in our Bibles today to Mark chapter
12. Mark chapter 12. And we are continuing
to look at things that took place on the third day in the week
in which the Lord Jesus would be crucified. This all took place
on Tuesday. And we have seen some things
that have already taken place. And now, once again, in the temple,
beginning in verse 18 through verse 27, we read, Then come
unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection.
And they ask him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's
brother die and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children,
that his brother should take his wife and raise up seed unto
his brother. Now, there were seven brethren,
and the first took a wife and died and left no seed. The second
took her and died, neither left he any seed, and the third likewise. And the seven had her and left
no seed. Last of all, the woman died also. In the resurrection, therefore,
When they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? For the
seven had her to wife. And Jesus answering said unto
them, do you not therefore err? Because you know not the scriptures,
neither the power of God. For when they shall rise from
the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but
are as the angels which are in heaven. And it's touching the
dead that they rise. Have you not read in the book
of Moses how in the bush God spake unto him saying, I am the
God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He
is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You therefore
do greatly err. Have you ever had a rope or a
string And there was a knot in it, and it was important to you
to untie that knot. And so you worked with it, and
I'm sure most of the time, with patience, you were able to unravel
that knot. Sometimes, if you're like me,
you just took a knife and cut the rope. Gave up. Well, these Sadducees, these
religious leaders, They thought they had an argument to disprove
a very, very important truth. They thought that they had a
knot that would be impossible for any man to untie. This illustration that they gave. No doubt, in my mind, they probably
had used this before with the Pharisees especially. Pharisees
did believe in a resurrection, and I'm sure they came away victorious
when they used this argument with the Pharisee or any other
religious person. They had a knot they were convinced
that could not be untied. There could not be a resurrection
because, according to the law, when a man took a wife died without
a child, then his brother was to marry her, raise up a child,
a seed for his brother. And so they have this case where
seven men married this woman and none of them had a child. in the resurrection, whose wife
is she going to be? Now I want us to say three things
here this morning. First, look at what the group
denied. Look at what this group of religious
leaders denied. And I call our attention first
to verse 27, where the Lord Jesus Christ told them, ye therefore
do greatly err. You do greatly err. Now first, Mark tells us that
the Sadducees, they say there is no resurrection. Now that's
a grave error. But as we look at this passage
of scripture, and especially As we look at the answer the
Lord Jesus Christ gave them, we see that that was just one
of many eras that they embraced. Because what they denied was,
they denied that there is an afterlife. They denied the immortality
of the soul. They believed that when a person
died, a man or woman dies, that we're just like animals. That's
the end. That's it. They denied both eternal
life for the righteous and they denied eternal punishment for
the wicked. They denied the immortality of
the soul. And if you look at our Lord's
answer in verses 26 and 27, part of it is, God speaking, I am the God of
Abraham. Not I was the God of Abraham. I am the God of Abraham and the
God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead,
but the God of the living. Now all three of these men had
lived and died and been buried when the Lord spoke these words
to Moses out of that bush. And if you look at another part
of the Lord's answer in verse 25, in the resurrection, the
righteous are going to be like the angels which are in heaven. So we see three things here they
denied. They denied the resurrection,
they denied the immortality of the soul, and they denied that
there are angels, that there are spiritual beings. Now, when
they denied that there are holy angels, that meant that they
also denied that there are unholy angels. And when they denied
that there are unholy angels, fallen angels, and we know that
there are, they denied that there is such a being that the scripture
refers to as Satan, as the devil, as the prince of the power of
the air. And to deny that there are fallen
angels is also to deny that there is a kingdom of darkness. You see in this world today,
we're not talking about something that is going to come to pass
a thousand years from now, but today there are two kingdoms
in this world. There is a kingdom of darkness
And every person, when we come into this world, we are born
into this kingdom. And this is a kingdom over which
Satan reigns and rules and keeps his palace, that is the heart
of lost man, keeps it in peace. And there's a kingdom of God's
dear son. Now there's only one way I don't
want to get ahead of myself here, but I've got to say this. There's only one way that a person's
going to get out of that kingdom of darkness. They say he's going to do it
by joining the church. That won't do it. He's going
to do it by being baptized. That won't do it. He's going
to do it by memorizing much of the Bible. That's not going to
do it. There's only one way that anyone
ever gets out of the kingdom of darkness. The Lord Jesus Christ
said, if the sun shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Only the Lord Jesus Christ delivers
from the kingdom of darkness. of darkness, and where does He
deliver those that He delivers from the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of His dear Son? Let's read that in Colossians,
if you turn with me to Colossians. In Colossians chapter 1. In verse 12, the Apostle Paul
