Alright brethren, let's turn
to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. My subject tonight is the death,
burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. I know this
weekend this will be the subject that most people are preaching
on. And maybe some of these men are
planning to preach on that, but I won't be stealing anybody's
subject because I certainly will not exhaust this subject tonight. It could be preached on much,
much more. And the gospel ought to be preached
every time we preach, and this is the gospel. This death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ is of utmost importance because
this is the gospel of our salvation. This is the gospel of our salvation. But I wonder how many this weekend
will preach as Paul preached. this subject, and as all God's
faithful ministers preach this subject. Look here at 1 Corinthians
15.1, Paul says, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel,
the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received
and wherein you stand. There's only one gospel, it's
the gospel. That definite article declares
there's one gospel. And you know, everywhere the
word gospel is used, when it's speaking of the truth, it has
the definite article with it, the gospel. The only exceptions
where the word is used, and it does not have a definite article,
are examples like this. I marvel that you're so soon
removed from him that called you unto the grace of Christ
unto another gospel. which is not another, but there
be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. The only place it doesn't have
the definite article is when it's talking about a false gospel.
And just as there's only one gospel, there's only one means
by which God chose to deliver it. He says there, moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto
you. God's chosen by the foolishness
of preaching to save His people from the first hour to the last
hour. And then the Spirit of God makes
all His people do something when they hear the Gospel. He says
there in verse 1, which also you have received, and wherein
you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory
what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. The
Spirit of God makes His people receive the Gospel, He makes
His people stand in the gospel. He makes His people be saved
by the gospel. And He makes His people persevere
in the gospel. And then the gospel is the salvation
of all who Christ redeemed. Not just some, all. He says there
in verse 3, For I delivered unto you first of all that which I
also received. You see, Christ's preacher is
saved by the same gospel as all Christ's people. Christ's preacher
is saved by the same gospel that He sent to preach. I'm preaching
to you what I received, Paul said, by the gospel by which
I was saved. Now here is the gospel. And here
is what I wonder if men are going to do this weekend, right here.
What Paul did and what all God's faithful ministers do. I preach
to you, He says, how that Christ died for our sins according to
the Scriptures, and that He was buried according to the Scriptures,
and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. I'm certain this Easter weekend
everybody will preach on the subject of Christ's death, burial,
and resurrection, but I wonder how many will preach according
to the Scriptures. According to the Scriptures. Everywhere we read about our
Lord's crucifixion, just like what Brother Scott just read,
everywhere we read about it, we find that this was done that
the Scripture might be fulfilled. as it is written. This was done
that the Scripture might be fulfilled. So for our divisions tonight,
I want to look first of all at Christ's death according to the
Scriptures, and Christ's burial according to the Scriptures,
and Christ's resurrection according to the Scriptures. First of all,
Christ's death. He says, he preached that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Now the first
thing there is the word Christ and so the first thing to consider
is who died? Who died? It says Christ died. That word Christ is His office. That's not His name, that's His
office. And that word means anointed.
Who died? God's anointed died. What does
that mean? This is what it means. God said
in Isaiah 42.1, Behold My servant, whom I uphold, Mine elect. This
is His anointed, His chosen servant. In whom My soul delighteth, I
have put My Spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till He has set judgment in the earth. and the Gentiles shall
wait for his word, for his gospel. And then in Genesis, the scripture
declares that this one who died is the God-man who conquered
the devil by allowing the devil to wound him. He said in Genesis
3.15, in the very beginning of the scriptures, he said to the
devil, I will put enmity between you and the woman. in between thy seed and her seed. And he said, it shall bruise
