I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and we will briskly
work our way through a marvelous contemplation on the part of
the Apostle Paul concerning the very subject with which you and
I are engaged today. We always have to be careful,
as we stated on Friday when we contemplated the crucifixion
of Jesus Christ. We always have to be careful,
children of God, to not default to a sense of mere religious
protocol, a kind of a casualty about the most critical doctrines
essential to our salvation. We have to be careful as children
of God to hold precious, precious the uniqueness of the gospel,
the exclusive uniqueness of the gospel in the area of what Christ
has done to redeem our souls. We have to hold who he is and
what he did precious. Precious. And what that means
is we have to be careful not to simply go through events like
Resurrection Sunday, which is what we call it, or Calvary night,
as we did. or even the Christmas season
wherein we worship the birth of the King, not on the day of
December 25th, but the birth of the King, we have to be careful
to understand the unique privilege of this Gospel that's been given
to us. Because as I said on Friday,
every doctrinal truth that constitutes the Gospel of the grace of God
is assaulted and challenged and denied both by unbelieving men
in the secular world and in this religious age of false Christianity. So you and I have to be careful
that we have not done our job just because we've dressed up
on Resurrection Sunday, bought a bunch of eggs and painted them
and gifts and all of that type of stuff. We have not done our
job. Occasions wherein we get to celebrate
and re-examine and reflect upon Who Christ is and what he did
we ought to give our hearts full attention to the testimony of
Scripture and let the testimony of Scripture affirm once again
the very truth that God has set forth in his testimony when he
raised Christ and from the dead. So my proposition to you is simple.
And I hope to set forth my points before you fairly quickly today. And that is the resurrection. Is a fact. It's a fact. The apostles argument is not
only brilliant here in First Corinthians, Chapter 15, it's
unassailable. from a reasonable, rational,
argumentative position. When you listen to the apostle,
and saints listen, he's speaking to the church. When he says to
the church, how say some of you that there's no resurrection
from the dead? You see, we're back on Friday.
where religious folks who are not diligent enough to even understand
the very truths that constitute their eternal security can give
them away. Give them away. Not knowing if
you give the resurrection away, you give your salvation away.
You cannot be saved if Christ didn't rise from the dead. You
cannot be saved Jesus did not rise bodily from the dead the
Apostle Paul therefore realizing that it's essential to recover
recover a a radical radical defense of the resurrection on the part
of the church is teaching us a lesson that we can kind of
let these things slip from our grip and and start calling folks
saved and in the kingdom of God and going to heaven. And when
they die, we say they with the Lord now. And they never did
claim who Christ was. They did not acknowledge Calvary's
work. They did not depend upon his
resurrection as the lock sure evidence and concrete surety
that they're going to heaven. Men and women are dying all over
the world for the gospel. They're dying all over the world
for this doctrinal truth. that Christ rose from the dead.
So what we're going to do is once again revisit simply the
scriptures on this very clear proposition that the resurrection
of Jesus Christ is a fact. It's a biblical fact. Listen
to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 20. Notice how the apostle sets
it forth very definitely. Here he says, but now is Christ
risen from the dead. Did you guys get that? But now
is Christ risen from the dead? Because he argued, he argued
very clearly. How is it that some of you are
saying there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is
no resurrection of the dead, then Christ didn't. And if he
gives this logical syllogistic argument that if Christ didn't
rise from the dead, this whole religious stuff that we're doing
is a scam. And then once he finishes arguing
that you cannot you cannot make those assumptions. You cannot
set forth those arguments Here's what he said, but he rose He
rose He rose as a matter of fact this for the Apostle Paul is
a matter of fact Christ has risen from the dead I could spend all
day arguing with you from the evidence the evidence the empty
tombs You go back there if you want to. Martha and Mary and
Mary Magdalene and all the other folks went to the empty tomb.
Guess what they found? Didn't you hear the singers?
He is not here. He is risen. That's what they
said. And then they said what they
said because the angels told them he is not here. He's risen. That's two witnesses. And then
the apostles ran themselves to the tomb and they looked and
guess what they found? He was not there. Now, if you
are an incredulous person and you just can't buy into the basic
argument of the resurrection because of the absence of the
body, you tell us where is he at? Because I mean, you know,
we found Osama bin Laden. We found Saddam Hussein. We even
found virtually everybody that tried to hide from God. Folks
are being found even posthumously today who tried to hide from
God, because the Bible's clear. There's no place where the workers
of iniquity can hide themselves. Now, if Christ was not the son
of the living God, God in the flesh, and died and rose again,
we'd have found his body by now. We'd have found his body by now.
Am I telling the truth? We'd have found it. Listen, we're
finding all kind of stuff. We'd have found his body by now.
And the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, over the span of a 40-day
period, over 500 persons actually saw the risen, resurrected, glorified
Lord. 500 people. That's a lot of empirical
Evidence that's a lot of circumstantial evidence. Is that true? 500 people
and then did not tell you on Friday a whole bunch of folks
rose from the dead Right along with our master and went through
Jerusalem telling folk. Hey, he's risen We are mounting
the logical argumentative evidence for the resurrection as we speak
but I'm here to tell you that you don't need to go back through
the archives of history and And ask Pontius Pilate who wrote
about it. You don't need to go back and
ask Josephus or Tacitus or any of those early Roman philosophers
and writers about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and
about the claims of his people asserting that he rose again
from the dead. They're all in the secular archives. They're
all there. They're all there. The unbelieving
person doubts whether or not he rose but what they cannot
deny is that the early church preached and proclaimed as a
matter of fact the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now let me share
with you the critical truth around the facts of the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. We call it the necessary theological
and spiritual implications. What do I mean by that? The resurrection
of Jesus Christ is the grounds upon which every aspect of saving
truth is real, both in terms of the testimony of scripture
as well as the experience of all believers around the world.
