Turn with me now to Revelation
chapter 20. Revelation chapter 20. And our text will be found in
verse 6. And the title of the message
this morning is, The Resurrection of the Saints. The Scripture said, Blessed and
holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. And here's the promise to them
who have part in this first resurrection. On such the second death hath
no power but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall
reign with him thousand years, the resurrection of the saints. One thing every believer in Christ
looks forward to, or should look forward to, is this matter of
the resurrection. The resurrection. It is our hope,
it is our anticipation that at Christ's coming, When He comes
the second time, He will raise every believer in Christ, those
who have died in Christ, whose souls are in heaven, whose bodies
are in the ground. This is the promise of God, that
they shall be raised incorruptible. That this corruption must put
on incorruption, this mortal must put on immortality, and
we will be raised to be with God forever. The earnest desire
of every child then is to be like Christ. Is that not our
desire? To be like Christ, our Savior. Well, how is He? How is Christ? He is perfect. He is a perfect
man. He is body, soul, and spirit
raised in a glorious body. And this too should be our anticipation,
our desire, because this is the purpose of God for each of us,
that we should be in His very image, to be like Christ. We now, by the grace of God,
are endowed with the Holy Spirit. We've been given a new nature,
created after God in true holiness. We now have been thoroughly washed
of all our sins, so much so that God Himself declares He cannot
find them. Do you realize that? That God
can't find your sins. Christ has so thoroughly watched
us. The scripture says that in those days and at that time,
Jeremiah 15 verse 20, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for and there shall be none. And the sins of
Judah and they shall not be found for I will pardon them whom I
reserve. Now believer, this is our standing
before God right now. This is your standing. You are
in this way like Christ. You are in this new nature like
your Master. You are created in His image,
in the inner man. Yet, we still suffer persecution. We still are afflicted and troubled We are bound and we cannot do
what we want to. We want to be exactly like Him.
But at this point we can't. But this we ought to know, even
though we suffer persecution, our enemy is bound. Our enemy is bound. In that he
cannot defeat the purpose of God, which is to make you exactly
like His Son. We cannot defeat the purpose
of God's salvation of the elect, nor can our enemy hinder the
gospel's power to go forth into the world wherever God is pleased
to send it. Though Satan cannot accuse us
before the Father, seeing our Mediator stands in between and
ever liveth to make intercession for us, our foe is always still
against us. Though He is bound and cannot
stop what God has done for you and what God is going to do in
you, I know this, we still have to deal with Him. We still are
afflicted by Him. He walks about in this world.
But let us be sure of this truth that He cannot touch us except
God allow it. He cannot touch you. That's what
this text is teaching at the very beginning. The angel that
came down, that was Christ, and he did what? He bound Satan.
He bound Satan so that he could no longer deceive the nations
or hinder the gospel from going out to save his people from their
sins. But I tell you this, he still
walks about, he still is capable of much harm to our bodies, to
afflict us, But we are to be encouraged in this. He cannot
touch us unless God allows. You remember Job. Who started that conversation
between God and Satan? God did. God said to Satan, Hast
thou noticed my servant Job, a man that feareth God, and astuteth
evil, a man that is upright? He instigated this. And Satan
was moved against Job all that time, but now he saw opportunity
and God allowed him to persecute Job. But you know that that persecution
was limited, wasn't it? And so is your persecution, so
is my persecution of the enemy. It's limited by what God would
allow it. Therefore, believer, as we sojourn
in this wilderness, as we are brought into desert places, barren
and fruitless, dark times of this world, it is then we should be moved
to look for this, the resurrection. When you are in the darkest of
times, our eyes should be turned to this truth. that one day God
has purpose that we be like our savior in every detail in every
detail we should turn our eyes toward our home this is not our
home this is not our home did you get that this is not our
home and if you missed it this is not our home this is not it
We have a greater hope. We have a greater anticipation
of something far better than this world. This is not our home. We have this hope, this confidence,
that we who are saved and believe on Christ alone, though even
The death of this mortal body come to us. This is our hope
that we shall be raised Even our bodies shall be raised from
the dead and be like unto his perfect sinless and glorious
body When Job was tried what was Job? What was his comfort?
