Now that everyone is here, I
do want to say again, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone.
You guys have been a huge blessing to Olivia and I. Thank you for
all the food and all the gifts. I have truly enjoyed all the
good food. Thank you for that. And just thankful, thankful that
baby Josh is doing well. Thankful that my wife is recovering. Very thankful that in the province
of God, in the military, I actually get to have some days off and
spend time with them. So I'm very thankful for that.
And I'm very, very thankful, again, for the privilege of preaching
the gospel today. So if you want my attorney to
Matthew chapter 28, Today's sermon, as a no surprise
to everyone, will be about the Resurrection as we get to celebrate. And this
is something that I truly do believe that we ought to celebrate
more often. We don't have to wait until Easter
to celebrate that our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, conquered
death. We can meditate on that. We can think about that. We can
celebrate that. Because we need it. We need to
be reminded that the Lord Jesus Christ has indeed conquered.
If you think about every single enemy that you can think of,
like for example, the devil, the world, including death, right? Because if the Lord Jesus Christ
does not come back, all of us here in this room, including
baby George, and all the babies here, will die if He doesn't
come back, right? But we could rejoice that all
of those enemies, the Lord Jesus Christ conquered them all. He
defeated the devil, He conquered the world, and He indeed conquered
death. So, we could rejoice. in that. So Matthew chapter 28, we're
going to read the first 15 verses. After that, we're going to pray
for today's message. And then I will try to be not
long-winded as I tend to be. So my wife knows. She asked me the other day, how's
the outline coming? I told her I was wrestling with
how to actually shorten it, because more than not, I have too much
to say. So I actually only got three points today. So I'll make
it short and sweet, and it'll be easy. So Matthew chapter 28,
verse one. The Word of God says this. 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
supplicant. 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. His countenance was like lightning
and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers
did shake and became as dead men. And the angel answered and
said unto the woman, fear not. ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus,
which was crucified." Highlight that. Jesus was indeed
crucified. This is not a myth. This actually
did happen. What we're reading is a historical,
amazing event. Verse 6, the angel said, He is
not here, for He is risen. as He said. Come and see the
place where the Lord lay, and go quickly and tell His disciples
that He is risen from the dead. And behold, He goes before you
into Galilee. There shall ye see Him, and lo,
I have told you. Verse 8, And they departed quickly
from the supplicant with fear and with great joy. and did run
to bring his disciples' word. And as they went to tell his
disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, O hell! And they came and held him by
the feet and worshipped him." By the way, that's what we're
here to do today, to worship him. 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. Now when they were
gone, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shew
unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when
they were assembled with the elders and had taken counsel,
they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, say ye, his
disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept. And
if these come to the governor's ear, we will persuade him and
secure you. So they took the money and did
as they were taught. And this saying is commonly reported
among the Jews until this day. All right, let us pray for today's
message. Heavenly Father, we come to your
holy throne once again, Father, as your people, brothers and
sisters, Father, coming to your throne, asking you, Father, to
show us Jesus Christ, Father, to give us the gospel, give us,
strengthen our faith, Father, yet again. We need to see Jesus. We need to behold Him and worship
Him, Father. For in doing so, we are beholding
and worshiping You. We're asking You, Father, that
You give saving faith to all of our children, including the
unborn ones, Father, because nothing is impossible with You.
We know that You could save even in the womb. So we ask you, Father,
for mercy and grace. We ask you, Father, that you
take away any fear that we may have, that you help us to have
the peace that surpasses all understanding, including our
own, Father. The peace that only comes through the Prince of Peace,
your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us, Father, to behold Him
today. Help us that throughout the message
that we see the Lord Jesus Christ conquering our enemies, all of
them, Father, so that we no longer fear them, that we could worship
you in spirit and truth, and that we could live a godly life
in this earth, seeking your kingdom over everything else, Father.
