The Resurrection and the Ultimate Questions of Life

Introduction: The Resurrection and Life's Ultimate Questions

0:00 The following message was delivered on Sunday evening, April 19, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:12 Now those of you who were with us this morning will remember, I trust, that we considered together the place and the importance of the resurrection of Jesus in the apostolic gospel. And the main focus of our attention was upon 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 1 through 19. Tonight we shall consider the subject, the resurrection of Jesus in relationship to the ultimate questions of life. This morning the primary focus was doctrinal That is the substance of the teaching of the word of God

1:01 With respect to the resurrection of Christ In relationship to the good news of salvation to sinners Tonight we want to take the facts contained in that apostolic gospel that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and was raised again on the third day according to the Scriptures, and relate that doctrinal content to what I have called the ultimate questions of life. Now, the ultimate questions of life are not the questions you ask when you stand before your clothing, the place where your clothes are hung,

1:49 whether it's your closet or some other place, and ask what purse shall I wear that matches this dress or what tie shall I wear that matches my suit and my shirt. Though those are questions of some importance in their own context, they are not what we would call ultimate questions. Ultimate questions are questions which touch the most important issues which the human mind and spirit can wrestle with. When our minds are quiet and we are cut off from the busyness of life that can so easily keep our thoughts at a relatively shallow level, and we listen in the stillness of night to some of the rumblings of conscience

2:40 and some of those internal agitations of soul that bring us into contact with issues that go beyond the mere mundane issues of life, it is then that we wrestle with what I am calling ultimate questions. A question such as the one that Job asked in Job 14, and verse 14 is an ultimate question. He asked, if a man die, shall he live again? That's an ultimate question.

3:18 If a man die, shall he live again? When the trembling jailer, conscious of the mighty power of God, conscious of his own sin and of his not being right with God, came in trembling and fell before Paul and Silas and cried out, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? That is an ultimate question. And standing by Joseph's empty tomb tonight, we enter into a school of wisdom that goes beyond anything to be learned in all the combined so-called wisdom of all of the most brilliant minds of all the ages.

4:03 And if we could bring together Socrates and Plato and the great sages and thinkers of all ages, their combined wisdom would be but mere folly in the presence of these ultimate questions. But when we stand by Joseph's empty tomb there, we have God's own answers to life's ultimate questions. And tonight I want us to take up four such questions and see how they are answered in that classroom that is convened outside of Joseph's empty tomb there in Palestine.

Question 1: Can My Sins Be Justly Pardoned?

4:51 And the first of those ultimate questions is this. Can my sins be justly pardoned, and can I be accepted as righteous before God?

5:09 Can my sins be justly pardoned, and can I be accepted as righteous before God? Once we begin to take the testimony of the Bible seriously, and once we begin to take the testimony of our own consciences seriously, one of the most burning issues that the human mind will then be forced to wrestle with is this issue. How can a holy and a just God continue to be holy and continue to be just and do anything else other than damn me to eternal perdition?

6:00 if God is holy the scripture says so holy that he cannot look upon iniquity and if he is just so just that he declares that he will by no means clear the guilty and if I am the sinner that my own conscience accuses me that I am and if I am the sinner that the Bible bears witness that I am, then how can God be just and holy and ever do anything other than righteously and justly condemn me for my sins and consign me to that place prepared for the devil and his angels?

6:49 Humanly speaking if God could somehow neuter the demands of His holiness in justice There might be room for pardon But if He is to remain holy and just How can He pardon guilty sinners? If He is just and the wages of sin is death If He is just and He will by no means clear the guilty then we are caught in the jaws of His justice and His holiness, and there is no escape. That's an ultimate question. How can my sins be justly pardoned?

7:32 And can I indeed be accepted as righteous before God while God still remains God? Well, that ultimate question is answered in the classroom convened outside of Joseph's empty tomb. Turn with me to Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4.

7:59 In this section of the epistle where Paul has been demonstrating that God has always pardoned and accepted sinners on the basis of His own grace and the work of his Son received by faith alone, speaking of the fact that it was in this way that Abraham was justified, that is, justly pardoned and accepted as righteous before God, we read in verse 22, Wherefore, Romans 4, 22, Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was reckoned unto him,

8:47 but for our sake also unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. And here the fact of the resurrection is brought into focus, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. who was delivered up for our trespasses and was raised for our justification. Now in this text we are told that Jesus was delivered up to death for or on account of our trespasses.

