Well, it's good to see everybody
this morning. I'm glad to be back, too. Thank
you, Art. Let's turn to Matthew chapter
28. Before I forget, Brother Scott
will be reading the message next Sunday at 11. There will be one
service at 11. And you'll observe the Lord's
table afterwards and have lunch together. So everything is as
normal except for Brother Scott will be preaching and there will
be one service at 11. Alright, Matthew chapter 28.
Let's read One verse of Scripture, verse
6. I'm sorry, in verse 5, we'll
read verse 5 and 6. And the angel answered and said
unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus
which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen,
as he said. Come see the place where the
Lord lay." After the Lord Jesus Christ had suffered, bearing
the sin of His people in His body on the tree, at the time
when it was appropriate, at the time it was appointed, at the
time when all satisfaction was made, He gave up the ghost. He literally lay there a helpless
body. Just as it is with every sinner
who dies, every believer, his spirit went to be with the Lord
immediately. As he told that thief on the
cross that sat there with him today, shall you be with me in
paradise? And he went there immediately.
But his body lay there for three days. according to the Jewish
calendar. And on the third day, He arose. We saw this morning in that tomb
the body of our Lord. And we saw that we learned from
His body laying in a grave that He really died, that He really
did pay the wages of sin, which is death, that He really did
lay in that tomb and not another, that He really was sealed there
by the Roman guard who set a watch, who sealed that rock before Him,
who were there making sure nobody could take His body away. Now
we begin our text in Matthew 28, verse 1. In the end of the
Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week,
came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. They
weren't coming to a law. They weren't coming to a day.
They weren't coming to observe a day. They were coming to where
their Lord was. They were coming to where their
Master was. Nobody wasn't driving them with a whip. Nobody was
pulling them with bit and bridle. They came there because they
wanted to. because that's where their master's body had been
laid. They came there, verse 2 says,
and behold there was a great earthquake. For the angel of
the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the
stone from the door and sat upon it. And his countenance was like
lightning and his raiment white as snow. What we see first here
is our Lord's resurrection is announced in great glory. It's announced to men in great
glory. It says here that there was a
great earthquake. You know what happened when the
Lord was on the cross? The Scripture says when He laid
down His life, He gave up the ghost. The Scripture says the
veil of the temple, I'm reading in Matthew 27.51, The veil of
the temple was rent in two from top to bottom, and the earth
did quake and the rocks rent. And the graves were opened, and
many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the
graves after his resurrection, and went into the holiest city
and appeared unto many." What's going to happen when God is resurrected, when Jesus Christ
is resurrected? in your heart, in a sinner's
heart. That's what it's going to take.
It's going to take Christ doing in you what He did for you at
the cross. If He did for you at the cross,
He's going to do in you in the season of His love what He did
at the cross. And what He did there is He caused
an earthquake. He caused the whole system to
be shaken, to be turned upside down. And so it was, whenever
it was announced here, literally, physically, as these women that
were believers, they came to the sepulcher, it was announced
to them by a great earthquake. That was the first thing that
happened. And the stone was rolled back. The stone was rolled back. The stone of the grave that held
the body of the Lord Jesus Christ was rolled back. What's going
to happen to us is the stone, our stony heart, is going to
have to be broken. The stone's going to have to
be rolled away. And an earthquake is going to
have to appear so that everything we put any trust in whatsoever
becomes vain and hopeless to us. every decision we made, every
hour we walked, every good work we've done, every good word we've
spoken, everything about us that we see that makes us feel good
and confident, and everything we see about us that makes us
dejected and down and depressed and think we can't possibly be
his. The high is going to have to be brought low and the valley
is going to have to be brought up and the crooked is going to
have to be made straight and we are going to have to be brought
to behold the Lord Jesus Christ because He is the resurrection.
Christ continues the hope of glory. Here we see them. They
come there and the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and
He came. His countenance was like lightning.
His raiment was white as snow. He spoke through a through an
angel. And he came to them and he had
a message for them. And he said something to them.