Where did he find comfort in the midst of all of his troubles? What did he say? I know my Redeemer
liveth Now you find comfort in that Are you troubled? Are you
pressed? You can do this. I know, I don't
know much, but I know my Redeemer liveth. And he said, and that
he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth, and though
my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. whom I shall see for myself,
and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins
be consumed within me." You see, Job, by faith, looked to Christ
who was to come. And we, like Job, should look
by faith to Christ in the One who should come. I know He liveth,
but I know this also. He's going to stand on this earth
again. I know He's coming. I know He's
coming. What a sweet consolation this
is for everyone in our troubles, that even though we be swallowed
down to the grave, we confess with Job and rejoice with him
in the resurrection, not only of the Spirit, but also of our
own body. He said, My flesh... You see
this? You see this right here? in my
flesh and not anybody else's I shall see God now it won't
be like this because this is corruptible but it will be like
Christ's incorruptible flesh I shall see him with my own eyes
and not another you shall see him with your own eyes Let this
be our calm in sickness, our peaceful thought in sorrow, the
ease of our heart when surrounded by affliction and pain. Let us
now by faith be confident and sure, even in death's cold hour,
that because our Savior lives, because He was raised from the
dead as our representative, even so, we shall be raised from the
dead. him This is the end and the result
of true faith in Christ That even as our Savior is now in
the body soul and spirit perfectly glorified So shall we be with
him isn't this what Christ promised in John 6? You remember that
that's one of our favorite passages This is the will of him that
sent me that of all he hath given me. I should lose how many nothing
I should lose nothing But, what is he going to do? Raise it up
at the last day. At the last day. He is going
to raise all of his elect at the resurrection. Now, the gospel,
the gospel is preached to you. The gospel is preached to you
In a general sense, in Jesus said, I am the bread of life.
He that believeth on me shall never hunger and never thirst.
This is spiritually speaking. We know many believers have died
of hunger, have died of thirst. We know that, that they've suffered
in this body. This is not physical, but spiritual. They shall never hunger or lack
righteousness. You who believe and eat of Christ,
By faith you shall never hunger, for He is our righteousness and
redemption." And we say this, come to Christ. This is our gospel
message. Do you desire to enter into this
resurrection? If you desire to be raised again
at the last day, if you desire to be in heaven, I know this,
you must believe on the Son of God. You must trust in Christ. But I know this, not all will
come. Not all will come. Many will hear and not believe. But the will of God is that those
who are given to Christ should come. This is comforting. This is assuring. That God has
purposed that some come. God has willed some be given
to Christ and those he said all that the Father giveth me shall
come to me and all those these believers will as he promised
as it is the will of God they shall be raised up at the last
day thus our resurrection from the dead our eternal life and
glory in heaven is forever and immutably tied to the person
and work of Christ you get that Our resurrection, if you believe
in Christ, know this, it was by the will of God that you believe. It was by the will of God that
you should be redeemed. It was by the will of God that
you should be made, even now in this body, in the image of
Christ, in the inner man. It is the will of God. Therefore,
see this, that your resurrection is infinitely and immutably tied,
not to your work, not to your merit, but to the person and
work of Christ. You remember when Lazarus had
died and Martha came to him and Jesus said to her, thy brother
shall rise again. And she said, I know he'll rise
again at the last day, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, I am
the resurrection. You see how the resurrection
is tied to his person? No man would ever be raised from
the dead and receive glory in heaven except Christ be the resurrection. I am the resurrection. How sure
am I that you that believe shall be raised? I know you shall be
raised because he is the resurrection. Because my resurrection is infinitely
tied to his person. I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall
he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me, you listen, shall never die. Believest thou this? believe is now this Lazarus was
dead in the body but he was not dead in our text here we know this
John saw the souls of them that were beheaded and did not receive
the mark those who die in the body are not dead they are alive
they are well they're worshiping Christ even today Believers can
and do die physically, but we do not cease to exist. We do not become some unconscious
being. Paul said to be absent from the
body is to be present with the Lord. Jesus said marvel not at this
for the hour is coming in which that all that are in the graves
shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done
good to the resurrection of life may have done evil to the resurrection