thy head. It means Christ is going to conquer
you, the old devil. He's going to bruise, crush your
head. He says, and you shall bruise
his heel. In Isaiah, Scripture declares he's the God-man and
declares a whole lot more than that. Turn over to Isaiah chapter
7. Isaiah 7. He died according to the Scriptures.
Now who is this that died? That's the first thing we need
to see. He's God's anointed. He's the Christ. And He's the
God-man. The seed of woman. That one born
of a virgin without the aid of a man. Formed in the womb of
a virgin by the Holy Spirit. The God-man. He says here in
Isaiah 7.14, Behold, a virgin shall conceive. A virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. And it means God with us. God with us. God was formed as
a baby in the womb of a virgin. This is God. Look at Isaiah 9
and verse 6. Who is this? Verse 6 says, unto
us a child is born. He's a man-child. He's a man
that's born. And unto us a son is given. He is God the Son, given by God
the Father. And the government shall be upon
His shoulder. That tells us He's responsible
for the government of heaven and earth, the government of
God's house, and the government of His kingdom. All the government
is on His shoulder. And His name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God. He's the Great Mystery of
Godliness. He's the Wonderful... He's Wonderful
Counselor. The Great Mystery of God. The
whole counsel of God. God in human flesh. The Mighty
God. The Everlasting Father. He's
the never-ending Father of all those who are born of Him. That
means He's the last Adam, the everlasting Father, the head
of His house. And it says He's the Prince of
Peace. Of the increase of His government
and peace there should be no end. Upon the throne of David. That means He's the true King
of the true Israel of which David was a type. That's what Peter
stood up and declared on the day of Pentecost. This is the
true King. This is the true King of the
true Israel. And He says, "...and upon His
kingdom..." He's sitting upon the throne of David, "...and
upon His kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this." He is the Lord of hosts in human
flesh. One of the amazing things, I
think, when I hear that Scripture that Brother Scott just read,
and I see the things they did to my Redeemer, one of the things
that's so amazing is that, you know, right just shortly before
that, when they came to arrest Him, and He announced His name
and said, I Am, speaking of Himself as the Great I Am, The Lord of
hosts, God Almighty, they all fell down backwards. And He could
have done that at any time when all that was going on, but He
opened not His mouth. He is God in human flesh. As
a man, He could shed His blood and He could die. And as God,
everything He accomplished is eternal. Everything is eternal. And as a man also, because he
was tempted, and he knows what that's like, now he can succor
his, comfort his people. Because he's been where we are,
he knows what we experience. Now what kind of death was it?
We see who it was that died. It's Christ, God's anointed,
the God-man. Well, what kind of death was
it? Well, He says there in our text, back in 1 Corinthians 15,
He says there in verse 3, Christ died for our sins, according
to the Scriptures. Christ died for our sins, according
to the Scriptures. That tells us Christ's death
was a vicarious death. Or you could call it a substitutionary
death. Or you could call it a penal
death. That means Christ Jesus, the
spotless Lamb of God, was made sin for someone in particular. And He died for them that they
might live. We've all sinned. So sin's got
to be dealt with. God's just. Sin's got to be dealt
with. His laws got to be upheld. And
so God the Father sent His only begotten Son to bear the sin
of this people God will save and to bear the punishment. This was a penal death to bear
the punishment of that people. So that in the process He upholds
God's law and He justifies His people. That's why He came. It was a vicarious death. Surely
He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was wounded
for our transgressions and He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed. That's a vicarious
death. That's a substitutionary death. That's a penal death. All we
like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. And the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Scripture declares this substitutionary
death in all the lambs that bled throughout all time. In the very
beginning when Adam and Eve sinned, God killed a lamb and he made
coats of skins to cover their nakedness. Right there in the
garden, he started preaching Christ to the first man and woman. He killed a lamb, blood was shed,
an innocent victim died so that coats of skins could be made
to cover his people. And then right after that, Abel
came with the blood of a lamb. He came confessing that he had
to die, but this lamb had died in his room instead, so that
now he could approach God. And then Scripture declares the
Passover lamb, that Passover lamb died for all the firstborn
in Israel. Judgment was poured out on that
Passover lamb instead of the firstborn son. So when God came
to judge, He passed by the Egyptians' houses. There was no blood. And
he killed all the firstborn sons. But he came to Israel's house
and he saw the blood on the doorpost. A lamb died here. A lamb died
right here. A lamb died in the place of this
firstborn son. Justice is honored. My law is
honored. And that firstborn son is justified. So he passed over. that house. Sinner, where do you want to
be found? Where do you want to be found? Do you want to be found
in the Egyptians' house with no blood? Or do you want to be
found in the Israelites' house with blood? I want to be found
under the blood. I pray God to make us see we're
sinners so that we see we need Christ. We need to be under His
blood or we can't be saved. We will surely bear condemnation,
we'll surely bear the wrath of God if we meet God and we're
not under the blood. God only passes over them that
are under the blood. And then you have that great
type which was the Lamb of the Atonement, on that Day of Atonement. That lamb was brought, an innocent,
spotless lamb, and the priest put his hands on the head of
that lamb and confessed the sins of Israel in ceremony, in tithe,
in pitcher. He laid the iniquity of the people
on the lamb in tithe and in pitcher. And so now that lamb is fit to
be slain under the justice of God, and so he's slain. and the
blood is carried into the holiest of holies and God receives it
and for another year atonement is made in type. So all these
lambs pictured this atonement we're talking about right here,
Christ died for our sins, this vicarious substitutionary penal
death, that's what's being pictured in all the bloodshed throughout
all the time, all time. And so whenever Christ came and
John saw Him, John pointed and said, Behold the Lamb of God
which taketh away the sin of the world. There He is right
here. This is the one, this is the Lamb that every one of those
lambs pictured right here. This is Him. This is Him. So not only was it a vicarious
death, it was a purposed death. the very fact that all it says
according to the Scriptures. And he's not talking about New
Testament Scriptures, he's talking about Old Testament Scriptures.