He came to them and he told them, he's not here. He's not here. The Lord's going to send somebody.
He's going to send a messenger to his people to form Christ
in you and he's going to send a messenger to continually comfort
you And all is well, all is well. That's what the Lord does for
His people. With great glory He does His work, just as He
did right here when He announced that the Lord Jesus Christ is
resurrected. Now look at the glory of His
resurrection over His enemies. Verse 4, it says, And for fear
of Him the keepers did shake and became as dead men. This
was that strong, brave Roman guard that had come there, being
paid good wages, being promised a good reward. being given a
good hope of comfort and ease in this life by everything they
were doing. They came there and they were
guarding that sepulcher and they were going to make sure that
nobody came and nobody rolled back that stone and nobody took
the body of Jesus Christ. Because The religious host paid
them to go there. The religious host demanded of
Pilate, they go there. The religious host demanded,
demanded, Christ cannot reign. He cannot rise and reign. That's
what their protest was. That was their hope. He can't
reign. The Lord has conquered all His enemies. He's conquered
Satan, He's conquered death, and He's conquered hell. He's
brought in an everlasting righteousness for His people. And when He sends
His angel of light, when He sends forth His Word, when He comes
to conquer and to show Himself to those for whom He died, He's
going to come in such power that it doesn't matter who's paid
you, It don't matter who you're working for. It doesn't matter
what a life of ease you're living. It doesn't matter what kind of
artillery you have and what kind of weapons you have. He's going
to come and make you like a dead man. He's going to make you like
a dead man. Now, this was the angel of the
Lord that came and did this. The angel of the Lord came. What's
going to happen when the Lord Jesus Christ Himself comes? What's
going to happen when the Lord Jesus Christ Himself returns? He's going to return, you know.
What's going to happen when He returns? If these men at the
appearance of His angel were just frozen like dead men, what's
going to happen when Christ comes again? If I don't like the preaching
of His Word that gives Christ all the glory, How am I going
to like it when Christ comes in His glory? That's the question we ought
to ask and be honest about. If I don't, if the sound of the
glory of the triune God in the face of Christ Jesus is not life
to me, if it's not good to my taste, if it's not that which
I delight in, but I just despise it and I don't want to be around
that message. What do I think? How's it going to be when Christ
comes in His glory? Look at Revelation 6. Revelation
chapter 6. Verse 15. The kings of the earth
And the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains,
and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man hid
themselves in the dens and the rocks of the mountains. These
folks that wouldn't be seen near one another couldn't get close
enough to each other in caves and rocks in the mountains trying
to hide from God. That one who stood in the temple
and said, you stand over there, I'm holier than you are. He wasn't
saying that now. Now he was right there by that
one he deemed unholy and trying to hide himself from God Almighty
right there beside him. And they said to the mountains
and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that
sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the
great day of His wrath has come. Who shall be able to stand? Well,
here's the comfort of His resurrection. He's going to make us, when He
comes and He shows us that He's risen, and our Lord, He's risen
and He is alive, but something greater and more glorious than
that, He is the life and He is the resurrection. If He enters
in, He's going to give us some comfort, just like He did here.
Verse 5, The angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not
ye, For I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified." He is not
here. They were at a grave. They were
at a tomb. That grave couldn't hold Him.
That tomb couldn't hold Him. For He's risen, and He said,
come, see the place where the Lord lay. Now, in the first hour,
we looked at Christ's body laid there in that tomb. Now we're
looking at that tomb, and it's empty. There's no body laying
there now. There's no body laying there
now. He said, come, look where he lay. And he says, now go quickly
and tell his disciples that he's risen from the dead. These are
believers that come there, and the angel of the Lord is comforting
their hearts, he's comforting them, and he's sending them now
to his people. And he said, now you go tell
them. Go tell them. Behold, He goeth before you into
Galilee. There shall you see him, lo,
I have told you. And they departed quickly from
the sepulcher with fear and great joy, reverence and great joy.
and did run to bring His disciples word. And as they went to tell
His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail! And they came and held Him by
the feet and worshipped Him." He's not here. He's not in the
grave. He's not in a sepulcher anymore.
