Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to the book of Mark, chapter 16. The Gospel According to Mark. I would remind you again, since
we're drawing near to the close of the book of Mark, that his
subject has been Christ the Servant, the Servant of God, Jehovah's
Servant. And he tells about our Lord's
coming here to serve His Father's everlasting purpose of grace,
which is to save a people for the glory of His name and this
salvation He's going to establish in such a way that it cannot
be denied, not ever. The rebel, the proud rebel may
say in his heart, I don't believe, but he can't deny it. It is so
established and so interwoven with the very history of the
world that it's undeniable. It's undeniable. Now let's read
together verses seven through 14 of Mark chapter 16. But go your way. Tell his disciples
and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee. There shall
you see him as he said unto you. And they went out quickly. and
fled from the sepulcher, for they trembled and were amazed. Neither said they anything to
any man, for they were afraid. Now when Jesus was risen early
the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene,
out of whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told
them that had been with him as they mourned and wept. And they,
when they had heard that he was alive and had been seen of her,
believed not. So here comes this woman who
had been to the tomb, went out there to anoint his body, do
for him the things that he couldn't do, him being dead. And she sees an angel of God
and the angel of God tells her that he's not here, he's risen.
And to go tell the disciples and Peter, I love how they include
that. He was so impulsive and getting
into trouble all the time. You go tell his disciples and
Peter what you've seen. And so she
did. And they believed not. After that, he appeared in another
form unto two of them. These are the two that walked
the road to Emmaus. As they walked and went into
the country, and they went and told it unto the residue. They
went and told it to the disciples. Neither believed they them. Now
here's three witnesses. And they still don't believe. Afterward, he appeared unto the
eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief
and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which
had seen him after he was risen." Now, there are untold lessons
taught in these eight verses. But I just want to focus on three
this morning. And the first thing that I see,
and so it was with the Apostle Paul, is that the resurrection
is a fact established by our Lord, which is embedded in our
history. It is an undeniable fact. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. If the grave found empty was
the only thing that people saw, you might well believe the lie
that the Jews paid the soldiers to tell that his disciples came
in the middle of the night and stole his body away. But they
couldn't have overcome those guards. That thing was made sure
by the Roman government and a seal put on it and guards left to
guard it. But having not seen him, you
might well believe that lie that they paid those men to tell.
But that wasn't the case. His resurrection is the most
well-established fact of the gospel next to his death on the
cross. His resurrection, according to
Paul in 1 Corinthians 15.4, was according to the scriptures,
number one. In Psalm 16.10, David spoke of
his resurrection, saying, his soul was not left in hell, neither
his flesh did see corruption. And David, seeing this before
it happened, spoke of the resurrection of Christ. That's what Peter
preached in Acts chapter 2, verses 30 and 31. So his resurrection
is according to the scriptures, and there's many other scriptures
that point to it. And then secondly, he was seen
of Cephas and then of the 12. And after that, he was seen of
above 500 brethren all at once. That's a pretty good crowd of
people, 500. You might doubt the one. You
might doubt the two on the road to Emmaus. But you're not going
to doubt 500 people when they say, we saw him. We saw him. And this was all at one time. And then they said he was seen
of James and all the apostles, and Paul says of me also as one
born out of due time. Our Lord was on this earth after
his resurrection for a month, 30 days. He walked around Jerusalem and
was seen of his people. Seen of crowds of 500, some smaller
crowds. He established his resurrection
beyond deniability. There was just no way anybody
could doubt all these witnesses. The resurrection of Christ, thirdly,
it's critical to the doctrine of Christ. This is not some unimportant
fact that we just sweep aside and say, well, that's of no consequence
there. Let's get to the heart of it.
This is the heart of it. Without the resurrection, all
the rest of it crumbles. Redemption would be of no consequence
if he didn't rise from the dead. Faith would be a useless endeavor.
