Good morning. Looks like we've
got some folks out this morning. We're going to be in the 27th
chapter of Matthew this morning to begin with and conclude in
1 Corinthians chapter 15 for our Bible study hour this morning. If you'd like to turn with me
to Matthew. chapter 27. And I'm sure that
everybody knows that this coming Wednesday night we're going to
have a wedding here. Adelphus and Joy are going to
be united in holy matrimony this Wednesday night. So they would
be very encouraged if everybody would plan to be here. Also, the 8th, 9th, and 10th of January,
that's Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. On Thursday and Friday
night, we'll meet at 7 o'clock, and on Saturday at 10 a.m., Don
Fortner and I will be preaching at the church in Sarasota. And
anybody that can come over and join us for that would be a real
encouragement, I know, to that group. It was a family that drove
by the church over there yesterday and got my phone number off the
door and called me. We talked for a long time yesterday
on the phone, and they're supposed to be there tonight. Just very,
very hopeful the Lord's raising up a group of believers over
there. And then next Sunday, a week
from today, I'll be in Kingsport, Tennessee. Jared Wachey and Lauren
are getting married next Saturday, and I'll be helping out with
the wedding. and then on Sunday be preaching
for Gabe. Gabe has some health problems
right now that checking into. He's got to have a surgical biopsy
tomorrow or Tuesday. And so I assured him that we
would be in prayer for him. They don't know what it is, but
he's got some lymph nodes that are extremely swollen. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our time together. our merciful Heavenly Father
how thankful we are that you've provided us a place and a time
and that you've given us a desire to gather together in this place.
We thank you for the truth of the gospel of your free grace
in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you
would Just impress that upon our hearts and write it in our
minds that we would find Christ to be our all and that we would
find him to be in all. You've told us that where two
or three are gathered together in thy name, there you are in
the midst. And you've promised, Lord, to
bless us with your presence. We pray that you'd be pleased
now to accomplish that for your glory and for the salvation of
our souls. We come before you, throne of
grace, as sinners, Lord, in need of your salvation, in need of
thy grace. We pray for Gabe and we ask Lord
that you'd be merciful to him and to the church and we pray
Lord that you would heal him and that you would spare
his health for the good of your church and for the glory of thy
name. We ask it in Christ's name. Last Sunday we began looking
at the miracles that took place at the cross. And you remember
from the 6th to the 9th hour, which would have been from noon
to 3 in the afternoon, a darkness covered the face of the earth.
And that was in fulfillment of prophecy, and it was in order
to show what was happening as the light of the world was being
extinguished in order that we might have life. We see the separation
that took place between God the Father and God the Son when the
Lord Jesus Christ became the sinner's sacrifice, when he became
our sin bearer. He cried, you remember, from
the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And that
darkness was certainly symbolic of the forsaking that took place
of the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of his people. The second miracle that we looked
at was the dividing of the veil. And what a glorious picture that
is of having access into the throne of grace and being called
to come in and commune with God, having the blood of that Lamb
the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world,
the Lamb of God, the one who himself is without spot and without
blemish. His blood was placed on the mercy
seat and no longer was it necessary for sacrifices to be made in
the temple. God miraculously rent the veil
and calls us into his presence. The third miracle that took place
was the earthquake. And the scripture says that the
earthquakes and the rocks were rent. And we see that recorded
in Matthew chapter 27. At verse 50, Jesus, when he had
cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost And that
loud voice was, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
It is finished. It's finished. The work of redemption
is accomplished. The Lord Jesus Christ has satisfied
all the demands of God's justice and of His holy law on behalf
of His people. And so he commends himself into
the hands of God and verse 51 and behold the veil of the temple
was rent in twain from top to the bottom and the earth did
quake and the rocks rent. Now what happened at Calvary
was the answer to what happened at Sinai. The last mountain we
read of, of the earth quaking and the rocks renting, took place
at Mount Sinai when God gave to the children of Israel the
law. No man could touch that mountain, lest he die. And now we have the lawgiver
satisfying the demands of the law and showing that that law
has been satisfied. It's been put away. You're not
under the law. You're not under the law. That's
what man-made religion is all about. Putting men under the
law. Somebody asked me yesterday,
what do you mean the Bible is not a rule book for Christian
living? Doesn't the Bible have a lot of precepts and commands
that we're to follow? And I hope that they'll see that
the scriptures in their entirety. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is the believers rule of life. They shall hear my voice and
they shall follow me. The law never inspired anyone. The law never helped anyone.
