Good morning again, and for the
first time, if you're just joining us. Let's stand together again. We'll open this hour's service
with the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. Sons of God, redeemed by blood,
raise your songs to Zion's God. Made from condemnation free,
grace triumph and sing with me. Calvary's wonders let us trace,
Justice magnified in grace, Mark the crimson streams and say,
Thus my sins were washed away. Wrath divine, no more we dread. Vengeance smote our surety's
head. Demands of justice fully met. Christ hath paid the dreadful
debt. Lamb of God, thy death hath given,
pardon, peace, and hope of heaven. It is finished. Let us raise songs of gratitude
and praise. Please be seated. For the Lord's call to worship,
please turn to Matthew chapter 17. Matthew chapter 17. The Lord commanded Isaiah, the
gospel preacher, he said, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, speak
comfortably to them. And I pray that the word of the
Lord would comfort our souls as we read his word today. We'll
start at verse 14. And when were there come to the
multitude, there came to him a certain man kneeling down and
saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and
sore vexed, for oft times he falleth into the fire and oft
into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples,
and they could not cure him. And Jesus answered and said,
O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. And Jesus
rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him. And the child was
cured from that very hour. And then the disciples to Jesus
apart and said, why could not we cast him out? They had cast
out demons before, but they couldn't. And Jesus said unto them, because
of your unbelief. For verily I say unto you, if
you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto
this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove,
and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit, this kind
goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. I was, I confess to God, to you,
brothers and sisters, my faith is, seems so weak, so wavering,
so uncertain, and easily distracted. And the times when my unbelief
rears its ugly head, you wonder, do I even have faith at all? But here's the good news. The Lord has said if he and he
has to give it to us, faith is necessary. He has to give it
even that of a mustard seed. Now, if you've ever seen one,
if you're like me, I had it on my finger. I still couldn't see
it. I had so small, so insignificant. But the comfort to this center
is it's not the length or breadth of my faith. It's the object
of my faith. And the object of that faith,
my words can't even begin to describe the glory and magnificence
and awesomeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here is the good
news to piggyback what Brother Greg just preached. Whether you have the faith of
Abraham, or the faith of a mustard seed, the object is the same.
Our assurance of salvation is the same. And we pray that the
Lord will grow our faith this morning and give us faith to
rest and believe on and in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a comfort
to my soul. I'm so thankful the salvation
of my soul is not dependent on me. I think if it was, I wouldn't
want to get up in the morning. Let us try to go to the Lord
in prayer. Lord, we confess to you that
we are nothing but sin. And we only know that, Lord,
because you revealed that to us. And we ask you this day that
you would speak to our hearts and that you would put your words
into the heart and mouth of our brother and your gospel preachers
wherever your people gather. And you would put your spirit
upon brother Greg and give him the ability, Lord, to fashion
words that are glorifying to you and honoring to you. Oh, and as your people, Lord, give
us the faith to rest in Christ, to look to you Lord, that you would forgive
us of our sin against you. And that we would give you praise
and glory, irregardless of our circumstances, because we know
that you've ordained them. And we take comfort that the
judge of all the earth shall do right. We ask your blessing
upon this time. And we pray for your glory. Hymn number 300 from your hardback
temple. Let's all stand once again. Number
300. ? More secure is no one ever ?
