Well, greetings in the name of
the Lord Jesus, and I hope you're having a good day so far. I hope
you have a good weekend. We recognize the authority of
God in all issues, and certainly we understand that he rules in the issues of life and death
and sickness and viruses and things of that nature and so
we bow to his will and we miss meeting with each of you and
look forward to the next occasion that God has ordained when we
will meet as a group of believers together. I'm going to begin the service
today by reading a few verses, and I'm going to go back to the
book of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And this is the resurrection
chapter. I actually began the service
on Wednesday night by reading from 1 Corinthians 15. I read
the first few verses, but I want to go a little deeper into chapter
15 and begin reading with verse number 12. And so if you have
a Bible, it would be good for you to get it and open the scriptures
here to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And I'll begin reading with verse
number 12. Now, if Christ be preached that
he rose from the dead, I'll say some among you that there is
no resurrection of the dead. But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen,
then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain, it is
useless, it is empty. Yea, and we are found false witnesses
of God because we testified of God that He raised up Christ. whom he raised not up, if so
be that the dead rise not. But the dead rise not, then is
not Christ raised? And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain, and ye are yet in your sins. Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life
only we have hope in Christ, we're of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from
the dead, and he's become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." May the Lord
bless the reading of his word. It's so good to be able to speak
to you this morning. this Easter morning and set before
you the risen redeemer who has conquered death and all of the
enemies of his people. And he ever lives to make intercession
for us. Let's bow our heads together. Lord, it is so good to be able
to speak with you. What a great honor is afforded
to your dear children that through the blood of our Savior, we have
access and we can come boldly unto that throne of grace. We thank you. We thank you for
your everlasting covenant affection for your dear children. Lord,
you're our Father. You have brought us into your
family. You have washed us in the blood
of the Lord Jesus. We have been forgiven of all
of our sins. And that one that you sent to
redeem us, the one that you commissioned to be the sacrifice to remove
all of our iniquities, though he did die, yet he lives. This is the testimony of Scripture. He lives, and because he lives,
we shall also live. We remember the words that he
spoke to Martha in John chapter 11. And he said those words that
ring so true and are such a blessing to us. He said, I am the resurrection. the life. We have life in Christ
Jesus and that more abundantly. And because he died and arose,
we shall live forever with our great Savior. So thank you, Father,
for the privilege of knowing the Lord Jesus. We thank you
for your revealing grace to us. We're thankful that you have
quickened us that we might believe the gospel and rest in him whom
you sent into the world. Speak, Lord, to your children
this morning. I consider it such a privilege
to be able to address so many of your little ones so many of
the sheep, Lord, of your pasture. And as the gospel goes forth
this morning, may it nourish your people. In these days of national crisis, Lord, may your
people, your children, your sheep, May we feed on the word of life. And may we rejoice in our God
and our sovereign savior who governs all things to fulfill
your eternal purpose. And he's working all things out
for the good of your children. We do thank you for redeeming
grace that you have bought us from divine justice through the
sacrifice of your son. And since the Lord Jesus has
laid down his life for the sheep, then all of the sheep are safe
forever. So it's good that we can meet
together, though not in person, Yet we can meet by way of this, the media, by way of the internet. We can fellowship together around
the word of God. I ask, oh God, that you would
encourage your people, each of these who are watching this morning. Lord, the needs of all of us
are known to you. And we ask you to meet whatever
needs we have. And bless us for Jesus' sake. We're not worthy of the least
of your mercies. And yet, oh Father, you have
given us the greatest gift of all. You've given to us the unspeakable
gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Him, we have all blessings. And so we thank you. And now
as we enter into the part of the service in which the gospel
will be set forth, we ask that you would bless each of us as
we delve into the word of God. Give us understanding, give us
faith, give us a joyful spirit in our Lord Jesus. And we're
so thankful that you have instructed us in the gospel truth. You didn't
leave us in our darkness, but you revealed our Lord Jesus to
us and his death and his resurrection. And Lord, you have seen fit to
instruct us. And the reason that he gave his
life and the meaning of his resurrection. Bless those who are watching,
Lord, who don't know you. We ask for your saving grace.
