The Resurrection: Its Veracity, Counterfeits, Power & Significance | Luke 24:1-27

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preface this by saying that here at our church we're not here we're not the kind of church that just gives banal superficialities or platitudes we like to dive deep into the whole counsel of God and that's what we're going to do today as we do every

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Sunday so get ready to go deep into the word and there might be some chafing on the way some bumping and bruising but that's okay hoping to pray that the message will still bless you anyway the first section

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I am going to preach on the resurrection and the first section I have here is the resurrection and its historical reality and if we turn to Luke 24

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I'm going to read parts of Luke 24 I'm going to skip around verses 1 through 7 and 13 to 27 so in Luke 24 we have essentially the appearance of the

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Lord and after his resurrection so Luke 24 starting on verse 1 it says but on the first day of the week at early dawn they went to the tomb taking the spices they had prepared and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb but when they went in they did not find the body of the

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Lord Jesus while they were perplexed about this behold two men stood by them in dazzling apparel and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground the men said to them why do you seek the living among the dead he is not here but has risen remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the

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Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise that very day two of them were going to a village named

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Emmaus Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened while they were talking and discussing together

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Jesus drew himself near and went with them but their eyes were kept from recognizing him and he said to them what is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk and they stood still looking sad then one of them named

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Cleopas answered him are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened here in these days and he said to them what things and he said and they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth a man who was a prophet mighty indeed and word before God and all the people and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him but he had hoped but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem

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Israel yes and besides all this it is now the third day since these things happen moreover some women of our company amazed us they were at the tomb early in the morning and when they did not find his body they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said he was alive some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said but him they did not see and he said to them

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Oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken was it not necessary that the

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Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory that's a key phrase and beginning with Moses and all the prophets he interpreted to him them and all the scriptures of things concerning himself so this phrase especially

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I wanted to zero in zero in on this is the historical reality of the resurrection that it actually happened many people witnessed it and Christ is saying something about the resurrection that is part of the doctrine of the resurrection that Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory the resurrection is closely tied together with glorification with our final perfect state so that is a critical part to the doctrine now the next section here is the resurrection and the gospel because the resurrection is absolutely vital to the gospel this makes it a primary doctrine it is vital and essential to the gospel so if we turn to 1st

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Corinthians 15 now we're going to see Paul break down in summary form just what the gospel is and what it entails so 1st

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Corinthians 15 starting in verse 1 1st

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Corinthians 15 starting in verse 1 now

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I would remind you brothers of the gospel I preached to you which you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word

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I preached to you unless you believed in vain for I delivered to you as a first importance what

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I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures that he was buried and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the

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Scriptures and that he appeared to Kephas then to the twelve so this is a summary of what the gospel is and as you can see on the third day he was raised in accordance with the

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Scriptures this is foretold prophetically in the Old Testament and by Christ himself and we see that it is a vital part of the gospel later on Paul is going to further break that down and show the importance of the resurrection which we'll get to a little bit later and so the gospel is essentially that Christ came the

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God the Son became a man he was born under the Virgin Mary he lived a perfect flawless sinless life and to fulfill the law that we were condemned under under the covenant that was broken in Adam that's why the

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Bible talks about in Adam all die in Christ all are made alive so he lived the perfect life and fulfilled all righteousness the righteousness that we could never fulfill being fallen sinners in Adam and so he also died a sacrificial atoning propitious death a propitious death on the cross his death satisfied the wrath of God the wrath of God that was directed at us for being fallen sinners and haters of God and disobedient and every thought word and deed prior to coming to Christ in him changing in and regenerating us and granting us the gift of faith to believe in him so the

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Christ died for our sins on that cross he bore the curse and full wrath of God and he also rose again to newness of life he rose again to demonstrate that everything he said was true and so the gospel is about the person and the work of Christ the who

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Christ is and what he did for us both in his life and in his death which is also in theology is called the active and passive obedience of Christ so now now that we have before we dive further into that the next section here

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I do want to address the resurrection and the counterfeits because the reality of the situation that we live in is that we live in a very pagan society and a lot of times religious holidays tend to get mixed with pagan elements this is very common and you we see this and in several of the holidays such as Halloween Halloween is very satanic it's got a lot of demonic elements to it but there's also