of damnation what gives us the ground what's the grounds then
of our hope of the resurrection what is the grounds we know the
crisis coming we know there is a resurrection We know that at
the last day He'll raise up all those that God has given Him,
that believe on Him. But what is the grounds and hope
of this resurrection? And who then shall be made partakers
of the resurrection? Now this hope, this hope of the
resurrection is based on three things. I'll give you these three
things this morning. First of all, a representative
resurrection. In order for you to be assured
of the final resurrection, of being with God forever, being
like Christ, first of all, there must be a representative resurrection. Secondly, a spiritual resurrection. And thirdly, a revelation of
God concerning the resurrection. So let's look at these three
things. A representative resurrection. What do I mean by this? What
I mean is that all the elect of God, all of the elect of God
were raised with Christ, who is their representative
man. This is the whole scheme of the
covenant of God's grace, that God the Father before the world
began, chose a people, loved a people, a remnant according
to the election of grace, and it was these who were given to
Christ, these chosen people, were put into vital union with
Jesus Christ, and that by Him they should be made without blame
and holy. Read it with me, Ephesians 1. This is the covenant of grace
in very few verses. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. Notice this, in Christ. According as He had chosen us
in Him. before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him,
in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He had made
us accepted in the Beloved. Thus, Jesus came and redeemed
us by His blood, obtained for us eternal redemption and everlasting
righteousness. For God was not willing that
any flesh should glory in itself, but rather that all glory should
redound to God. Now, God chose us. And where did He choose us? He
chose us in Christ. Now this is very important because
this shows us a union. A union that God made with His
elect and His Son. He put His elect in Christ, which
means Christ became their representative man. Christ became their surety. He purposed that in Him they
should be made holy and without blame, and that by Him they should
be righteous and redeemed. And this all was for the glory
of God, to the praise of the glory of His grace. God was not
willing that any flesh should glory in itself. He said no flesh,
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, no flesh should glory in His
presence, but of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God has
made into us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Therefore, all that Jesus did as a man, All that he accomplished as a
man. In his life, his faith, and his
obedience. So did all of his elect do it
in him. All that he did, he did for his
people. and all he did his people in
him the scripture says in romans
five four if when we were in we were reckons how were we reckons
by the death of his son Much more being reconciled, we shall
be saved by His life. Do you not see that? Before you
were experimentally reconciled to God, you were already reconciled
to God. You were reconciled to God before
your birth. You were reconciled to God before
your faith. You were reconciled not by your
faith, not by your works. You were reconciled by the death
of His Son, because you were in Christ when He died. You were
in union. He was your representative man. We, by nature, being judged by
the offense of Adam. Adam was our representative.
He was a representative of the whole race. In Adam, all die. In Adam. When Adam sinned, before
any one of us was born, we sinned in him. a representative man
you and I by nature were vitally linked to Adam in that this nature
died when Adam died you see that's a representative man even so was Christ a representative
man And by him came not sin, but
righteousness. By him came the free gift of
justification. Behold then the grounds of our
resurrection. The grounds of my resurrection
is not dependent upon me. Chew on it. The grounds of your resurrection
and acceptance with God has absolutely nothing to do with you. It is infinitely and immutably
tied to your representative. The Law was no way of life, but
only to death. The merits of the flesh and religious
exercise were only corrupted by our sin. Thus, when Jesus
had finished the work, when righteousness was established, justice was
satisfied, when sin was forever punished and put away, God then
testified of His success. How? How did God testify that
our surety, our mediator, our representative was successful? He raised Him from the dead. The Apostle Peter was preaching
in the book of Acts, the first message on Pentecost. He said,
You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, the
man approved to God among you by miracles and wonders and signs
which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also
know, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, you have taken him by wicked hands, have crucified
and slain, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of
death. Why? Because it was not possible. that he should be holding of
it. You get that. Your representative could not
be held in the grave. He could not be held because
there was no sin to hold him. What holds men in the grave?
