Resurrection of Christ

Introduction and Review of Romans 8:34 Context

0:02 To the 8th chapter of Romans, let me just say a word about the new prayer and praise reminder that is available for the months of April and May. Please take one per family as you leave this morning. Any of you who were not present when I gave the report of the recent two weeks of ministry in Great Britain, I have some copies of a brief summation of those days, and you're free to take one. And then the latest sword and trowel has come.

0:31 We gave a rather extensive plug for this particular edition, Pastor, What's the Difference?, by William Payne. And William Payne is a personal friend of mine who indicated that this particular article came out of the many questions pressed upon him by his own church members as they have been moving more and more into an understanding of historic Christian doctrine. They will come to him and say, Pastor, what is the difference between contemporary evangelism and evangelical thought and historic Christianity?

1:04 And having had to answer that so many times, and having learned by trial and error the best way to do so, at least for his situation, this article, it's really in booklet form, has come to the birth. And I commend it to you. It would be well to read and re-read and re-re-read it a few times until you master the basic approach, because I'm sure you've been asked that question. Well, what is the basic difference between what you believe and what so many others?

1:31 You believe. And so please take a copy of this. They're down, I believe, probably on the back steps, downstairs on the book table. Now let us turn for the third time to Romans chapter 8 and verse 34.

1:47 For those of you who were not with us last Lord's Day, the occasion being in the church calendar, that Sunday that is called Easter Sunday, and having had some fresh warmth and light from a more particularly Easter text, then the next section in Ephesians, we attempted to expound verse 34 of Romans 8, but found it was impossible to get beyond just an introduction in the morning and the first part of the verse in the evening. And God willing, I want to direct your attention to that text again this morning and then conclude our studies in it possibly next Lord's Day morning.

2:26 The Apostle throws out this tremendous question almost in defiance of everything, in heaven, in earth, and in hell. Who is he that condemneth? Is Christ Jesus that died? Yea, rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

2:53 It will be necessary to take just a few minutes to review the basic drift of thought as we seek to continue our studies today. As we began last Lord's Day morning, we looked at the setting. Of this question, the setting which begins in its immediate context with the tremendous statements of verses 29 and 30 of Romans 8, in which the Apostle says two fundamental things. One, that God has designed a salvation which envisions nothing less than the total conformity of all the redeemed into the moral likeness of Jesus Christ, whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the law of God, to the image of his Son.

3:37 Having designed a salvation with so expansive a scope, the next statement Paul makes in verse 30 is that God has committed himself to the accomplishment of that goal. Hence, whom he foreknew and predestined, he called, whom he called, he justified, and so certain is his purpose that their glorification, which is yet future, he says, is as certain as past. So these two great themes emerge out of verses 29 and 30, God's design and God's commitment to that design in the redemption of his people,

4:18 which leads the Apostle to exclaim in that introductory question of verse 31, what shall we say then to these things? If we have captured that vision, that God himself is committed to this salvation, which has, is its goal the entire conformity of every last redeemed soul to the image of Christ, God before us, in that broad contextual sense, committed to our salvation, who is against us? If God has taken us in hand to accomplish this, what is there in earth, in heaven or hell, that will hinder this God from the accomplishment of his purpose,

5:01 especially in the light of what he has already demonstrated, of the measures to which he is willing to go to accomplish that design? Verse 32, He that spared not his son, but delivered him up for us all. He that did that which made the greatest demands upon him, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Do you catch then the thrust, the throb of the Apostle's perspective here?

5:28 God is committed to this salvation. He's proven that his commitment is no mere verbal commitment. He's given up his son. He's done the thing that makes the greatest demands upon him, therefore pledging that every lesser demand will be met because he has made and provided for the greatest.

5:48 Then there follows these three subsidiary or secondary questions. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Verse 34, Who is he that condemneth? Verse 35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

6:02 Our attention is focused, upon verse 34. Who is he that condemneth? In the light of all that has preceded. Who is there in the whole moral universe that will come to a child of God who is marked out in God's foreordination, to whom God has committed himself to do all that is necessary for his salvation?

6:26 Who is there that will be able to rise up and point a finger of just condemnation at one such person? The answer is obviously there is no one. And then the apostle tells us in those four statements the basis of that absolute confidence. So then we have been seeking to understand the relationship between these four statements of the work of Christ.

