Well, good morning, everyone. It's good to see the healthy few out and about. I know we got a lot of folks who are sick right now. Tis the season, I guess, but thankful the Lord's enabled us to meet. Our lesson this morning is gonna be taken from Mark chapter 16, if you care to locate that. Mark chapter 16, and before we begin, let's bow together in prayer.

Our Father, we're so thankful that your mercy and goodness to your people, you've given us another opportunity to meet together this morning and to worship your precious name. Father, I pray that you would enable us to do that this morning, to truly worship you from the heart, that you would deliver us from just going through the motions of religion and the habit of religion. But Father, enable us to worship as we open up your word and read it and study it. Father, I pray that you would be our teacher, that you would enable us to see, by faith, Christ our Savior in the scriptures this morning. Let us leave here like the disciples of old, saying, our heart burned within us as the word was opened to us.

And Father, what we pray for ourselves, we pray for your people everywhere. We're there gathering together today to worship. Father, I pray you'd cause your word to go forth in the power of your spirit in this dark, dark day in which we live. Father, show us your glory. Let us see the redemptive glory of Christ our Savior preached and believed all throughout the land. And Father, we pray for those who are sick and afflicted or away from us right now. Father, we pray that you'd be with them, that you'd heal them, Father, that you restore them again to be able to be with us again soon. Father, all these things we ask, and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

I titled the lesson this morning, The Gospel of the Empty Tomb. It's such an important topic, the resurrection of Christ, Because there's no good news of the gospel. We have no good news for sinners without the resurrection of Christ. Our doctrine and our preaching, our faith, it's all empty and it's all vain if Christ has not been raised from the dead. Everything we preach is a lie if Christ is not raised from the dead. First Corinthians 15 is a whole chapter telling us about that, the importance of the resurrection of Christ.

The resurrection of Christ is so vital that Christ is our resurrection. Look back at, or look over at John chapter 11. The resurrected Christ is our hope of life. He is our life. John chapter 11, verse 23, our Lord is speaking with Martha at the tomb of her brother. In verse 23, Jesus saith unto her, thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, oh, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. She's looking for an event. But Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, yea, Lord. I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

Christ is our life. Christ is our resurrection. These things, it's not a life force and the resurrection is not an event. They're a person. Christ is our resurrection. And it's so important not to compromise on this truth of the resurrection. The apostles were all martyred. And this was the sticking point with the religious people in their day. It was the resurrection of Christ. They would not deny that Christ was resurrected from the dead. They'd rather be put to death than say he was not raised from the dead. That's how important the resurrection of Christ is to us.

So let's read our text here in Mark chapter 16, the first eight verses. I'll come back and make a few comments on the gospel of the empty tomb.

And when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Salome, had brought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great. And entering into the sepulcher, they saw a young man, sitting on the right side, clothed with a long white garment, and they were affrighted.

He sayeth unto them, be not affrighted. Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified. He's risen. He's not here. Behold the place where they laid him. But go your way. Tell his disciples and Peter that he goes before you into Galilee. There shall you see him as he said unto you. And they went out quickly and fled from the sepulcher. For they trembled and were amazed. Neither said they anything to any man, for they were afraid.

Now Mary Magdalene, Mary Salome, these faithful women had come as soon as the Sabbath was over. You know, during the Sabbath, you can't do work like this. And they came to anoint the Lord's body with these spices. That was their custom that they did at that time. And they came in lovingly to honor the body of our Lord who had died. I know we have a loved one that dies, and I know they're not there anymore. I know they're not there. But that's the body we loved, isn't it? And that's the way they felt. Well, the Lord's dead, but that's the body that they loved. And as soon as they could, as soon as they were permitted under the law, they came to the tomb. And these faithful women were the first ones to hear the gospel of the empty tomb.

And the first point I want to make about this gospel of the empty tomb is the law has been put away. It says here that they came very early. Let's see. Oh, verse one, the beginning of the verse. And when the Sabbath was passed, the Sabbath was passed and now they can, they're free to walk to the tomb and do the work of anointing the body of our Lord. But this was the last Sabbath that would ever be required to be observed. Up to the death of Christ, the law of Moses was in full effect, wasn't it? But now that Christ has risen, all the law has been folded up and it's put away. The law and the ceremonies, God's done with them. That's why when our Lord gave up the ghost, the veil in the temple was rent in two from top to bottom. Now anybody can go right up to the, into the Ark of the Covenant, right up into the presence of God. You don't have to wait for a priest. You can come yourself. The ceremony is over. The law is over. This was the last legal Sabbath day.