Paul said it'd be vain. Our faith would be vain. Preaching
would be of no point. We'd all be false prophets if
he didn't rise from the dead. And what of the dead who gave
their lives for the furtherance of the gospel, who were martyred,
who believed and suffered the persecution of this world and
died. What about them? Well, they'd
perish like a beast if he didn't raise from the dead. He was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. All right,
here's the second thing I want us to see. There's an order to
the revelation of his resurrection, or maybe a better word might
be confirmation of his resurrection. This is the point of it. This
is the reason he appeared to men, to confirm his resurrection. Now the doctrine of faith is
set before us in the Book of Romans. It's the classic in the
New Testament for establishing and talking about faith. And
here's Paul's subject, justification by faith. Now we know that we're
not justified by faith. He was delivered for our offenses
and he was raised for our justification. We're justified in him. But he
didn't die for all men. He didn't offer himself up to
God for all men. but for a people that his father
gave him before the foundation of the world. Well, how am I
gonna know who's justified and who isn't? God's gonna reveal
it to him. He's gonna confirm it to him
by faith. Plainly told in Romans 4.25 that
we're justified by his resurrection. And faith, faith is that It's
that work of God in you that makes you to understand that
you're His. He makes us to know our election
by faith in Him. Faith is that work of God in
us that confirms His resurrection and the justification of our
souls before God. Listen to this. Listen to how
Paul preached Christ. He said, through this man, through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And
by him, now watch this, all that believe, who? All that believe are justified
from all things from which you could not be justified by the
law of Moses. That's the point of faith. It's
to show us and to confirm in us our justification in Christ. God the Holy Ghost will confirm
his resurrection in the hearts of all his elect, and he'll do
so in the order that he has ordained. Paul said, when it pleased God,
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace,
to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the
heathen. There's an order. When the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth his son. There's an order
to them. One thing I've learned in reading
the scripture, God has not left anything to chance. And if you'll
dig, If you're willing to devote your time and your study to the
Word of God, He'll reveal it to you. He'll show you. There's
an order in this thing. This thing ain't running amok.
This thing ain't just evolving by chance and circumstance. As in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive. Now listen, but every man in
his own order. There was an order to the fall
of Adam. There's an order to the coming
of Christ. And there's an order to the revelation
of his resurrection. The revelation of his gospel.
There's an order to it. And Oh, why are you telling this? Where's this at in our text?
Well, if you'll notice in the text, it wasn't John, the beloved
disciple that Christ revealed himself to. It wasn't the 11
disciples, the book of his followers that he revealed himself to.
It wasn't his mother that he revealed himself to. It was Mary
Magdalene. out of whom he cast seven devils,
a great sinner. And who does he reveal himself
to first? Mary Magdalene, huh? Why in the
world would he do that? Well, he first confirmed his
resurrection to Mary Magdalene, whom he'd cast out seven devils,
and I believe he did it to show us that our Lord's forgiveness
of our sins is without qualification. He qualifies us. It's His qualification,
His justification, His redemption, His righteousness. What have
you gotten that you haven't received? And if you've received it, why
do you act like you didn't? You see what I'm saying? All
these qualifications, everything that God demands from the sinner,
He produced in Christ. That's our qualification. So
what does that mean? That means we're all equal. You
know, he gave an illustration one time. He said, I hired this
guy at breakfast time. And he went out and he worked
all day. And I hired this guy at noon. He went out and worked
from noon to quitting time. Hired this guy 10 minutes before
quitting time. Come time to settle up, paid
them all the same. And that first guy said, wait
a minute. I've been out here in the sun all day toiling. He'd
been out here 10 minutes. He said, it's mine to give. Huh? It's mine to give. That thief
on the cross, he believed God. He served God. He witnessed for
God. For what? Five minutes? 10 minutes? He got the same as John and all
the rest of them who labored and gave their lives for it. He's our qualification. And he
shows this so plainly to me. He shows this in Mary Magdalene. I believe he did this to show
our Lord's forgiveness of our sins is without qualification. Salvation is by grace. 100% by grace. And if it be of
grace, Paul said, then it is no more worse. Otherwise, grace
is no more grace. And all who stand before God
stand upon an equal footing upon this foundation of grace and
the foundation of the person and work of Jesus Christ. We've
been reconciled to God, Paul said, in the body of his flesh
through death. And thereby made presentable
to God as holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight. And so it is to the least and
to the greatest. There simply is no big I's and
little u's in the kingdom of God. We all stand on equal footing. We're the same in Christ. And
our Lord chose to reveal himself alive from the dead first to
Mary Magdalene, a great sinner saved by a great Savior. And then notice this, immediately
after he reveals himself to the sinner, the sinner himself becomes
a witness. I wouldn't say it was to no purpose. There was a purpose to this.
