It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, for Lord, that could not be. Yuba-Sutter Grace Church
would like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library, located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Rick Warda. The scripture for our sermon
today is found in John chapter 11, verse 25 through 26. Jesus
said unto her, 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 shall never die. Believest thou this? Mary and Martha were beside themselves
with grief because their beloved brother Lazarus had died. He
had been dead four days when Jesus spoke these words. Though
Martha and Mary sent word to Jesus when Lazarus had fallen
sick, yet Jesus delayed to come. He delayed coming until Lazarus
died so that he might make known the glory of God by raising Lazarus
from the dead. When Jesus came to Bethany, where
Mary and Martha lived, Martha met him. She poured out her heart. She said, Lord, if you had been
here, my brother had not died. Jesus said to her, thy brother
shall live again. Martha said, I know that he will
rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Martha knew
from scripture that God raised the dead. She knew that he would
raise up all of his people on the last day. Job said it, I
know that my Redeemer liveth, and he shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth, Job 19.25. But like Martha, we think of
the resurrection as an event, as a time, a great thing that
God will do sometime in the future. Martha only understood the physical
aspects of the resurrection. Therefore, her understanding
provided her little or no comfort in light of her brother's death.
When we do not know Christ as the resurrection and the life,
we are tempted by our curiosity to spend huge amounts of time
and effort studying the end times. So many books have been written
about the end times, yet for all of the hype, We must ask
a burning question. What is the resurrection? Is
it a time? Is it an event? Jesus, by his
answer, sets us straight. I therefore want to bring a message
on the resurrection. I've entitled this message, Christ,
My Only Hope. When we believe that Christ is
the resurrection and the life, we look to him and we look for
him, not for an event. Are you looking for the end of
the world, or are you looking for Christ? Are you looking for
a date, or are you looking for Christ? We must first understand
that resurrection is life from death. If resurrection is life
from death, if Christ is the resurrection and the life, if
the one who is raised contributes nothing by his will or by his
work, then I, who am a great sinner, have great hope in Christ
alone. As a sinner, under the guilt
and dominion of sin, and the sentence of death for my sin,
I have great hope in Christ. Resurrection is life from death. Death is the result of sin. by one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin." Romans 5.12. Only the righteous
live. Proverbs 12.28 says, In the way
of righteousness is life, and in the pathway thereof there
is no death. Therefore, to be raised from
death to life, my sin must be removed. My righteousness must
be established. But since I, as a dead sinner,
can do neither, therefore only Christ, who is the resurrection
and the life, can put away my sin, can establish my righteousness,
and can raise me from the deadness of my sins in my very nature
and in my body. Secondly, to understand that
Jesus is the resurrection and the life, we must understand
that resurrection and life are in the Lord Jesus Christ, who
lived and died and rose again. Jesus said that God is not the
God of the dead, but of the living. It is because God made himself
God to his people that they live. God is only God to his people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Resurrection and life are only
ours if we are in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ
is in us. The Apostle John said, This is
the record that God hath given to us, eternal life, and this
life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
1 John 5, 11 and 12. Jesus said, He that eateth my
flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. Therefore, if we believe Christ
as all of our salvation, all of our sin payment, all of our
righteousness, even all of our life, and our Lord and our God,
then He dwells in us and we dwell in Him. We have eternal life
because eternal life is in Him. Because resurrection and life
are ours only if we are in Christ, we are therefore only raised
from the dead and live to God by virtue of our union with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus told his disciples, because
I live, you shall live also. Christ is the resurrection and
the life in at least four ways to his people. First, because
of who he is as God the Son. Second, by his relation to his
people, which God made in eternity. And third, by what he did for
his people in time. And fourth, by his spirit which
he gives to them. First, Christ is the resurrection
and the life to his people because of who he is. It is God who raises
the dead, Romans 4.17. Therefore, if the Lord Jesus
Christ is the resurrection and the life, He must be God. He is God the Son, the one God
with the Father and the Spirit. It is God who raises the dead.
And second, the Lord Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life
to his people because of his relation to them which God made
in eternity. He has life in himself as the
Son of God and as our mediator. In John chapter 5, verse 26,
Jesus said, As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given
to the Son to have life in himself. He gives life to whom He will,
John 5.21, because God the Father gave Him, as our mediator, power
over all flesh to give life to all those that God had given
to Him in eternal election. There are at least four ways
in which Christ is related to His people from eternity. First,
God made Him the husband of His people. As a husband and wife
are one flesh and one body, and as the head and body are one
man, even so, all of God's people were joined to the Lord Jesus
Christ from eternity. We live because Christ, our husband
and head, lives. Scripture says that God joined
his people to Christ in eternal election. Ephesians 1.4 says
it this way, He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. This is an eternal union. It
had no beginning. It has no end. We know this is
an eternal union because Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Revelation 13 verse 8. but he
was slain because he loved the church and gave himself for it. Ephesians 5.25 Therefore he loved
and gave himself for his people from eternity in the counsels
of God. Acts 20.28 says the church of
God which he hath purchased with his own blood God eternally ordained
that he would purchase the church by Christ's redeeming blood.
