Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bible to John chapter 20. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
resurrection and the life. He is the resurrection and the
life. The Lord said to Martha, that
very thing, He said, I am the resurrection and the life. He
that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Thursday night, we saw how beholding
the Lord Jesus Christ is the cure for every need we have. No matter the situation, God's
children, the healing that we need in any situation is beholding
the Lord Jesus Christ. Beholding Him. Renewed by Him. Made to see Him anew. Made to
see Him afresh. That's the strength. That's the
power. That's the wisdom. It's Him. He is the resurrection
and He's the life. Even now, for you and me, What's
going to resurrect this inward new man that we have when he's
all but dead and cast down within you? It's Christ the resurrection
and the life. Beholding Him. Beholding Him. We have many needs, but everything
that meets that need and provides for that need is in beholding
Christ Jesus the life. When sin weighs heavy on us,
the Lord Jesus crucified. Beholding Him crucified, beholding
Him risen, victorious in place of His people, this is what lifts
the burden off. This is what strengthens the
inward man and turns you again to Christ. Seeing Him there at
God's right hand, We're persuaded God put away the sin of His people.
Christ Jesus put away the sin of His people. And you'll be
persuaded of that by holding Him there. By holding Him there,
you're persuaded He alone is your righteousness. When we experience
this, we behold the Lord Jesus, and He strengthens you inwardly.
That's how you know Christ Jesus is your sanctification. It's
what cleanses your heart. It's what purifies your heart.
The Lord Jesus Christ, His blood, turns you from your unbelieving
flesh, turns you from your sinful flesh, and strengthens that inner
man. It's what will cure or subdue
the old and renew and strengthen and raise up the inward, the
new man. He was delivered for our offenses.
He was raised again for our justification. Sometimes if anybody is in the
prospect of death and they're looking to the time that it's
drawing near, they're going to die. There's going to come a
time we're going to bury fellow believers, our brethren, and
we'll be sorrowful. But we don't sorrow like people
that have no hope. Believers sorrow not as others
which have no hope, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so them also which sleep, those that have fallen
asleep in the Lord, been buried in the grave, our Lord will bring
again with Him. Whatever infirmity, whatever
difficulties we have, whatever we face as we're going through
the journey of this life, beholding Christ is the cure. Beholding
Christ is the cure. Our burdens get so heavy to us,
they weigh us down, you can't carry your burdens. It's beholding
the great burden bearer. It's beholding Christ who took
all the burden off His people that gives you the strength.
Christ crucified, risen, victorious. He's the great physician that
heals. He's the life that strengthens the inner man. He's the resurrection
that lifts us up out of the dust. It's Him, beholding Him by which
our A new man was resurrected in the first hour. That's the
first resurrection. That's how you partook of that.
By Christ being formed in you and making you behold Him. And
it's the same all our days. It will be the same when He raises
us from the grave. Same thing. When you behold Him
face to face, you'll be just like Him. just like him. Today
we're going to look at Mary's cure. We're going to see Mary's
cure. And I'm just going to go verse
by verse here because I want to just focus on each verse.
So let's begin in verse 1. The first day of the week cometh
Mary Magdalene early. Now our substitute has suffered
the cross. He had cried it's finished. He
had yielded up his spirit to the Father. He was taken down
from the cross, wrapped in linen and myrrh and aloes by Joseph
and Nicodemus and carried to a tomb where never a man was
laid and he was buried there and a stone was rolled over the
mouth of that sepulcher. And now, it's the first day of
the week. And Mary comes there early when
it was yet dark unto the sepulcher and seeth the stone taken away
from the second sepulcher. Mark tells us Mary, the mother
of James, came as well, but John just focuses on Mary Magdalene. Maybe Mary Magdalene came first.
Maybe she was ahead of the other Mary and she got there first.
