Well, good morning, everyone. If you would, turn in your Bibles with me to 2 Timothy chapter 3. For those of you who weren't here in the class, let me apologize for the temperature in here. The batteries in the remote thermostat over there got so low, it shut the whole system down. It is running wide open now. And the last hour and 45 minutes has come up five degrees, so probably not gonna get all that comfortable till we leave, but Lord willing, next time we'll have it all fixed. 2 Timothy chapter three, we're gonna read the whole chapter. This know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness, they have an outward religion, they have a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. From such, turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women, laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions and afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, which persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable. for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. All right, let's stand as Sean leads us in singing our call to worship. The covenant of God's grace is mine and every promise sure, all flowing from eternal love and by God so secure. Before the earth's foundations were by God my Father laid, accepted and forever blessed, I stood in Christ my Head. that covenant ratified by blood and by God's spirit sealed shall yet in heaven's glory be by grace in me fulfilled. If you would, turn in your hymnal to song number 17, Come Thou Fount. 17. Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come. and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God, He to rescue me from danger interposed His precious blood. Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. The pastor says that we read from Acts chapter 9 this morning for the service. Acts chapter 9 beginning in verse 36. Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and alms deeds, which she did. And it came to pass in those days that she was sick and died, whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber. And for as much as Lydia was nigh unto Joppa, the disciples that heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men, desiring him that he would not delay to come to them. Then Peter arose and went with them, and when he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber, And all the widows stood by him weeping and showing their coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them. But Peter put them all forth and kneeled down and prayed. And turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes and when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and lifted her up And when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive, he was known throughout all of Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. And it came to pass that he tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon, a tanner. May the Lord bless his word. Let's pray. Our heavenly, merciful Father, Come before you this morning, a thankful people and a needy people. Lord, we need thy presence, thy salvation, our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in his name that we come to you. So thankful that you made an everlasting covenant with him, that he might, that you might Show your love towards sinners that Christ was born into this world a man to live a perfect life that we could not enter into and to have our sins placed on his body that he might die the death that your justice requires. and that might justify us in him, that we're given the very righteousness of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, it's a mystery to us. We cannot understand it, but we can rejoice in thy word. Father, we pray that you would send your spirit to be among us this morning, that you would leave us not alone, Pray that you would be with our pastor, that you would give him a word from thee to Lord, feed your sheep, leave us not alone. We can't worship unless you enable us. Lord, we pray that you would enable us to worship Christ this morning. Father, we're so thankful for all that you've given us in this world. We were blessed above all people that we would be able to look beyond this world and look to Christ. Father, we pray that you would continue to send your word from this place for many years to come, that you would use the word spoken from this pulpit to bless the hearts of sinners. calls them to run to Christ, to feel their need, to seek Christ. Lord, we pray it be your will. Pray for those here that might not know thee, Lord, that you would reveal yourself to them in a saving manner. Lord, we pray especially for our children and our loved ones, Lord, as Paul prayed for For that nation Israel, we pray that it might be your will to reveal yourself to them. Father, we're thankful for these that you've given us. We pray that you'd give them to Christ, cause them to run to him, to cling to him, to seek salvation in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pray for those who can't be with us this morning. We pray for men wherever they stand to proclaim the word of our Lord Jesus Christ this morning, that you would be with them. We pray that you would return those who can't be here. Lord, when a member of our local body is hurting, we all hurt. pray Lord that we would be able to, we lift them up to the end prayer and we pray that we might be able to serve you by serving them. Lord, once again we confess that we cannot worship without you and we pray that you would give us an hour of worship this morning. Show us Christ and we might not die. Lord, we ask this and all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for our eternal good and for his sake. Amen. Keep your Bibles open there to Acts chapter 9. Something that I'll point out before I get into the message tomorrow. Dan Morgan is going to have his last day at work, retiring after 40 years with the same company. That's rare. If I had any stock in Marathon, I'd sell it because the place is going to go to the dogs after Dan retires. He's the only one keeping it afloat, and I'm thankful for him. I titled the message this morning, A Disciple Named Tabitha. Tabitha has always been very interesting to me. And there are things about Tabitha that every believer should strive to emulate. But more importantly, Tabitha is a type of Christ. Tabitha is a good example of faith in action, but Christ is the object of faith. And if I would compare myself to Tabitha, I'm just gonna feel bad. I mean, I don't do enough. I don't do everything like she did. But if I look to Christ, I'll find comfort for my heart and salvation for my soul. And that's what I would like for us to see this morning. But first, a couple words here on Tabitha. She was a woman, as Dan just read to us, who was full of good works and alms deeds. And I think it's important to remind us Calvinists, you know, good works is not a four-letter word. Good works, I've told you so often are works that are done in faith, faith in Christ for the good of the body of Christ. I'll show you that if you look back at Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26, beginning in verse six. Now when Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he sat at me. And when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, to what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, why trouble ye the woman? For she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you, but me you have not always. For in that she hath poured out this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Now she came, this woman came and anointed the Lord with this precious ointment in faith. She knew he was gonna die. She felt, I mean, it looks to me like she knew that better than the 12 did. He's gonna die, and she knew why he was gonna die. That he was gonna die for her sin, bearing her sin. So she did this in faith, knowing that he was getting ready to die. But that ointment felt awful good on his body, I bet you. Don't you reckon, being poured down on his body? And it benefited everybody else in the room, too. When they could smell that beautiful ointment, And that's a work, this is the only thing that the Lord ever called a good work. It was a work done in faith and a work done on his body. And we know that the Lord's body is his people. He's the head and we're the body. And scripture says that Tabitha was full of these good works and she was full of alms deeds. Alms deeds, the word means act of mercy. She was full of good works and acts of mercy. on those people around her. And if you look at verse 39 in our text, we'll see examples of what they're talking about.

