The Hope of the Resurrection

The following sermon is from Faith Bible Church located in Wildehamar, California. More information about Faith Bible Church can be found at www.faith-bible.net. It's always a real joy to come and be a part of Faith Bible Church. We've been coming here for who knows how long and it's always a high point in our particular ministry. This is mission Sunday for us at Christmas and the Mental So we have a Sunday off. Instead of sitting down and doing nothing we invite an invitation to come and be a part of your ministry. It's been a tradition for us for a number of years to come and share this wonderful, wonderful experience. My wife is here so we are making this a special time to be together and just rejoice and enjoy some of the sunshine you have here. Here are the birds sing and now lay the birds don't sing. They cough. Here they do sing. It's always a joy to touch base with the men of the church, especially John. John's a really special Jew and choice brother. You need to know something about John. He's not always been this sharp. Years ago when he applied to the Master's Seminary, he had a little interview with him and they asked him about why he wanted to come and etc. I need told us he held a call to the ministry and that he wanted to come and be a pastor. So they asked him, "Do you know the Bible?" "Oh yeah, he says, "I'm confident with a scripture I know it from from lid to lid from cover to cover. I'm really familiar with it." He always says, "So they asked him to what book of the Bible do you like the best?" I like the book, "Book of Mark the best." Marks my specialty. "Okay John, and what about Mark do you like?" He says, "I like the parables." The parables of Jesus are the things that really strike me and I enjoy them. "Will Mark, John, which of the parables in a mark do you like the best?" He says, "I like the parable of the good Samaritan." That's my specialty. "Oh John, could you tell us then the parable of the good Samaritan?" "Oh yeah, I go something like this. This man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among thorns and the thorns sprung up and he choked him. But he got up, he got up and he had no money. So he met the queen of sheba and she gave him a thousand talents of gold and a hundred changes of the raiment. Then he jumped on his horse and he began to write furiously on the way to Jericho. But his hair got caught on this tree and he hung there for many days and many nights. And the birds of ravens brought him food to eat and watered the drink. And he ate five thousand loaves of bread and two fish. And then his wife Delilah came along and cut off his hair. And he fell on stony ground. And so he got up and he began to walk and he had begun to rain and it rained forty days and forty nights. And he hit himself in a cave and he lived on locusts and wall honey. And after he stopped raining he got up and then he met the servant and the servant said to him, "Sir, you need to come. All is prepared. We have killed a fat at calf and we are ready for dinner. We want you to come." And he said, "No, I can't come. I made excuses. I married a wife and I can't go." But the servant compelled him. He went to the highways and the hedges and compelled him to come. And so he went. He went to the dinner. And after dinner he started making his way to Jericho. And then he got to Jericho and he looked up up on the wall way up high and he saw that old Queen Jezebel said, "We have high up on the window." And she laughed at him. And he said, "Throw her down and they threw her down." And he said, "Throw her down again." And they threw her down 70 times seven. And the fri- the fragments that remained, they picked up 12 baskets full besides women and children. And they said, "Blessed are the peacemakers." Now, now, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? So he's come a long ways, hasn't he? Yeah. Yeah. He's come a long ways. If you didn't laugh, you're in deep trouble. Deep, deep. We can't even help you, you know what I'm saying? But I'd like you to open your Bible to Matthew chapter 22, Matthew 22. Our Lord in chapter 22 is, this is the last week of the Lord's life. And Matthew is recording the events that took place in the last week of the Lord's life. And one of these is the attack by his enemies, the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees. They launched an attack against the Lord Jesus. And the Sadducees, especially, believed in miracles, especially in the resurrection. And so they placed this question to him. "We're a man married a woman, and there were seven brothers, seven brothers, and the first brother married. He died, according to the law of Moses, the second brother is to be responsible to marry the wife and raise up children. He died, and in fact, all seven of them died. And there were no children, and last of all, she died. And mockingly, they said to him, "So in the resurrection whose wife will she be, because all seven brothers had her as a wife?" Ha, ha, ha, is the intent of the whole issue. And the Lord spoke to them, clearly, in verse 29, verse 29, he said, "But Jesus answered and said to them, 'You are mistaken, not understanding the scriptures, nor the power of God.' You have no idea what you're talking about. You have no clear understanding of what the Word of God would you say, 'No, until you understand fully the power of God.' For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor give it in marriage, but are angels in heaven. In regarding the resurrection of the dead, 'Have you not read?' 