I had been receiving a religious
magazine for 25 years, I guess. Claims to adhere to the gospel
of God's free grace. And it had been getting gradually
worse month by month for years. Shelby called my attention to
an article we received last week. The title of the article was
Raising Christian Children. Now, that'd be a pretty good
trick if you could do it. Raising Christian Children. And the implication
being that somehow or another, if you raise your children right,
you can make Christians out of them. They used, the fellow who wrote
the article used an illustration of a Sunday school teacher who
was so sweet. Miss Gable's teaching a class
of three-year-old girls. Butcherers of men's souls. A
class of three-year-old girls. And the ones who professed to
be Christians, the ones who were scared of going to hell and said
they wanted to love Jesus, she sat on one side of her desk.
And the other ones, they sat over here on the other side.
And the only way you get over to this side is to say, I believe
in Jesus. And so these three-year-old girls
are convinced at three years old they've been born of God
when they get up and move from here to here. All such religion I hold in utter
contempt, in utter contempt. and they made their disciples,
they made them twofold more the child of hell than they were
before. What does a three-year-old girl know about her evil heart and the glory of God and the
salvation of our Redeemer? In the same paper, Had an article
in the back. This didn't surprise me. It really
didn't. This surprised me less than the other. The title of
it was Evangelical Atheist. Called folks evangelical who
are atheists because they figured out a way to post their placards
on buses running all over the country and inviting folks to
be atheists. So they are evangelical in carrying
their message. I would just as soon have the
one as the other. My subject this morning is the
first resurrection. I could have called it the new
birth. It's the same thing. You see, salvation is not moving
your body from one place to another. It's not moving from back yonder
to up here. is not walking out of a church
aisle and walking down a church aisle to the front of a church
building and shaking hands with a Baptist preacher or going to
a priest in a confessional booth. You can't get saved by doing
you. You can't get saved. Folks talk
nonsense, went down to the church and got saved. No, you didn't.
You got a dose of religion. You'd been just as well off been
to the bar. No, you can't get saved by doing something. Folks
think salvation is nothing more than a choice, a decision of
their will not to go to hell, to let Jesus be their Lord. Saying
amen to a prayer somebody else has written out and read to you,
or merely a religious ritual, being baptized gets you to heaven. A thousand times no. Listen to
this. God the Holy Spirit declares,
blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath
no power. I want you, oh I pray, God the
Holy Spirit will perform in you this very day. I want you to know in the experience
of your soul what it is to be raised from the dead. Raised from the dead. That's the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.
On such and only on these the second death shall have no power. Salvation is nothing less than
a resurrection of our souls, a resurrection from spiritual
death to spiritual life. It's a resurrection accomplished
by the omnipotent mercy, effectual grace, and irresistible call
of God our Savior. John chapter 5, verse 25. The Lord Jesus speaks. He says in John 5, 25, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is. Oh, would it be all right, Lord,
to read that in the present tense this morning? The hour is coming,
and now is. This hour, now is. When the dead,
the dead, the dead, that's the condition of fallen man. The
dead shall hear his voice, the voice of the Son of God, and
they that hear shall live. There are three things in this
text. First is the condition of man.
He's dead. That's the condition of every
sinner. Second is the command of God. His voice. The dead shall hear his voice.
And third, the certainty of his success. And they that hear shall
live. All right, let's look first at
the condition of the sinner. Every sinner by nature, since
the fall of our father Adam, Every man, every child of Adam
is born spiritually dead. Dead in trespasses and in sins. Now let's read God's description
of that spiritual death and then I'll talk to you about it a little
bit. Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2. And you hath he quickened. I
heard a fellow one time Reading this passage and he made a comment,
he said, it's sort of like somebody's asleep and you pinch them. No.
No, that's not quite it. You hath he made alive. Not you were asleep. You hath
he made alive who were dead, dead in trespasses and in sins. Some of you here this morning
are dead. spiritually dead, dead in your
constant transgression of God's law, very much alive in all things
natural, very much alive in all things contrary to God, but dead
spiritually, dead in trespasses and in sins. Wherein in time
past ye walked, this is how I was when the Lord came to me. And
this is how you were when He came to you. Walking according
to the course of this world. Living just like everybody else
in the world. Oh, not me preacher. I hope God
will teach you better than that. Now you live just like everybody
else, right? No, no, no, no. I know some folks who are harlots
and I know some folks who are drunks and I know some folks
who are drug dealers and I know folks who are murderers. No,
no, I don't live. Living just like everybody else. Yes, sir. You did and I did. You who are yet without Christ
live just like everybody else in the world. according to the
course of this world. What's that course? It's the
course of your own choosing in rebellion to God. It's the course
of your own self-interest in rebellion to God. That course
may take you in what men call the low road of debauchery, and
it may take you in what men refer to as the high road of morality. Whatever it is you want, that's
how you live. That's how you lived. According
to the course of this world. According to the prince of the
power of the air. Taken captive by Satan at his
will. How many times you read in newspapers
something somebody does, I don't see how many can do that. I do. It's in you. And it's in me. And the only thing that keeps
us from acting out what we feel in our most heated passions is
the restraining hand of God's providence or the restraining
hand of His grace or both. Oh, not me, preacher. You're
lying to yourself and you know it. You're lying to yourself
and you know it. How would you like to have everybody
know Every thought you've ever, every passion you've ever had. It's high time you acknowledge
it. That's what you are. That's what you are. Oh, no,
man's what he does. No, a man does what he is. Prince of the power of the air.