The law can't It just can't. The only thing the law can say
to you and I is guilty. But now the law has been silenced. Its commands and its requirements
have been met and the Lord Jesus Christ stands before God on our
behalf. And so we have the renting of
the rocks and the quaking of the earth. I think it's glorious in Acts
chapter 6 where the scripture says, and not a few of the priests
believed. I mean they saw these miracles,
they saw the darkened sky for three hours, they felt the earthquake,
they saw the renting of the veil, and they knew. Even the scripture
says that, look at verse 54, and when the centurion, and they
that were with him, this is that, I mean Roman soldiers, you did
not enlist into the army to become a Roman soldier. You had to be
chosen. You had to be recommended. You
had to be picked. These guys were imposing. I mean they were not anybody
to fool with. They wore the full authority
of the Roman government and they wielded it without mercy. And
this centurion would have been one of the You know, one of the
leaders of those men, he was there mocking the Lord in his
trial. He was there commanding that
the nails be driven into his hands and into his feet. And
now when the centurion that was there with him, watching Jesus,
saw the earthquake and those things that were done, they feared
greatly. Now you don't read of Roman soldiers
being afraid. They were fearing God is what
they were doing. Saying truly, this was the Son
of God. So these miracles were convincing
to some that this one on the cross was none other than the
Son of God. And look what happens now. In
verse 52 and 53, never was such a miraculous event recorded in
such few words. But isn't that just like the
Lord? He doesn't. You know, curiosity causes us
to wonder, well who were these people and what exactly did they
say and what did they do? And we're just going to have
to be left with our curiosity unanswered. But in faith, in
faith we believe what God has recorded. Here it is. Look at these two verses. And
the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept
arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went
into the holy city, and appeared unto many. That's it. That's
all God tells us. The earthquake opened the graves
of many of the saints that were buried there in that graveyard
at Golgotha. And those graves stood open from
Friday night until Saturday morning and after the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ the saints, the bodies of the saints came
out of those graves and walked in the city of Jerusalem and
communed with people in that city. Oh, the hope that we have in
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here the Lord is
saying to me and you, O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy strength? The strength of death is sin.
We're going to look at that passage there in 1 Corinthians chapter
15 in just a moment. But I want us to think this morning
about the hope of eternal life. Way too much preaching is placed
on how to live the Christian life. The problem with most of
that preaching is that it's very difficult to live the Christian
life if you're not a Christian. I want you and me to know how
to die. I want us to know, I want us
to be prepared to die. And the truth is that the only
way that you can possibly live to the glory of God is to be
prepared to die. What great... This life, this life... Daniel knocked on my door yesterday
morning. Went to the door, suspected what
Daniel was, but I gave him an opportunity to introduce himself.
And Daniel told me that he was there to discuss the corruption
that was taking place in the government today. And I looked
at Daniel and I said, well, what else is new? And I said, Daniel, I said, what
organization are you a part of? And he said, the Jehovah's Witnesses.
And I said, well, why didn't you just say that? Why did you
have to be deceitful about wanting to talk to me about the corruption
of the government rather than just saying to me right off the
bat, my name is Daniel, I'm a Jehovah's Witness, I'm going around trying
to proselyte people into my religion so that I can earn favor with
God and earn a place in paradise. I told him, I said, I said exactly,
that's exactly what I said to him. And of course the conversation
didn't last very long after that and Daniel left. But that's what men are doing.
They're trying to earn for themselves a place in paradise. They're
trying to merit favor with God by their works. And it permeates
every religion of the world. It's the foundation of every
religion. A works gospel. This miracle that took place,
the opening of the graves and the coming forth of the saints,
is to say to me and you that what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
through His death and through His resurrection is the only
hope that we have for life after death. It's the only hope we
have. He conquered the grave. If when
He died I did not die in Him, then I have no hope of eternal
life. If that when He rose from the
grave, I did not rise with Him, that's what Paul was saying when
he said, oh, that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection. That I might be more believing
that His resurrection is my resurrection. That the only hope that I have,
the only hope that I have of eternal life, is through the
accomplishments of His work of redemption. That's what this
miracle teaches us. Let the religious world, let
the Muslims try to earn favor with Allah and earn a place in
paradise. Let the free will religionists
say, well, I believe in the resurrection, but in fact what they believe
in is their own free will. They believe that their works
and their will somehow makes the resurrection effectual. Here's the message of man-made
religion, Christianity, as we hear of it in the world. The message is that God's done
all he can do. Now you've got to do your part
to make what he did work for you. God's done all he can do. His
hands are tied, and now He's waiting on you to do your part
so that what He did will work for you. God needs you to do
something. He needs you to pray a prayer.
