The resurrection of Jesus Christ is presented as the ultimate demonstration of God's power and the cornerstone of Christian faith, proving Jesus' divine identity and the acceptance of his sacrifice. The sermon highlights five key aspects of the resurrection: it confirms Jesus as a true prophet, validates his claims to be God, assures believers that their sins are atoned for, guarantees their future resurrection, and establishes him as a living, interceding High Priest. The resurrection is not only a historical event but also a present reality that empowers believers for obedience and transformation, underscoring that true faith is evidenced by a changed life.
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Just checking the time, see if we have here. Okay, okay, thank you, brother. Well, I'm certainly enjoying my time here. I'm getting to know people, dear people of the Lord, and I don't want to forget any of you, so I have Jim Nelson back there taking pictures all the time, so I'm going to fight back a little bit here. I want you all to smile nicely so I don't forget any of you. Okay, everybody's smiling. It didn't flash, did it? Let's see. Well, let's turn to Romans chapter one again, and we are not going to get very far because we don't have that much time.
We want to spend a little time on the resurrection here. Romans one and verse one, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated into the gospel of God, which he had promised before by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord who was made of 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 from the dead we have some things here that we need to think about here in verse four he's declared to be the son of God with power the greatest Expression of power in the entire Bible we find concerning the resurrection.
We might turn to Ephesians chapter one. And here we have the greatest expression of power in the entire Bible. Ephesians chapter one talking about the Lord's resurrection and talking about the power that we have in us. Here the Apostle Paul is offering a prayer for the Ephesian saints. And one of the things he's praying for is in verse nineteen. He says, and what? He wants them to know. Well, let's go up to verse eighteen. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know three what's here.
What is the hope of his calling? Number two, what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? And number three. what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us, we believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. That expression there, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, Now, Carl Aberdeen says that that is what it's literally saying is the energy of the might of his strength. The energy of the might of his strength.
No greater expression anywhere of the power of God. Now, we know something about the universe the Lord has made. And those galaxies out there, so many galaxies, you can't count them. By the way, I can't think of his name now, but there's a... is a scientist who says that he believes that there are as many stars out there as there are sands, grains of sand, and all the seashores of the world. Now, the Lord uses six words to tell about making those, and he made the stars also. That's all he says. No big deal. But here it is the energy of the might of his strength that was used to raise Christ from the dead.
Now he's saying to the Ephesians saints, he wants them to know that power in their life and it's saying basically the same thing here in verse four of Romans chapter one. He says, and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness. Talking about sanctification, I believe there he's saying that he's linking our sanctification with death and resurrection. If we go over to the sixth chapter of Romans, we see that he begins with a corpse. He begins with a dead person. We were crucified with Christ and that's where we begin. Where did the promised son, Isaac, come from? It came from a dead man and a dead woman.
They were both dead as far as reproduction. And God told them that. And then he waited for several years to be sure that they really were dead as far as reproduction. And then came the promised son. God begins with death. And he's the God of resurrection. So he says... according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Now, why is the resurrection of Christ so important in the gospel? Isn't his death, his blood to wash away, isn't that the important thing? Yes, it is, but his resurrection is, it wouldn't be complete without the resurrection of Christ. And so if we, I've made a transparency and a, where are we at here?
But I'm not going to use because of time and because, well, our technology isn't the greatest and we don't need it anyway. But there are five things, five important things about the resurrection of Christ for our salvation. Very important that he's raised from the dead. Number one, it tells us that he is a true prophet. He is that prophet. He's a true prophet. Number two, he is who he claimed to be, God. The resurrection proves that. Number three, God accepted his sacrifice for our sins. That is proved by the resurrection. Number four, he will keep his promise to raise us up from the grave. We have that proof in his resurrection. Also, number five, he is our risen, living, caring high priest.
