During the month of June, we see rainbows everywhere. They are used for the most part when we see them in the context today to advertise defiance of God's intentions. And those who fly in flags in defiance of God, they don't believe in the promise of the rainbow, but they'll use it. Then it may irritate us as we see them. They bother us to see all these rainbows everywhere. But there really is a great irony in it, I think. Because the more the unbeliever posts rainbows in defiance of God's goodness, the more we're reminded of God's goodness. The more the children of God are reminded of what he has done for us. What they intend for evil, God uses for good. The meaning of the rainbow hasn't changed at all, but God uses the sinner's defiance as a way to remind us that he's faithful. Even as the world becomes decadent, our God is just as great as he has always been. And it isn't really the first time, we ought to remind ourselves, that unbelievers have tried to co-opt good doctrine for evil designs. Today, we're going to see how they did that in the first century. And they've been really doing it ever since, but we'll see an example out of the first century today as we see the Sadducees do that. They don't believe in the doctrine of the resurrection. But they'll use it. They'll use it to set a trap for Jesus. Jesus will catch them in their own snare. The scribes and the chief priests have just tried to trap Jesus. They were silenced. Now it's up to the Sadducees to give it a shot. Last week's question to try to amp up the controversy. Last week's question to Jesus. was about politics, it was a question about taxation. This week's question to Jesus is a question about religion, it's a question about the resurrection. Let's read it out of Luke chapter 20 and we'll begin in verse 27. There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny there is a resurrection. They asked him a question, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brothers. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died without children. The second and the third took her, and likewise, all seven left, no children, and died. Afterward, the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife. And Jesus said to them, the sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, but they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him. Then some of the scribes answered, Teacher, you've spoken well. For they no longer dared to ask him any question. This is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that as we look at this passage, we may see the glories of Jesus and of the life that we have in him. Amen. This is the first and only time we read about the Sadducees in Luke's Gospel. We read about them occasionally in Matthew. Matthew usually pairs them up with the Pharisees and they're kind of like the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in Matthew. They're always getting into trouble together. Maybe we could call them the odd couple because they don't have very much in common. Except for one thing, they don't like Jesus. They hate him, in fact. There's no shortage of hypocrisy among the Pharisees as we've seen, but we might consider them to be something of the theological conservatives of their day. The Sadducees, on the other hand, we might consider them to be the theological liberals. They're very wealthy. Among the wealthiest of people, they serve as priests in charge of the temple. They believe, these Sadducees, that their heritage extended all the way back to Zadok, the high priest at the time of Solomon, therefore the name Sadduxes or Sadducees. So there's no shortage of haughtiness among them. But it's their theology that's particularly problematic, and Luke notes for us one aspect of their theology. They don't believe in the resurrection. And because they don't believe in the resurrection, their view of life is entirely materialistic. The only thing that matters to them is wealth in this life, because there's no punishment or reward in the afterlife, because there is no afterlife. They don't believe in the resurrection, so they also don't believe in other things that are somewhat related to it. They don't believe in the existence of angels. They're sort of ancient deists. They don't think that God really cares a whole lot about what you do. He doesn't concern himself with what people are doing. And being materialists, then, they're also very concerned about the here and the now. So they're very interested in power, they're interested in politics, and they usually side with the ones who are the strongest, the ones who have the most power, and that would be Rome in this case, which is why the people didn't really like the Sadducees very much. But the most important thing to remember about them is that the Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection. So they're going to use the doctrine of the resurrection to try to set up this absurd scenario with which they can entrap Jesus with this weird hypothetical. And you see the question in verses 28 through 33. And they begin by quoting the law. 28, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow up and raise up offspring for his brother. Now, they start by quoting Moses because they like Moses and they believe Moses. And in Deuteronomy chapter 5, and you see this about midway through the chapter, Deuteronomy 25 rather. you have what's known as the Law of Leveret Marriage, and you're probably familiar with that. If a man dies without a child, then his brother was supposed to take his sister-in-law as his own wife and raise up a child in the deceased brother's name so that his deceased brother's name could continue, his lineage could continue, and the widow would have some means of provision. Now, we might object to this. We don't practice leveret marriage today, and we might object to it by pointing out the fact that people are