Than the loved ones of the Savior ? Not yon star on high abiding
? Nor the bird in home nest hiding ? God his own doth tend and nourish
? In his holy courts they flourish ? Like a father kind he spares
them ? In his comfort the day bears them ? Neither life nor
death can ever ? From the Lord his children sever ? For his
love and deep compassion ? Comforts them in tribulation Little flock,
to joy then yield thee, Jacob's God will ever shield thee. Rest secure with his defender,
At his will all foes surrender. What he takes or what he gives
us shows the Father's love so precious. We may trust his purpose
wholly, tis his children's welfare solely. Please be seated. There was a time in Paul's ministry
when he and John Mark had a dispute and separated their ways. And later, they were reconciled
by Barnabas. And at the end of Paul's life
in prison while he was in Rome, he said, send John Mark with
the scrolls for he is profitable to me. We've come to the 16th
chapter of the Gospel of Mark and I pray that we can say John
Mark has been profitable to us. It's been a blessing. The things
that the Lord has given him to write and I hope that this message
will be a blessing as well this morning. I want to call to your
attention by way of introduction two verses in chapter 16. The first one is found in verse
9. Now when Jesus was risen early
the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene,
out of whom He had cast seven devils. Now seven is the number
of completion in the scriptures. Mary Magdalene was a demon possessed
woman. And the Lord appears to her first. The other verse I'd like for
you to look at is found in verse seven. But go your way and tell his
disciples and Peter, Don't you know that Peter, by
now I go fishing, I've ruined any opportunity I have to be
certainly a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, perhaps even my
salvation is eternally lost. And don't you know if the Lord
had not named Peter that Peter would have thought, well, he's
talking to the other disciples. Can you tell? the disciples and Peter, that
I go to Galilee and there I will meet with him. Paul put it like this in the
book of Romans. He said, where sin abounds, grace
doth much more abound. My brethren, this is a faithful
saying. and worthy of all acceptation,
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
chief. Chief. Our Lord gave a parable to his
disciples about two debtors. One of them owed a large amount
of money and one of them owed a small amount of money. creditor
forgave them both. And then he asked, which one
will love the creditor more? And they said, well, obviously
the one that was forgiven the most. And the Lord said, they,
which are forgiven much, love much. The one which Satan most afflicts Christ will more abundantly comfort. The one most afflicted by sin are most precious in his sight,
given an abundance of grace, take away all their sin. The hope of that is found in
the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've come to a funeral service
this morning. We finished two weeks ago at
the crucifixion and the last words that our Lord spoke when
he said, it is finished, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. The crucifixion of Christ is
the pinnacle of everything. The cause of you and I being
here, the cause of the universe, the cause of this world and everything
in it is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now in that
cross, the scripture tells us in chapter 15 at verse 39, and
when the centurion which stood over against him saw that he so cried." I love the
way the Spirit of God words that, don't you? John, in the book
of Revelation, the scripture says, saw the voice. Faith comes by hearing, and he
heard the Lord Jesus Christ and the things that he said, but
he saw them with his spiritual eyes. Faith is believing everything
that God reveals. There's so much that we don't
know because the Lord hasn't revealed it, but faith doesn't
question anything that God reveals. And this centurion, he saw the
words that the Lord Jesus Christ had spoken. And Matthew tells
us that he saw the earthquake and he saw the blackness of the
sky for three hours. And our Lord, gives up the ghost. This man was an executioner.
He was familiar with men dying. He'd put many to death. He saw
their flesh struggling for breath and trying to stay alive and
doing everything they could to fight death. The Lord Jesus Christ
didn't die like any other man. at the exact hour, at the ninth
hour, three o'clock in the afternoon on the day of preparation, the
day before the Passover, when the Passover lamb was slain in
the temple, the Lord Jesus Christ gave up the ghost. He's the only
man that ever knew how to die. His death was perfect before
God. He gave up the ghost. And this
centurion confesses, he says, surely, Surely, without a doubt,
I've never seen anything like this before. This man was the
son of God. He was the son of God. He observed
his death and made that conclusion. And if God enables me and you
to observe the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for what it was,
we will come to that conclusion, surely, surely this is the son
of God. Now the Lord makes it clear that
the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the
gospel. Not that he died, was buried
and rose again, but rather why he died, was buried and rose
again. The truth of the gospel is not
seen in what happened, but why it happened. Not that it happened,
but what was accomplished in the death, burial, and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone who names the name Christian,
who claims the name Christian in the world, will just in a
few weeks be celebrating Easter. They'll be coming together and
talking about the resurrection, and they believe that it actually
happened. but they have no understanding
as to why it happened and what the scriptures teach about it.
Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This is the gospel, the good
news. is bound up in the death, burial,
and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at what God
says to me and you. Forget about Paul. Forget about
the church at Corinth. This is God Almighty speaking
to me and to you right now. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel. There's only one gospel. Lots
of false gospels. Lots of false gods. Lots of false
spirits, but there's one gospel of God, one message of salvation,
which I preached unto you. This is the gospel that I declared
unto you, which also you have received and wherein ye stand. You believed it, and there you
stand. We never move away from the gospel.
We just stay right there. By which also you are saved if
you keep in memory which I preached unto you unless you believed
in vain. The truth is that if we go away from the gospel, then
we never believe the gospel. John makes that clear. He says
they went out from us, for they were never of us. Had they been
of us, they would have remained. What God starts, He finishes.
