Welcome to Pilgrim Talk Radio. I'm Reverend Lee Johnson. with me, Reverend Darryl Kingswood and Denzel Washington's biggest fan, the man who has the biggest bromance. Man crush. Man crush. I was going to go with bromance. Bromance. That's a good one too. Bromance. Bromance on Denzel Washington. Scott Henry. Yep. Thanks for joining us. We are... He's got nothing to say. He's not even arguing with that because he knows. It's true. It's true. It's true. He's the man. He's the man. Denzel, man. Anyways, I'm mad on fire. It's Nick Burra's day on October 24th. Did you know that? Wow, he has his own day? Apparently so, according to the wall there. It's like Columbus Day. Hey, can we get to this number 45 about the benefits of the resurrection? We are talking about the benefits of resurrection. Let me just re-question 45. Don't embarrass me here. I'm going to re-question 45 now. And it is, what benefit do we receive from the resurrection of Christ? First, by his resurrection he has overcome death, that he might make us partakers of the righteousness which he has obtained for us by his death. Second, by His power we also are now raised up to a new life. And third, the resurrection of Christ is to us a sure pledge of our blessed resurrection. And we talked a little bit last week about the first part, about it being about our justification. and how this, how it was a bodily resurrection and the justification is bound up in this. And so this week we're going to talk about that second part, about His power we are also now raised up to a new life, and that's about our sanctification. How is it that the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Reverend Henry, aids our sanctification? Well, notice that He raises us up, as the catechism teaches. We're raised up to newness of life. He regenerates our souls and He makes us new creations in Christ Jesus. He has the power to do that. He is the one whom the Father had given Him all power and all authority, and Jesus gives life to whom He wills. And He has given us life, His life. He's imparted that to us. by raising us up spiritually. And as Peter says, we become partakers of the divine nature in Jesus Christ. What are you smiling at over there, Brother Lee? I'm not allowed to smile. We're talking about being raised to a new life. He's making you smile. It's making him smile. He is rejoicing. The amazing thing about the resurrection is that Jesus, the scripture says that the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. The scriptures say that the Father raised Jesus from the dead. And Jesus himself said he raised himself from the dead. And so He has the power, He has all authority has been given unto Him, and He raises us up spiritually through the preaching of the Word, through that Word, as the Holy Spirit regenerates the soul, creates faith within, and it's all a result of His being raised from the dead, being declared the King of kings and the Lord of lords as He sits at the right hand of His Father. making his enemies the footstool of his feet, and bringing in, as the Heidelberg Catechism says, preserving and increasing his church. And so by his power, by his divine majesty, by his divine power, he's able to regenerate the soul and give us spiritual life. Right. And how does his resurrection help grow us then? Well, first of all, I'm not even going to answer that question because I was thinking about saying something else. How does that sound? Go ahead, take the wheel. I was just thinking about reading a couple passages of Scripture that show us that this truth that we're talking about, Romans 6 verse 4 says, therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death and that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection." And then, that's in Romans chapter 6, verses 4 and 5. And then in Ephesians chapter 1, Paul is praying for spiritual wisdom. He prays for those to whom He is writing, that the Father of glory, interesting it's by the glory of the Father who is raised, He says, and here now He's praying to the Father of glory, He's praying that He may give you to you with the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. And then he says threefold that you may know what is the hope of his calling. We're born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. What is the hope of his calling? What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? And then he says, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe? according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. And so that power that is at work within us, that is the power that is at work in the resurrection of Christ. And so there we have the biblical testimony. That in the believer, that person whom God has called to Himself, delivered from the domain of darkness, transferred into the kingdom of His Son, or conveyed into the kingdom of His Son, the Son of His love, those who have been born again by the Spirit and by the Word, Right? It's interesting that that idea of spirit and word in the New Testament, being born again, it can speak of the whole idea of it's a feminine and a masculine, of the implanting of the seed and then the bringing forth of the seed. And the word, Peter uses it in terms of the bringing it forth, that life that has been conceived. What was I going to say? That very power, then, is at work. That's a dark thing, getting into the mind of things But that's what we need to understand. This is the power that is at work. The scripture teaches this is the power that is at work