If Christ didn't rise from the dead, ladies and gentlemen, you
and I could not be born again. There'd be no way for you to
be born again if Christ didn't rise from the dead. If Christ
didn't rise from the dead, you wouldn't know what it means to
be liberated from your sins. If Christ didn't rise from the
dead, you wouldn't know what it means to walk in communion
and fellowship with the true and the living God. If Christ
didn't rise from the dead, you wouldn't know what it means to
have in your heart an abiding and living hope for the resurrection
that's coming in the future. If Christ didn't rise from the
dead, you'd still be in your sin. Isn't that what Paul said?
He said, if Christ did not die, if he didn't rise again, listen,
our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain and you're
still in your sin. But some of us have been born
again. Some of us knows what it means
to experience the power of the resurrection. Is that true? And
so we can argue from what we're going to deal with in one of
our points, and that is the power of the resurrection and our conversion.
But let me establish again the facts. The Bible is very clear,
Christ is risen, and the testimony of Scripture makes it plain too.
How does a man or woman come to rest in the doctrine of the
resurrection? They come to rest in the doctrine
because the Word of God says it. Isn't that right? Do you
remember Luke chapter 16? Verse 29 through 31, this will
be one argument where the rich man and Lazarus both died. Now Lazarus went to glory. It
was called Abraham's bosom. That's a metaphor for glory because
he was a Jew. It wasn't literally Abraham's
bosom. He wasn't literally talking to Abraham. It's not about Abraham.
It's about God the father of whom Abraham was a type. Lazarus
goes to glory and the rich man goes to hell. Remember that?
Who told us that story? The Lord Jesus. Luke 16, the
text is there. And as our Lord is giving that
parable of the destiny of one man and the other, one being
rich and heartless, the other being poor and believing, the
rich man goes to hell and discovers everything men and women have
been preaching about Jesus was right. You know what he says?
Please have Lazarus go back to my five brothers who are living
and tell them don't come to this place now he's an evangelist and what our master said in the
gospel of luke listen to it going back to verse 28 the text says
this in verse 28 let me go there and will you go with go there
with me too just so you can see it with your eyes in the gospel
of luke chapter 16 here's what our master says as he is helping
this this the people that are listening to him understand the
finality of death and the only saving testimony that God has
given us concerning the claims of the gospel particularly in
the area of the Resurrection as well. I'm gonna start back
at verse 28 for I have five brethren Have Lazarus to go back that
he may testify unto them lest they also come into this place
of what? I Do you believe hell is a tormentous place? Abraham
said unto him, they have Moses and the what? In other words,
they have what? The word of God. Let them hear
him. In other words, Christ is teaching
that if you are able to believe the scriptures, that's all that's
required for you to know that Christ is risen from the dead.
Listen, you don't need angel visitations. You don't need dreams. You don't need special revelations
You need faith to believe what this book says now listen to
the language watch what he says verse 30 and he said no father
Abraham But if one went unto them from the dead, what are
we talking about the resurrection? They will what repent? will they
We got all of these crooks all over the place Talking about
having died and went to hell writing books and everything.
Am I telling the truth? You got folks that went to heaven,
they didn't see Jesus. Six foot tall, white guy with
blue eyes, long blonde hair, right? That's Jesus. Y'all didn't get that, but that's
okay. Y'all didn't get it, but that's okay. Come back and sell
a million dollars worth of books, which is a lie. And no one gets
saved by it. because God does not use that
type of stuff to save men and women. Do you know how men and
women are saved? Through the preaching of the
gospel. And do you know how faith is planted in the heart? Through
the hearing of the Word of God. It's not by these fantastic stories
you hear all over the... Oh, I know you like to hear about
them, but all of those are circumventions around the testimony of Scripture.
Listen to what Jesus said. Listen to what he says over in
verse 31. He said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded the one rose from the dead. Do you see that? See, we lay
all of our hope for our eternity, children of God, upon the testimony
of Scripture, because as we learned on Friday, the Scriptures are
pure. The Scriptures are right. The
Scriptures are true. They are infallible. We can believe
the Word of God. You can't believe a man's dream
or a woman's dream. Listen, once the church starts
listening to a little child telling us about heaven, they can tell
us anything. At that point, the Word of God
means nothing. Can we think around this place
for a while? And so the point is, is that
you have a Bible that has already proven itself to be true and
trustworthy, and its testimony is very clear. It's not hard,
it's not hard to draw a confident assurance in the Word of God
when you and I read it carefully. Not only is the Word of God,
as we have in our outline, God's testimony to us, but it's God's
wisdom. Did you know that the preaching
of the Gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is
God's wisdom to us? 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse
22 through 24. I want you to see it again Why
do we declare the resurrection of Christ in the context of preaching
and teaching as opposed to movies and skits and other forms of
Mediation because God has told us that he has chosen a very
specific means by which he communicates the resurrection of to the salvation
of men and women. Here's what he says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. I'm going to start at verse 22. For the Jews require a what? A sign. See, the Jews are religious
folks. This is where you and I are today.