When the Lord calls one of His lost sheep to Himself, He's not
going to lose that sheep. He's going to make sure they
go all the way, lest they believed in vain. For I delivered unto
you first that which I also received. I didn't make this up. I didn't
get it from another man. You remember when the Lord saved
Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus? He went into Arabia
and he spent three years in Arabia being taught of God. And he received
this revelation directly from the Lord. I delivered unto you, first of
all, that which I also received. Notice the next word, how, how
that Christ died according to the scriptures. What did the
scriptures teach us about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Well, they teach us that he's our surety, he's our sin bearer,
he's our substitute, he's God's satisfaction. The Lord Jesus
Christ discussed with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration
that which he would accomplish at the cross. That's what they
talked about. The cross, the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ was an accomplished, fulfilled work. I must be about
my father's business. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
go to the cross to make an offering of salvation to us. He went to
the cross to offer himself to the father. That's what the scriptures
teach all through the Old Testament. That's what Judah was saying
to his father Jacob When he insisted that he allow
him to take Benjamin back to Egypt, he said, I'll be a surety
for him. And if I fail to bring him back, you hold it to my account.
And that's the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born of the tribe of
Judah, saying to his father, I'll be surety for them. And
if I fail to bring them back, you hold it to my account. Now,
is God the father gonna hold to the account the Lord Jesus
Christ for having failed in what he came to do? No, no. There's a verse in your bulletin,
Hebrews chapter 10, after he hath offered, after he hath offered
himself to the Father, one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down
on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting, expecting,
the Lord Jesus Christ is expecting His enemies to be made His footstool. You and I are born into this
world at enmity with God. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
expecting His Father to send the Spirit of God to make those
who were by nature at enmity with Him to come and sit at His
footstool. For by one offering, for by one
offering, He hath, past tense, perfected forever them which
are sanctified, them which are made holy. The death of the Lord
Jesus Christ was an accomplished work. That's what the scripture
says about how, how he died according to the scriptures. And the priests
in the Old Testament were to take that scapegoat and they
were to put their hands on the head of that scapegoat and symbolically
transfer the guilt and the sin of all Israel to that scapegoat
and send him out into the wilderness, never to be seen again, outside
the camp. The Lord Jesus Christ died according
to the scriptures. He died as our scapegoat. He
died as our surety. He died as our Paschal lamb.
The children of Israel, don't you love it when the scripture
says, when God made a distinction between the Israelites and the
Egyptians. And in Egypt, there was darkness that could be felt,
but in Goshen where the Israelites were, it wasn't dark. It wasn't
dark. And the firstborn of every household
of the Egyptians was killed by the death angel. But when God
came to Goshen, When that death angel came to Goshen, he saw
the blood of the Passover lamb, that lamb that had been burned
with fire, that lamb that had been consumed whole, none of
it was left. And then the scripture says that
God brought him out. And here's what's not a hoof
was left behind. Not one hoof from one sheep or
one cow or one goat, nothing was left behind. All Israel was
saved. And that's what the scripture
tells us about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
the centurion saw. That's what Mary Magdalene needed. That's what Peter needed. He
needed, they needed one who was able to bear all their sins before
God. and satisfy the demands of God's
justice. Oh, those Old Testament types
and pictures. Oh, we could, well, we do. Every time we look to the Old
Testament, we find how it pictures the death, burial, and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I love what Mr. Spurgeon said.
He said, when they asked him, how do you preach? He said, well,
I take my text and I make a beeline to the cross. And that's how
we preach, isn't it? That's how we study the Word
of God in the volume of the book it is written of me. It's all
about Him. It's all about Him. Go back with me to our text in
Mark. Chapter, we'll begin in chapter
15. Oh, we already have begun in verse 39. Look at me, look
at me at verse 40. I love the honor that the Lord
gives to these women. They are not subjugated to second
class citizens. Mary Magdalene was the last one
at the tomb when they rolled the stone there and took notice
of where they had laid him. And then she was the first one
there back on Sunday morning. And how many of these women are
called, are named Mary? Mary. Now, Mary is the New Testament
version of Miriam in the Old Testament. And you remember when
Miriam and Aaron stood up against Moses and they said, you think
God only speaks of you, speaks to you? Don't you know that he
speaks to us also? And God afflicted Miriam with
leprosy. And for a week she was put out
of the camp in order to be, Lord taught her a lesson that God
speaks through Christ and only through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Miriam's name translated means rebellion. Rebellion, that's
what Mary means. That's what her name meant. That's
what all these women's name means. And they represent the bride
of Christ. They represent the church of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord loves his bride,
though she's rebellious. And just like with Miriam, he
cleanses her of her leprosy. These women are not subjugated
to second-class citizens as they are in many religions of the
world. And they're not Mary, the mother
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of us came out of Catholicism.
