We'll be in the gospel of Matthew
again. In the first hour, we looked
at, well, Wednesday, we looked at Matthew 1. Call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sin. First hour, we
looked at chapter 2, who is a wise man. In this hour, I want to
look, that's his birth, the first two. And then the second, I want
to look at his resurrection, Matthew 28. Matthew 28. Title this message Stolen Away.
Stolen Away. Now, each gospel has been likened
into the statue of Ezekiel's vision. You remember the message
that we brought when we were going through the book of Ezekiel
on the four sided beast that Ezekiel saw? He had the face
of a lion. face of an ox, face of a man
and a face of an eagle. So on all four sides, he was
different, yet he was one and he was the same. It's a picture
of who Christ is. And we see that by divine inspiration,
that's how the gospels reveal the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew
shows Christ the king, the glorious lion of the tribe of Judah. He
shows him that he has come to save his people. Now, Matthew
was a tax collector, which means he would have known the law.
And he speaks on the law and the fulfillment of Christ in
the law more than any other of the gospels. That's because of
his trade. I find it interesting that each
one of these men, they write more about the Lord from their
perspective of their trade than they do the other man. For example,
Matthew was a tax collector. He knew the law. But Luke was
a physician. He was a doctor. And how does
he reveal Christ, the great physician? He reveals Christ as the God-man. That's the face of the man, isn't
it? First one was the face of a lion. This is the face of the
man. He was compassionate, loving. Therefore, we saw Christ through
his perspective as the God-man, the compassionate man. As we
see the Lord, we see him through our perspective, too, of our
trades, don't we? I'm a handyman, so I see him
as his hands worked with his father's doing carpentry and
different things. He was always perfect in everything that he
did. And it's glorious to the believer that he's made all things
unto us. Our perspective is full up of
him because he's glorious in his person. Well, Mark shows
him as the ox, Jehovah's servant, come to fulfill his father's
will. The ox is ready to be sacrificed on the altar. Mark, also known as John Mark,
he was the interpreter for Peter, he followed Peter everywhere.
Much of his knowledge would have come from Peter since he didn't
physically follow the Lord, yet he was a disciple. And it's interesting
because if Peter would have wrote a gospel, it would have been
the one that Mark wrote, but the Lord purposed, see Peter
was just a fisherman. And actually that's what John
was as well, but much of his perspective would have came from
Peter. He would have known Peter told him all about his denial
of the Lord. Peter told him all about his
He said, no, you don't write good things about me, write good
things about him. And so we see that the sacrifice
that Mark writes about is of the Lord being the ox. Now, John,
the last one I'll mention briefly, shows Christ soaring to the highest
heavens as the only substitute before the throne. He's the eagle,
only one that could touch God and not die and touch man and
not be defiled. He had that extra set, that lens,
didn't he, where he could fly right into the sun, the wrath
of God and not be burnt up for his people. And where do we hide
under the shadow of his wing? That's what John shows us. John
was a fisherman. And if any of you have ever been
fishing or know anything about fishing, you know that being
a fisherman makes you completely dependent upon God. You can bait
the hook. You can have the right depth
on the hook. You can have the biggest cast net. But the fishermen,
what they told all night, didn't they? Didn't catch a thing. Complete
dependency upon God. That's what we see as revealed
in John. The necessity of our complete
dependency upon him. He reveals the majesty and the
glory of Christ. Therefore, therefore, we have
the full canon of God's revelation of his darling son, the Lord
Jesus Christ and all four of these gospels. By these four
accounts, we have everything that God has chosen to reveal
to us about His Christ, about the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet
the scripture says, when we get there, we'll understand then
the half has not been told. That's what the Queen of Sheba
said when she saw Solomon in her temple. She said, I'd heard
with the hearing of the ear, but I hear the way that your
servants just go up and down the stairs, a half's not been
told. All the riches, the glory that you have, and yet, What
was Solomon compared to Christ? Half has not been told. John's
gospel ends with these words in John's 21-25, and there are
also many other things which Jesus did in which, if they should
be written, every one, I suppose that even the world itself could
not contain the books that would be written. Even if we had all
the works that were recorded, understand learning cannot bring
about salvation. We have enough, don't we? We
have enough in what the Lord's more than enough than what in
what the Lord's given us. And even if we had every book
of everything that he done, we see that it comes through and
by the Lord, his spirit teaching us, we can't learn it. Men are
ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the
truth. Mankind cannot come to God's Christ because of their
choice, because of their reading, because of their studying, because
of their sacrifice. We can't even grow because of
knowledge. Did you know that? Growth doesn't come by how much
you read the word. Scripture says, faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word. But that doesn't mean that
if I hear more of the word that I'm going to grow more, I'm going
to have more faith. No, it's the word of God that
bestows it. It's the word of God. It's Christ
himself. He gets all the glory, doesn't he? Well, this hour,
I hope that the Lord allows us to see the preaching of the gospel. It's all His choosing, His doing.