supposed to be monogamous. How can you be monogamous if you're supposed to take on your brother's wife? Well, very briefly, to try to explain that, leveret law was the rule in the ancient Near East. Every culture practices this. Just like every culture practices polygamy, including the Jews, every culture practices divorce in these times, and in our day as well, unfortunately. But both of these things are sinful, but God still gave regulations about how you're supposed to practice them, because they were going to do it anyway. So here's regulation concerning Leverett Law. And it's designed to keep the Jews from intermarrying with Gentiles so that a helpless widow wouldn't end up having to go, let's say, to a Moabite, or an unbelieving Moabite, I should say, because we do have an example of a Moabites, as we'll see in just a minute. But they wouldn't have to go to a Philistine or something like that in order to find or any other Canaanite in order to raise up an heir. So God makes provision for that. And as I intimated just a second ago, you have an example of Leverett marriage in the book of Ruth. It doesn't exactly follow Deuteronomy 25, but there you have Ruth, who is seeking a redeemer, and she goes to Boaz. And Boaz says, there's a relative who's closer to me than to you, Ruth. You have to go to him. And if he passes on you, then you can become my wife and I can fulfill the responsibilities of the junior. And that's exactly what happens. She goes to the nearer relative. He says, no, I don't want to exercise my Leverett responsibilities. And they'll fall on Boaz. And of course, Boaz was quite happy about that. But the Sadducees, they take this Leverett law And they use it to cook up this absurd scenario that's supposed to create a conundrum for the doctrine of the resurrection. They're going to make Jesus look stupid. That's the idea. We're going to just cook up this weird scenario. So here it is. There were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died without children. And the second and the third took her. And likewise, all seven left, no children, and died. Afterward, the woman also died. I can't remember why at all, but for some reason my wife and I, a few weeks ago, began to watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I didn't get real far, but what I saw of it, it seemed like a pretty comical, you know, kind of movie, this 1954 movie. Pretty funny, right? Seven Brides, Seven Brothers. This scenario is equally comical. One bride for seven brothers. It's absurd and years ago I had a calendar where you get a new word every day or a new phrase every day. This was several years ago. And one day, I encountered the word reductio ad absurdum. And I hadn't seen the word up to that point. And since then, I've seen it a lot and use it even occasionally. But reductio means to reduce an argument to absurdity in order to prove the invalidity of what somebody is saying. And loosely speaking, that's what the Sadducees are trying to do that. They're using something of a form of that here. I'm going to show everybody how absurd the resurrection is, but more importantly, Jesus, how absurd you are. The seven brothers all die with no children. They each practice Leveret Law. So, Jesus, in the supposed resurrection, here's the zinger in verse 33, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as a wife. Gotcha, huh? Years ago, again, R.C. Sproul wrote a book called Now That's a Good Question, looking at some difficult passages of scripture. We could entitle this one Now That's a Bad Question. Because not only is this just an extreme example, but it also assumes certain things about the resurrection, the resurrection that they don't believe in in the first place. But the question assumes that there's no significant difference in resurrection life and our life now. The question assumes monogamy, being the husband of one wife, even though that's not technically the practice in Leverett law. It assumes that God doesn't have the ability, the power to supersede material, biological human arrangements. That's all the Sadducees know because that's all they believe. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus puts it this way, you are wrong because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. And when Matthew says that, he touches on another reason it's a bad question, because they don't know the scriptures. They know the verses, but they don't know them. In his commentary on Luke, a very good commentary, by the way, if you look for a commentary on Luke, it's one of the good ones, Philip Ryken makes a great observation. Just because people start with a Bible verse doesn't necessarily mean that they understand what the Bible says. Esadgeses are quoting from Deuteronomy, but that doesn't mean they understand it, and it doesn't really mean that they believe it. I think we can learn a little something from this not to be intimidated when people pull out Bible verses to prove an erroneous point. Because selecting isolated Bible verses to back up a preconceived belief, that doesn't imply a good use of scripture. Who else used the Bible? The book of Deuteronomy, actually, in a way that was wrong. Well, in fact, to tempt Jesus, we saw it all the way back when we were in Luke chapter 4, Satan. Just like the Sadducees are doing here. And Satan's instruments continue to do that, even today. You can use your Bible to prove a point. We can do this as believers, too, by the way. We can use our Bibles to prove a point and yet still be profoundly unbiblical. because while the Bible's infallible, we're not. And unbelieving groups, unbelieving church groups even, use the Bible to teach that God approves of so-called gay Christians. They'll use the Bible to try to prove that to you. Others will use the Bible in an attempt to prove to you that Jesus is not God, or to teach that all religions are acceptable