All right. Matthew chapter 22. Matthew 22. I don't know if it seems a little bit darker in here. It's because it is, and that's okay. Blacked out some of the windows so that the chalk drawing and art thing later on will be a bit easier for everyone to see. So, just don't let it put you to sleep, don't get too gloomy and tired and drowsy. Do like they say in the military, if you fall asleep, just stand up. Don't do that, don't worry about that. Anyways, Matthew chapter 22, we're going to read about 10 verses or so just to get the context of everything. Last week we left off in verse 29 where the Sadducees had just come to Christ and they were talking to him about the woman who had seven husbands and no children in the resurrection that they didn't believe in the first place. In the resurrection, whose husband is she, right? So there's a whole bunch of huge doctrinal things that there's gonna be a lot of, I don't really know 100%. when we get into the text here today. I'm going to show you some passages, some scripture to support certain things, maybe what a few different camps kind of teach about the thing. But this one is not necessarily very, very cut and dry in my personal opinion. So anyways, let's get into it and then we'll open up in prayer. Let's read, start in verse 23. So Matthew 22, 23. Says, the same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, saying, Master, Moses said, if a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there was with us seven brethren, and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and having no issue, left his wife unto his brother. Likewise the second also, and the third unto the seventh. And last of all, the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? For they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God." So that's where we left off last week. And you see there that they're jumping to extremes. Number one, they don't believe in the resurrection anyways. So they're trying to catch Christ and catch him in a contradiction against the law. But they don't believe it in the first place. And so they're going to jump to the far end of the spectrum and say, OK, if the resurrection is a thing, how would you handle this one? Clearly, you have no answer, Lord. or master rather. So Jesus Christ, he goes into his teaching here in verse 30, and this is where we're going to start our text for today. So verse 30 says, For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine. Let's open up in prayer here this morning. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you. Lord, we're just so very thankful for the time and opportunity we have to come together and just study your word, Lord. And I ask now that you'd teach us something from your word, Father. I pray that you'd give me the right wisdom and the right words to say concerning this matter, Lord. And just give us clarity of thought and understanding. I pray that you'd open up our hearts to understand your word as you'd have us to receive it today. And we'll thank you for it, Lord. And I'll just ask for your help again. Lord, we love you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, so in verse 30, Jesus really goes into the teaching that they're questioning him on. So we looked at the passages last week, looking back at the law, the portions of the law that the Sadducees are referencing, and it's in the law. They're not taking the law out of context, but Jesus tells them in verse 29, he says, you don't know the scriptures, nor the power of God. So they're so stuck in almost the entire book of Matthew when Jesus Christ is interacting with the religious folks, the Pharisees and the scribes and whatnot. He's trying to get them to look beyond just the surface level letter of the law. They're so stuck in their traditions and, well, the law says this, and therefore we must buy the letter. And Jesus says, don't worry about that. You're missing the spirit of the law, if you will. You're missing the real meaning and the message behind it. And not to say that he's changing the law at all. We saw that in the Sermon on the Mount. He didn't change any of the laws. He says things like, You know, you say that the law says this about adultery, but I say this. And every single time he does that, he actually makes the law more strict and more stringent and harder on them. You know, for example, the law of adultery, it says, you know, we know what adultery is according to the law. He says, I say unto you that if a man looketh upon a woman to lust after her, he has already committed adultery in his heart. That's harder to abide by than just keeping the law where you don't actually commit the act of adultery. Now he's getting at the heart of the matter, the problem that these guys as humans actually have. So once again, they're coming to Jesus Christ with this, the law says this, what are you gonna do about it if this extreme thing takes place? So Jesus once again says, look, you're missing the entire thing. Ye do err not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. So before we get into the whole resurrection aspect you look at the end of verse 30 there it says They are as the angels of God in heaven now He's referencing those that are part of this resurrection that he's talking about Now automatically when you compare verse 30 and 31 you see two different resurrections being talked about The Sadducees, excuse me, not the Sadducees, they didn't believe in resurrection. A lot of the Pharisees and those others, they believed in what we'll call a general resurrection. And there's a lot of religions and denominations today that believe in a general resurrection. I think the Catholic Church, for example, is one of them that believes in that. Everyone's going to be resurrected at the same time. We're all going to stand before God and be judged according to our works and all that kind of stuff. They're conflating the last resurrection going up to the great white throne