

Okay?

The Ascension she's saying about prayer.

He ascended to intercede.

Okay.

He's our great high priest.

You just think you're sitting here tonight.

How many think you're actually sitting at Heritage Baptist Church

now?

How many think you're actually here?

None of you.

Okay.

Some of you don't know where you're at.

You just got off the highway at 8, 20 and whatever.

I don't want you to walk out on me.

So I'm going to clarify.

In a sense, you're not just here.

In a sense, you are.

You'll see what I'm talking about in a minute.

All right, Acts, chapter one.

You have your little pamphlet.

Okay.

If you don't have it, you can get it afterwards.

I'm going to email over here the rest of these little studies

and they'll have them available.

If you want all these, they can just print them out for you.

Alright.

On the back table, I brought some more of these supporting materials.

And this purple one because we're talking about mountains and

so forth.

This is five mountain men of the Old Testament.

Five mountain men in the New Testament.

Twelve mountain view words, definitions for like grace and mercy.

Twelve mountainous words, definitions for ransom, reconciliation,

justification.

Here are the 14 actual mountains.

There's more than this, but these are the primary mountains in

the Bible where God did amazing things on the mountains.

Okay, here's you know about these.

The 12 mountainous events of the Old Testament, foundations of

the world, fall of all Mankind and Adam, etc.

And 12 mountainous events in the New Testament.

Notice I didn't say creation.

That's okay.

But that's not enough.

These are doctrinal foundation of the world.

Amen.

All through the Bible, 24 mountain peak portions.

So if you want to do some more studying and so forth.

Those are back there.

They're not folded.

I thought if I let you fold them, they'd be more personal.

Okay, now the one you've got tonight, this little pamphlet could

have been the whole series, really.

The Ascension is that big, so if you look at the front, it kind

of gives you some Old Testament history.

Of Mount Olivet.

It says Mount Olives.

O I L.

That's a typo when you start using that fancy script.

And sometimes you can't see close enough.

My glasses are for seeing far away, not close enough close up.

And so I can take off and see fine here.

It's do you all still here.

Okay.

Anyway, so I'm sorry about that.

It's misspelled.

So open the pamphlet up, read that when you get home and kind of

get some background.

This mountain, the Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet, has got great

history.

And here's what this is talking about.

David had some wonderful experiences, and he had some great

times with God at the Mount of Olives.

And Christ is the greater David.

Of all the people that David had to deal with that turned against

him, all the people he had.

He had people like Ahithophel, others that turned against him.

Saul.

Saul was.

Saul was something.

But his son, Absalom, one of the places he fled was the Mount

of Olives.

David, in so many ways, previews the greater David.

Christ, the son of David in his humanity.

And so there's a lot of history.

Well, Christ spent a lot of times on the Mount of Olives.

Look at your pamphlet there.

It says, climbing the mountain.

It kind of starts with David there.

And so you can kind of get a feel.

And it says there a mountain of pity.

You go across the page, the third panel in that folder, and you

have some scriptures to look at.

This is stuff for you to study all your own, so you can start going

higher, so to speak.

And then you have a mountain of prophecy.

Matthew 24.

Christ gave a tremendous prophetic sermon.

We call it the Olivet discourse, the Mount of Olives.

He talked about the future tribulation period.

And it is an amazing sermon on prophecy.

And then you have a mountain of prayer.

What is right there with the Mount of Olives?

Gethsemane.

Man, what a night when Christ is there in the garden, and his disciples,

they finally come and arrest him.

That's the Mount of Olives.

It kind of parallels the tough times that David had there.

And then you have a mountain of positioning.

That's what we want to look at tonight.

A mountain of positioning.

And there's one more big involvement as we're going to see,

and we're going to try to squeeze that in.

So I will continue to talk very slow, and hopefully you can

follow me and not go to sleep.

One of the reasons I talk fast, it sounds like the building's

on fire.

And it kind of keeps people Awake.

Boy, that was some windstorm yesterday, wasn't it?

We walked out of here after church.

It was still blowing.

All right, so you're in Acts, chapter one, and you're in verses

one.

And.

And we're going to just kind of get right to this.

We're going to actually start a little earlier in this chapter.

Let's pray.

Father, we look to you tonight in a very special way.

And this subject is where Brother Crawford's going to be as

he goes through Joshua.

And he is going to bring this out in days ahead on so many different

levels.

And this is a very important topic.

So help me to choose my emphases properly.

I pray that you would take full control and we could get this

across and beyond human explanation and illustration.

May the Spirit of God do the main work.

And we pray these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

We're going to talk about the Ascension.