Help us, Father, to love our children, to protect them from
this evil society that we live in, Help us to honor You in our
homes, honor You in our jobs, honor You everywhere and anywhere,
Father, for You are worthy of it. You sent Your Son while we
were dead and trespassing in the sands, Father. You knew exactly
what we needed, and You gave Your best in giving Your Son.
And Him, He's a mighty, mighty, mighty Savior. He conquered death,
and we're here to proclaim that today. And we're here to praise
you for it. So we ask you, Father, that you
bless this message in Jesus' name. And like I said, today's
message is going to be about the resurrection. And it's going
to be just three simple points. What we just read, right, for
all of us here, it's not uncommon. What we read, it's the Word of
God. All of us that profess to believe
in Christ, we believe that the Bible is indeed the Word of God. So with that thought in mind,
I just want us to think about that, about what we just read. What we could have read was a
nice little poem. What I could have done is pointed
you to maybe like the new movie that's out there and try to get
glimpses of truth from it. Like, I don't know, about 10
years ago or so, it was commonly with famous pastors to do where
they pick a movie and they try to like you could see Jesus in
the Matrix or you could derive Jesus from the movie Superman
and all of this and I think to me all those gimmicks and gadgets
are just a waste of time. A waste of time because you know
God Almighty has given us exactly what we all need. what we all
needed way back then, what we all need right now, and what
we will need in 2050 if we all get there, which is the Word
of God. It is the Word of God that we
need. It is the Word of God that this
world needs. It is the Word of God. It is in the Word of God that
we could find comfort. It is the Word of God where we
could find the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In there alone,
I would say. And today, I just want us to
think about that in a way through the lens of the person and work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Meaning this, I want us to think
about how did the Lord Jesus Christ actually view what we
call the Bible. And I know that might sound like
I'm not talking about the Resurrection, but we will get there. Because
it's very important Because as you saw in the last verses, it's
where the scribes and Pharisees gathered together. They paid
the soldiers to say something, right? They gave them money and
say, hey, we know that, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ actually
did rise from the dead. They didn't, you notice that
in the verses, they didn't deny that. They wanted to cover that
actually. Hope you guys noticed that. What
they did was, they paid money to the soldiers and said, hey,
say that the disciples actually came at night to stole the body. So, start a rumor. Here's some
money. Start a rumor that this actually
is what occurred, not what they actually experienced. What they actually occurred.
Because, believe it or not, that rumor is still alive today. That rumor is still well and
alive and it's powerful all over the world. What I mean is this. People still do not believe in
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they create
all of these fancy things and they build up all of these ideas
and and arguments against the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ
indeed rose again from the dead. So how we should react to it? Well, there's only one way we
could react to it. It's by standing firm upon the
Word of God. That's it. It's simple, but yet
hard to do. In our age, in our society, where
we truly do not believe the Word of God, right? Sad to say, in
our country, in the United States of America, I think the last poll that I read
or that I saw was about 80-something percent of all Americans proclaim
to be Christians. And yet, as you start peeling
the onion, as you start asking those hard questions, few of
them actually believe. One, in the virgin birth. Few
of them actually believe, too, in the actual person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And really, really few of them
actually believe that He rose again from the dead. But the
resurrection, ladies and gentlemen, for us who profess the Christian
faith, it's the heart of the matter. And so we're about to
see, at the end of the sermon, it's, if Christ has not risen
from the dead, we're all fools. Kids, we're all fools trying
to be here worshiping God if Christ is still dead. Your daddy
is a fool if I'm standing here trying to proclaim the gospel
if Christ did not rise from the dead. I truly believe that. I'm a clown if I'm here proclaiming
that Christ rose again from the dead and he did not. So three
things, like I said, I'm gonna try to keep it simple. Here are
the three things for those of you who are taking notes. It's
three S's actually. So we're going to talk about
the substance, the sufficiency, and supremacy of the scripture. And you guys will see how that
actually correlates to what we read and what we actually believe
happened. The substance. If you don't mind,
please go to Luke chapter 4, I should recall in Luke chapter
4, this is obviously well known to all of us. It's where the devil himself,
it's where the devil himself came and actually tented Christ. They say when you want something
done right, sometimes you just gotta do it yourself, right?