Sin. Death is a result of sin. But because there is no sin,
because He put away our sin. There was no way the grave could
hold Christ. God raised Him up and made Him
both Lord and Christ. Therefore, all who are represented
by this man, The God-man mediator, you can be sure of this, there
is nothing that shall hold back your resurrection. Why? You were already raised
in Him. If there is no sin to hold your
resurrection, then what shall hold you? Nothing. Nothing. Matter of fact, in Ephesians
2, verses 4 and 5, God said, you were quickened together with
Him. Quickened together with Christ,
even when you were dead in sins. You were quickened together with
Him. Now, the resurrection of Jesus Christ was not done in
secret, was it? This thing was not done in a
corner. This thing was not hid. This thing was not something
to be found out by deep searching. Even those who despise the gospel
cannot deny the resurrection of Christ. Cannot. The resurrection of Christ was
done so much in the open that there is no way men could deny
it. No way to refute it. Historically,
no way. But this is good news for us.
Because the resurrection of Christ is vital to our salvation. Paul
said this, he said, Now if Christ be preached, that he rose not
from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection
of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead,
then Christ is not risen. If Christ be not risen, our preaching
is vain and your faith is vain. We are found false witnesses
of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ
Whom if whom he raised not up if so be that the dead rise not
For if the dead rise not then Christ is not raised and if Christ
be not raised your faith is vain and you're yet in your sins you
see that your resurrection is vitally tied to his and He rose from the dead, therefore
you have this ground as your resurrection. You have a hope.
You should anticipate being raised from the dead. This is why death
should not cause us much fear. It does. I know it does. May God give us grace to understand
that death does not hinder us in the least, but only elevates
us. to enjoy more of what God has
given us. Then God, not willing to leave
this truth up to debate, gave infallible proofs, for Jesus
was not only seen of His disciples, but Paul says, even as He was
preaching, five hundred brethren to this day saw Him. leave i was more than sign the
declaration of independence what more proof there's no refuting this fact
and not only do we have the proof of proof of eyewitnesses but
we have the proof of scripture don't we member david in that
would david prophesied of in acts chapter two uh... he prophesied
he said My soul shall not see corruption. Let me read it to you, Acts chapter
2. In that same message Peter was
preaching. David said, Therefore did my
heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, also my flesh
shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to seek corruption.
You see, this was prophesied. It was not only a witness, but
it was prophesied, this resurrection. So then the hope we have in Christ. that he rose from the dead as
our head even so will we all personally be raised and not
one missing I read of I believe it was Wycliffe one of the translators
of our English Bible they killed him And then years later, they
were so mad, they dug up his bones and burned him. They were really going to get
him. Boy, I tell you, they were really going to... We'll sock
it to him now. We'll burn his bones and cast
him to the wind. You mark it down. He's not lost. He'll be raised just like the
rest of us. Many believers were eaten by
animals. matters not. What happens to this rotten corpse?
It'll go to the ground, but God will raise it incorruptible,
wherever it is. Wherever it is. We have this hope because Christ
is raised. Now then, second of all, the
spiritual resurrection. There's a vital union in representative
resurrection, but also let's see the spiritual resurrection.