All right, so look at chapter number one, and look at verse one,

the former treatise have I made old Theophilus talking about

the Gospel of Luke.

Luke's the writer of Acts of all that Jesus began both to do and

teach until the day in which he was what?

Taken up.

Taken up.

He didn't go well, okay, I'm finished here.

I guess I'm going to go up there.

Taken up now as God, he didn't need to be taken up, but he's still

the God man.

In Mary's womb, he became the God man.

He lived 33 and a half years as the God man.

He died and was buried, and he rose from the dead as the God man.

He's a member of the human race, and yet he's still in the Godhead.

Two thousand years ago, he entered the human race.

He's the replacement, Adam.

The same way Adam got us in the mess is the same way Christ gets

us out of the mess.

Adam represented us in the Garden of Eden.

Christ represents us from the time of conception.

The Bible calls him the second and last Adam.

Okay.

By all the human race, coming from one man, it's only going to

take one man to get us out of this mess.

By one man's disobedience, many became sinners.

So by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Romans 5, 19.

It wasn't Eve that did it.

I tell you every year, it wasn't Eve that did it.

Your mother wouldn't do that to you.

It was your father.

If you want to blame your parents, go ahead.

Just go back far enough.

Everybody wants to blame their parents for their problems.

Well, go all the way back to Adam and Eve.

And you'll be on track.

Except Eve was deceived.

Okay?

Now it's really important because he still represents us.

He came as us to us, for us.

He is still a member of the human race.

A member of the human race was taken up.

Look around you.

These are humans here tonight.

Amen.

Where did Jesus get his genetics?

Got them from Mary.

Mary got hers all the way back to Adam.

Go back and look at it.

Why the virgin birth?

Because the sin nature and the fallen state comes to the Father.

Eve was taken out of Adam.

God set this up way ahead of time.

One of us.

You got a good pastor.

But you got another pastor that's better than him.

He trained him.

The Holy Spirit sent him here.

Acts 20:28.

Acts 20:28

And he has a burden to feed this guy.

When he was a teenager.

You know how we got such good friends?

I may want to talk all the time.

But he had nonstop questions.

We would go to Florida.

We would go to Ohio.

We would go out doing all kinds of things.

Then he got married and had to put food on the table.

But we still kept doing a few things.

One night we ate a restaurant almost empty.

I won't tell you about all that.

But anyway, all the way there, we're talking Bible all the way back.

We're talking Bible all the way there.

We're talking Bible all the way back.

Hungry like a sponge.

Amen.

The pastor of this church head over all things in this church.

He's at the right hand of the Father.

This is the church age.

It was his idea.

Even if you know about this, you're going to see some more things

tonight.

Because it's just so full.

Okay, so here we are.

Look at Acts, chapter one.

We're going through here.

Taken up after that.

He, through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles

whom he had chosen.

They took over as he went up.

They took over in the power of the Holy Spirit.

God the Father is prominent in the Old Testament.

You know about the Son, you know about the Spirit.

But God the Father's prominent in the New Testament.

Christ becomes prominent.

The Son of God because the Father sends the Son.

But when Christ grows up, the Father and son.

John 14 through 16.

The father and Son send the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit's here on behalf of Christ and here on behalf

of the Father.

That's how the triune God works.

The Holy Spirit is doing the same thing as far as leading and

guiding and directing.

He's.

I'll send you another comforter.

So Christ must have been a comforter.

And in Isaiah 40, God the Father's a comforter.

Aren't you glad we got a God of comfort, by the way, he primarily

comforts through this book.

Okay.

Just not sitting around and getting a warm feeling.

You get in the book and he'll comfort you.

And you'll know where to go in the psalms and stuff to get comfort.

So keep reading here and see what the Holy Spirit's doing.

Christ sent down the Holy Spirit.

First Peter, chapter 1, verses 10 through 12.

1 Peter 1:10–12

Acts, chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

John the Baptist prophesied what happened.

Jesus said, what happened.

Look what it says here.

Verse 3.

To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion, after his

death, by many infallible proofs.

If it doesn't say infallible, you got the wrong book.

It's not convincing.

Infallible means it can't be proved otherwise.

Convincing.

A magician could be convincing.

A magician?

I've seen magicians cut women in half with a saw.

Did they really?

No, but it was sure convincing.

The resurrection was more than convincing.

Infallible means it had to happen.

And the Greek word there, Tekmarion, means foolproof.

It means infallible.

It had to happen.

You know how much hangs on the resurrection?

Don't give me convincing.

Give me what the Word means.

Amen.

Infallible.

You all need to calm down, okay?

It's just a sermon, okay?

