The following presentation is brought to you by Faith Presbyterian Church Reformed. Delivering today's message will be Dr. Richard Bacon. ...bring opinions according to various commentators about Isaiah 53.8, but in my judgment, Isaiah 53.8 is well translated when it says, he was taken from prison and judgment. That we're not simply saying the same thing again, that he was taken to prison and judgment, that prison and judgment overtook him, but rather that what is being spoken of here is the resurrection. That the prison is the grave and that him being taken from prison is the resurrection. And then in the question, who shall declare his generation? This is not a condemnation of the generation in which Christ lived, but rather it's a statement that Christ now lives an endless number of years as our mediator. Not simply as God. He already lived an endless number of years as God the Son. He was never aware of a succession of moments. He is eternal. He is everlasting. He always has been overlasting and he won't be any older 10 kazillion years from now than he is now as God the Son. But also as mediator, as God-man, he lives an endless number of days so that now he is still true God united to true man. in two distinct natures and one person forever. And so you see this heresy, and I'm not prepared to call every error heresy, but the one that we have seen this week, David, the heresy of consistent preterism essentially does deny the resurrection of Christ. It essentially does deny the true humanity of Christ because it sees Christ no longer as having a true body. When they see something like justified in the Spirit they automatically think in terms of well that means that there is no longer a body. Matter somehow becomes evil to them and there is the reintroduction of the old Gnostic heresy. Now that heresy has to be dealt with at a biblical level and not just at the level of, well, we've always believed this. Because, well, that's not the level at which we debate. We debate at the level of Scripture. If we can't exegete a belief from Scripture, if Scripture says Jesus no longer has a body, then that's what we better believe. But if Scripture says Christ is still perfectly human and will be forever not just perfectly human but by his human nature still perfectly human there is a man seated at the right hand of God the Father just as the mediator between God and men and And to say otherwise not only contradicts 2,000 years of church history, it does contradict that. It also contradicts the book of Job. So what are the comforts that we might receive from Christ's resurrection? And we began to talk about this a little bit last week as we spoke about the uses of this doctrine. But before I go into the rest of the passage, where it talks about his numberless years of reigning, we need to understand a little bit more about the comfort that we receive from the resurrection. Because the comfort that we receive from the resurrection is not simply that when we die, we'll live in heaven, as the hyper-preterist or consistent preterist or whatever he is says. We maintain that there is, in fact, a resurrection of the body that parallels Christ's resurrection. So what are the comforts? And I answer this way. Well, we already talked about what are the comforts. We need to talk about how we get the comforts. The comforts are there for the having. So how do we have them? Well, we have to find the faith to be able to argue by inference. One of the difficulties I have with the whole concept of proof texting is it gives one the impression that if there's not a text that exactly says Jesus Christ still has a human body in heaven that we're not allowed to believe it. We have to have the faith in God's word, the faith in God's verity to be able to argue from inference. Else there's no Trinity. Else there's no hypostatic union. Where in Scripture do we find the statement, God, Christ is one person in two distinct natures, united forever? Where do we find that statement in Scripture? So if we make that statement, is that just creedalism? Is that just accepting the doctrines and commandments of men? Or is that in fact learning to reason by inference, by faithful inference, from Scripture? I maintain it's the latter. So one of the ways that we get the comforts of Christ's resurrection is by learning the faith of thinking by inference, by thinking of how things logically follow, how scriptures logically fit together. Is there a single fabric within scripture, or do we simply have a bunch of unconnected sayings that we can take any way we want to? Can we simply make nonsense statements, simply make contradictory statements and say, oh, well, that's a mystery, don't you know? It's so profound to believe in contradictions. Is that Christianity? Do we check our brain at the door? And another thing that I find to be distressing in the church today is a supposed distinction that's made between divine logic and human logic. If those are two separate things, then we can never think God's thoughts. But wait a minute. If we can never think God's thoughts and God knows everything, What do we end up being able to know? Nothing. That kind of thinking makes human knowledge impossible. We reject it. Just as Paul, just as the apostles, just as the prophets, just as Christ himself were so careful to let us know, you can know. He said to them again and again, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. I