Now if you'll turn back with
me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15 is what the old
writers, those who wrote and commentaried on the scriptures,
it's what they called the resurrection chapter. There's 58 verses in
1 Corinthians chapter 15 and 55 of these verses deal with
the resurrection. I think they titled it right,
don't you? The resurrection chapter. And
they called it the resurrection chapter because that's what it
speaks to. It speaks to the necessity of
this resurrection. And Paul starts out by telling
them the means. That's just what I told you a
few moments ago about how that thing impacted me about prayer. You have to know this God. You've
got to know his name. He must reveal himself to you. If he doesn't reveal himself
to you, how are you going to call on him? How are you going
to call on him? And we know Him through the Lord
Jesus Christ. But how do I know the Lord Jesus
Christ is Him that God spoke of back in Genesis chapter 3
when He said, the seed of the woman. How do I know that Jesus
of Nazareth is the Christ? How do I know who He is? How
do I know how to approach God? How do I know that His coming
was necessary and all those things? Because God raised Him from the
dead. I think you pretty much rest
on everything he said because God, he's the only one I know
of that God raised from the dead by his own righteousness, by
his own, he raised him up, John, by his own merits. Not only raised him up, but he
ascended up and is seated at the right hand of God. And not
only that, but God gave this representative man a name above
every name. And he said, now everything,
everything, everything in time, everything in earth, everything
in heaven, everything in hell is going to bow the knees to
my son. You're going to bow the knee
to him in his redemptive glory. They always bowed to him as the
second person of the Godhead. The devil said, we know thee
who thou art. But I'm talking about
in his redemptive glory and in his redemption of the church,
every knee in heaven, earth, and hell is going to bow their
head and they're going to say amen to his redemption of the
church. They're going to justify God
in the redemption of his church. to the glory of God the Father.
In the light of His absolute perfection, they're going to
say, Amen. Amen. Now let's read through some of
these verses beginning here with verse 19. Paul said, If in this life only
we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Now, I want you to notice here
that he doesn't attach the name Jesus to the word Christ. The reason is because here he's
talking about a false concept of the Christ, of his office,
his purpose, and his false application, a wrong application of the Messiah. You see, the Sadducees didn't
believe in a resurrection. They were a sect of the Jews
who denied the resurrection. They were always asking, they're
the ones who asked the Lord, well whose husband, whose wife
is she going to be in the resurrection? She was married to this one and
he died and by the law his brother was to take this woman and raise
up seed under her and he died and another one, whose wife is
she going to be in the resurrection? He said, you don't know anything
about the resurrection or you wouldn't be asking me those silly
questions. This was dealing with a wrong
concept, a wrong idea. And the Sadducees didn't believe
in it and neither did the heathen cults and philosophers of Greece. You remember on Mars Hill, Paul
stood up and preached the gospel to that bunch of philosophers
on Mars Hill. And when he spoke of the resurrection,
they said, hold it, hold it. They said, We'll hear you again
someday, but we've heard enough for today. And some of them just
got up, turned their back, walked off. Howbeit, he said, certain
men cleaved unto him. They heard what he had to say
about this resurrection. So a lot of these heathen philosophers
and even the sects of the Jews didn't believe in this resurrection. if our understanding, if our
concept of the Christ, who he is, why he came, and what he
did has only a present and physical application if his life and his
death only serve to inspire an example. If that's all it means,
and that's all it means to most of the religion of this world.
Jesus Christ is nothing in the world except an example. A good
example, but only an example. He's an inspiration, a great
inspiration, but only an inspiration. If his life and death is but
an appeal to men to be reconciled, and if in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we're of all men most miserable. If everything
around us, everything present, everything physical, everything
you can see, if that's what constitutes what you believe, you're going
to be miserable. You're going to be miserable.
Of all men, because you profess to believe. You profess to have
a hope. But where's your hope when you
lay down your head in the casket? Where's your hope of being heard
of God? These all gathered around because some false prophet got
up and told them they were saved because they walked down an aisle
or took a pledge card or joined a church or was baptized or whatever
other kind of foolishness. They were catechized, sprinkled
as a baby. Who knows what they've been told?
