the last book and the last chapter
of the Old Testament, and that would be the book of
Malachi chapter 4. The book of Malachi chapter 4. Several years ago, I read of
a dear lady who believed the gospel of God's grace. She was
a child of the king, and she loved the scriptures as all of
God's people do. read the Word of God every day,
and she actually committed quite a bit of it to memory. But as
the years began to take their toll on her, she began to forget
a lot of the verses that she had memorized. Her favorite verse
was out of 2 Timothy 1, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him
against that day." And as she continued to age and her memory
further eroded, she got to where she could only say, that which
I have committed unto him. that which I have committed unto
him." And then just before she passed away, she could only move
her lips a little, and her word was the word that she used was
barely audible. In fact, her two children were
there, and they bent down, put their ear next to her lips and
she kept repeating the word Him, Him, Him. All of the word of God that she
could remember was the word Him. And yet with that word she knew
all of the word of God because He is the key. He is the message. He isn't merely the theme. He's
the very message of God's Word, Him. She had the whole Bible
in that one word. And that one word is Him. You
see, this blessed book is all about Him. We've come here today
to sing about Him. You know, in our singing, and
singing is a very important part of the worship service. I was
thinking about the song, the second song that we sang there,
Oh for a Thousand Tongues to Sing. My great Redeemer's praise. May God give us a heart of joy
to sing of Christ. and enter into that part of the
worship service. You see, the singing isn't just
to fill up some void in the service, it's about worship. We worship
our Savior as we sing about Him. We come into this building today
to hear about Him. We would not want to hear of
anybody else. We would not want to hear of
anything else. There's one message that will
do you good. There's one message that will
honor God. There's one message that will
exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's a message about Him. It's about Him. Scripture tells us that every
time we meet, it's to be about Him. It's to honor Him. And I want you to know and love
and believe Him. You don't need to know me. You
don't need to know any other preacher. But you do need to
know this One of whom we speak, the Lord Jesus Christ. To know
Him is everything. To know Him is life. To know
Him is to know God. To know Him is to have your soul
saved by grace. To know Him is to be found in
Him, not having your own righteousness, but the righteousness that our
Lord Jesus Christ has established by His satisfaction of divine
justice when He died for our sins, and the evidence of that
is His resurrection. He arose because He brought in
everlasting righteousness for His people. Do you know Him?
Righteousness is in Him. Acceptance is in Him. The salvation
is in Him. Forgiveness is in Him. It's not
in the church. It's not in a prayer. It's not
in coming to the front. Salvation and forgiveness and
righteousness, all you need is found in Him. Do you know Him? Do you know Him? May God the Holy Spirit now set
our hearts upon Him. And if He does that, this will
be a good service. It will be profitable to you
and me. Here's the title of my message
today. I want to talk to you about the
rising of the sun, the SU here. And I want to begin here in Malachi
chapter four and verse two. But unto you that fear my name,
unto you that fear my name, to you who worship God, to you who
believe God, to you who have an awe and a reverence of God. To these people shall the Son
of Righteousness, shall He arise with healing in His wings, and
ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. This one I'm speaking about,
He shall come as a rising sun. And on that Lord's Day morning,
Our Savior, like the rising of the sun, He came forth from the
grave, indicating that His work of redemption was fully done.
He had finished the redemptive work that God sent Him to accomplish. He finished the atonement. He
finished the reconciliation. God sent him on a mission to
do a work of grace. When our Lord, in John chapter
4, He was busy talking to the woman who was at the well, and
the disciples went off to get Him something to eat for lunch. And they came back and He said,
my meat's to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish the
work that He sent me to do. I came to finish the work. I'm
not hungry for food. That's what he said. I'm not
hungry for food. I hunger to do God's will. I
hunger to save sinners. I hunger to lay down my life,
the ransom for the payment of the sins of my people. I hunger
to do that work. And all through his life, he
was hungry to do that and anxious to do that. And we get to John
chapter 19, our Lord Jesus hanging on the cross. He said, It is
finished. What was finished? The work.
The work that God gave Him to do. And the evidence that He
finished the work, that He saved His people, was His resurrection
from the dead. Here the prophet of God says,
He shall come as the rising of the sun. because He finished the work.
