Christ Is All in All — Curtis Hutson

I hope I know where I'm going tonight. I'm going to preach a little different type of a sermon tonight than I usually preach. And I trust the Lord has led me in this, I feel he has. Colossians chapter 3, the latter part of verse 11, just one expression tonight.

Christ Is All and in All

Christ is all and in all. Christ is all and in all. And now let us bow our heads for prayer. Our Heavenly Father, I approach this subject tonight with shaky knees, because I know before I begin, I cannot begin to exalt you in the way you ought to be exalted.

One of the greatest thrills of my life, since I've been saved, is to discover in the Bible the very importance of Jesus Christ. Little did I know when I was saved, that you were what you really are. I only saw you then as an escape from hell.

You are that, but you're more than that. What I'd like to do in this sermon tonight, dear Lord, is to so exalt Christ that the people here, when they leave, will leave saying, don't we have a wonderful, wonderful Savior.

And leave this place loving you more than they've ever loved you. And leave this place not knowing only that you're all, but determined in their hearts that they'll make you all in their own lives as individuals.

Make it so tonight. Bless me as I preach these next few moments, and I'll thank you, because I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. I heard Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. tell the story once of being in a meeting where people were giving testimonies.

And he said he kept noticing an old man over on one side, holding the back of a pew. And every once in a while he'd try to pull himself up by holding the back of that pew. Finally, after several attempts, the old man succeeded, and as he got to the floor shaking, tears ran down his face, and he said, Dr. Bob, I'm an old man.

He said, my wife is going to be with the Lord. I don't have a wife now. My children are all grown and married. My health is about gone. I don't have any money much. Come to think of it, Dr. Bob, about all I have left is Jesus.

And he sat down. Dr. Bob sat a little later on in the meeting and had some other testimonies. The old man began to pull at the pew again, and he pulled. He made his way back up to the floor a second time, and he said, but Dr. Bob, come to think of it, that's just about all I need.

And there's a lot of truth in that. It's an old story, the story of the missionary who was teaching the young fellow the 23rd Psalm. And he began, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. But the little fellow got it wrong, and he said, The Lord is my shepherd, that's all I want.

And there's a lot of truth in that statement. The little fellow in our church was memorizing Matthew 11, verse 28, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. He came right to me one day, and he said, Preacher, Preacher, let me give you my memory verse.

And I said, Okay, let's hear it. And he said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll do the rest. Christ is all and in all. I was thinking of several things in which Christ is all, and I'll share them with you hurriedly tonight.

Christ Is All in Revelation

First of all, Christ is all in Revelation. I mean by that, Christ is all in this book that I hold in my hand. Now, I don't know about you, but I believe with all of my heart that the Bible is God's revelation to man.

I don't believe it's part of God's revelation to man, I believe it's all of God's revelation to man. In Jude, verse 3, Jude said, Beloved, when I gave all diligence, I write unto you of the common salvation.

It was needful, and the marginal rendering in the Scofield Bible reads it, Constraint was laid upon me of the Holy Spirit, that I should write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints.

You know I'm not a Greek scholar, but I do have a Greek dictionary and I have a strong concordance, and anybody who has one can look up Greek words in the back and get the meaning just like a Greek scholar can.

And according to the Strong's Concordance, the little word, once, in Jude, verse 3, doesn't mean once upon a time, but it means once for all. I've heard people say, God gave me a new revelation yesterday.

I think I know what you mean by your expression, but really you didn't receive a new revelation, what you received was illumination upon the already given revelation. I read through the Bible and discovered some truth, and it seemed to jump out at me, and I say, poor, the Lord just gave me a revelation.

No, he gave that revelation to the Bible writer when it was penned down. It's been there all the while. What I received was illumination, God shined a light so I could see the truth. And that's what he does as we read the Bible.

And Christ is all in revelation, that is, Christ is everything in this Bible. I don't need many proof texts for this, I'm thinking of John 5, 39, where Jesus said, Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, but they, that's the Bible, scriptures, are they which testify of me.

From Genesis to Revelation, all through the Bible, verse after verse, talks about Jesus Christ. A young preacher once asked an old preacher the question about how he should study the Bible and what he should look for in the Bible, and the old preacher answered by saying, young fellow, you never really discover the true meaning of any passage in the Bible until you find Jesus Christ in that scripture.