When God saves a man, enlightens a man, he's ready for heaven
right then. There's nothing else wanting
in him. Christ has produced it all. He has his righteousness. He's been justified before God.
There is nothing that he needs to make him ready for heaven
that he don't have right then. But God has a purpose. And that
purpose in leaving her here and these other men here is that
he's purpose to use us for the preaching of the gospel. That's
why we're here. That's the only reason we're
here. When that's done, he'll take us home. He's not going
to leave us in this nasty old world one more minute than what's
absolutely necessary. He made her a witness. He tells us in verse nine, after
having confirmed his resurrection to Mary Magdalene, that she went
and told the disciples. She went and told them that had
been with him, verse 11, but they believed not. They believed
not. Verse 12 he tells us that he
revealed himself to the two on the road to Emmaus. And they
went and told it to the residue of them. And they didn't believe him either.
And then finally he comes to the 11. And even they had to
be upbraided with their unbelief. And I'm gonna tell you something.
I feel almost as a hypocrite when I talk about these disciples
These great men of God, these men greatly used of God, I feel
like a hypocrite when I talk about their unbelief. When you say preacher, I believe
in his resurrection. I wish I did like I ought to. If I truly believed in his resurrection,
that there's actually a man in glory who loves me, seated at
the right hand of God. One who's there at the right
hand of God is my intercessor, as the one mediator between God
and men, my savior, my substitute, my redeemer. Wouldn't I want
to commune with him more than I do? What prevents me from bowing
my head and making every need I have made known to him, and
praising him and thanking him constantly. That is a declaration,
my friend, of our unbelief. That's what that is. That's exactly
what it is. Oh, my soul. Wouldn't I yearn for a word from
him more than I do? The son of God who loves me,
wouldn't I yearn for a word from him? Wouldn't I seize every opportunity
to be with him? Wouldn't I be anxious to go and
be with him? Wouldn't I be on my tiptoes of
faith looking for his return? The reason we don't is unbelief. These old writers, if some of
you read them, I'm going to warn you. A lot of them wanted to
use our unbelief as an evidence of our faith. It's not an evidence
of your faith. He upbraided them for their unbelief. Now listen, and hardness of heart. And I'm telling you, there's
nothing a believer is more afraid of than that, a hard heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart, and
because he did, God hardened his heart. The disciples said, Lord, we
believe. Help thou our unbelief. Paul
said this. He said, this is a faithful saying,
worthy of all acceptation, Christ Jesus came into the world to
die for sinners, came into this world to save sinners, of whom
I'm chief. And he said, for this cause I
obtain mercy, That in me first, Jesus Christ might show forth
all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting. He said he saved the bottom of
the barrel. He break together the dregs in
the bottom of the barrel. He said that's me. And if he'll
save me, he'll save you. There's an order to the revelation
and confirmation of his resurrection. And then lastly, I want us to
see our unbelief in its proper light. After he appeared unto the living
as they sat at meat and upbraided them with their unbelief and
hardness of heart, it says, because they believed not them which
had seen him and bore witness of him that he had risen. And he talks about it as a hard
heart. And this is not a phrase a believer
takes lightly, a hard heart. The disciples feared on the troubled
sea, Mark 6.52, for they considered not the miracle of the loaves,
now listen, for their heart was hardened. Their heart was hardened. And our Lord said this of the
Pharisees in John 12, who believed not on him. He said that the
saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled. Lord, who
hath believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord
been revealed? Therefore they could not believe,
because that Isaiah saith again, he blinded their eyes, now listen,
and hardened their hearts. There's nothing a believer fears
more than a hard heart. Oh, my soul. Turn with me to
Hebrews chapter 3. Let me show you something over
here. And this is where it all starts.