And He shines with beams of righteousness. This Son of God, the S-O-N of
God, He's the Son of Righteousness, the S-U-N, and He arises, He
arises, proof that He's God. Proof that he did the work that
God sent him to do. Proof that our sins were put
away as far as the east is from the west. And proof that he established
and brought in for us a righteousness with which God is well pleased. Oh, he shines with beams of righteousness. And you see, righteousness is
what you've got to have. It's what I've got to have. And
we can't produce it because Isaiah 64, 6 says, all of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. We need a righteousness, the
Savior said, much better than the Pharisees. More excellent
than the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. We
need a righteousness with which God will be pleased. It's got
to be a righteousness equal to Him. Christ is our righteousness. He shines with beams of righteousness. And it says here in this verse,
He arises with healing in His wings. You see, our Lord Jesus,
He came to heal, to heal us of our diseases, our spiritual diseases. Peter says with his stripes we
were healed. We were healed. And he comes
to set the prisoners loose. Look at the latter part of that
second verse in case you wonder what this means. And ye shall
go forth and grow up as cast of the stall. We were in the
stall. We were in bondage. We were imprisoned. And our Lord Jesus came and He
died and He arose to release the prisoners out of the stall.
And we go forth with liberty, with great freedom, having been
released by our Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to know Him. That's
what I want you to know. You don't need to know about
our church. You don't need to know about
the Baptist denomination. You don't need to know about
religion. You need to know about Him. Him, who is the Son of Righteousness. He is the resurrection and the
life. That's what He said to Martha in John chapter 11. Now, having said that as an introduction,
go back to Mark chapter 16 that our brother read to us a little
earlier. Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16 begins this way. And when the Sabbath, when the
Sabbath was passed, our Lord Jesus is Himself the Lord of
the Sabbath. The Old Testament Sabbath as
given to the Jews was a picture, a picture of two things. It's
a picture of our Lord Jesus who would enter into this world to
labor, to work, to set himself to fulfill that will of God that
was established before the world began. He came to do the work
that God sent him to do, that work of saving his people. His very name means He shall
save his people from their sins. That's what he came to do. And
having finished that work, he rested from his labors on the
Sabbath, the day of rest. And then the first day of the
week, that early Sunday morning, he arose because his work was
done. But there's another meaning to
this. We enter into His rest. And I've said before, and you
need to understand this, here's the Old Testament law of the
Sabbath. Do no work but rest. Rest in Christ. Don't lift a finger toward doing
anything to please God, to satisfy God. The work is finished. Our Lord Jesus finished it. Salvation
has been accomplished. Our Savior accomplished it. The work has been approved by
God. The work that Christ did has
met God's approval and the empty tomb is evidence of that. Don't labor. Don't work. You say, well, if I pray enough,
if I read the Bible enough, if I study enough, if I give enough,
if I come to church enough, surely God will be pleased. God is only
pleased with His Son. God is pleased with Him. And
if you would be pleasing to God, you must be found in Him. And by the grace of God, you
must come to rest your soul and all of the hopes of salvation
that you have to rest in Jesus Christ only. Rest. Because you see, the work is
done. The work has been accomplished. The Sabbath was passed. And Mary Magdalene and Mary the
mother of James, that's James the less, and Salome. These ladies bought sweet spices
that they might come and anoint our Savior. They came to, as
it were, embalm him, embalm him. Just a few things this morning.
Number one, here's an undeniable fact. Our Lord Jesus arose from
the dead. These dear ladies, well-meaning, but unbelieving. They came to anoint His body
with extravagant spices. And they forgot His Word that
He would be raised from the dead. And here they come to the tomb.
Very early in the morning, the Scripture says, they came unto
the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And verse 3 says, And
they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone
from the door of the sepulchre? Could you learn, you who are
the people of God, could you, would you learn a very practical
and needy lesson? We often worry about what's going
to happen before it ever happens. And much of the time, that which
we worry about happening never happens at all. On their way
to the tomb, they began to speak among themselves. Who's going
to roll the stone away? Oh, no. It's too big for us. It's too great a task for us.
That stone is massive. Besides that, it was sealed with
Pilate's signet. How in the world are we gonna
get inside the tomb to anoint his body? And they worried about
that. They're anxious about that. But
they didn't have to be worried because that which troubled them
never came to pass. Has that ever happened to you?
You worry about something, you think about something, it weighs
heavily on your mind. Oh no, what if this happens?
Well, what if that happens? And we go over all of these different
scenarios in our minds. And then God works it to where
you're worrying and you're fuming and your anxiety was absolutely
needless. God help us to trust Him. Not to worry. The scripture says,
be anxious for nothing, but in everything through prayer and
thanksgiving, express your joy to God. They're worried about
this. But I'll tell you another stone
that is much heavier than this stone. much harder than this
stone, that none can take away except God Himself, and that's
the human heart, in its depravity, in its sinfulness, in its absolute
rebellion against God, against God's way of salvation by grace
alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, without any input
on the part of the sinner. You see, the human heart wants
some credit. The human heart wants to do something. Surely I've got to do something.
