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All right, amen. Matthew chapter number 27. Keep your place right there in Matthew 27, but go to Mark chapter number three real quick. Mark chapter number three. The title of the sermon this morning is What Goes Up Must Come Down. What Goes Up Must Come Down. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a look at Matthew 27 verses 52 and 53. We're gonna teach the context on those two verses. And then we're gonna look at a principle of those two verses. It's found all throughout the entire Bible. And this principle is very important for us to understand as Christians. Because if you don't understand this and you don't apply this to your life, you're gonna have a rough time as a Christian. But also understanding this principle is gonna give you insight on why so many people in the world fail, okay? And speaking of the world, we know that there are two kingdoms, okay? There's the kingdom of the world. And the kingdom of the world is made up of unsaved people and obviously reprobates, people that are rejected concerning the faith and things of that nature. Now, the people that are in the world that are unsaved and the reprobates, they are under Satan's control. They're taken captive by him at his will. Now, a lot of these unsaved people are people that you and I interact with on a daily basis. They're people that we would agree with on a lot of different things. However, despite that, they're not saved. They are still under the control of the devil. And let me show you the big problem with this. Mark chapter number three, look at verse 24. So the Bible says, and if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand, okay? And that's what you see in the kingdom of the world. The kingdom of the world has no unity. And why? Because the devil is the author. He is the one running it. He is the one in control. Then now go back to Matthew chapter number 27. So again, we're going to see how the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God interact this morning a little bit. But I wanted to spend some time talking about this situation where after the resurrection, the bodies of many saints came out of the graves. And I want to just kind of talk about that and point some things out to you guys about that in context, and then look at a principle that that also teaches us. Now, before we get started, I'm going to say this a few times this morning, because I think it's very important, okay? When you're studying the Bible, or you're studying any topic in the Bible, we always go from the known to the unknown, okay? And so what that means is if somebody comes at you with something that you don't know, okay, your first step is not to go to a commentary, not to go to a sermon, even though that sermon is true. Your first step is to go to what we know, what is written in the Bible, what is specific, what is true, what can we say definitively, okay? So we go from the known to the unknown. Now, regarding these two verses that we're about to read here, there are a lot of different opinions out there, and that's okay, as long as people don't push these opinions as absolute fact. Why? Because again, we move from the known to the unknown. Now, let's look at these verses and then talk about them. So we're going to start in verse 51 just for context. Matthew 27, verse 51, the Bible says this. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain, so torn in half, from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent. So that's the event that precedes what we're going to be talking about, okay? That's event number one. Now, here's the next event. Look at verse 52. And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose. Verse 53, it came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared unto many. Now, here's what we don't know. Okay, I'm just going to give you a fast forward track to the end of the Bible. We don't know exactly what these guys did. We don't know if they were translated after this. We don't know if they lived their lives and just died and just had like basically another chance. We don't know because we're not specifically told, okay? This is where we need to be as students of the Bible. We need to be honest. We need to understand what we know. So let's start taking a look at what we do know. Now, one of the misconceptions, and it's a small one, this very commonly taught, is that Jesus died on the cross, the veil was torn in half, and then there was this earthquake, and then that earthquake, okay? These guys all got up and started walking around town, okay? That's actually not the way it reads. Look at it very carefully. Notice when they came out of the grave. So again, verse 52. And the graves were open, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose. Now, when did they rise? Look at this, verse 53 answers that. And came out of the graves after his resurrection, after his resurrection. So three days later is when they actually came out of the graves. And went into the holy city and appeared unto many. Now, when I read that there, I mean, my mind just kind of inserts, well, they went into the holy city, they appeared unto many, and then they were no more. Okay, that's what my mind does, okay? My mind goes from the known to the unknown and tells me this is what's known, okay? But we don't really know exactly the specifics on this. But the first thing that I want to mention here is what is true, what we do know. And we know that they came out of the graves after his resurrection. So if you study the doctrine of the resurrection throughout the Bible, you're going to find this phrase a lot. And that's his resurrection pointing to Jesus Christ, his resurrection, okay? And so, just don't read through this very quickly, okay? We want to understand context. And the context is, the first events are described in verse 51, and then next, the graves are opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose. And they came out of the graves after his resurrection. So Jesus was resurrected first. And after that happened, then these guys came out of the graves. That's what we know. That's what the Bible teaches. Now, keep your place there. Obviously, in Matthew 27, we're going to come back