Thank you very much for that. I always enjoy hearing him sing. And our special music is these who
sing for us. They select excellent songs. All of them are absolutely scriptural. honor him to God, and we wouldn't
want it any other way. So thankful. Acts this evening,
if you would open your Bibles to the book of Acts, and I'll
ask you to go to Acts chapter 17, the book of Acts chapter
17. I endeavored this morning to
speak on the subject why Christ had to die. He had to die that
God might be just and justify. He had to die to put our sins
away. He had to die to establish justice. He had to die to save us. God's
law demanded death for sin. And there was one equal with
God, and yet, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, that
one who stepped down from heaven's everlasting glory and took our
nature into union with himself. And then in our stead, that is,
in the stead of all of his covenant people, Our Lord Jesus suffered,
he bled, and he died in order to satisfy God. Salvation's first
of all a matter of justice that has to be satisfied. Our Lord
Jesus did just that by his death upon the cross of Calvary. He had to die. This evening I
want to actually kind of keep on going and then ask this question,
why Christ had to be resurrected? Why Christ had to be resurrected? Let's ask God to bless the word. Lord, I feel my own inability
to deal with such a glorious subject as the resurrection of
our Lord Jesus. Certainly we're unable to deal
with His death like it ought to be dealt with. Such a glorious
death, such a satisfying death to you. He was indeed the sacrifice
that was offered to you for the sins of your people. And by his
resurrection, we are assured that you received that sacrifice
offered to you. You received the Son of God and
all of his sufferings and his death. And therefore, you raised
him from the dead. We do rejoice in our Lord Jesus
and his finished work of salvation. And oh God, may it be so that
all of us here this evening, and all who are watching, all
who are listening, may we look to this one who is the Lamb of
God, who suffered for the sins of his people, may we look to
him as that one who died was buried and arose again the third
day, look to him as that one who is the only savior of sinners. Oh God, give us faith. Oh God,
give us repentance. We have nothing to offer you
save the Son of God himself. We have him. And Lord, we offer
no work of ours, but we say, look to his work. Our persons
are filled with sin, but we say, oh God, look to Christ Jesus,
our Savior. And we know that as you look
upon the Savior, you're well satisfied. And may we be found
in him according to your eternal purpose. and in him we are accepted. Meet the needs of all of us.
We are, as the psalmist said, poor and needy. And yet you have said you will
give grace and glory. We hold on, Lord, to the promises
of your word, and we believe you help our unbelief, enable
us to rest more fully in the Savior. And indeed, as we read
this morning, may Christ be increased, His honor and His glory, may
His name be exalted, and may we be decreased. May we focus
not upon the preacher, but upon the preached word, May we focus
on that one who suffered, bled, died, and arose and ascended
for us. May he be all of our hope, all
of our confidence, all of our trust, and all of our salvation. We ask these things, O Father,
in the name of the Savior and Lord for your glory. Amen. Let's look here briefly at something
in chapter 17. But I don't feel like I can honestly
get into this chapter 17 without at least giving an introduction
to that which has happened in the previous chapter. That is
Acts chapter 16, where we find Paul and Silas going out on a
missionary journey. They wanted to go into Asia to
set forth the gospel of God's grace, but the Spirit of God
forbade them. They were forbidden to go forth.
God will send his word and his messengers. He will send his
gospel only where he intends for it to be sent. It wasn't
to be sent into Asia at that time. And so though they longed
to go into Asia, though they intended to go preach the gospel
in Asia, the Spirit of God put up a roadblock. No, you can't
go into Asia. And instead, they received a
messenger who said to them, come over into Macedonia. We need
help. We need help. And so they went
into Macedonia, specifically to the city of Philippi. and there being joined by Timothy,
they preached the gospel. Several things happened there
in Philippi of Macedonia. First of all, they went down
by a river where some women were meeting for a prayer meeting. And as they sat together, God
led the apostle to preach the gospel. He set forth the Savior. The glorious redeemer and that
salvation that he accomplished by his substitutionary death
upon the cross of Calvary. That salvation that God sealed
with his own blood. That salvation that is forever.
