It's great to be back again, look into your faces, see some old friends. It's good to be here, to be able to proclaim the message of God from this platform once again. It's gone on hundreds of times, and I hope that we haven't gotten over the thrill of it's going on, because after all, we're fulfilling a prophecy of Jesus Christ every time we preach the gospel. More than that, we ourselves become directly responsible to God every time it's heard. And I hope that we're like children still, rejoicing in the awe and wonder of the love of God and His power. I hope we haven't gotten over it like so many Christians seem to. For my own part, since I've been away from you, the Lord has been stirring me up as to just what the gospel is that should be preached. Just exactly what twist a man should take when he stands in front of a twentieth-century audience and speaks to them. How much should he tell? What should he say? How far should he go? What should be his approach? And that exercise has driven me to the Book of Acts for a fresh study of what the gospel was as it was preached by the apostles in the days of the Acts. And I have found that the gospel that they preached was indeed a simple one. I've found some strange and interesting variations in the gospel that we preach. For we call our gospel simple, But oftentimes I question whether that's so. We say that the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, taught to us through Paul in the Book of Romans, is a simple gospel. But I'm not so sure that that's true. At any rate, it's not the initial thrust. It's not the first few messages that were given by the apostles in the early days. They preached a message not of theory or theology, such as blood atonement. which required a great deal of understanding in the Jewish scripture, and also a great deal of theoretical knowledge as to the nature of God and His holiness. They preached a gospel that was simple because it was based on recently occurring facts. They preached the facts primarily of the Resurrection. They mentioned the death of Christ and then they enlarged upon the Resurrection. And the proofs which they adduced to the Resurrection were those that seemed to impel the audience. They were right there around them. They could say, we are witnesses of the fact that Jesus Christ rose and walked among us for forty days. And they say that over and over again. Peter says it. Stephen says it. Paul says it of the rest of the apostles. He says that these are alive and can bear witness to the fact that they saw a man who was raised from the dead, whom we call the Christ, and whom you owe allegiance in his preaching of the gospel. He pressed upon them the claims of a resurrected Christ. They had used not only proof of the fact that there were living witnesses, but they also brought to bear upon people's consciences the marvellous works that were taking place at that time. The Spirit of God also, says one of the apostles, is a witness to the truth of what we say. And then, besides the miracles and the message of the apostles, they brought to bear upon the men of those days the very interesting proof of the Old Testament Scripture. Now, we agree to this. And most of us are fairly well acquainted with the sufferings of Christ as per prophesied in the Psalms. Hardly a believer among us but what knows something about the 22nd Psalm and its prophetic application to the death of Christ. Hardly a believer among us who could not give us some interpretation of Isaiah chapter 53 and the man of sorrows as per prophesied in the scriptures. But I want to ask you, if you are going to preach the gospel the way the apostles preached it, From whence are you to adduce the proofs of the resurrection in the Old Testament? Because I find them constantly drawing their allusions from the Old Testament prophecies to the resurrection. The resurrection they proved from the Old Testament, and interestingly enough, they didn't prove it from the strange and rather difficult passages in Leviticus in the typology and the offerings. They drew it from the Psalms, mainly, and then, in other instances, from Isaiah. But they proved the resurrection, not from the story of Abraham killing Isaac, or being called upon to sacrifice his son Isaac, but rather from rather commonplace and familiar Psalms. They proved the resurrection as a thing prophesied years before it happened. To that end, I want you to turn to the book of the Acts, where Paul is standing before King Adripa in the 26th chapter, and read a word that he has to say in his defense of preaching the gospel the way he did it. Acts chapter 26, and we'll break in in the middle of this defense, right after he's given his testimony. And verse 19, Acts 26, verse 19, we'll read through verse 23. Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but declared both to them of Damascus first, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance. For this cause the Jews seized me in the temple, and assayed to kill me. Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand unto this day, testifying both to small and great, saying nothing But what the prophets and Moses did say should come, how? That the Christ must suffer, and how that He first, by the resurrection of the dead, should proclaim life both to the people and to the Gentiles, particularly verse 22 and 23. Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand unto this day, testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come, how that the Christ must suffer, and that how he first, by the resurrection from the dead, should proclaim life both to the people and to the Gentiles. Paul boasted that his gospel had its roots in ancient writings. He said that this wasn't a thing that was connected only with experience, as we hear preached so often today, not perhaps in the circles in which we move, but generally among Christendom. They say that the reason the gospel is true is because it works in a man's experience. The reason the gospel is true is because you feel it, because you enjoy it. You get up and shout and sing loud and throw away your cigarettes and all the rest of that sort of thing. Well, that may be a very interesting phase of what the gospel does in a man's life, but it isn't necessarily a proof, because a moral man can throw away his cigarettes, jump, hoot and holler and roll in the aisles and sing songs loudly without ever having been convicted by the Spirit of God. The gospel that we preach is not primarily a gospel of feeling. It's a gospel of facts. It's a gospel based upon the facts of the resurrection, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the implications of those facts. I say more than just the facts, because it's possible for one to believe the facts, and not to obey the truth implied by those facts. To really receive the gospel is to receive the truth implied by the death and resurrection of Christ, i.e., that since Christ died, then we're all dead. If he died for all, then we're all dead. And that they which live should henceforth not live any more unto themselves, but unto him that died for them and rose again. That's an implication of the death of Christ. An implication of the resurrection is that one which is given to us in the 17th chapter of this very book, where Paul says, and nowhere else. If your salvation rests anywhere else but in the fact of the resurrection and the implications of that resurrection, that is, like the Lord Jesus said, if I live, you shall live also, or because I live, you shall live also. The implications of the resurrection are what make the gospel real. Now these men said very plainly, Paul says in this defense to Agrippa, that he preached absolutely nothing but what was in Moses and the prophets. He stood until that day speaking the things of the Old Testament. It's fascinating to me how these men used the Old Testament, in a way I should never dream of using it, in a way that seems often, in many cases, to stretch the original. And since they used the Greek version of the Old Testament, even to change words, and sometimes it seems like they changed tenses of verbs. We'll get into that maybe a little bit later when we get to the way Peter uses it. But Paul says here that he preached nothing except what Moses and the prophets preached, how that Christ should suffer, and that he, by the resurrection of the dead, notice, he preached the resurrection from the Old Testament scriptures, should first show forth light unto the Gentiles. We know the sufferings of Christ, as I've said before, in the Old Testament. What do we know about the glory that's to follow from the Old Testament? That is, about the resurrection. Let's take then, just briefly, a summary of how the New Testament treats the Old Testament scriptures as regards this subject. In the first place, Christ generally spoke about His being a fulfiller of prophecy. It's very significant that Jesus Christ was conscious constantly of fulfilling writings that were written of Him. He could say, all these things must come to pass, that the scriptures should be fulfilled. Or in another case, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of me. Or again, the Son of Man goeth even as it is written of Him. Jesus Christ was constantly sensible of the fact that He was fulfilling prophecy. He walked in the light of the Old Testament as clearly as though it were sunshine to Him. He took every step as confidently and as certainly as though He knew just exactly where He were going. In fact, He says that much. He says, I know from whence I came and I know where I go. Jesus Christ always was aware of the fact that the things that were written in the Old Testament Scriptures were being fulfilled in him. And not only Christ. If you'll turn to the 13th chapter of Acts, you'll find that the Apostle Paul also quotes Scriptures and says, The Lord has commanded us in the words of Isaiah, that I have set thee for a light to the Gentiles. Paul found himself in the Old Testament Scriptures. Interesting, isn't it? How seldom we find ourselves there. How often we dispensationalize it so that we lose the power and the impact of many Old Testament prophecies. Now, I'm not implying that the Church is at all found in the Old Testament. That isn't the question. The question is that the Gospel, as it comes, in its impact to any generation, is a thing that was prophesied in the Scriptures. And that's why it's so tremendously significant. Because the thing that I do tonight is the thing that was written before that I should do. That the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles is a prophecy of Jesus Christ, and I stand tonight a glad living witness to the truth of that prophecy, and so should we all. Because if Jesus Christ could say to those disciples, after he had risen from the dead, even as my Father has sent me into the world, so