I titled the lesson this morning,
The God of the Living. And in the providence of God,
our lesson this morning and the message this morning are both
gonna be very closely related. Now you remember in the last
lesson that we looked at here, Mark, the Pharisees had come
to our Lord thinking that they had a question that boy, they're
gonna trap him this time. It's a question about whether
you should pay your taxes or not. And they thought, well,
if he says, yes, you should pay your taxes, the poor people are
going to quit following him. If he says, no, you shouldn't
pay your taxes, the Roman government will come and take him and throw
him in jail. They thought they had him, no
matter how that he answered. And in his wisdom, he gave such
a good answer that made them look foolish. Well, now the Sadducees
are going to have a go at it. Look at verse 18 in Mark chapter
12. Then come unto him the Sadducees. which say there is no resurrection.
And they're gonna ask him a question. Now the Sadducees, the Sadducees
only believed that the first five books of the Bible, the
writings of Moses, they believed that was the only inspired scripture
that there was. All the rest of the Old Testament
scriptures, they believed was not inspired. They believed the
Bible was complete, five books of the Bible, the first five
books. And they also denied that there is any resurrection of
the dead. Now that confused me. This group,
the Sadducees, now they're very, very religious. But what is it
that makes a religious person so dedicated to their religion
if they don't believe that there's life after death? So I had to
look that up. And this is what I found out.
The Sadducees believe that the whole point of religion was to
be very strict about everything concerning religion. They were
to be very strict about obeying God's law. They were to be very
strict about observing the ceremonies. You know, boy, you do them just
right, you know. And they were very strict in
keeping the order of the temple in the way that they thought
it should be kept. So they were very, very strict
doctrinally. But if you wanted to know how
to do anything, the Sadducees would be very glad to tell you.
I mean, they knew how you're supposed to do all this stuff.
And here's the reason that they were so strict. It wasn't that
if you obey God, you'll be righteous and God will take you to heaven
when you die, because they didn't believe heaven existed. The reason
that they were so strict had all to do with this life. You
know, they're not interested in going to heaven because they
don't think there is such a place. They're not afraid if they don't
obey the law, God will send them to hell because they didn't believe
there's such a place. What they wanted to do was do
these things thinking that God would be pleased with them so
God wouldn't punish them in this life and that he would bless
them in this life. That's all they were seeking.
The reason behind doing everything they did was to seek blessing
in this life. Sounds very familiar to the religion
we hear preached today, doesn't it? But if you believe that,
that there's no resurrection of the dead, and that you're
trying to please God so God will bless you in this life, because
that's the only blessing that you can have, what naturally
follows is you're gonna become eaten up with trying to get more
stuff, get more stuff, get more stuff, because the only place
you're ever gonna have it is in this life, and no matter what
it takes, you're gonna try to get more stuff. And it worked
for the Sadducees. The Sadducees were a very wealthy
group of people. And more than anything, they
were small in number. There weren't very many of them.
But more than anything, they wanted to prove to the Jewish
nation, their pet doctrine, that there's no resurrection of the
dead. I mean, they wanted to prove that more than anything.
So they come up with this question about the resurrection of the
dead. And they're just like the Pharisees. They think, boy, We're
gonna phrase this question in such a way, the Lord has to answer
it. No matter how he does, he has
to answer it in a way that will prove our doctrinal point is
right. There is no resurrection of the
dead. They thought they had the Lord. And the Lord's gonna answer
their question. And he's gonna show everyone
how the Sadducees have erred concerning the scriptures. Look
at verse 24. Jesus answering said unto them,
do you not therefore err because you know not the scriptures and
you don't know the power of God. In verse 27, he said, he's not
the God of the dead, but the God of the living. Ye therefore
do greatly err. And I'll just make this point
to us about erring concerning the scriptures. If you want to
err concerning the scriptures, I can tell you how to do it.
If you've got a point that you think is true, something that's
very important to you, you think, I know this is true, and you
go to the scriptures to prove it, you'll always err concerning
the scriptures. Because if you're looking at
the scriptures to prove your point, you can do it. You can
twist the scriptures into proving your point. And I won't give
a lot of examples, but I will give this one. You think about
in the Old South before the Civil War, those slave owners used
scripture to prove it was right to enslave a nation or a people
simply because of their skin color. They used the scriptures
to prove it was right to do that. They twisted the scriptures enough
that they could say that, you know, the Bible tells us this
is okay to treat these people this way, you know. If you try
to prove your point from the scriptures, you'll always err.