At least that's what he thought. He didn't send no demon. he went
himself, he wanted to tempt Christ. He wanted to see what Christ
was all about. So the substance, I just wanted
to point out this. So, let's read the first, Let's begin at verse one, so
Luke chapter four. And Jesus, being full of the
Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into
the wilderness. Being forty days, tempted all
the devil, and in those days he did eat nothing. And when
they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said
unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it it
be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying,
It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word of God. And the devil taking him up into
a high mountain, show unto him all the kingdoms of the world
in a moment of time. And the devil saith unto him,
All this power will give thee, and the glory of them, for that
it is delivered unto me, and to whoever I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship
me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only thou shalt serve. And he brought him to Jerusalem,
and set him in the pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him,
If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence, for
it is written, he shall give his angels charge over thee to
keep thee. And in their hands they shall
bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a
stone. And Jesus answered, said unto
him, it is said thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God. And when
the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. So the Lord Jesus Christ was
tempted right after the amazing experience of having been baptized. You guys do know that, right?
This is right after his baptism, by the way. This occurred right
after he was baptized. Remember that experience that
he had where he had the Holy Spirit descending upon him in
the form of a dog? And the true and the living God,
the Father, opened up the heavens, and He said, Thou art my beloved
Son. Indeed, I am well pleased. Luke
3, verse 22, if you guys want to see. The Lord Jesus could
have just referenced the experience that He had at His baptism to
the devil. But we see clearly that He did
no such thing. Instead, He referenced what was
written. the Scriptures. In fact, believe
it or not, the Old Testament. See, some people like to pick
battles between the Old Testament and the New Testament. There
is no battle. The same God in Genesis is going
to be the same God in Revelation from beginning to the end. The
same Savior that Adam and Eve had, that were saved, Same way
we are saved today, by grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ
alone, all for the glory of God alone. And it is all according
to the scripture alone. See, the Lord Jesus Christ, like
I said, He could have said, hey, I just had an experience. I used
to be a Pentecostal, I must say. I'm not going to lie to you guys. They emphasize experiences a
lot. They do a lot of music because you want to have the experience.
When you come to worship in those particular churches, you got
to have experience to say you heard from God. Ladies and gentlemen,
when the Word of God is divided properly in the Gospel of Spirit,
you have the experience from hearing from God. In fact, the
next time you want to hear from God, open up your Bible. We can
hear from God every single day. We can hear from God. We can
hear the echoes of His goodness and mercies to sinful people
like us. You can also hear His wrath towards
sin. So, what he referenced, like
I said, was the scripture, the Old Testament. In Luke 4, verse
4, when he replied to the devil, he answered saying, He was actually
citing Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 3. And he humbled thee, and suffered
thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest
not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee
know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. That's
what Deuteronomy said. In his next reply that he said
to the devil, He answered him and said unto him, Get thee behind
me, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God, and him only thou shalt serve. Again, he was actually
citing Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter six, verse
13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy
God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. And the last
reply that he said to the devil, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God. Believe it or not, again he was
citing another scripture. Deuteronomy 6, verse 16. Ye shall not tempt the Lord thy
God as ye tempted him in Massa. Why do I say this? I say this
to say that the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ used the Old
Testament against the temptation of the devil gives credit to
the Old Testament being the Word of God. And this is another thing, when
the Lord Jesus Christ was quoting and He was actually citing those
references, there were no actual original manuscripts. at that time. Like when Moses
actually penned Genesis on the manuscript for the very first
time, at the time that the Lord Jesus Christ faced the devil,
that manuscript did not exist. What existed was actually, you
know, the keeping of the Word, meaning like, for example, we
have the Word of God even right now, right, through translations. The English translation is what
I'm reading right now. We don't have, I don't have today
the actual manuscript that Moses or Isaiah or any of the prophets.