'Have you read the Bible?' What was spoken to you by God? When he said, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, of the living. Been a while since this thing was penned, people still live the same way. They doubt the resurrection, they don't understand it fully. We look at our culture, people live in such a way as though they are never going to die. And if they die, there's nothing after death, nothing after death. Now oftentimes even the body of Christ, we as Christians don't always understand fully the implications in how important the resurrection is in our daily life. So for few moments this morning, let's talk about the resurrection, the resurrection. Let's look at some scriptures. We don't want to be ignorant of the scriptures. The New Testament scriptures, they speak about the resurrection of our Lord, and also of our own personal resurrection. And understand the power of God, power of God not only to raise us from the dead, but the power of God to impact our lives, even as we live. The resurrection of the believer is a marvelous, marvelous truth. It is not something way out there, and it's not something morbid, not simply about death. We say about it this morning in a very positive way. And so let's just talk about the resurrection and look at some references in Scripture and see how they apply to our lives and encourages. You can never be too old, never be too young, to appreciate the resurrection, our own resurrection, and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's turn to John chapter 5. We'll look at four texts this morning, four references this morning. And look at your Bible, it's John chapter 5. In the gospel of John chapter 5, the Apostle is recounting various miracles. In the fifth chapter of the gospel of John chapter 5, there's a miracle of a parolytic. And as a result of the healing of the parolytic in verse 18, verse 18, and for this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own Father, making himself what? What equal to God equal to God. And the whole thrust of the gospel of John is simply this, Jesus Christ is God. He's not just a man. He's not even just a good man. He's not even just a perfect man. He is God in the flesh. and he's unfolding this the proofs of that by recounting various miracles that Christ performed. He performed to authenticate to prove that He is God in the flesh. And so here he does this sign. There are seven signs, seven miracles in the Gospel of John that are used to declare that He is the Son of God and therefore has power. And the Lord then takes this doubt, takes this threat, and it turns it to explain who He is. And why He has power over our lives, even power in the resurrection. Look at verse 19 with me, follow with me, verse 19. "Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, the Son of the Son can do nothing of Himself unless it is something He sees the Father doing.' But whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows them all things that He Himself is doing. And the Father will show Him greater works than these so that you will marvel, marvel. But just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, and He is given, but He is given all judgment to the Son so that all will honor the Son even as the honor of the Father. Either it does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father who sent Him. "Truly, truly I say to you, you hear my words and believes in Him who sent me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly I say to you, and now is coming and now is. When the Son will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live, but just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son to have life in Himself. And He gave Him authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this for the hours coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and will come forth. Those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life and those who committed evil deeds to the resurrection of judgment. Now we know that God is the ultimate judge. We also know that God has the power to raise the dead, and that is like a blanket statement, but it's refined here. It's refined. Refined by Jesus saying yes, but the Lord, my Father has given me, given me the power and the authority for me to raise the dead and for me to judge humanity. And if you take anything from this passage, it's that. Is that the Lord Jesus Christ because He is God in the flesh. He is received from the Father the right. The right be soed on Him by the Father and because the Father loved Him, bestowed this right for Him then to give life to whom He wishes and to make alive those that are dead. He also was the right to judge, to judge every single human being. It's important for us to understand that because we, we oftentimes even as Christians go through life and our view of Christ is kind of kind of not where it should be. You might be new in the Lord and you have not fully understood who Christ is. And Christ needs to loom the way is described in the Word of God. He needs, you need to see Him as very God of very God. And that God is given to Christ, God is the Father is given to Christ the authority, the right, the right to raise from the dead and the right to judge. It is the glory that the Father gave to Him. The Father gave Him this glory and the Son is glorified in the Father. And therefore as you and I, as you and I think of the Father, we