That's how you do it at the opera
house. Broadway, the intermission, Alright, we're going to start
our second service singing out of the softback. Number 119. We have a refuge strong. Hey, Joe? Uncle Jeff? Do you have to fingerprint this? What's that? I did seven and a half. We have a refuge strong, a place
of peace and rest. Our refuge is the Lord our God,
and in Him we are blessed. There is a man above, Christ
Jesus is His name. He is our God in Him we trust,
we hide ourselves in Him. Christ is our rock secure, a
covert from the wind, a river in a desert place, peace in a
troubled land. My soul on wings of faith, fly
to your refuge, dear. Your foes defy your troubles,
too, and cast on Christ your cares. Our second hymn will be
number 108 on the softback. 108, Jesus, thy boundless love
to me. I think that just didn't have
an intro, so let's go ahead and start. Just Thy boundless love
to me, no thought can reach, no tongue declare. Oh, knit my thankful heart with
Thee, and reign without a rival there. Thine holy, Thine alone
I am. Be Thou alone, my constant flame. Grant that nothing in my soul
may dwell but Thy pure love alone. O may Thy love possess me whole,
My joy, my treasure, and my crown. All coldness from my heart remove,
May every act, word, thought be love. ? How gracious is thy
way ? All fear before thy presence flies ? Here anguish, sorrow
melt away ? Where'er thy healing beams arise ? O Jesus, nothing
may I seek Nothing desire or seek but Thee. Thank you. Morning everybody. I'll be reading
this morning out of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 49, picking up
in verse 14. Isaiah 49, 14. But Zion said, the Lord has forsaken
me and my Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her nursing
child and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely
they may forget. Yet I will not forget you. See,
I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually
before me. Your sons shall make haste. Your
destroyers and those who laid you to waste shall go away from
you. Lift up your eyes, look around
and see. All these gather together and
come to you. As I live, says the Lord, you
show surely clothed yourselves with them all as an ornament
and buying them on you as a bride does. Stop there. Lord, we we thank you for bringing
us together, Lord. We we pray that you'd give us
the hearts this morning to rejoice in in in who you are and what
you've done, Lord. We pray that you'd give us hearts
to look to your son, Lord, you'd give Our pastor, the words to
say, to preach, and to clear him. Lord, we pray this. Lord, in your name, we pray.
Amen. Let's be turning to John 5. John 5, and I want to look at
verses 25 through 29 with you this morning. Now, so far in
the Gospel of John, we've been given witness and testimony to
our God and to who we are. We've seen the weakness of man. We've seen that we need God for
everything. He provides things that we don't
even see or understand. And we lack things that are both
spiritual and physical, right? And that was witnessed in the
miracle of our Lord turning the water into wine at the marriage
there in Cana of Galilee. We've seen how we make a mockery
of the worship of God by nature, right? That we saw when Christ
went into the temple and drove out the money changers and then
that were selling oxen and cattle and sheep and doves from the
temple of God. We see that we have no spiritual
life in us by our nature in Adam. Our Lord said to Nicodemus when
he came, ye must be born again. And we also saw in chapter four
that the one scent of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, he's the one
that gives life. He's the one that gives that
life to his people. He said in John 4 14, whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him. shall never thirst,
but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water, springing up unto everlasting life." And we even see there
in that verse definite, distinguishing grace that our Savior, our Lord,
gives life to whom he will, right? The life that I shall give him,
he said. The water that I shall give them.
And we see that our Lord has the ability to heal every infirmity,
every sickness that we have. And we saw that in whether it's
physical or spiritual. And we see that in the miracles
that he performs in healing the people. And we see that Our Lord
Himself is the very hope of the believer, so that Christ is made
manifest to His saints. Because it is Christ in you,
the hope of glory, that being justified by His grace, we should
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. All right, now our text this
morning, our Lord declares that by His glory and power, He gives
spiritual life to His children, and it's described that He does
this by His voice. It's done by His word. And I pray that our blessed Lord
be pleased to cause you, His people, whosoever you are, that
you hear the voice of the Son of God, that you hear His word
being spoken to your heart, that He would give you that life,
that living water, whereby we know Him and rejoice in His salvation. Look actually in John 5 verse
24, we'll read 24 and 25 together, and notice it's His word, His
voice. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but
is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. So there he tells us we've got
to hear his voice. We must hear his word. And those
that are made alive by Christ, they're the ones that hear it.
