Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And the significance of that celebration and the significance of that event of His resurrection from the dead cannot possibly be overstated. The resurrection of the Christ is the pivot around which Christianity revolves. The resurrection of Christ is the very pinnacle of the salvation that He has provided. The resurrection of Christ is the foundation upon which all of our hopes rest. And the foundation of Jesus Christ is the greatest manifestation of the glory of God that has ever been seen upon the face of the earth. And so the whole system of Christianity rests upon the fact that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. Without the resurrection of Christ, we have no Christianity. Because if Christ be not risen, then our preaching is vain, our message is empty, our faith is useless, and we are yet under the power and the penalty of our sins. But the Bible makes it unequivocally clear that Christ is risen from the dead. And the result of that resurrection are so profound and so numerous that all of eternity will not be sufficient to realize all that Jesus has achieved through His death and through His resurrection. But though we can never fully understand everything Jesus achieved by His resurrection, we can certainly understand a great deal about that resurrection and what it achieved on our behalf. The Bible tells us much about what was achieved by the resurrection of Christ. And it tells us what the resurrection of Christ reveals about Christ Himself. The resurrection says something about Jesus Christ. Because Christ rose from the grave, we learn certain things about Him. But not only does the Bible tell us what the resurrection reveals about Christ Himself, the resurrection also tells us what Christ has provided for us. Because Christ rose from the grave, we have blessings that are beyond comprehension. So it is then to these two great issues that we want to turn our attention this morning. We want to ask, first of all, the question, what does the resurrection reveal to us about Christ? What does it say about Him? And then secondly, we want to consider together, what does the resurrection provide for us? What is its impact upon those who believe in Jesus Christ? So in the first place, then, this morning, let's consider together the question, what does the resurrection reveal about Christ? What does the resurrection reveal about Christ? Now, the resurrection reveals a great many things about Christ, but we will confine ourselves to two of them this morning. And the first thing we see that the resurrection reveals about Jesus Christ is that the resurrection reveals the deity of Jesus Christ. It reveals the deity of Jesus Christ. Now turn, please, in your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Romans 1. The book of Romans, the first chapter. And we want to look together at verses 1-4. Romans chapter 1 verses 1 to 4. Now Paul opens this letter to the Romans in verse 1 and he introduces himself and then he introduces his central subject who is Jesus Christ. Notice Romans 1 and verse 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God. And that is going to be the theme of this entire book. What is the Gospel? The good news that God has sent through His Son. This Gospel, verse 2, is that which He had promised afore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. And who does it concern? Verse three, it concerns his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. And so in verse one, we see that the gospel of God is a message It is a message, first of all, about a person, Jesus Christ. And this person, Jesus Christ, about whom this Gospel of God focuses upon, is that which, verse 2, was promised in the Old Testament. That is, the prophets from the time of Adam forward to the time of Malachi all spoke of the coming of Jesus Christ to redeem us from the work of Satan in the Garden of Eden. And so the gospel of God is a message about a person, Jesus Christ. That person is prophesied and predicted in the Old Testament. And in that Old Testament, we are told that he is one who is both human and divine, that he is both man and God in one person. And so we read in verse 3 about this person, His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and we notice, first of all, His humanity. It says that He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. And so Jesus, as he was born on this earth, was made by Mary through the instrumentality of the conception of the Holy Spirit. He was made a human man. He was literally the son of David, of the lineage of David, having the genetic component of David in his body, fully human in every respect as David was. And yet it says in verse four that he is declared to be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness and by the resurrection of the dead. So in verse three, we see as humanity that he was made. But in verse four, we see his deity. He was declared. to be the son of God. He was not made the son of God, nor did he become the son of God. His status as the son of God was simply recognized. It was declared because his status as the son of God was eternal. He was made as a man, but he was declared to be what he always was, namely the son of God. And so Jesus was declared and proven to be the Son of God, it says, with power. That is, by means of the power He exercised and all the miracles that He did, this proved the fact that He was the Son of God, for only God could do the kind of miracles that Jesus did. And then it says, he was declared and proven to be the Son of God by means of the holiness of spirit he displayed according to the spirit of holiness. This is not talking about the third member of the Trinity. It's not