(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

A song book. Open that song book to song number 431. Silent Night, Holy Night. Song number 431. Silent Night, Holy Night. If you are able, let's all stand together for this first song. Song 431. Silent Night. Everyone all together nice and strong. Silent night. Holy night. All is calm. All is bright. Round young virgin, mother and child. Holy infant so tender and mild. Sleep in heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly peace. Silent night. Holy night. Shepherds quake at the sight. Glory stream from heaven afar. Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia. Christ the Savior is born. Christ the Savior is born. Silent night. Holy night. Son of God. Love's pure light. Radiant beams from thy holy face. With the dawn of redeeming grace. Jesus Lord at thy birth. Jesus Lord at thy birth. Silent night. Holy night. Wondrous star. Land thy light. With the angels let us sing. Alleluia to our King. Christ the Savior is born. Christ the Savior is born. Amen. Let's open our service with the word of prayer. Father God we just thank you Lord so much God for this time of Christmas Lord that we could think upon you sending your son Jesus Christ into the world Lord to redeem us God we just thank you so much for that Lord and we thank you God for the opportunity Lord that you gave us here tonight Lord to be gathered together and hear your word preached unto us God and we pray God that you would bless the service Lord every aspect of it God that the singing would tenderize our hearts to the message Lord that pastors prepared for us Lord and we pray God that you would fill him with your Holy Spirit Lord as he preaches to us God and help us to apply that which we hear to our lives Lord and leave here differently than when we came in God we love you Lord and it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Song number 187. Jesus loves me. Song number 187. Jesus loves me. Everyone all together. Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so little ones to him belong. They are weak but he is strong. Yes Jesus loves me. Yes Jesus loves me. Yes Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me. He who died. Heaven's gate to open wide. He will wash away my sin. Let his little child come in. Yes Jesus loves me. Yes Jesus loves me. Yes Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me. He will stay close beside me all the way. Thou has bled and died for me. I will henceforth live for thee. Yes Jesus loves me. Yes Jesus loves me. Yes Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. All right. Great singing. Thank you for being here at First Works Baptist Church. If you want to get the next song ready here song number five. If you want to get that ready when I survey the wondrous cross song number five. If you did not get a bulletin go ahead and raise your hand one of the ushers can get one for you. Some important information on there as well as our prayer sheet. We're gonna actually we're gonna skip this tonight but if you can keep that and and use it and of course pray over some of the needs here. We would appreciate that but we're gonna skip that for tonight. Some of the upcoming church are the announcements here of course our Sunday morning services at ten thirty Sunday evening at five p.m. and then we have our Thursday night Bible study at seven o'clock. You see the sowing times and teams and of course this coming Sunday is the birthday breakfast. And so that's the first Sunday of every month. So make sure you get here a little early to participate in that. You see right there at the bottom the list of expecting mothers. We can remove Nicole Carey and Melissa pay from the from the bulletin here because Melissa pay had her baby. Amen. So congratulations to them. Let me just pull up the stats here for Melissa. I don't have the carries stats but I do have Melissa pays. Let's see here. Give me a minute. Congratulations to Connor and Melissa pay on the birth of their baby girl Bethany. No stats available but we know the name. OK. So congratulations to them. If you'd like to be a blessing and bring them a meal or send a gift card please speak to Mrs. Tamara brash. And so I'm sure they would greatly appreciate that. Please be a blessing to them so they can focus on just nurturing the baby and helping Melissa recover. And so we can remove Miss Melissa and Nicole from the sheet there from the list of expecting mothers and praise God for that. You see there at the bottom the important reminders. And on the right hand side this Sunday December 3rd is Malia Polito's baby shower that'll be after the service. And so keep that in mind of course. I've been announcing it over the last couple of weeks but Pastor Anderson will be preaching this Sunday Sunday morning and Sunday night but the Sunday morning service will be a little unorthodox. So just keep that in mind because as soon as he gets here he's going to start preaching. We're not going to do the preliminaries first. All of the announcements singing offering all of that will be after he's done preaching because once he's done he's got to get out of here to keep an appointment that he has in Los Angeles. However on Sunday night he will it'll be a regular service he's going to be preaching. And of course it'll just be completely normal with all the preliminaries and he'll hang around for just a little bit. Actually I'm sorry I take that back. I don't think he's actually hanging around on Sunday night. I think he has to catch his flight back but he will be here at 10 o'clock in the morning. And so if you want to fellowship with him take a picture with him get your Bible sign. Make sure you're here nice and early to talk to him at 10 a.m. because as soon as 1030 hits he's going to start preaching and so just keep that in mind. Looking forward to having him make sure you thank him for coming. And then on Saturday December 9th is the Christmas caroling. And so that'll be next Saturday. And keep in mind on Sunday night if you would like to learn some of the songs if you want to learn how to carry a tune especially to the songs that we're going to be singing. We're going to be meeting here on Sunday night. Brother John's going to be leading the group there. Now you don't have to be a part of that if you're saying well is this the only way I can participate in the Christmas caroling. Just come to the Christmas caroling. This is just kind of like a supplement to help you out if you want to learn some of the songs and learn some of the parts. And so it's very organized. Brother John has all the music sheets and a Google. What am I looking for? The Google Docs folder where all of the parts are individually given in folders and you can actually listen to them. So maybe but but just be realistic though. You know what I mean? Like if it's a tenor and you if you know that you're a tenor you know what I mean? Then then memorize that part and you know alto and all that. But you can click on that and you can memorize your part for those particular songs that we're going to be singing next Saturday. But if you have any questions about that you can see Brother John. But on Sunday nights this Sunday night actually will be the last night that we cover that and so just keep that in mind. Looking forward to the Christmas caroling. It's always been a blessing and it's very receptive where we go and so we're looking forward to it. And then Saturday December 17th is the First Works Christmas program. Make sure you invite your family and friends to that to hear the little kiddos sing. I know they're working hard on that and so Brother Maury and the team are doing a great job. And then on Sunday December 24th of course is our Christmas Eve service. And the rumor has it there will be food food catered on that evening but more specifically I think it's Mediterranean food right? It's Mediterranean somewhere along the lines of like Lebanese you know or Armenian some type of Mediterranean type food. And so that's my favorite food so I don't care which one it is as long as it's Mediterranean it's all good. So we're looking forward to that. That'll be on Sunday night for that Christmas Eve and so stick around and we'll have a great time. And then you see the regular reminders there at the bottom. Please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. And that is it. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. Song number five. When I survey the wondrous cross. Alright song number five. When I survey the wondrous cross. Song number five. When I survey the wondrous cross. Everyone all together nice and strong. When I survey the wondrous cross. On which the prince of glory died. My richest gain. I count but loss. And poor contempt on all my pride. Forbid it Lord that I should boast. Save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm me most. I sacrifice them to his blood. See from his head his hands his feet. Sorrow and love flow mingled down. Dead air such love and sorrow meet. Or thorns composed so rich a crown. Amen. Were the whole realm of nature mine. That were a present far too small. Love so amazing so divine. Demands my soul my life my all. Amen. Great singing. At this time the ushers will collect the offering. Tonight will be in Matthew chapter 28. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. We're in Matthew chapter 28. And the Bible reads at the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to the sepulcher. And behold there was a great earthquake for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him the keepers did shake and became as dead men. The angel answered and said unto the women fear not ye for I know that you seek Jesus which was crucified. He is not here for he is risen as he said. Come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead and behold he goes before you into Galilee. There shall you see him. Lo I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy and did run to bring his disciples word. And as they were went to tell his disciples behold Jesus met them saying all hail. They came and held them by the feet and worshiped him. Then said Jesus unto them be not afraid. Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee. There shall they see me. Now when they were going behold some of the watch came to the city and shown to the chief priests all the things that were done. When they were assembled with the elders and had taken counsel they gave large money unto the soldiers saying say ye his disciples came by night and stole them away while we slept. And if this come to the governor's ears we will persuade him and secure you. So they took the money and did as they were taught. And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. When they saw him they worshiped him but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world. Amen. Let's pray. We thank you Heavenly Father for your precious promises dear God and we thank you for your faithfulness we thank you for this Bible dear Lord you have given us. Thank you for our church and we thank you for our pastor dear God. Please bless him as he preaches your word unto us this evening in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay tonight we conclude the book of Matthew and this is chapter twenty eight covering the resurrection as well as the Great Commission. Now of course this what we see here regarding the resurrection is obviously covered in all four of the gospels but if you've actually read Matthew Mark Luke and John you'll see that there's a lot of variation in the accounts almost to the point where if you're not paying attention you might think that it's contradicting one another that the accounts are so different in certain aspects that you would think man this is a contradiction and in fact I'm sure there's a lot of atheists out there and people who criticize the Bible who would point to these passages of scripture as proof that you know the Bible contradicts itself but obviously people seem to fail to realize that the four gospels are four accounts of four different people right and so they're obviously writing it from their perspective or the perspective that they heard of that they were taught from others and so you have to read all four gospels to get the entire picture and when you when you read Matthew twenty eight the proof of the fact that you know these all these four gospels have information that some of the other gospels don't the proof of that is the fact that chapter 28 is only 20 verses long but we obviously know there's a lot of things that have taken place between his resurrection and him giving the Great Commission and his ascension that are not found in chapter 28 but are distinctly talked about in chapter 16 of Mark in chapter 24 of Luke and chapter 20 and 21 of the book of John and so we kind of have to just kind of put them together and piece the pieces of the puzzle here in order to understand what is it that's taken place now look at verse number one I'm gonna give you an example here it says in the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to the sepulcher and behold there was a great earthquake for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it and his countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow and for fear of him the keepers did shake and became as dead men so what do we have here well the common narrative that we see obviously with all four gospels is that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary are coming to the sepulcher first now what are the variations though when comparing these to the other gospels well one of the variations that we find is the fact that in Mark chapter 16 for example it talks about the fact that the woman come to the sepulcher but they're saying who's gonna roll the stone away okay whereas here and if you look down at verse number four it says and for fear of him the keepers did shake and became as dead men of course verse number two tells us that the that the stone was rolled back from the door and that the angel sat upon it so what's actually taking place well what we see is the fact that when the women come to the sepulcher the stone has already been removed now that's not explicitly stated in Matthew 28 but it is explicitly stated in the other gospel so Matt mark 16 Luke 24 and John chapter 20 all record Mary Magdalene and the other Mary essentially saying who's gonna roll the stone away from us implying that they're not there yet because once they get there they'll see that the stone has already been rolled away it's already been removed and in fact the only info that we have that kind of validates that in Matthew 28 is verse number four that the keepers are afraid and of course we see that they shake and they become as dead men so by the time the women get to the sepulcher there's these two dudes on the floor the stone has already been rolled away but on the way to the sepulcher they're asking the question who's actually going to remove that stone now let me show you something else here look at verse number eight it says and as they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy and did to bring his disciples word and as they went to tell his disciples behold Jesus met them saying all hail and they came and held them by the feet and worshiped him now what's the significance of that well think about it it says here that when Jesus meets them he says hail and then they fall before his feet they hold his feet and worship him now why is that a significant aspect of this story well because in John chapter 20 Jesus Christ tells Mary Magdalene not to touch him for he has not yet ascended unto his father right that's what it says in John chapter 20 he appears before Mary Magdalene and this is essentially the story in John chapter 20 where she says she thinks he's the gardener and you know he says Mary and then she finally says rabbini that is the same master and of course then he instructs her and he says do not touch me for I have not yet ascended unto my father and I'll explain what he's referring to in just a bit but if we were to take John's account in chapter 20 of the fact that Jesus said that to Mary then that would mean that that actually took place prior to verse number nine in Matthew 28 why is that well because in Matthew 28 verse 9 they're touching his feet okay you say so what's going on then well really what's going on is that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary are kind of coming back and forth to the sepulcher a few times okay that's what's taking place and so we see here that he in verse number nine that they they hold them by his feet implying that at this point he has already ascended unto his father and in fact in Mark chapter 16 it actually states that Jesus Christ appeared first unto Mary Magdalene so she's the first that he appeared unto and you would think well Matthew 28 and Luke 24 they kind of seem to indicate that he's appearing to some of the disciples here what's going on well let me explain to you the chronology of what's actually taking place okay what you have is Mary Magdalene and the other Mary