He needs you to work a work. He needs you to exercise your
faith. And this miracle, this miracle
says to God's people, Death has been abolished. The grave has
been conquered. Salvation has been won. You remember in John chapter
11, when our Lord came to another graveyard, where Lazarus had
been buried for three days. And our Lord said to Martha,
his grieving sister, your brother will rise again. And Martha said,
Lord, I know that he will rise in the resurrection. And the Lord said, Martha, Martha. 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, shall never die. You know what the
Lord said to Martha? Believest thou this? You know what Martha said? Lord,
I believe that you are the Son of God. I believe that. I believe that as God you reign
sovereign over life and over death. That you cause to be made
alive and that you cause to die. And that my only hope of salvation
is in thy hands. I believe that. I believe that
you are the omnipotent God of glory, that you have mercy upon
whom you will have mercy, and whom you will you harden. I'm
completely, completely, completely dependent upon thee. I have nothing
to bring to the table of salvation. You're going to have to do it
all. That's what Martha was saying.
That's what the Ethiopian eunuch said to Philip. I believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe that. Now I know that
people in religion call him God, but as soon as they do, they
deny his deity. And the bottom line is that men
have set themselves up on the throne of God. They've made themselves
to be God. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter
1. 1 Peter chapter 1. This is a glorious gospel. We've got a glorious God. This is not the God of man-made
religion. You have your Bibles open to
1 Peter chapter 1. Look at verse Look at verse 2 of chapter 1. This letter is being written
to the elect. Now in religion, men want to
vote on God. But the scriptures put it just
the other way around, don't they? God's the one that's got all
the power of the vote. He's the one that chooses. He's
the one that elects a people according to his own good pleasure
and will. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit By obedience and
the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you
and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection, by
the resurrection. of Jesus Christ from the dead. The hope, the hope of life that
God's elect have is by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from
the dead. There's nothing else. The resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ is God Almighty saying to His people,
I am satisfied completely with what the Lord Jesus Christ has
accomplished on your behalf. I've raised Him from the dead
by the power of God. That's the miracle. The Lord said that a wicked and
perverse generation seeketh after a sign when they said, show us
a sign and we'll believe you. Just perform a miracle and we'll
believe you. That's what people are looking
for, looking for a miracle. And the Lord said a wicked and
perverse generation seeketh after a sign, seeketh after a miracle. The only miracle you're going
to get is the one of Jonah. who spent three days and three
nights in the belly of the whale and was miraculously brought
back to life. There's the miracle. There's
the evidence that we need to know that God's pleased. He's satisfied. Look at verse
13 of this same chapter. Wherefore, gird up the loins
of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that
is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
Hope to the end! Oh, how we need to be reminded. I need to be reminded. We get
so caught up in this world, don't we? And we need to be told time
and time and time again that time is short. I mean, it really
is. Tell them they're grass. Tell
them that they're the flower of the field. The flower flourishes
and then it fades away. Remind them of how brief this
life is so that they won't be investing all their time and
energy into the pleasures of this world, but that they will
consider the hope of eternal life through the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 21 of this same
chapter. Verse 21, who by him do believe
in God that raised him from the dead and gave him glory, that
your faith and hope might be in God. What is your hope? What is your hope? I mean, where
does your hope really lie? What gives you hope? What gives you reason to get
up every day? What is it that fills your heart
with anticipation and hope? I mean, true hope? Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
1. Ephesians chapter 1. Verse 17. Here's Paul's prayer
for the church at Ephesus. This is my prayer for you and
I hope that it's your prayer for me. That the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, that you might know
Him. This is life eternal, that they
might know God, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He
has sent. that the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His
calling and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints." What is the riches of the glory of His inheritance?