6:53 Christ died. Christ rose. Christ is at the right hand of God. Christ intercedes.

7:00 The relationship of those four facts to this confidence, that there is none who will condemn us. For it is only as we understand those facts in their biblical significance that we will rise to the level of Paul's biblical confidence that none shall condemn him. And so as we penetrate the mystery of those acts, we will have Paul's abounding confidence. Last week we only had time to take the first.

7:31 It is Christ Jesus that died. And we say, We saw that it was Paul's understanding of the death of Christ, the position in which he died, a substitute for his people, a father towards him in that death, one of positive wrath and judgment. He spared him not, but the vision secured by that death, the very destruction of death itself. Paul's understanding of the meaning of the death of Christ is what led him to cry out, Who is he that condemneth?

8:06 So much for our review. We have given you, in five minutes, what it took us about two hours to open up last week. Now this morning, the second of these statements, Yea, rather, that is risen from the dead. The statement of crucifixion is followed hard by this statement of resurrection.

The Fact of Christ's Resurrection: Essential for the Gospel

8:27 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather, that was raised from the dead. First of all, consider with me, Paul's assertion of the fact of the resurrection and its relationship to this confidence, Who is he that condemneth? And then we shall look, secondly, at Paul's understanding, or the significance of that fact, and we'll trace it out along three lines, all of which relates to the basic question, Who is he that condemneth?

9:02 First of all, we note that the apostle asserts the fact of the resurrection. It is Christ, Jesus that died, yea, rather, that was raised from the dead. The same Christ Jesus who died is the one who rose. That is, there was a slab of stone which held his body in some tomb there in Palestine, which was vacated, and it no longer held that body.

9:33 And Paul's confidence in his spiritual condition of no condemnation, was firmly embedded in the historical reality and factuality of the resurrection. You see, there are people in our day who say, Look, let's not be fastidious about the facts of the Bible. The important thing is experiencing the reality of those facts. So if we live in the glow and the joy of the resurrection of Christ, there was actually a tomb into which Joseph of Arimathea carried his body, where his body lay for part of three days, and which was then empty.

10:13 They say that's just a lot of immaterial debating about nothing. The important thing is that when we gather on a Lord's Day morning to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, we experience resurrection joy in the concept of a living Savior, whether or not he actually rose. Immaterial! Not so with Paul.

10:34 Not so in the mentality of the Bible. No, no. The Scripture uses terms like these. Acts 1-3.

10:41 He showed himself alive by many infallible proofs. And straight by infallible proofs, the feeling of resurrection life, the ethos and the mood of resurrection joy. In fact, the Apostle Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 15, 12-19, that a denial of the fact the actual resurrection of Christ from the dead is an undercutting of the entire gospel and robbing the people of God of any grounds to believe that their sins are forgiven. Listen to his statement.

11:19 1 Corinthians 15, 12-19. Now if Christ is preached that he hath been raised from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? There is no resurrection of the dead. If it's a general principle that resurrection is impossible in any circumstance, neither hath Christ been raised.

11:41 The logic of that is inescapable. If you make a general principle then anything that subsists under the general as a particular, that can't exist. So if you say no resurrection whatsoever in the entire spectrum of human history, then at a point in history Christ has not been raised. Then, Paul says, our preaching is vain.

12:01 It's a lot of hot air. Because we go around as an integral part of our preaching saying Christ has been raised. If there is no resurrection of Christ, because there is no such thing as resurrection at all, then our preaching is a lot of religious hot air. It's vain.

12:16 It's a puff of wind. Then he goes on to say, if that's so, then your faith is vain because you've put your faith in hot air. You've responded in faith to a message that as one of its pivotal doctrines or tenets, Christ was raised and if there is no resurrection, we've been giving you lies, so your faith is vain. So he goes on to say, yea, and we are found false witnesses of God because we witness that God raised up Christ whom he raised not, if so be that the dead are not raised.

12:44 For if the dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been raised. Now he's going to trace out another line of implication. And if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain. Ye are yet in your sins.

12:56 Then they that are fallen asleep in Christ have perished. And if we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable. There is no forgiveness of sins on a biblical basis apart from the fact of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, all this pious talk about maintaining the reality of the living Christ in one's heart while being indifferent to the fact of the resurrection of Christ from the dead is a bunch of religious foolishness.

