That's a scary introduction.
I recall being told of a meeting in America where the speaker was introduced very generously,
and the pedoration, the climax of the introduction was,
I want you to know that our speaker has made a million dollars out of oil in Texas.
Well, this, of course, got the attention of the audience,
and then the speaker stood up and said,
Well, thank you for that, sir, and I appreciate the spirit in which it was said,
but I do think one or two words of correction might be in order.
Firstly, it wasn't actually me. It was my brother.
And secondly, it wasn't in Texas. It was in Oklahoma.
Thirdly, it wasn't oil. It was cattle.
And fourthly, he didn't make a million. He lost a million.
And when I get that introduction, I kind of fear,
goodness, maybe at the end of it all, they'll say,
We've got the guy who lost a million.
But thank you, sir, for inviting me here,
and it's been a great, great privilege to be with you this morning.
Let me begin by asking,
and it's great to be in a church for the first time.
You simply don't know who the people are,
except that I do know Trey and Cinder,
and for a small fee, I'll tell you what I know about them.
But I don't know anything about the other people.
So let me ask you a very simple, basic, straightforward question.
Are you a Christian?
Please don't answer vocally.
Are you a Christian?
Now, I'm not asking,
Do you hope you're a Christian?
Do you think you're a Christian?
I'm trying to be a Christian.
I'm a Southern Baptist.
I come to First Baptist Pickens.
Don't blame you for doing that.
I'd come here if I lived in this neck of the woods.
But are you a Christian?
Do you have a credible testimony?
Could you come up here,
if your knees were tied together to stop them knocking,
and give a credible testimony
that the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior and Lord?
Now, if you are, I've got some wonderful news for you.
The best news you have ever heard.
News so wonderful that if you grasped,
hear the words carefully,
if you grasped everything that the message means,
you would have a job keeping your seat.
You would be at least metaphorically jumping up in the air with excitement.
Why do I say that?
Because I'm going to tell you the most wonderful thing you have ever heard
about your future home in heaven.
Now, you may have heard many sermons on heaven,
but you may never have heard this.
And I've called it, as I think you will have seen in the bulletin,
by way of a sermon title,
the five most amazing words in the entire Bible.
And Trey Lee was mumbling away some attempts at it yesterday,
but as he also had a 10-foot left to right downhill putt on spiked greens,
he wasn't getting close.
But either with the putt or with the suggestion,
the five most amazing words you have ever heard.
Now, if you're not a Christian,
then I have been praying that by the end of the service,
you will be saying,
that's what I want.
That's what I'm looking for.
If only that were true of me.
And I pray that there'll be a longing in your heart
that that would become true for you,
and that God will graciously meet the longing in your heart.
Turn with me to the first epistle of John.
Right towards the end of the New Testament,
for those unfamiliar with the Bible structure.
And we might just cheat and go to the very end of the letter
for just one text here.
Chapter 5 and verse 13 tells us why John wrote the letter.
I write these things to you who believe,
that is, who trust in the name of the Son of God,
so that you may know that you have eternal life.
So that's the purpose of him writing.
Now get to chapter 3 and the beginning of the chapter.
Look at verse 1.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us
that we should be called the children of God.
And the phrasing there in the English kind of obscures
the spirit of what was being said,
which is something along these lines.
What kind of love is this?
Now, we can express human love in amazing ways.
Imagine the reference now to being the children of God.
Imagine a family without children of their own,
and they adopt a child from a third world family,
a desperately needy child.
I had an email from a friend just the other day.
They've had three children of their own
and adopted 18 others from needy countries in the world.
Imagine the love that they have poured out upon those children,
taken them from their squalor,
and probably from being deprived of both parents killed in civil war
and in some other way.
Made them their own, taken them into their family,
poured out their resources upon them.
Difficult to imagine human giving love
being expressed in more ways than that.
And John says, yes, but what kind of love is this?
What kind of love is this that the Father has bestowed upon us
that we should be called the children of God?
