John chapter 5 and verse 20,
we're going to read from verse 24 through 29. Both of these
texts of scripture, all of them really go together. If you look
at the New Testament, if you look at the Old Testament, there's
one thing that is talked about throughout scripture. And that
is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's one subject. I'm not saying
the Lord is not a thing. He's a person. One subject. The Lord Jesus Christ. So if
you miss anything, don't miss in scripture that the Bible throughout
from first to last is about Him. And so when we think about Him,
We think about not only who he is, but what he did, because
the two things are connected so intimately together that we
can't separate them. His will, his purpose, his promises,
his words, his work, where he is now, it's all connected to
who he is. He does what he does because
of who he is, because of his purpose and will. And so we're
going to see that in the purpose of God, in the will of God, in
his grand scheme throughout the whole of Scripture, that Scripture
everywhere speaks about the Lord Jesus Christ from beginning to
end. And we find it in prophecy, We find it in the law. We find
it in the ceremonies of the law. We find it in the civil laws. We find it in the historical
events. We find it in characters in the
Old Testament. We find it in the types and shadows
of the law. Everywhere it's spoken of. The
Lord Jesus Christ, who He is, what He did to save His people
from their sins, and how He did it, and how He rose again as
a demonstration by God. as the victory he had over all
of our enemies, our sin, and Satan, and our flesh, and everything. And so when we read these verses,
we're hearing the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ as he
spoke to his disciples in verse 24. John chapter 5, he says,
Verily, verily, which means this is as certain as anything can
be certain. I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth
on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death to life." If you hear the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you believe Him, you already
have everlasting life. You have already passed from
death to life. That's what resurrection is.
It's being delivered from death given life. So the one who believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ according to the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ has already been raised from the dead. He has already
passed from death to life. And verse 25, verily, verily,
he continues, I say unto you the hour is coming and now is. "...when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live."
So He amplifies on what He said before. He says, "...the one
who hears His word," in verse 24, "...and believes Him that
sent Me," which is the same as believing the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because the message of God the Father is His Son. Remember what
He said at the Mount of Transfiguration? "...hear ye Him." hear Him. If you believe God, you believe
His Son. If you believe His Son, you believe in God. Jesus even
said in John chapter 14, you believe in God, believe also
in Me. And so, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is the
evidence of already possessing everlasting life. According to
verse 24, you hear the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now do
we hear Christ speak today? Does He speak to us? audibly,
no, he's not on the earth in his body here now, but in his
spirit. The spirit of the Lord Jesus
Christ speaks And He speaks to us in our heart. And what does
He say? He says what God has said in
His Word about the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's the Spirit of
Christ speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ to us in our heart. That Word given to us causes
us to believe Him. And that believing is evidence
of life already in our soul. And verse 25 is an amplification
of that when he says, Verily, verily, I say to you, the hour
is coming, and now is. While he was speaking there to
his disciples, he says, They, the dead, shall hear the voice
of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. He's speaking
of himself. He's the Son of God. Who are
the dead? What is death? Well, as we went
through it last week, Death came into the world by sin. Sin brings
death. Only sinners die. The wages of
sin is death. Romans 6.23. And God says in
Ezekiel 18, that the soul that sinneth, it shall die. So those
who die are sinners. All who sin must be subject to
death, under the sentence of death. When Adam and Eve ate
the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God
said, when you eat that fruit, in the day you eat of it, you
shall surely die. They ate, and immediately something
happened on the inside. They lost, they gained a sense
of their own guilt before God. Knowing their guilt before God,
they gained a sense of God's judgment against them. Having
a sense that God judged them as sinners, guess what happened?