He's not on a cross anymore. Come see the place where He lay.
Christ is risen. He was delivered for our offenses.
He went to the cross for the offenses of His people. He bore
the wrath of God for the offenses of His people. The chastisement
of the peace of His people was upon Him. The iniquity of His
people was upon Him. The sins of His people was upon
Him. He was delivered for our offenses. And He was raised again
for our justification. raised again for our justification,
raised again to declare to you, believer, that it indeed is finished. God is satisfied. We looked at
the first hour at some of those verses of Scripture. I want you
to turn back now with me to Romans chapter 6 and look at verse 10. When we
beheld him laying there, lifeless, the spirit gone out of the body,
we beheld the believer seize his death. In that he died, he
died unto sin once. Verse 11, Likewise reckon ye
also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. But, now we're looking
at him risen. but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof.
Look at Romans 7 verse 4. We saw then that the law was
satisfied by Him, that the believers would come dead to the law. Watch
verse 4. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should
be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in
the flesh, the motions of sins which were
by the law... Which motions of sins which were
by the law? The ones that said you were a
sinner? and the ones whereby you thought you had amended yourself
and now you were righteous. Both of them. When the law comes
and it truly speaks, you're gonna see that the law says, you can't
come to God in me. You can't come in the law. Because
you're a sinner and your righteousness is don't measure up to the law.
Can't come that way. Motions which were by the law
did work at our members to bring forth fruit. They brought forth
some fruit, didn't they? But it was dead fruit. It was
dead. Why? It was of us. It was of
us. But now we are delivered from
the law that being dead wherein we were held, that we should
serve in newness of spirit. Not in the oldness of the latter.
What's newness of spirit look like? It looks like two ladies
coming to a sepulcher where they knew the body of their Lord was
because they wanted to come there and serve Him. They wanted to
come there and do what they could for that body. They wanted to
just be there where they had last seen His bodily presence. What did being under the Spirit
of the Law cause them to do, rather than the letter of the
Law? As soon as they heard Christ say, the angel of the Lord say,
He's risen, go, they took off. What did it cause them to do?
It caused them to go to tell the good news to their brethren.
He's risen! He's risen! He's risen! It caused them, when they beheld
Him in the way, to lay at His feet and just hold on to Him
with everything they had. Look at Ephesians 2, over Ephesians
2 verse 4. But God, who was rich in mercy
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by His
grace, all by His grace, and hath raised us up together and
made us sit together, where? In heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. that in the ages to come He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. I want to show you one more scripture,
Galatians 2.20. Galatians 2.20. You know the
Judaizers that came into Galatia, they weren't coming in talking
about a righteousness of the works without faith in Christ. They were coming in talking about
a righteousness that was obtained by a required obedience to the
law. Now look at what Paul said. Verse 20, I am crucified with
Christ. That's where we saw Him in the
grave. Nevertheless, I live. How did Paul live? Yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. In the life
which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son
of God. By faith in the Son of God, I
live that way. But I live by the faith of the
Son of God. If He hadn't come to where I was, If He hadn't
come to where I was in His faithfulness as the Prince and Captain of
my warfare and called me out of the power of darkness and
revealed to me that He had borne the power of darkness to redeem
my soul and clear me from all iniquity, there is no way I would
have come to Him and trusted Him. Why? Because man by nature,
as religious as he can be, is a black maggot. That's why. Helpless, without a will to come
to God. Well, I can get up in the morning
and brush my teeth. I can pick out my clothes. I
can go sit down at whatever restaurant I want to. I can get in whatever
vehicle I want to. I can go to the workplace I want
to. I can work as hard or as little
as I want to. I can come home when I want to.
Can you now? Can you now? Let's say today
God says, stop that food from nourishing your body. What you
gonna do? Oh mighty man, let's say today God ends that job.