Then Peter arose and went with them. And when he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber and all the widows stood by him, weeping and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them.

You know, Dorcas, Tabitha, She did what she could. She didn't let what she couldn't do stop her from doing things. She did what she could do. The Lord had given her the gift to be a seamstress, and she used the skills that God gave her making coats and garments for people. As cold as it is, and here this morning somebody gave you a nice warm coat, you'd say, that's an alms day, that's mercy. That's what these widows were saying.

And here they are at her funeral visitation. And they're talking about her. They're telling stories about her. They're telling people these things that she did for me. And I know folks that say, you know, my funeral, don't talk about me. Don't mention my name. And I understand what they're saying. But I don't think that's good. I think it's good at a funeral visitation that we talk about the loved one that we lost, particularly to the family. You know, the family. has lost a loved one. And this is a permanent thing. Don't ever be shy of bringing up the name of a lost loved one because they'll like to talk about them. They'll like to hear about them no matter how long it's been. And that's what they were doing. And Tabitha, that was what they were talking about was she was full of these good works and acts of mercy that we benefited from it so much.

And certainly, Every believer should strive to be the same thing that people would say about us, that we are full of good works and acts of mercy that we did for others. Cause you know, these good works, they are the result of God's grace to us and in us. And it's God's will that we walk in these things. Look at Ephesians chapter two. A person who really trusts Christ should never think, well, Christ has saved me, it doesn't matter how I walk and how I conduct myself. Oh, wait a minute. Yes, it does too. Look at Ephesians 2 verse 8. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now we're not doing these works in order to be saved, are we? No, it's not of works, lest any man should boast. For his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. It's God's will that all of us walk in these things and do these good works for one another. And Tabitha was full of them. She did these things.