give the same glory to the Son. He that glorifies the, the Son glorifies the Father. If you can't glorify the Son, then you can't glorify the Father. And so our Lord in this text reminds us of His great power, the power to give life. Okay, verse 25 with me once again, verse 25, "An hour is coming, and now he is, when the dead will hear the voice of the who, Son of God, and those who hear will what will live. He is the power to give life. It is in Him. He's Him. He is the ultimate power to give life. And one day every single human being ever born will hear the voice of the Son of God. He will call forth from the dead, call forth from the dead. Those that have died will become out." In verse 28, it reminds us, "Do not marble this for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice. Everyone. There is in our, our, our part of the neck, neck of the woods in Whittier what they call rose hills, memorial park. There's a vast cemetery. There are thousands, hundreds of thousands of people. Over the last 50 years we've done funeral after funeral after funeral. And over then I, I remind all those, those that are there. One day every single tomb in this place will hear the voice of the Son of God, every single one, and they will be risen. They'll be risen. Some folks will be greatly surprised. They thought that death would be in. They thought that there is no life after death. Boy do they have a root awakening coming. And so understand that this is the power of the Lord to call forth from the dead. And everyone will hear His voice. Some don't want to hear His voice today. Some reject His voice. Some don't listen. Some may be in this auditorium this morning. And you have a tendency to come and you come because you have to come. Maybe your wife makes you come. Maybe your husband drags you. Or maybe your parents forced you to come and say, "Rain, you kind of shut your ears to the Word of God, to the voice of God, but I'm saying to you that one day, one day you're going to hear His voice. And you will rise from the dead and stand before Him. And He will render judgment either life or hell, either heaven or hell, either eternal life or eternal damnation. It is in His power. It is His." And this is why in in John's gospel, he spells it out to them. So as it out to them, this is the power that has been given to me by my Father, the power to raise from the dead, to call out and make alive. It is given to me and the power to judge, to render judgment to all those around us. And so as we, as we walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we need to recognize the power, Paul was saying, "Philipians chapter 3, I aspire to know the power, I want to know the power of the resurrection, I want to know Christ and the power of the resurrection. I want to know Christ and the power that He has to make alive, to make alive, to call out from the dead. It doesn't matter how you die. People think that somehow, "Well, I want to be cremated or I want to be thrown, get my ashes thrown in the ocean. It doesn't matter how you die, but you will be resurrected." It is a power to bring every cell back to life and to raise you from the dead, either a believer or an unbeliever. And I want to begin with this text, because we don't want to be ignorant of the Scriptures, nor of the power of God. And this looms, looms large and are thinking as we reverence our Lord Jesus Christ and we endeavor to walk in his footsteps, I walk a light pleasing to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let's go to John 11, please, John 11. And there's another Scripture given to us in John 11. This is the account of the raising of Lazarus, a dear friend of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is again the seventh miracle that Jesus performs here in the Gospel of John. It's the attesting miracle to the fact that He is the Son of God, the great, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. And the chapter begins by Him being notified that His friend Lazarus is dead and He's not close to them. He's not a distance-wise. He's a ways. And so He gets the news, but He doesn't, He doesn't come. His disciples say, "You know, we should go." Well, Lazarus is sleeping. Well, I'll be sleeping then. It should be okay. He, he, he, he corrects him. Well, in that way, he's dead. So let's go down there. And so it goes down and he meets his, his, the sisters of Lazarus, Mary and Martha. And, and she says to him in verse 21, "When she says to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you." And Jesus said to her, "Your brother, will rise again. Your brother will rise again." She says to him, "I know He will rise again in the resurrection of the last day." And then Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me will live even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in me, what? Well, never die. Do you believe this?" And she says, "Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, even He that is to come into the world." People of God, this is a marvelous passage. It comes closer to the believer to us. We come to this particular scripture that speaks of the resurrection power of our Lord, because it assures us. It assures us that we are going to rise again. We are going to rise again. This chapter is also a chapter that reflects and explains the ugliness and the pain of death. Because the texts were, as Jesus Christ goes to the tomb to raise this man from the dead, is close from the dead. It says in Scripture 