to it often this morning. But go to 1 Timothy chapter number 6, 1 Timothy chapter number 6. Now the second thing that you're going to notice here is the language in this verse. In verse 52, verse 53, it uses the phrase bodies, okay? Now, why is this important? Well, again, I just want you to understand what we know about these guys, okay? Because anytime you have a passage in the Bible like this where there's a little bit known, okay, what you're going to find that the world does, what you're going to find that a lot of people that just don't study correctly do, is they like to insert a lot of false things and push false doctrine. That's why you guys will always run into people that will want to take you back to the middle of Ezekiel to try to prove their prophecy, right? They always want to do that. Always go back to the middle of Ezekiel to try to prove something. Well, it's the same thing in this passage here. They'll take two verses and make entire doctrines out of those two verses. And it's not right. It's not the way that we do it. It's not how we're called to study the Bible, okay? What we're told is that the bodies of the saints at some point went into these graves and then after the resurrection, these bodies came out, okay? First Timothy chapter number six, look at verse number 16. Again, this is what we know about bodies, about immortality. First Timothy six verse 16 says this, and this is talking about Jesus and it says, who only hath immortality, okay? Now what does that mean? Immortality, okay? That means that only he, only Christ has this immortal body. He's the only one that was able in the flesh to live perfectly without sin, okay? He was the only one to defeat death, so who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting, amen. So if somebody says, okay, well these guys came out of the graves and they got their new bodies before everyone else, okay? What's your response? What are you gonna say to that? Well you're gonna say, we don't really know that, okay? You injected that in there, that's your opinion, that's what you think. Because what we know is what First Timothy 6 16 says that only, or who only hath immortality, meaning only Jesus has that immortal body. Now obviously we know that at the second coming of Christ, we'll be caught up together with him in the air to meet the other saints, and we'll be given our new bodies. We get that, we understand that, but again, we know that. We know for sure that when that event happens, we get those new bodies. But here's what we don't know. We don't know what happened to these bodies that came out of the graves. Now go to Acts chapter number one real quick, Acts chapter one. So again, just real quick, there's not a whole lot about this subject in the Bible, which is why I wanna hammer down this way that you study the Bible. When you're faced with the unknown, you always, always, always start with the known. You don't start with the well, I think, or well, I think God did this backwards, or I think this, or he said this, or she said no, no, no. What does it say? There are a lot of things in the word of God that we're just not told the answers to. We have got to be okay with that, and we have to be honest with that, because that's just the way that God operates, okay? So number one, when did they come out of the graves? After his resurrection, after Christ arose from the dead, then their bodies came out of the graves. They appeared unto many, okay? Acts chapter one, verse number nine says this. And when he had spoken these things, okay, while Jesus had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. Now when you study the ascension here in the Bible, you're gonna see this fact here. It's always pointing to Jesus, that he arose, he went up. They saw him, a cloud received him. Why is that important? Why am I bringing that up? Because I've heard in my own Christian life, people teach that, well, those bodies which came out of the graves went up with Jesus. So really, if you go back to the original manuscripts, what the disciples were seeing is they were seeing Jesus leading up, a faithful army with him, okay? Look, that might sound cute, that might sound cool to you, but it's not biblical, why? Because we go from the known to the unknown. And all we know is this miracle happened. God allowed these bodies, which went into the graves, these bodies to come out of the graves and appear unto many. And that's where you leave it. That's where you leave it. That's how you stay safe in Bible study. That's how you stay safe in dialogue with other people. That is how you win for the truth, okay? Again, all verses talking about Jesus go up into heaven. It's only talking about him singularly, okay? That's what we gotta understand here. Bodies went in, bodies came out. That's it. It's very simple. It's too easy. Okay, now go back to Matthew 27, and we're gonna go ahead and move on. So I just wanted to mention that and bring that up. Cuz it's a good opportunity to preach and teach how, again, to study the Bible, but how to tackle these hard issues, because a lot of us have tough questions. There's no way you're gonna read the Bible and not have some questions that are good questions that we just can't answer right now. Some things have got to wait. You know, when you get to heaven, ask Lord, hey, where are these guys at? Like, what exactly happened? You know, maybe he'll fill you in and give you the scoop on that, okay? But to stay safe, we know that bodies went into the graves, and it says bodies came out. That's where you leave it. That's what we know. That's what we teach. So the next question is, okay, well, why is just this quick thing, you know, in the Bible just mentioned it? Well, there's a whole principle, there's a whole lot more that we can get into with the principle of it, and that's what we're gonna spend most of our time this morning. Now let's look at it again, verse 52. So the Bible says this. And the graves were opened, okay? And many bodies of the saints which slept rose. It doesn't say, you know, they're new glorified bodies. It doesn't tell you. It just says bodies, okay? So we know bodies went into the graves, and bodies came out. So again, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, verse 