The New Testament hadn't been written yet. And the fact that
he says this death is according to the Scriptures and that Scripture
was written way beforehand, That tells us it was a purposed death. God was telling us what He had
purposed and what would surely come to pass according to His
purpose. Aren't you glad God does everything on purpose? There's
no accidents with God. He does everything on purpose,
especially the salvation of His people. That's all on purpose. And then it was a voluntary death.
Christ declared His willingness to lay down His life for His
people over in Psalm 40. In verse 6, He said, Sacrifice
an offering thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. When did He do that? In eternity. Before the world was made. When
God the Father entered into an everlasting covenant with God
the Son. He opened His ears and He told
Him His purpose, His counsel. His covenant, and they entered
covenant together. Thou hast opened my ears. Earned offering and sin offering
hast Thou not required. Then I said, Lo, I come, and
the volume of the book is written of me. I delight to do Thy will,
O my God. Yea, Thy law is within my heart. This was voluntary. In the book
of John he said, no man takes my life from me, I lay it down
on myself. I have power to lay it down,
I have power to take it up again. And he said, this commandment
have I received of my father. When did he receive that commandment?
When the Lord opened his ears. When he entered into that covenant
in eternity. That's when he gave him this
commandment. So it was a voluntary death. And here's my favorite description
of this death. It was a victorious death. It
was a victorious death. Christ did not make salvation
possible. He did not make salvation possible. That's what the Free will, the
worshipper of His will, that's what He's declaring. That's what
works religionists are declaring. Those that preach universal atonement
say Christ just made salvation possible. I read today, somebody
said He opened the door. No, no, no. He accomplished it. Go to Isaiah 53 and look at verse
10. This is according to the Scriptures
now. This is the Scriptures. We're not talking about man or
men's creeds. We're talking about what does
the Scriptures say. Isaiah 53.10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Pleased means it's satisfied. It's satisfied divine justice. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper
in his hand. That means he's a success. He
shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Go over to Daniel chapter 9.
This is even more clear. Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24. Daniel 9 24. Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression. That's talking about Christ's
crucifixion. Seventy weeks is talking about
when Christ would come and go to the cross and be crucified.
That's what it means. And here's what He did. He's
telling us now what He accomplished on the cross to finish the transgression. And He made an end of sins. And He made reconciliation to
God for the iniquity of His people. And He brought in everlasting
righteousness. And He sealed up the vision and
the prophecy. And He anointed the most holy.
He entered into the holiest of holies. with His own blood, having
obtained eternal redemption for us. And now He's anointing those
that He's sanctified and made holy by His blood. But this is
what He accomplished. This is what He finished, brethren.
You know, when you preach Christ according to the Scriptures,
when He sends forth His ministers and they preach Christ according
to the Scriptures, this is the only Christ that fully accomplished
redemption. If somebody ever asked you what's
the difference between what you preach and what other people
preach, this would be a great answer. The Christ I preach is
the Christ according to the Scriptures who accomplished the redemption
of His people at Calvary. Because every other Christ that's
preached is not according to the Scriptures. And the way you
know that is because every other Christ that's preached depends
upon the sinner to do something to make his blood to have accomplished
anything. That is not the way God does
anything. He's not going to put it in the
hand of a sinner to trust a sinner to do anything. You wouldn't
do that. I wouldn't do that. You think
about it. Would you give your son to do
some great work and some work that caused
him to suffer tremendously for criminals in prison, cons who
spend their life running cons on people, would you do something,
give your son to do something and do it saying, and I'm just
going to trust that one of those cons will receive it. Would you
do that? I wouldn't. I wouldn't do that. That's not how God did it either,
because we're just a bunch of cons by nature. And He didn't
send His Son to die just hoping that you and I would make His
blood effectual. No, no, no, no, no. He came and
accomplished it, brethren. Now this begs the question, for
whom did He die? It says there in our text, Christ
died for our sins. Well, who's the our? Paul's including
himself, and if we're going to see who he's writing to, we'll
know who the our is. Back there in 1 Corinthians 1
and verse 2, he says, unto the church of God, unto
the church of God. He qualifies it by saying, which
is at Corinth, but he's talking to the Church of God. He says
there, and all that call upon the name of Christ. He's talking
about the whole Church of God. This is to you and me who are
the Church of God today. Who's the Church of God? Who's
the Church of God? The Church of God is made up
only of God's elect chosen from among Jew and Gentile. That's
the Church of God. Those He chose to save. I said,
Noah was a Gentile. The nation of Israel didn't even
exist yet. Noah was a Gentile. And what does Scripture say about
Noah? It says, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. You'd be surprised how many people
preach that as being Noah did something to get God to give
him grace. Well, that wouldn't be grace.