1, simple verse, verse 35, John 11, 35, and Jesus wept. And Jesus wept. People of God, it shows the pain of death, it shows the ugliness of death. Death is horrible. There is no way that we can sugarcoat death. Tathas is death is horrible. You know we, I do a funeral and there is a casket and it is ugly. Death is ugly and the pain that comes with it. Death brings about pain and it is not always easy to comprehend. My wife lost her mother when she was 15, when my wife was 15. And then they became orphans or family became orphans. We were married, we got married and she would talk about her mother and after a few years of being married together she would talk about her mother and she would start crying. She would start crying and say, honey, why are you crying? You know your mother has been dead enough for a long time. Why are you crying? And I was a seminary student, you know what I am saying? That was a pastor type guy. What kind of a cold-hearted slum was that? Why are you still crying? You know because I understand that. I understand that. 1986 my mother died. My mother died. And I recall we talked in Wednesday and then on Thursday morning she passed away and I was doing a preaching at a high school, Christian high school chapel. I cried all the way, preach and cried all the way home. And we have been crying ever since. We talk about our mothers and we cry. We just weep because there is pain there. Death brings pain. And Lord wants us to see that. We have something to become like Job's friends and we talk like death is like no big thing. We should be happy. He is home with Jesus. You should be happy. Talk to Jesus about it. A few moments before he would raise it from the dead Jesus wept. Jesus wept. And we need to be sensitive to that and understand that this is part of life. This is the pain that comes as a result of death because death is not natural. Man was never made to die. He died because he sinned. And we sinned in Adam and so we are going to die. And this passage then has great, great significance for all of us. Someday we are going to lose somebody. Someday we are going to need the assurance from God that they will live again. They will live again. And the Lord said, "I am the resurrection and the life." He sums up in that statement all that he came to accomplish, all that he came to do. He came to die on the cross for our sins. We just observed in the communion the incarnation of God and the bread, the vicarious atonement, four sins in the grape juice, the whole message of salvation. I am the resurrection and the life that he came to give his life, a ransom for the world. He came to die on the cross for our sins, a death for death. He died so that we would live. He died so that our death would not be final. And so he says, "I am the resurrection and the life." He came to give us life. And so with that comes this great promise. He great promise, "I am the resurrection and the life." He says, "He that believes in me will live even if he what dies." You will live even if you die. We are given the promise of the resurrection that the Lord has promised all his believers. For us, death is not the end. It is a curtain that we all need to pass through. It is a curtain that's there and we have a glimpse of something behind it because Scripture helps us with that. But it's still a mystery, but we're going to pass through that. And all we know is that it is going to be a life we're going to live. I am the resurrection. He that believes in me even though he dies, he will live. And then it goes on to enforce that, enforce that. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die, will never die. You know, it's interesting and I think Brother John will tell you because Brother John has come a long ways from the first day that we met today. He knows how to read the Greek Bible, ask him about it. Maybe he pretends to know how to read it, but he reads it. And the phrase here will never die, will never die, contains a double negative and then an expression of eternal expression. It's a double negative, no, never die ever. This is what it says. No, never dies ever. Say it. No, say it the way I say it ever. Okay. Once again. No, never die. Never die. That's it. That's you. That's you. That's God's assurance given to us. You're not knowing the Scripture, you know the power of God. We know the power of God. That we will never die, will never die, will close our eyes and go on and be with the Lord for it, will never die, will never die. You know, Billy Graham just passed away a few years ago and again, he reminded us of a statement that was echoed, I think, given by Deon Moodie a hundred years earlier. He said something like, "One day you're going to hear that Billy Graham is dead, don't you believe a word of it? Don't you believe a word of it? I'll be more alive than ever before." Isn't that true? That's what he's saying to us. So when we look at, we look at death even though it comes with pain and agony and all the stuff that we, but yet we see it the way the Lord expresses to us and what a marvelous statement. We are never going to die. So fear is, so as we approach death, we approach it with a sense of not necessarily fear because we know that we'll be closing our eyes and then when we open them, we'll open them to the nephase of Jesus and we'll be with him for all eternity. That's what it's about. That's what this text is such a marvelous, marvelous comfort to so many, so many. I shared this scripture two weeks ago at my