And we rejoice in that. And we're able to rejoice in
that. First hour, we looked at the birth. In this hour, I want
to look at the resurrection of Christ. Now, I want to briefly
mention this because I mentioned it the first hour. And I want
to mention that this hour, because men and women worship a day called
Easter. It's an annual celebration, an annual celebration, not ordained
by God, It represents the Passover lamb. Now, unlike Christmas,
Christmas is not mentioned in the Bible. It's not. And if you
didn't get to hear the first message, I would encourage you
to do so. But Easter men believe that they're doing the
right thing by observing Easter the way that they do. But Easter
was never ordained by God to be worshiped. Easter represent
the Passover lamb. It goes all the way back whenever
the children of Israel in Exodus, whenever they were, the death
angel was coming, what did they do? They put the blood on the
doorpost and the lintel. That's what the Passover lamb was. That's
what it represented. And after they got out of Egypt,
he said, make sure that you have the Passover feast. And that
was their worship. It was a physical worship. We
don't worship the Lord that way anymore, do we? We worship him
in spirit and in truth. That's how we worship the Lord.
It's not a day of having special services. That's not honoring
to him. You know what honors the Lord? Looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith with the eyes of faith
that he's given us. Somebody said, are you going
to have a special meeting on Easter? We have a special meeting
every time we come together. What do we preach? The resurrection
of Christ every single time. No, we don't observe one day.
We observe him every day. No, it's all about his birth
and his life, his death and resurrection. That's all our hope before God.
And we do it every day, don't we? Not in the physical sense,
in the spiritual sense, looking into him for what he gives us.
It's faith. We're not looking for an emotional
stirring of the flesh to bring about salvation. It's actually
quite the opposite. It's impossible to stir the flesh
emotionally. When I was in religion, men would
give altar calls. And some of you may be familiar with what
that is. And if you don't, I'll explain it. Men would say, come
up to this front and give your heart to Jesus. God is standing
here knocking at the door. And all you have to do is come
down this aisle and kneel right here before him and ask him to
forgive you your sins and ask him into your heart. And he will
do that. You're obligating God because he said he would do that.
Now, if you take the first step, he'll take the rest. They would
play songs like Just As I Am and they would play songs, man,
they would play them over and over and they would start stirring
emotions and somebody in the back would start crying. And
before you know it, there were people up here on the altar praying
and there were people shouting and the people crying and man,
we got 13 people saved today. No, you didn't. No, we didn't.
No, that's not salvation. That's an outward expression.
and it's a fairy tale, it's a show, it's a cheap magician's trick.
It's not salvation. How are we saved, brethren, when
God says, live, seek ye my face, hear, and God says, see? Now, does he do that audibly
where I can hear it and where you can hear it? No, but you
hear it, don't you? You hear it and hear, that's
where we hear it. Oh, Lord, cause me to hear your voice, cause
me to save me, Lord. Call me by your grace, not just
once, but every day. That's what we believe. So what
do we observe? We observe the Lord's table.
Why? because he said this do in remembrance of me. He didn't
say take the Passover every Easter. He didn't say honor me on Christmas
Day. No, that's not in the Bible. What did he say? This do in remembrance
of me. Why? Because of what it represents.
