Well, you can go back to Matthew
28 if you would. I dealt a couple of weeks ago
with our Lord's humiliation. He voluntarily stooped and wedded
himself, as it were, to our nature. and he became the obedient servant
of God. And the depth of his humiliation
was truly amazing, because the depth of it was shameful and
cursed death, and he couldn't go any lower than that. He who was and is and ever shall
be life, that one the scripture says who is the principle life,
the source of life, the giver of life, the one who has life
in and of himself, he really died. comprehends the entirety of what
he did and what he suffered to save us. The wages of sin is
death. We couldn't ever pay the full
wages for our sin. You know, people who perish in
hell, they're not paying for their sins. How could a mortal sinner ever
render to God anything that would atone for even one sin, much
less a lifetime of sins? But our Lord Jesus, because of
the worth of His being, His death fully paid the indebtedness
of all of his people. When I think of the death of
our Lord Jesus, I think of two words, one pertaining to God
and one pertaining to us. I think of satisfaction and I
think of saved. His death satisfied God's justice. If you want to know the enormity
of our guilt and our sin, and if you want to know how much
God detests sin, you only have to look to the death of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Because that which was necessary
to put our sins fully away, to do away with them, to eradicate
them, wash them away, to forgive them, to eliminate them. That which was necessary was
for the very prince of life to give that life voluntarily in
order to satisfy God and in order to save us. Nothing less could
do the job. And when I think of the death
of our Lord Jesus Christ, I'm truly amazed. What He stooped to endure in
order to pay my debt of sin. What He stooped to endure to
satisfy a holy and righteous God. He told his disciples, I have
a baptism with which I must be baptized. He said, I have a work that I
have to finish. We all came into this world to
live, but he came into this world to die because that's the only
way that we could be saved. It was written in the covenant
of grace that that one who is the very surety of the sheep
must lay down his life in order to save us. And in the eyes of
men, it was not an honorable death. It was a shameful death because he died as a felon. He died having been convicted
by the highest Jewish court in Israel. They accused him of and
found him guilty of blasphemy. The Holy Son of God guilty of
blasphemy? That's what they said. Because
He said He was the Son of God, and in saying that, He was accurate.
He was the Son of God. But when it came time for Him
to die, there was no reluctance. They didn't have to drag him
to Calvary's brow to crucify Him. He did not resist. This was why He came. He came
to save His people from our sins. This is all happening on purpose. This is according to the eternal
decree of God. For us to live, He must die. But in His death, there's our
life. When we die, our souls, the souls of believers,
go to be with Christ. But death, holds on to our bodies
unto the resurrection, unto the resurrection of the just and
the unjust. But our Lord's body could not
be held by death. He had life within Himself. He said, I have the power to
lay my life down and I have the power to take it again. In fact,
he said, no man takes my life from me. It wasn't the Roman soldiers
who took his life. It wasn't the word of Pilate
or Herod that caused his death. It wasn't the overwhelming agreement
of the Sanhedrin that caused him to die. It was God's will
that he die. The Scripture says he was the
lamb who was slaughtered before the foundation of the world.
And all of those animals that died during the Old Testament,
every single one of them pictured the death of our Lord Jesus.
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. That's what the scripture says.
And as a sheep before her sharers, so He opened not His mouth, and they led Him away. The scripture
says they led Him away to Calvary. They didn't force Him to Calvary. Not like other criminals who
went kicking and screaming. This is a man, the God-man, convicted
wrongly, but he goes willingly. Because that's how much he loved
us. Somebody said it wasn't the nails
that held him to the cross. It was His heart, love for us
that held Him. His death honored the law of
God, death for sin. His death conquered and subdued
the devil because by our Lord's death, He mortally wounded him
that had the power of death. Satan had usurped the authority
of death. But our Lord mortally wounded
Him at the cross. His death finished transgression. His death put an end to our sin. His death, the blood of His death
drowned our sins. Our sins drowned in His blood. Do you see that? If that ever
would grasp our hearts, oh, how we would rejoice. Before God,
our sins do not exist. They are no more. We are justified. That's what the scripture says.