In their mind, they began to be afraid of God and also fear
God in a way of those who are guilty. They couldn't anymore
love Him. They couldn't know Him in His
grace and in His mercy and in His love because they were dead
in sins. The Bible speaks of that in Ephesians
chapter 2. So when Jesus says here, they
that hear the voice, the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God. He's speaking about all of us. All of us are dead. All of us on the inside of who
we are towards God, our spirit, our soul, is dead in sins. We can't know God as dead. We
can't perform the functions of spiritual life. We can't do anything
that is spiritual towards God. Some people say, I'm a very spiritual
person. But no one is spiritual until
God gives us life in our soul. And so Jesus said how that life
comes. He says, the hour is coming in
the future and even now at the present time while he speaks,
when the dead, those who are spiritually dead, shall hear
the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. We're
made a soul and a body, aren't we? In the beginning, Genesis
chapter 2 verse 7, God made man a living soul. He was a body
and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. What we are
is not just one thing, not just a body, and not just a soul,
but a soul and a body joined together in one person. When
we die, we die in soul and body. But when Adam and Eve first sinned,
they didn't immediately die in their body, did they? But they
came under the sentence of death. And whatever God's sentence is,
that sentence is as good as done. They were already dead in their
body under the sentence of God. But it hadn't yet occurred. They
did die, physically. But what immediately happened
is they became dead in their souls. When we hear the voice
of the Son of God, it means that God speaks to us by His Spirit
in our heart concerning Christ and believing Him, Jesus says,
that one is given life in the soul. Not because we produce
that faith, but because God, when He brings His Word, just
like when He spoke The creation out of nothing. His Word actually
performs the work of raising us from the dead. It's His Word,
not our will to live, but His Word on our dead souls that produces
life. That's amazing to think about,
isn't it? And it's very comforting too. Remember in 1 Thessalonians
4.18 it says, comfort one another with these words. How comforting
is it to know that even though I, in myself, am nothing before
God, a total sinner, unable to do one thing that God can accept,
and unable to even believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that in
that condition, God's Word by His power brings me life. And
that Word that He brings us life by is the Word concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We hear the voice of the
Son of God by the Spirit of Christ in our souls concerning who He
is and what He's done. Now, let's read on in verse 26.
For as the Father hath life in Himself, God the Father, so hath
He given to the Son to have life in Himself. His own Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, has life in Himself. And He hath given Him
authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of
Man. Marvel not at this, for the hour
is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear
his voice." Not just limited to those who, while they're living
in their bodies, dead in their souls, hear the voice of God
and live. Not all hear, not all live. But
here it says, all that are in the graves shall hear his voice.
And they shall come forth. they that have done good to the
resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the
resurrection of damnation." Now when you read that verse, first
of all it teaches that everyone who has died will be raised again
when the Lord Jesus Christ comes. Everybody, without exception.
But some are raised, he says, to the resurrection of life.
And he says those that have done good unto the resurrection of
life. And I immediately I'm concerned when he says, they that have
done good, because I know in myself, according to Romans chapter
3, there is none good, no, not one. Well, if none are good,
then how can the Lord say that those who have done good will
be raised to the resurrection of life, if none are good? That
means none are raised to the resurrection of life. But what
he's speaking about here is not a good that comes from us. And here's a key principle of
scripture, that whatever God requires of us, Whatever God
requires of us does something. It shows us our complete need
of whatever it is He requires and our lack of it. And it also
teaches us where our need alone can be found. It is in Him. When
God spoke the worlds into existence, did He look out of the nothingness
for what it needed to bring itself forth? Of course not. He spoke
and His word brought the power to bring that forth. Just so
it is in the resurrection of our souls. God speaks, He brings
with it the power and He raises us. It's a work of God. Not of
us, but of Him. And what He's saying here is
that when He speaks about our good, He's speaking about the
good we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Which I'll explain here
in a minute. But he says, those that are good
to the resurrection of life, they that have done evil to the
resurrection of damnation. There is a resurrection of everybody.
Some will be raised to life, some will be raised to damnation. Now let's turn to the book of
John chapter 11 and read here. In John chapter 11, what we have
is an account of the Lord Jesus Christ and his friends, his disciples
are with him, but his friends, he has three that are named here
in John 11. One is Lazarus, one is Mary,
and one is Martha. Lazarus was the brother, Mary
and Martha were his sisters. And it says here in John chapter
11 verse 1, that a certain man named Lazarus of Bethany, the
town of Mary and Martha, Mary and her sister Martha. It was
that Mary that anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet
with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his
sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest
is sick. So this is the setting. Lazarus
is sick and he's growing more and more sick. In his body he's
sick. His sisters are very concerned
for him. And so what did they do? They sent to Jesus. They
sent to Jesus to tell Jesus, Lord, he whom thou lovest is
sick. And there was no question but
that Jesus loved Lazarus and Mary and Martha. Because it says
here, a certain man that was sick, it says in verse 5, Now
Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. There's no question,
Jesus loved these people. But Lazarus became sick and he
grew sicker and Mary and Martha sent the word to Jesus. Jesus
wasn't there when he grew sick, became ill. But Jesus did something
unusual. Because when he got the word,
of course he knew, it says, what had happened, that he was sick.
Even where he was, even though he wasn't at that place. It says
he stayed there for a while. Let's read in verse 6. I'm sorry,
in verse 4. I'm going to pick it up there.
