The Easter Verdict

We celebrate Jesus' resurrection at Easter. His resurrection brought a verdict on the ruler of this world: death no longer reigns. Death no longer gets the last word. The resurrection says that a judgment has been made against death. It had its reign, beginning with Adam, but now the Life of Jesus reigns in us. God was never going to let death be permanent, nor would He ever let death be the last word on our existence. Jesus would be the last word. In fact, He is the first and the last, our beginning and our end! We are going to live forever. And even if our outward man perishes, our inward man is alive, being renewed day to day.

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Well it sounds like a happy Easter. Sounds like a happy Easter resurrection day. What should I preach about today? Well, love is triumphed over death. We just sang that. We would say life has triumphed over death, and that's certainly true, but but really I like I'm so glad that they they that we sang that last song. And it said love is triumphed over death because that's what this whole thing is about. This whole thing was was in the plan in the heart of God. God is good. And when you think about God being good, like Leslie was saying last week, you can rethink that again and again and again because God gets gooder and gooder and gooder in our own minds because he's so big and he's so good. And as we look at our resurrection this morning, I do want to highlight in all of this the goodness and the love of God in all of this. Um because a lot of times people, you know, you can you can look at life and the the ugly, horrible, painful things that are experienced in this life. Look at death itself and how that entered in from very early on. And people have questions about it. Someone asked me just you know not long ago in a in a meeting, you know, why why didn't God stop Adam and Eve from doing that? And that question, that question trickles down into our everyday, everyday experiences. People have questions. People that believe in God and love God were like, you know, there are bad things that I'm experiencing or have experienced, and why didn't God stop that? And uh, you know, and people in the world question, well, if God is good, then why all of these things? And none of it would be worth it, none of it would make any sense unless there really, really is a great story ending, a great redemption that far outshines any of the pain that goes on. And the Bible does indicate, tell us very plainly that it's true. Paul said, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time aren't worthy to be compared to the glory that's to be revealed in Christ. Uh Jesus said, you know, it's kind of like a woman in labor pains for, you know, in travail. And uh, you know, at that moment it's not it's not pleasant at all. But afterwards, because of the joy of what comes afterwards, you forget uh the pain that that there was before. So, in all of this, with this fall of man, with this death that entered into the world, I want us to look at and remember that God had this whole thing uh taken care of from the beginning, because the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, and what we see is the goodness of God in all of this. You know, I like to um there's a there's a song that comes to mind when I think of these things, and uh it's a little bit, there's a there's a line in it that's a little bit cryptic, but it means something to me. And it's a song that I refer to, the song Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, where it says, I heard about a secret chord that David played and pleased the Lord, but you don't really care for music, do you? Well, it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth, a minor fall, the major lift. The baffled king composing hallelujah. And I think of that minor fall and major lift, and I and I see a reference to the fall of man. And um, even though some would say, well, that wasn't a minor fall because it was, it brought hell. But um, and I don't mean in a in the the the fiery torment, I mean experience of hellacious things. Um uh but in comparison to life, in comparison to resurrection, in comparison to the joy that was set before Jesus and is set before us, it's a minor fall compared to the height, compared to the glory, compared to the goodness of the lift that God had planned and provided in Jesus. And that resurrection is our hope today. Resurrection says so many things, and you can say so many things about it, but one thing that it says is that everything turns out fine in the end. And if it's not fine right now, then it's not the end. Because we have this wonderful hope of resurrection that has happened. And that's what we're gonna look at here. I want to read a verse in Hosea chapter six, and it sort of capsulizes this whole death and resurrection thing. And Hosea 6, verse 1 says, Come, let us return to the Lord, for he has torn, but he will heal. He's stricken or he will bind us up. Or in other words, you know, we can look at it and say, well, the Lord has has just watched and allowed this stuff, and here's all this stuff that's happening. God hasn't done anything about it, but he will heal, he will bind us up. Verse 2. After two days, this is way back, this is Hosea, way, way back in the Old Testament. After two days, he'll revive us. On the third day, he will raise us up that we may live in his sight. This is resurrection being foretold, being talked about. Yeah, it's been