When you come out of the secular world of education and intellect,
into the religious world of mysticism and machinations and I need a
sign and I need a revelation, I need the Lord to show me something.
You have went from bad to worse. Because I've told you this, Christianity
is a very cerebral religion. Christianity demands that you
think. It demands that you reason things
through. It demands that you stand back and become objective
about all forms of propositions, arguments, and assumptions. Is
that right? That's why our Bible is so thick. Because we are to
use our mind when it comes to claims all around the world.
And so we declare the Word of God in a context like we're doing,
800, 900 people in here, and what we are doing is speaking
to your mind. See, we're not dancing, and we're
not shouting, and we're not running through the aisles, and we don't
have the strobe lights going everywhere, and you don't see
images of floating angels on the screen. See, we don't have
all of those multisensory perceptions or machinations going on in order
to impress you. We are speaking to you. We are
talking to you. We are declaring the word of
God to you. This is the means by which you
now reason with the true and the living God. This is what
we do. So here's what Paul says, having
understood the Jewish culture very clearly. For the Jews require
a sign and the Greeks seek what wisdom now watch this But we
preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block unto
the Greeks Foolishness, but unto them which are what and every
child of God is called I watch this unto them which are called
the gospel for us is the power of God and the wisdom of God
I have never heard a greater wisdom than the gospel Can you
give me a better solution for your sins than the gospel? I'm
still waiting for the religious system that can do a better job
than the true and the living God did in solving my sin problem. How about you? So the gospel
is both the wisdom of God and it is the power of God and it
is the basis upon which we say factually that Christ is risen
from the dead. Secondly, the resurrection of
Christ, children of God, is necessary. The scriptures are clear. Point
number two, let me make sure you get this. This is a basic
Bible doctrine. You may not know this, but every
living soul in the house and every soul that listens to my
voice right now is by nature a sinner. That's what you are
in the core of your being. You earned it from your father,
Adam. The Bible is clear. By one man,
sin entered into the world and death came upon all, for all
have sinned. Whether you know it or not, at
the core of your life, at the nexus of your life, your problem
is sin. The wages of sin is what? And
you and I are sparrowing down in a deluge of sin. It becomes
our sickness. It becomes our psychological
aberrations. It becomes our emotional instability. It becomes the fickleness of
our life. It becomes the conflict of our conscience. It becomes
the toil of everything we go through. And we're saying, man,
you know what? Life is hard. Is life hard? It's because of
sin. It's because of sin. And you
can't pay your way out of it. I'll give you a little secret
now for those of you who are pursuing riches. Rich folk have troubles
too. Rich folks have trouble too.
When we say the resurrection of Jesus Christ is essential,
it's because our sin problem cannot be solved apart from a
work that God does in the death of Christ. Sin brings about death. Isn't that right? When we say
men are sinners, when we say human beings are sinners, what
we are saying is that they are spiritually what? Dead. That's
Ephesians 2.5. That's our point. Men are sinners
and they have violated God's law. We are moral violators of
God's law. Do you believe that? The Bible
tells us that sin is transgression against God's law. You hear folks,
religious folks, saying, I'm not a sinner. Do you know what
they're saying? They're saying that they don't
ever violate God's law at no time. Because according to James,
if you violate at one point, you violate at the whole thing.
Are you guys hearing me? Religious folk like to say, I'm
no longer a sinner, I'm a saint. As if being a sinner and a saint
are mutually exclusive. You're looking at a sinner and
a saint. Are you hearing me? See, I'm simply telling the truth
about you and me. Now, you might not be a saint,
but I'm sure you're a sinner. I'm sure you're a sinner. Because
the Bible has said, all have sinned, watch this, and keep
on coming short of the glory of God. When I do a translation
of the Bible, I'm going to put, keep on coming short of the glory
of God. Because it's in the present indicative.
We always fall short and I tell men and women even your best
works are filthy rags. I mean do the best you can child
of God. Do the best you can. That's what
God is calling us to. But be sure of this. Not one
of your works will ever merit life. It never will stand up
to God's impeccable and perfect standard of justice. You will
always fall short in yourself. That means we got a problem.
We need someone outside of ourselves to represent us in a way by which
he can savingly secure us with God and maintain God's justice
at the same time. Is that true? Stay with me there. Going back to our point, going
back to our PowerPoint. It's critical for you to see
it. Sin leads to spiritual death. That's why you're all jacked
up in your head because you're spiritually dead. It will all ultimately
say I'm just telling the truth. See as a as a pastor, I'm a counselor
as well. We can't help ourselves You get
you get driven into having to deal with people's issues And
the psychology world is just making buku money because folks
are getting sicker Emotionally and psychologically every day
you want to feel to go into and get filthy rich go into psychology
because people are running in droves to somebody to either
tell them something to make them feel good or to write them a
prescription for some dope. The problem is as a whole culture,
we have been separated from God so long that we are suffering
the withering of the tree of humanity and it is infected with
all kinds of diseases. That's our problem. That's our
problem. And the degrading principle of
sin is that we die spiritually and then ultimately we die physically,
don't we? Unfortunately, we are burying
young men and young women every day more and more frequently.
Around the world, we're seeing it happening in wars. Wars are
a consequence of sin. Did you know that? That's James
chapter 4. From whence come among you wars?