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Reformation Day on how on the 31st which is the the real reason that we should be celebrating on that day was when

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Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses and the Reformation of the church began to start in mass by on mass

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I mean at large not in mass well I mean you could maybe both are true so there then you have also

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Christmas Christmas being about the birth of Christ right the nativity and the birth but then you also have the pagan additions with Santa and the reindeer and all that stuff that has nothing to do with Christ's birth and then we come to what we are celebrating today which is

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Easter and Resurrection Sunday so these religious holidays are not mandatory so the

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Bible does not obligate us to celebrate the birth or the death or the resurrection of Christ but if we do celebrate them we should do so as discerning worshipful

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Christians who observe Christ person and work without the pagan practices so and why is this because Jesus said

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I am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except through me this is also part of the regulative principle of the church that we are we are commanded to worship as God commands us to in his word so we therefore should not give credence or participate in pagan alternatives such as the the elements that we see in Easter so now 2nd

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Corinthians 2 9 through 11 says this is why I wrote that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything anyone whom you forgive

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I also forgive indeed what I have forgiven if I have forgiven anything has been for your sake in the presence of Christ so that we would not be outwitted by Satan for we are not ignorant of his designs so the

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Bible clearly repeatedly and emphatically teaches us to not be ignorant especially of our enemy and how he operates okay and so let's break this down a little bit let's go through some history now according to Adam online .com

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the word Easter is Old English Easter dag from Easter or the

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North Northumbrian Eoster it's also the name of a goddess of fertility and spring perhaps originally of sunrise whose feast was celebrated at the spring equinox now bead who is an early who was an early

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English monk and church historian says that Anglo -Saxon Christians of the

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Roman Catholic Church adopted her Easter that is and many of her name and many of the celebratory practices for for their mass of Christ's resurrection almost all neighboring languages use a variant of Latin Pascha to name this holiday so and this is a quote from bead and his

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Ecclesia is I think it's his he has a book called the reckoning of time

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I believe and this is what he says the Eoster Monath which is Easter month has a name which is now translated

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Paschal month and which was once called after a goddess of theirs name Eoster in whose honor feasts were celebrated in that month now they designate that the

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Paschal that Paschal season by her name calling the joys of the new right by the time honored name of the old observance so you see the

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Catholic Church is very very often would merge they would put a

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Christian blanket on top of the pagan religions that were around that they were evangelizing to so the paganish customs of Easter have grown to popular in around the 1900s in in society in our society before that they were limited to German immigrants now so here we see that Easter is essentially a pagan custom that has absolutely nothing to do with Christ's death burial and resurrection the rabbits the eggs all that stuff symbolizes fertility birth and rebirth in pagan worship and you can see why the rabbits many if you know rabbits reproduce a lot so they they tend to be a symbol of fertility and an ancient form of false god worship is to make food resembling the idols and worship them by eating them and thus be blessed by them so if we turn to Jeremiah 44 we're gonna see an example of that and in Jeremiah 44 starting in verse 15 in the

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Old Testament yeah Jeremiah 44 starting in verse 15 so here it says then all the men who were aware that their wives were burning sacrifices to other gods along with all the women who were standing by as a large assembly including all the people who were living in Patheros in the land of Egypt responded to Jeremiah saying as for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the

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Lord we are not going to listen to you but we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths by burning sacrifices to the

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Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her just as we ourselves our forefathers our

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Kings and our leaders did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem for then we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no misfortune but since we stopped burning sacrifices to the

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Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her we have lacked everything and we have met our end by sword and by famine and said the women when we were burning sacrifices to the

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Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her was it without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her so there you see what the key verse here is towards the end when he said when they say we made for her sacrificial cakes in her image shaped in the image of the idol and as you can probably connect start connecting the dots now

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Easter essentially promotes the exact same thing it celebrates rebirth and fertility and promotes the pagan practice of eating idols the boiled colored eggs chocolate rabbits and in the pagan the the pagan custom it was in order to be blessed with fertility vitality and the attributes that the goddess or the

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God would provide now Easter or Eostra is the Anglo -Saxon goddess of fertility in spring which is what

