I invite your attention back
to Luke chapter 24. The title of my message this morning is,
Fact and Faith. Fact and Faith. Now this discussion that goes
on in the text that we just read is the Lord talking to some disciples
on the road to Emmaus. who had different ideas about
what Christ should have done when He came here, rather than
understanding that He died in the room instead of His people,
the substitutionary sacrifice that redeemed them from all sin. They would really not learn this
fully until the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost and opened up the
Scriptures to them, as the Lord had promised in John chapter
16 when He says, there are things you aren't ready to learn yet,
but you're going to learn them. Our Lord told them that they
were slow of heart to believe all that was written of the prophets.
And what He was saying there was that there was no New Testament. The only thing they had to preach
Christ and understand Christ was the Old Testament. That's
all they had. And that's why over and over
again in the New Testament when the letters are written and when
the sermons are preached, it's words like, It is written, or
thus saith the Lord, refers us back to the Old Testament, the
Bible. He further goes on to take the
Old Testament then and show these men the things concerning himself.
Now, the things he was talking about was the fact that he was
going to die, he was going to be buried, and he was going to
rise again from the grave. It says this in verse 26, "...ought
not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory.
Now only two subjects are covered there, the suffering and the
ascension to the right hand of the Father. But if you know anything
about Scripture, you know that there ain't no glory if something
ain't accomplished. And so the death He accomplished,
He accomplished our salvation. And then verse 44, These are
the words which I have spoken to you while I was yet with you,
If you look at the book of John, you have verse chapters 13 through
16 that he spent preparing his disciples for his going away.
And they really had some difficulty with the message that he preached
and taught them. These things, these are the words I have spoken
to you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled
which are written in the Law of Moses, that's the first five
books of the Bible, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
me. That's what the Bible is about.
He said to the Pharisees, you search the Scriptures, for in
them you think you find eternal life, but they are they which
testify of Me, and you will not come to Me that you might have
life. Then, after He had expounded from the Old Testament Scriptures,
opened up their minds to the Old Testament Scriptures and
things concerning Him, He opened their understanding that they
might understand the Scriptures. So without knowing Christ, And
without Christ, there is no understanding of the Old Testament. There's
no understanding at all. But when you know Christ and
have received Christ, then the Old Testament just becomes different
books of the Gospel, the declaration of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then
he said, thus it is written, from the Old Testament. Thus
it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day. To suffer and rise from the dead.
Now, in these verses, our Lord rehearses the story again that
He said so many times, the truth that He has often spoken to His
disciples concerning His death and burial and His resurrection.
Now, that is commonly what people will talk about when you ask
them what the gospel is. They'll say it's the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ. It's really Christ dying, Christ
being buried, and Christ being resurrected. The disciples were
slow to learn. He said that. He called them
fools. That word is not the same word that he prohibits us to
call our brethren. The word has to do with being
childlike and foolish. They were slow to learn and hence
the repetition. That's why the preacher preaches
the gospel over and over and over and over again. He just
keeps on saying it until we die and then we'll leave this flesh
and we'll finally learn it right. Old story of a preacher, he preached
one message one Sunday and everybody liked it. Come back, he preached
the exact same message the next Sunday. Everybody wondered why
he was preaching the same message. Then the third Sunday, he preached
the same message again and went on about six weeks. Finally,
one of the deacons said, why do you keep preaching the same
message? He said, well, if I finally learn this, I'll go to the next
step. If I learn this, I'll go to the next step. We're all slow
to learn. We're all slow of heart. We look
through a glass darkly. We who know Christ can sadly
confess that we can read this book and fall asleep while we're
reading it. Isn't that something? The very Word of God. That's
us. That's what we are. That's why
we have to be reminded and rehearsed over and over again these truths
that are essential to the salvation of your soul. Now these sorrowful
ones, these boys on the road to Emmaus, He says it one more
time, and they momentarily, shortly thereafter, see him ascend into
heaven, the latter part of the book of Luke. They see him ascend
to take a right hand of the Father. Now for those who gather under
the giant umbrella of what is called Christianity, and there's
a lot of folks doing that today, this holiday, this Easter, is
a red-letter day. It's one of the two times that
most people come to church during the year. This is one of the
biggies. Untold numbers will gather today and mark the day
as crucial to their faith, to what they believe. You'll not
find among those gathered a single one or a single soul who would
deny that Christ is risen from the grave. You won't find anybody
deny that. Like Christmas, this celebration
is good for the economy. A time for family gatherings,
a time when that name that is above every name is spoken freely.
