Good morning. Alright, our text
is Mark 12. Mark 12, verses 18 through 27. Now we have here today, we're
looking at the Sadducees. It's their turn to try and discredit
Christ. To try and bring him down in
the eyes of the people and cause them to see that this is not
the Christ. That this Jesus of Nazareth can't
be the Christ. of God. And so they come, mockingly,
with an example that they are confident is foolproof. This
proves that there cannot be a resurrection. And that's because the Pharisees
say there is no resurrection. They don't believe in a resurrection.
They think that everything a man or woman has in this life is
here in this life. That's all that the promises
of God extended to. And they were so sure that there's
no resurrection, and that's because it couldn't align with their
human reasoning and human logic. They were looking to their own
minds and their own flesh and their own wisdom and thoughts. And what it proves to us who
hear God and believe His Christ, it shows us the darkness and
the depravity of man's mind, of man's wisdom. of his understanding
and what he thinks is right and what he thinks of God. It's just
darkness. It's death. There's no light
or life there at all. And it proves to us that salvation
is of God by revelation. God must reveal it to us. God's got to regenerate us and
renew us by His Holy Spirit, otherwise we're just in darkness. We're shut up to the things of
God. We can't see Him or know Him or understanding unless God
in sovereign, omnipotent power comes and reveals Himself, gives
us life in His Son and faith and communicates that faith,
renews that faith, gives regenerative power, the power of God to give
life to us so that by faith we believe God and we believe His
Christ and we trust Him. And so that's our primary focus
this morning. is to see that the message of
Scripture is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what God's revealing to
us in Scripture. He's showing us our need of Christ. He's showing us that He's our
light and life and liberty. If naturally all we are is spiritual
ignorance, There's only one that's going to take away that spiritual
ignorance. That's Jesus Christ. That's the
one who takes away. If you know Christ, He's going
to drive away that spiritual ignorance. If that's how we come
forth, dead and troubled and in darkness, Christ is the one
that drives that away. He speaks to us. He reveals Himself
to us. He makes us to know Him, to know
God, as He is in spirit and in truth. We're going to know Him
and we're going to see His power and see He's sovereign, He's
omnipotent. Whatsoever He pleases, that's
what He does and He saves us by the power of God, by revealing
this very Gospel. of His righteousness, His glory,
the hope that He provides to sinners who have no hope of pleasing
God. He provides all that by His power
through the gospel of God, that is, the revelation of God's righteousness
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to bring us to have
a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. We're going to know Him
as my Savior, my Lord, my help, my all, my everything. It's the
Lord Jesus Christ. God's going to make that known
to His people. And so we're going to see that
Christ Himself is the resurrection of life. He's the resurrection
of life. And that's our title, Christ
the Resurrection of Life. And we'll have three divisions.
We'll see first the spiritual ignorance, then we'll look at
the power of God, and then we'll see the resurrection declared. Declared by Jesus Christ. Alright,
so spiritual ignorance. We're going to begin there, and
we're going to see this ignorance and darkness of the Sadducees.
These men are wealthy, educated, liberal scholars. That's what
they were. This was the class of the most
wealthy of the Jews. They're educated. They're well-educated. They're a nice little clique.
And they're liberal in their thoughts. And so they come feigning
or faking respect of Christ. They came feigning respect of
Christ, but in reality they were nothing more than mockers and
scoffers of God and the revelation of God. They were nothing more
than mockers and scoffers and really what they were interested
in doing They wanted to create, provoke questions in the mind
of the believers, in the minds of those that were following
Christ and believing this might indeed be the Christ of God.
They wanted to create division and confusion and darkness. They wanted to bring others under
the same veil of darkness that they were under. So like the
Pharisees and the Herodians before that we saw last week, they too
opposed God, opposed His gospel of sovereign grace and power
and mercy. They opposed God and they did
not believe Christ. They did not understand Him or
believe Christ. Alright, now make no mistake,
they do not believe or worship the God that's revealed in this
book. They hate God. They hate His Christ. They hate
His Gospel. They hate that Christ preached
and taught that salvation is of the Lord. They're happy and
content to hear of man's works, of man's will, of man's worth. They're happy with that, but
they don't want to hear that. Wait. I need to depend on God
to save me? That's who saves me? God? I've
got to trust Him and bow before Him and come humbly before Him
asking for mercy and grace and forgiveness? I don't want to
do that. What about my works and my worth
and what I've done? Praise me for that. But that's
not the truth of God. So they come and they call Him
Master and they quoted from Moses and they pretended to ask a sincere
question. They looked good from the outside.