It represents the Passover lamb, doesn't it? It represent our
hope in the birth of Jesus Christ being the God man. It represent
our hope in his life, in his blood atonement alone, his body
being our only hope before God. We take it in confession of what
He is, and we observe baptism for the same reason. It's His
death, burial, and resurrection is all our hope. Dying to ourself
completely, no outward glory whatsoever. It's embarrassing
to get in that thing, to get wet in front of everybody. It
is. That's the greatest thing. I mean, to the belief, we rejoice
when we see it, don't we? Our brethren doing it. It's a
rejoicing in our heart. For this reason, we don't look
at crosses, or trinkets, or pictures, or anything seen. No, these are
abominations unto the Lord. We look to Jesus Christ through
our heart, the heart of flesh that he's given us, through the
eyes of faith. There's our hope. There's our
hope, him. I hath not seen, neither ear
heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things
which the Lord hath prepared for them. The ones that the Lord
died for, the ones that the Lord loves, and the ones that the
Lord has made love Him because He first loved them. We look
to that which is eternal, not carnal. We look to Jesus Christ
alone. And when do we look? Scripture says, whom coming. Right now and right now and right
now, every tick of that second. I hope that that's when we're
coming. I hope that that's when we're looking. We must look to
the spiritual. If we don't, If we're not looking to the spiritual,
we're looking to the physical, then we're stealing away the
purpose of the resurrection. And that's what I've titled the
message is stolen away. Now, when Matthew 27, Matthew
has given us, and I'll just go ahead and tell you that's the
end of the intro. I think I need to start doing that. I'm giving
intros now. I don't, I've never done that
before, but Matthew 27, he gives his viewpoint of Christ's death,
of the shedding of his blood for the elect. of crying out
with a loud voice, it is finished, yielding up the ghost. And the
scripture says, and the veil in the temple was written twain
from top to bottom. What a picture of the separation that man had
with God and yet Christ being that veil that was rent, allowing
us to enter boldly to the throne room of God. So we have Matthew's
account of all of this crying, it is finished. Now here in Matthew
28, Christ had died and he had been buried. Now let's read Matthew
28 in verse one. In the end of the Sabbath that
began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene
and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. And behold, there
was a great earthquake. For the angel of the Lord descended
from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door
and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning
and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers
did shake and became as dead men. The angel answered and said
unto the woman, Fear not, ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus
which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen. As he said, Come see the place
where the Lord lay, and go quickly and tell his disciples that he
is risen from the dead. And behold, he goeth before you
into Galilee. There shall you see him, lo,
I have told you. And they departed quickly from
the sepulcher with fear. Now look at this. They departed
this quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy and did
run to bring his disciples word. Is that not what the gospel does?
It gives us fear and great joy. And what is that fear and great
joy? It's the thing that I mentioned almost every time I stand, it's
repentance and faith. Fear is the repentance that the
Lord gives and great joy is the faith towards the Lord Jesus
Christ. They come to say, where is our Savior's body? Where is
our Savior's body? He's not here. He's risen. There's our hope, isn't it? He's
risen. Once you hear that. and see that
through the eyes of faith. When you've been given fear and
great joy, when you've been given repentance and faith toward the
Lord and you hear, he's not here, he has risen. Because of what
that represents, because of the Lord being risen, we're gonna
read the rest of this in a minute, but when you hear that he has
risen, don't you just wanna tell everybody, all of your friends,
all of your family, those that you love, he's not here, he's
risen. I'm reminded going to other churches
that they preach that he was risen, but yet didn't really
accomplish anything. And I want to say, no, no, he's
not here in this gospel. No, he's risen. And what does
that mean? That means everything that God
required, he successfully accomplished and God resurrected him for that.
He was pleased with that sacrifice. That's what his resurrection
means. He was successful. He didn't
try, he didn't hope, he wasn't planning, he wasn't trying, he
was successful. He was successful in redeeming.
I had this thought, if God saved
our worst enemy, and of course our self is the worst enemy that
we got, but I'm talking physically of somebody else around us, somebody
that we've had a hard time with, somebody that we struggle with.