I'm told in Washington, D .C., there's a copy of the Constitution of the United States of America, and if you look at it from a certain angle, you can see the picture or the impression of George Washington, our first president.

I've never seen that, I don't know that that's true. But I have learned now, in these years that I've been studying the Word of God, that you can look at this Bible from any angle you want to, and you'll see Jesus Christ in this Bible.

Jesus Christ in the Old Testament

I'm thinking about Luke chapter 24, after Jesus' resurrection. And he's walking down the road with his Emmaus disciples, and they don't know who's walking with them. And I'm thinking about what Jesus did.

The Bible said that Jesus began in Moses, and he expounded unto them in Moses and the prophets and the Psalms all the things concerning himself. Now, that is the three divisions of the Old Testament, Moses being the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, the prophets being the prophetical books, and the Psalms being the songbook, and Jesus preached through the entire Old Testament and pointed out himself, verse after verse after verse.

Say, wouldn't you have liked to have heard that sermon? Boy, I would have. I would have liked to have heard Jesus as he started in Genesis and expanded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

As he said to them, here is Cain, or here is God, slaying a little innocent animal and taking the skin and clothing Adam and Eve. And he said to them, that animal is a picture of me, that's a picture of my death on the cross, and through my death you are able to wear a robe of righteousness and your sins are covered.

Boy, I would have liked to have heard that, wouldn't you? Jesus Christ is all in this book. I could have Dr. Howe here tonight, he could start and say in Genesis, he's a promised seed, and in Exodus he's a Passover lamb, and go all the way through in the book of Revelation and say in the book of Revelation he's a coming king.

It won't take time to do that. I'm just making the point. Jesus Christ is everything in this book that I hold in my hand here tonight. Secondly, Jesus Christ not only is all in Revelation, but Jesus Christ is all in creation.

Christ Is All in Creation

Now, I need not preach on this to try to convince you we don't have any evolutionists here, I don't think. But I'm not an evolutionist. I believe that God created man out of the dust of the earth. And I'm amazed at preachers who do not know the importance of believing in the Genesis account of creation.

In our public schools they teach evolution, of course, and I don't mind them teaching evolution as a theory, but when they teach evolution as a fact, then that upsets me. Because if man evolved like the evolutionists teach, then where are you going to put the fall of man?

If man was not created like the Bible said, and placed in the garden like the Bible said, and given a prohibition like the Bible said, if he didn't disobey God like the Bible said, then we are not sinners.

Because the Bible said in Romans 5, 12, Romans 5, 19 says, We inherited the sin nature when we were born. Jesus didn't have that. I think that's what he meant when he said, He literally meant, he has nothing in me to get a hold of.

I don't have a sin nature. I think that's what it meant in Hebrews 4, verse 15 and 16, when he says,. And we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeding of our infirmities, but was tempted in all points as we are, and yet without sin, or apart from the sin nature.

He was not a sinner. He was a spotless, sinless, virgin-born Son of God, who died on the cross in our place, bearing all of our sins, and satisfying the just demands of the Holy God. I'm saying Christ is all in creation.

John 1, verse 1,. I'm not an evolutionist. As Dr. B. R. Lakin would say, I don't have any confidence in these biological baboon boosters who pray our Father who art in the coconut tree. And neither do I.

Once I was a tadpole, long and thin. Then I was a bullfrog with my tail tucked in. Then I was a monkey hanging from a tree. Now I'm a professor with a Ph .D. He not only is all in revelation and all in creation, but Jesus Christ is all too in salvation.

Christ Is All in Salvation

It's not Jesus plus something, it's Jesus period. Jesus said in John chapter 14, verse 6,. In verse John 5, verse 12,. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

It's that easy. Jesus Christ is all in your salvation. I'm a Baptist. I'm glad to be a Baptist. But I'm not saved because I'm a Baptist. I'm saved because Jesus Christ loved me, and died on the cross, and paid my sin debt, and suffered my ill, and paid my sin debt, and I've accepted him as my Savior.

A missionary was visiting a little fellow once, and he had had religion, he had been religious. But she told him how Jesus Christ became his substitute, and died on the cross, and paid his sin debt at Calvary.

