I wanted to welcome Brad Upton
and his family from Upton Lumber and Balcony and Ken McCarter
there who have been such a help to Grace Centers of Hope. He's
alive folks! And we're here to celebrate that
fact, that we serve a risen Savior. You're in a miracle place. We
believe in miracles here. This is the second anniversary
of our being in this building. From the saloon to God's house. Miracle Place, this week we start
the renovation of our expanded daycare where we'll be able to
have over 60 children there in our new daycare. $300,000 renovation. And then in the next couple weeks,
we start the renovation downstairs in the basement of our new Sunday
school rooms and youth meeting area and up on the third floor. And then within the next three
to four weeks, I promise this time, we're going to start the
new parking lot out to the left here. For the first time in 35 years,
you heard the church bells ringing this morning, that's a miracle
too. You need a miracle in your life
today, the miracle of the new birth. Do you know why you're
here on this earth, where you came from, what you're doing
here? You can find all of that in Jesus Christ. New life in
a risen Christ. And today, as maybe never before,
you're going to experience God. I know that. It's one thing to
talk about God, it's another thing to experience God. And
today you'll do that. I think the spirit of our singing
and our praise manifests that we are a happy people who believe
in the risen Savior. All right, we're going to, Have
Greg come now and he's going to lead us in prayer. We're going
to be receiving our offering after the prayer and he'll be
reading scripture as well. Good morning. Happy Easter. Are you comfortable? Please stand. If you did not bring a Bible
with you this morning, there is one under the chair in front
of you. Please grab it. We'll be reading from the book
of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 12 through 17. And then
we will read from the gospel according to Luke chapter 24,
verses one through nine. So please turn your Bibles to
1 Corinthians Now if Christ is preached that
he has been raised from the dead, how does some among you say there
is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection
of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen,
then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes,
we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified
of God that he raised up Christ, whom he did not raise up, if,
in fact, the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise,
then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then
your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Please
turn to the gospel according to Luke. Chapter 24. We'll be reading verses one through
nine. Now on the first day of the week,
very early in the morning, they and certain other women with
them came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.
But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they
went in and did not find the body of Lord Jesus. And it happened,
as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two
men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were
afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them,
why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but
is risen. Remember how he spoke to you
when he was still in Galilee saying, the son of man must be
delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the
third day rise again. And they remembered his words.
Then they turned from the tomb and told all these things to
the 11 and to all the rest. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for
this glorious day, the day that the scriptures were fulfilled,
the day that our sins were forgiven, the day that we were reconciled
to spend eternity with you. Lord, I pray that Paul's words
to the Corinthians would be heard by those here at Grace Gospel
Fellowship that still don't believe. that if Christ didn't die for
our sins and rise from the dead, we might as well all go home
and look for eggs from a bunny and eat candy. If Christ didn't
rise from the dead, we will die in our addictions. We will die
lonely and we will die in our guilt. But we don't have to because
he is risen. Hundreds of people saw the risen
Christ. Hundreds of people spoke to the
risen Christ. We too can speak to the risen
Christ. He has given us eyes to see and
ears to hear the many things that he has done and will do
for us. Lord, I pray on this glorious day that the children
you called come to you, that we get down on our knees and
thank you for overcoming death, for overcoming our sins, for
calling us away from our addictions, our self-righteousness, for calling
us to you. Lord make this truth plain today
fill pastor Clark with the joy of this truth That his words
will lift up our hearts in the knowledge that you have risen
and our sins have been forgiven in Christ's mighty name we pray
The old songwriter wrote God sent his son They called him
Jesus he came to love heal and forgive and He lived and died
to buy my pardon. An empty grave is there to prove
my Savior lives. And because He lives, I can face
tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is
gone. Because I know He holds the future. And life is worth the living
just because I know He lives. I serve a risen Savior. He's
in the world today. He's in the world today. If He's not here, there's no need
for us to be here. And there must be a consciousness of God's
presence. We have come into this house
and gathered in his name to worship him. And he inhabits the praise
of his people. And so today, maybe for the first
time, I know most of you have been in church, at least on Easter
and Christmas. but you have never experienced
God. I trust that today the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit
will so abide on this place that for the first time in your life,
religious or crack addict, you will experience God in his resurrection
power. So I serve a risen Savior. He's
in the world today. I know that He is living, whatever
men may say. I see His hand of mercy. I hear His voice of cheer. And
just the time I need Him, He's always near. He lives. He lives. Christ Jesus lives
today. He walks with me and talks with
me along life's narrow way. You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart. When I was a child, we used to
sing this hymn. Low in the grave He lay, Jesus
my Savior. waiting the coming day, Jesus
my Lord." And then the chorus. Up from the grave he arose, with
a mighty triumph o'er his foe. He arose a victor from the dark
domain, and he lives forever with his saints to reign. He
arose, he arose, hallelujah, Christ arose. The second stanza,
vainly they watched his bed. Jesus my Savior. Vainly they
sealed the dead. Jesus my Lord. But up from the
grave he arose with a mighty triumph over his foe. He arose
a victor from the dark domains. Hallelujah. Christ arose. And the third and last stanza.