Do they not come from this? Even your lust in your members,
you are craving things and you are killing to have them? The
whole of society is seeking to destroy one another in order
for them to get what they want. And this happens on multiple
levels. It is a psychological malady. It is a spiritual problem. You have it and I have it. And
if someone does not interrupt the process of spiritual death
leading to physical death, you and I are going to find ourselves
facing the judgment of God and dying eternally. See, the next
step for the lost sinner is death. And the Bible says it is appointed
unto men once to die. And after this, what? That's
right. You're gonna face God and he's
gonna prove to you that you were a hell-bound sinner all your
life and you rejected the claims of the gospel and he's gonna
send you straight to where you belong and that's hell. That's
where we all go unless someone interrupts us, steps in our way. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Unless someone gets in your path and stops you from your journey
to destruction. We talk about the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. It is the only thing that can
answer sin. It's the only thing that can
answer death It's the only thing that can answer the judgment
of God and we talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ
as a fact now watch this now because Christ is himself the
resurrection and the life Have you heard it? Have you heard
it? Isn't that what he told his sister Mary? He told her in John
chapter 11, I am the resurrection. There is no resurrection apart
from me. I am the source of the resurrection.
I am the cause of the resurrection. I am the end of the resurrection.
The God we serve is a living God, is he not? And so in order
for you to live, you have to be connected to the God of the
resurrection. Now watch this now, I want you
to get this. So the Bible calls Jesus Christ the life. In John
chapter 1 verses 1 through 3, John made it very clear, in the
beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word
was God and the same was in the beginning with God. And there
was nothing that was made that was not made by the Word. Are you hearing me? And now watch
what it says in verse 4. He tells us, and the life was
the light of men. John 1, 4, the life was the light
of men. John is pointing us to Jesus
Christ as the source of both life. Are you ready and light? life and light Do you see it
in him was what? Stay there now. That means there's
no life found anywhere in the universe apart from him In him
was the life and the life was the light of man So stay there
for a moment because I know you've read these verses a lot of times
and don't you didn't quite understand what it means Christ is the revelation. He is the manifestation. He is
the full discovery of the invisible God. That's called light. Whatsoever
is made manifest is light. He is himself the manifestation
of God. And as such, the lights are cut
on. Now watch this. And we get to
see ourselves for what we are. And we get to see God for what
He is. And we have now hope to be all that He wants us to be
because He has revealed His glory to us. The light leads to the
life. You and I know in the physical
world, if the sun were to stop shining, everything what? That's
exactly right in him was the life and the life was the light
of men and ladies and gentlemen We are talking two kinds of life
here now as we celebrate the resurrection. We're talking about
the intrinsic Ontological eternal life of God Almighty in the person
of Christ as he is part along with the Father and the Holy
Spirit that eternal life by which men and women know anything about
life and The Father is life, the Son is life, and the Holy
Spirit is life. They are the living God. Are you guys hearing me? They
are the living God. And there's no life apart from
God. Now watch this. But the life
you and I are talking about is the life of the God-man Jesus
Christ. We're talking about the resurrected
life. See, He came and assumed a human
nature in order to live as a substitute for sinners. And then he died. But the Bible says he rose again
on the third day. And when Christ rose again on
the third day, he rose again to what we call resurrection
power. Resurrection power. This is what
he meant in John chapter 11. This is what is meant in Romans
chapter 8, when the Bible says God raised him from the dead
by the power of the Spirit. When Ephesians chapter 1 says
that he raised him from the dead by that exceeding power that
worked in Christ. He is operating now in what we
call a resurrection life. And in fact, get this now, the
resurrection life is the life that every believer possesses
right now. You, if you're a child of God,
possess resurrection life. You are a partaker of the divine
nature, but you're also a partaker of the resurrection life of Jesus
Christ. And this is a critical truth for you to know, because
resurrection life means this, you will never, ever, ever die. He that believeth on me, though
he were dead, shall live. And he that liveth and believeth
on me shall never see life. He was talking about resurrection
life, resurrection. So when Christ rose again from
the dead, child of God, he rose again from the dead in order
to provide and impute to us a kind of life that reflects his glory. He is the glory of God. And the glory of God, in essence,
is life. This is the way John put it in
1 John 1. I want to remind you of it before I go to my next
point quickly. Here's how John puts it, and I think John was
enamored by this truth too. When John, the apostle, thinks
about Jesus, he thinks about Jesus in terms of him being light
and him being life. Now listen to the way he put
it. This is the way John put it in the opening of 1 John.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, see how
the ear is important, which we have seen, see how the eye is
important, and which we have looked upon and our hands have
handled, of the what? Word of life. What is he talking
about? A person. He's talking about
a person. John is describing Jesus Christ
as the life of God. Now listen to what verse 2 says,
for the life was what? The life was what? Isn't that
what I said just a little while ago? I said the life was manifested
in a person. That's what we call the incarnation.
Life walked among us 2,000 years ago and showed us exactly how
God is. That revelation puts us in a
place of being able to be saved. For if Christ had not come into
the world, you and I would have remained eternally lost. spiritual darkness ending in
eternal death but Christ came he was manifested and we have
seen it and we do what bear witness a show unto you that eternal
life watch this now which was with the father and was manifested
unto us that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you
that you also may have what a With us and truly our fellowship is
with the father and with his son jesus christ see what i'm
excited about And I want to drive home to you today is this when
we celebrate the resurrection of jesus. We are celebrating
our own life We're celebrating our own life Listen, you may
not believe it. But when christ rose from the
dead 2 000 years ago, I did too I did too I did too. The Bible tells me that the Father
quickened me together with Christ. By grace am I saved and he has
caused me to be seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus even before
I came into the world. Even before I came into the world.
