My text tonight comes out of
verses 28 and 29 in John chapter 5, but I cannot resist the temptation, or perhaps I could, I just don't
want to, to back up just a little bit. I had hoped that Charles
would maybe elaborate on a statement or two as he was reading, but He preached the message of all
messages on Saturday night at Crossville, John 4, 11 and 12. And it was wonderful. Let me point
out to you in verses 19 through 27 some statements having to do with the word for. The first one is the last part
of the 19th verse. The word for in our Bibles can
often be translated because. For what thing soever he does,
these also doeth the Son likewise. Verse 20, For the Father loves
the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does. Verse 21,
Because as the Father raises up the dead and quickens them,
even so the Son quickens, makes alive, spiritually makes us alive,
whom He will. Verse 22 is the fourth one. For
the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto
the Son. Down to verse 26. For as the Father has life in
Himself, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself. And the sixth one does not have
the word for, but it is so material, so much involved in the previous
five statements that it cannot be excluded. Look carefully,
if you will, at verse 27, "...and has given him authority to execute
judgment also," and then this phrase, "...because He is the
Son of Man. As the Son of God, the Lord Jesus
is perfectly equal to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit
in every capacity whatever. What one is, the other is. They
can give themselves nothing. They are in essence but one.
But in order for us to have some understanding of who God is,
And what God does for sinners in mercy and grace, God has revealed
Himself in three persons. So all of these things that are
given to the Son are in His capacity as the Mediator, the Son of Man,
our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. And now two amazing statements. I would hope I could do some
justice to these words, but I cannot. It is our hope and our prayer anytime a man
preaches to hope that God will take up his own cause in the hearts and souls of men." These are sobering statements. Our Savior says to his detractors,
the Pharisees that were upset because he healed a man on the
Sabbath day, And if you would go through the four Gospels and
count the times that our Savior did miracles on the Sabbath day,
it would amaze you. It's almost as if He waited for
the Sabbath so the Pharisees would be in a rage. I think He
did it on purpose. That's just my opinion. It ain't
worth much, but that's what I think. So He says to them as well as
to us in verse 28, marvel not at this, that all judgment is committed
unto the Son, that He has power to give life to dead sinners
and so forth. Marvel not at this. If this is
more than you can handle, listen to this. For the hour is coming
in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and not only hear it, but respond,
and come forth, shall come forth." And then this description of
the saved and the lost, the good and the bad, the children of
God, and the children of the devil. Here it is. "...they that have done good
unto the resurrection of life." The resurrection of life. There
is yet to be two more resurrections. One of them is the resurrection
unto life. And it is allocated in this text,
it is declared to be to a certain group of persons, described simply,
they that have done good. And then it says, these are awful
and terrible words, but they're nonetheless true, and they that
have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. I don't know if you guys have
this in this part of the world. My personal opinion is I hope
you don't, but in eastern North Carolina we still have what's
called a baccalaureate sermon. So on Sunday night before graduation,
they all go to the high school or some other place and some
guy comes in and preaches. Well, in 1985 was my first and last invitation
to speak at a baccalaureate. And my text was John 529. And the principal said to me
while we were waiting for the meeting to start, he said, I
want you to limit your comments to... It's been so long ago,
I don't remember if he said five or ten minutes. but I just let
it go in one ear and out the other. I'm going to say what
I came here to say. They can take forever to do everything
else. Just like Brother Bell described present-day religion,
preaching has been kicked out the back door. It ain't even
in the house anymore. It's the least part of a worship service. No time to read and comment and
expound and preach from the Word of God. So I said what I had
to say, and it's the gist of which is what I have to say tonight.
The resurrection of life and the resurrection of damnation.