Death cannot keep its prey. Jesus, my savior, he tore the
bars away. Jesus, my Lord, up from the grave
he arose with a mighty triumph for his foe. He arose a victor
from the dark domain. Hallelujah, Christ arose. Is
that a truth that you believe and is in your very soul that
Jesus is alive and that he arose from the dead? This is the crux of Christianity. It all hinges here, as Greg read
from 1 Corinthians. If Christ be not risen, then
is our preaching vain. Our preaching is vain. Buying
clutch cargo is vain. Spending thousands of dollars
to redecorate and rebuild, it's all vain. If Christ is not risen,
your faith is vain. It's a vain and empty faith.
If Christ be not risen, then I'm a false witness. If Christ
did not raise from the dead, then my mom, my dad, my infant
son, my grandmother, my fellow pastors that have gone on before,
so many loved ones, there is no hope. I am so glad that when
the Christian dies, it's not over. In fact, it's just the
beginning of endless joy and happiness. When we Christians die, we're
not just dead all over like Rover. We enter in to eternal joy, peace,
and happiness Our spirit goes to be with the Lord to wait the
resurrection from the dead where our spirit is united with a glorified
body. If Christ be not raised, your
faith is vain. And worst of all, you're still
in your sins. Our world has almost, even our
religious world, has almost become a world where sin is not a reality. We don't believe in sin. But
the truth is that we are sinners. I know that's outdated with our
society for the most part, and yet Every newspaper you pick
up, you hear about ISIS cutting off heads, wars and rumors of
wars. Here in America, society changing,
the family falling apart. Something is desperately wrong
in this world. And it's called sin. Sin entered
into the world. And God invaded history. God came down to earth. Do you
know this to be a truth? God loves sinners. And by the
way, if you're not a sinner, you're in the wrong church house
today because this place is packed with sinners. Only sinners need a savior. And
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and to give you
hope. You may have wallowed in the
stables of sin. You may be here so depressed
and down over your doings. I want to tell you today that
he's alive and that he's a bigger Savior than you are a sinner.
He's able to save to the uttermost. There are 16 sermons in the book
of Acts recorded after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and every one
of those sermons placed their emphasis on the resurrection. You see, it's very simple. We
have adorned religion to such a degree, and there are so many
ceremonies and things happening in what we call a church service,
that we lose sight of this fundamental truth, this real truth, this
basic truth, this saving gospel of Jesus Christ, that God invaded
history, walked the Judean acres without sin in the person of
Jesus Christ, went up on Calvary and shed his blood to pay the
sin debt, went down into the grave and got up the third day,
And now he lives at the right hand of God. In the book of Acts, in those
16 sermons by the apostles, you will find simply a three-point
message. You killed him. You are responsible
and accountable for his death. You said this man will not rule
over me. You nailed him to the cross.