But despite all of her good works, despite all of her acts of mercy, Tabitha got sick and died. She got sick and died because of sin. That's what sin always produces in these bodies. And Dan read to us how Peter came and raised her from the dead. He put everybody out of the room and he prayed and he turned to her. He turned to that dead corpse and said, Tabitha, arise. And she came back to life. The Lord resurrected her. And that's what an amazing thing. I mean, can you imagine? I mean, I don't know how long it is since she died, but there she is. She's dead. They're having a funeral for her. The body's cold. The body's stiff. It's dead. And she opened her eyes in life. I mean, that's amazing. I mean, I just don't know what else to say about that. None of us have ever seen anything like that, and we know we never will.

But you know, that's a hint of something coming. is the hint of the resurrection of these bodies. All these bodies one day are gonna be dead. And worse than Tabitha, we're gonna go back to dust. I mean, there's gonna be nothing left of us, and the Lord's gonna come, and our bodies are gonna be raised incorruptible, made just like Christ. This is just a hint of what's to come for all of God's people.

And so many people in town heard of this, and Peter stayed there with Simon, a tanner, many days, And I know good and well what Peter was doing all those days. He was there, he's preaching. He's telling folks about Christ. And many people believed on the Christ that Peter preached because they heard this is the one that gives life. And more than giving life to these physical bodies, this is the one that gives life spiritually to his people. And that's what they believed.

Now again, that's what most people know about Tabitha, Now that's not the gospel, that's just, that's some good instruction for every believer that we should all strive to be like Tabitha, to be full of these good works and full of these alms deeds. It's very important to the life of a believer, but that is not the main teaching of the text. This text was not written to glorify Tabitha, not in any way. It was written to glorify Christ. Just like every verse of scripture is written to glorify Christ,

Now let me take this and preach the gospel to you from the experience of this woman, this disciple, Tabitha. Like Tabitha, our Lord Jesus Christ was full, full of good works and alms deeds. He was so full of good works and acts of mercy that that's all he did. Everything he did was good. He never did anything bad. He never did anything evil. He never did anything sinful because there's no sin in him. He didn't have a sin nature, so he couldn't sin. So everything he did was good.

I mean, you think about throughout his earthly ministry, everywhere he went, he went doing good. The miracles, all the miracles that he performed. He never one time did that miracle to promote himself. It was always for the good of someone else. Now, we see his glory in it, but he did it as an act of mercy. When he healed that leper, that was an act of mercy, wasn't it? When he raised the dead, that was an act of mercy. When our Lord raised Lazarus from the dead, Jan and I were talking about this this week, I know it was good, because the Lord did it, right? But I'm not so sure if I was Lazarus, I'd be all that thrilled about this, you know? I mean, was Lazarus, I think he was probably with the Lord. But it sure was good for Mary and Martha, wasn't it? That their brother was back to life, that they weren't helpless widows, that they had their brother. That was good.

But also think of his teaching. As the Lord went teaching, I mentioned this in the class this morning. You know, the scribes and the Pharisees said, this is what the scripture means. And everything they did was to put a burden on people, wasn't it? It was just the burden of the law. You got to do this. You got to do this. You got to do this. And they were watching you. Boy, you know that you'd get in trouble if they saw you not doing what they said you're supposed to do. And our Lord came. And he came teaching. He came preaching the kingdom. And he said, but I say unto thee, I say unto you, this is, and every time he said it, what did he do? He took the pressure off. It's all of grace. It's all of God's mercy. It's come to me. You know, if you're thirsty, the Pharisees would tell you, go draw water, get you a bucket and go draw water. The Lord said, come unto me. I'll give you fountains of water springing up in you. Every, I mean, his teaching was so good. Oh, it was merciful.

And he only did good under the law, too. He obeyed God's law perfectly, not just outwardly, but in his heart and in his motive. I mean, there's times outwardly we do the right thing, but inwardly we don't want to. I thought about coming here this morning and I thought, you know, Frank, slow down and obey the speed limit. I mean, I really didn't want to. I mean, you know. Outwardly, I may have been going to speed limit, but inwardly, it was 90 miles an hour with my hair on fire. Our Lord in thought, in motive, in heart, always did good and established a perfect righteousness.