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I read from edamonline .com which is also equivalent to the Sumerian goddess

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Ishtar Asterith or Sumerimus in the Bible which we just read in Jeremiah 44 also known as the

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Queen of Heaven the Queen of Heaven was Ishtar or Asterith which consequently the

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Roman Catholic Church has also taken that title and appropriated it to Mother Mary which is again idolatry that's idolatry and so we must also not do what the

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Roman Catholic Church did to try to baptize these pagan practices into the church because you cannot reinterpret or baptize pagan practices to make them acceptable so in other words you know some churches will try to say well the broken

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Easter egg is like the open tomb or you know the like the empty tomb right so you really it doesn't work it doesn't work that way and we'll see why because the

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Bible has a clear directive regarding these things so the Roman Catholic Church also adds many other traditions to it like Lent Ash Wednesday and other very unbiblical practices on top of this this season so the

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Bible however clearly teaches us to abstain from come out of and be separate and not partake in false idolatrous or pagan practices so we can ask ourselves now what was

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God's response to the idolatrous Jews who worshipped the Queen of Heaven and so if we go back to Jeremiah 44 in verse 20 we'll see a summary or we'll see what happened to the

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Jews that were offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven so starting for Jeremiah 44 starting verse 20 since you have burned sacrifices and have sinned against the

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Lord and not obeyed the voice of the Lord nor walked in his law his statutes or his testimonies therefore this disaster has happened to you as it has this day then

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Jeremiah said to all the people including all the women hear the word of the Lord all Judah who are in the land of Egypt this is what the

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Lord of Armies the God of Israel says as for you and your wives you have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled it with your hands saying we will certainly perform our vows that we have vowed to burn sacrifices to the

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Queen of Heaven and pour out drink offerings to her by all means fulfill your vows and be sure to perform your vows in return hear the word of the

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Lord and Judah who are living in the land of Egypt behold I have sworn by my great name says the

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Lord that by my name shall never be invoked again by the mouth of anyone in Judah in all the land of Egypt saying as the

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Lord God lives as the Lord God lives behold I am watching over them for harm and not for good and all the people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will meet their end by sword or by famine until they are completely gone so God destroyed them essentially for worshiping the the idol the

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Queen of Heaven who is asterisk so and and you'll see one thing they do is very common that other people who are unbelievers or who have who are

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Roman Catholics especially we once I once heard a woman say well one time

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I prayed to Mother Mary and she protected me and she got me she was able to get me safely across the country or something like that and that's that's the it's a it's a logical fallacy known as the post hoc ergo proctor hoc that because of this therefore that and so people will attribute falsely to idols what really belongs to God alone right because it was not the idol it wasn't

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Mary that safely brought her to the country it was a sovereign

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God of the Bible right and that's what they were doing they were saying the Queen of Heaven was taking care of us we were blessed we were all we had all these blessings and we didn't lack anything and then they suffered famine and they were blaming that for their lack of worship to the

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Queen of Heaven Jeremiah says no it's because of your false worship to the Queen of Heaven that these calamities are coming upon you because God is judging you right so now let's turn to the

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New Testament in Ephesians 5 1 through 17 yeah

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Ephesians 5 verses 1 through 17 in the New Testament here we're going to see essentially the attitude that we are called to have in Christ regarding falsehoods and lies so Ephesians 5 starting in verse 1 therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fake a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among Saints let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place but instead let there be

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Thanksgiving for you may be sure of this that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous that is an idolatry has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience therefore do not become partners with them for at one time you were darkness but now you are light in the

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Lord walk as children of the light for the fruit of light is found and all that is good and right and true and try to discern what is pleasing to the

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Lord take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them okay take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them for it is shameful even to speak of the things they do in secret but when anything exposed by the light it becomes visible for anything that becomes visible is light therefore it says awake

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Oh sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you look carefully then how you walk not as unwise but as wise making the best use of the time because the days are evil therefore do not be foolish but understand what the will of the

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Lord is very critical passage here regarding what we've been discussing is to not have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them do not partake in in other words now if we turn to 2nd

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Corinthians chapter 6 starting in verse 14 through 18 2nd