53, and came out of the graves after his resurrection. Not the ascension, but his resurrection, after he defeated death, okay? There was another testimony. I mean, and also, you know, think about this, okay? Think about being alive during this time, these bodies coming out and appearing unto many in the city. That had to have spread so far. I mean, you wanna talk about proof, cuz people always, oh, there's no proof of the resurrection, okay? Well, that is proof of the resurrection. And that was more than enough proof back then to have a lot of people, I believe, probably say, okay, there was definitely something here. Look, even the Roman centurion which stood by and saw the quake and all of these things happened was like, truly, this was the son of God. So verse 53 again, and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared unto many. So verse 52, you have this. Bodies went into the graves and then bodies went out. So you have this principle, what goes up must come down. We understand that because at some point these people were all born, okay? They came up into the world, up into life. Whatsoever goes up must come down. But, okay, but in the kingdom of God, right? Remember, we talked about two kingdoms in the beginning of the sermon. You have the kingdom of the world, and then you have the kingdom of God. And so what this principle here is, what these two verses teach us, is that the world does prove, okay, that whatsoever goes up must come down. But the kingdom of God also teaches us that whatsoever goes down will come up. Okay, very important for you to understand. You don't have to turn there, in fact, I want you guys to go to John chapter 15. Go to John chapter 15, but Psalm chapter 19 verse 2 says, day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge. So God has ordained this principle and he's woven it throughout the fabric of the world. Whatsoever goes up must come down. And we're gonna talk about that this morning, I think it's very important. Now me, working on appliances and dealing with electronics and electricity, I have a quick, it's kind of a corny little example for you, but I think it'll make sense. I was gonna bring the board out here, but you'll see why I didn't here in a second, okay? So part of my job in fixing appliances is sometimes measuring how computers talk to each other. For example, you all probably use a washing machine or an oven or a microwave, okay? Now in today's day and age when you're using those things, you're dealing with an ecosystem of computers. That's really what you're dealing with here. So you input what you want, let's say in the microwave, okay? Well, that's one computer. Now that computer's going to talk to a bigger computer, okay? And the way that we as techs look at that communication is through sine waves. We use this tool called an oscilloscope and it basically, we can plug it in and we can test and we can read that communication. And what you're gonna see is you're gonna see something like this. Hopefully you guys can kind of see this. You're gonna see these waves, right? And so these waves is basically explaining how the communication's going. So you'll see the communication line go up to a certain point, down, up, down, right? So again, what we're talking about today is whatsoever goes up must come down. And what does the kingdom of God teach us? Well, whatsoever goes down must come up. So again, day into day uttereth speech, night into night showeth knowledge, okay? God has ordained that in the world. Now, a lot of times we'll plug this device in here and you'll just see a bunch of lines, right? Broken communication. One line will go up but it won't come down. Or one line will stay up and won't come down. And then we know that there's an issue here. And that's really what you're dealing with in the world. You have people in their minds that are just stuck up. They're just in the up. They're just puffed up with pride, arrogance. And they can never seem to really get anywhere, okay? And really, what that is, is people willingly violating this principle that we're going to talk about this morning. That whatsoever goes up must come down, and then whatsoever goes down must come up pertaining to the kingdom of God. And I just want to show you several verses this morning proving that. So John 15, look at verse number 26. John chapter 15 verse 26 says this, and this is Jesus speaking here and he says, but when the Comforter, okay, the Holy Ghost, but when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you, now look at this, from the Father, okay? So when we're talking about truth, everlasting truth, how does that work? It comes from the top down, okay, meaning we need to be down if we're going to receive truth. This is why we're told to basically condescend to men of low estate. This is why we're told to be based, why we're told to be humble, not to be high on pride, okay? So again, but when the Father is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. Now go to John chapter number 16. John chapter number 16, and let's take a look at verse number 7. The Bible says this, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you. So what is Jesus saying there? He's saying this truth has been ordained as a testimony to the world. Jesus is saying I must go up so that truth can come down, and that everyone else can have the opportunity and a blessing to be able to receive that truth. So what we see is that truth comes from the top down. But what the world, and the kingdom of the world pushes, is that truth comes from the bottom, comes from down, and goes up. It's evolving, it's always changing. And that's the big lie that you and I are dealing with on a daily basis, okay? Go to Exodus chapter number 18, and I'll show you a story here in Exodus chapter 18 of leadership and how leadership is supposed to work. And you'll see that even in that, truth is supposed to come from the top down. I mean, think about this even in the places of your employment, okay? You go to work or you go to school, okay? You're not gonna go to work as a normal worker and tell your boss how it's gonna be, right? You're not gonna, I mean, yeah, you can contribute, you have good ideas and things that, yeah, that's