as saying that's the only resurrection. They don't really believe in the resurrection of the quick and the dead as two separate events. So we'll look at a passage here in a little bit. But anyways, At the end of verse 30 there, it says that they are as the angels of God in heaven. Now, we're not going to spend the whole day going, we're not even going to spend much at all, but those who are familiar with this passage and the teaching here will automatically jump to things like Genesis 6, okay, where you've got the sons of God and the daughters of men there. And we know based on the Bible, not what anybody teaches in the Bible, that that's not talking about some godly line of Seth, but it's talking about sons of God. Run the references to Job and throughout Psalms and others, where those sons of God are created beings in heaven. They're the angels in heaven. They were there at the creation. They were there shouting for joy at the creation. So it's not just some godly line of men. And so in heaven, though, that's the key, right? So everyone, not everyone, so many folks, though, will teach that angels are sexless. They're genderless. They're not male nor female. They're just their own unique created being without any gendering to them. And you look in the Bible, you don't see that represented anywhere, not a single place. Every single place an angel shows up, it's a man. It looks like a man. It acts like a man. It talks like a man. It's a male every single time. So the key here is that in heaven, and that makes sense when you understand it that way, and we'll look at passages, but just kind of bear with me for a second. When you understand that angels are men, they are male rather, not men as in humans, they are male. When you understand that and believe that, because the Bible says it, it now makes sense why they do not marry or are given in marriage in heaven. because they're only dudes. There's only males up there, right? So you can't, and of course, God, we know his take on homosexuality and sodomy and things like that. So therefore, he wouldn't allow marriage in heaven. There's no females in heaven, right? And that's what he's talking about here is that in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. Now, what that means is it doesn't mean that they don't have the ability to reproduce and procreate. They just, they don't in heaven. but they can elsewhere, where there are females present. So then you've got Genesis 6, with sons of God took the daughters of men, and we know kind of the result of that, the abominations that came from there. But in order to understand what Jesus is teaching, we need to figure out what angels are like, and if there's a difference between how they are in heaven and how they are on earth. So turn to Genesis chapter 16, but all angels in both Old and New Testament are not genderless or sexless, they are males. So Genesis chapter 16, this is the first mention of the word angel. Genesis 16, look at verse 7. It says, the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness. This is Hagar, okay? A fountain of water in the wilderness by the fountain in the way of Shur. And he said, he said, the angel, he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou, and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. If you look at the rest of that chapter, this angel is referenced multiple times, this angel of the Lord. Every single time except for verse 8, it's called the angel of the Lord, the angel of the Lord, the angel of the Lord. Only one place, and I believe it's on purpose, that the Lord instantly shows you this angel of the Lord, it's a male. Verse eight, and he said, every other time in this passage here that this angel of the Lord is talked about, it's referenced as the angel of the Lord. So why all of a sudden put a gendered pronoun here in verse eight when you could just, the other 10-ish times, you call it out by name? So I think he's trying to, the Lord's trying to show us something here. It didn't say it, it didn't say they, it didn't say any of the pronouns that the world's trying to come up with today, it's he. very clearly. Stay in Genesis, turn over to chapter 18. Genesis 18, verse 1, and the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre, and he said in the tent door in the heat of the day, And he lift up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground. So you've got the Lord and two other men that are there. We'll keep looking into this thing, but you'll notice that those two other men, those are angels. So stay here, look in verse, jumped out of verse 22. And the men turned their faces from thence and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before the Lord. Verse 33. And the Lord went his way, and as soon as he had left commuting with Abraham, and Abraham returned unto his place. So you've got these three men here, the Lord has now departed, so now you have two men, okay? So let's say, we don't have really any confirmation yet that they're angels, we're about to. So at the very least, they're men. So we've got two men that are now left. Chapter 19, verse 1. And there came two angels to Sodom and Eve, and now they're called angels. So these two men that were with the Lord, talking with Abraham and communing with him, talking about this place, and Abraham's like, you know, will you find even five? Will you find ten? Will you find, you know, will you stay your judgment if you find these people? And so these two men that the Lord has now left, these two angels, have now entered into Sodom. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom, halfway down verse one, and Lot, seeing them, rose up to meet them. And he bowed himself with his face toward the ground, verse five. And they called unto Lot and said unto him, where are the men which came into thee this night? So these angels that showed up to Lot, the people of the city knew that they were men. Where are the men which came unto thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them." Verse 10, but the men put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house to them and shut to the door. Verse 15. And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters, which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto him, and they brought him forth and set him without the city. So you've got men all throughout here, okay? Okay, so maybe there are females, but these were just two men that happened to show up, two angelic males. But again, if you do a word search on angel or angels, anytime you see it, not once is there a pronoun of she or any sort of a female reference made mention there. So the world, Satan, who's really trying to deceive believers and deceive the Christians here, you get angels and it looks like a face of a woman and beautiful hair of a woman, but the body of a man and wings. Folks, if it's anything, it's devils. It's not angels in heaven. It's not godly angels here. Not once are they described that way. As a matter of fact, I think it's in Daniel 9 where it talks about Gabriel. Gabriel came and it says that we know that angels can fly. We see that in Revelation. Gabriel says he flew, but it says that he was caused to fly. He was caused to fly quickly. So there was a purpose in which Gabriel was sent quickly and was caused to fly quickly. They don't have wings. They can still fly, but they were caused to fly. Otherwise, they show up and they look like men with two legs, two arms. They walk around and they talk with people. That's why it's so easy for us to entertain angels unawares. They could be anyone in here, right? They look like men when they show up. And so, anyways. We'll look at one more story here. Look at Judges chapter 13. This is with Manoah, Samson's parents here. Judges chapter 13, and then look at verse, we'll start in verse 3. Judges 13 verse 3, and the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren and barest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. Verse 6. Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God. Very terrible. But I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name." Verse 8. Then Manoah entreated the Lord, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again to us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field. But Manoah her husband was not with her. And the woman made haste, and ran, and showed her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day. And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said unto him, Art thou the man?" Are we getting the picture here? It's a man. Now most folks in here, this is not anything new. We understand that we've been taught this for a long time. But turn back to Matthew and go to chapter 28. We'll look at New Testament, a couple of New Testament interactions here. Matthew 28, we'll start in verse 2. So this is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ here. Matthew 28.2 says, And behold, there was a great earthquake. For the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers did shake and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. All right, so you've got another angel showing up and it's a man. It's not some beautiful looking woman with wings sitting there on top of this stone talking to these people. It is a man and it's very clearly a man. No one is confused when they see these angels wondering what they are. They know it's a man. This angel is a male. All right, and then lastly we'll look at Revelation 21. Revelation chapter 21, verse 17. If it hasn't been nailed home yet, this one ought to do it. Verse 17 says, And he measured the wall thereof, and hundred forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. So there's some equivalence there between a man and an angel in terms of even the size of a man's arm. I think it's the cubit is the size of the average length of the elbow to the fingertip or something like that, about 18 inches or so. Okay, they're not some huge monstrosity of a creation. They look and feel and touch and have the same dimensions as a man. All right, so angels in both the Old and New Testaments are males. Again, beating this dead horse, but angels all throughout the Bible are not female, not once. I forget the passage, but I think the one time that something that might be construed as a female is there's two of them show up, and they got the hair, and they're females and whatnot, and they're flying. They're devils. They're not angels. That's very clearly part of that. They're devils. They're demons. They're not angels. They're not just fallen angels either. There's something unique, something special. But this is why they never marry nor are given in marriage in heaven. It's because they're all men. They're all male. So back in our text here, you'll see two resurrections that are talked about. I'm not just going to leave that there, but there's a whole bunch of teachings that kind of stem from this idea of the angels being males. We'll hit on it here in a second. The first resurrection, this is the resurrection of the living, so in verse 30 here, that's what Christ is talking about, okay? He's talking about the resurrection of the living, the living, spiritual living one. So you've got, we looked at this in the past, we're not gonna run all the references, but you've got the first resurrection really consists of three different parts, and you run the references back to the law where you've got the first fruits, the harvest, and the gleanings. Christ, the first fruits, I write that, yeah, turn over to 1 Corinthians 15. So the first resurrection consists of Christ the firstfruits. He comes up and he brings many of the Old Testament saints that were in paradise in the heart of the earth. So that's the firstfruits, that's the first part of the first resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 23. It says, but every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterwards, they that