But what this means is, God simply chose to be gracious to Noah
because He would. Noah didn't marry it, married
it, and he didn't deserve it. And when he came out of that
ark and got drunk, I bet it wasn't the first time, he didn't deserve, but God showed
him grace anyway, just because He would. Abraham was God's elect. Go to Genesis 12. He was God's
elect and he was an idolater, spiritually dead, living in a
land of idolatry with his whole family. And God, because God
had chosen him, God sent the gospel to him and God called
him out, made him leave. Look here, Genesis 12, verse
1. Wait a minute. I got to get there
myself. Hold on. Genesis 12... Exodus 12 won't
work. Genesis 12... 1. Now the Lord had said unto Abram,
Get thee out of thy country, from thy kindred, from thy father's
house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of
thee... I will, God said. I will make
of thee a great nation. And I will bless thee, and make
thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless
them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee. And in
thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. He means all
God's elect scattered among all the families in the earth are
going to be blessed in you, Abraham, because Christ was coming through
Abraham. Go with me now to Galatians 3.
Galatians 3. What was all that that just took
place that we read about? He tells us here in Galatians
3. Look at verse 6. It says, Abraham believed God. He believed that word that we
just heard God speak to Abraham. Abraham believed God. and it
was accounted to him for righteousness. Or it could be said this way,
Abraham believed God and righteousness was imputed to him for or because
Christ had made him righteous. That's why for or because Christ
had made him righteous. That's why it was imputed to
him. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, those that
are resting in Christ's blood, the same are the children of
Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen,
God's elect among the Gentiles, foreseeing that God would justify
the heathen, God would do it, and it would be Gentile elect. He says, that he would justify
the heathen through faith, he preached before the gospel unto
Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. That's
what God was doing there. He sent somebody to Abraham and
preached the gospel to him. And look here, So then they which
be of faith, resting in Christ, are blessed with faithful Abraham. What does that mean, blessed?
It means God the Father chose us. It means Christ the Son redeemed
us. It means the Spirit of God regenerated
us and gave us faith and is preserving us. Blessed, just like Abraham
was blessed. That's who he died for. He died
for his elect. So, it was concerning his death. I think we see his anointed Christ
We see that He's the God-man, and we see that His death was
a vicarious death, a substitutionary death. We see that it was a purpose
death, it was a victorious death, and it was a willing death, and
it was for Christ's people. That's who it was for. Now, let's
look at Christ's burial. It says 1 Corinthians 15.4, He
was buried. And you can add there according
to the Scriptures. He was buried according to the
Scriptures. Now, much could be said about Christ's lifeless
body being taken and put in a tomb. But I just want to show you one
thing. Why don't you go over Numbers 19. Numbers 19. This blessed my heart and I trust
it will bless yours. Numbers 19 and verse 1. This is the law of the red heifer. It was a law that pictured Christ
our Felton of sanctification, where we're purged and washed
and made clean. That's what it pictures. Now
look here, Numbers 19.1. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and unto Aaron, saying, This is the ordinance of the law which
the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel,
that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish,
and upon which never came a yoke. That's what we just saw. Christ
is a spotless Lamb who did what He did willingly. Though He was
made under the law, He didn't have to be yoked with the law. He did what He did willingly.
That's why there's no law to a believer, because his heart's
been made willing. He does what he does willingly.
You don't need a law. Remember the fruit of the Spirit,
against such there is no law. Christ did what he did willingly.
Look, and you shall give this bread heifer unto Eleazar the
priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one
shall slay her before his face. Christ suffered without the camp. Verse 4, And Eleazar the priest
shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her
blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times.