If God saved our worst enemy, would we not rejoice? Would we
not rejoice in that? When the Lord shows us he was
successful, it just shuts us up, doesn't it? It doesn't let
us murmur anymore and complain and start feeling woe is I anymore. It says, Lord, I'm full of fear
and I'm full of joy. I have repentance of what I am
and I have faith that Christ is all. Lord calls me to hear
these words again. Remind me he has risen again.
Understand his resurrection means that all prophecies are fulfilled.
Isaiah saw it. We just heard about Ezekiel's
vision. This is who Christ was, what he accomplished. Jonah was
a picture of it, wasn't he? As Jonah's in the belly of the
well three days and three nights, so shall the son of man be in
the heart of the earth three days and three nights. Every prophecy
had come to pass in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every prophecy
fulfilled and God completely satisfied with his son. How do
you know he is risen? That's how we know. Every prophecy
of the Old Testament, every type, every shadow, every picture is
summed up. It's fulfilled in those three words, but you could
say it's summed up in six words. It is finished. He is risen. He said it's finished, which
means he's going to be risen. But once we see that he is risen,
everything that was spoken prior, everything that was done previous
to that was fulfilled. We know it to be true. And we
just declare it. When we see it, what does it
give us? Fear. and great joy. Maybe I should
have titled this fear and great joy. I don't know. But anyways,
why do we hope in this? Why do we hope he is risen? Well,
who raised him? That's why. Was it my choice
that resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead? Was I offered
that opportunity? If I was to raise him from the
dead, then he would save me. That's silly, isn't it? No, I
didn't have the power to resurrect him or anybody else. God raised
him from the dead. Acts 2 tells us, Him, Christ,
being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain
whom God hath raised up, having loose the pains of death, because
it was not possible that he should be holden of it. Here's the fear
and the great joy. First, you hear, you've taken
Him. You've taken Him. I've taken
Him, and with wicked hands have crucified and slain Him. But
here's the joy. God raised Him up. And he said,
I put away those sins. He said, David, you're the man.
But the Lord, the Lord hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not
die. See, there's the gospel. The
fear that comes over us when we see that it is our sin that
nailed him to the cross. And yet we see God was satisfied
by that sacrifice. So every sin that He was making
payment for was sufficiently put away. And you and I are justified. And you, I have been sanctified
and even glorified in His eyes. That's what He is risen represents.
So if you ever see a sign that says He is risen, rejoice in
that. Not like they're rejoicing. Not that Jesus made a way and
all you have to do is, no, no. You're justified in his sight.
The resurrection proves that. He was raised for our justification. There's a period on the end of
that. Already been justified in God's
eyes. Here's our fear and great joy.
And why do we have great joy? Because salvation has been accomplished
for all whom he died for. Now look with me in verse nine,
and I want us to see the precious words I don't want to miss this,
the precious words of our Savior. This is the Lord appearing unto
them. Look in verse 9 with me. And
as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying,
all hail. And they came and hailed him.
You know what that all hail means? Peace. Peace. Is that not what your hope is?
Is that not what my hope is? Is that the Lord would say peace
unto us? and they held him by the feet. And what did they do?
They worshiped him. Then said Jesus unto them, be
not afraid. Go tell my brethren that they
go into Galilee and there shall they see me. Let's stop reading
right there. Be not, now wait a minute. We had fear and we had great
joy. And Christ just said, be not
afraid. What happened to the fear? Well, now it's gone. What's
remaining? Joy unspeakable and full of glory. There's no more fear. Why? There's
therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
He's risen. He's put away the sin. There's no more fear. Why?
Because the believer gets to hear these words. Be not afraid. If you were to hear Christ Jesus
say that, and we do hear that, through the eyes of faith, through
the ears of faith He gives us. But in hearing that, what is
there to be afraid of? Are we afraid of life? No, He
lived the life we could not live. Perfect life before the Father,
and the Father was pleased. How do we know? He is risen.