hard. Yeah, there's been death, there's been sick, there's been there's been been pain. But he will heal, he will bind us up. After two days, after two days, he will revive us or bring us to life, bring us into life, and on the third day, he will raise us up that we may live in his sight. And what we celebrate today is that many years ago, on the third day after the death of Jesus, the resurrection happened. Excuse me. Remember, Jesus said, I am the resurrection? And it's interesting, I love how he said this, because he explained it very well. He looked at uh Martha, the sister of Lazarus, and he said, He said, I am the resurrection. And he that believes in me, though he were dead, those that are dead shall live. And he that believes in me and lives shall never die. And something was brought about in the resurrection that had been planned from the beginning. Verse 3 says, Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning. He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and the former rain to the earth. He says, His going forth is established as the morning. You can't stop it. You know, you could preach a good, a good emotional, and it would be it'd be fun. It'd be good to do it. You can preach a good Easter message about how they could not stop that morning. Jesus said, on the third day I'll rise again. Well, they sealed that tomb and they put guards at it, and they, you know, if there was any way to stop that thing, they they did whatever they could do, but nothing could stop that morning from coming. Though the death happened, and though it was sorrowful, and though it was sad, and though it was painful, nothing could stop the resurrection from coming. His going forth was as the morning. And this was going to happen. Jesus was going to come. It was planned from before the fall of man that there would be a fall and there would be a lift. That there would be a descending, but there would be an ascending. And we see types of this in life. We see it as we go to sleep at night, and we literally resurrect every single morning. We come alive again, so to speak. We see it, we see it in the evening, and we see it in the dark, and we see it in the light as the sun goes down and it comes back up and it's going forth, it's established as the morning. And even though it got dark, the light was going to come. And there's a verse in Isaiah that prophesied of this and said, Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. I'm thinking of uh John chapter 5, verse 29, where he made this very clear and bold and powerful statement. He said, The hour is coming when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and those who hear shall live. Well, I know the Bible says that Jesus went into the place of the dead, went into the lower parts of the earth, Hades. And the Bible says he preached to those who were in prison captive to death. And I've always wondered what was that sermon. He preached to those. Judy and I were talking about it yesterday. When did he do it? Did he do it on Friday? Did he do it on Saturday? Did he do it on Sunday? You know, we can just we can just have our ideas about it. Here's I'll get the I'll tell you mine. And I thought of it when we were singing one of the songs. One of his sermon, his preaching to those who were in death, was on the third day when he awakes from death, the first begotten from the dead, and his message was the voice they heard was get up. Arise. It's morning. Night's over, death's over. Get up. And the Bible says that people came alive. And it says, and after his resurrection, they came out of the graves. And they were seen by many. The resurrection did happen. And what Jesus did is he comes into this thing and he goes right into this thing called death. And he and he and he steps into it and he brings it to a close. This thing called death. This thing called death that had gripped man and and even the people of that day in that religion, what was their question when they would come to Jesus and they would say, Good master, what must I do to go to the good place instead of the bad place when I die? No, they didn't say that. They would say, What must I do to inherit eternal life? I don't want death to be the end of this thing. In fact, some people were were were believing uh then at that time that that it was the end of it. The Sadducees. That's all there is. It's all about this life. So it's all about being good in this life and you'll get rewarded. That's why they thought if you were rich, that you were a good person. Because you got rewarded and there was nothing after this life. But then there were those that believed in it. It was spoken of even in the Old Testament. David said, David prophesied, and he said, he said, You will not leave my soul in Sheol or Hades, the place of the dead. You'll not leave my soul there, and you won't allow your holy one, Jesus, to suffer corruption. Speaking of the resurrection that was coming. So there was the idea that there's a resurrection, that there could be a resurrection that sucks, that people could live forever and ever. And if Jesus was the one, if he had the word, they would say, We believe you have the words of eternal life. Resurrection means that we don't die forever. Resurrection means love triumphs over death and life triumphs over death. In Psalms 22, we see we have a messianic psalm where Jesus is, you know, this is where Jesus cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And of course David wrote it many generations