says, Colossians 1 and verse 12, giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet, that is, he has qualified us to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life, who, that
is God, who hath delivered us from the power, the kingdom of
darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son." Notice how those two verses I read begin, giving thanks unto
the Father. Let me tell you something, God's
people are thankful people. Those that God delivers from
the kingdom of darkness, they don't just thank the Lord once. From that point on, Their life
is a life of thanksgiving. But thanks be unto God. God's
people, that is those who are saved and brought out of that
kingdom of darkness are a thankful people. Now these Sadducees,
you see, and that reminds us that the Bible is a whole. It's a whole word of God. that God has given unto us. We're not looking, and we're
not wanting, and we reject, in fact, any so-called revelation
that men might come to us with today. The scripture is very
clear that God spoke in days past in various ways unto the
prophets, but He has spoken unto us in these last days in His
Son. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
final revelation from God. He is, my friends. Don't pay
any attention, and I hope you know this. I feel like most of
you do. These people claim they died
and saw a light or they died and went to hell and came. Don't
pay any mind to those charlatans. They're deceived themselves and
they are trying to deceive others. We've got everything God intends
for us to have, to know about Him, to know about ourselves,
to know about Christ, to know about eternal life, to know how
our sins may be forgiven and we may be received into glory. We've got everything we need
to know in these pages of Holy Scripture. And when you start
denying one part, you've got to deny another part. It's kind
of like lying. I'm sure all of us have experienced
something like this. You tell one lie, and it's not
long you've got to tell another lie to justify that first lie. And then it's not long before
you've got to come up with another lie to justify those other two
lies. The Word of God is a whole, the
whole Word of God. We don't add to it. In fact,
the Bible tells us cursed is the man that adds to God's Word. And the same curse is upon anyone
who would subtract from the Word of God. So these Sadducees, they denied
the resurrection. Yes, they denied much more than
that. Now the question is, are there
any Sadducees around today? Well, there are. There are many. There are many of them, and where
are they? Many of them are in pulpits today. I'm talking about
this morning as we are sitting here in this place, hearing the
Word of God. There are many Sadducees. who
greatly err, as our Lord said about these. You do greatly err. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians chapter
11, that Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. And he
said it's no wonder that his angels are transformed into ministers. And they're ministers of righteousness,
he tells us. Whose righteousness? Man's righteousness. In other words, there are many
men who are teaching that by your works, you can make yourself
acceptable to God, your righteousness. And yet the Bible tells us our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God. You want to
show up before God dressed in filthy rags? Well, just keep
trusting in your righteousness. Just keep trusting in anything
that you have done, that you're doing, or you hope to do, and
you'll stand before the thrice holy God dressed in filthy rags. God's ministers are preachers
of righteousness, but not man's righteousness, the righteousness
of God. There's men, Sadducees around
today that They've even started new religions, new cults, in
which they not only deny the deity of Jesus Christ our Lord,
but they deny the immortality of the soul. They deny that there's
eternal punishment, as well as eternal life. They're Sadducees. They deny the immortality of
the soul. They deny eternal punishment,
but listen to our Lord's words, if you will, and I'm reading
from Matthew 25, verse 46. This is what our Lord said. These
shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous
into life eternal. If you take your concordance,
if you have a Greek concordance, and you look up that verse of
scripture, you're going to find out that the same word which
is translated eternal in reference to life, eternal life, is the
same word that's translated everlasting in reference to everlasting punishment. The same word. And so if you
deny everlasting punishment, then you've got to deny everlasting
life. Now this group of people, these
that came to the Lord this day, they denied both. Are there any
around today like that? You know there are. You know
there are. people today trying to convince
themselves. I don't believe there's anyone
like this here today, and I'm so thankful for God's grace to
you and I that has caused us to know something about God from
his word. But you know, there's thousands,
yeah, millions of people in this world today who, they've convinced
themselves. When I die, that's it. That's
the reason they say, you only go around once, better make the
most of it. No, my friends, you go around
once in this world, but after death, the scripture says it's
appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. Just as there is eternal life,
so there is eternal damnation. The soul does not cease to exist. The second thing that I would
point out to us is look at the charge that Christ delivered
to this group in verse 24. The Lord Jesus charged these
religious leaders with two things. First of all, not knowing the
scriptures, and second, the power of God. You don't know the scriptures. You deny the resurrection, you
deny the immortality of the soul, you don't know the scriptures.
Now, you've got to understand, my friends. Our Lord said this
to these religious leaders on several occasions. These men,
that's all they did was study the scripture. That was their
life, to study the scripture. But our Lord charged them, you
don't understand the scripture. You do not know the scripture.
They knew they could probably quote a good deal of the scripture,
but they did not know the scriptures. They did not know the meaning
of the word of God. Turn back with me to Exodus.
