You will open your Bibles today
to the Gospel of John chapter 19. John chapter 19 and we will read
the last two verses in this chapter and the first 10 verses in chapter
20. John chapter 19 beginning with
verse 41 now in the place where he was crucified there was a
garden and in the garden a new sepulchre wherein was never man
laid there laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews preparation
day for the sepulchre was nigh at hand The first day of the
week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark unto the
sepulchre, and seeing the stone taken away from the sepulchre,
then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other
disciple whom Jesus loved, that is John, saith unto them, They
have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know
not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and
that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran
both together, and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and
came first to the sepulchre. And he, stooping down and looking
in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. Then cometh
Simon Peter, following him, and went in to the sepulchre, and
seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about
his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together
in a place by itself. Then went in also that other
disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and
believed. For as yet they knew not the
scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the
disciples went away again unto their own home. The Lord Jesus
Christ was crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem in a place
called the Skull. We didn't read these two verses,
but in chapter 19, verses 17 and 18, we read and bearing his cross went forth
into a place called the place of a skull which is called in
the Hebrew Golgotha where they crucified him and two other with
him one on either side and Jesus in the midst he was crucified
outside the walls of Jerusalem in this place which is called
the place of a skull or Golgotha And in the vicinity of this place
there was a garden. And in it, that is in this garden,
we know that Joseph of Arimathea had a new tomb or new sepulchre
in which no body had ever been placed before. And there the
scripture says the body of Jesus was laid. Today in the city of
Jerusalem and the part which is called the Old City, there
is a church building, and please note that I say a church building,
I'm not saying a church, but there is a church building inside
the Old Jerusalem, and it is called the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre. Now tradition And I give no credence
whatsoever to this tradition, but I will give it to us this
morning. Tradition tells us that this
building is built on the place over which the tomb in which
the body of Jesus Christ was laid. The building, or parts
of this building, is controlled by three Christian denominations,
the Greek Orthodox, the Armenian Orthodox, and the Roman Catholic. Now the Armenian Orthodox is
not to be confused with the followers of Jacob Arminius. The Armenian
Orthodox, there's an ethnic group of people who were evangelized
And I believe that was in the area that we knew as Yugoslavia. But they're called the Armenian,
not the Armenian, the Armenian Orthodox. There's a difference,
one letter difference, Armenian spelled with an E, Armenian spelled
with an I. Now the followers of Joseph or
Jacob Arminius, you know, are those that make up most of so-called
Christianity today. They do not believe in total
depravity. They believe that man was, yes,
he was wounded somewhat in the fall, but he retained the ability
to lift himself up. And they do not believe in unconditional
election. They believe that God's election
is based on his foreknowledge or foresight of what man would
do. And they do not believe in an
effectual atonement. They believe that Christ died
for those in hell as well as those in heaven. They do not
believe that God's grace is irresistible. And they do not believe that
God's saints will persevere. I do not see any gospel in that
at all. I do not see any assurance. I
do not see any hope in that message whatsoever. But the Armenian
Orthodox are not to be confused with the Armenian believers. I read an article one time about
this church building, the Holy Sepulchre, the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. And because there are three so-called
Christian denominations that claim that building, every morning
when the doors of that place are open, there must be the hand
of a representative from each of these three denominations
on the door. And they are overseen by an Israeli
soldier to keep peace. What a testimony, right? What
a testimony for those who claim to be followers of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, we hear a lot and have
heard a lot in our days about people who have hijacked a religion
of peace And they claim that is a Muslim religion. That religion was never a religion
of peace. If there's any religion that
was hijacked and used contrary to the teaching,
it is Christianity. Because those who led in the
crusades and those who promoted the crusades where they went
back into Palestine and captured those holy sites as they said,
they were the ones who hijacked a religion of peace. The religion
of Jesus Christ is a religion of peace. You cannot read the
New Testament, my friends. You cannot read the word of the
Lord Jesus Christ and not see that it is one of peace. But those groups, those three
groups, and many others likewise, they put a great deal of stock
in tradition and religious sites and places to visit. People have
asked me over the years, wouldn't you like to make a trip to the
Holy Land? My answer has always been the
same. There's nothing holy about that land. If it was ever holy,
it was only holy when the Holy Son of God walked there. No,
no. We do not put any stock in sites,
tradition, as though to visit the very tomb At the same time,
the person who claimed she had found the tomb in which Christ's
body was laid, she also claimed that they had found the actual
cross upon which he was crucified. At one time in Europe, during
the Dark Ages, and they were dark because of the religious
rulers, There were so many pieces scattered
all over Europe, almost every temple, almost every place had
a piece, supposedly, of the cross upon which the Lord Jesus Christ
died. And there was something efficacious
about making a pilgrimage or going to visit and going to see
that piece of wood, however small it was or however large it was.