We ask for the work of the Spirit. Bless our leaders. Bless those
who are serving in the medical community. those who are administering
care to those who are sick, and all who are supportive of them. Lord, we ask that if it would
be your will that this plague will pass through quickly, and
that once again, that we'll be able to return to some degree
of normalcy, and especially that once again, the people of God
can gather together in this room, and we will worship together
once again in spirit and in truth. And now, magnify yourself and
bless us this day. For Jesus' sake, we ask these
things. Amen. If you would, I'd like for you
to go back to the Gospel of John and I want you to go to John
chapter 12. Our subject is from death comes
life. That's the subject for this morning.
From death comes life. And I could even put it this
way, from death comes fruitfulness, fruitfulness. I'll begin here
in John chapter 12. And most of you are very familiar
with the context. And I won't go through from the
beginning of the chapter, only to make this observation. And that is in the very first
verse, we understand that all of this took place at Passover
time. because John chapter 12 and verse
one, it says six days before the Passover. And so then we're
to understand this is our Lord's last week, last few days before
his death. This is the reason he came into
the world. He came to give his life a ransom
for many. He had previously said in John
chapter 10, he identified himself as being the good shepherd. He
said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. And so now it's just a few days,
six days, before he will give his life for the sheep. So understand,
well, we'll call it the timeline here in John chapter 12, that the work that the Father
sent him to do, he's about to undertake it. All things are
falling right into place. No detail of our Lord's death was left to the will or to the
designs of men. God took care of all things.
All of these things pertaining to our Lord's death, they were
all ordained before he ever made the world. Of course, we could
say that of all things, couldn't we? Everything that ever happens
is according to the design of God. So understand then we're
just a very few days from Passover. Now we come to John chapter 12
and verse number 20. And there were certain Greeks,
that is these were Gentiles. These were people who had come in from foreign countries
But they're now believers in the one God of the Jews. We'd call them proselytes. And
so they have also come to the Passover. Now, of course, they
can't go very deep into the temple. They can only go into the court
of the Gentiles, but they're there where our Lord was teaching. So they came up to worship at
the feast. This feast wasn't naturally of
interest to them, but it is of interest to them now since how
they had been brought into and under the scope of the Jewish
religion. Now, verse 21, the same came
therefore to Philip, which was Bethsaida of Galilee and desired
him saying, and this is their request, sir, we would see Jesus. We would see Jesus. We don't know their motivation.
We don't know the reason that they asked this. Was it because
they had heard of his miracles? Was it because they had heard
that he's done some unusual things? We just don't know. Was it due
to the fact that the Spirit of God was working in their hearts
and bringing them to be interested in this man, this man named Jesus
of Nazareth? Again, we don't know. But they
did have a good request. They said to Philip, we would
see Jesus. And we understand this is necessary,
not so much in the physical realm, in fact, not at all in the physical
realm, but in the spiritual realm. We've got to see Jesus. We've
got to see him as the savior of sinners. We've got to see
him as God manifest in the flesh. We've got to see him as the only
sacrifice that would ever put away our sins. We've got to see
him as that redeemer. We've got to see him as that
one who reconciled us to God. We've got to see him as the only
mediator between God and man. He's the man, Christ Jesus. We've got to see him in his deity. He's God. We've got to see him
as man. He is the Son of Man. Indeed,
one of the titles that our Lord Jesus loved to use when he was
on this earth was the Son of Man. He said, the Son of Man
is come to seek and to save that which was lost. we would see Jesus. Have you
seen Jesus? Have you seen him as the very
redeemer you need? As the savior you have got to
have? Have you seen him as that sacrifice
that was necessary to satisfy God? Have you seen him as that
one who is all you need? He's all you need for this life
and He's all you need for that life which is to come. He's everything. Without Him, you're nothing.
Without Him, you have nothing. Without Him, you know nothing.
All the knowledge of all the other things that you have picked
up throughout your life, all of that means nothing. The only
knowledge that matters is to know this one whom God has sent
into this world. Have you seen him? Not seen him in defeat, but in
victory. Not seen him in a manger. Oh, yes, we rejoice that he came. and we rejoice in his life. But it's in his death and in
his resurrection, that's the way we see him as our salvation. We see him as that one God has
sent into this world to save us. Isn't that what his name
means? The angel said, thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Have you seen him? With the eye of faith. Well, this was their desire. Sir, we would see Jesus. Okay, verse 22. And Philip then,
Philip cometh and he tells Andrew. And again, Andrew and Philip,
they tell Jesus. And then we get down to verse
23. And Jesus answered them. And
it seems as though he doesn't address the question. He doesn't
give a direct response to that inquiry raised by the Greeks. And yet he does, if you understand
what he's saying here. He says this, he says in verse
23, the hour is come that the son of man should be glorified. How's he gonna be glorified?