We'll be out of here in a few minutes.

Just calm down.

He gave all kinds of infallible proofs.

He stayed around for 40 days.

He taught them things they could not understand until after

he resurrected.

Because now they're in the New Testament.

The Holy Spirit is living inside them.

He breathed on them.

And now the resurrection Holy Spirit came inside them to live.

They're going to be filled in a few days.

The baptism is an outward side to Israel.

What was going on?

Look at this.

Speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God

and being assembled together with them, commanded them they should

not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,

saith he.

Which saith he, ye have heard of me.

For John, truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with

the Holy Ghost.

Watch this.

Not many days hence, when they therefore were come together, they

asked of Him, Lord.

They asked of him, saying, lord, wilt thou at this time restore

again the kingdom to Israel?

And Christ is going to basically say, well, yes, but there's

a church age here going on.

By the way, church day is about 2,000 years old.

I don't know how much Luck have we got?

I don't believe in setting dates, but we're getting.

We're close to where we were last year.

And he said unto them, it's not for you to know the times or

seasons which the Father put in his own power, but ye shall receive

power.

It says, after, not because of.

Please read that properly.

The baptism came first in Acts 2.

Then came the filling.

It's sequential.

Not because of the Holy Spirit coming on them.

The Holy Spirit coming on them.

They didn't give them power.

It was the Holy Spirit filling them.

Read Acts 2 carefully.

It's not for, you know, the season and power.

The Father's put in the seasons, times or seasons.

Verse 8.

But ye shall receive power after.

Not because of.

After that the Holy Ghost came upon you.

Because after that came the filling.

And ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and all Judea

and in Samaria and to most part of the earth.

That didn't happen until Christ ascended and.

And sent down the Holy Spirit.

He had to ascend.

And when he had spoken these things while they beheld, he's all

done.

He's been teaching for 40 days.

They're out there, the apostles, minus Judas.

And all of a sudden, he begins to go up.

He begins to ascend.

God is making it very obvious that they're seeing him, not a ghost.

He has a resurrected body.

You can touch him.

They touched him before and after the resurrection.

They handled him.

He's for real.

He's one of us in a resurrected body, a celestial body.

First Corinthians 15.

Okay, he starts going up.

Now, if you'll just take a second and think on this.

He wants to stand there.

All of a sudden he's gone.

Where'd he go?

I don't know.

I saw a flash that direction.

I think he went up.

No, God's making it very obvious.

Maybe more obvious than we realize.

Okay.

While they beheld, he was taken up.

There it is again, taken up.

And a cloud received him out of their sight.

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went

up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also

said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?

I mean, once he's up, once he's gone.

I mean, what do you keep looking for?

He's gone.

There's probably more going on than we have here.

This same Jesus.

Are you listening?

This same Jesus.

The same Jesus.

He's not going to come out of a forest in Europe.

He's not going to come out of A well in the Middle East.

He's not an imam.

He's going to come back the same.

He left and can I jump ahead in case the clock doesn't cooperate?

He's coming back to the very place he left from.

He's coming back to the Mount of Olives.

You got a picture of it right there.

Not of him coming back, the picture of the Mount of Olives.

Alright, I'll keep watching.

Shall so come in like manner as you've seen him go into heaven.

Now turn in your bibles to Psalm 47.

5.

Psalm 47 5.

Your pastor's had got some of this and stuff.

I've got some articles just to leave with him.

And so he can have this as he goes into Joshua and stuff.

And these are various things that we're giving you more information.

But we have a time to talk about tonight.

And so look at Psalm 47.

I've got men giving commentary on this that are very respected and

they will talk along these lines.

And so this is not just something that I dreamed up.

Okay, so look at Psalm 47.

Look at verse 5, Psalm 47, verse 5.

Psalms 47:5

And if you read the whole psalm, it gives a little bit more

of a fill.

But look what it says in verse 5 of Psalm 47.

God is gone up with a what?

How's Christ coming back with a shout at the Rapture, but especially

the second coming.

A shout.

God is gone up with a shout.

The Lord with the sound of a what is he not coming back with the

sound of a trumpet at the Rapture and the second coming seven

years later?

John Gill and others tell you this is talking about the Ascension.

Okay, well turn to these verses are in your notes here.

Go to Psalm 68.

Why are they standing there gazing?

Psalm 68.

Look at verse 17.

Sometimes the angels are described as fiery beings like seraphim

type creatures and very much that way.

And sometimes they're associated with chariots.

Verse 17.

The chariots of God are 20,000, even thousands of angels.

The Lord is among them.

As in Sinai, in the holy place, when God gave the law.

