Morning everyone if you would open your Bibles with me to mark chapter 15 Mark chapter 15 Before we begin let's bow before our Lord together in prayer Our father we've gathered here together this morning in the name of your sons our Lord Jesus Christ, who gathered together to hear of him, to worship him, to sing his praises. Father, I pray that you would, by the power of your spirit, enable us this morning to do just that, to hear of Christ our Savior, not just hear of doctrines and men's thoughts on religion, but Father, to hear of Christ, to hear from Christ, to being able to worship him from the heart and spirit and in truth, enable us to bow at his feet in the dust where we belong. And father, we pray that you may be merciful to us, that you may reach your hand down upon us and touch us. And father, enable us to worship, give life and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And what we pray for ourselves, Father, we pray especially for our children's class going on right now, that you might bless Dan in teaching, that you might bless our young ones, Father, that you would be pleased to give them a hearing ear, that you would plant the seeds of faith and the seeds of the gospel in their heart, and Father, in your time, we would pray soon that you might cause it to grow faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and draw them to thee. Father, we're so thankful for the many blessings of this life. You've blessed us with everything in Christ Jesus, everything, everything that we need to stand before you complete. You've also blessed us so richly with the things of this life and father, we're thankful knowing everything that we have has come as a free gift of your hand. We haven't earned or deserved one bit of it. It's all of the father, we thank you. Ask that you forgive us forever murmuring and complaining against your sovereign will and purpose after all the good that you've done for us. Father, we pray a special blessing for those who are hurting, who are in difficult times of trial and trouble. Father, we pray you heal that you comfort their hearts with your presence and that you might be pleased to deliver, Father, as soon as it could be thy will. All these things we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name of Christ our Savior. Amen. I've titled the lesson this morning, The Burial of the Savior. And there might be more here of a blessing for us than you might imagine in considering the burial of the Savior. Our text begins in Mark chapter 15, verse 39. I'm going to read the text and come back and make some comments on it. And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost, he said, truly, this man was the son of God. There were also women looking on afar off, among whom was Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James the less and of Josie's and Salome. who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him and ministered unto him and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem. And now when the evening was come, because it was the preparation, the preparation of the Passover, that is the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable counselor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came and went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate marveled if he were already dead, and called unto him the centurion. He asked him whether he had been any while dead, and when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And he brought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulcher, which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone under the door of the sepulcher. And Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses, beheld where he was laid.

Now there's several things I'd like for us to see about this. And number one seems obvious, but I'll make good on this why it's necessary to point this out. Our savior actually died. He died, his body died. He gave up the ghost. He willed his own death and he didn't do it until the price for the sin of all of his people had been paid. Salvation, satisfaction to the Father's justice, satisfaction to everything that the Father gave him to do was accomplished, and he actually died. He had to actually die because the law demands death for sin. So when he was made sin for his people, he must die, and he did. He died when he gave up the ghost.

And he died much more quickly than people normally died when they were crucified. Many times it would take days for someone to die when they were crucified. But our Lord died in just a matter of hours. The two thieves on either side of him hadn't died yet. And when Pilate heard he was already dead, Pilate was surprised, because this normally takes a much longer time. I want to be very careful how I say this. The Lord didn't die. quickly in this sense that, well, it wasn't much suffering. He suffered an infinite amount of suffering and justice in that short time, in those few hours. But he died more quickly than other people who were crucified because of the value of the man that was suffering, because of the value of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was all the suffering and all the bloodshed that it took to redeem his people from all of their sin. And that's why he gave up the ghost and actually died.

Now, you might wonder, why make such an issue of this? Of course Jesus died. You'd be surprised as I read commentators and read things on this passage, how many people still think Jesus Christ didn't die. that he just, he had so much blood loss and, you know, he passed out. And because of all the blood loss, you know, they couldn't tell if his heart was really beating. They couldn't tell if he was actually breathing or not. And he was still alive when they took him down from the cross. And they laid him in the tomb for three days. Well, he laid there and recovered and then, you know, came out of the tomb. Don't you ever fall for it. I mean, I don't think, I mean, everybody here is smart enough to, but don't ever fall for that. That is a wicked attack by the ministers of Satan to take away your confidence in Christ. That's exactly what that is.

