Comforts of a Risen Redeemer

You know, brethren, when I preach, I want to declare the gospel to you as if you never heard it. That, you know, somebody could actually hear it for the first time, or somebody could hear this, if it's recorded, somebody could hear it later. Every time I preach, I want to I asked myself this question. If a person did not know the gospel, would they leave having heard the truth of the gospel? Would they leave having heard Christ?

And so to do that, you repeat some things. But I've also found that that's safe, too, because there's been times I heard something and it seemed like it's the first time I heard it. And I've seen it happen with brethren that would come up to my pastor and say, I have never heard you say that. And I know it's something that I've heard the pastor say 10 or 15 times. You know, we need to hear the gospel repeated. We need to hear it repeated.

I've been speaking a little bit lately about the fact that the Lord Jesus is risen some of the things he's doing now that he's risen. And it's very comforting to me. And I want to comfort you. And that's the subject tonight is comforts of a risen Redeemer. Comforts of a risen Redeemer.

They looked and they were looking at the Lord and he was taken up, verse nine, Acts 1-9. He was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, can't you picture this? I mean, I can just picture them just looking, just amazed at what they were seeing. I would have. I would have been amazed at what I was seeing. And they watched the Lord just rise up. And then these two men in white apparel appear. And they said, you men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.

It's like everything else that our Lord does. Men don't believe it for one reason, it's because we can't do it. And that's so with everything about our salvation. Everything about salvation is impossible for you and me to accomplish, every aspect of it. And that's one reason men can't believe is because men can't do it, so they don't think God can do it.

He created the universe by his word. It's nothing for him to rise up. He created the universe by his word. He holds it all in store by the word of his power. He is the laws of physics. Gravity obeys him. He doesn't obey gravity. And so he arose. But I want you to see why this is comforting. And one reason, and the ultimate reason, is this same Lord Jesus who ascended shall return in like manner. That's the point of the message. He shall return in like manner as they saw him go. I want to ask three questions. Who came down? Who ascended? And who shall return? All right, first of all, who came down? The one who came down is God. The one true God. the Son of God, one with the Father, one with the Holy Spirit, one God in three person, but the Son of God came down, God came down.

The Word, John 1 says, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, all things were made by him. Without Him was not anything made that was made. And then it says, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The One who created everything came down and was made flesh. And John wrote, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Why did he come down? Why did he come and take flesh? Well, number one, he came to declare the invisible God. He came to manifest God.

And he said, no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he hath declared him. While he was in this earth, talking to them, making that statement, he was in the bosom of the father because he's God. But that man, the Lord Jesus, is where you're gonna find out who God is and where you're gonna learn his character and everything about God is manifest in the man Christ Jesus. He came to declare God, that's the chief purpose. He that has seen me, he said, hath seen the Father. And then second reason he came down and took flesh was to save his elect.

The Father gave him a people, chosen by grace, and Christ entered covenant, became our surety from before this creation, and promised, he promised that he would come down and obey God on our behalf, to work out a perfect righteousness for his people, that he would obey God by going to the cross and becoming the sin bearer, becoming the one who bore our sins in his body on the tree.

And he would bear the curse that we deserve. And on all of this, declaring how God is a just God, how he's a merciful God, how he's a loving God, but how that his love is holy love, his mercy is holy mercy, it's in Christ alone. He would not clear the guilty. He had to, he had to, He had to slay every sinner that he would save, and now he's just to show mercy. We learn that looking to Christ. We learn that about God. Just like God put Moses in the rock, the cleft of the rock to show him his glory, it's only in Christ we're gonna see the glory of God.

That's why he came, and he came to save his people, and he did it. Look with me at Hebrews 9. He settled judgment. One death and one judgment. And Christ settled it for his people. Look here. Hebrews 9 verse 26. I'll just pick up in the second part right there.

Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He did that. He put away sin. All the sin of his people. and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. See, that one judgment, he bore that one judgment, and he put away sin, and he settled that judgment for his people.

And so now, by giving us faith to look for him, that's what we're looking for. I don't know when he's coming. I don't know all the particulars of how he's gonna do it. But I'm not concerned about that. I'm looking for him. I wanna see him, don't you? I wanna know him. And to them that look for him, shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. He accomplished that for us, brethren. Our Lord was victorious in what He did.

I hate to hear, the other day, I had a, there was a visiting preacher that preached in the church in the Philippines. And I didn't know who he was, and I got his name, and I went and I looked up the website where he came from. And the first message I saw was out of Romans 8, beginning in verse 1, and I thought this would be a good one. Let me look at this. I can tell what he preaches from this message. I looked at the title, and it said, How Christ Made No Condemnation Possible. I didn't even have to listen to it. I knew what he was going to preach. I listened, and he did.