There were angels up there and Moses saw them.

The angels attended the giving of the law.

The Bible tells us in several places way back there where Moses

got the Ten Commandments.

Look at verse 18.

Thou has ascended on high.

By the way the Bible says no man's ascended up to heaven, but

Jesus Christ.

Thou hast ascended on high.

Thou hast led captivity captive.

Thou hast received gifts for man, yea, for rebellious also that

the Lord might dwell among them.

What's this talking about?

Paul in Ephesians chapter four quotes this passage.

He applies it to the Ascension in Ephesians chapter four.

He's talking to the church at Ephesus and he's telling when Christ

ascended, he set up special gifts.

One of them was the gift of a pastor.

The other is the gift of an evangelist.

There's all kinds of things listed in Ephesians chapter 4 about

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

God gifting Christians to serve him more effectively in a church

setting.

You were born with native skills and the Holy Spirit heightens

those.

Paul told Timothy to enhance, work on, improve those skills you

got.

That's what we're trying to do out the seminary.

A third of their education, I told you, is out there.

A third's here in this church and a third is on their own.

Amen.

A father, children and a husband.

Why?

Because someday you'll be teaching others about that and your

kids will be perfect examples.

See?

And you'll be able to, whatever.

Alright, so this is talking about the Ascension.

So why they stand there gazing if he's coming back the same way

he went away with a shout, the voice of an archangel and the angels

with him.

Now we have an idea why they may have been standing there gazing.

Now, I've told this story several times.

I'm going to tell it very quickly.

When you have your kids, you want to be a good father.

So you buy them toys you never got when you were a kid.

Now with your daughters, that's a little different.

You know, you buy them things, whatever.

And I didn't play with, I had three sisters.

I didn't play with girls toys.

Now there's some things girls and guys can play together, okay?

But I was always fascinated with those gas powered Cox cars.

Cox, is that, are they in your family?

Brother, Are you an inheritor?

Cox cars, you know, gas powered cars.

I thought, you know, a good dad would buy his son one of those

helicopters.

You remember the story, I bought my son that Cox powered helicopter.

And you have to tweak a little bit.

Didn't have any cables on it.

You started up and let it fly.

You went to a big park and you remember stories.

Somebody remember we went to a park, Veterans park in Arlington,

the biggest park we could find.

And you had to tweak a little bit.

You get it started.

I mean they're loud and Jonathan's probably about, I don't

know, 13 or so.

My wife could tell you how old he was, what he was wearing, what

day of the week it was, what we had for lunch.

But anyway, we're out there and it proved pretty good.

After a while, we had that thing tweaked and it would go up

and people started steadying around and watching it.

They were out there playing Frisbee golf and all kinds of stuff.

This helicopter's going up, it's going up and it comes floating

down.

We were so excited.

We were like those lepers that found that food in the Old Testament.

And we said to ourselves, this, this is not good to leave this

to ourselves.

I'm sure my wife and Hannah would love to see this.

I think Jerusha is still too young maybe.

I don't remember.

But anyway, we went home and we brought Hannah.

Jewish wasn't with us, was she?

She was in the mind of God still.

Okay, so John's a little younger than I remember.

So anyway, we're out there and that's why I was with him, you know,

make sure he was safe when he was playing with his helicopter.

And so we got them back.

And of course, I've got confidence that it's going to fly

pretty good.

And so I, you know, we get it all set up and my wife, she is on

pins and heels.

Oh, this is so exciting.

Thank you for bringing us out here.

You remember that.

Okay.

But anyway, and Hannah, okay, That's a family thing.

Okay.

We got there.

I couldn't contain myself.

I wanted them to see it.

And we started that thing up, and I'll tell you what, that thing

went up and it went up, then it went up and I couldn't see it.

Then Jonathan couldn't see it.

Nobody could see it.

You could still hear.

Was up there.

I'm going, what in the world?

And we're standing up there gazing.

Why stands ye gazing up into heaven?

I saw this big head come down and we're up there looking at it

and it cuts out, I thought.

Then it starts back up again.

If you think about those cock's eggs, I don't know how it

started back up.

My wife's right there.

She always is truthful.

And then we couldn't hear anymore.

So we're out in that big field and it's going to flow down.

We're looking like this.

We're watching all over for it.

Now, it's kind of a silly story, but something was going on.

If you hear a trumpet and you hear a shout and Christ is taken

up, that would get your attention.

Amen.

It was a big deal for one of us to go to heaven.

Amen.

Now, I've got several references there for you to look

at.

But I want you to go to Ephesians Chapter two.

Because here's the big deal.