What kind of lies? And they just all gathered around
in a big circle, cried a few tears and held hands and thought
God heard every word they spoke. And everything in their concept
of God was earthly. Earthly. Earthly reason. Earthly concepts. Everything
the Jew believed revolved around an earthly kingdom with an earthly
Messiah. Everything. Paul said, you're
going to be miserable. You're going to be miserable. I ought to be miserable because
my problems are in heaven. See, that's the problem. That's
the problem of earthly religion. Everything that I need as a sinner
is up there. It's up there. Everything. Heaven
is where life is. Eternal life, real life, genuine
life. What we call life here, so-and-so
is still alive. No, they're not. They're dead.
What we call life, he calls death. By one man's sin, it entered
into the world, and death by sin. What we call life, he calls
death. Life's up there. It's up there. Heaven is where
the throne of justice resides. We're down here trying to plead
with men, get men, you know. You think I'm saved? What if
I do? What's that got to do with it?
The throne's up there. Justice is up there. Judgment's
up there. What's what I got to think got
anything to do with anything? We're going to have to look in
this book and see what God says. I don't know anything about it.
It's up there. It's up there. Heavens where the throne of justice
resides, and it's not what men say that can set you free, it's
what God says. And heavens where mercy and grace
abide. He said grace and truth came
down. It came down in Jesus Christ. It wasn't in here, it's all up
there. The bread came down from heaven.
Christ came down from heaven. I came down from heaven, he said,
not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. Everything
that respects the sinner comes down. Everything we need is up
there. It's up there. It's where mercy
and grace abides. And heaven is where righteousness
sits. Well, we have to have that, don't we? You can't find it down
here. It's up there. It's up there. Everything that a fallen sinner
needs cannot be found in this world. And if this world is how
he perceives the Christ of God, he is of all men most miserable.
1 Corinthians 15, 20. But now is Christ risen from
the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. Now
the first fruits, that alludes back to the old ceremonial wave
offering of the first fruits. The first thing that popped out
of the ground, the first crop, the first thing that come up. Boy, it was the first thing harvested.
And they cut it, and they was to take it in a sheath, the best
of it, and wave it before God. Wave it before Him. Acknowledge
Him as the one who brought it up. as the giver of it, sustainer
of it, provider of it, creator of it, wave it before God, give
thanks before Him. And he said Christ is the first
fruits. Huh? He's the first thing popped
up out of this old, filthy, corruptible earth since Adam fell. And he
was waved before God. He appeared before God, representing
the church. and representing this life that
he's promised to the church. He's the firstfruits of them
that slept. He was the first to rise from
the dead to a life of immortality by his own righteousness. He
was the first to be raised up by the Father, finding no fault
in Him, being satisfied in Him. He's the everlasting vine that
God planted in His garden of purpose and nothing that will
have life will have life apart from that vine. He's the head of the body of
the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things He might have the preeminence. Are you with
me? He's the first fruit. He's the
first fruit. He's the first fruits of them
that slept. As the first fruits are, the
rest of the crop gonna be. Sure are. You go over to a corn field.
I grew up in northern Ohio, just a little kid. They had fields
up there you couldn't see across. Well, they didn't. Farmer didn't
go out all over the whole field, he just went over there at the
edge and broke an ear and peeled it open. So I got a good crop.
He didn't bother to go right in the middle. As is the first
fruit, that's the way the whole crop is going to be. The way
it's all going to be. Verse 21. For since by man came
death, by man came also the resurrection from the dead. For as in Adam
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Now both Christ
and Adam, they're both representative men. They're federal heads. Adam,
he's the father, the beginning, the progenitor of all mankind. All his seed is after his kind. No danger to anybody being born
that ain't just like Adam, every one of them. David said, I come
forth from the womb, speaking lies. Why? Because that's how
my father showed me. I'm of his seed. And by his fall
in the garden, all his children are born in sin. And being born
in sin, we know nothing else. Men don't know anything else.
You see, I just don't see why they want to argue it, because
they don't know anything else. Huh? You're not born with this
knowledge of these things that I'm telling you here this morning.
You're not born with that knowledge. That's not innate in man. You
have to be told these things. God has to reveal these things.
He don't know anything else. And our sins and sinful desires
are called, for the most part, natural. Lock up a bunch of kids
in the room, tell them, don't go in that door now. All this
other stuff, honey, you all can have, but don't go in there.
