The practical effect of the truth of the resurrection on our lives

… 1 Corinthians 15 verse 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. The third chapter of the Philippian epistle, Philippians 3 verse 7 But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Verse 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 1 Timothy 3 verse 14 These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly, but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of truth. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit. King of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. 1 John 2 verse 6 He that saith, He abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. Perhaps many of us are asking, in as much as some of the things that have been said when we've been reading 1 Corinthians 15, perhaps have been a bit technical or something like that. And really a fundamental question is, what exactly does the truth of resurrection do? In the course of the reading someone referred to one of the verses that I read to you in Philippians 3. It was at some point where we were talking about the importance of the knowledge of God. And maybe it was Daniel who referred to the verse that I might know him. And I tried to get in just to point out that it's immediately followed by the words, and the power of his resurrection. Scripture says very plainly that the greatest power this world has ever seen was the power that was displayed when Christ was raised from the dead. It's not quite that way in which Paul uses it. It's as if he says, the power of resurrection gives impetus to the believer. And that was why I read to you, although I want to refer to it again later, the last verse of 1 Corinthians 15. Early in the reading I made some reference, people have heard it before, but it's well worth repeating. I heard it from his lips actually when I was helping him parcel calendars in December in 1956. The late F.B. Hull, who was very gifted in simply unfolding what the scriptures said, one evening said to me, the whole of the truth of resurrection can be summed up by considering Christ as the stone. And in the course of the readings I did mention that one of the important things about resurrection, and it was at the point where Ernie said, without resurrection there are seven negative things. And I saw Mr. Hull use the figure of an arch and the fact that the last stone that goes into it is the stone that holds up the rest. In fact, some years ago I watched somebody putting or repairing an arch in a tunnel over which a railway went. And I saw them showing it up with wooden supports. But the moment the keystone was put in, they just took them away, the whole thing stood. And it's just very quickly going over the readings. And they're very important things, dreadfully important things. The fact that if you begin to swither on the truth of resurrection, just consider the things that without it are no longer true. We're yet in our sins, our life is absolutely useless. It gives a false representation of God, perhaps that's most important of all. And then afterwards, in the following reading, I think we looked at the things that were very positive, where it begins, now is Christ risen, Mr. Hull said of that, it's a foundation stone, you build things on it, and it's a foundation that won't shake, it's absolutely impregnable. And perhaps I should have said this afternoon that when we got to the verses where it begins to say about resurrection, and I think both Ernie and I referred to the words that we heard from a brother to whom we were greatly indebted for the truth that we learned, that in verses 47, is it 47, 48, 49, it's speaking about Christ as the corner stone. Some years ago I watched them knocking down an old building in Newcastle, I also watched them rebuilding it up, and those expert stonemasons didn't just do it bit by bit, they built up a corner, and from the corner all the lines went out. Somebody has used an example which gives it a much clearer understanding, and that is, when you, if you look at the last stone that goes on a pyramid, it is a pyramid in itself, but without it the thing loses its lines, put the last stone in, the pyramid, and everything takes lines from it, so you get those words where it speaks, and it's talking about resurrection again, heavenly in origin, Christ-like in character, and heaven the destiny. The last word he used was in verse 58, and he called it a whetstone, maybe some of you who are younger don't even know what a whetstone is, I happen to remember it because I was brought up an Anglican, and I used to help a chap who scythed the grass down by the side of the road, and he had a long stone which is called a whetstone, it was what he used to sharpen the blade of a scythe, and it's a very apt figure, because the presentation of the truth in 1 Corinthians 15 is calculated to affect the way in which we live. I often wonder what Spurgeon would say were he here today, he observed brethren in his day and he said about them, high truth and low practice, I don't know what he would say about us today, but there isn't any doubt that the truth of resurrection is intensely practical and so at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, he talks about things which are relevant to our day, steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as your labour is not in vain in the Lord, and that was why I read to you the words in Philippians 3. Paul was a pattern saint, he actually says this about