If you would turn with me to
Acts chapter two, in Acts chapter two, we find a very instructive
passage of scripture concerning the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus and our resurrection in Him. Acts chapter two, give you
a moment to get there. And what I'm about to say is
very, very important. If our Lord Jesus Christ had
not risen from the dead, there would be absolutely no hope of
redemption for any of us. Now, let me repeat that. If the Lord Jesus had not risen
from the dead, there would be no hope of salvation or redemption
for any sinner. Why? Because his resurrection
is the proof that God accepted his work of righteousness done
for us and accepted us in him. Very, very crucial, very important
teaching. So let's get right into God's
word this morning. And I pray that the Lord might
make his word effectual to our heart. Peter had just said in
verse 21, and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, what does it mean
to call on the name of the Lord? Well, simply put, it means to
believe that Jesus Christ is the only one who can put your
sin away. That's not hard, is it? It's
to call upon Him to put your sin away. That's what it is to
call upon the name of the Lord. And I was thinking yesterday
as I was preparing two of the most effectual prayers ever prayed
in the scriptures were, Lord help me and Lord save me. Lord help me and Lord save me. I'm a sinner full of sin. I'm
in trouble. I'm afflicted. I need your help. I need for you to save me. And
I've had you to look closely and closely notice who it is
that's told here to call upon the name of Christ our Lord.
Peter did not say here that if the elect shall call upon him,
Peter did not say that if the chosen shall call on the name
of the Lord, Peter said, whosoever shall, whosoever shall. Now, knowing the doctrine of
election is not what saves sinners. Election is something that God
reveals to whosoevers after he gives them life. Election is
not salvation. It's unto salvation. Knowing
Christ is salvation. God reveals to us that the whosoevers
are the whosoevers that God chooses and elects. They are the whosoevers
that trust God to have compassion and mercy and grace upon them. And it's true that God only saves
his elect, that he only calls his sheep. But it's equally true
that whosoever shall call upon the name of Christ our Lord,
trusting in Christ's perfect righteousness to save them are
the elect and the sheep of God. Now, men act as though election
keeps men and women out of the kingdom of God. In all reality,
election is what assures sinners that they'll enter into God's
kingdom. Why else would Paul write, for whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate? to be conformed to the image
of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
But he didn't stop there. He said, moreover, whom he did
predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also
justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. And it's here that we see that
salvation begins and ends with God. He's alpha and omega. He's the beginning and the end.
He's the first and the last. And those that God foreknew,
God will glorify. In between the beginning and
the end of salvation is God's predestination and God's effectual
calling and the believer's justification. But God is involved in every
part of it. Salvation is of the Lord, and
men and women claim that to be so, but really few believe it
to be so. Why? Because they always seem
to want to add something of their own to the equation. Someone
asked me years ago how I reconciled believing the election of God
with the whosoever wills of the scripture. The two need no reconciliation. The whosoevers are whosoever
God wills to save. The whosoever's had nothing to
do with their salvation, even their believing, even their faith
was according to the will and the purpose of God and His choosing
of them. Someone once said that when a
sinner is led by grace through the door or threshold of salvation
above the door says, whosoever will. And if you walk through
the door and look on the other side above the door, it says
the elect of God. I suppose that's true. I suppose
that's true. They're one in the same. Now,
if you believe and you trust in Christ, according to the scriptures,
you are the elect of God, but no one is saved apart from believing
the truth of the scriptures. Now, what do I mean by that?
Well, it's very simple. You've heard this for years.