within us. This is the power that begins the sovereign work of God in our salvation and continues it. So your question was then, Lee, you asked me before I... Yep, how the resurrection of Christ helps us grow, helps this continuing part. Does it just help us? Or is it the very essence? The very essence. Well, I was kind of hoping you were going to say that. The power that is at work within us. Sure. Let me just add one more scripture. I just want to talk about where in Ephesians where Paul talks about what God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above what we're able to ask according to the power that works within us. So this is God at work within us. This is what God is doing. This is a work that he alone is able to begin and this is a work that he alone is able to bring to completion and it is all rooted in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our salvation is the work of the Lord. It is His power. He does it. He works within us to will and to do according to His good pleasure. And I'm just going to read from Colossians chapter 3, where in the first three or four verses, too late, it says, When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Sometimes when we're reading, when we're talking about sanctification, we skip to verse five, where it's the put to death. But if you've missed that part about if you've been raised, your life is hidden with Christ. There is. And it is all about being hidden in Christ and His resurrection power. That's what our sanctification is, the power of Christ, the resurrection. Right. So is it fair to say when we see a lot of times we see the therefores, we could give examples, especially in Paul, there's gospel logic and there are imperatives, gospel imperatives, but those gospel imperatives are always the outworking of the gospel indicatives, the indicatives of grace, of what Christ has done, of Christ's work of salvation. The glorious indicatives, as Machen would say. So the work of redemption was finished on the cross. In terms of Christ's suffering, His atoning sacrifice for the salvation of those whom the Father had given Him. He saved them, right, Scott? Yes. It didn't make it possible, did it? No. Probably? Actual. Actual. But that has to be applied, doesn't it, through that work of the Spirit. And so that's what I think a lot of times as Christians we need to understand is it's just not us taking up some teaching and putting it into practice and falling into some kind of a legalistic trap or a moralism From beginning to end, we're looking unto Jesus. We're looking unto Jesus. The author and finisher of our faith. Exactly. Who for the joy set before Him. And that's the Eucharist. Yeah, exactly. Despising the shame. And so that's what we're talking about. That power that is at work within us. And there's a sense in which it's mysterious. Isn't it, Scott? That mysterious work. The mystery of the Holy Spirit. That third person of the Trinity. Invading, invading. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. The confessions say. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. The confessions say. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineffable. It's ineff and softly and sweetly the Holy Spirit floods in and changes our wills to do the will of God, creates faith within, not treating us as stocks and blocks, but that ineffable work of the Holy Spirit, whereby He invades the inner recesses of the heart and sheds His love abroad in our heart, causing us to love Christ, to cry out to Him, to see Him as the way, the truth, and the life, the Messiah, the only hope of the nations, and that we can cry out then There is no other name given under heaven among men by which we must be saved." To believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father by Him, that only happens by the work of the Holy Spirit. Keep it real, Pastor. Keep it real. But I want to say that talking about the Word and what the Holy Spirit does, since you have… I like that. Peter says, since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and abides forever. Because all flesh is as grass, and the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, the flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. Therefore, Therefore, for those who believe this word, for those who have been raised up spiritually, everything that you brothers have already said about what the Spirit has done in the soul, therefore lay aside all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, and as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. You see, that's the initial, the beginning stages of that, is because of the work of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Spirit now resurrects us spiritually, raises up to newness of life, and then we are then commanded to grow and to throw off, to cast off that old manner of living, the old habits, the old lifestyle, the old disposition of the will. We have been liberated in Jesus Christ. And He says, if indeed you have tasted, the Lord is gracious. And evident that Peter is saying here about being born of the Spirit of God. When a baby is born, you know that there's life, because when it comes forth out of the womb, there's crying, there's screaming. When a baby doesn't have milk, it cries for that milk. The believer is the same way spiritually. If you don't have a hunger and a thirst for the Word of God, that's cause for alarm if you call yourself a Christian. Because if you are born of the Spirit of God, you will have a love in your