If anyone of us is to have part in the resurrection from the
dead, It is because we have first experienced the resurrection
or quickening of the Holy Spirit called the new birth. This resurrection
is the one John speaks of in our text. Look back at your text
here. He says, Blessed and holy is
he that had part in the first resurrection. Now we had part
in the resurrection of Christ as our representative man. But
we also, if we have any part in this resurrection, we ourselves
must be spiritually raised from the dead. Now this resurrection, this first
resurrection, is not, as many believe, a physical resurrection. For the physical resurrection
in our text does not appear until verse 12, when Christ comes back,
verse 11. When Christ comes back in judgment,
then there will be a physical resurrection. But this is speaking
of the quickening of the spirit, the regeneration of the sinner
from spiritual death to life. This is the first resurrection
even to be born again. Although all of God's elect are
united with Christ, redeemed by Christ, quickened together
with Christ, reconciled to God, we know this. Every one of them
must be born again. Jesus told that to Nicodemus.
He said, you must. You must. This is vital. This is vital. If you are to
ever have part... Now you can understand all you
want to about representative resurrection. You could understand
everything there is to know about election, and predestination,
and redemption, and righteousness. But listen, if you have not any
experimental part in this, you will not enjoy the resurrection.
You have no hope of the resurrection. You have no hope of being joined
to Christ, except you be born again. You must be born again.
We're all born dead in sins. We all by nature have no life,
no righteousness, no ability, no desire to come to God. But
at the appointed time of grace, the Holy Spirit in divine power,
invincibly and irresistibly, comes and gives life to every
dead sinner chosen and redeemed of Christ. Scripture never speaks
of the new birth or the quickening of the Spirit as a product of
man's will. Never, nowhere. Never, anywhere. Does the Scripture speak of life
coming by a man's will or even by a man's faith? The Scripture
does speak of faith coming as a result of life. It always, in regards to the
will and grace and power of God, speaks of life. Let's see this in a couple of
places. Go to John chapter 1. John chapter 1 and verse 12. But as many as
received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons
of God, even them that believe on His name. Well, there's faith.
But why is it that they received Him? Who are these that received
Him? which were born, not of the blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God." You see, this receiving, this faith in Christ, this believing
on Christ, is a result of the will and birth. The birth, the
new birth, which is a result of the will of God, not of the
will of man. Look in John chapter 3. I just
told you about Nicodemus. John chapter 3. Jesus said, Except
a man be born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of
God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born
of spirit is spirit. Marvel not I said unto thee you
must be born again the wind bloweth where it listeth and now here's
the sound thereof But you can't tell whence it cometh or whither
it goeth So is everyone that is born of what the Spirit of
God you see the new birth the resurrection is always tied to
the power and the grace of God never to the will of man and And you remember in Ephesians
2, and you hath he quickened. Now who did the quickening? God
did. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sin. By grace you are saved. So you
see, quickening is tied to grace. It's not tied to will. Faith
is not tied to will. Faith is tied to the grace and
gift of God. For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. Yet faith is a gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. And so then, in this illustration,
there are many illustrations we can pull from in Scripture
to show that this spiritual resurrection, this new birth, is of the power of God. But I like
that illustration of Lazarus. Lazarus is probably one of the
clearest illustrations of the new birth, isn't he? You remember he was sick. And
Jesus didn't come to it. Now Jesus loved him. Martha said,
he whom thou lovest is sick. But he did not heal him. He allowed
him to die. Now why did he do that? He told
us, for the glory of God. That's why. He said that I might
show you something. I'm going to show you a picture,
a type. He did it for the glory of God, that the son should be
glorified, he said. And this was intended to show
us the great picture of salvation, our salvation. You who are vitally
united to Christ, Lazarus is your picture, is a picture of
you. you can identify with it can't you identify with his condition
he would be we who are vitally unified to
christ we understand this we were lazarus was even so where we
did before the lord came in grace
to call us Consider this, that God could have preserved Adam