Well, he's gonna be glorified as a result of his death for
sinners. Finishing that work God gave
him to do, the work of redemption, the work of removal of our indebtedness
and bearing that indebtedness himself and then him taking care
of it to the full, to the full satisfaction of God's law to
which we were indebted. and then he'll be raised again.
And then he'll be exalted to the very highest heaven. And
he's seated upon his throne of glory. This is the way, the way
to glory is by way of the cross of Calvary. There is no crown
for him unless there's a death for him. Unless he dies, he won't
be Lord over all. But he did die and therefore
he is glorified. This is the way he got there
to his exaltation. God sent him and he died. He
gave his life. He laid it down. He said, no
man takes my life from me. I have the power to lay it down
and I have the power to take it up again. He's done that.
And by virtue of that, he's gonna be glorified. So he says, this
is the time, this is the time the son of man should be glorified.
Listen, don't feel sorry for Jesus. You save your tears for
yourself. This all happened according to
the will of God. And then he goes into a deeper
detail of what's going to happen. And I say he kind of, He sort
of answered their question because I think what he's saying is,
here's the way you need to see the Savior. You need to see him
as that one who died in order to make the way whereby we would
be saved. You wanna see Jesus? It isn't
a physical sight of Jesus that saves. If there were a physical,
viewing of the Savior that saved people. Well, that mean all the
Jews would be saved who saw him. All the Sanhedrin before whom
he stood, Pontius the Pilate and Herod and the soldiers, mean
all of them, but they weren't saved by the grace of God. It
wasn't a view of his physical body that saves. It's to view
him, it's to see him, through the scriptures by the enablement
of the spirit of God to see that he's the satisfaction of God's
justice. He is our propitiation. And he's now been enthroned on
a high. Well, now he goes and gives kind
of a commentary on what he just says. How's he gonna be glorified? What is this involved? Verse
24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die. It abides alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. You see, from his death will
come forth life. Now, he will live again, and
as a result of his death and his living again, that is his
resurrection, we will be brought forth to life. From his death
comes life. He uses an illustration with
which most all those people back then would have been familiar,
except a corn of wheat falling to the ground. Now, this word
fall, it doesn't present the idea of, well, oops, I dropped
it. Not like that. Because you know,
there's so many of you, you're thinking now about planting your
garden That sort of thing, the seed that goes into the ground,
it doesn't just accidentally fall there, it falls on purpose. You get the seed, whether it's
a corn or whatever it is, and you put it, you put it there.
You see, our Lord's death wasn't by accident. He didn't just kind
of slip and fall into the trap laid by Satan and Judas and the
Sanhedrin and, oh no, things just kind of worked out against
Him and then He winds up dying. No, not at all. Why, he is that
seed that's planted in the ground. He's sown in the ground. He's
sown by the Father. This was the Father's everlasting
purpose of grace. Does not the scripture say he's
the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world?
God the Father sent him and God the Father, he sowed him into
the ground of death. He died according to the purpose
of God, Acts chapter four. The Jews and the Gentiles and
the soldiers and Pontius Pilate, the Sanhedrin, all of them gathered
together to do, here's what the saints of God said in Acts chapter
four, for to do whatsoever thy hand, thy counsel purposed. to be done. He is that, he's the corn of
wheat that God dropped into the ground. Oh, blessed corn of wheat. Oh, blessed seed. Oh, blessed
son of God. That God the Father sent, he
sent him on purpose. He sent him to die. The death
of our Lord Jesus Christ was not an afterthought. It wasn't
that God had tried to save men some other way. Well, he gave
them the law and you keep the law and you'll be saved. No,
the law was never given. Listen, the law, the 10 commandments
was never given as a way of salvation. Well, what was the purpose of
the law? It exposes our sinfulness. It speaks to our guilt. That's
what it says in Romans chapter 3. Now we know that whatsoever
things the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be shut, stopped, and all the world be
found guilty before God. That's what the law does. The
law of God examines us. It examines our deeds. It examines
our wills. It examines our motives. It examines
our imagination. It examines our thoughts. And
it says, you're guilty. You're guilty. And something
had to be done about our guilt. And God has taken great care
to do that. Because He said to His Son, He
is the seed. The Father sowed Him into the
ground. In just a few days, the Lord
Jesus will give His life. He will die. No man's going to
take it from Him. He's going to give up His life
Himself. He'll finish absorbing all the
wrath of God. He'll finish paying our debt.