What I'm trying to say with this is that even though time has
passed, even though that things have changed, in the substance,
we still have the Word of God. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
is teaching us from the fact that he's quoting and emphasizing
that it was written the way how he answered to the devil, it
was with biblical truth. He truly did believe that the
biblical truth that Moses wrote was from God. One of the pastors that I read
this week wrote this. It seems that a lot of Christians,
he says, despise the notion that God's Word is sufficient. He
said, let that sink in. This obviously has and will forever
be the battle. Is the church satisfied with
the notion that God's word is sufficient or will it heed to
the temptation of leaving the world of God for idols? That
was the battle in Genesis 3. Has God said, did God really
said you cannot eat? That's been the battle. That always will be the battle.
That will be the battle that we're facing right now. That
will be the battle that our kids, as they grow up, as they proclaim
the gospel, they proclaim faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that
will be the battle that they themselves will have to face. Has God really
said? That's the battle that the Lord
Jesus Christ faced with the devil himself, but the Lord Jesus Christ
actually did tell him, it is written, God did say. And what
I'm trying to say with this is that we could be confident of
what we read in the Bible. We could be truly, fully confident. Now the world could call us fools,
absolutely. Now the world could call us this
and that. The world could despise us. The
world could come and harm us one of these days. It's going
to be okay. Because the God we worship is
the God of truth. The God we worship is the God
of the resurrection. So even though they may kill
us, we don't have to be afraid. we
could trust the Word of God. The substance of the 66 books
that we have right now, we call the Bible, it is in 2 Timothy
3, verse 16 says, God's breath. In the substance, it is the Word
of God. It is the very Word of God. It
is the same Word with the same authority, with the same power
as it was given to those godly men in the year past. It is the
Word of God. The substance has not changed
due to the fact that we have translations like I was mentioning.
The substance has not changed due to the fact that many years
has passed. The substance has not changed
due to the fact that we are now in the year 2022. The substance of the Word of God
from Genesis to Revelation is that it is the Word of God. I
hope, I hope I'm, I don't know, sometimes I try to, I make my
points way too complicated, and the simple thing that I'm trying
to share with you all about this point is that no matter what
anyone says, what we have is the Word of God. That really,
truly comes down to it. Nobody was written by men. Don't
you think Jesus Christ knew that Moses wrote Deuteronomy? And yet, he quoted him as saying,
God said. He quoted him as believing that
the substance of what Moses... See, to me, I always like to
use this illustration as far as authors of the book of the
Bibles. For example, if I were to grab
a nice pen and write something, right? A letter to my wife. A
beautiful pen that writes perfectly. Now if I were to write another,
use another pen that is cheaper and less probably efficient and
I write another letter to my wife. Now the author will still
be me, however the characteristics of the words will be different. Right? Because of the pens and
the ink. In the same way, the author,
the Word of God, is still be God. But he used godly man. For example, when you read Genesis,
it's way different when you read Philippians. Philippians was
written by the Apostle Paul. And Genesis was written by Moses.
Same author, two different type of pens. That's what I'm trying
to say with this point. And to show you real quickly that
the Lord Jesus Christ actually believed and understood the substance
of the Word of God, let us go to Mark chapter 10 verse 6 through
9 real quick. I don't want to rush through
the three points that I have, but I do want to just want to
try to be as clear as I can. So the first point, like I said,
is the substance of the scriptures. So Mark chapter 10, verse 6 through
9. But from the beginning of the
creation, God made them male and female. For this cause shall
a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they
twain shall be one flesh. So then they are no more twain,
but one flesh. What therefore God has joined
together, let no man put asunder. It's a beautiful thing. I hear
it a lot, these verses, when there is a matrimony, when there's
a wedding, right? If a restaurant is in a wedding
here, it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. But notice a couple of
truths that we could derive from here. First, that God is eternal. Before the creation, there was
God. At least that's what the Lord
Jesus Christ is saying here. But from the beginning of the
creation, God. Second, that God is the creator. But from the beginning of the
creation God made, the Lord Jesus Christ completely believes that
God created ex-nehilo, like we all believe, out of nothing.