9:35 The great truth that we contemplated this morning as one of the two fundamental affirmations of the apostolic gospel. 1 Corinthians 15, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was delivered up to death on account of our trespasses. If God is to righteously pardon sinners, sin must be justly punished.

10:07 And in the person of our substitute, the Lord Jesus, God punished our sins. Jesus voluntarily assumed the place of the substitute. And having assumed that place, there was laid upon Him, the prophet says, the iniquity of us all. And in that act of being delivered up for our trespasses, delivered over to the powers of darkness, delivered up to the justice of God, delivered over to the wrath of God against our sins in the midst of that transaction, Jesus, among the several things He said from the cross,

10:57 cried prior to committing His Spirit into the hands of His Father, Tetelestai, it is finished. It stands accomplished. I have done all that needs to be done that righteous pardon might be extended to sinners. The wrath of God has been exhausted.

11:25 The justice of God for a broken law has been satisfied. Jesus exclaimed, it is finished. But now our text says the same Jesus our Lord who was raised from the dead having been delivered up for our trespasses was raised for our justification. He was raised in order that we might be justified and declared righteous.

12:02 For in his resurrection there was not only the validation of all of his personal claims. Romans chapter 1 declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. But there was the validation of all of his work on behalf of sinners. and His resurrection placed Him in a living state so that the living Christ could be the object of the faith of needy sinners.

12:38 Commenting on this verse or this part of the verse, Hendrickson very helpfully comments, He was delivered for or on account of our trespasses. This looks backwards and means that our trespasses made it necessary for Him to be delivered up while He was raised or on account of our justification looks forward and indicates He was raised in order to assure us that in the sight of God we are indeed without sin. In other words, Christ's resurrection has as its purpose to bring to light the fact that all those who acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Savior have entered into a state of righteousness in the eyes of God.

13:36 The Father, by raising Jesus from the dead, assures us that the atoning sacrifice has been accepted, hence our sins are forgiven. Now when you begin personally to wrestle with this question, Can my sins be justly pardoned by a holy God? Can I be accepted as righteous before a righteous God? Pardoned and accepted in such a way that there is no negation of God's character.

14:19 There is no dilution of the demands of His holiness and justice. That question will burn within your breast. and it can never be answered until you come to the school that is found there outside of Joseph's empty tomb. And God is saying in the resurrection of His Son, yes, sin can be justly pardoned.

14:50 You can be accepted as righteous in my sight while I yet remain just and righteous. When my son was being delivered up for your trespasses, I bruised him. Under the weight of that bruising, he cried out of the felt desertion of his soul. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

15:18 He was taken down from the cross, laid in this tomb. Now I have raised Him from the dead to validate, to place my stamp of approval upon the completeness and the sufficiency of His work. And when your mind and spirit are agitated and torn with this ultimate question, can my sins be justly pardoned, go to that school outside of Joseph's empty tomb and hear God say, yes, he was raised for our justification. and I say it without any tinge I trust of overstatement

16:05 or of anything that borders on irreverence, if I am to be charged with sins to which I have looked to Christ for forgiveness, then God must take His Son from His own right hand and put Him back in the tomb and kill Him again. for when He raised Him from the dead He was raising Him on account of our justification that is our righteous pardon for all of our sins and our being accepted as righteous in the sight of God not for anything we have done

16:52 but on account of the perfect life of Jesus and the death that He died under the wrath and the curse of God. And so when we wrestle with that ultimate question of the forgiveness of our sins, the answer is not to be found by turning inward upon our own subjective frame of mind or spirit. It is not even to be turned inward to see what the measure of our love to Christ is. It is to be turned outward and over to an empty tomb in Palestine.

17:35 And to stand on this unshakable ground. He who was delivered up for our trespasses was raised for our justification. He cried from His cross, It is finished! And God was silent.

17:55 But three days later, the open tomb was God's thunderous. Amen It is finished He is raised for the justification of all of His people Some of you will never come to any stability in your Christian life until the theology of the open tomb in the face of this ultimate question becomes part of the working stuff of your own conscience, of your own heart, of your own mind as it reflects upon your sin. And whenever you are conscious of your sin, and whenever you wonder, can it be that if I come to God again

18:46 for this sin and these sins to which I've had to come to Him hundreds or thousands of times, depth of mercy, can there be mercy still reserved for me? Can my God his wrath forbear me the chief of sinners spare? We need to come back to the open tomb and there take hold of this truth. He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Question 2: Can the Power of My Sins Be Broken?

