Well, good morning. It's nice
of you to join with us. And we trust that this might
be the last of our weeks where we are as restricted as we have
been. And we long for that day when
I can see you face to face and we can share in the glorious
communion as the children of God, as we meet around the gospel
with our glorious savior. I want us to think today with
Paul as he stood before that Sanhedrin the last time an apostle
stood before the Sanhedrin and Paul said for the hope of the
resurrection I am there. He was there before them being
judged by them for his hope in the resurrection. I thought seeing
it's such a glorious topic and this is the day that We in a sense rejoice with the
people in Danville and grieve with our friends there for what
they might miss in this earth as their pastor Don Fortner was
buried just a matter of hours ago. But what a glorious prospect
we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. What a great hope we have for
the future. Why don't you turn with me to John chapter 11 as
we begin our time together. John chapter 11 is that well-known
chapter where death has broken the hearts of this little family
and it was made even worse by the seeming absence of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But then he comes and he has
these remarkable conversations. His seeming absences from the
people of his love are designed to grow us to see more of him
and to love him more. With starting verse 23, Jesus
said to her, said to Martha, she came out to him. Let's go
back to verse 21. Then she said, then Martha said,
Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou has been him, my brother had
not died. But I know that even now whatsoever
thou will ask of God, God will give it to thee. Jesus sayeth
unto her, thy brother shall rise again. Martha sayeth unto him,
I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last
day. Jesus said unto her, I am the
resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Our hope in preaching the gospel
is that the children of God would just simply believe. They would
find the Lord Jesus Christ, their resurrection, his presence with
them, the reality of what he has done on their behalf. What he has done in union with
them would be the cause of their great hope and their comfort
in this world. And I pray that the Lord might
speak to your heart and he might comfort you and that you might
find yourself having that good hope, that good hope. Believest
thou this? Whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank you and praise you that you draw your people together,
that you watch over them as a shepherd and you feed your flock, our
Father. And we do pray this morning that
you would cause your words to echo and resonate into the hearts
of your people, that we might be privileged yet again, Heavenly
Father, to have you speak to us through your Word and through
your Son and by the power of the blessed Holy Spirit who takes
the things of the Lord Jesus Christ and reveals them unto
us. that we might find ourselves
simply believing what you say, simply resting the hope of all
of our eternity in your dear and precious Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ. We thank you for the fellowship
that we've had with Don Fortner and our brothers and sisters
in Christ from that part of the world, Heavenly Father. We thank
you for the open and clear gospel presentations that they have
brought to us. And Heavenly Father, we pray
that you might comfort Shelby and her family and the family
of the church in Danville, Heavenly Father. But may it also in the
midst of all of this, Heavenly Father, may it be a cause for
rejoicing when we contemplate, we contemplate the extraordinary
things that have passed before Don's life. Because he lives. He lives in the presence of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What wonders, what wonders to
behold the children of God have laying before them. We do pray,
Heavenly Father, that you would best bless the preaching of your
word throughout this world, that you would bless your servants
and bless your children, Heavenly Father, as they hear the Lord
Jesus Christ being proclaimed and speaking and revealing to
them the depth and the wonders of his power unto us, who are
caused by your sovereign grace, our Father, to rest all of the
hope of our eternity in the arms of your dear and precious Son.
We commit ourselves into your hands. In Jesus' name, our Father. Amen. I love what David said
in Psalm 17. And it's interesting that Psalm
17 follows Psalm 16 and Psalm 16 concludes with those words
about the Lord Jesus Christ that Peter proclaimed on the day of
Pentecost before this crowd of Sanhedrin that Paul is now being
judged by. He says in Psalm 16, 8, I have
set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand,
I shall not be moved. You might recall that last week
we finished with looking at the fact that Paul had the Lord Jesus
Christ stand before him and make a promise that he will go to
Rome and testify of him. He's always there before me,
he's at my right hand, I shall not be moved, therefore my heart
is glad. and my glory rejoiceth, and my
flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of
life. In thy presence is fullness of
joy. At thy right hand are pleasures
forevermore. If you turn down to the last
verse in the next psalm, David says, as for me, I will
behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy lightness. The promises of the gospel are
extraordinary promises, aren't they? The promises of the gospel
are sealed with the life and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The promises of the gospel come to us in words, but they come
in words that speak of the word, the word of life. Why don't you
turn in your hymn books with me to hymn number 19. My hope is built. My hope is
built. My hope is built. on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. When darkness veils his lovely
face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy
gale My anchor holds within the veil His oath, his covenant,
his blood Supports me in the whelming flood When all around
my soul gives way He then is all my hope and stay When he
shall come with trumpet sound O may I then in him be found,
Dressed in his righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before
