John's Gospel, chapter 19. John 19. Let's read the last
five verses of this chapter. John 19. After this, after our
Lord bowed His head and gave up the ghost, after this, Joseph
of Arimathea, being the disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear
of the Jews, Besought Pilate that he might take away the body
of Jesus. Pilate gave him leave, a permission.
And he came, therefore, and took the body of Jesus. Came also
Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, brought
a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight.
Then took they the body of Jesus. wound it in linen cloths, clothes
with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in
the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. And in the
garden, a new sepulchre, or grave, wherein was never yet man laid.
There laid they Jesus. Therefore, because of the Jews'
preparation day, the sepulchre was nigh at hand. 1 Timothy 3.16 says, Great is the
mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh.
That's a great mystery. A great mystery is that this
God became a man. A great mystery is that he died. on the cross. He never ceased
to be God. In fact, Scripture says, feed
the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. So, this is a great mystery. He died on that cross three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth as He said. Where
was He? Where was He? No one knows. We
may look into that a little on Sunday. Alright, two of his disciples
came to bury his body. Verses 38 and 39. One was Joseph
of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear
of the Jews, came and besought that he might take away the body.
And there came Nicodemus that came at first by night over in
John chapter 3, as you know. Joseph and Nicodemus, one, a
very rich man. The tomb, which our Lord was
buried in, belonged to him. He gave it for that purpose,
to fulfill the Scripture, Isaiah 53. But he's a very rich man. He's a counselor, Scripture says.
He's on some kind of counsel. And Nicodemus was a Pharisee,
okay? Now our Lord said this, the Lord
Jesus says, how hardly shall they that have riches enter the
kingdom of heaven. Didn't it? It's easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle than for those who have
riches to enter the kingdom of heaven. But here is this rich
man begging over in Mark and Luke, it says he begged for the
body. He wouldn't take no for an answer.
He begged Pilate. Rich men don't beg. He did. From a rich man to a beggar.
And then Nicodemus was a Pharisee. The Pharisees were the ones that
wanted Christ dead. Nicodemus at some point was on
the Sanhedrin and all those Pharisees wanted our Lord dead. They hated Him. But God. God is rich in mercy. Rich in
mercy. Good to all that call upon Him.
All who come to God by Christ, He will receive. Look with me
at 1 Timothy 2. You know, God will have all sorts
of men to be saved. And that's what Paul wrote to
young Timothy and to us to pray for everyone. 1 Timothy 2. I
pray for leaders, rulers, kings. Here it is, 1 Timothy 2, look
at it. I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers,
intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. Now, can you pray for every single
man on the face of the earth? No. Notice men, okay, not mankind. Are you with me? It says men,
not mankind. It's going to clear up a verse
that people use and misuse and abuse. All right? I exhort that
prayer and supplication and giving of thanks be made for all men,
all sorts of men. That's what that's talking about.
High, low, rich, poor, black, white, Jew, Gentile, old, young. All right? For kings, see this,
all that are in authority, kings, that we may lead a quiet and
peaceful life, peaceful life in all godliness and honesty.
But this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.
When our Lord prayed on that cross, Father forgive them, 3,000
people later were saved as a result of his intercessory prayer, right?
One mediator, we're going to read that, one mediator between
God and men, not man, men, the man, Christ Jesus. When he prayed,
3,000 souls later were saved. Just Jews? Oh no, Jews, Gentiles,
high, low, rich, poor, young. Rulers. I think Nicodemus is
one of them. Rich men, I think. I'm certain
of it. Anybody that's saved was saved.
It wasn't just 3,000, it was 3 trillion saved by that prayer. Read on. It says, He will have
all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. Everybody everywhere, every false
preacher says, see there, God wants everybody to be saved. If He will have every single
person saved, they're going to be saved. So what does it mean? Keep it in context. You'll have
all sorts of men. Kings, peasants. Jews, Gentiles. That's what the Lord was saying
to Nicodemus at night, wasn't it? God so loved the world, Nicodemus. Not just Jews. Are you with me? Alright. There's one God and
one mediator between God and men. Not mankind. Men. He doesn't mediate for all people. He said, I pray not for the world,
didn't I? But for those that thou hast
given me. All sorts of people. High, low. Who gave himself a
ransom for all. All who? All those men he's talking
about. And people. Is that clear to
you? Sure it is. Scriptures has to
gel with other scripture. We compare spiritual thing with
spiritual thing, okay? You can't take that out of context.
