We Shall All Be Changed — J. Frank Norris

Notices for a thirty-five-year custom, I will bring a message on whether the soul goeth to death or the destiny of our departed loved ones. It has been a service of increasing blessing as we face, frankly, the question of eternity after death.

I shall try to bring you a message plain and simple and direct from the Scripture that answers that all-important question. A group of young ladies dressed in white, with all the lights of the audience out, will play for Gold Star.

There have been some thirty-five boys of this congregation who've paid the supreme price. They'll have appropriate music. We'll bring tonight the several hundred, hundred boys from Tarrant County and Fort Worth who were killed in war in every battlefront.

It makes sense to describe their names. And the friends will see their names with their thumbs on them. Two of my friends, two colored people, whose boy went down, asked, called us and said, Can we come?

I said, You certainly can. And regardless of race, color, creed, all will be welcome. This prayer service has had some great mountain peak service in years gone by. We have such a wonderful place to hold that service here in the John Birch Hall.

A Monday night visitation will take place, and come prepared to do that and then come back for the service. It will be a time of thanksgiving, praying for one another, praying for all who suffer and who suffer, praying for the sick.

And as the midnight hour comes, we're going to have a baptizing service. I was specially asked if I would do the baptizing. Yes, I will, the Lord willing, will do the baptizing myself. A converted nun is coming a long ways to be baptized tomorrow night at midnight.

As in Philippi, we've had several midnight baptizing here through the years. And so as the old year goes out and that beautiful oneness in the likeness of His death and in the likeness of His resurrection.

Then Tuesday, the first day of the year, we have a prayer service from 10 .30 to 11 .30 to White Theater. The downtown pastors, Dr. Warren Johnson, Dr. Emily Anderson, Dr. Martin, Dr. Farris Caesar, Dr. Robert Jones, the Presbyterian Church, and myself will be in charge.

We'll have music accompanied to the occasion. There will be a theater going by a reel through on all the nations who have gone down to death in this war. It's an hour as we many else have witnessed when that theater was packed from the last season.

The Two “Alls” in the Resurrection Promise

I do not know of anything better than for the new year to be ushered in by a season of prayer for all praying people. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. We shall all, 1 Corinthians 15 and 51.

Do you notice in that text there are two all's. We shall not all sleep. We shall all be changed in those two all's. It may appear they mean the same thing on the surface, but look underneath and you'll find they do not.

When he says we shall not all sleep, that means that not all Christians will die and be multitudes, ye middens, living when Christ comes. That's what the first all applies to. But the second all is both to the dead in Christ and those who will be living when he comes.

Therefore the second all is more inclusive. Scriptures follow the method of contrast. Isaiah 46 tells us how that all the glory of the world is of grass and the goodness thereof is the flower that fades.

Peter tells us that the inspiration of the Scriptures came not by the wisdom of man, but through the born along by the spirit of God. Concerning the new birth, he came unto his own and his own received him not, but as many as received him.

Peter tells us concerning our baptism, 1 Peter 3 .21, the life being of one unto baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God.

The Timing and Nature of the Great Change

The second all, but we shall all be changed. This explains to us very clearly what's meant. In the twinkling of an eye at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised. Then the second we shall be changed, that is, we which are alive.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. That does not refer to the dead, but to the living. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the same, that is, riches.

Death is swallowed up in victory. That does not refer to the dead. That refers to the living who will not die. Then he gives us the quotation from both Isaiah and Hosea that refers to both the dead and the living.

When he says, O death, where is thy sting? That refers to the dead. O grave, where is thy victory? That refers to the living, for the grave will not contain them, or when the victory over them. Notice here briefly, we shall all be changed.

First, when will the change take place? Second, what is involved? What is the change? Third, where will it take place? He tells us very plainly, when, as to the time. He says, at the last trumpet. He said the trumpet shall sound.

Jesus, in Matthew 24 and 31, speaks of the great sound of a trumpet, at which time the angels shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Isaiah says that it will be the great trumpet that shall be blown, that this present age comes to a sudden end, and every wheel of industry shall stop.

There'll be no argument then as to wage increase. There'll be no peace conferences held at Moscow, Washington, London, or anywhere else. When that trumpet sounds, you'll recall all the nations of the earth to the final peace conference of time and eternity.

Rejoicing on the Journey Toward the Father's House

We need not to fear the passage of years, but rejoice in it, that we'll one day near our home. For forty long weary years, the children of Israel wandered aimlessly, miserably, hoping for the cross. At last they heard the proclamation tomorrow.