the throne. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand. We'll see something of that sinking
sand if you turn in your scriptures with me to Acts chapter 22 and
23. I want to look at the resurrection
in light of Paul's testimony before these people here. In Acts chapter 23, Paul, as we
saw last week, is being brought before this council. Roman captain
had commanded that they all come, and in his command that they
all come, we have the opportunity for Paul to give another proclamation
of the gospel. A proclamation of the gospel
which, as it always does, is a revealing of the hearts of
men. And Paul, verse 6, when Paul
perceived that one part was Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried
out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a
Pharisee. For the hope of the resurrection
of the dead I am called into question. And when he had said
so, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the
Sadducees and the multitude was divided. For the Sadducees say
that there is no resurrection neither angel nor spirit, but
the Pharisees confess both. And there arose a great cry,
and the scribes that were of the Pharisees part arose, and
strove, saying, We find no evil in this man. What a lie! But
if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight
against God. And when there arose a great
dissension, the chief captain, feared lest Paul should have
been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go
down and to take him by force from among them and to bring
him into the castle. And the night following, the
Lord stood by him and said, be a good cheer, Paul, for as thou
has testified of me in Jerusalem. So must thou bear witness also
at Rome. Life is pictured as a journey. It's pictured as a walk in the
scriptures. One of the glorious things about
our Lord Jesus Christ is, as he did to his disciples when
they were on that Sea of Galilee, crossing the Sea of Galilee,
the Lord Jesus Christ said, let us go over the other side. There
might have been storms, there might have been fear, there might
have been unbelief, but the Lord Jesus Christ has let us go over
the other side. One thing you can be absolutely
certain of, brothers and sisters, you will go over the other side. You will pass through this life
and you will, you will be resurrected. There is The resurrection that
Paul is talking about, of course, is not the resurrection that
happened on that glorious morning, the Lord's Day morning, when
the Lord Jesus Christ arose from that tomb and those grave clothes
were taken off and there was a light in that place of darkness.
It's extraordinary to think what it must have been like as the
Lord Jesus Christ, that body came back to life again in a
resurrected form. and his eyes were open, that
stone was rolled away, that we might see that the grave is empty,
that we might not fear the grave, that we might, we might know
that the Lord Jesus Christ has risen again and he's risen in
such an extraordinary way that we have the most remarkable hope. Peter describes it as a bit like
our new birth, isn't it? We are begotten again, 1 Peter
1.3 says, we have begotten us again into a lively hope, a living
hope by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And baptism
is a picture of that resurrection, our conversion, and the baptism
which figures and pictures our conversion Peter says in 1 Peter
3.21, it's the answer of a good conscience toward God by the
resurrection. It's the answer of a good conscience. Paul speaks here of the hope
of the resurrection. What's your hope, brothers and
sisters? It's hope toward God. He'll say in the next chapter,
in chapter 26 of Acts, he says, I am judged for the hope of the
promise made to our fathers. The writings of the Hebrews speaks
of the full assurance of hope and he goes on in chapter 6 verse
19 it speaks of that that hope that we have as an anchor for
the soul both sure and steadfast. We have a hope Paul stood before
this religious crowd and he had a hope. He had a hope, he says,
for the hope of the resurrection. He says in 1 Corinthians, that
famous chapter on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and
our resurrection in him and the resurrection of all because of
his resurrection. He says, for if in this life
only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. The resurrection. The resurrection
is a glorious event. The resurrection is what this
universe is here for. This universe is created by our
sovereign God, our Lord Jesus Christ. This universe is created
that he might come into this world as the representative of
his people, that he might have that precious blood of his fall
onto the ground of a garden, he might go to Calvary's tree,
he might be buried in a garden tomb, and he might gloriously
rise again. And as the resurrected Christ
rules and reigns over all things for his glory in this world and
for the good of his people, He goes throughout this world as
a triumphing reigning king, gathering his people to himself and bringing
them to the knowledge of who he is, to meet him. You see the
resurrection, the resurrection is a declaration of the deity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is almighty God, it is almighty
God that we meet. It is almighty God, it's that
just God and that saviour that we meet. It's the just God and
the saviour that Paul met on the road to Damascus. Oh, that
we might see the just one, that we might hear the voice of his
mouth. If you turn back with me to John
chapter 11, I want you to see that the resurrection is a declaration
of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the resurrection
is personal. It's not a matter of intellectual
curiosity. Paul knew exactly what he was
saying in Acts chapter 23, before that Sanhedrin. He knew exactly
what they would do if he raised the issue of the resurrection,
that they would show that they squabble amongst themselves. They can join hands in crucifying
the Lord Jesus Christ. They can join hands with that
crowd that would have Paul put to death. But here, where they're
constrained by the Roman captain, that they cannot get their hands
on Paul without his permission, here they are revealed. Here
they are revealed. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
is personally present. I love what he says. We read it there a little while