That's the first place they're going to go. And you know what,
when somebody says, hey, I thought I told you not to go in there,
they're going to tap you on the shoulder, probably mama, going
to tap you on the shoulder and say, honey, that's just natural. Well, that's what I'm trying
to tell you. That's a natural man. He does what he does because
it's natural. It's natural for him to sin.
He don't have to have a book to learn how to sin. He comes
forth from the womb speaking lies. That little baby in there
just crying, bawling. You go in there, well, I can't
find anything wrong with him. Because there isn't anything
wrong with him. He's lying to you. He wants you to come pick
him up. That's what David said. They
come forth from the womb speaking lies. Everything that they've been
promised in the Scripture and everything about them described
in the Scripture, brought to pass by the life and death and
resurrection of Christ. And all those represented in
Christ are spared that bondage and curse of Adam by this man
who is their beginning. Because of what they are, and
because of what he is. That's where our hope is. There's
no hope. My baby's going to be just like
and their baby's gonna be just like that, and their baby's gonna
be just like that, and so on until the end of time. The only
way there can be a change is for God to intervene, and He
intervened in the person of Christ. And He's the firstborn. He's
the first one. He resurrected Him from the grave
and said, Here's life! You want life? Believe on Him. Believe on Him. Here's life.
You wanna know what it is? Here it is. You want to know what he does?
Here it is. You want to know what it says? Listen to him.
This is life. Everything that we know, we know
through him. He obeyed God without sin, and
then as our substitute bore our sins in his own body on the tree,
and having honored and exalted the law both in his life and
his death, having satisfied divine justice and exhausted God's wrath. God raised him from the dead,
raised him up and gave him the highest name in heaven. Salvation, what am I trying to
say? I'm trying to tell you this morning and remind myself that
life is in the resurrected Christ. It is not in the concept of a
Christ, it is in the real Christ, the one God raised from the dead. There is a man in glory this
morning, alive, who is dead. That is what he tells John in
Revelation. I am he which liveth, and behold,
I was dead, and I am alive forevermore. Even when we were dead, listen
to this, dead in sins, quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you are saved. And has raised us up together
and seated us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He did that. When He raised Christ up, He
raised me up. He raised you up. He raised up
all that believe. He raised them up with Him. And
seated Him. Accepted Him. Glorified Him. Gave Him a name above every name. Back, verse 7, listen to this.
This is in Ephesians chapter 2. Based on His resurrection
and what God declared by it, that in the ages to come He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace, that grace that quickened
you, that grace that raised you and justified you and seated
you and gave you an inheritance and a sonship in Him. In His
ages to come, this is what He's going to show you. And it's sure that He's going
to show you because it's already seeded and accepted in glory. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. You see
what He's saying back here in 1 Corinthians 15? In Christ shall
all be made alive. There are no iffy, maybe, might be, no, no. That life's already been given.
That life's already been secured. That life has already been purchased,
raised up, seated at the right hand of God. And nothing on this
earth is going to prevent that life from coming to you. He's
going to show what He accomplished. Verse 23, 1 Corinthians 15, But every man in his own order,
Christ being the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's
that is coming. Then cometh the end when he 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.
And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. I want to give you five things
this morning secured and established in the resurrection of Christ.
Five things. Here's the first thing. By the
resurrection of Christ and His consequent ascension to the right
hand of God, God Himself declares that the substitutionary redemption
of Christ is finished, approved, and complete. Nothing needs to
be added There's nothing left for you and I to do except receive
it. That's it. I don't have to do
anything. I don't have to do anything.
It's already there. It's already accomplished. It's
already done. Well, you say, who don't believe
that? Just about everybody I know don't
believe that. That's right. They're still trying
to do the work. They're still trying to get it
done. That's what Paul said. He said, I'm praying. I came
out from them and I know exactly how they think. I know exactly
what they're all about. And I'll give them this. They
got a zeal for God, but it's not according to knowledge. For
they being ignorant of the righteousness of God are going about trying
to establish one. That's what men are doing. They're
still going about. Still going about trying to establish
reconciliation, trying to establish some kind of closeness to God.
It's foreign terms to me. They're talking about God being
way over here and then over here. David said he couldn't get away
from Him if he took the wings of the morning and flew to the
uttermost parts of the sea. He said, there you are over there.