We afraid of death? No, He died in my stead. That's
our hope. He died in His people's stead, bearing their sin in His
body, being the sacrifice that satisfied the Father. So why
should we be afraid of death? He's conquered death. Are we
afraid of hell? No, he endured hell on the cross for his people.
We afraid of the grave? No, the grave could not hold
him. Acts chapter 2, 24 just told us that. It was impossible.
So what are we afraid of? Fear is gone. What do we have
then by his gospel? Joy unspeakable and full of glory. That's all that remains. There
remaineth a rest to the people of God. I love the thought that no one
could prevent his resurrection. Could Satan have prevented the
Lord's resurrection if he wanted to? No. Most amazing part about
the cross of Calvary is Satan defeated, or the Lord Jesus Christ
defeated Satan. without ever putting boxing gloves
on like I've seen men talk about, like he was fighting. No, he
wasn't fighting. He beat him at his own game. He redeemed
his people by being perfect before the father and never denying
who the Lord was. Think about all the manifold
whispers in the Lord's ear when the Lord talks about the terrors
that can pass him. Why? Because of our sin upon him.
Satan was throwing everything that he had at the Lord Jesus
Christ, and yet he opened not his mouth. Yet he laid down his
life freely for his people. And yet he died being the sinless
substitute before God. And he bruised the head of Satan.
Could Satan prevent his resurrection? No, Satan couldn't cause his
death. And when the time came, Satan couldn't prevent his death. He certainly couldn't prevent
his resurrection. Could a man had prevented the resurrection
of Christ? It says that they stationed guards
outside the door. I don't think that they would
have. These religious Pharisees, they would have wanted somebody
strong to be in front of that door. They would have put the
very best there, I would imagine. I mean, they already had the
prophecy given that Christ was going to be resurrected. The
disciples already said that. Christ had already said that. He literally
told them in three days, you'll tear down this temple, but in
three days I'll rebuild it. And they didn't understand. He meant
his body till he was dead. What kind of guards do you think they
would have put at the tomb? What kind of guards do you think
they would have put at the tomb? The very best, am I right? Has to
be. I'm thinking about Goliath in
my mind, the biggest guy they've got, the nine foot tall giant.
He's gonna protect, the stone ain't gonna move as long as he's
standing there. A 60 foot statue, right? Is that not what men preach?
That here's the Lord unable to open up that tomb because of
man's will. Man are holding him captive.
They're not letting him out into their heart. Is that not the
silliest thing? No, he burst forth out of the...nobody
could contain him. And the same in salvation. No,
he comes in and kicks the door down and he sets up his abode
in the new heart that he gives his people. Nothing could have
prevented him from coming forth. because his sacrifice was sufficient,
it was finished. He is risen because he was successful. He redeemed because it is finished,
because he is risen. We know these things to be true.
The son of righteousness will burst forth with healing in his
wings at the appointed time. Jesus will meet every one of
his people and he declares the same words to you and to you
and to you that he does me. Be not afraid, it is I. Live, live. He says, I am he
that was dead. Behold, I am alive and I am alive
forevermore. And I have the keys purchased
by my own blood, the keys of death, the keys of hell, the
keys of the grave, nothing. Nothing shall separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. He has purchased
us by His own blood and paid the penalty, paid the cost, ransomed
us back to God, redeeming us back to God, sanctifying His
people back to God, making them perfect, perfectly justified
before Him. Now look with me in verse 11. Now, when they were going, behold,
some of the watch came into the city and showed unto the chief
priest all the things that were done. And when they were assembled
with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave large money
under the soldiers, saying, Say ye his disciples came by night
and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor's
ears, we will persuade him and secure you. So they took the
money and did as they were taught. And this saying is commonly reported
among the Jews until this day. No, no, no, don't say he was
resurrected. Don't say that. Say that his disciples stole
him away. And here's the bribe money, large
amounts of bribe money. Men say, but the most interesting
part is this is still commonly reported among the Jews today. This is the lie, isn't it? They
stole him away. This is what the reason I titled
the message stolen away. Some men will believe that he
was stolen away. And some men will believe that
he is risen, that he is alive. What I mean by that is, is he
successful in everything that he accomplished, everything that
he was meant to do, he did. He couldn't have been prevented
and his resurrection proves that. Men say on Easter, God made a
way. No, that's stealing him away. That's not the resurrection
we're talking about. Christ didn't make a way. He
is the way. If you say it that way, that God just made a way,
it means his resurrection didn't really accomplish anything. It's
dependent upon you and I. Is that what we believe? God's
dependent upon man in any way? Boy, if he is, we're in trouble. If he's dependent upon me for
one thing, I'm in trouble. Thank God he says, do not be
afraid. I don't depend upon you. If I was hungry, I wouldn't tell
you. If I was hungry, I wouldn't tell you. That's what he says.