They seemed sincere. But in reality, they're liars,
dead in trespasses and sins. Alright, so let's look at that.
Here's their argument now in Mark 12. We're going to begin
in verse 18 and read down to verse 23. Then come unto him
the Sadducees. which say there is no resurrection. And they asked him, saying, Master,
Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave
his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother
should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Alright,
now here's their argument. That's the truth, that's what
Moses wrote. Now here's their argument, verse 20. Now there
were seven brethren, and the first took a wife, and dying
left no seed. And the second took her, and
he died, neither left he any seed, and the third likewise. And the seven had her, and left
no seed, last of all the woman died also. That's their argument. Now here's their question, their
insincere mocking question. In the resurrection, therefore,
when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? For the
seven had her to wife. Now, these men are in utter darkness. Religious? Yeah, they're religious,
but they don't know God. They don't have life or light
or understanding. They're in spiritual darkness
and ignorance. They're ignorant of the truth
of God. And that's because only the truth and power of God is
able to save a sinner, to break them out of the spiritual prison,
the darkness that we're bound in, because until God makes it
known to us, we don't know it. I can say it, you can hear the
words coming out of my mouth, but you don't believe it until
God gives it to you and reveals it to you and makes you to know
Yes, indeed, I'm the one who's bound in death and in sin and
in darkness and I need his grace to deliver me. Just think back and remember
these fellows and how insincere they are. And they'll trouble
you. They'll come and with mocking
insincere questions, trying to provoke questions, and trying
to create trouble and stir up trouble, they're going to come. And don't feel any obligation
that you have to convince them of truth. If you must answer
them, do your best to answer them just with plain scripture
and leave it at that and if they're just going to argue, just walk
away. You're not obliged to convince
them of the truth and you will meet and run into people that
don't want to hear. But if you're speaking to someone that is sincerely
asking, that does want to know and is interested, and they may
be asking questions, but they want to hear. They're listening,
and you can tell, by all means, speak to them and preach to them
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what men need more than
anything, is the Lord Jesus Christ, because He's the only one that's
going to drive away spiritual darkness and depravity. Only
Christ can do that. He's the only one. So we preach
Jesus Christ. And that's one of the first things
I want us to see is that the message of Scripture is all about
Jesus Christ. It's all about Christ and Him
crucified. Turn over to John 5. John chapter
5 and go to verse 39. And we'll look at verse 40 as
well. John 5, 39 and 40. Our Lord says, search the scriptures,
for in them ye think ye have eternal life. And that's true. We understand that because people
think that in their religion, in their practice of religion,
is their eternal life. That's their acceptance with
God. We know that. You're going to church and you're
reading your Bible and saying your prayers, doing good works,
putting money in the plate. Doing these things being nice
to one another the people think this is my religion and this
is this is my life This is how God is pleased with me and Christ
says search those scriptures because you think you have eternal
life But he clarifies a very important truth for them. He
says they are they which testify of me of me, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the scriptures are
speaking of. That's what God is revealing to us. That's who
God is revealing. And he says, and ye will not
come to me that ye might have life. Man will never come to
the Lord Jesus Christ by his own will. Never. Man will not
come to the true and living God. Christ and Christ alone is the
one who reveals himself to them and draws that sinner to himself
through the life and the power of God which he gives and what
he exerts upon a sinner and what he does for the sinner. So I
read that so that you see the truth of what Christ said. The
scriptures are pointing to me and you, in your flesh, and me
too, in our flesh, we will never come to Christ. We will never
bow before God unless God does a work for us in grace and mercy,
in revelation and in power. and drawing us to Himself. He's got to do it. That's why
in Romans 10-17, that's why we preach the Gospel, we preach
it knowing it's not of us, we're not sufficient for these things,
I can't make you believe, I can't give you life and salvation in
Him. We preach and declare the truth because as it pleases the
Spirit of God, as He attends that Word, He brings it home
to the heart with power, giving faith, giving life, giving light
and liberty to the dead sinner and draws them, calls them out
of that prison of darkness and death that they're in and brings
them out. and gives them life to see and
to know the true and living God. And that's why Paul said in Romans
10, 17, So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing the word