Bam! What you gonna do, oh mighty
man? Let's say today God crosses your path head on with a oak
tree while you're in that car. What you gonna do then, mighty
man? We need God's mercy. We need
God's grace. We need God to shine His light
upon us. You see, the God of the Jews
and the God of the Gentiles are not two separate gods. The true and living God I'm talking
about, they're the same God. The difference is in me and you.
The difference is in man. The difference is in one man
saying, I'm different because of something in me. The difference
is the color of my skin, or the difference is the bigger of the
house I live in, or the neighborhood I live in, or the car I drive,
or the place where I work, or whatever endless amount of junk,
dung that man wants to say makes him different from another man.
You have nothing in you and I have nothing in me that makes us to
differ. We will all, except for God's grace, find ourselves together
in the caves, begging the rocks to fall on us from the glory
of God, if not for His grace. But this is where the comfort
comes in. I don't frustrate the grace of
God, for if righteousness come by anything I do, or anything you do. Christ died
in vain. If anything comes by anything
we did, Christ sent his only begotten son in vain. I don't even know what I can give
to enter into this. Maybe this, I just thought, if
you're, I don't know, if you're a child If your child gave a kidney to
another child, and something went wrong and your child died
because they were giving up one of their kidneys for somebody
else, and the person they was giving it to said, I don't believe
I want it. You'd be so happy, wouldn't you?
You'd say, well, it's their free will. They can take it or reject
it. What God has done from the beginning,
God has purposed and ordered in all things insure. He's seen
to it that His people shall be redeemed from this hellish thing
called sin, this hellish thing called what me and you are by
nature. So hellish that we'll take the
things He's given us to teach us that salvation is by Him,
and we'll say, we want those things, but we don't want you,
God. We'll say we want something that makes us to appear as somebody
different from another, and we want to use the things of God
to make that distinction, but we'll say, but we don't want
you, God. But God won't take no for an
answer. Just like He raised, just like these men that tried
to stop Him from rising, they couldn't stop Him. They tried
everything they could to stop Him from raising from the dead.
They couldn't stop our Lord. These men went back and they
said, they reported what happened to them. We were like dead men.
This angel of the Lord appeared and he was white raiment, shining
light. And he rolled back the stone
and Christ wasn't in the tomb. And these Jews that sent him
there, it could as well just have been the Gentiles. If the
Gentiles had been in charge, they'd have done the same thing.
Exact same thing. And they said, here, take some
money now and go spread the news that somebody came and stole
his body. His disciples came and stole
his body. But did they ever stop the Word of the Lord from taking
effect and from Him calling out His people? Did it have one effect
whatsoever? Nothing. Nothing. Oh, if we be dead with Christ,
we're going to live with Christ. And there's nothing that's going
to stop it. Christ is not going to stop it. Now you behold yourself
dead in that tomb, dead unto sin, dead unto the law, and behold
when Christ rose, alive unto God, alive unto righteousness. I better start fulfilling the
law better? Don't think you better start fulfilling it. Know that
in Christ it's fulfilled. and know that in Christ you're
justified. If you believe Him, if you truly
trust Him, and if you want to do something for Him, do it because
you love Him. Do it because you're thankful
for what He's done for you. Don't do it because I better
or I ought to or I need to or if I don't do this now I'm going
to get in trouble. Don't do it because of that reason. If you're
going to do it for that reason, stop. Don't do anything. Stop
right in your tracks and look at Christ and see. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Who's am I? Who am I? Who bought me? Who
chose me? Who sanctified me? Who redeemed
me? Who's my wisdom? Lay hold of
His feet and hold on to Him. And then when your heart's just
overflowing, If you want to do something, do it because you
want to. Because you love Him, because you see what He's done
for you. But don't do it because of any other constraint. Oh, now here's the good news.
He said, verse 10, Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid,
go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall
they see Me. Faithfulness is of great value,
isn't it? These women, they were the last to leave his tomb and
they were the first back there. And you know who the first one
he spoke to? Them. And he said, now you go
tell the rest of them. You go tell the rest of them.