The Lord Jesus Christ actually died for the sin of his people, and if he didn't actually die, then there's no one saved, and every son of Adam is gonna go to hell, because sin demands death. But if Christ died, then all of his people are saved from all of their sin, and they can never die, because their substitute already died for them. The substitute already paid the price to justice. Justice will never demand you die if Christ already died for you. That would be condemning two people to death for the same sin, and God will never do that. Christ actually died. As Scripture says, I mean, you know, the Lord knew what was coming, what men were gonna say. But in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. Who are the witnesses to this? Well, the centurion was a witness to it. Now remember, this man's job was the executioner. He was over the soldiers that put people to death. They did this all of the time. This was his job. This man knew death. And he confessed. He testified that Christ is dead. Jesus Christ is dead.

Those faithful women. who were there. These are faithful women. These are not women who tend not to tell the truth. These are faithful women. They all saw their Lord was dead.

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Scripture describes them as honorable men. They knew that the Lord was dead. And most importantly, the thing that seals it all is this. The Holy Spirit of God, said Christ, died on the cross. And that's why it's recorded in God's word. Christ actually died.

And the result of Christ's death on the cross for the sin of his people is that all of his people are made perfectly righteous. We have that in picture. Look at verse 46. And he brought fine linen and took him down and wrapped him in the linen and laid him in the sepulcher. You know that white linen all through scripture represents the righteousness of Christ. The righteousness that he worked out as a man by his obedience under the law. This is a human being, a man, he's got a human body, he's got a human nature, and he obeyed God's law perfectly, always. And that's the perfect righteousness that Christ worked out as the representative of his people.

Now it's Christ obedience, isn't it? It's his righteousness. It's the righteousness that he worked out. But that righteousness is your righteousness if you believe Christ. It's the righteousness of his people. Let me show you that in Revelation chapter 19. Revelation 19. Let's begin reading in verse seven. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife hath made herself ready. This is all of his people, his bride, and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of Christ. It's not what that says, is it? It's the righteousness of saints. It's the righteousness that Christ worked out, but it's yours. Chris, that's your righteousness. Because God gave it to you. Not because we earned it, but because God gave it to you.

And that righteousness can only be yours if Christ died to put your sin away. See, that's why this is an important point to say the Savior actually died. And since Christ died, there is no reason for any believer to ever fear death or the grave. You know, the only reason that we have some fear or trepidation or worry or whatever it is about the death of these bodies is we've never done it. We've never done it. Those who have done it, those believers who have died, they know the blessing of this body dying and going to be with the Lord. But we don't know that, we've never experienced it. So that's why there's some fear of it. But we don't need to. There's absolutely no reason to.

We know in three days time from where our text is that Christ is going to be raised from the dead and he's going to walk out of that tomb. He's going to roll that stone away by his own power and he's going to walk out of the tomb. And when he did, he proved In his death, in his sacrifice, he won the victory over death. Death could not hold him, because the sin that demanded his death was gone. Put away under his precious blood, and sin could not hold him, so he won the victory over death. And if you believe him, you did too. You don't need to fear the death of your body, because in the Lord's time, you're gonna be raised too. You're gonna be raised. You're gonna look just like you, but you're gonna be in glorified flesh, just like our Lord Jesus Christ when he was raised in glorified flesh. And when Christ walked out of the tomb, not only did he prove he won the victory over death, he proved he won the victory over the grave. The grave could not hold him. Well, then there is no reason for any believer to fear dying and being buried and laying in the grave. The Lord said that Lazarus was laying in the grave, in the tomb, and the Lord said, he's just sleeping. He's just sleeping. There's no reason to fear that. Our Lord came out of the grave, didn't he? By his own power, he came out of the grave, and he opened the way for you to come out too. Well, I mean, everybody's coming out of the grave, but his people are coming out of the grave to be taken to be with him.

Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15. Beginning in verse 54. So in this corruptible, this corruptible body shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that's written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is your 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. Christ won the victory, and he's giving this victory to his people. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye 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. Christ won the victory over the grave, and you just wait one day, you're coming out too. Because he opened the way to come out of that, out of the tomb in glorified flesh.