When Jesus heard that he said this, when he heard that, when
he heard the message that came from Mary and Martha. When he
heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death. But for the
glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. So the purpose for which Lazarus
became sick, the end reason for that, was to glorify the Son
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus. Verse 6, When he had heard therefore
that he was sick, He stayed, He abode two days still in the
same place where He was. Very unusual, isn't it? Why didn't
He get up right away and go? He said His sickness wasn't unto
death, and yet He stayed there. Verse 7, Then after that He said
to His disciples, Let us go into Judea again. His disciples said,
Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou
thither again? Jesus answered, Are there not
twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he
stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But
if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no
light in him. These things said he, and after
that he said to them, Listen, our friend Lazarus sleepeth. What did he mean? He meant that
his body had actually died. And then he says, But I go, that
I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord,
if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death,
but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest and
sleep. Then said Jesus to them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes
that I was not there, to the intent you may believe. Nevertheless,
let us go to him." Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus,
to his fellow disciples, let's go with him, that we may die
with him. They were thinking that when
Jesus went to Bethany, he was going to be captured and taken
and killed. And Thomas said, let's go die with him. He didn't
understand yet what was really going to happen, either here
or in the future. Verse 17, "...then when Jesus
came, he found that he had been in the grave four days already."
So Lazarus got sick, Lazarus got sicker, Lazarus died, and
now Lazarus had been buried in the tomb for four days. And Jesus
had deliberately waited because his sickness was for the glory
of God. Now that's just a summary of
why God allowed sin to enter into the world. For the glory
of His Son. That He might raise His people
from death. That's the whole purpose. And
so we can see, just in this story, a thumbnail sketch of all of
history and the purpose of God in our own death. But listen to this. He says here, Now, Bethany was nigh to Jerusalem
about 15 furlongs off, and many of the Jews came to Martha and
Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Martha and Mary
were greatly in sorrow over Lazarus's death. And they were also having
anxiety over the fact that Jesus had not come when they called. Then Martha, as soon as she heard
that Jesus was coming, went and met Him. But Mary sat still in
the house. And now I want to focus the rest
of our time on these few verses here that follow. Then, listen
to this. Think of this woman now, Martha.
Martha, she was always busy, always doing things. Unlike Mary,
she didn't sit at Jesus' feet. But she was loved of the Lord. And finally she hears that Jesus
is coming. Lazarus has been in the tomb
for four days, but she still goes to Jesus. She still comes
to Him. And the first thing she says,
listen, very respectfully, and yet there's an expression of
her frustration, too, in what she says. Martha said to Jesus,
Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. Can't
you hear that in her voice? Lord, it's almost a question
of accusation. Why didn't you come before he
died? And so then in verse 22, she
says, But I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God,
God will give it thee. Martha had a very limited understanding
of who the Lord Jesus was. And she's going to learn. Aren't
you glad that she asked that question? Aren't you glad that
Jesus allowed Lazarus to die for this reason, that we might
understand? Understand this, that everything that was put
here, that these poor people went through, and the questions
and their anxiety, was put here for our instruction and our comfort. And so, it's very significant
what God has done for us here, as a gift to us. At their expense,
and for His own purpose, to teach us that He might be glorified.
Verse 23, Jesus said to her, Thy brother shall rise again. Now, because he said that, there
was no doubt that Lazarus was going to rise from the dead.
Was there? Absolutely none. It was certain. But she didn't
still know how or what, just like we as we're reading this.
What did he really mean by these words? Verse 24. Martha said
to him in response to that statement of Jesus that he shall rise again,
she said, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection
at the last day. The resurrection at the last
day. Now what did Martha think about the resurrection? She knew
that there was a resurrection. She had learned that and it was
true there would be a resurrection. She even knew when it was going
to happen at the last day. Her understanding of what the
resurrection was consisted in a great event in which God was
going to raise all the dead. She looked at the resurrection
as an event. She thought it was something
that was going to happen. She even had an understanding of
when it was going to be happening. But did that comfort her? actually
very little, because this is where her anxiety is right now.
She's talking to Jesus, and she's as if it just would have healed
him before he had died. And even though now she knows
about the resurrection, it doesn't give her comfort. Even though
Jesus has said, He shall rise again, she's, yeah, but that's
so far off. She really believed in a far
off, fulfillment of something from Scripture that there would
be a resurrection. Hebrews chapter 6 says this is
one of the principles of the doctrine of Christ, that the
dead rise. And so Jesus now brings it to
the point, he says to her in verse 25. And this is one of
those verses of scripture in verse 25 and 26 that we could
read and re-read and just ponder over. And draw from it an understanding
of eternal things and spiritual things and comfort for our souls.