brother-in-law's funeral, my second oldest sister, lost her husband. We used, we re-wrig this passage because it's a passage of great comfort to the whole family. He was all family gathered together and for close friends we read this text and we comforted our hearts to know that he is now home with the Lord. He's absent from the body at home with the Lord and he is more alive than he ever was before and that just comforts all of us, comfort her in particular, but comforts all of us. We need to. We need to face the reality of death but also face the reality, the reality of the resurrection - I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me will live if it if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in me will what? Never die. Never die. And we need to hold that as a dear. Too many of us who are so wrapped up with living, we don't even think about dying. Dying should be part of the equation. It should be part of the reality of life. And understand that the way God explains it to us, it is simply another chapter in our eternal existence. We have eternal life now. You have it now. It will just continue, continue on. And that's why Jesus said to Mary, "Do you believe this? Do you believe this?" You see it's one thing for me to believe it but it's another thing for you to believe it. one of the most important things. think for me to believe this about the Lord Jesus Christ. But do you believe it? Do you believe it? And do you believe, do you live in such a way that it reflects that you really do believe that you're going to meet Jesus, you're Savior one day, and you're expecting, you're expecting to meet Him, you're expecting to meet Him sometime. See, do you believe this? You asked yourself correctly, yes Lord, I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, even He that comes into the world. What a statement of faith. This is called a baptismal statement of faith. This is what it's about. Yes, I believe absolutely. See, she believes, I believe, but do you believe? So for a moment, just look at me because I'm asking you, do you believe this? Because if you don't, if you don't, when you wake up, when you wake up, you're not going to see Jesus, you're not going to see Him. This is an assurance given to God's people. It's the power of Christ given to comfort and strengthen and encourage and assure our hearts that we are confident, that we are confident, that we will be with Him for all eternity. And I want you to have the same thing. I want you to, I want you to hold on to Christ, hold on to Christ. The last two weeks ago when I was done with a funeral, and the wife and I were walking towards the car to go to the reception, this man came out. He said, "Sir, sir, sir, I need to talk to you." And I stopped and I, he said, "I don't want you to leave without you knowing something." He said, "Today, my life has been changed. Today, my life has been changed, which you said changed my life." That's the power of God, isn't it? To awaken a dead man at a funeral, not the man in the casket, the man that was watching, to awaken him to eternal life. He does the same thing to you, friend. You open up your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, accept Him as your Savior, you'll open your eyes, and you'll give you eternal life as well. Do you believe this? And I trust you do. I trust you do. First, the salonians chapter four, let's go to another text this morning, another wonderful, and we might know the scriptures and the power of God. First, the salonians chapter four. Again, a marvelous, marvelous encouragement to our hearts given to us by the Apostle Paul. In chapter four, they come down to verse 13, verse 13. Believers were always living. In the first century, they were all living with the expectation that Jesus Christ was coming very soon. He said, "I'm coming quickly, I'm coming quickly. I will come again for you and take you myself to where I am there. You may be also." So all the early Christians felt that Christ had ascended. He'd come back anytime. And then things began to happen and he didn't come right away. And then Christians began to die. See, they all felt that we're going to be raptured and taken to heaven, the ones that were alive. And all of a sudden, it wasn't happening that way. Believers began to die. We began to die. And so the Apostle wrote this to comfort them and encourage them. Follow me in chapter four, verse 13. Chapter four, verse 13. But we don't want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. Where we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with Him those that have followed us sleep in Jesus. Will this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remained until the coming to the Lord will not precede those that have followed us sleep? But the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout with a voice of the archangel with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise how? First, then we who are alive and remain will be cut up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, what? Comfort. Therefore comfort one another with these words. Dear people of God, these words are given to us. They are a soothing ointment for us. They're given for us to comfort us. So important. Do you know what it means to be hopeless? You know what it means not to have hope? I was a young preacher. I was a young preacher just started ministry. And probably the first few years and I wasn't accustomed to doing funerals. I'm still not