13:35 And it will ultimately destroy the ability of any man to say with Paul, he that condemneth. What will happen, and this is exactly what has happened, where the fact of the resurrection has been denied, men begin to pare down the biblical doctrine of the holiness and the justice of God, the heinousness and the terribleness of sin, so that they no longer feel the need of a Savior who truly died and in His death destroyed death, and the witness of that being His resurrection, so that they stand or fall together. You cannot have the meaning of His death implanted in your heart

14:18 implanted in the hearts of men apart from the reality of His resurrection. That's why the Apostle says in Romans 4, 25, He was delivered up for our offenses, He was raised again for our justification. There is no justification apart from a living Christ. So then, His confidence, who is He that condemneth?

14:42 It is Christ that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead. God Almighty will take His eyes upon you in the place of the Spirit of Your One and Only Son living on the earth. And from the most point of Your glory, He's stood before you to grant Your life. long unless the fact of his resurrection is maintained if necessary even at the price of

Resurrection as Vindication of Christ's Personal Claims

15:23 blood well then as with his death it was not merely the fact that caused paul to say who is he that condemneth but it was the meaning of that fact in relationship to the great issues of sin and judgment and the holiness and justice of god so then who is he that can do us not only with paul accept and understand the significance of the statement it is christ that died but there must be the acceptance of the fact and a perception of the significance of the fact that he was raised

16:02 from the dead and let me then suggest three lines of thought this morning how the fact of the resurrection of christ relates directly to the confidence of no condemnation first of all you that resurrection was the vindication of god upon christ's personal claims the resurrection of christ was the vindication of god upon christ's personal claims now what did christ claim to be well among other things he claimed to be the sinless son of god who took upon himself

16:44 the task of saving others by his death matthew 20 28 the son of man is come not to be ministered unto but to minister and to do what to give his life a ransom for many he was constantly asserting as we read in john 14 this morning i'm not here on my own mission i'm not just here a la jesus christ superstar trying to figure out who i am he was conscious of who he was he said i'm speaking the words that my father gives me to speak i do the works that my Father gives me to do. I do always the things that please the Father. My Father loveth me because I lay down my life. The Father has given all judgment unto the Son that all may

17:28 honor Him as they honor the Father. I've been quoting from the book of John. Now that's what Christ claimed to be. The one beloved of the Father. The one moving, speaking, acting under

17:40 the direct superintendence of the Father's will. That's what He claimed. But now we have a problem. From the point that He walked out of the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus Christ is found in but one posture. The posture of a common criminal. May I repeat that? From the point that He walks out of

18:07 His wrestlings in Gethsemane, Jesus Christ is found from that point to the point where He breathes His last and says, into thy hands I commend my spirit. He's found in an exclusive role. That is the act of a common criminal. Go back and read the Gospel history. He is bound as a common

18:28 criminal. He is dragged from one court of judgment to another as a common criminal. He is beaten with stripes as a common criminal. Accusations are hurled at Him as a common criminal. And finally

18:44 the bloodthirsty cry rings through the streets in that early morning. Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Away with this man! Give us

18:53 a common criminal. He staggers under the load of His own cross as a common criminal until a bystander is forced to carry that cross for Him. As a common criminal, He's stretched out upon that cross. As a common criminal, the nails are pounded into His hands and feet. As a common criminal, He is hung

19:13 up to die. He is found in no other role but that of a common criminal. Not only is that true with reference to what men did to Him, but it's even true with reference to what men did to Him. Men look upon Him, and they turn away in disgust and horror at that ugly form, battered and bruised.

19:40 And that is as though the Father says, yes, and I do the same. And so He pulls that shroud of blackness across the heavens until, feeling the pain of the Father's abandonment, Jesus cries out as a common criminal, forsaken, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some say, oh, He's calling things to Him. He's calling things to Him. He's calling things to Him. He's

20:03 calling things to Elias. Let's see if God will send some to help. But the heavens are not rent. The Father does not speak now as He spoke at His baptism. This is my Son, my beloved,

20:14 in whom I am well pleased. The Father is absolutely silent. They say, He saved others. In short, He cannot save. Look at Him. He's an imposter. He's gotten His just desert. And it's as though

20:27 the Father stands back absolutely silent. I say from the point of Gethsemane onward, our Lord is found in no other position but that of a common criminal. And this be the one whose claims are valid? I do always the things that please the Father? Why is the Father silent

20:54 in this awful hour? Who said, come unto me, all ye that labor, and I will give you rest?