soul for the Word. You can't be without the Word. Let goods and kindred go, there's mortal life also. But you cannot do without Christ and His Word. Because it's God's Word. It's God's Word. It's the Word that gave us life. It's the Word that sanctifies us. It's the Word that glorifies us. Through the Word of God, right, we're born again. And being born again in that Word of God, we desire that Word of God. We desire that Word. We've tasted it. And a lot of times, here's the thing, this is what God does to us. I can think about my conversion. I think back to becoming a Christian. I understand better now, from God's Word, what God was doing to me. But that's what it was, what God was doing. I just had, I shared it with you guys, I won't mention the name, I just had the privilege of watching God convert an individual in the past month. And that individual asking me, what is God doing to me? He knew. He knew. I'm not doing this. I'm not making this happen. God's doing this to me. He's taking a hold of me. All of a sudden, I'm alive to what I wasn't alive to before. I see what I didn't see before. Yeah, I was blind, but now I see. Yeah, I was lost. I'm found. I'm found. I'm dead. I'm alive. What's going on? And witnessing exactly what you're talking about, this born again by the Word of God, and then this consuming desire to know everything immediately, right? A regret over wasted time You know, not seeking the Lord, not being hungering and thirsting for righteousness and hungering and thirsting for His Word. All of a sudden wanting it all now. Wanting it now. Can't get enough. I want to catch on. I use the example, remember, over lunch of a praying mantis, which my brother Lee here didn't like my example. I had some baby praying mantises once, and they came out, and I tell you, when they came out, they had a voracious hunger, and they grabbed everything and anything that could get their hands on to eat. And we're out of time. We're going to have to talk more about your praying mantis habit after this break. Welcome back, and as we were leaving, Reverend Henry was just beginning to talk about his crybaby-ness, and he comes out crying all the time, and how you observe praying mantises all the time. Okay, you've done your intro. That's how Peter relates it. as a Christian, as newborn babes, you yearn for the milk of God's Word, that you might grow thereby. You can't grow apart from the Word. And as Reverend Johnson, Spanky, he doesn't like my example, is the praying mantis, so let me say it again. They come out... They're born to eat. born to eat. And I mean, when they come out, they had a voracious appetite. Because they're born to grow. They're born to grow. And so when we come as Christians, it's the same way. Born to be alive. You know, it's a thing where Peter says, if you don't yearn for that word, You know, where there's life, there's growth. And if there is no spiritual life, there's no spiritual growth. There's not even a hunger for it. So that's a real reality check, that 1 Peter 2 passage about those who just by habit, Sunday after Sunday, this is just what we do. We just go through the motions. If there's no appetite for the Word of God, if the Word of God is being preached and the pastor tells you, as it's time for the scripture reading, to pick up your Bibles and turn, and you sit there with your arms crossed, just kind of staring at him, not really caring to get in the Word. If you go home and all week long you don't crack open the Bible. Oh, now he's meddling. Yeah, I'm a meddler, you know. And if you don't do those things, you need to question whether or not there's spiritual life within you. So here's what we're talking about, the power of God. the benefit, the second benefit, the resurrection of Christ. By his power, we are also now raised up to a new life. You mean the old life is not there with me? What do you mean by that? The old man, is he no longer there? No, he's not there. Old nature. You got a sinful nature still. The old nature still with me? Notice, notice, a sinful nature. How is the old sinful nature still with me? I have a new nature. You have a new nature, but you also have a sinful nature. How do you sin if you don't have a sin nature? How do I... You're not a slave to that sin nature. How do I have those two natures? But let's go, I don't know. He's looking at me like I'm like, you know, there's four chairs in the Trinity and I'm occupying the fourth one here or something. I want to talk about – you brought up 1 Peter here, and it's interesting. He's talking about conversion. He's talking about salvation, right? And he doesn't mention here about, you know, raising your hand, walking in an aisle, signing a card, praying a sinner's prayer. But he talks about here, this is about tasting that the Lord is gracious. This is tasting grace, the grace by which we're saved. And you take that and you go back to what Paul says in Ephesians 2, by grace being saved. But notice how he said it, if indeed you have tasted the Lord's grace. But that's telling us something about, well, what is this salvation? And what happens when we're born again by the Word of God and we desire? We've tasted the grace. We've experienced grace. That's what salvation is all about. And I'm making that point in context here of this is the power of God at work within us. This isn't something we're doing. This isn't decisionism. This isn't I believed in Jesus and got born again. This is God started a gracious, sovereign work in my heart and my soul. He enabled