would have you know. Knowledge and assurance and the comforts that come from knowledge and assurance are important biblical commodities. But in order to have them, we have to learn to think logically, to reason by inference, to argue Some of you already know this old television skit where the person went into the ministry of arguments and said, I want to buy an argument. He said, no, you don't. Well, what do we mean by argument? Do we simply mean disagreement? When we say learn to argue, are we saying to our children, learn to disagree with one another? That's not what we mean by argument. By argument we mean learn to reason. Learn to think logically. Learn to understand how implications work themselves out. Because God built us that way. So when we speak of human logic, let us never think in terms of, oh, well, that means that it's intrinsically fallen, intrinsically sinful. No, it's not. It's intrinsically the image of God in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. So then, think of this. Think of the fact that Christ is a surety. How can we think? Logically, how can we think by inference and draw comfort from the doctrine of Christ's resurrection? Christ is a surety turn to Hebrew 722 Who's there? Yeah, by so much was Jesus made what? Assurity of a better Testament. Well, what is a surety? Assurity is the one who is going to stand for the debt of another. It's what Proverbs calls striking of hands. Today in Texas, we might do business by a handshake. So assurity is one who stands for the debt of another. If he defaults, I will pay. That's the function of assurity. It's like cosigning on someone's loan. So that if that person defaults on the loan, you as the surety become responsible for repaying the loan. Okay? That's what Christ is. Christ is the surety of a better testament. Now, let's reason this way. If the surety is released from prison, then the debt's canceled. The debt's been paid. The surety is no longer being held in prison. Remember, we read in Matthew 18, how long is the person going to stay in prison? Till it's all paid. Now, if the person is released from the prison, is the debt paid or is it unpaid? Debt's paid. Therefore, it's canceled. So now we need to think by inference, is the whole business accomplished or is it not accomplished? It's accomplished. Therefore, the resurrection of Christ becomes a comfort to us, knowing that my debts are canceled. The punishment due to me for my sin has been paid. Secondly, we can argue by inference this way. Christ was not simply a private person. He was I want to say a common person, or a representative person, or a typical person. He represented others. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 22, this is where, or it's one of the places, in which the scriptures make the parallel between the first Adam and the last Adam. Between Adam, how it is shown, Adam the first man, and uh... in christ the last man uh... so in in fifteen twenty-two for as in adam all die even so in christ shall all be made alive that's right this is adam was a typical person a representative person a federal head if you will so christ also is a federal head a federal typical common public person so now how many of How many of Adam's offspring die? All of them. How many of Christ's offspring live? All of them. So now you can reason this way. Because Christ lives, all those who are in Him live with Him. Now, we have to make sure we have an interest in Him. Right? We have to make sure that we have closed with him. Galatians 2.20 Paul says, I am crucified with Christ. Is that right? Was he on the cross with him? What's he talking about? He's talking about he has an interest in Christ such that Christ, his federal head, Christ, his typical head, Christ, his representative head, in being crucified, has caused Paul also to be crucified to sin, to be dead to sin, to be dead to this present world, or this present world order, if you will. Romans chapter 6 verses 2 and 4 2 through 4 we see a similar idea being buried together with him so who what he was crucified dead and then what happened to him he rose again he was buried we're buried together with him so that we also might be raised together like him in newness of life right Romans chapter 6 verses 2 through 4 look at this how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein know ye not that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized into his death therefore we are buried with him so what have we done so far we've died with him we've been buried with him look at this that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so also we should walk in newness of life so if we are crucified with Christ if we are buried with Christ and Christ is risen what also is true of us we also are risen with him to newness of life so we can reason by way of inference that if we have an interest in him that we also will walk in that newness of life the head will not be severed from the body. There will be no decapitation of the church, if you will. That even as the church is united to Christ, and I speak now here ideally, I speak of all those who have a true interest in Christ. All those who are truly united to Christ, what is it that will separate us from the love of God? Death. Death? Angels? Principalities? Powers? Things present? Things to come? Height? Depth? What can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus? Nothing! Paul says, Romans 8, 37 and following. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. Why? Because Jesus Christ cannot have his head severed from his body. He has risen to newness of life. So we can reason from Christ as a surety that the debt is paid. We can reason from Christ as a representative man, as a last Adam, that all those who are in him share his life. And we can reason of Christ as a pattern. Now, this is a difficult thing to say. I know that some of you were here several years ago, back in the 80s. when I was teaching the life of Christ. How many of you were here back in those days? How many of you remember a few of those lessons? The thing that's important for us to remember about the life of Christ is that God took all of the dispensations of grace and poured them into Christ's life, typically, so that everything we see happening in Christ's life is true for the church. I'm not saying that Christ wasn't real, that he didn't really exist. Of course he did. He was a real person. But what God did was he took all the dispensations of grace and poured them, typically, into Christ's life. So that all that happens to believers, everything that happens to believers, has some analog in the life of Christ. That's why he is the perfect example of how we're to deal with every circumstance of life. In Hosea, I'll just give you a couple of examples. When I speak of the church, I speak of the church very broadly now. In Hosea chapter 11, Hosea, speaking of Israel, speaking of the church, says, I have called my son out of Egypt. Now what's he talking about? He's talking about that night of the Passover, isn't he? He's talking about that night that God took an entire nation and brought them up out of the land of Egypt in order to bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey. That's what Hosea is talking about in 11.1. But how does Matthew in Matthew 2.15 interpret Hosea 11.1? He interprets it as having been typified in the life of Christ. Because when Christ was being persecuted by Herod, His mother and father or stepfather took him into Egypt and then out of Egypt have I called my son. So something even as strange as that finds a typical occurrence in the life of Christ. So every affliction, every dark providence, every misery, every sorrow, every distress, every joy Everything that we undergo as believers and as his church, broadly speaking, is a copy, is a type of the life of Christ. You know what a type is? A type is where you take, I used to have a plain gold band, but if you had a signet ring, Right? Or one of those things that I want to say little girls, maybe more than little girls use them, but you melt wax on an envelope and then you press an initial down into it, becomes an impression. Right? That's what the word means when we talk about a type. We're talking about an impression. Something that may not be wax, it may be actually banged Was a dragon that used to have mark whatever it was the you know bang bang mark seven Whatever, but it becomes something that is hit. It's struck in such a way that it makes an impression on something else and so the life of Christ makes an impression on the history of the church upon the church broadly speaking and Also in the life of the believer every misery every sorrow every distress every reproach every every scorning. But again, every joy, every triumph, all of those things have an analog in the life of Christ. That's why it's so important. If we would know, if we would know the Christian life, if we would know Christology, if we would know how the church must respond in faith to the travails of this life, where do we look? to Christ. So then, if Christ's life is a pattern, and we see Christ triumphing over the grave at the end, declaring victory over the grave, what must we say then of the Christian? What must we say of the church? We must say, along with Christ, that the gates of death shall not prevail against her. Well, so much by way of the resurrection and so much by way of the comforts that we can draw from the resurrection and so much by way of how we go about drawing those comforts from the resurrection. That leaves us with a couple of minutes to talk about Christ's endless life. And let's at least discuss the doctrine this week. We may not get into all the implications of the doctrine, And certainly we won't get into all the uses of the doctrine this week, but perhaps we can at least get into the statement of the doctrine. We find this in the statement, who, or the question, who shall declare his generation? The implication being that the duration of his life now cannot be declared. We can't count the number of his years. Christ will now live as mediator an endless number of years. So here's the doctrine. Christ being risen, Christ, being risen, lives a numberless term of years with his Father in glory. Who shall declare his generation basically means that it's a number It's a generation. It's a number of years beyond reckoning. Nowadays, we talk about infinite numbers, and they give me headaches. But the Hebrew idea of infinite in length is numberless, an impossibility of being numbered. Not simply you have to count for a long time, an impossibility of being numbered. And we see that again in Hebrews chapter 7. In Hebrews chapter 7, verse 3, remember now we're talking about this Melchizedek again. What a guy! Who was he? Was that Shem? Who