I tried to say to those kids, no matter where you go from here
and what you do, no matter how much money you make or how little,
how much further education you get or do not get, one thing
is for sure. Here's where we're all going. This is it. This is it. To understand our Bibles, we
must understand several things. But tonight I'm going to try
to limit my remarks to just these two things, the resurrection
of life and the resurrection of damnation. When the gospel
comes to town, It upsets a great many religious folks because they've been told that
if you do the best you can do, the Lord Jesus will make up the
difference and God will accept you. And that ain't true. It
is not true. This book says there's none good,
no not one. And yet there must be somebody
good Because it says, those that have done good shall be raised
to the resurrection of life. Somebody wrote these words, and
they are vital words indeed. Till to Jesus Christ you cling,
by a living faith, doing is a deadly thing. Doing ends in death. One of the first things that
the gospel does when it comes in power is make people sit on
the stool of do nothing. We ain't ever done anything for
God and it's time to sit down and listen. You cannot do anything
for Him now. You can do for Him only what
He gives you in grace and mercy in Christ. I had a gentleman
at home many, many years ago that used to be the head knocker,
and he'd spent some time away and half the time there and so
forth, and he lost his grip on things. He told me one Sunday,
he says, your preaching makes me want to sit on the stool of
do-nothing. That's where he needs to sit,
but he wouldn't sit there. But he has now. He's left this
earth. He may not know much, but he
knows. that he's not good. No man is good. I'm not good,
you're not good. We're not here to preach morality.
Morality is not salvation. There are some mighty fine people
in this world, morally speaking, who are as lost as lost can be.
Here's the other thing I want to say by way of preface. I forgot
to look at my watch again, Charles. Here are three simple statements. Lord, I don't know how old I
was when I found out these things to be true. I preached a long time before
I even knew what this book was about. Lied on God. Gave people hope
that ain't worth two cent. And had the same hope myself.
Number one, three things. Try to remember this. The God
of this book, the God of the Bible, requires no more than
He gives. Not any more than He gives. Freely
gives. And that free gift that He gives
is in Christ. Second thing, God gives what
He requires. What does He require? absolute
perfection. He cannot require anything less
than Himself. Everything God does must honor
and glorify every part of His being, every characteristic,
every attribute that He possesses. Let me review. God requires no
more than He gives. God gives what He requires. And
God accepts only what He gives. That's the three rules. If you
ever figured that out, God has had mercy on your soul. And if you ain't
figured it out, He has not had mercy on you. You may think He
has. You may confess or profess that
He has, but that doesn't make it so. And I hope by the time
I finish these two little points, And I mean little only in the
amount of time that I give them, not nearly what they deserve.
These are glorious things. They are in no way little as
to what they declare. First question I think I have
to answer, what is this, the resurrection
of life and the resurrection of damnation? Just what is it? And it's not up to me to tell
you what it is. It is for me to show you in this
book what it is. And if I can't do that, I can't
tell you what it is. If I just give you my opinion,
it's worth the same thing as everybody else's, which is nothing.
It's inconsequential. It has nothing to do with whether
this is true or not. So if you'll turn to just a couple
of places, the first one of which is in this same gospel, the very
next chapter. Since this first resurrection
that is mentioned is called the resurrection of life, there are
four statements in John chapter 6, all of which end with this
declaration, "...I will raise him up at the last day." Is that
not the resurrection unto life? Indeed it is, because the person
who's going to do the raising is life itself. He is life, and
He gives life. The first one is in verse, let
me find them, in verse 39, John chapter 6. And this is the Father's
will which has sent me, that of all which he has given me
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last
day." Now nobody in this whole wide world truly and honestly
knows who it is that the Father has given to the Son. But I'll
guarantee you one who knows, and that's the Son of God and
the Son of Man. The second one is in verse 40. And this is the will of Him that
sent me." We're going to get a little closer now to understanding
who these people are in the resurrection of life. This is the will of
Him that sent me, that everyone which sees the Son, and if you'll
go back and read this chapter, it'll help you to be certain
of one thing. This ain't seeing with these
eyes. No, sir. This is a spiritual revelation
of God the Holy Ghost, of the blessed person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone which sees the Son and
believes on him may have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up at
the last day. The third one is in verse 44. no man can come to me." We not
only cannot come, we cannot believe, we cannot repent. There's not
anything worth doing that we can do until God bestows upon us the
gift of gifts in His Son and gives us those works that He
requires of us and therefore accepts them. No man can come
to me except the Father which has sent me draw him, and I'll
raise him up at the last day." And then there's one other one
all the way down to verse 54. Our Lord is talking about these religious imposters called Pharisees
of which the world is cursed with that same tribe to this
day. He is telling them that unless
they eat his flesh and drink his blood, they have no life
in them. Therefore, they cannot be in
the resurrection of life. This is not some gruesome, cannibalistic
language This is simply telling us that Christ is the only food
for the soul. It's the only bread of life and
water of life. Look at verse 54. Whoso eats
my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. Not will have. Have. Partaking of Christ. Feeding
our souls upon Christ is the result of grace, not the cause. It is the effect, not the reason. It's the fruit, not the root.