All right, now I'm gonna give you three lessons that we can learn and this is something we can take with us and it ought to be something thought about in our everyday lives, every single day, all of the time.

Number one is this, the Lord uses weak, faltering children of God to accomplish his will. In our text, just the night before, just hours ago, Peter swore he would not desert the Lord, didn't he? He said, Lord, these fellows might desert you. I'll never desert you. I'll die with you. So said they all. They all said the exact same thing. Now let me ask you, where are they now? Not one of them is anywhere to be found.

But you know who is found there? These faithful women. Faithful women. And I know that the world tends to look down on women, and men, to our shame, men are known for this, that for men to look down on women in the church too, and that ought not be. There's nothing more wrong than that. These women were faithful women. Now, they couldn't be apostles, true. They couldn't be preachers, absolutely right. But they faithfully did what they could do. Look there in our text, verse 40. There were also women looking on afar off, among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the last and of Joses and Salome, who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him and ministered unto him.

These faithful women ministered under the bodily needs, whatever needs going on that our Lord had, they ministered to Him. They didn't let what they couldn't do stop them from doing what they could do. They didn't say, well, I can't preach, so there's nothing I can do. I'm just gonna sit here like an analog. No, that's not what they did. Yeah, they can't preach, but there's things that they can do. They ministered to the Lord. They ministered to those people, the men and the women who tended to follow Him and be around. They ministered to their needs, cooking or whatever it was they were doing, you know. And all of us need to take a real good lesson from that. Serve the Lord with whatever abilities that the Lord has given you to do.

There's several men here that if I ask you to preach Wednesday night, you wouldn't show up, right? Well, all right, maybe you're not called to preach, but listen, don't let that stop you from doing what you can do. Our ladies are so wonderful at this. Yeah, they can't preach and these things, they can't lead in prayer and in the service and so forth, but that don't mean you can't pray. That don't mean you can't teach. And you can serve the Lord in the ways that the Lord's given you to do. I shudder to think what this place, or the whole world for that matter, would look like without faithful women. I mean, I shudder to think about that, you know. I mean, everybody gets on Martha for being so caught up in serving and so forth. And Mary has desired the better thing. But I remember Brother Henry preaching a message in defense of Martha, he called it. Yes, sitting at the Lord's feet's more important. Yes, hearing of the Lord's more important. But don't think for a minute that all these other things that need to be done don't need to be done too. Let's be aware that these were faithful women. And the Lord used them to serve him in that way. Isn't that something?

And I tell you who else was there. Joseph of Arimathea was there. And the Apostle John says Nicodemus was there. Now, these two men were Pharisees. I mean, they were the top dogs of the Pharisees. They're in the Sanhedrin. They're the ruling class of the Jewish society. I mean, they were honored and revered. They were somebody. And they gave all of that up to identify with Jesus of Nazareth. They gave it up. Now, John says that Joseph of Arimathea, was a secret disciple for fear of the Jews. He was, at one point, a secret disciple. Not anymore. At one time, he was a secret disciple of Jesus, but he sat in the Sanhedrin seats. He sat with all them and went through all the rigmarole that they went through, and didn't openly protest against it, and everybody thought You know, he's one of us, but he was a secret disciple of Jesus. He was just afraid to say so, because of what the Jews would do to him. They'd kick him out of the Sanhedrin, kick him out of their society and all these things, but not anymore. I mean, this man is a disciple of Jesus in the most publicly open way that you can be. He went to Pilate and begged Pilate for his body. Now, everybody knew he did that, and the word's gonna get, everybody's gonna know that he did that. And he got permission from Pilate to take the body and bury it. He walked back to Golgotha's tree. The body of our Lord was still hanging there. And however he did it, had to wrap his hands around his bloody body, however he did it, took him down from that cross. And Mark doesn't say anything about it, but Nicodemus was there with him. And they wrapped him in that linen, and they had to carry that body from Golgotha to wherever Joseph's tomb was.