See? He gave himself, Jesus died for everybody. It doesn't say
that. At any rate, here's the point
I'm trying to make. I'm trying to make, the Lord's
making it clear. It's the amazing mercy and grace
and power of God that He saves any sinner. It takes the grace
and the mercy and the electing grace of God to save, the power
of God to save any sinner, let alone great sinners. How hardly shall they that have
riches enter the kingdom. Well, here a man comes and he
was rich. Well, he's one of the Lord. He belongs to one of the Lord.
He has some noble. Not many might even know, but
some. Doesn't say not any, it says
not many. Pharisee. He said, woe unto you scribes,
Pharisees, and hypocrites. Called them all hypocrites. But
now here comes one, he's not a hypocrite. God's changed him. So there's hope for anybody. And that hope is in Jesus Christ.
There's hope for the worst. I looked up again, I went back
and looked up some of these people, Manasseh. King Manasseh was one of the
most wicked, if not the most wicked king ever in the history
of history. Read it for yourself. The Lord had mercy on that man.
In the end, in the end, he pleaded for mercy and it says the Lord
was entreated and he put away idols and everything right before
he died. Nebuchadnezzar. He had a big
idol of himself made. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
had them thrown in a fiery furnace because they wouldn't bow down
to the idol. Nebuchadnezzar. I believe God saved that man.
He said, I came to my understanding. I now know that God's God, not
me. Darius. Threw Daniel in the lion's
den. And after the Lord brought Daniel
out there, He said, Daniel's God is God, and I make a decree. Anybody that doesn't worship
Him, I'm going to throw them in the lion's den. Saul of Tarsus, breathing out
threatenings and slaughterings to the church, but God. You see how merciful our God
is. There's no one that's hopeless. I don't care how high. I don't
care how low. I don't care how self-righteous. I don't care
how wicked and vile. In the pew, in the pulpit, in
the guttering, same grace saves them all. I've told you this
before. I just love this story. William
Jay was a great preacher years ago with John Newton, who wrote
Amazing Grace. John Newton was a slave trader.
He came over to this country, went to Africa, and took black
people, captives, and went and sold them. That's about as bad
as you can get it. Somebody like that deserves to
die. But he did. The Lord had mercy
on him. That's the reason he wrote that
saved a wretch like me. Anyway, Newton and William Jay
were good friends and John Newton came in one day to William Jay's
study and William Jay said, did you hear brother John? At so-and-so,
let's say, old John Davis, the Lord saved him. Can you believe
that? This notorious fellow. The Lord
saved him. And Jay said, I'll not despair
of God saving anybody since He saved old John. And John Newton
said, Brother Jay, I have not despaired of the Lord saving
anybody since He saved me. Can you say that? Can you? So, Joseph and Nicodemus. You know, Luke says that Joseph
was a good man. He was a real bad man. The Lord
turned him into a good man. None of us are any good. None
good. No, not one, by nature. But when Christ is put in you,
that's a good man. It says he was a just man. The just should live by faith.
There was a time he didn't believe Christ. He does now. He's justified. He's a just man. It says he was
waiting on the kingdom of God. Waiting on the kingdom of God.
He wasn't before. He is now. What's the kingdom
of God? Do you remember Simeon? It says he was waiting on the
consolation of Israel. And he held a body. A woman came
in and he held that body and said, I've seen thy salvation.
He held the body of that baby named Jesus. Well, this man held
a body too, the same one. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, once a
Pharisee, sat in the council of the ungodly. Now he's begging
for the body of Jesus Christ. Both of these men were secret
disciples. How can this be? How can it be? Can somebody be
a secret disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ? Yep. It says that this man was. How
can this be? Because every man at his best
state is altogether vanity, and every man at his best state is
a coward. Every woman, unless the Lord
gives us courage, strength. And until we grow in grace and
the knowledge of our Lord, we're going to do things and say things
and act like they're secret. Nobody has a clue that we're
a disciple. Right? Somebody once said, if
being a Christian was a crime, there'd be enough evidence to
convict you. That's a good question. I hope at some point that people
will take note, like they did of the disciples, they'd been
with him. They said of Simon, yeah, you're one of his, your
speech betrays you. I want my speech to betray me,
don't you? But there have been examples of this. Abraham. He denied his wife not only once,
but twice. Why? Fear. He's afraid. The Egyptians are going to kill
him. His son did the same thing. Lot. Lot went out and finally
warned his sons, his son-in-laws, didn't he, to flee from the wrath
to come. But it says that he seemed as
one didn't mock, as if to say, why hadn't you warned us before
now? There you go. David, David's
strong, who He took on Goliath single-handedly. Later on he
said, Saul's going to kill me. And so he ran. You know where
he ran to? You know where he lived? Gath. That's where Goliath
was from. The heathen enemy. What are you
doing there, David? And not only that time, but later
on he ran from Absalom. You know, salvation's the same
for all. By grace you're saved through
faith. But faith is not to the same degree. We all have the
same object of faith. We all don't have the same degree
of faith. There's strong faith and there's
weak faith. Thank God weak faith is saving faith. Aren't you? Aren't you thankful? He said
if you had the faith as a grain of a mustard seed, Sometimes
I feel like that's about it. One time he said to his disciples,
they were acting in such a way like they'd never heard a thing
he said. He said, why is it you have no faith? They were acting like they didn't
have any faith. What about you? Have you ever done that? Have
you ever? Will you? Yes, you probably will.