himself, because it was true, when he has the Ephesian elders at Miletus, he actually talks to them first of all, not about the character or content of his ministry, he talks to them about the way in which he lived, he was a practical exponent of the truth that he taught, it's a great challenge anyone who tries to engage in ministry of the word, the basic requirement is to some extent at least you should be characterised by the very things that you're saying, it's a very challenging thing, it's challenging for me, it's very challenging for you, perhaps the time comes when to some people it ought to be said that maybe in the light of the way in which you live your life, getting up on a platform and speaking is not appropriate, and so in Acts 20 you find Paul early on saying the kind of things that marked him, weeping over what was happening in the Christian testimony, praying day and night, and he actually uses the words where he says that he was an example of the thing that he taught, before ever he begins to talk about the other things he says that was the character, he says it in the first epistle to the Thessalonians, the manner in which they conducted themselves, and he appealed to the Corinthians to accept that what they saw was a practical exposition of the truth that he taught, and that was why I read to you the words that I think Daniel referred to just after the words that I may know him. If the power of resurrection and the resurrection of Christ from among the dead was the greatest power of resurrection demonstrated, then it's very clear when he speaks about the power of resurrection, he's talking about it in the content of practical Christian living, and it's an extremely challenging thing, but it's a thing which is immensely glorifying to God. If the truth that was seen in the resurrection of Christ from among the dead is seen in the lives of people who live contrary to the way in which the world lives, there isn't any doubt if we were true to our calling, there'd be a lot more persecution in our land than ever there is at the present time. It's a fact that there's much more persecution to death today than ever there was in the early days of the church. If you read the accounts of what goes on in Southeast Asian countries, and particularly in Southern American countries, they learn that Christ is no more welcome in the world today than ever he was, and so when Paul speaks about the power of his resurrection, he immediately begins to talk about the fellowship of his sufferings. When you turn to Christ in the faith of your soul, if you have done that, the most marvelous thing you think at the time is the fact that in the sight of a holy God you are absolutely clear for every charge. I often think when we sit quietly before the breaking of bread, it's not just that we have a title to be there, it's not just that the Lord Jesus has invited us to be there, it's the fact that being accepted in him, the beloved, we're absolutely acceptable to God. It's not just that we're clear of every charge, and we ought to be very clear about that, so that's what justification is. Some years ago I was with my job, I went to a factory, and before I went to have a look on the inside of the folder, and there was a note put on there of very high integrity, helpful, records well kept, returns put in on time, but very straightforward, so I chatted to one of the directors about some of the most recent returns that they had made, and in the course of the conversation bits and pieces were said, and I made a reference to a scripture for the simple reason that in what had been said by the previous officer's view of things, rather sounded to me as if there was a Christian background. To go to a firm where Christians practice what they believe is rare really, but so it was. In the course of the conversation, the director said eventually, like a cup of coffee, and I said yes, and in the course of having a cup of coffee he said to me, you're a believer aren't you? I said yes, I am by the grace of God, and I think you are as well aren't you? He said yes I am, and then he said something that's absolutely amazing, because we talked a little bit over it in the cup of coffee, he says, I think you are a non-tribulational dispensational millennialist, and I said you're absolutely right, I do not believe the church will go through the tribulation, I believe that there is a literal thousand years reign, and I do believe in the dispensations of which the bible speaks. He said right, he says I am a a millennial non-dispensational tribulationist, and I said oh that's that's very interesting, because here we are both bound for glory, and our beliefs are absolutely contrary to one another, but I just said to him you know it's a big thing, and I don't have any more time for discussion, but I just said to him you then will believe, and this is the truth of the reformers, this is what marks us off from in Scotland the we freeze out to the west and north, that your belief of justification is that when the Lord Jesus lived that perfect life for the pleasure of God, he amassed an infinite quantity of righteousness, and when you trust Jesus then some of that righteousness is put upon you, right he said. I said well it's a surprising thing that the bible never, well one place it appears to connect it with the Lord's life, otherwise the bible always links justification with the death of the Lord Jesus, the one exception of course is in Romans 5 where it says