great, we get that, we understand that. But no, how things are gonna work at your work, it's gonna come from the top down. And then if you're humble, if you're able to receive that truth, that's how you then can go up, that's how you can have success. You can't violate this principle, God will not allow it. Exodus chapter 18, look at verse number 12, so the Bible says this, so this is the story of Moses basically judging the people here in the early days of Israel, and his father-in-law comes and takes a look at him doing this. And his father-in-law's like, wait a second, okay? We need to make some changes here, and you're gonna die if you keep doing it this way, but let's look at verse 12 real quick. So the Bible says this, and Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God. And Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God. Very clear here, okay? No matter what you think about Moses' father-in-law, okay, what we know, well, we know he was the, he was a priest, we know that he was outside of the nation of Israel, so he was a Gentile, so to speak. But what we see here is that he does sacrifice to God, okay? And so the reason why I'm bringing this up is to basically prove that the advice he's gonna give his son-in-law here is biblical. It is from God, it is wisdom from God. Now we'll have to do a separate study on this another day, but jump down to verse number 19. So we see that they're there with Jethro, and they're doing a sacrifice unto God, verse 19, okay? So after Jethro sees Moses issuing judgment to all of these people, okay, Jethro's like, hold on, wait a second here, we need to change this up. And so he wants to give his son-in-law some advice, and look at verse 19. So he says this, hearken now unto my voice. I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee. Be thou for the people to Godward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God. So again, Jethro here, and again, we'll have to get into how he got this wisdom, and so on and so forth another time. But the point is, Jethro is trying to bring wisdom from above, that somehow he received, and give it to Moses. Now what do we know about Moses? Well, we know that Moses was the meekest man on the earth, the basest man on the earth, okay? And it takes someone like that to be able to grow, to be able to be successful. There's a lot of bad information out there today, guys, on social media, and a lot of cool looking videos with upbeat music in the background, telling you today's your day, you can be the best. You can go out there, repeat this phrase five times before you leave the house, and you're gonna own the day, and you're gonna crush the day. Okay, if you fall prey to that, you as a believer are gonna stay down, okay? And down in a bad way, okay, down in a very bad way. Because God has ordained this principle that whatsoever goes up must come down. Meaning we need to bring ourselves down and be humble and be able to receive truth so that we can go up the proper way, so that we can go up the godly way. And that's really what Jethro's trying to get across here to Moses. Verse 20, he says, and thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. Verse 21, moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as, fear God, men of truth. Look at that phrase there, men of truth. What's a man of truth? What is a person of truth? Okay, pay attention to what it says next. Hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. So what Jethro is saying here, is he's saying, Moses, you need to choose out people that are of the truth. You need to choose out men of truth. Meaning people that are humble, people that are based, people that are not stuck up in this cloud of pride and arrogance, and being know-it-alls, and people that are just only worried about covetousness, and material, and money, and how they're gonna be successful. Those people stay up in the cloud, and they come down, but when they come down, they come down very hard, and sometimes they don't rebound. They get stuck in the ground, they get stuck in the earth, and they can never move up, they can never advance, they can never graduate, okay? So Jethro's advice here, definitely very solid. Verse 22, it says this, and let them judge the people at all seasons. And it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge. So shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee. And obviously, there's a lot that goes into this, okay? Being in leadership, like I've told you guys many times, I don't care if you're in charge of five slices of bread. Someone is going to mess with you, okay? It is just the way that it doesn't matter what it is. If you have any responsibility, somebody's coming for you. Look, I mean, and this goes for everybody. Everybody in here is in charge of their own lives, okay? You are in charge of your own life. You make your decisions, okay? And do not people mess with you all the time, okay? This is how it is. But go to Romans chapter 12, Romans chapter number 12. But there's a way around this. There's a way to be successful despite this, okay? And Jethro just simply telling Moses, hey, if you continue to take the great and the small matters and keep these burdens on you, you're going to waste away. And you're going to have a rough life, and you're going to prematurely die, and all of these horrible things, okay? So he cares for Moses. Of course, Moses, you know what Moses didn't do? He didn't say, hey, wait a second there, priest of own. Hey, wait a second, Jethro, God didn't speak to you. What do you know about anything? No, he didn't say that, right? What did Moses do? He took this advice, he ran with it, and Moses is one of the greatest men in the Bible. He's not the greatest, but he definitely, obviously, a lot of the Bible mentions Moses, all throughout the Bible. In fact, so much so that you get to see him at the Mount of Transfiguration. And why is that? Well, it's because of his attitude. He was always down so that he could go up. He was always ready to receive godly instruction, but not only to receive, but also to apply, and that's what made him successful. That's what made him successful in the eyes of God. And that's not to say that he never had issues, because when you study