Do you know Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, is
referred to by the Catholic Church as the co-redemptrix of the human
race? That's what she's called. And
they have a celebration once a year. They call it the a feast of the Immaculate Conception
and for many years I thought well that must be the we must
be celebrating the Immaculate Conception of Christ. He was
conceived immaculately by the Holy Spirit. No, the Feast of
Immaculate Conception in the Catholic Church is a celebration
of the birth of Mary. They believed that Mary was born
of the Spirit of God and that she lived without sin and that
Christ could not save without her. Now, isn't it amazing how
when men err, they go to one extreme or the other? They either
subjugate women or they elevate them to a place like that? These women are highly exalted
by our Lord. They're given so much grace.
They're esteemed highly. Their humility and their... It's an encouragement not only
to women, but it's an encouragement to all believers to see that
this is the way, this is the love that Christ has for his
church. And look what, verse 40, there were also women looking
on afar off. And we saw in the first hour,
that's how we worship, isn't it? We worship afar off. Our worship is far from perfect.
One day we'll be right there. right there, see him, the fullness
of his glory. But the women worshiped him from
afar off, among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother
of James the Less, and of Joses, and Salome, who also, when he
was in Galilee, followed him and ministered unto him, and
many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem. They
were there. They saw the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The hope of their salvation was
that his accomplished work of redemption for them. And now when even was come, because
it was the preparation that is the day before the Sabbath, this
happened on Friday. Yeah, I, people want to try to
debate, you know, would maybe Christ died on Thursday because
scripture says that he was three days and three nights in the
tomb and they try to reconcile. You know, I don't know. I believe
what God says. I just believe what God says.
I don't try to understand all of it. The Lord died on Friday,
the day of preparation before the Sabbath. He was in the tomb
Friday night, all day Saturday, raised at sunrise Sunday morning.
I know in the Jewish reckoning of time that any part of the
day is considered a day. So maybe that's the explanation.
I don't know. I'm not going to question God's
word about it. Here the Lord dies on the day
of preparation, on Friday. Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable counselor which
also waited for the kingdom of God. And this is the first mention
of Joseph of Arimathea. And this word counselor indicates
that Joseph was a member of the high priest council. The high
priest had other priests that advised him from the scriptures. And so there's no doubt this
Joseph of Arimathea was around through all the debates about
what to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet he was waiting
for the kingdom of God. What did he know about the kingdom
of God? Well, the only thing he could
know is what you and I know from scripture. And now the Lord causes
him to believe that this was the Son of God. So we have the
women believing that it is the Son of God. We have the centurion
believing that he is the Son of God. We have Joseph of Arimathea,
a counselor to the high priest who put the Lord Jesus Christ
to death, believing that he is the Son of God. And he goes to
Pilate. Pilate's name translated means
possessor of the sword. And what I want you to see here
is that this is a type of every believer who sees the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross as the successful work
of redemption, what do they do? They go to the possessor of the
sword and they crave his body. They plead for his mercy. Please
give me Christ. Give me Christ. There's one that
possesses the sword. The Lord said don't be afraid
of men who are able to kill the body but fear him rather who
is able to cast both body and soul into eternal hell. You go
before God the Father and plead with Him, crave of Him. That's what, look, here it is.
And Pilate, I'm sorry, verse 43, Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable
counselor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came
and went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus. Have you gone to the possessor
of the sword? and entered in to the throne
room of grace boldly that you might find mercy and help in
your time of need and crave, crave. This man put his life
on the line. Everybody knew who Joseph of
Arimathea was. And for him to go to Pilate and
crave openly, boldly, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, he
must have known that what just happened to the Lord. I mean,
at least I've lost my job, if nothing else. I've lost everything
by identifying with him. He craved the body of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have not a high priest that
cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in
all ways tempted even as we are, yet he himself was without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace. Crave, crave from the possessor
of the sword, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one's ever
done that. without him giving them his body
and making us part of his body and of his blood. Verse 44, and Pilate marveled
if he were already dead. They couldn't understand. How
is it that he's already dead? Men lived days on the cross. The only reason the two thieves
were dead is because they wanted to get those bodies off the cross
before the Passover and they went and broke their legs so
that they couldn't lift themselves up and they suffocated. Crucifixion
was a death of suffocation. And just like anyone is suffocating,
you're gasping for breath. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
do that. He gave up the ghost. Pilate marveled that he was already
dead and called to him the centurion, the same centurion, called him
in, said, is he dead? How long has he been dead? The
centurion confirmed it. Yes, he's dead. Yes, he's dead. As we have seen already, the
Lord Jesus Christ gave up the ghost exactly at the moment that
the evening sacrifice was being made. And that veil was rent,
which was his body. And when he knew it of the centurion,
he didn't believe Joseph, but he believed the soldier. He gave
him the body of Jesus, gave it to Joseph. And verse 46, and he brought
fine linen. Now you can look this, just look
up fine linen in the Old Testament. The first mention of it is what
Pharaoh dressed Joseph in after Joseph interpreted his dream
and Pharaoh made Joseph to be the prime minister of all of
Egypt. A picture of God the Father and
the Son. And he dressed him in fine linen
and put a ring on his finger and told all of Egypt, you need
anything, you go to Joseph. Joseph's got the keys to the
storehouse. Whatever you need from Pharaoh, you get it from
Joseph. What a picture. This is how Christ died according
to the scriptures. He was dressed in fine linen.