If he were in the grave, he wouldn't be doing that. Five things. He's a true prophet. If we go to Deuteronomy, we won't do that for lack of time. But if we go to Deuteronomy, it tells us there that The way the Israelites could tell a true prophet is one who prophesied something and then it came to pass exactly as they prophesied. It is not exactly, none of this Gene Dixon business, you know, fifty percent or every once in a while, whatever. He says if everything comes to pass, then you know he's a true prophet. And so what the prophets would do is they would prophesy something's going to happen in the next year and then they'd maybe prophesy something's going to happen in the millennium or the coming of Christ. Well, they could check that this prophet was telling them truth because if what he said would happen within a year or a few months if that happened, they know he's a true prophet.
So they would put down his prophecies and they would preserve his writings because they had, you know, Isaiah, they become to disenchanted with Isaiah that, according to tradition, they tied him between two trees and Sodom and two. We read about that in Hebrews where it says, some were sawn asunder. And some believe that is Isaiah. But his prophecies all came true and they did write them down and they did preserve them because even though they hated him because he wouldn't say smooth things, they did preserve his prophecies. Not we ever glad that they did. Well, our Lord said in John two, and we won't turn to that either because I think I can remember it, in John two, eighteen and twenty two.
he said he spoke about he said destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days and they you know they muttered about that but he said he was talking about his body the temple of his body well he said he would do that didn't he and then he also said in John ten seventeen and eighteen he said we won't turn to that either we're just saving on time here we all are familiar with those scriptures he says I have He says, I am a good shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. Okay, those are prophecies. Well, then if we will turn to this. Let's go over to Matthew twenty-seven and verse sixty-five.
Matthew twenty-seven and verse sixty-five. And there we read, Pilate said unto them, You have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as you can. Here we have the power of Rome. This is what Rome can do. Now let's go over to twenty-eighth verse six. This is the power of God. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come see the place where the Lord laid. He's a good prophet, isn't he? He says, I can lay it down, I can take it again. He did. So he's a true prophet.
We learned that by his resurrection. Now he, number two, he is who he claimed to be. Now in John and our brother Don has been going over that somewhere along the line. I remember him doing it. John, excuse me, John five and verses seventeen through thirty. There we have one of the best places to prove to Jehovah's Witnesses or anybody else or the way ministry or whatever. that Jesus Christ is God. What he's saying there in those verses, John five, seventeen through thirty, he's saying he does everything that God does. He has omnipotence, he has omniscience, he has omnipresence, just like God.
He says God has turned all judgment over to him. In fact, he does more judging than God because God has turned it all over to him. He says that he can redeem people just like God does. And he has life in him just like God. I think of John five and twenty-four. He says, he that hears my words and believes in him that sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment but his pass from death into life. Then John five and twenty-five, he says, I believe this is what he says. As I recall, he that hears the voice of the son of the time is coming when the dead shall hear the voice of the son of man.
and they that here shall live. He does the same thing that the Father does. Okay. Excuse me. I'm going to speak as fast as some of the radio TV ministers who have to spend half of the time begging for money. They don't have much time to talk. We're not begging for money, but we don't have much time to talk. Okay. I just want to conserve time. I want to make my points here. And then in John... Well, let's turn John twenty and thirty-one. I don't remember that one, but John twenty in verse thirty-one. John twenty in verse thirty-one.
You're speaking of being the one who we claim to be. John twenty in verse thirty-one. He says, but these things are written. that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name. He is who He claimed to be. Okay, then the third point, God accepted His sacrifice for our sins. And in Romans four, twenty-five, and we just get right back to Romans here. In four, twenty-five, we have this third reason why the Lord must rise from the dead, so that we know that His sacrifice was accepted. Four and twenty-five says, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification.
We would not be justified if the thing was not completed. If God had not accepted his sacrifice, which is proven by his resurrection, we would not be justified. And then again let's go to First Corinthians fifteen and verses one to four and verse seventeen. First Corinthians fifteen and and verses one to four. We were talking about how that God accepted him, accepted his sacrifice for us in first Corinthians fifteen and verses one to four.
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received and in which you stand. by which also you are saved if you keep in memory what I preached unto you unless you have believed in vain for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures in other words I believe it's George Sweeting who says the resurrection is God's great receipt to us that the The penalty is paid. God has accepted the price.