I don't know, but the focus here is what the Lord did for Mary
Magdalene that day. Mary Magdalene had been possessed
by seven devils. She was a very, very great sinner. A very great sinner. And the
Lord cast those devils out of her. Gave her life, gave her
faith, and she was drawn to believe on the Lord Jesus. And the Lord
forgave her of all her sin. Forgave her of all her sin. She
was a great sinner who had been forgiven of so many sins. And she knew it. She's probably
the woman, the Lord, that came there and anointed the feet of
the Lord in the house of Simon the leper. That's probably the
same Mary Magdalene. This Mary. And Simon the leper,
you know, looked within himself and said, oh, if he knew what
a great sinner this woman was, he wouldn't have anything to
do with her. can't be a prophet, or he'd know this, and if he
knew this, he would not have a thing to do with her. He is
the prophet, and he knew it. And he knew it. But he came to
save sinners. That's who he came to save. The
Lord asked Simon, he said, who will love most, Simon? The Lord said, her sins, catch
this now, which are many, are forgiven. And because of
that, she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. She knew she was a great sinner. And she knew she'd been forgiven
much. And she loved the Lord very much. She loved his people very much. She was, of all of them, I guarantee
you Mary Macklin was the most forgiving and merciful one among
the bunch because she knew what a great, great sinner she was. Simon the leper, he didn't know
that. She knew it. She knew it. Those who know much of forgiveness
forgive much and they love much. Here she is, first one to the
sepulcher. And then in the second part of
verse 1, she saw the stone taken away from the sepulcher. The
Scripture tells us God sent an angel, the Father sent an angel
to take this stone away. Now, the Lord Jesus could have
removed this stone, easily removed this stone, but by God the Father
sending an angel to do it. and recording that for us in
scripture. That's declaring to us, God is satisfied. He's satisfied
with his son. The Lord Jesus Christ justified
his people from all their sins. He honored God's law, he magnified
the glory and glorified God, and he made satisfaction for
the sins of his people, and God's satisfied with his son. And God
bore witness to that in that he sent an angel and moved that
stone away from that mound. of that tomb. Verse 2, then she
sees this stone moved and she must have looked in, she didn't
see the Lord's body and she startled her. And then she runneth, and
cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus
loved." That's John, he never mentions his name in this epistle. He refers to himself as the disciple
whom Jesus loved. The Lord had humbled him in his
heart, and that's how he referred to himself. She came to Peter
and John, and she said to them, they have taken away the Lord
out of the sepulcher. They've taken away the Lord out
of the sepulcher. That's what she said to him.
And we know not where they've laid him. That's the only thing
she said to him now. Catch that. We're going to talk
about that a little bit later. That's all she said to him. Peter
therefore went forth and that other disciple and came to the
sepulchre. So they ran both together and
the other disciple did outrun Peter and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping down and looking
in saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. Then cometh
Simon Peter following and went into the sepulchre." John and
Peter were together. Wherever they were, they were
together, either at John's house or Peter's house, they were together. I picture Peter there with John,
still weeping over his fall, denying the Lord, and I picture
John comforting him with the good news of the gospel, reminding
him of the Redeemer and how he promised never let him go, never
let his people go. J.C. Ryle said, when Judas fell,
he had no friends to raise and cheer him. When Peter fell, there
was a brother born for adversity who did not despise him. So, hearing Mary's report, John
and Peter, they took off running to the tomb. Now, John's a little
younger than Peter, and he outran him. He got there first. Maybe Peter was still sad and
didn't have quite as much strength because he'd been weeping. John comes there first to the
sepulcher. When John gets there, he stopped
at the opening there, and he stooped and looked in. Peter
comes running up behind him. He just passed John right on
into the sepulcher, right into it. John was reserved. He waited. He stopped. He looked
in. Peter was impetuous. Peter was
impulsive. And then Mary, she came up there
and she stood behind both of them. And she stood there weeping. God's saints are all saved the
same way. Each one of His saints are chosen
of God our Father by grace, not based on any good or evil in
us, by grace from the foundation of the world. Every one of them
are. Every one God saved. Each one
is redeemed, bought, purchased, justified by the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's who He laid down His life
for, those God the Father chose and gave to Him to save. And
each one has been born of God the Holy Spirit, quickened to
life, and brought to faith by God giving us everything and
drawing us to Christ. That's so of everyone He saved.