are Christ's at his coming. then come at the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power." So at the coming of Christ, you've got the rapture of the church, that would be the harvest. And then at the second coming, when he physically steps down, you've got the last part of that thing with the Old Testament saints, more specifically the 144,000. that get resurrected there right at the onset of the kingdom there with Jesus Christ coming in and sitting on the throne. They get resurrected there. So that's the three parts. It's not three different resurrections. You think of how it was described in the law. You think of farmers out there. There are multiple different harvests, for lack of a better term, that are part of one set of crop. So you've got the first fruits. That's the first little bit that comes down. It's the first time that you can gather anything. The law, they had requirements for tithings that came from the first fruits. Then you had the harvest, the main. That was the bulk of the crop yield. But then after that, you still had the gleanings. I think it was Ruth, if I remember correctly. She was gathering of the gleanings. It was kind of like the leftovers of the little bit that wasn't yet taken up as part of the main harvest. But it's all part of the same crop yield. It's all part of the same growing season. So you can't say it's three different harvests or three different gatherings of this crop at three different times. It's all part of the same one. So you've got the first resurrection broken up into three parts. We've ran a whole bunch of references in the past. We're not going to do that here today. But anyway, so you've got the first resurrection consists of Christ the firstfruits with the Old Testament saints, the church being the harvest, and the tribulation saints, 144,000 specifically, as being what the Bible would term as the gleanings. But that's all part of the first resurrection. Now, many Bible believers teach that this means that all of us in the first resurrection, because that's how Christ is wording verse 30, and this is where I'm gonna give you what I can, but at the end of the day, I'm gonna tell you outright, out front, I don't know. Not 100% sold on one way or the other yet, but many teach that in the first resurrection, everyone involved there, when we show up in heaven, we're gonna be identical, 33-year-old, sinless males. We're all going to be the same. There's not going to be women in heaven. And that's why it's called heaven, by the way. There's not any women up there. There's also a time where half an hour of silence in heaven in Revelation, you see that as well. So it wouldn't be possible if there were women anyways. That's part of the teaching, not the joking side of it, but that's part of the teaching is because there's passages that you can look at where it says, we will be like him, the body when he comes and he conforms us into his image, we get a new body, we will be like him, we will have his body, we are his body, the body of Christ. So there are many passages that support that idea, but it could also be that that just might be an extreme because, and this might be a little bit of human logic and understanding put into this as well, At the same time, during this age, the church age specifically, the Lord deals with individuals, right? Whereas he dealt with Israel as a nation in the past, before Christ, yet he deals with us as individuals. He cares about the individual's relationship with him. My wife has a unique relationship with the Lord that I'll never have. I have a relationship with the Lord that she'll never have. Same goes with everyone in here if you're saved. You have a unique relationship. You have a responsibility to the Lord to function and do the Lord's will in your life. It's not just that we are all one. The Lord doesn't only care about what this church body here does. He cares about what you do in this church body. We all come together. We all fit together. Now, the Bible also says that this is a great mystery. And so it's one of those things, it's like, yep, let's study it out. Let's try to get wisdom from the Lord and understand this thing more deeply. But sometimes it's just, ah. It's a mystery, and we just need to be good stewards of it. The Bible says it's this way, so we're gonna believe it, we're gonna study it out and do what we can with it, but we're not just gonna throw it out and say, nah, that doesn't make any logical sense to me, so forget the Bible and forget God. There's some things that are intended to still be a mystery, and it's because those haven't been revealed yet to us. We can't fathom, our minds can't wrap around and fathom everything that God has laid out and who God is. The mystery of godliness even where God was manifest in the flesh you can do your best to explain that thing With all the Bible references and with all your wisdom that the Lord even gives you you cannot Convince every lost person of exactly how that works. You can't yourself fully understand how What, how does God, who's eternal, how does he come down and manifest in flesh? And we know it, we believe it, we teach it, we preach it. Our eternity is kind of hinged on a portion of that, right? But we're not gonna be able to fully explain it. So the whole bride of Christ, body of Christ concept, I don't think that we're gonna be able to fully understand or grasp it until we get there. But that doesn't relieve us of the responsibility to study it out and to be good stewards of that mystery. But you could also run references and do a whole study on the purpose of women. And I'm not gonna mean this in any sort of way that's offensive. We'll just throw this out here. But what is the purpose of man? Man was created to fellowship with God. And I'm not talking about human, I'm talking about man. God created Adam to fellowship with him in the garden, to do some work for the Lord, to do some work for God there in the garden. Why