And of those words, one sweet and solemn thought comes to me o 'er and o 'er. I'm nearer home today than I've ever been before, nearer my father's house where many mansions be, nearer the great white throne, nearer the crystal sea, nearer the bound of land where we lay our abidance down, nearer leaving the cross, nearer gaining the crown.

For instead of whining and whining about the past of years, rejoice over all the approaching victories that earth has not seen. A very dear friend of mine was talking to me not long ago about how he dreaded the tomb.

He said, it's for me the most horrible thing, that I'm going to be put under the ground in darkness and cold. I said, I don't dread it. I'm not going to be there. I'm not going to be put under the ground.

He said, you're not? No. He said, what do you mean by that? Oh, I said, they may take this old house and do what they please with it. I'll be through with that. I'll move out of this house into the Father's house.

He said, Norris, I wish you'd explain to me what do you mean by that? Why, I said, it's very simple. Why, I said, it doesn't matter what I'm left on top of the ground or put under the ground or buried under the sea or cremated or what.

I won't be there. He looked back at me and he's a man of great wealth. He said, you know, I'd give everything in the world if I believe that. Well, of course, he's given himself over to the making of money and spending it in pleasure, and that's why he dreads to be put under the ground.

Thanks be unto God, there won't be a Christian on earth ever put under the ground. That's why Jesus said, you believe in me, you'll not die. Now, the second question I want to notice, what's involved in this change?

Transformation from Mortality to Immortality

What a change. In this present evil world, in this present world of conflict and anxiety and fear, men are sailing them for fear. In this world, in this world of funeral processions, I conducted some for funerals last week.

In this world, the tears fall like rivers, unbidden down the cheeks of heartbroken mothers. And our brave lads went out from this church and never returned. People last Tuesday, Christmas Day, went out to Greenwood.

A five-month-old baby buried there a short time ago. Christmas in that home. As they sat there silently beside the grave. A few moments ago, Mrs. N .W. Williams, Sergeant Robert A. Nail, Battle of Corregidor, Matan, prison camp was set down.

The righteous from darkness to light to eternity. The victory, the strength, the sins are just so easily perceived. Tell the truth, body of death. Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Possessions from Egyptian chronicling to Saudi, to immortality.

Passes on his life to another as like a grave hog, filled with death. At the tomb, the next is silent, and on. They use another illustrator. That is like detached from the understand, release. It's absorbed in the great universe of life.

I use another illustrator. It's like a drop of water taken from the ocean. Release. It goes back into the seven seas. Not the immortality. The immortality that he tells about is that we, as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

Shall be conformed into his life. Behold him. It is for today a resurrection glory. My friends, his life continues on, eternalizes, begins here. I swift that quick as thought. Eternalizes, begins here.

Lasts as long as God himself shall live. Fallen from grace, nearly death's gonna lose. Plunged into chaos. Not a single one of the souls that Jesus has won shall be cut out of his hands or out of my Father's hand.

The Heavenly City and the Christian’s Eternal Security

Paul says, you come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly, and the church of the firstborn, which are written, which are written, which are written.

Why Jesus said to the seven, do not rejoice in what little you have accomplished, but rather rejoice in heaven. And if our names, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, are written in the Lamb's book of life, I love to think that there's no power on earth in hell or eternity that can erase the name of God's eternal book into his presence.

Paul Kublai Kahn, the grandson of the great genius Kahn, who ruled more territory than any man that ever lived. In the 13th century, he swept down into the center of Europe. And then with his cocking arm, he swept down through Manchuria and into Champ, and built the city of Pekin, built the most magnificent palace, the Palace of Iron and Gold, the finest palace the world had ever seen.

That city had 16 miles of walls around it. And old Kublai Kahn, every day when he would sit down at his meals, he required that all the servants and attendants would stuff silk handkerchiefs in their mouths, lest their breath could contaminate his food.

And that he had 10 ,000 servants, that every day they would bow before him as the wine glass would be given to him. He had his ministers of state to sit in chairs. First day of the year, he would go out on a celebration among his subjects with 1 ,000 snow-white elephants.

He was the merriest ruler of all time. My friends, that we have a ruler that did not die like Kublai Kahn, or like an Alexander Hamilton, that is in the grave, from the grave, and when they took on Kublai Kahn to bury him, horses would ride in procession in front and cut off the head of a great company of his servants so that they could go, they said, to be with his master.

And when they buried him, they buried his 100 wives alive with him. Thanks be to God, we have a savior, a conqueror, a king of kings, and lord of lords, that when we come together with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the seals and prophets and kings and apostles throughout the ages that have gone through life's weeping way, and want their incorruptible crown.