So I just want to read these verses, look at these two verses
together. Jesus said to 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? I've entitled
this message, Believest thou this? Do you believe Do you believe
what the Lord Jesus said here? Do you believe that He is what
He said? And what does it mean? I have
often, for hours, I don't know how many days, have mulled over
these words in my mind. 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. Haven't you thought about those
words before? I am the resurrection and the life. What is the resurrection? Well, we understand the resurrection
as simply being the bringing back to life of a man's body.
From death to life. Isn't that what we think of as
a resurrection? Have you ever heard a sermon where someone
gets very excited and they say, Christ is risen! And they might
say it 3 or 4 or 5 or 10 times. And they put an exclamation point
on it. He's risen! He's risen! And they
say it with enthusiasm. And they seem joyful about it. And you sit there and you listen
to it and you wonder. Why isn't it having an impact
on me? If that is such a monumental
thing, why isn't it affecting me? What does it mean? Don't
you feel like Martha? Lord, what does it mean? I am
the resurrection and the life. What does it mean? The Lord Jesus,
in contrast to what Martha thought about the resurrection as just
an exertion of God's power over the dead and raising them from
death to life, He says He takes it all and He seems to like turn
it inside out and upside down and put it in its right place
and He says, I am the resurrection and the life. I am the resurrection. So we immediately understand
that the resurrection is not just something that happens.
The resurrection is the Lord Jesus Christ in His person, who
He is. But how does that help us? Doesn't
that actually make it more difficult to understand? Sometimes the
truth itself, even though it's true, becomes more difficult
to understand when we hear it. Because we don't understand it.
And when we hear it, it doesn't fit any model that we have. But
when Jesus spoke these words, He was speaking the truth, and
He's speaking them to us now in order to explain what it means
to be the resurrection and the life. And so, we must understand from
these things, first of all, that the One who speaks these, who
says, I am the resurrection and the life, He Himself must be
God. In Psalm 68, verse 20. Psalm
68, verse 20 says, In fact, let's turn to this verse.
This is Old Testament. The Sadducees didn't believe
in the Resurrection. They didn't accept the fact that
there was any truth to it, even though the Old Testament is just
completely full of it. He says in Psalm 68 verse 20,
I love this verse, he says, Verse 20, He that is our God is the
God of salvation. And unto God the Lord belong
the issues from death. To whom do the issues from death
belong? God the Lord. Deuteronomy 32
and verse 39 say something similar. I'm just taking to a couple of
verses in the Old Testament that plainly show you that this is
a fact. God is the one who raises the
dead. Verse 39. It says, "...see now that I,
even I, am He, and there is no God with me, no idol God with
me. I kill and I make alive." It's
a plain teaching, isn't it? God is the one. who kills. God is the one who makes alive.
God is the one who has the issues of death belong to Him. He's
the God of our salvation. And resurrection has everything
to do with salvation. And so when Jesus says, I am
the resurrection and the life, he must therefore be God to be
able to say that not only that like Elijah, remember, in the
Old Testament raised the widow's son to life. He actually laid
his body on that widow's son and asked the Lord to bring his
spirit back into him. And he did. And he raised him
to life. But Jesus isn't saying, I'm that kind of a resurrectant.
I'm not just somebody who goes around raising people from the
dead. That's not what he meant. I am
the resurrection in me. Resident in me. The one who stands
before you. I am the God who raises the dead. But God himself, even though
God raises the dead, something more must happen in order for
there to be a resurrection than just simply the power of God
to raise the dead. Even though we know that God
raises the dead. And what is that? Why is there a resurrection
in the first place? As I said last week, resurrection
is not just reassembling chemicals and components. It's bringing
from death to life. But why is there death? As I
said before, death is the wage. It's the payback. It's what sin
brings. And so wherever there's death,
there had to be sin. Psalm 82 verse 7 it says, You
shall die like men. Only men die. Only men have a
body that dies. Angels don't die. God doesn't
die. They may suffer eternally, but they don't die in their body.
But men die. And so we die because of sin.