He's God's Joseph. And God says to you and me, whatever
you want from God, you go get it from my son. You need righteousness. You need forgiveness of sin.
You need justification before God. You need peace with God.
You're going to get it all from the Lord Jesus Christ. You need
the bread of life. You need light. You need salvation? You need
what you hope? All gonna come from my Joseph.
He's the one dressed in linen. And now Joseph of Arimathea wraps
the body of the Lord Jesus Christ in fine linen. The next mention
we have a fine linen in the Old Testament was Aaron's dress. Aaron, the high priest, was dressed
in fine linen. We have a priest. who is able
to be touched with our infirmities. Oh, he sympathizes with us. He
knows what it's like to live in this flesh. He knows what it's like to suffer
for sin. Oh, he knows so much more about
sin than you and I ever did. He felt the full power of sin
when he bore our sins in his body on Calvary's cross. And
Aaron wore fine linen and Aaron interceded on behalf of the children
of Israel. And we have a priest who's seated
at the right hand of God, who ever lives and makes intercession
for us. And he's dressed in fine linen.
He was buried in fine linen. He's dressed in fine linen. The
third mention we have a fine linen in the Old Testament is
that veil. They tell me that it was about
14 inches thick. The veil that separated the holies
of holies, the priests were not even allowed to look into the
holies of holies, much less go in. The high priest could only
go in once a year, and they tied a rope around his ankle, put
bells on his, in case he didn't do something right in there,
God would kill him, and they'd have to drag his body out, because
they couldn't go in to get him. That's how sacred this place
was, where the Ark of the Covenant was, where the mercy seat was.
And God said, you put the blood on that mercy seat, and there
I will meet with you. And all of Old Testament Judaism
said to the people, stay away, don't come near here. And that veil, however thick
it was, we know that it was blue on the top, purple in the middle,
red on the bottom. The deity, the humanity of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man and Hebrews tells us that it
is his, that veil was his flesh. And it was miraculously rent
from top to bottom when the Lord Jesus Christ gave up the ghost.
And not a few of the priests believed. They had some understanding
as to what was happening. That veil was made of fine linen.
Fine linen. Joseph of Arimathea. by the providence of God wrapped
the body in fine linen." And notice what he says, look at
verse 46, and brought the fine linen and took him down and wrapped
him in linen and laid him in a sepulcher which was hewn out
of a rock and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulcher.
So here we have the rock of ages being put in a rock and being
protected by a rock. This is the rock. which the builders
rejected, which God has made. It's the stone of offense, the
rock of ages, the rock that is higher than I, the only rock
of salvation that we have. The Lord Jesus Christ said, upon
this rock, I will build my church. And God puts the rock in a rock
and covers it with a rock. What's the Lord saying to you
and to me? Build all the hope of your salvation
on the rock because anything else is shifting sand. The house
that's built on the rock will stand. And Mary goes to the tomb the
next morning and she says, how am I going to move the rock?
Look, look at verse 1 of chapter 16. And when the Sabbath was
passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome
had brought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him.
There wasn't any time on Friday. As soon as the sun went down
on Friday, that was Sabbath. And they couldn't do anything
after that. And so, They had to hurriedly bury the Lord Jesus
Christ in the tomb and they were going back the next day on Sunday
morning to anoint his body. They couldn't do anything all
day Saturday. And very early in the morning,
the first day of the week, they came to the sepulcher at the
rising of the sun. I'll bet, you know, they were
still practicing the Sabbath laws in terms of how far they
could walk. And I bet they counted their
steps perfectly so they could be at the tomb as soon as the
sun peaked over the horizon and the Sabbath was over, they could
run to the tomb. And they said among themselves,
who shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? There's our problem, isn't it? You and I have got some pretty
big stones that guard the sepulcher. It's the stone of our own sin.