Justified by His blood. Just as if we had never sinned. It's not there. Search the books of heaven. You
will not find one sin recorded against any of God's elect. They're not there. They don't
exist. What happened to them? Jesus
killed them all. The Scripture says He condemned,
He condemned sin in His flesh. His death delivered His people
from the curse of the broken law and from the wrath of God. The storm, storm clouds of God's
wrath It's as though they were going to rain down hell fire
into our souls. But our Savior pushed us out
of the way and said, I'll take the storm for them. And I'm telling
you, all hell broke out against our Lord Jesus and his soul. One writer said the very soul
of his sufferings was his soul suffering. With His stripes we're healed,
Isaiah says. The stripes upon His holy soul. He felt the wrath of God, the
heat of the vengeance, and the anger of God against our sins. He felt it deep within. And the
blow of all blows was when God the Father forsook Him. What
humiliation is this? God forsook the sun. Well might the sun refuse to
shine when that happened. That's his humiliation. But God raised him from the dead. It wasn't possible that death
could hold him. In fact, his body stayed in that
silent tomb for three days so that it would be verified by
everybody he really died. He didn't fall into a coma. He
didn't pass out from the pain. He didn't just merely lose consciousness. Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures. And he was buried and he was
raised again the third day according to the scriptures. And I tell
you the resurrection of our Lord Jesus is the single greatest
event in all of history. Because without it, without the
resurrection of Christ, His incarnation, His life of perfection, His death
as our substitute and our surety, without the resurrection, all
of the other would be meaningless. It's so vital, His resurrection
was so vital, that without the resurrection, there is no Christianity. Without His resurrection, there
is no salvation. Without His resurrection, there
is no righteousness freely imputed to all who believe Him. Without
His resurrection, there is no heaven for us. There is no eternal
life without the resurrection. Without the resurrection, our
faith is vain. Our hope is useless. Our preaching
means nothing. Without the resurrection, those
who have died in faith, believing Christ, meant nothing. I know today, in this age, you
don't hear much preaching about the resurrection till Easter. And that's a shame. It's just
like you don't hear much preaching about our Lord's true humanity
and His birth except at Christmas. And neither Christmas nor Easter
are authorized by God to be religious holidays. In fact, I'll tell you this,
to me, the only, if you want to call it a holiday that is
legitimate, is Thanksgiving. That's how I feel about it. But Easter? People celebrate
the resurrection of Christ at Easter? Let me tell you something,
every Lord's Day, every Lord's Day we celebrate His resurrection. He who loved us and gave himself
for us arose for us on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week. But I'll tell you, while few
speak of the resurrection of our Savior, except at Easter. You look at the New Testament.
That was a vital doctrine to the saints of God. Read the book
of Acts. We're studying the book of Acts
in Sunday school now, the adults and the teenagers are. I'm writing
the lessons. Did you know the love of God
is not even mentioned in the book of Acts? And that doesn't mean that there
is no love of God presented through the book of Acts. But the word
love of God is not in there, but resurrection sure is. In fact, that's the very theme
of the book of Acts. That the Son of God who laid
down His life, He ever lives. Read Peter's sermon in Acts chapter
2. It was not possible that death
could hold him. The Lord wouldn't leave, the
Lord God of glory, the Heavenly Father would not leave his darling
son in the tomb. He's coming out of there in resurrection glory. And when he came out of that
tomb, all of the, how shall I put this, all of the wounds, all
of the lacerations involved in his beatings and in his whippings,
all of those were gone except for the scars from the nails
and the spear. There were no more evidences
of death. And I'll tell you this, for the
saints of God, in that resurrection day, all evidences, all signs,
all indications of death will exist no more. Isn't that wonderful? When our Lord Jesus comes back
and the trump sounds, and our Lord Himself raises His
people from the dead, our bodies won't have any feebleness then. We won't have any sickness then. We won't have anything wrong with
us then. All things are going to be passed
away. All the diseases, the sicknesses,
the deformities of the flesh that maybe were ours due to old
age, or as we call them, accidents, all of those things will be no
more. We'll have glorified bodies.
You see, our resurrection is going to be like our Lord's resurrection,
not like Lazarus' resurrection. When Lazarus died, he came back
to life. And if he had arthritis in his
hip, he still had it. If he had other problems physically,
he still had them. And he lived to die another day. But when our Lord Jesus came
back from the dead, There were no evidences of disfigurement
due to the whippings and the beatings and the mutilation of
his body. Isaiah says his back looked like
a plowed field from being beaten with the cat
of nine tails. He lost all that. And I think nobody knows about
this for certain, but my opinion is the reason he had the scars
in his hands, scar in his side, was to verify to his doubtful
disciples, it's really me. It's really me. In the book of Acts, they preached
his resurrection. Let me just say a few things
here to you. The resurrection of our Savior
is an undeniable fact. It's stated here by a heavenly
messenger. Would you believe an angel? Surely
you'd believe an angel. An angelic messenger? He says
here to the two Marys in verse 6, He is not here. He's not here. He's risen in another place.
Why seek ye the living among the dead? He's not here. Where is He? What's He doing? Well, His soul,
and this is another thing that's hard to comprehend, that our
Lord Jesus had a real human soul. Body and soul. That's how real
His manhood was. You are a body that encompasses
and is the tabernacle for your soul. Same with Him. But His body that was the tabernacle
for His soul, His humanity was forever joined to His deity,
because He is the God-Man. And our Lord Jesus, the angel
said, of Him, He's not here. And our Lord told His doubtful
disciples on many occasions, the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things, that's what He said, and be put to death
and then be raised again. They didn't hear that part. They
just didn't register with Him. And we're not going to be too
hard on those disciples because I tell you what, a lot of things
don't register with us too. And I suspect you're kind of
like me. I'm a slow learner. And the Lord
is patient with us. He teaches us. And we've got
to be patient with one another. Don't expect others, you who
have been here a long time and studied the Scriptures, don't
expect others to know as much about the Scriptures as you do.