Scripture speaks of men without Christ taken captive. by Satan
at his will. I have family, first cousins. Daughter was married to a fellow.
They got along great as far as everybody knew. Got along great.
I was just a boy. Get along great. My uncle had
large family. They all lived on a big tobacco
farm down in North Carolina. The family still does. Thirteen
of them all live on that same farm. And the older girl, oldest
child, Her husband came in one day, took the shotgun off the rack,
shot her dead as a hammer. I explained that. Prince with
the power of the air, spirit now works in the children of
disobedience, taking men captive at his will. Read on. The spirit that now works in
the children of disobedience, among whom also these children
of disobedience. We all had our conversation in
times past. This was our way of life in days
gone by. We lived in the lust of our flesh. Fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind. And we hated God just like everybody
else. children of wrath even as others. We teach our children from infancy
to be Pharisees. We teach them they love Christ
when their hearts are full of enmity against Christ. We teach
them that they love God when their hearts are enmity against
God. We teach them that they are God's children when they're
rebels and it ought not be done. Man without Christ hates God. That's what spiritual death is.
You were dead. Children of wrath. The word is
wrathful children, just like everybody else. Oh, but bless God. For these
next words. But God. But God. I was running. Oscar Bailey, fast as I could
to hell, shoving God out of my way if I could. But God, God
stepped in. He said like he did to the waters,
hitherto shalt thou go and no further. But God, who is rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead, in trespasses, I mean to say,
hath quickened us together with Christ. He quickened us in union with
Christ He raised us from the dead when he raised Christ from
the dead. He raised us from the dead by
virtue of our union with the one who's risen from the dead.
He raised us from the dead by the same power with which he
raised Christ from the dead. He quickened us together with
Christ. Read on. By grace, ye are saved. You see, if a man's dead, Dead. Not wounded, dead. Not sick,
dead. Not crippled, dead. Not handicapped,
dead. If a man's dead, the only possibility
of salvation is free grace. God's got to do it. And if God
doesn't do it, start to finish, it won't be done. You see, a
dead man has no sense Has no sense. I don't mean he's stupid,
though that's certainly true. I mean he has no sense. None
of the senses of life. He can't see. He's dead. That
body laying on the cold hard slab in the morgue waiting for
the mortician to perform his work of embalming him tomorrow
morning is dead. The soul has left the body and
the soul, which was as salt preserving the body, has gone. And now the
body immediately begins to decay and putrefy and return to the
dust from which it came. Who wants to even look at the
dead body, the dead corpse of one who has been dearly loved
after he's been in the grave for just a few days? Dead. Had no sense. Can't see. Except to be born again, you
can't see the kingdom of God. I speak to you about the glories
of grace and redemption, the glories of eternal life. And
you look at me like, when are you going to get done so I can
go home? How come? Because you can't see. You can't
see. The dead. Watch this. I just felt the corner of that
paper. I'm alive. I feel things. Don't you? Dead
can't feel. The fire of God's word that warms
your heart. Dead don't feel the same. Can't
feel. The dead, the dead can't taste
the rich dainties of the gospel banquet. The dead Though the
wine upon these well-refined is set before them and poured
into their mouths, they can't taste. They're dead. They're
dead. The dead have no ability to sense
anything in themselves. They can't even smell the sweet
fragrance of Christ crucified. Tell them of the Savior's love.
Tell them of redeeming grace and saving mercy. Tell them of
the sacrifice God's Son made at Calvary. Tell them of Christ's
agony in the garden when he anticipated and his greater agony on the
cross when he was actually made sin and forsaken by the Father. He cried, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? The dead don't care. They don't
feel anything. No, nothing dead. Oh, they may
feel sorry for poor Jesus, but they feel nothing spiritually.