was Melchizedek? Was it a Christophany? Who was Melchizedek? These are the questions that the Bible wants us to ask. And when we begin to understand something about the life of Melchizedek, the writer of Hebrews assures us that we'll understand something in a typical way about the life of Christ. So in 7.3, we're told about Melchizedek that he was without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abiding a priest continually. So what was it about the Melchizedekan priesthood that caused it to differ from the Aaronic priesthood? Well, the author tells us that one of the things that causes it to differ is that there's not a specific beginning like there was with the Aaronic priesthood. Where did the Aaronic priesthood begin? With Aaron. Where did it end? Well, it ended with the generation of Christ, didn't it? But did it undergo some changes in the meantime? How about Eli? Was Eli cast off from being priest? Who was that given to, by the way? Anybody know who that priesthood was eventually given to? Well, it was given to Samuel in that day, but eventually that priesthood was given to a descendant of Phinehas at the time of Solomon. Finally, Eli's descendants are cast off in the time of Solomon. And if you do the genealogies, remember Phineas, the guy with the javelin? And Cosby, the javelin catcher? Yeah. And so eventually, we get to the days of Solomon. And doesn't the first 10 chapters of Chronicles just want to put you to sleep? Those genealogies are there for a reason. You start tracing those genealogies, you find out this promise that was made to Phineas way back when he was pinning Cosby to the ground, are being fulfilled in the days of Solomon. And the writer of 1st and 2nd Chronicles wants you to know that. And he's showing you, he's not leaving a generation out. He's saying, here are all this guy and all his brothers and all his brothers and then his son, then his brothers and his brothers, and then his son, and he brings you on down till finally, is it Amariah? in the day of Solomon is installed in the high priest's office because the sons of Eli, the grand generations of Eli, have been cast off according to God's threatened promises. Threatenings against Eli, promises to Phinehas, generations before. Did you all know that? So was there a change of the high priesthood? Yeah. Why? Because of the abomination that desolates. So what is the writer of Hebrews saying? He said, you know what we have? We have another change of the high priesthood. That's just as significant as when the temple was first built. No longer is this in a tabernacle on earth. No longer is it in a stone temple on earth. Now it's in the true temple in heaven. And we need a high priest who is not born and dies. We need a high priest now who's going to abide forever if this is going to be a forever temple. So that this high priesthood cannot be taken away. Do we have a high priest like that? See, that's the argument of the Melchizedekan priesthood. So in verse 3, he says, without beginning, without end. Now, it's not simply that Christ as God will live forever. Christ as God would have lived forever if he had never become man. It's Christ as high priest will live forever. That's the point of Hebrews 7.3. It's also the point, by the way, of Isaiah 53.8. Christ as mediator, Christ as God, man, will now live forever. That's the doctrine. Now we can reason to the doctrine or reason from the doctrine in this way. At his resurrection, what happened? The debt was cleared and so not only were we cleared of liability, he was cleared of further liability. Now being cleared of further liability, being no longer liable to sin, what do we say about him? Shall he die again? If the wages of sin is death, or the wages of sin are death, and he's been cleared by the resurrection, then what is it that's going to make him subject to death ever again? Nothing. Not in his godhood, not in his manhood. In Romans chapter 5, again we could spend the afternoon, well we could spend a lot longer in the afternoon. Some of you have struggled through Romans 5, and you know that it's not a An easy passage. But in Romans chapter 5 and starting at verse 12, well let's just do verse 12 for right now. In verse 12, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Now what's the problem and who's the cause? The problem begins with whom? With Adam. That's right, the one man. And what enters into the world because of him? sin, and what's the outcome? What's the result? Death. Okay? He says, I'm going to draw a parallel. I'm going to draw an analog. So death passed upon all men. For that, all have sinned. So now, if everyone who's descended from Adam, by ordinary generation, has sinned, and if death is the result of sin, who all will die? Everyone who has the penalty of sin upon him, right? But if Christ has now been released, he's now been cleared, he's now been taken from prison and from judgment, then what is it he's going to die of? Death is no longer hanging over his head, is it? Even though he's truly man, death is no longer hanging over his head. And this is what is meant, for example, in 1 Peter 4.1, We'll have time for a little bit of this. In 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 1, for as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. So now, if Christ suffered in the flesh, he has not only ceased, well he never did sin, did he? But now, what is going to be the case if he has ceased from sin by suffering, if that's the type? Again, we see everything in the Christian life as being typified or exemplified in the life of Christ. If our resurrection is shown forth as being walking in newness of life, what is it that Christ's resurrection is showing forth? An endless life, because he's no longer subject to being punished for sin. So the same thing is true and David this is where 1st Timothy 3.16 comes in. In 1st Timothy 3.16 we see not only that he was manifest in the flesh but also that he was justified in the spirit right. 