to God, or any one of a number of dangerous false beliefs. Don't be fooled by a Bible-wielding heretic. That's one of the lessons that we can learn here. They're attempting to fool the Jews and Jesus. Learn how to interpret the Bible and understand scriptures rightly. If you want to know how to do that, Westminster Confession, Chapter 1, Sections 6 through 9 are a really great place to start. Know those principles, the good and necessary consequence of scriptural passages that harmonize with one another, the infallible method of the interpretation of scripture. You know what that is? I know you know what it is, because we've taught it here many times. Scripture interprets scripture. the Bible interprets itself. When you have a passage that you don't understand, then you search that out by looking at other passages that speak more clearly, knowing the Word of God thoroughly, the best antidote to being swayed or discouraged by people who quote the Bible in an attempt to promote unbelief. What the Sadducees think is an ingenious verbal ambush. is really a ludicrous argument disguised as a question, but it can still be effective. You don't have to have a good argument, as we know, for it to be an effective argument. Just like ludicrous objections to the faith, they can still be effective today when you're not prepared to answer them. It could be effective against the Jews and against Jesus because the Jews did believe in the resurrection. Most of them did believe it. Why? Because the Old Testament taught it. The Sadducees didn't accept it because they didn't accept most of the Old Testament. But it's clear the resurrection of the body is taught from the concern of Jacob to preserve his bones in Genesis chapter 50 to the declaration of Job. How can you miss this one? That after my skin has been destroyed yet in my flesh I shall see God. David's statement in Psalm 16 that at your right hand are pleasures forevermore to the explicit teaching of Isaiah chapter 26 that the dead shall live and their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust awaken, sing for joy to the glorious passage in Ezekiel 37 of the bones that come alive and put on flesh. To Daniel's prophecy that many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. Some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. But the Pharisees rejected a lot of the Old Testament. The Jewish people didn't, however, at least not explicitly. So it can be an absurd argument, but it can still be effective if they can pose a question so difficult that Jesus bungles the answer and is seen to be a fool in the eyes of the Jews. And that's what they're after. But Jesus is no fool. And in a response that it's actually unusual for Jesus, he directly answers their question. Usually he refocuses the question and he does that here too, but he directly answers the question. Verse 34, Jesus says to them, the sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage. And Jesus answers this question directly in a way that confronts the Sadducees' unbelief. Contrary to what you teach, there is an age to come. So Jesus contrasts this age, verse 34, with that age, verse 35. The Sadducees don't even have a basis for posing this question. But Jesus is teaching us something. He's teaching us three things. First, he's teaching us there is a resurrection. Second, he's teaching us that there's no more death in the age to come. The third thing he teaches us is that those who die in Christ in this age are even now alive in Christ. Let's look at those three things. First, there's a resurrection. There is a resurrection. And of course, Christ is explicit about this in this passage. The whole tenor and substance of what he says teaches this. He refers to the sons of resurrection in verse 36. He tells us explicitly that the dead are raised, verse 37. Verse 38, God is the God of the living. If you don't believe in the resurrection of the body, then you don't believe in Christ. If you don't believe in Christ, then you have a muddled view of whatever you think is going to happen after you die. Those who die in this age, everyone will be resurrected. Anastasis is the word, rising again. And that's great news if you have faith in Christ, if you have been united to him in his resurrection life. But it's not good news for everyone. Some would rather just be snuffed out. Some would rather just go into the grave and that's the end of it and have their souls, if they even have one, be just simply annihilated. But no, Jesus tells us some will be resurrected to eternal life, others will be resurrected to eternal judgment. All will be resurrected in the sense that at the coming of Christ, each body that goes in the grave will rise up. John 5, 25, Jesus tells us that the hour is coming when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. Acts 24, 15, Paul appears before the governor of Caesarea and he tells him, there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. Jesus says in John 5 that the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out. No matter what you believe, no matter how alive you feel at the moment, there will come a day when death will have its way with you. It is appointed unto man once to die. And just as surely as death will have its way with you, so will a resurrection from the dead. You will rise again, but Jesus continues. All who are in the tomb will hear his voice and come out. Those who have done good to a resurrection of life, those who have done evil to a resurrection of judgment. If you are listening today and you have never turned away from your sin, you've never placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, That's something that you need to do now. Because Jesus assures us that you will die and you will be resurrected. And for those who are united to him by faith, his own resurrection at that tomb 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem is the first part of the resurrection of everyone united to him. Paul tells us that, elaborates that again, and on that again in 1 Corinthians 15. And this is the great hope of the believer. that at the arrival of Jesus, the arrival of the age to come, that what death has done to us will be undone. Jesus will bring with him on the clouds, he will bring with him the life of the age to come. Paul writes to the believers in Thessalonica, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with the cry of command and the voice of the archangel and the sound of the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. John 640, Jesus says, this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. These are not hollow promises. This is the living savior telling us that we are alive in him and will live forevermore if we trust in him. What a great comfort this is. So the first thing we learn from Jesus is that there is a resurrection. But he's going to tell us something about the nature of that resurrection. It's the second thing he tells us. There's no more death in the age to come. Now, that might seem obvious. We probably don't need to say it. But what's interesting is the way that Jesus says this. Jesus said to them, the sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. OK, so a characteristic of this age, as most of you know, is marriage. And the purpose of marriage in this age that Jesus has in mind as he's answering this specific question is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Procreation. People die. And so there has to be new life, new births. So the sons of this age, they marry and they are given in marriage. But then he says in verse 35, those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead Now again, remember, all will be resurrected, but not all will be resurrected to life. Not all are worthy to attain to the age to come. Only those who are considered worthy will attain to the age to come. Now, we've learned elsewhere, we've seen elsewhere. that none of us is worthy, that only Christ is worthy. So Jesus isn't teaching salvation by works, but those who are united to him are made worthy in his worthiness and attain to resurrection life in the age to come. Well, in that age to come, Jesus says, may neither marry nor are given in marriage. Why? Well, he answers that in verse 36, for they cannot die anymore. There's no death in eternity, so there's no need for marriage. Now, there's a couple of things that we learn from this. First, there's a substantial change in our glorified bodies. Our glorified bodies will no longer be oriented toward an earthly material existence with all of its needs and its challenges. Rather, our glorified body will be oriented toward a heavenly existence. Not the old creation, but the new creation. And one of the primary purposes for which we are married will no longer be necessary in glory. There will be no procreation, there will be no new births. The life that we had in Adam, the great commission that is given to Adam to fill the earth and subdue it, the hope of the coming redeemer that would come through Adam giving birth and his lineage giving birth, the coming of the second Adam who would do what Adam didn't do, who would conquer sin, all of that's fulfilled. And so because there will be a substantial change in our glorified bodies, we learn second that our lives then in that age will be oriented toward a new purpose. A new purpose. When we first read this, we read this and there's not going to be marriage or giving and marriage in heaven. We might be disappointed. If you're in a happy marriage, if you're not, you may think, well, there's my escape clause, and that's not the right way to think about it. If you're in a happy marriage, you're thinking, well, how can that be good? I don't even like spending a day away from my wife, but all eternity? How can that be better than what we have? But notice, it doesn't say that you won't be together. It doesn't say that you won't see each other. Jesus doesn't say anything about that. So let's not speculate on it. He simply says there won't be marriage. Marriage is an institution of this age, not an institution of the age to come. And the Sadducees, they erroneously assume that, well, all right, look, even if there is a resurrection, hypothetically speaking, but if there is one, our future existence is gonna be just like it is now, no difference. But here's what Jesus is saying. What we experience in heaven will be so far beyond the greatest expression of earthly bliss and joy and love that we can't even imagine its glory. We have a hard time imagining, again, if you're in a happy marriage, and I hope and I think most of you are, We have a hard time imagining, well, how will I be happy in glory if we're no longer married? It's because we can't even imagine its bliss, its glory. It's not that we won't love our loved ones. It's simply that it's, well, maybe not simply, but it's that we won't, we'll be reoriented. not toward biological relatives, not toward earning a living and providing sustenance to our biological family, but will be reoriented toward our heavenly family, the greatest, the most intimate communion that we experience on this earth, the union between husband and wife will be eclipsed by the intimacy and the communion that we have with God. And Jesus gives us the rationale then in verse 36 at the end, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. Jesus says those who attain to that resurrection life are equal to the angels. Now, he doesn't mean that we become angels. We won't get our wings when we get to heaven. What's he talking about here? In this respect, simply talking about procreation, that's the question of the Sadducees, will be like the angels. We won't be performing marriages, we won't be bearing children, so we will be equal to the angels in that regard. And