It's all paid for us. Okay. And then we need the resurrection to prove that to us that Christ will keep some promises he has made. And we won't turn to these. But if you recall back in John six and verses thirty nine, forty, forty four and fifty four, he says, and I will raise him up on the third day. I will raise him up. I'm not on the third day. I will raise him up. On the last, there you go, on the last day. I like preaching to the brethren because they know what the Bible is saying. They can help you out when you get in the sin. I will raise him up at the last day. He said he would do that. Well, if he couldn't even raise himself a promise he was going to do, how would he raise us?
So we need to know, we need to have proof that he will keep those promises. And then we'll turn to First Peter chapter one. Another promise there that he's made to us. First Peter chapter one. I was reminded today that it's best for the preacher not to have the pages tabbed so you get there faster than anybody else because then by the time you get it read, you know, the folks haven't even found it yet. So I have purposely not tabbed my pages. It's taking me just as long, maybe longer than some of you to find these things. Okay, first Peter chapter one and beginning with verse three.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It gives us hope to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fatheth not away reserved in heaven for you. His resurrection proves to us that we have a hope and that we will be raised from the dead. Okay, and then if we go to John, the Gospel of John chapter eleven and in verses twenty-five and twenty-six, the Gospel of John chapter eleven verses twenty-five and twenty-six.
Jesus answered them, I have told you, and you believe not that... No, I got the wrong one here. We've got to get over to chapter eleven. Okay. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth thou this? Well, we can believe it, can't we? He says, I am the resurrection and the dead. I am the resurrection and the life, rather. And then if we go over to, he's making a promise there. And then if we go over to John, eleven and forty-three and forty-four, he makes that promise good. He tells her, I am the resurrection of life.
Lazarus was a believer. And so he gives us proof right there. And verses forty-three and forty-four. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound, hand and foot with grave clothes. so forth. He keeps his promises. And then we, the fifth reason, I believe, that we need the resurrection is that he is our risen, living, caring, high priest. And in Romans five, nine, and back to Romans now, in chapter five, and verses nine and ten.
much more than being now justified by his blood. We shall be saved from wrath through him. 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. He's a living Savior. He's not in the grave. He's there to save us from the wrath to come. And then if we go to Hebrews two, seventeen and eighteen, Hebrews two and verses seventeen and eighteen. We don't have a, we don't have someone like Mohammed who is in the grave or any of these other great leaders that are still in the grave.
They can't do you a speck of good and they didn't do much good when they were alive. But our high priest is risen and he's there. And we read here in Hebrews chapter two and verses seventeen and eighteen, wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help them that are tempted. We have a very sensitive high priest. Brothers telling about some of the persecution he's gone through. He's never lost any blood in the process. He says, I haven't either. Now, a lot of dear saints have.
The fact of the matter is that church has been wallowing in its own blood. It's hard for us to think about that in America, isn't it? But around the world right now, there are Christians who are losing blood over their faith. And, well, he can be there and be a comfort, can't he? They know that he went through the same thing and more. No one has suffered more than our Lord Jesus. No one. He's a sensitive high priest. We have a paradox in the resurrection. Someone has put it this way. We have a paradox. Death is normal to us. And resurrection is abnormal. To us, resurrection is not the normal thing.
We see that the world is a great graveyard. We all die. We all expect to die. Not all of us here. But if the Lord doesn't return, we will. So death is normal to us. Resurrection is abnormal. But to God, God thinks his thoughts. His thoughts are much higher than our thoughts. But you see, to God, it's the other way around. He sees death as abnormal. And life is normal, you see. Death is a result of sin. And to God, that's abnormal. And we wonder as resurrection, but as the natural consequence of who he is, the sinless son of God. It's only natural that he would rise from the dead once sin, the penalty of sin is paid for.
When someone goes on to say that the marvel is that the author of life died, that's the marvel of it all, and that his death took away our sins. It's a paradox, a lovely paradox, the marvel is. To me, it I like to think of it on the Lord's Day morning, I like to think of it in between. In First Corinthians, it says, you remember the Lord's death. It says that God Almighty died for me. I don't understand it. I do appreciate it. I enjoy the fact.