He had never heard the story exactly like that. The missionary left. A few days later she came back. He was smiling. It was evident that something had happened to him. There was a different look on his face.

It was showing on his countenance. And the missionary said, Billy, Billy, something's happened to you. What happened? Something's happened to you, Billy. What happened? He said, Miss Missionary, I always knew that Jesus Christ was necessary, but I didn't know until three or four days ago that he was enough.

You see, he not only is necessary, he's enough. George Truitt tells the story of a man who died in a cheap hotel room in Texas after having spent his fortune seeking for peace and couldn't find it. And in this story, George Truitt says, I think he found the peace he was looking for.

For George Truitt said, When they found his body, they found on a table near the man's body, a little tablet sheet of paper with a poem penned down. And I can only remember one verse of the poem. I wish I could remember all four verses.

But one verse went like this. I've searched in vain a thousand ways. My fears to quell, my hopes to raise. And all I need, the Bible says, is Jesus. Jesus is the open sesame to heaven. That's it. A fellow went to his pastor and said, Pastor, preacher, I want to be saved.

What can I do to get saved? Well, the preacher said, You've got to have 100 points to go to heaven. Well, he said, I don't know whether I have any points or not. Well, he said, Tell me what you've done, I'll tell you.

Well, he said, I keep the Ten Commandments. The pastor said, That's five points. He said, I've joined the church and been baptized. The pastor said, That's five more points. He said, I not only keep the Ten Commandments, join the church and been baptized.

He said, I've been faithful to my wife, and I've been a good father. He said, That's five more points. That's 15. He said, I give a tithe to all men who come. He said, That's five more points. That's 20 points.

Anything else you do? He said, I pray every day and read my Bible. He said, That's five more points. That's 25 points. The fellow ran out of good things that he had done. He had 35 points. The pastor said, Anything else you've done good?

Did you get any more points for it? The fellow said, I don't know. I can't think of anything else. He said, I did do one other thing. He said, One night in a country church, I heard a preacher preach, and he told how Jesus Christ loves sinners, and how on the cross, Jesus Christ, born of our sin, and his own blood,.

And he preached that night, that Jesus Christ died, and suffered hell, and paid my debt at Calvary. And he said that night, when they gave the invitation, I went and followed him, and trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior.

The pastor said, That's 100 points. And that is 100 points. That's it. Jesus Christ is all, and salvation. The little fellow went to his pastor, and said, Pastor, Pastor, I want to be saved. What can I do?

And the preacher said, I'm sorry, it's too late. He said, You mean, you mean, you mean, I'm too late to be saved? He said, No, not too late to be saved, but too late to do anything to be saved. You see, son, Jesus did it all, 2 ,000 years ago.

Oh, why was he there as the bearer of sin? If on Jesus, my guilt was not laid, and why did he shed his life-giving blood? If he's dying, my debt is not paid. But, Jesus paid it all. And God showed his acceptance of the price that Jesus paid when he raised his son from the dead, and let the prisoner go free.

He was saying, I'm satisfied with the payment my son made for your sins. And you know something, friend? I'm satisfied with the payment Jesus Christ made for my sins. Jesus Christ is all and salvation.

It's not Jesus plus baptism. It's not Jesus plus joining the church and all these are good and in their place and that's right. But the point I'm trying to make here is Jesus Christ is all in the matter of salvation.

I know some folks teach baptism with regeneration. I hear there's a group out in Texas that believe that baptizing folks in the creek get them saved and they quote their verses and I'm told the frogs in the creek even know their scripture verses.

The little frogs say, ax, ax, ax, ax, and the big frogs say, 238, 238, 238, and I believe in baptism and I 'll talk about it in a moment. Christ is all in revelation. He's everything in this book. Christ is all in creation and Christ is all in salvation.

Christ Is All in the Church

I want to tell you something else. Christ is all in the church, Steve. I'm talking now about the local assemblies and the local church. Let's see what is the church? What happens in the church? I'd say in the church you have the ordinances, is, you have the Lord's Supper, you have baptism, and you have quenching.

Let's take these one at a time. Let's take first of all the Lord's Supper. Christ is all in there. I don't know what you think about when you come to break that bread and pour the fruit of the vine in that cup, but Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do so for the Lord's death until he comes.