The number of perfection. Christ perfected forever them
that are sanctified. by his one offering. Now look
here. And one shall burn the heifer in his sight, her skin
and her flesh and her blood with her dung shall he burn. And the
priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet and cast
it into the midst of the burning of the heifer. Then the priest
shall wash his clothes and he shall bathe his flesh in water
and afterward he shall come into the camp. And the priest shall
be unclean until the evening. And he that burneth her shall
wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and
shall be unclean until the evening. That showing there, brethren,
this was just in ceremony and they were unclean. So that's
showing you something that's giving us indication that when
Christ bore our sin, He really bore our sin. He really bore
our sin. It didn't pollute Him because
He is the God-man. But he really bore it. You see
it in type here. Now look, I want you to pay close
attention to this, verse 9. And a man that is clean shall
gather up the ashes of the heifer and lay them up without the count
in a clean place. And it shall be kept for the
congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation. It is a purification for sin. And he that gathereth the ashes
of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until
the evening. And it shall be unto the children
of Israel and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, the
Gentile, for a statute for ever." Now verse 9 says, a man that's
clean shall gather what was left of this sacrifice after it had
been burned in the fire. After the sacrifice burned in
the fire, he was to gather up what was left of it, a man that
was clean. A man that was clean. He was
a man who was clean in the sense that he kept the ceremonial law.
You get what I'm saying? Because you know he wasn't clean
by his own marriage before God. He was clean according to the
ceremonial law. Not clean before God by his law
keeping, clean before the ceremonial law. Verse 9 says, and he was
to lay them up without the count in a clean place. A clean place
was anywhere that had not been touched by a dead body. If a
dead body touched it, it's unclean. As long as a dead body hadn't
touched this place, it's a clean place. Now turn with me to Luke
23. Luke 23. This is all according
to the Scriptures, remember. Luke 23. After Christ endured
the fire of God's wrath until it was put out toward His people,
after He commended His Spirit to the hands of His Father and
gave up the ghost, after the centurion pierced His heart and
blood and water poured out of His wounded side, assuring them
He was dead, then we read this. Luke 23 and verse 50. And behold, there was a man named
Joseph. He was a rich man, we read in
another place. You remember Isaiah prophesied
of Christ and said, He made His grave with the wicked and with
the rich in His death. This was a rich man, Joseph.
Verse 50, He was a counselor and He was a good man and a just
man. Mark says He was an honorable
man. He was a member of the Sanhedrin. I mean an honorable counselor.
He was a member of the Sanhedrin. But unlike those other high priests
and counselors in the Sanhedrin, this man was an honorable counselor. He was an honorable counselor.
The Holy Spirit says he was just, meaning he was righteous and
right and innocent and faultless in all his dealings with men.
He observed the ceremonies of the law. Like Paul, as touching
the law, he was blameless. So ceremonially, he was a clean
man. Joseph ceremonially was a clean
man. Look at verse 51. The same had
not consented to the counsel and deed of them. He was of Arimathea,
a city of the Jews, who also himself waited for the kingdom
of God. Up until this time, we're told
in another gospel that he was a disciple of Christ. He believed
on Christ. but he would not confess Christ
openly, publicly because of a fear of the Jews, because he was in
the Sanhedrin. But though he kept it a secret,
it says here that he still did not consent unto their counsel
and their deed to crucify Christ. He wasn't in agreement with that.
He wasn't going to crucify his Lord and his Savior that he believed
on. But the Holy Spirit then gave
him boldness By His grace, He gave him boldness to confess
Christ publicly. The Lord's not going to have
any secret disciples. Before long, He's going to make
it get out on you and you're going to confess Christ. And
this is what this man did. Look, verse 52. This man, this
clean man, went boldly unto Pilate and begged the body of Jesus
And he took it down and wrapped it in linen and laid it in a
sepulcher that was hewn in stone where a never man before was
laid. It was a clean place. So you
had a clean man who took Christ's body and laid it in a clean place. And just like He fulfilled that
law, brethren, just like Christ fulfilled that law, Christ fulfilled
every law. He fulfilled all the law and
all the prophets so that all who believe on Him can rest from
our works of trying to please God. He pleased God. He fulfilled all the law just
like He fulfilled that law. Now lastly, let's look at the
resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 4 says,
and I preach that he rose again the third day according to the
scriptures. He was seen of many witnesses
to verify that he had risen again, including the apostle Paul as
one born out of due time. But let me ask you this, why
is the resurrection so important? Why is the resurrection so important? Look down at verse 14. 1 Corinthians
15, 14. Here's why it's important. If
Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your
faith is also vain. So it's very important, is it
not? The resurrection of Christ is very important. What all is
hinging on this? Oh, and look down at verse 17.