21:05 Bloody, exploring form upon a cross? Be the one who's able to fulfill such stupendous claims? It says, My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me, and I know them, and I give and know them, and they know Me, and I give unto them eternal life. No one will pluck them out of My hand.

21:22 And here He is dying upon a cross. Pretty wild claims, aren't they? He said, The Father has given all judgment unto Me. The hour is coming in which everyone that is in the grave will hear the voice of the Son of God.

21:37 Hear the voice of the Son of God? That voice that now cries out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Those are pretty stupendous claims. All seem to shrivel and wither into nothing but boastful and delusive claims in the hour of His death.

21:58 May I say, had that been the end of the story, Paul would never have been able to say, Who is He that condemned me?

22:06 But it was in the realization that Christ who died was raised, and that His being raised was the vindication of God upon everyone's claims. I want to turn you to an Old Testament passage which has just thrilled me as I've been preparing for these. Because it's the very passage from which Paul gets his wording in Romans 8 applied to all the people of God, but its original Old Testament setting, it applies only to the Lord Jesus. Isaiah chapter 50.

22:39 Isaiah chapter 50.

22:44 This is clearly one of those passages which could have no true fulfillment except in the Lord Jesus. Verse 4.

22:54 The Lord hath given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning. He wakeneth mine ear to hear. As they that are taught, there's the obedient servant of Jehovah.

23:11 Morning by morning, great while before day, he was out praying, getting directions from his Father. The application of the general directives of Scripture to his own particular circumstances. He discovered the will of God as we discover it, as a man, as the obedient servant, servant of Jehovah. He wakeneth morning by morning.

23:31 He wakeneth mine ear to hear. The Lord hath opened my ear, and I was not rebellious. Neither turned away backward. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.

23:45 I hid not from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help me. Therefore I have not been confounded. Therefore have I set my face like a flint.

23:58 Remember? Remember there in the Gospel of Luke, he steadfastly set his face to Jerusalem. What was his confidence? Knowing that he was going to give his back to the smiters.

24:08 That as his ear was opened morning by morning, and there came to our Lord the deepening awareness that his one mission was to lay down his life on behalf of his own. And as he faces with this determination, setting his face like a flint, what gives him some measure of confidence? Notice. I know that I shall not be put to shame.

24:32 He is near that justifieth me. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is mine adversary?

24:42 Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord will condemn me. Who is he that shall condemn? The Lord will help me.

24:51 Who is he that shall condemn me? See the question? Who is he that shall condemn me? Behold, they shall all wax old as a garment, and the moth shall eat them up.

25:02 Do you see the setting of these words? It's Messiah. Facing what he must face as the substitute of his people. But facing it in the confidence that though there is apparent abandonment, God who would justify him is near.

25:20 Not justified in the sense that he ever had sins of his own, from which he needed a declaration of righteous. But the declaration, the declaration of God, my son, is all he claimed to be. He is justified in his claims. All judgment has been given unto me.

25:39 I do always the things that please my Father. I keep my sheep. I give to them eternal life. I am the way.

25:47 I am the truth. I am the life. All of those claims that seem to be sunk into oblivion upon the cross. Messiah is confident that the Father is near who would justify, and would justify him in such a way that no one would be able to rise up and say, your claims are invalid.

26:09 And I ask the question, when was that justification of the Father to the claims of the Son made?

26:19 Well, the scripture answers it. 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16. Here is the answer of scripture to the question raised by Isaiah chapter 50. 1 Timothy chapter 3.

26:35 It is the mystery of godliness. He who was manifested in the flesh justified in or by the Spirit. And when was that justification of the Spirit? Cross-referencing this with 1 Peter 3.18.

26:58 I believe we have the answer. 1 Peter 3 and verse 18.

27:06 Because Christ also suffered for sins once the righteous for the unjust that he might bring up the world. As to God being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit, where the Spirit is the active force in his resurrection. Hence, Paul says, he was justified in the Spirit. That is justified in and by the Spirit in the resurrection.