talking about the Holy Spirit. It's talking about the fact that Jesus was holy in his spirit. That is, he lived a perfectly sinless life. And so not only did he manifest all the power of God, he also manifested the perfect, sinless, moral character of God. And then thirdly, Jesus was declared and proven to be the Son of God by means of his resurrection from the dead. And so by his resurrection from the dead, which we are celebrating this morning, Jesus removed any doubt as to his identity as the son of God. How do we know that Jesus is God the son? We know it because he rose from the dead. Now, prior to his resurrection, in his condition of humiliation and servanthood, These things served to veil his identity to some degree. But after his resurrection, there could be absolutely no doubt as to who he actually was. Jesus predicted and declared and prophesied during his earthly ministry that he would rise again from the grave. And he staked all of his credibility and all of his teachings regarding himself and his identity on the fulfillment of that prediction. He said, I'm going to die and I'm going to be in the grave for three days and then I'm going to raise again. Now, either that happened or it didn't. And if it didn't happen, then all of his claims as to his identity were fraudulent. And if it did happen, then all of his claims as to his identity were authenticated and established. And so we read in John chapter 2 in verse 18, after Jesus had cleansed the temple the first time, he'd gone in, driven out the money changers with a whip, and ran out all the animals, and he says, My father's house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. And in John 2, 18 through 22, the Jews said to him, What sign showest thou to us, seeing thou doest these things? And Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, forty and six years was this temple in building and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But Jesus spoke of the temple of his body. And so he was saying to them, not destroy this physical building, but destroy this temple, this body in which God resides and which is God. And in three days I will resurrect it from the dead. It goes on to say in John 2, 22, when therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus said. And so Jesus claimed to be God the Son. He claimed to be the promised Messiah. And the proof of that claim was His resurrection from the dead. He made that claim very straightforwardly. And when that claim was fulfilled, the people who heard it believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Jesus went on and made this claim many times For example, in John, chapter 10, verses 15 through 18, it says, Then answered the Jews to him what sign? Pardon me. No. John, chapter 10, verse 15. Jesus said, speaking of himself being the good shepherd and the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. He uses this pastoral imagery in John chapter 10. In verse 15 he says, As the Father knows me, even so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I'm going to die. Verse 16 of John 10, "...and other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." In other words, Jesus was not going to just save the disciples He had at that moment. There was a whole multitude of gods elected. He was going to save down through the centuries and the millennia. And He was going to gather them all in so that the church would ultimately be one body of Christ together in heaven forever. He says in verse 17 of John chapter 10, Therefore doth my father love me, because I lay down my life, now here it is, that I might take it again. No man takes my life from me. Jesus wasn't murdered. He voluntarily laid down his life as a willing sacrifice. He says no man takes my life from me. I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down. Now get this. And I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received from my father. Now you sitting in the pews and I in the pulpit, we might have the power to lay down our lives, but we certainly don't have the power to raise ourselves back to life. And it was precisely because Jesus was God, the son that he was shown to be declared to be the son of God by the resurrection from the dead, that his claims to being the son of God were proven. And so had he not raised himself from the dead, all his claims that God was his father would be proven false. And so it was through the resurrection of Jesus Christ that his deity was revealed to us. Had Jesus not risen from the grave, he was not God. Having been raised from the grave as a result of that event, along with many others, the holiness of life, The power of the miracles altogether caused him to be declared to be who he was, namely the son of God. He was made the seed of David, but he was declared to be the son of God. And so the resurrection reveals the deity of Christ. The second thing that the resurrection reveals about Christ is that the resurrection reveals not only the deity of Christ, but secondly, the resurrection reveals the sovereignty of Christ. It reveals the sovereignty of Christ. Now turn, please, in your Bibles, if you would, to Romans chapter 14. Book of Romans chapter 14. Now, in this chapter, there is an extended discussion about the subject of Christian liberty, and there is a discussion also about judging other people in the exercise of that liberty. And so we read in verse seven, none of us lives to himself and no man dies to himself. Whether we live, we live under the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. And why? Well, the answer is given in verse 9. For to this end, or for this purpose, Christ both died and rose and revived in order that He might be Lord. Both of the dead and of the living. And