And he was full of alms deeds. He was full of acts of mercy. You think of every helpless sinner that ever came to him, he was full of mercy for them, wasn't he? His acts of mercy, the words that he spoke were just dripped with mercy and grace. And he's always so merciful, not to the self-righteous. No, he had harsh words for them, didn't he? But for a sinner, he had such words of mercy and grace to them and everything that our Savior did during his earthly ministry, all this good, all this acts of mercy, he did for his people.

When he worked out a perfect righteousness under the law, he did that for his people. It says that in verse 40, no, verse 41, he gave her his hand, lifted her up, and when he called the saints, You know why those saints are called saints? You know why those people are called saints? Because Christ made them holy. He made them righteous as their representative by his obedience under the law, by his bloody sacrifice that put away their sins. He made them saints. He made them holy, ones set apart for holy use for God. And that's what Tabitha's coats and garments that she made for those widows are all pictures of. They're pictures of Christ perfect righteousness, his perfect robe of righteousness that he gives to his people.

But now, the garment that Christ made is so much better than the one that Tabitha made. You know, Tabitha might have made somebody a new coat or a new garment, and they put it over top of a dirty shirt, or they put it over top of their dirty flesh, you know, and it just covered it up so nobody could see their dirty shirt. The robe of Christ's righteousness is nothing like that. The robe of Christ's righteousness doesn't just cover up our filth and our sin and our decay and our guilt. The robe of Christ's righteousness makes God's people righteous in the soul. Righteous through and through. A new man born of God who is holy and righteous. That's the robe of Christ's righteousness.

Now that's a gift. That's a gift. And like I said earlier, yesterday, I was thinking about my notes and I thought about saying, you know, it's cold this morning, if you didn't have a coat, somebody gave you a coat, boy, that'd be a great gift, wouldn't it? Well, sitting here, you know, somebody gave you a coat, you know, this morning with the heat kind of running behind you, think that's a good gift. What a gift. What a gift. If Christ gives us his robe of righteousness, and makes us perfect. As thankful as we are for that, in this flesh, we don't, we just don't know how thankful we ought to be for that. This is much more amazing than we can even imagine. He made a sinful people righteous by his gift of righteousness.

In all of Christ's acts of mercies were for sinners. Just like Tabitha, she made these coats and these garments for widows. Now, at that time, I mean, widows were some of the most, help, widows and orphans, I guess, were the two classes of people that were the most helpless and the most needy in that society. You know, a woman needed a man to go out and work and provide for her and protect her and so forth. And a widow's helpless. I mean, she didn't have anybody to provide for her. She didn't have any protection, anybody to do anything for her. She's helpless. And that's who Dorcas gave all these garments and coats to, to these widows that could not produce anything for themselves.

And the law of God has a lot to say about widows. Let me read you just two of them. In Exodus 22, verse 22, now this is the law of God. You shall not afflict any widow or any fatherless child. Now don't you afflict them. Don't you make matters worse for them. You be merciful to them. In Psalm 146 verse nine, this is such a precious promise. The Lord preserveth the strangers. He relieveth the fatherless and the widow. He relieves, this is a promise of God. To all those widows, spiritual widows, who can't provide anything for themselves, that we can't do anything for ourselves, we can't earn anything for ourselves, we can't make a robe of righteousness, because everything that we do is sinful. We're widows who are bankrupt. We don't have one penny to contribute to our salvation. We can't pay down our sin debt by one penny. And the Lord comes to them, and is merciful to those widows who are so helpless they can't do anything for themselves. Those are the ones he clothes in his righteousness.