send I you. If the way Christ came into the world, fulfilling prophecy, is the way that I am to come into the world, then I should exult and walk in the clear light of my path, because I As a Christian, I don't speak of myself as Jim Elliott, but I as a Christian, and you as a Christian, are stepping in the fullness of the blaze of God's truth, in order that we might know what it is to walk confidently, having our minds and our hearts settled, in fulfilling the Scriptures of God. The Lord Jesus, then having spoken generally that He was one who fulfilled Scriptures, spoke specifically about the resurrection of Himself. You know, the Jews believed in a resurrection when the Lord Jesus came to the town of Bethany after Lazarus had been dead for four days. He said to Martha, Martha, your brother will rise again. And Martha said, Yes, Lord, I know he'll rise again in the last day. It was a general belief of the Jews that there would be a resurrection of the dead. But Jesus Christ put it a little differently. Rather than a general resurrection of the dead, which the Pharisees believed in, if you'll turn over to the Acts, you'll find that lots of times, or once at least, a very significant passage, it distinguishes between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection. in the resurrection of the dead. As a general body, they believed in a universal resurrection. And it was the Sadducees who put that question to Christ about the woman who had seven husbands, and thereby hoped to defy the fact of resurrection in the Old Testament by asking the question, whose wife should she be in the resurrection? The Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection, nor the Spirit, nor the angels. The Pharisees confessed all three. So did Martha. But whereas they spoke of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ spoke of the resurrection from the dead, which is a different thing. He spoke not generally of a great resurrection wherein everybody was going to be raised again, that's plain enough in the Old Testament Scripture. He spoke of the specific resurrection, both of himself, for he prophesied during his lifetime that he would rise from the dead, and of all those who believed on him. The hour cometh and now is, says he, when they that are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. I think he's referring definitely to the resurrection from the dead. That is, those who are brought up out of death, while there yet remain some who are dead. He's prophesying Christians' resurrection. Then, in his own case, you'll remember one time they came to him, the scribes and the Pharisees, and they said, we want to see a sign. And he remarked, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh a sign, but no sign shall be given to them save the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the men of Nineveh, even so shall the Son of Man be a sign to this generation. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Notice that. He spoke of his resurrection also in that passage where he was called upon to clarify his position when he cleansed the temple. You'll remember that the people said to him, what right have you got to do this? And the Lord Jesus said this about it. He says, here's the right I have. You destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up again. He prophesied his own resurrection. Having prophesied it and having sent that it was in the Old Testament, in that reference to Jonas, he found himself right in the middle of fulfilling prophecy. And that, I think, gave power, it lent significance, it lent meaning, sense to every minute of his life. And it should be the same with us. How unfortunate Christians are so dull, we are so unattached to the Scripture, that we fail to see ourselves presented in them. But we operate as the body of Christ, a thing foretold by Christ, and how we are to act is a thing which was not only commanded, but in a sense, since it was commanded, prophesied by Christ and his apostles. The Lord Jesus then teaches us that the great lesson of the prophet Jonas, which we have generally understood to be the lesson of a disobedient prophet getting next to his God, is actually the lesson of the resurrection. The Lord Jesus saw in the story of Jonas the sign that he himself was to be to that generation in which he lived. When Jonah came up to Nineveh, although we don't read this in the Book of Jonah, we assume it from what Christ said Himself. He was a sign to the people of Nineveh. And what kind of a sign was He? He was the kind of a resurrected sign that Christ was. That is, Jonah came into Nineveh and he began preaching, Yes, forty days in this city God will destroy. And the people of Nineveh repented. And they began to ask questions. Who is this man? And I suppose they told Jonah with questions. And it became known that this man was a man who'd just come from the seashore, where he'd been spewed up after three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish. And as he was the sign of resurrection, and he came to those people, and they repented, so he teaches us the lesson of Christ. It's interesting that Jonah was unlike Christ in that when the people repented he was sorry. The people of his generation were unlike the people of Christ's generation, in that they did not repent when Christ rose from the dead, whereas in Nineveh, the men of Nineveh repented when Jonah, in a figure, was