Most of you know this passage.

Okay?

Huh?

It never came back.

We drove all over the neighborhood.

Thank you for asking.

Thank you.

We drove all over the neighborhood.

I got behind people's fences and looked at their trees and stuff.

And, I mean, I didn't want to get shot, but, I mean.

And you know, we did a few times.

We drove by there.

We drove.

I said, I'm going to find that helicopter.

And I finally realized, you know, there's probably a favorite

toy that God's got for us in heaven.

And that was such a wonderful family moment.

It flew way beyond we ever expected.

I wouldn't be surprised when we get to heaven.

God says, come here.

He's got a string on it.

God said, I just pulled it right on up here.

I don't know.

We never could find it.

It's one of those stories that you're glad your wife was with you

because people think I'm exaggerating.

I don't know what happened to that thing.

It was the strangest thing that ever happened.

I don't think the apostles walked away going, huh, that's pretty

cool.

I wish I would have my cell phone with me.

I would have gotten that.

They walked away and said, did you see what I saw?

Now I don't know for sure, but I know there are angels there.

And I know he just went up and he was gone.

There's very likely if he's going to come back in the clouds

with the angels.

The shouting of trumpet that may have been going on.

There's other passages, but I'm trying to tell you God got our

attention.

And it was from Mount Olivet.

It'd be more effective from a mountain than a valley.

He uses mountains all the time.

God is so excited about revealing himself to you.

God is.

So God put all this on for us.

Amen.

Think about that.

What a God.

He doesn't have a distant galaxy.

This is it, folks.

This is what he's doing.

He didn't become God, Martian and God, Venusian God, man.

He became an earthling.

He's coming back, too.

Now go to Ephesians, Chapter two.

I've got a few others that I can tell the stories, but I can't

tell them as quickly as these.

July, July 1969.

I was 10 years old, 10 and a half.

And I walked on the moon that night.

Don't leave.

Don't leave.

I'll explain.

But I walked to the Moon.

Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins circling the

moon.

That lunar thing came down.

And by the way, if you know the story, he had like 13 or 14 seconds

of fuel left.

They were a little bit off.

First time to land on the moon.

Neil Armstrong's piloting that lunar module.

And this is what Buzz Aldrin tells us.

And they're coming down.

There's craters there.

And he was bringing it in.

He said, if Neil Armstrong had not been such a good pilot, we would

have crashed.

He got them finally past these craters, and he brought it down with

13 and a half seconds of fuel left.

If it's not 13, it's real close.

15, 17.

Okay, so just very little.

They settled down, they got out.

What did Neil Armstrong say?

One small step for a man, one giant step for mankind.

You know what he's saying?

It's not just me here.

It's all those guys down there in Houston, the people who built

this rocket, the people who guided us here.

It's not just those guys.

I'm here on behalf of America.

I'm not just here on behalf of America.

I'm here on behalf of mankind.

Amen.

In a sense, what he was saying, you're up here with me.

Amen.

So I didn't literally walk on the moon, but I did representatively.

You get the picture?

I know somebody that went further than the moon.

I know somebody that left our solar system.

I know somebody left our galaxy.

I know the guy that made the galaxy.

Do you know him?

I know the guy that made the universe.

And though the universe can't contain him, he's outside the universe.

I know a man who went to the right hand of God.

God.

And there's a chair.

The Father's in one chair.

Ask Stephen.

Stephen saw Jesus standing on the Father's right hand.

Why do you think that's in the Book of Acts?

In Acts, chapter seven, Stephen is preaching.

Boy, did he preach a sermon.

And he's stoned to death.

And while he's dying, he sees Jesus standing at the Father's right

hand.

That tells me he ascended.

Start reading.

And look at these guys.

You know what Luke's key word was?

Those things, these things, those things, these things he keeps

telling you things that prove Christianity is true.

That's the key words in Luke.

And he is hammering the resurrection ascension.

I told you a couple days ago, we can't turn there tonight.

But go home and look at.

Don't do it now.

Don't do it now.

Acts 3, 17.

I'll do it If I want.

Okay, if you want to.

But Acts 3:17, it says, Talk about Jesus, whom the heavens must

Acts 3:17

receive.

He said, well, he's God, yes, but he's a member of the human race.

If you're saved tonight, he is your high priest.

He's my high priest.

He's there for us.

He came down here so we could go to be with him up there.

Now, look at Ephesians, chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Look at this passage.

Boy, I tell you what.

You open the Bible, where do you start and where do you stop?

Look at verse four.

But God, who is rich in mercy, not making you pay what you owe,

not requiring the payment that you're due.