They hear his voice and they hear Jesus. his word. And then
he tells us later in the text as we go that there's coming
a day in the which he will raise every person, every person that
was created on the face of this earth, every person that is born
or unborn, they shall rise from the graves when our Lord returns. because every man must stand
before God in judgment. He says in verse 28 and 29, marvel
not at this, at his power to effect life in his people. He
said, don't marvel at this for the hour is coming in the which
all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come
forth. They that have done good unto
the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto
the resurrection of damnation. I've titled this message, The
First Resurrection and the Second. The First Resurrection and the
Second. And we're going to first look
at this first resurrection, what this first resurrection is, and
then we'll look at the judgment, the judgment. All right. So a
few weeks ago, I was listening to a podcast and in the podcast,
this guy for some reason was trying to recall Revelation 20
verse 6. It says, Blessed and holy is
he that hath part in the first resurrection. On him, on such,
the second death hath no power. Now he admitted he had no idea
what it meant. He didn't know what it meant. And I even recall as a young
child coming home from services one day, and I was inspired to
read Revelation, and I read that verse. And I too had no idea
what John meant there in saying what he said. But I remember
praying, Lord, I don't know what this means, but bless me to be
a partaker of that first resurrection. Well, if you've ever wondered
what John is talking about in that verse, what is the first
resurrection and why do they have no fear of the second death,
right? If you've ever wondered what
that means, well, then listen closely because I, we're going
to cover that. I believe the Lord will reveal
that word to his saints. He'll reveal to them. And so,
Listen, and you'll have a right understanding of what our Lord
means, but I pray that more than just having a right understanding,
that we be partakers of that first resurrection. Because blessed
are they that hath part in the first resurrection. On them the
second death hath no power. Nothing to fear about that second
death. Alright, now first of all, We're
to understand, when we come to a scripture like Revelation 20,
verse 6, and any scripture, what we're to understand about that
is that all men, all of us naturally, in Adam, are spiritually dead. There's no life whereby we know
God and call upon him in spirit and in truth. That's what Paul
means when he declares, you hath he quickened, which were dead
in trespasses and sins. And again, over in Ephesians
4, look there at Ephesians 4, verse 18. Paul, in Ephesians 4, speaking
along our spiritual death that we are all in naturally, he's
describing to the believer what we've been delivered from, out
of that body of Antichrist. We've been delivered from the
body of death. And he says there in verse 18,
having the understanding darkened. This is you that now are alive
in Christ, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their heart. That's what God has saved us
from. That's what he's delivered us out of by his glory and power
so that we have to ask ourselves, well, who maketh thee to differ?
Who made us to differ? If that's where we are, we're
in that kind of spiritual darkness and that kind of bondage, who
maketh thee to differ? It's God. God makes his people
to differ. He gives them life. And what
is thou that thou didst not receive? So that we ask those questions
because It humbles us, it reminds us, it puts us in our place of
what we are in this flesh and that we need God for everything. Even when we don't understand
it or realize it or have any real knowledge of these things,
our God is providing and performing everything for his people. So we're to understand that fallen
man, he's not sick, he's not wounded, He's not simply weary
and tired out and he just needs a little encouragement and a
few words to inspire him to seek God again, right? He's spiritually
dead in Adam. There's not a flicker of light,
right? We're not trying to reach that
little semblance of life in you. No, there's nothing but death.
It's God who must give us life. And he does this by the power
and glory of His Son. So, man has no living sense in
Him. There's no spiritual living sense
in Him until Christ makes him alive. Until Christ gives life,
there's no feeling. There's no understanding. There's
no spiritual life. There's no spiritual knowledge
until our Savior gives us life, until we're created of God. Listen
to John 5.25. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead. That's us by nature
in Adam. When the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. You think about it. What dead
man can hear anything you're saying to them? A dead person
cannot hear, they cannot see, They can't do anything until
they're made alive. And our Lord, He speaks. And
when He speaks, man lives. Man is born again by our Savior,
Jesus Christ. That's the new birth that He
declares to us, that we're born again. That's what we need. We
need to be born again. And He's the one that makes us
born again. Because without that birth, no
man can enter the kingdom of God. You know, the scriptures
talk about what God cannot do, right? God cannot lie, right? He cannot lie. God cannot tempt
a man, right? James says, God cannot tempt
a man, right? And no man can enter the kingdom
of God except Christ make him born again. There's not going
to be any negotiations before the throne of God on judgment
day. You must be born again today. Today, if you hear his voice,
You shall live, right? Follow Him, believe on Him. Now
this is the first resurrection, that spiritual birth, that birth
which Christ gives, that raising again, that being born again,
that is the first resurrection. That's the first resurrection,
when we're given life from the dead, then being given life by
Christ. Only after we've been given life
by Christ, then we feel the burden of sin. Then we feel the pain
and the load and the weight of guilt upon us. Then we begin
to hunger and thirst. Then we feel fatigued and weariness
in our labors, then we struggle, right? After we've been given
life, and then we flee to Christ. Then we'll hear what he says.