It's eternal life. It's eternal life. It's to see
Him as He is and be made like Him. and what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to us who believe according to the working of His
mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him
from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly
places." Oh, there's our hope that the
Lord Jesus Christ has been raised above all principalities and
powers, that he's assumed his rightful place on his throne
of glory, that he ever lives to make intercession for his
people, and that he is the firstborn among many brethren. That his
resurrection is the hope of our resurrection. These graves being
opened When the Lord Jesus Christ died, he got the victory over
death. You remember Matthew 27? At his
death, at the moment of his death, when he cried in a loud voice,
It is finished, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
And the earth quaked, and the rocks rent, and the graves were
opened. Why? Because his death conquered death.
but they couldn't come forth out of the grave. And notice
in our text, not all the graves were opened. Those of the saints. Now, I mean, we're speculating
at this point, but I suspect that these were believers that
probably had died in recent years and still had family members
on the earth. and went and communed with them. During the entire time that our
Lord appeared and disappeared to the disciples, between his
death and his ascension, these saints were walking around in
Jerusalem, communing with people. and then at his ascension there
on the Mount of Olives in Acts chapter 1 when when the angel
came and said men of Israel why stand you gazing up into heaven
this one who's been taken away in like manner they couldn't
raise from the dead until he raised from the dead and they
could not ascend back into glory until he ascended into glory
he's the forerunner of everything We can't be delivered from death
apart from His deliverance of death. We can't be raised from
the dead apart from His resurrection. And we can't be ascended into
glory apart from His ascension. Turn to me in closing to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, please. I want you and I to live thinking about eternity all the
time. You know the unbeliever doesn't
think about death. They just put it out of their
mind. They put it out of their mind. It's too depressing. It's too uncertain. It's too
fearful. But for the believer, for the
believer, this is our hope. Oh, to know that one day, very
soon, we're going to shed this flesh and it does not yet appear
what we shall be. But we know that when He shall
appear, we'll be made like Him." Oh, that's our hope. That's our
hope. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 19. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. You listen to the preaching that's
going on today. And it's nothing more than pop
psychology with a little religion mixed in with it to help you
become a better person. If in this life only we have
hope, we are of all men most miserable. How miserable is man-made
religion? You know, I know that if God
didn't keep me, I would forsake Him. I know that, and that's
true of you too. But I just... If the Lord was to take His hand
off of me and I was to forsake Him, I cannot see myself going
back to religion. That is the most miserable life. I mean, it just... If God takes His hand off me,
oh, I pray He won't. I can see myself doing pretty
much anything. But to go back to religion? But now is Christ risen from
the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that sleep. For since
by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the
dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be
made alive." For the sake of time, move over
to verse 35 with me. But some man will say, how are
the dead risen up? And with what body do they come?
Now, you explain this resurrection thing. When Paul preached the
gospel, where Peter preached the gospel, Paul preached the
gospel in Athens, and he got to the resurrection, the scripture
says they mocked him. They mocked him. They thought
this babbler, boy, he's really stretching the story now, the
resurrection. Thou fool, that which thou sowest
is not quickened, except it die. A seed has to die before it can
come alive. And that which thou sowest, thou
sowest not the body that shall be, but bare grain. It may chance of wheat or of
some other grain, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased
him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same
flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh
of beasts, another of fishes, another of birds. There are also
celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial. But the glory of
the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another."
Now the Lord is just saying, this resurrection is not going
to be anything like our present state. It's going to be completely
different. There is one glory of the sun
and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars.
And one star differs from another star in glory. So is the resurrection
of the dead. It is sown in corruption. It
is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor. It is
raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is
raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it
is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there
is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first
man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam made a quickening
spirit. The flesh profiteth nothing.
It's the spirit that giveth life. Howbeit, That was not the first
which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterwards
that which is spiritual. The first man is earthy. We come
into this world just men of flesh. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. As is the earthy, so also are they that are earthy.
And as is the heavenly, such are they that are heavenly. And
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 saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death. Here's the message
of those open tombs and those saints that walked in the holy
city. Here's the message, 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. Don't miss that. The strength
of sin is the law. Men say you gotta go back to
the law in order to learn how to live above sin. The law only
aggravates sin. 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.