I invite you to turn with me
to the book of the Revelation, chapter 1. The book of the Revelation, chapter
1. I'd like to read a few verses here at the outset this morning. Then we'll be turning back to
1 Corinthians, chapter 15 in a few moments. I would like to begin reading
with the 10th verse and read down through verse 18. John said, I was in the Spirit
on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice, a great voice
as of a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and Omega the first and
the last. And what thou seest, write it
a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia,
unto Ephesus, unto Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis,
Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice
that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven
golden candlesticks And in the midst of the seven candlesticks,
one likened to the son of man, clothed with a garment down to
the foot, and girded about the paps with a golden girdle. His
head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow,
and his eyes were as a flame of fire. And his feet likened
to fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as
the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand
seven stars, and out of his mouth was a sharp two-edged sword,
and his countenance was as the sun shining in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at
his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon
me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last. Notice carefully verse 18, I
am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore,
amen, and have the keys of hell and of death. I wanted primarily
to mention just verse 18, and then I want us to turn back there
to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We notice where that
the Lord Jesus tells John who he is. He says, I am he that
liveth. I am he that liveth. Praise the
Lord for the living Son of God. How wonderful it is. A Moslem
one time said to a Christian, we Moslems have one thing you
Christians do not have. When we go to Medina, we find
a coffin, and we know that Mohammed lived because his body is in
it. But when you Christians go to
Jerusalem, you find nothing but an empty tomb. Thank you, replied
the Christian. What you say is absolutely true,
and that makes the eternal difference. The reason we find an empty tomb
is because we serve a risen Savior. Hallelujah. Our Savior is a risen,
is a living Savior. I am He that liveth. Well, he
ever liveth to make intercession for the saints of God. Now we
believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the testimony of
the scripture, that he was living. He came into this world and he
was in a body. The Lord was pleased to manifest
himself in a living body. He is called the God-man because
he was both God and man. And we believe that our Lord
Jesus Christ was crucified. We believe that He died on the
cross. And then we believe that He rose
again. That's what we believe. Now here
the Scripture says, He says, I am He that liveth and was dead.
That's what we mean when we say that He died according to the
Scriptures. According to the Word of God,
He was lifted up between earth and heaven on a cross, and He
died on that gory cross, that gory tree. He suffered death,
real death, in order that the death of sin may never be experienced
by us. The Lord Jesus suffered because
of sin. He died because we would die
eternally if He did not die. He died in order that the people
of God would never experience eternal death, that death that
never dies. And so He said, and was dead.
He says, I truly was dead. No question about it. I was dead. And then he said, behold, I'm
alive forevermore. Now we know that all of those
in the Old Testament that died and was revived, along with all
those in the New Testament that died and revived, Lazarus was
the only one out of all of them that even was buried. But our
Lord Jesus Christ is the only one of them that was raised from
the dead, he's the first fruits of them that slept in this regard,
that he was the only one that was ever raised from the dead
to die no more. Now you know that those that
died in the Old Testament and were resurrected, and those in
the New Testament, we know Lazarus as an example, that they were
brought back to life in a physical body. And so therefore they had
to die again. They had to go through it all
again. They had to experience death again. But the Lord Jesus,
oh no, look at what He says. Behold, look He says. Here's
a sign, like a sign up. He says, behold, I'm alive forevermore. I'm alive forevermore. I'm never
going to experience death again because I'm alive. I'm the first
fruits of the resurrection. And I'm the first fruits of those
that will be raised from the dead eternally and have eternal
and everlasting life. Now he says, Amen. He says, Amen. Let it be so. And so we testify
this morning that the Lord Jesus Christ is alive forevermore.