before, but they were the words of Jesus coming later because that psalm would talk about how they part my garments and they they cast lots, they gamble for my clothes, just like they did in the Gospels. How they mocked him and how they shook their head at him and said, Well, if God's for you, let God bring you down from the cross. That was spoken of in Psalms 22, and it's speaking of Jesus and his death on the cross and all that he was experiencing there. But you get down to the end of it, and he said, It's for this part, it's for this reason. Psalms 22, verse 27, the words of Jesus speaking, saying, All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship, and all those who go down to the dust, death, will bow before him. Even he that cannot keep himself alive. Jesus was coming to put an end to that whole thing of death. He is the resurrection. Let me show you a picture of it this morning. I think one of the best biblical illustrations of this, to me, for my mind, is in the book of Joshua, chapter three. And some of you might know, might remember that in Joshua chapter three is where Joshua and the descendants of Israel were about to finally cross over into the promised land, Canaan land. And they were going from east to west, and and and they had to cross the Jordan River, and it was at flood time, so it's virtually uncrossable, but God gives them direction. And in Joshua 3, 14, they carry out that direction. And it says, And so it was that when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people. Now, some of you understand what the what he's talking about here, and the priests are carrying this Ark of the Covenant on their shoulders, and they're going out in front of everybody else. Now, the Ark of the Covenant is a type of the Lord himself. It's a type of Jesus. And it says, and they carry that Ark of the Covenant before the people. Jesus went before all of us. Jesus is called the first begotten from the dead. The first begotten among many brothers. Verse 15. And as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priest who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water, because the Jordan overflows all of its banks during the whole time of harvest, that the waters which came down from upstream stood still. And they rose in a heap very far away at where? Adam. Isn't that interesting that the name of that city, way upstream, is the same name as somebody else we know in the Bible? This is a picture, a type in a shadow, if you will. Now, here's why it's significant. How many of you know that the Jordan Valley, where that river flows, is the very lowest valley on planet Earth. Any of y'all familiar with that? And and because it's the lowest place on the earth, the lowest valley, anyway, it's a river that really symbolizes death. In fact, it flows all the way from Adam. And not only that, but where does it end? In this thing called the Dead Sea. And literally, nothing can live there. Because it's death. And it's interesting that though this river flows into this thing called the Dead Sea, which the Dead Sea, while the Jordan Valley is the lowest valley in the earth, the lowest point where you can stand on planet Earth is at the Dead Sea. It's the lowest elevation of this planet that we live on. There is nothing lower. It is death. Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth. And something else about that dead sea is nothing flows out of it. The river flows in, but nothing flows out. It's the end. It's over. Everything ends right there. And that might be why people that fear death is because there's a sense of a finality about it. I've even had Christians talk to me. They believe in the Lord. But they lose someone and there's and they'll talk about some of them, but some people, I don't think most, but but some have seriously like wanted to be assured. Like Rick, it's do you think there's really something after this? Do they really live after that? You want that. And you want that assurance. Because what they're feeling is the sense of finality. Like death is the end, it's the last chapter. It's the end of the whole story, is what it feels like. And the Dead Sea ends, and nothing comes out of it. Jesus spoke to those in uh preached to those in prison. They were held down. Nothing came out of it. They died. It says the waters came down from upstream. They stood still and they rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that's beside Zaratan. So the waters went down to the Sea of Erabah, the Salt Sea, which we call the Dead Sea today, and those waters failed. They were cut off, and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. So those waters that had been, excuse me, all the way from Adam. Those waters that had been coming all the way down from Adam, the waters of death, that all of mankind had tasted, Jesus steps in and stops, and it says, those waters failed. And they stood in a heap and they backed up all the way back to Adam. Jesus said, Those that are dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man and they shall live. And Jesus came in and stopped that death thing once and for all. The resurrection was manifested, eternal life came to mankind. Something that God, your Father, your creator, the love that brought forth all things that you know and that you can that you can behold, planned from the beginning, telling the man, don't eat of that tree. But when you do, you're gonna die. But that wasn't the end of the story. In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. That