He preached, you make the blood effectual by believing on it. That's not what we preach. Christ accomplished it. We don't make anything effectual. He is the one who makes it effectual in us. But he accomplished that. Now we're waiting for him. We're waiting for him.

Now, who ascended up to heaven? Well, it's the same Lord Jesus ascended up. He came down, the Son of God. He went back, the God-man. He came down, the Son of God. He went back, the God-man. the victorious mediator. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things. Same God came down, same God went up.

The only difference is he went back as the God-man. His resurrection and his ascension is one of the most contested things in history. Men don't believe it, men oppose it, men say that's fanatical. But here's the truth of it. The resurrection of Christ and his ascension is one of the most witnessed things in all of history. More than a lot of things that we believe, that we don't have the witnesses that Christ has.

He showed himself to Mary Magdalene, then to each of the Marys. Then he showed himself to Simon Peter. Then he showed himself to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Then to the 10 apostles, and then again to all of them when Thomas was present. Then he showed himself again to Peter and John and others on the Lake Tiberias. And then to 500 brethren at once he showed himself. and then to James, the Lord's brother, and again to the 11 in Galilee, and then in our text right here, he gathered with them at Olivet again, and then they all sat there and watched him go up to heaven. And then he appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus and revealed himself to Paul in person.

All of these witnesses, and there's a lot of things we believe in history, that don't have near that many witnesses, and we just take them as truth. What does that tell you? It tells us that God has got to give a new heart, and he's got to give faith, or men won't believe God. With all these witnesses, still won't believe God, unless God reveal it.

Here's why we have comfort in a risen redeemer. Everything about our salvation hinges on him, rising from the grave and ascending to the Father. Everything about it. Listen, Paul said, if Christ be not risen, then as our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain, and you're yet in your sins, if he be not risen. Here's the comfort of him giving you faith to know this.

Here it is, here's the comfort of a risen Redeemer. Number one, Christ resurrects from the dead. declares he is exactly who he said he is. Romans 1 verse 4 says, he's declared the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Him arising out of the grave and then ascending to the father declares he is God just like he said he is.

No other religion can say that. No other religion has a so-called savior or a prophet or a Buddha or whatever they have. None of them has one without a grave. They all have a grave. You go to where their grave is. This is the only religion whose savior has no, there's no grave here for him. It's empty.

He's in glory. Number two, his resurrection and ascension is comforting to us because he declares he has the sovereign rule over all. He has the rule over all, especially his church. You remember in Romans 14, in verse nine, it says this, to this end, Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord, both of the dead and the living. That was the end to which he came and laid down his life and rose up and ascended, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. That means sovereign Lord. That means the ruler over all.

And that's who he is. Everything coming to pass, he's ruling every bit of it. Everything coming to pass is coming to pass exactly as he appointed and exactly as he is bringing it to pass. The wrath of man shall praise him, because he took his hand off of them and let them do what they did. The sin's theirs. He's not to blame for that. It's man doing what all men would do if he let us. But the remainder, he restrains it. He only permits what's gonna give him glory. And everything else, he's directly in power turning the hearts as he will. That's who he is.

And you remember the context of Romans 14 is Paul is saying, we don't, he's our master, he's the Lord. So he's able to make his servants stand. So we don't have to fight with one another. We don't have to quarrel and fuss and fall out. You can commit me to Christ and I can commit you to Christ. because he's our master who is the only one able to make us stand. He's Lord. He fills all. And so that's the comfort of knowing he's my Lord. He's with his people and he's leading us day by day. That's who he is.

Another thing that comforts us is by rising, it declares that he really and truly justified us of all our sins. He accomplished justifying his people on the cross. When he went to the cross and made sin for us and bore the curse, he justified his people. He made us righteous.

God will not impute sin to anybody Christ died for because Christ already settled the matter. He will not. There's no sin to impute. It's not that God's pretending you don't have sin. Christ really justified us. He really made us the righteousness of God in his blood. And the resurrection declares that to us, that he really accomplished that. He was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. He was raised again because he justified us. That's what it means. Because he justified.

And I want to say this. Somebody asked me this the other day. And they asked me some really good questions. And it's not all that often that you get asked a good question by somebody that obviously wants an answer. But one of the things that they said is, they said, when were we really justified? Because it seems like it was before creation. And it seemed like it was at the cross. And it seems like it was when God gave us faith to believe him. And I said, all of those are true. In the purpose of God, we were justified when he chose us in Christ and Christ became our surety. God never looked to us. He only looked to his son.

And then when he went to that cross and he cried out, it is finished, he was declaring he had finished it. He justified his people. And then when he gives you the spirit and purges your conscience, he makes you experience it. He makes you to know he justified you. And in the last day, before all, good angels, wicked angels, the devil, hell, believers, non-believers, he's going to declare his people justified and declare that Christ justified us in the day of judgment. So they're all true.