We'll hear him and believe him. And that may sound strange, but
there's actually examples of that in scripture. There's examples
that it's not until we're given life that we then begin to feel
and to have a sense of our sin and our terrible condition and
that we need salvation. When our Lord, I think it was
Jairus' daughter, in Mark chapter five, when that young girl, when
she was dead, and he took her by the hand and he said, Talitha
Kumai, I say unto thee, damsel arise. And then she rose up. She rose up and she got up and
began to walk because the scriptures say she was about 12 years of
age. And they were all astonished
because only God has the power to give life like that. And you
know what he said after that? Give her something to eat. Right? When she was laying on
that bed, when she was dead, was she undernourished? No, she
was dead. When she laid there in death,
was she hungry? No, she was dead. You can't give
a dead person anything to eat. You can't give them drink. You
can't warn them even of danger that's coming. If there's a fire
in the funeral home, everyone can get out, but that dead body
is going to stay there because it doesn't care. There is nothing
to care. It doesn't feel. It doesn't sense anything. Only
the living know, oh, there's danger. get out. And so, after
she was made alive, then she was given food to eat. And that's
what the Lord does for his people. He gives them life whereby they
know, I'm starving. I need righteousness. All other seeking and seeking
after spiritual knowledge and things like that, a lot of people
in Adam, dead in Adam, do that, but they never seek after Christ.
the true and living God, right? Another example would be Lazarus,
right? Even Lazarus, when he was raised
from the dead, the Lord said, take off his grave clothes. He
didn't take them off. He didn't tell him to take off
his grave clothes when he was dead, right? Because a dead person
doesn't hear. They're not stripped of their righteousness. They're
not stripped of their filthy rags. They're stripped of their
filthy rags when they've been given life. Then they hear the
voice of the Son of God and live, and they follow after him and
grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. All right, so, you know, even
with that understanding, right, take that understanding to what
our Savior said in Matthew 11, 28, come unto me. all ye that
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." So he's
speaking to those who labor and are heavy laden, who feel the
weight. They've heard the voice of the Son of God and live, and
they believe Him. And so they hear the things that
we're saying. We're not commanding dead flesh.
We're speaking in the name of our God who gives life to his
people and saying, you that are sinners, you that are sick, you
that are weary, you that are starving, you that are thirsty,
look to Christ, come out of your death, come out and live, look
to Christ and live. That's what he works in his people.
All right, so the first resurrection, that's the new birth of the children
of God. And when they hear the preaching
of the gospel, you're not saved by this man. I'm but a vessel,
an empty vessel. I pray, I pray that I don't get
in the way. I pray that the Lord's voice
be heard by you, his people, and that he bless you with life
and bless you to feel him, to believe him, to hear your need
of the Savior and to rest in him. So it's in the time of love
that we hear his voice. It's in the time of his blessing,
the time of his refreshing for his people that he causes you
to hear him and to rejoice, to be raised up to him and to look
to Christ your Savior. His voice by the Spirit of God
comes irresistibly with omnipotent power, giving life in dead sinners,
making them alive unto God to hear Him. John 5.26 For as the Father hath
life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself. The new birth is the first resurrection
of the children of God. And then in Revelation 20 verse
6 says, blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection,
on such the second death hath no power. On such the second
death hath no power. For you that are born again,
who have partaken of that first resurrection, Christ's blood
has blotted out your sin. Your sin is put away. There's
no sin remaining. When you stand in the judgment
day before the throne of God, the books will be open, and they'll
see no sin for you that are in Christ. They'll see your name
in the Lamb's book of life. So you have nothing to fear. For Christ's sake, the second
death hath no power over you. And that second death, it comes.