so the resurrection of Christ reveals not only His deity, it reveals His sovereignty. It was through His resurrection that He was declared to be the Son of God. It was through His resurrection that He became Lord over all and of all, whether they lived or whether they died. It was for this end that Christ rose, that He might become Lord. both of the dead and of the living. So, as the mediator, the God-man, Jesus Christ, He obtained sovereign rule over all of humanity. And it was as the resurrected Christ that He declared in Matthew 28 and verse 18, All authority, all power is given to Me in heaven and in earth. And He was given all authority and all power in heaven and earth in order that His kingdom might be built and His purposes might be carried out. And so He goes on to say in verse 19, Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them what? To observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And so as a result of His resurrection, He, out of that authority and position of Lordship, commissions His apostles to go and make disciples and commands them to teach those disciples to submit to that Lordship by teaching them to observe all things that He has commanded them. This notion that somehow you can receive Jesus as Savior without receiving Him as Lord is completely heretical and unbiblical. Jesus Christ is Lord. He was made Lord through the resurrection from the dead. And as Lord, he commands his disciples to observe all things that he has commanded them. He doesn't say, well, just receive me as your ticket to heaven. And if you want some rewards, then obey everything I command you. No, one cannot receive Christ as Savior without receiving Him as Lord, because it is because He is Lord that He can be Savior. And so these things cannot be divorced from each other by virtue of his resurrection from the grave. Jesus is the sovereign ruler of his people. He's the sovereign ruler of his church. He directs them to do as he see fit and they observe all he commands them. And so as we gather together on Easter Sunday and we think about the significance of the resurrection, we need to think, first of all, what does this tell us about Jesus Christ? It tells us regarding Him that He is sovereign. He is Lord. He is Lord over me, and He is Lord over His church. In Ephesians 1, verses 19-22, it says when Paul is praying for the Ephesians, he prays that they would see what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe. according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead. And what is the result of this resurrection from the dead that the father wrought in the son by his mighty power? It says he sent him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come. That's pretty comprehensive. and has put all things under His feet and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church." So Christ rules the world and Christ rules the church and there is nothing that is outside His sovereignty. And so His resurrection from the dead resulted in all things being put under His feet and Him being placed as the head of the church. So regarding Christ, the resurrection shows us and reveals to us His deity and His sovereignty. And as we meditate upon His deity at Easter, we realize because of His deity, He is God to be worshipped and to be exalted and to be praised and to be honored. And so the first implication of Easter regarding Christ is that he's my God and I have a responsibility. Yeah, I have the privilege of worshiping him and honoring him and glorifying him with my life. Regarding Christ, the resurrection shows and reveals to us not only his deity, but his sovereignty. Not only is he a God to be worshiped and exalted, he is a God to be obeyed and served. As we think of our resurrected Christ, we think of an object of worship and we think of a master to be served. And we see both of these elements combined together in Philippians chapter two, verses nine through eleven, where it says of the resurrected Christ that God is highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in the earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And so what is our response to the resurrected Christ? Our response to the resurrected Christ is that He is God, and therefore every knee bows. And every tongue confesses. And what do we confess? Not only that He's God, but that He's also sovereign. That we confess that He is Lord. And so we bow the knee in worship. We confess that He is Lord in submission. And this is the perspective that we have upon the resurrected Christ. Christ is to be highly exalted. and Christ is to be bowed before, because He is God and because He is the Lord. So, having then considered the question, what does the resurrection reveal about Christ? In the second place, then, this morning, we want to answer the question, what does the resurrection provide for us? What does the resurrection provide for us. Now, we have seen what the resurrection has done for Christ. It has revealed his deity and his sovereignty. But what has the resurrection done for his people? Well, the resurrection of Christ once again provides us with a multitude of things. We will not go over them all, but I want to consider together three things that the resurrection of Christ provides us with. In the first place, the resurrection of Christ provides us with justification. It provides us with justification. Turn back, please, to Romans chapter four, the book of Romans, the fourth chapter. The book of Romans is concerned with the issue of how can a man be justified before God? That is, how can a man who is a sinner appear before God as one who is perfectly righteous? And the answer, of course, is that he can't do it by his own works or in his own strength. He