me to believe. He turned me. So this is not you accepted the Lord into your heart, is that what you're saying? That's what I'm saying. I invite him. I find Jesus acceptable to me. What he's saying is regeneration precedes faith. Exactly. We're talking about this is a sovereign work of the true and living God as he saves those whom he has chosen according to his good pleasure in Christ Jesus right? To the praise, the glory, His grace. And something that will cause you to fall to your knees in wonder, love, and praise is to go back to Genesis chapter 1 and recognize that the same power that raised us up to newness of life is the same power that said, let there be light. Exactly. And there was light. And the same power. You get that imagery in the old creation, the original creation of the Spirit hovering. Hovering. And then when Matthew, I think it's when Matthew talks about the virgin conception, he uses language that the Spirit is hovering over Mary's womb. Is that the new creation? And then in Christ, we're new creatures. And that's by that Spirit that works. That Spirit. The Spirit. The Holy Spirit. And I caught myself correcting my that Spirit terminology before you jump all over me, Scott. That's alright. So hanging around with him, iron sharpens iron. That's okay. So, God uses and works in mysterious ways. And when I sing that song, I just think mysterious friends, and I think of Lee and Scott. Wow, that's really strange. No, it's mysterious. But again, and this is what we're talking about here. This is what we're all about. So a new life has got to be manifest. Absolutely. A new life has got to be manifest. And Paul makes it very clear in Romans 6. You once were this. You're no longer this. You are now this. Exactly. Push off those old habits. Exactly. Push off those old tendencies. Push off those things that you used to be because you're not that anymore. Now you are walking newness of life. And like I say, being an eyewitness, Again, what I've seen in the past month, I've just seen exactly what you're talking about, that what God says in his word about new life, that's what you see, new life, and you see the evidence of that new life, and you see the cravings and the desires and the longings of that new life. You see it fresh and new. It explodes, and you sit back and you go, wow, that is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. He alone can do that work. That person who's dead. That's exactly what Jeremiah says. The Ethiopian cannot change the color of his skin, and neither can the leopard change his spots. Right. And that's the thing. And I think we've got to stand and let people know that's where we stand in terms of our understanding of this is the gospel. This is the message of God's Word. This is all about the power of the true and living God, and what he is able to do, and what he does in the salvation of a people for himself, for his glory. Enough with the, you know, what do you want to call it? Easy-believe-ism. Enough with the man-centered evangelism. You know, enough with preaching this kind of domesticated God and domesticated Jesus. It's amazing, as the Gospel says, that the Kingdom of Heaven, the violent take it by force. I mean, we're storming the gates of Heaven as the people of God. That's not somebody sitting back on a joyride saying, hey, we'll just cruise along in this life. That's somebody out there that loves the Lord, that's demonstrating that in their walk, in their love for Him. That's not legalism. That's simply a holy obedience and a love for... Well, there you've got it, love. A love. But, you know... A holy obedience and love. Love is what motivates faith, love, the work of the Holy Spirit. That motivates us unto good work. Right. And the thing is, seeing that in a lot of times when God begins His work, the person who experiences it doesn't understand. That's why they desire the pure milk of the Word that then ministers, pastors, teachers. Bunyan talked about that, evangelists coming along, instructing and teaching, saying, this is what's happening to you. This is what's going on. This is what God is doing, and helping them to understand. You and I, Scott, we can talk about it. You were raised in nominal Lutheran, would you say? I was basically pagan. Anytime we went to church, it would have been the United Church of Canada. You know, and that's bad. That's bad. Bad to the bone. That's bad. So you and I would experience, God would, as we talked about, you mentioned at lunch, Jonathan Edwards talking about the holy rape of the soul. And we know what he's talking about. And we welcomed it, right? But we don't know what's going on, do we? We don't have that church background to understand what is going on here. But nevertheless. But I know I'm changed. You know you're changing. You know you hungered. You hungered for God's word. And you went looking. God had sought you out, apprehended you, taken hold of you. You went looking now, desiring the Word, where you could find it. I actually went, and my mom had given me a Bible when I moved from Michigan after college, and I got that Bible down, and I couldn't stop reading it. I was blown away by the Word of God. and I read and read and I'm still reading today. R.C. Sproul talks about how he read the Bible when he was converted. One week. Two weeks, I think he said. Two weeks. Ten days the Old Testament, four days the New. He says, when you encounter the true and living God. He plays the keeps. Exactly. So that's what we're talking about. And we're talking