And the difference, and why John is expressing it in this,
but look at the difference way,
is that the parents, these adopting parents,
had nothing against these 18 other children
from different needy countries.
They were neutral as far as they were concerned.
They simply, out of the fullness of their hearts,
had compassion on them and drew them into their family.
Here's the difference.
God had something against us.
It was while we were sinners that Christ died for us.
Our whole natures were corrupt and godless and vile
and had no time for God or for the things of God.
We were entirely opposed to Him.
We were, to give Paul's testimony in Ephesians 2,
we were by nature children of wrath,
which simply means we were by nature born under the wrath of God.
And that's how, left to ourselves,
we would have lived for the rest of our lives.
Imagine that.
We would have lived for the rest of our lives under the wrath of God.
So again, if you are not a Christian this morning,
maybe you think you're nearly one or you're close to one
or you're mixed with the right kind of people.
Let me tell you something unspeakably solemn,
but terribly true.
You are at this moment under the wrath of God.
When Jonathan Edwards preached this great sermon
on sinners in the hands of the angry God,
he said,
it's only of God's grace, I paraphrase him,
it's only of God's grace that this very moment,
the earth doesn't open up and you fall down into hell forever.
Now, my friend, that's where you are this morning,
if you're not a Christian.
So how great a love,
how amazing a love is this,
lavished on us that we should be called the children of God.
And not only does it say it once,
he says it a second time.
Look at the end of verse 1.
And that is what we are.
It's as if he says,
you may not believe this,
so I'm telling you again.
Oh, and look at the beginning of verse 3.
He says the same thing.
Let me read you the whole passage.
How great is it that the love of the Father has lavished on us
that we should be called children of God.
Secondly, and that is what we are.
And then the beginning of verse 2,
dear friends,
now we are the children of God.
If John had been speaking to them word by word
instead of writing to them,
I think he would have said,
as he might have seen frowns of unbelief on people's faces,
watch my lips.
Did you get it?
We are the children of God.
That's what we are.
We are the children of God.
Then something amazing happens to this apostle.
He becomes an agnostic.
It's gone awfully quiet in here.
He became an agnostic.
And here we are.
Look at it in verse 2.
Dear friends,
now we are the children of God,
and what we will be has not yet been made known.
In other words,
he is saying,
look,
what the entire eternal future of God's people is concerned,
the entire line-by-line future is concerned,
we don't know.
We haven't been told absolutely everything.
Of course,
he was writing in ignorance of the television evangelist
who said he'd been to heaven for 45 minutes
and had to work with God,
patted Jesus on the shoulder and come back,
and got it on his television program
and sold a million books.
So he didn't have the advantage of meeting this evangelist.
He said,
look,
there are things we simply don't know.
But his agnosticism lasts
for only the time that he's got to write those words,
because immediately he becomes absolutely certain,
and he says this,
but we know that when he appears,
we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
So here are the five most amazing words in the Bible.
We shall be like him.
We won't just be with him,
or before him,
or alongside him,
or in front of him.
We will be like him.
Now,
it's impossible for us,
in our finite states,
to grasp anything more than the outer fringes
of what all of this means,
but let's do the best we can
in the course of a service like this
by concentrating just on
what is being said here,
one word at a time.
And it may help us,
believe it or not,
to try to grasp it
if we begin at the end
and work toward the beginning.
There are just a few times when I preach
when I actually begin at the end of a sentence
and work toward the beginning.
Why I do that,
why that works,
I just don't know.
Freud would probably say
that I was dropped on my head as a child,
so I've got all things the wrong way around.
But as Freud was a fraud,
I wouldn't have believed a word he said anyway.
And so,
this is how we're going to do it.
We shall be like him,
like the Lord Jesus.
Now just think of his earthly life.
Think of it generally.
He was tempted in every way,
just as we are,
yet was without sin.
Think of the words that he spoke.
Everyone was amazed at the gracious words
that came from his lips.
Think of his meekness.