These women knew, we can't move the stone. It's too big. What they didn't know is that
an angel, God has sent an angel already to move the stone. And
if God doesn't send a messenger to move the stone out of your
life and mine, we'd not be able to see into the sepulcher and
find out that it's empty. The stone of unbelief is too
Heavy for us. The stone of our sin is too heavy
for us. God's got to move it. The stone
of our doubts and our fears, our inability to see, our inability
to hear, these are all stones that are way too big for us to
move. The women said, how are we gonna move the stones? Yeah,
I'm the one that, I'm the one that, that denied the Lord Jesus
Christ with cursing. I'm the one from whom he cast
out seven demons. I need to know that he's risen and why God raised him from the
dead. Lord, you're going to have to move
that stone. And when they looked, they saw
that the stone was rolled away for it was very great. Oh, look,
brethren, look and live. Isn't that what the Lord told
the children of Israel in the wilderness when they were being bitten by
those fiery serpents? Look, look at the serpent up
on the pole and you shall live. And the spirit and the bride,
God no longer says, stay away. Now the spirit and the bride
say what? Come, come, the veil's been rent. The sacrifice has
been made once and for all. God is satisfied. Sin's been
put away. God saw the travail of his soul
and was satisfied and God raised him from the dead. He would not
allow his Holy One to see corruption. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ is not just to be believed as a historical event. Everybody calls themselves a
Christian believes that. It's to be believed as God's
proof that what the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross
was successful. This is God's evidence. He said, a wicked and perverse
generation seeketh after a sign. No sign is going to be given
to you except for the sign of Jonah. What's the sign of Jonah?
The resurrection, the resurrection. This is God saying to his church,
everything that I require, I provided and everything I provided, I
provided in him. And the only thing I'm going
to accept is what he's done. And the proof that you have that
I'm satisfied is his resurrection. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
one. Verse 15, wherefore I also, after
I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all
the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention
of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of him. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of this
calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power
to us were to believe according to the working of his mighty
power, not according to the evidence of your sincerity in worship
or your faith, People put their faith in their
faith. You're talking about that, Michael. We're saved by grace
through faith. You're not saved by faith. You're
saved by grace. And God gives you faith to hold
that grace. Which he wrought in Christ when
he raised him from the dead and set him on his right hand in
heavenly places far above all principalities and power and
might and dominion. every name that is named, not
only in this world, but also in that which is to come and
have put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head
over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all. So when there was the demonstration
of his power, it's the resurrection. It's the resurrection. You just look through Paul's
preaching, particularly in Acts, when he would get to the resurrection,
some would mock. Resurrection? What's that all
about? Some would believe. Those who say they believe in
the historical event of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ mock
the meaning of the resurrection. How that Christ died and was
buried and rose again according to the scriptures. The centurion
believed, the women believed, Mary Magdalene believed, The disciples, they eventually believed. They
had to be rebuked for not believing all the testimonies. And you
remember what the Lord said to Doubting Thomas? He said, Thomas,
it's good that you believe now that you've seen. But blessed
are those who have not seen. You haven't seen, lest God's
enlightened the eyes of your understanding. giving you eyes
of faith, you're not going to see it with your physical eyes.
They had to go to the tomb and see it with their physical eyes.
Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're thankful for the death, burial, and resurrection of Thy
dear Son, and oh how we hope and pray that you would give
us faith to rest all the hope of our salvation in him. For
it's in his name we pray, amen. Number 127, let's stand together,
127. ? Man of sorrows, what a name ?
For the Son of God who came ? Ruined sinners to reclaim ? Hallelujah,
what a Savior Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned
he stood, Sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we,
Spotless Lamb of God was He, Full atonement can it be? Hallelujah, what a Savior! Lifted up was he to die, It is
finished was his cry, Now in heaven exalted high, Hallelujah,
what a Savior! When he comes, our glorious King,
All his ransomed home to bring, Then anew this song we'll sing,
Hallelujah, what a Savior! Tricia has put up with me for
47 years, and so we're gonna We're going to take a few days
off this week and Michael, Robert is going to be bringing the message
on Wednesday night. So pray for Michael, for Robert,
excuse me, Michael, Robert.