You know that's nothing but superstitious nonsense. We know that because
we have the Word of God. And we remember what the Lord
Jesus Christ said to that woman of Samaria when she told him,
we worship God in this mountain. You Jews say in Jerusalem is
the place to worship. The Lord Jesus Christ told her
she didn't know what she worshipped. Religion is of the Jews. And
at that time, yes, God had placed His name in Jerusalem as He said
He would do when He brought the Israelites out of Egypt. He chose
that place. It was at that place where the
one altar, the brazen altar upon which the sacrifices were offered
which pictured Christ. But our Lord told her the hour
is and now is when the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and
in truth. We put no stock whatsoever in
any special building or place or site, no matter how sacred
some people might say that it is. No, we worship Christ. It's not the places where He
visited. It's not even the cross upon
which He was hanged, my friend. It's Christ. Christ that we worship. Christ that saves. Not that piece
of wood. It's His blood. Today, this is what I would like
for us to do. As we read about these two disciples,
Peter and John, running to the tomb, and Peter entering in first,
and then John coming in, I want us to think in our minds as though
we enter into this tomb, something like a cave, no doubt, and I
want us to look, and I have three looks, three looks for us to
take. Look at what we do not see. Do you follow me? As you in your
mind imagine entering into this tomb, into this cave where the
body of Jesus Christ was laid. I want you to look first at what
we do not see. What is it that we do not see?
We do not see the body of Jesus Christ. Why is it that we do
not see the body of Jesus Christ? Because he's not there. His body
had been covered with sweet smelling spices, wound up in linen as
the custom was in that day, and laid in this sepulchre. But now,
as these two disciples go in, that body is nowhere to be seen. Look where you will. Look in
this corner. Look in that corner. Look wherever. But what you will not see is
the body of Jesus Christ, our Lord. As the surety, the Lord Jesus
Christ, as the surety of the new covenant, He came to do God's
will. And it was, he said, I delight
to do thy will. And God's will was and is that
he lose nothing of those who were given to him in that covenant. This meant that he had to give
his blood, he had to give his life blood to save those who
had been given to him. He had to ransom us. from our
sins and all the repercussions of our sins. He had to die as
a substitute for his people and satisfy God's justice. And God
promised him when that covenant was struck in old eternity and
the eternal Son of God promised in this covenant to come as our
surety, to be made flesh, to give his life as a ransom for
our souls. He was promised. that he would
rest in hope. Yes, he would die. Yes, his body
would lay there. But he would rest in hope. He would not stay dead. Look
with me, if you will, in Acts chapter 2. This is what the Apostle
Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. Acts chapter 2, beginning with
verse 22. You men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which
God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know. Him, being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain, whom God raised up. having loosed the pains of death,
because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For
David, the psalmist David, speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the
Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that
I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice,
and my tongue was glad. Moreover also, I noticed, my
flesh shall rest in hope. Because thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see
corruption. Thou hast made known to me the
ways of life, thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. The Lord Jesus Christ was promised
by the Father that he would not leave his soul in hell. Don't think that the Lord Jesus
Christ went into hell. Now, hell is a real place. And all the wicked will be turned
into hell. The scriptures declare that.
It is a place of torment. It is a place of everlasting
burning. At the same time, a place of
darkness. There's much about it we cannot
explain. But do not believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ descended into hell. This word, which is translated
hell, is used throughout the scriptures. It speaks also of
the state when the soul is separate from the body. And yes, during
this time, because he died, the soul was separate from the body. But he was not left in that state. He rested in hope, knowing that
as the Father had promised, On the third day, he would walk
out of that tomb. Hallelujah! We just sang it,
didn't we? Hallelujah! He arose. He arose. We do not, as you look in this
tomb this morning, you do not see the body of Christ. Because
as Matthew tells us in his gospel, The angel asked Mary that morning
when she came out, why? Why seek ye the living among
the dead? He's not here. He's not here. What hope do we have because
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ? The Apostle Paul wrote,
but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first
fruits of them that slept. We do not worship a dead Christ. I wouldn't, for the life of me,
I don't see why people carry a crucifix around. Why they would
have a cross to begin with, but then to have a dead Christ upon
it, as though a dead Christ could save anyone. He rose. He's living. And I'll tell you something else. Not only is He living, He's reigning. He's on the throne. He's the head of all principality
and power. There's nothing, nothing that
is not subject to the risen Christ. Romans chapter 5 and verse 10.