did he create woman? for man. So he creates man for God, for himself. He creates woman for man. Look at Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter two. And again, this does not lessen the worth or the value, okay? We all, as humans, as people, we all have a responsibility. Your main number one purpose is to please the Lord Jesus Christ. Male, female, doesn't matter. Boy, girl, adult, old person, young person, doesn't matter. Your purpose, your main goal in life and responsibility is to bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is it. That is equal among all of us. That's why Paul talks about it. There's neither male nor female, neither Jew nor Greek. But we are all one in Christ Jesus. We all have one common goal one common purpose one common mission It's it's yeah anyways look at Genesis chapter 2 look at verse 15 And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it so man has a purpose and Man's purpose was to dress and to keep the garden. Man's purpose was to fellowship with God. Jump down to verse 18, chapter 218, and the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. Not that I want more people. It's not good that man should be alone. I've got work for man to do. He's doing it alone. That's not good. So he says, I will make him and help meet for him. Of course, we know that, look at the rest of that chapter there, it's woman comes out of man there, but she's part of man. I'm not going to run the whole, I'm not an expert at this thing, but I did a quick little look at the Hebrew words, ish and isha, man and woman. It's, she is literally a part of the man. You have man and you have wo-man, that actually stems from womb-man. It's a man with a womb, a man with the purpose of creating. So it's a womb-man, womb-man, woman. That's the English, how the English word was translated out, but that's the same idea goes with the Hebrew word there, with ish and ish. I think it's probably not pronouncing it right, but that's, it's basically, she was taken out of man. Man was the purpose, man was the creation there, and then woman came out of him, okay? Many will take that to say, look, there's, that's why when we get up into heaven and with Christ and with God there for eternity, we're all going to be men because that's what God created. God created men. I am not fully sold on that thing. Just, just me personally. So I'm just going to throw that out there as it is. But I don't know exactly where I stand on that thing. Again, it kind of takes away the individuality of this. Who knows? Maybe we'll all go up there and be women because we're all part of the bride of Christ, right? Maybe we'll all, it's the opposite and then we're actually, I don't know. There's many, there's much fewer references that support that claim. But anyways, that's one of those, it's definitely a mystery to me. There are some that are 100% set on it. I was talking to Brother Tyler earlier. this morning. He said even Brother Donovan wasn't fully set on Dr. Ruckman's teaching of this thing and how strong he was set on it. He's like, it's a mystery. There's a reason it's called a mystery. So we do what we can with what we've got and then let the Lord deal with the rest. So I'm not saying you have to walk out of this place here this morning and believe in that we're all gonna be men or anything like that. Just presenting God's Word to you. So anyway, so you've got the resurrection of the living there in verse 30. Regardless of your understanding and belief of what we will be like in eternity, regardless, I believe Jesus' focus here is to highlight the fact that there's two different resurrections, and the Sadducees here are conflating the two. They're combining the two resurrections, the resurrection of the living, resurrection of the dead. And so Jesus Christ automatically says, for in the resurrection of the living, and you can see that in the context, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But, there's something different going on here, but in the resurrection, or as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. So there's two different categories of resurrections here. So it's likely the great white throne judgment that this is in reference to. Turn over to Revelation 20. Revelation chapter 20. in verse 12, it says, And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works. We are not dead. Even if your body dies, if you're a Christian, your body dies, you are alive in Christ. He hath quickened, right? So your spirit is alive. If you're lost here today, you are dead physically. You are about to be dead physically whenever that time comes, but you are dead spiritually. Until you are quickened and revived and brought back to life by accepting the shed blood of Jesus Christ as payment for your sins, until that happens, you are dead inside. Your spirit is dead and you will die. We looked at it, Pastor was teaching on it, I think it was last week, how your soul is still connected to your flesh at that point. You will die in your sins. And there's only one place for that, that's in hell for all eternity. So without the shed blood of Jesus Christ, without the operation that's without hands to cut away the soul from the sins of the flesh there, to cut away your soul from the body, you are hopeless. You do not have the love of God. You do not have salvation. You do not have eternal life. You are eternally dead until that happens. So this resurrection of the dead is not just those who have passed and they'll be risen up. No, no, no, it's talking about those who are dead, spiritually dead. So the Sadducees who don't believe in resurrection are assuming that if there was, they're kind of playing like, let's say that you're right and there is this resurrection, they're combining the two into a general resurrection with both the living and the dead coming up. But Jesus is teaching them that there's not only one resurrection according to scriptures that they don't know about, but there's two resurrections and they're separated by about a thousand years. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 4. And we've looked at this passage as well in the past, but 2 Timothy 4, you've got both resurrections here, and it talks about when exactly those resurrections are gonna take place. 2 Timothy 4.1, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge, future, the quick, that's alive, and the dead, that's two different groups of people, at his appearing, that's when the quick go, that's judgment seat of Christ, and his kingdom. So when his kingdom is through and done, Revelation 20, we read it there. Great white throne judgment comes, that's for the resurrection of the dead. That's when the judgment of the dead is gonna take place. So it's two different judgments, judgment seat of Christ, great white throne judgment, and to support that, you've got different resurrections as well. You've got the resurrection, you've got the quick and the dead, the live and the dead there. All right, so in verse 32, you've got Jesus really explaining how this whole resurrection of the dead thing can be. And what's interesting is in verse 24, they come to him and they're quoting Moses. So what does Jesus do? He's like, you wouldn't know Moses if he was standing right in front of you. I'm going to quote Moses to you and really show you where this teaching is. And he says, verse 31, that which was spoken unto you by God to Moses, saying, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. So that's pulled from Exodus chapter 3. I'm going to flip there, but if you don't want to get there, that's fine. Real quick, Exodus chapter 3, and it's multiple places throughout this interaction where God's talking to Moses here in the wilderness. Exodus 3 verse 6 says, Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face. You can see it multiple different places throughout that chapter specifically. Verse 16 says it again, Lord God of your fathers, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Verse 15, it says it again. So what's interesting here is though, at this point in Moses' life, they're all dead. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they're dead. But Jesus says, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. So God is not the God of the dead, but Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they're all dead. These men all know this. They're not living somewhere, they're all dead. So clearly he's talking about something other than the physicality, the physical side of things. He's talking about their spiritual side. So they're alive, and I believe that they will be resurrected they will be part of that resurrection to where God's promises, we're gonna look at them here shortly, but God's promises to all three of them did not come to pass during their lifetime. So either God's a liar, and the promises he gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob never came to pass, which they haven't yet, so either God's a liar, or they're gonna come back to life at some point and see the fulfillment of the promises that God gave to them. So we're gonna see those here in the remaining time we've got. But anyway, since the Sadducees open up the discussion with Moses, he quotes Moses to them to shut him up. Turn over to John chapter 5 as well, and you'll really see Jesus' perspective on this thing. John 5, look at verse 45. I like this, so I'm going to wait until you all get there. John chapter 5 and verse 45. He says, He's like, you say you believe Moses and his laws and all that kind of stuff and his teachings, you don't have a clue what you're talking about. You don't know, because if you would believe Moses' writings, you would see that he was talking of me in so many places. You would see the prophecies that were shown there, all pointing to the Son of God, all pointing to Jesus Christ. He said, if you believed him, you'd believe in me, but you don't. So he's clearly, clearly Jesus Christ is separating these two resurrections and the ones that are involved in it. But he's also telling them, he's like, you don't know the scriptures. You're not going to come to me and play 4D or 5D chess with me. I'm the God of all creation. And I'm going to school you. I'm going to put you back in your place. But anyways, if you turn over to Genesis 13, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must, this is a must, right, must be raised from the dead since their promises were not fulfilled in their lifetimes. Or else, God's a liar, throw away the book, leave here today, there's no point in you staying, God's a liar, what are we doing here? I don't think anyone who's brave enough to walk through these doors here today actually believes that, so we gotta look and see what's going on here, because it's true, none of these that we're about to look at came to pass. Genesis chapter 13, you'll see Abraham first. Genesis 13 verse 14. And the Lord said unto Abram, after that lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward, for all the land which thou seest to thee, not to thy seed, to thee, Abram, will I give it, and to thy seed forever. Thy seed forever, obviously forever, that hasn't taken place. We're still fighting over the land of Israel that what's rightfully theirs in the first place here today. But so that clearly hasn't taken place. It never took place throughout history. Even when you look at like the kingdom that Solomon had, I believe that was probably the closest to the full land grant that God has for Israel. That's probably the closest they ever came. But Abraham wasn't there. He was dead. So it says here that he would give it to thee. So Abraham's got to come back to life at some point. Then for Isaac, look at Genesis 26. Genesis 26, verse 1. And there was a famine in the land beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech, king of the Philistines, unto Gerar. And the Lord appeared unto him and said, Go