And for that I'm thankful. At least the name is spoken.
The fact of the resurrection is not in doubt among those who
profess Christ, and even among many who do not. The resurrection
is a miracle. It cannot be understood by natural
means. It must be understood supernaturally, and that is through
the Spirit. It is a miracle performed by the one person in all human
history that had power of life and death, not only for others,
for himself. He who is life was able to stop
living. I've never figured that out.
I've stopped trying. The resurrection is a miracle.
Christ has the power of life and death, and He is life to
life, and He's death to death. His gospel is a saver of life
and a saver unto death. He who is our life and our death,
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. We are dead and our life is hid
with Christ in God. And the fact of the resurrection
is an astounding thing. I've never seen anybody do it.
Have you? Back in the Middle Ages, they used to The reason
they started wakes back then, what we call sit-ups now, but
they used to be called wakes was because they waited around
to see if the person woke up. A lot of times they didn't have
stethoscopes and they couldn't tell if a person was really dead,
but they'd get him all washed up and lay him out on the table
and sit there and look at him. And if he popped up, well, that was
a wake. He woke up. He woke up. Jesus Christ. rose from the dead. He rose from the dead. And it is His crowning achievement,
worthy of note and worthy of awe and admiration. It has become
almost commonplace in the language today, but to the believer, it
means something. For the gospel believer, it is
more than just a single event, but the fact of it reveals much
more, more than natural faith could ever grasp. Natural faith
can and does believe many things in the Bible. There are people
who go around here, you could not convince them that the Bible
was not true who have no interest in Jesus Christ whatsoever. Before
I knew Christ, I believed the creation, the fall, the incarnation,
the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension were things
I cut my eye teeth on. I was born and bred a Southern
Baptist. And the fundamental tenets of that denomination were
talked about with such ease and complacency that the facts were
never in question. I never questioned them. I was
raised to believe them. I was raised just like I was
raised to believe 2 and 2 is 4. And when I heard the Gospel
and was given faith and life in Jesus Christ, my assurance
of the facts that I had known all those years did not change,
and I did not cease to believe them. But then I began to understand
them. And it was a whole different
ballgame. Now, the resurrection was more than glorious facts.
It is actually about a glorious person. This is what our Lord
told grieving Martha when Lazarus had died in John 11, 25. He said,
I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth on me
shall never die. Do you believe this? Believeth
thou this? These are words of assurance
given to Martha concerning the eternal future of Lazarus. They
are equally profound for every believer today. Christ, Jesus,
in no uncertain terms, declares that those who are of His body,
in Him, will never die. That's what He said. But more,
he declares that they are presently, at the moment of the conversation
that he had with Martha, alive from the dead. And the significance
of that is that he spoke of Lazarus, who was lying four days dead
and in the tomb, while at the same moment Christ said he was
vitally and truly and eternally alive in Jesus Christ. He was talking about Lazarus. Jesus Christ is the resurrection
and the life. Before Christ went to the cross,
He later rose from the grave. And later rose from the grave,
He was already the resurrection and the life. He was the resurrection
of the elect from the grave of spiritual death. Therefore, any
future resurrection, and people talk about a lot of different
wars, but any future resurrection, whether physical or spiritual
for the believer, is already settled, you're already risen
in Jesus Christ. and the purpose and purpose of
Him who is the resurrection of life. This means that the resurrection
of the body from the grave is receiving of life from death
of sin and is declared to be so in the Word of God. John 5.25,
the Lord said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming,
and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God, and they that hear shall live. That's what happens when
the gospel is preached and the Holy Spirit applies to the hearts
of men. They're raised from the dead. Romans 4.25 says, Who has
delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Romans 6.5 says, For we have
been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall
also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Paul wanted to
enter into the fellowship of his resurrection. Ephesians 2.5
and 6 says, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved, and hath raised
us up together, and made us to sit in heavenly places in Jesus
Christ. Strange creatures, these believers,
these saints, they're in two places at the same time. They're
on earth, and they're seated in heavenly places in Christ.