if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life, but of course that's life on the other side of death, and that's the Lord in glory not down here. So I said to him when you sing the hymn, we have it in our book actually, Jesus the Lord our righteousness, our beauty thou our glorious dress, that would fit in with you, yes absolutely it said, and I said the most marvellous thing is to be able to stand before an intensely holy God, and that's what will happen at the judgment seat of God, it will be the light of God, and it won't only be things that people do then, it will be the very reasons for doing them, the motives why things are done will be exposed also. Paul says that I might know him and the power of his resurrection, and the power of his resurrection there is that which gives the believer dependent upon the Lord Jesus and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God the ability to go against the tide and to identify himself with a rejected Christ. We buried 10 days ago a 98 year old brother, and the last time that I saw him before he went into a care home was outside Marks and Spencer's in the centre of Newcastle with a brother of 95 and they were preaching the gospel, they were getting opposition and many who passed by. He was a delight to be with, absolutely committed to outreach in the gospel, his life went contrary to what his own family wanted, it went contrary to what people would have expected. Why did he do it? He knew something about the power of resurrection and it was applied in his life. I read to you the verse in the epistle of John for a number of reasons but not least to point out, but not to say anything about them, that in chapter 1 and earlier in chapter 2 you have a repetition of a statement. If we say, most of us are aware that in the gospel of John and it's repeated in the epistle, the issues of life, light and love are raised sequentially like that. Some link it with certain chapters in the gospel of John and you can search those out for yourself but certainly in John's epistle the issue of Christ as light is raised in verse 5 of chapter 1 and so you get these statements that are raised when it says in verse 6, if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie. Verse 8, if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar. Verse 6 of chapter 2, he that saith he abideth in him ought also himself so to walk as he walked. I had a fellow believer who I worked with who was of the reformed faith and sometimes he would talk about Christian life and he used to say to me, the acme of Christian life is keeping the ten commandments and I said, no we're no more able to keep the ten commandments than the Jews were. And he said, all right well what is your view of Christian life and I said, better than anything, I'll tell you what God's view of Christian life is. He that saith he abideth in him ought also himself to walk as he walked. He said, are you saying that a believer can live his life as the Lord Jesus did? I said, no I'm not saying that. I don't know very much about it. I would love to know more about it but God says it. God says if we say that we abide in Christ and that's a theme which has taken up you'll remember particularly in in John 15 where fruit bearing is in view. If we say that we abide in Christ then we ought to walk as he walked. There's great tendency in ranks of brethren to look very critically at people and we are very critical of one another. It would be much better if we looked for the grace of Christ in one another and if we look we'll find it, it's there. You come across people and you hear a little about their life and you say they're the people who are proving the truth of resurrection in their lives day by day. Oh God help me to live like that. Let the proof of resurrection be seen in the way I live my life. You can't skirt round verse 6 of chapter 2 because it says very plainly if you say and every believer ought to be able to say this I abide in Christ then our lives should be marked by the grace of Christ. I read to you the verses and probably mostly to talk about this section of scripture in 1 Timothy 3. The early words are easy to understand where Paul says and if I tarry that thou mightest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the base of truth. If I tarry that thou mightest know how to behave thyself in the church, in the house of God. When I was a young believer I used to think well I was brought up in the church of England and of course where you have beautiful architecture and music and garments and incense it fits in doesn't it that that's the house of God but you're only in there periodically. In the New Testament in the New Testament we're always in the house of God, we're living stones in the house of God. It's very good to be believers and act well when we're gathered together but the greater parts of our lives are not spent together they're spent outside where we live, where we work, where we move day by day. We are stones in the house of God and it's by our lives that people get some idea of the God that they're going to have to do with what he's like. They don't read the Bible but they do read the way in which we live our lives day by day. Are our lives a true representation of what we know God to be? So Paul says it's the house of God and it's also the church of the living God, the pillar and the base of truth. Now we mostly are conversant with pillars that hold things up. If you refer to the temple that was built by Solomon it talks about two