These things we must understand. We get the cart before the horse. Whoso eats my flesh and drinks
my blood has eternal life. life. Believing is the result
of the new birth, not the cause. 1 John 5 says, Whosoever believes
that Jesus is the Christ is, past tense, is born of God. Born of God. So until a man is born again,
he neither knows, nor believes, nor trusts, nor rests in the
Son of God, and I'll raise Him up at the last day." That, my
friend, is the resurrection of life. If you'll turn to Revelation
chapter 20. I don't know much about the book
of Revelation. I've never preached through it.
Maybe if I lived 20 or 30 more years I might one day try it,
but it ain't happened yet. What is the resurrection unto
damnation? Verses 11 through 15. Talking about our Lord said that
all judgment is given unto Him by the Father. Here's that judgment. And I saw a great white throne,
and Him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven
fled away, and there was found no place for that heaven and
that earth. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God, and the books were opened." Plural,
books were opened. And another book, singular, was
opened. And that second thing here, which
is book in the singular, it says, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out
of those things which were written in the books. There's one thing
for sure, the God of this book always gives men what He owes
them. What He owes them. They were
judged those whose names were in the books according to their
works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them. And they were judged on what
basis? Every man according to their
works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written
in the singular, B-O-O-K, in the book of life, namely the
Lamb's book of life, was cast into the lake of fire. That,
my friend, is the resurrection unto damnation. Right across
the page in verse 6 of this same chapter, we read of that first
resurrection which is a resurrection of life. Blessed and holy is
he that has part in the first resurrection. On such the second
death has no power but they shall be priest of God and of Christ
and shall reign with him a thousand years." A thousand years. Now we go back to John chapter
5 There are four words in verse
29 that have everything to do with understanding this statement. That all men shall come forth
without exception no matter where, how, nor when they died physically. All men will stand before the
judgment seat of Christ. And the resurrection of life is set forth in this verse with
two words, done good. Done good. And the resurrection
of damnation is set forth under two words, done evil. But our problem is, unless God
has revealed this to us, we don't understand what doing good is
about. And consequently, we have no understanding of what it means
to do evil. We think, well, I'm better than
so-and-so. This guy did this and I've never
done that. This is all with just pretense. Got nothing to do with reality.
Here's reality. Done good and done evil. Let's look at a couple of scriptures. I'm going to take the chance
that you already know the statements made in Romans chapter 3. There's
none good, none righteous, none that seek after God. And what's
the other one, Charles? None that understand. The easy
way to remember those, just call them the four nones. N-U-N-S.
You know? I got that from Brother Henry,
I'm sure. I don't know where he got it. But those are powerful
statements. None good. No, not one, not one. But let's, let's deal with the
positive first. That preacher was so negative.
Oh no. You gotta, I had a guy came to
our church. Oh, a long, long time ago on
a Sunday night. I know why he was there, there
was a pretty young lady there that was about his age and she
was not married and they were getting a few years on themselves
and I'm turning to Psalm 125 by the way so if you'll start
turning. He came up to me after the meeting and made this statement,
I'll never forget it. He said there is, I want you
to stop and listen just a second, here's what he said, there's
not a negative word in the whole Bible. Boy, I just, what planet
did you come from? That was so absurd, but I knew
where he'd been. He's sitting under preaching.
That told him that. And he liked the sound of it
and he believed it. Psalm 125, one simple statement. Verse 4, do good. unto those that be good, and to them that are upright
in their hearts." Now, my friend, good is a state of being. And if God doesn't give you and
put you in that state, you ain't ever going to see it, and I'm
not either. Just like I tried to tell you,
God requires only what He gives. He gives what He requires and
only accepts what He gives. This is just simple, understandable
words. But they have such meaning that
we do not grasp them. We do not like the sound of them.