It starts right here. Right here. It starts with my
preparation of the gospel, my preparation of my heart and mind
to come in here and preach to you, hoping that God the Holy
Spirit Accompany me and accompany my words and do His work in you. And it starts with you. It starts
with you preparing your own hearts and your own minds. Thinking
about what a privilege it is to enter into this place and
hear a word from Him. That's what they were supposed
to be doing at Jerusalem. But when the news of the resurrection
comes, They were busy trying to fill an empty chair that nobody
told them to fill. They were busy about with everything
in the world except preparing themselves for his resurrection. And we're talking about the believer's
flippancy concerning his unbelief of God and especially of his
son, our Savior. In Hebrews 3.6, Paul writes,
but Christ, as a son over his own house, whose house are we
if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm
unto the end. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost
saith, today, if you'll hear his voice, are you? Is that not why we're here? Today,
if you'll hear his voice, and if you'll look at it there in
Hebrews three, you'll see that's capitalized. If you'll hear his voice, now
watch this, verse eight, harden not your hearts. Open your hearts. How do you
do that? You think on all the things that
he's done for you. Why me? Don't you imagine Mary
Magdalene was saying that to herself on the way to the tomb?
And after she'd heard the witness of the angel, and after the Lord
had revealed himself to her, don't you think she was saying
that whole time, why me? Of all the people in the world,
why me? Don't harden your hearts like
they did in the provocation when Israel wouldn't enter into Canaan
because of their unbelief. Harden not your hearts as they
did in the day of temptation in the wilderness, grumbling
and murmuring the whole time, not trusting in God. Verse 9, when your fathers tempted
me and proved me and saw my works 40 years, 40 years. Wherefore I was grieved with
that generation and I said they do always err in their heart. Now I'm gonna tell you something.
It took me a lifetime to learn this. And I'm still not able
to preach it like it ought to be preached. But God does business
in the heart. Yes, it comes through the head.
But if it don't go to the heart, it's not God's work. It's not his work. So I swear my wrath, he said,
they're not gonna enter into my rest. And if you'll go on
and read Hebrews 4, he'll tell you the gospel was preached to
them the same as it's preached to us. But that which was preached
did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that
heard it. He said, those who believe. enter in to his rest, his rest. So take heed, brethren, lest
there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing
from the living God. But exhort one another daily,
what's called today, lest any of you be hardened through the
deceitfulness of sin. It was all the things and traditional
understanding of their past that hardened the disciples' hearts.
They already had a fixed principle in their heart that this Messiah
that was promised of God, that was going to come, he was going
to be a physical person. He was going to rise up out of
the tribe of Judah. He was going to become king.
And then as king, he was going to defeat all his enemies. And
he was going to reestablish Israel. And they're gonna go right back
to their former glory and reputation. That's what Peter and all of
them thought. Even though the Lord kept telling
them, I got to go to Jerusalem, I have to be turned over to the
hands of sinners, I have to be crucified on a cross, and then
on the third day, I'm gonna rise from the dead. How many times
did he tell them that? Over and over and over. None
of them believed it. They didn't believe the witnesses
who saw him. They didn't believe any of it until the Lord came.
And if you can read about it in Luke 24, when he came to them,
he said he started back there at the book of Moses, and he
went all the way through. And he told them those things
concerning him. And when they saw him, huh, when
they saw him, then opened to their understanding that they
might understand the scripture. I tell you there's nothing more
important for you than to be here when this door is open and
hear the gospel preach. Nothing, nothing in your life,
I don't care what it is, is more important than that. And he tells us don't follow
their example. Don't follow their example. He
said, not only are they not gonna enter into my rest, but their
carcasses is gonna fall in the wilderness. And in the wilderness
is where he left them. Where he left them. May the Lord
be pleased to press this in our hearts. Thank you.