Preacher, I need to make a pilgrimage. I need to do this. I need to
go on the waters of baptism. I need to do some work. Surely
I need to make some contribution to my salvation. No, there is
no contribution that you can make. But the reason you think
that you must make a contribution is because of a large stone. That's called your heart. The heart is so hard, it can't
be penetrated. All the preaching about heaven
and eternal life and the beauties of the Lord Jesus Christ, all
the preaching of the grace of God and the magnificence of the
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, that's not going to melt the
stone. And all the preaching about hell and the thunder of
God and the lightning of God and the wrath of God, that's
not going to melt that stone. But hear God's word, I'll take
away the heart of stone. And I'll give you a heart of
flesh. That's what's gotta happen. You see, each of you, each of
you who are watching, and this includes me, our hearts are hard. And God's got to reach into our
hearts by his amazing, sovereign, free, effectual grace and take
away that heart of stone and give a heart of flesh. And just like these women couldn't
roll this stone away, they couldn't take this stone away. You can't
take the stone of your heart away. That's why the Bible says
over and over again, salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is
of the Lord. And the Spirit of God, as it
were, backs us in a corner, leaving us no way out. And the Spirit
of God says, Christ alone is the Savior. He's the one who
lived and who bled and who died and who was raised against salvation. It's in Him. It's not in your
choice. It's not in your decision. It's
not in your will. It's in Him. Him. Him. Like that dear saint of God said. It's in Him. So they get to the sepulchre
and verse 4 says, The stone had been rolled away, for it was very great. And entering
into the sepulcher, they saw a young man, an angel, sitting
on the right side, clothed in a long white garment, and they
were affrighted. And he said unto them, he said,
I've got a message for you. Be not affrighted. You seek Jesus
of Nazareth, which was crucified? He is risen. He is not here. Behold the place where they laid
him. And those of you who are somewhat
familiar with the scriptures, especially in Revelation chapter
one, We find that God's preachers are often referred to as angels. They're messengers of mercy. I come before you this morning
as an angel sent from God. That is, one of God's messengers. And I have a message for you.
He was crucified. He died that God might be just
and justify the ungodly. He died to satisfy God's perfect
law that said the soul that sinneth shall die. Christ died for sinners. He was condemned for sinners.
He bore the wrath of God for sinners. And God was so well pleased with
that which he did that on the third day God raised him from
the dead. That's my message. This is the
message of God's angel sent to you this morning. He was crucified,
buried, and risen again. And he ascended back to heaven
where he reigns over everything. And soon he will come again. His resurrection is an undeniable
fact. You see, these ladies, especially
Mary Magdalene, she was last at the cross, first at the grave. She's a remarkable woman. She's the last one to see the
Savior. As Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea
claimed his body, and she went home with a broken heart. And
here on the first day of the week, she's the first one along
with these other two ladies to go to the tomb where his body
lay. But he was not to be found there. Don't seek the living among the
dead. He's not dead. You see, this
is what's wrong with the crucifix. This is what's wrong with the
mass. It's the killing of Jesus Christ all over again. That's what it is. That's wrong. He died unto sin once. By one sacrifice, He hath perfected
forever them that were sanctified. By one offering, He satisfied
God. By one death, the one death that
He died. And He died never to die again. The tomb is empty. It's an undeniable
fact. Even historians, historians recognize
the fact that Jesus of Nazareth died and was raised again. Our
Lord spoke of that Himself. After Peter said, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God, the Savior took His disciples
out and said that, He said, the Son of Man must be, must suffer
many things and be killed. and be raised again, and be raised
again. But as Ron read down through
here, you saw the unbelief of these men and these ladies as
well. They have realized the fact that
he died, but they forgot about that last part, and be raised
again. That's what he told them. I'll
be raised again. I'll tell you, somebody who did
not forget those words that he would be raised again, the enemies
of our Lord, they said, that deceiver said he'd be raised
again. Let's seal that tomb. Lest his disciples steal his
body away and then they'll say he arose. Isn't it amazing? I speak to
those of you who know the gospel, who love the Word of God. Are you not amazed, oft times,
at your own unbelief? I am. I'm amazed at my unbelief. Mary Magdalene, last at the cross,
first at the tomb, She didn't believe. She didn't believe he'd
been raised. That's why she brought the spices
to anoint his body. And the two disciples on the
road to Emmaus in verse 12, neither believed they. They didn't believe