He'll finish satisfying divine justice. Justice that demanded
satisfaction. Justice that demanded death.
He'll do that. He'll say it is finished. And
then he'll bow his head. and he'll give up the ghost.
Does that sound like a defeated savior to you? He's the victor. You see in his death, he entered
into the domain of evil and sin and Satan and death. He entered into the empire of
darkness and he defeated all of his enemies and all of our
enemies. And then having finished the
work of redemption and satisfaction, he gave up the ghost and then
he comes back from the dead. You see, from his death, there
comes forth life. He lives. He told his disciples,
because I live, you'll live also. You'll live spiritually. Because
you see our regeneration, it is a result of his physical resurrection. And then we will live in these
bodies forever because of his resurrection, our bodies will
be raised. Oh, how necessary was his death,
and how necessary was his resurrection. His resurrection showed forth
his deity. Romans chapter one says that. His deity finds its surest evidence
in his resurrection. Romans one verse four says that. His sovereign authority depends
upon his resurrection. Because he arose, he is the Lord
over the quick and the dead. He's Lord over everyone. That's
what Peter said on the day of Pentecost. In Acts, the second
chapter, God has made that same Jesus, whom ye crucified, both
Lord and And God has raised him from the
dead. His sovereign authority depends upon his resurrection. And our justification is evidenced
by his resurrection. Romans chapter four says that.
He who died for us was raised again for our justification or
literally because of. This is because of his resurrection. You see, we're justified by his
blood. Romans chapter five tells us
that. And his resurrection is the evidence
that we've been justified by his blood. And our regeneration,
I've already mentioned that is dependent upon his resurrection.
And our ultimate resurrection is dependent upon our Lord's
resurrection. Really the silver thread of resurrection. It just runs through all of these
things. And because he is alive forevermore,
we gonna live forevermore. Now, I know many people in the
world, and certainly most of the people in the religious world,
at least those who profess to believe some of the Bible, to
them, this has been a special week. To the Jews, it's been
a special week. In fact, to the Jews, we're in
the middle, we're in the very middle of Passover. Yes, this
very same Passover mentioned here at the beginning of John
chapter 12, from that fast forward about roughly 2,000 years, and
now is the Passover of the Jews right now. In fact, the Passover
began at the setting of the sun on April the 8th, and it will
go through this week and the setting of the sun on April the
16th. And the Jews, even now, during
this Passover season, they're remembering what the Lord did
for their ancestors in bringing them out of Egyptian bondage.
Nancy and I were watching a little bit of the news this week and
they were interviewing a Jewish rabbi who happened to be a woman. And she was addressing the issue
of Passover and how vital it was to the Jewish people and
how this would be a very special week, these eight days that they're
observing Passover. And she said, you know, Passover
speaks to us of great hope. and love and liberation of those
who've been imprisoned. But here's the sad thing that
she didn't address because she doesn't know. Maybe God would
be pleased to teach her the truth. I hope he will. And this is a
fact that most religious people don't know. that Jesus of Nazareth,
he is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies regarding
Messiah, and he is our Passover. The Bible tells us that in the
book of I Corinthians chapter five and verse seven, Christ,
our Passover is sacrificed for us. See, this is what she didn't
see, and this is what the Orthodox Jews don't see, and this is what
most people don't see, that the Lord Jesus, our Savior, Christ
our Lord, He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Passover. Actually, that Passover only
has historical significance to the Jewish people unless there's
a spiritual truth involved in it. And there is. I found it interesting that that
Jewish rabbi did not mention the emphasis of the Old Testament. And of course, the New Testament
as well, but with her, she would only believe the Old Testament.