Each believer is given one faith, In one Lord, we have one God
and Father who's above all and in you all. We're one in the
same family. We're one in the same body. We're
loved with the same Heavenly Father and the same Savior. But each one of us are different. Each one of us are different.
We're different in temperament. We don't react the same to things. Just not going to. We don't do
things exactly the same. But there's absolutely no competition
between God's people. They're one. They're one. There
is no separation. We're one in Christ and separably
one in Christ. We have the same need to be saved
by our Savior beginning and end. We all have that same need. Don't
ever set one against another. Don't ever set one against another. When they said it, Corian, well,
I'm of Paul. Well, I'm of Apollos. I don't
like him. I don't like how he said that
or whatever. Paul said, that's carnal. That's
carnal. This is what Paul said to the
Philippians. This was a problem there, too. If there be therefore
any consolation in Christ, are you comforted in Christ? That
brother is too, that sister is too. Is there any comfort of
love? So is that brother or sister. Any fellowship of the Spirit,
any bowels and mercies, fulfill you my joy that you be like-minded,
having the same love, Being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife.
Don't try to make anybody do anything. Or vain glory. But in lowliness of mind, what is that? That's being a
Mary Magdalene. That's seeing your sins are the
greatest of anybody's. You know what you should do?
Esteem other better than self. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. That is,
doing like John was doing with Peter, trying to help one another's
joy in Christ. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus. All of that was the mind of our
Lord Jesus. That's how he loved us. That's
how he loved us. Verse six, so Peter ran and he
sees the linen clothes lie and the napkin that was about his
head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together
in a place by itself. You picture this, man, he goes
in there and some say the linen clothes were folded neatly. Some
say they were just laying out because they wrapped him around
the body, tied around the body. Remember how they had to, they
had to, men had to go up and take the linen clothes off of
Lazarus because he was, he was in and wrapped in it like this.
Our Lord just arose out of that. He just arose out of that. And
there lay the linen in the shape of his body. But this was telling
right here also, but the napkin that was wrapped around his head,
it was over here separate, folded up, laid down separately. And you just think about, you
know, they wrapped him, as they wrapped the body, they wrapped
it with myrrh and aloes and all of that. Nick, there's probably
a hundred pound of it. That's that, that sepulchre had
to smell just fragrant. in it. And they run in there
and see this. All of that is telling us this,
brethren. Our Lord didn't run out of the tomb. And nobody stole
His body out of that tomb. Our Lord arose from the dead. And He calmly folded up that
napkin around His head, laid it over there, walked out of
the tomb. walked out of the tomb. The Lord
Jesus conquered sin and death and the grave. He conquered it.
He conquered it. There were signs. These were
signs of His victory right here. That's what this was. His power
over sin and death. Death came by sin. There was
no death before Adam sinned. No death before he sinned. Not
in a man, not in an animal, there was no curse. Death came by sin. When Adam sinned, death entered. Death entered. That was God's
promise. And the day you eat of that tree, dying you shall
die. And he died. He died. That's in us, that sin's in our
bodies, that's why these bodies shall die. They shall die. Everything that's about us as
we're born in this world the first time is of Adam. We got
all our guilt from Adam, by his one transgression, and we got
our nature of sin from Adam. And so, from the moment we take
our first breath, we begin dying. We're already dead spiritually,
and we're going to die. These bodies are going to die.
But Christ put away the sin of his people. He put it away. He died unto sin once. And because he put sin away,
death had no claim on him. The grave had no claim on him.
And death has no claim on any of his people for whom he died. The grave has no claim on them.
He satisfied justice. He put away the sin of his people.