If you want to turn here, the apostle said, Romans 5 and verse 10, for if
when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of his son, much more. Being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life. His life of intercession, He
ever lives, the scripture says, ever lives to make intercession
for all them who come unto God by Him. Aren't you thankful today
to know, if you know Christ, that He ever lives, that He is
there making intercession for you. At all times, there's never
any time when He does not make intercession for His people. Second, here's a second look
I want us to see. First, I said look at what we
do not see. Now look at what we do see. Verses
6 and 7 in our text tell us that what we do see is the linen clothes
and the napkin which had been about his head wrapped or folded
and lying apart from the linen clothes. This by itself, it may
seem incidental to us. If you just read this, they see
the linen cloth here and then they see the napkin folded by
itself. This may seem incidental. But
did you know that this fact refutes the theory or the teaching that
the Jewish leaders paid those Roman soldiers to tell? You remember, the Roman soldiers,
they were paid by the Jewish leaders to tell them to say that
someone came and stole the body of Jesus away. And they told
them, now if this comes to the governor, and it probably will,
that you were asleep, that you failed your job, you let these
renegades come in here and steal the body of Jesus, we'll make
it up. will satisfy Pilate with money. But this fact refutes
that whole idea, my friends. The body of the Lord Jesus Christ,
as was customary among the Jews, was tightly wrapped. Now anyone
who had gone in to steal the body would have picked up the
body and ran out as fast as they could. There's no way that anyone
would have had the time, taken the time to unwrap the body of
Jesus. As I said, these bodies were
tightly wrapped. You remember when Lazarus, when
the Lord Jesus Christ came to the tomb where Lazarus had been
buried. Four days he'd been in the grave
and the Lord Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth. He came out. But he was still wrapped in those
clothes, wasn't he? Lucy, our Lord said, Lucy, and
let him go. This is kind of an aside, but
when the Lord calls his people, when he called you, when he called
me out of spiritual death, we brought a lot of grave clothes
with us. We did. We brought a lot of grave
clothes with us. And thank God for the ministry
of the Word of God. As we go through this life, we
are continually being loosed by those things that had us bound,
not realizing our perfect salvation in Christ. We see the linen clothes lying
and the napkin folded, showing us that this was all done decently
and in order. God is a God of order. Now that
is so evident in creation, isn't it? The evolutionists and these
people that want to tell us that all this just accidentally happened
because of a big bang, They have to deny the truth, my friends,
that God is a God of order and it is so apparent in creation. There's an order in the resurrection. Christ, the Apostle Paul tells
us, the first fruits and afterwards they that are Christ and his
coming. In fact, the Apostle Paul tells
us that in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump,
for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible
and we shall be changed. You see, there's an order in
the resurrection. Christ, he was raised first.
He must have the preeminence in all things. When that last
trump sounds, and what to God it would be today, what to God it would be today
before this service is even ended today that that last trumpet
sound then those bodies of believers they themselves are with the
Lord but their bodies would be raised incorruptible and the
soul and body reunited and those of us who are alive and remain
in a moment in the twinkling of an eye our bodies would be
changed and we would receive a glorified body, likened to
that glorious body of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's an
order. Order. God is a God of order. Did you know even when our Lord
fed thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread and
a couple of fish, He had them sat down in companies of 50. God's not the order of chaos. He's a God of order. Let all
things be done decently, Paul said to the churches, and in
order. And the napkin, the napkin laying
by its side, the word which is here translated napkin is believed
to be of Latin origin and it signifies handkerchief. And I
believe that it was Charles Spurgeon, I know it was the first time
I read this, but he pointed out that the Lord Jesus Christ left
this handkerchief by itself so that when you and I, when we
bury our dead, that we may use this handkerchief to wipe away
our tears. It was all in order, perfect,
as he is a God of perfection. So there's two things. We look
first, we see what we do not see. We do not see the body of
Christ. What we do see, we see the linen
cloth and we see the napkin. Here's the third, the last. Look
at what those who know Christ should see by faith. If you know Christ today as your
Lord and Savior, I want us to see two things that we should
see by faith. Now we must see these by faith,
not by the eye of sense, but by the eye of faith. First, if
we look by faith in this tomb, we may see, now listen to me,
by faith, Look around this tomb, if you will. We may see all,
A-L-L, all that remains of our sins. Can you see it? Can you see that
by faith, believer? Child of God, this morning, can
you see that all that remains of your sins? Nothing. Nothing remains. The law, the apostle tells us
in Hebrews 10, the law was a shadow of good things to come. It wasn't
the substance, it was just the shadow. On the great day of atonement,
as it is given in Leviticus chapter 16, remember this was the only
day in which the high priest took that blood and went in behind
the veil to the most holy place. He took the blood of that animal
which was slain, and he sprinkled that blood on the mercy seat
and before the mercy seat. The fat of that animal was burned
upon the brazen altar, but then the animal itself, what was left
of the animal, what happened to it? It was carried outside
the camp. That's where Christ was. Outside
the camp, outside the walls of Jerusalem was He crucified. And
that body and everything that was left of that animal was burned. And the only thing that remained
were the ashes. Now as you look in this tomb
by faith this morning, thinking about your sins, not even the