We want to stand on our own hind legs. We have the audacity to
say out loud, I want God to give me what He owes me." Oh, my soul,
no. No. No. This book says in Matthew, I'm
just going to cite this one if I can remember it. Charles, you
might have to help me. Donnie had to help me a little bit this
morning. Okay. Well, maybe he'll do the
Old Testament. You do the New. You made me lose my thought,
Charles. There are two statements in our Bibles that if you've
got time, you've got a pencil, just jot these verses down. Matthew
5.48, 1 Peter 1.16. Matthew 5.48 says, be perfect
because I am perfect. Now that's beyond good. in our
vocabulary at least. But we might as well start where
everything is. That's the minimum line. There's no graded scale. You know, if half the class fails,
we're not going to up the grades for everybody. No. Be perfect,
for I am perfect. 1 Peter 1.16 says, Be ye holy. For I am holy." Now we don't
stand a Chinaman's chance of doing that. No sir, we don't. We can't do it. Why does God
put it in this book? To put us on our knees. To beg
Him. To give us in Christ what we
can never have any other way. Any other way. So look at this
statement now. Psalm 125 verse 4, "...Do good,
O Lord, unto those that be good." What's the qualification for
the resurrection of life? Those that have done good. Now how can any of us qualify
for that requirement? Because Christ has done it for
us. He lived a perfect, sinless life. And He did it for His people
so that His righteousness can be imputed to them. So what about
done evil? Let's go back to the book of
Matthew, chapter 5. And here's what I want to show
you in trying to define what done evil is. It's not murdering
people. It's not bank robbery. It's not
drinking and carousing and, you know, whatever else you read
about here on TV and stuff like that. If you want to know the
evil of all evils, here it is, right here. Well, I'm still in chapter 5.
That ain't going to work. Matthew 7. Did I say 5? Oh, I was still hung up on Matthew
5.48. Chapter 7, verse 21, 22, and
23. Now here's the definition of
done evil. They that have done evil shall
be raised to a resurrection, not of a lesser quality of life,
a resurrection of damnation. Our Savior has put these three
statements, these three verses, in the setting of the Judgment
Day when men shall stand before Him, as we just read a few moments
ago in Revelation 20. Verse 21, "...not everyone that
says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven."
This And doing good and doing evil is a whole lot more than
words. It's actual reality. It's real. And this statement
is made in reference to done evil. And he says, "...not everyone
that says, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven."
and the will of God which is in heaven is first and foremost,
that we might believe on His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and receive from Him everlasting life." Now he gives us some examples,
and he ought to know he's going to be the judge on that day.
In verse 22, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have
we not prophesied? Perhaps we could substitute preached
in your name, or witnessed in your name, and in your name we
have cast out devils, we've fought all kinds of social evil, we've been against abortion,
we've fought against homosexuality, on and on and on. And in your
name, done many wonderful works. Now listen to me. Every work
a man does to gain, to keep, or to enhance God's favor is
the crime of all crimes. It's the greatest sin for which
a man will stand for in judgment day. Then verse 23. Now these are
Christ's own words. Then will I profess unto them,
you profess to know me, you even profess to serve me, but I don't
know you." And this word know involves more than just being
aware of or knowing something about. This word means loved
with an everlasting love. I never knew you. And look what
he calls these works. Depart from me. You that work
iniquity. The iniquity of all iniquity. My goodness, that's awful. Awful. Since we're right here in Matthew
and won't have far to go, I'm going to switch my notes around
here. The third thing I want to ask you about is how much
good do we have to do and how much or how little evil do we
have to do to get into these alternate resurrections. All
right? Chapter 11 in Matthew. I want you to hold on to your
seat. This is hard to believe, but
it's so. Let's see, I've got down here
too many verses. Let's use verses 23 and 24. Our
Savior, in these few verses, is pronouncing judgment on the
cities in our Savior's day, places that He went, that He preached
the gospel, that He spoke concerning Himself and concerning His heroes.
So He comes now to the most favored city in the whole area of Israel
and Judea, this little place called Capernaum. When our Savior
left Nazareth to begin His public life and ministry, Capernaum
is His headquarters. From this town, He went out and
came back. He went out and He came back.