I am meek
and lowly of heart.
Think of his patience.
When they hurled insults at him,
he did not retaliate.
When he suffered,
he made no threats.
Think of his compassion.
Time and again,
he was moved with compassion.
Think of his humility.
humility.
I haven't come to be served,
but to serve.
Think of his faith.
He entrusted himself to him
who judges justly.
Think of his obedience.
My food is to do the will of him
who sent me
and to finish his work.
And yet,
when we've ransacked the Gospels
and the Epistles,
for example,
of his perfect character
during these 30-something years on earth,
we've only touched the surface
of what John is saying
because he is not speaking about,
he's not looking back
and speaking about the earthly Jesus.
He is speaking about Jesus
as he now is.
He's speaking about
his glorified humanity.
And amazing and staggering,
and this gets more amazing
and staggering
as it goes along,
Jesus is referring
to his glorified humanity.
And the clearest confirmation
we have of that
is in John 17,
the high priestly prayer,
where Jesus prays,
I have given them the glory
that you gave me.
Oh, not his eternal glory.
We don't become divine.
But all that Jesus did,
all the glory that was poured upon him,
he accepted,
not for his own benefit,
but for ours.
And that's the glory
that we will share with him
in heaven.
We are heirs of God
and co-heirs with Christ.
So we shall be like,
we shall be like him.
And then secondly,
we shall be like him.
You know,
when babies are born
into families,
there's always some
very interesting discussions
going on among family members.
Who does he look like?
Oh, I think he's got
his mother's nose
and his father's eyes
and his grandpa's cheekbones
and all that kind of stuff,
you know.
Well, it's a genetic certainty
because parents do pass on
their genes.
It's a genetic certainty
that the parents
will be represented
in the children.
They will bear some resemblance
even if it's not always
and strikingly apparent.
But the time is coming
or truthfully,
eternity is coming
when all Christians
who have ever lived
will be like him.
we shall be like him.
And we can certainly
flesh that out
in two ways.
First of all,
there will be a physical transformation.
Turn back with me,
but keep your finger in,
first John, there,
to Philippians chapter 3.
And in Philippians 3
and verses 20
and 21,
Paul says,
says,
our citizenship is in heaven.
And we eagerly await
a Savior from there,
the Lord Jesus Christ,
who by the power
that enables him
to bring everything
under his control,
will transform
our lowly bodies
so that they will be like
his glorious body.
Now, the bodies we have
are truly amazing.
C.S. Lewis once said,
you've never met
an ordinary person.
Our bodies,
our physical bodies
are truly amazing.
When you go into the details,
the more amazing they come.
In the psalmist's words,
we really are fearfully
and wonderfully made.
And yet,
as the result of the fall,
how feeble
and frail
and fragile
they have become.
Every atom of our bodies
is prone to
disease
and deterioration
and decay
and eventually
to death.
But not when
we see him.
we will be physically
transformed.
Our bodies,
and we really can't
totally get our heads
around this,
our bodies will be
identifiable
with our present bodies.
You'll be able to tell
the pastor from his wife.
Okay.
You'll be able to tell
the pastor from his,
you can do it now,
I hope,
and you'll be able to,
she's the good looking one.
And you'll be able
to tell the difference
in heaven.
So our bodies
will be identifiable
with our present bodies
but not identical
to them.
Because our present bodies,
presently constituted
and subject to the ravages
of the fall,
can't be in two places
at once
and are currently designed
and limited
by their humanness
and by their inability
to do a thousand
and one things.
But our heavenly bodies
will not be
so constricted.
They will be adapted
to live in eternity
and not merely
in time.
And just as
the body Jesus
now possesses
is no longer subject
to the limitations
of time and space,
so neither will ours be.
The perishable
will be clothed
with the imperishable
and the mortal
will put on
immortality.
Don't we all long
for that?
And I have news for you,
the longer you live,
the more you long
for that.
And especially those
who have reached
the metallic age
with gold in the hair
and silver in the teeth
and lead in the boots.