Now I'm getting ready to make another point here for you to
get and that's this. When we preach Christ, we are
preaching a Savior who serves as a mediator by which union
between him and sinners can be had. And what that means is as
I preach and teach and expound who Christ is, I am in effect
expounding who I am. Did you get that? I am in effect
expounding and teaching and proclaiming for everything that Christ is,
I am. And everything that I am, he
was. And this is the beauty of the
doctrine of the gospel as we preach it. We are preaching our
own hope. We are preaching our own life.
We are preaching our own destiny. We are preaching our own purpose.
Am I making some sense? So whenever you disconnect, disconnect
Christ from yourself, you have ended your whole purpose in life.
So anytime somebody wants to worship, exalt, and celebrate
Christ, I'm there. I'm there. If I'm not there in
body, I'm there in spirit because he's one with his people, one
with his people. And this is what John is saying.
We preach this life in order that you may have fellowship
with us. See, I'm almost done, but let me just make it very
plain. You can't have fellowship with God without having fellowship
with me. I don't like that pastor too
bad. Too bad. See, because when he died, he
died for a whole host of people whose names were written in the
Lamb's Book of Life before the world began. And when he rose,
listen now, when he rose, they all rose with him. Christ first
and everyone else spiritually rose with him. See, for where
the head is, the body must be. We've been preaching that for
a long time, haven't we? See, we really truly believe that
we are in heavenly places in Christ. Is that right? How did
I get there? The resurrection. The resurrection
got me there. How is it that God views me as
seated at His right hand? The resurrection! Now I know
I'm still down here in my body and in this physical dimension.
But in my union with Christ, I'm where He is. This is why
I celebrate the resurrection. Because are you ready? This has
been for me almost 35 years ago. I'm still in heavenly places
after 35 years. Are you hearing me? I'm still
there. And when the world has ended, I will still be there.
And when we have served God for a hundred billion, billion, billion
years, I will still be there. Because we know that whatsoever
God does, it will be forever. This is why we're excited about
the resurrection. We're excited about it because
the resurrection is the only answer to our sin problem. Let me get to the third and fourth
and final point. The saving impact of the resurrection,
the saving impact. What does it mean for the resurrection
of Christ to have impacted our life? Well, I am broached upon
that as I've been preaching. You and I experienced the life
of Christ in us when we're born again. Is that true? That's called
being a partaker of the divine nature. That's Ephesians 2. That's
John 4, 27 through 28. The text is clear. The hour is
coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God. Right? Those of you individually remember
a day when that occurred. Isn't that right? And you came
out of your grave into newness of life. when the gospel was
preached in such a way that you heard God's voice telling you,
get up! That was Him speaking to you
through the preaching of the gospel. Is that right? My sheep
hear my voice. Now watch this now, but you were
dead! You were dead! How can a dead
man hear? When God speaks, a double dead
man will hear. Did you get that, sister? Listen,
listen. When God speaks, a triple dead
man will hear. Just as Jesus called Lazarus
out of the tomb, and he was dead and stinking, so you were dead
spiritually. And God opened your ears, and
he opened your heart, and the voice of command came in and
said, Jesse, get up! And the sinner got up. This is
why we preach it today like we're preaching it. Because my elder
said it. The Lord saved somebody today. He said it. The Lord saved
somebody. See, we believe in the impact
of the gospel, do you? See, I was walking in darkness,
I was living in darkness, and I was darkness itself. I walked
in it, lived in it, and I was darkness itself. And you were
too, by the way, just in case you didn't know it. And then
God cut the lights on. That's a nice metaphor for giving
us life. Giving us life. Are you hearing
me? Ladies and gentlemen, and the impact is this the impact
of spiritual life, which is manifested by right thinking It's manifested
by right thinking So I worry about people who don't think
right and call themselves saved Cuz see when you're born again,
you have the mind of Christ. Didn't we learn that on Friday?
When you're born again, you have the mind of Christ And you know
what when you have the mind of Christ guess what you do you
agree with God? Is that true? Come on child of
God. See this is the one thing that
made you happy because now when you read God's word It didn't
make you feel as bad as you used to be because you weren't agreeing
with God The natural mind is enmity against God the the man
who is natural He sees the things of God as foolishness moronic.
They make no sense. But when once you are born again
God takes out that old Oh Hard drive put in a new hard drive
hit the button and you start agreeing with God. Is that true?
Stay with me then Romans chapter 12 tells it very clearly that
we are being renewed in our mind renewed in our mind Renewed in
our mind that's part of regeneration Where the mind now is thinking
the thoughts of God after him And you're going deeper into
a knowledge of God as you get older. You're growing more profoundly
appreciative of all that God has done for you as you get older.