his life, of course, he never made it to the promised land. However, he did the best that he could, and he led the children of Israel as far as he could, and God spoke to him face to face. Why? Because he was based, because he was down, because he was humble. So, Romans chapter number 12, look at verse number three. So, very familiar verse, verse number three, the Bible says this. For I say, through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. So, you look at this verse, we talk about this all the time, and I think it's because it's just so important, it's just so prevalent throughout the Bible, okay? When we take it upon ourselves to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, what are we doing? We're trying to bring ourselves from down here to up here under our own power. And that's what is going to hinder this principle, hinder this process that whatsoever goes up must come down so that it can go up properly, okay? It's going to hinder that. So, taking yourself to the top and thinking you can stay there, that is what's going to hinder us in our Christian walk. So, go to Matthew, go to Matthew 4 real quick, Matthew 4. So, the first thing that we talked about this morning, the first point that I really wanted to make was that truth comes from the top down, okay? Truth comes from God and goes down, but the world and men of the world say, no, no, no, no, it's not quite like that, okay? Truth is ever-evolving, they have pilot syndrome and they say, well, what is truth? And we can take what we know now and we can build it, we can evolve, we can do what we want, okay? God says otherwise. I mean, take any object you want, throw it up in the air, what's going to happen to it? It comes down, okay? That, again, day into day, what does it do? Day into day uttereth speech, night into night showeth knowledge. God has ordained even in creation, even in the laws of physics, even in everything that you see, hear, touch, taste, he has ordained his truth in all of that, okay? And when you look at that, you know what that does? That edifies you, especially when you understand this and that confirms truth, that confirms the fact that God wrote the Bible and preserved it for us. So, the second thing, taking yourself to the top and thinking you can stay there, that is what's going to hinder this top-down effect, this grabbing a hold of truth and being successful as a Christian. Thinking that you can do that, okay? Now, here's an example in Matthew 4 of somebody who likes to do that. Look at verse number 5, okay? The devil taketh him up into the holy city and seteth him on a pinnacle of the temple. Go to Luke chapter number 4. So, obviously, Matthew chapter number 4, Jesus had come out of the wilderness after fasting. And of course, who is ready to tempt him? Who's ready to test him? Well, the devil is. What does the devil do? Well, he takes him up, okay? Takes him up. Remember, how does truth come? Where does truth come from? It comes from the top down. Meaning we have to be based if we're going to get real truth. But the devil, again, he does it the opposite. And he says, no, I can take you up here, and I can give you this, and I can do this, and I can do that, okay? That is what the devil does. That is what the world does. Luke chapter 4, same story, parallel passage. Look at verse 5. And the devil, taking him, notice this next word, up into an high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. So, again, proving the fact that the kingdom of the world is ran by Satan himself. Verse 6. And the devil said unto him, all this power will I give thee, and the glory of them, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will give it. Verse 7, if thou therefore will worship me, all shall be thine. Now you can leave your place there and go to 1 Timothy chapter 6 again. 1 Timothy chapter number 6. So, again, taking yourself to the top or going up another way, having the devil or some other source, what does that do? That ruins you. That ruins people. That is why so many people are going to hell. That is why so many people cannot make it in life. And that's one of the big traps that even Christian people will fall into, okay? They get saved, they take the grace, and then they say, I'm good to go. And they go and try to be successful in the world. And God's like, I'm not going to let you do that. Because God has ordained, whatsoever goes up must come down. And then in the kingdom of God, whatsoever is down must come up. That is the way that he has designed this, okay? Now Paul mentions this here in verse number 17. Look what it says. So Paul says, because what are we doing? We're talking about people that have tried to go up and stay there, that have tried to go a different route to obtain truth. And Paul says this in verse 17, charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, okay? That they be not high minded, puffed up, arrogant, prideful. He says, nor trust in uncertain riches. But in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. So the problem here, now go to James chapter two. So the problem here with rich people, again, nothing wrong with being rich as long as those riches don't have you, right? We always say that because it's true. And Paul telling Timothy, the pastor, hey, make sure you tell these rich people don't be puffed up, okay? Because guess what? You may just go up for a little while, but you're going to go down and you're going to stay down. You're going to crash and burn. So again, the world teaches us and God ordained it, whatsoever goes up, must come down. However, if you want to make it in the kingdom of God, you have to be down, you have to go down. That is the only way up. And so there goes the saying, okay? The way up is down in the Bible, but to the world, the way up is, oh, you just get there, right? You just got to grin and bury. You just got to grind it out. You got to be a grinder. That's how you get there. It's not what the Bible teaches. Hey, if you're saved, you're born again, you do not. You do not get to play by the rules of the world. God will show that to you personally, and it hurts. James chapter two, look at verse number six says, but ye have despised the poor. And then he says this, do not rich men oppressed