God gave us the scriptures To look at it, to read it, and believe
what it says. Not to prove our point, but to
believe what the scriptures say. What the scriptures are teaching.
And you know what the scriptures always teach? Every single verse
of scripture. You know what it's teaching?
It's teaching us Christ. It's pointing us to Christ. Now
I know that we can't always read a passage of scripture and find
Christ in it. We by nature certainly can't
read the scripture and believe it, can we? But you know what
we can do? We can read the scripture and
pray. Pray, Lord, show me what this
verse means. Show me Christ here. Lord, be
my teacher and teach me what this verse is saying. And if
we do that, I'm just very confident we'll avoid airing in the scriptures
if we ask the Lord to teach us from his word. But that's not
what the Sadducees did. I want to show you two errors
that the Sadducees made since they aired concerning the scriptures.
And then I want us to see in closing the blessing of the resurrection. And number one, The Sadducees
erred concerning the nature of heaven. See, they didn't think
that there was such a place, so they erred concerning the
nature of heaven. In verse 18 it says, they came
and they asked him this question, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto
us, if a man's brother die and leave his wife behind him and
leave no children, that his brother should take his wife and raise
up seed unto his brother. Now there were seven brethren
and the first took a wife and dying left no seed. The second
took her and died. Neither left he any seed. And
the third likewise. And the seven had her and left
no seed. Last of all, the woman died also.
In the resurrection therefore, now remember, they don't believe
in the resurrection. They're kind of mocking him.
In the resurrection therefore, when they shall arise, whose
wife shall she be of them? For the seven had her to wife. Now this is a ridiculous question. I mean, it's a ridiculous question.
And I suppose there's a small percentage of chance that it
could happen. But even if it did happen, even
if these seven brothers and this woman, even if this did happen,
it doesn't matter a hoot. It doesn't have anything to do
with heaven. So look at the Lord's answer
to them, verse 24. Jesus answering said unto them,
Do you not therefore err because you know not the scriptures,
neither the power of God? This is why you're erring. For
when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor
are given a marriage, but there as the angels which are in heaven. Now, by trying to prove their
point that there is no resurrection of the dead, they erred. They erred concerning the nature
of heaven because they erred concerning the scriptures. The
whole message of the scriptures is Christ. That's the message
of the scriptures. If we read a passage of scripture,
and we think it's teaching something other than Christ, we're wrong,
and we need to go back and pray that the Lord teach us. All of
the scriptures are written to tell us who Christ is, what Christ
did, why he did it, and where he is now. That's the whole point
of the scriptures. The scriptures just declare Christ
as he is. and they never make any attempt
to explain it. The scripture never makes any
attempt to explain how these things can be. They just are. The scriptures just declare them.
And I'll give you just a couple examples. Everybody here would
agree that the scriptures teach the sovereignty of God in all
things. We all believe that. And you
know, I thought, as I was studying this this week, how we say, oh,
God's sovereign in all things, and God's especially sovereign
in salvation. Well, now that's not true. God's
just as sovereign in salvation. He is everything, you know. But
regarding the salvation of his people, God's sovereign, isn't
he? He's gonna save whom he will, when he will, how he will, salvations
of the Lord. And scripture makes no attempt
to explain why God's right in doing what he does and choosing
one and passing another by. It makes absolutely no effort
to explain that or to defend that. It's just so, because that's
who Christ is. When scripture talks about the
character of God, God's holy. He cannot sin. God's just. He cannot do wrong. What God does is right, just
because God does it. God doesn't have to say, well,
is this right or wrong? I got to do what's right. What God
does is right, just because God does it. And scripture makes
no effort to defend that or to explain that. People say, well,
now that can't be. That can't be because tornadoes
come and kill innocent people. Like what's going on in the world
today, bombs fall and kill innocent people. Well, you know, God didn't
do that. Oh, yes, he did. And scripture makes no effort
to explain why that's right. It's just so because God did
it. How about the grace of God, the mercy of God, that God gives
faith to his people. God's gracious, God's merciful,
and he'll be merciful to him. He will be merciful. He'll be
gracious to whom he will be gracious. The Holy Spirit is gonna give
faith to whom he will give faith. He blows where he listeth, wherever
it is he desires and gives faith. That's just how God saves sinners.
It's by grace, it's by showing them mercy, it's by God giving
faith to believe. And the scriptures never make
any attempt to defend that or to explain why this is right,
it's just so. How about the imputation of sin
to Christ and the imputation of righteousness to God's people?