Why? Because the earth is a blip, and time is a blip on the radar
of eternity. Just a little blip. Just a little
blip. When we talk about this resurrection
from the dead, when Christ said, You had thee quickened, you were
dead in trespasses and sin, that's the first resurrection. That's
the first resurrection and that prohibits you from facing the
second death. That's the first resurrection.
When Christ raised, that's what Paul said to the Ephesians, we
were dead. We were quickened together, together
with Him, with Jesus Christ. Now this means that the resurrection
of the body from the grave is the receiving of life from death.
It is clear to be so in the Word of God. According to the Word
of God, Paul, under the inspiration of God, pinned that the resurrection
of Christ was of paramount importance in the matter of preaching the
gospel, because he tied it in with preaching the gospel. He
actually says that Paul makes it clear that if Christ is not
risen, then all that men do in His name is vain. If Christ be not risen, then
everything they do is in vain. There is no value to it and no
consequence. Look over 1 Corinthians 15 just
for a moment. Look at these verses. Beginning
with verse 14, it says, And if Christ be not risen, then is
our preaching vain, and your faith is vain. You believe in
nothing and no one if Christ is not risen. Empty and vain. Then in verse 15 it says this,
And we are found false witnesses. That means we're liars. Because
we testified of God that He raised up Christ. Whom He raised not
up, if so be that the dead rise not. Then in verse 17, And if
Christ be not risen, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. In verse 18, Then they also which
are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. That's the consequence
if Christ be not risen from the dead. This is the gospel that
Paul preached in the first part of that chapter, verse 15. He
says, moreover brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. The Gospel,
which I preached unto you, which you have also received, and wherein
you stand, by which you are also saved, if you keep in memory
what I preached unto you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures, according to
the Old Testament, and that He was buried, and He rose again
the third day according to the Scriptures. That's the Gospel. And the key word there is how.
How did Christ die? How was Christ buried? And how
did Christ rise? He did it according to Scripture.
And Paul proclaims that if Christ is not risen, there is no gospel
to preach, no glad tidings, no salvation to publish. Those who
preach are liars. Their faith is empty and groundless.
No sin has ever been remitted. And those who died in faith are
gone. They're just like dogs. And most who hold to any notion
of so-called Christian tenets believe that Christ was raised
from the dead. Everybody does. When Christ arose from the grave,
it settled forever many things, many things, through the understanding
of the believer. If He died for me, if He died
for me, then the law and justice must have been satisfied. And
he wouldn't be in a grave unless he died. So we're talking about
the Resurrection, we're talking about what preceded the Resurrection,
that is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, which we'll celebrate
this afternoon. We take the Lord's table to show
forth His death until it comes again. To preach the Gospel is
to declare Christ in Him crucified. Where does that begin? Does it
begin on the cross? No. It begins in eternity. It's Christ now who was crucified. That's who we preach. He's the
Lord of glory. He's your Lord. You say, well,
I haven't made Him Lord. You don't have anything to do
with that. It's none of your business. It's the one thing
I can tell you that's absolutely true from all the Scriptures.
Jesus Christ is your Lord. It has to do with you. He is your
Lord. He owns you. You're His property. He will
do with you as He sees fit, and He will use you for His glory,
whether the glory of His grace or the glory of His wrath. You
will be used because you are His. You belong to the Lord. You belong to the Lord. That's
where He is now. The preached Christ crucified
begins on the throne of glory. and tells us how He got there,
and that is through His death, His burial, and His resurrection. He is there because of His obedience
unto death, it says in Philippians 2. He is obedient even to the
death of the cross, wherefore God has highly exalted Him and
given Him a name above every name, that in the name of Jesus
every knee should bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord.