you and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called? I'm going to go back to first Timothy chapter six again. Just keep your place there because I don't know how many times we're going to go back to it. First Timothy chapter number six. So again, the second point here, okay? Taking yourself to the top and thinking you can stay there. That is what inhibits truth. That is what prevents us from understanding truth and from being successful as Christians. And of course, Paul's charge to Timothy is saying, hey, tell these guys that are rich, tell these guys coming into the church that are rich. Hey, you better not be high-minded because what happens is a high-minded rich person is what? They're intoxicated. Romans chapter 12, verse three, they are not sober. Being high-minded is not being sober. You're intoxicated on pride, meaning you cannot judge properly, you cannot see properly, you cannot execute the mission of God properly. So what is the natural result? The natural result is that you oppress people. That's what he's saying here. You oppress people. I don't think this can happen in a church because it definitely can, okay? First Timothy chapter six, let's look at the next verse here, verse 18, he says, they that do good, they that do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate. That is the job, okay? Now what he's not saying here is, okay, well, if you're rich, you got to write the pastor check for 80 grand so you can buy a truck, okay? Or you got to contribute so we can buy a jet. No, that's not what he's talking about, okay? Be rich, okay? If you're rich, great. Praise God. Okay? As long as you can keep that stuff in check and those riches don't have you, okay, Paul saying charge those guys that are rich to not be high-minded but to be low-minded so that they can then go up the right way and be good or be high in good works, be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, right? Not thinking like, oh, I can't talk to you because I'm a brain surgeon and you work at In-N-Out Burger, okay? That doesn't work. Okay, now, you need to be able to communicate with everybody. Look at verse 19, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. Again, he's not teaching works, he's making reference, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation, okay, meaning talking about his characteristics, okay? You want to take these rich people and say, look, forget about that, keep that stuff, whatever, good, God bless you, amen, great, okay? But now you need to bring your mentality down and you need to understand that God is the one who gave you those things. And when you can understand that, you'll be better ready to help your brother out, help your sisters out, help the church out, help the community out by giving them truth, by giving them the gospel, okay? That's where it's at. And in that process, when you can come down from that and you can take Abraham's approach where he's like, yeah, God's blessed me with all this cattle, but guess what? That means nothing to me because he also, like David, was after God's own heart and God used Abraham greatly, okay, and he was able to store up for himself treasures in heaven. That's what we're commanded to do, to be focused on the riches where moth and rust does not corrupt, things that do not corrupt. We're trying to get away from as much wood, hay, and stubble as absolutely possible, and the only way you can do that is to be humble, to come down from that cycle so that you can then go up permanently with the Lord. So go back to the Old Testament now, I just want to show you a couple more examples of this. Go to Obadiah chapter number one. Well, Obadiah one, just go to Obadiah chapter three, how about that? Obadiah is one chapter, just go to Obadiah one. Those books like that always throw you off like Jude, it'll be like, turn to Jude chapter one, those are the only ones. Repetition. Right, so again, the first point, truth comes from the top down. If we want to receive that and we want to be successful in that, right, the order of the kingdom of God is that we come down, we be not high minded, that's what interferes with that process, right? And then God will take us up, we have to go up with him. Jesus said, if I go not up unto the Father, the comforter will not come down unto you. That speaks volumes to us, so Obadiah, look at verse number one, I'm just gonna read four quick verses here, then we're gonna go to Luke 19, Obadiah one, verse one, the vision of Obadiah, thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom, we have heard a rumor from the Lord and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, arise ye and let us rise up against her in battle. Okay, so this is Obadiah giving a prophecy to Edom, okay, not to the nation of Israel and not to restore the nation of Israel, like I've heard people teach out of this book, it's a lie. Verse two, behold, I have made thee small among the heathen, thou are greatly despised. Okay, so what is God saying? God's saying, hey, look, I had to make you small. Now who's Edom? They're the descendants of Esau, Jacob's twin brother, okay, so you have Israel, Jacob, and then Esau was his brother, God said he'd make a great nation out of Esau, they went off to basically do what the world does and they became small as a result of that and though they were small, they had a lot of victories, but they became puffed up in their minds, they became very arrogant. Look at verse number three, okay, the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, that saith in his heart, who shall bring me down to the ground. So again, the Edomites had this attitude here, they had this attitude, well, we're kind of small in number, but we're super tough because we're able to live in these mountains, we're mountainous people, we're better, you know, we're from the mountains of Dagestan, we're from the mountains up here and we're better than everybody, we're tougher, we have better rocks, we have better this or that, okay? And because of that attitude, they were despised amongst the people of the earth and God's reminding them of that. Not only were they high up physically, but they were high up mentally. Verse number