Paul says every time you observe the Lord's table, you look backward to his dying on the cross, and what is coming to be crowned is King of kings and Lord of lords. You take Jesus out of that, you don't have a thing but just some unleavened bread and juice.

Take Jesus out of it, you don't have an ordinance. Take baptism, and we baptize. We baptized over 800 people last year, over 800 people the year before last. But take Jesus out of baptism, you don't have anything.

I teach our kids at church when we go to baptize them, I don't say to them, I want you to understand what baptism is. I say, now, when we put you back in that pool like that, that means that Jesus Christ died and Jesus Christ was buried, and when I bring you up on that wall, that means Jesus Christ rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.

Baptism is a picture of the death and the burial and the resurrection of Christ. You take Jesus out of baptism, you don't have anything, nothing. I'm a Baptist, and I baptize my converts, but I don't preach in baptismal regeneration.

I'm not like the fellow who preached in baptism, on baptism every time he got to the pulpit. Every Sunday morning they called him to another church, and he went there on Sunday morning and preached on baptism.

Went back on Sunday night, he preached on baptism. Went back on Wednesday night, he preached on baptism. Went back next Sunday morning, baptism. Next Sunday night, baptism. Next Wednesday night, baptism.

Well, the deacons became concerned, and they met together and called the preacher aside, and they said to him, listen, we're Baptists, we believe in baptism, but don't you know anything but baptism, baptism, baptism, baptism?

And he said, I know a lot of other things. Well, why don't you preach on something other than baptism? Well, he said, suppose you give me a text, I'll preach on your text. Well, one of the deacons picked out a good text.

He picked out the one where it said, the axe is laid at the root of the tree, and every tree that bringeth not good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire and so on. He said, suppose you preach on that text next Sunday.

He didn't see where he could get baptism out of that. Next Sunday morning the preacher got up and said, my text this morning is, the axe is laid at the root of the tree, and every tree that bringeth not good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

And that is some preliminary remarks. He ran back and said, and, bless God, what do you think they was cutting old trees down for? He said, bless your heart, they were clearing a path to get to the creek to have an old fashion baptizing.

Well, I believe in baptism. But you take Jesus Christ out of baptism, you don't have anything. Take him out of the Lord's Supper, you don't have anything. What did Paul say? Paul said, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.

And you take Jesus Christ out of preaching, and you don't have anything. I've heard Dr. Howes get up and preach his sermon on the preeminence of Christ and use this expression. And he would say, if we could go back to our churches and just preach about Jesus on Sunday morning, and preach about him on Sunday night, and preach Jesus on Wednesday night, and preach it on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and just have a revival of preaching about Jesus.

Look for Jesus in this book and that book, and preach Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and have the quiet thing about Jesus, and you have a revival. And there is something about that name Jesus, isn't there? Jesus Christ is all in revelation, Jesus Christ is all in creation, Jesus Christ is all in salvation, Jesus Christ is all in the Church.

Christ Is All in the Christian Graces

And hurry, let me say that Jesus Christ is all in the Christian graces. I won't begin to cover them all, but I think I can cover the chief three quickly. Faith, hope, and charity, these three. Faith, hope, love.

Jesus Christ is all in faith. I don't know whether you've thought about this or not, but it dawned on me one day that faith is not important at all. It's the object of faith that's important. For instance, your faith could send you to hell.

You say, faith send you to hell? Yeah. If you put your faith and your good works to get you to heaven, it'd send you to hell. The fellow who's trusting in something other than what Jesus Christ did on the cross, if his faith is in anything other than the death of Jesus on the cross, his faith is going to send him to hell.

It's the object of faith that makes faith important. It's not believe and be saved, but it's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. It's not believe and have everlasting life, but it's he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.

It's not believe and be not condemned, but it's he that believeth on the Son is not condemned. Take Jesus out of faith, your faith is nothing. Go to hell on your faith. Jesus Christ is all in faith. Romans 10, 17 says, "...faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.".

And John 1, verse 1, says, "...and the beginning was the word, and the word was with God.". And verse 14 says, "...the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.".

Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God, Jesus is the word of God. He's all in faith. Faith, hope, he's all in hope. He is our hope. Titus chapter 2, verse 11, and following, Paul said, "...for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live righteously and godly and civilly in this present world, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.".

Christ, who is our hope, the Bible said, "...when he shall appear.". Faith, hope, charity, love, yes, Jesus Christ is all in love. You know, you may stand and say, I love Jesus, and you may sometime even be tempted to boast in the fact that you love Jesus, but did you ever think about 1 John 4, verse 19, where it says we love him because, what's the rest of it?

Because he first loved us. If I love him, I can't take any credit for it, I only love him because he first loved me. He's all in faith, he's all in hope, he's all in charity. I'm saying Jesus Christ is all in revelation, Jesus Christ is all in creation, Jesus Christ is all in salvation, Jesus Christ is all in the Church, and Jesus Christ is all in the Christian graces.

Christ Is All in Our Expectations

Not only that, but Jesus Christ is all in our expectations. If Jesus doesn't come the next thing, well, not the next thing on docket, I plan to do a lot of things, but if he doesn't come, I expect to die.

Of course, I, with many others, feel that I'll be alive when Jesus comes. By the way, the Apostle Paul thought he'd be alive when Jesus came. The coming of Christ was imminent, and Paul said, 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 16 and 17, "...for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we," including himself and those he's addressing, "...which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air.".

In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 1, Paul said, "...we know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved," he said, "...if I die and go back to the dust," he didn't believe he would. He thought Jesus was coming even then.

But let's say Jesus doesn't come and I live out my life span and I die, then that will be the next thing for me, I suppose, death before heaven. My expectation next is death, and you know something, friends, Jesus Christ is all in death.

I'm thinking of Psalm 23 where David said, "...yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.". I'm thinking, too, of the death of my mother-in-law, my wife's mother.

I led her to Christ on a Father's Day and gave her a new Scofield Bible and I baptized her. She left on vacation. This was a year or maybe later, several years later. She left on vacation to go to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and I left to go to Florida to speak in a Bible conference.

While on vacation in Chattanooga, my wife's mother took sick. My wife called in Florida and said, "...mother's sick, pray for her.". I said, "...okay.". She called back and said, "...mother is much sicker than we had thought.

Mother may die.". She called back later and told me her mother had died even before I could leave the conference and go to Chattanooga. I'll never forget what my wife told me happened. She said, "...you know, Curtis, that poor mother died.".

She said she would lay there in that oxen's tent and everyone would watch. She'd open her eyes wide and look and she'd say, "...is Mama here?". And she'd smile and say, "...yea, Mama, I see you.". In a minute she'd open her eyes wide and look and say, "...is Bunk here?".

And she'd say, "...oh, you wouldn't know him by Bunk, his name was William, we all called him Bunk. Is William here?". "...yea, William, I see you.". Then she'd close her eyes and again she'd open and look up and say, "...is Uncle Riley here?".

Uncle Riley was her uncle who had died just a couple of weeks before and I'd been with her at Uncle Riley's funeral. She said, "...is Uncle Riley here?". And she'd smile and say, "...yea, Uncle Riley, I see you.".

And then she said something to her sister Alma. She said, "...Alma, get behind me.". She was that close to him. She said, "...Alma, push, push. Alma, get behind me. Alma, push. Alma, push.". You'd say she was just a crazy old lady and you were just a crazy old man.

No, she saw Alma. She saw Riley. She saw Bunk and when she died. See, I've read Bargavis of great men and one thing I've read through the Bargavis, I have written down, I don't have them here tonight, but I have written down the dying words of many of the great Saints.

And the last words, among the last words of John Wesley was, "...best of all, Christ is with us.". And A .J. Gordon's dying words was, "...victory, victory.". And Biddy Bray's dying word was, "...glory, glory, our son be with the Lord.".

Glory be to God. And he went off to heaven. And D .L. Moody's dying word was, "...this is my coronation day. It's the day I've been looking forward to for years.". Don't tell me, friend, I've stood with a side of dying Saints and I've watched them as they seem to see the other world.

The old man that founded Forest Hills Baptist Church is Mr. John Chastain. He was wrong on a lot of his doctrines. I didn't agree with him on many things. That doesn't mean he was wrong on everything, just because I didn't agree with him.