pillars Joachim and Boaz and they were freestanding pillars and you might remember that Daniel referred to them and said there were pillars that are written on and I guess a good number of us would remember those words of the Lord Jesus to the assembly at Philadelphia where he speaks to the overcomer and he says to him that overcometh and keepeth my word. Am I slipping off into another one there? Let me read it to make sure I get it right. The words that I'm after is I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go out no more and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God new Jerusalem which cometh down out of heaven from my God and I will write upon him my new name. That's what's true of the pillars. I can't remember what the name of the pillar is but somebody will remember it here that when they had great difficulty in translating all the languages that appeared on one pillar the Rosetta Stone is it? Thank you. That's why they understood what the Hebrew was and what the Egyptian was because one of the languages they knew but they had writing on them and that's what's being spoken about there. It's the same kind of thing that when we live out the truth it's written on us not pillars that hold things up but pillars to display the character of the God with whom we have to do and whom we've come to know and love in grace. I just want to speak about not all the six because there's not enough time and I don't have the ability to do it in any case but I always was puzzled what was the link between godliness and the six things which are stated afterwards. It was always a puzzle I couldn't relate them but then not all that long ago a few years ago I was reading and there was a parenthetical remark don't know who the writer was actually but he said it's like 1 Timothy 3 16. We narrow it it's very broad and that was a good help to me because then I could look at it in a different way and I just want to refer to the first and the second and the last and you can fill in the others and no doubt have much more detail to the three that I want to speak about. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. I know very little about critical views the bible I read them sometime but those of you who do sort of spend a few minutes sometime looking at it will know that there's a great debate over whether it should be god was manifest in the flesh or he was manifest in the flesh and the people who stand for god say they say well if you don't stand for that it robs it of its power it doesn't at all actually. In the present two problems through which we pass and they're absolutely heartbreaking. It's made me look at scriptures and see things that I never saw before and a comment from somebody drove me to have a look at 1 John 4 where it distinguishes between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error and the first thing it says about the spirit of truth and this is how our authorize reads it. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of god. Now if you have an interlinear you'll find that there is no in the manuscripts is absolutely no word for that nor is there any word for the before flesh and so you would read it every spirit confessing Jesus Christ come in flesh is of god now you say well what's the difference well the difference is this as it stands in a statement in our authorized is talking about the incarnation the incarnation is a fundamental truth without it there would be no salvation it pleased god to send his son he bypassed the angels on the way down he came into a condition spirit soul and body sin apart he was in a condition where he was able to die christianity says he has died and it's on that that salvation rests not upon our understanding upon our growth in grace or anything else it rests upon the simple grace of god because christ has died if you read it without the two words where there is no manuscript support the confession is confessing Jesus Christ come in flesh now you couldn't be said about you and me we couldn't come any other way he could but if the confession is Jesus Christ come in flesh and then you say and then you say well who is it that has come and john would say he's the only begotten son who was in the bosom of the father paul would say he's the son of the father's love we don't lose anything at all by accepting what appears to be mostly supported by manuscripts the statement um he was manifested in flesh and you see if you think about that as we normally do you just think about the the incarnation and again i wouldn't want to say anything that robs it of the force that scripture gives it but it really is talking about the lord generally down here in this world what he did displayed exactly who he was often wonder maybe you have wondered why in john's epistle does he sometimes say which we saw and heard and then he reverses it and said which we heard we heard and saw and and i hadn't got a satisfactory answer that until someone pointed out that if the lord had never spoken a word by the life that he lived there would have been a clear impression of the god with whom we have to do he came into this world to do that i often thought that moses made a marvelous um request of god in exodus exodus 33 i think it is right towards the end he says show me thy glory and sometimes god says yes sometimes god says no sometimes he says wait but the apostle john when he begins to write he says we beheld his glory the glory as of an only begotten with the father full of grace and truth