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Sin therefore is the problem. Death is the payback. God says,
I kill. Why does he kill? Because of
sin. God holds us accountable to his justice to pay the penalty
of our sin. That's where there's death. So
when Jesus says, I'm the resurrection and the life, he therefore has
to deal with the root problem of death, which is sin. And so
for him to be the resurrection and the life, he's not just God
only. He has to be the one who deals
with sin. And how can he do that? How did
sin enter the world? By one man. Romans chapter 5. By one man sin entered into the
world. But look at 1 Corinthians chapter
15. Death came by sin. And sin came
by one man, Adam. And look at 1 Corinthians chapter
15, verse 22. Verse 21 says, For since by man
came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
When Jesus said, I am the resurrection, He must be God, but He also must
be man. Because only man could overcome
death. He's the one who died. He has
to be the one that suffers the penalty of death. He's the one
who was made under God's law in the first place. He's the
one who broke that law and suffered the curse of it, which is death. But he says, For since by man
came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, we all died when Adam sinned. In our
souls we receive from Adam a nature that's only sinful, dead to God,
dead in sins. It has to be raised to life.
But he says here, as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall
all be made alive. All who were in Adam died when
Adam sinned. Now God is revealing to us what
it means for Jesus to be the resurrection and the life. As
Adam stood in the place of all his people, and all that he did
when he ate that fruit was counted, was charged to his people, so
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the last Adam, he's the only
one between Adam and Christ, and the only one after, the last
Adam, who could stand all for his people, by himself could
stand for his people. So that all that he did, Just
as what Adam did became our sin, and our sin became our death. Just so, all that the Lord Jesus
Christ did as man, became what all of his people did. He did
it for them, and they did it when he did it. Now, this is
the only way that he could be the resurrection and the life.
The only way would be to take away sin. To suffer the penalty
of it. To pay for the guilt of it. before
God. But where does life come from?
Because even though sin is taken away, we also have to obey God's
law. And we can't obey it, because
we're sinners. So even if we were to die, and
even if death in our soul and body occurs, that doesn't pay
for sin. And it doesn't produce a righteousness.
So the Lord Jesus Christ not only had to pay for our sins
by Himself dying, but He had to obey God's law as well. Our
sin had to be put on Him. He had to bear it before God.
God had to bring the curse, the penalty due sin on Him. And he
had to bear it for his people. And his obedience in doing that
was the very righteousness which God credited to his people for
what he did. So that when he says, I am the
resurrection and the life, he's saying that all that God requires
for life, and all that God requires for the payment of sin, to remove
sin, and to satisfy his justice and his law, had to be met in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And He did that as both God and
man. Look at 2 Corinthians 5, verse
21. God did this. He says, for He, God, hath made Him sin for us. who knew no sin." The Lord Jesus
Christ did not know sin. He did no sin. He had no sin.
He was perfect, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.
Hebrews chapter 7. But here He says, He who knew
no sin by God was made sin for us. that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. Just as we were made sinners
in Adam, in Christ we were made the righteousness of God in Him. God looks upon what His Son has
done in His sufferings, in His death, in His obedience unto
death. And He received from Him all that He required and looked
to for His sinful people. That's what it means for the
Lord Jesus Christ to be the resurrection and the life. He is God, He has
life in Himself. As man, He could bear, He could
come under the law. He could fulfill the law as man.
He could stand as the second and last Adam. And He could also
suffer the penalty for our sins, because those sins were made
His. On the cross He bore our sins. He bore the sins of all
of His people. And He suffered for them too.
They were taken from us. They were put upon Him. And when
God found sin on His Son, He took the sword of His justice.
It says in Zechariah chapter 13 verse 7. And He plunged it
into His own Son. He says in, I think it's Zechariah
chapter 13, verse 7, he says, "...smite the shepherd, and the
sheep shall be scattered." And so here we read back in John
chapter 11. Jesus said, "...I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live." The Lord Jesus Christ was made
of God to be the head of His people, the one who represented
them before Him. All that they did, which they
had already done before He even came into the world, all the
sins of all of His people were put upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And God found satisfaction to
His justice in pouring out His wrath into His very soul. Jonah,
we just heard the song, he was cast into the sea by the mariners. And he was swallowed by that
great sea beast. And for three days and three
nights was in the belly of that beast. And on the third day was
spewed out onto the dry ground. And Jesus says, that is an Old
Testament. Representation, a picture, a
foretelling of all that I would do. As Jonah was three days and
three nights in the belly of the fish, so I shall be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Under the
wrath of God, in Jonah 2, 7, he says that all thy billows
and waves have gone over me. The wrath of God was poured out
upon his son. Psalm 88, verse 7, he says that
thy wrath lieth hard upon me. All the wrath of God was poured
out against sin on Christ. And He bore it all too. That's
how He could be the resurrection and the life. He dealt with sin
so that He took it away. He suffered the penalty of it.