And God dealt with a woman by the name of Lydia. The scripture
says that God opened her heart. As she sat there, something mysterious,
something miraculous, something happened that was unseen to the
natural eye. But God opened up her innermost
being. God gave her an understanding
of the gospel. God caused her to be born again,
born by the Spirit of God. And she, the scripture says,
she attended to the things that were spoken. She just welcomed
that message in. Oh, blessed day when the Spirit
of God deals with a sinner and the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace becomes to them good news indeed. And she received
the word of God, and then she was baptized. She said, I want
you to stay with me. They preached to her family.
Her family listened to the gospel of grace, and her family also
believed. And they were there for some
time in the house of Lydia. And then one day as the preachers
were walking along the road, a woman came up behind them.
And she was a demon-possessed woman. She was a soothsayer. And she came up behind the preachers
of God, and the preachers of God heard what she was saying.
She was saying, these men are the servants of the Most High
God, and they show unto us the way of salvation. This is what
this woman was saying. And she does it over and over
and over again, finally the Apostle Paul not wanting to be associated
with a demon-possessed woman. God gave him apostolic authority
and apostolic power, and he cast the demons out of this woman.
She couldn't be a fortune teller anymore. She couldn't be a soothsayer
anymore. She had some men who were reaping
financial rewards from this woman. She
was evidently, this girl, this young woman, she was a servant
to these men, and they owned her. And then when Paul cast
the demon out, well, she couldn't bring him any more money. And
they got upset. They got upset with God's preachers.
And they hauled them in before the magistrates. And the magistrates
said, well, you guys are going to be cast into prison. So the
Word of God was forbidden to go forth into Asia. And then
the Word of God finds a lodging, a welcome in the heart of Lydia.
And then the Spirit of God worked through the Apostle Paul, casting
the demon out of this woman who was a fortune teller. And God's
preachers, at least Paul and Silas, they were arrested and
they were put into jail, put into a prison. And while they
were in prison, they began to read the Word of God, they began
to quote Scripture, and they began to sing. They began to
praise the Lord. They're in a deep, dark dungeon,
don't you understand? And they're praising God. We
find it difficult, to praise God, when we hit our thumb with
a hammer. These guys are in a dungeon,
and they're just in an area where dead bodies were, no doubt, and
rats and excrements of men who had previously been in there,
maybe bones as well. I mean, it wasn't a holiday inn,
that's for sure. It was an awful place to be confined
in, and yet in those confined spaces, they rejoiced in the
Lord. They praised Him. You see, they
believed in the providence of God and the sovereignty of God.
It's one thing to say, I believe God's sovereign. It's another
thing to rejoice in His sovereignty, even when you're in a dungeon,
even when you're hurting. God give us grace not to murmur. I thought about that, and of
course I preached from that passage of scripture many times. I thought,
I wonder how I would have conducted myself in that kind of situation. And then I stopped thinking about
it, because I don't think I would have done so good. But God gave
them grace. He does give grace, doesn't he?
You can't pat Paul and Silas on the backs and say they're
exceptionally holy Christians. No, they're the children of God
to whom God gave sufficient grace in every need. That's what God
does. That's what he promises to all
of his children, grace in the time of need. Paul said, I prayed
three times that God would take away the thorn in the flesh.
and messenger from Satan. God said, keep it. Keep it. But I'll give you grace. I'll
give you grace to live with. Why, God can even give us grace
in those times of need that we can rejoice in him even when
we're hurting, even when we're in uncomfortable situations.