She did not mention that which is set forth most prominently
in the Old Testament, how vital a lamb was. That's always the
emphasis in the Bible is the lamb, the Passover lamb. And of course, it wasn't in Exodus
chapter 12 that the lamb was very, the first mention of the
lamb. You go all the way back, first
of all, actually the lamb first mentioned in Genesis 22nd chapter,
but it's set forth in Genesis chapter four also, the lambs,
the lambs. In Genesis four, in verse four,
we see the lamb of God typified. Abel offered unto God the firstlings
of his flock. Read the scripture carefully,
firstlings of his flock, which speaks to me, tells me that this
was not a one-time thing. This was a man who did it several
times. What did he do? How did he worship
God? He worshiped God through ever
how many years, whatever it was, weeks, months, weeks, or days,
whatever. He offered lambs to God. And
this is a picture of, this typified our Lord Jesus. What did Abel
do? Abel brought the best lamb he
had, the firstling of the flock. Every time he came to worship
God, it was the firstling. That typified the lamb of God,
Christ. In Genesis 22, here's the first
usage of the word lamb in the Bible. And how fitting that is. When God had Abraham take Isaac
up upon a mountain, there to offer him as a burnt offering.
In Genesis 22 verse eight, we have the lamb prophesied. Genesis 4.4, he's typified. Genesis 22.8, he's prophesied. Isaac said, behold, the fire
and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And
Abraham said, my son, the Lord will provide himself a lamb for
a burnt offering. And I rather suspect that in
John chapter eight, when our Lord was talking to the Jews,
they were bragging on Abraham being their father. Our Lord said to them, Abraham,
he saw my day and rejoiced. When do you think he saw his
day? When a substitute was found for
Isaac. See, Abraham said, my son, the
Lord will provide himself, himself, a lamb. A lamb. How much did Abraham understand
about the need of a lamb being offered to God? Well, he understood
that's necessary. There's no worship of God unless
there's a presentation of a lamb and Abel understand that also. Now, how much did they associate
that with the seed of the woman? I cannot tell you. They look
through the glass darkly. They look through shadows and
pictures and typology. But we know, we know because
of the enlightenment of the Spirit of God and because of the gift
of the Word of God that Abel's lambs, they all typified Christ
Jesus. And this lamb that Abraham mentioned,
that Abraham spoke of, That has to do with Christ Jesus. God
would provide himself. And then you get over into the
book of Exodus chapter 12. We have the Lamb of God who's
qualified. He's typified, he's prophesied,
he's qualified. You remember the passage in Exodus
chapter 12. God told Moses to tell all the
people elders of Israel, and they'd go back and tell all the
families and their groups, your lamb's gotta be qualified. In
fact, he specifically used, this was the language that Moses used
to those men, giving the word of God to them, when he begins
to speak to them about the qualification of the lamb, Moses said unto
them, your lamb, Your lamb, if he's gonna be your lamb, he's
gotta be spotless, he's gotta be without blemish, a male of
the first year. In other words, a male in its
strength. Don't bring an old lamb. that's worn out and on
his last leg, about to die. Don't bring one that's got scurvy
or got scabs on him. That's disqualifying to, that
would be disqualifying to the worshiper. You can't bring a
lamb like that. God's not gonna receive it. God's not gonna accept
it. God demands the best because you see, this lamb, your lamb
and my lamb, The Lord Jesus Christ, he's got to die in the strength
of his days. He's got to be without spot. He's got to be without blemish. Here's the lamb qualified. And then also there in Exodus
chapter 12, we find the lamb's got to be killed and the blood
applied. It's got to be killed. Oh, that
lamb out there in the pen for four days, what a sweet lamb. Oh, how beautiful it is. Let
me tell you something, that lamb in the pen, alive, it won't help
the firstborn of the family. It's not gonna help him at all. It's not gonna spare him. The Lord said, you gotta kill
it. For you see, from death comes life. From death comes fruitfulness. The only way the firstborn of
every Jewish family would live is because of a death. The death
of a suitable substitute. Got to be killed. That's why
God killed his son. He's the lamb who was killed. And you can argue this, people,
who killed Jesus? Well, the scripture tells us
that the Jews gathered together, they killed him, the Gentiles
killed him, the soldiers killed him. But listen, God killed him. Why did God kill him? Because
our sins demand death. Death. No way around it. The soul that sinneth shall die.