He removed the guilt of it. His death was a payment for the
guilt of the sins of His people. And when he died and suffered
that guilt, then all of the justice of God was satisfied in his death. Therefore, he could say in Romans
chapter 6 that he died to sin. He died to sin's guilt. He fully
paid for it. And when he rose from the dead,
it was evidence that that sin had actually been put away. And
so he says, I am the resurrection and the life. The one standing
before Martha was the one who stood for all of his people,
for all of time, and for all of eternity. God would look to
him only for what he required from them. And he would be satisfied
with all that Christ would do for them. I am the resurrection
and the life. God and man are mediator who
took our sins and bore them too. And fulfilled our righteousness
and satisfied God. And God looked upon what he had
done. In his justice, God received
what he did. And he says, raise him from the
dead. Death has no more power over
him. Sin has been paid for. Righteousness
has been fulfilled. And his people were set free.
He obtained for them eternal redemption. Redemption from sin
and death and all that sin brought with it. In His one act, two
thousand years ago, the Lord Jesus Christ dealt with sin.
Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 says, When He had by Himself purged,
cleansed, removed our sins, He sat down on the right hand of
the throne of the majesty on high. So he says to Martha, I
am the resurrection and the life. And then back in John chapter
11 verse 25 he says, He that believeth in me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. We died when we died in Adam,
didn't we? We received our sinful nature
from Adam. We never had, we've never, all
humanity, no one has ever been born into this world with a nature
that wasn't dead in sins. We're all dead, and that's why
Jesus said, we read it in John 5.25, that now is the time, and
it's coming still, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God, and they that hear shall live. The dead. We're spiritually
dead. Dead in sins. God has to raise us from our
spiritual death. And he says here, "...he that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." Though
he were dead. We're dead in sins, aren't we?
But the one believing is giving evidence to the fact that something
has happened. He's no longer dead in sins.
He's been given something. He's been given life in order
that he might see. Because faith is seeing. Faith
is a persuasion of the truth. We can't know the truth when
we're dead. spiritually dead, but when God gives us faith,
He opens our understanding. He gives us a new heart. He causes
us to see that all of my salvation, all of my obedience to God, all
of my sin payment is found in His own Son. In He who is the
resurrection and the life. And we see that, and we're persuaded
of it, and we think, I, a dead sinner, how could I look and
see the Lord Jesus Christ, and understand, and come to God by
Him alone, and realize that all that God requires of me, for
punishment for my sins, and for my own righteousness, He found
in His Son. How could that be? And we're
amazed. Amazing grace. And so, He says, he that believeth
on me, though he were dead, though he were dead in sins, if he's
believing, then he says here, verse 25, yet shall he live. He lives. He lives in his soul,
and he shall yet live. But he also means this. That
if we're believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, we not only already
live in our souls, but when our bodies die, Our souls live, and
if our bodies die, therefore because he believes on the Lord
Jesus Christ, he is in Christ. And since Christ is the resurrection
and the life, that one who is in Christ cannot die. He will
live. Look at Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, he says... In verse 10 of Romans chapter
8. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead. That means it's under the sentence
of death. It's as good as dead. It's dying
and it's going to die. Because it's under the sentence
of death. If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. But the spirit is life because
of righteousness. Now this spirit spoken of here
is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us. If Christ be in you, Christ
lives. He's the resurrection and the
life and He overcame death. And if He who rose from the dead
dwells in you by His Spirit, Then you have life in you, and
that life in you is Him living in you, and He lives in you because
He fulfilled all of God's requirements. That's what righteousness is.
It's doing all God requires. And then in verse 11 He says,
"...but if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the
dead dwell in you, What God is saying here is that because Christ
lives in us, and we're body and soul, That not only do we live now
by His Spirit in us, but our bodies shall live because He
lives in us. Our bodies belong to Him. You
are a temple of the Holy Ghost. He says in 1 Corinthians 6.19. You've been bought with a price.
You're not your own. God dwells in you. Christ dwells
in us. And Christ lives. Paul the Apostle
in Galatians 2.20 says, I'm crucified with Christ. That with Christ
means that, just like I said earlier, He's the resurrection
and the life because He stood for all of His people. All that
He did, they did in Him. I'm crucified with Christ. He
took me with Himself to the cross. He bore my sins in His own body
on the tree. And now, because He died, I'm
dead to sin. And He says, I'm crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life that I now live
in this flesh, this dying flesh, I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. You see what
he's saying? Christ lives in me because he
died for me, rose for me, paid the debt I owed, fulfilled righteousness
for me. Because he's done that and was
justified by God and was raised from the dead, he lives in me.