It's beautiful to me. I don't understand how can, and that's the word, Jehovah. God Almighty, die. Don't ask me to explain it. But you don't have to. A baby doesn't have to explain why he or she enjoys the love of a parent or why they enjoy and want so much the mothers know. And that's the way it is with us. We don't understand these things, but we know them and we enjoy them. Our Lord died. and rose again for our justification. What a marvelous thing. Well, that comes right away here in Romans. Right away he talks about that in this matter of the Gospel.
The resurrection is so very, very important. He is who he said he was. He is who he claimed to be. Well, we need to remember that the resurrection has to do with the body. I just remember that. Death has to do only with the body and sleep. The scripture speaks of the Christian not as dying, but as sleeping, and that never has to do with the soul or the spirit. Only the body sleeps in the dust. The soul does not. The Lord said to the thief on the... You know, there's so much... Excuse me. I don't know why I've got this fog in my throat. The Lord...
Old age. Now it's a long time. It's been a thought. What's that? Soul sweet. Okay, right. I'm talking about soul sweet. It still doesn't come back to me. That's right. It's Christian. But the soul. Okay, okay. What I began to say was the Lord spread up so many false doctrines. So many false doctrines when he saved the first person to believe and be saved by the crucified Christ, the thief on the cross. He set up so many things. He said, today shall thou be with me in paradise. No soul sleep. His body may be filled where they put it, but he himself was with the Lord that day.
He set up many other doctrines there too that he knew would plague the church. Doctrines of getting some works in there or even proving that he had life. How do we know whether that thief had life? The Lord knew. We need to remember that the church, now I'm not saying we shouldn't look for fruit. We need to be fruit inspectors. But the body of Christ is a mystical body, isn't it? Sometimes we're wrong when we think somebody is saved or isn't saved. Only the Lord really knows, right? I really believe Brother Don is saved. I'd be also surprised if he's not. But I don't know. I think I bet my life. Ah, I don't think I bet my life. I bet all my money, which isn't much. But I don't really know.
I've seen an awful lot of fruit, but the body, a mystical body. I hope everyone here is bearing fruit and really is a Christian. I assume so. And I'm sure I'm a Christian, but I can't really be sure of anybody else. It's a mystical. But the Lord says, Today shall thou be with me in paradise. The Lord knew. He's the one who knows. And he didn't have to sing in the choir. He didn't have to be baptized. Now, I don't believe we should receive someone into fellowship until they're baptized. And Brother Don believes that too. But he didn't have time to be baptized, did he? He goes to all eternity unbaptized. He didn't have time to prove those.
He didn't have time to prove his faith. So baptism doesn't save you, obviously. You don't have to sing in the choir because he sure didn't. You don't have to prove anything. You do have to have faith. He had that. And we saw the evidence of that. He says, Lord, remember me. Okay, my time is just about up. Okay, the resurrection. Well, what else can we talk about? Apostle Paul for just a couple of minutes. He says, by the way, I'm going to tell you now, so you can remind me of it. I'm forgetful, believe it or not. But I have some handouts. I have... I have copies of my outline of Romans.
I have copies of this thing I just went over with you on the resurrection with all the references, if you'd like copies of those things. And I also have a copy of the, I was comparing this morning the first four, first five verses and the last four verses of Romans, how they say the same thing. I've got copies of those too. And some other things will remind me, because I am old and forgetful, I'll make those available to you. I have them over in my room. Verse five, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. Grace. What does he mean by grace? Well, grace is a big word and we could spend some time on that.
We don't have time, but it basically is a word that involves grace imparted here that we're talking about. Paul says he's received grace for this ministry and they have grace imparted. And it talks about grace for service. We get grace for service. We get grace, well, a reference to that would be twelve six, Romans twelve six, grace for service. And grace for growth, we find that in second Peter three eighteen and grace for giving. And we find that in second Corinthians nine verse eight. And Paul says, I've gotten all the grace I need.