Golgotha was a bad part of town. It was the place of the skull, and a lot of people say it's the place of the skull because the criminals who were crucified there, who died there, were executed there, were just the worst criminals of all society. They didn't really deserve a good burial. They either left the bodies laying there or buried them in a shallow grave or whatever, The animals dug him up and ate him and all that's left is his bones. This is not a good place, part of town.

Joseph was a wealthy man. He didn't have his tomb right near Golgotha, I'm just sure of it. But however far it was away, he had to carry that body through the streets all the way to where his tomb was, publicly identifying with Christ. And the Lord used Joseph of Arimathea, now a secret disciple. Someone would say, you know, y'all not do that. Y'all not be a secret disciple. But that's who the Lord used to fulfill the scriptures. Isaiah 53 said that our Lord's gonna be buried in a rich man's tomb. Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man and the Lord borrowed his tomb for three days. The Lord used him to fulfill the scriptures.

And Nicodemus was with him. Nicodemus, you know what came into everybody's mind as soon as they said his name? He came to Jesus by night. He came at night. And I know that spiritually speaking, that means he came in the darkness of unbelief and ignorance. He didn't know Christ or trust Christ at that time, but he also came at night. Because he didn't want anybody to see him coming. He did not want anybody, his religious friends, to know that he's going to talk to this man, Jesus of Nazareth. He's public enemy number one. He didn't want anybody to know he's gone talking to him. And now he comes in the daylight, when everybody's watching, to help take care of the body of Jesus, to bury Christ, to fulfill the scripture, his death, his burial, and his resurrection. It's got to be all three, and he came to help in this matter of burying the Lord's body.

And I want you to notice the care and the love that they showed for Christ in the way that they treated his body. Verse 43 at the end of it says that Joseph came to Pilate and craved the body of Jesus. He craved, he wanted this very badly to be able to take his body and to bury him. And when he had the opportunity, the permission to take him and bury him, John says they wrapped the body with expensive myrrh and aloes. Not only did they just, they wrapped him in that fine linen, but before they wrapped him in that fine linen, expensive myrrh and aloes. I mean, they put the money where their mouth is here, you know, and they so carefully, and lovingly handled the body of Jesus, even though he's already dead, because they loved him. They had been weak, faltering men, absolutely, no doubt about it. But the Lord used them in this matter of his burial.

And I said all that to say this, this is what you and I can put in our lunch bucket and work with us tomorrow. The Lord's going to accomplish his will. And I know that. I mean, I know that just as much as I know anything. The Lord's going to accomplish His will. And His will all work together for this one purpose, the redemption of His people. His people are gonna be redeemed. They're gonna be brought to Christ. They're gonna appear with Christ in glory. The Lord's going to accomplish His will. I mean, does anybody here doubt that? I don't think so. Here's what we tend to forget sometimes, though. The Lord don't need me to do it. He doesn't need me to do it. I wish he would. I pray that he would make me useful in his service, that he'd use me for his glory and for the good of his people. But he doesn't need me to do it.

And before he uses anybody to do anything in his service, tell you what he's gonna do, he's gonna make them nothing. He's gonna make them see that they're nothing. And the best example that I can think of is Moses. Moses raised up in Pharaoh's house, had the finest education that money could buy. Trained up in speech and oratory and military tactics and history and all these things.

And when Moses, it was come of age and he went out there and he's gonna deliver Israel by the power of his right arm, wasn't he? And boy, it didn't take nothing for him to run like a scared jackrabbit into the wilderness and go sit on the backside of a desert, tending his father-in-law's sheep for 40 years. For 40 years.

1985, is that right? It was 40 years ago? I know to some of us that seems like the other day, but that's 40 years ago. Lots changed in 40 years. It took 40 years. for Moses to be whittled down to nothing, so that when the Lord told him, now you go back to Egypt and set my people free, Moses said, I can't do it. Lord, you got the wrong man. I can't do it. I've forgotten how to speak. I've forgotten how to do it.

The Lord said, you go and I'll be with you. But he didn't use Moses until Moses was whittled down to nothing in his own estimation, wasn't he? So the Lord uses weak, frail children to accomplish his purpose.