That's a firm belief of ours. I remember a story about a A
little boy was looking in a bookstore and this picture was on display
of the Roman soldiers crucifying Christ. And he was standing there
looking at that, this lad was, and there was a gentleman walked
up and was standing there by him and the little boy began
to tell the old gentleman about what this picture was all about. And he said, Christ was taken
by the Roman soldiers and crucified. He was put to death, and then
he was buried. And the old man said, well, where
did you learn this, Sonny? And he said, well, I learned
it in the mission school. And so they stood there and looked
at the picture a little longer, and directly the man turned and
walked away. And the little boy went running
after the man, said, mister, mister, and tugged at his coat,
and said, I wanted to also tell you that he rose from the dead. that He rose from the dead. My
friend, we're preaching here this morning a Christ that rose
from the dead. Amen. Amen. And then He has the
keys of hell and of death. He's got the keys of hell. Now
you may wonder, and I know that there's some people that feel
that they have the key of hell and life. They may feel they
do have. But my friend, the keys of hell
is in the hands of the sovereign Christ. This Christ, who was
alive and then dead, and now is alive forevermore, He has
the keys of hell and of death. Men die when the Lord is pleased
that they die, and if they go to hell it's because the Lord
opens the gate, those great iron gates. that closes men in forever
and ever, and they go into hell, they're cast in by the will and
the purpose and decree of Almighty God. There are some that are
not going to be saved. We know there are already those
that are in hell. And we know that Christ did not
die for all men because there are some that are already burning
in the lake of fire. All those for whom Christ died
will certainly spend eternity in glory. Now let's turn back
to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 at this time. Now, beloved, I believe
that the fact of Christ's resurrection is very well attested. It was needful. I think that
it should be beyond dispute since it lies at the very basis of
the holy faith of the gospel. It is the very foundation. It
is a foundational truth of our holy gospel. Now it's very consoling
to me to know that it is so well attested. Very consoling. You know by nature we are all
unbelievers. And it is only as we believe
God, and only as we trust God, and only as we depend upon Him,
and depend upon His Word, that we have a clear conviction of
soul developed to where that we can stand on the Word of God. I remember there was a missionary
by the name of Sam Borum, and he went to Japan many years ago. And he hired a translator so
he could preach to a growing group of interested Japanese.
And the only person he could find was a Japanese man who was
teaching English in one of the nearby high schools. And this
man was not a Christian, but he agreed to translate for the
missionaries. And Boyle felt that his ministry
was moving along quite well until the third week when he came to
the place in his sermon where he said, and on the third day
he rose from the dead. Immediately the translator looked
at him and stopped a minute and then said, they're never going
to believe this. They're never going to believe
this. My friend, I'm here this morning to tell you that I believe
and I'm so grateful and so consoled to know that the resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ is so well attested. Our Lord was called
careful to show himself after his resurrection to those who
having known him before he died so that they would be able to
answer for the identity of his person. Now had he merely showed
himself to strangers who had not known him before, they might
have been able to say that they'd seen such a one, yes, but they
could not have affirmed that he was the selfsame person who
had been buried in Joseph's tomb. He showed himself to men, you
remember, like Thomas, and bid him put his fingers into the
print of his nails and to thrust his hand into his side. He showed himself to people that
knew who he was, that knew exactly that this was the same one who
had preached to them and had ministered to them and had went
about doing good and carrying on a soul-saving ministry among
them. And he gave to us the most absolute
proof of his resurrection. He gave it. such as he said,
handle me and see that it is I myself. Now this was addressed
to men who had known him very intimately during the whole period
of his earthly ministry. Now they were unlearned men,
but beloved, certainly the story of the empty tomb, he is not
here for he is risen, is beyond dispute. They were unlearned
men and ignorant men, but they certainly did not invent this
story. He is not here. He is risen. Praise the Lord. Paul tells us that he was seen
of Cephas here in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians. In verse 4
he said he was buried, that he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas, and then
of the twelve. And after that he was seen of
about five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part
remained unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. And after