Why?

Because Christ took the payment for you.

He paid it.

But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he

loved us.

See that word?

Loved us.

Put your name there.

Loved.

Put your name there.

Even when we were dead, separated from God, dead in sins,

hath quickened us together with Christ by grace.

Are you saved and hath raised us up together.

Wow.

There's a resurrection.

Whew.

When he's walking the streets of Jerusalem for 33 and a half years,

I was walking the streets of Jerusalem.

Amen.

In the womb, he represented me.

He represented you in the womb, he represented you for 33 and

a half years, keeping the law.

That's what we were talking about.

Sunday, when they put him on the cross, he was there for us.

Have you ever heard the song I saw one hanging on a tree in agony

and blood.

John Newton wrote that one.

He talks about how he's watching this guy being crucified

and he begins to realize he's up there for him.

And the whole countenance of Jesus changes when he's looking at

him.

He realizes that.

He realizes it's for him.

And once he realized it for him, he was ready to get saved.

Powerful.

Maybe in your hymnal, I saw one hanging on a tree.

And when they put him in the grave, I was in the grave.

And when he raised from the dead, I was raised from the dead.

It'd be neat if we had an ordinance.

If we had an ordinance that we could do in our churches that illustrate

that when James Stone got saved, it was just as though he was

on the cross.

Just as though he died this.

As though he was raised from the dead.

Wouldn't that be so if we had an ordinance like that?

We do.

It's called baptism.

It's a picture of the Gospel.

Amen.

What a picture.

But keep reading.

It doesn't stop at the resurrection.

Look what it says here.

Raised us up together and made us sit where?

In heavenly places.

In Christ Jesus.

I told you the other night, the reason you go to heaven when

you die, because you're already there.

That's your home.

Philippians says our conversation's in heaven.

You turn on the TV set tonight, you go home, you turn on

for just a few minutes just to make sure that Ukraine and Russia

are staying calm.

Okay?

I don't know, whatever.

You turn on for a minute and you see James Stone sitting beside

Donald Trump in the White House.

And they're laughing it up, they're shaking hands, they're having

a great time.

You go, wow, James, he knows Donald Trump.

And then the camera turns and Donald Trump says, I want you to

meet my good friend James Stone right here.

Alright?

Amen.

I want you to meet him.

You say, wow, he's on our church staff.

And he says, brother Stone's invited me to come visit his church.

Some of you may not come.

A lot of you want to be here.

I don't know.

Okay.

That is nothing compared to what I'm talking about.

Wow.

He sat down.

Amen.

There was no place for the priest to sit down in the temple

or the tabernacle because his work was never done.

But this man, after he'd offered one sacrifice for sins, sat

down and he got up for Stephen, but he stayed there.

Tonight, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, 10 years from

now, he's coming back.

Quickly, quickly.

Don't do it slowly.

We haven't got time.

Okay.

Brother Crawford gives me plenty of time.

I don't mean in any way to come across any other way.

Just kind of having fun with you.

It's better than telling a good three minute joke.

Okay, go to Zechariah, chapter 14.

Zechariah 14 · chapter mention

Now, we're just touching on that.

I gave you a bunch of passages here, and if you want to go back

and read those, it'll be more clear to you.

And your pastor's got several articles here, alright?

And it talks to you about why the ascension is so important.

Colossians 1, Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

And he knows this stuff he can share with you when he feels led

to do it in later sermons and messages.

That's kind of why we connected on this, because what your

theme is this year, and it starts in Genesis and it goes all

the way to Revelation, so he can address this.

Go to Zechariah, almost the last book of the Old Testament, when

Christ comes back.

Now, you think what I shared with you there was striking.

This is what R.

Wilson was sharing with me.

When he shared this, you know what I did?

I did the Berean thing.

I went and I got my concordance out and stuff and I started

checking this out, what he was saying.

But I started reading other guys just to make sure.

Zechariah, chapter 14.

Zechariah 14 · chapter mention

Look at your notes there.

I'm on the third panel down at the bottom.

The mountain of purification.

When Christ comes back.

Let's get the big picture.

The Rapture happens tonight.

I don't know when it's going to happen.

It may happen next month, who knows?

But when the Rapture happens, all the saved of the church are out

of here.

You won't even have time to think.

Did I hear a trumpet?

No, it'll be you're gone.

Graves open up.

We're out of here to be absent in the body, to be present with the

Lord.

And our loved ones are going to come back with us.

You're going to see your loved ones.

Amen.

What a time that's going to be.

By the way, we have 6,000 years record of Christ keeping his

word.

Let not your heart be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father's house there are many mansions.