We will. We don't know. We just don't
know. So see, this magnifies the grace of God, doesn't it?
Doesn't this magnify? There's not a shadow of a doubt
in my mind, in my heart, that salvation's of the Lord. It's
by grace, and I'm kept by the power of God. I don't care if
I'm a babe in Christ or an old man in Christ. I'm kept by the
power of God. We all have the same object of
faith, but not all the same degree of faith. And we've got to grow
in grace and the knowledge of our Lord. The more we grow in
grace and the knowledge of Him, the stronger our faith will be.
The greater we'll be our witness, the less our fear will be. How
does grace grow? Desire the sincere milk of the
Word that you might what? Grow thereby. What you're doing
right now. I need to hear this. Don't you? You need to hear this. You wouldn't
have heard this if you hadn't been here. So, all right, these men came. They finally came forward. Better
late than never. That's for sure. When it comes
to confessing Christ, that thief on the cross will
better late than never, huh? They finally come and they ask,
they beg, they identify with the body of Christ. Before they
weren't, now they are. They're identifying with the
body of Christ before the richest, the most powerful man on earth.
They say, what are you doing here? I'm a believer in Jesus
Christ and I want his body. I must have his body. That's
my Lord and Savior that was crucified for me, and we're going to afford
him an honorable burial. Please let me have his precious
body." Identified with the body of Christ. No longer caring what
the world thought. No longer caring that they might
lose something from them. Like Paul, Saul, who hated Jesus
Christ, and then finally, when he met Christ, He loved Jesus
Christ. He said, I count everything but
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And
I would suffer the loss of all things. I have. It's just done. Baptism is the public confession
of faith in Jesus Christ. It's not an option. Our Lord
said, he that believeth and is baptized. He said, he that confesseth
me, I'll confess. He that does not, I will not
confess you before the Lord. Baptism is not an option. But
some people wait. Some people are reluctant. Some
people are shy, maybe even embarrassed. How can that be? What are we
waiting on? That the eunuch, after he heard
the gospel, he said, here's water, what does it intervene? Stop!
Boy, he couldn't wait till tomorrow. He had to confess Christ. Why do we wait? Are we waiting
on feelings? You know, we're not saved by feelings. We're
not trusting our feelings. We're not trusting our flesh.
We're not confessing ourselves. We're confessing Christ. What
we're confessing is, I'm a sinner who deserved to be crucified,
buried, and put out of sight and out of mind. But I hope Christ
did it for me. I believe he did it for me. That's
what we're confessing. I want to be raised and walk
in newness of life. I want to be raised. I want to
be in the kingdom of God with Christ someday. I hope He did
all that for me and I hope I'll be with Him someday. That's who
we're confessing. That's what we're doing. Don't
wait on stronger faith. You don't wait on a feeling.
But baptism is a confession of Christ. It's the
public confession. When did these men come forward?
When did these men come and identify with the body of Christ and confess
Christ publicly? When? When they saw Him crucified. And not until then. When they
finally saw Him, when they beheld His glory, Christ on the cross,
that's His great glory. And their shame, Him taking their
shame, Him taking their place, Him stripped of their clothes,
Him made sin, their sin put away, covered. That's when they said,
how could I not confess Him? So they both came forward. And
they both concluded this. One man was religious, one was
rich and a counselor. All right? But they both concluded,
we didn't know God, we didn't know this Jesus Christ, we didn't
know who He was, why He came, who He came for. We thought we
were like Saul of Tarsus, zealous, but they didn't know the true
and living God. They didn't know the true Christ
of Scripture. Now they do. What about you? If you confess some Jesus years
ago that tried and failed and standing outside and you let
Him in your heart's door and accept Him as your personal Savior,
you have not confessed Jesus' crime. And you need to do it. And you say, well, people think
I'm just now saved. Who cares? You know, there's
no seniority among saints. Saul of Tarsus was about 60 years
old. Going to be the next high priest.