And that God created everything within a literal six days and
rested on the seventh. Third, that God created male
and female. A couple of weeks ago, I referenced
the judge and her answer of her not being a biologist. So therefore,
she cannot define what a male or female was, or a female was
at that time. By the way, she actually did. It's now part of the Supreme
Court. So there's that. We'll have to
deal with that. So she say, I cannot define what
a female is because I'm not a biologist. Well, we could actually, at the
very least, we could start for the fact that what a male or
a female is, it's a created being by God. We could start with that.
Because that's exactly what, at least that's what the Lord
Jesus Christ is trying to teach us here. It says, but God from
the beginning of creation made them, created them, male and
female. That's what He created. He didn't
create a confusion. He really did not. There was
a beautiful order in God's creation that still exists. However, due
to sin, right? It is because of sin our society
has declined deeper and deeper into darkness. It's not because
of truth. The truth is right there. I just, last night as I was going
over my sermon and I was reading a couple of news things, crazy
thing happened. I was reading a news about a,
I will have to reference the article on these dates, bring
it to you guys' attention. A jailhouse somewhere here in
the United States where it's all females. Right? This prison is supposed to be
all females. But nowadays they put trans,
transsexual women in there. And then surprisingly enough,
there's some women that got pregnant. Don't know how that happened.
When you put males on a female prison and sin occurs, And scientists
and the news personnel, they couldn't fathom to think about
how and why did that happen. But clearly, we know how it happened,
right? Male and female. I mean, that's
just, you know, it's sad that we get to see this type of articles
and news, and disciple events nowadays, it is really, really,
really sad. As a society, it's saddened. I cannot think of what our grandparents
or the people who live in the 40s or in the 30s or we even
have to say about the things that are occurring in the year
2022. I mean, I'm old school, and this is just bizarre to me
that all, this is just chaos. And as parents, I would say to
us who are parents, who have children, we must do everything
we can to protect our children. And protecting them starts off
by telling them the truth. That's what we must do. We must
protect them and love them according to the Word of God. But from the beginning, the creation,
God made them male and female. Even though the Lord Jesus Christ
here does not mention Adam and Eve by name, I hope you all notice
that when he says that he made them male and female, and that
for this reason they will cleave, he will cleave to his wife and
the twin should not be one flesh, so there will be no more twin
but one flesh. And he says, what therefore God
has joined together, let no man put us under. He was actually
reference Adam and Eve, actually. Because you could go back to
Genesis 2 and read about that, and how God created Adam and
Eve, and how Adam and Eve actually was the first matrimony in which
God actually was the one leading the ceremony. And I say this
to say this that, you know, there's still a battle of whether Adam
or Eve actually assisted. But we can take confidence, if
we are professing Christians, we can take confidence that Adam
and Eve actually did assist because our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,
the one who we are here to worship, the one who I'm here to proclaim
today, is referencing. that we could believe in them. Our second point, so that was
the substance of the Scriptures. And what I, like I said, to summarize
it real quick, the substance of the Scripture is that what
I read at the beginning with Matthew chapter 8, it wasn't
no fable, it wasn't no fairy tale, it is the Word of God.
I just want us to think about that when we're reading the Word
of God, in and of itself, it's the Word of God. I know that
gets thrown out, left and right, like, oh, it's just the Word
of God. No, but it is actually the Word of God. Our second point is the sufficiency
of the Scriptures. Real quick, if you don't mind,
going to Luke chapter 16, verse 19 to 31. And we're not going
to read all of that. I just want to reference a couple
of things. This is another well-known passage for all of us. This has
to do with the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man and Lazarus, we
all get to, we all read these stories. I think we all are well
acquainted with these stories, so I will not read all the verses.