of God. That's why we're preaching the
word of God and declaring these truths because when it pleases
God, He'll fall upon you. and he'll give you the power
and draw you out of that dark prison that we are all born into
by nature. All right, now turn it over to
Luke 24. Luke 24, and we'll look at a few verses there. Verse
27. Luke 24, 27. This is Christ speaking to two
men on the road to Emmaus after his crucifixion, and they don't
know or believe that he's been raised from the dead yet. And
it says, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, Christ expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Because there's nothing more
needful than to know Christ. We have one thing needful, to
know the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 32. Look at verse 32. This
is after Christ departed from them. And they said one to another,
did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by
the way and while he opened to us the scriptures? And the sweet
truth of that is that I declare to you Christ. We preach and
declare the Lord Jesus Christ, but the hope, my prayer is for
you is that Christ speaks with you. By the way, as we're going
through this life, that it's the Lord Jesus Christ that's
speaking to your hearts and causing your hearts to burn in love and
in hope to him. Not me, not your works, not you,
but to the Lord Jesus Christ, because He's the one that's got
to open these scriptures to you. He's the one, through the preaching
of His truth, through the preaching of His gospel, I trust, I'm so
confident, that that's how God saves, we declare Christ, and
He trusts that He's the one who's opening the scriptures to you.
Alright, so that's why I preach. Now look at verses 44 and 45,
Luke 24, 44 and 45. This is now Christ appearing
to his apostles. And he said unto them, these
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. So he's pointing to Christ, or
he's directed to Christ. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. So I'm trying to
be as faithful as I can to preach to you. God's righteousness,
God's salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the mystery of
godliness. It's Christ entrusting you to
him that he's opening your understanding, opening the scriptures to you
that you might understand what God has provided for his people
in his Son. Jesus Christ, all right? So it's
through His power and regeneration that we are enabled to see Him,
to behold Him, to behold our and heed of Him and that He is
the fit Lamb of God, the perfection of God who makes us the very
perfection of God and by whom we are accepted with God. Now, A lot of people trust in
their doctrinal knowledge, but it's not your doctrinal knowledge
that saves you. It's not your understanding and
memorization of catechisms. It's not your obedience to the
law, your knowledge of the history, your knowledge of the church,
your ability to speak of these things. Now we can't know Christ
apart from a doctrinal knowledge. He's going to teach us the truth
so that we do know Him. But you can know doctrinal knowledge
and not know Christ. And that's the danger. That's
why there's so many people who just don't know. and believe
him. So we preach Christ. That's why
we emphasize over and over, ad nauseum to some I'm sure, but
we preach Jesus Christ because he's the one who opens the scriptures,
he's the one who gives understanding, he's the one who drives away
that spiritual ignorance and darkness that we all come forth
in this flesh having. or it is dead to the things of
God until he makes us alive to the truth of himself. Alright,
so we must know God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to
John 14 verse 6. Jesus said unto him, I I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me," the Lord Jesus Christ said. So if we know God, we will
know the true and living God, that he is spirit and we shall
worship him by spirit and in truth through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Otherwise, we're just a dead
hunk of flesh that knows nothing but darkness. All right? So Christ
is our very life. He's our very understanding,
our wisdom, our redemption, our regeneration, our sanctification,
our justification. He's our hope, our joy, our peace,
our acceptance with God. Christ is all. Just as Paul said
in Colossians, Christ is all and in all. He's everything that
we need. Alright, now that leads us to
the next point, the power of God. Look at verse 24 back in
our text, Mark 12 verse 24. And Jesus answering said unto
them, Do ye not therefore err? He heard what we just read, what
they said. He heard it. And he said, Do
ye not therefore err? Because ye know not the Scriptures,
neither the power of God. Now all error that men hold,
all this foolishness and darkness that men hold on to, it can all
be traced back to their ignorance of the power of God. It can be
traced back to their ignorance of the power of God. So man's
ignorance is seen in these three things. Their ignorance of God's
sovereignty. They don't understand and don't
believe and don't realize that God is sovereign, meaning He's
in control of everything. Everything that's going on, God
is sovereign over it. He is God, there's no other God,
and there's none like God, and if He's God, then He can't not
be God, which means He's sovereign and in control of all things.