Nothing of that which God causes you to feel. And yet, for you
and I, who are born of his spirit, oh, how dead we still are. What deadness steals over our
souls so quickly? The Lord God said to our father
Adam in the garden with regard to the fruit of the forbidden
tree. In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
And Adam ate of the fruit of that tree. And he lived for 900 years. He
didn't die. His death didn't come for another
900 years. Obviously, God was speaking about
another kind of death than physical death. He was speaking about
spiritual death. Adam died spiritually as a representative
man. And when Adam sinned against
God in the garden, we sinned in him and we died in him so
that all men are born in spiritual death. Wherefore, as by one man's
sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death hath
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. This is the
condition of every sinner. He's dead. Dead. Death is separation from God. In eternity, men shall be separated
from God. In physical death, the soul is
separated from the body. In spiritual death, the soul
is separated from God. In eternal death, body and soul
shall be separated forever from God consciously. But in this
thing of spiritual death, there's a wall of separation between
God and man. A wall that cannot be torn down,
that cannot be breached, except by God himself. We're born in
death. Like Ezekiel's infant in Ezekiel
chapter 16. We have a horrible picture. An
infant, aborted. Aborted and taken and thrown
out in the open field. Not even washed. There it is,
in its own blood, polluted and rotting. And the Lord God says, that's
you. And I passed by you, and I beheld
you, and I said, your time is the time of love. And I said,
do you live? And I spread my skirt over you
and said, live! And I made you live, and you
became mine. That's how God saves sinners. Look at the next thing here.
The command of our Savior. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God. There's no hope in the dead. But bless God, there is hope
for the dead. The Lord Jesus here says the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. He takes the
initiative. It is not the voice of His offer. It is not the voice of His invitation. It is the voice of His command. The dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. Turn to Hebrews
chapter 4 for just a moment. I got to looking at this last
couple of weeks. God said. Let there be light and there
was light. This is he who is now speaking,
and he says that he who is life will speak to men and they shall
hear his voice. He says, let there be life and
there's life. That's how God saves sinners.
He saves them by the power of the Word, by the power of the
voice of the Son of God. When John described our Lord
Jesus by the pen of inspiration in Revelation chapter 1, after
he describes him in that incomparable figure glowing and shining above
the brightness of the sun, he said, out of his voice, out of
his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. Look at it here in Hebrews
chapter 4. For the word of God, verse 12,
is quick, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. You mean this written word? Yeah, no. This word is nothing to you except
it come to you by the power of the Son of God who wrote it.
And then it pierces and divides and separates and discerns the
thoughts and intents of your hearts. I know that's what it's
talking about because we read next, neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Our Lord's
voice, the voice of Him who is the Word of God is an omnipotent,
saving, life-giving voice. Those men in Mark chapter 2 let
down their paralyzed friend on a mat in front of the Savior.
And the Lord Jesus said to that paralyzed man, He didn't touch
him. He didn't touch him. He just said to him, Arise, take
up your bed, go your way. And he got up and walked away
carrying his bed. Our Lord Jesus in Decapolis said,
and the deaf mute heard and spoke. Down at Jairus' house, he said
to the young maiden, and that young maiden awoke from the dead. One day he's walking along and
he saw a funeral procession. There was a widow taking her
only son out to bury him, going out to the cemetery. And folks
walking along in the funeral procession are carrying that
fellow on the bier, and the Lord Jesus stopped the funeral procession
and said to the man laying on that bier, get up! And the man
got up and walked home. Oh, the power of his voice. Our
Savior spoke to Lazarus. He stood at the tomb and said,
Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth
living. He walked out of that tomb alive,
still bound in grave clothes. The Lord Jesus is that one who
speaks here and it says the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God. What's he talking about? John
refers to him particularly as the Word. What is a voice apart
from the person whose voice it is? And what is the word of that
person except his bond and his character, the revelation of
what he is? The distinct, articulate manifestation
of God is Jesus Christ, the word. And the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God. What's he talking about? He's
talking about the gospel. He's talking about the declaration
of who and what Christ is. Behold, God Almighty steps into
time and assumes our nature. Surely, the incarnation is a
declaration that God has pity upon fallen man. Watch Him. as he walks through this world,
doing his father's will, performing perfect righteousness for 33
years as a man in the full age of manhood, obedient to God as
a representative mediator. Surely he is here to establish
righteousness, to fulfill God's law. Watch it. As he goes up
to Calvary, bearing our sins in his own body on the tree,
there brought to death by the sword of divine justice. And
he cries, it is finished. Hear his voice. Redemption's
accomplished. Justice is satisfied. Sin is
put away. See him as he ascends into heaven,
leading captivity captive. Hear his voice. The prince of
this world is judged. Watch him as he takes his seat
in glory and holds in his hands That eternal salvation he obtained
as a man. He obtained it not for himself,
because he came down from heaven. Oh no, that salvation he holds
in his hand, he obtained for somebody else. He obtained for
a people he came to save. And those he came to save, redeemed
by his blood, shall hear his voice. Oh, let the dead now hear
thy voice. bid Lord thy banished ones rejoice
their beauty this their glory glorious dress Jesus the Lord
our righteousness I preach to you and if ever you hear his
voice you're going to hear it by the preaching of the gospel
but the voice you hear won't be mine it won't be mine I sit down here
Sunday morning, Sunday night, Tuesday night, in my office every
day, and I keep repeating this. I never preach, never preach,
without earnestly pleading this, Lord God, speak through this worthless,
dirty, empty, broken pipe. or let me not speak. It won't do you any good to hear
my voice. It won't do you any good to hear
my voice. None at all. Oh, but if God speaks,
then you will hear his voice, and they that hear shall live.