Jesus says that those in glory are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. There's the family. There's no procreation and glory, but there's still family, only there's a shift from the earthly to the perfect, the heavenly, because of that glorious doctrine of adoption, that as we come to Jesus Christ by faith, God graciously receives us into a new family and gives us the privileges of being his sons. You see what kind of love the Father has given to us, says John, that we should be called children of God? And so we are. John 1, all who did receive him who believed in his name, he gave the rights to become the children of God who were born not of the blood or the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God, to be the son of God. A son of God is privilege beyond description. But what makes it so glorious is the resurrection life that we have in Jesus, you see. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 1 that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness, by his resurrection. So as we are resurrected, being united to Jesus, we receive the same designation, that of the sons of God. Paul says in Romans 8, all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. We've received the spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba. Father, when Jesus says there's no marriage in heaven, we might tend to, well, concentrate on that part. Try to figure out, well, how's that gonna work? We're not going to enjoy the same marital bliss that we enjoy on earth. But the greater point here is the glorious privilege of being part of the family of God. By the way, we should keep that in mind even in this age. Remember that the Apostle Paul tells us we have already been seated in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus. We are already new creatures in Christ. No, we don't have our resurrection bodies yet. But remember what Jesus said back in Luke 8, we saw it there. My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. What is he doing all the way back there? He is reorienting us as Christians toward our heavenly family. And we might, in an age where the family is being systematically dismembered by culture and society and government, we might be tempted to say that there's nothing more important than the biological family, but the Bible tells us otherwise. But in this age and in the age to come, it's the family of God. So we will be sons of God, like the angels. We won't be having children. Why? Because there won't be death in heaven. And what a glorious comfort that is. No death. The last enemy defeated is death itself. Jesus Christ says, everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. The tent that we put in the grave is a body that awaits a resurrection, but the soul immediately goes to glory to live forever with God, shall never die. We read in the book of Revelation that death and that Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire. that God will wipe away every tear from our eyes and death will be no more. There's no more crying, there's no more pain because the former things of this age are passed away. No matter what death can take from you in this life, it can take from you your loved ones, it can cause deep anguish and sorrow, it can incite fear in our hearts as we see death coming closer. As we feel the effects of age encroaching upon us, as we see those around us dying and we start to wonder, when is my turn? No matter what death can do, or how it can preoccupy you, or how it can torment you in this life and send your body to a grave, it cannot take you and it cannot take your loved ones out of the loving hands of Jesus. It can do you no ultimate harm. That's what Jesus is saying. Those who die in Christ will rise in Christ and will see death itself die and live forever, you will, with our glorious Lord in eternity. So Jesus tells us there's a resurrection. He tells us there's no death in the age to come. But there's something else, too. Those who die in Christ in this age are even now alive in Christ Jesus. We don't have to wait to see this promise fulfilled. Even now they are alive in Christ. Jesus says, but that the dead are raised, even Moses showed. Now notice what Jesus does here. The Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection, but they do believe Moses. So Jesus tells them, look, even Moses testifies to the resurrection. Your phony objection to the resurrection based on this absurd illustration you've conjured up is no excuse not to believe. And to illustrate the resurrection, he turns to a passage from Exodus 3, the episode of the burning bush, and Jesus quotes that passage. Even Moses shows, verse 37, Even Moses showed in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, and of course it's God who says that to Moses. Moses records the words, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now, you might say, well, that's nice. I know that passage. I've read that passage. But how does that prove the resurrection? It's because as God says those words to Moses, the bones of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are lying in the grave. Physically speaking, they are as stone cold dead on a marble slab as they could possibly be. And yet, God is currently their God. If they were dead, God would say, I was the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, but they're history. But instead he says, I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. They're alive. If Abraham is dead, then the covenant promises made to Abraham are dead. Leon Morris puts it this way, if the only alternative is to think of God as the God of non-existent beings, that would be absurd. But as Jesus says in verse 38, now, he is not God of the dead, but of the living. For all live to him, Jesus says, they're all alive. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, they're all living to him, present tense, right now. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are alive with Christ. If Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had ceased to exist upon their death, if their souls were just snuffed out, then God would cease to be their God and would cease to be God at all. In other words, God himself would cease to exist. And when Jesus says this, he binds God to the life of Abraham. It is in the very nature of God that those who are united to him in eternal life cannot die. Eternally, they cannot die. And you can be as confident in resurrection life as you are in the very existence of God himself. And the only reason that God's promises of grace to Abraham are valid to you today is that because God lives, Abraham lives, and because Abraham lives, you live, and you will live. What Jesus does with this text is marvelous, by the way, and I'll have to just skip over it this morning. But if you look at what he's doing with this text, it's really beautiful because he's bringing it out in all of its implications. When Moses encounters God at the burning bush, I don't think he's thinking resurrection. Jesus is bringing out all of the implications of that text for us in this divinely inspired interpretation of it. Now, some of the scribes, they're very impressed by the way Jesus handles this. And of course, you know, the scribes are no friends of Jesus. But we read in verse 39, they're quite impressed. And they say in verse 39, Jesus, you have spoken well. They don't like Jesus any more than they did five minutes ago. But they don't like the Sadducees, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So Jesus, good work there. We admire your answer. But the Sadducees, they tuck their tails between their legs, and they slink off. And we learn that they dared ask him no other questions. The more they talk, the worse he looks, or the worse they look. And Jesus is actually shown. Which argument is the absurd one? It's theirs. Their objection to the resurrection is foolish, it's irrational, even by their own standard, the law of Moses. The world still poses all sorts of objections to the doctrine of the resurrection. The world has created competing religions and philosophies from humanism to Christian science to Hinduism to the New Age movement to reincarnation. They've concocted an absurd theory of human origins and destiny and a theory of evolution that's irrational but presented as indisputable fact nonetheless. And should your faith be undermined by any of that? Because the doctrine of the resurrection is based upon the infallible word of scripture and upon the unchangeable character of God. And it's a great comfort to know that death will be defeated. But it's also a great comfort to know that even though we die, we don't wait for the return of Christ for new life. There are many of you who are seated here who have lost many. And we feel the effects of death encroaching upon us. I had the privilege of going to, just for a little bit, the PCA General Assembly as it took place in Memphis this past week. It's not usually Memphis, so I thought I'd pop in and just see a bit of it. And there were a few faces that I recognized, and a couple that I hadn't seen in years, some in a couple of decades that I hadn't seen. And as you know, when you see somebody that you haven't seen in 20 years, you look at them and think, my, you've aged. Because I hadn't aged a day. But the individual that I was looking at seemed to have a lot more wrinkles and seemed to have quite a bit of gray in his beard and seemed to walk maybe just a little bit more hunched over than he used to. And we feel the effects of it. And that's why we say to one another, well, you haven't aged a day. You look fantastic, just as good as the last 20 years ago when I saw you. because we all know it's coming. And for some of us, we have buried those we love. But the Word of God teaches us that those who die in Christ, we put their tents in the ground to wait the resurrection life, but they are not dead. Our confession reminds us, as Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 4, even in their graves, their bodies are united to Jesus. And what a marvelous truth that is. They rest in their graves as though they are beds that they sleep in. And our souls, upon death, immediately enjoy the benefits of life eternal as we are made perfect in holiness. Brothers and sisters in Christ, do not fear death. For Jesus has conquered it and has given you life, not in theory. He's given you life, not just in the future. He's given you life, not only in eternity, but life now. And those who die in Jesus enjoy life now and forevermore. Those loved ones that you have lost, who have died in Christ, are yet alive. And we may find this hard to conceive, but they're in better shape than you are. enjoying the painlessness and the sinless glories of heaven, no longer wrestling with the world and the flesh and the devil, and they are concerned exclusively for that which God created them, their enjoyment and his glory and his majesty. Be encouraged that Jesus, he's not befuddled by these Sadducees, he's not troubled by this question that still makes us scratch our heads and wonder about. But Jesus is life, and those who are united to him have life, and those who we have lost in this material existence who are united to him yet are living. and we yearn to join them. Even so, come, Lord Jesus, let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for this promise of resurrection life, the hope, not just for us and not just for the future, but for now, that those whom we have laid in their beds are yet alive in Jesus. If they have placed their faith and trust in him, and may we Will the Lord be challenged to know our faith and know it well, and to teach others that they too may be united to our Lord and Savior Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.