19:22 The first ultimate question that is answered there by Joseph's empty tomb is the question, can my sins be justly pardoned, and can I be accepted as righteous before God? But then there is a second ultimate question, a question which every convicted sinner must sooner or later answer. For conviction of sin never stops with the guilt of sin, but with the power and with the pollution of sin. When a man, a woman, boy, or girl is convicted by the Holy Spirit of his sin, he's not only concerned about the bad that he has done,

20:09 but he's concerned about the bad that he is.

20:14 He's not only concerned about the wrongs he has done, but that he himself is wrong. That is clearly illustrated in a penitential psalm such as Psalm 51, Where David begins with the bad he has done. Have mercy upon me, O God. According to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

20:39 My sin is ever before me. But then he goes on to say, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Thou desirest truth in the inward parts. Wash me, create in me a clean heart, O God.

21:04 Not only have mercy, forgive, blot out, and pardon, but create a clean heart. I was shapen in iniquity. And so when we take seriously what the Word of God says about us, One of the ultimate questions that presses in upon us is not only, can my sins be justly pardoned and can I be accepted as righteous before God? And we find the answer in Joseph's empty tomb.

21:41 But the second ultimate question is, can the power of my sins be broken so that I may live a life well-pleasing to God? Can the power of my sins be broken So that I may live a life well pleasing to God? For the testimony of the Bible is That I am the slave of sin Jesus said it in John 8, 34 Whoso commits sin is the bond slave of sin And then in a more extensive way In the sixth chapter of Romans The apostle describes us in our natural state several times as the bond slaves, the servants of sin itself.

22:34 For example, Romans chapter 6 and verse 17. But thanks be to God that whereas ye were servants of sin. Verse 19, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity. Verse 20, when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard of righteousness.

23:15 The Scripture makes it plain that by nature we are the slaves of our sin. We are the servants of our lusts. And when we take seriously what the Word of God says about us and begin to take seriously the depth of the power of sin over us, then we cry out, Can the power of my sins be broken so that I may live a life? well-pleasing to God?

23:48 And the answer again is found in that school that is pitched outside of Joseph's empty tomb. For this question is one with which the Apostle wrestles in this entire sixth chapter of Romans. And I ask you to follow as I read now the opening verses of that chapter.

24:09 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin? that is, in the willful, deliberate practice of sin as a lifestyle, that grace may abound, God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?

24:34 We who died to sin, how shall we now live in sin as a lifestyle and an overall pattern of moral existence? Or are you ignorant that all we who were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. And in the context what is the newness of life?

25:17 It is life no longer lived under the dominion of sin. It is life no longer lived in the realm of sin as our native context and native air. When a man dies, he is radically severed from that context in which he carried out his life. He no longer sees the sun and feels the warmth of its rays.

25:45 He no longer sees the rustling trees. He no longer interacts with his fellow human beings. Death severs him from the realm in which he lived. We are told that sin was the realm in which we lived.

26:00 But we died to sin in union with Christ that we might live in newness of life. Life lived in relationship to the realities of righteousness and truth and holiness. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. knowing this that our old man the totality of what we were in Adam devoid of the grace of God that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away so that we should no longer be in bondage to sin

26:48 for he that hath died is justified or released from sin But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died unto sin once, but the life that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin.

27:24 but alive unto God in, that is, in union with Christ Jesus. And without attempting anything like a careful exposition of this passage, surely you feel the overarching drift of its teaching when it comes to this question. Can the power of my sin be so broken that I may live a life pleasing to God? Not the life of a glorified saint, but the life of a truly transformed man or woman here on this earth.

28:03 that just as truly as the realm of sin was my native universe of reference, the standards of sinful passions and the standards of a sinful world and the standards of my own sinful heart dictated the use of my hands and feet and eyes and energy and time. I presented my members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. So now righteousness and holiness, the standards of God, the standards of His Word, the standard of likeness to Christ and conformity to Christ, though not perfectly impinging on every total motive and disposition and word and action, become just as really the universe in which I live as sin was the former universe in which I lived.

29:01 Is that possible? Can the power of my sins be so broken that I can live a life pleasing to God? Well, the answer is found by Joseph's empty tomb. Yes.

29:18 For as surely as Jesus Christ died to sin, as He died for sin, and having died, He dies no more, but has risen to newness of life, the apostle says, when I am by faith united to Christ. The dynamics, the very virtue of Christ's death to sin enters into my moral constitution. And the very virtue of the power of the resurrection of Christ enters my moral constitution. And I am now raised to do what?