there's a lot of Mary's in the story by the way okay they come to the sepulcher the stone has already been removed the keepers are dead no they're not dead they fainted basically right they're as dead men and the angel instructs the women to go and tell the disciples at which point you can jump to John chapter 20 where Mary Magdalene goes to Peter and tells Peter that someone's taking his body they don't know what's taking place and that's where you have the famous story of Peter and John running to the sepulcher right and of course John referring to himself as that disciple whom Jesus loved outruns Peter that other disciple outruns Peter they get to the sepulcher they look down there's nothing there and of course they end up going back home but Mary stays there at the sepulcher so keep in mind she went to go tell the disciples she comes back with the disciples the two disciples Peter and John go back home Mary stays there supposes that Jesus Christ is the gardener at which point he reveals himself to her which is the fulfillment of March chapter 16 that he revealed himself first to Mary Magdalene okay so when he does he says don't touch me for I've not yet ascended unto my father and then he course of course he gives her that same instruction to go and tell the disciples once again she does she returns back that's when they see the angels and then of course once again they instruct her go and tell the disciples which is what we have here in Matthew 28 in verse number 9 that they're going to tell the disciples and then Jesus appears to them once again okay and you say I didn't catch any of that well luckily you have it in your Bible so you can reference it and check it out the only reason I'm explaining this because of the fact that you know if you're not careful you might read Matthew Mark Luke and John think to yourself well that's not what I read in Matthew that's not where to read it in Mark that's not what I read in Luke they seem to be opposing narratives here what's taking place well what's taking place is that each gospel is filling in the blanks for the other gospel okay and you know let me just give you a little word of advice because when you look at Matthew 28 you see one angel but then in Mark and Luke you see two angels and you say well what's the deal with that well whenever you have an instance where in one gospel one person is mentioned as being there almost in an isolated form but then in the other gospels you have two you go with the two you don't subtract and say well that other one wasn't really there right like the maniac of Gadara there's accounts of the maniac of Gadara where there's one account of our excuse me there's one person there but then the other accounts have two maniacs of Gadara in the particular story now obviously when it comes to the maniac of Gadara the one who's being recorded as being the individual in that particular gospel is obviously the prominent one okay he's obviously the outspoken one and that is the one that the writer chose to actually highlight and so in this particular instance in Matthew 28 you know Matthew obviously decided to just highlight the one angel and then the other gospels obviously include the other angel and what the other angel said which is why you have various statements that are different from Matthew Mark Luke and John as far as the account of what the angels are saying okay I know it's really interesting stuff okay you're like help me with my depression I don't want to hear about you know these accounts here I'm just trying to explain this to you just to kind of show you that you know obviously there's a lot taking place here and you got to fill in the blanks and understand that just because you know verses 8 and 9 or verse 9 comes right after 8 in Matthew 28 you know you have to understand that there's some events that are taking place in between those instances okay and in fact we have the Great Commission being given here but we obviously see that the Great Commission is given in Mark 16 and Luke 24 but they're obviously different you know why it's because of the fact that he gave it in different times so Matthew 28 Great Commission isn't necessarily this isn't necessarily the Commission that Mark 16 is talking about the Commission is given in Mark 16 is a different instance the Commission that's given in Luke 24 is a different instance you understand it's another time where it was given and in fact the Great Commission is given in Acts 1 8 is also different right it's because of the fact that Jesus Christ didn't give the Great Commission once he gave it multiple times and that's why you have various ways of how he stated it not only that but you know you said what about the gospel or the Great Commission in the book of John well there is no Great Commission in the book of John what you have is a more specific isolated more direct commandment given to Peter to feed his sheep feed his flock right and so he's telling him that in John chapter 21 however we don't see that story being told here in Matthew 28 so obviously it took place somewhere in between these verses here understand and I would encourage you I mean it's a great little project you can delve into during your Christmas break or something just kind of draw the lines of when these events take place between what verses but we obviously have to approach the Bible knowing full well that it's all true okay so Matthew Mark Luke and John they're not contradicting one another all they're all God's Word it's just that God is a very intricate author it's very detailed pays attention to a lot of the minute details and even to the point where the most feeble mind I get confused you know they're like ah see look at all these contradictions you're just dumb and you can't seem to like cross-reference and it's hard for you to kind of put the pieces of the puzzle together because God is the one who wrote it and so if you approach the Bible with faith believing the Bible it comes together if you approach the Bible you know with without faith if you're critical of the Word of God then it's gonna seem as though it contradicts itself and you know what God has no issue with unbelievers thinking that the Bible contradicts itself because he's not looking to prove himself to anybody it's not like well God needs to come down here and show me it's not gonna happen because he doesn't owe you anything he's already he's art he already came right and so you know it's important that when we approach the Word of God we always approach it in faith he that come into God must believe that he is and he is a reward of them to diligently seek him you know it's great to read the book of Proverbs and the book of John but it's another level to have to cross references all four Gospels to kind of find out when these events took place now in John chapter 20 you actually have the instance where he tells Mary not to touch him because he has not yet ascended unto his father but in the same chapter he ends up appearing unto his disciples and specifically to who Thomas and Thomas was able to touch him you know touches wounds in his hands and in his side you said what's taking place there well then you know if he said touch me not for I've not yet ascended to my father and then he tells Thomas he can touch him well what can we deduce from that he's already ascended unto his father between those two events I mean it's eight days later so obviously he did and in fact he ascended unto God the Father even sooner than that because of the fact that we have these instances in fact he did it that day because when Mary Magdalene comes back to the sepulcher gets instructed by the angels once again and leaves she sees Jesus Christ there and she touches his feet showing us that at that point he had already ascended unto his father now people when they read John chapter 20 when he says touch me not for I've not yet ascended unto my father they automatically think that he's actually referring to what we would consider to be that major ascension in Acts chapter 1 where he stays in heaven forever at the right hand of the Father but that's actually not what it's referring to what it's actually talking about is the fact that he's gonna go to heaven to the mercy seat that's in heaven the actual mercy seat okay and put his blood on the mercy seat apply the blood there according to I believe it's Hebrew chapter 9 he actually applied his blood there and then returned and at that point he couldn't be physically touched of the disciples for them to see that that he's not a spirit he's not