The wages of sin is death. Moses, what we got to do with
the lamb? You got to kill it. And then you got to apply the
blood. I asked you this, who did apply
the blood? Back there in Exodus. at first
Passover. Who applied the blood? Did the
firstborn do it? No. No, they didn't do it. They were merely observers. You know who did it? Dad did
it. The father did it. The father
of their firstborn. He understood. the necessity
of putting that lamb up. Got to be qualified. And then
he had to kill it. And then he had to shed the blood. And then his son would live. But only as he applied the blood. And isn't that what the father
does to us? It's the Father who sent the
Savior. It's the Father who killed the
Savior. It's the Father who raised the
Savior. And it's the Father who makes an application of the blood
of Christ Jesus to us. Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Say, yes. Well, I asked you this,
who washed you? That's a good question. Who washed
you? Well, I can tell you who washes
sinners, God does. God washes us and he robes us
in the garments of salvation that is in the righteousness
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And by the way, there in that
passage of scripture in Exodus chapter 12, they had to roast
the entire land, roast the whole land. That's what it says. Roast
the whole lamb. Listen, we have a whole Christ,
W-H-O-L-E, a whole Christ, not a partial Christ, not a partial
Savior. We have a whole Savior and therefore
we have a whole salvation and we're made whole in Him. And then in Isaiah chapter 53,
I'll move on quickly. We have the Lamb of God denied. The Lamb of God denied. It says
there at the beginning of Isaiah 53, he was despised and rejected
of men. Did not folks of his day say,
we will not have this man rule over us? That's why they crucified him.
He said, he's the son of God. He's guilty of blasphemy. They despised, they hated him.
They rejected him. And when the Roman governor said,
well, what shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ? They
said, let him be crucified. That's what they said. Death
to Jesus, down to Jesus. Today, everybody begs on Jesus.
Today on Easter Sunday, of course, can't have the sunrise services
as they typically do. And certainly churches aren't
overflowing with people as they typically are on Easter, but
people come out and sing, up from the grave he arose. And they kind of tip their cap
to God, tip their cap to Jesus. Well, I've done my religious
thing. I went to church on Christmas and at least on Easter, I watched
a little on television or maybe I went to a drive-in church somewhere. He doesn't need the tip of your
cap to him. He doesn't need a little acknowledgement
once or twice a year of his identity. He doesn't need that from you.
In fact, he doesn't need anything from you. He doesn't need anything
from me. But I tell you what he does demand,
worship. Worship. Well, I think about
him on December the 25th, and I'm thinking about him here on
April the 12th. I'm thinking about his resurrection
two days a year. Oh, thank you very much for thinking
of Jesus two days a year. I'm sure he appreciates that. He's the Lord of glory. Honor Him, worship Him. You see, we don't need We don't
need two special days a year to remember the Savior, not the
people of God. Now, I'll say this, I'm thankful
that in the purpose and providence of God, there's a Christmas and
there's an Easter. Yes, I understand these are two
heathen holidays by their origin, carried over from the Babylonian
idolatry. I understand that. But at least,
I'll say this, two days a year, people are forced to acknowledge,
whether they want to or not, that a real person named Jesus
of Nazareth walked on this earth. If you looked at the local, the
Ashland newspaper this morning, two big pages right in the middle
of the front section. Paper don't have too much in
it, but it was filled with scripture. just scripture. Unfortunately,
they had some pictures, which I don't particularly like, but
it was filled with scripture acknowledging the truthfulness
of the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus. Now, I know they don't understand, most people don't
understand why he was born or what he did when he died and
the meaning of his resurrection. That puts great responsibility
upon us to tell folks why He came, why He died. What's the meaning of His resurrection?
Well, this is our Lord. This is the Lord of glory. This
is our Savior. Men denied Him, men denied, and
they still deny Him His sovereign right, or they would if they
could. They just don't believe. They don't believe that He who
came and gave His life a ransom for many was raised again, gone
back to heaven. They don't believe that He reigns.
They talk about letting Jesus do something. You're going to
let the King of kings do something? You're going to let the Creator
do something? Folks just need to think about
the foolish words that come out of their mouths. You're gonna
let the magnificent God, over all God, who is eternal in his
being, you're gonna let him do something? That's crazy talk, isn't it?
You know that's right. Oh, he's the lamb who's denied. And then also in Isaiah 53, here
we have the lamb personified. Up to this point, all these mention
of the lambs, especially you go through Exodus and Leviticus,
you read about all of those lambs to be offered up as sacrifices. It's when you get to Isaiah chapter
53 that you find out this lamb that's been spoken of, pictured,
typified by Abel's lamb, right on down through the generations.