27:33 So that Messiah's confidence that he was near who would justify him was not disappointed. And at the point of his resurrection, and coming forth to life, the Father is doing what? He is vindicating every personal claim made by the Son of God. Now do you see the relationship of that confidence to the statement, who is he that condemneth?

28:00 You've entrusted your sin-sick, defiled soul into the hands of Jesus Christ, who in the days of his flesh said, Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. How could you have any confidence that that claim would be fulfilled had he stayed upon a cross or stayed in a tomb?

28:25 It takes a living Christ to keep living saints in the way of holiness. For there is great remaining corruption. And there is the seductive influence of an evil world and the subtle influence of a hateful devil. And yet the apostle says, Who have it condemneth?

28:44 God who purposed that I should be like his Son and has taken in hand to actually glorify me. Who is he that condemneth? Christ died, yea rather, is risen from the dead so that every claim he made with reference to being an able and a mighty and a powerful Savior from beginning to end, every claim is a valid claim. When he said, I keep my sheep and none shall pluck them out of my hand, that's not the hand of a dead Christ, but the hand of a living Christ who conquered death and hell to the end that the full of God may know that Christ is everything he claimed to be.

29:28 Now we often take that for granted, but let me encourage you to do something. The next time you're reading in the Gospels and you're reading some of these stupendous claims of Christ, will you try to read them as though you were standing beneath the foot of the cross two minutes after he died and see how much sense you can make out of them. With your mind's eye, go with your Bible to Mount Calvary and behold the bruised, beaten form of the Son of God in the heavens shrouded in blackness and then imagine yourself hearing these words that came from his lips a few short months before.

30:08 I and my Father are one. I know my sheep and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy, laden. I will give you rest.

30:24 Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. All judgment hath been given. Can you see? Can you feel something of what the resurrection did to those apostles and disciples?

30:34 You wonder why they got so excited? It's because there's a sense in which they had to do that. They couldn't go with their Bibles but they could go with their memories.

30:44 That's why those two on the road to Emmaus were in such bad shape. They said, we had hoped that it would be he who would redeem Israel. All his promises, all his claims, they were dead. Nothing left.

31:02 Ah, but when the Lord revealed himself, what? As the one who had to die but through death would come to resurrection and therefore met every prophecy of the Old Testament, they said, did not our hearts burn?

31:17 Why? When he opened unto us the Scriptures and showed us that he was the living and the risen Christ. Oh, child of God, this morning, if you have any wavering in your own spirit and you lack that confidence that Paul had, who is he that condemneth? Perhaps the problem is not so much that you have not penetrated the essential meaning of the death of Christ, but you have failed to see the vindication of the claims of Christ in his resurrection.

31:49 And he is all that he claimed he was. And he is all that for one purpose, completing you the work that he has begun in fulfillment of the Father's design to bring many sons.

Resurrection as Confirmation of Christ's Acceptable Sacrifice

32:04 But then, in the second place, the meaning of that resurrection is not only to be found in that it was a vindication of God upon the personal claims of Christ, but secondly, it was the confirmation of God upon the acceptable sacrifice of Christ. Not only vindication of his personal claims, but confirmation of his acceptable sacrifice. Remember when he was alive what Jesus said? He said, I give my life a ransom for many.

32:34 I lay down my life for the sheep. And the last, second last set of words which he uttered were these, It is finished.

32:48 So his claim was that he would offer an acceptable ransom. His declaration in his dying moments was that ransom has been offered. Divine justice has been satisfied. Now the question I press upon your conscience is this, how do you know?

33:07 How do I know that the Father was fully pleased with the offering his Son made? How do I know that in trusting the whole weight of my sin-sick soul to Christ, as we said last week, not putting one hand upon Christ and three fingers upon Christ and two left for my own efforts in my own performance, but both hands, ten fingers upon Christ, how do I know that somewhere out there in the moral universe there has not been some angel or some demon or some, some seraphim that will not find some area of sin, some area of deflection from God's holy law that has not yet been atoned for and in that day breathe before me and as it were

33:51 turn to God and say, God, are you a just God? Are you the God who will by no means clear the guilty? Look at this sin that I've discovered in that man. What do you say to that, God?

34:04 How do I know that that won't happen? And my friend, if that thought is never terrified, you've never taken God or your sin seriously.