And when I said that
to somebody,
they said,
you've forgotten,
titanium in the hips.
And yeah,
I mean,
we long for all of that
to be over
and done with.
We long for our new bodies
which will have none
of those things.
And that is the glorious
prospect that lies
before us.
Romans 8,
we wait eagerly
for our adoption
as sons,
the redemption
of our bodies.
Now that wasn't
current thought
2,000 years ago.
The Greeks
and other pagans,
well,
what is happening
at death
is that
the spirit
at last
gets out.
Listen to the difference.
Escapes
from this prison,
this earthly,
bodily prison,
and now
the spirit is free.
Now what that idea
of freedom was
and what in the world
that spirit would do
is another matter.
But you see,
they saw death
as meaning
the permanent
splitting up,
well,
the escape
of the spirit
from the body
and at last
the body's no longer
going to mess us around
and do us any harm
because it simply
won't exist.
That's not
what the Bible teaches.
Christianity
totally rejected that
and said,
no,
what we are waiting
for is the redemption
of our bodies.
There is a wonderfully
physical element
in the future home,
the new heavens
and the new earth
of God's people.
And the bodies
will be there.
We're not going to
leave them in the grave.
But they will be
reconstituted
as glorious,
eternal bodies.
And there will be
a spiritual transformation
as well.
This is the second way
in which we should be
like Him.
Now,
what is Jesus like
now?
Well,
we can say
about Him
whatever we can say
about God.
But there's no need
to speculate
what John
especially has in mind.
Look in the text
with me
at these
three specific things
and notice the way
that John uses
the present tense.
Look at verse 3.
The last words,
He is pure.
That is,
He's without
any contamination
or defilement.
In His very nature,
He is morally perfect.
Then look at verse 5.
In Him is no sin.
And this follows
from the first.
And what a tremendous
encouragement that is
in the context
of the promise
we are studying.
And then look
at verse 7.
He is righteous.
And we have that
repeated for the
note takers here
in chapter 2
verse 1
and chapter 2
verse 29.
He is righteous.
The word is just.
It means in complete
conformity
with the rightness,
the consistency,
the integrity,
the justice,
the truthfulness
and the faithfulness
of God's law.
So,
Jesus
is pure
and sinless
and righteous.
And these are,
if you like,
John's shorthand notes
on the heavenly
character of Jesus.
Now comes the
how can you sit
in your seats bit.
We shall be
like Him.
As pure
as He is pure.
As sinless
as He is sinless.
As righteous
as He is righteous.
There will not be
any difference
in our purity
and sinlessness
and righteousness.
we will be
exactly
the same
in those qualities
and characteristics
of Jesus.
We will be
as pure
as He is pure.
As sinless
as He is sinless.
As righteous
as He is righteous.
All that can be said
now
about the heavenly
character of Jesus
will be true
to be said
about you
if you're a believer
in that day.
we shall be like Him.
We shall be like Him.
Now it gets
even more exciting.
We shall be like Him.
John doesn't say
well you know
it's a possibility.
And for those
who did very well
in the Christian life
for those
who made great progress
those who were
greatly used
those who were
pastors of
First Baptist churches.
We.
All of us
who are believers
shall be like Him.
It is not just feasible
it is factual.
Peter says
when the chief shepherd
appears
you will receive
the crown of glory
that never fades away.
Paul in Colossians 3
when Christ
who is your life
appears
then you also
will appear
with Him
in glory.
But the strongest
of all the
endorsements of that
comes in that
great passage
in Romans 8.
Let me tell you
a story.
I was preaching
in America
a number of years
ago now
and a pastor
said to me
would you have a word
with the man
in my congregation?
He's a Christian
he's a fine Christian
and a brilliant man
in his field.
which happened
to be dentistry
but that's putting it
mildly as far
as he was concerned.
He was an implantologist
and I don't know
how many ologists
rolled into one
and his offices
I was later to see
was just
didn't need any wallpaper
it was entirely
covered with diplomas
and honors
granted to him
around the country.