Compared to many people, we don't know much at all. Thankfully, it's not how much
you know, it's who you know. Isn't that right? It's who you
know. We're always learning. learning
about our Savior. You see, His resurrection, if
it could ever be disproved, everything else in the Bible just crumbles
to dust. If He wasn't raised from the
dead, there is no redemption. There is no atonement, there's
no forgiveness, there's no salvation, there's no gospel, there's no
hope. But he was raised. And that his resurrection is
an undeniable fact. And it's a matter of great mercy. Everything we believe is based
about our Lord Jesus Christ and His successful work of redemption
is based upon the fact that He arose. The resurrection was the crowning
proof that He really did satisfy God. It's the crowning proof
that He really did put our sins away. It's the crowning proof
that He really did bring in everlasting righteousness. His resurrection
is the seal of our redemption. Put it this way, His resurrection
is the receipt of our full justification. We've got proof of it. I've got
proof I'm justified. What's the proof? Empty tomb. His resurrection is the public
declaration of God's exaltation of His Son. You see, there are
several steps of our Savior's exaltation, and the first one
is His resurrection. And the next one that I'll deal
with next Sunday night, the Lord willing, is His ascension. And
the next one I'll deal with the next Sunday night, the Lord willing,
is His session at the right hand of God. Where is He? Where is
the Lord Jesus Christ? He's in glory. Is He just a spirit? No! There's a man in heaven that
God may sit on His throne. Well, what's he doing? Ruling
and reigning over all things. He's governing everything that
goes on on this globe. There's nothing out from under
his control. He is bringing to pass the perfect,
eternal purpose of God Almighty, that man Christ Jesus and His
final The final step of his exaltation is when he comes again, and before
him, everybody's gonna be gathered, and he's the judge. God's turned all judgment over
to his son. Why has he been exalted? Because
he saved us from our sins. That's why. Because he did those
two things. He satisfied God and saved us. He's been exalted. He's not up
in heaven wishing and hoping that somebody will let Him have
His way. That's a false Jesus. That's a false deity. That's
just an idol. The Lord of glory really rules,
He really reigns, He really governs, He really directs all things
to the end that He long ago And everybody and everything
serves his purpose quite well. Our Lord arose from the grave. That's just a fact, a fact. Could I read you some verses? You don't have to turn to them.
Romans 1, 1 through 4. We read Paul, a servant of Jesus
Christ, called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of
God which he had promised to for by his prophets in the holy
scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared
to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead. Romans chapter 4 verse
25, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again
for or because of our justification. He made us righteous. Romans
8.34, 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
maketh intercession for us. You see, we have a great high
priest in heaven. We have a mediator. We pray to
God the Father through Him, the resurrected Savior. You can't
come into God's presence any other way except through Christ.
Ephesians 2, 4 through 6, but God, who is rich in mercy for
his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead
in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, quickened us together
with Christ. What's that about? That's about
his resurrection. And hath raised us up together. That's together with Christ and
made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Don't
you understand when Christ died, we died in Him. And when Christ
was buried, we were buried in Him. And when Christ arose, we
arose in Him. And when He ascended back to
heaven, guess what? We went with Him. and He is seated
on His throne of glory, and bless your heart, we're with Him, though
you may not realize it, and I may not realize it personally and
experientially, that's a fact, we're with Him, because we can't
be separated from Him. Hebrews chapter 13, verses 20
and 21, now the God of peace that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus, Who brought him from the dead?
The God of peace. God's at peace. He's at peace
with us. And the evidence is he brought
the Savior back from the dead. God's not mad at you. He's never
been mad at you. He's never been angry with you. He's never had a threatening
thought toward any of His elect because He has since eternity
viewed us in Christ. 1 Peter 1.3, Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His
abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. If you've been
raised from the dead, from spiritual death, it's because the Savior
was raised from a physical death. And the same kind of power it
took to raise Him It took to raise you from spiritual death. You see, the new birth is nothing
short of receiving life from God. We've been raised from the
dead. It's a fact. It's a fact. He arose. And I'll tell you this,
second thing that strikes me is the nature of the resurrection.