But many things I disagreed with him on. But he built a little white-framed church, put six pews on this side and six on that side, which seat maybe 50 or 60 people comfortably. The value of the building may have been $1 ,000 or $1 ,500.

And I used to go visit Uncle John, and back in those days I had no musician in the church. I used to chord the piano and lead the singing from the piano. I can't play it. I just knew B-flat and E-flat and F, I think, and I'd go from one to the other.

And chord, there's power in the blood. Everything we sung, we sung in B-flat, and it would usually be B-flat. And I had an old accordion I used to try to play. And I'd take it out and I'd visit the folk and I'd try to play it and sing.

I used to go see Uncle John and play the old accordion and sing for him. Very poor man, lived in an old run-down house in the front room of an old hospital bed. Last time I went to see Uncle John, I played and sung the great homecoming week.

And I played the old accordion down, and John began to smile. He said, do you see them? And I got the cold chills. I said, no, I don't see them. He said, they're all around here. I was afraid to move.

He said, the room's full of them. He said, they're out there in the yard. See them out there. Those old walls hadn't been painted in years, and the paint was peeling off the walls. He said, look at those walls.

I looked over, paint peeling off, boards cracked, warped. Old pictures hung on the wall, turned sideways, collected dust. He said, aren't those beautiful walls? I said, you say so, John. He said, they're the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

He said, look at all those beautiful flowers. There wasn't a flower in the room. I stood there. Uncle John was that close to heaven. Jesus Christ is all in death. And after death, resurrection. After death, resurrection.

Christ Is All in the Resurrection

Because Jesus is coming, and the dead are going to be raised. I was raised in a church that didn't believe in a resurrection of the dead. As a matter of fact, my pastor said to me one day, just before a funeral service, he and I had the same funeral service.

We both had parts in it, and we were riding in the same automobile. He looked at me, and he said, now, Curt, when I die, don't you tell them anything's coming out of the grave. He said, dust thou art, and dust thou shall return.

And he had a little bit to it, and dust thou shall remain. I thought of verses, because all my life I didn't believe in a resurrection. I thought when you die, just put it in the grave. That was the end of it.

I don't know how I overlooked verses like John 5, 28 and 29. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming when all that are in the grave shall hear his voice. You shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.

I don't know how I overlooked Acts 24, 15. There shall be a resurrection, both of the just and the unjust. I don't know how I overlooked Job 19, verse 25, and following, where Job said, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last days his feet shall stand upon this earth, and though the skin worms devour my body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.

I don't know how I overlooked that. I don't know how I overlooked 1 Corinthians 15, verse 21, 22, where it says, and Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man his own order.

Tagma, Greek word, company, troop. Christ the first fruit, sacrificed at the cost of his coming, and he named the companies of troops. I don't know how I overlooked all those verses. I didn't believe in a resurrection.

When I buried my mother, I conducted my own mother's funeral service. When I buried my mother in the old country churchyard, some of those old country preachers came by and tried to comfort me, and they put the arm around my shoulder and pat my back, and they said, nah, Kirk, you'll never see your mother again.

She's gone. I wanted to say, hush, get away. She's gone. You remember her footsteps around the house? You remember those times when you had a fevered brow and mother helped you? Mother's gone. Now you'll never see her.

This is it. I'm glad I knew something in my heart. I'm glad that I knew that when the trumpet sounded, that the dead in Christ were going to rise. I have an old country preacher friend who was like I was.

He didn't believe in the resurrection either. He got to studying some and found out there was going to be a resurrection. He got up one Sunday morning and preached on the subject when the clods began to fly.

You know, people have a lot of questions. They sometimes say to me, now, Brother Curtis, do you believe that when we're resurrected that we'll come to the ground without making any opening, or do you believe we'll actually make a hole in the ground when we come out?

I really, I don't know. But I'm thinking of several resurrections, and when Jesus was resurrected, they found the stone rolled back. Before he resurrected Lazarus, he said, roll away the stone. I don't know.

I'm not sure, but I hope so. I'd like for the graveyard to start opening up and dirt flying up like popcorn so these modernistic people who don't believe in the resurrection get thoroughly convinced, you know.