that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last
of all, Paul says, he was seen of me also. The Apostle Paul
saw our Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus when he
was stricken and brought down and called upon, said, Who art
thou, Lord? He heard his voice. And then
there are others that says that he saw Christ when he was caught
up into the third heavens and saw things that were not lawful
to speak of. But certainly, he says, at last
of all he was seen of me. Paul was one that was writing
this, and he said, I have my own self looked upon the resurrected
Christ, and I believe his testimony. He said I was one born out of
due time. I was not there when the other
disciples saw Christ, but I was born again, but it was out of
due time. Kind of like a birth that was
not timely, but nevertheless, he had seen the risen Christ,
and that was one of the things that was necessary to be included
among the apostles. You must have seen the resurrected
Christ. But he said, for I am least of
the apostles, I'm not meant to be called an apostle, because
I persecuted the church of God. But nevertheless, he was an apostle
because he had seen the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, from the report
of the Word of God, I think we're to believe that Christ appeared
no less than 12 times to his disciples. Certainly, the times
that he appeared to Thomas, well, the first time he appeared, Thomas
wasn't there. But the second time is most notable
because of the fact that he makes it clear that the wounds that
he had received on Calvary that these wounds were real and that
he was the Christ. So clear is the evidence of Christ's
resurrection that when Gilbert West, who was a celebrated infidel,
sat down to weigh the evidence and to digest the whole matter,
although he was filled with prejudice when he sat down to do so, he
was so startled with the abundant evidence of the fact that he
confessed Christ and declared himself to be a convert and he
left a book, he wrote a book, and the name of that book was
Observations on the Resurrection of Christ. He had dealt with
the subject, all the pros and cons, like a lawyer would deal
with it, and so he wrote this book. That was a tremendous book. I have never seen the book, and
I don't even know that you could even find one today, but it was
one that certainly spelled out the truth of the fact. of the
resurrection. And there were also two other
men that were involved in trying to prove the resurrection. One
of them was Ingersoll, and the other one was General Lon Wallace. And they connived together to
disprove the resurrection of Christ. But General Wallace became
converted, and he wrote Ben-Hur to point to the fact of the resurrection. And so as men began to look at
the facts, and one of the greatest chief justices of England said,
the resurrection of Jesus Christ rests on a basis of testimony
greater and more indisputable than sustains any other fact
of ancient history. The Lord Jesus Christ, my friend,
was raised from the dead. Now then, we believe that the
very best attested fact in all history then is the resurrection
of Christ. But you may ask this question.
Why is it that the resurrection of Christ is of so much importance? Why is it so important to us? Why would we spend a day? We
don't spend this day because this is a religious holiday that
men are celebrating on this Easter morning. But we were just speaking
of these things because the Lord impressed our hearts with them,
and I felt that certainly we should give a service to talking
about the resurrection of our blessed Lord. But as you would
ask yourself, why is it that this is so important that we
believe in a resurrected Christ? Well, because we have said that
the whole foundation, the whole basis of our holy faith rest
on this. For if Christ be not risen, Paul
said in verse 14 through 17, look at it here in 1 Corinthians
15, and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and
your faith is also vain. Paul says if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then Christ is not risen. The two is tied together.
And if Christ be not risen, then all of our preaching is empty.
It means nothing. You can preach 365 days a year. You can preach all 52 first days
of the week through the year. And certainly, if Christ be not
risen, all of our preaching is empty. There wouldn't be a day
that we preach that we really would be accomplishing anything.
And your faith is also vain. Do you have faith this morning
in the Son of God? Do you have faith in Christ?
Do you say, I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe
that he paid my sin debt. I believe he died in my place.
I believe that he bore my sin in his own body to the tree.
I believe it with all my heart. And that's my heart conviction.
You may say that my friend, but if Christ be not raised from
the dead, then Paul said you're yet in your sin, your faith is
vain. Your faith is empty. It means nothing. You can have
all the faith you say, all the faith you can find, all the faith
that you can scrounge up through the reading and the study of
this book, but if Christ be not raised, then your faith is empty,
and you're yet in your sins. You're yet where Adam left you.