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Corinthians chapter 6 verses 14 through 18 another very important passage regarding false practices 2nd

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Corinthians chapter 6 verses 14 through 18 which says do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness what accord has

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Christ with Belial or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever what agreement has the temple of God with idols for we are the temple of the living

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God as God said I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their

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God and they shall be my people therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them says the

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Lord and touch no unclean thing then I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters of me says the

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Lord Almighty so here again you see the importance of not trying to baptize or to Christian eyes or to reinterpret pagan or false religious practices similar to how you know in Halloween for example you see trunk or tree right that's not the the

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Bible says come out from among them and be separate we are to be a peculiar people right the Bible also says to be a peculiar people and not partake of the unclean practices that are associated to false religious worship to idols so now the last passage here regarding this is in 1st

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Corinthians chapter 10 verses 18 through 22 we'll see here 1st

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Corinthians chapter 10 verses 18 through 22 so now that that reads consider the people of Israel are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar what do

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I imply them then that food offered to idols is anything or that an idol is anything no

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I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God I do not want you to be participants with demons you cannot drink the cup of the

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Lord in the cup of demons you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons shall we provoke the

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Lord to jealousy are we stronger than he so what's the moral of the story here the moral the story is to not wear

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Christianity on our sleeves is to take our faith seriously and apply it to every aspect of our lives right let every thought be taken captive to obedience to Christ to the

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Word of God so now am I saying that God is going to destroy you in your house for participating in these pagan practices no there's there's mercy and there's grace with God but at the same time if you look at the overwhelming message of what the

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Bible is teaching us it is to not participate in those false religious practices so with that in mind now let's let's move on to the next section of the resurrection and the

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Old Testament context so the word translated Easter in Acts 12 for of the

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King James Bible is Pascha Pascha means Passover and is the

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Jewish commemoration of God's destroyer angel sparing the firstborn children of the Israelites and those who posted lamb's blood on the doors on their doors when they were still in bondage to Egypt so Passover here also known as Piska Pesach or Pascha is a sacred observance in Judaism that commemorates the climactic 10th and final plague in the book of Exodus when

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Yahweh punishes Egypt by killing all the firstborn animals and children but passes over or Passach the firstborn of Israel resulting in the

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Israelites deliverance from slavery in Egypt and this is an Exodus 12 so I'm going to read you don't have to you can if you want to follow along in Exodus 12

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I'm going to I'm going to read different parts of it though so it's going to be maybe a little hard to follow along but I'm going to read

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Exodus 12 verses 12 to 13 and 21 through 27 so here in Exodus 12 says for I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt both man and beast and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments

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I am the Lord the blood shall be assigned for you and the houses where you are and when

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I see the blood I will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you when

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I strike the land of Egypt then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans and kill the

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Passover lamb take a take a bunch of hyssop take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning for the

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Lord will pass through this pass through to strike the Egyptians and when he sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts the

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Lord will pass over the door it will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you you shall observe this right as a statue for you and for your sons forever and when you come to the land that the

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Lord will give you as he promised you shall keep this service and when your children say to you what do you mean by this service you shall say it is a sacrifice of the

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Lord's Passover for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt when he struck the

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Egyptians but spared our houses and the people bowed their heads and worshipped okay so because of this awesome event in history in the

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Old Testament during the time of Moses when the Egyptians are the the Jews were still in bondage to in slavery to Egypt this

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Passover is what we resurrection Sunday in other words as with every

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Lord's Sunday should be about worshipping God rightly in the truth of his word that's why the people bowed their heads and worshipped so the goal of these religious holidays if we do observe them whether it's

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Christmas or Reformation Day or a resurrection day the goal is to worship

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God rightly in the truth of his word why because God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth as John 4 24 so Jesus is our

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Passover lamb and deliver from death and judgment he is the fulfillment of that Passover and we when

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Tim was preaching in John the Gospel of John John the Baptist said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world that is a reference to that Passover lamb in John 1 29 and Jude 1 5 also says now

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I want to remind you although you once fully knew it that Jesus who saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroy those who did not believe so it was