from sin. Isn't that right? He could have stopped Adam from
sinning, but He didn't. He could have stopped us from
dying, but He didn't. Why? For His own glory. For the praise of the glory of
His grace. The cause of all things, especially
our salvation, is for God's glory. Thus we were dead, but God has
quickened us to life. How? The same way He did Lazarus,
by divine calling. We had the same condition, and
listen, we had the same calling. Jesus cried with a loud voice,
saying, Lazarus, come forth, Lazarus come forth. And behold the power of his voice,
that when the dead heard his voice, what happened? He obeyed. Now could Lazarus have done anything
else? Was this an option? Was Christ
giving him an offer? No. He was commanding and he
came forth. Even so it is with the spiritual
resurrection. When Christ calls the sinner
to life, he can only come to life. Now I know this. You know, if
Jesus was not specific, that everybody would have come out
of the grave? But he was very specific with his calling, wasn't
he? He didn't call everyone from the grave. He called Lazarus
from the grave. Same with you. He was very specific. He calls us by name. He calls
us by name. And the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God, and they that hear shall, what? Live. That's our experience. Do you
hear your name when the gospel is preached? You know, the first
time I heard my name, it was this. Sinner. That's my name. Sinner, come. Sinner, believe. Sinner, trust. Sinner, bow. Sinner, surrender. Have you heard your name? How do we hear? Through the preaching
of the gospel. That's how. Remember old Ezekiel
out there among those dry bones? God said, you go preach to dead
bones. That is, humanly speaking, the
most foolish thing a man could do. It would be foolish had God not
commanded him to do it. This morning, what I'm doing
is foolish to the world. But I know this. If God bless
it, the dead shall live. Can these bones live, son of
man, Lord, thou knowest. If you want them to, they'll
live. He said, preach to them. And he did. And what happened?
The bones began to rattle. They began to come together.
He put flesh on them and he gave life to them. That's exactly
what happened to us. That's exactly what happened
to Lazarus. And how did Lazarus come out? How was his conversion? He came out bound, didn't he? Isn't that how you come to Christ?
Bound. I come to Christ knowing this,
I cannot come to Christ. I have no power to come to Christ. I come having no power to come.
I come in the grave clothes of my sin. I come with my face bound
with a napkin. I cannot see two feet in front
of me. I don't know anything. I come
because you told me to. And what does he say to his men?
Loose him and let him go. And that's exactly what happens
at the resurrection of the Spirit. God says to his men, you don't
bind them with law, you loose them and let them go. And where did he go? Lazarus
run off to the to the brothel? Did he run off to his sin? Did he run off? No. Matter of
fact, in the very next chapter, you find him eating with Christ. Now, what you're doing, you who
believe, eating with Christ. I want to be with Him. Loose
Him and let Him go. Where do you want to go? I want
to go with Him. Wherever He is, that's where I want to be. And notice he had enemies. They
just sought to kill Lazarus, didn't they? Even though God
has done all this, we know this, we'll have enemies. But this
is our hope. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection. over which the second death shall
have no power." Are you part of that resurrection?
If so, then God will do the third thing. He'll reveal this resurrection
to you. He'll reveal this resurrection
to you. The revelation of this resurrection
concerning our bodies There will be a last day. There is coming
a last day. Now, there'll be a last day you're
here on earth. I got that. We're gonna, this body may go
to the ground and our soul be with the Spirit. And that's going
to last for the thousand years. It's going to last all the dispensation
of grace. But you mark it down, there's
coming a day when God will wrap this whole thing up. There is
a last day. And in that day we will get everything
our hearts desire. We will be like Christ. We will be perfect as He is perfect. We will have a body like unto
His glorious body. This is the revelation of God
that you are blessed, that you are holy, that have part in this
resurrection. Now I ask you, have you part
in this resurrection? Is Christ your representative? He is if you've been raised from
the dead spiritually. And if you've been raised from
the dead spiritually, you have this vision, you have this look,
you are looking for the resurrection. And I tell you, the older we
get, the more we look for it. The more we look for it. This
body is not as good as it was when it once was, right? Doesn't get any better. But you have this comfort, you
don't get any worse. Your new man is just as holy
as Christ. and nothing will stop him from
bringing you to himself. Let this be our comfort. I pray
God will bless this to your hearts.