I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may

be also.

And he goes on to say, if I told you it was going to happen,

it's going to happen.

Amen.

Wow, do we have a future man alive.

Alright, look at when he comes back, he's going to land on the Mount

of Olives.

Zechariah, chapter 12:14.

And it's going to split in half.

And a fountain of cleansing is going to be opened up.

What water's going to run down to the Dead Sea.

It won't be dead anymore.

It's going to open up in the bottom of it, the south part of it.

And that place is going to come to life.

And Israel's going to recognize him.

And boy, there's a whole lot going on.

He's going to still have the scars in his hands.

You ever heard of Stars and Stripes?

There's an old quartet song called Scars and Stripes.

After the resurrection he said, put your hand in my side where

they stuck that spear in.

See my hands, see my feet?

It's me.

Then he started eating to prove one of the proofs he was resurrected.

But before he lands on the Mount of Olives, he's going to tread

out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.

Now I called your attention to Zechariah 12.

Look at your notes.

And look at your wording here for the sake of time.

On the bottom of page three, that third panel.

Behold, the day of the Lord cometh.

I will gather all nations against Jerusalem.

The battle and the city shall be taken, and the house is rifled.

Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as

when he fought in the day of battle, Old Testament days.

His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives.

You got a picture on the front?

I've been there.

I've been on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem

on the east.

And the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward

the east and toward the west.

And there shall be a very great valley.

And half of the mountain shall be moved toward the north.

And the half of it shall be moved toward the south.

And it shall be in that day.

We're jumping through this passage that living waters.

By the way, who's a fountain of living waters?

Christ himself, as we told the warmth of the well.

That's what you see In John, chapter 7, verses 37 through 39,

John 7:37–39

when you got saved.

The Holy Spirit is like a well of water that comes inside of you.

An artesian well shall go out from Jerusalem.

Half of them toward the former sea, the Dead Sea, and half of them

toward the Hydro Sea, the Mediterranean Sea.

And the Lord shall be king over all the earth.

And that day there shall be one Lord, and His name, 1.

The waters continually springing up are an outward expression

of what the New Testament brings on inwardly in the person

of the Holy Spirit and the power and cleansing of the Holy Spirit's

ministry.

Titus says, we have the washing of regeneration with the

Word.

I mean, it's just amazing stuff going on here.

But here's what I want you to see, what I want you to think about.

If you go back a little bit in that section there and you'll look

those passages above about the Ascension.

Then you come down here.

Guess what goes on here.

And I did stick them in here somewhere.

Let me make sure where I put them.

I thought I put them in here.

I could have swore I put them in here.

Let me look real quick.

Well, I'm going to rework this one and send it to you.

Guess what's going on here?

They may be in there.

I'm just trying to hurry.

The Bible says in the Psalms, go to Psalm 60.

We'll just peek out there.

Go to Psalm 60.

I know it's in there, so why am I not seeing this?

Go to Psalm 60.

Yeah, it is.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, Just above there.

Okay.

The third panel, just above point two.

Camping on the mountain.

Go to Psalm 60.

Before he lands on the Mount of Olives.

There is a bunch of Jews hiding out in Petra, Mount Seir.

If you've ever been there, you'll see how it can happen.

I was there with a lot of other people.

I can tell you a lot of stories.

We had a man in there that didn't believe in the pre tribulational

rapture, believe the premillennial turn.

He was of another doctrinal persuasion, a Christian.

And he says, you know what, guys?

He's a pastor.

You walk around.

He says, being here and knowing what you pre millennialists

and pre tribulationists believe, it almost convinces me you

guys might be right.

You go down through this tunnel.

There's rocks on either side of you.

Brother Cox, you been there?

You go down through this thing.

Brother Crawford, you've been there, haven't you?

Do you go to Mount Seir and Stu Petra.

You go down through there and you can see the devil.

Revelation 13 tries to drown the remnant, and God sends them there

and protects them and feeds them with men.

In the last half of the tribulation, the Antichrist shows

who he really is.

He begins to declare war on Jerusalem and the Jews, and they're

going to face a holocaust like they've never seen before.

And they flee.

The believing remnant flees into this place called Petra Mount

Seir, and God hides them out there.

Revelation 13 is going to take care of them, feed them like manna.

And the song of Moses, Exodus 15 is all involved in this, is in

your Bible.

And Christ is protecting them there.

Okay?

When he comes back, he stops by there, gathers them up, he says,

look at Psalm 60.

Look what it says here.

Look at verse one.

O God, thou hast cast off.

Thou hast scattered us.

Thou hast been displeased.

O turn thyself to us again.