So that's all, beloved. What a change. It'll take place when the trumpet sounds. It means that we shall be with him. It means the one and finally and complete and only victory that we can and have ever wanted.

Renewal of the Inner Person and Hope in Christ

May I close by saying, as you change from youth to old age, those of the Alpha Man perishes, yet let the Inward Man be renewed by faith and courage and all the Christian praises. To me, the most magnificent thing in the world is to see an old man in years, but with character and faith written in every furrow on his face.

I conducted a funeral of a great woman down here in Old Rehoboth the other day, Mrs. Kelly. And that was a large company of friends that had lived in that community throughout the county. As I thought of that great woman with her husband when both were young, stood on the hill, the magnificent two-story white house, and I said to her six children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and a great company of friends, she's not dead!

On the hill to be in the Father's house above. That's what Jesus meant when he said, in my Father's house are many mansions. I was about to go to Brooks Morris' mother. I said to her the other day, I congratulate you that you're nearing the Most of your burdens are in the past.

I have no sympathy for these people that grow up in the 80s now. For they hear the music from the other shore. They catch the sight of the glory from the other world. The lyrics of the city of God that let out from above.

They sing of those they've loved and lost a while, that they shall see again. They've longed to be with our Savior. That's what Paul meant when he said, I'm in a great, great betwixt you. I have a desire to depart and be with the Lord.

That's why he said, and gain heaven and aid one that shall never go weary. Lose tears and gain gladness. Lose sin and gain holiness and gain joy. Therefore, we shall all, may I make this word to my own say friends, have that change in your life.

I love, in sling of the old time expression, a change of heart. We've lost it. We've quit it. That's why the word of God says in your heart, I will give you. And so therefore today, you've been in the grip of sin.

J. Edgar Hooper comes out and says, that drunkenness has increased in America. I quote Attorney General Sondheim for this, a hundred and one percent this year. Oh God have mercy, have mercy on the man that's in the grip of sin.

Have pity on his little wife and children. No Christmas in the home of a drunkard. My dear friends today, take God for the hand and let God take hold of you and have a change from a drunken life to a sober life.

You've got trouble in your home. You married and started out happily. Misunderstandings have come. They amount to nothing. You misunderstand your husband. He misunderstands you. You grow apart. Children are born in that home.

And say, why husband? Let's come back to our personal health. Let's come back to our honeymoon. Thirty-two years ago, there's one actress up in the field out here. There was a man and his wife had been divorced.

She sat at one end of the crowd, he at the other. And their families between. But there was Lord a little white casket in that cold ground. I never shall forget the snow was on the earth. And afterwards the next day he came to me.

He said, Dr. Norris, I said, that's the best girl to die of a gala man. And he said, I want to start again. Well, I said, all right, get right with God. And he did. And he went out and told her, and said, I take all the blame.

She said, no, I am to blame. And they threw their arms around each other. One got a new license to the rave of their happy family. Oh, then my friends today, change, change now. The resurrection comes.

Rejoicing as the Children of God

And all your family circle be complete. The other Christmas day, while I rejoiced, my heart went out to everybody. All 18 of our family present. And the other night when we prayed and said goodbye, I said, we know not what a day will bring for us.

The family circle may soon be broken. But you know, I look at it differently than I used to. Suppose it does, as it may, as it will, that Christ's parish cross over, and we shall all be changed. So therefore drive with cheers.

And again I say, rejoice. What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Behold, we be sons of God.

And it does not yet appear what we shall be. I wish I knew how to quote these words. It looks pretty dark. Here's something I do know. See him as he is. And if the man that hath this hope in himself purifies himself, even as he is pure, let us stand.

Every head be bowed. Every head be bowed. I want this great orchestra to sing when the saints go marching in. Not a song now for just five minutes. And as we sing this prayer in this last beautiful Sunday morning of this eventful year, a year that ended two great wars, who walked down the aisles so happy, met a man a while ago, said, I'm coming today.

Met a man and his wife a while ago, said, we're coming today. Now nobody moved. Every boy and girl, juniors, intermediates, seniors, I'm coming today. I'm coming to confess Christ. Obey him right now.

Come on. While we sing this song, you got a letter. How many here live in Fort Worth? Now wait a minute. Nobody leave, will you, while I give this invitation. Thank you. That's our custom here, and I appreciate the curse.

How many of you live outside of Fort Worth? You got letters here. Hold up your hands.