ago John in John 11 25 he says 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 the resurrection is personal The resurrection is a declaration
of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection of
our Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection of all human beings
is not a matter for idle intellectual gossip. It is the hope that Paul
stood before them. The resurrection he's speaking
of to these people is not the resurrection that has passed. and powerful and wonderful as
it is. It's not just the meeting with the resurrected Lord Jesus
Christ. You turn back to, in the scriptures, with me to John
chapter 5. The Lord Jesus speaks of the resurrection. In John 5, 24, he says, Verily,
verily, truly, truly, I say unto you that he that heareth my word
and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and
shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father has life in
himself, So has He given to the Son to have life in Himself. And He has given Him authority
to execute judgment also because He is the Son of Man. He has
lived on this earth as a man. He's lived before God and before
the law of God as a man. He has been tempted in all parts
as we are. He knows, brothers and sisters,
what it is to live in this fallen creation. And He knew it. He knew it with a clarity and
a reality that only one who is sinless could understand. What must have passed before
the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ? What must have he perceived that
men could never perceive and would wish to have wanted hidden
from all sight? All things are open. to the eyes
of Him with whom we must do. Verse 28, John 5, marvel not
at this, the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves
shall hear His voice and shall come forth. They that have done
good unto the resurrection of life. And they that have done
evil unto the resurrection of damnation. I can of my own self
do nothing, As I hear I judge, and my judgment is just, because
I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which
has sent me. Just as you were thinking, possibly,
what it is to have done good, The very next chapter, in chapter
6, verse 29, some people ask him, these people ask him, what
shall we do, verse 28, what shall we do that we might work the
works of God? What are the good works? What
are the good works? What is it to do good? What is
it to do good? Jesus answered and said unto
them, this is the work of God. It's not a work of man. This
is the work of God. that you believe on Him whom
He has sent. That's the good work. That is
the good work. Simple faith. Simple faith. Simple God-given faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Who He is, what He's done, what
He's doing right now, what he'll do into the future. There is a resurrection to come. There is a resurrection and the
resurrection is personal and the resurrection is intimately
linked and tied to the reality of the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Like everything else in this creation, everything,
everything in this creation and everything in the creation to
come hinges and pivots and has its locus and focus in Him and
Him alone. Isaiah 26 speaks of this time. It speaks of Him in union with
His people, and it speaks of what this earth will do. It says
in verse 19, Thy dead men shall live. Together with my dead body
shall they arise. Awake and sing ye that dwell
in the dust, for thy dew is as the dew of the herbs, and the
earth shall cast out the dead. Cast out the dead. There is a
glorious day coming when the Lord Jesus Christ will return. I do love looking and thinking
about that day, and I trust that as you might be led by God the
Spirit, you might find your hope. Your hope is not in the things
of this world. Your hope is in the things to
come. These groups that stood before
Paul there in judgment of him, whether it be the Romans, whether
it be the Sadducees, whether it be in a sense the church in
Jerusalem, and like all churches it's a divided church, they all
had a hope. They all had a hope. Wherever
there is a true church of God, there are wheat and tares. Paul is not just speaking to
the Sanhedrin here, he's speaking to us. You see, we never listen
to the gospel unaffected. When I'm speaking about the resurrection
and when I'm speaking about the hope that believers have, I'm
speaking about a future that you will bear witness to. that
you must bear witness to. There is a necessity about the
resurrection, as there was a must about the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But there is this glorious day
coming. In 1 Thessalonians we read it. Paul doesn't want his people
to be ignorant, and he wants his people to be comforted. So
these are the words of comfort. These are the words that I don't
want you to be ignorant of, and Paul doesn't want you to be ignorant
of. Chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians verse 7, But I would not have
you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep.
Throughout the scriptures, the children of God who have passed
and die, they're always called to sleep. In fact, when the Lord
Jesus Christ spoke of Lazarus, he said, my friend, our friend
Lazarus is asleep. The one I love is asleep. And
the disciples said, if he's asleep, he'll be okay. You don't need
to go back and see him. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
he's dead. But he was speaking more truthfully
about the fact that he was asleep than he was when he spoke of
his dead, his being dead. I don't want you to be ignorant,
brethren. back to first Thessalonians concerning
them which are asleep that you sorrow not even as others which
have no hope for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again
even so them also which sleep in Jesus God will bring with
him for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord that
we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall
not prevent, not go before them which are asleep. For the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel and with the trump of God, that great jubilee
trumpet will sound, that great day when all things are put right,
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. And so shall we ever be
with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another
with these words. The day of the Lord will come
as a thief in the night. The day of the Lord will come.