Well, what is the second death? It comes after that general resurrection
in which all are raised So, you could call it the second resurrection,
but it's more of just a general resurrection because the wicked,
they have no part in the first resurrection. It's not a second
resurrection to them. It's just a general resurrection
when the Savior raises all persons up. And so, this second resurrection
for you that believe, you have nothing to fear, which is the
second death. We all die first. but the second
death is when the Lord casts all the wicked into the lake
of eternal fire. All right? Now, let's look at
this judgment here. Understand that God has given
all authority and judgment, or all authority and judgment to
Christ, and Christ is the God-man mediator. That's what he said
earlier when he spoke of him in John chapter five as being,
when he said, because he is the son of man. It refers to Christ
our mediator, Christ who stands in the gap between God and men
and reconciles his people to holy God. That's what he's done. And he has all authority. He
is the one who's going to judge all men. And so those that are
covered in his righteousness have nothing to fear. But those
whose works they think will testify good things for them and shall
save them and speak well for them, They have much to fear. It'll be a very terrifying day
for them in that day. And so look at verse 28 and 29. Well, let's just read verse 27
since we're there. John 5, 27, and hath given him
authority to execute judgment also, because he is the son of
man. Then he says, marvel not at this,
for the hour is coming. in which all that are in the
graze shall hear his voice, and shall come forth they that have
done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil unto the resurrection of damnation." So this is the general
resurrection of all people. All right, all people. Now, make
no mistake about it. the Lord Jesus Christ is coming
again. He's returning to this earth. The angels in Acts 1, Acts 1
verses 9 through 11, the angels declared that Christ is returning
again. It says, when Christ had spoken
these things, while they beheld, Christ was taken up And a cloud
received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly
toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them
in white apparel, which also said, ye men of Galilee, why
stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye
have seen him go into heaven. So the angels declared that he
shall return to the earth. Our Lord himself said in John
14 3, I will come again. He shall return. Paul, our apostle
said, the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven. He said
in the other epistle to the Thessalonians, the Lord shall descend from heaven. So Christ is returning to the
earth. It'll be a physical return to
the earth, not a spiritual return, but a physical return to the
earth. Job. Job 19, verse 25, he said,
I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand in the
latter day upon the earth. Christ is coming physically.
He's returning to the earth. Now, when he comes, it's not
going to be in weakness. It's not going to be in humility. It's not going to be in tenderness
and in gentleness. He's coming, a conquering, mighty
king. He is the king even now, and
when he comes, he shall be admired in all his saints, by all his
saints, and all those people who persecuted his people and
killed his people, they shall have a terrible and an awful
day. They shall fear. They shall be
nauseous. their knees will quake together,
will buckle and snap together, and they shall fear because He
comes to conquer them, to put them to death and to judge them."
All right? And the other thing we know is,
you know, sometimes we look after signs, right? But signs have
been seen for hundreds of years. Signs are reminders to us of
what the Lord said, that he is coming again. So we don't look
after those signs, we don't depend on those signs to be a definite
marker. And I say this because some people
might think, well, I'll just wait till things get really bad
and then I'll repent, as if there's any power or strength in this
flesh to repent. and to give ourselves eternal
life. The only warning that's given,
that's immediately preceding the return of your Lord, is in
1 Thessalonians 4.16, which says, he'll come with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. That's
it. But the child of God, who is
blessed to partake in that first resurrection, who has life in
Christ, They've nothing to fear. For them, it'll be a day of rejoicing.
For them, they'll rejoice greatly to behold their Lord coming in
the clouds, just as he said, and descending down to the earth. Therefore, that one who hath
partaken of that first resurrection, who is born again, they're the
ones that will partake in the resurrection of life. They'll
be partakers of the resurrection of life spoken of there in that
verse 29, right? So that's they believe the Lord
Jesus Christ. They trust him. That's the good
that man does. He doesn't trust his works. He
has no confidence in his flesh. He's heard what's been declared
by the Lord in the scriptures concerning his Son, concerning
salvation, and he believes on the Son of God, the one whom
God has sent. That's the good work that we
do. And then from the Spirit of our Savior dwelling in us,
all those good fruits, they're born in us. They come forth in
us, whereby we believe Him and trust Him. Fruits like faith,
hope, and love. Our Lord does that. Then it says
that the dead in Christ, when he comes, the dead in Christ,
those that are in the graves, they shall rise first. The dead in the graves shall
rise first, and then we which are alive, if he comes when we're
alive, we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall
we ever be with the Lord. Now nowhere does the scripture
say we'll meet him in the air and then he's going to turn around
and go back up into heaven. It doesn't speak like that of
a rapture. It doesn't speak of a rapture
like that but we'll rise up and meet him in the air and be forever
with him and he's coming down to destroy the wicked. We'll
be witnesses and bear testimony of our Lord's destruction and
conquering of all our enemies. So here is word. Behold he cometh. Behold he cometh. Revelation
1 7. Wherefore we're told comfort
one another with these words. Paul said comfort one another.