You're yet with an Adamic nature, yet responsible and obligated
for all of your sins, yet to pay the debt of your sin. And
you have believed that your sin debt was paid already. But if
Christ be not raised, you're still in your sin. And you're
lost this morning if Christ be not raised. Then they also which
are fallen asleep in Christ, are perished. All of those through
the centuries that believed that Christ was their Savior, all
of those who trusted in Him and believed on Him, and all of those
who died in the hope of the gospel, every one of them perished. They
all went to hell if Christ be not raised from the dead. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we have all men most miserable. I mentioned this
in my prayer, and certainly Paul as he suffered shipwreck, and
as he had the beatings with the cat of nine tails, and as he
suffered many, many things at the hand of wicked men in the
world as he ministered the gospel, he knew whereof he spoke. And
he says, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, then
we're of all men most miserable. It's got to be an eternal hope. based upon the resurrection of
our Lord Jesus Christ. But verse 20 says, But now is
Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them
that slept. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. By man came death,
that's Adam, and came the resurrection by the God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ. For as in Adam all died, Adam,
every one of us died in him. When he died, we did, because
we were in him. Even so, in Christ shall all
who were in him, as we were in Adam, only those who were chosen
in Christ from the foundation of the world, only those who
were put into Christ, they shall all be made alive in time by
the effectual call and by the operation of the Spirit of God
in regeneration. So they shall all be made alive. And then there's another aspect
to this too. And that is that in Christ shall
all men be made alive in this sense that even the wicked will
be resurrected. They'll all be made to come out
of their graves, the living, those that are in Christ, those
that fall asleep in Christ. They'll be raised and have their
body changed. and shall be given a body like
unto the glorious body of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the wicked
dead also shall be raised, and they shall suffer eternal hell
in a body that is, as someone described it, similar to asbestos
that can burn and suffer for all eternity and yet never ever
be annihilated. Now then, as I've asked this
question, I've tried to show you, but there are six things
that I want to quickly go through that will help you to see how
that the thread of the resurrection is woven through all of the great
and fundamental doctrines of the Word of God, the doctrines
of our faith. Six things I'll mention, but
I won't preach on any of them for any length of time. Number
one, the divinity of Christ finds its surest proof in His resurrection. Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is God? Do you believe that He is? Well,
the surest proof of that is that He was raised from the dead. Romans 1 verse 4 says that Christ
was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the
spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. He was declared
to be the Son of God with power, with authority, according to
the Spirit of holiness as he was resurrected from the dead. This showed that he's God, that
he's God Almighty, and that he is certainly. Now it would not
be unreasonable to doubt his Godhood or his deity if he had
not risen. How could you prove that Jesus
was God if he was still in the grave? How could you prove that?
Well, you could not. Now, he might have been, but
certainly it would be reasonable to doubt his Godhood. But my friend, seeing that he's
not in the grave, seeing that he's resurrected, seeing that
he's now been raised to be seated at the right hand of God. We
say that he has indeed been resurrected and that he's God. This is God.
Jesus said that the Father had given him the commandment. He
said, I lay down my life. No man takes it from me. I lay
it down. I have the commandment to lay it down and I have also
the authority to take it up. He was God and he had the authority
to come out of the grave. He had the power to come out
and so he was raised from the dead. I believe in the divinity
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection proves it. Number
two, the sovereignty of Christ also depends upon his resurrection
from the dead. In Romans 14 and verse 9, to
this end it says, both died and rose and revived that he might
be Lord both of the dead to this end. To this end. Now beloved,
Christ is everybody's Lord. He's Lord over those that are
dead spiritually and those that are alive spiritually. He's Lord
over those that are dead physically and those that are dead spiritually. He's Lord over all of them and
to this end, this was the end in mind when he died, rose, and
revived, that he might be everybody's Lord. Now some people that makes
happy, other people it makes sad. Some people make it glad,
it makes them glad to know that Christ is their Lord. Other people,
they're not very happy about it at all, because I'm telling
you, you're in His hands. He is your Lord. He is your Lord. and you ought to acknowledge
him as your Lord, because God already has exalted him to be
both Lord and Christ, exalted him to be so by the resurrection. So the sovereignty of the Lord
Jesus Christ is involved in his death, his resurrection from
the dead. Number three, our justification,
which is the choice blessing of the everlasting covenant,
hangs upon the resurrection of Christ. Romans 4 and verse 25
says He was delivered for our offenses and He was raised again
for our justification. He was raised again for our justification. Now what that means is that the
Lord Jesus Christ, He took our sins upon Himself and He died
under the weight as being the worst sinner that ever lived.
He was made sin. Our sin was imputed to Him and
He died with the full weight of the wrath of God upon Him. And when He came out of the grave,
It was proof that the Father had accepted his payment of death
and shed blood in order that our sin be blotted out. It was
proof of it. It was a receipt that was given
to every believer that he stands justified that Christ has paid
his sin debt. and that his sin is wiped out,
it's put away, his sin has been remitted, it's gone, it's been
cast behind the Lord's back. He'll never remember it against
his people anymore. And so the resurrection proves
that. He was raised for our justification. God would have left him in the
grave if he had died as just an ordinary sinner. You and I,
we die, we're left in the grave until the resurrection. until
the Lord, because of our relationship with Him, because He is the resurrection
and the life, and that if man lives and believes in Him, that
he'll live forever, and he will be raised out of the grave. But
an ordinary man dying for his own sins, he's left in the grave
to corrupt, and this man saw no corruption. This man was raised
out of the grave, and it was for our justification. So now,
do you stand secure this morning? Do you feel some security? Some
assurance? Jesus has come out of the grave.