29:59 to walk, verse 4, to walk in newness of life. People say, oh, this is positional and give it all kinds of names. My friends, this is real and ethical and moral and practical. It means that I not only can stand by Joseph's tomb and say God's amen to Christ's words, it is finished is to be heard in the empty tomb.

30:32 I can be justly and righteously forgiven and accepted as righteous. But I can stand by that empty tomb and say, as Christ has exhausted the demands of God's law against sin, sin no longer has righteous claims over me. I am no longer its rightful slave. I am no longer its lackey and its serf.

31:00 I am no longer under obligation to obey its dictates. In union with Christ, I've been liberated from all of its demands by dying with Christ to its demands and now rising with Christ in newness of life. Isn't this what Paul meant when he said, I have been crucified with Christ? nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live it I live in faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me yes the power

31:46 of my sins can so be broken that I can live a life well pleasing unto God. And Joseph's empty tomb is God's validation of that fact. And how foolish we are to think that we look to the objective work of Christ on our behalf in order to find righteous pardon and just acceptance with God and then look somewhere else for deliverance from the power and from the bondage of sin. And know my Bible says in John 8, 36,

32:32 whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Am I talking to someone who sits here tonight who has known what it is to forge chains that have so cut themselves as it were into the very stuff of your soul that you despair that they can ever be broken. And the great question that you wrestle with day after day is not, is there enough grace and mercy in the death of Christ to forgive these sins? But I know enough of my Bible to know that a forgiven sinner is a liberated sinner.

33:17 And I have no hope that I can be liberated. My chains are so many. I have forged them for so long. The links are so large.

33:28 My friend, Joseph's empty tomb says, There is liberty for the captives. For he was anointed in order to do what? He was anointed. The Spirit of the Lord was upon him that he might proclaim liberty to the captives in the opening of the prison to those that are bound.

33:53 There was a little chorus that some of my early Pentecostal acquaintances used to sing. And it's got a lot of good theology. It's a little trite when it's repeated again and again. But oh, I love the theology of it.

Question 3: Will My Body Be Forever Left in the Grave?

34:07 Brother, are you bound? Christ can set you free. Brother are you bound Christ can set you free Oh brother are you bound Christ can set you free Shouting glory hallelujah Christ can set you free But then there is a third ultimate question And it too can be answered In the classroom convened outside of Joseph's empty tomb. And this ultimate question some of us have been forced to reckon with in a very, very practical way in recent days.

34:52 And it's this question. Will my body and the bodies of my loved ones be forever left in the grave? Will my body and the bodies of my loved ones be forever left in the grave. What a humbling leveler death is.

35:18 The worms are no respecter of persons. They consume the bodies of kings and queens as well as those of beggars and of peasants. what of this body concerning which the apostle speaks and says the outward man is decaying and we are conscious of that any of us who pass beyond our twenties and into our thirties and those of us from our thirties into our forties and forties into fifties and some of you into your sixties and seventies how conscious you are that the outward man is decaying.

36:03 Each new month, it seems, brings a new reminder, a joint that's a little sore in the morning till you work it a little bit an ache here a pain there the consciousness that the seeds of death in this body are growing and there long will take me down into the grave Will my body be forever left in the grave? What about the bodies of those loved ones? And just this past week I had occasion to speak much of this subject of thinking biblically about our bodies. The only existence I've ever known is a bodily existence.

36:46 The only way I've ever known any of you is in a bodily existence. I've never known one of you as a disembodied spirit. Whatever I've known of exchanging thought and love and affection, sharing burdens and joys, whatever the relationship, relatively distant, close, or the intimate relationship of a husband and wife over many years. We've only known one another in our bodily existence.

37:11 That's the only way we've known one another. And the biblical view is not that the body is our shell and the real and the important us is that which the shell holds, the soul. No, that is not a biblical notion. I am a body-soul entity.

37:28 That's what I am as an image-bearer of God. and that's why the intermediate state when body and soul are separated is not the focal point of the believer's hope it's not the focal point of Christ's redemptive activity the Bible reveals enough about the intermediate state that no Christian need have any question about what happens when he dies I addressed that question at Pastor Allen's funeral head on, where is Dean Allen? and 2 Corinthians 5 and Philippians 1 and Revelation 14, 13 are adequate to answer the question. But the great hope of the believer is not the disembodied state, the intermediate state, but the resurrection.