There will be a glorious resurrection. There will be a reuniting of
the bodies and souls of all of the children of God and they
will be gathered together with him and they'll be with the Lord
forever. And there is a glorious creation
coming there is a glorious creation coming the home of the righteous
when all things are made new the resurrection of our lord
jesus christ is a declaration of his deity it's a declaration
of the glorious union he has with his people therefore it's
a personal it's personal it's not a matter of just simple intellectual
curiosity The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ pictures the fact that there is a universal resurrection. The Lord Jesus Christ's resurrection
and his as a resurrected Christ coming and gathering his people
to himself, revealing himself through his word, revealing himself
as the light of who he is, the light of this world. a glorious reality into which
and which subsumes all the other realities of this world. You
see, brothers and sisters in Christ, eternal spiritual realities
are infinitely more important than all of the temporal ones. Whatever you hope for in this
world, is going to disappear with this world. If our hope,
the anchor for our souls, is in the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him crucified, we have an anchor. We have an anchor which goes
beyond all of the things of this world. The riches and the health
and all the other things of this world can just take flight. They
can take wings and fly away in a heartbeat. There is There is in this world,
and we see before us here in this judgment hall, as it were,
where the Sanhedrin had their last opportunity to judge an
apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have these groups that have
a hope, don't they? See, the Pharisees' hope, the
Pharisees' hope was in what they could see of themselves and in
their history. It was the hope that Paul had
that he speaks of in Philippians chapter 3. His hope was in his
heritage, circumcised on the eighth day in the stock of Israel,
the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the
law, a Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church, as touching
the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Their hope The Pharisee's hope
was in the things of this world. The things that they could see,
the things that they could attribute to themselves and consider as
their own righteousness. We see We see in this gathering,
we see what religion always does, and we see the dangers of compromise. These Pharisees had a passionate
belief in the resurrection. They had every reason to have
a passionate belief in the resurrection because of all the scriptural
evidence. But there they were, hand in hand with these Sadducees.
The Sadducees, as our text says, didn't believe. didn't believe
in a resurrection. They say there is no resurrection,
neither angel nor spirit. They say there is no resurrection. If you turn back with me to Matthew
chapter 22, we'll see the Lord Jesus Christ answered the question
of both these groups of men and answered their questions such
that they didn't ask him anymore. You might recall that the Sadducees
came. They didn't believe in a resurrection.
They just didn't believe God is what the story is. They didn't
believe in a resurrection. But they came to him with this
story that is so evidently made up. And even if we allow for
the story, you know the story that there were seven brethren.
The first, when he had married a wife, deceased and having no
issue, left his wife unto his brother, and likewise the second
and third, and unto the seventh. And last of all, the woman died.
Verse 27 of Luke 22. Therefore, in the resurrection,
whose wife shall she be of the seven? For they all had her as
a wife. Jesus' answer is profound. It's profound. He says, you do
err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. To deny the resurrection, is
to deny the scriptures themselves, is to reveal that you don't know
God, you don't know Him, as He's revealed in the scriptures, and
you don't know the power of God. For in the resurrection, verse
30, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as
the angels of God. But as touching the resurrection
of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you
by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead,
but of the living. These men traced their lineage
back to these patriarchs and back to Moses. And even though
there were the clearest words, Spoken by God to Moses. These men simply didn't believe
him. They didn't believe God. They
didn't believe God. And the question remains is what
on earth are they doing in a Sanhedrin in that 70 with these Pharisees? You see, one of the things that's
revealed here is that when there is a religious compromise, you
will join hands with those at the lowest common denominator.
The Lord exposes them here. He exposes them for their hypocrisy. He exposes them for their compromise. Paul was right in saying that
they were just a whited wall. They were clean on the outside,
but inside they were full of dead men's bones. There are those
groups there that just didn't believe the resurrection. And
yet, And yet when the Pharisees are brought to this place where
they are exposed for what they are, they carry on, don't they,
in a way which shows their complicity and their deceit. And it shows
also where their hope is, isn't it? In verse 9 of our passage
that we read in Acts 23, verse 9, it says, There arose a great
cry, and the scribes which were of the
Pharisees parted rows and strove, saying, We find no evil in this
man. They'd found nothing but evil in the apostles. They hadn't
joined with them ever. They had, as a group of learned
theologians, stood opposed to the Lord Jesus Christ and all
of the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ for 20 years. And
yet they are prepared to stand there and say, we find no evil
in this man. And then they reduce. what Paul
had spoken to them about Ananias' testimony. You'll see the just
one. You'll hear the words of his mouth. They reduce that to
just a spirit or an angel. And to protect their self-righteousness,
they then say, let us not fight against God. They've done nothing
but fight against God in all this time. You might recall that
to make sure that the Lord Jesus Christ would stay in their tomb.