Well, you just told me that what I do doesn't matter. I didn't
tell you that. I didn't tell you what you do don't matter.
What you do will greatly affect you. Greatly affect you. What I told you is God's going
to save you by His grace, not going to save you by something
that you did. Now you want to see that? Who
did He tell them to go to? He told them to go to those who
had yielded to fear of man and turned and left Calvary as if they'd never even heard
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who were so full of doubt
That they walked along with one another saying, well, we thought
this was gonna be Him. This wasn't Him. This wasn't
Christ. Even the apostle Peter, who out
and out with his lips said to a woman, I don't know the man. He actually said, he named him
by name in another text. He said, and go tell Peter. Go
tell Peter. And what did he name him here?
He said, go tell my brethren. Why did he call them my brethren?
Because he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are
all one. He's come in one flesh. He made
Himself one, having all their sin and rebellion and corruption
they are upon Himself. One in their perfect justification
of them. One in their eternal redemption.
He made them one in His grave. When He died, they died. He's
made them one in His resurrection with Him. Because He's risen,
they're risen. And He, because of what He's
done for them, is not ashamed to Call them my brethren. So what's the point of that?
Well, the next time you get scared of a man, you get scared of a
little worm because he says something and you're too scared to say
anything about the Lord and you tuck tail and run. When you're in sin over your
head and in rebellion over your head, It's not what I do that is my
assurance. And it's not what His believing
people do that is our assurance. It is what Christ has done. It's what He has done. And that is the only word. He is risen. He is Lord. He is Christ. He is salvation. That is the only message. He's going to say, go tell my
brethren I'm risen. And that's the only message that's
going to make a doubting Thomas believe. That's the only message
that's going to make a denying Peter fall down and say, Lord,
thou knowest. That's the only message that's
going to make one as rebellious as Mary Magdalene who was possessed
with seven devils. If the number seven means perfection,
I guess that means she was the perfection of possession of evil.
And it didn't stop God from saving her. And this one that had been
forgiven much was the last to leave and the first one there.
And when he said, go tell her, she went on. This is the message. The risen Savior, the reigning
Lord, this is the message. The Savior who forgives His people. The Savior who has put away their
sin. The Savior who affectionately makes them to know in their heart
what He has done for them. This is what is going to make
a person turn from that lewd sin and that self-righteousness
and let it all go and latch on to Christ. You say, well it ain't
going to make me do it. I wasn't talking to you. Wasn't
talking to you. You will latch on to a rock. You will. It'll be the one in
that cave in the rocks begging them to just fall on you when
he comes back. All right, let's end this thing. What is the message? It's this. It is finished. is finished. How do you know Christ is risen? Christ is risen. A man doesn't
believe Christ is risen. There's only one reason. Christ
hasn't risen in his heart yet. When he does, you'll know. He'll
turn everything upside down. You'll see the angel of the Lord. You'll see the true angel of
the Lord, Christ Jesus. And you'll hear Him say, He's
risen, all is well with your soul. What does it mean that
He's risen? He gonna save every one of His
elect. He said, He's given me power
in heaven and in earth. Thou has given me power over
all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou
has given Him. Well, I want to say something
else too. When you see him go into this grave and come out
of this grave, me and you are going to die. We're going to
die. But it won't give you any comfort
at all to know somebody else died and rose from the dead before
you. Lazarus did. All those saints
after our Lord's resurrection did. That won't give you any
comfort. It doesn't give me any comfort
to know Lazarus raised. Apart from knowing Christ went
into that grave and Christ rose, that gives me comfort. Because
I went into it with him and rose with him. But when we come to
that grave, because he says, I'm the resurrection and the
life, because he says, because I live, you live. Brethren, he's
gone before us. And we'll go there, but we'll
go there assured by him, comforted by him, resting in him. I'm as confident of that as I
am that he's comforted you in your affliction right now. I'm
as confident of that as I am that he comforted us in whatever
affliction it was we went through last week, or the year before
that, or the year before that. When it comes time for us to
pass through that Jordan, he'll be the comfort. He'll be the
comfort. Well, what happens for those
who just die without Him? You're going to be raised too.