He had made him sin for us who knew no sin that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. Every preacher you ever
heard is worth his salt preach on that message or that passage
and talk about that passage will tell you, I can't explain that. And you know why we can't explain
it? The word makes no effort to explain it or to defend it.
It's just so. The scriptures just declare these
things that are just so. The two natures of a believer.
Who can understand that? Who can understand how I have
a nature of flesh, a nature of Adam that's dead, that's sinful,
can never do anything but sin? And I have a nature of Christ
that I've been made a partaker of the divine nature. I have
a nature that cannot sin, yet everything that you see me do
is sinful. Who can explain that? We can't
because scripture makes no effort to explain it. It just declares
it so. And the same thing is true of
the resurrection of the dead. Scripture never makes any explanation
as to explain to us how and when that's gonna happen. How is it
that God's gonna, that we're gonna die, that our body's gonna
return to the dust from whence they were made, and we're gonna
be raised in glorified flesh and be ourselves, and look like
ourselves? Now how's that possible? Job
knew it was so, didn't he? He said, after my skin, worms
destroy this body, I'm gonna be raised and in my flesh with
these eyes, I'm gonna see the Savior. I'm gonna see him, I'm
gonna know him, he won't be a stranger. How's that possible? Scripture
never tells us, it's just so. It's just a declaration of what
must happen because Christ has saved his people from their sins.
And heaven is a real place. The Sadducees are thinking that
there's no such place as heaven, but it's a real place. And the
point, the focus, the reason for heaven is Christ, is Christ. And that's what the whole religious
world, and I talk about heaven, they're missing it. They're missing
the point. The point of heaven is Christ.
Heaven is not an extension of this earth. You know, where,
oh, well, you know, now we're going to have everything that
we want in this life, but we can't have, you know, in heaven,
you know, we're going to have it. And, you know, we're not
going to have this horrible job to go to, and we're just going
to be on an eternal vacation, and we'll go fishing every day,
and the fish are always biting. The family, we're all going to
be together all the time, just be happy all the time, sitting
around a big dinner table all the time, you know, and we're
going to keep the door locked so nobody else can come in. It's
just going to be, you know, our family. That's not heaven, not
at all. Now, we don't know a whole lot
about heaven, because scripture is largely silent. But I promise
you this, heaven is a whole lot better than the extension of
our life on earth. Just having the things that would
make us happy in this life. Heaven's a whole lot better than
that. Because the nature of heaven,
The point of heaven, the reason that there's a heaven is so that
all of God's elect can be with Christ, can be made just like
Him. There's another mystery, huh?
To be made like Christ, to be gathered together with all the
saints of God in one time, in one place, and worship him. We're not gonna be gathered together
in our little families having enjoying a family dinner. We're
all gonna be together worshiping Christ. That's the point. The
point of heaven is that Christ be glorified. That's the point. He should be glorified because
he has saved all of his people from their sins. He took all
those children that the father gave him and brought them all
to the father and says, here they all are. Now he ought to
get the glory for that, shouldn't he? And he will in heaven. In
heaven, there's not gonna be any individual families. There's
gonna be one family, the family of Christ. There's not gonna
be a lot of husbands and a lot of wives. There's gonna be one
husband, one bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's
gonna be one bride. All of God's elect, there's one
bride, the bride of Christ. And as I stand here and say that
in my flesh, you know, that's kind of hard for me and my flesh
to get a hold of. I mean, I love Janet Sue. I mean, I love her. I love being
married to her. I love spending my days with
her. I just can't even remember life without her. I can't imagine
that. But I'm telling you this, I know
this, I believe this, I just, I know it so, in glory, she's
gonna be married to somebody a whole lot better than me, because
there's one husband. And we're all gonna be married
to Christ. And all the attention and all
the glory and everything should go to Christ, because that's
right where it belongs, isn't it? That's right where it belongs. And his people are gonna love
it that way. I mean, we're gonna be spending
eternity so thrilled to be able to give Christ all the glory.
So to say there is no resurrection of the dead, that's to err, isn't
it, concerning the power of God. It's to err concerning the power
of God to choose a people to save out of the fallen lump of
Adam's rice just because he would. It denies the power of Christ
to be made flesh, to come to this earth and put their sin
away and absolutely, utterly save them from their sin so that
their sin is no more. It denies the power of the Holy
Spirit to come and reveal Christ to them, to give them faith in
Christ, to give them a love for Christ, to cause them to all
their days follow him and to keep them and to preserve them.