But I want us to take a couple note of certain verses here. In fact, let me read the latter. Verse 27 of Luke chapter 16.
I'm just going to read the last couple. Verse 27 or verse 31
real quick. This is the rich man. Obviously
the rich man has found himself in hell. This is him speaking. Then he said, I pray thee therefore,
Father, he's speaking to Abraham in this story, that thou wouldst
send him, that is, Lazarus, to my father's house. For I have
five brethren that he may testify unto them, lest they also come
into this place of torment. I hear a lot of people thinking
like, and I hear mockery from the pagans about hell, as if
hell is a place to party. The truth of the matter is, hell
is a place of torment. At least, that's what this rich
man experienced. It says, they also come into
this place of torment. Verse 29, Abraham said unto him,
Notice what Abraham replies to his request. They have Moses
and the prophets. Let them hear them. Verse 30. And he said, now this is the
rich man again saying, Nay, father, Abraham, but if one went unto
them from the dead, they will repent. Verse 31, and He said
unto him, And if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither
will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. What do I mean by the sufficiency
of the Scriptures? Couple of things that I want
us to know again from these couple of verses. At the beginning,
even though we didn't read it, I know you guys are already acquainted,
but in verse 19, it says that there was a certain rich man
which was clothed in purple and fine linen and far, supposedly
every day, meaning like he was rich. He was dressed up every
single day in the In the Hebrew word, the Greek word,
pardon, where it says which was close, it means like in a active,
continuously ongoing thing that he did, meaning that he dressed
himself up every single day. Like every single day, he dressed
himself up. He got the Rolex, he got the
best of the best every single, this is something he did every
single day. Right? And here's the thing. Just because one is rich and
possesses earthly treasures, this does not signify that one
will be blessed in the age to come. We see here the rich man was
truly blessed on earth, and yet his end was hell. So children,
do not be confused when you see people who are rich. in their
Ferraris, in the big mansions, and think that, wow, they're
blessed of God. Not necessarily. And also, at
the beginning, it talks about that there was a certain beggar
named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate with full sores and
desiring to be fed with crumbs which fell from the rich man's
table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked
his sores. Now we see the opposite. Now
we see the beggar, Lazarus, the one who just want crumbs, the
one, for all intents and purposes, we might even think that he's
curse of God. But just because one is poor,
children, that also does not mean that one is curse of God. You could see a beggar under
the bridge, He's not necessarily the curse of God. Why do I say
this? Because look at the end, as you
read, the end where Lazarus did not end up in hell, but rather
he ended up in heaven. He was comforted at the end.
So we see two things here, right? The rich man and Lazarus. And
this is what I want us to notice though, the main things I want
us to notice is that The rich man wanted a miracle
to be done. He was confident that if this
miracle of having someone to come back from the dead to warm
his relatives will indeed make them believe the truth. I find it a little bit comical
that the rich man In hell, he was still thinking that he had
the status over Lazarus. Because if you notice, he told
Abraham, send Lazarus to go back. He was still thinking that he
had like authority, because he was the rich man on earth. But
yet, he is in hell, and Lazarus is not. He said, thou would send
him to my father's house. But notice, His request was denied. The Word of God is sufficient
to proclaim the whole counsel of God concerning all things
necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life. The Word of God is sufficient
to do that. And his request was denied because
of what Abraham told him. He says, they have Moses and
the prophets. They have the Old Testament.