Second, just like Tabitha, Christ died. Now I know the historical fact that roughly 2,000 years ago, Christ Jesus died on the cross. I know that historical fact. But for the life of me, I can't understand it. How can life himself die? How's that possible? How is it possible that the son of God could die? But I know he did. I know he did and I know why he died. Christ died because God's justice demanded it. Tabitha got sick and died because she's a sinner. Christ died because he was made sin for his people. The father transferred the sin of his people to his son and made his son guilty of that sin. Even though while he was made sin, he was still the sinless sacrifice. Now I can't understand that. I believe it with all my heart. It's the only hope that I have of being made righteous, that my sin has been put away, but I can't understand it.

But when the father made him sin for his people, the father is the one who extracted justice on his son. The father and the son alone and the father put him to death for the sin of all of his elect.

And Peter gave us a picture of that in verse 40 when Peter got there, He put them all forth. He put everybody out so that he was there alone with Tabitha's body. And that's what happened to Calvary. At Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ was left completely alone. He was more alone than anyone has ever been. All his disciples forsook him, and his father turned his back on him. His father forsook him. And as he hung there on the cross, God turned the sun off. There's darkness over all the land for three hours.

And in those three hours of darkness, I tell you what was going on. Business was being done between God and God. Now again, with my human mind, I cannot understand that. How the father and the son are one, but the father forsook the son. I can't understand that. But business was being done between the Father and the Son, and you and I don't need to see it. God turned the sun off because this is not something that we need to see, because this offering was not made to you and me. This was an offering being made to God.

See, all of our sin is against God. And Christ was offering himself as a sacrifice to the Father. He wasn't offering himself as a sacrifice to us, so we'd feel sorry for him in believing. He was offering himself as a sacrifice to the Father. In those hours of darkness, he brought his blood into the holiest of all, before the altar, before the Father, and that blood appeased the Father for all of the sin of his people. The Father said, that's enough. It's the blood that maketh atonement for the soul, But that blood can't be animal blood. It's the blood of the son that he offered on the altar before the father. And the bloody death of Christ satisfied God's justice. And Christ did it all alone. All alone. So that he would get all the glory and the salvation of his people.

This story is not given to us to glorify Peter, that God gave Peter the ability to raise the dead. That is not why this story is told, so to glorify Peter. It's written to glorify Christ, because Christ by himself purged our sins. And when the transaction was done, he sat down on the right hand of the Father.

The death of Christ had the opposite effect for his people. The death of Christ gave his people life. Once Christ died, justice had no more claim on him, did it? No, he died to put away that sin, and to prove he put away that sin, he was raised from the dead three days later. Justice had no more claim on him, did it? Because sin's gone. If you believe Christ, justice has no more claim on you, too. you may as well not ever worry about God's justice chasing you down and God punishing you and condemning you for your sin. Justice is not even looking for you. It's not even interested in you. If Christ died for you.

And Christ suffered all of the wrath that he suffered so that he could obtain mercy for his people. Now mercy is God not giving me what I do deserve. Now God's just, he's holy, he must punish sin. He will by no means clear the guilty. So how can the father not give me what I deserve for my sin? There's only one way. If he gave Christ my substitute, everything that I deserve. That's how God can be merciful to me by slaughtering his son in my place. Now that's an alms day, isn't it? No, that's mercy. That's mercy. I say with a songwriter, depth of mercy, can there be? Mercy still reserved for me? Yes, sir. Mercy reserved even for you and me.

If you're a helpless sinner, and you can't do anything but sin, you can't do anything to provide a righteousness for yourself. You can't do anything to recommend you to God, tell you what to do. come to Christ begging for mercy. God has mercy preserved for sinners. And it's because of the death of Christ, because Christ died in the place of his people.

But thirdly, just like Tabitha, Christ arose from the dead. And I said this a minute ago, the reason that Christ arose from the dead is because the sin of his people is gone. The sin that demanded his death is gone. So he cannot stay dead. He must live. And the same thing's true of all of his people.