about this because whether it's in the context of the benefit of justification or that the new life and the power that we're raised up now to new life, This is the power of God at work within us. This is what God does. And when he does it, that's what you talk about, and you understand it that way. I think back, and if somebody asked me about my Christian sojourn, my Christian pilgrimage, I'd say, well, God began a work, and I can think back to about June of 1984. Somewhere in there, that's where I can identify God starting to work. And since that time, it's basically been looking to God in his word to understand what is he doing? What is the nature of this work he has begun? And that's working out your salvation with fear and trembling, right? And more and more, you see the simplicity of Christ. This is all about Jesus. And so when you tell me the old, old story, tell it to me, Scott. Come on, man, tell it to me. You can never get enough of it. Tell it to me. You know, I just need to hear it over and over again. I will never grow tired of hearing about Jesus and his life. Isn't it amazing, though, with the truth that you never grow tired of hearing the truth? I mean, you could hear a sermon that you've listened to over and over again, and the truth just reconfirms in your own soul as you hear it, the testimony of the Word of God. It's a great blessing. It resonates in the soul. And that's why you have the Amen corner, don't you? Preach it, brother. Keep it real. That's what I'm talking about. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Lee's weeping over here. So how much time have we got left, John? Well, we've probably got about two minutes. Just finishing up this last section of the third part of this benefit that we received. You want to go ahead and do the third one in two minutes, huh? Well, I just wanted to say that Christ's resurrection, as the Catechism says, is a sure pledge. I guarantee it's guaranteed it cannot not come to pass The Holy Spirit is in the in Ephesians. He's called the arrow bond the engagement ring He's the down payment that the Holy Spirit the down payment that there is going to be a consummation of this work of Jesus Christ that he began there is a coming consummation of this wedding feast of the Lamb of God and And isn't that the picture of scripture? I mean, you talk about Jesus in the parable of the ten virgins, five of whom are wise, five are foolish, and the foolish ones don't gain admittance to that banquet feast, that wedding feast. They're waiting for the bridegroom. There are certain things that they have in common with, you know, the foolish that have in common with the wise, but they don't have oil in their lamps. No faith. They don't have oil in their lamps, and the door's shut. They even call him Lord, Lord. Open up to us, too. He says, I don't know you. But they heard, I don't know you. I don't know who you are. You're not of me. I'm not of you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, into the everlasting fire. But the wise ones have that sure pledge, don't they? Sure pledge of the blessed resurrection. So I know, you know, when we go to funerals and we as believers, this body is going to come out of the grave glorified. This mortal puts on immortality. This corruptible puts on incorruption and death is swallowed up in life. It's coming that day. My wife had asked me before, where do you want to be buried? I don't care. Because I'm coming out. It don't matter. He's going to rise up. It's guaranteed. And that's faith in the promise of God. That's what faith does. Faith believes the Word. Faith is not believing in God. Faith is believing God. It's believing God in His Word. Like Paul said, I know whom. I know whom. Not in whom. I know Him. There's a story about A. A. Hodge. I think it's John Gershwin tells a story about A. A. Hodge on his deathbed. Somebody says, quotes to him, you know, he's almost dead. and says in whom, he almost sits up, he says whom. Whom I have believed, not in, whom I have believed. I'm trusting Him. Yeah, that's, I would say the same thing with Paul's writing in Romans 10, when he says, how will they believe? It does not say, how will they believe in Him whom they have not heard. It says, how will they believe in Him, how will they believe Him whom they have not heard? It's translated, it's mistranslated in our scriptures because that word is not there, in. It says whom they have not heard. And the resurrection of Christ is a testimony. And Paul says, if indeed you have heard Him, as the truth is in Jesus. So it's hearing and knowing as He speaks in your soul that He is your Savior. Those who are of the truth hear Him. And those who have heard Him know what you're talking about. They know exactly what I'm talking about. And if you're looking for a place to hear Jesus Christ proclaimed, hear His Word, Hear him proclaim and hear him. And hear him. Excellent. Yeah. Then you can come to Heritage Reformed Church, Mission Middle School 2202, Washington Street, Bellevue, Nebraska. And you can look us up on the web at heritagercus.com. Look us up on Facebook, Heritage R-C-U-S. If you have a question about anything that we've said, if you are inquiring about anything, If you'd like a Heidelberg Catechism, send an email. Get on the heritagercus.com website, look at the contact page, send an email through that link, and we will address your question on air, or if you're requesting some more information, that can be given to you as well. Until next week, we'll send a 660, KCRO.