the first statement manifested in the flesh it's not just talking about the incarnation it's talking all about the person of the son of god the foundation of christianity rests on the person of christ if he was not the son from eternity it begins to undermine the work that was done the value of the work that was done was because of the glory of the person who did it manifest in flesh justified in the spirit if you read the the commentators they refer this particularly to the the banks of the jordan when the lord um came out in public ministry and of course that was that was wonderful the first time god was able to open up the heavens and to say this is my beloved son in whom i have found my delight but the fact that it's it says found my delight and it's just a change from the authorized wording in whom i'm well pleased it's obviously going back on the years before we have very little about those years before public ministry in fact one sentence but what a sentence and how full when uh missed by his parents they came back to jerusalem and they found him talking to and answering the questions of the scribes and the pharisees and they upbraided him and he said wist you not that i must be about my father's business justified in the spirit was not only true of the lord on the banks of jordan it was true through his life the whole of his life there was never an occasion when like us if we get through a day without feeling there's something in our lives which is short of our calling think of the occasions by the the graveside of of lazarus he uses the words we could never use them he said i know that thou always hearest me we very often or i very often think about the words when i i get down to pray if i imagine in evil in my heart the lord will not hear me it wasn't like with the son of god you know every step was pleasing every word was pleasing but when it says justified in the spirit talking about his own spirit there there was never a thing from the first to the last that ever charged his conscience with being less than than he was the the um i'll pass by and and and leave uh the others the last statement um received up into glory and in fact it should be received up in glory you can easily check that out for yourself and i couldn't make a better statement than uh sydney thurston used to make in here and he used to make in here and and he used to say when when he came first there's hardly anybody to welcome him had it not been for the outburst of angels there would have been no heavenly song and a few rustics came but he was largely unheralded it wasn't like that when he went back to glory and sydney thurston used to say the parapets of heaven were crowded to receive him every heart was moved to see the man who had laid down his life to fulfill the will of god and when he came back to heaven heaven was moved to receive him but it's not only talking about that it's talking about his life on high there is never an occasion in which a believer will be found even if it's due to his own folly and very often in our in our folly we land ourselves in situations where we don't know where or how to turn but even in circumstances like that you'll never be in a circumstance where the lord hasn't been i remember many years ago when i was very ill it um it crossed my mind and no doubt the origin of it was satan that the lord could not know what sickness and disease was because he was not subject to sin and sickness and disease largely are the result of sin or folly well i'm greatly indebted to the late norman anderson who who visited me and i mentioned it to him and he said ah he says you obviously haven't looked closely at the verse in matthew 8 round about verse 17 talks about the lord healing all who came to him and it says he healed them all and then it quotes from isaiah 53 and without this quote we certainly would think the words in isaiah 53 were applied to the lord on the cross and not the lord down here in this world doing the will of god there by his own divine power healing and it says that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by isaiah the prophet saying himself took our infirmities and bear our sicknesses i've never heard better comment than this and it's far better than ever i could put together but one of the writers of the last century said about the occurrence of those words there he said the lord jesus actually felt in his own spirit what those were passing through before by his own divine power he healed them so when he touched a leper it wasn't dispassionate touching the lord felt the ravages of leprosy and it was true of every and every and any other disease now that's part of his living for us on high so when it says received up in glory it's not just talking about the way in which he was received up it's wide it's talking about the whole character of his public ministry i don't know who it is i'm indebted to for this because i found it in a book where someone else was quoting from somebody else i've absolutely no idea who the author of this was but it was the last little thing which put the the chain complete as far as i was concerned he referred to these and he just made a comment he said by those truths by those six truths and and it invites us to look at them much more deeply than we have this evening he says it is by those truths that god is known and it's from the knowledge of god that all godliness proceeds if we are weak in the area of godliness and we have to say that we are then the fault is not god's