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Christ Christ was present everywhere in the Old Testament that's why he rebuked the people who were walking on the road to Emmaus he was saying you foolish ones and slow of heart to believe don't you realize that the

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Old Testament was completely about me it was all of these events were pointing to me and Christ is the fulfillment he is our

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Passover lamb so these again these religious holidays are not mandatory but if we do celebrate them we should do so as discerning worshipful

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Christians who observe Christ person and work whether it's the birth of Christ his life death resurrection and the

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Reformation of the church right which is what Reformation Day is about without the pagan practices so now the next section this is this is really good so I think you

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I think you'll enjoy this the rest of this next section is the resurrection and its power importance and significance so the resurrection we already read in 1st

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Corinthians 15 is absolutely central to the gospel Christ died for our sins he was he he was buried and he was

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I'm sorry let me let me just read it again Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures he was buried and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures so we must understand the resurrection however in its proper theological context now if if we turn to let's turn to Romans 4

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Romans chapter 4 verses 23 to 25 Romans chapter 4 verses 23 to 25

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Romans 4 verses 23 to 25 I'm gonna start in 23 but the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone but for ours also he's referring to Abraham I believe it will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead

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Jesus our Lord who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification so one thing here that we want to be mindful of is the last phrase especially who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification the

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Greek word dia which is translated for there for our justification can have different meanings depending on the context the

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English word for is also ambiguous and can mean either in order to or because of okay so we have to ask ourselves which would be the correct one did

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Jesus die I'm sorry was Jesus raised resurrected in order to justify us or because he justified us that's a key issue here now we see different depending on the version that you have the

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New King James and the Amplified and the NASB they do properly well I shouldn't I gave it away well darn it they they translated differently who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification now here's a really good quote from Horatius Bonar he wrote a book called the everlasting righteousness it's a very very good explanation of this issue the manifold blessings flowing from the resurrection and ascension are not to be overlooked but nowhere does scripture teach justification by these the one passage sometimes quoted to prove this declares the opposite in Romans 425 for the words truly translated run thus he was delivered because we had sinned and raised be and raised again because of our justification because of it was because the justifying work was finished on the cross that resurrection was possible had it not been so he must have remained under the power of the grave but the cross had completed the justification of his church he was raised from the dead death could no longer have dominion over him the work was finished the debt paid and the surety went free he he rose not in order to justify us but because we were justified in raising him from the dead

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God the Father cleared him from the imputed guilt which had nailed him to the cross and borne him down to the tomb he was justified in the

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Spirit according to 1st Timothy 316 his resurrection was not his justification but the declaration that he was justified so that resurrection in which we are one with him does not justify us but proclaims that we are justified justified by his blood and death it is his death that that propitiates and satisfies and justifies us that is why

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Jesus said on the cross it is finished right okay so now we're going to read let's turn to 1st

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Corinthians 15 again and we're going to go to verse 12 1st

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Corinthians 15 verse 12 we're going to read an extended portion of that all right 1st

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Corinthians 15 verse 12 now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead but if there is no resurrection of the dead then not even

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Christ has been raised and if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain we are even found to be misrepresenting

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God because we testified about God that he raised Christ whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised for if the dead are not raised not even

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Christ has been raised and if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile and you're still in your sins then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished if in Christ we have hope in this life only we are of all people most to be pity you can see what he's getting at there because anybody can claim hey

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I'm gonna die for your sins right anybody can claim that I'm gonna go and die for your sins but the proof in the pudding is are you really have power over death by coming back to life and that's how

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Jesus proved that I that his death satisfied the punishment that we deserve that justifies us so but if the resurrection is not true then we're not coming back to life there is no eternal life so continuing in verse 20 but in fact

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Christ has been raised from the dead the firstfruits who have fallen asleep for as by a man came death by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all die so also in Christ shall all be made alive but each one in his own order

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Christ the firstfruits then it is coming those who belong to Christ then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom of God the

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Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power for he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet the last enemy to be destroyed is death for God has put all things in subjection under his feet but when it says all things are put in subjection it is plain that he has accepted who put all things in subjection under him when all things are subjected to him then the son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him that God may be all in all otherwise what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead if the dead are not raised at all why are people baptized on their behalf why are we in danger every hour