But he was baptized. He lost all that. He lost his
place, his job, his reputation, his friends. He's born again.
Got to be born sometime. Again. Whether you're 16 or 60.
There's no seniority among the saints. Peter, James. Peter and
James, in fact, deferred to Paul. They said, you need to ask Paul.
He's wiser than we are. They're a lot younger in the
faith. So these men came. They came
forward. They besought. They were seeking Him. Begging
the body of Jesus Christ. A rich man begging. You know,
salvation has come to you. Salvation has come to someone
when Christ is the one thing you need. Christ, the body of Christ, was
the one thing they coveted and desired. One thing. They were
begging for the body of Christ. And salvation has come to you
when you beg, when you need. You cannot go on without Christ. That's when salvation comes.
And then you cease to go to church and you come to Him. Meaning, this is not a ritual
or a habit, it's your joy and rejoicing in need. A need to
be where he is. Eat his body and drink his blood.
Alright, let's look at this precious body. It says they came, and
it mentions the body twice. They might take away the body
of Jesus. A man, the body of a man. And they came therefore,
verse 38, and took the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus that came
to him by night brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, and they
took the body of Jesus. This was not just any body. This is the precious body of
the Son of God. This is not just any body. but the precious body of the
Son of God. Hebrews 10 says, Lo, I come,
in the volume of the book, quoting a song, in the volume of the
book, Lo, I come, it's written of me, a body hast thou prepared
me. What kind of body? A sinless
body. The only sinless body ever other
than Adam. sinless, pure, whole, clean hands. His hands never did anything
but good. His feet never went anywhere
but in service to God and other people. His mind, he never thought
one evil thought, only good, holy, righteous, and godly thoughts
of mercy and love and grace and truth. What a man! What a body! Sinless flesh, clean
hands of pure heart, sinless mind, His lips. His lips and His tongue, never,
no guile, no lies, never, no gossip, all truth. Grace poured from His lips. What
does this say about man's depravity? That they wanted to silence those
lips. They wanted to stop those hands. They wanted to stop those
feet. And they nailed them to the cross. What does this say about true
beauty? He had no outward beauty, no form or cumulus. He wasn't
tall, dark and handsome. He was very plain, very ordinary.
You couldn't pick him out from anybody in the crowd. He had
no beauty. He wasn't handsome to look at.
What does this say about true beauty? Oh, to be blind to the flesh.
Wouldn't you like to be blind to the flesh? See things as they really are.
You know what our Lord said of Him? He's altogether lovely. Altogether lovely. Spotlessly
pure. Oh, this is not just any body. This is the body, the holy body
of the Son of the Most High God. And so, God His Father. God His Father gives the command. You're going to bury my son with
honor. Do you know that the worst criminals
were crucified? And you know what they did with
their bodies? They threw them in a common grave. Every one
of them on top of each other. They wouldn't let the family
have those bodies. They threw them in a common grave
like a bunch of dog carcasses. Our God says, not my son. Oh, God, the Father gave the
command. He gave the command to bury his
beloved son with honor and dignity. My brother's body was blown to
bits in Vietnam. And this country, and of course
his father gave him an honorable burial. I'll never forget it
as long as I live. I was 15 years old. There was
21 guns. I'll never forget that. Let me not forget this. This
do in remembrance of me. Let me never forget this. God
the Father gives a command, His beloved Son is to be buried with
honor and dignity. After 33 years of toil and labor,
after 33 years of sweat and suffering and sorrow and tears and bloodshed,
after being brutally beaten, brutally battered, mocked, scoffed,
spit on Him, ridiculed, mock his pain while he's hanging on
that cross, reviled. The Father gives the command,
lay this precious broken body in a tomb fit for a king. You're not going to touch it
anymore. Give it honor. You know, the
bodies of our loved ones are precious, aren't they? They're
precious, aren't they? Your beloved mother, your beloved
husband, your daughter. You're not going to let them
do just any old thing to their body, are you? I held the body of my best friend. When I was 15 years old, I held
his dead body in my arm. Tried to resuscitate him. Couldn't
do it. He's dead. I held my father's face in my hands and kissed his
brow when he's dead. You've done the same thing. You
love them. Those bodies are precious. That's
their body. You know, they're going to assume
that body again. They're going to assume that body again, only
it's going to be free from any... They're going to be young and
free from imperfections. Our Lord God loved the body of
his son. And you know what? I do too. That's why, listen to me now,
the mass is an abomination to God. Catholic priests take the body. They actually say, this is actually
the body of Jesus Christ. I'm breaking it, and I'm giving
it to you. You are not going to handle Jesus
Christ's body. They did that once, and God said,
you're not going to do it again. Trodden underfoot the blood of
the Son, make it a common thing. His body is not in man's hands
again, ever. Ever. And since He did what He did
and allowed man to do what He did, now everybody's in His hands. And when we die, we say, Lord,
receive my body. I've said so many times, I love
this thought. You know, Catholicism has this
statue and these idols and these pictures of Mary holding the
dead body of our Lord. She never did that. Read it.