four, though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, thus saith the Lord. And the rest of this book is terrifying when describing these judgments to the nation of Edom. Okay, so then again, another quick example of how the world interrupts the cycle that God has ordained. That whatsoever goes up must come down and then in the kingdom of God, whatsoever goes down comes up. That's what you see in Matthew 27, right? You see people were born, they died, but in the process of being born and dying, they called upon the name of the Lord and they were saved. So they went up, they lived, they died, they went into the graves and then they came back up. And the only reason they could come back up in that circumstance is because they were a part of the kingdom of God. The world, what happens to them? They die, they go into the grave and they never come up. You might say, well, they come up for a split second in judgment. Yeah, but then they get tossed right into the lake of fire. Go to Luke chapter 19 and we'll take a look at how this principle works in salvation. Luke chapter number 19, we're going to look at the story here of a man named Zacchaeus. Luke chapter 19, look at verse number one. So the Bible says this, Jesus entered and passed through Jericho and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was chief among the publicans and he was rich. Verse three, and he sought to see Jesus who he was and he could not for the press because he was little of stature. So he's this guy and he's little of stature. He's small, but he's rich. He's a publican and he wants to see what Jesus is about. Verse number four, and he ran before. So he's got an idea. He's like, okay, I might be small and there's a press. There's a lot of people trying to get to see Jesus and I'm not going to let this happen. So I've got an idea. So verse four, and he ran before and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him for he was to pass that way. So notice here, okay, obviously this is describing a physical event, Zacchaeus climbed up, but this also pictures what we're talking about here. Zacchaeus is up, okay, he's up and he's looking down and he's trying to see Jesus. Verse number five, and when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and look at these next three words, and come down, and come down for today I must abide at thy house. Now what would have happened if Zacchaeus was like, I'm good up here. You know what would have happened. I'm good up here. That's what most people do out here that we talk to, right? We go, hey, you know, if you were to die today, I'm good. Hey, I'm good, right? You know what they're telling you? I'm good up here because you're down here. You knocked on my door. You know how pathetic that is? Only scumbags knock on people's doors. Only people trying to sell me something knock on people's doors, right? That's how a lot of people are. They're like, I'm up here. I'm good. Okay. But Jesus looked up at Zacchaeus and said, make haste and come down and he obeyed and he did it and look at the result. Verse six, and he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. Okay. That speaks more than just the fact that he came physically down from a tree. Okay. When they get somebody saved, they need to come down in their mind. They need to realize that they are not all that. And a bucket of chicken. Hey, we're going to talk about this tonight. So verse seven, and when they saw it, they all murmured saying that he was gone to be a, to be guessed with a man that is a sinner. And of course, right? That's what the religious folks do. You know, Oh, he's a sinner. I've repented of all my sins, but this is a Kias guy. He's a publican. Takes their money for Rome. Look at verse eight, and Zacchaeus stood. So right now in the story here, contextually, he's confused. Look at him. Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I've taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. Now keep in mind with the story. He's come down, but this is kind of where he's at. And he's telling Jesus this, giving him his testimony. Verse nine, and Jesus said unto him, this day, okay? Not yesterday, not when you did all these things Zacchaeus, this day. This day is salvation come to this house for as much as he also is a son of Abraham. So when did the salvation come? After he came down, okay? He came down. This is why we talk to people and we see if they're willing to come down and give us what they think they must do to be saved. That's what Zacchaeus did. Oh, look at all those works I'm doing. And Jesus says, this day, salvation has come to this house. Not because you did all these things yesterday or the day before last year. But this day, okay, verse 10, for the son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost. Now go to first Corinthians chapter 15 real quick. First Corinthians chapter 15. While you're turning there, I'm going to read for you a psalm. Psalm chapter 10, verse four, which says the wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts, okay? Think about that. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. So if you've ever, if you've got somebody in your circle and you've been trying to reach it, okay, ask yourself this. Is there a certain level of pride in their countenance? Because if there is, until that's addressed, until maybe they come and see that, they're not going to be able to come down, that they may one day be able to go up the right way. And so I just wanted to bring a few verses up here real quickly in first Corinthians chapter 15 about this principle, the second part of the principle. So we're talking about this whatsoever goes up must come down, okay? Everything in this planet teaches us that, but in the kingdom of God whatsoever goes down must and will come up. Paul teaches that here, first Corinthians 15, look at verse 42. So he says this, he says, so also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption. It is raised in end corruption. So notice that, okay? The way up is down. Verse 43, it is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. So obviously a reference to the old man, the old man is dishonor. The old man is weak, okay? But it's raised in power. And how can that happen? That happens when a person comes