Many of you have. First, you must believe what
God in the scripture says concerning himself. God is sovereign in
the salvation of His people. That simply means that He has
mercy on whom He'll have mercy, and He has compassion on whom
He'll have compassion. God chooses to give grace, and
those that He chooses to give grace receives grace, and they
believe, whosoever they are. In other words, the salvation
of the righteous is of the Lord. Salvation is for those whosoever
the Lord makes righteous in Christ. It's the Lord who initiates the
salvation of a sinner. I don't know why men and women
have problems with that. It's God's doom. It's God's right
to receive all the glory for the salvation of chosen sinners. Do we dare rob God of his glory? The sinner would never come to
Christ to be saved if left solely up to them. If God hadn't divinely
intervened in my life, I would have never chosen him. I would
have never come to him for life. No, wouldn't have. Our Lord said
that very thing. He said, no man, no woman can
come to me. And that's where we have to come
to be saved. We've got to come to him. And
he said, no man, no woman can come to me that he might have
life. No man has the ability to come
to Christ except the father which had sent me draw him. And I'll
raise him up at the last day. None of us would have ever come
to Christ if he had not drawn us by the cords of his love and
his mercy and his grace. That's pretty straightforward,
isn't it? That simply means that God has to draw you in love and
mercy, grace and power, or you'll never come. Do you believe that? It's the truth. It's the truth.
Well, now preacher, God has given us all a free will, has he? Has he? The Lord Jesus said in
John chapter five, verse 40, he said, search the scriptures
or verse 39, search the scriptures for in them, you think you have
eternal life. They are they which testify of
me. And then he said, and you will not, you will not come to
me that you might have life. You see, we'll only come to Christ
if God makes us willing in the day of his power. And every child
of God will say, God made me willing. Thank God. Glory to
his name. He made me willing to come. I
couldn't come. I didn't have the ability to
come. I didn't have the will to come, but God made me willing
to come. Paul. concerning the preaching
of the gospel. He said, who then is Paul and
who's Apollos? But ministers by whom you believed,
even as the Lord gave to every man. And that's talking about
every whosoever that believes, that being every elect child
of God, one and the same. And he said, I planted and Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase. Again, that's so simple. It's
so elementary. It's not that men don't understand
it. It's that men hate it. Men hate the fact that salvation's
of the Lord. We want to have something to
do with it. We want to play our part. We want the glory in it
ourselves. It's God that giveth the increase.
Paul said, neither is he that planteth anything. "'Neither
is he that watereth, "'but God giveth the increase.'" Friends,
he's everything, everything. Only God can give the increase
and the means he uses to do so is the planting and the watering
of his servants. It pleased the Lord, but what
the world calls foolishness, the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. That's God's means of saving
the lost. What we're doing right now, preaching
the truth of Christ and Him crucified. Oh, may God divinely intervene,
divinely interrupt in your life today, those of you who are yet
without Christ and show you that without Him, there's no hope
of redemption. You know, my father-in-law was
a farmer and every year he would plant a crop and he would fertilize
and he would spray, but only God could give the sunshine.
Only God could send the rain. Only God can give the increase. How much more so is that true
concerning us growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord?
Our Lord Jesus said, I'm the true vine and my father is the
husbandman. It's God, the great husbandman
that enables us to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus. He gives the increase. You can't
increase yourself. You can't do it. No need to even
try. Save your time and your energy
and trust in Christ alone. You can't increase anything.
The Lord said, you're clean through the word that I have spoken unto
you. Abide in me and I in you, as
the branch cannot, has not the ability to bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine. No more can ye except you abide
in me. I'm the vine, you're the branches.
He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. For without me, you can do what? Nothing. Nothing. Hold your place here in Acts
chapter 2 and turn with me to Revelation chapter 22. I want
you to see a couple of verses here. We'll come right back to
Acts 2. Revelation chapter 22. I want
you to look at verse 17 with me. Revelation chapter 22, verse
17. "'And the Spirit and the bride
say, come, "'and let him that heareth say, come.'" Now, let
me ask you, hereth what? What the Spirit and the bride
say. The words of the gospel. Let them hear with the spiritual
ears that God has given them. Now, who else is to come? He
or she that is, what? A thirst. Let the thirsty ones
come. Are you thirsty? Then come. Do they have to be the elect
to come? No, they got to be thirsty. Whosoever is thirsty for the
mercy and the grace and the forgiveness and the righteousness found only
in the Lord Jesus Christ. God says, come. Those who thirst
after communion with him, come. Who else is to come? He says,
whosoever will. So will you come? Have you heard
the gospel? Do you thirst for its saving
power? Whosoever hears, whosoever thirst,
whosoever desires that Christ be their substitute, their sacrifice
and their savior, God says, come. And if you want to come, he'll
give you the power to come. He's never turned down a soul
that truly wanted to come to him and be saved. It doesn't
say that the elect are to come. It doesn't say that the elect
shall hear. It doesn't say that the elect
shall thirst. It says, whosoever will come
and is thirsty, let him or her take of the water of life freely. And they that come are the elect
of God. Do you believe what God says
about himself in the scriptures? Secondly, do you believe what
God in the scripture says about you? This is a hard one here.