These people from this Sanhedrin, maybe some of these particular
people there, they rushed off to Pilate and said, we've got
to find, we've got to have a guard. See, they were one of the few
people. They were the one of the few people who actually believed
in the resurrection. The Lord Jesus Christ had spoken
to Martha and Mary. He had raised Lazarus from death. He'd raised Jairus, the daughter
and the widow of Nain. And yet, it is so evident that
in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, there were very,
very few of them that expected it, or believed it. But these
Pharisees, this religious organisation, were the ones that did believe.
In Matthew chapter 27, they go to Pilate In verse 62 of Matthew 27, the
next day that followed the day of preparation, the chief priests
and the Pharisees came together under Pilate, saying, Sir, we
remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, after
three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre
be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come
by night and steal him away. And say unto the people, he is
risen from the dead. so that the last error shall
be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, you have
your watch, go your way, make it as sure as you can. And I'm sure they were as busy
as little beavers down there with hammers and chisels and
whatever else it took to secure that and make sure that that
guard was there. So they went, they made the sepulchre
sure, sealing the stones and setting a watch. Isn't it glorious
that the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ end up being the
servants of his people? What a glorious thing that they
made sure that there wasn't going to be any theft from that tomb.
They made sure, these enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ, they
made sure that when that glorious resurrection morning occurred,
it was so evidently seen that this is the work of God. and
it's the work of God that no man can ever undo. You see, these men had their hope. There is in the Roman governor
a representation of the people of this world in terms of their
understanding of the resurrection. You see, this captain This Roman
captain had heard about the eternal God. He'd heard the truth. He'd heard Paul's speech. And for him, they were matters
of indifference. What a picture of this world
before us. In verse 25 of Acts 23, he writes
this letter. And you notice the politics in
this letter. He wrote a letter after this measure. In this manner,
Claudius Lycius, under the most excellent governor Felix, sending
greetings. This man was taken of the Jews
and should have been killed of them. And I came with an army
and rescued him, having understood that he was a Roman. You see,
the Roman captain, no doubt had a hope, and his hope was in the
things of this world. His hope was in his future. There
he is prepared to tell the ball-faced lie, to honour himself, and to
protect himself from being one who had a Roman citizen bound,
and had him about to be scourged as well. Then he says in verse
28, And when I would have known the cause whereby they accused
him, I brought him forth unto their counsel, who might perceive
to be accused of questions of their law, but have nothing laid
to his charge worthy of death or of bonds. And then he sends
Paul on. See, it's just a matter of debate,
isn't it? It's questions of their law. It's extraordinary, isn't it,
how when it comes to the great and eternal reality that lies
before human beings, they are completely and utterly dead. And in this day and age, the
atheists and the agnostics, the hypocrites in a sense by nature,
because God says they're hypocrites. God has made it plain to them
the wonder of his reality in creation before them and the
wonder and the glory of the character of his holiness in their consciences.
And yet, and yet they twist things and they maintain their hope
in this world. and they play politics. See,
all these three groups are playing politics, weren't they? Blinded. Blinded by the reality
of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Paul speaks of that blindness,
this blindness that lay over these religious people. He says, He says of them in 1 Corinthians
3 that there's a veil. There's a veil. In verse 14 he
says, Their minds were blinded, for until this day remain of
the same veil, untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament.
See, the veil, which veil is done away in Christ? See, Paul
stood there before them, he said, I'm a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
That doesn't mean that he's saying he's still a Pharisee. He was
saying that I was a Pharisee as you were. And the only thing
that saves a Pharisee from the legalism, which is his hope,
is a meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ. A meeting with him. A meeting
where he reveals himself as a sovereign God. Where he reveals himself
as a God who brings a light from heaven. A light which shines
into this dark world. A light which reveals himself as
a resurrected Christ. A resurrected Christ who reigns
and rules over all things. a resurrected Christ in union
with his people, a resurrected Christ, who because of his death,
his substitutionary death on Calvary's tree and his glorious
resurrection for the justification of his people, can with justice
and with honour to all the character of God, not just come and meet
with people, but to come and dwell in them. Those disciples heard him say
these remarkable words in John 14 verse 19. He says, I'm not going to leave
you comfortable, comfortless in verse 18, I will come to you.
Yet a little while the world seeth me no more, but ye see
me because I live, you shall live also. And in that day, that
day, You shall know, verse 20, that I, that I am in my Father,
and you in me, and I in you. It's the great hope, the great
hope that Paul still dare before them, is Christ, the resurrected
Christ, Christ in you. the hope of glory, as he says
in Colossians chapter 1. And it's a hope, it's a hope
that all that had the scriptures should have found a cause for
great rejoicing. You might recall, the Lord Jesus
said to those Sadducees, you don't know the scriptures, you
don't know what the scriptures are saying. In Genesis chapter
5, Enoch was translated, he went body
and soul, went into heaven. Abraham, the father of their
nation, offered Isaac. He offered Isaac. He unhesitatingly
went to that mountain, that Mount Moriah, that mount where the
Temple was, that mount where the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified.