Now, these ladies are going to find the beginning of the Sabbath of rest. Now, we still have a Sabbath. We don't observe a day of rest on Saturday, but we still have a Sabbath. Christ is our Sabbath. Christ is our Sabbath rest, and now we have a Sabbath of faith resting in Christ. We rest in Christ. Under the Sabbath law, the Jews were forbidden to do any work. The believer, the Sabbath of faith, we're not forbidden from doing, well, I mean, we are, grace forbids us from doing work to add to our salvation, but we rest in Christ because there's no more work to do. I mean, a man with a farm and a family and things, he could have had things need to get done on Saturday, but he couldn't do them because he was forbidden by the law.

Resting in Christ, we don't work in order to obtain our salvation or improve our situation with God because Christ has finished the work. He's done it all. That's why we rest. We rest in him.

And the old law had forbidden these ladies to walk to the tomb on the Sabbath But now it's the end of the Sabbath. Now the Sabbath is finished. And now they can come to God anytime they want. Now every believer can come to the throne of grace at any time. At any time. Do you have a need? Come to the throne of grace. Are you just overwhelmed with God's goodness and grace to you and you just want to say thank you? Come to the throne of grace. Come to the throne of grace. You can come anytime you want.

Now you don't have to wait for a priest in his outfit to offer a sacrifice for you. You can offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving anytime you want. Now, these ladies can walk anywhere they want on Saturday. You had a certain number of steps. That was your maximum number of steps. You could pick up just a certain number, a small number of sticks. They couldn't cook for their family. They had to cook ahead and eat leftovers and stuff. Now none of that is forbidden because Christ is the end of the law.

Not only did he end the law, but he's the goal of the law. The law is finished and now look to Christ. Christ made an end of the law so that the believer has absolutely no relationship with the law whatsoever. None. Quit looking at the law to see what you're supposed to do. If you do that, you're going to stay discouraged. You're going to be disappointed all the time. You're going to have such a heavy burden on yourself. Don't look to the law. Look to Christ. Look to Christ.

If you're looking to Christ and you're following him, you'll know what to do. You'll be good. Gracious and forgiving and kind you you wouldn't take the Lord's name in vain you but not because you're trying to keep a set of rules out of fear of punishment It's because you love Christ you follow him and you love him People write great big books on This just an example. It came to me marriage But you know, I don't need to read a great big book on marriage as long as I love Janet if I love her Love's gonna guide what I do. Same thing with love for Christ for the believer. We're not looking to the law and rules and regulations. We're looking to Christ.

Now every believer can rest from trying to keep the law because Christ kept it for us. That's the rest of faith. And that's what these ladies found at the tomb when the Sabbath was over. And in that gospel still being preached today, Pretty much in every message that we preach, you have to come to this point. Quit trying to keep the law yourself. Quit trying to establish your own righteousness. Quit trying to make God happy with you by what you do or what you don't do, and rest from all that work. Rest in Christ because he did it all perfectly. That's the message of the empty tomb.

The second thing, the second point, this gospel of the empty tomb, There are no obstacles from stopping any sinner from coming to Christ, none whatsoever. These ladies, as they were walking to the tomb, they were worried about the stone. It was huge, and how are these three ladies gonna be able to roll away the stone? And they knew they didn't have the strength to do it. But when they got there, the stone was already rolled away. And they could just walk straight into the tomb. And I'm sure when they saw that stone rolled away, at first they were relieved. There's no obstacles.

You and I have a bigger problem than those ladies had. I mean, the three of them might have, would have been able to get together and roll the stone at least enough, you know, a crack that they could kind of squeeze through there, you know, and get into the tune. You and I have a mountain of our sin separating us and God. It's our sins that have separated us from our God and you and I can't move it. We can't move it, we can't start hauling stones away from it, make the mountain smaller. We have a mountain of sin that cannot be crossed between us and God.

God's immovable, inflexible law and justice have separated us from coming to God. They're between us and God. Somebody's got to satisfy, somebody's got to satisfy justice. Somebody's got to obey the law before we can come to God and we can't do it. There's a gulf between man and God that Adam created by his sin. And no man can cross it. We cannot cross that gulf from here to there, go to God on our own.