He is there because of our sin and our sin nature. The second
point of their sermon was you best repent and turn from your
sins. And the third one was believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And that's
it today. Here's what you should do. I'm
not asking you if you're Catholic, Methodist, or Baptist, or Presbyterian. That'll do you no good when you
get to heaven, because you can't go there that way. There is only
one way to God, and that's through Jesus Christ. And it's very simple. You see, when you begin to study
the Bible, you find out that this God is a God of purpose
and planning. That there was an eternal covenant,
and before the foundation of the world, Jesus was the Lamb
slain. It was the purpose of God. In
time, Jesus invaded history, God invaded history, came down
to this earth, not to spy out our sins, but to deliver us from
our sins. And that's what he did on the
cross of Calvary. And now he gives this proclamation
and this demand, believe on my son, trust my son and trust him
and give him all the glory and all the praise and all the honor. It's Palm Sunday. Let's go back
to last Sunday, and let's pretend that it was over 2,000 years
ago, March 20th. Jesus begins his trip to Jerusalem,
knowing, knowing that soon he will lay down his life for his
sheep. In fact, in the 17th chapter
of the book of John, Jesus said, my hour has come. That hour which
was appointed before there was a world, that hour which was
decreed by almighty God in his sovereignty, his hour has come. And the Bible says that Jesus
set his face like a flint toward Jerusalem. He set his face like
a flint, determined to go to Jerusalem. Nearing the village
of Bethphage, he sent his disciples ahead to look for a donkey with
its unbroken coat. My, this week as I studied these
passages, I thought of so many things. An unbroken coat. Wonder why an unbroken coat.
Jesus rode an unbroken coat. And I said to myself, it's to
show us that Jesus can tame an ass. Well, if that fits, then wear
it. We often talk about the dumb
ass. And I wonder if there's someone
here today that fits that mode. I mean, you've done a lot of
crazy stuff. Your life is empty and void. You're without hope, unhappy,
dreading tomorrow, suicidal thoughts. He can fix you. He can fix you. Then Jesus sat on the young unbroken
donkey No bucking, no snorting, no bullheadedness,
no stubbornness. The donkey moved toward Jerusalem.
And he made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, fulfilling that
ancient prophecy in Zechariah 9, 9. By the way, this is the
only place in the Bible that you find Jesus riding an animal. The crowds welcomed him. by waving
palm branches, which was a symbol of victory. They were not praising
him or honoring him because he was the coming Messiah who was
going to die on a cross. They thought he was going to
deliver them from the rule of Romans. They had total self-centered
ideas about why he came. And they began to shout, Hosanna
to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Please remember that this religious
crowd was the same crowd that on Friday would nail him to the
cross and cry, crucify him, crucify him. How fickle man is. How fickle he is. On Palm Sunday
evening, Jesus and his disciples spent the night in Bethany, a
town about two miles east of Jerusalem, in the home of Mary
and Martha and Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
Monday morning, March 21st, Jesus returns with his disciples to
Jerusalem. And along the way, he curses
a fig tree because it had failed to bear fruit. A fig tree that
had all of the leaves of a fig tree. It looked like a fig tree. Had all the marks of a fig tree.
I wonder if you're here today and you're religious. You're
a member of some church. You have all of those religious
credentials. You look like a Christian from
all outward observances. but there's no joy, no peace,
no shout, no happiness, no fruit, no figs. Jesus cursed this tree,
and there was a reason for that. You look at our nation. We cannot
call ourselves a Christian nation. This president that we have now
has already said that we're not a Christian nation. That breaks
my own heart. I want us to be a Christian nation.
I want us to be a fig tree that bears figs. And I think to some
degree, this church and this place and this rescue mission
is just that, we're bearing fruit. Hundreds of lives are being changed
and changed. But I would ask those of you
who have been religious for years to enter into the reality. Do you experience God? You know,
one of the great, I'm almost 72. I've been in ministry for
50 years. These years here at Grace Centers
and Grace Gospel have been the happiest years of my life. And
I'm gonna tell you why, because I experienced God. I experienced, God, when I pulled
up and those bells were ringing. They have not rung for 35 years.
When I entered this building, it was impossible for us to get
this building. For 15 years, I had asked God
to give us this building. And I asked Him to give it to
us, but I didn't know He was literally going to give it to
us through Bill Luther. who bought this building for
us for $500,000 and handed us the deed. God gave us this building. Miracles. Miracles. I could tell you miracle after
miracle. Things happen here that could
not happen unless God were here, experiencing the presence of
God. So he cursed the fig tree. And
then Jesus arrived at the temple and found the corrupt money changers
there. And he overturned their tables
and cleared the temple saying, the scripture declares that my
temple will be a house of prayer, but you've turned it into a den
of thieves. I don't know whether Jesus would
recognize most church services. He's to be central, is he not? On Monday evening, Jesus stayed
in Bethany again, probably in the home of his friends, Mary
and Martha and Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
Now it's Tuesday, March 22nd. Jesus goes back to the temple
and then to the Mount of Olives. At the temple, and by the way,
while he was going on his way again, they saw the fig tree
and it was withered. And Jesus began to teach them
about faith. about faith. That was on Tuesday,
March 22nd. Faith. Do you know without faith
it's impossible to please God? God is not pleased with all of
your good works that you're trying to get acceptance from God by. You'll never get acceptance by
being baptized, or sprinkled, or poured, or dipped, or by joining
some church. Acceptance doesn't come that
way. God accepts us in Jesus Christ
by faith. For by grace are you saved through
faith. By God's unmerited favor, you've
been saved through faith. And that faith is not of yourself,
it is the gift of God, not of works. And do you know why it's
all by faith? Do you know why Jesus says this? The Bible says this, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Because
faith excludes all boasting. There cannot be boasting when
you get to heaven. Boasting has been excluded. You
can't be bragging about your church. God will not permit it.