He made us the righteousness of God in him. And so death cannot
keep you. Cannot keep you. He made that
grave fragrant. And he made it fragrant for you
and me. You know why? because he was the forerunner,
he just passed through it, that's all. And you know what you're
going to do? When he's told, Martha, I am the resurrection
and the life, he that liveth and believeth on me shall never
die, you know what you're going to do? Your spirit's going to
be with him immediately when you die, and your body is just
going to pass through. In time, he's going to raise
a brand new body that he created that's going to be perfectly
like him, with no sin. With no sin. O death, where is
thy sting? 1 Corinthians 15.55. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. The
strength of sin is the law. You know, when people die without
Christ, there's another death coming. It's the judgment. The second death. Because Christ
bore that death for His people and satisfied justice, He will
make His child partake of the first resurrection. He will enter
in and Christ, the resurrection and the life, will give His child
spiritual life and bring you to believe on Him. And because
He passed through that grave. When you die, you shall not die. You live. And your body, one
day when He returns, shall arise by Him, and we'll be perfectly
conformed to Him. That's the only time we will
be. The rest of our days, we're not
going to be. But at that time, we will be
perfectly conformed to our Lord Jesus Christ. So the sting of
death is sin, the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be
to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is good news to all God's
children. We could die at any time. Any
of us could. We don't know the date the Lord
has set already. But you know, if you're an aged
believer, And you've got more infirmities now, and your body's
broken more, and you're hurt more, and you're in more pain. And naturally speaking, you think
that time is drawing closer. What good news? What else would
comfort you? What else would comfort you?
Well, what else will comfort you now? What else will comfort
you now? He's the resurrection and the
life. All right, verse 8. Then went
in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulcher,
and he saw and he believed. John had stood there and Peter
ran in and he saw those things. Peter ran in and saw those things.
Then John went in and he saw and he believed. He believed
what Mary had said. They've taken our Lord's body
and we don't know where He is. For as yet they knew not the
Scripture that He must rise again from the dead. And then the disciples
went away again unto their own home. I want you to think about
in those three years that they walked with the Lord, how many
times the Lord told them, we have many times recorded, you
know He told them more times than it is even recorded, that
he must go to that cross and be crucified and die and be buried
and rise again the third day. He had told them and told them
and told them this. But he repeated that to them
over and over and over and over and over and told them that.
Mary came and spoke one word. They've taken him. We don't know
where he is. And they came and they looked
and they saw those evidences and they believe what she said. Think about that. For as yet they knew not the
scripture that he must rise again from the dead. This is another
thing that we need to remember. Each of God's saints have this
in common. Every one of us do. We are very,
very slow to learn. Very slow. We're very slow to
believe the word of our Lord. Very slow. You see, you'd say,
well the Lord told them this so they should have believed,
they should have heard. It's not even, when we talk about
the Lord speaking, talk about the Spirit, being born of the
Spirit and taught of the Spirit, it was not even just our Lord
speaking verbally as a man that made anybody believe. There was
a lot of people that heard him preach that did not believe.
They heard him say it and didn't believe. It's the Lord who is the Word
Himself speaking spiritually, affectually into the heart that
makes you believe. In spirit. If it was natural ears, if it
was mere facts, if it was evidences, there's a lot of evidences that
God created the world that don't make anybody believe. Evidences
won't make you believe anything. Evidences will make you not believe.
It takes the Spirit of God revealing Christ Himself in the heart to
give us faith to believe in Him. We need Christ formed in the
heart. We need the Word to be born of the Word. We need to
hear the Word in spirit. That's what gives life. That's
what gives faith. And one thing's needful, brethren.
Now, don't ever forget this. One thing's needful. It's not
all the facts. It's not all the doctrine that
saves us. Christ saves us. Somebody will say, that's too
simple. No, that's the simplicity of the gospel. Christ is salvation. Christ plus nothing, minus nothing.
That means he does it all and he is all. End of story. End of story. It's what John
11, 26, our Lord said, whosoever liveth, that's going to be by
him. and believeth, that's going to
be by Him. And what is it that we believe? In me. Whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? And he spoke that to her heart
and spirit. And she said, yes, Lord. I believe
that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come
into the world, their salvation. Philip said to the Ethiopian
eunuch when he asked could he be baptized, he said, if thou
believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered
and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's all he said. And Philip
baptized him. First John 4.15, whosoever shall
confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him,
and he in God. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. Those that are born of God, you
know, there's a lot of people that confess he's the Son of
God. What's the difference between
those who just do it verbally and those who really have the
heart and believe Him? What's the difference? The Spirit
of God's the difference. The difference is not me and
you. The difference is the Spirit of God. The difference is Christ
revealing Himself in the heart and those that have this anointing
They believe and they cannot stop believing on Christ. They will believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ all the way to the end. Nothing and no one else,
just Christ. Just Christ. And they'll be saved. Because
He's salvation. He's righteousness. He's wisdom.