I can't get away from God. You're either one with God or
you're totally separated and cut off. There is no standing 10 feet
away or 50 feet away and inching your way up. You're either altogether
one in God by faith in Christ, reconciled to God, one in Him,
or you're totally separated from Him because there's no in-between
with God. There is no in-between. It's
all or nothing. All or nothing. You won't ever
find the Apostle Paul talking about being a short distance
from Him. Now, he might talk about far
away in the sense that we were Gentiles and didn't have any
knowledge and all that type of stuff. But when it comes to redemption,
you're one with Him. He made us one with Him. He made
us sons. You're either sons or enemies.
Listen to how God, before these two boys were ever born, before
they ever did any good or evil, God said, Jacob have I loved.
What did he say about Esau? You'd be surprised how many Calvinistic
writers say that that next phrase says, Esau I didn't love as much. But that ain't what it says.
It says, Esau have I hated. Either loved or hated. Either
blessed or cursed. Light or darkness. There ain't
no middle ground with God. No middle ground. And to believe
on Christ, I don't care if that faith, we talk about strong faith,
well preachers don't think I'm saved, I don't have strong faith.
It ain't your faith, honey, it's the one you, that faith, it's
the object of faith, it's Christ. I don't care if it is a grain
of mustard seed, if it lays hold on Him, you got everything God
has for a sinner. You got sonship, You're a child of God, an heir
of God, a joint heir with Christ, even if that faith isn't any
bigger than a mustard seed. I don't think mine ever did get
any bigger. This thing is complete. That's what he's telling you.
There's no more priesthood, no more sacrifices, no more of this
ceremony, no more of this mess. This is it. Christ. Now, I'm
going to take him and I'm going to put him up here. All you have
to do is look. Look. Now, we're going to go
back and have a priest to it anyway. Huh? What for? My priest is seated in the Holy
of Holies right now, accepted of God. Huh? And them that look for him, he's
going to appear the second time without sin. Understand? Just
like that old priest come out from behind that robe and come
out blessed. He's coming back without sin.
God accepted him to those that look for him. This thing's done. Righteousness is obtained. And
here's our problem. Righteousness, it can only be
obtained through a full, continual, spiritual,
unbroken obedience to God. Now, brethren, that's not how
men look at it, is it? It's got to be perfect, unbroken,
spiritual obedience in motive, thought, and deed. Well, where
in the world do you get that from, preacher? Turn with me
to Hebrews chapter 4, and I'll show you. Hebrews chapter 4. Look down here at verse 12. For the Word of God, what's in
the Word of God? Is it law? Is that what you base
your righteousness on, the Ten Commandments? That's in the Word
of God. The ceremonial law? That's in the Word of God, isn't
it? The will of God? That's in the
Word of God. All here in the Word of God,
and the Word of God is gospel. Any way you want to look at this,
all that God says to men, the Word of God is quick and powerful
and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and
is, now watch this, and is a discerner, uh-oh, of the thoughts. That law, John, discerns your
thoughts. And intents. We say one thing
and intent something else, don't we? intense of the heart, neither
is there any creature that's not manifest in his sight, but
all things are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom
we have to do." You get up Sunday morning, you get ready, and you
come over here, but you dread it. I dread to sit here and watch
your nose. It's a Sunday. I just want to
lay here. But you get up, and you come
over here, You really believe God doesn't
know that? Boy, he reads us like a book.
I fool everybody in here, but I can't fool him. He knows what's
on my heart. He knows what's on my heart.
God discerns the thoughts and intents of your heart. Well,
I just don't believe that preacher. That's not what Hebrews chapter
4 is talking about, alright? Turn over to Genesis chapter
6. Let's look at that. Genesis chapter 6. Look down here at verse 5. God's
about to fold up this world. You think Japan was a mess? He
wiped this whole planet out all but ate souls with water. You
talk about a tsunami. They had a tsunami. God saw. Why'd he do it? Listen to this.
God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that,
watch it now, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually. God saw his thoughts. God based
His anger, His wrath against all mankind and put forth His
hand of judgment and killed every living thing on the planet that
crawled, wiggled, and walked was not on that ark. You know
why? Because He could see your thoughts
and He knew what you were. Christ said, I don't need anybody
to tell me what man is. I know what man is. God knows. When Christ spoke to his disciples
about sin, he told them it wasn't what those Pharisees said. They
don't even wash their hands. They eat this, and they eat that,
and they don't wash their hands, and they don't do this, and they
don't do after the tradition of our fathers. They're sinners. That's what they are, sinners.