Our bodies may be crying out in agony with pain, but we can
say, oh God, this is your will. Oh God, thou art my God. I'll praise you when I'm well,
and by your grace, I'll praise you when I'm sick. I'll praise
you when I'm free, and I'll praise you when I'm in prison. They
praised him in prison. And all the prisoners, they heard
Paul and Silas singing and praising God. And all of a sudden, there
was an earthquake. And every prison door was opened. And all the prisoners, they were
free to go. The jailer, who was a man entrusted
with the responsibility of making sure nobody escaped prison, the
penalty would be his own death. He saw what had happened. He's
ready to commit suicide. He's just going to fall on his
own sword. He just knew everybody's going
to leave. But then a voice was heard. Don't hurt yourself. We're all here. Wonder why those
men, those ungodly men, wonder why they didn't escape. They
could have. There was a hand that held them
in. That was the hand of God. God's
going to do His will in all of this. And not one prisoner escaped. That's what it says in it. Not
one. Paul says, we're all here. And that jailer said, bring me
a light, somebody. Called for a light. Scripture says he ran into Paul
and his officers. He had heard them. He had heard
them. as their voices echoed through
the night, praising God, singing, singing about the blood, singing
about grace, singing about the Lord Jesus, singing about the
goodness of the Lord, the mercies of the Lord that endure forever.
He heard them too. And he said to them, sirs, what
must I do to be saved? And they said, believe. on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And then they gave
many other words. They spake unto him all the word
of God. That is all of the gospel of
God's grace. Who Christ is, that God sent
him. God sent him as the savior. And
he had to die. He had to die to honor God. He
had to die because that's what sin deserves, death. Sin, when
it's finished, bringing forth death. But this Jesus of Nazareth
was God in the flesh and he died for sinners. He died to save
the ungodly. But he was raised again because
he accomplished the justification of his people. And that jailer,
don't you know he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? And when
his family, his family heard this preaching too, they all
believed. And they said, let's have a baptismal
service. And they was all baptized and
confessed the Lord Jesus. And then the sergeants, they
notified the prisoners, notified the jailer, we gonna release
these preachers. And they did, they released the
preachers. And that brings us to chapter 17. That's a very
quick summary of Acts chapter 16, but you get the gist of it. Now we get to chapter 17. All
right, here we go, verse one. Now, when they had passed through
Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where it
was a synagogue of the Jews. Now, don't miss this. It says,
when they had passed through, they didn't stop in Amphipolis,
and they didn't stop in Apollonia. Oh, there were people there all
right, but God ordained that they not
hear the gospel. He'll send the truth to whom
He wills, just like those folks over in Asia. God said, don't
go over there and preach. Nobody deserves to hear the gospel
of God's redeeming grace. Nobody does. And if you've heard
the gospel, which we've all heard the gospel of redeeming love
many, many times, that's only due to the goodness of the Lord.
He sent the truth our way. He didn't have to send it to
you, and He didn't have to send it to me. He could have left
us in heathen darkness. He could have left us in religious
darkness. He could have left us in a Christless,
graceless, godless religion. And He'd still been God. He'd
still be sovereign. He'd still do right. but he didn't pass us by. See, the only reason or the only
difference between you who believe and your neighbor who doesn't
know anything about the gospel or the person you work with to
whom the truth of God is unknown altogether, the only difference
is the difference God has made That's the only difference. Who
made you to be different from another? Ask yourself this. Why me? Why me? Others are wiser, smarter. Others study just as much. Others
are just as sincere. Others are just as dedicated,
it would seem, to their religion as I am to my religion. Who made
me to differ? And the differer, the one who
makes the difference, is the sovereign God. And these preachers that came
to Amphipolis, I bet you, Paul, I would assume Paul would have
thought, well, we'll preach the gospel here in the spirit of
God. Stay moving. This is not the
place. And that was 30 miles from Philippi
to Amphipolis, about 30 miles travel. They got there and stopped
for the night, didn't preach anywhere. And then about a little
more than 30 miles to Apollonia, They came there. No, not here
either. I got another destination for
you. So they go 30 more miles to Thessalonica. The Lord said, now here's where
you're gonna camp out. Here's where I want my preachers.
Here's where I've got a people. I've got many people in this
place. They don't know they're my people.