He's not just a superhuman, a special man, He's God. He's God and He
is Spirit. Another thing they're ignorant
of is God's omnipotence. God's ability to do exactly as
He pleases. And it's all done in accordance
with His own mind, with His own will, according to His purpose,
and good pleasure. That's what he does. And what
he wants to do? He's omnipotent. All powerful. That means whatever
he wants to do, that's what he's doing. And none is stopping him
or staying his hand or smacking his hand and saying, what do
is that? No man can do that. He's God and he does whatsoever
he pleases. And then the third thing we see
is that they're ignorant of God's gospel. That is, that the Gospel
of God that He's revealed to us, this mystery of godliness,
is the power of God unto salvation. He saves by no other than the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's not your will. It's not
your works. It's not your worth. God isn't
begging and pleading with us. God's doing as it pleases Him,
and He's saving His people according to His will. his purpose, his
good pleasure. He's doing exactly what needs
to be done as it pleases him. So all false religion denies
these three truths. So in their ignorance of these
three truths, that's why you hear the craziest things coming
out of people's mouths. The most foolish, darkened, dead
things come out of people's mouths or blogs that they're writing
on because they are completely ignorant of these things, of
God's sovereignty, His omnipotence, and His gospel. They don't believe
it or understand it, and that's why men and women say the stupidest,
most foolish things about God. And they challenge God, and they
challenge you, and they say all manner of nonsense and darkness,
because all they are is darkness. All they are is in death. Alright? And so, I would just say to you
that don't believe Christ. Don't look to Christ for all
your hope and righteousness. Be very Carefully, don't judge
God by your puny mind and understanding. If you can't reconcile something
and you're saying, well, until I understand this, unless somebody
can explain this to me, be very careful because we're puny minded. We don't know all the things
of God. God didn't call us and tell us,
you've got to figure out everything now. You've got to know how this
works and how that works and why this is the way it is and
can you explain this mystery and that mystery that's troubling
man? No. God says there's one mystery
that you need to know and I've revealed it in my son Jesus Christ,
the mystery of godliness. You find yourself in him. That's
where you need to be is in the Lord Jesus Christ and everything
else will take care of itself. Don't worry about it. God will
make things known in the time when it pleases him to make them
known. We're not called to know all mysteries and solve everything.
God just tells us, you look to Christ because there's a judgment
coming and there's strong delusion sweeping over men and women all
around the world, always has and will continue to be till
the end. Great strong delusion and people all sorts of confused
and in darkness and speaking every kind of nonsense. But you
look to Christ. You trust Him and rest right
there because that's where I'm going to meet you. I'm going
to meet you in Christ. You know, everything will be
fine for you who come to me in Christ, but all you that trust
in your own works and say, well, no, not so fast. I've got to
figure this out and solve this riddle and this mystery. You're
going to stand before him outside of Christ in your own works,
naked and utterly ashamed. Alright, so you seek to know
the true and living God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Alright,
so God sovereignly does according to His will, and He's revealing
it to whom He will. He's revealing it, making it
known. Turn over to Ephesians 1. And just stay in Ephesians
for a bit. I'm going to read a couple verses,
and I'll read a couple others from elsewhere, but just stay
in Ephesians 1. There's three we'll see here.
Ephesians 1, 9. He says, having made known unto
us, see it's God who makes this known unto us, the mystery of
his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed
in himself. See, I didn't make that up. This
is what God says. This is what he says in his word
about him. He's doing according to his good pleasure, and it
pleases him to make known that which was hidden and not known.
until He revealed it, the mystery of His will, that is, His power,
His righteousness through the Lord Jesus Christ to save His
people. Alright? Next we see that God sovereignly
does according to His purpose in election and predestination. Look at verse 11 there in Ephesians
1, 11. In whom also we have obtained, we've received, been given an
inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of God
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."
So it's not that man changes God's mind by doing some extra
good works. cleaning up his act. He's not
changing God's mind towards him. God is of his own mind and of
his own will and of his own pleasure and he's doing as it pleases
him. So God chose whom he would after
the counsel of his own will according to his good pleasure. Alright, apart from man's works,
having done any good or evil, God does as it pleases Him. Alright,
now God sovereignly, effectually, irresistibly calls His saints
through His Gospel. He does this sovereignly. He's
the one that does the calling and it's irresistible when He
calls. What He wants to do, He's going to do and He's going to
save His lost sheep. He's going to bring them home.