It's not in there. She never did that. But I'll
tell you what did happen. When she died, the Lord Jesus Christ came and
held her body and took her up to glory. This is a precious body. He lived
in honor to the Father and he died in honor. We've just read
in 1 Corinthians 15 how this body is sown in dishonor, not
Christ's. This body is sown in corruption,
not Christ. He had no sin. He was sown in
honor. Sown in corruption. So, Joseph
and Nicodemus, picture this. They had to pry the nails out
of his hand. What if that's somebody you knew?
I had to get up there and hold those hands. And then those precious
feet. Do you think they kissed those
feet? Do you think Joseph and Nicodemus
kissed those feet? And then they got that body down. I don't know, they carried it
between them. Do you think they embraced that body? covered him
with linen. Linen is the priestly garment. Joseph brought a hundred pounds
of the finest ointment. Christ didn't need any ointment.
They, you know, they buried, this was a custom of the Jews
because there was no embalming. They had to cover them with spices
because they'd corrupt, start corrupting and stinking. Our
Lord saw no corruption. He's not going to stink. He is
like Solomon said of the beloved, his cheeks were spices. Myrrh
came from his hand. Myrrh is what he brought. That's
the balm of Gilead, myrrh. It's a tree that's wounded. It's
the blood of a tree that's wounded and heals. Myrrh, aloe, soothing. to anoint
His body. Do you reckon they embrace that
body? I thought about this. They're
carrying that body. Just like the priests of old
were told to carry the ark. It was not to be put on a cart.
It was to be carried by the priest. In honor. Bore up. Carry that ark. Christ is the
ark. So they carried His precious
body. Embrace that body. Have you embraced Him? Have you
beheld the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross for you? Have you
embraced Him in love and gratitude and confessed Him at Believer's
Baptism? Why not? So, they came and there was a
garden, verse 41. Just now getting to the garden. There was a garden, verse 41.
They're going to bury him in a garden. Isn't that fitting? There was a garden nearby, a
sepulchre and a grave. Go to Genesis 2 with me. Genesis
2. You know, the creation of man
began in a garden. The Lord created a garden. He
put a man in it. Created out of the dust of the
ground. Isn't this fitting? A garden. What is a garden? I looked up
the definition of a garden. We need a definition. But it's good. It says it's a
plot of ground where you plant seed and fruits and herbs for
food grow from it. Well, that's fitting. The seed
is going to be planted. Didn't our Lord say, except the
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die? It will bring forth
no fruit. Now Genesis 2, look at this.