not down into Egypt. Dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee. For unto thee, here it is again, for unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham thy father. So Isaac was supposed to get all of this stuff as well. Isaac is dead and he never saw the land in its entirety. It says, unto thee will I give all these countries. They didn't conquer them. That didn't happen until Israel went into the promised land and started kicking them out. So then lastly, look at chapter 28, Genesis 28. You'll see Jacob. Same idea here. Genesis 28, verse 10. And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set. And he took up the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed. And behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. Jacob never saw that land. That land was never granted to him. So again, three for three here, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom the Israelites, even the religious leaders say, oh yeah, we are Abraham's seed. We are, he's dead. But Jesus says, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. All right, so the God of this world is the God of the dead. That's who is the God of the dead, okay? Jesus Christ is separating the two things there. He's the God of the living, Satan is the God of the dead. Look at Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two. Verse 14. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, but that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death." Who's that? That is the devil. So the devil is the god of death. He's the one that has the power over death. And it's not God. It's not Jesus Christ. He's not the god of the dead. He's the god of the living. But these dead, if you turn to Ephesians chapter two, these dead are dead both physically as well as spiritually. That's the difference. And that's the thing that Jesus Christ, it's one thing he's trying to teach these folks with this reproof and rebuke here, is that there's a difference between those who are dead and those who are alive spiritually. And they're they're believing and we saw it throughout the rest of the book of Matthew as well that they believe that just Because they are of the lineage of Abraham that they're safe that they're just gonna get granted access into the kingdom when it gets Get set up and that's Jesus told him tells him over and over and over again that that is not the case There's a spiritual life that needs to be attained Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 and you hath he quickened who were, past tense, so you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, that's you before you were saved and then the first part is you now that you're saved, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." You get life through Christ Jesus and no other way. It's not any other way. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. That is the only way. You can't work your way there. You can't do anything to earn it or to weigh your goodness against their badness. My wife was talking to the gentleman that came to our house trying to sell some stuff earlier this week, and he professed to be a Christian and all this stuff, and I believe he was probably a Christian in terms of trying to live righteously and live good, but when posed with or presented with the question of, you know, When did you get saved? Or I forget exactly how you word it, so I apologize. But basically, it was presented to him like, where and when did you believe in the blood of Jesus Christ, effectively? And he's like, oh, you know, I do these good things. I live this way. I live right. And ultimately, he believed that when he gets to heaven, we will all be judged by our works. And if we have more good than bad, and you guys understand that spiel, the difference is the lost world, that's what they think. They think it's good versus bad. The scale is not tipped that way. The scale is not in their favor either. You've got your righteousnesses against His righteousnesses, not your good and bad. It's your righteousness against Jesus Christ. And boy, let me tell you what, you've got a long way to get that scale to tip up, albeit it's not possible. It would take eternity and then some for your righteousness to equate to that of Jesus Christ. So the lost world today will confuse that thing, and religion confuses that thing, and confuses and deceives the world, and that's what Satan is using to deceive so many in the world. But they don't understand that they are dead physically, dead spiritually, and they need the blood of Jesus Christ. That is where they get the living water. That's where they get the life from, eternal life. All right. I have a whole nother page of notes. This section was not supposed to take that long. Let's see here. Let's see what's in verse 34. Let's get this last part and we'll close, and there's not too much on this next part here. Verse 34 says, but when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Mark 12, this lawyer is said to be a scribe, so someone who's an expert in the law, hence lawyer, lawyer. So someone who's an expert in the law. You've got lawyers all throughout today. They are experts in the law, or are supposed to be. And so that's who this lawyer is. He's one of the scribes. But the entirety, in verse 37 and 38, the entirety of the moral teachings of the law is encompassed in these two commandments. So you've got the first and great commandment, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, and mind. Then you've got love thy neighbor as thyself. Now, Jesus Christ does not say the second is the first. It's just of equal value. It says the second is like unto the first. So again, like and as. It's a comparison. It's showing you something that you can understand. But anyways, it's two separate ones. For sake of time, we won't run there, but you can look at Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 and 5 for the first and great commandment. It