38:12 When glorified body is joined to glorified soul, will then my body and the body of my loved ones with whom I have developed relationships only in a bodily existence, we are not fellow angels whose relationship has only been known as disembodied spirits. Angels can well be content with that for all eternity. That's all they've ever known. They may occasionally take a bodily form to perform a mission, but that's the exception.

38:44 They are non-bodily spirits and personalities. They have no bodily existence as their permanent existence, but not so with us. And we ask that question, will my body and the body of my loved ones be forever left in the grave to rot and to return to dust, never to be brought together again into something that has shape and form and physical substance and activity and energy and motion? well that ultimate question my friend is not answered by philosophers it's answered by Joseph's open tomb and I want us to look at several passages in the word of God

39:32 that make this abundantly clear Romans chapter 8 one text there but if the spirit of him Romans 8 11 that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in you. As surely as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, the Holy Spirit being given to me in this life is pledged that this body shall one day share in the glorious reality of the resurrection life

40:22 of Jesus Christ Himself. But what is put here in just a very condensed form is amplified in 1 Corinthians 15. And here just listen to the straightforward statement of the apostle by the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Verse 20.

40:46 But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep. The first fruits were those elements of the harvest that first came to ripeness and were gathered in and brought as an offering to the Lord as both an expression of gratitude that the harvest was coming and the certain pledge that it was coming. Christ's resurrection was first fruits of all that are asleep, that is, asleep in Him. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.

41:33 For as in Adam all die, all who are in Adam that is the entire human race die in Adam so also in Christ those united to Christ shall all be made alive but each in his own order Christ the first fruits then the rest of the harvest they that are Christ's at his coming then cometh the end when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God even the Father when he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power, for he must reign till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be abolished is death.

42:19 And in the context, when is death abolished? Death is not abolished until the wonderful realities of the resurrection of the bodies of believers takes place. Verse 53 of the same chapter. Backing up to verse 51.

42:40 I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. But we shall all be changed. In a moment in the twinkling of an eye.

42:47 At the last trump for the trumpet shall sound. And the dead shall be raised incorruptible. And we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption.

43:01 and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?

43:24 The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. When will that triumph come to pass? Not in the intermediate state.

43:38 When the Spirit departs and goes to be with Christ and the earthly remains are placed in the earth. No, death is still reigning in the grave of every believer. and Christ is seated that he might reign until the last enemy is abolished and when is the last enemy abolished when death shall yield up all that she holds in the grave for we read in the parallel passage in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and here you see the intimate connection between the certainty of Christ's resurrection and our resurrection bodies we would not have you ignorant verse 13 of chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians

44:24 we would not have you ignorant concerning them that fall asleep let you sorrow not as the rest to have no hope for if we believe Jesus died and rose again see the two elements of the apostolic gospel Jesus died and rose again if that's a part of your faith even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and are left unto the coming of the Lord shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout

45:11 with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. The dead in Christ shall rise. The dead in Christ shall rise. If we believe that Christ died and rose, then His open tomb is the pledge of my empty tomb.

45:42 and how powerfully this was brought home to our hearts this past Thursday when Pastor Sarver stood under the green tent where the casket of Dean Allen was there ready to be placed in the earth and he said words to this effect as surely as the proprietors of this cemetery have opened up the earth to receive the body of our brother. so this plot of ground will be opened again. But the next time, not by the proprietors of the cemetery, but by a returning Lord, for the dead in Christ shall rise first.

46:34 And Christ's open tomb is the answer to that ultimate question, Will my body and the bodies of my loved ones be forever left in the grave? Frankly, the thought of relating to you, dear people, who are my brothers and sisters and some my spiritual children, the thought of relating to you in some way as disembodied spirits is not attractive to me. I don't know what you're like as a disembodied spirit. I only know you in terms of the peculiar twinkle of your eye and the set of your jaw and those things that make you the distinct person that you are and if there can be such bonds of love

47:21 while there's still so much sin in all of us what will it be like to relate to one another without sin in glorified bodies that can render unwearied service so unwearied service to Christ and one another that there shall be no night and no need of sleep to serve Him with all the boundless energy of a soul and a spirit purged from every last vestige of selfishness, consumed with ever-growing love and pure devotion to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And as that devotion grows, as our knowledge of Him grows in the age to come,

48:09 so with it will be a commensurate increase of strength and ability to serve Him under the light of that understanding and under the impulse of that love in unwearied strength forever and forever.