No, he's not dependent upon us. The religion of this world, the
so-called Christians, they steal the body away from Christ. because
they're afraid of losing their position. Afraid of losing their
power. Just like Herod. Just like Herod. Lest the Lord comes to a man
or a woman and says, look up, live. Herod never even noticed
the star, did he? He never looked up. Five miles
away, it was right there. He never looked up. Why not?
The Lord didn't say, look up. The Lord didn't let him. He gets
all the glory. Everybody else just steals away
the body of Christ and makes Him baby Jesus, meek and mild.
No, He's God. And He was resurrected by the
Father. He is risen and it is finished
and He's successful. We're not trying to steal away.
I mentioned last Sunday about, He said, you've robbed from me.
The Lord did. And they said, where in have we robbed from you? He
said, in tithes and in offerings. Well, is this not the same thing
that we preached last Sunday wherein men try to rob God of
His glory and salvation? Try to rob God. We can't rob
God. He owns everything and he's going
to get all the glory. And yet men try to steal away
the body of Christ. Men are afraid of losing their
position. Men believe that they have the
power. And that was the problem from the very beginning in the
Garden of Eden, wasn't it? The very beginning. Matter of
fact, the first sin was pride. You know that? There's a lot
of things spoken about pride recently, and I think everybody
understands what I'm talking about. That's the root sin that
began it all. Pride. Satan said, I will ascend
above the heavens. I will become like the... That's pride, isn't it? That's
the problem. Men say, be prideful. No. No,
not if you're the Lord's. Bow. Humility. The Lord said,
I resist the proud. I give grace to the humble. No,
in pride, we steal the body of Christ away, saying, away with
this man. No, he was stolen away by his disciples. We don't believe
that he accomplished anything. We have to let him do something.
We have the keys of death, hell, and the grave by our choice.
We get to choose whether we go to hell or not. Men don't literally
say that, but that's exactly what they're saying, isn't it?
Our choice means we don't have to go to hell. Who holds the
keys then? That's just how it is. Not for the Lord's people. No, he holds the keys, don't
he? He bought them. He bought them and we're not
prideful. Not before the Lord. We don't call that which is good
evil and that which is evil good. We don't justify the excuses
of men and say, yeah, that's okay. The Lord will turn a blind
eye to that. No, it's evil in God's eyes. Let it be evil. It's
wickedness in God's eyes. Let it be wicked. That's what
God said. That's what it means, isn't it? Whatever it may be,
Lord, here I am, the wicked one. Here I am, the deceitful one.
Here I am, the prideful one. Lord, give me Christ. Give me
repentance. Give me that fear. and calls
me to hear, be not afraid. Give me faith and calls me to
have your joy." Men had no power over him then. They had no power over him now,
and they hated him for it. They hated him for it. Satan
said, I'm going to be God. You know what Eve said? Me too. Me too. You know what you and
I say? Me too. I'm going to be God also. The
Lord says, no, you're not. and gives repentance. That's
our only hope. Unless he stops us and says, no, cease, stop. We're going to just be our own
God right into hell. That's exactly where to leave
us. That's what our heart will do. Stealing away the body of
Christ. Well, men bribe other men by
presenting a false gospel, don't they? What is a false gospel? It's a gospel that doesn't give
all the glory. I've heard some really close counterfeits. As a matter of fact, whenever
a man is making a counterfeit, do they try to make monopoly
money? They had McDonald's bucks a few years ago, and you can
maybe remember that. There was a guy that apparently
tried to make fake McDonald's dollars, and how did he want
to make them look? He wanted them to look just like the real thing,
didn't he? He wanted it to fool the person behind the counter
who's buying or who's whom he's purchasing from, right? And what
about people in today's time? If they're going to make counterfeit
bills, are they not going to make something that looks like so close? So close. If you want to know
how to spot a counterfeit, what do you study? You study the real
thing. We study the real thing, don't
we? You shall know. The truth and the truth shall
make you free. Why? Because one ounce of the
lie is easily spotted by the believer. But it's you're stealing
away Christ from me. You're stealing away his body.