If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in
your sins. See that? Now what all hinges
on Christ's resurrection? Well, first of all, His divinity,
His divinity and everything that He said about Himself finds its
surest proof in the fact that He arose from the dead. Romans
1 verse 4 says Christ was declared to be the Son of God with power
according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the
dead. When He came out of that grave, it bore witness to what
He said. He said, you destroy this temple
in three days, I'll raise it again. And He did. And everything
that He declared was proven to be true when He came out of that
grave alive. And then, secondly, Christ's
sovereignty, His sovereignty as the glorified God-man depends
upon His resurrection. His sovereignty, His headship. To this end, Christ both died
and rose and revived that He might be Lord both of the dead
and the living. That's why He died and rose and
revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living.
Remember what Paul said over there in Ephesians 2? He said,
I wish that you knew the power of His resurrection, the power
that He worked toward us when He raised Him from the dead.
He said He raised Him up to His own right hand and He raised
Him above all and He gave Him to be head over all things to
the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth
all in all. So Christ as Lord and head of His people, this
all is declared when He came out of that grave in resurrection. And then something else, our
justification hangs upon this resurrection. Romans 4.25 says
He was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our
justification. Understand what that means. Christ
didn't procure our justification or accomplish our justification
is a better word. He didn't accomplish it by resurrection. He accomplished it at the cross,
when He died, when He said it's finished, it was finished. but
when He arose out of the grave, He testified to us that it was
done, that He had brought in an everlasting righteousness,
that it's done. It's for our justification to
know, yes, it's done. I see now, it's done. He arose.
And it's for our justification in that because He's made Lord
and Head, He's the one given the glory as the God-man to apply
His blood through which you and I enter into this justification
and the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. He's the one
that gets the glory to do that. Send the gospel and apply the
blood through the Holy Spirit and bring you to faith in Christ
so He gets the glory for justifying us. Not only at the cross, but
in that He preached peace to you. And then, our regeneration
depends upon His resurrection. Listen to 1 Peter 1 verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a
living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
When Christ came out of that grave, there was no uncertainty
whatsoever that He would not give every one of His people
life. He came out of that grave. Guaranteed
He's going to make everyone He redeemed have life. Guaranteed. And so, since repentance is the
other side of that coin, repentance hangs on this thing of resurrection
and so does forgiveness. Acts 5.31, Him hath God exalted
with His right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance
to Israel and forgiveness of sin. God exalted Him to give
repentance and forgiveness of sin. Everything hangs on Christ,
doesn't it? His death, His burial, His resurrection,
and then we have our ultimate resurrection. Look down at verse
20. Now is Christ risen from the
dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. You know
what firstfruits? Them that slept. That's them
that have died. Death for a believer is just
sleep. Your body is just in a grave waiting to be raised. That's what, in fact, my grandfather
has one word written on his tombstone down in a cemetery in South Arkansas,
way out in the country. It says waiting. That's all that's
written on his tombstone, waiting. And one day that wait's going
to be over. Christ is the first fruits of
them that slept. They took the first fruit that
came up out of the ground and they went and they gave that
to the Lord. They offered that to the Lord,
showing their thanks and their gratitude and their appreciation
and everything to the Lord. Christ is the first fruit. He
came out of that grave and He went to the Lord and gave Himself
to the Lord. And God is well pleased with
Him, guaranteeing that everybody for whom He died shall be resurrected
with Him. Every one of us. There are no
ifs, ands, or maybes about it. Every one of us. Look down at
verse 21. 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. Everybody
they represented, everybody Adam represented died, everybody Christ
represented shall be made alive. But every man in his own order,
Christ the firstfruits, and afterward they that are Christ's at His
coming. Then cometh the end when He shall have delivered up the
kingdom to God, even the Father, when He shall have put down all
rule and all authority and power, for He must reign till He hath
put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death, For He hath put all things under His feet.
Go down to verse 51. 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.
Isn't that something? The last thing Christ is going
to do is fulfill the Scripture. As it's written, death is swallowed
up in victory. It'll be the last thing He does
for His people. Look at this, 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.
He fulfilled it. Thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the death, burial, and
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Scriptures. I pray God will bless that.