And if you'll look for it in the gospel accounts, you'll discover
that quite often he preached, he gave a parable, he did this,
he did that in Capernaum. Here's what he says, "...and
you, Capernaum, who are exalted unto heaven, favored with Christ's presence
more than any other place on this whole globe, you shall be brought down to
hell. For if the mighty works which have been done in you had
been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day." Now I think, if the Lord doesn't
bear witness to this, you just try to forget I said it. But I think the sin of Capernaum
is infinitely more than the sin of Sodomy. Unbelief is the greatest sin
for which a man shall be judged. And our Savior adds in verse
24, but I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the
land of Sodom. Judgment will be less severe
for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.
So how much evil does a man have to do to be raised to a resurrection
of damnation? One single solitary sin not covered
and washed away by the blood of Christ. But you don't have to worry about
the singular number. We're sinners from head to foot
in every faculty of our being. This is sober. Sober, sober. Now all I'd be doing is teaching
you a portion of the Bible if we don't go one step further.
Here's the fourth thing. If this is how it is, and I tell
you it is, how then can anyone ever be raised
to a resurrection of life? a resurrection of life. If you would, turn to Mark chapter
10. Let me just talk to you about
a section of verses and then read some concluding remarks
that our Savior makes with his apostles. In verses 17 to 22
in Mark chapter 10 is the account of the rich young ruler. We have
this in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This man is anxious about his
soul. He wants to know what he can
do to inherit eternal life. And the Lord Jesus, in essence,
gave him the impossible task. He claimed to keep every law,
and nobody's ever kept the Ten Commandments. Nobody does now,
except in Christ. So this man went away sorrowful,
because our Lord said, Well, go your way, sell everything
you have, and give it to the poor, and come be my disciple.
And the man was sad at that saying in verse 22, and went away grieved,
for he had great possessions. Verse 23, "...and Jesus looked
round about and said to His disciples, How hardly with what great difficulty
shall they that have riches," and riches is defined in more
than just money. Some people think they're rich
in good works. "...how hardly shall they that
have riches enter into the kingdom of God. And the disciples were
astonished at His words, But Jesus answered again and
said to them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in
riches to enter into the kingdom of God?" Here's the analogy. It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle. Now, I know what the commentators
say. Some of them try to tell you this is not a literal needle.
It's a small opening in the wall of Jerusalem and all this stuff.
I don't believe a word of that. Our Savior meant for this illustration
to be the most impossible thing imaginable to our minds, is an
elephant, I mean a camel, going through the eye of a needle.
Oh, I missed that one, didn't I? Oh my! And they were astonished
out of measure, saying among themselves, who then can be saved? And that ain't a bad question.
Who can be saved? Everyone that God saves can be
saved, but a man can't save himself. Our Lord looking upon them, oh,
I'd love to see the expression on his face. He said, with men,
it is impossible. The resurrection of life, if
it's up to us, is impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. And old Peter, Peter had to talk. This is one of the times he shouldn't
have. Peter began to say, lo, we've left everything and have
followed you. What are we going to have? Oh,
my goodness. My goodness. One more scripture, if you don't
mind. Let's see, it's Psalm, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes
chapter 9. Here's how we can be raised to
that blessed resurrection of life. If any of you read Robert
Hawker, you might look under his poor man's morning and evening
portions for this text in the index in the back. Let me give you best I can what
this statement says. Did I give you the chapter? Chapter
9, verse 7. Ecclesiastes 9, 7. This unravels the mystery. Go your way eat your bread with
joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart." And look at this,
because God now accepts your works. Now, what on earth has
happened? A moment before, He wouldn't
have them with a ten-foot pole. And now, God accepts your works. Now let me see if I can unravel
it. Here's the only way this can be so. I'm telling you the
truth. If Christ is the way, go your
way. If He's not, you can go anywhere
you want to. It won't make any difference.
But if Christ is made unto us the way of life, And then this
declaration says, go your way. Northeast, south or west, go
your way. If Christ is made to me the bread
of life, then eat my bread with joy. If Christ brings the joy
to our souls that wine supposedly brings to men's bodies, then
drink your wine with a merry heart. For God now accepts your
works, because His works are worked
in us. Philippians 2.13. What does it
say, Charles? I forgot. It is God who works in you, both
in the willing and the doing of His good pleasure. That's
the secret. If that's true of you, or me,
or anybody, no matter who they are, where they're from, what
they've done, and what they haven't done. If that's true of us, my
friend, this verse is for you. This is nothing less than being
raised to the resurrection of life. And we're going to be in
one or the other. Thank you.