And the second thing, And this thrills me. The Lord's not done saving sinners. Now, the Lord's not done saving sinners. You know, we've heard about great revivals in the past. We read about them in scripture. We've heard about them in history. And I've been around some awful big conferences. Seemed like it was a big deal going on. And it doesn't seem to be that way anymore. for whatever reason, doesn't seem to be that way anymore.

But let me tell you, God hadn't changed. God's not done saving sinners. In all of our judgmental piety, honestly and truly, what would we have thought about Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus? Why, we'd have thought, huh, those guys secret disciples coming to Jesus by night. They're not taking a stand like I am. They're not publicly identifying like I am. They're pretenders. We're done with them. We'd have been done with them a long time ago.

But from reading scripture, we have every reason to believe that the Lord saved them. Matthew and John both say, that Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Christ. And Luke says he didn't consent to what the Sanhedrin was trying to do in this matter of crucifying Jesus. He didn't consent to it at all. He publicly opposed this thing. He's a disciple of Christ.

And who else came to claim the body of Christ? Nobody but these two men came and took his body to bury him. I'm telling you, the Lord saves sinners. I think the Lord saved these two men. I sure hope so. It sure does look like it. But here's what I know for a fact. The Lord saves sinners.

We'll tend to give up on somebody way too early. Just don't give up. Don't ever despair of the Lord's power to save. Don't ever despair of his grace and mercy to sinners. Someone seems like they're running far off and they're not fitting into our box of what a believer ought to look like. Don't despair of God's grace. Don't despair of God's power. Keep asking God that he might have mercy on our loved ones, that he might be pleased to reveal himself to our loved ones because, and here's our motivation, our confidence in doing it, the Lord saves sinners, doesn't he? He saves sinners.

And number three is this, and we need to be reminded of this, but for the life of me, it seems like the most mysterious thing in this world, that believers who, I mean, we believe in sovereign grace, don't we? I mean, we believe in it. I mean, honestly, truly from the heart. But here's something we need to be reminded of. We've got no reason to look down our noses in judgment on anybody, on anybody.

If all men are lost in Adam, and I'm pretty sure that's what Scripture teaches, and is that what you believe Scripture teaches? All men are lost in Adam, then there can't be anybody worse than me. There can't be. It's utterly impossible. Now, you can make a judgment, and you should. Parents and people in your life, you should make judgments about things. about what's right and wrong, what you should expose yourself to in these kinds of things, what you should avoid. But we're to make those judgments without ever looking down our nose at anybody. There's no reason to whatsoever.

And I know the Lord gives gifts, differing gifts to different people. So someone might not have the knowledge that you have. And maybe they just don't have the knowledge you have because they haven't been able to sit and be taught like you have. Give them a little time to learn. Don't be so judgmental on somebody that they don't know something that the Lord has been pleased to reveal to you. Give them time to learn. And let's not be so proud of our knowledge and what we see of the Lord because at best scripture tells us we see through a glass of dark Just darkly, we just got a glimpse of the Lord and a glimpse of his glory.

Someone might not have all their doctrinal ducks in a row, you know, like what we do. Well, give them time. Give them time. You didn't either at one time. Give them some time. Give them some time. Here's the thing. Believers are sinners still. Sinners still. And what we see in each other right now is not the finished product. It's not the finished product.

Now, I say that, let me say this, that new man who's been born of God, he is holy, he's righteous, he's complete. That's the way scripture describes him. If you trust Christ, if you've been born again of God the Holy Spirit, you'll never be more righteous or more holy than you are right now. Not in this life and not in the life to come. You're not ever going to grow in holiness. You're either holy or you're not. One or the other. You're not going to grow in holiness. You're not going to grow in righteousness.

But we're still growing in grace, aren't we? We're still growing in grace. And all the fruit of the Spirit. We're still growing in those things. We're still growing in the knowledge of Christ. I'm not going to learn one day, to my surprise, that God doesn't save sinners the way this book tells me he saves sinners. But there's still a lot of things I'm learning. I'm learning. Every week I think, what? I learned something new here. There's so much to learn about our Lord. And we're still growing, aren't we?

Well, let's give others time to grow. Somebody gave us some time to grow. Let's give them some time to grow. Because God, more than likely, is going to use them instead of me. So let's give them a little room, all right? I hope the Lord bless that to you.