In order to make me alive in me. Have life in me. I live by
His life. His life is my life. Colossians
3 verse 1 through 4, he says, Christ is our life. If you then
be risen with Christ, we're risen with Him because He lives in
us and died for us. And when He rose, we were justified
in Him. Because His life is in us, our
bodies, though they die, will rise again. That's what he's
saying here. He'll quicken your mortal bodies. He'll raise you
from the dead. Now, back in John chapter 11,
this is exactly what he's speaking of here. When he says in verse
25, "...he that believeth on me, though he were dead, though
he were dead before in the deadness of his sins, though he die in
his body, either one, yet shall he live." Because that life is
evidenced by the faith I've given to him. Faith is the gift of
God. We don't produce it, it's given
to us. It's the evidence of life. In verse 26, And not only does
the believer who believes in Christ, whose soul lives, if
his body dies, yet he shall live. But whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. What does 2 Corinthians 5.8 say?
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Because we live, because Christ lives in us, we've already passed
from death to life, haven't we? Isn't that what Jesus said in
John 5.24? He that believes on me has already
passed from death to life. If we've already been raised,
Then when we die in our bodies, we immediately go to be with
the Lord. We're absent from the body and
present with the Lord. What did Jesus say to the thief
on the cross? Here he is, hanging next to the thief. The thief
is dying. The Lord Jesus is about to give
up his life, his own life in death. And he tells the thief,
he says, today you will be with me in paradise. How could that
be? Jesus was buried after they took
him off the cross. He wasn't in paradise, was he?
Yes, he was. Because in his human soul, as
God, he was in heaven. He immediately left his body,
like his people do, and went to heaven. And the thief who
was redeemed, who was saved by Christ, he said to that thief,
you will be with me today in paradise. He died in his body,
yet his soul lived, and therefore his soul immediately went to
be with the Lord. He already passed from death
to life. He that believeth on me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes
in me shall never die. But not only those who live in
their soul, not only do they never die in their soul, but
also at the end of time, all who are alive and believing on
the Lord Jesus Christ, When the Lord Jesus comes, they're alive
and they believe on Him, they shall never die. Not even in
their body. Because when the Lord comes,
we read in 1 Thessalonians 4, that when the Lord comes, He
will call forth the dead bodies of the souls who are with Him
already in Heaven, and they will come out of the graves. And they'll
be joined to their soul, their body and soul. And their bodies
will be made like His glorious body. And then those who are
alive, he said in 1 Thessalonians 4, they will be immediately changed. And they'll be raised up to be
with the Lord in the air. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
15. One more verse here. Two more actually. 1 Corinthians
15. He says... In verse 51, Behold I show you
a mystery. We shall not all sleep. Not every
believer, not everyone who is in Christ, not everyone will
die in their body. But we shall all be changed in
a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. For
the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. And we shall be changed. For
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal
must put on immortality. Because flesh and blood doesn't
inherit the kingdom of God. Only an immortal body, a glorious
spiritual body can inherit it. So then we read on in verse 54,
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and
this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought
to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. And the Lord Jesus Christ answered
the law. And answering the law, He put
away sin. The sting has been removed. The
strength of sin has been removed. And therefore, death is no more. Death has been swallowed up in
victory. He says, But thanks be to God, which giveth us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, turn with me to
2 Corinthians chapter 1. It's just a page or two over.
And hold your place there. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. When
we think about the resurrection, it gives us great comfort, doesn't
it? There's a few reasons for that. Number one, resurrection
depends in no way upon the person being raised. It's very important
to realize that. All of the power comes from the
one who does the raising, the Lord Jesus Christ. Resurrection
doesn't depend on me in any way. It does not depend on us. Everything
God requires for us to live, He provides. And we already saw
that everything He requires to raise us from the dead, He provided
in His Son. the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's
the first comforting thing about it. And think about this, in
your own experience, in the struggle you have, when you think, have
I been raised by the Lord Jesus? Do I believe in Him? When you
ask all these questions, do I have any part of this eternal life?