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I protest brothers that by my pride in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord I die every day what do

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I gain if humanly speaking I fought with beasts at Ephesus if the dead are not raised let us drink and eat and drink for tomorrow we die do not be deceived bad company ruins good morals wake up for you from your drunken stupor as is right and do not go on sinning for some have no knowledge of God I say this to your shame now here this next section is very important because he's going to talk about our resurrection bodies but someone will ask how are the dead raised with what kind of body do they come you foolish person what you sow does not come to life unless it dies and what you sow is not the body that is to be but a kernel perhaps of wheat or some other grain but God gives it a body as he has chosen and to each kind of seed its own body for not all flesh is the same but there is one kind for humans another for animals another for birds and another for fish there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind and the glory of the earthly is of another there is one glory of the

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Sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars for stars different star star differs in star from glory so it is with the resurrection of the dead what is sown is perishable what is raised is imperishable it is sown in dishonor it is raised in glory remember

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Luke 24 that Jesus would be died and raised in glory right it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body if there is a natural body there is also a spiritual body thus it is written the first man

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Adam became a living being the the last Adam became a life -giving spirit but it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural and then the spiritual for the the first man was from the earth a man of dust the second man is from heaven as was the man of dust so also are those who are of the dust and as is a man of heaven so also are those who are of heaven who is the one who is the man of heaven it is

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Christ right just as we have borne the image of the man of dust we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven

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I tell you this brothers flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable behold

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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 at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed for this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality when the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality then shall come to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory

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Oh death where is your victory Oh death where is your sting amen so here we see an elaborate description of what our resurrection state will look like you'll you'll notice that if I can get to my notes you will notice how our bodies now are not going to look like our resurrection bodies they are going to be shiny glorious awesome powerful resurrection bodies free of disease free of sickness pain suffering free of sin free of all sin glorious bodies like his glorious body

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Christ so it is going to be an awesome awesome event and now resurrecting our assurance one thing

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I wanted to mention here towards the end there are many false teachers today that very subtly deny the resurrection by preaching a false doctrine of final justification or final salvation one such prominent example is

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John Piper now the first thing we want to do is ask ourselves because the timeline here is important what is the first thing

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Christ is going to do when he returns think about that what is the very first thing he's going to do when he returns the first thing let's turn to first Thessalonians 4 verses 13 through 18 1st

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Thessalonians 4 verses 13 through 18 so in 1st

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Thessalonians 4 verses 13 through 18 Paul says this but we do not want you to be uninformed brothers about those who are asleep that is dead that you may not grieve as others do do who have no hope for since we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so through Jesus God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep for this we declare to you by a word from the

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Lord that we who are alive who are left until the coming of the Lord will not proceed those who have fallen asleep for the

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Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command with the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first then we who are alive who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the

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Lord in the air and so we will be always be with the Lord therefore encourage one another with these words now encourage one another with these words what is so encouraging about this this is the this is so amazing that I I was blown away by how amazing this doctrine is because the answer to the what the first thing is that Christ is going to do when he returns is glorify us in resurrected glorified bodies so our in our state prior to that we don't have an imperishable immortal glorious body but when he returns that's the very first thing he's going to do the very first thing that is how loving a

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Savior and amazing a Savior Christ is the first thing is to immediately and fully glorify us in his return in a twinkling of an eye that's what

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Corinthians where we read in Corinthians in the twinkling of an eye we are going to be instantly glorified so everyone will know who belongs to God who belongs to heaven because they have a body that is like the man of heaven and who is going to be perishing because they will not have that glorious body they will have a body but it is not going to be a glorious body the resurrection of the just and of the unjust but our body will be fully glorified and resurrected when

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Jesus comes back what this also means is that on the final judgment when we face

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God we are going to be already fully and finally glorified there is not going to be any question about where we're going there is not going to be a judgment of God's people where was the judgment satisfied on the cross right we are going to show up in glorified bodies everyone will know that we are going to be glorified there is nothing to prove because Christ has done it improved it for us and our bodies will clearly demonstrate to everyone where we're going this is a danger of many false teaching teachers though like Piper who say who attempt to harmonize the resurrection of believers with Christ to turn in the final judgment by saying before we enter the final state of glory with our resurrection bodies on the new earth we will stand before Christ as judge in other words