This is how God saves sinners. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. It's the spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing. Peter says in verse 18, you know
you're not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers,
what we read about in Ephesians 2. But you've been redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ. Christ a lamb without blemish
and without spot who verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world But was manifest in these last times for you Now
watch this He would manifest for you who by him do believe
in God That raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that
your faith and hope might be in God Seeing you have purified
your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfamed
love of the brethren See that you love one another with pure
heart perfectly. Being born again. Not that you
might be born again. These things are the result of
being born again. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed. Not born again because you're
born to Don Fortner, my soul. That's not going to give you
a foot up on God. Not born again because you're
born to Peter. That's not going to give you a foot up toward
God. Not born again because you're born to Abraham. That's not going
to give you a foot up toward God. Being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word. Who's that? That's Christ. But this Word,
translated Word, here's another Word altogether. This is not
talking about the eternal Word who lives before God and is God. This is talking about this written
Word. but this written word is all about the eternal living
word being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible
by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever for all flesh
is grass and the glory of man as the flower of grass the grass
withers the flower thereof falls away but the word of the Lord
endureth forever and this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you. What voice is it you hear? It's
the Word, the gospel of God, revealed in the Word. It's Christ,
the Word, the living Word, who is revealed in the written Word.
And you can't separate one from the other. All right, here's
the third thing. Look back at our text again. Our Savior said, now be sure,
be sure of this. Say to you the hour is coming
and right now is in this gospel age From the first advert to
the second advent in this hour when the dead the dead Shall
hear the voice of the Son of God And that's not all it says and
they that here shall live That speaks of the certainty of His
success as our Savior. They that hear shall live. That's a good word, Rex, shall.
They shall live. It is a declaration of absolute
certainty. When the Lord Jesus speaks to
the dead, the dead live. Now faith doesn't cause the dead
to live. No. You must believe on the Son
of God. I bid you believe on the Son
of God, but faith doesn't give you life. Faith is the fruit
of life. Watch this. That give me life? No. You just heard me breathe. That
means I'm still kicking. That means there's some life
in this body. And the evidence is the breath
that comes from this body. Faith is the fruit of life, not
the cause of life. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. The fruit of life. is repentance. Paul said to the Thessalonians,
our gospel came to you not in word only but in power and in
much assurance in the demonstration of God the Holy Spirit. And I
know it did because you turned to God from your idols. You turned to serve the living
God from idols that you had invented. Faith and repentance don't cause
the sinner to live, but rather these things are the fruit of
life given to the sinner. Oh, may God, the God of all grace,
give you to hear his voice and live. Blessed and holy is he
that hath part in this, the first resurrection. On such, the second
death shall have no power. Years ago, our daughter you spotted
came in. She was 38 yesterday, just for
you to know. She was just a little tight,
a little tight, four or five years old. And one day she was
in kindergarten and I had taken her and her mom to school. And
I went out to Babcock State Park, walked around out in the mountains
and the woods. And this is out in the middle of nowhere in West
Virginia, just rustling around through some leaves and dry leaves
in the fall of the year. I came across a cemetery. It was an old cemetery. Matter
of fact, I nearly walked through it before I realized I was in
the middle of a cemetery. The gravestones, you could barely
even make out they were gravestones. They'd been there a long time.
Crudely made. Little etchings on them that
were pretty good at one time, but you could barely make them
out. These folks had been buried a long time. And I looked around. Make sure I was out there by
myself. And I walked over to one of the grave plots and noticed
that there was a fairly young man who was buried there. I could
make out his name, part of it, and make out the date he lived. And I started to talk to him. I really did. I talked out loud
to him. And I promised that fella if
he would get up out of that grave and come home with me, Shelby
would feed him and clothe him and take care of him, and I'd
keep my daughter and give her to him to marry. You wouldn't
have got her. Have you lost your mind?
No. I didn't expect him to even wiggle.
I didn't expect him to make a move. How come? He did. He did, you
know. What do you expect from the dead
fellow? Well, why'd you talk to him? So I could tell you how
dumb it is. for preachers to talk to dead sinners and say,
if you'll do something, God will save you. If salvation waits
on you to do something, you're going to hell. I've been praying that you'd
quit doing anything. I've been praying that God would
cause you to stop doing. and give you life. Oh, may he
cause you now to hear his.