How did He get there? He earned it. As a man, the God-man, the
Lord Jesus Christ earned the right to sit at the right hand
of the Father as a human being who is Lord over all. He is there because He died,
He resurrected and ascended. Romans 14, verse 9 says, For
to this end He died, rose, and revived that He might be the
Lord of the living and the dead. Truly, we have no place to begin
preaching the Gospel. if Christ is not risen. We have
no place to start. And what the resurrection is
to the believer far exceeds the fact of the event. It's about His person. The resurrection
is actually a summation of the tenets of the Gospel. To believe
that Christ is the resurrection in life is to embrace all that
God connects to the risen Christ. And he collects a lot. As many gather today to celebrate
the resurrection of Christ, there will be many. And I wonder that
if they knew what they were actually celebrating, if they would gather
to do it ever again. From talking to them about things
of Scripture, I find that if they knew what the resurrection
settled and said, They would never die another egg as long
as they live. A great amount of what Christ's
resurrection teaches is rejected by the churches that dot the
globe today. What is truly being celebrated
when choirs and congregations sing it up from the grave, He
arose. What's truly being celebrated? For many years, I've preached
what I'm going to preach this morning. That was a long introduction,
but I've got about a 15-minute message, so don't worry. God has said some things that's
important to know if you believe that Christ rose from the grave. believer or not, whether you
have a religion or you don't, whether you're this new age spirituality
or not, you are saying some things that you might not even want
to say, or let alone anybody around you here if you really,
truly embrace the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. First
of all, God has by the resurrection declared Christ to be King of
kings and Lord of lords. Look over Romans chapter 1 just
for a moment. This is a declaration. Romans
chapter 1 and verse 1, Paul says, a servant of Jesus Christ, called
to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had
promised to afford by the prophets and the scriptures. And this
gospel of God is concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which
was made the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to
be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness
by the resurrection of the dead. There you go. All that's tied
in to God-given faith. And that's the only kind of faith
that's real. Resurrection means that the world where the believer
can't control anything, that world and all that is therein
is yet perfectly controlled. Perfectly controlled. He is risen. And He is the risen Lord, the
Christ, the Son of the living God, is the great mover and shaker
of time and tide and governments and people and all for the good
of His elect and for the glory of His name's sake. That means
he is absolute sovereign. Absolute sovereign. Someone asked me one time if
I believed in absolute predestination and I said absolutely. Being absolute sovereign, he
has absolute, total and complete claim and sovereign rights. over everything
and everyone. He has rights and he has claims
because they're his. As sole proprietor of all that
is, he has absolute right and authority to do with what belongs
to him as he alone sees fit. Now we quickly apply that sovereignty
to ourselves with the stuff we have, and the stuff we own, and
the stuff we bought and paid for. The stuff's ours. Let somebody
try to take it. We'll call a law on them. You
can't take my stuff. If they try to take it with air,
we allow them to get a fist fight. That's my stuff. You can't have
my stuff. You can't do what you want to with my stuff. Well,
let me borrow your car. What are you going to do? I'm going to do a demolition
derby. Well, I don't think I'm going to let you borrow my car.
Why? It's mine. And yet? I wonder sometimes if we are
going to be held accountable for this idea we have of our
own sovereignty when we stand before God, and He says, You're
mine, and I did with you what I would. Men don't mind it when
it comes to their stuff, but they don't want God to deal that
way with His stuff. But He does. He's absolute sovereign. All His words are commandments
because He's the Lord. There's no invitations in Scripture.
Christ doesn't give invitations, He gives commands. Invitations
can be by nature disregarded. People have invited me to stuff
and I just threw it in the file 13, that round 13 there beside
the wall. I can disregard an invitation,
but you can't disregard a command. All you can do is obey it or
disobey it. The gospel is a command. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the commandment I give unto you. Repent. This is the
commandment I give unto you. All His words are command. Why? Well, the resurrection has declared
Him to be Lord. To celebrate this day is to celebrate
the absolute sovereignty of Jesus Christ. How do you think that
would go over? of all those who are supposedly
celebrating this day. If you told them what you're
really celebrating is the absolute sovereignty of Jesus Christ. Secondly, God by the resurrection
assures the believer that Christ is the righteous judge. He's the one who sits on the
great white throne. Paul said in Acts 17, "...because
he hath appointed a day, that is, God has appointed a day in
which 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." That's the assurance
that He's the judge of all the earth. And God has given it to
all men. The believer does not stand or
fall on the opinions of men. or the fear of counsels of religion,
or tremble before the evidence mongers, or even the accusations
of his own conscience. He does not stand on his own
works or his own supposed righteousness. The saint falls a thousand times
a day. He's not made it anywhere. One
step forward and two steps back is the lifestyle of the child
of God. We've not overcome. We will,
but we won't by our works or by our will or by our expertise. We'll overcome by what God has
given us. We overcome the world by faith.
according to Scripture, by believing God. Not faith that moves mountains,
not faith that heals people, not faith that pops somebody
on the head and knocks them down, not faith that makes you wave
your hand. I'm talking about faith, believing what God has
said concerning His Son. That's what faith does. He's the righteous judge. I fall
a thousand times a day, but I ain't worried. I ain't worried a lick. Not a lick. Because Jesus Christ is my judge.