Now whose sin was it that demanded Christ's death? I know that the Father made him sin for his people, but it's our sin. It's the sin that we committed. It's the sin that all of God's people committed. It's our sin. Where's that sin? It's gone. If Christ died for you, your sin is gone so that it does not exist. Then what do you got to worry about? See, the resurrection of Christ is proof positive he justified his people from all of their sin.

Now, this really happened. Just like Tabitha was dead and she opened her eyes and was alive, Christ, our Savior, was really dead. For three days, his body was dead laying in that tomb. I can't understand it. I mean, I just, I can't understand it. There's just, I'm not even gonna bother telling y'all the things that I don't know, because it'll just muddy the waters. We don't know. But here's what we do know. Brother Henry gave me some of the best advice one time. He said, let's stick to what we know. Here's what I know. Christ was dead and then in the next moment he was alive. In that tomb, he opened his eyes and he lived. And what a moment of victory. What a moment of victory. The mighty, successful, victorious Savior has arisen because he won the battle over sin. And he wasn't frightened, he wasn't frantic, He carefully folded the napkin that was over his face. He carefully laid all those garments that had wrapped his dead body, folded them and laid them aside. He didn't need to hurry. The victory's been won. The victory's been won. Christ arose and he had no sin, and his people also, when he arose, no sin. That sin is gone.

Now I know that's true. I know that's true. Even though I haven't experienced it in my flesh, all I am is sin. I am not pretending in front of anybody that I'm anything but sin. But I also know this, even though I haven't experienced sinlessness yet, there is a new man in me, a nature that is sinless. And when I get rid of this old man, I'm finally going to experience what Christ guaranteed for his people at his resurrection, sinlessness, a sinless body, sinless soul ever before the Lord. And the guarantee of that is the resurrection of Christ.

You know, the scripture speaks of the resurrection of Christ is the resurrection of his people in two ways. First, look at Philippians chapter three. It speaks of the resurrection of the dead as the new birth, when we're given spiritual life. Philippians 3, well, let's look at verse 9. Paul said, this is his heart's desire, that I be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. His faithfulness to obey the law for me, His faithfulness to make me righteous, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings be made conformable unto His death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Now what Paul's talking about there is I want to experience the same power that raised Christ from the dead in giving me spiritual life. I want to be made conformable to his death so that when Christ died, I was in him. When Christ died, I died too. When Christ was raised, I was raised too. And I want to experience that same power in God giving me life in the new birth. And the second way that the scripture talks about the resurrection of God's people is in the resurrection at the last day. And that last day, when Christ returns, and all those who have died in Christ are raised in a body, body and soul, just like the Lord Jesus Christ. What a resurrection. What a resurrection. And the guarantee, now, again, with what we know and what we've experienced in this flesh, you say that's impossible. It's impossible for somebody that's gone back to the dust to be raised in a body again. Brother Henry used to talk about those men that they buried at sea. Well, the animals, those fish ate up that body. I mean, they're everywhere across the seven oceans by now. How's that body gonna be raised? By the power of God. The resurrection of these bodies in a body just like the Lord Jesus Christ, the guarantee of it, is that Christ was resurrected from the dead. That's what 1 Corinthians 15 is all about. And then here's the last thing. When Tabitha was raised from the dead and people heard about it, many people believed on Christ when they heard about what happened and they heard Peter there those many days preaching to them. Well, I'll tell you what, many people, many people are gonna believe on Christ when they hear of Him, when they hear of Christ crucified, when they hear who He is, that He's the Son of God in human flesh. And you know what He did? He came to this earth in human flesh to obey the law for His people as the second Adam. The first Adam, by his disobedience, made every one of us sinners. But Christ, the second Adam, by his obedience, you know what he did? He made all of his people righteous. Because we all did what our representative did. And then, after a life where he did no sin, he knew no sin, there was no guile found in his mouth, he went to the cross and suffered like no man has ever suffered, as a sacrifice for the sin of his people. To put their sin away and guarantee their life. To redeem them from the law. And you know why he did that? He did that to honor his father. He did that to satisfy the justice of God so that it would make it right. The death of Christ as a substitute for his people makes it right for God to forgive their sin. Even though all we do is sin, the death of Christ makes it right for the father to forgive our sin, to show mercy to us and accept us into his presence. That's why he did it. And you know where he is now? He died, but he arose again. He is the successful, victorious Savior. He did everything that the Father sent him to do. So there's nothing left for him to do here on earth. So he didn't stay here. He went back to glory. He went back to where he came from. And when he got there, he sat down on the right hand of the Father, ever living, till his enemies be made his footstool. Our Savior is on the throne of heaven. right at this very minute. And you know what? He's ruling everything in his creation. I always have to stop myself when I hear about stuff going on in this world and watch the news. I try not to sound like a grouchy old man, you know, saying the world's gone to hell in a handbasket. It wasn't like that when I was a kid. Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was. There's nothing new under the sun. But all of that is happening at the express will of our Savior, the one who gave himself for us. And he's orchestrating it all to work together for this purpose, that all of his people be redeemed and his prayer to his Father be answered. Father, I will, that all those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. that they may behold my glory.

When this thing's done, everyone that the father gave the son to redeem, everyone he chose, elected unto salvation, everyone for whom the son died, not one of them's gonna be missing. We're all gonna be in heaven, and we're not gonna be floating around on clouds playing a harp. It's not gonna be eternal vacation where, you know, if you like golf, well, you're gonna golf every day. If you like fishing, you're gonna fish every day.

we're going to behold His glory. My prayer every day is that we'd see His glory, is that the Lord would give me a word, a message from His word that would let us see His glory. And the best that we can do in this life is see that glory through a glass darkly. We see His glory by faith, we see, now we do, we see His glory, we do. But it is through a glass darkly, but we're so easily distracted.

Not there. Not there. We'll see His glory and we'll be like Him. is gonna believe that message when they hear it preached. Somebody will. All God's elect will. And I ask you this morning, why don't you believe him? For those of you who don't believe him, I'm gonna ask you, why wouldn't you believe him? Why wouldn't you trust your soul to Christ? He is the one who has fully accomplished the salvation of his people. It's done. And you've heard Him preached. You've heard of Him. Now trust Him. Quit trusting yourself. Quit whatever it is that's stopping you. If you're trying to figure out that you know more, you got to do something else, you got to be older, you got to quit it. And trust Christ. Trust Christ.

And I know I say this often, but I'm going to keep saying it. if you find that you can't trust Christ. You want to, but you can't. Can I give you a good piece of advice? Go to God and beg Him to give you the gift of faith. Go to God and beg Him to have mercy on you and keep begging. Don't say, well, you know, I went and asked the Lord and He didn't give me faith. Keep begging, keep begging, keep begging, keep begging. He's our only hope. But oh, what a good hope. What a good hope.

All right, let's bow together in prayer. Father, we thank you for this time you've given us to look at this picture of Christ our Savior and this disciple, Tabitha. And Father, I pray that in your power and your mercy and your grace and your pity to your people that you would reveal Christ to each heart here this morning that we would believe Him, that we would, by faith, see His glory and be so taken up with Him that all we can see, all we can believe, all we can hope for, all that we desire is Christ and Christ alone. Father, it's in His name. For His glory and His sake, we pray. Amen.

All right, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn in your hymnal to song number 221 and stand as we sing thank you, Lord. 221.

Some thank the Lord for friends and home,
for mercy sure and sweet.
But I would praise him for his grace in prayer
I would repeat.

Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me.

Thy great salvation so rich and free.

Some thank Him for the flowers that grow.
Some for the stars that shine.
My heart is filled with joy and praise
because I know He's mine.

Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me Thy great salvation so rich and free.

I trust in Him from day to day.
I prove His saving grace.
I'll sing this song of praise to him
until I see his face.

Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me Thy great salvation, so rich and free.