No, that's my only hope is that he was resurrected, his body
alone, his blood alone. And you're taking him. You're
taking my righteousness by stealing him away. And yet men continually
bribe other men by presenting a false hope in self-righteousness,
not the Lord's people. God's gospel and God's people
give him all the glory. Did you know that's the only
thing that casts out all fear and doubt is his gospel? When
else do you have peace except when you hear his gospel? When
we hear his truth, I'm not worried about work right now. I'm not
worried about life right now. I'm not worried about any health.
If I see his face, where's fear? It's gone. Why? Because he said,
peace, be still. He said, be not afraid. Be not afraid. Seeing him is
peace. Seeing him is joy. We were never at peace in false
religion and the false truth because it was always do more
of this and do more of that. Have I done enough? Have I done
enough? No. No, we could never do enough
to please him. You know what that's called? Do more. The message of do more,
that's stealing God's glory. That's robbing God of it is finished. And do you know that's commonly
reported in churches today? Do, do, do. And that's commonly reported
in churches. That's not the message here at
this church. The message here is it is finished. He is risen. Then what happened? What said,
sit thou here. It's so finished that he's waiting
to everything to come to pass in time. Isn't that glorious?
He's just waiting. He's not waiting on you and me.
He's waiting until the father makes his enemies his footstool.
But as far as God's concerned, this whole thing's wrapped up.
It's done. When we start concerning ourself with the things of the
world, worrying about, the scripture tells us there'll be wars and
rumors of wars in the last day. Don't fret. Fear not. Be not
afraid. God's still seated right there
on his throne in the heavenlies. He's not flinching. When I get
nervous, sometimes I'll sit on a chair and bounce my knee. He's
not bouncing his knee. He's not twiddling his thumbs.
He's resting. He's resting in the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ and everyone that Christ died
for will be brought safe, has been brought safely to the Father
and presented as righteous. Rest, rest, be not afraid. Now, I think I've made the mistake
of trying to preach two messages at one time, because I had some
other places to turn to, and we're just about out of time.
So I'm not gonna be able to do that, but I'm gonna sum it up for us. When
men hear of this truth, when men hear of this truth, they
do the same thing that happened to Paul when Paul was in Athens. Paul went to Mars Hill, and I've
had his turn there before, so try to remember this, pray the
Lord will bring it back to our memory. When Paul was on, Paul went to
Athens on Mars Hill. And at Mars Hill, this was the
place of debate. This was the place where the
Stoics and the Epicureans would gather together, the men of intellect
and the men of pleasure, according to the flesh, what you have to
do in order to feel satisfied in life. And the other one says,
no, you have to learn to be satisfied in life. And that was where they
met at. And that's where every religion comes down to. Paul
had seen that they had all these statues to this God and to this
God and to this God, And they had this one statue that said,
to the unknown God. Paul stands up because he had
decreed some things in the market. And they said, wait a minute,
you're talking about the resurrection from the dead. We would hear
more of this. It's perked up somebody's ears that needed knowledge,
right? He came and he stood up in front of all these men. And
he says, I perceive that you are very superstitious. You're
worried that this God might get you or this God might get you
or that you got to do for this one and this one and this one.