What is your answer? Well, we begin to be very concerned. Because we hear things like,
well those that have done good are raised to the resurrection
of life. And we know in ourselves we haven't
done good. We know we're sinners. But we understand from God's
word that our righteousness, our goodness is not found in
ourselves. It's found in the Lord Jesus. So we take comfort. We know that everything God requires
to raise us from the dead, He's provided in His Son. And all
the power comes from God. So we look at ourselves in all
the emptiness of our spirituality and our need, and we know that
the power must come from God. And so we just say, Lord, raise
me from the dead. I know that you can do it. There's
nothing impossible for you. You've overcome death. You can
raise me from the dead. But in our experience, in our
daily experience throughout our lives, until the end of our life,
we have this warfare going on with sin in us. And that sin
in us gives us all cause for great concern. And it bothers
us. We don't want to sin. We look
for that day when, by the victory of Christ, we'll be completely
delivered from sin. That, to me, is the most wonderful
thing about the resurrection. I'll be free from sin. To sin
no more. Saved to sin no more. But here,
in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, listen to this. He says in verse 5,
"...the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation."
aboundeth by Christ." As sufferings come to us, guess what? God comforts
us by Christ. And whether we be afflicted,
it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual
in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. So what
Paul is saying is, us, apostles, and we who minister the gospel
to you, when we suffer, or even killed, our suffering becomes
a source of comfort to you, because we're bringing the gospel. and
you see us suffering, and you see that God delivers us, and
so you're comforted. Or, whether we be comforted.
It is for your consolation and salvation. So whether we suffer
or are comforted, we are always doing it for your sakes. And
our hope of you is steadfast, knowing that as you are partakers
of the sufferings, so shall you be also of the consolation. For
we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which
came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure above
strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. So here now Paul
is describing his experience. That all of the troubles in his
life came upon him so that he even despaired of life. But,
we had the sentence of death in ourselves. Why? That we should
not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead. Why
are all of these troubles? Why did the Lord Jesus Christ
allow Lazarus to die? Why did He wait so long? He waited. He allowed him to die and He
waited until there was no solution. And all hope was gone. So that
everyone would understand. Do not trust in yourselves, but
trust in the living God who raises the dead. Now look over at chapter
4 of the same book. 2 Corinthians 4. He says this.
Verse 7, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, our body
is a vessel, it's an earthen vessel. It's got to stay in this
earth, that the excellency of the power may be of God, not
of us. Paul spent all of his time talking
about the fact that the grace he needed to live was not from
himself, it came from God. All of his value, all of his
righteousness, all of his standing before God was in his Savior,
not in himself. So he says, we have this treasure,
that treasure is the gospel, given to us in our earthen vessels,
that the excellency of the power may be of God, not of us. We
are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed,
but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always
delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. You see what the
experience of the believer is? Hope not only because he raises
my soul from the dead. Hope not only because he raises
our bodies from the dead on the last day. But hope now in my
experience that he's going to deliver me from this sinful flesh. Deliver me so that I'll be able
to see His face and be made like Him. Psalm 17 verse 15, He says,
I will be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness. And that's our
hope, isn't it? That because the resurrection
is in and on the account of the Lord Jesus Christ doing all for
His people. Because the power of it comes from Him. It says
in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 45, He's made a quickening spirit.
The last Adam is made a quickening spirit. Because we're joined
to Him, we must live with Him. He must live in us, and He must
quicken our body. And He will, will, will give
us victory over sin. We live to God in confidence,
knowing that in all of the weakness, out of the context of all of
our weakness, We can look to the one who sits on heaven's
throne, living to God, living in us, to bring us from death
to life. That is our hope. It's all of
our hope, all of our salvation. Our God is the God of salvation,
and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. Let's
pray. Father, we thank you that all of our life and all of our
resurrection is in our Lord Jesus Christ as our mediator. as our
head, as the head of the body, the church, as the one chosen
from eternity. And us, chosen in Him, to be
with Him. And He prayed, Father, I would
that they whom You have given Me be with Me where I am. Lord,
because You live, we know we will live also. Because You died,
we know our sins are put away. Because You obeyed, even unto
death, we know our righteousness is everlastingly established.
And eternal life is ours because it's a reward for Your obedience.
We pray, dear Lord, that we would know these things in our heart
and live upon them in this faith that you alone can give. We pray,
dear Lord, that we would know, too, that in believing, it's
the evidence of this life in us already. And so we thank you,
Lord, for this grace. We're delighted and comforted
and confident and hopeful. And we love you for being so
good and gracious to sinners like us who find no strength
in themselves, but find all their strength in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In His name we pray. Amen.