ashes, not even the ashes remain. There's nothing to see. Remember
the apostle Peter in 1 Peter chapter 2. In verses 18 through
24, he tells us that he bear our sins and his own body on
the tree. It was then when God made him
to be the propitiation for our sins, that God laid our sins
upon Christ. The scripture says, for he hath
made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. As you look around this
tomb this morning, by the eye of faith you see what is left
of your sins. Nothing. Nothing. There's a scripture
in Jeremiah chapter 15 verse 20 that explains this. It says, In those days and in
that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought
for. and there shall be none. And
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will pardon
them whom I reserve." Do you see this morning your sins are
gone? If you trust in Jesus Christ
as your Lord and Savior, your sins are gone. He carried them
in his own body on the tree. They were buried with him, my
friends. And when they're sought for,
they cannot be found. One of the promises of the new
covenant is, their sins and their iniquities will I remember no
more. I've known God's children, some
of God's children over the years, who have struggled because they
cannot forget what God will not remember. I imagine all of us have that
problem from time to time. There are things that stand out
in our past, in our history, and we're so ashamed to even
think of those things. But they're gone. They're gone. He carried them away. You will not see any remains
of sin in the tomb of Christ. Now, here's a second thing I
want us to see by the eye of faith. I want us to see the body
of our first husband. You say, what? That's right. I want every believer here this
morning to see the body of your first husband. You say, well,
who is that? I tell you who it is. It's the
law. Look with me in Romans chapter
7. It's the law. And I know people
say, well, Gentiles were never under the law, Moses. That's
true, but that does not mean we were not without law. There's
what was called a natural law. And make no mistake about it,
my friends, from Adam to the giving of the law on Mount Sinai,
it was always against God's law to murder, to lie, to commit
adultery, so forth and so on. We were all married to one law. And that's what the apostle tells
us here in Romans chapter 7. No you not, brethren, for I speak
to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over
a man as long as he liveth. For the woman which hath a husband
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if
the husband be dead, she is loose from the law of her husband.
So then, if while her husband liveth she be married to another
man, she shall be called an adulteress. But, if her husband be dead,
she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, you also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. That, in
order that you should be married to another. We were married,
my friends, we were in bondage to the law. But by the body of
Christ, notice how we became dead to the law, by the body
of Christ, in order so that we might be married to another,
that is to Christ, and bring forth fruit. Let me find my place here. But
wherefore, my brethren, you also become dead to the law by the
body of Christ, that you should be married to another, even to
him who was raised from the dead. Who was raised from the dead?
Christ, our Lord, yes. We're married to Him now, that
we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the
flesh, the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our
members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered
from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we
should serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness. of the letter. We became dead to the law by
the body of Christ so that we might be married to another that
is Christ, be in union with him and bring forth fruit unto God. We're dead to the law's condemning
power. We're dead to its guilt. Does this mean, when I say we're
dead to the law, does this mean that the believer lives a lawless
life? Well, that cannot be. For one
promise of the new covenant is to have God's law put into our
minds and written upon our heart. The law of Moses and that written
upon the heart are two distinct laws. But they do have things
in common, there's no question about that. Both the law of Moses
and the law which is written upon our heart teach us not to
cheat our neighbors. But it is the law of Christ that
goes the extra mile and tells us that we are to love even our
enemies. One of the best illustrations
I've ever read of this was one that a pastor friend wrote years
ago. Let me hurriedly go through it. here's a man he's married and
he has three or four children and his wife passes away well
he's left with these three or four children that's hard work
and he needs someone to help him and so he advertises and
he hires a lady to come into the house and work and there's
a list of rules that she must obey That's her job, her job
description, as we would say. And she's going to be paid so
much money. And she does her job, goes down
the list, does the rules, gets her pay. But over a period of
time, the man and the woman fall in love. And so they marry. Now the list is taken down. She still does the same things
that were on the list. But she no longer does these
things because this was the list that she was given. She now does
these things because she loves the husband and loves the children. You see what I'm saying? That
when a person becomes married to Christ, In union with Christ,
God's Holy Spirit living in us and us living in Him by faith. We're constrained not by the
law which says do this or suffer the consequences. No, we're constrained
by the love of Christ. Now when you destroy a building,
and build a new building. Some of those materials that
were in the first building might be used in building the second
building, right? But it would still be a new building. There are things in the Law of
Moses, yes, that we find all through the New Testament in
the officials. But we're not bound to that law
of Moses. Actually, the scripture, all
the word of God, is our rule of life. Not just those ten commands. That's a mistake. Because it
breeds slavery. It breeds fear. And it destroys the liberty and
the freedom that believers have because we are married to Christ
to serve Him out of love and thanksgiving and to show our
gratitude unto Him. Well, I pray the Lord will bless
this message to us today. Let's come out of the tomb now.
I hope you saw what I saw in there.