just a ghost that resurrected you know it's it's a bodily resurrection okay so that took place within a span of at least a few hours maybe a day but I would say a few hours because we have this particular story here and from the time to get to the sepulcher to verse number nine where they're touching his feet it took place between that time okay and so what we have here is just simply the disciples when I say the disciples I am including Mary Magdalene and the other Mary's because there are followers of the Lord as well going back and forth unto the sepulcher now one thing I do want to point out is like what's going on with the male disciples at this time because who the first ones to show up are the women they're the first ones to show up I mean they were there at the cross when he was crucified they were there you know at the grave at the sepulcher he appeared into Mary first and so I don't know what's going I don't really have an answer for you as far as that's concerned it's just always bothered me I'll just be honest like the fact that Peter and James and John these guys seem to be pillars but yet they weren't there during the major events you know their their faith was being tried at the time and so I want to point that out now the other thing that I want to point out is obviously very basic and very obvious is the fact that Matthew 28 is an important chapter because it talks about the resurrection and the resurrection is an essential doctrine to be saved it's not something we breeze over it's not something we think to ourselves you know if they don't believe in it they can still be saved wrong if you don't believe in and let me repeat the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ you cannot be saved now people will listen to a statement like that and say oh you know I thought you guys said you only have to believe on Jesus Christ to be saved but then you start adding all these things believe in the bodily resurrection believe in this and that well when we say believe on Jesus Christ it's obviously implied that the Jesus Christ we're referring to is the Jesus Christ of the Bible who bodily resurrected so if a Jehovah's Witness you know claims it makes a profession of faith claiming to believe on Jesus Christ we know for a fact that they don't believe in the right Jesus even if they pay lip service to that because they have a view that Jesus Christ did not bodily resurrect they don't even have a view that Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross okay I think he was crucified on a stick on a stake you know it's just kind of like you know you're showing yourself you're showing that your religion is a really dumb religion it's a really stupid cult because you could just look at history and see that Jesus Christ was not the only person crucified during that time in the first century AD this is a Roman way of executing people so you can just literally compare it with the most obvious of Roman history and say he was crucified on the cross but they want to just ignore all that and say well no he was crucified in a state because the Bible says that he hung on a tree and so they interpret that as oh a tree must been a stick no a cross is made of a tree the material you use that they would use to make a cross was a tree it's wood so if the Bible says that Hugh you know cursed as everyone to hang it on a tree he's obviously referring to wood now obviously the most literal interpretation of that is the fact that when someone was literally hung on a tree they were cursed in the Old Testament but obviously it was figuratively depicting the crucifixion of Christ since he was also hung on a tree made you know a cross that's made out of wood understand and so it's important to note you know the resurrection is an important doctrine it's not something we breeze over and don't breeze over it in your gospel presentation either you know Romans chapter 10 verses 9 and 10 should always be quoted should always be used in your gospel presentation don't try to get cute with it you know stick to the tried-and-true Romans Road if you want to deviate a little bit and show some other verses that's perfectly fine but I personally think Romans chapter 10 verse 9 is a powerful verse to use to teach someone that they have to believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ okay you know and going back to the the concept of you know oh you're adding all these things to believing in Jesus Christ no we're obviously adhering to the Jesus of the Bible so when we say you have to believe on Jesus Christ it carries with that and includes believing that he's God right it includes that he is God includes the bodily resurrection and includes the fact that he was crucified on the cross and includes that he's the Son of God and that he's not God the Father okay now you say but do you explain every single one of those details to every single person you run to the door no because the vast majority of the people that I talked to at the door have not been brainwashed by false doctrine so you know one thing I've noticed is that when you knock on a door to a on the door of a person that has not been tainted and tainted with false doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses Mormonism things of that nature they readily receive these doctrines they just kind of believe them easy it's not very hard for them to understand those things they believe it by faith and they just get it the ones you have to convince are the ones who have been duped by those false doctrines okay you know I don't really have to try to convince the unsaved person who's never been in church that Jesus went to hell they have like zero issue when you explain that to them I can just literally just say it and not even have to go to acts 2 and based upon their demeanor and the nodding of their head they agree with what I say you say who has a problem with it the dispensation is that the Baptists do unfortunately these fundamental Baptist dispensationalists have an issue with it you know it's not unsaved people who are receiving the gospel because they have not been tainted by false doctrine they don't have false doctrine to overcome they readily receive it you know who has the problem with faith alone in Christ alone for salvation people have been tainted with a false gospel it's not the person who hasn't been in church and doesn't understand any other false religion when you explain the gospel to them they get it it's easy for them it's the person who grew up in some non-denom church or some you know watered-down church where the where the gospel is muddied where they mix in works where they mix in repenting of your sins where they say all manner of nonsense that's the person that struggles with understanding the simplicity which is in Christ however the person who's never heard of those things has never done a Bible study they get it okay and so it's important for us to realize and understand that the resurrection is an essential doctrine and let me tell you how important it is it's so important in the Bible that the Apostle Paul dedicated an entire chapter explaining the details of the resurrection to the point where he was like questioning the salvation of some of the members at the church at Corinth because of it essentially almost claiming that they believed in vain because apparently in 1st Corinthians 15 based upon what we read in 1st Corinthians 15 there might have been some members at Corinth who were wondering if it was a bodily resurrection or if there is any resurrection which is obviously grounds to question whether that person is saved or not understand and if they don't believe in the bodily resurrection then they believed in vain even if they made a profession of faith so if they prayed the prayer and confessed with their mouth the Lord Jesus but then later on they are questioning the resurrection of Jesus Christ well then at that point we would say according to 1st Corinthians 15 verses 1 through 3 that person probably believed in vain okay and I'm not talking about a person who might be confused on him and this is one thing that we have to understand is that when people are confused on essential doctrines maybe they're babes in Christ and you explain it to them and then they're just like okay I get it now case close right it's when the person was like I get what you're saying but you know I I get your point I can't really argue it but okay then that person is probably not saved they believed in vain I mean we had a person like that come to our church I don't know