Your Savior's coming. You may face adversity. In fact,
you will face adversity. You shall go through various
trials, through various fires and afflictions, which prove
the grace of God in you. It's proving to you the faith
which he's worked in you. He's revealing the testimony
of his love to you, for you, through the trials and the afflictions
and the sufferings and the sorrows that we feel and are looking
to the Lord to save us. He's proving to you that he loves
you and did this work for you, all right? And so comfort one
another that your savior is coming. remind one another that he's
coming again. Now once all his ransomed souls
have been gathered by him and he's destroyed the wicked, then
the wicked too shall be resurrected, they too shall be raised. And
for them, he says, they are they that have done evil unto the
resurrection of damnation. Their evil looks like things
such as their good works in religion, whereby they trusted that was
their righteousness. Those that hated God and despised
religion, and those that claimed to love God, their idol God,
and loved their religion, and trusted in their works, but didn't
trust Christ, didn't look to Christ. They're evil, the Lord
says. Their righteousnesses are as
filthy rags, he says. and they shall not speak well
for them in that day. And you could see this traced
out a little more for us in Revelation 14, but what we're gonna do is
just, well, turn over to Revelation 20. Revelation 20, because then
we find the judgment comes. Revelation 20, verses 12 through
15. Our Lord says, and I saw, well,
John says, I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God,
and the books were opened. And another book was opened,
which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out
of those things, which were written in the books according to their
works. We're either covered in the blood
of Christ, his work and his righteousness, or in our own works and shall
perish. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, And death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them, and they were judged every man according to their
works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This
is the second death. And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. So to
the Lord's people, you that trust Christ, He shall give you, because
he's the judge, he shall give you a just reward for your righteousness,
which is Jesus Christ, the hope of glory in his people, which
he's revealed. And we're told that it shall
be a just retribution to the wicked who trusted in their works
and their own righteousness. They shall suffer for their works.
And so My prayer is that you hear the voice of the Son of
God this day, that you hear His words, that He bless you to be
a partaker of that first resurrection, to know, to hear that we're sinners. We have no righteousness of our
own. We have no good works upon which we can depend to speak
well for us and to cover our sins, that He deliver us from
this body of death trusting in the things of this world and
all the shiny things of this world, and to find our rest and
peace and assurance in the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed is he that
hath his part in the first resurrection, that is born again, that knows
their hunger, their thirst, their need of Christ. That's what he's
revealing to us here in this gospel. He's showing us from
all different angles how dependent and utterly necessary it is for
us to know God, to be born of Him, to have fellowship with
Him. And it's all provided freely in grace to His children, those
who have heard the voice of the Son of God. If you've heard His
voice, flee after Him, follow after Him, cry out to Him, beg
Him for mercy and grace. And all those who know not, He
says there's a second death coming. They're not just gonna die in
the flesh, they'll be cast into the lake of eternal fire, with
hell and all them that know not God. But you that have partaken
of the first resurrection, he says, on such the second death
hath no power. So I pray the Lord bless that
word to your hearts and cause you to hear his voice and his
word. Amen. All right, let's close
in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, that you have given all authority and power to your Son,
and that he is a giver of life to his people. Lord, that you
pour out all your spiritual blessings upon us in the Son, that you
raise us up, give us new life, make us born again by the blood
of your Son. Lord, we thank you that we know
him, who is our righteousness and the hope of his children.
And Lord, that we have fellowship with our God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Lord, help us to walk, looking
to him. We that are burdened and weary
and hungering and thirsting. Lord, let us rejoice in you for
this, because it's only the living that feels these things, that
knows the truth of our condition and the satisfaction of Christ.
Lord, bless us that we would not fear that second death, but
that we would go forth rejoicing, praising our God, and comforting
one another with these words. And Lord, if there's any yet
in darkness, deliver them, Lord, from that bondage and that death.
Cause us to hear his voice, who alone gives life to his people.
It's in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that
we pray these things. Amen. Closing him will be out of the
hardbacked. Number 223. 222, sorry. There is a felon. 222. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunge beneath that
flood, lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty
stains. Lose all their guilty stains. And sinners plunge beneath that
flood, lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced
to see that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. And there may I, though vile
as He, wash all my sins away. Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious
blood shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be saved to sin no more. Be saved to sin no more. Be saved to sin no more. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be saved to sin no more. E'er since, by faith, I saw the
stream, Thy flowing wounds supply. Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. Redeeming love has been my theme
and shall be till I die. When this poor lisping, stammering
tongue lies silent in the grave, then in a nobler, sweeter song
I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save,
I'll sing thy power to save. And in a nobler, sweeter song,
I'll sing thy power to save. Thanks, Uncle Joe. Sorry, Carl.
I missed you up on that, didn't I? I think it was just one verse. Yeah. So then on that third one,
I quick hit it again. Yeah, smart. Good job. I don't, like, I'm just like
you. I don't usually like to do that. With me, with Elijah.