you find out he's going to be a man. This lamb is a man. That's why Isaiah says, he shall
grow up before him as a tender plant. Isaiah says, all we like
sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way, but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
yet He opened not His mouth. Listen to this. He is brought
as a Lamb. He's the Lamb personified. Now
we know the Lamb that's been pictured ever since Genesis chapter
4 going all the way through and on the Passover. Remember, in
John chapter 12, they were there to observe the Passover. Sir,
we would see Jesus. Do you understand, Greeks? Do you understand that Jesus
of the New Testament is the Lamb set forth from the Old Testament? Do you understand who He is and
what He did and why He did it and where He is now? He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is done, so he opened
not his mouth. And then we get to the New Testament
and in John chapter one, we have the lamb who is certified and
identified. Yeah, John the Baptist certified
him as being the lamb of God and he identified him as such. Well, who is this lamb? Okay,
we understand. In the Old Testament, it's all
about the lamb who is coming. Well, who is he? Who is he? Who is this Passover
lamb? John saw Jesus walking down by
the river. He certified him and he identified
him as being The Lamb of God. Behold, he says, the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sin of the world. And the next day,
he's still preaching the same message. People sometimes criticize
preachers of the gospel. You keep on playing the same
note all the time. You keep up with the same subject
all the time. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Well, you wouldn't have liked
the preaching of John the Baptist saying. Behold the Lamb of God. He preached the next day that,
behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And
then the next day, the same message. And he had two of his disciples
and they, they did behold the Lamb of God. He had, there were
two men that God got ahold of their hearts that day. And they
left John the Baptist and followed the Lord Jesus. And here's the
reason, they saw him to be the Lamb of God. These men, those
two men, while they had been observing the Passover for years,
and now their eyes were open, they see Jesus, not as a mere
man, but as God's Lamb, God's Lamb. He's certified and he's identified. And in Revelation chapter five,
we see the lamb magnified and glorified. Worthy is the lamb
that was slain, who has redeemed us to God by his blood. And there's
another passage in Revelation chapter 14. Here we see the lamb
satisfied. Revelation 14, I love this. John said, I looked, and lo,
a lamb. Not a lamb dead, he had to die,
but a lamb that stood. Where is he standing? On Mount
Zion. He's standing as head of the
church. And with him 140 and 4,000, a perfect number indicating
a perfect group of people. They had their father's name
written on their forehead. They had the mind of Christ Jesus.
They had been taught the gospel. See, this is what the Jews don't see.
And it's what a lot of other people don't see. And here in
this context, let me wrap this message up by saying this. These
Greeks and many hundreds of thousands of Jews were there for this Passover. And our Lord preaches. And basically
he says, through my death will come forth life. And there wasn't but just a very
few people there that understood. what he was talking about. But this is the message of all
in the Bible. From his death, the death of
God's lamb. On that Passover, and my friends,
that was the last Passover. That's it. No more lambs to be
offered. Why not? They couldn't put anybody's
sin away. He who looks, she who looks at
the Old Testament sees pictures of Christ Jesus. But when we
get to the New Testament and we see that he is that seed that
fell into the ground that God planted him. And from his death
came forth his own resurrection in the life of so many. He who
sees it, she who sees it is blessed of God and has an understanding
of the gospel. Because you see, here is the
message of substitution. He died, I live. It's simple, isn't it? It's not
complicated. It's not over your head, is it?
I'm using very, very clear, very simple words. And the Savior
did. He said, except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, except I die according to God's
purpose. That corn of wheat abides alone,
but if it die and he did, it bringeth forth much fruit from
his death that came forth his life, and from his death and
his life comes forth our lives, our spiritual life, our everlasting
life, and our eternal life. Oh yeah. He ever lives, the Christ
we worship. May God be pleased to open our
eyes, the eyes of our understanding. As we echo the words of the Greeks,
Sir, we would see Jesus. Oh, Spirit of God, we would see
Jesus. And he opens our minds' eye. He opens our hearts' vision.
and we see him in the Word of God, and we see him as the very
Lamb of God that we need. I pray God will bless you today,
and I hope that you'll be watching again this evening at 6.30. I
hope you'll have a wonderful day as you reflect upon the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me have prayer with you before
I go. Our Father, thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
see once again that from his death comes forth life. Oh, how we praise you for your
son and his work of redemption. And I ask, oh God, on behalf
of everyone who's watching, everyone who's listening to the sound
of my voice, that you'd make each of them and all of us to
rejoice in our Savior. we would see Jesus. Well, here's
how you see him. You see him as that one who died,
and as a result of his death, we, for whom he died, shall live
forever. Bless us, Lord, with the knowledge
of the Savior. In his name I pray, amen. you