When faith sees Christ's body in that tomb, when by faith you see Christ's body in that tomb, we know our old man died, he's dead. This old fleshly man that gives us so much grief and trouble and sorrow because of our sin. Before God, before the law, when you see that empty tomb by faith, you know that old man's dead. Remember, when you see his body in that tomb, and then when you see that empty tomb, it's witness to us that our new man's risen with him.

We're seated at God's right hand in Christ. When you see him in that tomb dead, you know I died. And when you see him risen in that tomb empty, you know I'm seated there with him in glory. He tells us, account it so. Account it that you are dead and that you're now risen with Christ. Here's the fourth thing.

We have spiritual life and we have a living hope because Christ arose. Go with me to 1 Peter 1. We have faith, spiritual life and faith, and a living hope because Christ arose. 1 Peter 1, verse 3. 1 Peter 1, verse 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.

You see that? He begat us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That's what he did by Christ rising up. What does that mean exactly? How did he, how were we born again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead?

Look at verse 21. who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God. God raised him and gave him his glory, the promised glory the Father promised him, and part of that glory was Christ would get the praise and glory for sending us the gospel, putting us under the preaching of his gospel and truth, for sending the Spirit and regenerating us. It's by him that we believe God. It's by him that we have a hope in God and he is our hope. That's what he did by arising from the grave. God gave him that glory and he worked that for us.

And then here's the fifth thing. We have an inheritance reserved in heaven for us because Christ drove. Keep reading there in 1 Peter 1.3. It says, he begot us again to a lively hope, a living hope, Christ is that hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Well, how's that? How do I have an inheritance by the Lord?

Rising because scripture says he's our inheritance and we're his inheritance He gave the Levitical priest. He said you don't you don't have an inheritance with these others. I'm your inheritance Well, he's made you a priest and he says to us. I'm your inheritance we're he's our lot and We're his lot That's security. It's what that is We have an inheritance reserved, and there's nothing else to be done for this salvation. It's ready. It's ready to be revealed. And here's another comfort of resurrection.

Go back to 1 John, 1 John 2. When we sin, we don't want to, but when we do, and our Savior brings us to confess our sins to Him, God's faithful to forgive us, and he's just to forgive us. And the reason that all comes about is because Christ is our advocate with the Father. Look here, 1 John 2, 1, my little children, these things write unto you that you sin not, and if any man sin, we have an advocate. Where? With the Father. He arose, he's with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous, And he's the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world, his people scattered everywhere. An advocate is a lawyer, is what an advocate is, a lawyer. We're the criminals. And we have the best criminal defense lawyer there ever has been, the Lord Jesus. He's never lost one and he'll never lose one.

And the reason he is such a good advocate is because He's our righteousness, our propitiation, the propitiation for our sins. That's why he's such a good advocate. And he does this advocating for us by his presence at God's right hand. There he is. And in the last day, he's not only gonna be our advocate and our righteousness, and the one that propitiated our sin, he's gonna be the judge. That's security, brethren. And that's because we have this assurance because he arose.

Go to Romans 8, Romans chapter 8. Romans 8. Who is he that condemneth? Verse 34, Romans 8, 34. Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather, that's risen again. He's even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us. That's why we can't be condemned. Christ rose. He's making intercession for us. And here's what that means. who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Verse 37 says, no, and all these things were more than conquerors to him that loved us. Long as he is sitting there on the throne, we cannot be condemned and will never be separated from his love. Long as he's sitting there.

And another thing right now, brethren, We have welcome access to the holiest of holies, to our heavenly father, because Christ is the new and living way. He's the living way because he's a rose. He consecrated that way for us. He's the new veil. He ripped the old veil. He's the new way, the living way to God.

And we have a high priest over the house of God. We can come to God. Before, only the high priest in the old ceremony, only the high priest would go into the holiest of holies. Now we can. That's what we do when we pray. We're going into the holiest of holies, and we're welcome. Come boldly. Ask for mercy and grace to help in time of need. He's willing to help you.

We have that living way because Christ arose. That's Hebrews 10, you know it. And then here's the next thing, Romans 8. Are you there still? In the end, in the end, our vile bodies gonna be raised and gonna be fashioned like to his glorious body, the same way he arose. And his rising tells us that, Romans 8, 11. Romans 8, 11, if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. See, that's a witness to us that we're saved and that we're gonna continue to be saved by the Lord, even to the last, everything about it, from our first hearing the gospel to a new spirit, to faith, to repentance, to preservation, to continual forgiveness, all the way till we draw our last breath, and then our bodies are raised. Every bit of that we have. And Christ being risen is witness to us. We have all of that because he arose. He arose because he satisfied God, and he's sitting there now, and he's doing everything to bring us there.