48:27 You say, oh, well, that's just a noble ideal. No, no, my friend, Joseph's open tomb says that's reality. That's reality! That's reality!

48:39 This is why someone captured in a poem something of the glory of this. It's as though the person who's just left us is able to communicate to us from the other side and says, Weep not for me, as here I lie, or in the earth my dust they place. For my soul leaps with boundless joy, because I look upon his face. My body sleeps a little while, but soon shall throb with life again, and perfect, join my happy soul.

49:18 I'll dance with joy before him then. Restored the image of my God Both soul and body then shall be And with my Lord who flesh did wear I'll worship God with ecstasy Long though the night of weeping be Do not forget to soon gone by My hope, my confidence is this That Jesus lives and so shall I Awake, the silver trumpet calls. Come, serve the Lord with godly fear. The night's far spent, the day is at hand, and Jesus shortly shall appear.

50:07 No wonder Paul said to the Thessalonians, Comfort, exhort one another with these words. Comfort one another with these words. What words? If Christ died and rose, those who die in him shall rise in the power of his own resurrection strength and glory.

Question 4: Will There Really Be a Day of Judgment?

50:36 Then the final ultimate question that's answered as we go to the school outside of Joseph's empty tomb is this. and there's not a boy or a girl a man or woman who has not at one time or another if you're old enough to think any kind of rational thought beyond feeding your face and clothing your body the youngest of children have thought about this will there really be a day of judgment when I will stand before God is my life in this world really going to meet me in another world, in the very presence of God?

51:23 When I sass my mommy, and when I'm mean to my brother, and when I lie about my sister, and when I cheat on my income tax, and when I use my body for a playground and violate God's norms for sexual purity, and when I covet what is another's, and when I have a spirit of unforgiveness that says I will not forgive, will those sins actually meet me in another world in the presence of God? Is there a day of universal judgment when all the thoughts and words and deeds

52:11 and motives and desires and attitudes and dispositions contrary to God's word and will will meet those who go into God's presence with those sins unforgiven.

52:29 Well, you see, conscience continually presses upon us that there is such a day. Romans 1 makes that very clear. People who've never heard the gospel, never seen the pages of a Bible, Romans 1 ends with these words, Who knowing the judgment of God, that they who do such things are worthy of death, not only do them to take pleasure in others that do them. Who knowing the judgment of God, how do they know it?

52:59 It's stamped upon their consciences. But what conscience affirms at times with varying degrees of clarity the word of God states with unmistakable clarity. It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment. Hebrews 9 and verse 27.

53:21 And in the days of his flesh, Jesus made as one of his unique claims that he would be the judge upon the throne in the last day who would personally administer the judgment of every human being that has ever lived. Listen to his words as I read them from John 5, 26-29.

54:06 resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment all that are in the tomb shall hear his voice and shall come forth Jesus didn say this in a corner he said it publicly said it in the face of his enemies And they didn forget his words You remember one of his earlier words from John 2 They hurled in his face at the time of his crucifixion. This man said he'd destroy the temple and in three days raise it up.

54:41 They remembered his words. Can you imagine what they might have thought when he hung upon a cross and they remembered his words the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves will hear my voice and shall come forth and they shall stand before me as the appointed judge here they've seen him stand before Caiaphas stand before Pilate go on to Herod back to Pilate dragged out to a place of execution and hung upon a cross can you imagine what they must have been thinking what a bunch of empty blow judge of the world look at him now he can't even deliver himself from our own little puppet court

55:27 and from the hands of Herod and Pilate and the Gentiles but my friends he made those claims and he cannot lie and God has said in the unique way Joseph's open tomb is a pledge of many things, but it's a pledge in a particular way of this very issue we're addressing. Turn to Acts chapter 17. As we wrestle with this ultimate question, will there really be a day of universal judgment when all men shall stand before the living Christ? Paul preaching in the face of pompous and arrogant self-sufficient pagan philosophers

56:15 who think they can arrive at ultimate truth by grinding the wheels of their own noggins. He dares to make this assertion in their presence. Acts 17, 30 and 31 The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now He commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent inasmuch as He hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness.

56:46 He will judge by a perfect standard of righteousness. His law will be the measure. His perfect knowledge of the thoughts and the intents and every deed and word will be the substance. He will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom He hath ordained.

57:07 The Father has given all judgment to the Son, Jesus claimed. Paul says, God will judge by the man whom he hath ordained. Now notice, whereof he has given assurance unto all men. You say, when did God ever assure me that there's a day of judgment when Christ will judge me?