I don't need any more. I've got all the grace I need to spread the gospel, the apostleship, for obedience to the faith. And I want to talk about that just for a second before we close here. My time is running out. But Romans, remember, begins and ends with obedience of faith. And unless there's obedience, there is no faith. Someone or the Lord says that faith without works is dead. Not just simply means you need to have evidence of faith. Someone puts it in a little bit more modern language saying, only that which motivates me do I truly believe. If it doesn't make me move, if I don't get off dead center, I don't believe it.
That was meant by that scripture. Faith without works is dead. For instance, I got a call from Keith Allen. about a year ago and he said, John, I'd like to have you take part in a Golden Age conference. And I said, well, I'll pray about it. I said, I'll give you a yes, but I'll pray about it and I'll let you know if any change. Well, from that time on, there was works to follow that motivated me. I prayed about it and I made plans to come here and I'm finally here. It changed my life, you know? It motivated me. I did think. And it also motivated... Brother Allen, Steve, he sent me a folder with my name on it for the Golden Age Conference.
It changed his life, we'll get through. He believed we had confidence in each other, and it changed our life. Now, when we have confidence in the Lord, there's going to be some changes, and we're going to see proof. There's going to be changes in the way we live, right? There's going to be changes. And so when somebody says, I have, I remember one time I was at a realtor's meeting, and a realtor thought would be a lady. who and I of course I was with the bank and she liked to drink and she came to me with her glass and her hand kind of kind of hinting she liked to have me fill her glass with some something more to drink well I just didn't do that and and I said I didn't and because of my Christian faith and she says to me she said I have a deep faith I have a deep faith oh is that wonderful It wasn't showing up in her life, but she says, I have it.
And when people say that to us Christians, they think, well, I'll have them off in the past. I'll tell them. And how can they prove? They can't see my heart. Well, they don't fool us, do they? She didn't have a deep faith. I did, and I wasn't drinking or buying drinks for anybody. So there's all that obedience. Faith appears thirty-nine times in Romans. Deon Moody said that every Bible should be bound in shoe letter. That is the only way of saying things. Every Bible should be bound in shoe letter. We see that in the, we'll just look at it and then we'll be done.
We see this over in, just don't need to turn the pages probably, over in verses sixteen and seventeen. The Apostle Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, that is in this gospel, in this faith, received by faith, for in it is the righteousness of God revealed step by step from faith to faith. We believe for a step of faith that changes our life. We believe for another step. and it brings about a change. As it is written, the just shall live by faith.
And God gives us the grace that we furnish the faith. If we don't really want to make a change, there probably won't be any change. I think it's something that Jay Boyd Nicholson said one time, and I wrote it down and I think of it many times. God will not do by a miracle what we are to do by obedience. So give us the power and... He won't drag us into the sanctified life. We want to drag us into that kicking and screaming and protesting. We're going to have... You've got a wana. We have an insurance man in our town. He has a slogan is, you've got a wana.
And that's true in this case. As a Christian, you've got a wana if you're going to be a sanctified person and bring glory to the Lord. Well, many more things we could say. Many more things the Lord has said in Romans. We'll have to try and continue tomorrow a little bit. But now our time is up. Should we just close with the word of prayer? Okay. Should we give thanks for something that we're going to have? We're going to be with freshmen? A local graduate? Oops. Well, we'll give thanks just in case there's something. Our God, we thank you for your precious Son. Thank you for giving him. What a gift you gave when you gave your son.
And what a love you have for the world. And Lord, we wish that we had a deeper love for the lost world. Help us, Lord, to have a real burden for those that are lost. We thank you, Lord, for your burden for us, for the burden on your precious servants who prayed for us, who brought the gospel to us, and who have fed us along the way. We just thank you, Lord. We thank you now for this time together. We thank you for each one of these dear saints. We thank you for this camp. And we pray your blessing upon it. We thank you for using it so extensively. And Lord, we ask that you would bless our continued fellowship together. And we just thank you for the refreshments. In Jesus' precious name.