But I know them. I've written their names down
in the Lamb's Book of Life. My Son has already redeemed them. He has already put away their
sins. They are my children. They are
my sheep. They're lost sheep. And they've got to hear the gospel.
They've got to have the truth revealed to them by the Spirit
of God. And so, verse two. The end of verse one says there
was a synagogue of the Jews in Thessalonica. Now verse two,
and Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them in three Sabbath
days, three weeks. He reasoned with them out of
the scriptures. These are the Jews. Now the only
scriptures they had was the Old Testament. They didn't have any
of the New Testament. They reasoned with them, Paul
reasoned with them out of the Old Testament, setting forth
the person of Christ, the worth of Christ, the perfections of
Christ, and the work of Christ in redemption. Verse three, opening
and alleging. giving understanding to, taking
his time, comparing scripture with scripture, and then confidently
setting before them the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, he could
set forth the gospel confidently, and every preacher of the gospel
does this because we've been instructed in the gospel of God.
We know how God saves sinners. This is not a puzzling thing
to us, how God does it. That He would do it, now that's
a wonder of His grace. But I know how He does it. I
know how He saves sinners through a crucified Savior. He does it
by His grace. He does it by His mercy. And
He deals with sinners in an effectual way, in a very powerful way.
Effectual means He gets the job done. There's no way that any
preacher of the gospel can make the word of the Lord effectual
to anybody. That's not our job. There's only
one who can convince you in your heart that this is indeed the
truth of God, and that's God himself. So he's opening and
alleging, he's giving understanding and confidently setting before
them the fact that Christ must needs have suffered. He must
have suffered. This was necessary. That's why
I preach this morning, starting there in John chapter three,
verse 14. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted. He
must needs have suffered. He suffered at the hands of men,
but even more, he suffered at the hand of God. He suffered
the wrath of God. He suffered the judgment of God.
He suffered condemnation, not for any sins of his own, but
for the sins of his own people, which were imputed to him or
reckoned to his account. And he was responsible for all
of our spiritual indebtedness. And he had to suffer. Oh, and God bruised him. Scripture says in Isaiah 53,
the Lord made his soul an offering for sin. I know when preachers
preach about the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus, it's that
which is stressed as the whipping that Christ received, and the
crown of thorns, and the nails in his hands, and the nails in
his feet, and certainly those are physical sufferings, there's
no question about that, but his sufferings went much deeper than
the flesh. His sufferings went down to his
very innermost being. God bruised his soul. God dealt with him as a transgressor. Though in himself he had not
transgressed God's law, but we had, and he stood in our stead. He's gonna
have to take, could I put it this way? He's gonna have to
take a beating from the father. Isn't that right? The father's
gonna whip him. He's gonna wound him. He's gonna
bruise him. He's gonna deal with him as no
man has ever been dealt with or will ever be dealt with, all
at one time, in three hours. You say, well, God deals with
the people in hell. not with the kind of blows that
he dealt with Christ. Because you see, everything a
sinner's gonna suffer in hell will never even pay for one sin. Hell's not for people to pay
for their sins. They can't pay. If you perish
in your sinfulness, you can't pay. You got nothing with which
to pay. You're poor and needy and sinners
got nothing. Therefore, the judgment of God
is forever. It is never ending. It will never
let up. But you take all of an eternity
of sufferings and then compress that in three hours. And then consider this man, this
God-man, he felt all of that, the horrors of death in his soul. Till the justice of God said,
he suffered enough, he's paid the debt. Everything all of his
people owed, it's paid. Our Lord Jesus then, He cried
out, it's finished. It's accomplished. It's done. It's done. Father, it's done.
The sun shines again. And then he bows his head and
he says, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And he willingly
gave up the ghost. And immediately, he's in the
presence of the Father, his soul is. He hadn't been there but just
a few minutes, if I could say a few minutes, because there
is no time in eternity. But he hadn't been there long
before here comes a redeemed sinner, right on his coattails. Who is this? Who is this? Who is this who's allowed into
the glorious holy presence of God? Lo, it's a sinner saved
by grace, a believing thief. What do you know about that?