And it denies the power of Christ to glorify them together with
him. It denies the power of God. And I do not want to err concerning
the power of God. If I would err concerning the
power of God, I wouldn't preach Christ and leave you alone with
Christ. I'd try to talk you into a decision. I'd try to manipulate
you instead of just preaching Christ and leaving you alone
with him. Now, I'm gonna always tell you to come to Christ, That's
just the commandment of our God. Nobody's trying to use any psychological
manipulation here. We trust the power of God. He's
gonna save his people. And he's gonna use the gospel
to do it. And I want the Lord to teach
me. I want the Lord to teach you so we don't err concerning
the scriptures so that we know him. And many of you sitting
here, you believe him, you know him, but can't you say with the
Apostle Paul, oh, I wanna know him. I wanna know him better. I don't wanna err concerning
his power and the nature, not just the nature of heaven, but
the nature of the kingdom of Christ. Second, the Sadducees
erred concerning the resurrection. Verse 26, the Lord tells them,
and it's touching the dead that they rise not. Have you not read
in the book of Moses, how in the bush, God spake unto him
saying, I'm the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the
God of Jacob. He's not the God of the dead, but the God of the
living. Ye therefore do greatly err. And here's why the Sadducees
erred concerning the resurrection. They were thinking about an event.
They were thinking about event. They were thinking, how is it
that my body can be brought back to life? They're thinking about
an event and the resurrection is not an event at all. The resurrection
is a person. Look over at John chapter 11. You know, all of salvation, I
hate to say the parts, but the different parts, the things about
salvation, they're all a person. Salvation's a person. Righteousness
is a person. Sanctification is a person. It's
all a person. And the resurrection is the same
way. Here our Lord has come four days after Lazarus had died,
and he's talking to his sister Martha at the graveside. Then said Martha unto Jesus,
Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But
I know that even now whatsoever thou will ask of God, God will
give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, thy brother shall rise again.
And Martha said unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the
resurrection at the last day. Now Martha thought she had the
doctrine of the resurrection nailed down tight. I understand
that there's gonna be a resurrection at the last day. And she still
missed the point. And our Lord said unto her, I
am the resurrection. I am the life. He that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? And she saith unto him, now this
is the answer of the believer when the Lord teaches us. She
said, yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son
of God, which should come into the world. I may not understand
exactly what you're talking about, about the resurrection, but I
believe you. I believe you. The resurrection is a person. Now remember that the Sadducees
only believe that the first five books of the Bible, that was
the only inspired writings of scripture. And they could not
think of a time where the resurrection was taught in the first five
books of the Bible. And I think that, that, that
this is right, that the word resurrection is not in, in the
first five books of the Bible. It's not explicitly taught in
the, in the five books of the Bible, but it is taught. It is
taught. And the Lord showed them how
they erred. The Lord talks about the burning
bush. How long would it take you to
come up with the burning bush as the illustration that the
Old Testament scriptures, that the first five books of the Bible
teach the resurrection? I mean, maybe never, I don't
know, but that's right where the Lord went. Remember Moses
saw that burning bush, and he saw it burning, but it wasn't
consumed. I don't know how long he watched it, but he was seeing
it wasn't being consumed, and he said, I'm gonna go see what
this is. And he went up to that burning bush, and the Lord spoke
to him out of the burning bush. He said, Moses, take off your
shoes. You're on holy ground. And God talked to him out of
the burning bush. And out of that burning bush,
he told Moses, I'm the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob. Now, those three fathers had
been dead a long time. I mean, I don't know how many
hundreds of years that they had been dead. Their bodies had long
since gone back returned back to the dust. But the Lord said
they're living. Their bodies are dead, but the
Lord said they're living because he is the God of the living. Where were they living? In heaven.
That's where they were living. I thought of another illustration,
Abraham and Isaac. When Abraham was taking Isaac
up there to the mountain to offer him as a burnt offering on the
mouth that God would show him, When they got to the foot of
the mountain, you remember what Abraham told those servants? You boys
stay here, I and the lad are gonna go yonder and worship.