57:28 He's given you Joseph's empty tomb. he's given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead the only way you can reverse the certainty of the day of judgment is to get the body of Jesus kill it and put it back in the tomb when you can do that then you can safely put aside the thoughts of the day of judgment Put aside the thoughts that you'll answer to God For every idle word Every lustful thought Every envious spirit Every angry word Every dishonest business feeling Put it aside

58:14 If you can get Christ and put him to death And lock him up in Joseph's tomb But as long as Joseph's tomb is empty God raised him from the dead. That's God's pledge that there's a day of judgment and you and I will be there.

58:37 That's what the text says. He will judge and he's given assurance unto all men. You say, well, that's not enough assurance for me. Oh, it isn't.

58:51 For my friend, God deems that it is.

58:57 You say, I need more assurance. God will give you no more, and you'll stand there.

59:06 You say, but God, I didn't take it seriously. God says, I gave you assurance in that I raised my son from the dead. But I didn't think that was enough. And God will say, who told you to run my universe?

59:18 who gave you the right to set the standards by which I will deal with my creatures. I've given you all the assurance you need in the resurrection of my Son. He claimed in the days of His flesh that all judgment was committed to Him. His death was a temporary apparent contradiction and negation of that claim.

59:44 claim. But I raised him from the dead, giving assurance unto all men that there is a day when the world will be judged in righteousness. And there'll be no plea bargaining. Nobody's going to be able to rat on another to get himself off the hook. There'll be no greasing the palm of an unjust judge.

60:12 There'll be no bribing the jury. God Himself will be judge and jury with no plea bargaining, no bribery. It will be in perfect righteousness.

60:27 God's law will be the standard and His perfect knowledge of every thought and word and deed you've ever done will be the evidence He'll bring into court. And what are you going to do when God, who knows right now some of the thoughts you're thinking, this is a lot of baloney, this is a lot of bull. He'll say, remember that night when a preacher preached to you on the night of April the 19th and you sat in the church at 7.32 and you thought that's a bunch of baloney.

60:58 Are you going to say, oh God, I didn't think that? No. when God accuses your conscience will be the amen of God's accusation. My friend, don't you trifle with a God like this.

61:12 You stand by Joseph's tomb and take seriously a day of judgment's coming. And if that day were to come tomorrow, where would you be? Where would you be? Summon before the God before whom all things are naked and open, the writer to Hebrews says, who knows the thoughts and the intentions of the heart, and according to Romans 2.16, who in the day of judgment will make manifest the secrets of men's hearts, then all the things that you put over on mom and dad will be made known.

61:47 And all the things you put over on husband and wife and pastors and elders and friends, what will it matter? For it will be a judgment in righteousness. and if in that day you are not found hidden in the Lord Jesus if you are not found as one of those who is clothed in the perfect righteousness comprised of the perfect life and the death of Jesus covered in His own precious blood made a new creature so that God can say look when I say to this one come you blessed enter the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, God will have some substance to demonstrate

62:33 that He did not just juggle the books, but He made you a truly righteous person as well as declared you righteous. That's the teaching of Matthew 25, 31 and following. When the judge will say to those on His right hand, Come ye blessed. You did this. You did this. You did this.

62:54 And when He commends them for their works, they can't even remember those works. He's not saying those works earned their entrance. He's saying those works validate that they were truly His people whom He not only justified but transformed and sanctified and made His servants.

63:18 What comfort can you draw from those things that now keep you from repenting of your sins and receiving Christ? Think for a moment. What's keeping you? You say, well, if I repented of my sins, I'd lose all my friends.

63:32 All right. You might. But let me ask you something. Which of those friends can stand and so plead your case before Almighty God is to get you into heaven?

63:44 Which one of them? Name them. Come on, name them. Name them.

63:50 Which one of your friends can persuade God to take you to heaven and not to send you to hell for your sins?

64:01 Not a one of them. Not a million of them.

64:07 Why barter your soul for the acceptance of your friends? You say, well, if I were to become a Christian, I might have to give up my present line of business. There's no way I can have a Christian conscience in it. There's no way.

64:23 It's impossible.

64:26 My friend, what success in business can rise up in the day of judgment and take away your sins and plead your case? I don't care what the issue is, what the person is, what the problem is, what the relationship is, whatever it is. What is it in the light of that day when you're going to hear either the words, Come ye blessed or depart ye cursed. And everyone in this place is going to hear either of those words.