And he takes his place right beside Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob and David and Daniel and all the prophets of the Old Testament,
all the saints of the Old Testament. They just receive, welcome, brother.
It's good to see you. Because he stands in the righteousness
of the Son of God, washed in his blood. Yeah, he must needs have suffered. And he must needs have risen
again from the dead. He had to rise from the dead. Then here's what Paul said, and
this Jesus, this Jesus whom I preach to you, he's the Christ. He's the Christ. He must needs
have suffered, and he must needs be raised from the dead. Our Lord Jesus and his substitutionary
death That's the door of salvation. That being true, I would say
that hinge upon which the door of salvation turns is not the
will of man, but rather it's the resurrection
of our Lord Jesus. Because without the resurrection,
Hear me now, without the resurrection, our Lord's incarnation, his life
of obedience, his death as our substitute, without the resurrection,
all of it together would be meaningless. The resurrection of our Lord
Jesus is so vital a truth that those who deny the resurrection
deny Christianity altogether. Without the resurrection, our
faith is vain. If there's no resurrection, our
hope is a delusion. Without the resurrection, our
religion is a mockery of men's souls. If our Lord Jesus wasn't
raised from the dead, redemption was not accomplished, justice
was not satisfied, And that means he is not God, and it means we're
yet under our sins and under the curse of God Almighty if
he wasn't raised. I know in most religious circles
we seldom hear anything about the resurrection except on this
day, Easter. But that was not the case in
the New Testament. If you read the book of Acts, and if we ever
get back in our Bible classes, that's what we're studying, is
the book of Acts. That which is constantly kept
before us is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. You see, our
Lord was obedient to the Father, and therefore the Father has
exalted him. Now that exaltation was in steps,
let's say. And the first step was resurrection,
and then ascension, and then Psalm 24, the coronation of our
Savior. And then all judgment is given
to him, all authority is given unto him, and in the end, all
shall appear before him and bow their knees to him. He's exalted,
but the first part of the exaltation was his resurrection. You see,
there's a man in heaven. You remember what our Lord said
to the women? Touch me and see. A spirit, a
ghost has not flesh and bones as you see me have. There's a man in heaven. He's
seated there, flesh and bones. Imagine that. Flesh and bones. He rose from the dead. Forty
days later, as he was speaking to his disciples and blessing
them, He, by his own power, began to ascend to go up to heaven. The angel said to the disciples,
why stand you here gazing up into heaven as if you'll never
see him again? This same Jesus Whom you've seen
go up into heaven shall someday come again from heaven. This
same Jesus. And this same Jesus went yonder
to glory and he said down at the Father's side, there's a
man in heaven and he's our elder brother. And he's our Lord, he's
our Savior. He's the friend of sinners. He's
the best friend you'll ever have. And you think of this, this best
friend you'll ever have who's the friend of sinners. He rules
all the world to fulfill the Father's eternal purpose and
to see to it that all things work together for the good of
all of his children. Ain't that wonderful? You couldn't
have a person in a higher place than Christ is. He's been elevated right to the
top. I'll tell you a little story.
This morning, as I usually do, try to get around and speak to
most everybody. And one little fellow this morning,
his mama told me, said, you know what he said about you? She said,
our preacher deserves a promotion. And I said, well, I'm about as
high as you can get in here, I reckon. Well, I'll tell you, our Savior
deserved a promotion. And he got it. He was raised
from the dead and then positioned at the right hand of the Father.