accustomed to do them. But I recall going to this funeral and it was an evening wake and then there'll be the day the other day time will be the burial. So we had an evening time with the family. And I recall getting there right to the hour and the people are already in the chapel. And as I got to the chapel, I heard a wailing, a wailing, "May abandon us this, may abandon us this." It rings as loud as I just as loud today as I rang that day. And it was the wife calling out to her husband who died. You've abandoned me. You've abandoned me. She was absolutely hopeless. They were both, they were all unbelievers. He was an unbeliever. She was an unbeliever. They had no home. They had no home. There's a wailing to place, a wailing of hopelessness. We are given this text, this encouragement to remind us that we are not like that. We are not hopeless. We have a home. And not just the hope. It's a living hope, isn't it? It's a living hope. It's a living hope. We have this home. And so we're reminded here, we're reminded here that we grieve and we're supposed to grieve and we should grieve. But we don't grieve as those that have no home. Now dear people of God, we sometimes get so sanctified and so unreal and in another dimension that we take all of death and we remove even grief out of it. We don't want you to grieve. We don't, we shouldn't grieve. It should be a celebration of life. It should be joyous. It should be a time off for friend, friend, friend, and you don't know God and you don't know death and you don't know hope. Hope is mangled with tears. But we grieve as those that have hope. We don't grieve like those that have no hope. There's a certain sense where God gives us. That's why the great Puritan said, it's okay. It's okay to grieve. You just don't grumble. You know, just don't grumble. It's okay to grieve. It's okay for us. And I'm, I get bothered about how quickly we want the whole process to end, to end. We don't even bury anymore. We just kind of pre-make people now. We toast them, you know, and put them in a little dour and then just throw them out, you know, someplace. Well, what's too expensive, you know, friend, friend, the whole process is a grieving process. It's a healing process. Death is like taking a knife to your heart and then cutting it. And you don't just patch it up with superglue and you get on your way. It doesn't work that way. It needs to mend. It needs to heal. We meet together to grieve. I tell the, I tell the saints, you know, and this is a time to weep. It's a time to cry. It's okay. We know, we know the pain is there. The separation is there. There's a separation that takes place and it doesn't heal. Then it doesn't heal. And may I be so honest with you that it'll never heal in this life. It'll never heal in this life. There'll always be a pain right there, a pain of separation from your loved ones. And this text is to encourage us that the final healing will take place at the resurrection. That's what it's saying to us. Just to remind us to comfort us in regards to that. And so we need to look at, don't be so quick. Well, let's get, you know, go to the, go to the mortuary and let's get it done. Let's get it over with. That friend, you don't know. You don't know what it means for you to grieve and to let time and grace heal you. It's part of the process. Part of the process. I recall one of our sisters lost her husband and I mean, it was like years. We would be singing songs is she'd always sit in the front pew. We'd stand for a song and she'd be there weeping, weeping for her husband. And we'd sing together and we'd come for her to sing together. When my father died, life went on and we used to sit in the front and the old bill churches you sit in the front. We didn't have like the beast, the drums upstage. You know we didn't have things like that. Never mind. And I'm just joking or take us so seriously. We sat in the front and I recall during the song service in the exercises I'd be weeping, weeping because my father had died and I had to preach, get up and preach, collect myself. It took took months for that to happen. You see it's a sense for we grieve but not as those that have no hope. And notice the comfort that he gives us, the return of Christ. We know he promised us that that he's going to come. He's going to come. He's going to come bodily. He's going to come victoriously. He's going to come in the air. I'm going to come in the air because we're going to be meeting with him and then later on come in the kingdom that he promised. It'll happen with the resurrection of the saints. The dead in Christ will rise first. They have not perished. They are alive. They will rise first. Wow. And then we, the living saints will be cut up together with them. It's called the rapture of the saints. That's the next thing on the agenda. We, when he comes, will be raptured or be whatever you're doing. You'll be, you'll be taken up to heaven to be with Jesus. You know what that means for us to look forward to that? I look forward to that. I look forward to so much that we had an earthquake a number of years ago and we were living in, I think in East LA and then the thing began to shake. The house began to shake and I said, this is it. Lord, amen, hallelujah, come Jesus. You know what I say? I want to go home, you know. And then then I heard sirens. Oh man, not trumpet sirens. You know what I'm all, oh man. Oh man. I was, I wanted trumpets. You know what I say? But I'm still waiting for trumpets. Are