And he went up there, and when he took that knife, as far as
he was concerned, he had plunged it into the heart of his son
Isaac. Believing what? Believing a promise
from God that Isaac was going to rise from the dead, that Isaac
was going to be the one who would be the seed of Abraham, that
Isaac would be that one that would receive the covenant promises,
that Isaac would rise from the dead. 400 years later, Joseph
had his bones embalmed he says you keep my bones here for 400
years you keep my bones here and you take them over the Jordan
to Canaan you take them over the Jordan to Canaan my bones
will rise again not from Egypt my bones will rise again from
this land of promise this land of promise You might recall that
there was a resuscitation which pictures the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection of all in him. Elijah
in 2nd Kings chapter 4, you might recall that the Shunammite son
was revived, was raised and it's a glorious picture if you take
the time to read it of him lying on that son, that dead man. One
with him and he was risen and gloriously restored to his mother. Elisha was buried and his bones
were put in a grave and for some reason they undid that grave
and a man, a man was put into that grave in 2nd Kings 13 verse
20 and as soon as the dead man, as soon as the dead man touched
the bones of Elisha he was raised from the dead. The Old Testament
Scriptures are full of pictures of the resurrection from the
dead and the reality of that resurrection, the glory of that
resurrection. I trust you know the verse in
Job chapter 19, but let's read it together. This is a man who
had suffered much and had more to suffer as we go through the
book of Job. He has to meet meet God and meet
himself and to know again that he is vile. But this was a man
whom God had given this extraordinary measure of faith. In Job 19 verse
25 he says, I know, I know that my Redeemer lives. Do you know
that your Redeemer lives? I know that my Redeemer liveth.
This is hope, brothers and sisters. I know that my Redeemer liveth
and that he shall stand the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skins worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. whom I shall see for myself,
and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins
be consumed within me." Job's great hope, wasn't it, brothers
and sisters in Christ, was that with these very eyes, these very
eyes that we see this world now, with these very eyes that will
cease to have any function at all at death and will rot away
to absolutely nothing, These eyes, my flesh, mine eyes shall
behold. In my flesh shall I see God. The Psalms, as you know, speak
much of our Lord Jesus Christ. We read in Psalms 16, that you
will not allow your Holy One to see corruption. The great
Psalms, like all of the Psalms that speak so wonderfully of
the Lord Jesus Christ, they speak of His coming into this world,
and they speak of the trials that we have in this world, they
speak of His death, and they speak of His burial, and they
speak of His glorious resurrection. It's the great hope, isn't it?
It's the great hope. His resurrection is my resurrection. His life is my life because I
leave you also shall live the Ethiopian eunuch had Philip speak to him of a
resurrected Christ what a glorious picture what
a glorious picture of the the finished work and the wonder
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 3 of Isaiah 53, is despised
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid as it were our faces from him, he was despised and
we esteemed him not. Surely he had borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, but we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes, we are
healed. We all, like sheep, have gone
astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and
he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her, sheer
as his dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from
prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked and the rich in his death, because he had done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He has put him to grief, when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul, and shall be satisfied. by his knowledge my righteous servant shall justify
many I wonder Paul could say in Romans chapter 4 of 25 isn't
it he was put to death because of our transgressions because
of our sin and he was raised he was raised because of our
justification my righteous servant shall justify
many, for he shall bear their iniquities. He shall bear their
iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with
the strong, because he has poured out his soul unto death. And
he was numbered with the transgressions, and he bare the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. What's the very
next word in the scriptures, brothers and sisters in Christ?
if he is your hope and all that he's done is your hope and your
only hope is in him and what he's done sing sing oh baron
that didst not bear no fruit of yourself break forth into
singing and cry aloud it's a glorious resurrection
It's a glorious resurrection. It's a glorious resurrection
because of the glory of the one who was crucified and the wonder
of what he was crucified for. He bore our sins. He bore our iniquities. He bore our transgressions. And that's remarkable and I wonder
what it means. And I trust the Lord might open
our eyes to see that he bore our griefs, Isaiah 53, 4, and
he carried our sorrows. He carried our sorrows. He was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. You could go on with many psalms,
can't you? Psalm 16, Psalm 110, Psalm 22.
Again and again and again throughout the Old Testament scriptures
there are depictions and pictures of the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the resurrection of all humanity and the glorious
resurrection of all those who are in him. It's pictured throughout
the Old Testament isn't it? Noah's Ark is a great picture
of the resurrection isn't it? You've survived death and wrath
and judgment and come out alive. The ark is a picture of him.