He's your friend. He's not your enemy. He's the
enemy of those who are his enemies, but if you're his friend, you
love him, you believe him, you worship him, you honor him. He's
your friend. He's your brother. He was born
for adversity, but he's already endured that. And he is the friend
that's taken closer than a brother. Raised from the dead. And we
rejoice in his exaltation. We rejoice in his resurrection. Now, why was he raised from the
dead? Why must he be raised? Well, let me just give you a
few things here real quick. Number one, he must be raised
from the dead to confirm that all that he did was to the full
satisfaction of the Father. God had laid out the means of
grace, the way for sinners to be reconciled to himself. He
laid help, Psalm 89. God laid help upon one who is
mighty. That's the Son of God. And he
stepped up to do the work, having received the responsibility to
save us in old eternity in the covenant of grace. He said, I'll bear their sins. All their indebtedness, make
it to be mine. All their transgressions, heap
them on me. All their iniquities, make them
to meet upon my head, Isaiah 53, verse six. And everything
they owe, exact it, Father, from me. Father did that. He spared not
his own son. He didn't go easy on him. A holy and righteous God can't
do that. He bore all the hell, all the
wrath, all the condemnation that sin deserves. And he could bear
it away because of who he is. He's the God-man. Say, I don't
see how one man could bear the sins of so many people and then
put all of our sins away when he died. Well, you don't understand
who died. That's the Son of God. His shoulders
were broad enough. He's glorious. He's infinite
in power and authority. He's the God man. All things
were made by him. Without him was not anything
that was made. So he was able to handle all
the indebtedness of his people and then bear up under all the
wrath of God. He turned up the cup of divine
justice and he drank it down to its last bitter dregs. He
emptied the cup. No damnation, no condemnation
remains for anybody in whose stead he died. Therefore, Paul says there's
no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the spirit. He was raised because
he satisfied the demands of the Father. Secondly, he must be
raised by the Father to prove that he had overcome and conquered
sin, death, and the devil. Every obstacle, every enemy of
his people, he met them head on. And he beat them all. He went
to war and he conquered. He's the mighty victor. He conquered. In that battle, the head of the
serpent was crushed. And then sin had been put away
by his bloody sacrifice. He came out of that grave. Death
gave up its prey. Death can't hold him. He is life. He's life. And he must be raised
by the Father to confirm the faith of all of his followers. It did confirm their faith. I think about Thomas. First time
after our Lord was raised from the dead, 10 of his disciples
met with him on the Lord's Day, on Sunday. He came among them
and said, peace be unto you. Oh, what words from the Master. Peace be unto you. And after
that service was over with, those men, man, they're flying high. They're just so happy, so thankful. And they saw Brother Thomas,
because Brother Thomas wasn't there that Lord's Day. Don't
know where he was. Don't know why he missed. He
sure enough missed out on a blessing. They saw him during the week
and said to him, you know, the Lord met with us. He said, I
don't believe you. I don't believe you. In fact,
I'm not gonna believe you till I thrust my hand in the nail
prints in his hand. Till I take my hand and thrust
it into his side where the spear went. I'm not gonna believe.
I tell you what, next time they met together, he didn't miss
that Sunday. And the Lord Jesus again appeared
to them and said, peace be unto thee. And there was Thomas. There was Thomas. He said to Thomas, reach hither
your finger. Behold my hands. Reach hither thy hand. Thrust
it into my side. Is that what it's going to take,
Thomas? Thrust it into my side. Don't be faithless. but believing. And Thomas said, my Lord and
my God. And he said, Christ said, Thomas,
because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they
who haven't seen and yet have believed. We hadn't seen it,
yet we believe. You know why we believe? Because
we're blessed by the Lord. He gave us faith. This just confirmed
the confidence of these men. And then he must be raised from
the dead that he might be Lord over all. Jot down Romans 14
verse nine. To this end, Christ both died
and revived and was raised again that he might be Lord both of
the dead and the living. His resurrection is a declaration
that God made him Lord. That's what Peter said to those
folks on the day of Pentecost. God hath made that same Jesus
whom y'all crucified, both Lord and Christ. He's the Lord. Our brother is the Lord. He must be raised from the dead