34:13 If there is but one sin, one little segment of the self-life that turned aside from God's standard, one little attitude, one little motive, one little word, I know that the last thing of the debt of my sin has been fully paid. How do I know? Here's the answer. It is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather, that was raised raised from the dead and the resurrection of Christ is God's confirmation upon the acceptable sacrifice that He made.

34:53 Let me illustrate. Suppose you heard of a certain king who also acted as judge in his kingdom. He was known for his absolute and inflexible justice, for his impeccable, spotless moral integrity, he could never be moved by a bribe, he could never be threatened by pressure to deviate from the path of inflexible justice. Now you hear of a certain man who's committed a crime in his kingdom.

35:27 And he's come before the king for a pronouncement of judgment upon his crime. The nature of his crime is such that he is sentenced to spend either five years in prison or to pay a million dollars. And you're there when you hear of a certain king and you hear this judge who has a history of absolute moral integrity, inflexible justice, never deflects from the strict demands of the law, always meets out the just punishment for the equivalent crime. This is the history of his whole duty and the performance of his duty as judge and as king.

36:05 And you hear the sentence given to this man. He's pronounced by name and says, five years in prison or pay the fine of a million dollars. If three weeks later you happen to be downtown buying some peaches and pears in the marketplace and you see this fellow next to you buying peaches and pears and you say, hey, he looks like the guy that got sentenced a few weeks ago and you say to him, are you so? Yes, sir.

36:26 Are you the man who committed such and such a crime? Yes, sir. Without asking one further question, what do you know about that man? Well, if your knowledge of the judge has been accurate and if his character has not changed, you know one of two things.

36:42 Either somehow five years got compressed into three weeks, which is, impossible, or he scratched up a million dollars and his debt to justice has been paid. If you have confidence in the inflexible nature of the justice of the judge, if you ever see the guilty man walking free, you know that justice has been satisfied. Now, do you see the application to the resurrection of Christ? When the Lord Jesus stood before the bar of his Father, not as a private person, as a private person the Father said of his Son again and again, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

37:25 But when he stood as a public person, that is, when he stood as the surety and the substitute of his people and said to the Father, Father, as a righteous and a holy judge whose justice is inflexible, I commit myself to pay everything, everything that your law demands of all those on whose behalf I stand. Knowing what we know of God who changes not, who is of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity, the Father says to the Son, yes, my Son, and the penalty due to all of those for whom you stand as substitute and surety is nothing less than death,

38:10 the wages of sin.

38:14 And we see the Father meeting out in inflexible justice upon the Son, the full weight of the broken law of his people for the strength of the Holy Spirit. The Scripture says he tasted death for everyone. He died, he hung his head and cried out in agony, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken? So that then that first Easter morning when you go into a garden you find the criminal walking free.

38:45 The prison door has been opened. It held him for three days and nights. Death hurts, pray. And there was no question that the Father had meted out the punishment but the question is did he pay the last farthing?

39:01 Was the full demand of the law absolutely met? Ah, dear child of God, that's the message of Easter. The guilty is walking free. He's walking free.

39:16 And the living resurrected Christ is God's confirmation that the sacrifice is accepted, that death against his people is met and paid. Hence the apostles ring affirmation that condemneth.

39:35 He's confident that there is no seraphim, cherubim, no angel, no devil, no human being who will find one sin which will demand the sentence of condemnation against the least of the children of the living God.

39:58 Child of God, that's the message of Easter. Christ that died yea rather that he is risen from the dead. The criminal is walking free not for himself for he never had to vindicate himself but he's walking free for all who come unto God by him. So dear child of God, when conscience condemns you and reminds you of your sin, where is the place of refuge and of peace?

40:34 Peter says in 1 Peter 3.21 the answer of a good man's good conscience by the what? The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Conscience finds peace not in praying yourself into a lather to where you feel good.

40:52 What happens when your lather burns off before the burning heat of the next sin you commit and conscience condemns again? It's the problem with some of you. You're looking for your peace. The ability to pray yourself into a spirit frame and then you wonder why you lose your peace the first time you sin.

41:11 You won't ever have the answer of a good conscience upon any other foundation than this. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Who did it condemn it? Let my conscience rise up and hurl its accusations and I say to my conscience I have fled for refuge to the Lamb of God to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness.