within the last couple of months and I forgot what doctrine they were they were hung up on does anybody remember what was it what is I'm hearing tongues of different calling upon the name oh just the calling upon the name of the Lord which is not a hard doctrine to understand and you know I'm giving him a slew of different verses just giving him the benefit of the doubt and the person even told me himself he said this he's just like that makes sense based upon what you're saying and based on what the Bible says but I'm just still struggling with like actually no you're not sure you're just rejecting it at that point it's not like oh it makes sense and therefore you know but I did it doesn't really make sense it's more like it makes sense I just don't know how else to refute it therefore you know I'm not gonna believe it yet or something you know they're obviously against that doctrine and and so you know we have to understand that a person can easily understand the basics of salvation and if they reject those things and they they're either they believed in vain or they're just devils okay we're trying to trip people up but what I'm saying is this is that you do have to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ to be saved and in fact you know the Bible says in Romans chapter 4 that he was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification okay you say which one is essential the death or the resurrection yes what is essential like him being the Son of God calling upon the name of the Lord believing in your heart confessing with like which one is it yes next question you know people always want to be they want to strain it and swallow a camel and just say but what one specific one is it it's all of it okay and so it's important for us to realize that both of them are essential and that we need to explain that to people and I'm not saying you have to do an entire Bible study at the door for them to understand okay you know learn how to read people learn how to check people's demeanor and that when they agree with you facially they kind of agree with their facial expressions they're not stumbling at the stumbling stone they're getting it okay you can move on to the next point now we'll say this is that when you're preaching the gospel and you find out that this person is a former Jehovah's Witness or maybe they're like a Bachelorette and Mormon you should obviously direct your gospel presentation and focus on particular aspects of your gospel that have to deal with that particular system of beliefs okay so if you're dealing with the Jehovah's Witnesses you are you should focus a good amount on the fact that Jesus is God right and obviously if you're dealing with the Jehovah's Witness and they get all that okay then they also need to believe in hell oh there you go again you're adding stuff folks this is it's it's a logical thing to believe in if you're gonna believe on Jesus Christ for salvation it's like but I thought you say you just have to believe that we say you're saying you have to believe in hell too what are you being saved from it's like yeah and so it's important for us to understand that so we have here the resurrection of Jesus let's read on here before I chase other rabbits it says in verse number five and the angel answered and said unto the woman fear not ye for I know that you see Jesus which was crucified he is not here he is risen as he said come see the place where the Lord lay I love that verse right there in verse number six where it just says he is risen because we're reading a book that obviously was written 2,000 years ago but literally he is still risen today like he's in he's he's he lives amen he lives he lives he's in heaven today he's listening to the sermon right now he's listening to the inner recesses of our heart right now he is risen and this is obviously the distinguishing factor between Christianity and all other religions is the fact that our Savior is still alive okay the Creator the one who made our religion is still alive you know Muhammad is burning in hell Buddha is in hell you point out any other leader of whatever cult or false religion that's out there that you know Joseph Smith is for sure burning in hell they're all weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth whereas Jesus Christ at this moment is sitting at the right hand of the Father he's making intercessions for us he's walking with us I mean he we serve a living God my friend he is risen so it's a beautiful verse and you know obviously this is Christmas we're in the Christmas season you know Christmas and Easter are kind of one of the same we're celebrating these these very important doctrines of the birth of Christ which is essential to us because he was born to die and of course he died and he conquered death and he resurrected and so look at verse number seven it says go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold he goes before you into Galilee there shall you see him lo I have told you so there's multiple instances where Jesus Christ specifically told the disciples that he's gonna meet them in Galilee and of course it's reiterated here by the angel but you know the disciples like Christians sometimes they need the announcements like more than once you know I mean you know I give an announcement it's just like I have they're not gonna catch you guys aren't gonna cast in the out the announcement until I give it for like the fifth or sixth time okay it's just like oh is that new it's just like no I've been announcing it this whole time you know and so God obviously knows the nature of man that things have to be reiterated over and over again in order for them to understand it which is why he gives them the Great Commission multiple times as well and you know what they still didn't get it he gave it to them in Matthew Mark Luke and Acts 1 8 and they still didn't get it so how do you know cuz they stayed in Jerusalem it's just like hello Jesus is already told gave you guys your homework your instructions and they still weren't getting it and so it's just the nature of man verse number eight says and they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy and did run to bring his disciples word and as they went to tell his disciples behold Jesus met them saying all hail I like that so why cuz he's hailing the disciples you said why is that significant because Catholics always talk about hail Mary they literally built a doctrine an entire practice on Ave Maria which means hail Mary right I literally had someone tell me that this week they're like Ave Maria hail Mary and they're like it's in the Bible well here we have Jesus Christ hailing his disciples you know why because hail simply means like salutations and it always boggles my mind that Catholics and people like Catholics you know you have Orthodox as well I'm not sure if the Orthodox do this but Orthodox are just they're just another version of Catholicism the Catholicism on steroids okay it's like a bastardization of Catholicism it's like the step it's like the younger brother of Catholicism who's trying to outdo his brother right and idolatry worship it's like you have Catholicism idolatrous and wicked and vile and then you have orthodoxy there's just a little bit more you know but he's like the younger brother okay because he's trying to outdo his older brother Catholicism but they're both wicked right but here he says hail to the disciples but yet the Catholics want to create this doctrine that you got to say 50 hail Mary's full of grace or whatever because they esteem her as being someone who's divine and you know what Catholics are a bunch of liars I'm just gonna say that right now they're liars because you confront them about this and they're like we don't worship Mary we don't think she's like a mediator your your catechism you probably need to go back to communion again in your what's that called what is the catechism or catechism the communion because part of their doctrine is believing in Mariology that she's the Mediatrix I mean that is a major doctrine of the Catholic Church meaning she's the mediator between Jesus Christ and man okay so it's like in order to go to Jesus we have to pray to marry first now when so when they deny the fact that they believe that you show them what their catechism says and then they're just like caught and so what they'll try to do is they'll try to make excuses as to why they believe that and it's not like how we say it is like well anybody would you know in the Bible if someone wanted to get to the king