He was a very
very top man.
But said the pastor
although he is a Christian
he would say
his sins are forgiven
he cannot be
absolutely sure
depending on
what might happen
to him in this life
that at the end
of life
he will spend
eternity in heaven.
He lacks
permanent assurance
of his standing
in Christ.
Would you have
a word with him?
Now I kind of
wince when pastors
say that
and I think
you've been preaching
to him for 10 years
and you think
I'm going to sort him
out in half an hour
but anyway
I said
I'll be glad
to have a word with him.
So we met one day
came into
we sat in a Sunday
school room somewhere
and this great man
and he is a great man
in his field
sat down with me
and told me his story
and yet that's exactly
as the pastor had said
and when he'd finished
I must confess
I thought
what in the world
can I say to him?
What can I
what point would I
take up with him?
And I turned instead
to Romans chapter 8
and if you want
to turn to me now
that would be fine
and I read to him
of course verse 28
that we all know so well
and we know that
in all things
God works for the good
of those who love him
who've been called
according to his purpose
and then I'm sure
I explained to him
that the earlier part
of the chapter
is actually speaking
about the very fragile
breaking up
crumbling away world
in which we live
creation in bondage
to decay
what if Paul
had been a scientist
he would have called
the second law
of thermodynamics
the available energy
in the cosmos
in a closed system
is just cracking up
and that's
so here is everything
going wrong
on a mega scale
and Paul says
and we know that
in all things
so he's just writing
in this column
doesn't matter
what's going wrong
we know this
that God works
for the eternal good
of those who love him
and then someone
asks well
how can he know that?
Notice the first word
of verse 29
for
which means
because
notice the link
Paul says
we know that everything
is working
for the eternal good
of God's people
and this is why
we know
now listen carefully
God
for
those God
for knew
he also predestined
to be conformed
to the likeness
of his son
that he might be
the firstborn
among many brothers
those he predestined
he also called
those he called
he also justified
those he justified
he also glorified
and so I went
through them again
and here was this
great man
with his pencil
making notes
and I explained
for example
those God
for knew
which I said
means much more
than well
God knows everything
and God knows
ahead of time
who's going to become
a Christian
and who isn't
so that's all
that that means
God has omniscience
concerning the future
and I said
no
that actually means
something quite different
it means God
doing something
specifically
for a specific people
and for each of
the specific persons
within that group
of specific people
it means God
set his love
upon them
there's a parallel word
we don't have time
to look to it
in Amos
where the writer says
God knew you
above all the nations
of the earth
it doesn't mean
God would have said
search me
I don't know
if there are any
other nations
on the earth
it means God
chose you
set you apart
from all the other
nations on the earth
so that's the first thing
but all of those
God foreknew
he predestined
and there are people
in our circles
who wince a bit
draw back a bit
whenever you use a word
like predestination
and they may say
I don't like the sound
of that
well I don't like
the sound of
some things I hear
in church worship services
but I like every sound
I heard here
this morning
let me say
my answer to that
is well
have a word
with the author
because I didn't
write it
God wrote it
so if you've got
a problem
ask him
God predestined
and just nobody
I can't think of a Christian
who would
wince
and hold back
and say
well I'm not really sure
that I want to believe that
with the phrase
that we're studying
this morning
we shall be
like him
what Christian would say
I really don't like
the sound of that
I mean
they would say
well that's terrific
and I would say
well
but how do we know
that it's true
well
precisely because
of what he said here
you see
what is the predestination
about
predestination
to be conformed
to the likeness
of his son
that's the whole point
God has predestined
all of those
on whom he said
his love
that they will be
conformed
to the likeness
of God's son
in eternity
we shall be
like him
so the two
are absolutely
tied together
and so
Paul goes on
those he predestined
he called
which doesn't mean
he arranged
that they heard