This takes the mercy and the grace of God. We're dead in trespasses
and sin. We're sold under sin, Paul said.
In bondage to sin, we're slaves to sin. There's none that doeth
good. No, not one. Well, my grandma was a good woman.
Not according to God. There's none righteous. No, not
one. By nature, we hate Christ without
a cause. Our hearts are deceitful above
all things, desperately wicked. We can't even know. Only God
knows our hearts. Don't trust your heart. Don't
you do it. They're desperately wicked, fixed
on evil and on evil continually, Genesis 6, 5. Thirdly, do we
believe what the scriptures say concerning Christ? Do you believe
that no man, no woman, no sinner comes to God but by Him? That's
what He said. The sinner that has the Son has
life. There's no life apart from having
Jesus Christ. We didn't choose God, He chose
us. The Lord said that just as plain as anyone could say it.
He said, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, ordained
you that you should go forth and bring forth fruit. Now, if
you've got any fruit in your life this morning, it's because
the Lord ordained it and the Lord caused it. And it's all
in Christ, all in Him. We only receive what God is pleased
to give. The fruit we have is the fruit
that God ordained us to have. Fourthly, do we believe what
the scriptures say about how this holy God and unholy sinners
can be reconciled back together in holy communion? Do we believe
that? Back in Acts chapter two, verse
22, we see how redemption was accomplished. We see who it was
that accomplished it for us. Look at verse 22. Peter said,
you men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs,
which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also
know. Now there's only one way God
will accept a sinner, and that's in Christ. That's in his beloved
son. He was a man approved of God. The only way we can be approved
of God is to be found in Him. God had to become a man. God
had to become what we are yet without sin. He became bone of
our bone and flesh of our flesh yet without sin. Only a perfect
man could keep God's law and satisfy God's justice. God requires
perfection. We can't provide what God requires.
It's got to be perfect to be accepted. We can't be perfect.
Have you tried to be perfect? You can't do it. You can't do
it. Jesus Christ was that perfect man. Verse 23, Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have
taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God
hath raised up. That's what we're talking about.
We're talking about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, whom God hath
raised up. Who raised him up? God raised
him up, having loosed the pains of death because, now look at
this, it was not possible that he should be holding of it. Holding
of what? death and the grave. And again,
we see that it was God who initiated the salvation of sinners. Jesus
Christ was taken by the wicked hands of men and he was crucified
and killed. But behind it all was the determined
counsel and foreknowledge of God. God, before the foundation
of the world, purposed it to be so. Men in time would take
the Lord Jesus and without a cause, hang him on a cursed tree. God
didn't just simply allow it. God purposed it. God determined
it to be so. Verse 24 says, it was not possible
that the Lord Jesus be holding of death or its pain. It was
God who raised Christ from the grave. It was God that loosed
the pains of death. And as I said in the beginning,
the glorious resurrection of our Lord proves that his offering
to God on the believer's behalf was accepted. If it hadn't been
accepted, Christ would have never risen. His resurrection proves
that God accepted his offering and his sacrifice for sin. That's
what Abraham told Isaac. God will provide himself a lamb
for burnt off. God will provide an offering
for himself. God is the one that we've sinned
against. God is the one that must be appeased.
God must first provide something for himself before he can ever
provide a lamb for us. God will provide himself as the
offer. And that's the gospel. Dear sinners,
the first thing we need to see is that it was not possible that
death in the grave could hold our sovereign Lord. Not possible. Why? Well, he had the power to
lay it down and he had the power to take it up again. A body in
which dwelt the fullness of the Godhead could not be held by
the bonds of death. Christ only slept in that borrowed
tomb. It was a borrowed tomb. His death
was a marvelous condescension. It was by his own free will that
he laid in the tomb. You see, he has a free will.