Everybody's going to be raised. There's going to be a whole resurrection.
We're all going to stand before Him. We're going to stand before
God. Stand before God. We're going
to all die. We're going to all be risen. We're going to all stand before
God. Those that have done good unto the resurrection of life
and those that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. There was an old preacher, I
know some of you have heard this, but there was an old preacher
and he said, he said, I think he said, this is what he envisioned. He envisioned him dying and his
name being called in glory. And his name being called again.
And his name being called again. And just when he was afraid he
was fixing to step forward and say his name, somebody else said,
here I am. And it's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those who've passed from this life by faith in Christ the Lord
will stand absolutely, thoroughly, complete, and without sin in
the exact, perfect righteousness God demands. And those who pass
through this life trusting in the very best deeds they've ever
done, maybe so good people couldn't stand to ever even be around
them, they were so good. The Lord will say, here's the
righteous man. Here he is, my own son, Christ
Jesus, the Son of God. And he'll turn to you and say,
dismissed. And you'll suffer for all eternity
for not trusting him. Not trusting him. But those that
have laid hold of him. Come here. 1 Thessalonians. Let's
look at this. 1 Thessalonians 4. I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep. that ye 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
will God 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 them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, You're
not sending an angel with the voice of the archangel. It's
Him that's going to descend. It's Him that's going to shout.
And with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise
first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
So shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one
another with these words. Who did He say words these are? He said they're the words of
God. They're the words of God. Hold on. There's some sitting here right
now. You think about this. As surely as those ladies grabbed
onto his feet and held on to him, as surely as Thomas touched
him, reached in his fingers and touched him, there's some of
you here, he's that real to you. The Lord said, blessed are those,
Thomas, that haven't seen and believed. He's real. He's real. He's all our salvation. And we have loved ones that have
gone before us that are with him now. And when we die and his body's
returned to the grave, our spirit will go with him immediately.
Be with him. And then our bodies will go be
with him. Isn't that a wonderful,
amazing, glorious message of good news to know? The work is
done. The work is finished. Well, why
are you still here? Why did he send those ladies
from that tomb? He said, go tell them this. Go
tell my brethren this. Why are you still here? He said,
go tell my brethren here. Well, who are they? I know some
of them. I think I do. Well, just go tell. Just go declare
it. He'll make it known who His brethren
are. And He said, and He's gone before you. And as they went
in the way, there He was. Isn't that a glorious goodness?
Do you think Christ is, do you think Christ is with us? I mean,
do you think Christ goes in and out of His people, that He's
among His people. I do. Why don't we see Him physically
like they did then? Because they already saw Him.
He already gave His Word. They 500 at once saw Him. He
already used the early church to declare Him. And so there's
no point in Him coming visibly to be seen. We see Him, don't
we, by faith? But we're going to see Him with
the eye. Not another. He's right here. Do you believe it? That's not some fable. That's
not some fantasy. You know, I was thinking of this
today. All of the work that the Lord went to, overruled everything
there to show us over and over and over that Christ really was
dead. And to show us over and over and over that no man raised
Him. Nobody took his body. He was raised. You know, I was thinking about,
I thought of, this is what magicians try to do. They try to make sure
you know all the locks are locked, and they try to make sure you
know all the cabinets are sealed, and they try to make sure you
know there's no way that anybody can free themselves from this.
And they always got some way, some other trick up their sleeve. But when a magician shows you
how he does it, you go, OK, I see how he did that. I believe it.
But when God tells a man how he's done it, he raised him from
the dead because he's righteous. There's no sin in him. Man says,
I can't believe that. Can't believe that. I pray he'd
make us believe him. He's risen. He is the life, he's
the resurrection, the way, the truth, and the love. Christ Jesus,
amen.