Sinners. Look at his hair hanging down
his shoulder. He's a sinner. He drinks wine. I've seen him
over there. That's what one man said when they The trouble happened
down by Louisiana years ago. He said, I saw him. I saw him. And his father-in-law was down
there. He said, I seen him. I had my binoculars up here,
and I was looking, and I saw his father-in-law visiting down
there drinking a beer in the backyard. That same man, I'm not going
to mention any names, but that same man went on vacation and
asked me if I wouldn't come over to his house and stir his wine
that he was making. So it wouldn't ruin. Oh, he said, it's not what goes
into your mouth that defiles you, it's what comes out of your
heart. And out of the heart. You know
what the first thing was he said comes out of the heart? Evil
thoughts. That's a lot of spiritual. You
gonna have a righteousness before God? Let me tell you something. Here's what you're going to have
to do. You're going to have to go back. I bet you there's nobody
in here this morning that can even tell me what the law of
God is. It takes up a whole book of the
Bible. There's sanitary laws and moral laws and ceremonial
laws and Laws of the priesthood, laws of the unclean things, and
laws about marriage. When he said, you're going to
have to keep the law. Cursed is everyone who continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. I just showed you in here where
he's talking about your thoughts, your intents of your heart. He's
talking about motive. He's talking about all of these
things in this law. But this law is not in Ten Commandments. This law covers an entire book
of the Bible. You're going to have to reinstitute
the priesthood. You're going to have to get you
a high priest. And you're going to have to bring him a sacrifice.
You're going to have to take a lamb and set him apart so many
days. You're going to have to take
him in before the priest and kill him, hand him to the priest.
And then he's going to have to take him and wash him and prepare
him. And then you're going to have
to have a tabernacle. You're going to have to somehow
find that heart that's disappeared off the earth. It's going to
have to be in there in the mercy seat. And the high priest is
going to have to go in there. And you're going to have to keep
all this law. You can't eat certain meats.
You can't. You've got to have certain sacrifices.
You've got to speak a certain way. I'm telling you. And you're
going to have to do it all continually from the time you're born to
the time you die, unbroken, not one flaw in it, from the heart
with the right motive, love to God, love your neighbors, you
see. Ain't no way, boys. Paul said, you that seek to be
under that law. You're talking about circumcision
or walking down an aisle, whatever it is. You that seek to be under
that law, do you hear what it says? Paul said when he heard
it, he died. He's died. It killed me. I've seen it. Dead. And that's what the law does.
Romans 3 tells you that. What thing soever the law saith,
it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped. I'm not going. You want to go
back there, go on. I'm not going back there. This
law is fulfilled. There was a man who came to this
earth who was both God and man and one person who perfectly
obeyed that law. He meditated in that law day
and night. He understood that law. He knew
what that law represented. And he did it in love for God,
in love for his neighbor. He preferred his neighbor over
himself. Neighbor had a house. He didn't have one. He said,
even the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Huh? We got to have a righteousness.
My soul, it better not be one of your making or mine. It better
not be. And then I'm going to have to
pay for my sins. Now if I say I have no sin, I've
made God a liar. If I say I don't sin, I'm lying
against myself. My sins have to be paid for.
Now this thing of payment has to do with who you owe. I forgave you pretty easy. But
with God, sin has to be paid for. And God is infinite. And what he requires is infinite
justice and infinite satisfaction. And not all the days that a man
burns in hell is going to satisfy God over the least sin he ever
did. I'm telling you, this Catholic
idea of purgatory You can't pay a man out of there. He couldn't
pay himself out of there. All the gold in the world couldn't
purchase him out of there. There's only one way out of there,
and that's the blood of Christ. There's only one way out of Egypt.
Blood on the doorpost. That's it. No other way. You
see what I'm saying? This has been established. When
God raised Christ from the dead, He said, it's done! Here it is! Who wants it? Anybody out there
thirsty? Anybody hungry? Anybody need
this? Here it is. Here it is. It's done. It's finished. All
right, here's the second thing. The second thing His resurrection
declares is that His love is unchanging. Boy, Peter knew that,
didn't he? Stood there on that bank that
day, having denied the Lord. Jumped ship. He said, I'm going
fishing. Took the whole outfit with him.