41:37 I have looked to Christ crucified and conscience says ah yes but how do you know that the house that's enough I say the criminal is walking free the debt's been paid it is Christ Jesus that was raised from the dead. Oh dear child of God if the Holy Ghost enables you to grasp some aspect of that truth if you don't say hallelujah with your lips you'll have hallelujahs in your heart.

42:05 Oh my conscience condemns me tell conscience Christ rose tell your conscience that but about the law has God in any way relaxed the demands of his law now? Not one bit? Am I still to love him with the whole heart? Yes?

42:22 Am I still to have the totality of my life conformed to his will? Yes? Well then how can I have peace? Every day I break that law in thought in word in deed where is peace?

42:35 Romans 8 7 says what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemns sin in the flesh. And so I look to that one in whom sin was condemned and I say yes but was that condemnation sufficient even for these sins that I've committed as a believer even this day? Yes it is because if it were not Christ would have to go back under the power of that broken law which is death but my Bible says Christ Jesus having died and been raised he dies no more death hath no more dominion over him and if death has no dominion over him the death he died and the resurrection he experienced were for me then death

43:19 has no dominion over me why? because sin has no more dominion over me the strength of sin the sting of death is the law the strength of sin is where? in the law but thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus so then Paul's words who is he that condemneth are rooted in the confidence of the resurrection of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ a resurrection which was not only an affirmation vindication of the Lord's claims upon himself or concerning himself a confirmation of the adequate sacrifice

Resurrection as Prediction of Believers' Ultimate State

44:04 but then in the third place our Lord's resurrection was the prediction of God concerning the ultimate state of all the people of God it was the prediction of God concerning the ultimate state of all the people of God as we've seen again and again in this study what Jesus Christ did he did as the representative of his people and in a real sense God's dealings with his people follow the exact pattern of his dealings with his son you can't read Ephesians 2 and miss that was he raised we're raised with him was he exalted we were exalted with him was he made to sit in the heavenlies we were made to sit with him Romans 6 we died with him

44:49 we were buried with him we were raised with him there's that whole pattern God's dealings with his son is the pattern of His dealings with His people. Hence, Christ is called in 1 Corinthians 15, 20, the resurrection chapter, this unique thing. But now is Christ Jesus raised from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. Now you know, don't you, what the firstfruits concept is.

45:19 You have treatment of it in Leviticus 23 and many other Old Testament passages. When the harvest was ripe, a portion of that harvest was gleaned and was brought in as an offering unto the Lord and it seemed to have a twofold significance. There may be more, but at least these two things. It was a sanctifying of the entire harvest.

45:39 In bringing a portion unto God, there was a sanctifying of the entire harvest as being God's gift and therefore to be used unto God's glory. The same way the giving of our tithes and offerings. It's not the idea that's sacred money and the rest is profane. But when we reach into our pocketbooks and take the fruit of the week's check and we put it in an envelope and give it unto God, there's a sense in which we are giving that portion which in turn sanctifies the whole because we acknowledge in this that this is the Lord's possession and belongs unto Him.

46:14 And then the concept of the firstfruits involved the second thing. It was pledge that the rest would be coming. When you saw a man coming in from the field with his arms full of the firstfruits, you knew. That there was a harvest behind it.

46:28 And it's in that second sense that the thought dominates here in 1 Corinthians 15-20. Christ has become the first fruit of those that slept. Telling us in what happens to Christ what will happen to all of the people.

46:48 So our ultimate resurrection to everlasting life in glorified bodies whom He justified, He glorified. So certain, Paul can put it in the past tense. Why? Because Christ was first.

47:03 God had no intention of raising us to everlasting life with Him. He never would have brought in the firstfruits. And so Christ being raised from the dead is God's prediction of the ultimate state.

47:22 Apply that to the struggles you have with your sins, dear Christian. In those times when you feel so little of the presence of God and so little true devotion to the Son of God and you say, Will God take the likes of me?

47:39 The presence of martyrs and confessors and the McShanes and the Bonars and the Luthers and the Calvins and the Covenanters and the great saints of God whose names I'm not worthy to mention. How can I hope?

47:58 Can I have the confidence that none will condemn me? When even the standard of life of my fellow believers in this church, many of them, they condemn me by their obvious deeper love to Christ, greater zeal for His glory, I can't have that kind of assurance. Ah, dear child of God, get your eyes off martyrs and Covenanters and the Calvins and the Luthers and the Zwinglis and your fellow saints and get hold of this truth. Who is He that condemneth?