I'll read it to you. It's 2 Thessalonians 2.14. He
says, Paul says, where unto? He called you by our gospel. God revealed this gospel to us
and he's calling his sheep home by this very gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So it's effectual. He's going to obtain that which
Christ redeemed, that which Christ paid for with his own blood,
he's going to obtain. In time, as it pleases Him, when
it pleases Him, irresistibly He will call you by this Gospel
and draw you to Himself. Alright? Our Gospel is one of
redemption through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the purchase price. On our works, we didn't atone
for our sins. Christ made atonement. He reconciled us to God by the
shedding of his own blood when he died there on the cross under
the wrath and judgment of God in the place of his people. Because
Christ is a substitute. He's our shorty. He agreed to
pay that debt, which we could never pay. We couldn't do it.
We're not righteous and good. We're not eternal of ourselves,
so our work isn't eternal. Christ is eternal, and his work's
eternal and effectual to the uttermost to sanctify us and
reconcile us to holy, living God. Look at that, Ephesians
1-7. Ephesians 1-7. He says, in whom, in Christ,
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins
according to the riches of His grace. So we are the purchased
possession according to the faith and the faithful work of Jesus
Christ. You look to Christ and His work
and His work alone. Don't be looking to your faith
and your works and what you've done or haven't done. Forget
it all. You look to Christ, because that's
where God's looking. That's where God meets his people.
It's right there in Jesus Christ, his blessed, glorious Son, in
whom he's well pleased. Alright? Now we are so spiritually
dead, what we see is that we've got to be regenerated. We've
got to have this darkness and deadness and filth driven away. And God does that through revelation
by His Spirit, giving us life and making us to know these things,
illuminating our mind, enrolling us in the knowledge and belief
of what God really has accomplished for us perfectly in his son Jesus
Christ. He's growing us in this. That's
why we come and we hear it because he's settling us and helping
us to hear it by giving us faith as we hear this gospel blessed
word time after time after time after time because you know what
the flesh does as soon as you're not hearing the word. Whether
you're sitting here distracted or you leave the doors and you're
distracted and oogled and awed by the world, the Lord is the
one who brings you and keeps you and holds you in himself
so that you're not lost and deceived with the rest of the world. And
it pleases him to keep feeding us. This nourishing word is Son
Jesus Christ. We feed upon him We drink his
blood. We eat his flesh. We drink his
blood. And that's spiritual. That is spiritual. And he's the
one that delivers us from that darkness. Right? Paul said, Titus
3, 5, and 6, not by works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly
by or through Jesus Christ our Savior." Now, I realize that
I say these things, but No one, no religious person, no irreligious
person can ever know what I'm saying until, but you who have
experienced grace, you who have been delivered from that prison
of darkness, that dungy, dank, stank prison of our filth and
our flesh, you that have been delivered, you know, you feel,
you've experienced the grace of God shed abroad in your hearts
turning you away from self and looking to Christ and saying,
there's my hope, there's my righteousness, there's my all. Lord, thank you. And you bless the living God
for what he's provided for us through his son, Jesus Christ.
All right? None that have, if you've never
experienced it, you don't know what I'm saying, but if you've
experienced it, you know exactly what, what I'm saying. All right? So Christ Without the revelation
of God, without the revelation of God, Christ will just be another
doctrine in the library of our dead letter religion. Without
that revelation of God, Christ is just another book on the shelf
of the library of our dead letter religion, and we won't know him.
So God's got to reveal these truths. He's got to reveal Christ
in us, the hope of glory. So it's all of God's work. Now
this brings us nicely to our third and final point, the resurrection
declare. The resurrection declare. So
Christ declares to us here, when he's speaking to these Sadducees,
he's declaring to us there is a resurrection. There is a resurrection
of the dead. First he answers the Sadducees,
right, though they came mocking, he sets them straight. It's for
our benefit. It's for our benefits that we
know. Mark 12, 25. for when they shall rise now.
He's saying there's going to be a resurrection for when they
shall rise from the dead they neither marry nor are given in
marriage but are as the angels which are in heaven. Those men
just invented, they just came up with their own thought of
how there could be no resurrection because they invented what they
thought had to be logically concluded by their own wisdom and reasoning.