Thou hast made the earth to tremble.

Thou hast broken it, healed the breaches thereof, for it shaketh.

Thou hast showed thy people hard things.

Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment.

Thou hast given a better to them that fear thee, that it may

be displayed because of the tr Truth Selah, that thy beloved may

be delivered.

Say with thy right hand and hear me.

God has spoken in holiness.

I will rejoice.

I will divide Shechem and meet out the valley of Succoth.

Gilead is mine.

Manasseh is mine.

Ephraim also is the strength of my head.

Judah is my lawgiver.

Moab is my wash pot.

When you tread out grapes, what do you do?

You take your shoes off and you sit there and you walk around

in that vat and you walk and you walk and you're treading out

the grapes.

Revelation says the grapes of wrath are stored.

It's a word picture.

Now, you wash it before you get in there, and you wash them afterwards

because they're all stained and so forth.

Keep reading over Moab.

That's modern day Middle Jordan, Ammon, Moab and Edom.

And then it says, look what it says here.

Who will lead me into Edom?

Moab, my wash up over Edom.

Verse 8.

I will cast off my shoe.

Why do you take your shoes off?

To tread out the grapes of wrath.

Now, this is just one reference.

There's Psalm 108, okay?

And several others.

And when he ends up when he lands on the Mount of Olives, he's

already been in battle.

He's already judged and done some horrible things, and there's

blood on him.

Revelation has him coming in on a white horse.

It is dramatic.

He lands on the Mount of Olives, and the battle of Armageddon

begins.

And he destroys the Antichrist with the brightness of his coming.

It is amazing.

He ascended from the Mount of Olives, he's coming back from the

Mount of Olives.

There's no way that you can do this just without several sermons

and stuff and lay this out.

Go back and read these references in Isaiah.

We got time to peek at Isaiah 63.

Go there real quick.

Isaiah 63.

You know, you sit here and you try to describe this, and it's just

unfathomable.

You cannot totally grasp it.

Look at verse one of chapter 63.

Who is he that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah?

This is that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness

of his strength.

I that speak in righteous mighty to save.

Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel and thy garments like

him that treadeth in the wine fat.

This goes into Revelation, etc.

I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was

none with me.

For I will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury,

and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I

will stain all my remnants.

Several of the passages have it.

Man, it is an amazing battle that takes place.

All the nations of the world turn on him.

You say, what about America?

America will not be the America you know, right now, 30 seconds

after the Rapture, as soon as the Rapture takes place, there's

nobody left on the earth that's saved.

Now, people get saved during the Tribulation, but there's nobody

left.

The Antichrist comes in and sets up a false peace.

Look what's going on in the Middle east right now.

Donald Trump is sincere, and why shouldn't he work for peace?

I mean, why should they have worked out peace deals before?

They wouldn't have survived.

I don't know.

Does Abraham accord?

Who knows what's going to happen out of this?

He may be totally innocent and this thing may take off very well.

But then somebody will step into that.

Maybe after his presidency is over, somebody else comes in and

takes credit for more things.

I don't know.

But Israel is the size of Rhode island and every president

has to deal with it.

They're talking about, what are you going to do with Gaza.

You go back and read your Bible, and things have to change

over there for these prophets to be fulfilled.

And in your lifetime, things are happening right now over there

that haven't happened for 2,000 years.

They've been run out of their country.

They're back in their land.

They're a sovereign nation again.

You saw the 70th anniversary.

Jerusalem became their capital.

We are living on the threshold of things that are absolutely astounding.

This little lowly baby, this little lowly Jesus, he comes back.

Read about him on that white horse.

Chapter 19.

Wow.

And he's coming back to the Mount of Olives, and we're coming

back with him.

And he's going to accept the millennial kingdom.

There's more in these notes you can look at later.

And I want to close with this thought.

How long halter be too, to an opinion.

Wherever you can serve, do it.

Get involved.

Get active.

I don't know how much time we have left.

You know why you have a higher call?

Because God seated you in heavenly places.

I ask you to go home tonight and read Colossians 3:1 5.

Colossians 3:1

Go home and read Colossians 3:1 five.

Colossians 3:1

Set your affection on things above, not on the things of the earth.

When it says mortify the deeds of the body, it's not what you do.

You mortify them by putting God first and spiritual things first.

This is the church age.

This is exactly what you're supposed to be doing.

Praying to your high priest, witnessing being salt and light on

the job, studying and reading your Bible.

Amen.

Wouldn't it be great if this was one of the churches that was

on fire for God when the rapture took place.

Wow.

As your pastor comes one minute ahead of time, brother.