must have a Savior who does it on His behalf. And that Savior is Jesus Christ. And the way in which we obtain and appropriate the provision that Jesus Christ has made for us as our Savior is by believing in Him, trusting in Him. receiving him as our Savior and as our Lord. In Romans chapter 4 and in verse 20, it speaks of Abraham, who is the example of one who had saving faith. And it says of him in Romans 4 20 regarding Abraham, it says he, Abraham, staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. But in contrast to that, was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform. And that's the nature of saving faith. It does not doubt the promise of God, but rather it is a full persuasion that what God has promised in the gospel, God will perform for his people who embrace that promise by faith. What is the result? Verse 22, And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. He obtained the righteousness of Christ by imputation. God took all of Abraham's sins, and he laid them upon Christ, and he took Christ's perfect obedience to the law, and he laid it upon Abraham, and he engaged in that transaction with reference to that man, because he was fully persuaded that when God promised he would do it, that Abraham would believe, Abraham believed, and he didn't stagger through unbelief, and as a result, he received the promise. But the wonderful message, people, is that promise is not just for Abraham. It's for us as well. Now notice if you will, verse 23, Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed. We too could have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. How? If we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. And so it's belief in God, but it's belief in God in relationship to a son. It's belief in God in relationship to a son who died on the cross and who rose from the grave. It is belief in that as the object of faith that saves. Now, there's a million people out there who believe in God. But belief in God, just a naked belief in God doesn't save anyone. The devils believe in God and tremble. But it is belief in God who has provided His Son to be the Savior of those who will repent and believe in Him. And those who believe in this Savior is one who rose from the grave. It is those to whom righteousness is imputed. Notice verse 23. It is not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom righteousness shall be imputed if we believe on him. And here's the qualification that raised up Jesus, our Lord, from the dead, who, speaking of Jesus, was delivered on account of our offenses and was raised again on account of our justification. And so Jesus was delivered to die for our sins, all of our offenses and the penalties that they deserved were laid on Christ and he fully experienced and absorbed all of those penalties in his person and satisfied all of the claims of the law with reference to the sins that we had committed. And then His righteousness was imputed to us, His perfect obedience to the law, and that transaction is experienced by us when we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. And why is it critical to believe in a God who has a Son, and a Son who died in our place, and a Son that rose from the dead? And the answer is because without that Son, there is no deliverance of us from our sins, from our offenses, and there is no deliverance to us of any justification or declaration on the part of God that we are righteous in his sight because we have the righteousness of Christ apart from that resurrection. And so it says in verse 25, Jesus was delivered on account of our offenses and was raised again on the account of our justification because Jesus rose from the grave. That is the proof positive that God has declared him and us to be perfectly righteous in light of the demands and claims of the law. So that the penalty of the law, which is death, can no longer be applied to us, cannot hold us, and we must be released from it because it would be unjust for the law to impose the penalty of death on someone who never violated the law. And it's the nature of the salvation of Jesus Christ that we are seen as having never violated it, because all of our violations were removed from us. And all of Christ's obediences to it were given to us. And so when God looks at us, he sees someone who never violated the law of God. He sees someone who perfectly kept the law of God. And so he says, in light of the law of God, you are a just person. You are justified. And it is the resurrection of Jesus Christ that assures us that that will be the declaration in that day. Because when the penalty of the law has been removed, which is death, then clearly the requirements of the law have been satisfied. And so the claims of justice against our sins were fully satisfied by Christ on the cross. And the fact that Jesus arose from the grave showed that sin's penalty of death was fully paid and therefore sin's penalty of death was completely removed. His resurrection is the assurance of our justification before God. It is the assurance that our sins cannot ever be held against us because they were held against Christ and he bore their full cost and penalty. And that he was delivered from death shows that none of our sins imputed to him remained unatoned for. Sin is the only cause of death. And when sin has been removed, death cannot exist. And that is why Jesus arose. He fully atoned for every sin we ever committed. And so Christ's resurrection from the dead is the assurance that sin has been fully removed because its consequence, death, has been fully overcome. And so the resurrection of Jesus Christ provides us with justification. God is more than happy for us to be in his presence forever because we are as