This salvation is something God does. And he's here today and
will do it for you. Grant you faith in Jesus Christ. and what an experience that'll
be for you too. One of the things I remember
as an eight year old boy very vividly when on that night, I
trusted Christ. I was granted faith to trust
Christ. I believed on Christ. A tremendous
weight was taken off me. Even as an eight-year-old boy,
I knew I was guilty that I had sinned against God and I needed
forgiveness. And it was just that simple.
The burden rolled away. And today I stand before you
knowing that I will never come into condemnation. I will never
come into judgment because Jesus has paid my debt and set me free
from all judgment. Well, at the temple, they tried to trick Jesus into
saying something or doing something. They tried to ambush him to create
an opportunity to arrest him. Boy, our Lord didn't have nice
things to say about religion. I'm not religious at all. I'm
a Christian, but I'm not religious. There is a big difference between
Christianity and religion. Christianity goes through all
the forms and all the motions, but without the shout, without
the hallelujah, without the peace. Jesus said in the temple to those
Pharisees, you are blind guides. You are blind. For you are like
whited, washed tombs, beautiful on the outside, but filled on
the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly, you look like righteous
people, but inwardly, your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and
lost lawlessness. You are a generation of snakes,
sons of vipers. How will you escape the judgment
of hell? You can find that in Matthew
23. That's what he said about religious
people. What's he saying about you? What are his thoughts toward
you? Are you a hypocrite? I mean,
really, let's think about it. You wear a mask. I mean, you've
got all this religious stuff going on, and outwardly, when
people look at you, They think you're a very religious person
and you are, but on the inside, there's another you. How am I
talking? Did you feel a little pain when
I said, but on the inside, there's another you? Here's how glorious it is to
know Christ. It's come to know Him and to
know that right now I am a Christian, but I do know this, in my flesh
dwells no good thing. But on the inside of me, there
is the real me that has been born of God. It's called the
new birth. You have to be born again. And
when you're born again, God puts inside of you a new nature. Now, what goes on is there is
a black dog and a white dog, and they don't like each other.
And they fight. And let me tell you, this is
true. Just for you Christians, this is true. You ask, well,
which dog wins? The one you feed the most. Feed that new nature. Find yourself
in God's house sitting under the gospel, hearing the power
of the blood and the songs of Zion. Jesus didn't have anything
to say good about religious people. Tuesday afternoon, Jesus left
the city and went with his disciples to Mount of Olives. They're telling
them the end times, about the end times, and the destruction
of Jerusalem. I would say to all of you, by
the way, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. I can tell those of you who are
clapping are into politics. I mean, you know that the Democrats
will not acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. But let me tell you, God's already
said that. Okay, now you know Pastor Clark's
starting to get off track just a little bit. And if I were you and you wanted
to know what's going on, I would watch. Jerusalem. I would watch Jerusalem because
what happens over there is going to tell you how close we are
to the end. So just watch. You can see there's
a stirring and there is a hate. You will know, just watch what
happens over there. After a tiring day, Jesus and
the disciples spent the night in Bethany once again. March
24th, Wednesday, is a very strange day because the Bible says nothing
about what happened on Wednesday. I think probably Christ, in my
own mind, was preparing for the Passover. And this was going
to be his last quiet day before crucifixion. On March 25th, Thursday,
Jesus sends Peter and John ahead to the upper room in Jerusalem
to make preparations for the Passover feast. By the way, Do
you know what happened? You know why we call it Passover?
You know why they call it Passover? You know why they celebrate it?