1st Timothy 3.16 and without controversy great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the spirit pardon me manifest in the flesh. justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. There's a kind of a confession of faith there, isn't there? Well, it's more than just a kind of confession of faith. It's a confession of faith. Now, notice how we have a capital S on the spirit. That's an interpretation, isn't it? What they're saying is that this means the Holy Spirit. And I believe it's a correct interpretation. But if that's a correct interpretation, then what does that have to do with Jesus Christ no longer being flesh? Nothing, right? Nothing at all. But if the translators have misinterpreted it so it should be a lowercase s, so this is simply talking about his human spirit, Then, again, what does that say about whether he is still flesh? Nothing. So these Gnostic hyper-preterists that point to 1 Timothy 3.16 to say, oh, well, yeah, he was manifested in the flesh, but now he's in the spirit. That is to say, he's no longer in the flesh. You see what they're doing? Is they're undermining what it is to be truly human. How do we know that Christ became truly human? Because he had a true body and a reasonable soul. But if he no longer has a true body, is he still human? Well, what they want to do is they want to redefine what it means to be, well, first of all, they want to define what it means to be resurrected so that there is no resurrection of the body. But then secondly, in order to do that, because of the fact that our resurrection is paralleled in Christ's resurrection, What do they have to do? They have to make Christ's resurrection and everlasting life be a non-physical one. And is it the old Gnostic heresy? Yeah, it is. It's taken me a while to come to that conclusion because I really wanted to give them every benefit of the doubt. But that's what it is. It's a heresy. Romans 6, 9. A couple more scriptures will be done. Well, at least we'll be done with this part. In Romans 6-9, and also in Revelation 1-18, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more. OK. What can we say about people that were raised from the dead? Was anybody raised from the dead in the Old Testament? Can you think of any? Yeah, that little boy that Elijah breathed on. And then there's a little boy, too, that Elisha laid out hand to hand, feet to feet, head to head, and so forth. There was that little fella. Yeah, they threw some bones into his grave. He'd been dead for a while. I guess he'd been dead for quite a while if he's reduced to bones. They just threw a body in there and said, let's bury him next day. And while they walked away, the body came back to life, didn't it? So there were resurrections in the Old Testament. But in Hebrews chapter 11, we're told that they looked for a better resurrection. What kind of a resurrection would be a better resurrection than that? A permanent resurrection, a resurrection where you don't die again. If we say that Lazarus was raised from the dead during Old Testament times, did Lazarus die again? Yes, we believe he did. There were several hundreds that were raised up at the death of Christ, walked into town, said howdy, died again. But they looked for a better resurrection. Well, what's a better resurrection? Well, it's Christ's resurrection. Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more. That's the better resurrection. The kind of resurrection where you don't have death to look forward to again. Death hath no more dominion over him. But if he's not going to die again, if death has no more dominion over him, then how long will he live? an endless number of years, forever. Revelation 118, I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And here's the part that's good for us. I have the keys of hell and of death. So if he's overcome death, he has the keys of hell and death, then What is the analog in the Christian life? An eternal life for us as well. An eternal life and especially at the resurrection at the last day. Christ has the keys of death such that none go there except whom he pleases. So what would be the application for us to make? Rush to the One who has the keys. Turn to Christ. Who have we been speaking of? We've been speaking of that Christ who was dead and then is risen again, who now lives an endless number of years. But if He's alive, then we can turn to Him. We can rush to Him. We can lay hold on the hems of His garment, even as that woman who had the issue of blood laid hold on the skirts of His garment so many years ago, if He lives. But Isaiah 53-8 assures us that He does. Therefore, what fools we are, what contumacious sinners we must be, if we don't close with Christ, if we don't cast ourselves on Him who was dead and is alive and has the keys of hell and of death. Let's stand and call upon Him.