He said, but I want to preach to you one God. And it's the
one that says to the unknown God, that's who I'm going to
declare unto you. His name is Jesus Christ. And he was resurrected
from the dead. He's the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. He successfully redeemed. He preached the gospel to them
at Mars Hill. Some believed. And what did some do? They mocked
him. They hated him. They didn't want anything. Get
away with it. Get out of here. Don't come back ever. We'll go
back to our own gods. They're stealing away the body
of Christ, weren't they? They didn't want to hear that. They wanted
what they believed in as their righteousness and as their hope.
What about those that believe? The scripture says they clave
unto Paul and his gospel. Is that not what we do? We cleave
unto Christ. Oh, his resurrection's all our
hope. His resurrections are our only hope. God will remain the unknown God
unless he chooses to do something. And this is the same as today.
Men are doing the traditions of men. They don't know what
they're worshiping. And that was the time of Christ
when he talked to the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman.
He said, you worship you know not what. God is a spirit and
how can we worship him? The only way in spirit and in
truth. We must worship in spirit and
in truth. Men keep the traditions of men. On Easter Sunday, most men believe
that his body was stolen away, yet they say he is risen. How
do they believe that his body was stolen away? By saying, let
Jesus. See, he's not God if we let him. That means he was stolen
away by man. Do we see that? That's the picture
here. Physically stolen away? No, they're saying he was risen,
but what they're saying is they have power over him to steal
him away, to make conform him, to obligate him, to bind him
into something. may become God, not the Lord's
people. No, we believe that he lives. He lives. Do you know why he lives? There's
twofold to that. Twofold to that, God was satisfied.
That's why he lives. God resurrected his son from
the dead because he was satisfied. He saved his people from their
sins. Is that not what we heard Wednesday? Call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. How do we know
he did that? Number one, God said it is finished. Number two,
he resurrected his son. The second reason that he lives,
the scripture says, he ever liveth to make intercession for his
people, for us. Can you think about the precious
thought of the Lord interceding for you and I? When we come before
his presence, We're pleading the blood alone. The Lord takes
that prayer and washes it in his blood and prevents it as
perfect to his father. He truly hears his people. The risen savior hears his people
when they cry to him. I can't imagine that. I don't
understand that. How he can hear a wretched, vile
sinner. Then again, I'm looking to myself in that thought and
not to him. Do we doubt his blood is capable of that? No, certainly
not. I just doubt that. in myself,
I find no good thing. That's the point. I'm full of
fear. Lord, take away that fear by showing me Christ. Don't allow
me to steal away the body of Christ. Cause me to have joy
unspeakable and full of glory. Cause me to look at Christ alone.
Christ alone as all our hope. Our last verse to read is in
verse 12. Matthew 28, and when they were assembled with the
elders and had taken counsel, they gave large money into the
soldiers. Either God saves us, either God
saved us, eternity passed, saved us in time, calls us in time,
keeps us, brings us all the way home, or we will sell out just
like Judas. We will. We will sell God for
30 pieces of silver. And we'll think it's a large
sum of money. Whenever the Lord reveals the truth to us, we'll
be like Job saying, Lord, I am vile. I'm vile. I would have sold you out. I
would have stole your body away and tried to make you into something
you're not. Have mercy on me, the sinner. See, that's the fear
and the repentance. And what does the Lord say? I
don't see any sin. It's gone. I've put it away by
my own blood. I've successfully redeemed you
by my own sacrifice. How do we know? He's risen. He's
risen. Be not afraid. Be not afraid. That's what the revelation of
Christ does. Now all the fear is gone. We just believe He has
risen, that He is successful. When we say he is risen, anytime
you see a sign that says he is risen, just go ahead and put
he was successful right with that. He was successful and rejoice
in that. Don't let it make you frustrated
that people were trying to rejoice in a false Jesus. Rejoice in
your God. Every time I see something in
religion, I try to, I seen a sign that says Jesus saves. And I
said, they need to change one letter. Jesus saved. One letter
and fix it. I'm not going to put signs up
everywhere that says Jesus saved, but you understand what I'm saying.
Rejoice in his finished work that he has risen. May God cause
us never, never to try to steal his body away and make it into
something it's not, but just rejoice in the finished work
of Christ alone. That's the way it is for the
Lord's people, isn't it? It's all we rejoice in.