The same body that had suffered, bled, and died, the same body
as to its substance laid in the tomb, and that same
body came out of the tomb glorified. And you know what he did? When He, by His own power and
the power of the Father and the power of the Spirit, because
all three were involved in this, when our Lord was raised, He
took His death clothes and folded them up. And that napkin that laid across
His face in His hours of stillness in the tomb, folded that up. left him there, and he come out
of the grave. And he received garments of glory. Garments of glory. And his was a resurrection that
was witnessed by many. right here in chapter 28, here
are these two women. If you went to Mark, in fact,
I'll tell you what, why don't you turn over there to Mark.
Look at Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16. Look at verse nine. Mark chapter
16, verse nine. Now when Jesus was risen early
the first day of the week, he appeared first, not to his mother Mary. A lot of folks wish he had her,
but he didn't appear to her first. In fact, when he was hanging
on the cross of Calvary, he didn't even address her as mother. He said, woman, woman. She's a sinner saved by grace,
just like we are. And she was honored and blessed
to carry him to full term in her womb. But she said her own
words are, my soul doth rejoice in God my Savior. He didn't appear
to her first. He appeared first to Mary Magdalene,
watch this, out of whom he had cast seven devils. He appeared to her, you know
who he appeared to? A great sinner. This is encouraging to the rest
of us great sinners. He appeared to Mary Magdalene. You see, the Holy Spirit shows
us by example what we're taught through the Scriptures. Salvation
is by God's free and sovereign grace. And not on account of anything
anybody's ever done. Salvation in its entirety is
a free grace and is in no way, in no way conditioned or determined
by the will of man or by the works of man or by the worth
of man or woman. All who are saved are saved by
grace and we're on equal footing before a holy God. We stand on
the rock, Christ Jesus. We're all forgiven of our sins
through the blood of Christ. We all possess perfect righteousness
imputed by Christ to us, established by him in his death. We all have
the same grace, and we all have the same Savior, and we all have
the same inheritance. Do you know what our inheritance
is? I kind of asked you a trick question there, because it really
isn't what is our inheritance, it's who. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, the Lord. Preacher, what's my inheritance
when I get to heaven? Not what, who? All of Christ,
all of the Son of God at your inheritance. Is that good enough
for you? And I'll just give you this.
The fact that he first appeared to Mary Magdalene teaches us
not only that God saves sinners, But our Lord honors those who
honor Him. She had anointed Him for His
burial in anticipation of His resurrection. She honored Him. Would you have
Him honor you? May he give you faith to believe
him, that's honoring to him. Do you know Mary was the last
to confess Christ when he was alive and the first to honor
him when he died? She was the last one at the cross
and the first one at the tomb. that she was the first one to
see the risen Christ. She sought Him and she found
Him. God help us to come to Christ
as needy sinners. We'll find what Mary Magdalene
found, full forgiveness. Well, let me give you the reasons
for His resurrection, some of them anyway. Number one, that
the scriptures might be fulfilled. Read again 1 Corinthians 15,
three and four. For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received, Paul said, how that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried
and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Well, what did the Scripture
say? Psalm 16 verse 10, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell
or in the place of the dead. Thou wilt not suffer thine holy
one to see corruption. And remember our Lord talked
to the Jews. The Jews said, Show us a sign.
He said, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.
That's what people are looking for today, looking for signs.
Looking for signs of the Lord coming. You want a sign? This is what he said. He said,
as Jonas was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale,
so must the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth. There's
your sign. There's your sign. And Isaiah says this in Isaiah
53 verse 10, he shall see his seed. Watch it. He shall, listen to these words,
prolong his days. That's his resurrection. Then he says, "...and the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hands." Why was it that he
arose? That he might reign as king forever. Why did the Lord arise from the
dead? To show us He put our sins away.
Separated them from us as far as the east is from the west. How do we know that forgiveness
of sins is a present reality? How do we know that we will never
be punished for our sins? Well, His resurrection is the
proof that He dealt with God for us.
You see, God outside of Christ is a terror to my soul. But knowing the Lord Jesus Christ,
that he dealt with God for me, for me. That gives me a peace that passes
all understanding, all is well between me and God. Not because
of anything I've done, but because of my crucified, buried, risen,
ascended reigning king. And I'll give you one last thing
and I'll quit. His resurrection and the way
he handled his disciples after his resurrection shows he's an
unchanging friend. He's a friend who sticketh closer
than a brother, the scripture says. You know, the Lord first
appeared to Mary Magdalene Nobody believed her report. And then He appeared to His two
disciples on the road to Emmaus. They didn't believe. And then
He appeared to His 11 disciples in the upper room. They didn't
believe. He upbraided them for their unbelief. But he didn't love them any less. Because like Paul wrote to Timothy,
though we believe not, he abideth faithful still. See, our Lord rebukes and chastens
his children. That's true. But he never forsakes
us. He's our resurrected Savior. And He ever lives to make intercession
for us. What a Savior, huh? Right, what
a Savior this is. We rejoice in Him. This one who
saved us by His grace. Get your psalm books turned to
512.