This is the passage our Lord quotes from, Exodus chapter three. Let's just read these first six
verses here that they were ignorant of. Well, they knew they were
in the word. They'd probably read them many
times, maybe even could quote them. but they did not know them. Now, verse one, now Moses kept
the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he
led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the
mountain of God, even to Oreb. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he
looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush
was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And
when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto
him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he
said, here am I. And he said, draw not hither,
put off thy shoes from off thy feet. For the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground. Now why was that ground holy?
What was different about that ground than all the other ground
on the backside of the desert? Why was that ground holy? Because
the thrice holy God was there. Verse six. Moreover, he said,
I am the God of thy father, and the God of Abraham, and the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face, for he was
afraid to look upon God. You notice here in verse four,
it says the angel of the Lord appeared. Now, when our Lord
quoted this verse, he said God spoke, God spoke. Who is the angel of the Lord? The word angel, of course, means
messenger. Who is God's messenger of his
covenant? The Lord Jesus Christ. He is
God. He was in the bush. He spoke
out of the bush. He's the one mediator between
God and man. And when he said, I am the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, when the
Lord Jesus spoke those words to Moses, I'm thinking of how
many hundreds of years had passed since the last of these had died. God told Abraham that his seed
would go into Egypt and be there for 400 and something years.
So it's been 300 years at least since Abraham died, almost that
long since Isaac, and a couple of hundred years since Jacob
had died. And their bodies had all been
buried in the same cave. And in that cave, over these
hundreds of years, their bodies had turned back to dust. But he said, I am the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their bodies had turned to dust,
but where were they? They were not passed into non-existence. Their souls were not sleeping
somewhere in that cave. They were with the Lord. They were with the Lord God Almighty. He didn't say, I was the God
of Abraham. No, I am the God of Abraham. They didn't go into some special
place in the center of the earth, as some people have falsely taught,
waiting till Christ rose from the dead. No, they departed to
be with Christ just like Paul the Apostle did, just like every
child of God has from the very beginning of time. Abel, no doubt,
was the first of God's children to enter into heaven. And where
did he go? He went into the presence of
God. His body lay in the grave, turned back to dust, no doubt
about it. Our Lord said, you do greatly
err, great error. not knowing the scripture. And I thought about another passage,
and there's so many in the Old Testament, but look with me in
Job chapter 19. This passage of scripture, Job
chapter 19. And this is a testimony of this Old
Testament saint. We'll just read verse 25 through
27. But Job was able to say, I know. Do you have a know-so religion? Do you? Or do you have a hope-so,
maybe-so? Job had a know-so. I know. Just like the apostle Paul, I
know whom I have believed. He didn't say, I know what I
have believed. I know whom I have believed and
I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. And Job, millenniums before Christ came,
he was promised to come. All the Old Testament saints
looked forward to Christ, the Redeemer. And Job was able to
say, I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand
at the latter day upon the earth. You say, well, was he talking
about the time when the Lord Jesus Christ came and lived here
for 30 some years and then died on the cross? Or is he talking
about a future day? It doesn't matter. Which one? But it seems to me he's talking
about when Christ comes again. Because this is what he says
in verse 26. And though after my skin, worms
destroy this body. And that's what's going to happen
to your body. That's what's going to happen
to my body. That's what's going to happen to everyone's body.
It's going to go back to the dust. Job knew that. The worms destroyed this body,
yet in my flesh, Well, your flesh is destroyed. Oh, yes, it was
destroyed, but it's been raised. It was sown in corruption, but
it will be raised in incorruption. It was sown in weakness, but
it will be raised in power. It was sown a natural body, but
it will be raised a spiritual body. The worms Destroy this
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself
and mine eyes. These same eyes I have today
while Job was alive, these same eyes, I'm going to see him, my
redeemer, with these eyes. See, it's going to be a resurrection.
It's not going to be a creation. It's going to be a resurrection,
the body that was sown, that turned back to dust. It's going
to be raised incorruptible. And that's the second thing the
Lord told these Sadducees. You not only do not know the
scriptures, but you do not know the power of God. The same God
who in the beginning took some dust and created Adam's body
and then breathed into him a living soul, the same God who did that. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
again, it's going to come with a shout, with a trump, and the
dead bodies are going to come out of the grave. Our Lord said
that in John chapter five. He said, marvel not at this,
for the hour is coming in which all, A-L-L, All lost, save all,
all, all. The hour is coming in which all
that are in the grave shall hear his voice. What a voice that
is. We have that example, don't we?
When he stood outside the tomb of Lazarus and he said, Lazarus,
come forth. Been dead four days. What was
that to his power? The hour is coming in which all
that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth.
They that have done good under the resurrection of life and
they that have done evil under the resurrection of damnation.
Yes, my friends, there is to be a resurrection both of the
lost and of the saved, but what a difference. What a difference
that resurrection will be. For the saved, it will be a resurrection
unto life. For the damned, or the lost,
rather, it'll be a resurrection unto damnation. Now third, let me take a few minutes and
let's look at what the Bible teaches about eternal life. What do the scriptures, not what
does Brother Pledger think, or what does the catechism say,
or what does this church council say, but what do the scriptures
tell us about eternal life? What is eternal life? That's
the first thing we should understand, isn't it? What is eternal life? We know there's physical life.
We all have that here today, physical life, our bodies are
alive. And we know there's spiritual
life. When Adam sinned, he died, he
lost that spiritual life. But when a person is born again
of the spirit of God, he or she now has spiritual life. So there's physical life, there's
spiritual life, and yes, there is eternal life. But what is
this eternal life? Well, eternal life is just that
spiritual life that will live on throughout eternity. It's begun in this world, but
it is carried on in heaven. It's a life of grace where Christ
is formed in the soul, The Holy Spirit comes to live in a person
and we have fellowship with God. We have communion with God. We
live toward God. We were dead, spiritually dead
in trespasses and sins. God did something for us. If
we are alive today, he quickened us. He made us alive. He gave us life. And now we have
fellowship with him, don't we? We have communion with him. We
know him. And hymn writer said, he walks
with me and talks with me along life's weary way. He's not some
historical figure to us, although he is a real person from history. But He's real. He's real to us. Why? Because He lives in us. Christ in you, the Apostle Paul
said. The hope of glory. This is eternal
life begun in time and it never ends. It goes on forever. Then we'll not only know Him,
we'll be with Him, and we'll be like Him. Eternal life. Now three things, let me close
with it, three things the Bible tells us about eternal life.
Two of these things are found in one scripture, Romans 6 and
verse 23. The scripture here says, for
the wages of sin is death. You want to know what you've
earned? Death. That's it. Aren't you amazed sometimes when
you hear people talking about things they have absolutely no
clue? Well, I tell you what, I'm going
to tell God. You're not going to tell God
anything. He's going to tell you something.
What kind of God does a person believe in? Not the God of the
Bible, obviously. If a person thinks, I'm going
to stand before God and I'm going to tell him this, that, and the
other. Oh, no. I heard Evangelist Ralph Barnard
say years ago, there's only one thing Any person can demand of
God, and that is that he put you in hell. That's what you've earned. That's
what you deserve. I don't care who you are, where
you are. That's true of all of us. The
wages of sin is death, and not just physical death, but I'm
talking about eternal death. and the lake of fire that has
no ending. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
What is eternal life? First of all, it's the gift of
God. Nothing can be freer than a gift. Eternal life is a gift. So I think I deserve it. That's
not eternal life. Eternal life is a gift of God. But number two, and this is ever
so important through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a gift. It is the gift of God, but it's
only through the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, for God to give you
eternal life, His law must be honored and His justice must
be satisfied. You say, why is that? Because
God is a just and holy God. Imagine this. Imagine a person
here in our city is convicted of an awful crime of murder and
rape and And he's guilty, found guilty, and the law specifies
his penalty. It is death. It is death. And on the day that he's to be
sentenced, he shows up before the judge, and the judge says,
you know what? I know what the law says. I know
the law says that you are to be put to death, but out of the
kindness of my heart, I'm going to just set you free. What has
happened if that should take place? What has just happened? The judge has trampled upon the
law. Not only that, but he has perverted
justice. God is a just God. In fact, Abraham said, shall
not the God of the judge of all the earth, shall he not do right? And yes, absolutely he will.
In fact, the psalmist says the throne, the throne of God, the
foundation of the throne of God, what is it? Justice and judgment
are the habitation of thy throne. And because God is just and righteous,
for Him to give eternal life, it must be through the Lord Jesus
Christ, through Him honoring God's law and satisfying His
justice. And the third thing about eternal
life, turn with me to 1 John chapter 5 verse 12. And I'll close with this, I promise
you, 1 John chapter 5. So eternal life is a gift, eternal
life is through the Lord Jesus Christ. And 1 John chapter 5
and verse 12 tells us, he that hath the Son hath life. You see, Christ is eternal life. Just as Christ is our righteousness,
and Christ is our sanctification, and Christ is our wisdom, actually,
he's everything. He's our life. He that hath the
son hath life. He that hath not the son hath
not life. Eternal life is in Christ. union to Christ, being one with
Him. In fact, the Apostle Paul said,
when Christ who is our life, He's our life. Christ is our,
Christ is eternal life. Oh, if you can get a hold of
this. Why is Christ precious to a child of God? Because He's
our everything. He is our life. We have no eternal
life, no spiritual life apart from Him. To you that believe, Peter said,
He's precious. Is He precious to you? He is. If you know Him, when Christ
who is our life shall appear, then shall you appear with Him
in glory. I pray the Lord would bless these
words to all of us here today.