64:58 Hear me, every one of you. Come ye blessed.

65:05 Depart ye cursed.

65:09 You see, there must be some middle ground. There is none. He will judge in righteousness. Ah, that's just doing your preacher stuff, trying to scare us into becoming Christians.

65:21 No, my friends. That's just the inevitable consequence of that empty tomb.

65:31 That's not preacher's attempts to scare you. God raised him from the dead. And when God raised him from the dead, he was given a pledge that he would judge the world in righteousness. and if you stiff arm that pledge and say well I'll take my chances God have mercy on you God have mercy on you God have mercy on you to think that you'd sink into hell from under the shadow of a gospel pulpit we looked this morning at the centrality of the resurrection in the apostolic gospel.

Conclusion: The Empty Tomb's Answers and Call to Repentance

66:15 Tonight we've considered the ultimate questions answered by the empty tomb. Can my sins be justly pardoned? Joseph's empty tomb says yes. He was raised for our justification.

66:32 Whatever your sins have been, venture upon Christ, who in His resurrection has validated that the vilest of sinners will be received. Can the power of my sins be broken so that I may live a life well-pleasing to God? Joseph's empty tomb says, Yes, that like us Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so should we also walk in newness of life. As I place my loved ones in the earth, and some of you dear widows, I thought of you, As I prepared the message.

67:12 Will they forever lie. In that spot where I visit. And relive the happy memories. Of that one.

67:20 Whom I only knew in a bodily existence. We first met. And fell in love. And courted.

67:26 And married. And wept. And rejoiced. And bore our children.

67:30 In a bodily existence. It's the only way we knew one another. Am I forever. Forever consigned.

67:38 Only living on the memories. know, my friend, someday that grave will yield them up. And though we'll have a different relationship than we sustained in this life as husband and wife, I don't know what it'll be, but I know God's no killjoy, so it must be better than what we have now, and the only reason it's going to be different is to make it better.

68:01 And as I think of this body with which I want to serve my Lord, and had I the strength and the power and the means to make it live a thousand years to serve Him, would you not do it? I would.

68:15 It be worth the homesickness for heaven to seek to do more for Christ, to serve Him with greater energy for a greater period of time, to make greater assaults upon the kingdom of darkness.

68:31 But alas, we have our threescore and ten, and if by reason of strength fourscore and then we're gone. Is that the end of us? No. If we believe that Christ rose them also that sleep in Him, will God bring with Him the dead in Christ shall rise.

68:52 Now is Christ risen first fruits of them that sleep. And will there really be a day of judgment? he has given proof and assurance unto all in that he raised him from the dead you say pastor you spoiled my Easter it's always been just such a nice happy time to celebrate spring and the loveliness of the breaking forth of the budding trees and my friend you're on your way to judgment You need something more than nice little sentimental thoughts to chuck you under the chin on Easter. You need to come to grips with these ultimate questions.

69:41 And you need to answer them at the only place where solid answers are given. By Joseph's empty tomb where Christ rose from the dead in power and now lives mighty to save. mighty to keep, mighty to resurrect us when he comes. And as surely as he said, Lazarus, come forth, and death could not hold Lazarus.

70:11 When he says, All my people, come forth. The graves will give us up, and we shall be raised with bodies fashioned like unto his own glorious body forever to be with the Lord. Let us pray.

70:34 Oh, our Father, how we thank you that in a world of death, in a world of confusion, in a world where men spew out their opinions on the great issues of life and eternity and death, we thank you for this sure word of prophecy given to us in the Scriptures. Oh, how we thank You for the Holy Scriptures. Thank You for the record of our Lord's resurrection. Thank You that You have addressed these ultimate questions in the light of that resurrection.

71:16 May the Word preached this night and throughout this day be sealed to our prophet. Oh, may there be some who mark this day as the day when they took seriously that they must die and go to judgment and that they are not ready to die nor go to judgment. Give them no rest until they flee to Christ. We pray, Father, that you will apply the word in ways that you alone are able to do in areas that we have not touched upon but that you know are desperately needed.

71:53 And may that word bear fruit now and even until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how we thank you for our prospects. We thank you for the hope that burns within our breast. That the Lord Jesus shall return.

72:12 The dead in Christ shall rise. Those who are alive and remain shall be caught up. and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Oh, may that hope burn with renewed intensity within the breast of every believer.

72:30 And according to your word, may it be true that every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. Hear us, bless us, send us on our way rejoicing in your grace. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.