He's my judge. The resurrected Lord, who is
resurrection and life, is the final arbiter in the entire matter
of my acceptance before God. And who is the righteous judge?
He's my best friend. I've got somebody on the inside.
I have an advocate with the Father. Every believer does. You can't
get off. You're a sinner. Oh, I can. I
know the judge. Why, if we did that in this life, we'd say,
that's terrible, wouldn't it? I'll get off. Why? Because I
know the judgment. I've already gotten off. The righteous judge. He's my best friend. He's my
older brother. He's the only righteousness before God. The
believer has been judged in Christ, so he has no fear of being judged.
I don't fear the judgment. No believer does. If you fear
the judgment, it's because you're trying to do something to please
God, and you know you're not doing enough, and you know you'll
never do enough. You can never make it perfect before God or
accept it before God, and you know it down deep in your heart,
but you keep on trying. That's why you feel, what's it going
to be like when I face God? I'll tell you what it's going
to be like when you face God. If you're a child of God, it's going to
be bliss, heavenly joy, rejoicing. It's going to be bliss when you
face God. The believer's been judged in
Christ. Our judgment has been born already on the cross of
Calvary. That's why John said in 1 John 4, verse 17, he said,
Perfect love casts us out of fear. We don't fear the judgment
because as Christ is, so are we in the world right now. Thirdly, God by the resurrection
declares, let me say this, to celebrate this day, is to celebrate
that there is no fear of judgment because the righteous judge is
our best friend. How would that sit in most churches today? Most
churches teach their people that they're going to smell like sulfur
when they face a judgment. That's what they tell them. They're
going to smell like sulfur. Oh, all your sins are going to be
called up. What sins, thank you? Oh, it's going to be like a giant
television screen and all them filthy things you did all your
life are going to be called up. And He, because of the perfect
sacrifice of Jesus Christ where He perfected all them who are
sanctified by His one offering forever, God says, I will remember
their sins no more. That's what that means. No fear and judgment. That's
what the resurrection teaches. Like that old song by that fellow,
don't worry, be happy. Thirdly, God by the resurrection
declares to the believer that he's already saved. And he was already saved in the
grand predestinated purpose of God and salvation. Romans 4,
22-25 says, And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness,
speaking of Abraham. Now it is not written for Abraham's
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom
it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead, who was delivered from our offenses and raised
again for our justification. Look over to Acts 2. Just for
a moment. Acts chapter 2 and verse 23.
Him, that is Jesus Christ, being delivered by the determinate
counsel, that's the predestinated purpose, And for knowledge of
God, ye have taken with wicked hands and have crucified him
God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it
was not possible that he should be holden thereof, who was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification." What
is justification? It means I before God have never
sinned. Never. Ever, ever, ever before God.
You say, well, I know you're a sinner, Tim Jay, but you don't
know half the story. And I ain't about to tell you
the rest. But before God, I never sinned. You're holy and
righteous because of the work of Jesus Christ. That's why Paul
says in Romans 8.32, Who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? It is God that justifieth. It is God that justifieth. The
resurrection is a declaration of imputation and substitution,
delivered for our offenses. Surely He hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken and
smitten of God and afflicted, but He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. And all we like
sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. To the believer, the resurrection
means that he is justified on the cross and out of the tomb, raised for our justification.
The resurrection means that the believer will never be charged
with sin. Listen, if you are a child of
God, God will never even accuse you of sin. If you're being accused,
your conscience, which works under the law, which is your
natural, carnal, moral compass, or Satan is accusing you, God
will not accuse you. Why would He? If you don't remember
your sins, what's He got to accuse you of? Who is He that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, rather it's risen again.