Well, you have to go back to the books of Exodus. where the
children of Israel were about to leave Egyptian bondage. And
God said this, by the way, the gospel is the gospel in Genesis
as it is in Revelation, the same gospel. In the Old Testament,
it's types and shadows of the gospel. And so the Passover was
a type of the gospel. When they were going to leave
Egyptian bondage, which is a type of sin, God said to them, you
can't leave Egyptian bondage until you take a lamb. It has
to be a male lamb, and it has to be without spot or blemish. It has to be a perfect lamb.
And you have to keep the lamb up, pin it up for 14 days, make
sure there's no blemishes. Why would God say that? Because
there's a coming lamb who is without spot or blemish. He's
the perfect sacrifice. Put the lamb up. And then you
take it and kill it. Because the death angel's going
to pass over Egypt and all the firstborn are going to die without
the blood. But God said, take the lamb's
blood and strike it to the two sides of the door lintel. And
when the death angel passes over, when he sees the blood, he'll
pass over you. That's a gospel story. It is
the blood. It is the power of the blood
of Jesus Christ. It's an atonement for the soul,
the blood of Jesus Christ. That's why we talk a lot here
about the blood. We sang this morning, I know
it was the blood. I know it was the blood. Without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. That's talking about Jesus' blood.
And so they got ready for the Passover. This was the last supper. You find this in the gospels,
where Jesus said, I have been eager to eat this Passover meal
with you before my suffering begins. Again, the Savior is
very conscious. I tried to enter into that last
night as I thought about speaking to you. The consciousness, the
heaviness as Christ moved toward the cross, who was fully aware
of his sufferings, not only the sufferings of the Roman soldiers
and the Jewish Pharisees, but the sufferings at the hand of
his Father. When you look to Calvary, you've
got to go beyond what man did to him. You see, your sin had
to be punished. Your sin had to be paid for.
God demanded a just recompense for every sin that you've ever
committed. God is not a grandfather God. Every sin and every disobedience
must receive a just recompense of reward. It has to be paid
for. You and I had nothing to pay.
We could not pay that debt. And Jesus said, knowing about
his sufferings, I will not eat this Passover again with you
until we celebrate it in the kingdom of heaven. Later on,
it was on to Gethsemane where Jesus prayed in agony to his
father. If possible, let this cup pass
from me, he prayed. Not that he wanted to skip Calvary,
but what was happening there in the garden of Gethsemane where
he shed, as it were, great drops of blood, sin was being imputed. You do know that what God did
was take your sin and put it on Christ. He became sin for
us, he who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. And so God in Gethsemane began
to impute, charge, and accredit Christ with our sins. The computer
started running and your Himalayas of sins was imputed to Jesus
Christ. He was charged with your sins. Do you see what's happening here?
He fell beneath that load, even to the point that he thought
he might die before Calvary. And so he prayed, don't let it
happen here. Don't let it happen here, Father.
And onto Calvary he moved. And it was in the early morning
hours that Peter denied knowing Christ and the rooster crowed.
and the rooster crowed. Jesus even knows when folks are
gonna deny him and what's going to happen. Remember, he told
Peter, the rooster's gonna crow, you're gonna deny me. And you
remember, as you read the scriptures, how when the rooster crowed,
it was like a dagger in the heart of Simon Peter. It was here that
he was betrayed by the kiss of Judas Iscariot, arrested by the
Sanhedrin, and was taken to the home of Caiaphas, the high priest.
By the way, there were seven trials, six trials that night
from Thursday until Friday. Unjust trials. Now we're Friday,
March 25th. How treacherous and acutely painful
are these final hours leading to his death? Judas Iscariot
hangs himself, overcome with remorse and shame for what he's
done. For hours now, Jesus has endured
the spitting and the false accusations, the condemnation and the abandonment
of his disciples and the beatings. It's 9 a.m. After these multiple
unlawful trials, he has been sentenced to crucifixion, one
of the most horrible and disgraceful methods of capital punishment.
Before going to the cross, he is spit upon, mocked, tormented.