that would have to go through the mother this is the example they give I've heard this multiple times so they'll use that as a justification of why Catholics go to Mary because in the Bible in the Old Testament when someone would want to speak to the king they would have to go to the mother first now this is hilarious okay let me explain to you why let's see who is who is well versed in the Bible here who's the only guy in the Bible who went to his mother to petition something from the king does anybody remember his name starts with an A Adonijah so Adonijah went to his mother Bathsheba to petition Solomon for his wife and Adonijah ended up getting killed so I like how they just bring this up these are all you got to go to the who wanted Solomon's wife and then ends up you know obviously he doesn't get killed right away but he ends up getting killed because of that Solomon wants him dead because of that but that's the Catholic justification to go to Mary for Jesus no the Bible says that we may come boldly unto the throne of grace to obtain mercy to help in a time of need we can go straight to the throne we don't need to go and you know Mary once all history is over who's gonna be the one to break the news to her like did you know what people have been doing for thousands of years they're like praying to and she's never heard any of their prayers she didn't get any of the mail mail's been going to like another address is that what address some demon who bleeds out of his eyes or something some image or something like that she knows nothing of those things the Saints in heaven don't know anything about those things so they're one day they're gonna find out like are you gotta be there they're gonna be face palm me like people have been praying us this entire time like well a specific group not all people they're called Catholics okay and they they they purport that you guys are Catholics and they purport they that Peter let me just tell you you are very important to them Peter you're like the first Pope okay even though Peter just you know messed up on the first day in office by rebuking the Lord like immediately after he was given the keys after he supposedly was ordained as the first Pope then he's like rebuking Jesus Christ and so I just want to point that out because I like to get on Catholics every once in a while and you know I'm a former Catholic and so you know I love Catholics which is why we win them to the Lord every single week which is why we want a ton of them in Belize and baptize a lot of them okay but these people who want to promote and propagate Catholic doctrine to keep people in darkness are a bunch of wicked you know false prophets they're wicked okay so Catholicism needs to be exposed and you may think to yourself well doesn't doesn't everyone already know about Catholicism well you'd be surprised what this generation is ignorant of okay especially with social media right now a lot of false information is being put out there and Catholics are working full-time to propagate their false doctrine so they need we need you know the world needs essentially fundamental Baptist to get up and talk about because we in our minds are like well everyone should know this already but but they don't okay it's catching a lot of momentum Orthodoxy is catching a lot of momentum and you know a lot of guys are getting involved with Orthodoxy and Christian and Catholicism but you know they need to realize that it is a bastardization of Christianity there's nothing manly about Catholicism manliness in the Bible is to be like Jesus Christ manliness in the Bible is to participate in the union of marriage which is something Catholic priests don't do okay manliness from a biological perspective is to eat red meat amen but yet they tell you to abstain from meats they forbid to marry and according to the Bible that's a doctrine of Devils first Timothy chapter 4 yeah but we gave you your Bible you know we made your Bible oh really you made the Old Testament oh so you you're the one who made the old you want to take credit for making the Old Testament well no we gave you the cannon so are you trying to tell me that from Genesis to Malachi the Jews the believing Jews had no cannon of the Old Testament until the Catholic Church came in 300 AD I mean what nonsense is that and obviously we don't believe that they canonize the New Testament scriptures either but to claim that they canonize the entire Bible including the Old Testament that existed thousands of years prior to them I mean all of Israel knew what the Word of God was from the first five books of the Bible to the historical books the major and minor prophets the the poetical books they knew about all those books and rent and and revered them as being God's Word oh no that's not true it's not until the Catholic Church came and canonized them in 300 AD what nonsense is this you know Catholics are really good when it comes to gaslighting people okay yeah but we gave you like the new to we put the who put the New Testament together Christians did case closed you know and I always tell Catholics because they're like give me an example of I'm like churches did and they're just like give me an example of a church of churches they did that I'm like okay church at Thessalonica church at Sardis church of Thyatira church at Ephesus the churches of Galatia and Cappadocia but then you I mean the list goes on and on and on I know like oh yeah but that's in the Bible well the Bible is the superior historical book though like you want me to quote some historical reference as to a group of Christians that compiled the Bible but you and I would both agree that the Word of God is the most superior document of history to Christians so why would I reference an inferior document when I could just go to the Bible you know why they don't want to go to the Bible though because it proves them wrong and I always ask them you if you guys wrote the Bible you guys suck at it because you never put Catholicism in them you never put the word Catholic in it you never put sad everything everything that you guys believe you just left out of the Bible apparently you know I mean you must regret writing the Bible for us in fact you know you forgot to put Catholicism but you'd for sure put Baptist in there you put it multiple times I'll tell you why because it wasn't written by Catholics and they want to talk about their Council of Trent the Council of hippopotamus or whatever they do and that's when they canonize the scripture folks it's so nonsensical to think that because of the fact that the Septuagint which is not even a book that we would even consider to be legitimate there's all kinds of errors in the Septuagint but the Septuagint even prior to the Latin Vulgate that was written in 400 AD the Septuagint existed prior to that and it was already canonized it was already using canon the canon of Scripture as far as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John you have the Old Testament all those books they were already used back then but you're trying to point to like the 1800s as being the time when the councils came together and they gave us our Bible it existed prior to that and in fact the Word of God existed in in various languages in the first century AD it already existed so how do you know because of the fact that God providentially according to the Bible providentially wanted to get the Word of God out into all languages you say so explain to me then how was the Bible canonized well obviously there's no historical document that we can point to to say this is the person who actually put it together what probably took place based upon what we're reading is the fact that if he's addressing seven churches which are in Asia he's addressing all these Gentile churches in Galatia, Bithynia, Pontius in those areas churches are keeping track of what is canon and what is not. Calisthenia. Churches are keeping track and you know what they might just be putting it on the wall or something so by the time that the book of Revelation is written okay or for example the book of Jude maybe approximately 70 AD most churches already know what the canon is you understand and you say well how do they know though who are they like referencing to know what the canon of Scripture is the Holy Spirit no no I mean like a like you know like an actual person well the Holy Spirit is an actual person it's got the Bible calls him the anointing which you have in you and it actually says that in context of not being seduced so Christians obviously in