the gospel
most people
who hear the gospel
reject it
and they're not
included in this
call
and it doesn't
matter how many
systems
we invent
within the
organized Christian
church
to have this
and that event
and we're looking
for X people
to be saved
and all the rest
of it
that's by and large
nonsense
this is
the inner call
if I'm in an airport
and I hear all sorts
of announcements
being made
about there's a delay
in this flight
there's a change
of gate
there's a this
and there that
and I yawn
through it all
and think
nothing whatever
to do with me
but as soon as I say
well Dr. Blanchard
on the flight
they've got my attention
I hear that call
that doesn't just
reach here
it reaches here
and these two things
down here
and I get there
as quickly as I can
that's the difference
between the outward call
and the inward call
and maybe
that some of you
here this morning
and you've heard
the outward call
how could you do otherwise
than hear the outward call
under this man's ministry
and you know the gospel
if I said come up here
and give me a brief outline
of the gospel
you could do it
you could talk about
God's creation
man's fall into sin
Jesus coming into the world
to save sinners
dying on the cross
rising again from the dead
you could rattle all that off
so you've heard
the outward call
a hundred times
but have you heard
the inner call
in the heart
which is irresistible
the irresistible
grace of God
so Paul goes on
those he called
he also justified
he made them
right with God
look
treat this podium
as time
so time
looking from your angle
starts here
and finishes there
so here we are
God
for you
before time began
he predestined
before time began
during time
during your lifetime
if you're a believer
he called you
and he justified you
so now we've got
for new
predestined
called
justified
oh and there's one more
and those
he justified
he also glorified
so that of course
is in the eternal future
so
went through all of that
and he had pages
of notes by now
and I said
just one more thing
what do you think
are the tenses
of the verbs
that are being used here
for example
what is the tense
of
for new
he said
that's a past tense
so out came his pencil
I said you're right
past tense
and what about
predestined
what do you tense
well that's in the past tense
past tense
and what about
called
well that would be
in the past tense
what about justified
past tense
what about glorified
he put his pen down
he said ah
now you're trying to trick me
and he said
and that's my problem
I can see all the others
but it's this question
of will I be glorified
that's it
will I eventually
get there
and I said
Max
listen carefully
the word glorified
is in the past tense
Paul is so certain
about something
that's going to happen
in the future
that he messes around
with the grammar
in order to magnify
the grace of God
it's in the future
it is as certain
as any of those
in the past
he put his pen down
I saw a tear
trickle down his cheek
and he said
John
30 years of doubt
have just rolled away
and correspondence with him
afterwards convinced me
that it had
so we shall be like him
so to recap again
we should be like him
we shall be like him
well what do we make of this
we shall be like him
we shall
our bodies
we've touched on that already
our lowly bodies
full of so many weaknesses
they have sickness and death
written all over them
I have a very large volume
at home called
Guide to Family Health
and if I have a little ache
or a pain
or something
I flip open these
hundreds of pages
to look at what I've got
and you know what happens
the symptoms could also be this
and something
it's like googling something up
and three hours later
you haven't reached the end
of the rabbit trails from it
and I wind up thinking
I've got about 157 diseases
as I can understand
at the moment
I don't feel
I don't feel in pretty good shape
at all
so that's what our bodies
are like
and our spirits
subject
by nature
objects of God's wrath
and spiritually
the things that there are
in our bodies
and in our spirits
that would cause us
to look twice
at this phrase
we shall be
like him
think of some of the
sins
that have stained
and polluted
and plagued
your life
Jesus at one stage
when people were discussing
where sin had its
genesis
said this
what comes out of a man
is what makes him
unclean
for from within
out of man's hearts
come evil thoughts
sexual immorality
theft
murder
adultery
greed
that ring a bell
malice
deceit
lewdness
envy
slander
arrogance
folly
all these evils