the fault is ours in that we have not apprehended the truth of god because wherever the truth of god is apprehended the result of it will be godliness i'm not even sure who it is that that said this but it was a good good statement all all the same somebody has has given a name to the to the person who said it but i haven't yet been able to trace it this writer again in the last century he said truth not practiced is truth not held you might know what it says but truth that's actually held in the very center of our spiritual beings that's held in our souls then that is truth that that would be practiced and that brings me back again to the the closing verse of of 1 corinthians 15. just as mr hall said the truth of resurrection is like the opportunity of of using using a whetstone you sharpen your sword or you sharpen your scythe or anything else you sharpen to use in the in the service of god and so he says therefore my beloved brethren be ye steadfast um i i had a look um today i i brought with me a concordance that a few of you know about and i've been looking at this in in view of another meeting not for tonight and i wondered what was said about steadfast but there wasn't much other than that but the word steadfast is i mean the way it's composed is is pretty clear isn't it it's somebody that doesn't intend to be moved it is a different word as far as i can see and i don't see any resemblance in it but it's the idea of this in acts 26 when on the last occasion paul speaks about his conversion on the damascus road he says having therefore received help from god i continue to this day in in fact it's it's a word which is used for stand in fact it is the word which is used of the lord jesus at the at the door of ephesus behold i stand at the door and it's a person who's taking a stand and he's determined not to be moved i think all of us um have to hang our heads in relation to this that when we go through crises it really tests whether we have hammered out the truths that we believe on the anvil of scripture and and very often we're we're caught out but i think what it's saying there steadfast somebody who has hammered out what he believes on the word of god and therefore when difficulties and opposition comes not moved because he stands on a word which is imperishable unmovable is it actually means not capable of being moved not that it simply isn't moved but not capable of being moved it was what was seen pre-eminently in the son of god when he was here always abounding in the work of the lord i look back on my early years on the the time and almost every area you could think of there were plenty of people who were engaged in service for the lord very wide thing the service of god particularly in respect of visiting that kind of thing we had a brother called jim elliott thank you very much jim elliott and he had a god-given gift of visiting in fact he was seen so often the hospital that one of the people came over and said to him you ought to be a designated hospital visitor he was at home in it he had a god-given ability and from the lips of somebody else i heard about people that were brought to god by him because when he went in to visit six saints he made sure that when he prayed and he read the scriptures that those in the vicinity heard if we believe what the gospel says if we believe the immense cost to god that we might be brought to him if we believe that we are bound for glory then it ought to be true of every one of us that we always abound in the work of the lord knowing that the day will come when a true appraisal will be given it's not important what the brethren say about it whether it's good or bad what is important is in that day when he who searches the hearts reviews our lives that it gets his approval really there couldn't be anything better than to hear him saying well done thou faithful servant the truth of resurrection is not um it's not theoretical the truth of resurrection lived out in life is intensely practical and i'm very conscious that i say things which are not true of myself but i don't mind committing to them because i would like them to be true of myself we sing things in hymns our hymn book almost every verse you can you can put a verse of scripture alongside we sing very solemn words but as long as we're prepared to commit ourselves to them and pray to god that the truth we express will become true of us i don't have any difficulty in that at all i don't want to say anymore i hope i've not cut out somebody else who did have a word from the lord but i felt that really we need to speak about it in the way in which scripture views it that all the truth of god which is given to us is given for a practical effect and how immensely pleasing it must be to the father to look down and see those who are in the good of new testament truth and whose lives are lived for his pleasure and glory in fact there cannot be anything higher than that whilst you render service to fellow believers when they're in need you are used by god to the reaching of the lost that's wonderful but from what was said to a new convert by the side of a well by the lord jesus it's the only place i know where it tells us what the father seeks and it says they that worship him in spirit and in truth is what god desires for it says the father seeker worshipers and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth may god grant as a result of our meetings that that becomes more true as day by day whilst we wait to hear his voice …