the first century understanding had the Holy Spirit then when a false document would come their way claiming to be the Word of God they would disregard it because it doesn't fit the canon of Scripture and here's the thing is just like the Catholics are like we gave you your Bible well that's weird because we have 66 books and you have like 80 books in yours so what's the issue here why is your so different from mine why does your teach all kinds of false doctrine and mine doesn't because you didn't give me my Bible now if you want to claim that you gave me the King James Bible then you you basically made your own funeral because my King James Bible refutes everything the Catholicism believes in and so in the first century AD you have churches that are receiving letters how do we know that because he even told the churches which are in Asia to swap letters to read letters and even in the book of Colossians he's telling those at Colossae read this at Laodicea and the one that Laodicea is receiving make sure that's being read in Colossae so they're obviously sharing letters so that they obviously understand what is doctrine what is the Word of God so when someone comes with the epistle of Barnabas they read them they're just like this is who wrote this this is not from Barnabas this is not Scripture it sounds like a Catholic wrote it he said what's the deal with those extra books of the Bible that the Catholics use well the reason they keep those books in their Catholic Bible is because those are the only books that actually reinforce their foolish doctrines like purgatory and penance and all that that's why they need to keep them in there but you can compare those apocryphal readings to the rest of the canon of Scripture and see how much they contradict and so anybody with two brain cells to rub together who has the Holy Spirit of God living within them you know the person who is least in the church can judge those matters and look at exhibit A look at exhibit B and say okay exhibit B is not Scripture exhibit A is Scripture because this is talking about someplace between heaven and hell called purgatory and nowhere in the Bible does it say in that and any of the letters that we have received of the Lord I mean prove all things hold fast that which is good okay and I know you need the Catholic Church to be able to understand the Word of God no you don't you need the Catholic Church if you want to go apostate if you want a one ticket way to apostasy go to the Catholic Church they know all about it because Catholicism is an apostasy of Christianity there is some Christian out there who believed in vain in probably the second third century BC or not BC AD who essentially was claiming to be a Christian and amalgamated paganism and created Christianity or Catholicism excuse me okay and so that's what it is and you have to do all types of mental gymnastics to justify Catholicism yeah that's just it that's that's all I hear on the internet is a bunch of mental gymnastics that people are doing parkour doing like mental parkour to make these leaps these mental leaps of just doctrines that they believe and try to use the Bible to justify that's why they don't want you to hold the Word of God as being authoritative because they know that the Bible completely contradicts it they know it how can you not know it it's been shown to them multiple times that's why Catholicism was Catholicism will tell you well we gave you the Bible so because we gave you the Bible therefore you shouldn't hold the Bible's being authoritative you need the Catholic Church okay it's nonsense and so anytime a Catholic wants to talk to me it's just like well let's only talk about the Bible because I don't I don't esteem your councils I don't esteem your popes I think they're all twofold more child of hell than you I think the whole Catholic system is wicked the only thing I esteem is the Word of God so let's just use the Word of God but they don't want that because the Word of God can contradicts them because you can do nothing against the truth before the truth that's my Catholic rant for the evening I make no apologies about it and so look at verse 10 then said Jesus unto them be not afraid go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee and there shall they see me now when they were going behold some of the watch came into the city and showed it to the chief priests all the things that were done and when they were assembled with the elders and that taking counsel they gave large money unto the soldiers saying say ye his disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept and if this come to the governor's ears we will persuade him and secure you so this is essentially one of the first Jewish fables that's being purported which is that oh you know someone stole his body and so it's not that he resurrected so what does that tell us it tells us that they know he resurrected if they have to pay money to people to have a different narrative which is a narrative that is also purported in the Talmud you know if they have to say this it's because they know that he actually resurrected from the grave so what does this tell me it tells us that people sometimes won't believe though one rose from the grave because at the end of the day you have to have faith in the Word of God whether you see Jesus Christ or not because there's people who saw him they saw the empty tomb they received the witness even from the keepers and they not only did they choose not to believe it they concocted a narrative to suppress the truth okay to keep it from others hearing that Jesus Christ actually resurrected it says in verse 15 so they took the money and and did as they were top and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day and let me say this until this day as well okay and so that's why Jews have such a blasphemous view of Jesus even if they're not as wicked as Ben Shapiro the most common Jew will have that view that he was just he's not a savior he's just like a regular man or whatever that was creating trouble I mean how do you work for Ben Shapiro when he's saying stuff like that how do you work for Ben Shapiro as a Christian when he just blasphemes the name of Jesus Christ in such a wicked manner says in verse 16 then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them and when they saw him they worshipped him but some doubted and Jesus came and spake unto them saying all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth now when it says that some doubted I don't believe it's saying that some doubted that he was the Christ I believe the common thing that the disciples are constantly struggling with throughout the Gospels is like when is the kingdom gonna be set up okay which is why he's saying all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth power referring to authority and of course we know this to be true because this concept is also reiterated in Acts chapter 1 when they actually blatantly asked Jesus Christ when he's gonna bring in the kingdom and of course he corrects them and he says you know the times of the seasons are not for you to know and then he says but you shall receive power you shall have authority and he's talking about how they're gonna have the power to witness regarding the gospel and get people saved that's what they need to concern themselves with and you know what that's what Christians need to concern themselves with today too not the political battles concern yourself with the power that God has already given to you okay I'm all for politics in the millennial reign amen when I'm ruling over five cities or ten cities or however many cities he gives me that's when I'm concerned with politics but until then you know what until then all power and he's gonna give us power the authority to preach the Word of God to get people saved and so that's important he says in verse 19 go ye therefore and teach all nations now teaching all nations implies preaching the gospel you say well doesn't say preach the gospel well teaching all nations we know that it's referring to the gospel because of the fact that immediately after that it says baptizing them and the biblical model that we see is that baptism always comes after someone gets saved and so if baptism comes after someone gets saved and that is the biblical model that we see we can deduce that when he says teach all nations is referring to preaching the gospel unto them getting them saved and then baptizing them thereafter and also I mean think about it when we're preaching the God we say we preach