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Christ is going to judge us according to him the deeds of this life will be the public criteria of judgment in the resurrection because our works are the evidence of the reality of our faith this is false gospel preaching okay this is false the evidence of the reality of our faith the proof of our faith the proof that we belong to him is our resurrection bodies on that day and there is no judgment there is no longer any judgment for believers so I want to quote here

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Michael Horton he has a an excellent quote here about the resurrection in a systematic theology he says there is no future aspect to justification itself in justific okay there is no future aspect it's done fully on the cross it was fully accomplished in justification the believer has already heard the verdict of the last judgment meaning you are not guilty pardon fully acquitted glorification is the final realization not of our justification but of its effects furthermore this future event both discloses the true identity of the covenant people as an act of the cosmic revelation of the justified children of God and actually transforms the whole justified person into a condition of immortality and perfect holiness the great a size awaiting the world at the end of the age is therefore not with respect to justification but to glorification all who have been justified are inwardly renewed and are being conformed to Christ's image but their cosmic vindication as the justified people of God will be revealed in the resurrection of the dead and just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment so Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time not to deal with sin why because that was settled on the cross for us for believers right but to save those who are eagerly awaiting for him that's

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Hebrews 9 27 and 28 through faith in Christ the verdict of the last judgment itself has already been rendered in our favor but our meager growth in holiness and unabated decay of our bodies attests that the full consequences of this verdict awaits a decisive future completion we receive our justification through believing what we heard we will receive our glorification and seeing the one we have heard face to face so what happened after Christ's death when the earth quaked and the rocks were split and the graves were open and many bodies of the

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Saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the graves after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many that's from Matthew 27 51 to 53 this is a mere foretaste of what we will see when he comes back if those who witness

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Jesus death and the transitory resurrection of the dead Saints feared greatly saying truly this was the

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Son of God imagine how much more earth shattering will the final resurrection and glorification of all believers be at Christ's return it is going to be unimaginable unimaginably awesome the only ones who will be looking to their good works as public evidence of their faith at the last judgment are the self -deceived legalists in Matthew 7 21 through 23 who would rather cover themselves with the useless fig leaves and the filthy rags of their own righteousness then with the blood and perfect righteousness and perfect glorified body that Christ has given us all through by and from him right nothing to do with us we contributed absolutely nothing absolutely nothing to our justification or glorification we take no credit right and the scriptures say

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I Lord Lord have we not prophesied in in your name cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name and then

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I will declare to them I never knew you depart from me you who practice law in this lawlessness so a final judgment what our believers gonna do they're gonna say look at my body father the body you have given me you are no longer my judge

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I'm in I'm welcome you have given everything to me praise

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God and they will worship the lamb forever everyone will know who belongs to God at final judgment by the power of the resurrection not by the believers own works because Christ alone accomplishes the salvation and glorification of his people

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I believe this is from the Belgian confession another reformed confession historic confession for it must necessarily follow that either all that is required for our salvation is not in Christ or if all is in him then we he who has

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Christ by faith has his salvation entirely amen the scriptures teach the believers resurrection the scripture ties the believers resurrection with Christ himself who is the resurrection and the life he who believes in me though he may die he shall live and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die but Christ resurrection power and perfect righteousness imputed to believers by faith alone as well as the resurrection vindication acquittal reward and glorification are not enough for false teachers like Piper instead they nullify them by insisting that necessary public legal evaluation of believers works are necessary a final judgment in order to be allowed into heaven that is rank heresy

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Christ has done it all already the Bible teaches that believers will receive glorified bodies immediately upon Christ's return as we already noted and so I'm gonna read the

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Westminster larger catechism question 52 because it has such an excellent summary of the doctrine of the resurrection how was

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Christ exalted in his resurrection Christ was exalted in his resurrection in that not having seen corruption and death of which it was not possible for him to be held and having the very same body in which he suffered with the essential properties thereof but without mortality and other common infirmities belonging to this life really united to the soul he rose again from the dead the third day by his own power whereby he declared himself to be the son of God to have satisfied divine justice to have vanquished death and him that had the power of it and to the be the