either. And in verse 14, he appeared
unto the 11 as they sat at meat and upbraided them because of
their unbelief and hardness of heart. because they believed
not them which had seen him, and he was risen." Oh, how awful
is unbelief! In Hebrews chapter 12, it talks
about the sin that doth so easily beset us. And people say, well,
that means one thing, that means another thing, it means something
for you, something else for somebody else. I disagree. All of us who are
believers, we have a besetting sin. God help us and God forgive
us. It's lack of faith. It's lack
of faith. You see, this is an undeniable
fact. The Savior said he would be raised
again, and they didn't believe him. It's an undeniable fact. Here's
the second thing, unlimited forgiveness. And I just want to speak a few
words here about Mary Magdalene. It says in verse 9, the Savior
cast out of her seven devils. The number seven presents the
idea of that which is total, that which is complete. She was filled with seven devils. Satan, when he dispatched demons,
he sent seven to her. She is perfectly, thoroughly,
completely evil. That's no problem for the Savior
though. He comes with all power in heaven
and in earth. And he casts the demons out of
her. Earlier she had anointed his
head. Now she comes and anoints his
feet. So many sins she had. Unlimited
forgiveness, though. And I'm telling you, you who
are the people of God, as you think about your life, and maybe
there are sins that are so large and glaring to you, and you remember
them and they still haunt you, they still trouble you, know
this. All of your sins, all of your iniquities, all of
your transgressions have been put away. And God says, I'll
remember them no more, no more. This is unlimited forgiveness. You see, our Lord came to save
sinners. And he does indeed save sinners. There's no excuse for our unbelief. Mary Magdalene didn't believe
him. That is as far as his resurrection. The Eleven, they didn't believe
her report. The two disciples on the road
to Emmaus, They didn't believe. Let's be honest. Brother Barnard
used to say, honest people don't wind up in hell. Let's be honest. Our faith is pretty flimsy, isn't
it? Pretty weak. It isn't the strength of your
faith, though, that matters. It's the object of your faith,
because He's all-powerful. Who is the object of our faith? Him! Him! Him! Like that dear old saint of God
said, it's Him! Him! Him! He's the one we believe. And he's the one we look to.
I'll give you one more thing. I'm kind of skipping over some
things here, but here's an unchanging friend. He sticks closer than a brother. I love this. Verse nine, look
at the word appeared. Now when Jesus was risen early
the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene. That's quite an honor. You would have thought, and certainly
a lot of people would have thought, and they would like to think
that he first of all appeared to his mother. But he did not. Others would have thought that
he would first have appeared to Peter, but he did not. He appeared to Mary Magdalene. And her unbelief in coming to
anoint him in the sepulcher, her unbelief concerning his resurrection
did not change his attitude toward her. and you who are the people
of God. Unbelief is a terrible thing,
but it doesn't change our Lord's attitude toward you. He's your
unchanging friend. He's a friend who sticketh closer
than a brother. Our Lord appeared first to Mary
Magdalene as a gardener. as a gardener. You can read that
in John chapter 20, as a gardener. In verse number 12 here, and
then he appeared in another form to two of them, these two disciples
on the road to Emmaus. He appeared in another form,
perhaps as a teacher, or some suggest maybe a scribe. I don't
know, doesn't matter. But he appeared to them Same
person, but in different dress, different garb than he did to
Mary Magdalene. And then in verse 14, he appeared
unto the 11 when they gathered to eat. And you can read about
that in Luke chapter 24. He appeared to them, passed through
a wall, And he said, you men have anything
to eat? Do you have anything to eat?
And he sat down and he dined with them. Never was a meal more
wonderful to those 11 than when the Savior sat down and broke
bread with them. And I'll tell you, he told them,
I will never leave you. and I will never forsake you." He's a friend forever. Do you know him? Good question, isn't it? Do you
know him? Well, let's sing a closing song
this morning. Let's sing 214, verily, verily,
and we'll sing the first stanza and the last stanza. 214, verily, verily. Hope to see you tonight. Tonight
I'm gonna be speaking on the subject of two resurrections. Two resurrections. 214, you got
it? Stand and sing. I'm hungry. O God, a Savior, that He died
for me! From condemnation He hath made
me free! He that believeth on the Son,
said He, hath everlasting life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Verily, verily, message ever new, We have believed upon the
Son, it's true, Hath everlasting life. Though all unworthy, yet I will
not doubt. For him that cometh, he will
not pass out. He that believeth for the good
news shall have everlasting life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Verily, verily, message ever new, He that believeth on the
Son, it is true, hath everlasting life. you