come from inside
and make a man
unclean
see the problem
is not that we're
deprived
but that we are
depraved
we're by nature
corrupt
and vile
and godless
and you know
the more spiritually
mature we become
the more we know
those things to be true
Paul in Romans 7
says
I know that nothing
good lives in me
that is in my
sinful nature
I've heard people say
well Paul was looking
back to his
pre-conversion days
and say
boy I was a mess
then
and
I can't
find any way
to interpret it
as being
autobiographical
and looking past
before his
conversion
I tell you
the further you go
in the Christian life
the more you identify
with Paul who says
I know that in me
that is in my
sinful nature
the idea that when you
become a Christian
your sinful nature
is removed
and you go through
the rest of life
whistling a happy tune
with never to worry
in the world
is baloney
that could hardly
even find a place
on religious television
though it does make
a big attempt
the fact of the matter
is
that in our
sinful natures
there dwells
no good thing
and we
shall
be
like
him
C.H. Spurgeon
received a copy
once of Andrew
Bonner's commentary
on Leviticus
Bonner was a
Scottish preacher
he was so blessed
he sent it back
to him
and said
could you
autograph it
and give me
a photograph
now I'll be happy
to sign your books
afterwards
but no photographs
please
nor would you
want one
and
Bonner replied
dear Spurgeon
here is the book
with my autograph
and my photograph
if you had been
willing to wait
a short season
you could have
had a better
likeness
for I shall
be like him
I shall see him
as he
is
so will all
who belong
to Christ
now
those of you
who are Christians
isn't that
wonderful news
and you're a Christian
and there have been
ups and downs
there have been
doubts and fears
struggles with that
and fears within
and sometimes
you've been hit
by very heavy blows
and sometimes
two or three
triple whammies
and you've wondered
at times
nothing wrong with that
the best of Christians
as I see it
reading history
have had their
moments
but isn't it wonderful
to have this reassurance
we shall
be
like
him
oh and if you're
not a Christian
as we come to the
end of this service
would you like to be
like him
almost four years
to the day
I laid
the body
of my wife
Joyce
in
her grave
and I'm sure
it will not be
very long
before
I join her
there
and if you were
to go to
Epsom Cemetery
just that side
of London
you would find
a beautiful
headstone
in black
marble
with gold
lettering
across it
and her name
Joyce
Sylvia
Blanchard
date of birth
2nd of December
1933
date of death
17th of February
2010
and underneath
these words
with Christ
which is
far
better
than a big
space
and you know
what's going
there
I've booked
that
and the reason
I chose the text
is this
even when I'm
dead
I'll be
preaching
and everybody
who passes
will look
and whether
they've got an
interest in my
name or not
will say
and I've known
people mentioned
to me already
they passed
that and read
the text
with Christ
which is far
better
now my friend
as I leave
you
and perhaps
never to see
you again
let me
urgently ask
you to give
serious weight
to this
when the moment
comes for you
to die
and I don't know
what the marker
will be on your
grave
or whether you'll
be cremated
that's immaterial
this is for
illustrative purposes
only
on your headstone
one of two
things could be
could be written
maybe you or
your family
have something
else in mind
but one of
these two
could be written
with Christ
which is far
better
better than
anything
you have ever
experienced
and better than
anything you
could ever
imagine
or
without Christ
which is far
worse
worse than
anything
you have ever
experienced
or anything
you could ever
imagine
will you
come to Christ
and join
those of us
who rejoice
in this
amazing
wonderful
staggering
almost
unbelievable
truth
but it's
believable
because God
said it
through his
servant
we
shall be
like him
let's pray
father
thank you
for giving
us this
sacred
hour
together
and I
pray that
you will
give to
each one
of us
the grace
of understanding
and even
more
the grace
of obedience
and I
pray especially
that any
who has
become to
this moment
in our
service
are knowing
in their
hearts
that these
things are
not yet
true for
them
Lord by
your spirit
work in
their hearts
that they
might call
out to you
to be saved
and join
those of
whom
these words
are wonderfully
true
so that
they too
shall be
like
him
and we
ask it
in his
name
amen
W
He
What
you
what
he
He
what
he
what
he
Lord
He
What