wasn't the end of the story. God had already provided, yeah, man's gonna die, but man's gonna live. And this life will be so glorious and will be so much more and will far outshine. Now somebody says, Well, why did we have to have that in the first place? I don't know everything, but I got a glimpse of some things. I do know that from my experience with darkness, with sorrow, with depravity, with pain, with with the whole set, even the sense of condemnation and feeling not good enough and unlovable and everything that goes along with death. I know from that dissension, I have learned and seen in ways that maybe I never could have before, depths of God's goodness and his love and his grace that just caused my heart to flutter, bring tears to my eyes almost every single day. Just the thought of it, just the meditating on it, just the looking at it, feeling it, and experiencing, I'm telling you, I can tell, and I think many of us can say here today that many of you may have sunk to some deep depths in your life, but compared to the glory of what God's goodness has brought to your life, it pales in comparison. And many of the things that I went through, though I would not wish them on anybody, for what I have gained out of it, I don't resent it at all. Because the glory of the latter always outshines the sorrow of the former. And that's the nature of God, and it's the nature of resurrection. And think about how good the Father was. From the beginning, yes, man was going to eat of that tree, but from the beginning, God, the Father, the Creator, before it all said, it's not going to last. It's not going to utterly destroy. It's going to result in glorious, glorious life. Jesus, I hear something we want to say about this. When Jesus stepped into death, which is what he did, the waters of death did not succeed, they failed. I am the resurrection. Though he were dead, yet shall he live. This was the fulfillment of what David believed in when he said, You will not leave my soul in that place of death. You won't leave it there. They used to call them, they used to say they slept. They used to call it sleep. It was like it was dormancy or whatever. In the resurrection, Jesus said, Now even he that lives, now even he that lives shall never die. Look at look at look at Romans 5 and look at something here, because I've called this the Easter verdict because Jesus brought a verdict, a judgment, if you will, on this thing called death and everything that it entails. And when I'm talking about that, yes, I'm talking about physical death. But death includes so many other things that are attached to this whole fall of man thing. And you can feel it every single day. Situations. You can feel it in sorrow. You can feel it in anger. You can feel it in hate. You can feel it in pain. You can feel it in depression. You can feel it in, there's all kinds of in stress and anguish. There can be weeping and gnashing of teeth. You can experience vestiges of death in many, many, many, many ways. But because of the resurrection, even today, we experience life. When we experience love, we experience joy. We experience peace and goodness and all the things of God, all the fruit of the Spirit, because the Spirit is life. And Jesus came and brought an end to that reign of death where death had any kind of finality, final word, or had any sense of dominance over anything. Because when you don't know the resurrection, when you don't believe, it seems like death has dominance. It seems like it has the final word. But Jesus put a judgment on that whole thing, and we look at that today. Romans chapter 5, verse 14. I love this. I love Romans. Nevertheless, death reigned. From Adam to Moses. Do you see that? Death reigned. Death was dominant. From Adam to Moses, even those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam. Now death reigned after Moses, too, but he specifically was talking about even before the law. Even though where there is no law, sin is not counted. Sin was not counted till the law. But it said death still reigned from Adam. From Adam, the river flowing all the way from Adam. It still reigned, excuse me, from that time. It says, even over those, which is all the rest of us, rest of mankind, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, watch this, who is a type of him who was to come. Well, that's Jesus. I thought, how is Adam a type of Jesus? Now I know Jesus is called the last Adam. I know about this one man and one man thing. But Adam was actually a type of Jesus. Adam was like the total opposite, is what I thought. But how is he a type of Jesus? Well, he's a type of Jesus because when you read this and if you're familiar with Romans 5, you see that it gets repeated again and again and again. Because if by one man's act this happened, then by Jesus, another man's act, this happened, right? So that's how he was a type. Verse 17 says, For if by one man's offense death reigned through that one, then much more those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. How is he a type? He is a type because we look at Adam as the one that brought death to how many people? Three or four? All of them. Right? Death reigned over all mankind. How is Adam a type of Jesus? Because by one man something came on everybody. You didn't even have to do the same thing that Adam did. You know, some of us think, why did Adam and Eve have to do that? Why didn't they just whack the snake's head off with a hoe or something? Why