1 Peter 1.20 Scripture says that whatever God thinks and says
is already done. God calls those things which
be not as though they were. Romans 4.17 And Isaiah 14.24
says, The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely, as I have thought,
so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed, so shall
it stand. Therefore Christ and his people
have been joined as one from eternity as husband and wife. By this union, because He lives,
all of His people live in Him. When He died, they died with
Him. Romans 6.11. When He rose, they
rose with Him. Colossians 2.13 says, You, being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened
together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. We are raised
with Christ because Christ put away our sins. Therefore, Christ
is the resurrection and the life by who He is as God, by who He
is as mediator between God and His people, and by what He is
to His people. He is their husband. They are
His wife. He lives, and He lives for them. They are one with Him. They,
therefore, live in Him. Christ's relation to his people
is not only as their husband, but God made him the last Adam,
as their federal head. Now that term, federal head,
may seem confusing and daunting at first. But in the United States
of America, the federal government makes treaties on behalf of all
of the people in the nation. Those treaties, made by the federal
government, are binding on all the people. Now, Adam stood as
a federal head to God for all who would be born to him. By
his sin, all of his unborn children became guilty. In their own conception
in their mother's womb, Adam's sin nature becomes theirs. Psalm
51 verse 5. God set up Adam as a figure of
Christ. All of the elect were chosen
in Christ as their federal head. God chose Christ and appointed
him to be the last Adam. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, assumed
their nature. He was made under the law as
their representative head. He fulfilled that law. His obedience
was counted as theirs. As all of Adam's unborn children
were made sinners by his disobedience, so all of Christ's elect, all
of his unborn children, were made righteous by his obedience
unto death. Romans 5 verse 19. Again, as
Christ was slain in the counsels of God, before the foundation
of the world, and as God made an everlasting covenant with
him which was put into force when he shed his blood, therefore
all of God's elect were made one with Christ as their representative
federal head from eternity in the everlasting covenant of grace. God raised Christ from the dead
because his obedience unto death was a perfect and everlasting
righteousness. Therefore, by our union with
Christ as our representative federal head, all of God's elect
are made righteous by His obedience. They are therefore raised with
Him. Romans 5.21 brings this out. As sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. This verse teaches several things.
Sin brings death. Adam sinned and the entire human
race became guilty. They came under the sentence
of death. In their Adam nature they became
dead in sins. But through Christ's obedience,
all in Him, by God's election, all who would be born to Him
by the Spirit of God are made righteous in Him. And all who
are in Him are given the gift of eternal life because of His
righteousness. In addition to husband and in
addition to representative head, God made his people one with
Christ as their surety. Before God, the Lord Jesus bore
our sin debt as his own debt and satisfied God for it. In
Hebrews 7 verse 22, God says, Christ is the surety of the New
Testament. Now a surety is someone who in
the eyes of the law is one with a debtor. Whatever debt the debtor
owes is considered the debt of the surety. A beautiful and instructive
example of this is given in Genesis 43 and Genesis 44. Judah became surety to his father
Jacob for Benjamin, his brother. Judah promised to take full responsibility
for Benjamin to bring him to Jacob again, even if it cost
him his own life. When Joseph, the ruler and judge
over Egypt, accused Benjamin of stealing his cup and sentenced
Benjamin for that crime, Judah interposed himself for Benjamin
and answered Joseph who was the judge, for all accusations against
Benjamin. Judah did not plead Benjamin's
innocence, but he pleaded his father's love for Benjamin, and
he pleaded his own suretyship engagements that he made with
his father beforehand. Judah answered Joseph the judge
for Benjamin with himself. He said, take me instead of the