Committed treason. Sitting out there in that boat
fishing. Lord's in there preparing supper for him. His love is unchanging. You know, he appeared on this
earth 40 days after his resurrection. In those 40 days, I'm not going
to give them all to you, but he declares five things. But
in these different accounts, if you'll read them, who he appeared
to, each one of them is to assure you that he's the same now, glorified,
as he was then. I'd changed his mind about anything.
They all forsook him. They all left him. They all turned
their back on him. They all quit it. He didn't quit. He didn't quit. You know, I've
raised children. I've raised three of them, and
one of them in particular I remember was just like I was. And I think for a while they
thought, well, I went past my end. I went past the mark. I don't think he could love me
anymore. I'd love my children no matter
what they did. Huh? Can you quit loving your
children? I can't. I can't, no matter what they
did. Well, why don't I thank God could? That's what, his love
is unchanging. When God raised him from the
dead, he declared that my love, this, his whole church was redeemed. His whole church was represented
in him from the beginning to the end. If you care to, go back
and read their history. That's what we're studying right
now. Do you find anything good about Jacob to recommend him
to God? No. No. He's just like me. He just kept going the wrong
way, kept saying the wrong thing, kept thinking the wrong thing.
God loved him. Told him that. He was one of
the few in the scriptures that God said, I love you. Jacob have
I loved. He secures that in the resurrection
of Christ. And he tells us, for God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God
commendeth His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. And God raised Him up from the
dead, declaring in His Son the unchangeable love of God for
His elect. dead in trespasses and sins,
and dead in an irreversible curse, and dead in the darkness and
deception of Satan. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love, wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in trespasses and sins, hath raised us up with His Son. You see what that resurrection
declares? The unchangeable love of God And then thirdly, when
God raised up Christ from the dead, He declared in His resurrection
that all His divine purpose of grace must surely be accomplished. My soul, if He raised Christ
up from the dead, Here's the key. Here's the surety of the
everlasting covenant of grace. Here's where life is. Here's
where justification is. Here's where all things are.
And He raised Him up and accepted Him and set Him at His right
hand. What else ain't going to happen? Huh? Everything else a whole lot smaller
than that, isn't it? If He can do that, He can do
the rest. That's what He's telling you. There was still skirmishes going
on when David took the throne. You read David as a type of Christ.
God raising him up. There's still skirmishes going
on. Saul still had some folks out there that had to be put
down. There's still a few enemies to be put down and a few little
pockets of resistance. But the war was over, wasn't
it? And David sat down. He said, pop your head up. I'll
cut it off. He sat on the throne. Who's going to resist me? Who's
going to resist me? And he sat on the throne with
a confident assurance that all his enemies would be made his
footstool. Listen to this over in Acts chapter
2 verse 29. Men and brethren, he said, let
me freely speak to you of the patriarch David. He both dead
and His sepulcher's with us to this day. You don't believe me?
The cemetery's out there. We're going to dig him up. His
bones are sitting right here. He's dead. He's dead. But, being
a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him
that of his fruit, of the fruit of his own loins, according to
the flesh, he'd raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He, seeing
this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ. David did. Walked
way before. None of these Jews were talking
about it. None of these Sadducees were talking about it, but David
talked about it. Seeing before, he spake of the resurrection
of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his
flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up,
whereof we are all witnesses. Now watch this. Therefore being
by the right hand of God exalted, And having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost, He shed forth this which you
now see and hear." What in the world? He's seated in the right
position with all power. What's not going to get done?
The promise of the Holy Ghost accompanying our Gospel, the
promise of the hearing of faith and of regeneration of sinners,
It doesn't lie in the preacher. It doesn't lie in the hearer.
But it relies in him who sits exalted in the heavens and sends
his spirit to his church. He said, I'll send him to you. And when he comes, he said, he's
going to take up his abode in you if you let him. That ain't what it says. If you
open the door. I tell you this, when He comes
in, the door won't even be on its hinges. He'll kick it off.
He alone sends His preachers. Revelation talks about them. Preachers are stars in His hand.
There's nothing iffy about faith and conversion and sanctification.
His resurrection and giving of His Spirit to the church is the
guarantee that all that was purposed in Him is going to be fulfilled.