But Christ said, you're not even in the ballpark. You don't even
understand. When they're raised, they're not like we are now.
They're like the angels in heaven. So what we can see from that
is just that we're not going to have the same carnal afflictions
and weaknesses and passions and lusts and all these things that
we experience in this flesh which has fallen in Adam, and it's
hard for us to even comprehend not being like this, because
it's all that we know is this darkness, but we won't have these
same weaknesses and all these flaws and sins and passions pulling
us away from God. That's not going to be there.
We'll have a resurrected body, a new body, like unto Christ's
glorified body. We'll be So there's not going
to be a marriage or procreation because no one's dying off. No
one's getting sick. There's no sorrow. There's no
sickness. There's no death. It doesn't
exist with the Lord. And we also know there's not
going to be cliques and divisions and family units. All that's
going to be washed away. We're going to love each other
and we're going to rejoice as one body in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we may still recognize,
we'll know each other, but we won't know each other after the
manner that we know each other today. So the scriptures declare
the resurrection of our bodies. I'll show you in Job 19. Job 19, verses 25 and 26. That's right before Psalms there. Job, which is believed to be
the oldest book of the Bible by many. And this man knew of the resurrection.
He says there, Job 19.25, For I know that my Redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And
though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall
I see God. We're going to see the living
God. We're going to see Him in His
glory and His wonder and power and all. We're going to see Him
in a resurrected body. And I'll read from the prophets.
Isaiah, this is one of my favorites concerning the resurrection.
We'll see it in a couple weeks, but Isaiah 26, Isaiah 26 verse
19. Here the prophet says, Thy dead
men shall live. Together with my dead body shall
they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell
in the dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth
shall cast out. her dead. She's going to push
out and cast out the dead. They'll be raised at the command
of God. He's going to raise up all his
people and give them a new glorified body. Now, I should say that
this resurrection isn't just for the just. This resurrection
shall also be for the unjust, those who have no part in Christ,
those who belittle Christ, who think lightly of Christ, who
mock Christ, who don't need Christ. They're going to be raised as
well. It says in Daniel chapter 12 verse 2, Daniel 12 verse 2,
he said, and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth
shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting
content. Every one of us here is going
to be raised, some to everlasting life, some to everlasting shame
and contempt. I think that's what the scriptures
teach. Now turn over to John 5, John
5, and we'll look at verses 28 and 29. And here Christ echoes
the words of Daniel. He says it, what Daniel said. First we'll read John 5, 28. Christ said, don't marvel at
this, don't marvel that I'm speaking to you that I raised people up
from their dead, from the dead of their flesh. Don't marvel
at that, he said, because the hour is coming in the which all
that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come
forth," here's what he says, it's like Daniel's, they shall
come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of
life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of
damnation. So, and just so you know, they
that have done good, there's only one who is good. There's
only one in whom we are good and whom we are accepted of the
Father. That's in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the good we do,
to believe on the one whom he has sent. Believe on the one
whom God has sent. That's the only good work that
we do and that's not of this flesh. That's produced in us,
given to us. That faith, that fruit is produced
in us and given to us and exercised in us by the Spirit of the living
God who gives that to his people. That faith to believe and behold
Christ our Savior. Alright, so Christ declared to
these spiritually ignorant Sadducees that there is indeed a resurrection
of the dead and he took them, to say this, he took them right
to the man whom they quoted from. He took them to Moses. Look at
verses 26 and 27. He said, and as touching the
dead that they rise, have ye not read in the book of Moses,
you who glory in Moses, have you not read this, how in the
bush God spake unto him saying, I am the God of Abraham, and
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And here's the reason
why I quoted that. Because he is not the God of
the dead, but the God of the living. God wouldn't have called
himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob if they were dead,
lying in the dust. He's their God. They're alive
now. They are forever with the Lord, even now. And he's the
God of the living. So he showed us that God declared
the resurrection there to Moses. And we know that that was Christ
there in the bush. Because Stephen, before he was
martyred in Acts 7.30, he said, when 40 years were expired, there
appeared to Moses in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, an angel of the
Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. And what did he say to Moses
there? He said in Exodus 3.14, I'll
read it. God said unto Moses, I am that
I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent thee. That's Christ,
the angel of the Lord. It's pre-incarnate Christ before
he came in the flesh. That's Christ. He is one with
the Father. He is the Godhead. In Him dwell
all the Godhead bodily in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the fullness
of God. And so that's Him speaking there.