Verse 2, on the seventh day God ended His work. Christ laid in the grave on the
seventh day. What does that mean? He finished
the work. He ended. He rested from His
work. He's our Sabbath. Now down in verse 8, the Lord
God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And there He put the
man whom He had formed. There was a garden, and there
he put the man, Christ Jesus, the body he formed, not from
the dust, mind you. And out of the ground, verse
9, made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to
the sight and good for food, the tree of life. Are you with me? Maybe you didn't
read that. There was a garden here, and the Lord put a man,
and he said, this is the tree of life. That's Christ. What's the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil? Christ crucified. He's both. He's the tree of life
and He's the tree Christ crucified on a tree is the knowledge of
good and evil. And a river went out with four
heads You know what's going to come
of this? This man planted in this garden, this seed, this
incorruptible seed that goes in this ground. You know what's
going to come of this? A river of mercy and grace. Four heads
to the four corners of the globe. Four Gospels to the four corners
of the globe. And what our Lord does, there's
going to be fruit, people that no man can number from one seed
planted in that garden. Let's see. I was going to have you turn to
Canticles 5, that's the Song of Solomon, where it says the
church is his garden. He said, I've come into my garden,
I'm bringing my myrrh. He said, I've come into my garden. So he was planted in this garden. And alright, there was a sepulcher
back in the text. There was a sepulcher. And a
grave, that means grave. But sepulchre is a little different
than the graves as we know it. This was not in the ground, down
in a pit in the dirt. But this was hewn out of the
rock. It was a cleft of the rock. Okay? We came from the dust and
that's where they put us. Right? They put us down in the
ground, they cover our bodies with dirt. Why is that? That's
what we came from, that's why the Lord said to bury us. Put
them in the dirt, because that's what they came from and that's
what they'll go back to. Not our Lord. He didn't come
from the dirt. He didn't come from the dust.
He didn't go back to dust. He didn't corrupt. His body didn't
corrupt. Psalm 16.10 says, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
nor suffer thy holy one to see corruption. We sinned and we
were committed back to the ground that was cursed because of our
sin. Not Christ. A sepulcher is a tomb. Tombs were reserved for great
people. Tombs were reserved for rich
people. Tombs are reserved for kings. They're enshrined, the bodies
of kings, usually in golden caskets. Our Lord didn't even have a casket.
Why? You know what the word casket
is? Ark. Same word. He didn't need a casket. He is the Ark. Okay? He's entombed. The Lord had his
body enshrined. He was given a rich man's grave. Isaiah 53 did no violence. Neither was any deceit in him.
So God afforded him or gave him a tomb fit for a king. He was in a virgin tomb. It says
in verse 41, never man yet laid there. A virgin tomb. Where was he born? A virgin womb. And no man had lived, came from. He's the first born of a woman
and the first born from the dead. If they'd have thrown his body
in a common grave, you couldn't have picked him out from anybody.
You'd go and you'd find bones and you'd just say it's him.
But they went, you could go into this tomb from now on and it's
empty. Later on, it's empty, and everybody
knows. One man went in there. It was a borrowed tomb, like
the womb. It was a borrowed tomb. He didn't
need it for long. He didn't need it for long, a
borrowed tomb, like Mary's womb. He was in the cleft of the rock. the cliff to the rock. And Luke's gospel says that they
had a great stone rolled for a door. He's in the cliff to
the rock, a great stone over the opening, and the door. Christ
is all. He's all there. He's the rock
of ages cleft for me. He's the stone of stumbling and
rock of a pen. He's the door. He's the way of
eternal life. So it was a borrowed tomb. It
was a rich man's grave, a virgin tomb, a borrowed tomb. He's not staying. And I close
with this illustration. Down in Mexico, this still happens,
and I called Winna. She left and just occurred to
me, and I called her to substantiate it. By the way, she sent me a
picture of Walter's grave. I'd never seen it before. It's in Zantun, I believe, where
he was buried. But anyway, in Mexico, There's no plots of ground
for common people to be buried. You can't afford it. Besides,
it's just rock, and it's just hard to dig a hole in the ground
and bury somebody. And you just have to have a lot
of money to have a permanent burial plaza. Poor people cannot
have a permanent grave. And what they do, they rent. They borrow. a tomb. And they use it for a while,
they put them in there, they put them in a casket, a pine
box, and five, six years later, when the bodies are completely
discomposed, they dig them up. They still do that. They dig
their bones up and take them out, and somebody else is put
in that grave. Are you with me? Many of our brethren down there
in Mexico were done just like that. Poor. They're all poor,
aren't they, men? You've been there, Rob? Nearly everyone was so poor they
can't afford their own... They've got to borrow a tomb.
And their bones are dug up and taken out of there, and somebody
else is putting that grave. Brother, I'm here to tell you
something. Your grave is borrowed. You don't
need it for long. You don't need it from home.
You might as well tell them, dig them up, let somebody else
have it. I'm not there. I'm not there. And you know what?
Our Lord borrowed that tomb, and three days later we're going
to see Sunday morning. Whoo! Him come out of that grave,
but later on Joseph Joseph of Arimathea died. What did he do?
He put him in the Lord's tomb. Well, you know what? He came
out too. Anybody that's crucified with
Christ and buried with Christ is going to rise with Christ.
Amen.