That's what them old prophets, when they said, none shall stay
his hand or say unto him what doest. That's what they're talking
about. That's what irresistible grace
is. And then fourthly, his resurrection,
ascension, and position at the right hand of God declares that
his mediatorial rule cannot fail. Who's going to condemn me? It's
Christ that died. Who's going to lay anything to
your charge? God justified you. Who's going
to separate you from His love? It's in Christ, and Christ is
at His right hand. Who's left in this world that's
not subject to His rule? To this end, He both died and
was raised and seated at the right hand of God, that He might
be Lord over the dead and the living. Who's going to resist
His rule? Brother, salvation is not by
chance and circumstance. God saves men on purpose. And
the Savior that saves is seated at the right hand of God. You
know, they walked with him. In one of the accounts it said
they went out as far as Bethany. And he turned to them and he
said, I've done all I can do. Now it's all up to you. That ain't what he said, is it? He said, I've been a perfect
example. Now you take what I've done and
see if you can convince anybody to follow me. I don't think that's
it either. He said, I've been approved of
God, but I still need men to accept me. And to make my work sufficient,
you go plead with them. trying to get him to accept me
as their personal savior. Let me tell you what he said.
All power in heaven and earth had been given to me. Now you
go preach. Who's going to resist that rule?
Huh? All power. All of it. I can't
just let your imagination go as far as it'll go. All, A-double-L,
all power in heaven and earth been given to me. You think there's
a president or a governor or somebody out here with more power
than he has can turn him, twist him, prevent him? All power. Now you go preach. On that basis,
you go preach. All power. Now you go preach.
Now brother, faith is not a question. It's not a question. It's a command. It's a command. All men everywhere,
Paul said, now they're commanded to repent. You're commanded to
believe. Everything that God says is a
commandment because He's God. He's God. God. Listen to this. Paul talking
about conversion over in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Talking about his
gospel being hidden and all that. Then he starts talking about
the converted. He starts talking about the believer. But he said
God. God. Who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness. Shined in my heart. Huh? He commanded the light, didn't
he? to shine in my heart, to give me the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. His rules should
never fail. And then here's the last thing.
Here's the fifth thing. When God raised up Christ from
the dead, He declared His sacrifice eternally effectual. Old William Cowper wrote this
old hymn back in the 1700s. Here's the title of it, There
is a Fountain. Y'all sing that hymn, There is
a Fountain. And he took it from, he had his
eye over there on Zechariah chapter 13 verse 1, speaking of Christ. It says, In that day there shall
be a fountain opened in the house of David, and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. A fountain opened. And he said,
there is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's
veins. And sinners plunged beneath that
flood lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see
the fountain in his day. There may I, though vile as he,
wash all my sins away. Dear dying lamb, thy precious
blood, this is what I want you to hear. shall never lose its
power till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more."
His sacrifice, he declared, eternally effectual. Nothing in time, no
sin in time, no fall in time, no event, no circumstance, no
character of the church, not in any time throughout eternity. is going to take away from this
sacrifice. This sacrifice redeems all His
chosen elect. All of them. And it never loses
its power. Never. I don't care what you
did. I don't care who you are. I don't care what you come out
of. Can you get a hold of that? And God raised Him. All of these
things were in Him. He took Him and raised Him up.
And Paul said, you don't believe in the resurrection. Huh? You've got nothing to preach
if you don't believe in a resurrection. Because God said He raised Him.
So now you're a false prophet. You don't have any faith because
faith has to look to the resurrected Christ. You don't have anything.
The resurrected Christ is the key to New Testament gospel preaching. God raised Him from the dead.
Oh, they just couldn't stand the thought of that, could they?
hired a bunch of thugs out there and they said, now when his disciples
come along, you tell them that somebody come along and stole
the body. Or else our last day is going
to be worse than our first, which it was. Our Father, we thank you for
Christ. And we thank You for eyes to
see His glory, to see Him raised up, seated at the right hand
of God, and see in Him all the benefits, all the love and the
glory and the sonship and all the things that He provided for
us according to Your will. And we see Him there secured.
We see ourselves down here in this angry sea like the disciples
in the ship tossed to and fro. But there we see Him, seated,
calm, expecting to our enemies be made our footstool. Oh, give
us a sight of Him, this glorified, resurrected Christ, and cause
us to live our lives in the light of it. We ask it for Christ's
sake. Amen. You all are dismissed. I don't
have enough voice to do any more.