And you're starting to wean away from those things that are not
like God as you get older. Am I making some sense? You're
growing up. Listen to me, you're growing
up. And you know, watch this now, and you know that's not
of yourself. See, the thing that tickles us
as believers every day we get up is God's still there. Isn't
that amazing? God's still there. As bad as
we messed up yesterday, when we get up in the morning, God's
still there. And he's ready to continue to
grow us in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. So the mind being
renewed is an evidence of the resurrection. And that's a slow
process, but it's a process. And it's a sure process. 2nd
Corinthians 5 17 says it like this if any man be in Christ
Jesus he she they are a what new creation new creation All
things that passed away become behold all things that become
new that is a prophetic word that says our ultimate destiny
is a pristine state of perfection with God because those who are
called of God and born of God to become sons and daughters
of God must bear his image and God is perfect. And I'm headed
to perfection. How about you? I'm headed to
perfection. That's the saving impact. It
is a spiritual life, a change of mind. And get this one because
I need you to get it. It is a character, character
development over time where your affections change. Now this is
the hard part. And your attitude gets readjusted.
where you start bearing certain fruit of the Spirit. Now they
are non-fruit of the Spirit. Is that right? For those of you
who love Galatians chapter 5, 17 through 22. They're non-fruit
of the Spirit, singular fruit of the Spirit. And all of us
have them all if we're born again. Did you hear what I just said?
We have them all. But some of them are in seed
form. We don't see much of it. Am I
making sense? It's in the DNA and we can see
buds coming up out of the branches. Like the bud of patience. Some
of us only have a bud of patience. No flower, no bloom. Just a bud. But we're happy because we remember
when there was no bud. Because we get right in your
case right away. Is that true? Now at least we're
a little bit slower and we go, Lord, thank you. I didn't punch
him out as soon as he said that. The Lord's working on me. Is
that true? I say I'm telling the truth now. I'm trying to help you understand
what resurrection is and its impact. its impact because there's
a great distance from where you are in him and where you are
right here but there are concrete evidences of the resurrection
in our life some of us that are on the thing that's sweet about
being an older saying it's not that we don't have problems still
we do but our problems now are interpreted as an advancement
towards our final state and it gives us great joy did you get
that you you young people didn't get that us old people got it
Our sufferings now are interpreted as an advancement into our final
inheritance. And it makes us capable of enduring
afflictions and troubles a lot easier because we ain't got a
whole long way to go. See, and so we can endure things
a little bit better because we know shortly we will put off
this tabernacle as the Lord has showed us, and we will take our
flight to glory, and we will be in our eternal rest. Yes. Yes, yes, because our mind has
been changed and we're persuaded by God. And I want you to move.
I want to move to our fourth point critically now, the method
of it, the method of it. I've touched on these things
as we've gone along, but I want to press this home. Ezekiel chapter
37 verses one through 10. This is the last place I'm going
to go. Ezekiel 37. I want you to see the vivid picture.
Do you remember the account that God gave to the prophet? He gave
to the prophet a vision. And the vision that God gave
to the prophet was of the condition of the religious nation, Israel,
in the days of Ezekiel, which was shortly after the exile or
captivity under Nebuchadnezzar. Now, verses 1 through 10 describe
a graveyard, a place most of us generally avert. We generally avoid that, unless
you got issues. If you like going to graveyards,
you got issues. OK, but most of us avert the
graveyard because the graveyard reminds us of the certainty that
we're sinners. So let me help you with if you
still are not persuaded that you are a sinner. Tell me, why
will you die? See what I'm getting at? See,
we know that the wages of sin is what? So when we lay the soul
the casket and his spirit has departed that soul lays there
dead and cold hard decayed do you know why sin see if you're
not a sinner in the total sense of not being a sinner you could
never die am I making some sense and so we see here described
in Ezekiel 37 a grave of Graveyard a valley full of dry bones because
God is depicting the nation of Israel in their spiritual condition
Which also depicts you and me in our spiritual condition and
he has chosen to use this as an illustration As to how you
and I must be raised from the dead The hand of the Lord was
upon me Carried me out in the spirit of the Lord. This is the
vision and set me down in the midst of the valley Which was
what full of bones? And he calls me to pass by them
round about and behold there were many in the open valley
and lo they were very what? That means they have been there
a long time Very dry bones no moisture All dry, you know how
long those bones have been there ladies and gentlemen since Adam
That's a long time. In Adam, all what? And he said
unto me, son of man, can these bones live? What a proposition. And see, we are right on our
point right now. Can these bones live? Now, for you and me, the
answer is what? No. No. It's not possible for
those bones to live if it's left up to you. Do you know what that
means? Religion can't raise people from
the dead. Good works can't raise people
from the dead. Being nice and kind can't raise
people from the dead. Now, be nice and kind. But you're
not raising anybody from... I hear in the psychological world,
they steal God's glory all the time. They got this thing where
they are calling upon people to be comforting and therapeutic
and nice to people because it heals them. No, it don't. No, we don't! It's a temporary
salve. It's a delusion of the conscious.