Crossing the Red Sea is a picture of the resurrection, isn't it?
You go out of that land of judgment where the wrath of God falls
and you are taken through what would be death and you come out
the other side. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
were in that fiery furnace and yet they were not alone and they
came out of that fiery furnace They came out of that fiery furnace
without a smell of the fire and with all that bound them, taken
from them. That's what our Lord Jesus Christ
said at the tomb of Lazarus, isn't it? He said, as he will
on that last great day, he says, Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus, come forth. Loose him, he says, and let him
go. It is, it is a demonstration,
the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is a demonstration
of the fact that he is the God of power and he has the two things that are associated
with power in all of the scriptures. That word dunamis from which
we get our word dynamic and dynamite has two connotations. One is that it speaks of ability.
The Lord Jesus Christ has ability and he has authority and in him
alone there is both ability and authority. The Lord has given
him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to
as many as the Father this gave him. He says in John 10 17 he
says therefore does my father love me because I lay down my
life that I might take it again. No man takes it from me. I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment I received of
my father. He has the power. He has the
power. He can send Ezekiel to that valley
of dry bones. And can these dead bones live?
You know, Lord, you know. You know, you preach to those
bones. You speak to those bones. The Lord Jesus Christ reveals
the wonder of his power, the glory of the power in the preached
word. As he preaches himself, he reveals
himself as a resurrected God and a saviour. He preaches himself
and he reveals himself by the blessed Holy Spirit coming and
making Him to be alive for us. We see a triumph, don't we? The
resurrection is a glorious triumph, our Lord. The debt was paid. If you read the Lord Jesus' accounts,
you'll find again and again He says, I must rise. In Luke, in
Matthew 16 and Luke 9, the Son of Man must suffer many things. He must be rejected of the elders,
the chief prisoners, scribes, and be slain and he must be raised
on the third day. There's a necessity, isn't there? We are brothers and sisters.
Paul stood there before them in the words of Luke 20. He says,
we're the children of the resurrection. We are the children of the resurrection. You see, it's impossible. It's
impossible for the work of Christ to be unsuccessful. because of
who he is. He is God Almighty. He speaks
a word and it is done. Our hope is in a person. A person who speaks, a person
who reveals himself. It's impossible for the body
of the Lord Jesus Christ to remain in the tomb. The scriptures must
be fulfilled. He is the life. He is the resurrection. He must rise again. That sealed and guarded tomb
could not hold him. The darkness of that tomb must
give way to the light and life. He must reign. He must reign
till all his enemies are put under his feet. He must reign. It's a triumphal reign. He left
captivity captive. He gave gifts to men. even the rebellious. He bound
that strong man and he comes to that strong man's supposed
palace and he just robs him of all his goods. He says these
are mine. These were mine before the foundation of the world.
These were mine in unity with me. These are mine because I'm
the just one. These are mine because I took
responsibility for them. These are mine as a gift of my
father. They're mine by creation. They're
mine by redemption. They're mine by blood sacrifice. And they're mine and they're
going to rise with me. The justice of our God and the
very character of our God demands the resurrection of all of his.
The justice of God demands the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The sins are gone. That debt was paid. Justice is
satisfied. Justice satisfied demands the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. You shall justify many. Their sins are gone, brothers
and sisters, which is what it means to be justified. He is the surety of that covenant
and he is in union with his people. The resurrected Lord Jesus Christ
could do as he did to Saul of Tarsus in that Roman jail in
Jerusalem before he was about to go on that journey which meant
prison and a journey across the sea and a journey to his eventual
death in Rome. and the Lord begins it by saying,
I'm here with you. A resurrected Christ stands before
his people, stands with his people. The surety of this eternal covenant. I love that verse in Hebrews
13 verse 20. We read it often. I trust the
Lord would refresh it to our hearts again and again and we
would find the most extraordinary hope in it. He says, now the God of peace,
the wiser you've got a piece. The only thing that causes God
not to be at peace with us is our sin. And brothers and sisters,
our sins are gone. We read about it in Isaiah 53,
our sins are taken away. Our sins are gone. There is now no reason for God
not to smile upon His people. There is no reason for Him not
to express the depth of His love. There is nothing that separates
us now from Him. He's the God of peace. He's at
peace with us. He's at peace with His Son. And
we're in His Son and He has peace with us. The God of peace that
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great
shepherd of the sheep. he goes before his sheep he goes
after his sheep and he's with his sheep brought again from
the dead our Lord Jesus our Lord Jesus that great shepherd of
the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect make you perfect
making you complete in every good work to do his will. Resurrected Christ is not sitting
idly around, just read on with me, working in you, that which
is well pleasing in his sight. If it's well pleasing in his
sight, brothers and sisters, I can be pleased with us as well.