lifted from the dead. So that Jonah found himself in a happy circumstance and turned sour on it, and the Lord Jesus found himself in a very difficult circumstance, since the people didn't believe in his resurrection, and was sweet about it. But that's the lesson of the prophet Jonah, as interpreted by Jesus the Christ. He teaches us that the lesson of the Prophet is a lesson of three days of death and then resurrection. You remember the very sad story that is told in the 16th chapter of Luke concerning the rich man and Lazarus. And after it's all over and the man in hell has pleaded out that Lazarus should be sent to earth, then Abraham gives that Solomon awfully final answer in which he says, no, they have Moses and the prophets. If they will not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, though one be sent to them from the dead. The scriptures, in themselves, should be sufficient proof to the fact of the resurrection and the truth of Christianity. That's what that implies. They've got Moses and the prophets. Therefore, a great sign, such as a resurrection, like Lazarus would be to those men who were the brothers of the rich men in hell, a sign like that wouldn't necessarily persuade them. The observance of signal phenomena is not necessarily productive of real faith. People today say, oh if we could only see like they saw, if we could only see miracles as they saw, if we could only see it the same thing would happen to us that happened to them, we'd be condemned by the things that we saw. Because for one rose from the dead, even according to Abraham's word, yet they did not believe. But the scriptures in themselves are sufficient arguments, are sufficient proof of the fact of the truth of Christianity. Because if we take the words of the apostles and go on, we find that they, as used from scriptures written a thousand years before their time, proof for what was happening before the eyes of their generation. So ought we. Now, it's constantly said generally in the scriptures that the resurrection was prophesied. Like the Lord Jesus in the 24th chapter of Luke, you'll remember. He spoke to those disciples on the way to Emmaus, and he said, Oh, the fools in store hearts believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered and to enter into his glory? Then on in the 44th verse of that same chapter, he remarks that these things have come to pass in order that the scriptures should be fulfilled, that Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead. So that he speaks generally of the resurrection as it is prophesied. Now turn to the second chapter of Acts, and we'll find Peter, with his enlightened conscience after the Holy Spirit has come upon him, remarking on the resurrection as it is proved in the Scriptures. We'll read from verse 22. Act 2, 22. He, men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, the man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as ye yourselves know him being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Yea, by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay." Notice, there's just about a sentence regarding the death of Christ, and now he starts on the resurrection and spends a couple of paragraphs at it. "...whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it." Now notice, he begins to bring in the Old Testament scriptures proving the resurrection of Christ. "...for David saith concerning him," and this is Jesus, the Messiah, speaking now. I beheld the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand. Therefore I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover, my flesh shall also dwell in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul unto Hades, neither wilt thou give thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou mayest know unto me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of gladness with thy countenance. Brethren, I may say unto you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet," notice, David was a prophet, not just a sweet singer, he was a prophet. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins he would set one upon his throne, he, foreseeing this, spake of the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was he left unto Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses. Now, a casual reading of the 16th Psalm will make you very suspicious of Peter's interpretation thereof. If you read just plainly the words of the 17th Psalm, you'll find that it starts out with a prayer of preservation. Preserve me, O God. Preserve me, O God. Yea, I say to my soul, I have no goodness that reaches unto thee. And it's quite mystical to me that that actually applies to Jesus Christ. Consider these verses right here. Thou madest known unto me the ways of life. That's Christ speaking. That's the Lord Jesus speaking, who was instructed as a man through the Holy Spirit of God. Yea, he was caused to rejoice by the Spirit, even as says the tenth chapter of Luke, where it says that Christ saw his disciples returning from the preaching tour that they'd been sent on. It says of him that he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ as a man felt these tendencies and fears of death, but yet the Scripture says of him, moreover, my flesh shall dwell in hope. The Lord Jesus tabernacled among men in hope that the body which he had would be his forever. Moreover, he says, my flesh shall tabernacle in hope. That's