They place a crown of thorns upon his head and say, hail,
King of the Jews. And then on to Calvary, carrying
his own cross. And there again at Calvary, he's
mocked and insulted as the Roman soldiers nail him to the cross. To any degree are you entering
into this? To any degree are you seeing
amazing love? How can it be that thou, my God,
should die for me? Are you willing today to take
off your shoes because we're on holy ground? Do you sense
we're on holy ground here? At 12 o'clock, after nailing
him to the cross, the sun refused to shine. and darkness fell over
the entire earth, and the cattle gathered in the field as if a
storm was coming, and birds flew to their roosts. And someone
said, deity must be dying. There were seven statements from
the cross. His first was, Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do. His last was, Father, into your
hands I commit my spirit. At 6 p.m. Friday evening, Nicodemus
and Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus' body down from the cross
and lay it in a tomb. And now it's Saturday. I always
like to think about it this way. On Friday when I'm hearing something
like this, I always like to think about it this way. I heard a
message this week. It's Friday, but Sunday's coming. It's Friday, but Sunday's coming. On Saturday, March the 26th,
Jesus' body lay in the tomb where it was guarded by Roman soldiers
throughout the day, which was the Jewish Sabbath. When the
Sabbath ended at 6 p.m., Christ's body was ceremonially treated
for burial. Nicodemus bought 75 pounds of
perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. They wrapped his body
with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth. That's found
in John 19. I can almost see in my mind Satan
as he calls up death. Is this death? Yes, is this Satan? Yes, it is. Do you still have
him? Death answers, yes, we still
have him, but I have an eerie feeling about all of this. I
would feel better, Satan, if you'd come down and join me and
sit with me for a while. Satan replies, are you kidding?
I have a headache. You have to know your Bible to
get that. because Jesus at the cross stomped the head of Satan. While his physical body lay in the tomb,
Jesus Christ paid the penalty for sin, having offered his blood
to the Father, and it was accepted. It was finished. It was done. Let me tell you this. This is
a vital point. The blood of Jesus Christ is
not offered to you for your acceptance. You are commanded to bow at the
feet of Jesus Christ and trust him as Lord and Savior. The blood of Jesus Christ was
offered to God Almighty, and he accepted the payment for your
sin. And can you today say hallelujah? Thank God. All right. And now it's today,
March 27th, Sunday. And here's the crux of it again,
the Christian faith, the very foundation of Christianity. Our entire doctrine hinges on
the truth of this account, that he is not here, he is alive. He has risen from the dead. Mary Magdalene and several other
women very early in the morning went to the tomb. The stone was
rolled away. Somebody just said the stone
was rolled away so Jesus could get out. No, the stone was rolled
away so Mary could get in. And the tomb was empty. The tomb
was empty. 75 pounds of spices disappeared,
and his death clothes were folded like he had made his bed. The
angel said, don't be afraid. I know you're looking for Jesus
who was crucified. He isn't here. He's risen from
the dead, just as he said it would happen. on the day of his
resurrection, Jesus Christ made at least five appearances, Mary
Magdalene, Peter, two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and later
that day to all the disciples except Thomas. Resurrection day. We celebrate it today with great
joy. And because he lives, I can face
tomorrow. Monday's going to be a good day. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love the Lord. Tomorrow is going
to be a good day because God is at work for me, how he loved
us. Could I urge upon you today, knowing the terror of the Lord,
could I persuade you today, If you have never received Christ,
if you have never bowed to Christ, if you have never laid the shotgun
down, look, quit fighting. You know, you can't save yourself.
You know, you can't be good enough. You know, you don't keep the
10 commandments. You don't even have them memorized.
Why is that so funny? How many of you have the 10 commandments
memorized? Raise your hand. One. One, two, two of you, the rest
of you are going to hell. If salvation is by keeping the
commandments. Salvation is in a person. Salvation
is in Jesus Christ. God demands of you. You know what unbelief is? It's
rebellion. It's to say in the face of God,
yes, I know you did all of this, but you know, I think I'll take
another route or maybe I'll add to what you have done. And maybe
me and God got a good thing going. No, no. He's the alpha and omega, the
beginning and the end, the first and the last of salvation. He's alive today. If you'd like
to confess him, we'd like to hear from you. You know, I think
it most interesting about Nicodemus, how he was a member of the Sanhedrin,
and yet he was there taking the body of Christ, praying it for
burial. Would you today, maybe you've
been a silent disciple, maybe today you found out, hey, you
know what? I've been very religious, but
I'll tell you what the pastor said today is true of me. I've
never really believed on Christ. I've never really, fully, completely
trusted Jesus Christ, period. It's the only way to know God.
Trust him today. Let's stand and sing.