down and says, this is truth. I'm a sinner. I need to believe on the word of God and be saved. Verse 45, and so it is written, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Verse 46, how be it that was not first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and after that, which is spiritual. Verse 47, the first man is of the earth, earthly. The second man is the Lord from heaven. So again, truth comes from the top down. We're almost done here. Go to Psalm 75 and we'll be done. Psalm chapter number 75, then we will be done. So again, what this story, what these two verses teaches, obviously, you know, going from the known to the unknown. We know that bodies came out, they appeared unto many in Jerusalem. We don't know exactly specifically what happened to these guys, but the principle is gold. The principle is valuable. It teaches us the fact that we see in the world, whatsoever goes up must come down, but in the kingdom of God, whatsoever goes down must come up. Okay, that is what that teaches us here, and I just want to kind of leave you with this principle here in addition to what we've been talking about for success. Psalm chapter 75, look at verse number four. Psalm chapter 75, look at verse number four, the Bible says this, I said unto the fools, deal not foolishly, and to the wicked lift not up thine horn. Verse five, lift not up your horn on high, speak not with a stiff neck. That's what we've been talking about all morning long, okay? That's point number two. That's, you know, point number one, we saw the truth comes from the top down. If you want to receive truth, you have to die to self, okay? You have to realize that you don't have the truth. You didn't create it. Man did not create that, okay, because we know that whatsoever goes up must come down, and if we receive that truth when we're down, we're definitely going to go up, okay? That principle applies to every aspect of your life as a Christian, okay? And so the psalmist here is saying, he's telling the fools, hey, you know, you better quit acting foolishly into the wicked. Hey, don't be lifting up your horn, don't be lifting up your stupid ideas and trying to push those as truth because you're going to get smoked. Verse six, he says this, and this is what I want you guys to really pay attention to here. More promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south. You want to get promoted. You want to get promoted in your Christian life. You want to get promoted at work. You want to get promoted from, you know, an okay husband to a better husband, an okay wife to a better wife, whatever it is. I don't care what it is, okay? You better understand, okay, you better understand it's not going to come from man and of itself. Yes, there are books out there, yes, there are videos out there that are very helpful that are very good. We get that. We understand that. Okay, look at verse seven, but God is the judge. He putteth down one and seteth up another. You as a believer, if you want any sort of promotion whatsoever it may be, okay, whatsoever it may be, you have to understand that you need to come down. You need to come down so that he can lift you up because what he doesn't do is he doesn't come up. Jesus didn't come up the tree to Zacchaeus. He said, no, you're going to come down here because I must this day abide at thy house. And then he was able to get him saved. That's what we see. So again, what we see in the Bible for the Christian, for the believer, the way up is down. Okay. The way to get that promotion, the way to go up is to come down. And again, all of this could be very summed up in a very simple way. Okay. Just be humble. But it's easier sometimes and I think it's very beneficial to kind of float through the Bible and look at how many times that this is mentioned so that you can really see the urgency and the fact that this is just how God has ordained it. Okay. And this is why some of our Christian friends that are in our lives that are saved, they're not going anywhere. They're just spinning the wheels. You know, you're talking to them on the phone and they're just like, man, I don't know what's going on. I'm just not able to get anywhere. And typically a lot of times it's because there's some sort of pride or there's some sort of issue where they're trying to get up another way. Okay. The way up for the believer is down. Every character in the Bible will teach you that in some way, shape or form. So again, just a really quick recap. Going back to the context of Matthew 27 verses 52 and 53. What do we know? We know the bodies went into the grave. We know the bodies came out. That's what it says. It doesn't say what type. Okay. That's the unknown. We move from the known to the unknown. We know only one person that has an immortal body and that is Jesus Christ. We also know that in the second coming, when he comes back to grab all of the saints, we know that we will be with him. We will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. We will get our new bodies. That's what we know. That's how we study the Bible. We go from the known to the unknown, but this story does teach us this principle that whatsoever goes up must come down in the kingdom of God teaches us that whatsoever goes down must come up. Okay. That is very comforting to us because we can rest assured that when we die, when our body goes into the grave, we will come back. We will go up. It is a guarantee. It is an absolute promise, but when you pull back and you apply that even further, okay, in your life, you take a look at your life, whatever it is you're going through, whatever it is you do, if you want that promotion, okay, you need to audit yourself and say, is there any area that I need to bring myself down to so that I can receive instruction that God may bring me up because God put it down one and raises up another. We're going to stop right there for this morning. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for every single person in this church and for all that you've done for our church this year. I just pray, Lord, that you'd bless the fellowship after the service, the soul and we have today and bring us back again safely tonight. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.