Our will is bound by the bondage of our nature, but he knew no
sin. He truly had a free will, but
Christ knew no sin. He was made sin. He had a will
that was free from the bondage of sin. Now, listen to me on
this. It was not possible while there was a just God in heaven
on the throne for Christ to stay in the grave. You know why? God's
holy justice wouldn't allow it. Holy justice says the guilty
must be punished, but the holy justice of God also says the
innocent must go free. Christ's work for his people
was perfectly accomplished and his holy justice demanded that
he should be let go. Secondly, it wasn't possible
that Christ should remain in the tomb because the father had
promised that he wouldn't. God is not a man that he should
lie or a son of man that he should repent. What God says is always
what comes to pass. God promised that he would not
leave Christ's soul in hell, neither would he suffer or allow
his Holy One to see corruption. That promise got to be kept because
it was God that purposed it. It was God that promised it.
It's not possible that Christ should remain in the grave beyond
the appointed period of time. Thirdly, it was not possible
that Christ be holding of death in the grave because Jesus Christ
was a priest, not after the order of the Arianic priest, for they
all died and there was an end to their priesthood. But our
Lord Jesus, if him it was said, thou art a priest forever, after
the order of Melchizedek, a priest forever. A man cannot be a priest
when he's dead, but Christ is of the Melchizedek priesthood,
which is made not after the law or carnal commandment, but after
the power of an endless life, Hebrews 7, 16. In order that
Christ might have that endless life, it was necessary that he
should rise from the dead. His eternal priesthood required
it. and also death in the grave had
no hold on our Lord because he was king as well as priest. Our
Lord, it is said, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever."
What a king he is. King of kings, the Lord of lords. Christ must reign. It's also
written that he must reign till he has put all his enemies under
his feet. Can a dead king reign? Absolutely
not. Therefore, Christ must rise from
the tomb. He must have death under his
feet. Death, one of his enemies. If the Lord Jesus had not risen
from the dead, he would have been under the feet of death
and that can never be. So we see that both his priestly
and his kingly offices required that he should rise from the
dead. So it is with his office as redeemer. Job said, for I
know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the
latter day upon the earth. He's alive and well, friends.
We serve a living Savior. Can you imagine what the consequences
would be to us if that same assurance had not been ours? If Christ
didn't arise, there'd be no evidence at all of our justification.
If the Lord Jesus had remained dead, I could have absolutely
no confidence at all that He took my sin debt and that He
paid the wages of sin. But now that I know that he sits
on the right hand of God in all majesty and power, I know that
God accepted his sacrifice for my sin, and I can have confidence
that it is well with my soul. I have no sin. Child of God,
if you're trusting in Christ, you have no sin. You're as perfect
as God himself. That's not good news. I don't
know what is. If the Lord Jesus had never risen and gone to heaven
in his human body, we'd have no one to take possession of
heaven on our behalf or anyone to enable us to come boldly into
God's throne of grace to find mercy and help in time of need. But because he sits at the right
hand of God, I can come boldly. I can come into his throne and
say, Lord, help me. I'm in trouble, I need help.
I'm in time of need. If Christ's body had remained
in the grave, there would have been no reign of Christ, no sitting
down at the right hand of God, and there would be no intercession
by Him made for us. But He arose from the grave,
and He does sit at the right hand of God, and He does make
intercession for us. Glory to His name. There's a
great reason for hope. The angel at the tomb rolled
back the stone and the scripture said he sat upon it. Do you remember
what he said to the women that came? He said, he's not here.
He's not here. What do you mean he's not here?