don't they why did they do that? I wish I had been Adam. If it had been me, you know. But even if you didn't do the exact same thing, it didn't matter because by one man death came. Some people were good guys, did good things, some people did bad things. Guess what? Death reigned over all of them. Death reigned by that one. Well, he's a type of him who is to come because if by one all this came, well, if by one Jesus all this other came. So he was a type, an antitype. One brought all, one brought all. And it says in verse 17 again, for by one man's offense, Adam, death reigned. There it is again. Death reigned. I think it's the Passion Translation that said, Death ruled as king. And under that dominance or that sense of dominance of death, it brings much sorrow. But if death reigned through one man, and and and you didn't get to vote on it, you weren't there when Adam did it. All the people after that, they didn't. They didn't choose it. I don't know, I don't know of any. I've never met anybody that says, I choose Adam! I believe in Adam and I choose Adam! And therefore they entered into death because they believed and they chose Adam. They could have been oblivious to Adam, it didn't matter. But because of Adam, death reigned. So as death reigned through that one, much more. Somebody say much more. So it's not even equal, equal, an equaling out of this thing. That's why I say minor fall, major lift. Whatever brought Adam, then Jesus brought much more. He didn't just balance this out. It's not like if it's not like this came out of wash. Like, okay, we had all this sorrow, this pain, this death, this destruction, this weeping, this gnashing of teeth, but Jesus somehow evened it out, so I guess we come out, come out even. No, much more. Much more. Those that receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Or you could say life reigns in us through Jesus Christ. But the but there one is death, one is life. Look at verse 21. There again. So that as sin reigned in death, there it is again. Death reigned. Death reigned. Sin reigned in death. Well, the strength of the sting of death is sin, and the strength of the strength of sin is the law. Sin reigned in death. That transgression. Death reigned, death reigned, sin reigned in death. I want you to get a get a get get a picture of this. I want you to hear this. That something, according to the scripture here, was reigning. Something was ruling. Something was dominant. That needed to stop. That God in his love says, that will not go forever. Aren't you glad that things don't die forever? Aren't you glad that death, which might have appeared to some people as a permanent thing, is in no way a permanent thing. Death is absolutely, has been a temporary situation from the beginning. It was always going to be a temporary thing for mankind. Why? Because Jesus was coming, and his brink coming forth was like the morning. It was not going to be stopped. It could not be stopped. So death reigned. Death reigned. Jesus steps into the river. And that thing that had ruled and reigned, that seemed it had gotten on every man and dominated every life, failed when Jesus came. Look at Hebrews 9, verse 27. Here's one. You've probably heard sermons on, or I have heard many sermons on this over the years, through the years. I gotta preach it in the correct voice. And as it is appointed unto man once to die. And after that, the judgment. And then they stop. Then they stop. The judgment. Die. Gonna die. Well, instead of the joy of resurrection. Judgment. What do you mean, judgment? What I mean is when you die, they're gonna show a movie of your life. All those dirty secret thoughts of yours, every word, all the things that you've been ashamed to tell everybody else, get ready. God's gonna show it. And you're gonna be judged by it. And you might think you're getting your that you're doing pretty good, but man, when we see everything, you're gonna realize, like the rest of us, you don't deserve this, this life. You're gonna realize that you deserve those flames of hell. For all of eternity, while you're burning down in there, you're going to know day after day, time after time, you're gonna know, yes, I deserve it, I deserve it, I deserve it. That's the kind of stuff I've heard. It's appointed unto man once to die, but after that the judgment. How many see the good news in the very in the rest of the statement? Verse 28. As it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment. So, okay. So Christ was offered how many times? Once to bear the sins of many. Well, how many died? Many. Everybody. And Christ was offered to bear the sins of the world for all of us, right? So let's look at that just for a moment. The death and the judgment there. Death and judgment. Let's rethink that judgment here as we look at something. In John chapter 12, verse 31. Jesus made a statement. He's, and this is this is in, he says this during his last week of life on earth. He's about ready to go to the cross, and he's explaining to the people, here's what you're about to see happen here this week. And he says, now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Notice he didn't say, how come he didn't say, hey guys, pay attention. Because about two or three thousand years from now, there's going to be a judgment on this world. How come he said now? He said now because he wasn't a dummy. He knew what he was saying and he was trying and he knew what he was trying to convey to these people, and he was saying, this is it