The Father says, look, here's my Son, and here's proof that
what he did on behalf of my people is accepted by me, and it's proof
that they are justified, just as if they'd never committed
a sin. The resurrected Christ shows that the people of God
have that perfect standing before God, just as if they had never
committed a sin. Well, number four, next our very
regeneration depends upon His resurrection. Peter, speaking
by the Spirit of God, says, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten
us again, there's the word, hath begotten us again unto a lively
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. There be
no regeneration. If there was no resurrection,
there'd be no resurrected life if it was not for the resurrection
of Christ. You and I are living on the resurrected side of the
grave already spiritually, already. We're alive in Christ, alive
eternally, never to die, never to die in soul and spirit, never
to suffer eternal death. because we've been born again.
We've been gotten into a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. Isn't it wonderful to know, my
friend, that the grave is the resting place for these old bodies? But that's all. It's not the
resting place of the soul. The soul is alive forevermore. We've been begotten. God put
his seed, the seed of life in us and we live and are alive
because his seed is in us. And we are not ever going to
die spiritually because we've been begotten unto lively hope.
You say, do you need to be born again? They sang it this morning.
You must be born again. And if you're never born again,
then you never live, you will not live eternally. You will
not live eternally unless you're born again. There was a road
out in Pennsylvania, kind of went through some mountainous
country, and they were going to work on the highway, so they
put up two signs. And one of the signs said, travel
at your own risk. Travel this road at your own
risk. And the other sign said, the road is closed past the cemetery. My friend, I'm here to tell you
this morning that spiritually speaking, the road is still open
past the cemetery. For those of you that believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, spiritual life, eternal life, for those
that are dead in sin, those that are lost, those that are without
hope in Jesus Christ, My friend, the road is open to hell from
the cemetery for you. So the road is still open, spiritually
speaking. And so I would remind you of
that. But praise be unto God, there is a being born again. There is such a thing as being
born of the Spirit. And that which is born of the
Spirit, my friend, is Spirit. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. So remember that scripture in
1 Peter 1 and verse 3. We've been begotten unto a lively
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Hallelujah.
I could stay right there. I really love that. Number five,
we must hurry on. And most certainly, our ultimate
resurrection rests here. I say our ultimate resurrection
rests here. If Christ be not risen, then
shall we not rise? If he hadn't been raised, the
head, he's the head of the body. And if the head hadn't been raised,
then we're not going to be raised. But if he be risen, then they
who are asleep in Christ have not perished. But in their flesh
shall surely behold the Lord. In their flesh, as Job said,
I shall see the Lord, I shall see God in the flesh. Romans
8.11 says, But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from
the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from
the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that
dwells in you. He's going to quicken these mortal
bodies. He's going to make them live. They're coming today. When
they're going to live, brother, they're going to live. Now, by reading this 15th chapter
of the book of 1 Corinthians, you can't help but have the victory.
Now, it had to thanks be unto God. But now what he said, who
has given us the victory, verse 57, through our Lord Jesus Christ,
We got the victory, brother. We're not working up to one,
we already got it. The victory is ours because Christ was raised
from the dead. There was two fellas that were
going to be burned at the stake many, many years ago, and one
of them was blind and the other one was a cripple. And as they were tied to the
stake and the fire lit, the blind man said to the cripple, He said,
courage, brother, courage. The fire will cure us both. Now
I want to tell you something, beloved. You can say what you
want to, and you can dread and fear death all you want to. It
ain't going to do no good. It ain't going to make any difference.
But I'm going to tell you what, it's going to cure this whole
bunch. The grave. The grave will cure this whole
bunch. That's right. Say you've got a problem, you
know somebody's sick, You know somebody afflicted, you know
somebody with the temps coming down, you know. Well, I'll tell
you what it'll take to cure them. It'll take the grave. That's
what it'll take. But we've got the victory. The
victory is ours in the Lord. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, He said, you just go ahead and be unmovable, always abounding
in the work of the Lord for as much as you know your labor is
not in vain. Just keep on working until you drop over. Just keep
on preaching as long as you can. Keep on living for Christ. Believe
in what the Word of God says. Stand firm and believe what the
Word of God says. Well, now the fact is then, as
I see it, that the threat of the resurrection, and also I
wanted to mention that the judgment of the lost, the judgment of
the wicked, you know, it's appointed that a man wants to die and after
this the judgment. Acts 17 and 31 says that God
hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world. in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men, in that he raised him from the dead." Christ has
been raised from the dead, and he is going to be your judge.