But the tomb's empty. And this is telling us that the death of Christ has removed every obstacle that would stop a sinner from coming to God. Well, what about our sin? What about that mountain of sin you just talked about? The blood of Christ paid the debt. The blood of Christ washed it away, so it's not there anymore. What about Satan? Well, at Calvary, when Christ died, he crushed Satan's head. He put him out of business. He can't charge God's elect with any sin, because their sin has been put away.

The law that had been opposed to us, the law that had been stopping us from coming to God, Christ took it away. By his death, he took it away that he might establish the second. And now, that very law, the very justice of God that used to demand our death, now is really our friend. Because once Christ died for us, that law and that justice now demands we have eternal life. See, Christ took that obstacle out of the way. Don't think, oh no, I've got to straighten up, I've got to keep a few laws. If I do a little bit better, then God will have mercy on me, God will be pleased with me. That law's been taken out of the way. Don't try to get back under it. Christ took it away. Just come straight to Christ. He established the second.

Well, what about death? I mean, that's something that we all fear. If we die, we can't come to God. But believers have life. We have life right now, we have the promise of eternal life, we have promise of life after death because Christ died the death that I deserve. So I can never die the second death and be eternally separated from God because Christ died that death for me.

Well, what about the grave? I mean, the grave, that seems pretty final to us, doesn't it? But the grave's not final. The grave's not gonna keep anyone from Christ. We're gonna come out of that grave in a body just like the body of our Savior and be taken to be with him forever because he died for us, because his blood put away the sin of his people.

And people, I have found this over the years, come up with many excuses not to come to Christ. I can't do it because of this or that or the other. And I tell you what it all boils down to. If someone says I can't come to Christ, what it boils down to is that it's rebellion. It's rebellion. That's all there is to it. Christ took every obstacle away so that the sinner can come straight to him.

Now the self-righteous, you can't come with carrying your luggage of all your self-righteous works. You can't come that way. But if you come as an empty, naked sinner, you can come straight to Christ because he removed every obstacle. Now quit your excuses. Come to Christ. Come to him.

Now the third thing about the gospel of the empty tomb is this. Christ is risen. I know that seems pretty obvious. He's not in the tomb. The angel says he's risen. I know he's risen, but he's risen with everything that that entails, that he is risen from the dead.

First, Christ died, didn't he? He died for the sin of his people. That sin demanded his death. That's why he was crucified. That's why he lay in the tomb for three days, because he died for sin. But after those three days were over, he was raised again. Paul says in Romans, for our justification. He was raised again, as the evidence, his death justified his people. His death took the sin of his people away so that it doesn't exist anymore.

And these ladies saw this, and this young man sitting there, his angel, his bright clothes, and the empty tomb, and the napkins all folded up, and the wrappings all folded up so neatly, and they were frightened. And the first thing the angel told him is, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. There's nothing left to fear. Christ took it all away. You don't have to fear death if you trust Christ, if he died for you. Death is just sleep. That's what our Lord called it. It's sleep. It's just the body sleeping and resting till the Lord returns. You don't have to fear death. The death of this body, is actually the best day of any believer's life because we get to lay down this sinful clay prison and go be with the Lord. That's the best day of any believer's life.

You don't have to fear death. You don't have to fear condemnation. You know, people fear death because, oh, after that, I'm gonna be judged. Not if you're a believer, you won't. Christ has already been judged for you, and you cannot be condemned. The father cannot condemn you. We think, well, the father can do anything he want. Well, in accordance with his character, I reckon he can, but he can't condemn you if Christ died for you, because that would be unjust. So you don't need to fear condemnation. You don't need to fear the wrath of God coming to get you. When the father was finished punishing his son at Calvary, you know what he said? There's no more fury left in me. There's no fury left in God for you if Christ died for you. You don't need to fear that. God's not out to get you.

Our Lord was risen from the dead because sin was gone. And since the sin that was laid on him is gone, washed away under his precious blood, the grave could not hold him. He can't stay dead if there's no sin left on him. Just like he must die if there's sin found on him, he must be raised from the dead if there's no sin left on him. And the gospel of the empty tomb is a message of such comfort and assurance for God's people. Listen, if Christ died for you, you don't have any sin left. Your sin is gone because Christ put it away. What a message of comfort. I know that all we still yet do is sin, but every single time we sin, that sin has already been put under the blood of Christ. You have no sin. There is a new creature born in you that has no sin that is fit to immediately leave this world and go be with Christ. Because he took your sin away.