Now here's the last thing. Who's gonna come back? Look back at our text, Acts 111, who shall return? God came down, the God-man went back, who's gonna return? Verse 11, it says, this same Jesus, this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you've seen him go into heaven.

Here's what he told us. He said, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. That's his promise. This is the one who laid down his life for us, brother. You reckon he would do that for us and then lie to us? I don't think so. He's coming back to get us. This is the very one who laid down his life for us. He's God who who gave his blood for us.

I hear men object to that. Paul said, take heed to yourselves and to the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers. He said this to the preachers, and he said to feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. All the Father giveth me, he said, shall come to me.

He's not gonna lose one. The reason he didn't destroy us in Adam, when Adam sinned and plunged the whole mankind into sin and death is because he had an elect in Christ our surety. The reason he didn't destroy this world with water before he got Noah in that ark is because Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and Christ was his righteousness. The reason that he brought Lot out of Sodom before he rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom is because Lot was just in Christ his surety.

And the reason, right now, this world, well, in Isaiah's day, as soon as he said, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head, your wounds and bruises and putrefying sword, Isaiah said of Judah, he said, God would have destroyed us if he hadn't have left us a remnant. If he hadn't have left us a remnant, we'd be like Solomon and Gomorrah. That remnant's in Christ, and Christ is the reason he didn't destroy Judah.

And right now, this world's held in store because he still has some lost sheep that he justified, that are righteous, that are seated there with him in glory, they just don't know it yet. And he's gonna send this gospel to them just like he did to you, and he shall call them. He's longsuffering to usward, the usward he chose, the usward he redeemed, the usward he's calling out. And so you can account the longsuffering of God is gonna end in the salvation of all his people.

He's not gonna lose one. All the Father giveth me shall come to me, he said. They shall all be taught of the Father, and when they've heard by the Father teaching them, and they've learned by the Father teaching them, they gonna come to me, they shall come to me. Every one of them.

So you account that the longsuffering of God is salvation. We're waiting for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. He said to us, watch therefore. You don't know the day nor the hour when the Son of Man coming. I'm glad he didn't tell us. If he told us, if I know me and I know you, I tell you what we'd do. We'd have never started watching until it gets right to the time to watch. But he didn't tell us when he's coming. So he said, you'd be watching all the time. It could be today. It could be tomorrow. Be watching. Be watching.

And for those that don't have any regard for him, for those that don't care, listen, he said, when he appeared, when the sign of the Son of Man appears in heaven, then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. He said they'll cry for the rocks to fall on them. Right now, Everybody that is in unbelief, the people that are in unbelief, they don't think any of this is true.

They did, if they saw they were sinners and they needed Christ, they'd be calling, begging him, Lord, save me, please have mercy on me. And he likes to show mercy. But in that day, he's coming in glory and he's coming in power. And when he does, and that infidel, the reprobate, they see him coming. They gonna cry for the rocks to fall on them. What's his people gonna do? What's his people gonna do?

He said, he'll send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they'll gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. And he said, he said, and when these things begin to come to pass, you look up, you lift up your heads for your redemption draws nigh. He's about to redeem your people. your body out of this world into glory. He said, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel. He's the archangel. And with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. This is gonna be amazing. The dead that are his, the dead in Christ, they're coming out of these graves. Well, what about people that died a thousand years ago? They're coming out. They're going to be raised with a glorified body. It won't be dust. It's going to be a glorified body. A real body, but it's going to be a glorified body.

And then we which are alive and remain, if you're still alive, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. The clouds and the air is not the important thing. We're going to meet the Lord. That's what the important thing is. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. You know what the next word says? Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. This is the comfort of our risen Redeemer.

We're gonna meet him. You're gonna meet your Redeemer. Job, the oldest book of the Bible, Job said, I know my Redeemer's gonna stand on this earth. and no worms destroy my body, I'm gonna see him with my own eyes. I'm gonna see him, I'm gonna know him.

And that's so everybody believes in. We're gonna know our Lord and be with our Savior forever. No waking up tired, no sweating, no tears, no sorrow, no seed, because there won't be any division. Nothing natural, everything's gonna be glorious. Gonna know him perfectly, gonna know him like he knows us right now. Know him perfectly. His dominions and everlasting dominion which shall not pass away in his kingdom shall not be destroyed. And we're gonna be there, brethren. I'm trying to comfort you with these words. I hope it is a comfort to you. All right, amen.

Comforts of a Risen Redeemer

Sermon Transcript

About Clay Curtis

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Comforts of a Risen Redeemer

Sermon Transcript

About Clay Curtis

Comments

More from Clay Curtis

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Clay Curtis

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book