lad. Now, Christ became surety for
God's elect before the foundation of the world. Whatever the Lord
Jesus Christ is declared to be in time for his people, he must
have been from eternity. all of the sins of all of his
people became his sins in the eyes of God's law because he
is their eternal surety Jesus therefore told the soldiers if
you seek me then let these go their way John 18 verse 8 Christ
answered God's justice as our advocate he did not plead our
innocence he pleaded his father's eternal love for his people and
he interposed himself with his own blood between God's justice
and our lives. Christ answered God the judge
for his people with himself. Take me, let these go their way
was the answer of our surety at the cross. For His sufferings
and death, God forgave the sins of His people, God justified
them, and having been forgiven, having been justified, He raised
them from the dead with Christ. Moreover, God made Christ our
Redeemer. Not only is Christ one with His
people as a husband is with his wife, one as a head is with the
body, one as Adam is as federal head to his children, and one
as surety, but the Lord Jesus Christ is one with His people
as their Redeemer. He came to give His life a ransom
for many. We are redeemed by the blood
of the Lamb. His blood is the ransom price
for our liberty. We paid nothing. He paid with
His life. We are set free. Therefore, as
our Redeemer, we are one with Him as His redeemed. The liberty
He purchased with His own blood is our freedom from the guilt
of sin, freedom from the condemnation of sin, and freedom from the
death sin brings, even freedom to eternal life. He was made
Redeemer in God's everlasting covenant. He is therefore the
resurrection and the life by who he is as God and mediator
and by who he is to his people in relation to them from eternity. Because we are one with Him who
is life, who is God of the living, therefore we live. Christ has
always been the resurrection and the life to His people. This
is our comfort and our hope at all times and for eternity. Now thirdly, the Lord Jesus Christ
is the resurrection and the life by what He did. In all that he
is as God and man, he did for his people. As our surety and
as the Lamb of God, he removed our sins, the cause of death.
As the last Adam, he established our everlasting righteousness,
which is the prerequisite for life. As our husband and captain,
He rose from the dead, conquering our enemies, sin and death. God
accepted Him as our surety. He looked upon Him as our federal
head. He received the ransom price
from Him for our eternal redemption. God's people are in Christ by
eternal election. Therefore, what He did, we did
in Him. What God received from Him, He
received from us by Him. All of the blessings of life
and all of the rewards that God gave to Him, He gave to all of
His people with Him according to His eternal purpose. See 2
Timothy 1.9 and Ephesians 1.3-4. God raised him from the dead
because he pronounced his offering to be a full satisfaction for
our sins, and he pronounced his work in all that he did to fulfill
his father's will to be perfect. God justified him, and having
been justified, he raised him from the dead. Romans 4.25 says,
He was delivered for our offenses and He was raised again for our
justification. And 1 Timothy 3.16 says, Great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh
and justified in the spirit. Moreover, the fourth way in which
Christ is the resurrection and the life to his people is because
he gives to them his own spirit. The spirit of Christ in us is
life. Romans 8.10 says this, If Christ
be in you, the spirit is life because of righteousness. There
is no eternal life apart from Christ. When the Spirit of Christ
is in us, we live because Christ is our life. The Apostle Paul
said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2.20. We must therefore
ask ourselves this fundamental question, how do I know that
I live, that the Spirit of Christ lives in me? The answer is, faith
in Christ crucified is the evidence of the Spirit of Christ in us.
All in whom Christ dwells by His Spirit believe Him. It is
only by the indwelling Spirit of God that we believe Christ.
In Ezekiel chapter 37, God said that His people would know the
Lord when he had given them life by his Spirit. And when Nicodemus
in John chapter 3 asked Jesus how could a man be born again,
Jesus answered this way, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life."