I can stand before this world and stand before this religious
world like Paul and say I'm here and I'll be judged by you for
the hope of the resurrection. But I'll have him working what
is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom
be glory forever and ever. in the resurrection of our Lord
Jesus Christ. A great glory. A great glory. It's a glorious
resurrection. A glorious thing to behold the
face of the resurrected Christ. To know that he's successful. that his law is satisfied, that
I can stand before the holy commandments of God and look at them and love
them and delight in them because they are completely fulfilled
in my Saviour. The wrath and the judgment of
God that has fallen upon him fell upon me for all of my transgressions,
for all of my iniquities and for all of my sin. God has found
a substitute. I have found a ransom, he says
in Job 31. His soul won't go down to the
pit. I found a ransom. God himself
is satisfied. God's holiness is satisfied.
He's reconciled us to himself. The everlasting covenant. declares
a resurrected saviour and a resurrected people in him. The resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ declares a great victory, a great salvation,
a great deliverance from the religious hypocrisy, the word
of God denying and dishonouring activities of the Pharisees and
the Sadducees. The blindness and hopelessness
of people like that Roman who just see these things, see these
things as trifles about the law. For us, like our saviour brothers
and sisters, they are everything. He rose from the dead to claim
his people as his possession. Everything he does, he does in
glorious union with his people. What power there is in the resurrection. What hope there is. Why don't
you turn with me as we close to Ephesians chapter 1. I love
reading this prayer. This prayer for the Ephesians
and the prayer of God's servants for all of his people throughout
time. He prays in verse 17, that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
him. Verse 18, that the eyes of your
understanding, being enlightened, that's a glorious description
of a finished and sovereign work of God by his grace and power,
that you might know what is the hope of his calling. and what the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the saints. What's the inheritance of the
Lord Jesus Christ? Whatever it is, brothers and
sisters, it's yours, isn't it? His inheritance is his people.
We have a glorious inheritance, brothers and sisters. We have
a glorious inheritance. which has been earned for us
because of our union and one with him as members of his family. Listen to it. His glory of his
inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us would 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 far above all principality and power and
might and dominion, every name that is named, not only in this
world, but also in the world to come, and hath put all things
under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to
the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth
all in all. That's His inheritance, isn't
it? And it's the inheritance of all God's people. The same
power, the same extraordinary power that was wrought to raise
the Lord Jesus Christ is the very power that raises us from
the depths of the deadness of our wickedness and our rebellion
and translates us into the kingdom of His dear Son. He's put all things under his
feet. Brothers and sisters, our resurrected
Christ, in union with his church, reigns and rules over all things
for his glory. One day, one day, this veil of
our flesh as he is one day will arise and
we'll be satisfied with his likeness one day soon all the things of
this world will be gone and there'll be a new creation the home of
the righteous where we will have resurrected bodies resurrected
bodies like his body which had a glorious familiarity with his
earthly body, but resurrected to a new creation. That new creation
dwells in his people. Circumcision matters nothing.
The things that you do under the law and non-circumcision
matters nothing, just one thing matters. A new creation created
in righteousness and true holiness, Christ in you, the hope of glory. May he give you that hope, brothers
and sisters in Christ. May we walk through this world
with all of its trials and all of our frailties and our weakness,
we just add to that trials. May we, as he grants us faith,
just look away, look away and look to him who rules all things,
far above all principalities of power and might and dominion,
and every name that is named. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do pray that we might stand before this world, robed in the
righteousness of your dear and precious Son, rejoicing in the
hope, Heavenly Father, that he and his resurrection and his
reign and his rule over all things brings into the hearts of his
people. We praise you, Heavenly Father, for the reality of his
resurrection. We praise you for what it reveals
of his sovereignty and his power and his glory, of his glorious
union with his people. that he bore our sins in his
own body on the tree and he suffered the curse of a broken holy law
of you my father and he bore those sins away and he bore in
his own body all of that wrath such that you can declare there
is fury is not in me oh our father we praise you for the peace that
we can have with you and call you the God of peace, because
you raised your dear son from the dead. You bore our sins and
they're gone forever. That as he rose, Heavenly Father,
we must rise. And those who believe, oh Father,
make us to believe that we have passed from death unto life. in Him, with Him, through Him. May you get great glory, Heavenly
Father, and give your people much peace, as we have a simple
belief. May we answer yes and amen to
the question that your Son posed to Martha, do you believe this?
Oh, our Father, grant us this for Christ's sake and for his
glory. Amen. We might close by reading those
verses from Jude yet again. Now unto him, the resurrected
Christ, that is able to keep you from falling and present
you faultless before his presence for the presence of his glory
with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our Saviour,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. May the Lord bless you
and keep you.