for this reason. He did not die as just an individual
dying. He died as a representative man. And when he was raised from the
dead, he wasn't raised from the dead as an individual man. He
was raised from the dead as a representative man. So what this means is when
he died, all of God's people died in him and with him. When he was put into the tomb,
we were put into the tomb with him. And when he came out of
that tomb, when he was raised again, we were raised again with
him. That's our resurrection. And
40 days later, when he went to heaven and he took his seat in
glory, we ascended up with him, because he's the head, we're
the body. And in the mind and purpose and
will of God, we're right there with him. You say, well, Jim, none of that's
dependent upon me, is it? No, it's a good thing, isn't
it? It's a good thing none of that's dependent on you, and
it's sure enough a good thing it's not dependent upon me. And
I'll give you another one. He must be raised from the dead
because he was the firstfruits of them that sleep. His body died, his soul went
to God. That's what's going to happen
when you, child of God, when you die. His soul is going back
to God immediately. There's not going to be any hesitation,
no soul sleeping, no delay. Absent from the body, present
with the Lord, just like it was with our Lord Jesus. His body
was put in a grave, in a tomb, in a sepulcher. Your body is
going to be put in a grave. His body, it didn't corrupt,
but yours will. yours will. Job said, though
worms devour this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God. These
bodies are gonna die, but just as certainly as our Lord Jesus
arose, and he had a glorified body, a perfect body, so one of these days, He's coming
back, and all those bodies that sleep in Jesus, the death of
a believer is called sleep, isn't it? Our bodies sleep, not the
soul. The soul doesn't sleep, but the
body's sleep. Under a canopy of earth, under
a quilt of earth, and there it sleeps. The body of Abel, oh,
it's been in the ground a long, long time. Thousands of years. I suppose there's nothing left
of it, except dust. Our Lord Jesus, who redeemed
Abel's soul, redeemed Abel's body. And when our Savior comes
back, he's gonna find all the dust of Abel, just boom, put
it back together, just like that. I don't know how he can do that.
I don't understand how he can make the world with a word either. But he did and he'll surely do
that in the resurrection. The souls are coming back with
him. The body is going to be changed in a moment in the twinkling
of an eye. will be raised. You see, Lazarus
was raised, but really it was more of a resuscitation than
a real resurrection, because he came back to life only to
die again. Our Lord Jesus, he died once
in the sin. We're not like those who celebrate
a mass. We're not gonna kill him all
over again. He died once. He died once. Put away our sins.
Satisfied God. God raised him. And our Lord
Jesus, he's the firstfruits of them that sleep. He went first. You remember when
you were a kid, perhaps there was a log or a tree that fell
over a ravine, and several of you together out playing in the
woods. Say, you go first. No, you go first. And finally,
somebody goes first. They're brave enough, they go
first. Well, if he can go, I can go. And here we all go across
the log, across that ravine. Our Lord Jesus, he went down
into the grave. He came about. He's the first
fruit. Hey, if He went in and He came
out, one of these days I'll go in, but I'll go in having a good
hope through grace that my body, it's gonna come out one day.
It's gonna come out. It's gonna be this body. Now
that's another amazing, it's gonna be this body, not another.
Don't nobody else want it anyhow? I'm stuck with it forever, Alan.
I'm stuck with this body. But when our Lord Jesus comes
back and he changes this body, it's gonna be something. Ain't nothing to me now, but
it's gonna be something in that day. But all of the children
of God gonna have glorified bodies. And we gonna be with the Lord
forever. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians chapter four, now, wherefore,
comfort one another. That's what he says, comfort
one another with these words. Oh, blessed Savior. He had to
die for us, and he had to be raised for us. And he did die,
and he was raised. Don't be afraid of death. Oh,
death, where is thy sting? He took the stinger away. O grave,
where is thy victory? He conquered over victory. He
conquered over the grave. He's the victor. And you know
what Paul says in Romans 8? We're more than conquerors through
him who loved us. Lord, bless the word that's gone
forth tonight. I pray that it's been exalting
to you Beneficial to us, understandable. I believe it's been biblical,
accurate, to the best of my knowledge, using the word of God as the
basis for our remarks.