now. Now what I'm doing here is I'm bringing a judgment of this world. Because now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Who ruled? Who reigned according to three verses that we just looked at? One verse, another verse, another verse. Who ruled? Death reigned from Adam. And that ruler. Forget about the guy with horns and a pitchfork just for a moment. Think of what ruled since Adam. Think of what imprisoned mankind in the Dead Sea, if you will, ruling, having dominance or seeming dominance, seeming permanent, even though it never, ever, ever was going to be permanent. It was never permanent. It was never, never, never, never permanent. In fact, it's never called eternal death, but there is something called eternal life. And eternal life swallows up temporary death. And that's what we celebrate. Eternal life swallows temporary death. Yeah. And when Jesus figuratively steps into that Jordan River, a judgment happened. The gabel comes down and says, Death, your rule is over, resurrection is revealed. People now can celebrate life. Jesus to us is the resurrection. And because of our belief in him, we celebrate life, even though the body says, even if this outward man perishes, doesn't stop. The inward man is still living, being alive, being renewed day by day, and it shall be forever and ever. Life has already happened. The Bible says, in fact, Paul said, life works in you. So you're dealing with your temporal stuff today. You're dealing with some temporary things. They're hard things sometimes, but they're temporary. And even though that's happening, something else is going on. Life is working in you. John called this eternal life something that abides within you. Eternal life, resurrection inside you, living inside you, being renewed, arising, ascending. It's going forth, it's like the morning. And the Bible says, pay heed to that word till the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart. The Bible talks about it like the sun of righteousness rising with healing, healing, restoration in his wings. Life is working in you right this very minute and will always be abounding in you. Jesus said, it would be an eternal life, like a fountain in you, continually springing forth unto bringing forth eternal life, life, life. You've seen the most death that you're ever gonna see. Even if you see the outward man perish. Because life has come and death has no word, death has no dominion, death has no nothing, and that's why the Bible says that he came and liberated us, who all of our lifetime we were subject to bondage through the fear of that death. Because it seemed so horrible. And final, but today I see the smallness of death and the temporariness of death. And I see the judgment on it has come. When he stepped into that river, the judgment happened and said, No more. And that's why those that came out of the graves even at the resurrection of Jesus. Because what we're celebrating today is not the celebration of the resurrection of one man who did a wonderful thing for us a long time ago. We're celebrating our resurrection, the world's resurrection. For God so loved the world that though the world, I mean, there's so much there, and I gotta close here now, but you know, Romans 8 says that all a creation was was subject to this futility, not by its own will. But creation is also looking for the manifestation of the children of God because it was subjected to that futility, that death, if you will, in hope. It was temporary. It was temporary. And it says, for all of creation shall come into the glorious liberty of the children of God. The children of God. So what did he mean? Now is the judgment of this world. When Jesus did his thing, died, and rose again for our justification. Death was judged. Death was judged to the degree that you can even see it now. And even though you're in a mortal body right now, the inward man is being renewed and life is springing up. And you can experience, in this time where you're dealing with temporal things, you can experience abundance of life, love, joy, peace. Whether in this body or in the next, whether I wake or sleep, I shall abide. I'll live in his sight. He said, Now the ruler of this world is cast out. Death is cast down. And if I am lifted up from the earth, I'll draw everyone to myself. How many know Jesus succeeded? Please look at the goodness of God's heart. Who the Bible says is not willing that any would perish, but that all would have everlasting life. He didn't have a plan B with Jesus. He didn't have a plan B that says, Well, I've lost them all to death because of Adam. What can I do to at least get some of them back? Look how big God is. Look at God. Look at the goodness of the Father who would not subject his creation when he created all things and called it very good. He was not subjecting them to an eternal condition of death and depravity. Go ahead. You can die, Adam. And you can do that because you won't stay like that. God already had the ending from the beginning. In fact, he's the beginning of this whole thing, and he is the end of this whole thing. And that's good news to us as mankind. That it's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. He is the resurrection. And because he lives, we live. And all those who have gone to the dust, he said, all those, all those who go down to the dust, all of them, shall live. Because they'll hear my voice that says, Arise. Well, you mean the good ones, right? He says, All. Judy was telling me about a picture that she said she described it as. And this is this kind of this kind of stuff you don't get from modern evangelical American stuff. This is a the older Christianity that hasn't been tainted by some of our modern things. They have pictures of the resurrection of Jesus, and he's not all by himself. That there's a multitude around them of people. And some of them have halos and some don't, but they're alive. Some are good, some are not. Revelation 20, 14, we see the judgment. Fulfilled in Jesus, because revelation, remember, is the revelation of Jesus Christ. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. That's the second death. That's what God says, this whole thing is that Jesus is the end of all of that. So I think that before Jesus, this is my thought, this is just my theology on it, and you know, it's just what I've come up with in my studies and reading it, and it all makes sense to me. It seems to me that before Jesus, people died and waited in that dormancy. They weren't suffering, they weren't being rewarded, they were they died, they were dormant. Jesus said, But those that are, they're going to live again. Some might have waited thousands of years, but they shall live. But he that's alive, he'll never die. I think after Jesus, after those came out of the grave, people saw them walking around, the resurrection happened. I think after Jesus, those of us that die, we just keep on living. That's why when you lose a loved one, you know they're with the Father now. Finally, 2 Timothy 1, verse 9. Gives this celebratory statement. It says, God has saved us. Has he saved us? Do you uh here's what I want you to see in this, because everybody's preaching resurrection this morning. I want us to see and believe that God is and was always ultimately good. God knew man would die, and he couldn't. Allow it. He could allow it only because he would not allow it forever. He would bring us back. Yes, stricken. Yes, he allowed that death. But he will raise us up, the Bible said. Resurrection has come to the world. The good news, tell the world. We're alive in him. He's alive in us. Tell the world. Tell him the good news. Tell him. He saved us and called us with a holy calling. Not according to our works. Do we have anything to do with this? Did we vote on Adam? Did we say, did we pray a prayer and say, I believe in Adam? And when we did, we entered into death. No. Because of what he did, it came on us. Because of what Jesus did, life came. Not according to our works. But we have to believe, right? Yeah. The Bible says it again and again over and over. Yes. It wasn't until I believed that life started being experienced. I went many years not believing. Was the resurrection any less true for me? No. But I didn't know it. I didn't see it. So all I saw was death. Was life here? Yeah. Had the resurrection come? Yeah. Did I experience what Adam had done? Yeah. But had Jesus done something else for me? Yeah. I didn't know it. But when I believed it, and Jesus didn't die that day I believed it. He judged death a long time ago. But there came a time when I stepped into life. In my experience. And that's all everybody needs to do today. I ask you to believe it. Step into goodness. Believe him more and more. Believe in his goodness. Believe in his life. Believe in his grace. Please believe in his love. Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace that was given to us in Jesus before time began. Good God, good Father, why would you allow this horrible thing? Because it's only gonna last a little while. The glory later is much better. Trust me, says the Father, you're gonna thank me. Verse 10, but has now been revealed to us because of the appearing of Jesus our Savior, who has done what? Abolished death. And brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Would you all stand up? I want to pray. Guess what, guys? You're living forever. You're living forever. And though you may be dealing with something temporary that's hard right now, I know it can be hard. But it's temporary. Judy and I talk about this thing where we where we I call it zoom out. Sometimes you're looking at your temporary situation and it and it looks like everything to you. It looks like it's dominant. But zoom out and see the temporariness of that thing. And look at the eternal life that you're living in. This whole thing, I'm telling you, this is not pie in the sky. This whole thing has turned out good because Jesus came. It has already been established. It has turned out good, and you're living in that goodness now. Father, I thank you for resurrection life. I thank you for your goodness. Father, I thank you for revealing your goodness to us. May we flow into that goodness. May there be hearts rejoicing more and more. And let the world's eyes be open to see the beauty and the glory of the Father. That they may lay hold on this thing and experience this thing forever and ever. And I thank you, Father, that from the days of Jesus Christ until now there's been an ever-unfolding revelation of your goodness in your life. I thank you that I hear and I feel the hearts of the planet celebrating. Because this cannot be stopped. Your going forth is like the morning. And I thank you, Father, that the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of your glory. We thank you, Father, for the good news today, and we celebrate you in Jesus' wonderful saving name. Amen. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful day. It's beautiful out there today.