He says, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither would
they be persuaded that even though one rose from the dead. I have relatives, they're not
persuaded. and will not be persuaded. You
know why? Because they do not believe Moses
and the prophets. You see, a miracle of even having someone,
like if the Lord Jesus Christ himself who actually woke up
right now, walking to here from the dead, talk to us, it would
do us no good if we don't believe what's already written. It truly will not. We have not
only Moses and the prophets, but we have the apostles. We
have the complete revelation, like you holding that Bible right
there, you have the complete revelation from God to us. Nothing else is needed. No one
in the world has ever nor will ever be saved through a miracle.
I can say that firmly and clearly because guess what? The greatest
miracle has occurred and yet there are still unbelievers.
There were still unbelievers during that time, there are still
unbelievers in our time. What do I mean by that? The Lord
Jesus Christ indeed rose again from the dead. As much time and
resources and money people waste on trying to find Him in the
tomb somewhere else down there in the Middle East, they will
never find Him. because they're looking in the
wrong place. He's sitting at the right hand of God. If they
were to look at the right hand of God by faith, they will find
Him there. He conquered death. He's no longer
dead. And that greatest miracle happened
according to the Scriptures. And this is where I'm going to
end up about the supremacy of the Scripture. 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, real quick. And I'm going to try to make
it sense, because I see my wife's eyes out there. She's like, where
are you going with all of this? I will try to make it sense,
the substance of the scripture, the sufficiency of the scripture,
and now the supremacy of the scripture. Told you, just three quick points,
even though I'm being long-winded. So, 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
verse 1 through 4. Moreover, brethren, this is Apostle
Paul speaking, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you, which also ye have received. This is the battle
right here. Highlight that right here, where
ye stand. We have received the gospel.
Are we willing to stand upon the gospel? We have received
the gospel, are we willing to die upon the gospel? That's the
battle. We have received the gospel,
but are we willing to stand? Verse two. By which also ye are
saved, if ye keep in memory what I preach unto you, unless you
believe in vain. Right? Because if we receive
the Gospel and we stand upon the Gospel, guess what? We will
be saved. If we receive the Gospel and
we don't stand upon the Gospel, we are fraud. It says here, we
believe in vain. It's only two ways. All of us
here, if we profess to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, there's
only two things that could happen. We're either going to receive
the gospel and stand upon it, or we're going to be shown to
be fraud in due time. I'm talking about me. I'm the
one preaching here. I'm talking about me first, and
then you, and then my children if they believe the gospel. If
we receive the gospel, the battle is to stand upon the gospel.
Otherwise, we're going to be shown that we believe in vain,
ladies and gentlemen. Verse three, for I deliver unto
you of all that which I also receive. See, Paul received a
message, and he's about to give us the message. How Christ died
for our sins. Highlight that according to the
scriptures. What I read about Matthew 28,
about Mary going to supplicate, about the angel saying He has
risen, that was all according to the Scripture. My message
is tied to the resurrection indeed, and I will hope to close it in
the best way that I can, hopefully. But it's according to the Scripture.
It must be according to the Scripture. Our belief must be according
to the Scripture. What we stand for needs to be
according to the Scripture. What we teach our children must
be according to the Scriptures. It says, For I deliver unto you
first of all that which I also receive, how that Christ died
for our sins according to the Scriptures. But we're not Catholic. We're not going to leave Christ
hanging on the cross. We're Christians, we believe
in the resurrection. So, verse 4, he says, And he
was buried, indeed he was buried, according to the Scriptures.
And he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
This is why we are here together, to rejoice and to proclaim that
he indeed rose again according to the Scriptures. This is not
no fairy tale. This is not a myth. We're not fools. We actually
believe because we believe the Bible. We don't believe because
someone rose again from the dead and came to us in dreams and
all these things. We believe because of the scriptures.