John 3 verse 14 and 15. As Moses lifted up the serpent
on the pole, God's law cursed Christ on the cross. The historical
event in Numbers chapter 21 has a direct one-to-one correspondence
with Christ crucified for his people. all who were bitten by
the serpent were dying. In the same way, God passed the
sentence of death on all men because of their sins. As all
who had been bitten in the wilderness and looked to the serpent on
the pole lived, in the same way, all all, in whom the Spirit of
Christ dwells, look upon Christ as all of their deliverance from
sin and the curse of the law, even as all of their life. We look, when we believe Christ,
as our sin-bearing, curse-bearing substitute, in whom all of our
life is. We come to God by His shed blood,
Because God accepted all who were in Him, God accepts us for
what He received from Christ. We therefore live in Him. He
is our God. He is man. He put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself. He established everlasting righteousness
for His people by His obedience unto death. Remember Thomas? Thomas doubted that Jesus rose
from the dead. He refused to believe unless
he put his finger into the nail prints of Jesus' hands and feet,
and put his hand into the spear wound of Jesus' side. And the
Lord Jesus appeared to Thomas. He said, Reach hither thy finger,
and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it
into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. When Thomas saw
that Jesus had died and risen again, that he therefore must
have made an end of sin and established everlasting righteousness in
triumph over sin and death, When he saw that the One who stood
before him had done all of this, he cried, My Lord, my God, Thee
God of me, Thee Lord of me. In the same way, when we see
that the Lord Jesus Christ bore the sins of His people and made
full payment for their sins under the curse of God, when we look
to Him as all of our righteousness and see that He is God and man
who overcame death, and that our life is in Him, When we also
bow to Him by the faith God's Spirit gives to us, then we will
cry with Thomas, my Lord and my God. Faith in Christ is faith
in Him as our Redeemer who obtained our eternal redemption by His
sufferings and death on the cross. Faith in Him is faith in Him
as Lord of all, in whom alone is resurrection from the dead,
who put away sin, who conquered death by His redeeming death,
and gives His own Spirit to us by which we live. Jesus said
in John 6 verse 54, Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood
hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. Eating and drinking in this verse
correspond to faith. We eat Christ's flesh and drink
his blood when we look to and rely on him as everything in
our salvation. Jesus also said, He that eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. John 6.56 If we believe Christ,
if we look to Him as the Son of God, whom God the Father chose
and appointed and anointed to save His people from their sins
by His obedient life and substitutionary death, if we own our sin before
God and abandon all that may be called ours, and look to Christ
alone as the one whom God accepts for His people, then we dwell
in Him and He dwells in us. The psalmist, foreseeing that
Christ is the resurrection and the life, said, He that is our
God is the God of salvation and unto God the Lord belong the
issues from death. Christ is the resurrection and
the life, because resurrection is salvation from sin. He is
Jesus, because He shall save His people from their sins. He
is the God of the living. He is the resurrection and the
life. All who live, live in Him, and He lives in them, and they
live by Him. The Apostle Paul said, if any
man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. Faith in Christ
crucified, risen and reigning is the grace of the Spirit of
Christ that enables us to find in Christ all of our salvation
from all of our sin and to find Him to be all of our righteousness
before God, all of our holiness, our resurrection from the dead,
and all of our life. It is the Spirit of Christ in
us that enables us to lay hold of Christ by faith as our life
from our death in sins, and as our certain hope that we have
been delivered from sin's guilt and punishment, that we are being
delivered from sin's dominion, and that we will be raised in
our body, though now our body is dead because of sin. 2 Corinthians
1 verse 10 and Romans 8 verse 10. When we eat and drink of
Christ's body and blood by faith, that is, when we depend on what
He did to put away our sin and bring us to God by His death
on the cross, then we have fellowship with Christ. This is the only
way we can have communion and fellowship with Christ and with
God. This faith is the gift of His
Spirit in us. Christ stood for us. He answered
for us. He rose for us. He lives for
us. He is our life. We live in Him. He sends His Spirit to us. His
Spirit is life, and His Spirit in us is our life. His Spirit
gives us grace to believe in looking to Christ, and in so
looking we find Him to be our all, as God Himself finds Him
to be our all, and thus we have fellowship with Christ, living
upon Him by His work of redemption for us. As the Apostle Paul said,
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me. By this grace of faith given
to Paul by the Spirit of Christ, he had fellowship with the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Christ in me is
life. His life in me produces faith
in Christ. It is only believing Christ and
Him crucified as my Lord and my God, my sin-bearer, my righteousness,
my holiness, my redemption, my life, my all, that I now live
and know that I live to God. This is how we know we have the
Spirit of God. This is how we know we have eternal
life. He that has the Son has life. 1 John 5 verse 12. The resurrection of Christ is
the only hope that a real sinner has. My only hope that God will
accept me in the day of judgment is that Christ lived and died
for me and that God raised him from the dead. Romans 8.34 says,
Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. My only hope before God,
and in my conscience while I now live, and my only answer in the
day of judgment is this. It is Christ that died. It is
Christ that is risen. God must look upon Him for me. God must accept Him for me and
accept me in Him. I must be found in Him. Philippians
3 verse 9. According to the Word of God,
this persuasion in me is the work of the Spirit of Christ.
Christ is all my salvation from all my sin. He is all my righteousness,
all my holiness before God. He is therefore all of my life
and all of my hope for eternity. I live by Him because He lived
and died and rose for me and now lives in me. Christ in me
is my only hope of eternal glory. Colossians 1 verse 27 says Christ
in you the hope of glory. Galatians 5.5 says we through
the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Jesus
asked Martha, believest thou this? May God so give to you
and me to believe Christ who is himself the resurrection and
the life. You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at ysgracechurch.com.