My being nice to you ain't healing you. Your problem is deeper than
nice words. Okay, will you hear me? Now,
I can make you feel good for a moment, but so can cocaine
and heroin. You still sick? And you're still
spiritually dead because you're still separated from God. But
can these bones live? God asked the preacher, can these
bones live? And listen to what he said. He
said unto him, son of man, can these bones live? And I said,
oh Lord, only you what? Ah, so you mean Ezekiel didn't
have a method for saving people? He didn't have a scheme, one
of those Madison Avenue techniques for getting all the people in
the Bay Area saved? He didn't have a Roman road to
salvation. He didn't have techniques to
get people to make a decision for Jesus. What's Ezekiel up
to? He's a bad evangelist, isn't
he? Because he should have had all of the books. Because we
know how to get people saved today, don't we? We know how
to get people to utter words and make phrases and get down
on their knees. Right now, I can get one of you
sisters to play on the keyboard, just as I am, without one plea. I can get you crying and I can
say, would you come on up? Come on up to the altar. Let's
pray and we'll lay hands on you and God will save you. And me doing that and you doing
that won't move you one inch closer to eternity. Are you hearing
me? Do you know why? Because you
did. You did. Now watch this, I want
you to hear it now. Pastor, what was all that I did
many years ago? Emotionalism. That's all that
was. Don't you remember when it wore
off? You guys remember when it wore
off? And you said, Lord, where'd you go? He was never there with
you in the first place. That was a complete religious
machination. to make you think emotionalism
is the same as actually being born again when nothing could
be further from the truth. Stay with me now. I'm almost
done. You don't have to come back. I'm messing with you. I'm messing with you. Here it
is. Here it is. So Ezekiel's ignorant of evangelism
as God's going to teach him. Maybe God will teach us a little
bit too. And he said unto Ezekiel, now watch this. Ezekiel, can
these dead bones live? I don't know. God says, now Ezekiel,
preach to these bones. Did you get it? Ezekiel, preach
to these bones. There's some bones in the audience.
Bones with no sinew, with no marrow, with no life in them. There are bones in the audience.
You're just bones. You're a structure, not even
a symbol. You are a sack of bones. You're just as dead as dead can
be. But I tell you what, if God wants
to, right now, right now, He can save you. Are you hearing me? He can save
you. Ezekiel, preach to these bones. Preach to these bones. Declare the word of God to these
bones. Preach Christ to these bones. Tell these bones that
Christ is the life. Tell these bones that they're
dead because of sin. Tell these bones that they can't
live on their own. Tell these bones that they are
stuck on the mercy of God. Tell these bones that only a
sovereign God with all power can raise them from the dead.
Tell these bones there is no hope outside of Christ. Tell
them. Tell these bones you need God
you need God you need God and you need him right now till these
bones Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life and no
one comes unto the father but by him till these bones Salvation
is of the Lord till these bones that is by faith alone by grace
alone in Christ alone apart from words till these bones Tell them
Tell him! Tell him! Tell him! Tell him! Tell him! Preach the
gospel to them. Show them the glories of God
in Christ. Show them how that Christ is the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the rose
of Sharon, the lily of the valley, the everything of everything
for God Almighty. Show it to them. Show it to them
that he's the only man that lived and died and did it right. Listen lived and died and did
it, right? There's none like Jesus None
like him one among a thousand is our Savior. Tell it tell it
Tell it preach it Ezekiel Preach it because we have said for a
long time true preaching is only preaching Christ All that other
stuff is foolishness You need a revelation of the invisible
God in the person of Christ. You need to know Christ is the
substitute for sinners. He's the redeemer of sinners.
He's the surety for sinners. He's the only way to the Father.
Am I making some sense? You need to know that. Those
of you who are dead bones, watch this. He said, prophesy to these
bones and say unto them, O dry bones, what? Hear the word of
the Lord. See, this is what should be flying
from our pulpits every time the church doors are open. Hear the
word of the Lord. Hear the word of the Lord. Faith
comes by what? Hearing. Don't ever stop believing
that. Don't ever stop believing that.
The seeing eye, hearing ear, the Lord makes them. He gives
you ears to hear. He gives you... Didn't Christ
say that to the disciples? They said, Lord, why are you
speaking to them in parables? He says, because it's not given
for them to know. but it's given for you to know.
And blessed are your ears, for they hear. Blessed are your eyes,
for they see. For even the prophets of old
didn't see what you saw. What did the disciples see? They
saw Christ. They saw the greatest preacher
in the world. They saw the greatest miracle worker in the world.
They saw the greatest teacher in the world. They saw the man
that could get them to glory. Am I boring you? I'm almost done. I know you're hungry. Ezekiel says, God says to Ezekiel,
say, oh, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus said the
Lord unto these dry bones. Here it is. Are you ready? How
is a man or a woman saved? When God says, I will cause breath
to enter into you. When will a man or a woman ever
be saved? When God says, I will. And when God calls his breath
to enter into you. Listen Saints when God wills
for you to be saved and when he calls his breath to enter
into you. Guess what? You're gonna live Are you hearing
me? See now watch this. How does
a person get saved when God wills it? How does the person get saved
when he himself breathes life in to you? Are you hearing it
now watch this now? Here it is. I And I will lay
sinews upon you, and I will bring up flesh upon you, and I will
cover you with skin. Is this describing new life?
And I will put breath in you, and you shall live. Watch this
now. And you shall know that I am the Lord. Watch it now. See? See, you can't tell me you've
been born again, and you don't know who made you born again.
It's not possible to be saved by the only Savior in the world
and not know that Jesus is the Savior. It's not possible to
experience resurrection life and not know that Christ is the
life. This is why we really argue and
debate with this religious generation trying to throw everything away
when everything God gave us is necessary for us. Am I making
some sense? Listen, you're not getting in
by hope, you're getting in by Christ. And the more you learn
about Christ, the more you learn about the Father, the more you're
secure in your salvation. Am I making a little more sense?