morally perfect as he is through the work of Christ. But secondly, the resurrection of Christ provides us not only with justification. That is, it clears our record. It also provides us with regeneration. That is, it transforms our persons. Turn in your Bibles, please, to 1 Peter 1. The book of 1 Peter 1. In 1 Peter 1, Peter is speaking about the election of God. Those to whom he's writing in verse 2 are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. They have experienced the sanctification of the Spirit. This is all accomplished through the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, here is our verse. Notice verse three. It says, Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy. Now, notice the next phrase has begotten us again. Unto a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. What did the resurrection of Christ accomplish for us? It accomplished us being begotten again. In other words, it accomplished our being born again. And how were we born again? So that we would have this living hope of eternal life, which God has promised and who cannot lie. It is through the resurrection of Christ. And why is His resurrection the grounds, not only of our justification, but also our regeneration? Well, the reason why is that when Jesus went from death to life, He obtained life. And his resurrection life, which he obtained, is the very life that he now communicates to us in bringing us up from the grave of spiritual death and giving to us spiritual life. And so his resurrection life is the new life that is given to us when we are made alive. Previously, we were dead in trespasses and sins. But listen to the words of Ephesians 2, verses 4 through 6. It says, God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins. And that speaks of the deadness of our nature. even when we are dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ. By grace are you saved and has raised us up together." So not only was our legal record cleared in justification, But our personal spiritual death was remedied in regeneration. We went from being spiritually dead to be spiritually alive. He took out our heart of stone. He gave us a heart of flesh. And He did it on the basis of the fact that Jesus rose from the grave. And because Jesus rose from the grave and He had resurrection life, He could raise us from our spiritual grave and give us resurrection life. And the new life we have as believers when we are born again is the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. Spiritual resurrection, which is what regeneration is, is the result of Christ's resurrection. His resurrection life is the new life which He gives us in regeneration. And had Christ not been raised from the dead, we would still be dead in trespasses and sins ourselves. But praise God, we can be born again because He was raised again. We can be born again because he was raised again. We were begotten again by the resurrection of Christ. And as a result of being begotten again or born again, we now have a living hope. that that new life that he has imparted to us will find its full expression and complete perfection in that day when Jesus returns and either resurrects us from the grave or catches us up to be together with him in the clouds forever. And so the resurrection of Christ solves the problem of our bad record, the bad things we did and the things we failed to do that we should have done. And the resurrection of Christ cleanses our bad hearts. That is who we are as people. We go from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive, from being corrupt haters of God to those who are now holy lovers of God. Thirdly, and finally, The resurrection of Christ provides us not only with justification and regeneration, the resurrection of Christ provides us with resurrection to eternal life. It provides us with a resurrection to eternal life. Turn, please, in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Now, this whole chapter is about the subject of resurrection. But I want to just pick out a few verses for us to focus on. Notice how the resurrection of Christ provides us with our resurrection to eternal life. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 20, it says, but now is Christ risen from the dead? That, people, is a fact. But what are the implications of that fact to us? Here it is. He has become the firstfruits of them that slept. That is, His resurrection is the first showing of all the resurrections that shall occur. It says in verse 21, for since by man, that is by Adam, came death, By man, that is Jesus Christ, came also the resurrection of the dead. For as those who are in union with Adam, all of them die, even so those who are in union with Christ, all of them shall be made alive." But every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's at his coming." So here, by his resurrection from the dead, he secures our resurrection. Now turn please over to verse 53 of this chapter. Verse 53. It says, for this corruptible That is, our bodies are corruptible, they're decaying, they're dying, they corrupt in the grave and they rot away. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. Right now, we all die, but someday we'll have immortality and be incapable of dying. Verse 54. So when this corruptible shall put on incorruption? and this mortal shall have put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, this resurrection that is spoken of here is more people, it's more than just the reuniting of the body and the soul. Lazarus was raised from the dead. He had a reuniting of the body and the soul, but neither the body nor the soul were cured of their corruption. They still had mortality, and this man died again. That kind of resurrection would be no comfort whatsoever to us. But when Jesus was resurrected from the dead, He had a glorified body. He had a glorified human spirit that was completely eradicated from every vestige and effect and impact of sin with the result that He could never die again. He had put off mortality. He had put on immortality. And so this resurrection that is promised to us as a result of the resurrection of Christ involves the transformation of the body and the spirit into their eternal perfection so that sin and all of its effects are forever removed. And if sin is forever removed out of our bodies and out of our spirits, then death can never occur again. If there is no sin in our bodies, if there is no sin in our souls, then death, the consequence of sin is abolished. And that's why we will have eternal life is because the cause of death has been eradicated from our persons, from our existence and from any possibility of us ever engaging in it again. You see, the difference between the eternal life we have as resurrected beings and the life Adam had before the fall is that Adam was in a state of sinless purity, but he was not in a state of confirmed righteousness. He had to actually obey God to earn a righteousness. that would then, by God's grace, cause him to be confirmed in that state, where never again could he lose that righteousness, be tested, or ever fall again. Well, he failed. But Jesus came and did what Adam failed to do. He did perfectly obey God. He did obtain and earn a righteousness. And He gave that to us. So we are not only pure in body and spirit, but we have what Adam didn't, which is a perfect righteousness. that is earned by the obedience to the law of God, but is earned by another, namely Jesus Christ, and given to us as a gift. The gift of righteousness, it says in Romans 5, is through Jesus Christ. So how are the benefits of Christ's resurrection then to be acquired? You need justification. You need regeneration. You need resurrection to eternal life. Can you do without any of these things? You cannot. You must have them. How will you acquire them? Well, the answer is by faith in Jesus Christ. That is how they are acquired. In Romans 10, verse 9, it says, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, Now get this, and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. How are the benefits of Christ's resurrection to be acquired? By faith in Christ, and in particular by faith in the resurrected Christ. Belief in Christ's resurrection and the resurrection of Christ is essential to salvation. And if somebody doesn't believe in the resurrected Christ, they are not saved. Conversely, if we confess with our mouth, Jesus as my Lord and Jesus as the one who rose from the grave, and I'm believing and trusting in the Lord Jesus who rose from the grave, I will be saved. For with the mouth confession is made unto righteousness, and with the tongue..." Let's see, I got that wrong. It says, "...for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness." And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture says, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed in that day. We will not be ashamed before God as guilty sinners appearing before him, but we shall be able to draw near with confidence to God, knowing that we have been perfectly cleansed and perfectly restored to the favor of God. But you see, Easter is the great reminder to us of who Jesus is. It reminds us of His deity, that He is the God to be worshipped. It reminds us of His sovereignty, that He is the Lord to be served. We see that through His death and resurrection, He provides justification, and He provides regeneration, and He provides resurrection to eternal life. And all of those benefits are obtained. by us confessing with our mouth that yes, Jesus is God. Jesus is the sovereign ruler. He is the Lord. And by believing that God raised Him from the dead, and He raised Him for my justification, and my regeneration, and my resurrection to eternal life. I'm trusting in Him. You see, the essence of salvation is looking away from yourself. It is looking to Jesus Christ and it is trusting in him alone as the resurrected sovereign God of your life that saves you from your sin and delivers you faultless into the presence of God, where you and he will have exceeding joy with the angels forever. That's the good news of Easter. And that's why we celebrate him because he is risen. We have the brightest possible hope and future that is conceivable for anyone to have. All that has been done by sin has been defeated by Christ. And as a result, we will be with him forever in heaven in perfect joy and contentment. Well, believe on the resurrected Lord Jesus. You will be saved. Let us pray. Father, thank you for this wonderful Savior. Thank you, Father, for the blessedness of his coming and his work. And Lord, we are just overwhelmed at how it displays his deity and sovereignty and how it provides us with the wonderful gifts of being righteous in your sight, of being transformed so that no sin is in our nature as well as on our record. and then of being resurrected to immortality, eternal life. Father, what wonderful gifts that we've been given by a wonderful savior and a wonderful God who sent him. And father, we do believe in you as the father of our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for giving us him. We do give ourselves to him now. as his servants to proclaim his message, to live to his glory, to serve his kingdom. And Father, one day to be with him where he is. Father, hasten that day. Bring us to it. We trust your word and your promise. You will not betray us. We know you're a God who is faithful. Father, in that we rest and upon that we rely in Jesus name. Amen.