48:24 It is Christ that was raised from the dead. Your future is predicted not by what you assess of your greater or lesser devotion to Christ in comparison to fellow believers, but your future history has been predicted by what God has predicted. What God did to His Son.

48:45 He is first of them that slept.

48:51 I know what some of you are thinking. Oh, my, I believe that. That'll lead to license. You think so?

48:58 That won't lead to license, my friend. You have this kind of confidence that Paul did and will lead you right down through to the end of this chapter. You say, for thy sake, we are killed all the day long. With that kind of confidence, let the world do what it wants to me.

49:12 Let it kick me, beat me, kill me. It can never condemn me. That's all it matters to me. Caught the world's favor.

49:21 I don't caught my own knees in my own pleasure. I must know that the God against whom I sin will never, never in all eternity raise a finger to point the accusation resulting in condemnation. And the confidence that Paul had and the grounds of his confidence though he was saved by a direct revelation, though he was caught up into the third heavens, isn't it interesting? That his confidence of no condemnation was not based on anything other than that which is the heritage of the humblest child of God.

The Common Heritage of Assurance and a Call to the Unconverted

50:00 He doesn't say, Who is he that condemneth? I've seen angels. I've heard angels' voices. Who is he that condemneth?

50:07 I've been caught up to the good heavens. Who yielded himself directly to me on the road to Damascus? That isn't what he says. He says, Who is he that condemneth?

50:17 Paul, where do you get that confidence? It is Christ that died. Christ that rose. Christ that went to the right hand of God.

50:28 I say that is the common heritage of the most immature newborn babe in Christ. And Paul never got the ark. Some of you say, Oh, if I could just have visitations from the Lord like I read some of the saints had, then I'd really be assured. No, you wouldn't.

50:48 No, you wouldn't. Oh, but if I could just have the Lord speak directly...

50:52 No, that wouldn't help. My friend, you've got to come to that place where your settled hope is right here. Where Paul's was.

51:04 And I would say in closing this morning, to those of you who are not in Christ Jesus, this is children's bread.

51:14 This is the bread of God for those who are in Christ Jesus. Where the whole chapter began, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Everything said in verse 34 and everything I've said in seeking to expound it assumes that you're in Christ. And I would close by pressing that question upon your conscience today.

51:34 Are you in Christ? In Christ Jesus? If not, then everything in God's universe will rise up to condemn you if you die in that state. Your conscience will rise up in the day of judgment and will remind you of all the sins you've committed and there'll be no refuge for that guilty conscience.

51:52 Men with whom you've sinned will rise up to point the accusing finger. Angels and devils will rise up and everything in the moral universe of God will say a hearty amen when God says to you, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire.

52:10 There's no refuge from that inevitable sentence of condemnation leading to judgment and eternal damnation but to get into Christ. There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ. Not in the church. Not in a way of morality.

52:27 Not in a way of religiosity. You must get into Christ. You say, but how can I get into Christ?

52:34 Repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel. Learn from playing God and running the show and telling God that you're alright and you don't need to be cleansed by the blood of His Son.

52:48 You don't need to be renewed by His Spirit. You've got a controversy with God. God says you're so bad that nothing short of the infusion of divine life and the new birth will help you. Now you just get all that silliness out of your head that you're not quite that bad.

53:02 Jesus said, except you be born again you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. And you accept God's indictment against you. Cry to God that He show you how true it is. And then that same God invites you, encourages you, commands you to embrace His Son who stands before all men in the gospel as a willing and an able Savior and says, come unto Me.

53:25 Do you long to be able to say, who is He that condemneth? Oh, you say, I'd give anything to know that I'll never come under condemnation from anything in heaven or in hell. My friend, the only way to come to that is to get into vital, direct contact with Jesus Christ. And the only way you contact Christ is through believing the gospel.

53:49 That's it. Oh, you say, that's too simple. Yes, I know, that offends your pride. That's why the gospel is called a stumbling block to the wise.

53:57 Foolishness.

53:59 Are you in Christ? If you're in Christ in a living faith then, my dear child of God, don't rest until you can say with Paul, who is He that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died. Yea, rather, that is risen from the dead.