Because you see, the battle is what the scriptures say. and
what the opinions of other men, of anyone else say. Let me show
you this in verse 12, right there, you guys are there. Verse 12. For if, now if Christ be preached
that He rose from the dead, this is the whole thing. We preach
that Christ rise from the dead. How say some among you that there
is no resurrection of the dead? How say some among you that there
is no resurrection from the dead? While we are here trying to worship
God in spirit and truth and proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ and proclaim His victory over death, others are looking
for eggs. How say among you that there
is no resurrection? Because they don't believe in
the resurrection. People hate the resurrection. They really do. They want Jesus,
they want a nice dead Jesus, not a risen Lord. The same thing that the Apostle
Paul was dealing with at that time, people were saying that
there is no resurrection, the same thing we deal today. Some
say that there is no resurrection. But if we think logically, this
is the result if there is no resurrection. You ready? Verse
13. I mean, it's obvious, right? Verse 14. And your faith is also
vain. What I'm trying to do today is
gonna be in vain if Christ did not rise from the dead. Your
faith, the way you guys proclaim Christ to be your Savior and
Lord, your faith is in vain if Christ has not risen from the
dead. Yea, and we are found false witness of God because we have
testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not
up, if so that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not,
then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain. Yet are yet, ye are yet in your
sins. Then they also which are fallen
asleep in Christ are perished. There is no hope, Josué. There
is no hope, Brianna, if Christ did not rise from the dead. We're
all dead in our sins still. If Christ is somewhere in the
Middle East, underneath the earth, dead, there's no hope for any
of us here. I'm talking about us here, in
the local church, all around the world. People are united
in this day, gathered together, worshiping God, proclaiming Christ,
but we're all fools if we did not rise from the dead, according to the Scriptures. See? But if Christ be not, verse
17, but if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain and you
are in your sins. Then they also which are fallen
asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now,
but now, is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first
fruit of them that slept. For sent by man came death, by
man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. The Lord Jesus Christ indeed
conquered death once and for all. You and I must put our faith
in Jesus Christ and him alone. Forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation
with God the Father can only occur in Jesus Christ. The gospel
that we share with our children must be a gospel of a risen Lord. must be of someone who conquered
death. When we're losing hope, when
we're fearing death, let us remind one another of what Christ has
done for us. That's what the scripture tells
us to do. The scripture was written for us, ladies and gentlemen.
It is for us that we still have the Word of God in substance.
It is for us that the Word of God still be sufficient. It is
the Word of God supremacy that's going to allow all of us here
to die in hope. And that hope is the hope of
the resurrection. I tell my children, I'm going
to die one day. And I want them to be prepared
for my death. I don't want them to think like,
oh, I would die in hope though. Because I hope in the resurrection.
That is our hope. Our living hope is that He is
risen. Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You
so much. We thank You, we thank You so much for Your Son, Jesus
Christ, our Savior. We thank You that our faith is
not in vain. But our faith is in your Son,
Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has conquered death and once
and for all taken away its power. Although our body may go back
to the dust by which you created us from, Our spirit will be in
your presence to worship you, Father. And then one day, when
the Lord Jesus Christ returns, our spirit may be united with
our body. Because we indeed believe in
the resurrection. It is the power of the resurrection
by which we are able to be here from many different backgrounds,
from many different families in which you have called us out
from. from being rich to being poor to whatever economical status
that we may have, we could come together in this single faith,
in this single hope that the Lord Jesus Christ indeed conquered
death, Father. We have this hope, a live hope,
a hope that is not dead, a hope that is live, a hope that will
give us and that will take us through all the circumstances
by which you are going to put us through, Father. We just ask
that you strengthen our faith. We don't ask that you take us
away from those circumstances by which you try our faith. We
just ask that you strengthen our faith in the midst of that.
We ask that we could be like the children that were put in
a firing furnace. In the midst of that fire and
furnace, there was someone like the Son of God in the midst with
them. We just ask that the Lord Jesus Christ be with us in whatever
circumstances you may have us to go through. We ask you, Father,
for our children's salvation. We want to see all of our children
saved, Father. And even if it not be in our
lifetime, if we die before that, Father, may you still be merciful
to them. save our children, forgive all
of us here for all of our sins, in Jesus' name.