Somebody said, can you elaborate on that? I don't have to elaborate
much on that. The judge is alive, and he ain't going to die. He's
going to remain alive to judge you in that day. I invite you
to look at one scripture, and I'm going to be done, in John
5. John 5. And look, if you will,
at verse 26. We'll begin there. Go down to
verse 29. I'm saying that the resurrection
proves the judgment of the wicked damned. For as the Father hath
life in Himself, So hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself. And that's where we get our life,
is from Christ. And hath given Him, I want you
to notice verse 27. And hath given Him. You know
it's a marvelous study to go through even the Gospel of John
and find all the things that were given to Christ. It says
in the third chapter, verse 35, that the Father loved the Son
and had given all things into His hands. And here it says,
and hath given Him authority. to execute judgment also. He's
got the authority to judge you. Somebody said, well, who are
you to judge me? You ever heard anybody say that?
Maybe to a neighbor or to a relative or a friend. Who are you to judge
me? Well, I want to tell you what.
Christ has been given authority to execute judgment also because
He is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this. Don't marvel
at this. For the hour is coming in which
all that are in the graves are going to hear His voice. It's
going to be a resurrection. And they shall come forth. They
shall come forth out of their graves. That's right. I don't
know whether you believe that or not, but I do. I solemnly
believe in the resurrection of these bodies from the grave.
And when we bury someone's body, we're not burying them, we're
burying that old body. an old tent that they lived in. We're burying that, but they're going to come forth.
I tell you they're going to come forth. The clods and the dust
are going to fly. I mean they're coming forth.
There was a girl one time, I don't want to keep you too long, the
time is really getting away, but when she died she left orders,
she wanted a slab of granite put over her tomb over her grave
and she wanted huge stones placed around and wanted arm pieces
bolted through this granite to those huge stones and she said
that they put on the tombstone it had been purchased for eternity
and it was never to be opened, this tomb was never to be opened.
Well when they were burying her and putting the dirt in Before
they put all this in, there was a small acorn that fell into
the ground, into the dirt. After several months, a little
sapling came up between one of those stones and that granite. After a while, a little more,
a little bigger, a little bigger, a little bigger, a little bigger.
Years later, that granite and those stones were lifted by that
growing oak tree. As that oak tree grew up, I'm
telling you, they shall come forth. They shall come forth. They will. God's able to open
a grave. He can open it up. He can split it open. He can bring them forth. They
that have done good, they that have done good in their substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ, unto the resurrection of life. There ain't
nobody doing good otherwise. The only goodness we have is
that goodness we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. How much good
would you have to do to be resurrected, my friend? Face it. How much
good? You have to be as good as Christ.
And the only way you can be as good as Christ is to be in Christ.
And to have His righteousness imputed unto you. They that are
done good in the substitute unto the resurrection of life, they
that are done evil in Adam, and they were left there. They were
never brought out by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit unto
the resurrection of damnation. It will come. I tell you, the
thread of the resurrection is woven through all of the great
holy truths of the Word of God. And we need to believe that.
And this is the reason I wanted to bring these thoughts to you
this morning, was because I felt like You know, I preach very
few sermons just on the resurrection. And most of you who have been
around here for a long time know that it's a little different
for me, maybe. But nevertheless, it's exactly what we believe,
and it's what the Word of God teaches. And I hope this morning
this message has been helpful, and that you'll be able to retain
what you've heard today. Father, in the name of Jesus,
I pray Thou will own the message. and that Thou would bless it,
and bless it, our Father, to all of our hearts, that we may
all grow in the grace and knowledge of truth, and be strong in the
Lord and the power of His might, able to face and to deal with
and endure whatever You in Your gracious and loving and kind
providence is pleased to send to us. Grant us great faith that
we may believe in a great God and believe in a living Living
God. Pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.