And we will return unto thee. And the writer to the Hebrews
tells us Abraham fully intended. to sacrifice his son, to kill
his son. In the heart of Abraham, he'd
already killed Isaac. Isaac was already dead. It wasn't
just he was as good as dead in his mind, he was already dead. But Abraham believed God. Abraham
believed the Messiah is gonna come through Isaac, even if he
had to raise him from the dead. Abraham believed in the resurrection
of the dead. So the resurrection is taught
all through the Bible. And these Sadducees erred concerning
the Scriptures. And I'm telling you, when we
err concerning the Scriptures, we miss a blessing. If we err
concerning the Scriptures, you know what it'll do to us? It'll
make us just like these Sadducees and Pharisees. It'll make us
hard, it'll make us mean, it'll make us combative, it'll make
us wanna argue about things. But if we, it just, you know,
there's something wrong about a believer being so argumentative,
isn't there? If we don't err concerning the scriptures, it'll
soften our hearts. It'll break our hearts. And seeing
Christ and seeing ourselves in relation to him, all these other
points of this, it doesn't matter. Because I see Christ. I'm worshiping
Christ. If we don't err concerning the
scriptures, we'll get that blessing. Now quickly, let me give you
this third thing. The blessing. of the resurrection
of the dead for believers. Do you know every believer, every
believer on the face of this earth has already experienced
the resurrection from the dead? You sure have. In the new birth,
in the new birth, when we are born dead in sins, I mean dead,
we can't see anything spiritual, we can't smell anything spiritual,
we can't hear anything spiritual, we don't understand anything
spiritual, we hate everything spiritual, We're dead. And suddenly,
through the preaching of the gospel, the Holy Spirit moves
and gives you life. Now you see. You see what you
didn't see before, you see Christ. Now you hear him in the word.
It's not just the preacher, you hear him in the word. Now you
love him, you've given life, so you see, you hear, you have
affections, you have feet to follow Christ, you have hands
that serve him by serving his people. You have life, you've
been given spiritual life that can never die. And when the flesh
dies, now the flesh, when you're born again, the flesh is gonna
say, just like it always was, dead, stinking, rotten flesh.
And one day you're gonna be right glad to get rid of it. And when
we lay this flesh, in the ground. By the time we lay that flesh
in the ground, by the time we go to bury, you know, the new
man's been been with the Lord a long time. I mean, the moment
the body dies, that new man goes directly into the presence of
God Almighty. My soul. That is why God said
he's the God of the living. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were
already there. Remember at the Mount of Transfiguration,
where did Moses and Elijah come from? They came from heaven.
They came from heaven. They're there with Christ. And
they came to talk to the Lord about the decease that he would
accomplish at Jerusalem. To them, the point was Christ,
wasn't it? The point was Christ. And every
believer already has experienced the resurrection and the new
birth. And someday, We're gonna experience a resurrection that
is more glorious than we can begin to imagine when Christ
returns. And I wanna read it about to
you, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I wanna just read this and I'll make every effort not to make
any comments. 1 Corinthians 15, we'll begin
in verse 12. Now, if Christ be preached that
he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is
no resurrection of the dead? I mean, this is very important
that there is a resurrection of the dead. 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. Yea,
we're found false witnesses of God, because we've testified
of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up. If so
be that the dead rise not, For if the dead rise not, then is
not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain and you're 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 become the first fruits 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. But every man in his own order.
Christ, the firstfruits. Afterward, they that are Christ
it is coming. Then cometh the end when they
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the father. When
he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power,
for he must reign. Till he hath put all enemies
under his feet. The last enemy that should be destroyed is death.
For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he sayeth
all things are put under his feet, under him, it's manifest
that he is accepted, which did put all things under him. And
when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the son
also himself be subject unto him that put all things under
him, that God may be all and in all. Now skip down to verse
34. Awake to righteousness and sin
not. For some have not the knowledge of God, and I speak this to your
shame. But some man will say, well, how are the dead raised
up, and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou
sowest is not quickened, except it die. And that which thou sowest,
thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain. It may chance of weed or of some
other grain, but God giveth it a body, as it hath pleased him.
and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh,
for there's one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts,
another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial
bodies and bodies terrestrial, but the glory of the celestial
is one and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There's one glory
of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the
stars, for one star differeth from another star in glory, So
also is the resurrection of the dead. It's sown in corruption. It's raised in incorruption.
It's sown in dishonor. It's raised in glory. It's sown
in weakness. It's raised in power. It's sown
a natural body. It's raised a spiritual body.
There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. And so it
is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul. The last
Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit, that was not first,
which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward
that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth,
earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy,
such are they also that are earthy, and as is the heavenly, such
are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. Neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet
shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and
we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain
in the Lord. Thank God that there is a resurrection. What a blessing that we have
looked forward to. All right, hope the Lord will
bless that to you.