He's holiness. He's redemption. He's our acceptance. He's our completion. He's everything
we need. He is. He is. Listen to 1 John 2.24. Let that
therefore abide in you which you heard from the beginning.
If that which you heard from the beginning shall remain in
you, you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father.
That's what I just said. If you have this new birth of
the Spirit of God by this anointing, You will continue to then. And
this is the promise that he has promised us, even eternal life. Christ said, I'm the resurrection
and the life. You'll never die. These things have I written unto
you concerning them that seduce you. Men are always trying to
seduce you that something else is needed. You gotta have something
else. The simplicity of Christ, the
singleness of Christ alone is not enough. Bring forth some
evidences. I got my evidence. He's seated
right there at God's right hand. That's all the evidence I need. But the anointing which you received
of him abideth in you. And you need not that any man
teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and
is truth, and is no lie, even as it hath taught you, you shall
abide in him. You're not gonna leave him. Now,
little children, abide in him that when he shall appear, we
may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. Now, listen to this. If you know
that Christ is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth
righteousness is born of him. You know in the original, you
know how that reads? If you know Christ is righteous,
then you know everyone that doeth the righteousness is born of
Him. What is that? It is the only
thing, the only thing that only a sinner can do. And he can only do it by this
anointing, by the Spirit of God. And John just said, and he shall
do it all the way to the end. What is it? He will believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, confess Him, and abide in Him all the
way to the end. He cannot not believe the Lord
Jesus Christ because Christ is the life in Him. Christ is the
righteousness in Him. He believes on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now go back to verse 11, John
20, verse 11. Mary stood without at the sepulcher
weeping, And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into
the sepulcher, and seeth two angels in white sitting, the
one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of
Jesus had lain. And they said to her, Woman,
why weepest thou? And she said to them, Because
they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have
laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back,
and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus
said to her, woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the
gardener, said to him, sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell
me where thou hast laid him, and I'll take him away. Now,
you've got to remember this. Last time she saw her Savior,
his visage was marred more than any other man, and he was hanging
on a cross, and she saw him die. She saw him die. Whether she
saw it or heard it, she knew Joseph and Nicodemus had buried
him in that sepulchre. And here's a man talking to her.
See, she's in the same place where John and Peter were. She
believes somebody took the body. What's going to be the cure?
What's going to be the cure? Now you can take that right there,
that simple little illustration of her not believing and believing
that they took the body, and you can apply that to whatever
problem you are having in your life, whatever it is, what's
going to be the cure for that? Jesus said to her, Mary, She turned herself and she said
to him, Rabboni, which is to say Master, she knew. She believed. That's what John's talking about.
She did the righteousness. And Jesus said to her, touch
me not, I'm not as yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren
and say to them, I ascend unto my father and your father, to
my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told
the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken
these things to her. You know, there's so many times
that we're weeping from the trial or the burden or our sins or
whatever it is. And just like He did the very
first time He gave you life and faith, Christ speaks to you personally. That's it. That's how you know. That's how you know. That's about as personal as it
gets. That is as personal as it gets. That rose the stone away. The
unbelief, the doubt, the sin, whatever it is. The dark hearts
filled with light. She came there thinking there
was going to be a stone between her and her Savior, and there
was. It wasn't a stone, she thought. It was this old, fleshly, dead,
stony heart of ours. He rolled it right away. How? Mary. That's it. That's it. He is the resurrection. He's life. He's life. Amen. Father, thank you for your Son. We ask our Lord Jesus now Speak to us personally. His name we ask it. Amen.