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Lord of quickened dead all which he did as a public person the head of his church because of their justification and to the quickening and grace support against enemies and to assure them of the resurrection from the dead at the last day now what are we to believe concerning the resurrection we are to believe that at the last day there shall be a general resurrection of the dead just and unjust when that they are found alive when they that are found alive shall in a moment be changed instantly and the self same bodies of the dead which are laid in the grave being then again united to their souls forever shall be raised up by the power of Christ the bodies of the just by the spirit of Christ and by virtue of his resurrection as their head shall be raised in power spiritual incorruptible and make like to his glorious body in glory and the bodies of the wicked shall be raised and dishonored by him as an offended judge so this is the amazing reality of the resurrection there is so much more we can unpack here so much more that we can dive into we're barely scratching the surface and the glorious resurrection of believers means that God will not judge us at all on Judgment Day John 640 says for this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the

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Sun and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day amen but I'll raise you one pun intended

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John 5 let's go to John 5 this is our last verse here

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John 5 verses 19 through 29 John 5 so John 5 verses 19 through 29

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I want you I want everyone to see this with their own eyes and really really take this and apply it to ourselves

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John 5 starting in verse 19 so Jesus said to them truly truly

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I say to you the son can do nothing of his own accord but only what he sees the father doing for whatever the father does that the son does likewise for the father loves the son and shows him all that he himself is doing and greater works than these will he show him so that you may marvel for as the father raises the dead and gives him life so also the son gives life to whom he will for the father judges no one but has given all judgment to the son that all may honor the son just as they honor the father whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him truly truly

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I say to you whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life he does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life truly truly

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I say to you an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will raise will hear the voice of the

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Son of God and those who hear will live for as the father has life in himself so he has granted the son also to have life in himself and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment this is the amazing reality of Christ's power and resurrection he is so powerful that his sacrifice has fully satisfied every judgment it is done there is nothing left to answer for on judgment day we will not have a judgment day we will have a ceremony day an award ceremony be rewarded for our works our good works and be present in our glorified state so do not let the last verse however confuse you or allow heretics to abuse its truth because those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment are those who have believed and have not come into judgment and live a life of regenerated holiness as a result of that belief so that is the amazing reality of the resurrection which we just barely started to scratch the surface of I'll close with this it's a question from Hercules Collins Orthodox Catechism who was a

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Reformed Baptist how does Christ's resurrection benefit us first by his resurrection he has overcome death so that he might make a share in the righteousness he won for us by his death second by his power we too are already now resurrected to a new life now in this life now we have the blessings of the resurrection and a new life in Christ of holiness and increasing conformity to our

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Savior's image third Christ's resurrection is a guarantee of our glorious resurrection amen for further study you can also take a look at the questions that we read today from the from the

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Baptist Catechism questions 40 through 44 so with those things in mind let's close out in prayer our gracious precious

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Heavenly Father we thank you Lord for the amazing reality truth and power of the resurrection we thank you

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Lord for this beautiful day that we commemorate the awesome power of your son and raising himself to life and in his power and his omnipotent power and being fully glorified in his resurrected state

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Lord we thank you so much for the the actual present reality in our lives of a new resurrected life from the dead from being dead in sin and being able to walk in the newness and holiness of life by your spirit by your grace and by the means of your word and spirit

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Lord we ask that you help us to soak these truths in to meditate on them and to live them out in glorious victory of what

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Christ has accomplished for us in his life and his death on the cross we thank you Lord our precious

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Savior and we ask these things in Jesus name amen all right thank you all we're that's a wrap for us you're welcome to stay to have a fellowship and food with us and thank you all very much again for coming thank you for listening to the sermons of thorn crown

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Covenant Baptist Church where the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is applied to all of faith and life we strive to be biblical reformed historic confessional loving discerning

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Christians who evangelize stand firm in and earnestly contend for the Christian faith if you're looking for a church in the

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El Paso Texas area or for more information about our church sermons and ministries such as Semper Ephraim on the radio and thorn crown network podcast please contact us at thorn crown ministries calm and may the mercy peace and love of our triune