spells it out exactly like Jesus quotes it here. But that one is God-word. It's you to God. It's that relationship. And that one comes first. That's why it's called the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, but it's still the second, and it's not the great. So the second in Leviticus 19.18 is love your neighbor as yourself. It's man-word. The point here is if you love God first, you'll figure out the rest. The rest will fall in place. Put God first, put your relationship with Him first, and you'll understand how to have relationships with others. But the world today, I don't even have to go down this route, but the world today says, don't worry about that. Man, it's all about humanity, and the greater good, and globalization, and all this kind of stuff. We all need to work together as people, as mankind. And they're missing the big picture, the great commandment. They're missing out on it. As a matter of fact, they've done away with it. They didn't just say, let's equate the two. They said, don't worry about this one at all. All we got to worry about is fellow man, the golden rule. Do unto them as you would have them to do unto you. That's all we got to worry about, the world says. So the world wants to swap and or equate the two commandments. It gets so focused on this idea of neighborly love, that aspect, that it's lost sight on the first and great commandment. You see that all throughout society, in America, throughout the whole world. It's propagating all throughout. Empires have fallen when this takes place. You see when Israel, even the kingdom of Israel, when they fell is when they stopped putting God first. When they stopped maintaining that first and great commandment. They put mankind first. They put the fear of man over the fear of God and said, we want to do like these people do. We want to burn our children to Molech. We want to sacrifice to devils. they forgot about the first and great commandment. And there's a reason it's first and great. And that's where our focus needs to be. Not manward, so not your job, not your schooling, not all that kind of stuff. Your focus needs to be relationship with God. Your focus. The rest will fall in place. It doesn't mean don't worry about it. It doesn't mean, I understand. I have a job. I have to provide for my family. I get it. That kind of stuff is crucial. The Bible teaches it. But it's where does it lie in priorities? Are you focused on what man at your workplace is going to think about you if you say certain things? Or if you pray at lunch, but I can't be seen praying, so I'll just, I'll pray in my head with my eyes open. I've been there. I've done that. I don't want to be seen as anything weird, so I'll just sit there quietly while they're talking, and they have their food, and they're eating. Maybe they won't notice that I'm not eating for five seconds, because I'm going to get a real quick one in. Are you putting the fear of man in front of the first and great commandment? That's where the problems start laying in, even for Christianity. That's where Christianity will fail and will fall. You see, throughout really the 1900s, there was a steady decline in the One would say, I don't know, the quality of Christianity, the quality of the church, the power of the church, steady decline. Then you hit maybe like the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, and then that decline turns into a cliff, and it just disappeared. The power of the church disappeared because we're so focused on humankind, on the world around us, and what they're going to think. Oh, we have to include everyone and be, you know, accept of everyone and their lifestyles and all this kind of stuff. No, no, no. You accept what the Bible wants you to accept. You accept that first and great commandment. You set that right in your church and in your personal life and your family life, the rest will fall in place. You'll notice your work will start improving, your work quality of your own personal work. I can't guarantee, right? The more your relationship with the Lord lines up, the more the devil's going to notice, right? And he's going to start stepping in. So I'm not saying it's get the Lord's relationship right and the rest is going to be easy peasy. It's not what I'm saying at all. Your understanding of how you should treat the world, that's what's going to line up in place. And you're not responsible with how they respond to you. You do what's right. You keep that first and great commandment. And that there, that teaching there, that's not dispensational. That transcends dispensations. That will hold true in eternity. That will hold true in the kingdom. when Jesus Christ is there. There's going to be those, I believe, that are going to fall away from Jesus Christ. And it's going to be because they stop putting God at the forefront, at the crux of that thing. All right, let's close there. We'll dismiss in a word of prayer, and it'll be about eight minutes, then we'll get started up again. Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you. God, I'm so very thankful for your book, Lord. We don't have to come up with our own understanding and our own interpretations of things, Lord, but simply follow your book as it says it. Lord, I'm so thankful for it, Lord. It puts our mind at ease so many times, and it takes the pressure off of us. We just have to read it. And Lord, I'm just thankful for it. Father, I pray that you'd be with the rest of us this morning. Lord, I ask that you would just be pleased and honored by how we do things, how we sing, and how we preach here. Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here today, Lord, that doesn't know you as our Savior, God, that they would come to the understanding of their need for salvation, Father. Lord, and that they wouldn't leave here today without talking to someone about what that means for them, Lord. God, we love you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.