He's not here. He is risen. He's risen from the grave. Come
see the place that the Lord lay. Peter tells us in verse 25, for
David speaketh concerning him, concerning Christ, It was the
Lord Jesus who said, I foresaw the Lord always before my face. Christ always had Jehovah, his
father, in view throughout his whole life. He and his father
are one. He said, for he's on my right
hand. It's here that we see Christ's nearness to his father and the
father's presence with him. Christ continues in verse 25
by saying that I should not be moved. Christ could not be moved
from His place, or His duty, or from the curse in which He
was engaged. He was made a curse for us, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Nothing could
move our Lord. Not the fear of men, not the
fury of devils, not the wrath of God. Nothing could move Him
while He was doing and suffering according to the will of God
for His people. Verse 26, David speaking concerning
the Lord Jesus. The words being the Lord's says,
therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad and moreover
also my flesh shall rest in hope because thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to seek
corruption. Thou has made known to me the
ways of life and thou shall make me full of joy with thy countenance. Did the Lord rise from the dead?
You better believe He did. You better believe He did. And
there you have it. Christ must rise from the grave.
Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. Christ
had no sin. And in Him, neither do we. So
death is no stain to the child of God. He said the strength
of sin is the law. Christ has fulfilled the law.
He dotted every I, he crossed every T, and in him, we've kept
the law perfectly too. It's called substitution. Thanks
be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what we just sung, isn't
it? Victory where? In Jesus. Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in
vain in the Lord. Now let's read a few verses here
and I'll wrap this up. But Peter continues here in verse
29, and he says, men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you
of the patriarch, David, that he's both dead and buried. And
his sepulcher is with us until this day. Now, I don't know where
it is, but somewhere there's a tomb that has David in it.
"'This is therefore being a prophet,' and that's speaking of David,
"'and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him "'that of
the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, "'he would raise
up Christ to sit on his throne. "'He seen this before spake of
the resurrection of Christ, "'that his soul was not left in hell,
"'and neither his flesh did see corruption. "'This Jesus hath
God raised up, "'whereof we are all witnesses.'" Therefore, being
by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this which
he now see and hear. For David is not ascended into
the heavens, but he saith himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. And I
love this verse. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel, let all the people of God know assuredly, Linda,
you can know this assuredly, that God hath made that same
Jesus, whom you've crucified, both Lord and Christ. I'm out of time, but let me say
just a few things in closing. God made Jesus Christ, the very
one that men hated without a cause, the very one they crucified with
their wicked hands. But God made him both Lord and
Christ, both ruler and savior, both just and justifier. As Lord, all things are naked
and open unto his eyes. And as a savior, he's the one
with whom we have to do. That's such good news because
he loved me and gave himself for me. He's out to do us good. Now, if you're to be reconciled
to God, He is the way, the only way. He's the truth, the only
truth, and the only life that you have. And no man, no woman
or sinner, as I said a moment ago, can come to God but by Him. Aren't those three beautiful
words? But by Him. I have no hope but by Him. Jesus
Christ is the hope of glory. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. Why he holds the nations as a
drop in the bucket and he considered the inhabitants thereof as grasshoppers. He's the king, and as a king,
he will be worshiped. The Roman soldiers, they mocked
him. They put a crown of thorns on his head and a scepter in
his hand and a robe on his back, and they mocked him as king.
Pilate tried him as a king. Pilate said, behold, you're a
king. Behold, you're a king. And he put a sign over the cross
of the Lord Jesus that said, king of the Jews. Nothing but
mockery. But hear me on this, he that
died and was buried and that rose again, he's coming again.
And when he returns, he'll return as the King of Kings and the
Lord of Lords. And every knee will bow and every
tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is that Lord and Christ. It'd be best to do it now. Then
it'll be too late. Now many only see him as a far
escape from hell. Many see him as one who made
salvation merely possible for one who gives their heart to
Jesus. That's not the Lord and Christ of this book. The whosoever's
that God has chosen see him as both Lord and Christ and they
must have him as both. Do you see you're new to him?
Is he your Lord and your Christ? Well, he is whether you bow to
him or not. And only God can reveal Him to
you as both. And my prayer today is that God
may be pleased to do just that. He's my Lord. He's my Christ. He's my Lord and my Savior. He's
a just God and a Savior. Oh, Lord, thank You. Thank You
for saving my wretched soul, revealing Your Son to me in truth.