you? Ah, I'm waiting for it. And so it is it. It's the rapture of the saints and then the reunion with our Lord will be cut up together with him, with them to be with the Lord. What a marvelous reunion we're going to have together, together for all eternity. And all the pain men did, no more tears, no more sorrow, no more mourning, no more crying. None of that, Revelation 21, it all because we'll be with him. What a sweet anointment the Lord has given us, the Lord has given us. What it's about people, we're going to be together again. Great. When you get to heaven, go to the east side, okay, east side. That's what we're going to be. We're going to be on the east side, okay. We've got to come out of east LA, you know, east LA. Can anything good come out of east LA? Absolutely. We're going to be there. Was there being the east side? Visit us, okay? Visit us. We're having tacos al pastor, et cetera. Ah, yeah, it's in the text, by the way, it's in the text. 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. It's not being written in the scripture, nor the power of God. What a marvelous, marvelous chapter. The whole chapter is about the resurrection. Imagine that. How important it is. All 58 verses about the resurrection. Let's read the conclusion of it. Chapter 15 verse 50. But this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Because I tell you in mystery, we will not all sleep. We're not all going to die, but we will all be changed. In a moment in the twentieth of an eye at the last trumpet, but the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised. How imperishable and we, those that remain will be what changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable and the mortal must put on the immortal in mortality. And when this perishable will have put on the imperishable and this mortal that put on immortality, then we'll come about to say that it's written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? You don't have one. Oh, death, where is your sting? You don't have any. Oh, the sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the what victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, might be love it. Brethren, be steadfast, immobile, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain how in the Lord. You see, friends, friends, what happens people is that when death visits us, visits our home, visits our families, some of us just give up, we just give up. And we're encouraged here not to give up. The whole section is to remind us, remind us. What is it? What is a prophet? If there is no resurrection, then let's eat, drink and be married for tomorrow we die. What good does he do to keep on going? If somehow there is no resurrection, let's just give up. And God says, no, no, don't ever give up. At Shepherd's conference, I was talking to a pastor there. He said, he said, Professor, my wife was ill. I took over for ten years she died. And when she died, I died. There was no purpose for living anymore. And for ten years I was dead. I just gave up until I realized that there's something that God has for me, and now I'm back. That can happen to you. We can just give up. We can just, I've seen him over and over again, the spouse dies, the parent dies, the child dies, and then they die. They don't die physically, they just die. There's no purpose, no reason to go on. Friend, he's saying here, no, no, no, no. We have every reason to go on, every reason, because this perishable will put on the imperishable. We have these bodies that die will be resurrected glorified bodies, and we that are alive in these mortal bodies will be changed, will be transformed. And so it's going to happen to us. And that's why he reminds us there, don't give up. Therefore, maybe love at brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. There's always a plan for you. There's always. You visit our church and you can walk around, and here's a widow, a widow who lost his wife 10 years ago with a smile serving as a nusher, and as a decan over here. Another sister lost her husband. She's in the choir. She's ministry, the joy of the Lord. Life not only goes on, it goes on triumphantly. Therefore, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. God has something for you to do. Now your body may begin to decay, but suck the juice out of it. You know what I'm saying? Make it last, juice whatever you can to the end degree, to the end degree. I mean, look at me, I'm only 45 years old. Yeah, you're so mean, you know what I mean. But you know you just got to keep on serving the Lord and giving him your best, yes or no. And one day this body will be glorified. My body in heaven will not have a birthmark. I've already talked to Christ about it, you know? It was good down here, but not up there. Be joyful, serve the Lord. Don't ever give up. Don't ever give up. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. Our Father, You have been so good to us. We thank You so much. You have assured us this morning, you reminded us of the glory, the glory of Christ, the power that you have to give us life and to give us eternal life. May we believe that and live it out for your honor and your glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening today. Cerminario from the last three years is available by podcast. And a larger archive can be found at the Faith Bible Church website, www.faith-bible.net. We hope that the word of God has impacted your heart as you listen to "It's You Have A Great Day."