I'm almost done. Almost done. Please understand. Quit playing church. Quit being
religious. Philosophy won't do it. Education
won't do it. Hard won't do it. God has to
do it. And for you parents, you didn't
share the gospel with your children. 750,000 times Now it's time to pray That
God blows a wind in the life Because salvation is of his will
James chapter 1 verse 18 of his own will have he begotten us
again as a kind of first fruits unto God How are we saved by
the will of God? Listen to it. So I prophesied
He was obedient, right? Okay, Lord, I go to the graveyard
and I'll preach to him. That's what we do whenever we
preach to lost sinners. We go to the graveyard. And I
prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was
a noise. Do you see it? Ooh. And behold, a shaking. Man, you'd
be running from the graveyard. You go stand up in that graveyard
and start doing it. You'd be gone. The Lord then
told you, stand there and preach to those dead bones. And then
they start moving. That's a metaphor for them now starting to feel
their sin. The analogy is the bones now
are being disturbed. Because lost sinners don't know
they're lost until God opens their eyes. You got to help the
lost sinner. Understand he's lost. And when
God's in it, the sinner will start to agree with God. You
know what? I am lost. Thought I was all right until
that preacher preached the gospel the way he did now. I know I'm
lost and you can't be saved until you're lost Listen to it So I
prophesied it as I was commanded and as I prophesied there was
a noise and behold a shaking and the bones came together Bone
to his bone and when I beheld low sinew and flesh came up and
skin covered them Do you see that? You know what that's describing?
That's describing the formation of the outer shell of the life. That individual now appears to
be alive. But the scripture says there
still was no breath in them. Do you see that? There still
was no breath. And so this also describes the
reformation that people go through under the teaching of the Word
of God. Where they stop smoking, and stop drinking, and stop cussing,
Stop going to the honky-tonk junk. You young people don't
know the honky-tonk. That's old-fashioned. And you start reading more civil
books and start being kind to your neighbor. And you go to
church once a week, tip your hat to God. You think you're
saved. You're still not saved. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
You're still not saved. Because you know, deep down inside, you still
got that Tasmanian devil that wants to jump out and go back
and do that thing. Because you're not saved. You're not saved. I got your attention, don't I?
Because you're not saved. This is the most critical truth
we could ever talk about. Right here, right where we are.
This is the most critical truth. Because most people will go to
hell through the doors of the church. Having a form of godliness
denying the power thereof. You need God to breathe into
your life. Not just make you a good person when you go to
church. You need to go to church. You need to be a good person.
You need to stop smoking, drinking, lying, and cussing, and acting
a fool. You need to. Just so you can live 10 years longer.
But that's not going to save you. Listen to it. Then said he unto me, prophesy
unto the wind. You got that? Preach the gospel,
now prophesy to the wind. What is the wind? The Holy Ghost.
Son of man, say to the wind. Thus saith the Lord. come from
the four winds O breath and breathe upon these slain that they may
what so I prophesied as he commanded me isn't that crazy but that's
what we do as we preach the Word of God guess what else we're
doing we're asking God to come through the preaching with his
indomitable spirit to work in the life of the dead Coupled
with our preaching coupled with our prayer. We're saying God
move move move Save somebody Oh God Because that's the only
way you get saved That's the only way you get you will never
see a man turning from a course to hell to a course to heaven
unless the wind blows I Am I making some sense? the wind must blow
the wind must blow and it must blow on top of the preaching
of the crucified and Buried and resurrected Christ because the
Holy Ghost only works where Christ is preached Didn't you learn
it on Friday? We said it long ago at grace
if the blood doesn't flow The wind won't blow If the blood
doesn't flow the wind won't blow we must preach the death of Christ. I the atoning death of Christ,
the justifying death of Christ, and then that satisfaction evidenced
by the resurrection of Christ. We preach it. And guess what?
You may be sitting by someone today, right now, thinking that
they don't get it. You're wrong. We are persuaded
that right now there are more people getting what I'm saying
than you could ever imagine. We're persuaded of it. We're
persuaded of it. We're persuaded because we know
the power of preaching. We know the power of preaching.
Now watch this, and I'm done here. Listen to what he says.
He says, then he said unto me, son of man, these bones, I'm
sorry, verse 11, so I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath
came in unto them, and they what? I prophesied as he commanded,
and the breath came in unto them. Ladies and gentlemen, this describes
the conversion of the soul, the making new of the soul, the resurrection
of the life. They were dead, right? Breath
is in them now, right? That means they have resurrected,
right? And they lived and stood upon their feet an exceeding
great army. What is the church of the living
God? It's an army. It's God's army. When you are
saved, guess what God has done? He's enlisted you in his army.
I know you didn't know that, but you're in the army of the
Lord now. You may have been born again today. If you have, God's
enlisted you in his army. From this day forward, you have
received your marching orders. What are they, preacher? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you will be saying, what
else, preacher? Start now seeking God out of his word. What else,
preacher? Pray that God give you understanding. What else, preacher? Go tell
somebody about what Christ has done for you. Let them know he
saved you. Let them know he raised you from
the dead. Let them know he gave you new
life in Christ. Tell somebody God saved you. For we are not ashamed. of the gospel, for it is the
power of God and the salvation to everyone that believes. I
believe in the resurrection, don't you? I believe God raised
him from the dead, don't you? I believe God set him at his
own right hand, don't you? I believe he's coming back again,
don't you? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.