the gospel but we're not like you know believe all the Lord we're not like yelling at them we literally have to teach them those concepts right I mean aren't we all basically like teachers when we're at the door only like systematically explaining to people at the door what our intent is and what the gospel is like where we go to the verse and we're explaining what the words mean and we're trying to get them to receive those concepts and we're cross-referencing why because we are teaching the gospel as well so as biblical as it is to say preach in the gospel it's also biblical to say to teach the gospel because we're teaching them that they are sinners deserving of hell but that Jesus Christ died for them resurrected and if they believe on them they can be saved and that salvation can never be lost so it says go ye referring to all of them and of course we can apply this to ourselves and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost so you don't see there in the name of Jesus we believe on Jesus for salvation but we do not baptize in the name of Jesus okay now we do baptize with the authority of Jesus Christ we come in the authority of Jesus Christ but when we actually baptize we baptize in the name of the three persons of the Trinity well why because Jesus said to do it that way which drives me nuts that people want to push this Jesus only baptism and literally just ignore what Jesus says here in Matthew 28 like what are you supposed to do with this verse and my Bible and obviously it's all the Word of God but those those letters aren't read in case you don't know like basically means is like these are the words that Jesus is saying we obviously know that but you know maybe there might be someone out there who doesn't he's literally saying he's instructing so if you if you see an example of someone in the Bible and the narrator saying that they baptize them in Jesus name but then you have the instruction of how to baptize then you have to interpret what it says in Acts based upon what it says in Matthew because Jesus Christ is the one who gave the instructions to baptize and how to do it we don't use the book of Acts as an instruction manual on how to do things the book of Acts just highlights their actions okay it's a great historical book of the the the church in the New Testament churches in the New Testament but it's not an instructional guide though on doctrine it's not supposed to teach systematic doctrine you can learn a lot of doctrine from the book of Acts but if you want to learn how to baptize obviously Matthew 28 is a good place to go to because this is what Jesus literally said for them to do and you know you'd ask yourself so did the Apostles contradict what Jesus said then aren't they disobeyed if they baptize people in the name of Jesus the way people claimed that they did the way that people are claiming today that the way they did aren't they literally disobeying what Jesus said because he did not tell them to do that but we know that they didn't that's a narrative it's essentially given us a summation of what they did you have to understand that folks when the Bible when we read the Gospels we read the book of Acts God's not gonna give us like every little detail of everything that happened and everything that was said sometimes years are covered in just a matter of a few verses okay but here we have the clear instruction of how to baptize and then in verse 20 says teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you and lo I'm with you all way even until the end of the world amen now what is he saying here is basically saying that once you get them saved of course the next thing is to get them baptized and then the next thing is to teach them the Word of God okay how do we do that well we go out and preach the gospel we baptize people when they're here we get them baptized and we try to get them faithful in church because how are they going to learn how are we going to teach them to observe all things well by getting them faithful to a local congregation this local congregation where they can get preaching yeah but you only preach like three times a week well that's sometimes that's all people can handle by the way I mean that's three hours of just systematic doctrine so look if you can handle three sermons a week let's say you handle three sermons a week first okay three hours of preaching first and if that's not enough for you in six months then go look for a church that has five or six services or something but I guarantee you you will be fed you will be nourished in God's Word and even aside from that we not only teach that you have to be under preaching but we also teach you have to read the Bible so a way to teach someone to observe all things is not only through the preaching of God's Word in church but it's also by teaching them how to read the Bible themselves because we don't want to keep people in the dark now and you know be like these Catholics in the dark ages where it's just like you only have to go to one person no according to the Bible yeah there's people in church the pastors and evangelists can teach you for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ but the Bible also says that you have to read because there's commands given in the Word of God that say for you to prove all things hold fast that which is good to prove the spirits to try the spirits excuse me okay and so that's what it means when it says to teach them to observe all things and all things is not just referring to what's found in the Gospels it's the entire Bible say well what is this discipleship program done though it's never done we don't have a 12 week course of discipleship here it's like as soon as you start week one you go through 12 weeks of discipleship and then you're a mature Christian doesn't work that way you just mature throughout the years and in fact sometimes people regress and they have to get back on the ball later on so it's a lifelong process and of course we have a promise that he says he'll be with us always so here is a good here's good motivation great motivation for you listen to me to serve God because if you serve God you will always have the promise available to you that Jesus is with you but I don't know if Jesus is with me start serving him and you don't have to worry about it like man I'm really backslitting right I don't know if Jesus is with me then get in church and start that's like insurance to know that Jesus Jesus Christ is always with you and laboring with you if you're laboring for him that's a great way to make sure that Jesus Christ will never leave you no forsake you obviously we're not referring to salvation but just in life his blessings his provisions things of that nature in order to keep those things constant in our lives we need to be serving God that's what he says and so great book in the New Testament the book of Matthew a lot to learn here let's pray and we'll be dismissed father we thank you so much for the book of Matthew Lord so many great truths Lord that we learned throughout the weeks help us to take to heart that which was taught and may we continue to serve you Lord so that we assure ourselves that you always be with us not for salvation but just so we abide in the blessing of God all the days of our life you'll continue to provide for us and protect us commune with us Lord and I pray that you'd help us to do so bless us as we go on our way Lord and may we live lives that are honoring to you in Jesus name amen all right we'll sing one last song song number 10 great hymn near the cross song number 10 everyone nice and strong all together from the heart to the Lord Jesus keep me near the cross there a precious fountain free to all a healing stream flows from Calvary's Mountain in the cross in the cross be my glory ever till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river near the cross a trembling soul love and mercy found me there the bride and morning star sheds its beams around me in the cross in the cross be my glory ever till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river near the cross O Lamb of God bring it scenes before me help me walk from day to day with its shadows or me in the cross in the cross be my glory ever till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river near the cross I'll watch and wait hoping trusting ever till I reach the golden strand just beyond the river in the cross in the cross be my glory ever till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river amen wonderful singing you are dismissed