And so He's the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. And He
tells us there is a resurrection. There is a resurrection. That's
who's telling us you can count on it. There is a resurrection.
And these three men, they represent all the elect. They represent
us who believe. They're heirs of that covenant
that God made on their behalf. That covenant is made with us
on our behalf. Apart from us doing anything,
God did all the work to fulfill that covenant so that he is our
very inheritance. Every promise given to Abraham
is a promise given to us. And so we, like Abraham, believe
God. We're children of faith, not
works, but children of faith. We're not produced like Ishmael
was produced by the works of man. We're produced as Isaac
was produced by faith, by the work of God doing that work in
us. And so they lived in communion
with God, and we live in communion with God. And they didn't fully
receive all the promises of that covenant here on the earth. It
was for a time that was to come when they should die and be raised
again to this glorious inheritance. I'll read to you in Hebrews 11,
verses 13 to 14, it says, these all died in faith, not having
received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded
of them and embrace them, and confess that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country." We're still waiting
for our inheritance. When you talk like that, you're
saying, I trust. I'm committing everything to
God now. Sacrificing things here and now,
knowing that God is going to provide much more richly, more
blessings than I can understand or comprehend even now. And I
trust Him. You're showing that you believe
God by trusting Him and not going after this world and doing what
this world says. I'll just read one more, verse
16. But now they desire a better
country, that is in heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city. That promise, that same promise
is to you, brethren, that hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. God
has prepared you a city, and that's Christ. He said, my father's
house are many mansions, and I'm going to prepare a place
for you. Christ has prepared. He's made
a place by the death and sacrifice of himself, and he rose from
the dead to show and testify to us that it's prepared. It's done. We have the inheritance. All things are made ready. The
table is set, Christ has accomplished your salvation. You that believe
in hope in Him and have no hope or confidence in the flesh. So
the salvation of our God in Christ is the complete recovery of not
just our soul, but our bodies also. All these promises hinge
and must have the resurrection of our body. It's a promise of
God that we shall be raised from the dead. First, we see that
all that were redeemed by Christ's blood, they were raised from
the dead. When Christ rose, we rose in
Him representatively. We were in Him. So when He rose,
we rose too. It says in Revelation 20 verse
6, blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection
on such the second death hath no power but they shall be priests
of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. Alright, so we shall be, because
we were raised in that first resurrection, because you have
life now in the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be made partakers of
the resurrection of life when Christ returns to be glorified
in all his saints. Why? because He is the God of
the living. So brethren, rejoice. You who
believe Christ, you rejoice because Christ is our resurrection. He's the resurrection of life.
He's our hope and glory. Jesus Christ is also. Pray the
Lord to bless that to your hearts, brethren. I hope you to see open
these scriptures to you that you might know the dream that
we got. All right let's let's pray and then we'll have Scott
and Levi would you come up and and uh pass out the elements.
I'll pray first and then our gracious lord we thank you father
for the light of the mystery of the gospel that you've revealed
to your people. Lord we see how we all came forth
in spiritual ignorance and darkness, not knowing a thing about God,
but that it pleased you to reveal your Son in us and to give us
light and life and deliverance from this death, that we might
know the righteousness of God revealed in your Son, Jesus Christ,
that He is all, that He is our very righteousness and our very
acceptance with God. And we thank you for that light.
Lord, keep us. Keep us ever looking to Christ.
Lord, if there be any here that are yet mocking and scoffing
and do not know the true and living God and have no idea of
their death and darkness, Lord, would you break their hearts.
Would you deliver them from the dungeon and prison of this flesh. Lord, would you raise them to
that first resurrection in Christ. Deliver us from our sins and
our darkness. For Christ is our hope and our
all. It's in His name we pray. Amen. All right. All right, brothers, if you'd
come up. Scott, would you pray? Father, we come to you again.
Thankful for our time together and for a church to come to.
And Father, we're thankful for the man you brought to bring
the message. More than anything, we're thankful
for your son. Father, please let the message
that you brought today be effectual to our hearts. And Lord, we just
ask that Christ always be glorified in this place. In Christ's name.