the word. My flesh shall dwell in hope. The Lord Jesus, as he walked through earth, was able to say this of himself. My heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. Why? Because I beheld the Lord always before my face. He is at my right hand. That's Christ on earth speaking. He is at my right hand. It can't be Christ in heaven, because in heaven, Christ is at God's right hand. On earth, God was at Christ's right hand. And the situation is reversed a few verses further on, where we find Christ exalted to the right hand of the Father, El-Hajj. Here, we see Christ with God at His right hand. I beheld the Lord always before my face. Yea, and therefore I shall throne hope, my flesh shall rejoice. Why? Because thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Now, Peter says, I can plainly speak to you about David, that he died and buried, he was buried and we saw corruption in his tombs among us till this day. So that he couldn't speak of himself, because he did die, his flesh did see corruption, but he was speaking of the Christ, and he spake this of the resurrection. Now, I'm thankful that Peter got this out of the 16th Psalm, for I'm sure I never was it. It's very interesting that he brought this from a Psalm that on the surface of the thing doesn't seem to indicate resurrection at all. And this, it seems to me, should be instruction to us as to how we could use the Old Testament. Seeking more and more, not to find quaint little ditties and alliterative outlines there, or figures of what we already know to be true—most of our Old Testament study, at least, I speak this of myself—most of our Old Testament study is only, brethren, to find out illustrations of what we already know. When you read the Old Testament, check yourself and see if you're not really looking for some allegory which will illustrate some New Testament truth. Rather than using the Scriptures as they use the Scriptures to form New Testament truth, to base New Testament truth upon, to realize New Testament truth from the Old Testament, we take Old New Testament truth and force it into the Old. Now, I'll grant that things work together, but we have within the Old Testament a wealth of New Testament truth which we have never even fathomed. We're not even looking for. Peter's use of this now becomes a tremendous proof. And if you're not a saved man tonight, I want to challenge you with this proof. Here is a prophet, a man by the name of David, who lived a millennium before Christ appeared on the face of the earth. And he said that the one who was to appear would not see corruption in his flesh. Yea, his flesh was to go about as though it were tabernacling in hope that he would never see corruption, that he would not be left in Hades. That, spoken a thousand years before Christ, becomes exactly fulfilled in the New Testament. And understand, it wasn't something that the people of the day of the Lord Jesus were looking for. Because we find in the 20th chapter of John, that when Peter and John had gotten there to the grave of the Lord Jesus, they stooped down, looked in, and believed. But they did not yet know the Scripture, the Old Testament Scripture, that He must rise from the dead. They didn't know that Scripture yet. But it was true to them ultimately. They weren't looking for it, but it came to them from the Scripture. Peter, therefore, offers to us a great and wonderful truth, that the body of Jesus Christ shall never see corruption. And I want to warn you, friend of mine, if you don't know the Jesus of whom I speak tonight, you will one day know him. In precisely the same body that Thomas saw Him and cried, My Lord and my God, before Him, in precisely the same body that issued breath when He breathed upon His disciples, that resurrection body of His, in precisely the same body of which He said, Handle Me and see, for His Spirit hath not flesh and bone as ye see Me having. You will behold that body, for every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierce Him. You will look upon Jesus Christ, the resurrected Man. His body through two thousand years hath not seen corruption. corruption. His flesh forever dwells in hope that God shall sustain the atoms of his being, if so be that his spiritual body consists of atoms, shall sustain that body forever. And this, to me, becomes a tremendous proof of the judgment of unbelievers. One who receives not my Christ by faith one day shall receive him by sight in awful horror and agony. You shall confess before this one whose flesh is uncorrupted through the ages. Yea, as the Scripture says of him, These things which thou hast made shall wax old as doth a garment, and thou shalt fold them up, and they shall be changed. But thou art to say, My friend, one day you shall face the same Christ that Peter faced. One day you shall see the same Christ that Paul saw. One day you shall see those same hands which were outstretched over the disciples to pronounce that final Olivet blessing. One day you, my friend, shall be called upon to face the Son of God, whose eye is as a flame of fire, and before whom there is no stand. You shall be called upon to face him. How will it stand with you then? Turn over now, if you will, to the 13th chapter for an illustration of how Paul preaches the resurrection from the Old Testament. I'm sorry that I only have five minutes. This is a 50-minute discourse. It just unfolds alone. We'll have to cut down the reading of the scripture a little bit. Beginning at verse 32, Acts chapter 13, I want you to notice the three different scriptures that Paul uses to prove the resurrection. And we bring unto you good tidings of the promise made unto the fathers, that God hath fulfilled the same unto our children, in that he raised up Jesus, as also is written in the second psalm. This? This is a proof of the resurrection. Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. I ask you, how does that prove the resurrection? Consider it for a while. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption he hath spoken on this wise, and this from Isaiah 53, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. How in the world does that prove the resurrection? Or this one, which Peter used, Because he saith also in another psalm, Thou wilt not give thy holy one to see corruption. For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up saw no corruption. As also, he says, is written in the second song, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Now you all know the second song, at least I hope you do. It's a great song of triumph. It begins with, Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bounds asunder, let us cast off their cords from us. He that sitteth in heaven shall laugh, the Lord shall have The Lord shall have them in derision. Then will he speak to them in his sword as pleasure, and honor to them in his wrath, saying, Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill in Zion. Then God, having spoken back to Messiah, answers with this word, I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, Jehovah said to Christ, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth for thy possessions. Tell me frankly, would you have proved the resurrection from that song? It would have been one of the last that I have chosen, and particularly the phrase that he chose. I could have proven it, I think, from this phrase. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill in Zion, although they heathen rage, although they want to cast away the cords of Christ. Yet, God says, yet have I set my King. You could imply from that the resurrection, but the seventh verse is the one he proves it from. Now art my son. This day have I begotten thee. So then, now I know that many of us interpret that as a millennial song, but that isn't the way the apostles interpreted it, unfortunately. In the fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, you'll find that why did the heathen rage, and that people imagine a vain thing, is applied to Herod and to Pilate and to the Jewish rulers? It was a thing that they saw happening, they saw prophecy fulfilled right around them, and they picked out the scriptures and prayed it back to God and said, Lord, in this very city, the heathen rage, that is, the nations, the kings of the earth, Herod and Pilate, set themselves against your Son and against your anointing. The very people of Israel were gathered together with them to say, let us cast off their cords from us, so that this psalm is actually a psalm concerning the death, rather, to begin with, the trial, the death, and the resurrection of Christ. It begins with the anger of the nation, or rather with the anxiety of the nation, the desire to cast off the cord of the Lord from them. They wanted to get rid of it. And then there comes the anger of Jehovah, saying, Yet with all your anger, with all of your fire against my Son, with all of your fury and desire to be freed from his bond, yet have I set my King upon my holy hill in Zion. Yea, though you slay him, yet will I raise him from the dead and establish him upon his throne. And then comes the announcement of the Son. I will declare the decree the Lord has sent unto me. Thou art my Son. Paul says this proves the resurrection. How? Does it not prove, because Jesus Christ was the Son of God, that he could not see corruption? He was the Son of God. And, as we often say in common parlance, you can't keep a good man down. You can't keep God in the grave, my friend. Nietzsche might try and bury him and leave him there, and pity us poor folks who go to church and quiver at the grave of our God, as he says it. But you cannot keep Christ in the grave, because God has said of Christ, I have my Son, and the Son of God cannot see corruption. Thou art my son." Because of his person, it's impossible that he should see corruption. Interesting to me is the first chapter of Romans, where Paul says that he is the one selected to do the service of God in his gospel concerning his son, Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David according to the flesh, but declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. Notice that. Jesus Christ was declared to be the Son of God with power, when? At the resurrection from the dead. That's when He was. Now, most people think that Jesus Christ proves His resurrection by His miracles. That's not so. The devil can work miracles, and Jesus Christ might have been a devil had He not been raised from the dead. It's His resurrection which proves, conclusively, that He's the Son of God. He was declared to be the Son of God with power. How? By the resurrection from the dead. It's because He's God's Son that He was raised from the dead, and it's because He was raised from the dead that we assume He's God's Son. Jesus Christ, Paul says to Timothy, remember Jesus Christ, born of the seed of David, risen from the dead. Remember Him that way. Remember Him risen from the dead. Oh, I like it. There's nothing compares to it, to understand that the Christ whom we live for and love is a risen Christ. Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, born of the seed of David. unto us the prophet Isaiah said, a child is born. That's what Paul said in Romans 1. He said that the one who was born of the seed of David, that was the child. Unto us a child is born. He was born of the seed of David. Unto us a son is given. He was declared to be the son of God with power. He's a child in Isaiah and he's a son in Isaiah. In the New Testament we find that Paul says he is the child of David, the seed of David. But he's the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. so that the decree becomes significant. I will declare a decree. The Lord has said unto me, I have my son. This day have I begotten thee. What day? Christmas Day? Not at all, as some would imply, but Resurrection Day, because it's at the Resurrection that we hear Christ spoken of as the firstborn from among the dead. It's as though the tomb in which Christ was laid away became the womb from which he sprang forth, the first member of a new race. to bring hope to the Gentiles. As Paul says in the twenty-sixth chapter of Acts, he was to declare by the resurrection of the dead, life for the Gentiles. Wonderful, wonderful, that God could raise His Son from the dead, and a thousand years before He even brought Him into the world, say of Him, Thou art my Son, and this day, resurrection day, is the day in which I have forgotten Thee. Wonderful. And then, oh my, I know, that's the meaning of the present. Let me finish this one point and we'll go on, all right? Amen, all right, we'll finish, thank you. Then he says, now then, turning to Isaiah, he says in verse 34, And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he hath spoken on this wise, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of heaven. Now if you know the 53rd Psalm at all, the 53rd of Isaiah at all, you know that it starts out, Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come to the waters, come ye, buy wine and milk without money and without price. And to the very same one who thirsts, this word is spoken, I will give you, if you'll come to me, the holy and sure blessings of David. That's in that very phrase. It's about the third verse of the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah. There, the Lord tells us that the one who will come to Christ will receive the blessings that David received, those holy and sure blessings of David. This word, you, here, is not spoken to Christ. I will give you the holy and sure blessing of David. It can't be because it's in the plural. And since it is in the plural, it refers to all those who thirst. And this is a promise from the Old Testament which the Apostle adduced to offer to men today, in his own day, that they could have the very same mercies that David knew. That is, promise of uncorruption. And so he says, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. Because, the next phrase says, because he saith also in another psalm, thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption. Because Christ did not corrupt, even so it is given to the Christian to know that his body shall be reframed and uncorrupted eternally. And this is the promise which I extend to you. Yea, from the prophet Isaiah, through the apostle Paul, now to millennium later, I declare to you that it is possible to possess incorruption, eternal life, in the human body because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it's offered to you tonight as freely as a drink of water was ever offered. Do you seek incorruption? Do you seek immortality? Do you seek eternal life? Do you seek glory and honor, according to the second chapter of Romans? Then I declare unto you that there is, through faith in Jesus Christ, incorruption, because, he says in another psalm, thou wilt not allow thy holy ones to seek corruption. And that very same sure promise of David that was given to Christ is given to you, extended through the apostle Paul in the great word of God. Oh, will you not receive tonight some of the blessings that come from Christ's work? in that he raised from the dead and now sits at God's right hand, forever incorruptible, forever eternal, forever glorious, the great, high, mighty majesty that he is. Majestic sweetness that's enthroned upon his brow, and tonight he extends to you the grace of incorruption. He extends to you the offer of immortality in that body which he will perfect, in which he will make himself known. Will you but submit to him tonight? For as not the Scripture said that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose, for whom He foreknew, then He foreordained to become conformed to the image of His Son. And if His Son is incorruptible, then there is incorruption for you. Because I live, you shall live also. Shall we pray? Again, Father, we feel like we cannot speak as we should like to speak concerning Christ's We only pray that thy word might have its effect, thine intended effect, upon our hearts, and that we shall see in the truth of the Old Testament Scripture that we have our roots in fact and in history and in the tremendous truths of thy word. Help us, O God, to walk according to it, we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.