It's even at the right hand of the Father making intercession
for us to celebrate this day. Now think about this. A lot of
people doing it. What if they knew that to celebrate
this day was to celebrate accomplished, predestinated salvation, justification
Imputation, substitution, propitiation, and no condemnation. What if
they knew that? You think they'd want to do it
again next year? Fourthly, God by the resurrection
declares that the believer is regenerated, quickened to spiritual
life from the dead. He has spiritual life. Well,
I don't see your life. I don't see it either. I'll be
honest with you, I haven't seen it since the Lord saved me. I
don't know where it's at. All I do, I know it's hid with Christ
in God. Because if I got a hold of it,
I'd mess it up anyway. If I saw it, I'd try to see how
good it was. I don't need to know that. Spiritual people walk this earth,
who have their bodies on the earth and are yet seated in heaven.
They are spiritual people. And when I'm talking about spiritual,
I'm not talking about glassy-eyed goofiness. That's what most people
think is spirituality, like some person walking around and nothing
bothers them. They're just so calm and everything
is so easy and beautiful with them. They're just able to take
it as it comes. Oh, what peace they have. That's
not spirituality. Spirituality is in you and you
are spiritual for one reason. One reason to understand this
book and what God has said. Nothing else. We are quickened from the dead. It's spiritual life, and that's
what the resurrection teaches. Though the believer often feels
like himself to be dead, when he does, he feels right. God
has regenerated him, and the guarantee of the truth is the
resurrection. Listen to what Peter says. 1
Peter 1, verses 1-3, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the
strangers, that is, believers, scattered throughout Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of spirit, unto obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you, and
peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us, birthed us again into a lively, living hope,
how? By the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. That's what it said in Ephesians
chapter 2, isn't it? Quickened together with Him,
made to sit in heavenly places with Him. So to celebrate this
day is to celebrate being born of God into an eternal living
expectation, and that by election, foreknowledge, sanctification,
and successful blood redemption. That's something to celebrate,
isn't it? And folks are celebrating. That's what the Bible says the
resurrection is about. Fifthly, God by the resurrection
means that when the believer falls asleep in Christ, when
he dies, his mortal body will be changed and resurrected. How does that work? I have no
idea. Ralph Maney gave an illustration
one time when he was speaking for me many, many years ago.
gnarled bulbs we plant in October whenever we plant them. They're
ugly. You wouldn't want to put one
out and take one of those old bulbs that bring forth those beautiful
irises and things and put them on display in your house and
say, aren't they beautiful? Because they're not. They're ugly. They're twisted
and ugly. And we bury them in the ground and cover them up
and wait. And then spring all of a sudden
This little green shoot comes out of the ground and then a
beautiful yellow or purple flower flows from there. It was that
ugly old thing we planted. That's what our burial is called,
a planting. We're planted together. Romans 8, 11 says, It's the Spirit
of Him that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead dwell in you. He
that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal
bodies by His Spirit in you. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 14 says,
And the God hath most raised up the Lord, and will also raise
us up by His power. Going to be raised up. One day
they're going to put us in a grave. But we ain't going to stay in
the grave. That ain't our home. Our bodies will one day be reunited
with our spirits. I don't understand that either.
But if you don't like it now, get used to it, it's going to
be there when you get there. To celebrate this day is to celebrate
sure resurrection from the dead. Death and the grave have been
defeated. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy
victory? Finally, God by the resurrection
assures us that our Lord will return for us. and receive us
to Himself, and that no wrath awaits us when we get there.
1 Thessalonians 1.10, it says, And to wait for His Son from
heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come, to celebrate this day is to celebrate
the promise of His coming. I don't preach Easter messages
as such. I don't have any problem with
people giving their kids Easter baskets with little bunnies.
I really like those little marshmallow peeps. I really think they're
good. I don't have any problem with
that. And I don't have any problem with people going out and celebrating the
resurrection. Wouldn't it be something if they
knew what they were celebrating? To the believer, with every rehearsal
of the gospel, The believer knows that the resurrection
of Christ assures that he is the Lord's, and that all his salvation from
Alpha to Omega has been accomplished by him whom God raised from the
dead. Father, bless us for our understanding.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen.