We're going to Mark chapter 12
and we're going to be reading from verse 18 through to verse
27. Mark chapter 12, 18 through to
verse 27. So the Lord Jesus Christ is still
in the temple and we're told in verse 18, Then come unto him
the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection. And they
asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, if a man's brother
die and leave his wife behind him and leave no children, that
his brother should take his wife and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were seven brethren,
and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. And the second took her, and
died, neither left he any seed. And the third likewise, and the
seven had her, and left no seed. Last of all, the woman died also. In the resurrection, therefore,
when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? For the
seven had her to wife. And Jesus answering said unto
them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the Scriptures,
neither the power of God? For when they shall rise from
the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but
are as the angels which are in heaven, and as touching the dead
that they rise. Have ye not read in the book
of Moses how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am
the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead,
but the God of the living. Ye therefore do greatly, Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. There was a steady stream of
religious opposition against the Saviour throughout this day. As we remarked last week, I think,
this is the Tuesday of the Lord's final week, and it is a full
day. It seems like these groups must
have been bumping into each other on their way in and out of the
Lord's presence. The scribes and the priests came
and questioned the Lord. and then retreated. The Pharisees and the Herodians
were next and they came in with their questions and now the Sadducees
bring in their dispute to the Lord. And all of this time the
disciples are looking on and the followers of the Lord who
he had been teaching previously are still sitting around listening
to the Lord and his interactions with these men. I think even
at that very point there's a couple of notable lessons that we can
draw. And the first is this, that human
religion, free will religion, works religion, call it whatever
you want, it always opposes and disrupts the ministry of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the preaching of the gospel. The religion of self-righteousness
cannot coexist with the religion of imputed righteousness. And
they will always be at loggerheads. They will always be an attempt
to disrupt the gospel of free grace and the preaching of the
gospel of free grace. And that, I'm not suggesting,
will be, I don't know, knocking on doors and smashing windows
and that sort of physical manifestation. but it will be the spreading
of error, it will be the opposition to the truth, it will be the
criticism and the writings against the doctrines of scripture and
leading men astray into other avenues and other fields, which
is of course the great activity of the deceiver. These groups
happily Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herodians and the Scribes,
the Sanhedrin. They happily formed alliances
to oppose Christ and their motivation was to denounce and to disrupt
and ultimately to destroy the Saviour and his ministry. The
Lord Jesus Christ had arrived early in the day at the temple
in order to preach and to teach. Luke tells us in his account
of this day, he says, he taught the people in the temple and
preached the gospel. That was the reason why Christ
had come that day. But these men and their revolving
door of antagonism interrupted the Lord's teaching incessantly. And yet there was wisdom and
there was purpose in that providence also. We're told in the Old Testament
that the Lord makes even the wrath of man to redound to his
glory and to serve his will. And here is a wonderful exhibition
of the strength and the power of the gospel. how it is that
the truth overcomes all that human religion can throw at it. It was almost as though this
day, this Tuesday in the temple, that the Lord took on all comers. If I can use perhaps a rather
odd analogy, it was a little bit like a bare knuckle boxing
contest. One by one these groups climbed
into the ring with the Lord and one by one they were knocked
out. They could not gain a point against Him. These groups, they
sent their best men with their best arguments and the Lord confounded
them all. All the time, amazing and encouraging
and blessing his disciples and the common people who heard him
gladly with his words of wisdom and with the truths that he expressed. And I don't think we should pass
this incident by without remarking and noting this. These groups,
these Herodians and these Scribes and these Pharisees and these
Sadducees, these were bullies. These men were bullies. These
men intimidated the common people with their dress and their clever
talk and their prayers and their imposition of religious rites
and ceremonies. And one by one the Lord sent
them packing. The Lord Jesus Christ championed
the common people against these upstarts and their religious
activities. And he sent them packing, their
tails between their legs. How the Lord's followers must
have relished this encounter by the Saviour on this day in
the temple. And our faith isn't about argument
and it isn't about debates and I'm not advocating that at all. My grandmother used to have a
saying, she would say, convince a man against his will, he's
of the same opinion still. I've probably told you that before.
But you can convince men and women with fine arguments But
in the end, hard hearts need Christ to soften them. Nevertheless, the Lord did teach
his disciples a lesson by these encounters. The Lord provided
a masterclass of irrefutable wisdom. as though he were demonstrating
to his apostles and demonstrating to his preachers that they need
not fear anyone. They need not fear the wisdom
of man as they took the message of the gospel to the ends of
the earth. They didn't have to be afraid.
They could go boldly. They could step forth to preach
in the highways and the byways, in the towns and the cities,
from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, in the strength of
the Lord and the power of the gospel. Because it cowered to
none. And the Lord taught that, that
day, as He faced down these enemies of the truth. The Apostle Paul
perhaps drew from this even when he was writing to the Corinthians
in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 where he says, For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise. I will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? They've all gone. Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? We have no hesitation to preach
Christ crucified. and it is the only message that
we need to declare. Such is its power, such is its
truth, such is its veracity against all the philosophies of the men
and women of this world. The particular question that
these Sadducees brought to the Lord, the question concerning
whose wife this poor woman would be and to whom she would belong
in the resurrection. It was just a pretext to attack
the Lord's teaching on the resurrection and probably to embarrass him
before his followers. It seems very much like a concocted
story. And as we saw in yesterday's
introduction, probably they had some success in using it before. I send out that little introduction.
If you don't get it, I'll send it to you. Do read it, it helps
with the context. But this sounds very much like
a well-rehearsed argument that these people brought before the
Lord. And Matthew, Mark, and Luke all
relate this story of the seven brothers who in turn a die having
had this woman to wife. And the Sadducees tried to give
their little device, their little ploy, an air of legitimacy by
linking it to Old Testament references to inheritance and raising up
children to the dead. And we find that religious people
nowadays will do just the same. They'll give their teachings
a veneer of religious authenticity by the language that they use.
but it is a lie at its base. As far as the way in which these
Sadducees used the tale, we might remember that the history of
Ruth and Boaz in the Kinsmen Redeemer picture is actually
drawn from this. But the real purpose of these
men was to mock the principle of physical resurrection. and
indirectly to discredit the Lord's own miracles when he raised the
dead. But the Lord wasn't fooled by
their deception and he simply knocked down the false assumptions
upon which their reasoning was built. The question was flawed. asking whose wife she will be
in the resurrection exposed the ignorance of these men concerning
the coming resurrection against which they seemed to be so adamantly
opposed. The truth was they didn't know
what they were talking about. The Lord told them you err because
you don't know the scriptures and you don't know the power
of God. How often the Lord's answer could
be levelled at all works religionists in our own day and indeed through
the ages. You err because you don't know
the scriptures and you don't know the scriptures because you
don't know the power of God. Men bring forward their ideas
and their theories and their corrupt theologies forged in
hell and founded on ignorance, because they neither know the
Scriptures nor the power of God. The Apostle Paul calls the Gospel
the power of God unto salvation. So these men neither knew the
Scriptures nor the Gospel. So there weren't going to be
much help to the people. There wasn't going to be anything
gained from listening to them. But I love the way that the Lord
met the duplicity of these men. They said, when they shall rise,
whose wife shall she be? And the Lord took their very
words and turned them right back upon them. And he said, when
they shall rise, as they surely will, she will be wife to none
of them. because in the resurrection they
neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels
of God in heaven. No more argument, that was it
done. He had shown the fallacy of their argument, he had shown
the error of their assumptions. And we can never be too grateful
to the Lord for the way in which he handles these men, with their
hypocrisy and with their malice. It's as if he takes the sticks
with which they came to beat him and turns those very sticks
back upon themselves for the instruction of his apostles,
for the benefit of the church. And then he says to these Sadducees,
I know your real question, so let's deal with that too, as
touching the dead that they rise. What saith the scripture? That's
always a good question. What does the Bible say? What
does the Bible say on this matter? And the Lord goes on to open
up the scriptures in their presence. Now these Sadducees, they were
pretty big on what they called the Book of Moses, or the first
five books. And so the Lord expounds from
the Book of Moses. He expounds what Moses says.
He goes to Exodus, the very passage that we've been thinking about
with some of the young people recently. One of the key passages
from Moses. And that must have humiliated
these Sadducees no end. especially if there were any
Pharisees listening in, which I imagine there were. So Mark
says to us in this little passage, chapter 12, verse 26, as touching
the dead that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses
how in the bush God speak unto him saying, I am the God of Abraham
and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? Now we know about
that, don't we? Because that is again the Lord
Jesus Christ reminding us that this is the covenant God. That's
the whole point of that little construction. He goes on. He is not the God of the dead,
but the God of the living. Ye therefore do greatly err. So here, I've got three little
lessons that I want to draw. Don't worry. Don't worry. I'm
aware of the time and we're going to get through these. They're
only small applications, but three little applications that
I want to draw from these words of the Lord that he left. This
is what he was doing. He was leaving these things with
his disciples. and he was leaving them for your
blessing and for mine, for the preaching of the gospel. And here's the first one, let's
move through them quickly. The first one is this, that the
Lord Jesus Christ was showing to his disciples, showing to
you and me, that our God is the living God. And he keeps faith
with his covenant people. He is the God of Abraham. He
is the God of Isaac. He is the God of Jacob. And this
name that the Saviour expounds upon here, the Living God, was
a name that was well known to these Jews, to these Sadducees
and Pharisees and whoever else. It was well known to the children
of Israel, to the Jewish people, the Living God. It was a name
that they applied to God. Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 26.
Who is there of all flesh that hath heard the voice of the living
God speaking out of the midst of the fire as we have and lived? This is the living God who declared
I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,
the covenant God. And here The point is, the point
that God is declaring to Moses is that not only is Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob alive, not only are these men
alive, but he is looking after them and their well-being and
their affairs. He is the God who is alive and
He is the God of the living, as are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He, God, continues faithful to
His promises to these men, even although their bones are in their
grave, their dust is in the cave where they were buried. But these men, shall possess,
as they were promised in God's covenant, real, tangible inheritance
of glory, of which the promised land was but a type. We know that, we know that that's
the case because the writer to the Hebrews tells us that Abraham
looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and
maker is God. Abraham understood, he saw beyond
the dirt and the stones and the rocks and the meadows of the
land of Canaan. attractive as it may have been
to some people, he understood the spiritual dimension and here
the Lord Jesus Christ is emphasising that covenant promise. Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob were without their physical bodies when God
spoke to Moses out of the bush and yet the covenant required
that they would be reunited with their bodies in order to enjoy
the blessings and the benefits that God in whom they trusted
would give them that which he had promised and which they held
in faith. And remember, it is the Lord
Jesus Christ who spoke to Moses out of the bush. The same Lord
Jesus who said to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life.
And then promptly restored Lazarus to physical life with a physical
body. It was the Lord himself who rose
and ascended into heaven with a physical body. And our resurrection
bodies, they will be changed into glorious bodies, but there
will be a physicality about those bodies. Spiritual bodies no longer
subject to natural fleshy principles, but physical bodies just the
same. And when Christ returns, we shall
be like Him. He who went away will come back
and we shall be made like Him. So here's the second point. Grace
brings new life, spiritual life, to all God's elect. And we who
have tasted the grace of God shall never die. There's something
very lovely in God speaking of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob being
yet alive. though their bodies had long
turned to dust in the grave. Because it shows this continuity
between the Old Testament and the New Testament saints, whose
spirits, being united with Christ, never die. Our spirits never
die. But our bodies are for a short
time committed to the grave. As believers, we should have
no fear about death or about dying. Because we, the real we,
in our individuality, in our personality, in our souls, in
our renewed spirits, we shall never die as Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob never did. All that happens is that we leave
For a little while, this old, sinful, increasingly decrepit
body, we leave it in the grave until we get a new, glorious
body. A new body like the Lord's body,
raised in power and incorruptible. And in that time, We, being absent
from the body, are present with the Lord, as was Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob. Right now, here we are with old
bodies, you and I, who are the Lords, but with the life that
we have in Christ, by that new birth, There is a new man living
in this old flesh. There is a new creation, Peter
calls it, the hidden man of the heart. A holy, perfect, sinless
creation. And yet dwelling in a sinful,
fleshy body. This body, these bodies, they're
not going to get any better. I do not believe that our flesh
gets better and improves with time by some kind of progressive
sanctification. Until we die we will be aware
of the weakness and the bias to sin which is in this flesh. And the old man will resist the
new man until it is laid to rest in the grave. And the new man
escapes its drag and its pull. However, the evidence is of victory
in this fight between the old man and the new. The flesh and
the spirit are battling together But there is an ornament of a
meek and quiet spirit, even now in the life of believers, which
shows the supremacy of the new man over the old. The old will
be defeated. The flesh will go to the grave,
as did Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. But it won't remain there. So here's the third point and
then we're done. Our corrupt bodies will be raised from our
graves. They will be changed into an
incorruptible body and they will be fitted to dwell with our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ in heaven. The Lord told these Sadducees
that God is the God of the living. Graciously, patiently, The Lord
Jesus Christ corrected the error of these men when he might have
left them in their ignorance. Perhaps in the grace of God,
at least some of these men were given ears to hear. We trust
so. The God of the living is the
God of the living. He's not the God of living spirits
and dead bodies. He's not the God of living bodies
and dead souls. But the God of the living is
the God of living bodies and living souls. Whole people. and the work of salvation will
not be complete until we stand complete in the presence of our
God, spirit and soul and incorruptible body. It will be so. These bodies of ours will be
changed into incorruptible and we shall stand before the Lord
in his presence. Now the timing of that reunion
of body and spirit is upon the return of Jesus Christ in glory. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 22 says,
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive. but every man in his own order. Christ, the firstfruits, risen
from the dead in his glorious body. Afterwards, they that are
Christ's, risen from the dead in glorious bodies at his coming. The bodies of believers buried
in the ground turn to dust. They are sown in corruption. but they shall be raised in incorruption. They are sown in dishonour, but
they shall be raised in glory. They're sown in weakness, but
they shall be raised in power. They're sown a natural body,
but they shall be raised a spiritual body. This is my natural body,
and I shall have a spiritual body. Every time we go to a funeral
of a believer, know this, remember this, that the body that you
see being buried shall be called for again. It shall be called
forth from the earth in power and in glory on that resurrection
morning. The casket will be opened, the
urn will be split, the hole in the ground will open up These
receptacles are simply keeping safe the believers' remains until
they are required by Christ at the hand of our graves. Our very
graves await the command of God to let my people go. And the
graves will give us up without a murmur. The Lord Jesus Christ condemned
these Sadducees for erring greatly upon this matter because it is
such an important hope and comfort to the Lord's people in this
world. Let us therefore hear and trust
our Saviour and rejoice in our souls that He who is risen indeed
will call forth our bodies from our graves O my people, I will open your
graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, saith
the Lord. I wonder what the Pharisees thought
when at the Lord's death and resurrection. The graves were
opened and many bodies of the saints that slept arose and came
out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy city and
appeared unto many. I wonder what they thought when
that happened. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The Apostle Paul writing to the
Thessalonians said, For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, and with the
trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall
rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the
Lord. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us.