So if you trust Christ, there's no reason for you to fear these things, death and judgment and hell. They're never gonna touch you. They're never gonna come near you because the blood of Christ put your sin away. He made you just like himself. God's satisfied. God is satisfied.

Wednesday night we looked at that burnt offering and the Lord said it's a sweet savor to him. It's a sweet savor. It's a sweet savor because the death of Christ satisfied every attribute of God. Not only did his death satisfy justice, satisfied his wrath, satisfied his law, the death of Christ also satisfied God's mercy. God's grace, God's love for sinners, because his death enabled God to be both just and still justify the ungodly. The death of Christ enabled God to say, my justice is satisfied and now my love is satisfied. Now I can pour out my love and my mercy and my grace on these objects of grace because Christ by his death took away every reason I'd be angry at him.

That's a message of comfort, isn't it? that we're accepted, not because we're good little boys and girls, not because we've got our doctrinal ducks in a row, but because Christ both died and rose again for us. That's the message of the empty tomb. That's the ramifications of Christ's resurrection.

And the fourth thing is this. The message of the empty tomb is a message of hope for the hopeless. Look at verse seven. But go your way, tell his disciples, and Peter, and Peter. That is one of my favorite lines in the whole Bible. Tell my disciple, now Peter's included in the disciples, but he says specifically, and Peter, and Peter.

At this time, wouldn't you say Peter feels pretty hopeless? I mean, he's, oh, he's humbled. He just stood up in front of those other 10 that were there and said, these will leave you, but I never will. I mean, he boasted of himself and put himself on a level above them. And now he's so humbled. He denied three times that he even knew the Savior. Don't even know him, he said. He saw Judas betray him. Judas go hang himself. And Peter had to be thinking, there's no difference. between me and Judas. And in Adam, that's true, isn't it? There's no difference between us and Judas, none whatsoever.

But there is a difference between Peter and Judas. There is a difference between the believer and Judas, between the believer and the unbeliever. What's the difference? It's Christ. It's Christ. It's his blood. It's his love. It's his sacrifice. And it's his resurrection. The Lord suffered and died for sin, and now he's sending word, especially to Peter. Peter, nothing's changed. I still love you. I loved you to the end, and I love you now. Peter, I'm still gonna forgive your sin. You're still, you know, my friend. I will still do everything for you that I promised to do. Even though you weren't faithful, Peter, I will be. I will be.

And that sin that you're feeling so bad about, that's put under my blood too. Nobody's gonna hold it to your account. That's put under my blood too. The Lord himself sent word. You tell my weak, forgetful, doubting, weak faith disciples, you tell them that they're saved by grace. Not by their works, but by their grace. but by my grace, not by your works, but by my work for you. You're not righteous because you've kept the law and you get into what our message can be on this morning, never ate any unclean animal. That's not why you're righteous. You're righteous in my obedience. Just like you became unrighteous through the first Adam's disobedience, you became righteous in my obedience for you. The Father's gonna accept you because my blood has made you sinless. It took away all your sins, so there's no reason the Father would not accept you.

Now that's no excuse for sin, is it? None whatsoever. And I go back to being motivated by love and thanksgiving. If Christ died for you, and your faith is in Christ, and your love is in Christ, the last thing that you wanna do is sin. Even though that sin will be forgiven, the last thing you wanna do is sin. But when you sin, Our sin is forgiven because of the blood of Christ. And the proof of it is his resurrection. He was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. And I point this out because I'm sure that this is true.

Believers identify with Peter more than any of the other 12. I mean, I certainly identify with Peter more than Paul, more than John, more than, you know, I identify with Peter, the guy always popping off and talking before he thinks and saying something dumb, you know, and being weak and doubting. But the gospel of the empty tomb is telling us, us Peters today, your sin's forgiven. Your sin's forgiven. And the last thing I want to give you is this. I've touched on this already. This is the message of the empty tomb. The Lord arose from the dead. and his people will too. In the new birth, we're gonna be given life and be raised again from the dead. And one day, in the great resurrection, when Christ returns, God's people are gonna be resurrected in a body, just like the body, the glorified flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And if you'll turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'll read this. passage of scriptures as a close, to sum up the gospel of the resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15, verse 45. And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual.

The first man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the same. that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

All right, I hope God will make that a blessing to you.